Good acting, stylish Gothic horror but “The Woman In Black” offers little but atmosphere
Daniel Radcliffe leaves Harry Potter behind for a ghostly Edwardian
Gothic horror tale. In “The Woman In Black,” Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a
young widower lawyer with a small son, sent to a small town to sort out the
affairs of recently-deceased wealthy woman.
James Watkins directs this film, produced partly by Hammer Films, the
old British studio famous for 1960s Gothic horror films. Hammer has forgotten
none of its old tricks. The film is the first role for a grown-up Radcliffe
seeking to move on from his long term at Hogwarts and establish a film career.
The actor has already made a promising start with stage productions on Broadway
and in London.
The isolated English village to which Kipps is sent is decidedly
unfriendly. Upon arriving, he finds that his hotel reservation has mysteriously
vanished. Although pushed to leave, Kipps resists. Eventually, he finds a room
with the only person who has been friendly, Mr. Daily (Ciaran Hinds), a wealthy
man with a stately home, an eccentric wife (Janet McTeer) and the only car in
the village. Nonetheless, the disorganized state of the deceased's papers means
Kipphas to spend considerable time at her remote mansion, which he quickly
suspects is haunted.
The production rolls out all the tricks of old-fashioned horror films -
creepy mansions, wind-swept moors, pale-faced children in Edwardian attire.
Every one dresses in black or dark colors, except for possessed women and girls
in ghostly white. The decrepit mansion is isolated on spit of land,
inaccessible during high tide, and surrounded by overgrown yard and sagging
fence. Inside, everything is covered in dust and cobwebs, with clutter and
mysteries around every corner. It is classic Gothic.
One scene illustrates the film's attention to detail and its mastery of
the genre. As he hunts for the source of a creepy noise, the lawyer enters a
formerly-locked room as a host of dusty antique toys look on. The dolls' eyes
seem to follow Radcliffe as he walks by holding a candle. Although our brains
tells us it is only the candlelight reflected in the glass eyes, the effect is
indescribably chilling, as are close-ups of broken toy clowns with evil grins.
Mechanical toys abruptly play tinny tunes at high-tension moments. The film
overlooks nothing in building the creepy tone, including foggy overgrown
cemeteries, glowering villagers and a mysterious half-glimpsed woman in
mourning black.
The film drips atmosphere but what it lacks is much of a plot. As well
done as all these creepy scenes are, we have seen all of these classic horror
tricks before. There is nothing new here, nothing creative and fresh, meaning
that atmosphere alone cannot sustain this thinly-plotted film.
Radcliffe and the other actors do their best but there is little for them to work with. Radcliffe's Kipps' persistent sadness over his dead wife and his affection for his three-year-old son are clear, as is Hinds' character's longing for a human connection beyond the superstitious villagers in his daily life. McTeer's mad, mourning mother is movingly, strikingly drawn. But the characters seem to simply move from one familiar Gothic horror set piece to another. There is an endless stream of ghostly goings-on but the overall feeling is of running in circles as the film looks for a purpose for all this Gothic atmosphere.
The whole production has the look of a project that never jelled, often
the case for February releases. However, the film may serve to propel Daniel
Radcliffe in his post-Potter career, with a good performance in a film that has
all the shadows but none of the substance.
Grade: C
© The Current / Cate Marquis
EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Cate Marquis
'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' is near miss!
The title and poster for “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” give the impression of a serious, heavy drama. The actual film is something quite different, despite its subject, a young boy trying to come to grips with the loss of his father in the World Trade Towers on 9/11. Director Stephen Daldry's adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's bestselling novel is less than it should have been, more manipulative rather than humanly real.
Tom Hanks plays that dad, Thomas Schell, in pre-9/11 days. The prologue helps establish the father's warm, playful relationship with his son Oskar (Thomas Horn), a boy who likely has Asperger syndrome. One of their favorite games to play together are creative puzzle-solving, methodical, detailed treasure hunts than range across their city and explore its neighborhoods. Father and son are much alike and very close, lovingly watched over by Oskar's more-practical mom Linda Schell (Sandra Bullock). Dad is a quirky but perpetually upbeat fellow, the child of an immigrant mother who was abandoned by her odd, distant husband while still in Europe. Grandma (Zoe Caldwell) lives nearby but the son has never met the elusive grandfather, a kind of mythic figure of family stories.
The loss of such a father for this particular child is, of course, devastating. A year on, Oskar's mother is trying to get her quirky son to accept and move on but the boy resists. When he finds a mysterious key hidden among his father's things in a closet, Oskar is sure it is part of a last puzzle his father left for him to solve. He sets out to solve it in the same methodical manner he and his father used with his puzzles.
Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer's combination of sorrow with magical
realism was adapted successfully in the film “Everything Is Illuminated” but
that is not the case for this one.
Oskar's quest starts out with promise. Feeling estranged from his mother, the nine-year-old instead turns to his grandmother for help in unraveling the mystery of the key. Surprisingly, Grandma directs the boy to the old man who has recently started renting a room from her. Known only as “the renter” (Max Von Sydow), the elderly German man becomes Oskar's companion on a journey across the city to unravel the puzzle of the key.
The scenes with Hanks and Horn are magical but all too brief, and we
immediately miss the boy's close relationship with his big-kid dad and his
fairy-tale like family stories. Thomas Horn is wonderful as Oskar, whose
quirkiness is charming and very appealing, deepening the sense of loss we feel
on his behalf. The characters, and the acting performances, are what the film
gets very right. We can guess who the renter, played brilliantly by Von Sydow
in an almost silent performance, might really be the missing grandfather,
although the film never says that. Oskar's quest brings him into contact with a
number of wounded or odd characters, including John Goodman as a helpful but
not doorman, Viola Davis as a kind-heated woman facing heart-breaking divorce
and Jeffrey Wright as a businessman facing despair and the loss of him own
father.
But all that real human feeling is sabotaged by a gimmicky plot devise.
A nine-year-old boy wondering, often alone, around New York City and
unsupervised encounters with strangers seems strange. The explanation for that
turns the film from one of real human emotion toward a manipulative movie that
rings false. The misstep dissipates what appeal the film has developed, leaving
a sense of missing opportunity and disappointment.
Ultimately, the tone for this film is all wrong, a mix of whimsy and
sentimentality diminishing the real human emotion. All the acting is good,
although some roles are all too brief and the movie wastes the talented Wright
and Davis in particular. One cannot fault the actors, only the director, for
the film's shortcomings.
This film could have been so much more. The quirkiness of its characters, particularly young Oskar, and story are appealing until the gimmicky twist surfaces and sinks the feeling. It is perhaps not a bad movie as much as a disappointing one, although its turn to stock Hollywood material still will appeal to some audiences.
© Cate Marquis
www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
SHAME by Cate Marquis
FASSBENDER PLAYS A MAN GRIPPED BY SEXUAL ADDICTION IN 'SHAME'
Actor Michael Fassbender seemed to be everywhere in 2011. After
starring in “Jane Eyre” and “X-Men: First Class,” two more Fassbender dramas,
“A Dangerous Method” and “Shame,” finally are making their way here now.
These films showcase Fassbender's range in two excellent but very
different performances. While Fassbender plays a restrained Carl Jung in “A
Dangerous Method,” his character is anything but restrained in “Shame.” “Shame”
is Fassbender's most edgy role, as an outwardly normal man in the grips of
sexual addiction.
On the surface, Brandon (Fassbender) is a successful young man with a
good job in New York. Secretly, Brandon has created a solitary, secret life
devoted to anonymous sexual behavior. His hidden lifestyle is threatened by the
unwelcome arrival of his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan).
To be clear, Brandon is not a “player,” seducing an endless stream of
women, but an emotionally-distant man obsessed with impersonal sex. Rather
focus on one bad habit, Brandon samples it all. Masturbation, internet porn,
prostitutes, fetishes, anonymous random sex - all are part of Brandon's
obsession. Apart from pedophilia and bestiality, every sexual activity
imaginable seems part of Brandon's pursuits. A scene where he stalks a woman on
the subway suggests that even rape might be in his repertoire.
Like any addiction, this is a compulsive, joyless pursuit. It is not
clear Brandon even likes women - he certainly avoids relationships. He only social contact is through work,
mostly accompanying his philandering boss David (James Badge Dale) and other
guys from the office as they prowl the clubs.
Mostly, he wants his clinging, disruptive sister to go away, so he can
go back to his abnormal “normal.” While Brandon seems to feel no shame about
his lifestyle, he does fear discovery. He would prefer to continue his secret,
solitary life, but that fear eventually drives him to make a half-hearted attempt
to develop a more normal sex life with a co-worker Marianne (Nicole
Beharie).
Brandon's sister clearly has her own issues. While Brandon is
self-supporting and has a nice apartment, seductive, self-destructive Sissy is
unreliable, manipulative and has trouble holding a job. Their disturbing
relationship raises questions about their family but we never learn more about
that. All we know is what Sissy continually repeats, that she is his only
family.
As a result, the film leaves many questions about these characters
unanswered, an unsatisfying enigma.
Watching “Shame” is a bit like watching one of those “Obsession” ads.
It has the same visual style, beautiful
and elegant, with stylish settings and clothes, but with an underlying
emotional coldness.
Strangely, for a film packed with explicit sex scenes, “Shame” is
surprisingly un-sexy. The sex is furtive, mechanical and passionless. The cold
nature of the sequences is likely deliberate, underscoring Brandon's empty
life.
Brandon is a flinty, unsettling character but Fassbender does a
marvelous job in crafting him. Likewise, Carey Mulligan glows as fragile,
manipulative Sissy. There is a scene where Mulligan sings a tune with Marilyn
Monroe-inspired whispery seductiveness. The scene may divide audiences, into
those seeing it as either a show-stopper or as a painful low-point.
Making sex scenes un-sexy is no small feat but the film goes further.
The film runs about half an hour too long, repeating scenes of Brandon's
proclivities long after the point has been made. This makes the film drag and
become, well, boring. Men who identify with this obsessed character may not
agree but women in particular may start to mutter “yeah, we get it, he can't
relate to normal sex, can we move on?”
Which is a central question with this film - what is its point?
Prurient enjoyment is not it but we hardly get to know the characters or what
brought them to this state. Is it to highlight a hidden epidemic of men living
this kind of solitary urban life? Is this a cry for help or warning to women?
What is clear is Fassbender's Brandon is one sick puppy, in need of
psychoanalysis by Fassbender's Jung in “A Dangerous Method.”
Make no mistake, this is a stylish, well-made, well-acted film. But its
disturbing topic and unappealing main character will make it a challenge for
most audiences. The past year had seen a string grim dramas, prompting quips
about “the feel-bad movie of the year.” “Shame” would be this critic's choice
for that title. This depressing, un-sexy look at sexual compulsion is only for
the most determined fans of the grimmest art-house fare.
© The Current / Cate Marquis
A DANGEROUS METHOD by Cate Marquis
Fassbender,
Knightley, Mortensen light up Cronenberg's tale of Freud and Jung, 'A Dangerous
Method'
Rising-star Michael Fassbender joins Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley in delivering powerful acting performances in “A Dangerous Method, ” director David Cronenberg's intriguing, suspenseful and visually-beautiful historical drama about Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and another lesser-known early psychotherapist, Sabina Spielrein.
There is nothing dry or staid about this fact-based film, which features a raw depiction of mental illness and some steamy scenes of sadomasochism. “A Dangerous Method” is a passionate tale of ambition and deceit amid intellectual explorations and sexual deviations.
The film begins in 1904, at a Zurich hospital where 29-year-old Swiss doctor Carl Jung (Fassbender) is treating a challenging new patient, a beautiful but disturbed young woman named Sabina Spielrein (Knightley). The 18-year-old Spielrein is brilliant, Russian-born and Jewish but also violent and unpredictable. Jung decides to try out the new “talking cure,” as psychoanalysis is known, developed by Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud (Mortensen), on this seemingly incurable patient.
The film has a strong historical basis, even lifting some dialog from letters between these giants of early psychoanalysis. Although Freud and Jung discuss their theories, the film focuses on personal conflict and offers a glimpse of pre-World War I social views on women, anti-Semitism and class divisions.
As the doctors correspond and collaborate on her treatment, Freud, Jung and Spielrein form a kind of triangle. The patient responds so well to therapy, she is able to enroll in medical school. The doctors' correspondence sparks a friendship, with the wealthy Jung traveling to Vienna to meet with his older, middle-classs mentor Freud, building on their professional relationship.
The film is based on the play “The Talking Cure” by Christopher Hampton, who wrote this screenplay and the adaptation “Atonement.” The play was inspired by the book “A Most Dangerous Method.” That story is based on information that came to light with the discovery of Spielrein's diary and letters to Freud and Jung.Director Cronenberg is an auteur known for skillfully-made, intelligent, edgy films like “Crash” and “A History of Violence.” The director brings these historical figures to life, not just the more famous Freud and Jung, but the less-known Spielrein. This polished, well-acted film was a hit on the film festival circuit this past year, generating awards buzz.
The acting is brilliant, with Fassbender, Mortensen and Knightley all crafting unforgettable characters. Knightley gives a startling portrayal of mental illness in a fearless performance. Fassbender, a rising British actor who was in a slew of films recently, gives one of his best if restrained performances in this film.
Fassbender maintains a cool and analytical facade as he and Mortensen engage in intellectual maneuverings. The always-good Mortensen studied Freud's personal mannerisms for added authenticity in the role. Although based on real people, there is nothing stiffly academic about them. The director maintains a tone of calm reserve above roiling waters for many scenes.
Vincent Cassel is also excellent as another patient, Otto Gross, an intelligent psychologist gripped by sexual addiction and a nihilistic world view. Sarah Gadon plays Jung's lovely, socially-conventional wife Emma with a gentle reticence.
The look of the film is gorgeous, filmed on location in Zurich at Jung's hospital and at Freud's home in Vienna. The photography, sets and costumes are beautiful in this film, giving a dreamy air to its serious discussions and emotional fireworks.
As the story unfolds, its focus shifts from a discussion of early psychotherapy to more personal matters. Jung's privileged background makes it difficult for him to grasp issues obvious to Freud. Jung's elegant, coolly aristocratic Zurich mansion, with its manicured lawn and graceful sailboats, contrasts sharply with Freud's crowded, cramped middle-class home and office, with its cozy family atmosphere. When Freud mentions the barriers that anti-Semitism pose, Jung draws a blank. Both find the brilliant Spielrein hard to fit into their ideas about women. Ultimately, Jung's growing interest in mysticism and Freud's rigid adherence to his views on sex, and their differing views on Jung's relationship with Spielrein, help splinter their partnership.
