The Girl on the Train

Following in the footsteps of recent cultural trends to adapt big selling novels to the big screen such as Gone Girl (2014) and Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), we have a film that embodies the vogue of female empowerment within the thriller genre.

Written by Paula Hawkins, adapted by Erin Cressida Wilson and directed by Tate Taylor, the story revolves around the intertwining lives of three women - Rachel, Megan and Anna - who all encounter each other and how the men in their lives intersect.

Rachel (Emily Blunt) is an alcoholic who travels the train everyday to New York City passing the old house she used to live in with her now ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux) and his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson).  Rachel is estranged and bitter towards this new union, as they have a newborn daughter, Evie, something Rachel and Tom were unable to have together.

This has driven Rachel to drink and she regularly calls the newlyweds to the point of prompting Anna to complain to police. Tom tries to be civil yet Rachel will not go away.  Two doors down lives Megan (Haley Bennett) and her husband Scott. Scott wants to start a family whilst Megan is reluctant to, this reluctance only becomes clearer the further along in the story we go.

From the outset, the question of family is prevalent. Rachel and Tom want a family they cannot prompting a separation, Tom has a family with Anna which drives Rachel crazy and their neighbour Scott would love to have a baby with Megan but she will not.

One day travelling to work, Rachel sees Megan embracing another man on her porch prompting her to confront Megan in a drunken rage one Friday night.  That same night Megan disappears leading to a missing person's investigation led by the feisty cynical Detective Riley (Alison Janney).

More twists and turns abound in the narrative as we learn the truth and full extent of Rachel's alcoholism, Tom's real character and why Megan goes missing.

Ultimately comparisons will be made with Gone Girl which is always unfair but it follows the same thread of all men are bad and women must bond together themes, whereas in Gone Girl, Ben Affleck's character was a shit he was outdone by the mad as a hatter Rosamund Pike. 

In this film, we have at the start three unsympathetic female characters, only when Rachel learns the truth of her relationship with Tom, do we gain sympathy because she has been mentally abused in contrast to the sad alcoholic at the film's outset.  This does not do credit to the work Blunt does at Rachel, her stirring downward spiral into the darkness of drink dependency is some of the best work she has ever done and rightly gained acclaim upon the film's release.

It is a shame that the rest of the film could not raise to her high standard of performance apart from Janney's all too brief cameo as Det. Riley, whose breakdown of the exposition towards Rachel after their first conversation is a fitting swipe at both the preposterousness of the plot and the melodramatic feel of the piece.

The gripping moments do not grip and when the real bad guy is revealed, it happens too swiftly and smacks of an 'of course it is' moment and the red herrings laid out for us such as Scott (Luke Evans) as an abusive husband who really just wants to start a family with the woman he loves is a herring does not hang out there long enough.

All in all the film could have been better if it focused on better performances rather than relying on a plot that must have gripped on the page but failed to grip on the screen.

Men, Women and Children - preview

 

Paramount Pictures is pleased to release a brand new trailer and poster of the forthcoming Men, Women & Children from acclaimed director, Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) starring Ansel Elgort, Jennifer Garner, Adam Sandler and Emma Thompson.

Men, Women & Children follows the story of a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives. The film attempts to stare down social issues such as video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame hunting, and the proliferation of illicit material on the Internet. As each character and each relationship is tested, we are shown the variety of roads people choose - some tragic, some hopeful - as it becomes clear that no one is immune to this enormous social change that has come through our phones, our tablets, and our computers.

In the trailer we get to meet Tim (Elgort) and Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever) two individuals who find each other at high school, yet the path of true love does not run smooth as Brandy's mother (Garner) deliberately watches all of her daughter's interactive activity through her phone and the internet.  Is her mother living vicariously through her daughter, or protecting her as best she can in a dangerous world or can this be prescribed as over-parenting to the nth degree?  Following on from the box office success of The Fault in our Stars, there is a potential for another box office hit with the right balance of humour, affection and another bedside hospital visit foreboding.

The film has the usual sheen associated with Reitman's work which took a slight dramatic detour with Labor Day last year, yet this return to an ensemble piece (such as his under-rated Thank You for Smoking) could well harken back to his work with Juno, where his chops of garnering good teenage performances can be expected. Based on the novel by Chad Kultgen, Reitman wrote the screenplay with Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary, Fur)

A link to the trailer is available here

The film is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on December 5th

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Gone Girl - review

 

When it was put to me by my girlfriend to go see Gone Girl, truth be told I was a bit tentative.  I had not read the huge bestselling novel on which the film is based by Gillian Flynn, who writes the screenplay also.  As much as I am an admirer of David Fincher, the last film of his I saw in the cinema was The Game - his unheralded work starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn - the last film he did before he went stratospheric with Fight Club. 

