Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Ewan McGregor, film review, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Harris, Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
If you’re in the mood for nail-biting suspense, then THE GHOST WRITER is the movie for you.
A ghost-writer (Ewan McGregor, Trainspotting, Down with Love) is hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan, Matador, Die Another Day) and uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.
Director Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Death and the Maiden) is back to form with this stylish, edge-of-your-seat political thriller, that plays extremely well whether you’re into politics or not. Polanski’s trademark themes, such as black humour, paranoia, the pervasiveness of evil, and a preoccupation with ‘foreignness’, are all showcased in this film that looks as chilly as its story.
With plot twists that will keep you guessing all the way to the conclusion, it’s a pleasure to see an intelligent thriller that’s extremely well acted.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: film review, Gabourey Sidibe, Lee Daniels, novel "Push", Sapphire
Sixteen year-old Precious is obese, illiterate, physically and mentally abused, and pregnant (again) by her father. When an incident at school finally attracts attention, Precious grabs the lifeline offered by a teaching programme for problem girls.
Gabourey Sidibe’s Precious maintains an impassive attitude, making all the more affecting the flashes of emotion she exposes when pushed (PUSH is the title of the novel the film is based on). Mo’Nique, better known as a stand-up comic, plays a mother so monstrous she’d fit into a horror film. In smaller roles, Mariah Carey gives a strong performance as the social worker who uncovers the truth about Precious’ ‘home’ life, and Lenny Kravitz charms as a compassionate nurse.
Even as this is a triumph for indie filmmaking from Producer (Monster’s Ball)-turned-director Lee Daniels, rarely has one been so relieved to have an uplifting outcome.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scott Cooper, Thomas Cobb
Veteran country singer/songwriter ‘Bad’ Blake (Jeff Bridges) battles bills and booze on endless tours of dead-end towns. He’s interviewed by journalist Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and sees some hope for himself and the future in her and her son Buddy.
Jeff Bridges gives an amazing, heart-breaking performance as the whisky-wracked Bad; a man for whom drunk driving isn’t so much a crime as a lifestyle choice. Selfish, charismatic, charming but utterly destructive, he’s both lovable and infuriating. Maggie Gyllenhaal is wonderful, too – her relationship with Bad would stretch credulity but for the fact she plays the role so warmly and believably.
The film also has great music, written largely by T Bone Burnett (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and the late Stephen Bruton. Colin Farrell plays Bad’s (more successful) protégé, and both he and Jeff Bridges sing surprisingly well.
Combined with the music, the fantastic cinematography sets the tone, capturing the landscape of the Southwest of the US, beautifully. (Cert 15)
Filed under: Travel pieces | Tags: Roatan, San Pedro Sula, the Caribbean, travel Roatan
I’d sailed over from Guatemala to Roatan, Honduras, and had taken all these – prohibited by the RDA – anti sea sickness pills (which really worked) and by the time we got to Roatan, my balance was so off, I kept taking spills like crazy (making me look drunker than I was). BUT, there was a lovely restaurant and hotel overlooking the sea where we stayed, and I had a pet lizard in my shower with me the whole time that I grew to quite like (small, cute), AND I met two pilots – private jet for the guy who started a huge amusement park franchise that I’ll not name here and travels around by yacht with his family, two home schooled kids, who are a little weird, and he wanted them to fly wherever they were sailing in case they didn’t want to sail anymore – SOOOO, after spending a few days with them there, taking in the sun, watching the sad packs of dogs, looking at the cool, turquoise blue water, taking kayaking lessons (really just so that the handsome instructor would have to flip me back up and around again so that I could breath!), drinking ‘Monkey Piladas’ and smoking hooch joints from the bartender at the bar I frequented (using paper bags as rolling paper), I flew onto San Pedro Sula in their jet, then the Yucatan in their jet…anyway, I had a good time there – and met some taxi drivers, too, who had like 26 kids each!
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Dennis Lehane, film review, Leonardo Dicaprio, Martin Scorsese, Max Von Sydow, Shutter Island
1954: US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) travels to an offshore asylum for the criminally insane to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from her cell, but he also wants to confront an imprisoned arsonist he believes was responsible for the death of his wife. Once there, Daniels comes to believe that psychologists Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Naehring (Max von Sydow) are involved in unethical experiments. The story of criminal investigation turns in on itself as our hero suffers contradictory flashbacks and drug-induced hallucinations.
