TFW - The Free Weekly | Category Archive

Clooney only thing even remotely ‘American’

No Comments 01 September 2010

By Mat DeKinder

This means that those expecting this story of an assassin taking on the proverbial “one last job” to be a slam-bam action movie in the vein of a Jason Bourne outing will be sorely disappointed.
Instead “The American” is a quiet, contemplative character study that in spite of its almost dangerously leisurely pace and metaphors as obvious as a two-by-four to the forehead, it is still a fine film most definitely worthy of your attention.

Dutch director Anton Corbijn (who has spent most of his career making music videos for the likes of U2 and Depeche Mode) boasts a European sensibility and eye for detail, especially when it comes to studying the Italian countryside and beautiful women.

It is very easy to compare “The American” to the Man With No Name movies Sergio Leone made with Clint Eastwood in the 1960s. In case we weren’t able to figure it out on our own, Corbijn drives this point home with a sledgehammer by including a scene that features Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West”.

While both Clooney and Eastwood stand out as flawed, yet powerful and resourceful enigmas (which I suspect is how many Europeans see America) Leone’s spaghetti westerns not only imported Eastwood’s badass-itude but a uniquely American genre to be emulated and turned on its ear.
Corbijn’ aspirations are not nearly that high, and he’s really not all that interested in American cinema. Clooney’s character does ride into town without a name but this movie could just as easily be about a Belgian assassin as an American one.

Fortunately for us, our assassin is George Clooney, a respectable actor who, national affiliation aside, can be just as steely as he is charming, which makes him fascinating to watch even when he’s not doing much.
The plot is simple enough: Inexplicably on the run from Swedish assassins, Clooney hides out in a scenic Italian village where in spite of his best efforts to avoid human contact he winds up befriending a priest (Paolo Bonacelli), which allows for some convenient discussions of morality.
Clooney’s “last job” consists of constructing a rifle for a fetching female assassin named Mathilde (Thelka Reuten). While a few sparks fly between the pair, it is a beautiful prostitute named Clara (Violante Placido) who winds up stealing his heart. I will say this, if Italian hookers are half as attractive as Placido, it would certainly go a long way towards explaining the country’s relaxed attitude towards the world’s oldest profession.

As you would expect, it is Clooney who carries this movie as the guy can convey inner turmoil for days, and it also doesn’t hurt that he’s bulked up to the point that he looks like he could snap a dude’s neck without a second thought.

The ending of “The American” is a tad anticlimactic if not painfully predictable, but it doesn’t detract much from the movie as a whole.

The movie also serves as a good palate cleanser for the end of summer as Hollywood prepares for Oscar season. At the very least it is the perfect movie for anyone who has always wanted to see a foreign film but hates to read subtitles. Who says there’s not a movie out there for everybody?

Film Review

‘Switch’ Like Driving Behind A Lawnmower

No Comments 26 August 2010

Have you ever been driving on a two-lane highway and gotten stuck behind someone going roughly 15 mph below the speed limit?

Even in the best of situations, when you are in no particular hurry to get to your destination, the leisurely pace of the car in front of you can still make you want to stick your head out the window and scream “EITHER PULL OVER OR STEP ON IT, GRANNY!”

The movie “The Switch” is the cinematic equivalent of that puttering car. It obeys all the rules of the road while enjoying a pleasant drive through the countryside, yet in spite of all the traffic backed up behind it and everyone knowing exactly where it’s going, it just can’t seem to find a higher gear.

The film stars Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston as best friends Wally and Kassie. Because of the deafening ticking of her biological clock, Kassie decides she is going to have a baby via artificial insemination.

Wally, who has suppressed romantic feelings for Kassie (surprise, surprise) is strongly opposed to his friend’s plan of action. At a party to celebrate Kassie’s impending impregnation, Wally drunkenly stumbles upon the container of semen from studly donor Roland (Patrick Wilson) and decides to replace it with his own personal seed.