Fincher's work is very much about mood and composition and the look, which whilst looks great the imagery can be lost on the big screen scale, this viewer preferring to wait for the Home Entertainment release.  However, something about watching Ben Affleck squirm was nevertheless pleasing to me but I also wanted to see Rosamund Pike succeed in the title role of Amy Dunne, married to Affleck's Nick.

The film like most of Fincher's work carries a bang and a twist that slaps you in the face with a cold hand.  As someone who did not read the book, the twist left me stunned and confused.  I remember seeing an interview with Affleck, where he has heard accusations that the film has been labelled misogynistic. Can a film/novel be such a thing, if authored by a woman?  Do not worry dear reader, I shall not ruin the ending or the twist.

What can be said though, is that Fincher has succeeded in creating a cyncial and satirical swipe at US media and the tabloid witch-hunts that go after fodder to fill up column inches and the constant 24 hour news cycle of hate and fear, as perfectly embodied by Missy Pyle in a cameo. The film is not only cynical of the media but also about that other institution, marriage; mocking it as an act between two players who cannot compromise and yet must do to co-exist.

When Nick and Amy meet, they are cute, the type of couple you want to slap for being so happy and Amy even says, 'I want to punch us, we are so cute'.  Yet following the recession and unemployment, the couple have to leave New York for Nick's hometown of Missouri to tend to his ailing mother.  This relocation leads to a relocation of feelings and emotions for the perfect couple, as arguments become longer and more frequent leading to the abduction of Amy where Nick is prime suspect.

The gloss of the film is very methodical as expected from such a visual director as Fincher, alas there is no coffee pot dolly shot for fanboys to cream over; this is a film where he allows his actors to hold centre stage and grab our attention by their movement and action. Fincher's camera is perhaps the stillest I can recall and yet his panache and flair is still so distinctive.

Whilst Affleck postures and breathes menacingly (in preparation for Batman no doubt), it is Pike who hits the home run of a performance.  A role of so many layers is given life by the beautiful Brit, allowing Amy to be homely yet icy; believable yet leave you guessing, sexy yet innocent.  Able support is forthcoming from Carrie Coon as Nick's twin sister, Margo; Kim Dickens as Detective Boney, who wants to help Nick but must do her job; Neil Patrick Harris playing it straight as an old flame of Amy's and Tyler Perry brings some genuine warmth and mirth to the role of Tanner Bolt, a lawyer who helps defend Nick.

At times gripping and highly intelligent, the film has to succumb to the books conclusion and whilst the twist cranks up the necessary tension, the denouement leaves you a little bit unhappy as it is no conclusion at all.  The more things change, the more they stay the same. Although the use of Affleck's face to bookend the abduction hunt - one a misplaced smile, the other an unhappy frown - is a great use of performance and a swipe at Affleck's matinee looks.

Go and see it before this girl is gone from the cinema screens. I did you a disservice Mr. Fincher and you deserved my cinema going attention. You have it now, its been found.

Bonsai

Based upon the award-winning cult novella of the same name by Alejandro Zambra, fellow countryman Chilean Cristian Jimenez has described his second feature, Bonsai, as a tribute to the art of lying.

The film centres on Julio (Diego Noguera) an introvert who wants to be a writer, however when he is turned dow by Gazmuri - an established novelist - to transcribe his latest oeuvre, Julio decides to write his own to impress his next door neighbour Bianca (Trinidad Gonzalez), however Julio is easily distracted and he ends up entangled with his memories of the past illicit affair he shared with Emilia (Natalia Galgani) some eight years previously.

Jimenez uses this device of looking back at one affair in order to kick start a new one with a simple flashback/flash forward device - whilst Julio is an unreliant narrator he nevertheless is unable to decipher the difference between the two source material, and so becomes the subject of his own book. 

The profoundity of the situation should not be lost on Julio who we meet first reading Proust, after initially saying he had already done so.  This existentialsim will also be lost on Julio ultimately, as he loses sight of the present by focusing too much on the past.  There are two funny jokes about Proust at the film's beginning - Julio lies about reading it, gets a copy, goes to a beach to read it and falls asleep in doing so after three pages and then endures a suntan on his chest of the books outline having fallen asleep.

Bonsai is a film about memory and how the past intrudes upon your present and inevitable future.  Jimenez cleverly gives the two women - Emilia and Bianca - different tones when we see their stories when with Julio.  Emilia is dark, morbid and full of shadow harking her emotional fragility, whilst Bianca's world is bright, sunny and full of optimism and promise for Julio, the tone is helped by the work of cinematographer Inti Briones.