A powerful, well-acted, worthy film, “A Dangerous Method” opens Friday, January 20, at Landmark's Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
© Cate Marquis
www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
THE ARTIST
Clever,
immensely entertaining 'The Artist' wows with tale of silent film star and
early talkies
What's old is new again in “The Artist,” a clever, immensely
entertaining film that is both an homage to silent movies and early sound
movies and a crowd-pleasing piece of entertainment.
Making a black-and-white, mostly silent movie that is entertaining for
modern audiences seems a stretch but “The Artist” surprises by being a
gloriously entertaining, warmly affecting film with charm and wit to spare.
That cleverness and charm has won over audiences across the country.
After having scooped up audience choice awards at countless film
festivals, “The Artist” is opening at theaters and seems headed for Oscar gold.
Here in St. Louis, “The Artist” won an Audience Choice Award at November's 2011
St. Louis International Film Festival. The St. Louis Film Critics, the local
professional film critics association, honored it twice, giving it the Festival
Favorite Award at the film festival and then choosing it as Best Film for its
annual St. Louis Film Critics Awards.
For fans of classic movies, this is a must-see. Shot on location in old
Hollywood, the story is about the transition from silent to sound films.
In 1927, handsome Hollywood silent movie star George Valentin (Jean
Dujardin) packs theaters with his romantic comedy-adventure films, in which the
Douglas Fairbanks-like star performs amazing feats to save the day and win the
girl, with the help of his little wonder dog Uggie.
When his producer Al Zimmer (John Goodman) tells Valentin about a new
technology and urges him to switch to sound films, the confident star scoffs
and refuses to change. Meanwhile a beautiful young actress named Peppy Miller
(Berenice Bejo), whose chance meeting with Valentin at a movie premiere snagged
her a spot as an extra, is poised to ride the wave of new technology to
stardom.
The rising star - falling star story echos “A Star Is Born” but there
is more to it than that. The film is cleverly packed with techniques of the era
and movie history references and uses elements from classic films like “Sunset
Boulevard,” “Singin' in the Rain” and the “Thin Man” films.
The film is thick with homages to great films of the era, a pure
delight for film buffs. But the story has its own dramatic arc, a mix of
romantic comedy and drama, that sweeps the audience up in the story. The story
also recaps movie history and what happened to so many silent movie stars who
quickly plummeted from fame to forgotten in just a few years. Although it was
filmed in Los Angeles, this movie is actually a French production directed by
Michel Hazanavicius, and what little dialog it has is in English.
A black-and-white silent film sounds like a gimmick, but actually is
essential to this tale of the transition to sound. The film covers the time
from 1927, when sound films almost instantaneously replaced silents, ending the
careers of any actor who did not make that change quickly. The 1929 stock
market crash and Great Depression that followed wiped out the fortunes of those
now-unemployed stars, whose names quickly vanished from popular memory.
Director Hazanavicious and director of photography Guillaume Schiffman
recreate the look of the '20s and '30s brilliantly. The black-and-white
cinematography is astonishing, skillfully using the lighting and framing of
shots of the era to add layers to the story. At the very beginning of the film,
the screen is reformatted to the aspect ratio of silent film. There is little
dialog but the film inventively uses its affecting score and techniques of the
early sound and silent eras - sound effects, pantomime and visual storytelling.
But it is the heart-felt story and wonderful performances which make it
immensely entertaining.
Both Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo are marvelous in their roles.
Dujardin established his comic chops parodying James Bond in the two French
“OSS 17” Bond spy movie spoofs. Here he plays a similarly smiling, egotistical
character, convinced of his own charm, but softens him with a genuine human
warmth and his kindness to the wanna-be star Peppy Miller. Home-towner John
Goodman has a smaller role as Valentin and Miller's studio head but plays the
part in style, as a movie mogul who is kindly and pampering towards his star
but still sharply focused on making money.
James Crowell is marvelous as Valentin's butler/chauffeur Clifton.
Other supporting roles are sharply drawn in the style of the era, such as
Penelope Ann Miller as Valentin's bitter, blonde wife, Joel Murray as a helpful
policeman and Malcolm McDowell in a cameo as an actor playing a butler. Some of
the best comic bits are thanks to Uggie, the energetic little white dog, who
steals more than one scene.
Visual storytelling techniques abound. A scene where the fading silent
star encounters the rising star ingenue on a studio staircase shows three
levels of stairs in long shot. People crowd the stairs but everyone is walking
up while Valentin is walking down. In another scene, Peppy, still a movie
extra, pantomimes a romantic caress using Valentin's jacket in a scene that is
both brilliant and moving. Scenes with Valentin and his increasingly estranged
wife recreate a similar sequence from “Citizen Kane.” Chases, comedy routines,
drama and romance all get their due - topped off with the antics of that
resourceful little dog.
Music is especially critical in this film. The score by Ludovic Bource
music is a delight and underscores how much silent film depended on music to
tell its stories. In early scenes, the playful music sounds like Charlie
Chaplin comedies, while later more dramatic scenes seem to sample music from
Hitchcock thrillers.
Although “The Artist” is sure to delight any fan of old movies and film
history, it may have less appeal for movie-goers who never watch anything older
than the '70s, as its imaginative cavalcade of old movie references will be
lost on them. But for lovers of classic Hollywood, and especially silent film,
this delightful romp through movie history is a big screen must-see.
“The Artist” is now playing at Landmark's Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
© Cate Marquis
www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Cold War
spies rule in intelligent LeCarre adaption 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'
John LeCarre's classic Cold War spy novels introduced the public to
real espionage terms like “safe house” and “mole” and there have been several
film and TV adaptations of his brainy, complex spy thrillers. The latest
adaptation of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” features Gary Oldman as retired spy
master George Smiley, who is recalled to duty to ferret out a Soviet Union mole
at the highest levels of British intelligence. The excellent drama also
features a who's who of great British actors, including Colin Firth, Toby
Jones, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch.
The story is set in Great Britain, at the height of the Cold War with
the then-Soviet Union. Before his sudden death, Control (John Hurt), the head
of the British Secret Intelligence Service, aka MI-6, had guessed that the
agency contained a Russian double agent at its highest level. Top spymaster
George Smiley is secretly called back from his recent retirement on a mission
to find the mole. Each of the top spy masters, Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Percy
Alleline (Toby Jones), Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik),
is under suspicion and have been assigned a code name using the old nursery
rhyme - tinker, tailor, and so forth. To help him uncover the truth, Smiley
calls on select trusted underlings, like Peter Guilliam (Benedict Cumberbatch)
and Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy).
Already a huge hit in Europe, the complex, intelligent mystery “Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy” is a delight for those who are familiar with the book. But
director Tomas Alfredson, who had a break-out hit with the brooding vampire
thriller “Let The Right One In,” gives little help to those who do not already
know that “Karla” is the head of the Soviet spy agency or that “The Circus”
means the British MI-6 intelligence agency. The large cast of characters and
complex puzzle are intellectually challenging enough without a little
introduction at the film's start for the newbie. The lack of such a map to the
story's shadowy landscape likely narrows the film's audience to those already
familiar with the novels.
Nonetheless, it is an impressive film of shadows, loyalties and deceit.
The smoke-filled meeting rooms lined with soundproofing and trench-coated
operatives on half-lit, rain-drenched streets conjuror up the period and set
the chilly tone for intrigue and intellectual machinations.
Gary Oldman certainly deserves at least an Oscar nomination for his performance. He is brilliantly effective as the stone-faced Smiley, the wheels of his crafty brain ever turning behind his horn-rim glasses. Unlike Bourne or Bond, these spy masters generally look more like accountants, fading into the blonde woodwork while their sharp eyes and ears capture every subtle clue.
The look of the film is overall the gray of the 1950s flannel suit,
with the spare '50s mid-century modern furniture and drab beige colors
permeating this world of secrets. What little color is found tends to blues and
yellows, apart from re-occurring flashbacks of a colorful “Mad Men”-style
drunken holiday office party.
The dialog is as clipped as their haircuts, which a few careful words
sufficient to convey meaning. Knowing who to trust and who is lying is a big
part of this tautly-plotted tale. Every character is well-drawn by this gifted
cast, as each pursues his or her own agenda and fate.
By contrast to Smiley, Colin Firth's Bill Haydon is a more garrulous
character, albeit still more businessman than Bond in demeanor. Only the
assassin Ricki Tarr, played with power and passion by rising star Tom Hardy,
has the kind of flash and skills one expects in a movie spy.
Despite the film's spy hunt plot, there is a great deal of underlying
personal intrigue as well, about sexual longings, loyalty and lies. Smiley's
feelings for his dissatisfied wife and the assassin Tarr's love for Irina
(Svetlana Khodchenkova), an agent on the other side, add an unexpected theme
of romance.
For LeCarre fans, this wickedly delicious new “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,
Spy” is a holiday treat too good to pass up.
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” is now playing at Landmark's Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
© Cate Marquis
www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
Year in Review: Top Ten Films of 2011, and More by Cate Marquis
In the tradition of greeting the new year with a look back
at the best films of the past one, here is my list of 2011's best films. But
not just the “top ten” everyone does - I have included additional lists
recognizing the year's best in various kinds of film styles and categories.
Many of us love lists, but your list and my list may not
agree. I think films are both entertainment and an art form, so I recognize
both aspects. Personally, I have a taste for drama, psychological
thrillers, films that surprise or make
you think, and I am not afraid of subtitles. But that does not mean I don't
enjoy a well-made, entertaining popcorn movie or light-hearted comedy, too. I
hope you agree on some of these choices, or feel like you might want to explore
some of the ones you have not seen yet.
Films are listed alphabetically on first mention.
Best Films of 2011
The Artist - This black and white, nearly-silent film is a clever, technically-amazing love letter to early films but it is also so entertaining and affecting, it made the leap from film festivals to multiple screens everywhere, in the same way “Slumdog Millionaire” did. A mix of drama, comedy and romance, packed with movie references for the fan of old Hollywood.
Beginners - With amazing acting and a clever, original narrative style, this emotionally-appealing drama-comedy about a young artist (Ewan MacGregor) trying to finding his way to new love along with a French actress (Melanie Laurent) while still mourning his late father (Christopher Plummer), who came out as gay late in life. Sounds far-fetched but the story was based on the writer/director Mike Mills' own experiences and it is surprisingly universal warm tale of family and love.
City of Life and Death - This moving Chinese historical epic uses beautiful black and white photography, an unusual first-person narrative style and fabulous acting to recount the infamous “Rape of Nanking” during World War II. Like Clint Eastwood's pair of films on Iwo Jima, it tells its story through the eyes of individuals on both sides, the Japanese soldiers and the Chinese and international residents of the occupied city. An astonishing film, in Mandarin, Japanese and English.
The Descendents - George Clooney gives the best performance of his career in this film from “Sideways” director Alexander Payne. The story is set in Hawaii, and deals with family, legacy and the struggles of a man with two daughters who learns his comatose wife was cheating on him. A touching, real-life mix of drama and comedy, just as life often really is.
Drive - Nothing like what you expect. A stylish, visually-striking, twisting and emotionally rich film from director Nicolas Winding Refn, that breaks the rules of drama, crime thrillers and romance. Ryan Gosling delivers another stunning performance as a laconic movie stunt driver who moonlights as a get-away driver. Carey Mulligan as a young mother heads a great cast of actors playing against type.
Hanna - Another rule-breaking thriller, this one from “Atonement” director Joe Wright, in an unlikely departure that re-imagines the spy thriller as a dark Grimm's fairy tale. Stars young Saoirse Ronan as a girl raised to be an assassin, with marvelous supporting performances by Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana.
Melancholia - A visually lush film that demands to be seen on a big screen. Director Lars Von Trier gives us a surreal, symbolic film of amazing, painterly beauty, with scene after scene constructed like paintings from the Pre-Raphaelites or even the Surrealists. The film is build around a loose tale of two sisters played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, a wedding, clinical depression, self-delusion and the end of the world but it is worth it for the images alone, many of which could be framed and hung in a gallery.
Skin I Live In - Spanish director Pedro Almodovar practically re-invents the classic horror film, and proves once again he really knows how to make a movie. The scariest film I saw this year, it stars Antonio Banderas as a brilliant plastic surgeon with issues. It has a twisty, edge-of-your-seat script but it works through suspense, imagination and skillful storytelling rather than plain gore. Wow.
Tree of Life - Another big visual movie that demands a big screen, this one has drawn comparisons to Kubrick's “2001.” Director Terrence Malick starts with the creation of the universe and crafts a dream-scape film that is a contemplative, almost non-narrative, time-shifting meditation on life, death, family, dinosaurs, volcanoes and faith, plus a remarkable child's-eye view of growing up in 1950s small town America. A visual delight filled with astounding effects and stirring music, it also features a remarkable performance by Brad Pitt, supported by Sean Penn as his grown son and a luminous Jessica Chastain as Pitt's wife.
Ides of March - In this political drama, Ryan Gosling offers one of three remarkable performances this year, the others being in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and “Drive.” Gosling plays an idealistic campaign worker for a presidential hopeful (George Clooney) in this intelligent, sometimes heart-breaking political thriller about modern campaigns, skillfully directed by Clooney. Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti, George Clooney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are all amazing in strong supporting roles.
(honorable mentions: Brighton Rock, Moneyball, My Week With Marilyn)
If that is not enough, here are more lists of worthwhile films of 2011:
Best Popcorn Movies
- If a film is just entertainment, it darn well better
entertain. These are movies just for fun that really delivered on that promise
Captain America: The First Avenger - This summer
comic book film found its mark with a warm, old-fashioned version of American
values, the idea of standing up for the little guy against bullies and everyone
working together for the common good, and lots of 1940s style. Amazing visual
effects helped transform actor Chris Evans from skinny weakling to buff soldier
but it is the human touches that made
this one special.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - A great re-boot of
the franchise that showed off what motion-caption acting can really do. Should
boost the respect for physical actors like Andy Serkis.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - It does not have
much to do with Arthur Conan Doyle's books but this adventure with Robert
Downey Jr and Jude Law sure did entertain, even more so that the first one. It
shows that director Guy Ritchie has re-discovered his “Lock Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” mojo.
