Kings and princesses - all animated
Movies seen early 2011.
Originally written: February 2011
Oscar nominations 2011
The King's Speech
Tangled
Morning Glory
True Grit
Something the Lord Made
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is as predictable as ever: give it a middle of the road drama and the members are comfortable; but confront them with a genuinely innovate genre picture and they are at a loss as to what to do. This year they have been true to form. The King's Speech and The Social Network are both good movies. The former has a traditional narrative, the latter is a little more challenging; both deal with real world subjects, are well written, well acted and well produced. They are the meat-and-potatoes of Oscar fare and one or the other will likely be judged the Best Picture this year. On the other hand, Inception, while nominated for Best Picture, is unlikely to win, despite its originality and verve. It might garner a few technical awards, as it should, but its creator, Christopher Nolan, has again been overlooked in the Best Director race, as he was when Memento and The Dark Knight were also nominated. The absence of a Director nomination is almost certain doom for a film's best picture chances (you have to go back to Driving Miss Daisy - a literally middle of the road drama likely to appeal to the old men and women of the Academy - to find such a movie) but Nolan's absence says something more: the voters don't apparently want bravura risk-taking, even when it works out at the box office. And, in particular, they don't like, or apparently understand, SF movies. Or, given the list of acting nominations, comedy performances.
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The local rags have noted the number of key Australian nominations this year, including Rush, Kidman and Weaver in the acting categories, and the producers of The King's Speech, who are half Australian. Most have missed the animation nomination for Shaun Tan and his cronies, for his 15-minutes film, The Lost Thing, not to mention a plethora of other Aussie nominees in the technical fields, including the editor of The Social Network, Kirk Baxter; Ben Snow for the visual effects on Iron Man 2; and make-up artist Dave Elsey. The press will eventually find them, as well.
There is some unpredictability in this year's field, especially with the inclusion of a number of "smaller" independent films, like The Black Swan (likely to win Natalie Portman an actor's award in what is essentially a horror trope), 127 Hours, and the remake of True Grit. But it is very likely that The King's Speech and The Social Network will fight out the major awards, with The Fighter providing the supporting acting competition. Whatever the Academy says, and despite the collective opinion of a number of wanky critics' associations, Inception remains the best and most original film made in 2010.
A peach, by George
Geoffrey Rush not only stars in The King's Speech about a stammering prince (forget his nomination as best supporting actor, he is the co-star), but is also a co-producer. Its Australian input leads to a resulting film that is great largely because it recognises the human element in its historical tale. While a few liberties might have been taken with the story, it seems to stick closely to the known facts. Bertie was the second son of an aloof father and a martinet mother, over-shadowed by his much more personable brother, David, whose private life will require Bertie to take the throne, challenging him to find a solution to his problems. His main difficulty was that, in a family business that required public speaking, he had a bad stammer, and none of the establishment doctors consulted could help him. Colin Firth essays the role here and his portrayal of the frustrated, but generally nice, prince indicates his advance as an actor, leaving behind his plethora of slightly balmy buffers and Mr Darcys and giving a performance well worthy of awards. He is matched all the way by Rush, playing Lionel Logue, the unqualified antipodean speech therapist to whom Bertie, and his wife Elizabeth, finally turn. Logue is a failed actor who has acquired skills from treating Great War shell-shock victims. His approach to the prince, with a straight-forward Australian egalitarianism, is contrasted with the prince's reserve. This clash of personalities elevates the movie, written by David Seidler, whose CV doesn't suggest a capability for is level of sophistication, and directed by Tom Hooper, whose previous association with the mini-series John Adams suggests a talent previously unrecognized in film. While the film is principally a two-hander, there is some very able support, particularly from Helena Bonham-Carter, eschewing her usual histrionics and under-playing the woman who would grow to be the beloved Queen Mother. Also prominent are Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi in key supporting roles. The one questionable choice is Timothy Spall's attempted impersonation of Churchill, which never quite works. The set pieces do however, particularly the recreation of the radio broadcasts, and the interpretation of the therapy sessions during which Logue seeks to get Bertie to gain the confidence he needs to overcome the problems that have led to the stutter. The story has apparently been kept under wraps in deference to the Queen Mum, during her lifetime. Whether that is true or not, the effluxion of time has give the writer a perspective that makes the film even better as a history of England in the lead-up to WW2. The King's Speech is top-class film-making, with good acting and direction, very worthy of the awards it has received. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if it does not traverse much in the way of new ground.
We practice to deceive
Now that John Lasseter has taken charge of all the animation works at Disney, we can expect to see better product emerging from the Mouse Factory, under its own brand, as well as under the Pixar label. Tangled is a case in point, the second cartoon feature made at Disney since its acquisition of Pixar and the appointment of Lasseter as the head honcho. The film indicates that the improvement has begun but that there is still some way to go before the Disney cartoons are the equal of Pixar's. It is a cartoon in the Disney mode: including hand-drawn animation; based on a traditional fairy story (Rapunzel, in this case); voiced by 'name' actors; and littered with forgettable Alan Mencken music. The barebones of the Grimms' story remains: the princess, taken as a baby, confined to a tower accessible only by the 'ladder' of her golden hair, guarded by an evil witch. The changes are interesting: the golden tresses are also a hairy fountain of youth, which Mother Gothel (voiced by Broadway's Donna Murphy) uses to keep herself vital. Rapunzel (Mandy Moore, voicing the 18 year old a little too young, with some creepy results) yearns for freedom - for at least long enough to see close up the lights that appear annually on the anniversary of her birth. Enter a hero, Flynn Rider (Chuck's Zachary Levi), a two-bit thief on the run from the palace guard. She has soon got the better of him and inveigled him into assisting her with her plans to escape for a day or two. The resultant picaresque narrative is helped by a series of hair's breadth escapes, a cast of all-singing, all-dancing villains, and an implacable palace horse, who just about steals the picture. The main trouble is that the balance between adult humor and kids' humor has not been maintained. At the session we attended it was the sub-teens who lost interest, while the humor seemed mainly aimed at the adults. Nor was the music sufficiently good to keep the kiddies interested; no score like that of The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast on this occasion. The film is a good romp, with some lovely touches and a resolution that could be picked fairly early in the piece. My reservation was that, in comparison with the consistently brilliant fare emerging from Pixar, the old hands at Disney haven't quite got their shit together to the same extent. This is better than their product pre-Lasseter, but not quite there yet.