Thanks to the convenience of the plot and lots of booze, Wally is unable to fully remember making the switch and therefore fails to speak up when Kassie decides to leave New York City to raise her child in her hometown in the Midwest.

When Kassie returns seven years later with her son, Sebastian (a cute and precocious Thomas Robinson), Wally begins to suspect he may be the father of the boy and then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie attempting to muster up the courage to voice his true feelings for Kassie and claim Sebastian as his own.

While it is pretty easy to predict the entire story arc of “The Switch” within the first five minutes of the movie, the ride to get there isn’t very engaging or stimulating.

It also doesn’t help that Wally and Kassie aren’t exactly the most likable people to share an hour and a half with. She’s flighty and self-involved, and he’s neurotic and hopelessly pessimistic.

I suppose the biggest problem with the movie is it struggles to find a tone. Co-directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck helmed the screwball comedy “Blades of Glory” with much greater success.

The hilarity in “The Switch” is hardly madcap, in spite of the film’s wacky premise. Nor is the flick much of a romantic comedy as the chemistry between the two leads is inconsequential for most of the movie.

The heart of the movie, and where it reaches the exalted status of “somewhat enjoyable,” is in the relationship between Wally and Sebastian. When Wally sees his own neuroses and personality defects reflected back at him through his son, he begins to realize he needs to change his ways, not only for his own salvation, but for Sebastian’s as well.

The laughs are sporadic at best in “The Switch” as the biggest signs of life come from supporting turns by Jeff Goldblum and Juliette Lewis (both on loan from the early 1990s) who play Wally and Kassie’s respective “other” best friends.

I suppose “The Switch” isn’t the worst movie you could get stuck behind on a winding, country road, but I’m fairly sure that if you came upon it sputtering along on the interstate, you’d zip right past it without a second thought.

“The Switch” is rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, sexual material including dialogue, some nudity, drug use and language.

Film Review

I ❤ ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’

No Comments 19 August 2010

Every generation seems to try and define universal truths on their own terms. It is no wonder then that members of Generations X and Y who spent their formative years absorbing video games and comic books would conjure a compelling study of romance and maturity in the form of the free-form, high-energy and wildly entertaining movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”

Flashing with the sensory-assaulting glitz of an arcade circa 1992, this film, based on a comic book series, is at its heart a simple boy-meets-girl story.

Scott Pilgrim is an unassuming, 20-something Canadian played by Michael Cera who has decided to fully embrace his typecasting as a wimpy, lovesick hipster.

Scott falls head over heels for Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winestead), a bewitching, rainbow-haired delivery girl with a heavy load of personal baggage.

As Ramona seems to be dragging her heels in regards to starting a new relationship, it becomes immediately clear that if Scott wants to get the girl, he’s going to have to fight for her – literally.

In order to claim the title of Ramona’s boyfriend, Scott must fight the League of Evil Exes, a group made up (primarily) of Ramona’s former boyfriends who crop up at inopportune times to battle with Scott “Super-Mario”-style.

While references to video games, comic books and anime are sprinkled throughout the movie it is during these epic fight scenes, where the laws of physics are defied and the vanquished turn into a pile of coins, that the movie’s influences become readily apparent.

While this cute concept for a film is brilliantly executed and the movie itself is packed hilarious dialogue and enough references to repeatedly thrill dorks like myself who misspent a youth locked away with our Nintendos constantly trying to “level up,” there is actually a lot more going on in this movie than its glossy exterior would have you believe.

This is not at all surprising because “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” was directed by Edgar Wright. In his two previous features, Wright established himself as a gifted comedic mimic whose movies appeared to be nothing but silly homages on the surface but held some surprisingly profound themes for those willing to dig a little deeper.

“Shaun of the Dead” was about zombies, but it was also about the difficulty in prioritizing the relationships in your life. “Hot Fuzz” was a high-octane action spoof, but it was also about building friendship and overcoming ego.