Anonymous - No one should confuse this film with
Shakespearean scholarship - it's fiction, not history - but this
playfully complex what-if mystery was a whole lot of romantic fun. A great cast
and atmospheric romantic style.
My Week With Marilyn - The magic of Monroe was channeled beautifully by Michelle Williams while Kenneth Branaugh is a wonderfully egotistical Lawrence Olivier. Fully captures the romance of Monroe and movies of her by-gone era.
Best Foreign-Language Films
- from dramas to historicals and comedies to thrillers, plenty to like here. This list includes City of Life and Death and The Skin I Live In. Other worthy films are:
Mozart's Sister - A beautifully filmed and acted French film that explores the story of Wolfgang Mozart's talented older sister, whose career ambitions were thwarted by the status of women and class divisions of her era. A thought-provoking historical drama with a feminist twist.
Princess of Montpensier - Another French film of political intrigue and the status of women in the 18th century, again inspired by real history, but with a more romantic flavor.
A Somewhat Gentle Man - Combining dry comic wit and a crime thriller plot, this is a surprising gangster tale about low-level Swedish mobsters and an ex-con (Stellen Skarsgard) trying to move on.
Winter In Wartime - This gripping, beautifully filmed war-time coming-of-age film was a big hit in Europe. The story, based on the author's own experiences, is told through the eyes of an idealistic fourteen-year-old Dutch boy determined to find a way to fight back against the Nazi occupation. When he finds an injured British flyer, it sparks a heart-breaking tale of war and hard realities of life.
Best Action/Thrillers
- some of the best action films in recent years are not
from Hollywood. A couple of these are British but most aren't in English, but
hey, how much talking do you really need for a great action flick.
13 Assassins - A little “Shogan,” a little “Seven Samurai,” some plot-twisting, a dash of humor and plenty of action in this immensely entertaining Japanese historically-set film. Pure fun for action fans.
Attack the Block - A clever British comedy-thriller with a touch of “Shaun of the Dead,” about what might happened if invaders from space landed in a rough London neighborhood. A remarkable, surprising and entertaining film that also examines pre-concieved notions about people.
The Housemaid - A chilling South Korean films about
an innocent poor young woman hired as a
maid and future nanny by the most chillingly Machiavellian wealthy family ever.
Full of intrigue, double-dealing, twists and jaw-dropping scenes.
I Saw The Devil - A bloody crime thriller from South Korea, with a young policeman pursuing a ruthless serial killer. Far beyond American thrillers in the shock department yet surprisingly intelligent too.
Outrage - A Japanese yakusa mob tale, with mobster versus mobster in a bloody game of one-up-manship. The next step beyond the Godfather.
Point Blank - This French crime thriller hits the ground running and never, ever stops. There are hints of Hitchcock in a cleverly plotted tale, where a male nurse caring for a patient is caught between two criminal groups in a ticking-clock race.
The Robber - Based on a real story, this breathlessly taut Austrian film, about a marathon runner who finances his passion with robbery, is a moving psychological tale wrapped around a harrowing chase.
Trollhunter - Starting with a “Blair Witch” student film premise, this clever, funny and very scary Norwegian film explores government cover-ups and monsters, a bit in the style of “District 9.” Terrific special effects and a clever use of myth help make it special. An English language re-make is in the works but those are never as good as the original.
Brighton Rock - This moody, atmospheric English crime film about a young, ruthless '50s era crook is also a chilling psychological thriller about love and delusion. Sam Riley gives a riveting performance as the young mobster Pinkie and Andrea Riseborough is affecting as a mousey young waitress, with wonderful, creepy supporting performances by Helen Mirren and John Hurt.
BEST DOCUMENTARIES
Buck - This moving biographical film about a charismatic real “horse whisperer,” his ground-breaking work and heart-breaking childhood is human, moving and fascinating, even if you are not a horse-lover.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Director Werner Herzog obtained unprecedented access to France's Chauvet Cave, which is not open to the public, for a 3D look at the amazing, pristine prehistoric cave paintings, the oldest known. The 3D effect allows us to see how touch light and the undulations of the cave walls may have combined to bring the drawings to life, almost like animation. A remarkable visual tour, with commentary by paleontologists and the director, it is best seen on a big screen and, of course, in 3D.
The Interrupters - Former street gang members intervene with angry people on crime-ridden Chicago streets to “interrupt” violence before it happens. One of the most remarkable films of the year, a must-see for everyone.
Into the Abyss - Director Werner Herzog's second documentary this year focuses on death row. Herzog opposes the death penalty but this is not advocacy as he looks inside the lives and experiences of two convicts, one of death row. A complex, real-life, “In Cold Blood”-like exploration of the road to prison and a chilling, riveting film.
Magic Trip - Using footage from Kesey's never-made road film, this documentary follows Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters on their progress from California to New York. The trip on the Magic Bus marked the dividing line between the Beat Generation and the birth of the psychedelic '60s hippie movement. A remarkable historical exploration that goes far beneath the surface of what you think you know about the '60s.
Sholem Aleichem - A eye-opening film about the man who wrote the stories that formed the basis of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Sholem Aleichem was the pen name of a nearly-forgotten literary great, the founder of Yiddish literature. Rather than a simple teller of nostalgic Yiddish folk tales, the writer was a Mark Twain-like humorist who used vernacular language and a populist touch to create brilliant social commentary and great stories.
Best Comedies
50/50 - A touching, dark comedy about a young man facing cancer, played by the gifted Joseph Gordon-Levitt and based on the screenwriter's real experiences battling the disease. A film that eschews false sentiment to present a remarkably true experience about life, friendship and the humor in facing life's challenges.
Bridesmaids - More than a girly “The Hangover,” this is the comedy that showed women can be hilarious and comedy writing is not just for boys. The film virtually launched a boom in female comedy this year.
Crazy, Stupid, Love - A surprisingly warm, fresh
twist on the romantic comedy, with wonderful performances from Steve Carrell
and Ryan Gosling (who had an amazing year). Carrell played a newly divorced
middle-aged man tutored in seduction by the younger Gosling but the story goes
in a wildly different direction from the expected.
Our Idiot Brother - Four siblings from an affluent Long Island family - three New York hip sisters (Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer and Elizabeth Banks) and one dreamy-hippie brother (Paul Rudd) - add up to a wonderful tongue-in-cheek comedy that gently lampoons families and East Coast trendiness. Very funny but humanly warm, with an especially delightful performance by Paul Rudd.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil - College kids go camping in
a remote Southern backwoods and encounter hillbilly types, in this comedy
thriller in which everything you know is wrong.
Win Win - A warm-hearted serio-comedy about life, family and right-and-wrong, centered on a well-meaning small town lawyer and part-time wrestling coach, played by the wonderful Paul Giamatti, who makes an ethically-questionable choice that unexpectedly bring a new kid to town.
Young Adult - The writer-director team who brought us “Juno” delivers a darker, very biting comedy about a 30-plus woman, played by Charlize Theron, who is still living in a high school world.
Best Animated Films
Adventures of Tintin - Steven Spielberg's rollicking fun “Indiana Jones”-style screen adaptation of the '30s-'40s comic books uses a combination of motion-capture and animation, which makes for a very exciting adventure ride.
Rango - A dreamy, surreal, dry comedy about a lizard, voiced by Johnny Depp, who dreams of being an actor who finds himself lost in the desert and caught up in a Western tale of water rights. More a film for adults than kids but still fun.
Best Art-House or Festival Films
- It may not have been such a good year for blockbusters
but it was quite a good one for art-house films. This list includes The Artist,
City of Life and Death, Melancholia and Tree of Life, described above but also:
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen's best film in years, a charming fantasy about a writer enamored with 1920s Paris who finds a portal back to that time. A clever tale about longing for the past while overlooking the present, starring Owen Wilson as an appealing Allen alter-ego.
Le Quattro Volte - A virtually wordless meditation on the phases of life and aspects of the material world. The film ties together four stories - an old man in an ancient Italian village, a young goat, a stately fir tree and traditional charcoal making, all beautifully photographed with a documentary look and tone.
Take Shelter - Michael Shannon is amazing as a construction worker slipping into paranoid schizophrenia, in a remarkable drama, featuring the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain as his supportive but confused wife.
Best Use of 3D
This list includes Adventures of Tintin and Cave of Forgotten Dreams and these films:
Hugo - Martin Scorsese's children's film about a boy living in a Paris train station is less entrancing when it focuses on the kid's tale but pure magic when it focuses on tell the story of film pioneer Georges Melies. This special effects drenched fantasy tale that is perhaps the best use of 3D since “Avatar”
© Cate Marquis
www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
"THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO" by Cate Marquis
Fincher re-make 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' falls short for those who liked original, is better for those who did not
Director David Fincher's English-language remake of the
Swedish-language thriller “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” is a more
pared-down thriller, starring “James Bond's” Daniel Craig as the
journalist-turned-detective and Rooney Mara as the tattooed, pierced computer
hacker girl.
Those who have not seen the 2009 film based on the late Stieg Larson's
bestseller will not be able to make mental comparisons to the original “The
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” which is a good thing. Those who did see that
kick-ass film may miss its complexity, as the story loses much of its
convoluted mystery, the journalist's back-story and details of just how creepy
the family being investigated really is. But mostly those viewers will miss the
riveting Noemi Rapace as a darker, scarier version of Lisbeth Salander.
Still, this English version is a heck of a pulse-pounding action film.
The photography and settings are effectively eerie and the film moves at a
brisk pace. There are plenty of suspense and action, and the new version still
includes the harrowing rape scenes from the original film.
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is hired by aging
business powerhouse Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate a
40-year-old mystery - the disappearance of his favorite great-niece. Henrik
suspects a member of his wealthy, powerful but not-so-nice family in the
disappearance of teenaged Harriet, who
vanished without a trace from the family's island compound. Although Henrik
believes she is dead, what exactly happened is not clear and the mystery still
haunts Henrik.
Blomkvist is still smarting from a legal run-in with another wealthy
CEO, libel charges for publishing insufficiently-documented accusations in his
investigative journalism magazine. But Vanger offers enough money to persuade
the nearly-broke Blomkvist to research the facts behind the girl's
disappearance. A bonus for Blomkvist is the help of a research assistant - a
brilliant, taciturn young computer security expert with a multiple piercings
and tattoos named Lizbeth Salander (Rooney Mara).
Despite their wealth and prestige, the Vangers are a sinister lot.
Family members were Nazi sympathizers during WWII, which few of them now
acknowledge, and there are other rumors of unsavory behavior. The family
members are not close, to put it mildly, although most are living separate
lives in widely scattered homes on the sprawling family estate on an isolated
island deep in the Swedish back country. Among the family members scattered
about the compound are Harriet's brother Martin (Stellan Skarsgard) and her
cousin Anita (Joely Richardson).
Fincher's English-language version quickly re-caps most of the story's
complex mystery, with its numerous red herrings and Nazi subplot, leaving just
the last piece of the puzzle to solve. The more straight-forward thriller story
allows the film's focus to fall more on the relationship between the journalist
Mikael and the aloof young computer genius Lizbeth.
Despite her youth, Salander has mysterious past that made her a ward of
the state, with an oily, sadist guardian (Yorick van Wageningen) to whom she
must report. Rooney Mara's Salander is the quieter, more polite version of the
character Rapace played in the earlier version. Mara's Salander tends to fade
into the background despite her striking appearance, making her more an enigma
than Rapace's more menacing, charismatic hacker. Mara is prettier and her shier
version of the character will appeal to some. While Rapace's Salander's scarier
facade keeps us from guessing her tragic history, Mara's more vulnerable
Salander immediately invites those assumptions.
Overall, the acting is good, although there is less for supporting
actors to work with. Daniel Craig
creates a rather different Blomkvist, less shattered by his recent brush with
vengeful power. Craig is better known for playing James Bond but had a string
of other excellent action roles before that, in films such as “Layer Cake.”
How one feels about Fincher's “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” likely
depends on what one thought of the first version or if one saw it. Those who
loved the first “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” will be less enthralled with
this version but those who were less enamored with it might be more please with
this one. Otherwise, audiences coming to this tale for the first time should be
caught up in the story of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”
© Cate Marquis
THE ADVENTURES OF TIN TIN" by Cate Marquis
“The Adventures of Tintin,” one of two Steven Spielberg directed films
in theaters for the holiday season, is a rollicking “Indiana Jones” for kids.
Spielberg's first foray into animation uses a combination of motion capture,
animation and 3D effects, which makes this adventure an eye-popping
entertainment for kids and parents alike. The film is based on the classic
Tintin comic books by Belgian artist Herge but there is no need for young
audiences to be familiar with the comics to enjoy this wild ride. A childhood
favorite of Spielberg, the long-running comics began in 1929 and are still
popular in Europe, as familiar there as Charlie Brown and the Peanuts
characters are here.
Young Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell) is a young investigative journalist. While there is quite a bit of Hardy Boys detective style, Tintin is more indeterminate in age although grown-up enough for his own city apartment, where he lives alone with his little white dog Snowy. Tintin engages in a series of adventures, laced with humor, that take him to exotic places, while investigating stories for his magazine.
This adventure begins when Tintin buys a model of a sailing ship called
the Unicorn at an open-air market and suddenly becomes the target of forces
bent on retrieving the model ship, which may contain the key to a treasure.
Although the original comic was set in Belgium and is in French, the
cast of characters in the film are generally British. Featured are Simon Pegg
and Nick Frost as bumbling, prat-falling lookalike police detectives Thompson
and Thomson, Andy Serkis as drunken seafarer Captain Haddock and Daniel Craig
as the sinister genius Sakharine, who is anything but sweet.
But it is the visual aspect of the film that is really breathtaking. The combination of motion capture and animation, combined with 3D, makes this innovative film visually striking. The characters are produced with motion capture to create realistic body movement but then changed to make them into cartoon characters, a more pleasing look that mirrors the original comics. But retaining the more natural appearance in other aspects makes the action in the film grippingly realistic, allowing stunts that can only be done in animation to be startlingly real. It is a wild, heart-pounding adventure.
Along with Martin Scorsese's “Hugo,” it is the best use of 3D since “Avatar.” Still, it is the innovative technique of motion capture and animation that will likely pepper future films, despite the new ruling for the Oscars that motion capture is not animation.
