Blue, blue, my love is blue ...
Movies seen summer 2009-2010.
Originally written: February 2010
Avatar
Up in the Air
Sherlock Holmes
Solomon Kane
(500) Days of Summer
The Ugly Truth
District 9
These days international airplane flight is somewhat advanced from more primitive days. The availability of individual entertainment modules for each passenger, with a wide range of movies, television shows and games from which to choose, means that you can construct your own entertainment package, and not rely on the one film being shown to all. Nonetheless, the constant rumble of the engines, at a frequency that is close to that of film dialog and the sheer boredom of hours on end of constriction to the fuselage mean that the end-result is not always satisfactory. I caught up with a number of films in this way in our recent flights to and from Europe but I'm not sure I enjoyed them as much as I should.
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One note to bring up to date matters discussed earlier: Up has now accrued over $US725 million in receipts, making it second only to Finding Nemo among the Pixar productions. Not bad for a movie that was doomed to failure, according to all the industry smarties who refused to tie-in. On a similar note, it is frightening to note that Avatar has, in six weeks, become the most lucrative movie ever, surpassing Titanic for the title. It looks like accruing well over $2 billion in total. Vox populi, vox dei?
The thing about Avatar is the same as the thing about most George Lucas movies: James Cameron's stories are not as good as the films he makes. There is no doubt that, in terms of style, look and feel, and in terms of the technical achievements involved, Avatar is a brilliant success, easily earning the big bucks that it has commanded at the box office. If a James Cameron movie has to be the biggest earner of all time, then I am glad that it's going to be Avatar, and not Titanic. The McGuffin for the movie is very simple: we find an alien moon with a mineral we need ("unobtainium" - that's OTT, even for Cameron, and the worst new element since "upsidedownium") but it's inhabited by a low-tech civilisation. While the xenologists are finding more out about the moon and the civilisation of the natives, the Na'vi, utilising avatars that blend Na'vi and human DNA and are mind-controlled by their human "parent", the mining company and the military are bent on taking the resource willy-nilly. Jake Sully is a Marine who is asked to take control of his twin brother's avatar, after the brother dies unexpectedly. Jake is initially happy to do so: he is himself paraplegic and is pleased to be co-opted by the military to act as a spy on the Na'vi. Pretty soon we are right in Pocahontas territory: Jake falls for the chief's daughter after she saves his life and, as he discovers more about the Na'vi, his loyalty is subverted and he goes native. The joy of the first half is the gradual discovery of the Na'vi culture, and Cameron's secondary world creation. The horse culture of the American west is replaced by one involving flying creatures; the animist religion of the Amerindians is somewhat replicated, with the exception that, while the sachem is a man, the Na'vi shaman are women. Interestingly, the Na'vi men are largely voiced by Amerindians, like Wes Studi, while the women are voice by African-Americans, like CCH Pounder and Zoe Saldana. The version we saw is in the newest 3D, and it is a step up even from that employed by Pixar in Up. While the scenes at the military/mining base are shot using actors in the traditional way, the Na'vi scenes are shot using motion capture. The resemblance of the avatars to their human controllers, Sam Worthington's Jake or Sigourney Weaver's Grace, is note-worthy - another technological feature of surpassing worth. Having established the conflict resulting from the might-is-right philosophy of the Blackwater-like mining company and its military allies, and having immersed Jake (and us) in the peaceful co-existence of the Na'vi with their environment, Cameron doesn't rely on his audience drawing its own conclusions. We are fairly clearly told what to believe about the thematic elements underlying the film, and about its obvious commentary on USAmerican history and contemporary foreign policy. The simplistic political and environmental analysis is laid on with a trowel and deservedly earns some of the opprobrium levelled at it. Cameron switches gear in the third act: and the film becomes, by and large, a series of action scenes as the Na'vi and their humans antagonists, led by evil Marine Col. Quaritch and greedy entrepreneur Parker Selfridge, fight it out for control of the moon. To me, the two-dimensionality of the "evil" characters, and the reliance on shoot-'em-ups to resolve his film, derogates somewhat from the successes attendant in the establishment of the created world and the imagined culture. The movie works best when its pure imagination is shown on the screen in a series of discoveries about Pandora and its native species; it works less well when it reverts to violence as a story-resolving mechanism and deus-ex-machina devices to get the writer out of the corner into which he had painted himself. In the end it is the technical achievement that is remarkable here. Cameron has taken film to the next logical stage of its development. The impact this might have on the way Hollywood operates (given that there are really no "name" actors here and the movie sells itself on its technical merits and its sensawonda) is hard to calculate, but I imagine we will be seeing a number of lesser imitators in the next few years - as we saw after the success of Star Wars in the 1970s. Meanwhile, Avatar deserves all the credit it is accruing and is more worthy of a Best Picture Oscar than most of its competitors.
