Spirited Theft
Movies from seen in winter 2003
Originally written: August 2003
Good Thief
Igby Goes Down
Phone Booth
Bruce Almighty
Bad Eggs
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
8 Mile
Reign of Fire
Catch Me If You Can
Around Hollywood, due to the incidence of sequels, 2003 is being referred to as the "Year of the Colon". Those who have seen any of the numerous sequels their split titles to accommodate the name of the original and the peculiar name of the follow-up will know what I mean. Whether its American Pie: The Wedding or Terminator Three: The Rise of the Machine or Legally Blond: Red, White and Blond, it an indication of a lack of originality that is becoming endemic. Lest the same be said of reviewing, I have been taken by the innovation of the Four Word Film Review. Popularised by a website (www.fwfr.com), the idea is to encapsulate the film in the stated number of words. Among my favourites are "Everything but kitchen sinks" (Titanic); "Spacey limps. Then doesn't" (The Usual Suspects) and "Slow guy runs fast" (Forrest Gump). In the absence of a surfeit of interesting movies, we'll try for a surfeit of interesting reviews by trying to match the four worders with the prolix.
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Nick Nolte is The Good Thief. His character, Bob, is a rumpled and wasted crook surviving among the criminal demi-monde in the south of France on gambling and heroin. We know that he is basically a good man because he tries to save a young Bosnian refugee woman from exploitation by an unsavory pimp and because the local police chief likes him and wants to protect him. As interesting as the film is as a character-driven drama, it is better as a classic heist movie. Some heist films (like Rififi and Topkapi) show the recruitment and a little of the training and concentrate the majority of the film on the heist itself. The Good Thief is of the sub-genre which details the planning stage, relegating the attempted robbery to a much briefer role. The McGuffin here is that the plan to rob the local casino of art-works that are in a vault, not on the walls, is complemented by a deliberate sub-plot to ensure that he police know of the robbery but are informed of the wrong plan. Meanwhile Bob and his associates recruit the grunts, meet with the mandatory security and electronics expert and try to put the police off. There are the usual complications of such a labyrinthine plot - including a May-December romance between Bob and the aforementioned Bosnian bird and an alternate robbery plan which the plotters trip over. All this is handled well by Neil Jordan, the Irish director responsible for, inter alia, Mona Lisa and The Crying Game. He also wrote the script, based on a 1950's French thriller, Bob Le Flambeur. The plot is interesting and the resolution is a little less predictable than might be imagined but the film is carried by Nolte's lead performance and two great supporting roles, Russian actress Nutsa Kukhianidze as Anne, the refugee, and Tcheky Karyo as the cop. The first really good movie of 2003 and thoroughly recommended.
A more wry Catcher
The echoes of JD Salinger and Holden Caulfield in film, literature and society indicate the continued influence of Catcher in the Rye. The character of Terry Mann in Field of Dreams is an obvious Salinger reference and Jason Slocumb Jr aka "Igby" is the most recent of the Caulfield clones. And one of the most interesting. In fact, despite its metaphorical ancestral lineage, Burr Steer's Igby Goes Down stands up remarkably well as an original and independent piece of film-making. Igby is the scion of a dysfunctional upper-class family: his mother is a possessive hypercritical bitch; his father a guest of a home for the perpetually bewildered; and his brother, a yuppie economist in the making, is a repulsive snob who has no time for his younger sibling. Even his godfather, the closest thing he has to a role model, turns out to be a philandering and violent turd. Mix in two putative love interests, an artist on the make who's the godfather's mistress and a slightly older, but grounded, student named Sookie Saperstein, and you have the ingredients for an interesting stew. Like Catcher in the Rye, this is a picaresque adventure as Igby ditches school and hides in the big city, having the requisite lessons in life and love and, unlike Holden perhaps, learning something about himself. The success of the film arises from both the strength of the script and the uniformly good performances. You expect Susan Sarandon (mum), Jeff Goldblum (godfather) and the lovely Amanda Peet (mistress) to be great and an insightful performance from Claire Danes (Sookie) is no surprise. However, Ryan Phillipe (brother) and Bill Pullman (dad) are not usually listed high on the acting scale but each does a good turn here and another Culkin, Kieran, shows in the role of Igby that there is actually talent in the family despite Macauley. Made in 2002, and rather late for release in Australia, Igby Goes Down is one of those rare American movies that will move you and make you think. Recommended.
Sniper's call creates tension
Hitchcock considered the possibilities of a film set in a phone booth but never made it. Larry Cohen's script based on that idea had been floating around Hollywood for many years before Joel Schumacher decided to make it. The McGuffin is a man trapped in a phone booth by a psychotic sniper, known only from his voice over the phone. The trapped man then interacts with those around him, and the police when they arrive. The end result, Phone Booth, is quite a surprise. Despite the limited arena for action and the constrictions on the plot afforded by the premise, it plays out as a taut and effective thriller. This is aided by three excellent performances by the leads, Colin Farrell as the trapped press agent, Forest Whittaker as the cop and Kiefer Sutherland as the malevolent voice. The film's release had been delayed by the appearance of the Washington snipers last year, so it was made before Minority Report, which brought Farrell to attention. He manages to convey an edgy sympathy as the low-life agent, placed on the spot by the sniper, partly as a result of his own actions, for which he now faces retribution from an unseen nemesis. Whittacker, who now makes infrequent appearances as an actor, giving more time to directing, is earnest in a role that requires more disingenuousness than is strictly necessary for the credibility of the plot. Sutherland, who has become hot again on the back of 24, has exactly the right mixture of menace and madness to convince us that the agent is in genuine trouble. Unlike Hitchcock's protagonists, who were generally innocents involved in dastardly plots through no fault of their own, Farrell's agent is "guilty", so his survival is not to be taken for granted. That adds a frisson to the simple narrative which keeps out interest to the end. This is one that could well be seen on DVD when released.