“Adventures of Tintin” is great family entertainment, the kind of film that both kids and parents will truly enjoy.© Cate Marquis
"RESTLESS" by Cate Marquis
Gus Van Sant's 'Restless' is sweet, quirky romantic tale of love, life and death
Gus Van Sant has a reputation as a gifted, serious director whose work
has sometimes included art house fare. But his latest film “Restless” is
something far different.
Surprisingly sweet and romantic, “Restless” is a quirky tale of teen
love between a depressed boy who attends the funerals of strangers and a girl
he meets at one. Which means it may appeal to younger, broader audience but
likely will dismay Van Sant's die-hard fans.
This is a not profound film but “Restless” is a well-meaning one. It is
one of two films in theaters this fall that deal with the difficult subject of
cancer through dark-humor. Living life to the fullest and acceptance are its
themes more than tragedy.
Sixteen-year-old Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper) meets Annabel Cotton (Mia
Wasikowska) at a funeral. He does not know the deceased or anyone at this
funeral, he just likes going to funerals. Annabel calls him out on this,
causing him to flee, but then comes to his rescue when the funeral director
comes to the same conclusion.
Reclusive and morose, Enoch is a teen with issues. After his parents'
death, he withdrew from the world and began keeping company with the ghost of a
Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII, Hiroshi Takahasi, played by Ryo Kase.
In contrast to the reticent Enoch, Annabel is a playful, curious,
daring pixie. While Enoch dresses in black and gray, Annabel dresses in
colorful, creatively-paired thrift shop clothes, giving her a little Audrey
Hepburn flair. She is always up for an adventure, despite undergoing treatment
for cancer.
Schuyler Fisk plays Annabel's responsible older sister, with Lusia
Strus as her less-reliable mother Rachel. Jane Adams plays Enoch's aunt Mabel.
Enoch and Annabel share the same dark sense of humor and there is more
than a little Halloween and fairy-tale fantasy in their world and shared
interests.
There are some echoes of “Fight Club” in how the two meet, and film
history buffs will recognize overall parallels with the 1971 cult hit “Harold
and Maude.” In fact, love and death are staples of literature and film, and
tragic young love has a long history in both. This is just a newer, younger,
contemporary iteration on that romantic theme.
Still, in the hands of a lesser director, this dark-comic romance could
have gone very wrong. Van Sant infuses it with beauty and a delicate touch. A
cast of beautiful young people, dressed in stylish eccentric clothes and filmed
with surreal loveliness help beguile viewers of this story of life, love and
death.
Oddly, Enoch and Annabel make a good match - providing encouragement to savor the world
for Enoch, and a distracting project for Annabel. In their own ways, they both
are confronting and avoiding realities of their lives.
The film is visually very pretty, especially with Annabel's playful
thrift store wardrobe set against the fall foliage. Scenes are beautifully
shot, and Van Sant's skill as a director remains undiminished despite the
overall light tone.
The acting standout is Mia Wasikowska, who turns in a charming performance. Henry
Hooper, son of the late Dennis Hooper, does fine in his first starring role,
although he is easily outshone by Wasikowska. Apart from her performance and
despite the subject matter, the film often seems very light. It is not a
flawless film but it has more child-like whimsy and appeal than one expects.
The film was produced by Ron Howard, and in some ways it seems more his
kind of film than Van Sant's.
While “Restless” will appeal especially to those who like quirky, it is
never as close to truth nor nuanced as “50/50.” Annabel never looks that sick,
never seems to experience pain, keeping this story in the realm of romantic
fantasy rather than realism.
“Restless” is a sweet, youthful romance with more charm than one expects. While this
atypical Van Sant film will disappoint many fans and anyone allergic to quirky
should give it a wide berth, the dark-humor romance of “Restless” may well charm this generation the
way “Harold and Maude” did an earlier one.
"MACHINE GUN PREACHER" by Cate Marquis
'Machine Gun Preacher' takes true story and makes dull film
The drama “Machine Gun Preacher” is based on a true story about a drug-using biker who turns his life around and ends up running a mission for orphans in war-torn Sudan. But Sam Childers is unlike other missionaries. When roaming militias attack his orphanage, the ex-biker meets violence with violence, earning him the nickname “machine gun preacher.”
Gerald Butler stars as Childers, a violent, drug-using biker just out of prison. The ex-con returns home to a trailer park in rural Pennsylvania, where his gorgeous wife Lynn (Michelle Monaghan), little girl and supportive mother (Kathy Baker) await. But Childers finds his stripper wife has found Jesus, giving up both stripping and drugs. He is not happy about it. Taking refuge in a biker bar, he reconnects with old buddies, including childhood friend and fellow druggie Donnie (Michael Shannon). Childers is soon back to old habits, shooting up heroin and carousing around, until a random act of violence brings serves as a wake-up call. Shaken, Childers gives his wife's way a try and joins her church. It turns his life around. He starts a construction business, helps his friend Donnie get clean and eventually builds his own church.
A missionary visiting from eastern Africa inspires Childers travel there to help rebuild villages. Once there, he is moved by what he sees, especially the plight of children in war-torn Sudan, and he discovers a new passion. But when a roving military band attacks the orphanage he is building, he decides to fight fire with fire power.
"THE DEBT" by Cate Marquis
‘The Debt’ remakes Israeli spy thriller
Three young Mossad agents return to a heroes' welcome in 1965 Israel from their mission to capture a Nazi war criminal, the notorious "Surgeon of Birkenau." But on that long ago mission they made a pact and, now middle-aged, Rachel Singer (Helen Mirrren) and her two fellow agents find the debt must be paid.
"The Debt" is a historical spy thriller about a long-ago secret mission by the still-new Mossad working for the young State of Israel. This English-language thriller is a remake of a 2007 Israeli film "Ha-Hov" ("The Debt"), a gripping psychological mystery/thriller, which played at the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival.
Re-making the story in English for a broader audience than the Hebrew-language original could reach, "The Debt" is directed by John Madden, who also helmed "Shakespeare In Love." Madden stays fairly close to the original plot, though the tone of the new film is more of pure spy thriller rather than a mystery with psychological overtones.
The cast is top-notch. Helen Mirren stars as the now-retired agent Rachel who, in 1997, made a career by trading on her fame for the storied mission. Fellow agent Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson) has risen to the top of Mossad. Meanwhile, the third team member, David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds), has wandered the world, dabbling in various work, never fully recovering from their harrowing mission.
A rumor from a Russian hospital threatens to reveal old secrets and revive long-buried feelings. Although their days as field agents are long behind them, they must act.
The story takes place partially in flashback, when all three agents were very young. Jessica Chastain plays young Rachel, the junior member of the team and new to field assignments. The more experienced Stephan (Marton Csokas), an ambitious, talkative fellow in his late twenties, heads the mission, aided by serious and near-silent David (Sam Worthington).
Rachel and David pose as husband and wife for the mission while Stephan manages things behind the scenes from a dingy apartment they share. Romantic attractions entangle all three, complicating the team's work.
They find their target in East Germany, practicing medicine under an assumed identity. Jesper Christensen plays Nazi doctor Dieter Vogel, sly and cunning as ever, posing as an ordinary German gynecologist.
Rachel sees him as a patient and finds something particularly creepy about her appointments with the doctor. The agents' motives are personal as well as professional, as all three lost family in the Shoah.
The bigger stars and budget goose up the production in this remake. Not surprisingly, this version of "The Debt" is much more polished, with more extensive action scenes. An attempt to smuggle the Nazi out of Germany, which is fairly simple and low-key in the original, becomes a more complex, professionally orchestrated action at a train station, with plenty of twists and surprises.
The Israeli film is painted in more ambiguous tones, commenting on political myths. The characters are more boldly drawn but also more obviously flawed. The retired agents are barefaced in their concerns about tarnishing their legend and less fit to launch a new mission. The younger counterparts in the Israeli version are more plainly inexperienced, passionately patriotic but less polished at their craft. It gives the Israeli version an edge that the new one, more purely a thriller with more action, lacks.
One of the biggest changes is the doctor, a silver-tongued snake who constantly taunts his captors in the Israeli version. He is mostly silent in this remake, which seems to diminish his menace with the agents. While this newer version has more action, the original had more suspense and nuances.
Nevertheless, "The Debt" is still a good spy thriller with striking, memorable characters as well as a tale of political myth, vengeance and star-crossed love against a riveting historical backdrop.
Running time: 1:54
Rated: R for some violence and language
"CHASING MADOFF" by Cate Marquis
Visually dynamic, ‘Chasing Madoff’ documentary follows 10-year investigation
"Chasing Madoff" begins with images of blood and money set to eerie music and the words "unfortunately, a true story." The opening sets a tone of mystery about the investigation into the Bernie Madoff investment group, a compelling true story that uncovers failures of regulation still haunting us today and even threatening the future.
The Madoff scandal was one of Wall Street's biggest, coming to light with the economic crash that began in late 2008. The film focuses on the investigation into Madoff by a handful of individuals who pursued it for 10 years.
Harry Markopolos, Frank Casey and Neil Chelo were the first three members of that team of unofficial investigators. Markopolos, a brilliant securities analyst, was challenged by his employer to craft an investment strategy to match Madoff's seeming successful one. It took Markopolos about five minutes' analysis to see that, mathematically, the scheme had to be a scam. After presenting his results to Casey and Chelo, the three launched an unofficial but damning investigation into Madoff's financial scheme, and were joined later by financial journalist Michael Ocrant and lawyer Gaytri Kachroo.
Yet despite a growing mound of evidence, convincing anyone else that Madoff was actually running a Ponzi scheme or getting the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into his investment group, proved maddeningly difficult.
One factor was Madoff's power and status on Wall Street, making him a feared figure. But there was more to this collective blindness, and that is the subject the film really lays bare.
Directed by Jeff Prosserman and distributed by Cohen Media, this documentary tells a great story that is both gripping and enraging. The film was adapted from Markopolos' bestseller "No One Would Listen."
The film opens with news reports as the Madoff scandal broke. The reports revealed not only did Madoff report steady profits from investments that were fake but that he bilked wealthy investors, including family members, friends and charities, totaling in the billions. Some of these investors lost their entire life savings.
Markopolos and his team of whistleblowers uncovered not just Madoff's scheme but a chain of others who helped recruit victims - bankers, underworld figures and international movers-and-shakers, all keeping the ever-growing Ponzi scheme going. Markopolos faced personal risks and danger to his family in his desperate effort to get the SEC to act.
The documentary explores the facts uncovered by the group of financial experts in a visually dynamic way, offering clear, graphical descriptions of the financial matters, recapping the history of Ponzi schemes and the mission of the SEC with archival footage and voice over summaries. It also recaps the time-line of the Madoff case, with a sprinkling of heartbreaking commentary from his victims.
Telling the story in such a colorful, visual way is a double-edged sword. While visuals taken from '40s crime films and animated images of financial topics make the proceedings less dry and break up the usual documentary array of talking heads, it is also sometimes distracting. "Chasing Madoff" explores a great topic but the film itself sometimes goes off on tangents or distracts by being too busy. Prosserman seems to be imitating Errol Morris' inventive style of documentary storytelling but just goes too far with bells and whistles.
In addition, the film is somewhat disappointing in its lack of insight into Madoff himself - what drove him to exploit family, friends and even charities for his own profit.
But stylistic excesses and a plot hole should not discourage audiences. Under its busy exterior, "Chasing Madoff" is a riveting story of relentless pursuit, appalling criminal activity and inexcusable failure of a government agency to serve the American people who fund it. In many ways, that continued failure of the SEC to do its job, and the lack of justice in this case (the film points out no one other than Madoff has gone to jail), is the real scandal this excellent documentary exposes.
"POINT BLANK" by Cate Marquis
A non-stop action in crime thriller
“Point Blank” is a crime thriller that runs full bore right out of the gate. This wild-ride of chase and thrills has a Hitchcockian everyman at its center, a male nurse who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets caught between warring crime figures.
How much talking do you need in a heart-stopping, kick-butt action thriller? Be honest - not much. Which is why the fact that the non-stop crime thriller “Point Blank” is French should not really matter to fans of the genre. Those who are not afraid of subtitles already know the French really know how to do edgy, breathless crime thrillers - having given us “La Femme Nikita,” and countless other gems of the genre.
Nurse Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) is assigned to care for an injured safe-cracker named Sartet (Roschdy Zem), whom the police nabbed in the midst of a crime. What the nurse does not know is that there are two sets of criminals who want the injured man and will do whatever it takes to get him.
Samuel's very pregnant wife (Elena Anaya) is kidnapped right out of their apartment and held hostage to force the nurse to deliver his patient to Sartet's associates. But the kidnappers are not the only ones who want to get their hands on the hospitalized criminal. This ordinary man finds himself in a race against time, rival criminals and trigger-happy police to save the lives of his wife and unborn child.
Directed by Fred Cavaye with producers Cyril Colbeau-Justin and Jean-Baptiste Dupont, this terrific race against time strips the genre down to basics but kicks up the thrill factor. The fact that the filmmakers eschew the over-the-top effects and go with more human, and therefore more visceral, stunt action makes the film feel fresh and make it highly entertaining.
The driving force of the film and the restless camera work mean heart-stopping near-misses are amped up. The whole film is aided by great editing and a driving score. The visuals are always perfect, which makes watching this film a special treat. Taut, spot-on acting helps complete the suspenseful mix.
Instead of the usual superhero fighting the baddies, there is something more tense and edgy about having an ordinary man forced to do extraordinary things, in the manner of classic Hitchcock thrillers.
This thriller runs like a train out of control, with hardly a pause in its twisting, turning path. If you like thriller action of the twisty-and-turning crime world type, where no one is what they seem and you never know when you are going over the next ledge, “Point Blank” is the film for you.
“Point Blank” is easily the most breathless and pulse-pounding fun of any action thriller in theaters now, which is worth reading a few subtitles. The film, in French with English subtitles, is now playing at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
© The Current / Cate Marquis
"Names of Love" by Cate Marquis
"Our Idiot Brother" by Cate Marquis
'Our Idiot Brother' is far-out funny
Paul Rudd is hilarious as 'Our Idiot Brother' in sly comedy
Rudd, Deschanel, Mortimer, Coogan are all loopy in satiric 'Our Idiot Brother'
Every family has one: the relative who is a bit of an idiot. “Our Idiot Brother” explores that notion in tongue-in-cheek, satiric fashion, with a plot that mixes Chechov's “Three Sisters,” a bit of “Candide” and a comedic take on Dostoevsky's “The Idiot.” Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, Hugh Dancy and Steve Coogan star in this oft-silly audience-pleasing comedy that debuted at Sundance as “My Idiot Brother.”