There are few surprises though when it comes to it, as in the opening sequence the film's narrator states, 'Emilia dies and Julio will remain alone.  The rest is fiction', and Jimenez joyfully has fun with his free adaptation of Zambra's novella with the arrangement of the film in chapters to make this an objective love story for a besotted soul, who takes his eye of the ball to focus on unrequited love.  Not to say that Julio  is a fool, Jimenez does adore him and the doe-eyed performance of Diego Noguera is key to winning our affection and sympathy.

Bonsai is out on Friday 30th March on limited release from Network Releasing.

Drive

At Cannes last year, it seemed that Drive flew in under the radar somewhat.  Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring flavour of the year, Ryan Gosling - it became a word of mouth stormer on the Croisetter culminating in a Best Director award for the Danish filmmaker.  Ironic, that a Dane left Cannes with anything to shout about following the shameful exit of Lars Von Trier in the same week.

Drive now revs up for its DVD release in the UK on Monday 30th January and the film should do well on the small screen as it continues an impressive theatrical release where it garnered numerous acclaim and a film that set my personal twitter timeline into over-drive.

Drive is based on the novel by James Sallis , and stars Gosling as a man who is simply known as Driver/Kid who works as a mechanic and part-time stunt driver for the movies in Los Angeles.  He is also a getaway driver for robbers of property and banks, he promises them a five minute window where he is their's for those five minutes.  A minute under or over and he walks away, but he will get them safe as he knows the streets of LA better than anyone.  The thrilling prologue perfectly sets up the stealth mettle of the driver as he avoids police pursuit and cleverly gets involved with the finale of a NBA game.

My only complaint of the film is not really a critique of this opening scene, but without this scene the film would take a long time to get going.  Only after the death of a peripheral character, does the film explode into this smorgasborg of ultra-violence.

To that effect the film is really a B-movie in the same vein of the oeuvre of Walter Hill (Driver) or Sam Peckinpah (The Getaway) that is elevated to exalted heights by an amazing ensemble performance.  All the main characters are played by established and credible actors who take a lot of the economic writing and create real characters.

Bryan Cranston as Shannon, the Driver's boss at the garage, is especially good with a limp for added effect but there is a humbleness in his eyes as his years of experience speak volumes.  The real surprise is Albert Brooks, as the moneyman Bernie Rose; Brooks is a comedian but there is a real coldness in his performance thanks in part to the delivery of his lines.

Yet the legend of this film will be built around the chemistry and central performances of Gosling and Carey Mulligan as Irene, the next door neighbour whose life impinges upon the Driver as he attempts to lend support.  Mulligan has this innocence and purity about her that will lend to a number of roles in the next few years, it could be the making or detriment of her career.

As for the violence I was shocked by the European feel of the violence, only a Danish director could make a film with this much gore and make it look stylish.  At times the film is a victim of style over substance - slow-mo's as the Driver comes home and he parks very slowly, a slow-mo kiss in the elevator ends with an eruption of violence that paints the Driver in crimson.

The DVD includes a theatrical trailer and an intriguing Q&A with Refn held at the BFI Southbank where he refutes stories about the casting process of the two females and his pleasure in blowing one of their heads off.

It is available from Icon Home Entertainment, my thanks to Think Jam Movies for the check disc.

The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito)

Pedro Almodovar is reunited with Antonio Banderas in the Spanish auteur's latest filmic offering.

Banderas plays a plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard, who after suffering the death of his wife from burns sustained in a car crash, posits the idea of a transgenic skin (fusing human and pig genes).  Unbeknowst to his colleagues, who warn him off of doing the idea, he is testing the skin on Vera, a young woman he holds captive in his mansion El Cigarral outside of the city Toledo.

Vera can only communicate via the intercom installed in her room, Robert who is slowly becoming more and more infatuated with her watches from the next room by way of a television screen (which might as well be a two-way mirror). 

Robert is helped by his mother Marilia (Almodovar stalwart, Marisa Paredes), whose other son Zeca arrives and wrecks havoc on the house by raping Vera and ending up shot by Robert.  It is not spoiling the film for you by saying this, as the rape begins a flashback that explains how all these people came to be at this precise moment.

We flashback six years to a private party where Robert attends with his unhinged daughter Norma, Norma is apparently raped by a young Vicente.  Norma dies shortly afterwards and as an act of revenge, Robert kidnaps Vicente.