SHUTTER ISLAND is the nearest thing to a horror film Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) has made since Cape Fear. Based on Dennis Lehane’s novel, it has one of those tricky plots that keeps pulling the rug out from under the hero and with Scorsese’s masterful direction, it’s engaging Film Noir mystery combined with gothic melodrama.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Ewan McGregor, film review, I Love You Phillip Morris, Jim Carrey
Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is happily married and a member of a local police force when a car accident causes him to reassess his life. Steven realises he’s gay and decides to live life flagrantly, even breaking the law if it gets him what he wants. When he’s jailed for fraud, he falls in love with inmate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). His obsession with freeing Phillip and their building a perfect life together, prompts Steven to attempt, and often succeed at one impossible con after another.
For those of us who find Carrey often ‘too-too’, this is a stunning turn for him as an actor, a dream role that combines his old-school comedic tricks with an emotional honesty that feels genuine and earned. Directed by the writers of Bad Santa (John Requa and Glenn Ficarra), this is one of the blackest and funniest comedies of the year.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: film review, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard
Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire, Spiderman) begins his latest tour in Afghanistan when his chopper is shot down and he’s presumed dead. As his family, including his wife Grace (Natalie Portman, V for Vendetta, Star Wars III), brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow), and father (Sam Shepard, Blackhawk Down, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) mourn his loss and try to move on with their lives, Sam unexpectedly returns home; this film is essentially about the consequent family dynamics.
While the Danish original is better when it comes to pacing and depth, this is an affecting and sturdy remake that brings a powerful story to an even wider audience.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: film review, George Clooney, Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a suave but haunted jetsetter bent on reaching ten million air miles as he goes from city to city laying off the workforce on behalf of cowardly bosses. His life is just how he wants it – no emotional ties and plenty of material perks – until he falls for Alex and is saddled with work-partner Natalie.
It’s a consumerist fable set against bleak corporate downsizing with Clooney a ‘career transition counsellor’ who is thriving in the chaos of recession. Topical, eh? Heavy? This is a film saying something important about its times. But in the hands of director Jason Reitman’s (Juno, Thank You for Smoking) hands, it is smart, silky, sensitive, funny old school movie magic – an emphatic statement that Hollywood can still make excellent movies.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Clint Eastwood, film review, Morgan Freeman
Struggling to mend a divided country, President Mandela (Morgan Freeman) fixes upon the idea of South Africa winning the 1995 Rugby World Cup to unite white and black.
The subject of the film is a rugby game, but the story is about the political and cultural tension at the time. Many of Mandela’s countrymen felt it was a bad decision to embrace the loathed Springbok rugby team (Captain’d by Matt Damon) as a symbol for future unity of his country, because they were white and wore the colours of apartheid. However, Mandela was insightful enough to see that sport is a version of life and politics a kind of sport, and both require teamwork.
Another Clint Eastwood directed film (Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, Gran Torino), this film is noble, elegant and warm-hearted.
Filed under: Travel pieces | Tags: Chamonix, French Alps, Haute Savoie, Rhone Alpes, travel review
Clear, crisp air that feels like it’s cleaning your pores. The squeak of your shoes in the snow. Mountains on all sides rising so high against blue skies that they look false. Glacial run-off creating rivers that you can feel the coolness emanating from when you walk near them and can hear in the quiet of the night. Little crosses and chapels dotting the hills. Chalets with snow logs on their roofs to keep the snow from falling on their inhabitants. Red shutters. Copper roofs. Darkened and aged wood on the older homes. Sunshine that tans the face even as you wear several downy layers. Pussy willow trees. Skiing and waffles and chocolat chaud. Beaufort and Tomme cheese made by special cows in the Alps and local farmers, sold at the market each Saturday. Men in thick wool sweaters smoking while driving their snow plows and tractors. Mountain lakes so clear that the colors range from dark blue to aqua. Population explosion in the winter and summer bringing big, fancy 4wd BMW’s, huge tourist buses and queues for the gondolas. Paragliders, climbers, skiers, hikers, bikers, snowboarders. Helicopters overhead. The sound of avalanches and the explosion of dynamite to set off controlled avalanches. The smell of pine and wood burning stoves. Nights so brightened by the moon that you don’t need artificial light and your body casts a shadow. The single light on the mountains indicating the snow machine levelling the pistes. Tartiflette, fondue, and cremeaux in the evening as Haute Savoie fare. Quiet nights. Starry skies. Snow and ice.
Victoria Jelinek 