Paul Rudd plays sweet but clueless stoner Ned, an organic farmer who gets busted for giving, not selling, pot to a cop at a farmer's market. Released early from prison for good behavior, his dreadlocked girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Hahn) does not want him back, although she keeps his dog, Willie Nelson. Ned ends up staying at the family home on Long Island with mom, then couch-surfing at the homes of his three sisters in New York, where his sunny view of humanity and unfiltered honesty constantly cause problems.
There is a bit of the “Big Lebowski's” Dude in sweet Ned but he is more committed to his gentle life philosophy of assuming the best of everyone. While Ned has chosen the road less cynical and is the sibling with the least, there is plenty of idiocy of other kinds to go around among these East Coast trust-funders. Liz (Emily Mortimer) is the earth-mother wife of documentary filmmaker Dylan (Steve Coogan). Artsy bi-sexual Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) lives a sociable bohemian life with lawyer girlfriend Cindy (Rashida Jones). Ruthlessly ambitious, always-connected magazine writer Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) is willing to whatever it takes to land a gig at Vanity Fair. Even their wine-loving Long Island suburban mother Ilene (Shirley Knight) is a bit loopy.
The sisters reluctantly help out by offering sofas and job leads. Dylan finds Ned work on his film shoot, a documentary about an abused, beautiful Russian ballerina. Youngest sister Natalie gets him a job modeling for artist friend Christian (Hugh Dancy). But well-meaning Ned's blunt honesty causes disruptions in every sister's life. He always seems to say or do the wrong thing at the worst moment.
Unlike so many comedies, this one is sweet rather than raunchy. The comedy is dry and straight-faced but situations are absurdly hilarious. The truth is that his sisters need a shake-up and there is a kind of Zen wisdom in Ned's life view.
The talented cast is this comedy's greatest strength. Rudd is utterly charming, as well as very funny, as a well-meaning, basically-happy innocent leaving disaster in his wake. Actually, the whole cast is wonderful in this satiric silliness, particularly Steve Coogan as the impatient, self-impressed director. Deschanel is delightfully ditzy and Banks is breathlessly driven. As an ensemble, they are hilarious.
Directed and co-written by a brother-sister team, this sparkling, cheeky film gets the sibling dynamics right. Jesse Peretz directed and the script was co-written by his sister Evgenia Peretz, a writer/editor at Vanity Fair, along her husband, documentary filmmaker David Schisgall.
The film also hits the mark with characters, lampooning New York types - the artistic bohemian, the uber-mother, the pretentious filmmaker, the business woman grafted to her Blackberry, the affluent wine-drinking suburbanite - along with sincere organic farmer Ned. But the actors go far beyond those familiar stereotypes in crafting appealing characters.
The film's sunny, colorful visual style is the perfect tongue-in-cheek framing. The brother-sister writing/directing team clearly know this territory well. While the film runs a tad long, it wraps up in perfect, silly fashion.
“Our Idiot Brother” is a refreshing comic change from the pervasive bathroom and teenage boy humor. A light and silly satire of modern manners and families, “Our Idiot Brother” is comedy for grown-ups. Packed with winning performances by a talented cast, this late summer comedy treat is just the thing to close out the season at the movies.
Grade: B +
© The Current/Cate Marquis
Read more reviews at www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
"ONE DAY" BY Cate Marquis
4
'One Day' offers pretty but shallow snapshots of relationship
“One Day” follows a couple's off-and-on romance, friendship and lives, by giving a snapshot of their lives on the same day - the day they met - through twenty years. Starring American Anne Hathaway and Brit Jim Sturgess, this British-set tale is a three-hankie tearjerker. It is likely to please fans of “The Notebook” and other Nicholas Sparks adaptations, as well as some fans of the book, which bears the same name, from which this film was adapted. It is however not a film for every taste.
Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess) meet on the day they graduate college, July 15, 1988. Although they attended the same university, Em comes from a working-class family in Northern England while Dex is a pampered child of privilege. What at first seems like a casual pick-up deepens into an unexpected friendship. Although they resolve to just be friends, an undercurrent of unspoken attraction remains.
Director Lone Scherfig's last film, “An Education,” was an outstanding drama, a film of real meaning and humanity. This film is a disappointing follow-up because while it is reasonably faithful to the novel's story, it lacks its depth.
Still, there is romantic charm to both characters and some convincing chemistry between Hathaway and Sturgess. This is a laughter-and-tears tale, with each July 15 illustrating where they are in their lives, separate and together, and in their roller-coaster feelings for each other. The one-day-a-year technique - always the day they met - seems a bit contrived but works better in the film that expected. The film actually skips a year or two occasionally but does cover most of twenty years. The snapshots work well to cover a relationship that spans decades and the seasons of life.
Both the book and film are both set in England, which makes Anne Hathaway's wandering British accent is a major distraction. One has to wonder why the story was not re-set in the U.S. or a real British actress was not cast.
Apart from her indeterminate accent, Hathaway does well as the unassuming, self-effacing Emma. Hathaway is undeniably cute as Emma, an unconventional aspiring-poet, although having the beautiful Hathaway play what seems to be a role as a less-attractive woman is a bit unconvincing.
Audiences may recognize Sturgess from the Beatles pic “Across the Universe,” or possibly the adventure film “The Way Back” earlier this year. The actor is very good as the not-always-good Dexter.
The supporting cast is good, particularly Patricia Clarkson as Dexter's mother, although the episodic nature of the film makes character development in supporting roles a bit limited.
Visually, the film is very appealing - pretty people in pretty places - as befits this kind of romantic tale. Much of the story takes place in London but it also roams to Paris and other beautiful spots. The film also offers a bit of a cultural tour of the '90s and '00s, with fashions and fads appearing and fading.
Skipping year to year one has a sense of skimming over the surface of the characters' emotional lives. Beyond their relationship, the film does not offer much insight on life, despite the sometimes devastating events the characters go through. While the yearly snapshot is a fresh approach to the relationship storytelling and the acting is good, in the end the film is far less profound than it could have been.
Despite its long time-line and some comic moments, at heart “One Day” is simply a good tearjerker. But for fans of “The Notebook,” it may be just the ticket.
grade: B -
© Cate Marquis/The Current
“Another Earth” by Cate Marquis
Brit Marling in ANOTHER EARTH Credits: Courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures TM and (c) 2011 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
Sundance film 'Another Earth' offers human drama set in absurd sci-fi concept
“Another Earth,” an indie film that was a prize winner at Sundance, crafts a human drama of two people linked by a tragic event but slips out of orbit by framing it with a preposterous science fiction concept.
On the night that beautiful young Rhoda Williams (co-writer Brit Marling) graduates high school with honors, poised to study astrophysics at MIT, a new planet is discovered in the solar system. A graduation party followed by a momentary distraction as she gazes up at the newly-discovered planet while driving leads to a tragic accident. The accident leaves two people with ruined lives - Williams, now headed to jail instead of college, and John Burroughs (William Mapother), a successful compose musician at the height of his career, whose family is killed.
Years later, released on parole, the once-promising scholar is reconciled to her life in the working class as an ex-con. Haunted by regret, she tracks down the man whose family was killed, perhaps to seek forgiveness. Confronted with a broken man whose life is as shattered as her own, instead of the rehearsed apology, she offers to clean his disheveled house.
Where the indie drama “Another Earth” focuses on the human interactions between a young woman whose early mistake ruined lives and her longing to make amends, it succeeds. The problem is the preposterous science fiction premise of a mirror earth bearing down on our planet.
The science fiction premise centers on a newly found planet that suddenly appears in the sky, moving ever closer to Earth. As it approaches it becomes clear that it mirrors our own planet. Oddly, this twin planet apparently on a collision course with Earth engenders only curiosity in the people of our Earth. Its gravitational pull seems to have no effect on tides or anything else.
While parallel realities are an old science fiction standby, this one simply tosses out all reality and physics in embarrassing fashion.
The film seems to be stretching for a sense of mystery with the looming second Earth. The image of the twin Earth hovering in the sky is haunting and evokes a sense of wonder. However, this human drama of unspoken guilt, unpurged grief and hoped-for atonement really would have been enough with just of sprinkling of “what-if.” Instead, director/co-writer Mike Cahill and co-writer Marling graft on a science fiction premise that is so wildly absurd as to be embarrassing, even laughable.
The characters are well-drawn and the story of a tragedy that links them makes the drama engrossing. There is a certain crackling energy between these two damaged people and the tension is underscored by the unspoken truth. The film is well-shot, occasionally with lyrical imagery, but essentially it is an actors' film.
However, the bald-faced scientific absurdity of the approaching twin planet undermines the film's serious tone. It really adds nothing to the story's human drama and mostly its improbability distracts and irritates.
As a human drama, “Another Earth” is worthwhile but jettisoning the unneeded and awkward science fiction frame would have made it a better one. “Another Earth” is now playing at the Tivoli Theater.
© Cate Marquis
SMURFS by Cate Marquis
'Smurfs' delivers smurfy goodness for fans and younger set.
If you grew up loving the Smurfs, you now have the perfect way to pass on that passion. “The Smurfs” is filled with smurfy goodness, bringing the little blue characters to the big screen in a kid-friendly animated and live-action 3D movie.
Well, kind of 3D. Actually much of the movie is 2D with occasional 3D sequences, so make your own choice on spending the extra cash.
Hank Azaria voices ragged wizard Gargamel, the Smurfs' big nemesis, along with his cat Azrael. Neil Patrick Harris plays Patrick Winslow, a young, struggling ad executive with a cosmetics company, whose life in New York is disrupted by the arrival of the little blue people from another dimension. His more artsy, pregnant wife Grace (Jayma Mays) is quickly charmed by the Smurfs but Patrick needs a little more effort to succumb to smurfiness.
How did the Smurfs get from their village of mushroom homes in the forest to the Big Apple? The blue ones are accidentally transported to Central Park by a vortex created by a blue (what else?) moon. To get back to their own world, they must find a way to create a blue moon in New York, preferably while using the word smurf to stand in for as many words as possible.
The Smurfs adventures in New York are kid-oriented fun, particularly in the FAO Schwartz toy store, although pretty standard stuff. Some scenes may be too scary for younger kids. While the entertainment focus in on children, there is still some funny stuff for the grown-up fans.
Hank Azaria is hilarious, mugging relentlessly and being appropriately over-the-top. His performance is the best reason for adults to see this kid comedy. Neil Patrick Harris is funny as Patrick, where his natural put-upon manner is a good fit. However, his role of being amazed or irritated by the animated characters in a bit more thankless, although he gets a few good comic bits. One funny scene has Neil Patrick Harris, frustrated with the frequent use of smurf to mean anything, letting loose a string of smurfs, lead to grasps from the little blue folks and Papa Smurfs warning him to watch his language.
Sofia Vergara plays Patrick's demanding, unpredictable Latina boss Odile with style and Jayma Mays is sweet as Patrick's wife Grace.
The Smurfs themselves are voiced by a stellar cast. Legendary comedian Jonathan Winters voices Papa Smurf, Katy Perry is Smurfette, George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf and Fred Armisen as Brainy Smurf.
Alan Cumming provides the voice for Gutsy Smurf, while Paul Reubens is Jokey Smurf and Anton Yelchin is Clumsy Smurf. A host of other celebrities also voice other Smurfs.
Bottomline: Despite its talented cast, “The Smurfs” is largely kids stuff and pretty routine at that. For die-hard Smurf fans, who grew up loving the Smurfs and want to introduce their own kids to Smurfdom, this is the ticket. But grown fans on their own, or kids without smurfy parents, it offers less and may not really be worth full-price admission.
© Cate Marquis. Read more of Cate's reviews at www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
SARAH'S KEY by Cate Marquis
'Sarah's Key' is a beautifully shot, deeply-moving drama about little-known 1942 French round-up of Jews
“Sarah's Key” is a beautifully-shot, deeply-moving and fairly faithful adaptation of Tatiana de Rosnay's novel about the too-little-known 1942 round-up of Jews by the French under Nazi occupation.
American journalist Julia Jarmond (Kristen Scott Thomas) is researching for a magazine article on the La Rafle du Velodrome d'Hiv, which rounded up more than 13,000 Jews in Paris. Meanwhile, Julia and her French husband (Frederic Pierrot) are moving into a Paris apartment that has been in her husband's family for years. During her research, Julia discovers a startling connection with one victim, a girl named Sarah.
In 1942, when the French police come to arrest her family, ten-year-old Sarah (Melusine Mayance) tells her younger brother to hide in the closet, promising to return and let him out. Instead of being released immediately, they are taken to the Velodrome d'Hiv, a sports stadium packed with other Jewish families.
Sarah's story is used to outline events of the round-up. The appalling conditions in the Velodrome may recall images of New Orleans' Superdome after Hurricane Katrina for many.
Like the novel, the film alternates between present and past, telling Sarah's story as the journalist uncovers information. Meanwhile, Julia's research also reveals long-buried secrets in her husband's family. Switching back and forth seems awkward at first but as the story begins to grip the viewer that sense dissipates.
Despite its subject, the film tells its tale with emotional restraint, avoiding sentimentality and letting events speak on their own. The film is unflinching but touching, with moments of great visual beauty, such as when Sarah and another girl joyfully escape through a wheat field. Family secrets are a running theme in both stories, as are moral gray areas, twists of chance and unexpected outcomes.
Credit also must go to the splendid cast. The amazing, bilingual Kristen Scott Thomas serves as the voice of conscience, relentless in her pursuit of truth, but mirroring human feelings as startling facts are uncovered. Young Melusine Mayance is engaging as young Sarah, a child whose charm touches all around her.
Unlike the book, we follow Sarah's story to adulthood, with Charlotte Poutrel playing the grown Sarah with appeal. Niels Arestrup and Dominique Frot are excellent as a French couple who help little Sarah, as is Aiden Quinn in a small but pivotal role.
Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner, who co-wrote the screenplay, was drawn to this novel in part by family history. His grandfather, a Jewish German living in France, was exposed by French and perished in a camp.