Almodovar is clear in indicating that Vicente is a nice young gentleman, confused more by his feelings for the attractive lesbian who works in his mother's clothes shop.  What follows however, is a typical Almodovar storyline - that mixture of soap opera melodrama with highbrow stylistics.

This recently has been a criticism of Almodovar; that brand of style over substance.  Whereas, Volver and Talk to Her can be considered stylistic, they were nevertheless films of great substance and yet oddly full of restraint, something Almodovar is not known for.

In this instance, the auteur throws caution to the wind employing an adaptation of Tarantula by Thierry Jonquet, but only the basis of a surgeon using his skills to exact a vigilante revenge.  Banderas as Ledgard is cast against type as the evil/mad doctor; who is brilliantly skilled yet twisted in his interpretation of ethics and code of conduct.  Banderas is get that bit older now, so it is good to see him taking on roles of dramatic purpose that can stretch his evident acting chops and away from those matinee idol roles of the mid to late 1990s. 

Banderas is the centre of the film, holding our attention from the outset as we watch him experimenting in his homebound laboratory.  Ledgard is a mixture of all mad doctors - Dr.Moreau, the doctor from Franju's Eyes Without a Face and even a hint of James Stewart's Scotty from Hitchcock's Vertigo - that clinical determination mixed with personal obsession.

The other gripping presence is that of Elena Anaya as Vera, who in her yoga posturing and one piece suit, is that luminous beauty Almodovar so often finds in his films following in the footsteps of Carmen Maura and Penelope Cruz.

In spite of all the fine acting, for once the person who falls short is Almodovar himself as he for once becomes a victim of his own stylistic impulses.  The story becomes secondary, even the major plot twist so important a piece of narrative detail leaves the audience more bewildered and astounded at the sheer improbability of it all.  Which is a shame because there are artistic flushes you would expect from Almodovar, and seeing Banderas act with such lustre in his native tongue is always better than seeing him voice an animated feline.

Norwegian Wood DVD review

Starring Rinko Kikuchi and Kenichi Matsuyama as the lovelorn Naoko and Watanabe from Haruki Marukami's eponymous novel is a slow burner of a film about depressed youths with radical sensibilites but within a classical template of melodrama.  Whilst the film is brilliantly conceived and shot by a technically gifted cast and crew, providing a real shot in the arm for Japanese cinema, the problem with adapting a famous modern novel to the screen with a ready made audience in place, will ultimately leave fans of Marukami's novel wondering what went wrong.

Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) and Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi) cannot let go of the past and instead allow it to define themselves and their future. Their mutual passion is part of their malaise rather than an escape. Watanabe’s other love interest, Midori (Kiko Mizuhara), could be the answer to his problems but he’s so tied to the past he treats her interest with caution.

Lee Ping-bin brings a real sensuality to the films cinematography, however the blue tinge used for sex scenes and the frigidness of other scenes seem to distance the audience from proceedings.  Leaving the actors to wander through some scenes; one sex scene early on in the film serves no dramatic purpose other than to show them having sex.

A musical score supplied by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead deviates from swooning mood pieces to orchestral pieces with full blown guitars - the score works well as a means to explain the differing feelings of euphoria and anguish between these angst-riddled characters.

Performed with sterling diligence by the the young actors, the most notable is the performance from Rink Kikuchi as Naoko - heartbroken and vunerable.

In the end, the film whilst faithful to the book becomes a victim of its own stylisation and imagery - a matter of style over substance, but is that a problem of the adaptation or the fault of the source material; a book deemed unadaptable for the silver screen.  We have the adaptation, but die-hard fans may be unimpressed, whilst this is a shot in the arm for Japanese cinema in that they know they can make this sort of film now.

Norwegian Wood is released on DVD from Soda Pictures on 4th July 2011

I Am Number Four - DVD review

Based upon the novel by Pittacus Lore, produced by Michael Bay and directed by accomplished young film-maker, D.J. Caruso, this big budget film blasts onto the screens this month with a lot of expectation and hype that this may be the new franchise in Hollywood.

Alex Pettyfer, is Number Four, one of the Nine from an alien world, Lorian, who have abandoned their home world and arrived on Earth to hide from the Mogdolorians who are looking to kill the Nine.  As they hold powers or 'legacies' which combined can create great power.  In a prologue, we see Number Three being murdered, from there we are hurtled to Florida where Number Four is enjoying the beach and somersaulting on a jetski.  After discovering number three's death and being labelled a 'freak' by a girl he likes, it is the decision of his warrior-protector Henri (Timothy Olyphant) to leave town and put the Mogs off of their scent.

