Strange and intriguing BDSM love story. Let down by the ending, in which the intimate relationship the film focuses on is opened up to the rest of the world. Excellent performances from Maggie Gyllenhall and James Spader.
(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)
Gangland warfare with a (very) loosely Romeo-and-Juliettish love story going on. Surprisingly decent.
(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)
(This quick review is part of my September 2005 “clearing the decks” exercise.)
Adventure on the high seas. Not carefree swashbuckling, but a much more gritty depiction of the frequently unpleasant life on an 18th century warship, far, far from home. I didn’t warm much to Russell Crowe’s Captain Jack Aubrey; his bluff, self-assured manner, touched occasionally with light self-doubt, seemed far too generic. Paul Bettany’s character, the ship’s doctor and part-time naturalist, was far more interesting, and I enjoyed Bettany’s performance a lot. Must try to see more of him.
Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is an innocent teen who has been home-schooled by her parents most of her life, but now she has to face the real thing. She initially makes friends with a couple of the class outsiders, but when the “Plastics” (a clique of the richest, most beautiful, and most obnoxious girls in the school) invite her to join them, her friends encourage her to accept the opening. Their plan is for Cady to infiltrate the clique and bring back juicy insider information. But as Cady spends more time with the Plastics, she becomes more and more like them, until her friends start wondering if she has turned to the Dark Side. Subtle in places, spikily barbed in others, it’s a lot funnier and more interesting than your standard teen comedy.
Andrew “Large” Largeman (Zach Braff) is a going-nowhere actor whose psychiatrist father has kept him doped up on anti-depressants since he was a kid. When he returns home to New Jersey for his mother’s funeral, he starts to come out of his haze and wake up to the world around him. While hanging out with a group of his old school friends, he falls in love with Sam (Natalie Portman), and gradually learns to deal with the raw emotions that he has been shielded from for so long.
One words critics use to describe Zach Braff’s directorial debut is “assured”, and you really can’t argue with that. For a film where very little actually happens, the scenes are set and played out with a minimum of fluff and shilly-shallying, while simultaneously maintaining a light touch of dreamlike whimsy. It’s very clever. The dialogue is natural, even when the characters are off-beat, but I thought it fell down at the last hurdle. Large’s confrontation with his father, and the tearful airport scene seemed lacking in passion, and they deflated the magical, romantic bubble of the rest of the film. It’s still enormous fun to watch, though, and Braff is going to be an actor and director to keep tabs on for the future.
Teacher and unpublished novelist Miles (Paul Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on a trip to the wine country of California for to celebrate Jack’s last week of freedom before his wedding on Saturday. Miles is a wine connoiseur, and his plan is for them to eat good food, play some golf, and sample the finest wines the vineyards’ have to offer. Jack, a rogueish C-list actor, has a simpler and less sophisticated goal: to have a last fling before tying the knot. And he wants to make sure that Miles gets some, too.
This basic set-up could serve as the plot for a brash and farcical buddy movie, but Sideways emphasizes the drama over the comedy. Miles is badly depressed over his marriage that broke up two years ago, and over his chances of ever selling his novel, and he drinks too much. Jack manages to hook the two of them up on a double date, and while Jack practically hops straight into bed with Stephanie (Sandra Oh), shy Miles struggles to find the right things to say to fellow wine lover Maya (Virginia Madsen).
In a meandering series of events, the week plays out with Miles getting ever more frustrated with his inability to progress his infatuation with Maya, and ever more infuriated with Jack’s shameless infidelity. There are a few big laughs, but most of the humour is softly sarcastic, with a touch of bitterness. It’s not a fast-moving story, and in places the film does feel slow and over-extended. But like a fine wine, it’s meant to be savoured and appreciated for its many nuances and flavours rather than downed in a single Hollywood gulp.
Former counter-terrorist agent John Creasey (Denzel Washington) finds a job in Mexico City as the bodyguard of a wealthy industrialist’s daughter (Pita, played by Dakota Fanning). Creasey is a heavy drinker, trying to escape the ghosts of his past, but he gradually finds solace and redemption in his friendship with the little girl. This introductory story, which plays out over the first hour, could almost stand as a film on its own. It’s intense and touching, and it paints a warm picture of Creasey and Pita as two lonely souls who have a lot to learn from each other. But then she is kidnapped, and when the ransom drop goes sour, killed.
Creasey was shot and almost killed when Pita was taken. With her gone, his lifeline is cut, and his sole purpose becomes finding out who kidnapped her, and killing them. It’s a brutal rampage, and director Tony Scott runs riot with his characteristic visual flair to turn this bloodbath into a stylistic masterpiece. But just as Scott cranks up the colour, Creasey turns emotionally monotone. The latter half of the film is not about anger and thrills and car chases, it’s about black depression and cold determination.
Denzel Washington puts in a stunning performance, making Creasey’s revenge feel realistically barren, but the amount of cinematographic energy being lavished on it feels out of place. The ending, which I won’t spoil here, is both emotionally jarring and disappointingly anti-climactic. It’s a difficult film to watch, but still a worthwhile one. Just don’t be expecting a summer action blockbuster–it’s much, much darker than that.
Light, easygoing comedy romance about uptight insurance risk assessor Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller), who starts going out with flaky free spirit Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston) after his wife leaves him for their scuba instructor on their honeymoon. Ben Stiller is good as usual, and Philip Seymour Hoffman runs an amusing (though mostly irrelevant) sub-plot as Reuben’s failed actor friend. Watch out for some nice touches by Hank Azaria as the scuba guy, and Bryan Brown as the extreme sports nutter Reuben is trying to insure. It’s simple but funny, and the perfect antidote to a cold and dark winter evening.
A slice of wish-fulfilment cubicle humour with dozens of sharply observed digs at office life and office habits, and more quotable lines than you can shake a stick at. The plot backbone is only so-so, but when the script and the cast are firing on all cylinders, sometimes that’s all you need. Gary Cole as Lumbergh is just perfect.