In Scott Pilgrim we have a flawed hero. He plays bass in a struggling band, but lacks any ambition or direction. Still licking the wounds from his own messy break-up, Scott initially begins dating a mousy high-school student named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) much to the dismay of his sister (Anna Kendrick) and his cynical, financially supportive roommate (Kieran Culkin).

Even after falling for Ramona, Scott continues to string Knives along all the while battling his own insecurities and low self-esteem. It becomes apparent as the movie progresses that Scott is not only fighting for love but fighting for scraps of self-respect as well.

There is a heart to this movie behind its 16-bit façade and a lot of that credit goes to the outstanding, young ensemble of actors. In addition to those I’ve already mentioned there are some great turns by Chris Evans (soon-to-be Captain America), Brandon Routh (a former Superman) and Jason Schwartzman (an indie-film superhero in his own right) as assorted evil exes.

I am hesitant to recommend this movie to anyone over the age of 40 as once you get beyond the classically romantic core of the film, the referential video-game framework this movie operates in is likely to make about as much sense as a Swahili-speaking llama explaining the String Theory of particle physics.

As for everyone else, I can only put my feelings in simple fanboy terms. I heart “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”

“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is rated PG-13 for stylized violence, sexual content, language and drug references.

Film Review

The Jokes Not Made In ‘The Other Guys’

2 Comments 12 August 2010

ON SCREEN Mat DeKinder mdekinder@yourjournal.com

I have a problem with jazz. Not really with the music per se, more with the jazz aficionados who claim that their genre of choice is intellectually superior to all other forms of music.

When defending this music that exists without structure, predictability and occasionally without a tune, they often make really obnoxious statements like “Yea, but you have to listen to the notes they aren’t playing.” I hate that.

What is interesting is that in the past 20 years movie comedies (especially the comedies of Will Ferrell) have become an awful lot like jazz.

The jokes are free-form, riffing on whatever conventional setup the movie employs as a plot, and cohesive themes and character development only show up as back beats.

By comparison, a movie like “The Hangover,” with its rigid plot of increasing absurdity and precise character dynamics, is a crowd-pleasing, fastidiously-produced and expertly-performed comedic equivalent of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Just so we’re clear, I’m not trying to argue that jazz approach is a bad way to make a movie. The gang that made “Anchorman” be-bopped, scatted and improvised their way to a comedic masterpiece.

It’s just that with the new movie “The Other Guys,” a film I laughed the entire way through, I came to realize I was going to have to defend the movie in the same obnoxious manner the jazz nerds defend their music. “Yea, but you have to laugh at the jokes they aren’t making.”

Much like music, comedy is often a matter of taste and to avoid wallowing in hypocrisy I have to admit that in spite of being funny, “The Other Guys” is not a very good movie.

It loosely hangs its jokes along the thread of a buddy-cop movie as it stars Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as a couple of mismatched, bungling New York City detectives.

They function in the shadow of more celebrated cops, like the ones played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson who open the movie with such a bang it’s nearly impossible for everything that follows to live up to it.

Wahlberg and Ferrell bungle around trying to crack a murky case that involves high finance, but the plot doesn’t really matter because all of the laughs come from the performances. There are some solid supporting turns, especially by Michael Keaton as police captain Gene Mauch. It’s great seeing Keaton being funny on screen again, especially since his career has been in suspended animation for the past 15 years.

Wahlberg gets a lot of mileage from playing an overcaffeinated version of himself, but really, as expected, it is Ferrell who carries this movie from beginning to end. At one point in the movie Ferrell gets a laugh by simply pausing in a doorway before walking out. We’re talking Jack Benny levels of comedic effortlessness here people.

Director Adam McKay has yet to make a feature film without Ferrell in a lead role (“Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers”), so it is no surprise that the movie is at its most successful when McKay steps back and says “In Will we trust.”

By that same token, the movie stumbles around when it tries to play it straight or awkwardly hammer home a message about corporate greed at the last minute.

As the credits rolled next to animated statistics about the injustices of the financial crisis I nearly asked the person sitting next to me, “Was that what this movie was about? Could have fooled me.”