What is the story?
JJ Abrams, responsible for much TV SF and the recent Star Trek reboot is not the name you expect to see associated with a rom-com, especially not one that eschews much of the rom, and ends up being an amusing, if mild, satire of breakfast television. Morning Glory is the name of the piece and its saving grace is that it is genuinely funny just often enough to make it interesting. Rachel McAdam is Becky, a Gen Y producer in need of a job after losing her gig on a local New Jersey morning show. She is offered the producer's job on the fourth-rated national morning show, one that is headed for the last chance saloon. Diane Keaton is a co-host on the show and Becky forces an old news-dog (Harrison Ford, playing curmudgeonly in the same way he has played most of his recent tight-jawed roles) into the co-anchor role. At the same time she meets cute with a news producer (Patrick Wilson with a rare good role post Angels in America) and a nearly superfluous romantic sub-plot is added to the mix. Becky is the Gen Y descendant of Jane Craig, Holly Hunter's manic news producer from Broadcast News. The film is less serious and, ultimately, less critical of the trends in the media than either James Brooks' movie, or indeed Network. Breakfast television is an easy target and Aline Brosh McKenna's script (she also wrote The Devil Wears Prada) takes a number of the easier potshots at it. The good sports are Keaton, as the anchor prepared to do anything for the show, and Matt Malloy as the comic weatherman. But the main interest is in the non-romantic clash between Becky and Mike Pomeroy, the veteran newsman who knows he is slumming. The outcome is as predictable as most of the elements of this reasonably traditional situation comedy, but the skills of the lead actors, and Roger Michell's strong direction, keep the film balanced and moving forward. And there are some genuine belly laughs along the way - which is not a bad thing in a comedy.
A Bridges too far
I never actually bothered to see the John Wayne version of True Grit, although parts of it are so ingrained in the zeitgeist that I always think that I might have. The Coen Brothers have gone back to the source material and re-adapted the Charles Portis novel to a more contemporary interpretation. The greenness of scenery that seemed to inform the 1960s film's palette has been replaced by greyness, barren landscapes and wilderness; and the relatively clean-cut John Wayne and Glen Campbell have been supplanted by much less refined Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon; and the bland Kim Darby, a twenty-something playing a teenager, is upgraded to Hailee Steinfeld. Damon is very good, Bridges and Steinfeld are brilliant, and the Coens have provided all three with the most sonorous and orotund dialog since David Milch stopped writing Deadwood. In an early scene young Mattie, on the trail of the man who killed her father, engages in a horse trade with a horse trader, and gets the better of him. This scene sets the tone for the film. Soon she is after a marshal with 'True Grit' and her choice is "Rooster" Cogburn, a fat one-eyed gunman with an unsavory reputation. They are joined by a Texas Ranger who is after the same man. The tracking of the killer (a cameo for Josh Brolin) provides all three with the opportunity to develop their characters and the Coens use dialog well as a method of so doing. Bridges here is the antithesis of John Wayne. The Duke always played himself; the Dude tends to bury himself in the part. His Rooster employs a form of the Western vernacular gibberish, which takes a while to get used to, but works well here. Steinfeld's character is much more interesting, truly implacable and, perhaps, the one most possessed of the eponymous character trait. The iconic Rooster-against-the-gang shoot-out has been preserved in the climax, even though some other elements of the plot have been, apparently, changed from the Wayne version, back towards the source material. Roger Deakins' cinematography is another great element of the film. This classic western deserves its Best Picture nomination; I remain unconvinced the Coens, deserving of a writing award, should have a Director nod, when Christopher Nolan has missed out. Still this True Grit is a great and recommendable movie
Got to have heart
HBO keeps turning out quality product. Something the Lord Made, a made-for-TV movie from 2004 about medical researchers and color prejudice, which we saw recently on DVD, is another example of their fine output. Directed by veteran Joseph Sargent, the movie tells the story of Alfred Blalock, a researcher responsible for several advances in heart surgery, and his association with Vivien Thomas, a black handyman who becomes his assistant. Together with fellow researcher Helen Taussig, Blalock is credited with the discovery of a heart pump that enabled heart surgery and overcame the 'blue baby' phenomenon. What the film seeks to show, and what was ultimately acknowledged by the medical establishment, is that Thomas was integral to the discoveries, and perhaps responsible for the techniques, especially the stitching techniques, that made the advances possible. Set in Tennessee and then Baltimore in the years between 1930 and 1970, the film follows the efforts of Blalock and his team in the face of entrenched racism, and the eventual recognition of Thomas. The lead actors are uniformly good: Alan Rickman as Blalock and Mary Stuart Masterton as Taussig you would expect, but the stand-out performance is that of hip-hop artist Mos Def as Thomas. He was so bad in the appalling version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that I came in with low expectations. Here he is excellent. A very good, if low key, movie and yet another indictment of the endemic racism that has pervaded the US even up to the present.
[Note: Information about the movies mentioned, including cast and crew lists and all sorts of trivia, is available at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).]