George unpacks his backpack
If there is a film that I think can compete with it, it would be Up in the Air, Jason Reitman's third feature, following Thank You for Smoking and Juno. Like them it has an interesting mixture of the serious and satiric, with a love of language at the base of much of its success. This time Reitman is looking the self-contained ultra-modern man. Ryan Bingham is a gun for hire, brought in by managers to do their firing for them. He enjoys his work and, more than that, he enjoys the constant travel and the lack of a home base. He would see his life as a success as he builds up his frequent flyer miles and opens the door of opportunity for workers to seek new fields of endeavor; and every so often he's invited to present a self-help seminar on simplifying one's life removing all those complicating relationships. His carefully constructed world is challenged by the intrusion of two women: Alex is a fellow-traveller, another of the peripatetic few, flitting from appointment to appointment across the US air routes, and Natalie is a young recent graduate with ideas about modernising Ryan's business through the use of teleconferencing. Alex threatens his world by introducing someone about whom he might care; Natalie by making it possible he will lose his footloose lifestyle. And then there is his family (two sisters) who might also provide him with what he would see as an anchor. George Clooney, who seems to grow as an actor in every role he takes, is very good indeed as Bingham. It is perhaps his most nuanced role, bringing out many facets of Bingham's personality. He is well-matched by Vera Farmiga's Alex, a sultry presence offering the classic zipless fuck. She was strong and sexy in The Departed, but she is even better here in a role that could have been almost a cipher. Anna Kendrick, who is apparently featured in the Twilight movies, makes the most of the opportunities of playing with Clooney and her Natalie is a surprise, initiating many of the plot twists. The script, co-written by Reitman and the previously undistinguished Sheldon Turner, deals with those unexpected plot twists in interesting ways, keeping up both the character study that is essential to the film and the commentary on the impact that redundancy/firing has on employees. Many of the cameos of the future unemployed are presented by recently fired workers, who responded to ads to have their say about their reaction. It is another layer of interest in a very enjoyable movie from a director whose output remains without blemish. Recommended.
A study in scarlet
If there can be such a thing as an very good bad movie, and a very enjoyable, but extremely wrong, literary adaptation, then Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is a qualifier (perhaps the winner) in both categories. This is not one of the loving Holmes pastiches like The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes or Without a Clue, or a ridiculous involvement of Holmes in a largely senseless non-canonical story, like Murder by Decree or The Seven-Percent Solution, or even Basil Rathbone chasing Nazi spies in WW2. This is a Holmes so far removed from Conan Doyle's character as to be in a different universe. So let's not pretend that this is a Sherlock Holmes movie, despite the title and the names of the characters, and let's just appreciate it on its own merits, whatever they might be. Robert Downey Jr is cast in the title role, an action hero operating in late Victorian London, whose muscles are as soundly developed as his brain. His companion, John Watson (Jude Law), is far more competent than the original character ever was and is, like the original, finding true love with his Mary. Inspector Lestrade is as thick as ever and Irene Adler ("the woman") re-appears in Holmes' life, this time as a professional criminal. The preposterous story centres on an Alastair Crowley-like character, Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), who dabbles in black magic and is apprehended by Holmes as he is about to sacrifice another victim. He is subsequently hanged, but apparently comes back to life to mastermind a fanciful scheme, with the help of the usual quasi-Masonic brotherhood, for world domination. Ratiocination doesn't play much of a part in Holmes' investigation of the Blackwood scheme. The hero is much closer to an action, even a comic, hero, than a consulting detective. Ritchie uses a panoply of tricks, including slow-motion and voice-over, to advance the plot, and there is a good lashing of humor. Notwithstanding the silliness of the plot and the ham-handedness of some of the direction, the actors make it a fun romp. Downey is very good indeed and well supported by Rachel McAdams, whose Irene Adler is an engaging temptress, and Mark Strong, in a further demonstration of his effectiveness as a character actor. The film's good box office results will guarantee a sequel, and the movie itself establishes what that sequel will be about. With any luck the Reichenbach Falls will spell the end.