So then the question becomes would I in good faith recommend “The Other Guys” to the general public? In order to truly understand you’ll need to read the criticisms I’m not making. Hey if it works for jazz, why not me?

The Other Guys” is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, violence and some drug material.

Mat DeKinder is the self-described Jackie Moon of film critics.

Film Review

‘Salt’ A Seasoned Ride

No Comments 05 August 2010

On The Aisle

By Tony Macklin

Movies manipulate.

They can get you to identify with a character or root for an action.

Alfred Hitchcock, with stylistic aplomb, was the master of manipulation. Hitch could play on his audience’s expectations. He could even get them to root for someone trying to sink an incriminating car in a body of water (“Psycho,” 1960) or a villain trying to recover a lighter fallen down a drain (“Strangers on a Train,” 1951).

Hitch knew audiences want to root, and so he implicated them.

In “Salt,” director Phillip Noyce uses that concept to buffet and baffle us.

For the first half of “Salt,” we are engaged in a furious action movie — car chases, incredible escapes and other surefire, patented devices of the action genre.

We are well into our popcorn when we hit indigestible kernels that are bizarrely salty. It shocks our expectant taste buds.

Our heroine suddenly seems out of control, killing everything in sight. There’s more than a hint of sadism. The movie’s moral compass is spinning. “Salt” has all the morality of a video game.

Are we supposed to root for Evelyn Salt? We choke on our popcorn. Is she good, bad, amoral or immoral?

Kill all the extras. Collateral damage be damned. Salt goes on a killing spree (e.g., 13 victims in one fell swoop). Salt is a killing machine; if your grandmother was in her way, she’d blow a hole in her.

But just as we’re about to give up, at the end of “Salt,” a semblance of order has been restored.

Noyce and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer know they’re manipulating the genre. They make allusions to past spy movies (e.g., the blade in the shoe of Lotte Lenya in “From Russia with Love,” 1963). But in 2010, friendly fire is our friend.

Australian-born Noyce knows his way around the genre. He put Jack Ryan through his paces in “Patriot Games” (1992) and “Clear and Present Danger” (1994).

He utilizes technical pros. “Salt’s” cinematographer is Robert Elswit, who in 2008 won an Oscar for “There Will Be Blood.”

Veteran James Newton Howard — who has received eight Oscar nominations — did the sprightly music score.

Salt is credited to three editors — Stuart Baird (“Casino Royale,” 2006), John Gilroy (“Michael Clayton,” 2007) and Steven Kemper (“Mission: Impossible II,” 2000).

They have their shears out big time. The movie is only 99 minutes — a good running time. The editors like to cut away quickly, leaving lots of holes in their movie.

How did Salt get out of her cab? How did she get the secure alias Herandez? Can’t the president, when he awakens, identify what happened?

But Hitch once said to me “Logic is dull.” “Salt” is not dull.

“Salt” is dependent on its star. Like Sean Connery, Harrison Ford and Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie seizes and fully embodies her role.

Jolie is a tuning fork of energy. The first image of her is Salt being tortured in a North Korean prison. She is blond, bruised, bloody and whimpering.

She goes through several physical transformations. In one she looks like a kick-ass Rachel Maddow. Liberals unite!

Jolie makes a potent action heroine — willful, vulnerable and lethal. Her stunts are over the moon. As the CIA agent accused of being a double agent, she is a cauldron of vengeance.

Liev Scheiber, as Salt’s CIA boss, brings a little gravity to a film that doesn’t pay much attention to gravity. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Peabody, another agent who can’t decide whether to listen to Salt or punch her. The audience may share Peabody’s confusion.

Major actor Andre Braugher is listed in the credits but makes a very skimpy appearance. Keep a sharp eye, or you may miss him.

The editors left Braugher on the cutting room floor, or perhaps he fell to Salt’s erratic fire.

“Salt” is spilled all over the place. Angelina Jolie’s latest is a shaggy salt shaker.

