Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Francois Cluzet, French thriller, Guillaume Canet, Harlan Coben, Kristin Scott Thomas
The police re-open the investigation into the murder of Dr. Beck’s wife eight years earlier and new evidence puts him under suspicion. He must prove his innocence at the same time that he’s corresponding with a mysterious emailer who implies his wife is still alive, and also fending off dodgy killers.
Based on Harlan Coben’s bestselling book, the film is instantly engaging and suspenseful as it twists-and-turns throughout. You share in our hero’s grief even as you’re perpetually expecting his wife to reappear. And you feel dread as he evades cops who think he’s guilty as well as some scary criminals.
Francois Cluzet (Dr. Beck) is great as the everyman under pressure. The entire cast is good, which is evidence of a capable director (Guillaume Canet), and Kristin Scott Thomas sexily shows off her French. Eccentric character touches – the unlikely source of help, the OCD cop, the best friend, and the strange female killer – give the film a sense of humour and humanity.
While the book takes place in the USA, and the soundtrack includes Jeff Buckley and U2, the film is very French in its setting, talent, aesthetic, and the subtext that money corrupts. This is an absolutely gripping thriller.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart, Francois Ozon, French mystery, Isabelle Huppert
1950’s France, in an isolated mansion in the countryside, a family gathers for the holidays. But what should be a glamorous social affair becomes a murder mystery when the beloved patriarch is discovered dead. It can only be one of eight females closest to him, but which one? The household is turned upside down and rivalries are exacerbated as the women begin to reveal unexpected intentions — sexual, murderous, dishonest, and perverse – through musical interludes.
Not generally inclined to musicals, I found watching each of these stars sing her particular story in her unique way is surprisingly delightful. While it’s arguable that the characters are stereotypical – the matriarch, the spinster, the femme fatale, and the sexy chambermaid – as the plot thickens, the veneer cracks and we see into the psyche of the female species. In this instance, played by a few of the greatest French film actresses of all time, such as Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert.
Directed by Francois Ozon, the film is shot like a sumptuous, 1950’s Technicolor melodrama, and aesthetically it’s gorgeous. This is a light-hearted and droll film.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovitch, Morgan Freeman
Lonely and bored retiree Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) wants excitement, but a band of assassins who attack his home isn’t what he had in mind. Having a past with the CIA, he gets a few of his ex-cohorts together, all of them designated by ‘the powers that be’ as ‘Retired: Extremely Dangerous.’
It’s a scenic trip to collect a few of the old group, starting out with a visit to Joe (Morgan Freeman) in a New Orleans retirement home and Marvin (John Malkovich) in the Florida Everglades. Then they collect Victoria (Helen Mirren) who’s running a B & B. Age hasn’t drained their skills of survival.
RED is a comic thriller, adapted from a darker graphic novel. Fans of the comics will find this film lighter and likable. Willis is still playing the sardonic, wisecracking, good-at-killing guy, but it works well. In fact, it’s the charismatic cast that keeps the ball rolling as well as the fact that they, and the movie in general, do not take themselves seriously. A surprisingly entertaining and humorous film.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Anton Corbijn, existential film, film review, George Clooney, Joy Division
An assassin (George Clooney) hides out in Italy for one last assignment. While there, he forms a friendship with a local priest and has an affair with a beauty who also happens to be a prostitute.
Acclaimed-photographer-turned-film director Anton Corbijn’s second feature tries to be existential. The questions the film attempts to ask are: is it safe to feel? Can love redeem a life full of regret? Has it been worth it? Like Corbijn’s debut film about Ian Curtis of Joy Division (Control) it’s also about a lost soul. While these themes are suggested primarily in the priests dialogue, it seems forced when these themes are only supported by moody looks from George and his physical isolation. The slow, meditative manner in which the film is shot is appreciated in the face of most modern films being frenetic, but this pace, combined with the aforementioned lack of a compelling story and script, leaves one thinking that to see it on DVD, or better yet on television, would be a better choice than spending the money for a cinema ticket.
What can be said of this film is that it has beautiful scenery.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Billy Wilder, El Coronado, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis
Two struggling musicians witness a murder and try to find a way out of the city before they’re found and killed by the mob. The only job going is one in an all-girl band, so they disguise themselves as women. In addition to the trouble of being men in hiding, further complications occur when one falls for another member of the band and the other has a rich suitor who won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
This film is most noted for its director, the great Billy Wilder (The Apartment, One, Two, Three, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard) and its cast, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and the iconic Marilyn Monroe.
Fun to watch on a big screen, this is a good choice for a weekend matinee.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Aaron Sorkin, David Fincher, Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Sean Parker
Harvard university student Mark Zuckerberg sets up a social networking site called ‘The Facebook’, which basically becomes an overnight success and makes Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire in modern times. Meanwhile, a trio of well-off jocks who claim he stole their idea pursue Zuckerberg in court.