No wisdom with Solomon
The one film we saw in France is one that I cannot recommend. Solomon Kane bears some resemblance to the Ritchie Sherlock Holmes, without any of the latter's entertaining qualities. In an adventure, set in an alternate Jacobean era, where magic is a palpable force, and based on a Robert E Howard fantasy, James Purefoy plays the eponymous hero, a former soldier of fortune who has renounced violence and then finds himself cast in the role of super-hero, combating the ultimate evil that has beset the kingdom. In fact, it is even sillier than it sounds, and despite the presence of some good actors, including Pete Postlethwaite and Alice Krige, soon deteriorates into the usual bloody third act, where brute force and ignorance replace sensible plotting in the resolution of the hero's dilemma. This is sword-and-sorcery fantasy at its basest and, if it gets Australian cinema release, is one to avoid.
Caught on video
(500) Days of Summer is another demonstration of the strength to be found amongst independent US film-makers. This rom-com with a twist centres on Tom (Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, who's graduated from 3rd Rock to become one of the more interesting lead actors), a modern romantic, who believes he has found his true love in the shape of Summer (Zooey Deschanel), a fellow worker in the greeting card business in which he works. The non-sequential story covers the highlights and lowlights of the 500 days between their meeting and Tom's acceptance that the romance is truly over. The twist here is that it is the male who believes in true love, while the woman doesn't - or at least cannot see Tom as her Mr Right, even if he is her Mr Now. Director Marc Webb plays around with time, showing us how the romance started and how it ended, somewhere in the middle, and what Tom sees as the pivotal moments at the beginning and the end. The two leads are very good, the script is sharp and the direction pointed enough to keep us interested. That it doesn't follow the usual predictable rom-com path is greatly to its credit. Recommended.
The ugly truth is that The Ugly Truth is exactly the sort of predictable rom-com that its stars, Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, don't really deserve. Directed by Australian Robert Luketic, who is still trying to match the success of his first film, Legally Blond, the film casts Heigl as another of those successful, but incompetent in relationships, 30-something women and Butler as the sexist know-it-all who is her match. From the meet-cute to the predictable ending there is little to distinguish this from a plethora of other modern rom-coms.
Every now and then, usually in a low-budget film, there is an original Sf idea that is worth exploring. District 9 is the current example. Based on an idea developed from a short film by South African film-maker Neill Blomkamp and financed by Peter Jackson, the film posits the presence of a million or so aliens, in a camp just outside Johannesburg, isolated here because their space-craft broke down. The aliens are not the usually cute lot, although they are bilaterally symmetrical and not unlike overgrown grasshoppers. They are called "prawns" by the same sort of folks who would call blacks "niggers" and have a love of catfood. They also have access to some advanced weaponry that can only be operated by those with alien DNA. Their presence has upset the nearby human population so the powers-that-be have determined to move them away and isolate them - with little regard for the niceties of the situation. As a result of nepotism, a clueless bureaucrat named Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is put in charge of the operation, although he is really under the control of Koobus Venter (David James), the commander of the private military force employed to ensure the move is carried out. Wikus stumbles into an alien rescue plan, being painstakingly carried out by Christopher Johnson, and becomes infected with a substance that starts altering his DNA. The half-alien Wikus becomes a wanted man - wanted by the alien to retrieve the substance he needs to complete the rescue; by the bureaucrats who want to use him as a medical experiment; and by Nigerian gangsters who think that his DNA can cure their crippled leader. The film is in the form of a documentary, as if being filmed as it unfolds, and the style suits the low-budget nature of the film-making. The acting, from a cast that is largely made up of non-actors, or those with little acting experience, is rudimentary, and the obvious social commentary, especially in its placement in Johannesburg and Soweto only a few years after Apartheid, don't derogate greatly from the film's appeal. It is in the originality of the concepts and the unpredictability of the plot developments, not to mention the slightly ambivalent ending, that Blomkamp has his success, a success reflected in the box office takings of over $200 million for a relatively low-budget film.
[Note: Information about the movies mentioned, including cast and crew lists and all sorts of trivia, is available at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).]