After viewing the genre-abuse of “Salt,” we stumble out of the theater pole-axed but relieved.

Hitch might smirk.

Tony Macklin, a former college English and film professor, is still foraging for truth in literature and film in Arkansas, Las Vegas and beyond.

Film Schedule

Film Listing

No Comments 05 August 2010

Film listing

FS-Fiesta Square, Fayetteville, 888-262-4386. Movies at Fiesta Square are $4 Mondays through Thursdays; R16-Razorback 16, Fayetteville, 521-4080; S9-Sunset 9, Springdale, 751-2600; PC-Pinnacle Cinema 12, Rogers, 631-5927; TC-Town Center, Rogers, 631-5927.

Opening

The Other Guys (PG-13) FS. R16. S9. PC.

Step Up (PG-13) 3D on select screens. R16. PC.

Also Playing

The A Team (PG-13) Action adventure. A group of special forces soldiers go rogue. Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper. TC.

Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty (PG) In 3D on select screens. FS. R16. S9. PC.

Charlie St. Cloud (PG-13) FS. R16. TC.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (R) FS.

Despicable Me (PG) Kids comedy. FS. R16. S9. PC.

Dinner for Schmucks (PG-13) FS. R16. S9. TC.

Eclipse (PG-13) “Twilight” continues. Robert Pattison, Kristen Stewart. FS. R16. S9. TC.

Grown Ups (PG-13) Comedy. Five old buddies get together to introduce their families. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock. FS. R16. PC.

Inception (PG-13) A thief who can steal ideas from someone’s subconscious is given a chance at redemption. Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page. FS. R16. PC.

Karate Kid (PG) A young boy leans martial arts. Jackie Chan. FS. TC.

Killers (PG-13) An assassin is the target of a hit. Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl. TC.

Knight and Day (PG-13) Action adventure with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. FS. TC.

The Last Airbender (PG-13) M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi fantasy. Noah Ringer, Nicole Peltz. R16. PC.

Predators (R) Robert Rodriguez action-adventure, sci-fi. Adrian Brody, Alice Braga. FS. TC.

Ramona and Beezus (G) Family comedy about two sisters. Joey King, Selena Gomez, John Corbett. R16. S9. TC.

Salt (PG-13) Angelina Jolie as a covert CIA op who is accused of being a Russian spy. Live Schreiber. FS. R16. S9. PC.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (PG) A modern day sorcerer tries to protect New York from evil. Nicholas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina. FS. R16. S9. TC.

Toy Story 3 (G) In 3D on select screens. FS. R16. PC.

Winter’s Bone (R) Set in the Ozarks. A young teen tries to track down her drug-dealing father. Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes. FS. TC.

Film Schedule

Opening: ‘Cats & Dogs,’ ‘Dinner for Schmucks’

No Comments 29 July 2010

Opening

Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty (PG) In 3D on select screens. FS. R16. S9. PC.
Charlie St. Cloud (PG-13) FS. R16.
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (R) FS.
Dinner for Schmucks (PG-13) FS. R16. S9.

Also Playing

The A Team (PG-13) Action adventure. A group of special forces soldiers go rogue. Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper. TC.
Date Night (PG-13) Romantic comedy. Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg. TC.
Despicable Me (PG) Kids comedy. FS. R16. S9. PC.
Eclipse (PG-13) “Twilight” continues. Robert Pattison, Kristen Stewart. FS. S9. TC.
Grown Ups (PG-13) Comedy. Five old buddies get together to introduce their families. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock. FS. R16. S9. PC.
Inception (PG-13) A thief who can steal ideas from someone’s subconscious is given a chance at redemption. Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page. FS. R12. PC.
Karate Kid (PG) A young boy leans martial arts. Jackie Chan. FS.
Killers (PG-13) An assassin is the target of a hit. Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl. TC.
Knight and Day (PG-13) Action adventure with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. R16.
The Last Airbender (PG-13) M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi fantasy. Noah Ringer, Nicole Peltz. R16. PC.
Predators (R) Robert Rodriguez action-adventure, sci-fi. Adrian Brody, Alice Braga. FS. R16. TC.
Ramona and Beezus (G) Family comedy about two sisters. Joey King, Selena Gomez, John Corbett. FS. R12. TC.
Salt (PG-13) Angelina Jolie as a covert CIA op who is accused of being a Russian spy. Live Schreiber. FS. R12. PC. TC.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (PG) A modern day sorcerer tries to protect New York from evil. Nicholas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina. FS. R12. S9. TC.
Toy Story 3 (G) In 3D on select screens. FS. R12. PC.
Winter’s Bone (R) Set in the Ozarks. A young teen tries to track down her drug-dealing father. Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes. FS.