This moving historic drama is a worthy film, one of two on the topic screening here. “Sarah's Key,” in French and English, with subtitles, opens Friday, July 29, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
THE ROUND UP by Cate Marquis
'The Roundup' ('La Rafle') is meticulously-researched historical drama on 1942 French roundup of Jews
When the French government quickly surrendered to the invading Nazi German army, many French people were outraged. But other Frenchmen, the fascists, rejoiced and joined the Nazis in their evil plans.
The divided nature of the French response to the Nazis is one of the historic facts highlighted in the meticulously-researched historical drama “La Rafle” (“The Round Up”). This well-acted, well-made French film explores the events of the 1942 La Rafle du Velodrome d'Hiv, also known as the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, when French police rounded up French Jewish families in Paris.
The film is being offered as a bonus presentation of the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. “La Rafle,” in French, German and Yiddish, with English subtitles, will be shown on August 4 at 7 p.m. at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
“La Rafle” was extensively researched by Roselyn Bosch, who both directed and wrote the film, and her staff. As the film notes in its opening credits, everything in the film is true. In fact, it opens with black-and-white archival footage of Hitler touring the sights of Paris, before it shifts to color for the dramatized film.
The film begins shortly after the Nazi invasion but before the round-up and depicts the weeks after the round-up. It focuses on individual stories of a handful of children, their families and key individuals.
It depicts French government officials as they devise a plan to conform to the Nazis' directive to round-up and deport 24,000 Parisian Jews. To avoid further outraging the French people by deporting native-born French Jews, these officials devise a devil's bargain, to round up Jewish immigrants, even with French-born children. To increase the numbers detained, French police were told to round-up whole families, not just the men, and hold them in the Velodrome d'Hiv, or Winter Velodrome, an indoor bicycle track and stadium in Paris.
Eleven-year-old Jo Weismann (Hugo Leverdez), his friend Simon Zygler (Oliver Cywie) and friend's little brother Nono (played by twins Mathieu and Romain Di Concerto) shrug off the silly yellow stars and new rules for where they cannot go. Most of their French schoolmates, teachers and neighbors reassure them the Nazi-mandated rules mean nothing but other neighbors embrace the Nazi's hatred.
Melanie Laurent plays Annette Monod, a Christian nurse. After the round-up, she is assigned to assist Dr. David Sheinbaum (Jean Reno), the lone doctor helping the families who are warehoused in the Velodrome d'Hiv. They struggle to save lives in the crowded facility despite the summer heat, lack of food and water, and failing sanitation.
The thorough research means this film's damning retelling of the French government's complicity in what happened to the Jews in Paris is both unassailable and horrifying. However, the completeness of the historical details also at times bogs down the dramatic arc of the film, when the personal stories are put on hold periodically for exposition, detailing the actions of the French officials, Nazi leaders and lack of response by international organizations.
The film is well-acted and presented with polished production values. There are scenes in familiar, pretty Paris locations like Montmartre and often the bright, colorful look of these early scenes, as the children play in Parisian streets, seem incongruous or maybe ironic is a better way to see it.
The film gives us a chilling glimpse of Hitler (Udo Schenk) relaxing with Eva Braun (Franziska Schubert) at his mountain top villa and parties while coolly conferring with Himmler (Thomas Darching) or issuing instructions to his underlings for the destruction of French Jews.
Laurent, Reno and the child actors turn in moving performances, bring this gripping slice of history to life. Raphaelle Agogue plays Jo's sassy mother Sura Weismann and French Morrocan comedian Gad Elmaleh takes on a dramatic role as his upbeat, inspiring father Schmuel, a Polish-born communist, a role he handles with considerable charisma. Other actors in numerous smaller roles, all based on real people, are strong as well.
Turning the collected real stories into a coherent dramatic film is no small feat, and writer/director Bosch has to be given credit for packing in so many facts and personal stories. However, there are times when the plethora of information overwhelms the film's dramatic arc a bit at times, making one wonder if it might have worked better as documentary. Still, this is powerful stuff.
Overall, director Bosch and this excellent cast do well turning dry facts into heart-breaking drama. “La Rafle” is compelling as a lesson in overlooked history, often moving as drama and not a story one will soon forget.
http://www.moviemarqueebycatemarquis.com/MovieMarqueeByCateMarquis.php#la_rafle_film
© Cate Marquis. Read more of Cate's reviews at www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN by Cate Marquis
'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' is pretty, sweet, sentimental but shallow
“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” tells parallel stories of two women friends, one pair in modern China and the other pair in 19th century China. Inspired by Lisa See's bestselling novel of the same name, the film has lush period costumes, an attractive cast and a romantic beauty. The film is pretty, sentimental and sweet but does not hold together very well dramatically.
“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” in English and Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles, opens Friday, July 22, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
The director is Wayne Wang, who also directed the equally pretty “Snow Falling On Cedars.” Reportedly, this Fox Searchlight film is a special project of Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch's much younger Chinese-born third wife, Wendi Murdoch. Wendi recently gained some notoriety when she lunged at a British comedian trying to throw a shaving cream pie in the face of her husband as he testified before Britain's Parliament.
The film varies considerably from the novel. The novel begins with an aged Lily in the early twentieth century remembering her own female friendship, her laotong. The movie starts with a modern-day pair reflect that historic story, which is now a novel written by one of the women, inspired by one of her own ancestors.
A laotong was a traditional lifelong friendship between two women. Girls were joined in a ceremony, like a marriage, but it was made for emotional support, something husbands did not offer Chinese women in arranged marriages in the male-dominated, misogynist society of 19th century China. Unlike marriage, this was a relationship of choice. Laotongs shared each other's deepest thoughts and communicated using a secret, women-only written language, nu shu. In this story, messages were written on the folds of white silk fans, sent back and forth between them.
In the film, we follow two pairs of women friends, one set in the 19th century and one contemporary. In both cases, one girl comes from a poor family while the other is affluent. As adults, their fortunes are reversed.
In the historic story, Lily (Li Bing Bing) and Snow Flower (Gianna Jun) are bound as laotongs shortly after their feet are bound. Their foot binding takes place on the same day and they are born under the same sign but their social status is very different. Snow Flower's family is high-born and wealthy, while Lily's family is poor. But Lily's perfect bound feet makes her eligible for an advantageous marriage.
The contemporary women, Nina (also played by Li Bing Bing) and Sophia (Gianna Yun), also meet as girls, when poor girl Nina is hired to tutor the affluent, Korean-born Sophia in Mandarin. Sophia lives with her father and difficult stepmother in posh surroundings, while good student Nina lives in a cramped, rundown apartment with her poor but loving parents (Shi Ping Cao and Ruija Zhang). An aunt (Vivian Wu) introduces the girls to the old idea of a laotong.
As both pairs of women grow up, we follow their diverging lives. After teasing us with tidbits of the historic roles of women, the film settles on a more standard melodrama. Much of the feminist aspect of the book is shunted off to aside story about a female artist, leaving a central tale that is shallow and overly simple. There seems to be a studious effort to keep things on the surface, then generate an illusion of emotional depth with swelling music and tearful close-ups.
The acting is fine although the shallow story gives little to work with. Both lead actresses do well with what roles they have, trying to create a connection between the women. Hugh Jackman has a nice little cameo as Sophia's Australian boyfriend and Hu Qing Yun is fabulous as the angry, manipulative stepmother Mrs. Liao.
Locations, sets and costumes are wonderful, in both the modern and historic story lines, which is the film's greatest strength. Besides the lovely scenes in old China, there are telling shots of modern Shanghai, where old neighborhoods are reduced to rumble beneath soaring skyscrapers. The posh modern offices where successful business woman Lily works speak of China's rising prosperity.
In the end, the cast's efforts and the film's visual beauty are not enough to rescue it from its too-thin script and penchant for melodramatic simplicity.
The bottom line: “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” is pretty, sweet, sentimental but shallow, exchanging the book's exploration of women's place in 19th century China for a modern melodrama.
© Cate Marquis. Read more reviews at Movie Marquee By Cate Marquis (www.marqueebymarquis.com)
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” film review by Cate Marquis
'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2' delivers winning finish for series
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” delivers a winning finish for the wildly popular series.
While “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” worked out the personal issues between the three friends Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), HP7 Part 2 refocuses on the main battle between good and evil. There as hardly a pause in the high-energy, gripping wizardly battles pile up. It all culminates in a showdown between Harry and the evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes).
Growing up from boy wizard to worthy opponent facing down forces of evil, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, supported by loyal pals Emma Watson as Hermione Granger and Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley have aged with the characters from J.K. Rowling's bestselling books. Well, a little ahead of them, but close enough to keep the ever darker-fantasy story convincing for fans.
The eighth and final film is more action-heavy with plenty of magic, which looks splendid in 3D. It ties up lose ends and resolves lingering mysteries, in a way faithful to the book. An epilogue brings us the characters twenty years on, a nice touch that helps bring everything together.
It is not just action, the film delivers on the emotional level too. This last installment is rated PG-13 for its higher level of violence, meaning it might be a bit strong for younger audiences. However, its is must-see for fans of the series films. The film assumes audience members are up to speed on the story, but few are likely to see this without having seen some of the franchise.
In wrapping up, major characters from earlier films in the series return, sometimes in flashbacks, along with a dazzling array of other lesser characters. It gives us a parting glimpse of the impressive, mostly British supporting cast that the series accumulated over the years. Besides Fiennes, Michael Gambon as Hogwarts' headmaster Dumbledore and Gary Oldman as Harry's ally Sirius Black reappear in brief parts. Other featured stars return, like Helena Bonham Carter as the weird Bellatrix Lestrange, Alan Rickman as the ever-shifting Snape and Robbie Coltrane as beloved half-giant Hagrid. This sterling cast also includes Jason Isaacs, Maggie Smith, Warwick Davis, Ciarán Hinds, John Hurt, David Thewlis, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent and many others. All in all, it is a virtual who's who of great actors over its run.
Not surprisingly, the acting is surperb, driving the film's energy as much as the spectacular visual effects and the climax of the storyline. Alan Rickman has a featured role as Snape, allowing him to show off more of his remarkable acting range. The younger actors, such as Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), also rise to the moment.
The final film was directed by David Yates, who directed HP7, Part 1 and several other films in the series. The series' films have had a string of directors, including some impressive names. The changing directors actually may have helped keep the series fresh and appealing to a mix of audiences, although some of the film were better than others.
Breaking the final, longest book into two parts turned out to be the right decision, as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” has plenty of story to fill its entire running time. In fact, the popular series ends on a high note, with the last Harry Potter movie one of the best in the series.
© Cate Marquis. Read more of Cate' reviews at Marquee By Marquis (www.marqueebymarquis.com)
A BETTER LIFE by Cate Marquis
'A Better Life' is goal of immigrant father for teen son
“A Better Life” revisits one of Hollywood's oldest themes, the worthy immigrant struggling for a better life in America, but with a modern twist. Now the hope for the better life is less for the immigrant himself than for his son.
Carlos Galinda (Mexican star Demian Bichir) was dreaming of a better future for himself and his pregnant wife when they crossed the border from Mexico into America. With his son Luis (Jose Julian, making his feature film debut) now fifteen and his wife gone, Carlos is still struggling to make a living and give his son a better life. The father and son live in a tiny, rundown home and make do with little as the father toils long hours as an assistant to a gardener. With his son tempted by gang life in their working class neighborhood, he is tempted by an opportunity to have his own yard service. Yet things unexpectedly go wrong, leading the father and son on a search.
The acting is powerful and moving but the story is familiar. The worthy immigrant struggling in the new country is one of Hollywood's oldest themes, going back to Chaplin's “The Immigrant” and “The Jazz Singer.” Then as now, waves of immigration were transforming the nation. But in those earlier immigrant tales, the focus was the struggle between immigrant and the American-born offspring. That is part of this tale but it is transformed by adding the issue of illegal immigration.
But it is the acting that lifts this film. Actor Demian Bichir, who is a big star in his native Mexico although he is less known here, delivers a sharp and affecting performance as the stoic, devoted father Carlos. The chemistry between the two actors playing father and son is the right mix of affection and conflict, with the generational divide complicated by the cultural divide. Young Jose Julian as Luis holds his own against the more experienced actor, showing some on-screen charisma.
Carlos and Luis both speak English, although Luis' greater facility casts him as translator with the English speakers and Carlos' native tongue has him doing the same for his son in the world of newer migrants. Each brings a knowledge of their own worlds that makes them a team and strengthens the bond already between them.
Another of the film's strengths are the realistic sets and locations, enhanced by some fine photography. The cramped, shabby house where the father and son live very convincing. A scene where they visit a Mexican rodeo and fair, hoping to locate a man for whom they are searching, is a visually charming way to highlight the culture and values.
“A Better Life” clearly has a message, aiming to humanize the illegal immigrants living in the shadows of American cities. The problem is that the film's characters are so noble and flawless, that the film strays into stereotype and melodrama. The stoic, strong father is ever the worthy underdog and even the somewhat rebellious American-born son, with one foot on the path to gang membership, is a bit too perfect. The film's intentions may be well-meaning but its heavy-handed execution is unlikely to change many minds.
Still, “A Better Life” is a sweet, touching morality play, enhanced by fine acting and a nice touch of visual realism. However, those interested in seeing a more real-world, less-idealized immigrant story might want to check out the harrowing, moving “Sin Numbre” (“Without A Name”), although reading subtitles is required. “A Better Life” is sentimental and predictable, although it is lifted by fine acting and photography.
© Cate Marquis. Read more of Cate's movie and theater reviews at www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
Le Quarttro Volte film review by Cate Marquis
'Le Quarttro Volte' is wordless mediation on life set in Italian village
“Le Quarttro Volte” is beautifully photographed, nearly wordless mediation on life, set in a small traditional Italian village. Inspired by the Pythagorean idea of a four-fold transmigration of the soul, from human to animal to vegetable to mineral, director Michelangelo Frammartino crafted a contemplative film in four parts.
In the film, these aspects are represented by a elderly shepherd, a new-born goat, a stately pine tree and the charcoal produced by a small old-fashioned charcoal factory.
Although “Le Quarttro Volte” looks like a documentary, it is not. Actor Giuseppe Fuda plays an old shepherd, the film's major human character. The old shepherd lives alone at the edge of the village, in old stone house with his sheep dog and his goats.