Zuckerberg is played by actor Jesse Eisenberg who is amazing as an emotionally isolated, social-climbing outsider who’s also a genius. Justin Timberlake plays Napster founder Sean Parker with seductive style, taking Zuckerberg from amateur to pro.
Director David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) helms with a restrained and controlled hand that keeps cohesive this tense story of five individuals ironically torn apart by the biggest social networking site the world has ever seen. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (West Wing and A Few Good Men) writes dialogue that is fast and intelligent. And finally, the acting, particularly by Eisenberg and Timberlake, is great. A suspenseful, interesting and relevant film.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paris, Tim Burton, Venice
The girlfriend of international fugitive Alexander Pearce, Elise (Angelina Jolie) picks up a tourist named Frank (Johnny Depp) on a train from Paris to Venice. Their plan is to persuade the police that Frank is Alexander, but then the ‘doppelganger’ becomes the target for a scary gangster.
Jolie and Depp have spent much of their careers playing roles in which they are dowdy, eccentric, neurotic, or freakish, so it’s forgivable that they’d want to take on a project that shows off their good looks before doing another ‘serious’ film or goofy Tim Burton movie. But this film doesn’t ‘sizzle’, either in action, dialogue, or through benefit of a good chemistry between Jolie and Depp. And, while there are twists and turns, reversals and revelations, there is little to keep one engaged in this film.
This film is for those who simply want to look at one or the other actor in all of their charisma and beauty, or for those who are devotees of these actors’ work. For the rest of us expecting more, you’ll be disappointed.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Annette Bening, Comedy Drama film, Julianne Moore, Lisa Cholodenko, Mark Ruffalo
A comedy drama: teenage siblings Joni and Laser live with their two mothers, Nic and Jules, lesbian life partners who both used the same sperm donor to have them. Laser convinces Joni to contact the donor, she does, and he bonds with the teens. Hard-working Nic is wary of the donor, while free-spirited Jules creates a tentative rapport with him and agrees to landscape his garden.
Annette Bening (American Beauty) and Julianne Moore (Children of Men) play Nic and Jules and are completely convincing as a couple. Child-rearing and two decades of marriage has put a strain on their relationship, which is only exacerbated when the sperm donor, Paul, played by Mark Ruffalo, (Shutter Island) enters the picture. The kids are well-adjusted and okay with the inevitability of change, signalled by the entry of Paul, but the adults have a harder time coping.
Astutely directed (Lisa Cholodenko, High Art), this is a keenly observed portrait of marriage tested, and of human behaviour in the face of change. A taut, modern, relevant and funny film whose characters and their actions are utterly relatable.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Belleville Rendez Vous, Edinburgh, film review, Jacques Tati, Sylvain Chomet
The Illusionist is eking out a living during the dying days of the music halls. Travelling to the Scottish islands for one of his performances, he meets a girl called Alice who’s convinced he’s a real magician and follows him to Edinburgh. The Illusionist is reluctant to disappoint her, but as she begs for gifts that she’s convinced he can magically provide, he has to come to terms with the fact that he has little money coming in and no means of keeping her illusions alive.
Directed by Sylvain Chomet (Belleville Rendez Vous), this is an animated, near wordless, tale for adults. The story was written decades ago by the great French comedian Jacques Tati, who found absurdity and pathos in the minutiae of everyday life. Apparently, however, Tati found this script too personal and shelved it during his lifetime, but Chomet has taken it and revived it as homage to Tati, to cinema, and to Edinburgh.
This is a bittersweet, poignant film about loss, grief and shattered illusions. However, like life, it’s also humorous and beautiful.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Claude Mendibil, film review, French film, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Julian Schnabel
In December 1995 Jean-Dominique Bauby, Editor-in-Chief of French magazine Elle, suffered a massive stroke and became the victim of “Locked-in Syndrome.” Unable to move anything other than his left eyelid, he collaborated with book editor Claude Mendibil on his memoir, dictating by blinking his left eye. He died two days after the book was published.
This film is unique proof that personal tragedies really can inspire. It’s nearly impossible to imagine the will power it took for Bauby to dictate his memoir literally blink-by-blink. The result is a gloriously wry description of his inner world. Equally wonderful is how Director Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls) realises this film. Much of it’s shot through the perspective of the left eye of bedridden Bauby, though we sometimes see external shots of Bauby with his family and friends, as well as memory sequences of Bauby pre-stroke. Through voice-over we hear the words that are in Bauby’s mind but which never pass through his lips.
This film, like its subject, is brave. We leave it full of admiration for Bauby’s mental vivacity (the ‘butterfly’) and his physical limitations (the ‘diving bell’), as well as some understanding of what it means to be alive.
Victoria Jelinek 