Film Review

‘Inception’ A Wild Goose Chase

No Comments 29 July 2010

[ontheaisle]

By Tony Macklin

“Inception” is a slick, spasmodic, rambunctious ordeal. It’s a convoluted wild goose/dream chase.

It’s stylistically audacious, but the content lags far behind. Even though it’s been promoted as a movie for the brain, “Inception” is much more a movie for the eyes.

As Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his intrepid allies try to manipulate dreams, what is their goal? Could it be to try to discover the secret of life? Hardly.

It pretty much comes down to Dom’s wanting to see the faces of his two young children. That’s a nice, comforting thought, but is it worth 21⁄2 hours of dream confusion, crises and conflagrations?

It reminds me of Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” (1983) desperately decoding his ring to reveal the answer, “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.”

“Inception” is the story of how Dom Cobb, who illegally extracts dreams for a living, is enlisted by a Japanese energy businessman, Saito (Ken Watanabe), to invade the dreams of the son of a competing energy tycoon. The father is on his deathbed, and the son (Cillian Murphy) is about to inherit his empire.

Saito wants Cobb to do an inception, which is to put an idea into his young rival’s mind to make him break up his empire. This can be accomplished by the risky, unperfected concept of placing the idea into the mind by way of three levels of dreams — a dream within a dream within a dream. Limbo is a fourth level of dream.

Cobb can’t return to America because he is wanted by the law for something he did in the past. Saito promises Cobb to have the charges dropped if he can process a successful inception.

Cobb’s father (Michael Caine) introduces his son to Ariadne (Ellen Page), a precocious dream architect who can help him. But Cobb’s wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), is a threat — for a reason we eventually find out — who keeps destructively appearing in his dreams.

Cobb and his gang become fierce dream weavers in a dangerous quest.

Director/writer Chris Nolan is more stylistic necromancer than magical artist. Nolan has been given license to play a vast, self-indulgent game, and he zealously wallows in it.

Probably people who dream the least will be most impressed by the movie. It’s more “imagination” than real imagination. It throws dreams against the screen to see what will stick.

“Inception” is a glittering thimble. Dom says about Mal, “The thimble became her reality.” It’s shtick wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a pizza.

“Inception” is a Wachowski Brothers film that turns into a James Bond movie that turns into a Lifetime special. That Watanabe has makeup reminiscent of Keir Dullea’s aged figure in “2001: A Space Odyssey” does not make it a Stanley Kubrick movie.

The cast of “Inception” is excellent as they run with heedless energy. DiCaprio is appropriately sensitive as the guilt-ridden dream extractor. Page is appealing, as always, as the conscience of the film.

Watanabe and Murphy are convincing as the two willful businessmen. And although his role is not equal to his talent, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is able as Cobb’s man of action.

Marion Cotillard is merely acceptable in the key role as Mal, but she is not haunting. Alfred Hitchcock would have made her haunting.

“Inception” is a diverting gambit, but you might want to check your watch a few times to see when the dreams are going to be over.

Do the dreams continue?

Spin, Chris, spin. Clatter. Clatter. Clatter.

Tony Macklin, a former college English and film professor, is still foraging for truth in literature and film in Arkansas, Las Vegas and beyond.