The film moves full circle, starting and ending with the charcoal pits, and reversing cinematic expectations by starting with the human story and ending with the inanimate mineral. Each life - human, animal, plant and mineral - are given equal footing as characters. The theme is birth and dead in an endless cycle, little changed by the centuries.
Image is all in “Le Quattro Volte.” Snatches of dialog are just incidental, ambient sounds with no more need of translation than the barking of the dog.
Every day, the old shepherd follows the same routine, taking his flock to pasture and back. In the mornings, he delivers goat's milk to villagers and picks up a folk remedy for his cough at the church. The film's second cycle begins with the birth of a goat and follows the kid's growth and struggles to cope with its world. The third life is a large, stately fir tree, on a mountain side near the pasture. The tree passes through the seasons until the villagers cut it down for use in an ancient festival. After the festival, the tree goes to the charcoal makers, who use age-old techniques to convert the plant material to mineral matter - charcoal.
The photography is stunning in its beauty, and a major reason to see this film. The pacing is stately, embracing the rhythms of the natural world, and what action takes place sometimes occurs suddenly, with the unsentimental force of nature itself.
Milan-born director Frammartino studied architecture, which shows in the choice of shots and their composition. The film lovingly examines all of its physical space - the uneven, cobbled streets of the medieval village, the pastures and paths the flocks travel, the towering tree on its mountain side, and even the curling smoke of the charcoal makers.
Filmed in Calabria, an area of Southern Italy, the film presents both its little-changed landscape and some of its ancient traditions. The region was both the home to the Pythagorean school that inspired the filmmaker and where his family originated.
While the film is a contemplation on the seasons of life, it is not without dashes of humor, thanks to the shepherd's dog and the young goats.
Those with a love of beautiful photography, who are content with a languid pace with no need of plot, will embrace this gallery-like film. The beauty of the images and the contemplative, philosophical nature of this pseudo-documentary film makes it as much an art work as a film. The experience is certainly relaxing although this is hardly a life-changing work.
© Cate Marquis. Read more of Cate's movie and theater reviews at www.MarqueeByMarquis.com
CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH by Cate Marquis
A scene from CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH. Photo courtesy of Kino International
'City Of Life And Death' sears with first-rate telling of infamous history of Japanese in Nanjing, China
“City of Life and Death” is a near-perfect, searing Chinese war movie about the infamous Japanese occupation of Nanjing pre-World War II. In English, Chinese and Japanese and with stunning wide-screen black and white cinematography that evokes archival war footage, it is both a striking historic epic and more personal testament to the horrors of war. “City of Life and Death” is as good a war film as any ever made.
The film depicts the infamous events known as “The Rape of Nanjing,” when the Imperial Japanese army conquered the Chinese Republic's then-capital city. The Japanese killed perhaps 300,000, soldiers and civilians, and committed atrocities including gang rapes, all in six weeks. It was one of the most shocking incidents of the war and a searing memory still for the Chinese.
While the film has powerful battle action, it also gives a personal view of events through the eyes of a handful of individuals, on both sides.
On the Japanese side, events are seen through the eyes of a homesick young soldier, Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), troubled by all he sees. His story includes his brutal commander Ida (Ryu Kohata) and a young Japanese “comfort woman” named Yuriko (Yuko Miyamoto).
The Chinese story has several threads. One centers on a brave young soldier Lu Jianxiong (Liu Ye), who leads a band of resisters, including more fearful Shunzi (Yisui Zhao) and child soldier Xiaodouzi (Bin Liu). Another thread focuses on the Chinese civilians working with the international community in Nanjing. They include Christian teacher Miss Jiang (Yuanyuan Gao) and Mr. Tang (Fan Wei), secretary to Nazi Party representative John Rabe (John Paisley).
Impressive acting from the appealing cast makes this drama as moving and riveting as it is horrifying and soul-gripping. There are unforgettable, touching human moments amid this anguish. These individual stories are interwoven but, unlike the hues on screen, nothing is black and white in this dangerous, ever-shifting world.
Director Lu Chuan did extension historical research, drawing on diaries and correspondence of eyewitnesses and interviews with survivors, on both the Chinese and Japanese sides. The events took place in 1937, before the Nazi invasion of Poland, but foreshadow the genocide and inhumanity of the worldwide war to come.
Director of Photography Cao Yu' sharp black-and-white photography gives the look of archival footage. Wide-screen images add gravitas and the epic scope needed for this subject. Extensive use of hand-held cameras gives footage a documentary feel.
The film is both epic and human in scale, contrasting convincing battle action and sweeping vistas. The director employed 30,000 extras, which made for remarkable action sequences, but there are also intimate moments of human emotion and anguish. In one scene, Japanese soldiers rush into a half-bombed church expecting to confront the Chinese army but find it packed with frightened civilians, mostly women and children.
Locations were carefully chosen to recreate the per-Communists capital. Historical recreations with top-notch production values give the film the look of reality. One can feel the cold the characters endure in every frame of the chillingly desolate landscape.
Watching this film will make clear why so many Chinese hate the Japanese but the director wisely chose to balance the human perspective of events. Presenting the horrific events through human eyes on both sides underlines the toxic nature of war itself. Like those other great WWII films, “Iwo Jima” and “Schindler's List,” this drama captures the wartime unraveling of human values and the release of inhuman evil. But ultimately, “City of Life and Death” stands on its own as a masterpiece of cinema.
“City of Life and Death,” in English, Chinese and Japanese with subtitles, opened July 8 at the Tivoli Theater.
Grade: A
TROLLHUNTER by Cate Marquis
'Trollhunter' is spectacular, scary and funny spoof of horror movies
“Trollhunter” begins with a disclaimer that “everything in this film really happened.” This bombastic statement is followed by video footage by student filmmakers stalking what they believe is a poacher hunting down an enormous bear. In fact, the faux documentary “Trollhunter” is a delicious, relentless parody of horror films like “Blair Witch Project.” If that kind of “this really happened!!” horror film, with its hand-held video and breathless commentary, makes you roll your eyes, then prepare for a treat.
Entertaining and spectacular, “Trollhunter” is by turns hilarious and genuinely terrifying. Shot in a wild, beautiful Scandinavian landscape, the film is visually impressive as well, with nice special effects. It opened Friday, July 1, at the Tivoli Theater.
“Trollhunter” has one aspect that may deter a few horror/comedy fans: you have to read subtitles. This fabulous horror film/parody is from Norway. But fortunately, not much dialog is needed to get the point across in this action-heavy horror delight.
The film starts out like any zombie/vampire/monster movie, with reasonable people denying such things exist. The government says bears are behind a series of disturbing incidents in the mountains and forests of Norway. For their film school project, three students, Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) and Johanna (Johanna Morck) decide to track a hunter (Otto Jespersen) who they believe is illegally hunting a giant bear. The elusive hunter, who has an odd, armored trailer and beat-up four wheel drive truck, tries to chase the students off. Unlike the licensed hunters, who accuse him of rule-breaking, he seems to only hunt at night. When they catch a glimpse of his real prey, he lets them in on some secrets. The film goes much further down this dryly funny path, with its unlikely Van Helsing trying to control the mythic monsters and chase them back to their remote wildernesses.
While “Trollhunter” spoofs video-footage horror films, it is also truly scary. It embraces the horror potential in Norse fairy tales while slyly mocking government secrecy that places preventing panic above preventing deaths. The trolls become a metaphor for hidden dangers and the hazards of secrecy and cover-ups.
Some of the comedy plays with the myths. One comic line has the troll hunter asking if any of the students is Christian because trolls can smell the blood of Christians. It is less clear how they react if you are Muslim. The dead-pan humor is typical and the straight-faced actors carry it all off well.
The monster hunt is set against some stunning Scandinavian scenery, of breath-taking fjords, looming mountains and wild, deep northern woods. The locales get wilder and eerier as the film unfolds, which adds to the unsettling tone, which mounts as we encounter an array of beings from Nordic mythology. The dialog is funny but the effects are spectacular and scary.
“Trollhunter” is a tongue-in-cheek delight of absurdity and really scary stuff too. With wonderful visuals and impressive effects, it is well worth reading subtitles for fans of the off-beat and scary.
Bottomline: One of the year's most entertaining films for those with a taste of dry humor and horror. Entertaining, inventive “Trollhunter” mixes biting humor and real terror against stunning Scandinavian landscape. Well worth reading subtitles.
© Cate Marquis
MONTE CARLO by Cate Marquis
Grace (Selena Gomez, left), Meg (Leighton Meester, center) and Emma (Katie Cassidy) live like royalty during their very special vacation. (photo by Larry Horricks)
'Monte Carlo' is little summer escape just for pre-teen girls
While the boys (and those embracing their inner teen boy) are off at “Transformers 3,” teen girls get their own movie summer daydream in “Monte Carlo.”
“Monte Carlo” is light, its pretty and there's not much to surprise. On the other hand, it has some good is harmless and has moments of charm, including a dreamy scene featuring the great Louis Armstrong singing a lovely “La Vie En Rose.” Reality is not part of the movie's premise but we do get some lovely, romantic locales in this mini-travelogue, a kind of Cinderella with a dash of 1950s romantic fantasies like “Roman Holiday.”
Ordinary Texas teen Grace (Selena Gomez, star of Disney's “Wizards of Waverly Place”) has saved up for a post-high school graduation trip to Paris, along with her best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy, former Abercombie and Fitch model and daughter of '70s pop star David Cassidy). Emma, a fun-loving high school drop-out, is also Grace's co-worker at the town cafe where they waitress. But Grace's mother (Andie MacDowell) and step-father (Brett Cullen) are a bit worried about sending Grace off with impulsive Emma as her adult supervision. They insist Grace take along her more responsible step-sister, ultra-serious college student Megan (“Gossip Girl's” Leighton Meester).
Once in Paris, the tour turns out to less than thrilling, with rushing from sight to sight and a dingy hotel. Accidentally separated from the group, chance brings the girls to posh hotel, where ordinary-girl Grace is mistaken for spoiled British rich girl Cordelia Winthrop Scott (also Gomez). The mistaken identity results in a series of unlikely events and the three jetting off to Monte Carlo to stay in a posh hotel, wearing fabulous clothes and attending fancy charity events, while the real rich girl sneaks off a beach on Majorca. Can romance be far behind?
There is not much reality to intrude in this wish-fulfillment fantasy but the locales are lovely, although Paris gets a bit of short-shrift in the rush to Monte Carlo. Using three very different kinds of girls, fulfilling their own kinds of romantic daydreams, lets it appeal to wider range of girls. The young cast also likely will appeal to the movie's target audience of pre-teen to young teen girls.
Performances are surprisingly likable and no one overacts, which keeps the film pleasant. Gomez is the expected sweet girl as Grace but gets to play really nasty as Cordelia, which is a bit of fun. While the story starts out with a deception, the girls step up to take responsibility in the end and a nice charitable theme underneath is a pleasant moral plus.
Formulaic but harmless “Monte Carlo” is best suited for its target audience but pre-teen and teen girls deserve a relaxing escapist day at the movies too. If you are a grown-up, you can skip this but younger girls may be charmed and parents can feel safe with the film's underlying moral message.
Bottomline: For pre-teen girls, “Monte Carlo” offers harmless if predictable romantic travelogue with moments of charm and likeable young stars. There is nothing to worry parents but not much here to interest grown-ups.
BEGINNERS by Cate Marquis
Mills’ BEGINNERS, a Focus Features release. Photo credit: Focus Features.
'Beginners' cleverly combines whimsy, wistfulness in touching tale of human heart
Remarkable acting and fresh, playful, imaginative storytelling suffuse “Beginners,” director Mike Mills' partially autobiographical film. Ewan MacGregor plays Oliver, a solitary man with commitment issues who is struggling to come to grips with the recent death of his father. Into his life comes a lively Jewish French woman, played by Melanie Laurent, who changes his view of life's possibilities.
“Beginners” opens Friday, June 24, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema. Despite its youth-market ad campaign, this heartfelt charmer is a movie for grown-ups. It is proof that the words “intelligent” and “romantic” can go together in film. Whimsy and melancholy alternate but there is a sense of hopefulness in this warm, enjoyable film.
Following his father's death from cancer, Oliver (MacGregor) lives a quiet existence, working as an illustrator. Living in a nearly-bare apartment, he mostly keeps company with his father's dog. He and the dog have long talks as he processes his feelings about life and relationships.
It is not just his father's recent death that Oliver is coping with. An only child, Oliver was close to both his artistic parents, Georgia (Mary Page Keller) and Hal (Christopher Plummer), but the emotional distance between them gave him a pessimistic view of love. Five years earlier, immediately after his mother's death, Oliver's father shocks his straight son by announcing he is gay. The father then joyfully embraced an openly gay life that eventually included lover Andy (Goran Visnjic).
While Oliver is still processing all that, his solitary life is upended by a surprise, in the form of a playful, unconventional Anna (Laurent). An actress, Anna is unpredictable, fun and creative but she has her own issues with parental secrets. In post WWII France, her Jewish parents hid their true identities, traumatized by their families' loses in the Holocaust. When they finally reveal their Jewish identity to neighbors, 13-year-old Anna experiences anti-Semitism for the first time.
The story is warm and heartfelt. Despite sad aspects, the story overall is a sort of hopeful adventure. It is an exploration in the land of human nature and relationships, as Oliver and Anna embark on their romantic journey.
Director Mills finds a fresh and charming visual way to recap emotional histories, creating flashbacks using family snapshots, archival photos, pop culture images and whimsical narration to recall the past and frame the present. The overall effect is a film that is just fun to watch.
What really wins one over is the excellent acting, creating complex human characters we care about. The acting is all superb. The romantic chemistry between Laurent and MacGregor is palpable, giving extra appeal. The beautiful Laurent seems to suddenly pop up everywhere following her starring role as Shosanna Dreyfus in “Inglourious Basterds.” Her Anna is charming, playful and touching, both an emotional opposite and kindred spirit to sad Oliver.
MacGregor has the most challenging role, but turns in an amazingly complex performance. The straight son has to find a way to come to terms with his father's new life, displaying compassion and warmth as he dutifully cares for his dying father. Plummer offers a striking performance as the father, delighted with the freedom social changes have given his to explore his long-buried feelings and peppering his somewhat dazed son with phone calls announcing his romantic progress.