They land in Paradise, Ohio and are met by thunderstorms; at one point John (his new name) remarks how the town should be called Ironic.  Henri pleads for invisibility but quickly John makes enemies out of the jerk jock; befriends the conspiracy believer, Sam and gets rose tinted eyes over an outsider girl who dabbles in photographer, Sarah (Dianna Agron, head cheerleader Quinn from 'Glee').  But the Mogs are quickly on his heels; dressed menacingly like angels of death in long black trenchcoats and painted in tribal tattoos, these are evil so and so's, and as well as extra-terrestrial weaponary they also have huge monstrous beasts to also do their bidding.

Caruso has territory with big action scenes, and this is his first blockbuster following a step up from his last two films.  Disturbia (a Rear Window) for the 21st century with Shia Laboeuf imprisoned in his own home playing part-time detective was a thriller with genuine scares, he then did the under-rated and low profile Eagle Eye which borrowed another Hitchock genre, this time North by Northwest with Labeouf going cross country to clear his name with the help of a rampant computer who was his eye in the sky. 

Whereas, these were accomplished productions, acted well and shot quickly, on this occasion there is no opportunity to rip off Hitchcock and instead bow at the altar of Michael Bay.  Bay with his thirst for destruction on the screen, is afforded that in the climax of the film with the special effects bonanza in the high school and football field; grenades, lasers, fireballs and a monster mash in the showers.

Before the monster mash, Caruso does try to establish a sympathy for the characters working on the dynamic of their relationships, elevating the romantic elements of the storyline to prominence and letting the death of a paternal figure have echoes when it does happen, not rushing into it.  The credit for this should fall at the script written by three talented writers, two of them are Alfred Gough and Miles Millar - two names you might not recognise, but might be familiar with their most famous creation Smallville, the early years of Superman which followed Clark Kent at a high school, not too dissimilar to Paradise, Ohio. 

Whilst a good television show in its day combining the quality of Dawson's Creek with the X-Files freak of the week fix; the show sometimes fell in on itself when it had to rush the climatic fight with Clark Kent hiding his powers from the ordinary people.  There the constrictions of an hour prime time to fill was the fault, here though in spite of the near two hour running time, some of the same problems pop up again. 

The climax does have a feel of putting all of its eggs in one basket, is this indicative of cinema at the moment or can we blame Bay.   Everything is given to sell the mandatory sequel, with lessons learned, a new character named in Teresa Palmer's brief but explosive cameo, her place in the next film is assured with her soon to be iconic look in leathers and aviators, even a good punchline, 'Red Bull is for pussies'.

All in all there is a lot to be excited about - characters that are engaging, funny dialogue and a lot of action set in the real world whilst mixing it with other-world mythology, a reluctant hero who is only just beginning to understand the consequences of his actions. 

Hopefully, the film will garner the greater plaudits and audience it so richly deserved (but did not attract) on its initial release.  This is harmless action stuff with something for all the family - romance, action, special effects, aliens, drama with the surrogate father-son relationship between Four and Henri.  The sequel may be forthcoming, but if it is not, check this out before the film gets forgotten about.

I Am Number Four is released on 20 June on both Blu-ray and DVD, but if you are an extras junkie, make you sure you fork out for the Blu-ray version which has tons more extras than the DVD equivalent.

The Warrior and the Wolf -DVD review

Asian cinema has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts due to the global acclaim of such titles as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers.

However, for every Hero there are those titles that flatter to deceive, films that mean well but lack the execution to succeed when the endeavour is clear on screen.

Based on a short story by the prolific Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue, The Warrior and the Wolf tells the story of the Han Emperor who sent his army to the far Western border of China.  In order to subdue rebellious tribes, and a land full of wolves, the army would have to endure harsh winters in the Gobi desert. After much bloodshed, Commander Lu and his men give up and begin a retreat.

Trapped by a blizzard, Lu (Joe Odagiri) commandeers a shack and finds a beautiful Harran widow (Maggie Q) who become embroiled a passionate affair.

Whilst the film is shot beautifully in the widescreen along with stunning battle scenes, the film in other areas feels lacklustre.  The affair whilst full of passion, borders on rape as Lu becomes a wolf after much contact with them, as the widow clearly is not enjoying herself.  It leaves an odd feeling in the mouth, and whilst the battle scenes are the only element of redeemable execution, it pales in comparison with recent work of 13 Assassins.

Directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang who had directed The Blue Kite, the expectation must have been high for a film of this calibre, along with the cast assembled, more a chance missed on this occasion.

The Warrior and the Wolf is released Monday 30th May from Universal indi Vision, priced £15.99(DVD) and £19.99 (Blu-Ray)