See FILM LISTINGS Page 14

Film Review

‘The Kids Are All Right’ and ‘Micmacs’

No Comments 22 July 2010

[ontheaisle]

By Tony Macklin

“The Kids Are All Right” is a sudsy soap opera. It’s a concoction of lilac water and spermatozoa with lots of wine and whine.

The story of a contemporary lesbian family, the dysfunction hits the fan when the two children — 15-year-old Laser and 18-year-old Joni — seek contact with their moms’ sperm donor.

The best elements of the movie are the acting and direction. They are “fecund.” The five major roles are well-personified. Julianne Moore plays Jules, the vulnerable, passionate mom, and Annette Bening is Nic, the off-putting, neurotic, controlling mom of the family. Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson are winning as the siblings.

As sperm donor and free spirit Paul, Mark Ruffalo puts away his patented puppy dog expression for most of the movie, although the writers leave his role in shambles at the end. Go away, Mark, we’ve used your services.

Lisa Cholodenko — whose 2002 film “Laurel Canyon” may have been a better film — directed and co-wrote “The Kids Are All Right.” Her direction is strong.

The lengthy close-up of Bening’s face after she discovers that her partner had sex with someone else is brilliant, as is Bening’s muted, hysterical expression.

The writing by Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg is not as strong. For instance, although it may have actually happened, a scene with a dog seems contrived.

And after all the high drama, “The Kids Are All Right” settles for a negligible ending. We had to endure all that anguish and self-pity to find out at the end that “marriage is hard”? Maybe the message of “The Kids Are All Right” is that lesbians can use cliches, too.

‘Micmacs’

“Micmacs” is a Gallic mishmash. It’s a sloppy souffle that falls more than it rises. It’s airless whimsy.

“Micmacs” is the sporadic story of Bazil (Dany Boon), whose father was killed by a landmine in north Africa. Bazil himself is collaterally damaged when a shootout, outside the video store where he works, leaves a bullet in his skull.

Bazil is welcomed into an underground family of misfits — a contortionist, a human cannonball and the rest of a motley crew. He finally enlists their help to avenge himself on two arms manufacturers. But the road to vengeance is venal.

“MIcmacs” alludes to other, much superior movies, but when a movie does this it opens itself to further diminution. In a crucial scene, Bazil is watching “The Big Sleep” and speaking the dialogue along with Bogart and Bacall. “Micmacs” even borrows music from “The Big Sleep.” But it’s The Big Snooze.

Some reviewers have compared “Micmacs” to classic silent comedy. They actually have mentioned the sublime BK-I can’t bring myself to mention his name.

If in any way it’s BK-oriented, it’s Burger King, with droopy French fries.

The writing by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and scenarist Guillaume Laurant is weak.

If you appreciate a character (Remington) who continually speaks in cliches, and a conversation confusing “gaze” and “gays,” “Micmacs” may be for you.

It’s like a home movie that the moviemaker, his family and friends think is a ball. They mug at each other ad nauseum.

Boon is in the tradition of … nothing. Bazil’s “romantic” interludes with Elastic Girl are not in the same species with Bogey and Bacall.

Jeunet directs with coy tenacity and stubborn (not ingenious) emphasis on machines and gadgetry.

While it reminds some of silent comedy, for me it’s noisy plumbing.

Jeunet suddenly changes his tone near the end when he has characters holding photos of children who have been maimed and crippled by weapons.

He follows this with a sequence emphasizing how movies use trickery and artificiality.

Throughout “Micmacs,” Bazil’s patented gesture is smacking himself in the head.

I know the feeling. He smacked me, too.

Film Review

‘The Girl Who Played With Fire’

No Comments 15 July 2010

[ontheaisle]
By Tony Macklin

“The Girl Who Played With Fire” is the followup to the very popular “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.” It’s the second film adaptation from the Millennium trilogy by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson.

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” both novel and film, were international successes and established a towering standard.