Reversing the convention of parents' accepting challenging news from their children gives rise to comedy. Exploring the new world of modern gay life, Oliver's father Hal is like a teenager, casting his son in the role of worried parent. Paradoxically, the cancer diagnosis only increases Hal's wish to live life to the fullest.
The film offers parallel love stories - their parents' lives in the socially restrictive '50s when Oliver's mother set aside her Jewish identity as his father set aside his gay identity, Hal's explorations of new freedoms and the tentative contemporary romance of Oliver and Anna, both haunted by their parents secrets. It explores how lives are shaped by their era and views shaped by emotional history.
Although the story is specific, it is also universal, packed with moments with parents every grown child will recognize and truths about love in all forms. This enjoyable film is packed with charm, making it is one of the year's best films so far.
Anyone who enjoys a clever, intelligent human story should love this excellent film. “Beginners” is one of the year's best drama so far.
© Cate Marquis
BRIDE FLIGHT by Cate Marquis
Marjorie (Elise Schaap) poses in her wedding dress, while budding fashion designer Esther (Anna Drijver), who customized it mid-flight, looks on in pink and white polka-dot dress, in a scene from BRIDE FLIGHT. Photo: Music Box Films. © Music Box Films
'Bride Flight' takes nostalgic trip back for crowd-pleasing romance
Four attractive young people embark on a flight from post-WWII Holland to start anew half way around the world in the historic romantic drama “Bride Flight.” Three women and a man board a plane headed for New Zealand, a plane trying to set a new speed record. The KLM Airlines flight has been dubbed “the bride flight” for its passenger list, which is heavy with young Dutch women escaping war-ravaged Europe to meet fiances or husbands who have emigrated already to New Zealand.
The film features an appealing cast, lush scenery and a romantic tale against a historic backdrop. This Dutch film won several audience favorite awards at several film festivals. “Bride Flight,” in English and Dutch with English subtitles, opens Friday, June 24, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Esther (Anna Drijver), Marjorie (Elise Schaap) and Ada (Karina Smulders) meet Frank (Waldemar Torenstra) on the flight and form a life-long bond. They are all on their way to pursue their dreams in a new land. Ambitious, gifted and beautiful Esther, a Holocaust survivor who lost all her family, is meeting her fiance in New Zealand but really dreams of starting her own fashion design company. Marjorie plans a big family and is thrilled when skillful Esther quickly improves her wedding gown mid-flight. Outgoing and handsome, Frank strikes up a friendship with all three women but is especially drawn to beautiful, shy blonde farm girl Ada. With an agricultural degree from college, Frank has big ambitions for his newly-acquired farmland.
Although the new friends go their separate ways shortly after arriving, their lives continue to intersect. Charismatic Frank becomes the link that keeps them connected throughout their lives.
Appropriate to its 1946 setting, “Bride Flight” is like an old-fashioned Hollywood woman's picture of that era - polished, pretty and romantic - but with a dash of epic, thanks to its long time frame and lush location. The film is not all girly, as its pretty female cast and some steamy love scenes offer appeal for the guys as well. The attractive cast and gorgeous New Zealand landscape are spotlighted by lovely cinematography by Piotr Kukla. That visual attractiveness, plus some appealing performances, go a long way in selling this melodramatic tale.
There is some real history underpinning this tale. Although the film's flight takes place in 1946, it was inspired by the real 1953 “Last Great Air Race” from London to Christchurch. The race was won by a Dutch KLM airliner carrying 40 immigrants to New Zealand. They were part of a big wave of immigration, and journalists aboard the flight followed the progress of the immigrants over the years. Their stories contributed to portions of this film, with many details of their real lives woven into the tale.
Esther, Marjorie and Ada all confront surprises upon landing. Flamboyant Esther arrives in stylish attire but is met by criticism from her fiance, who finds her dress too immodest to meet the rabbi. Having re-discovered his Jewish faith, her fiance now wants Esther to embrace traditional gender roles, including staying home with the many children he hopes to raise. Marjorie finds her once-elegant husband-to-be working as a laborer and the expected luxurious lifestyle nowhere in sight. Ada faces an unexpectedly stern husband-to-be, who puts the comfort of this pastor ahead of her, and long, hard trip to a remote area.
The lush natural beauty of New Zealand is a perfect setting for this sweeping romance. The story is told in flashback, as the now-aging Esther (Willeke van Ammelrooy), Marjorie (Petra Laseur) and Ada (Pleuni Touw) gather for the funeral of Frank (Rutger Hauer). Frank had become a successful winery owner but all of the group had improved their financial situation over the years. The long time-line, historic setting and sweeping vistas seem aimed to give the film an epic feel but, at heart, it is still a romance, packed with secrets, jealousies, betrayals and forbidden love.
Director Ben Sombogaart's devise of jumping back and forth in time may be the film's major shortcoming. Periodically returning to the older friends in the present adds little to the characters and mostly detracts from the more interesting historic tale.
Despite its melodramatic leanings, “Bride Flight” is a sometimes-steamy crowd-pleaser. It is a chick flick deluxe, with buxom beauties, fiery passions and lush scenery. All one needs like a glass of chilled white wine to complete the experience. For those who love romance and scenery, it is just the ticket for a girls' night out.
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop film review by Cate Marquis
'Conan O'Brien Can't Stop' thinking about getting his own TV show again
“Conan O'Brien Can't Stop” follows the former talk show host on a live tour as O'Brien comes to grips with the events at NBC that gave him the coveted Tonight Show gig and then didn't. The comedy and musical tour seems to be geared towards giving the comedian something to do while he waits out the agreement that resolved his exit from NBC.
This documentary of the tour sees aimed towards keeping O'Brien in the public eye. To the outsider, it does appear O'Brien was mistreated in the Tonight Show fiasco and is the wronged party. Briefly, O'Brien's agreement with NBC had him taking over the prestigious Tonight Show from Jay Leno after five years but when the deadline arrived, both NBC and Leno appeared reluctant to follow through, leading to a shuffling of shows, public acrimony and a messy departure.
However, with O'Brien still under a gag order, as part of a settlement for an undisclosed amount, one might wonder what this documentary has to say about Jay Leno, NBC executives and the events that led to O'Brien leaving the Tonight Show. The answer is very little.
O'Brien does talk about his feelings of anger and frustration about what happened but the documentary just assumes the audience knows what that was. There is no recap of events except in the barest of fashions.
The documentary is mostly a back-stage glimpse of the tour and its star. There is very little of the show itself. We do see O'Brien preparing for the show, working out comedy bits, talking about guests and playing his guitar and singing. Perhaps the most surprising part is O'Brien's skill as a musician, although we learn little of the back story on that either. The comedian's parody lyrics to the Willie Nelson standard “On The Road Again,” in which he sings about wanting his own show again is hilarious.
It is a fly-on-the-wall kind of documentary, although a little more of the show would have broken up the continual backstage and tour bus footage.
The documentary offers some insight on his creative process but less on his inner life than one might expect. At times, O'Brien comes across as a sympathetic figure and a warm human being. At others, he seems a bit of a tyrant or even a whiner.
Overall, “Conan O'Brien Can't Stop” will change few minds about the former talk show host. While it maybe a must-see for die-hard Coco fans, it probably does not offer enough insights to entice most audiences to spend their money. “Conan O'Brien Can't Stop” opened Friday, June 24 at the Tivoli Theater.
BUCK By Cate Marquis
Buck Brannaman as himself in BUCK, directed by Cindy Meehl.
Photo Credit: Cindy Meehl
A Sundance Selects Release
'Buck' reveals real horse whisperer's surprising story
The documentary “Buck” spotlights Buck Brannaman, a lanky horse trainer with a pleasant cowboy face and disarming sense of humor, whose gentle but firm methods prove amazingly effective with difficult horses. Buck says he “helps horses with their people problems” and his rapport with horses is impressive. But his personal story of overcoming an abusive childhood is what makes this film so compelling and not just for those who love horses.
This fascinating, moving documentary won this year's Sundance's Audience Choice Award for documentary film. Buck was also featured at the True/False documentary film festival in Columbia, MO.
Calling Buck a real horse whisperer is probably unavoidable, although as one friend points out “I've never seen him whisper to a horse.” In fact, Buck did serve as a technical adviser on the movie “Horse Whisperer,” and director Robert Redford admits the character was partially modeled on him.
However, Buck likens what he does to “dancing” with horses. There is a poetic beauty to how he and horse meld after even a few minutes in the saddle. The film uses a mix of footage of Brannaman at work, interviews with him and people that know him, along with archival footage and stills of his early life, to tell its story of this charismatic, inspiring character.
Brannaman travels around the country most of the year, conducting horse clinics and helping break young horses to the saddle. The former cowboy and rodeo rider uses his knowledge of horse psychology and empathy, rather than punishment, to gain a horse's trust and persuade it to comply. His methods are a sharp departure from earlier, harsher methods of training, as the film makes clear.
“Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see. Sometimes, you will,” Buck says during one of his four-day horse clinics.
Watching Buck work is both entertaining and educational. He is a natural-born storyteller. Conducting his clinics from horseback, Buck peppers his talk with humor and down-to-earth insights on life, and horses, while simultaneously working his magic on a particular animal. Impressive hardly covers it.
Yet what really makes this documentary compelling is Buck's personal story, growing up as an abused child who was a child star on the rodeo circuit. Decked out in cute cowboy costumes, Buck and his older brother performed blindfolded rope tricks, under the close supervision of their controlling father. Stories about child stars are often rife with trauma and this one is bad. Away from the audience, their father was an abusive drunk, whose beatings took on a new savagery after the boys' kind-hearted mother died. Buck's tales of his terrifying childhood, coupled with footage of the two little boys on early TV shows, are searing.
A coach at school noticed the welts on Buck's back and brought in the authorities, who placed the boys in a foster home. Buck credited his foster parents with rescuing him as a human being, and tells of his foster father teaching him to shoe horses and mend fences while teaching him about life and people.
It is an uplifting story of a man rising above horrific circumstances, bringing gentleness and understanding out of violence.
The film came about after first-time director Cindy Meehl met Buck at one of his clinics. Meehl does a marvelous job of taking us inside this fascinating story, and does so with considerable visual style. There is a sequence with Buck riding a horse, in a lushly green pasture with mountains on the horizon, that is suddenly transformed, as he, with no apparent effort, coaxes the horse into a side-stepping canter. It really does look like they are dancing and the shot is sigh-inducing in its loveliness. Meehl employs this keen eye for the perfect shot, with both visual beauty and meaning, through the film.
The film gives us Buck at work but also glimpses of his personal life. We meet his patient wife, the youngest daughter who sometimes works with him and his foster mother, who played such a critical role in his life. However, we never meet his other daughters or his brother, leaving a few questions lingering.
While there is plenty of footage of Buck doing amazing things with difficult horses, it is to the film's credit that we also see a horse beyond reach. Orphaned and brain-damaged at birth, one young stallion has been raised entirely wrong, creating a dangerously violent horse with a disdain for people. Yet Buck does not blames the animal, noting it is people who have failed the horse.
“Buck” is a touching, engrossing film about a remarkable person but also filled with insights and life lessons on both horses and people.
THE ART OF GETTING BY by Cate Marquis
Emma Roberts as Sally and Freddie Highmore as George in THE ART OF GETTING BY. Photo credit: Mark Schafer TM and © 2011 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Not for sale or duplication.
Teen romance 'Art Of Getting By' offers nice acting by Highmore, Roberts but not little indie film originality
Actor Freddie Highmore graduates from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to high school in “The Art of Getting By,” an indie-style film about a fatalistic teen who has perfected the art of squeaking by, until a meeting with beautiful slacker Emma Roberts moves him in a new direction. The film is a sweet if unchallenging coming-of-age romance, with dashes of “Rushmore” and “Juno.”
“The Art of Getting By” deserves kudos for departing from the standard Hollywood teen movie playbook. However, there is nothing much ground-breaking in this little romance, which will likely disappoint those expecting something more art house and challenging like the aforementioned “Juno” or “Rushmore.” One of the most unsettling aspects of the film is its casual teen drinking, frequently even in bars, as if writer/director Gavin Weisen, in his feature film debut, forgot his characters are supposed to be in high school, not college. Although the non-Hollywood setting gives it a boost, a major reason to see this film is Highmore in a more mature role, which he handles with promise.
George (Freddie Highmore) is smart and talented yet by his senior year at a private high school in New York City, he has been determinedly honed the fine art of just getting by. Artistically talented, he spends many class periods doodling yet makes little effort in his art class. Early on, he tips us off to the reason for his fatalism - reading that everyone is born alone and dies alone. After that, he couldn't see the point of making an effort in between.
George's fatalism is seasoned with a dry humor and flashes of insight that keep his teachers trying to motivate him. A small act of kindness, taking the blame for smoking on the school's roof, brings him the attention of Sally (Emma Roberts). Sally slowly brings loner George into her social circle of wealthy slackers.
The boy-meets-girl romantic plot may be familiar but more interesting characters and a different point of view for the story help. The characters' world of privileged New Yorkers with flawed parents may not strike many familiar chords but there is some universal resonance in this modern Holden Caufield. Keeping the tone lighter and a bit focused on the romantic possibilities makes the film more accessible although it is still like many teen angst explorations. In the end, we can guess how this will all work out but the fine performances and believable, appealing characters brings us into George's world.
Basically, “The Art Of Getting By” is a pretty good movie that is more honest than many Hollywood products and a chance for Highmore to show off some potential. The acting elevates what seems a rather derivative script, with nice performances by both Highmore and Emma Roberts. Pretty Roberts looks the part and is good in this film, although one has to wonder at what point producers are going to let the 20-something Roberts graduate high school.
The film has nice performances in supporting roles as well. Rita Wilson plays George's overindulgent mother with feeling, with Sam Robards as his more stern stepfather. Blair Underwood, as the school's principal, is firm with George but refuses to give up on him. Elizabeth Reaser plays Sally’s wild-child mother, a continual embarrassment to her daughter. Michael Angarano plays a rising artist, an alumni of George's high school, who befriends him and plays a pivotal role.
The photography has some visual appeal and the lead actors are certainly attractive but it is hardly a film that has to been seen on a big screen to be appreciated.
“The Art Of Getting By” makes a pleasant date movie, if one enjoys coming-of-age tales or is just curious to check out the more grown-up Highmore. However, “The Art Of Getting By” is far from a must-see film and those expecting to see real art-house fare will be disappointed.
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