The novel “The Girl Who Played With Fire” emulated its stalwart precursor, but the movie is not the equal of its cinematic predecessor or its literary source.

The best aspect of the movie version of “The Girl Who Played with Fire” is that Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist reprise their roles as cool and feisty Lisbeth Salander and dogged Mikael Blomkvist. They both still fit their roles ideally.

“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” was evocatively directed by Niels Arden Oplev, but he chose not to direct “The Girl Who Played With Fire” because he didn’t want to be in post production for “Dragon Tattoo” as he was doing “Fire” and the third film in the series, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.”

Instead Daniel Alfredson directed the latter two, and screenwriter Jonas Frykberg replaced the more artful Rasmas Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel from “Dragon.”

“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” is artistic, while “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is not. It’s a fairly standard thriller. It is the story of Lisbeth and Mikael, who worked so well together in the past. Lisbeth has disappeared for more than a year, visiting other countries, resorts and beaches on the money she pilfered in the past. For all that time, she has not contacted anyone she knew. She has vanished.

Mikael is still writing for Millennium magazine, buoyed by the sudden success he had in the past. An investigative reporter (Hans-Christian Thulin) brings Millennium a project on sex trafficking that he is doing with his criminologist girlfriend.

Millennium decides to back it, but it results in murders and Lisbeth is the accused. Mikael seeks to prove her innocence while trying to bring the evil traffickers to justice.

Stieg Larsson is like Thomas Harris, the American writer who wrote four novels about Hannibal Lector. Both writers do a lot of research, and despite the abundance of details, their novels are tantalizing and intense. They take the thriller to new depths.

But both men lost their best director after his initial movie. Jonathan Demme directed “The Silence of the Lambs,” which won Academy Awards for himself and the picture.

Alfredson is a Swedish Brett Ratner, the undistinguished American director of Harris’s “Red Dragon.” Alfredson likes to keep his camera in motion, often for little reason, and he is a fan of bright lighting. He uses some ill-chosen shots and at times awkward editing. Unlike Oplev, who employed setting as a character — frigid and bleak, Alfredson’s setting is merely like picture postcards.

Alfredson lets suspense lag. Surprisingly Larsson’s novel is more suspenseful than the movie. Some of this is the fault of screenwriter Frykberg; he is not the equal of the screenwriters of “Dragon Tattoo.”

Larsson’s dialogue often explains and clarifies, but Frykber’s bogs the movie down. He has a difficult job, but he misses opportunities, such as when Mikael in the book gives four reasons supporting Lisbeth to police officers Bulanski and Modig (she is a crucial character lessened in the movie).

Frykberg cuts scenes and characters, and he changes speakers arbitrarily and for no good reason — from Blomkvist to editor Erika Becker about Millennium’s mission — to stick their “neck out.”

Frykberg keeps Lisbeth and Mikael separate much later than the book does. He drops a tornado, a killing, a kidnap attempt and makes Lisbeth a lesbian, not the active bisexual she is in the book. He’s as ignorant as the police. In the novel, Lisbeth is bitterly in love with Mikael. In the book it’s much clearer why they broke up and why she is estranged.

The book is teeming with piquant details. Lisbeth reads “Crime and Punishment” and listens to David Bowie singing “Cat People” on the radio, “putting out fire with gasoline.” This may be contrived, but it is deft and appealing.

Besides Rapace and Nyqvist in the leads, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” has outstanding casting in two other roles. Per Oskarsson (who won the best actor at Cannes for “Hunger” in 1966) is strong as Lisbeth’s original guardian.

Larsson used the actual boxer Paolo Roberto as an important character in his novel, and the actual Roberto effectively plays his fictional self in the movie.

The cast carries the movie, but it is too heavy a lift for Alfredson, so he throws away texture, depth and meaning.

“The Girl Who Played With Fire” is a thriller that entertains, but it doesn’t provoke. It lacks the potency and vision of Stieg Larsson, its one-of-a-kind creator.

“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” is available on DVD.

Older Entries »

Twitter