Power without complete glory
Jim Carrey is still seeking credibility and Bruce Almighty is his latest attempt. His 'wacky' television newsman is given divine powers after sledging God once too often. The story, as such, is how he uses the powers for selfish ends until he discovers the error of his ways. Story-line 502A, add jokes as required. The success of this film-by-numbers depends on the standard of the jokes, the credibility of the performances. I'd give the jokes about 5 out of 10 - pretty hit and miss, usually in that order, but the performances are much better than that. Carrey is now something more than the slapstick clown he started as. He has discovered something about giving his characters some depth and showing us that they learn from their mistakes. Bruce is not very sympathetic to begin with, and not that good a reporter. His failure to deal adequately with divinity and the consequent mess he makes of his life do make him a better man and Carrey can now convey that. The more dramatic roles he's played in The Truman Show and The Majestic have had an effect. There is still some residual mugging, usually when no other gag idea seems available, but there is now something more. Morgan Freeman is God. That's both a casting note and a review. Jennifer Aniston continues her recovery from television sitcom hell and adds another charming female lead to her resume. The rest of the cast is adequate. The story and the jokes needed more work on them but the three leads carry this movie farther than you'd expect. It's a respectable comedy, worth a squiz.
Comedians skewer crooked cops
Bad Eggs is the latest attempts by Australian humorists to transfer their skills to movie-making. Some like the Working Dog group have been successful, with films like The Castle and The Dish; Paul Hogan managed one successful followed by multiple failures; most have tried and ended up with The Wog Boy and other disasters. Tony Martin, formerly partner in comedy of Mick Molloy, wrote and directed this latest effort and put Molloy, fresh from his own effort, Crackerjack, in the lead role, a cop within an elite police unit suspected of corruption. Where Crackerjack succeeded was that it was not so much a series of jokes, but a cohesive movie about a set of interesting characters. Bad Eggs is much funnier, and has a series of good set pieces and strong jokes, but I'm not sure it hangs together better as a movie. The characters are never really developed and every so often the humor stops and plot development takes over for a while. Nonetheless there are a couple of good performances in the lead, particularly Bob Franklin as Molloy's deadpan offsider and Alan Brough as the computer geek they co-opt. Once again Judith Lucy is cast opposite Molloy as the love-hate interest and their chemistry is as strong as it was in the bowls movie. Similarly Bill Hunter is again cast, although this time in a heavier role. Throughout the movie are dotted bits and cameos by many of the director's mates: Gina Riley, Shaun Micallef, Pete Smith and Nicolas Bell among others. Martin's direction is as eclectic as his script but the whole is greatly assisted by Dave Graney's score. I would class this as a success. At least the makers have succeeded in making it funny and sending up the 1960s cop shows that were the staple of Australian television. There are a couple of slow bits but the movie overcomes them.
Music videos lose plot
On the other hand, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, the only colon movie of the winter so far, is a failure. The first re-imagining of the television series wasn't all that great so we must have been desperate for a film when we went to see it. Drew Barrymore is again good. Cameron Diaz is skinny and Lucy Liu shows that she definitely cannot act. Demi Moore is sculptural marvel of surgeon's art but that doesn't assist her performance. The plot is full of holes. The McGuffin is a couple of rings on which are encoded the secret identity of all people on the Witness Protection Program. If the O'Grady gang had the rings and had extracted the names that they needed for revenge, why were they heading off to buy the same secrets from Demi's fallen Angel? If Demi's character knew the Angels now wore Kevlar vests, following an incident in which she was shot thrice in the chest (great reconstructive surgery, guys), why did she shoot each of the Angels in the chest? These and countless other questions are never answered. Instead McG gives us a series of 5-15 minutes vignettes, all scored as music videos with such heavy-handed literalness that it becomes annoying. The only redeeming feature is the cameo for Jaclyn Smith, one of the original Angels, and she looks better than any of her replacements. Except of course for Drew.
Spirited animated fantasy journey
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away in the English-language version) is the best of the movies seen on DVD in this period. I had meant to see this animation at the cinema but the chance never came. Having now seen it, I can say that it thoroughly deserved the Oscar it received as Best Animated Feature of 2002 and it goes into my all-time favorite movie list. My missing it at the movies is at one with my neglect of Japanese animation generally. An oversight I now feel needs correction. Looking at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) I see that all eight movies directed by Hayao Miyazaki, including this, his latest, are in the top 50 animated pictures as voted by the IMDb regulars. (I also note that all five Pixar features are in the top 25!) Spirited Away (more literally from its Japanese title: Sen and the Disappearance of Chihiro) is a classic fantasy trope, a quest which involves growth and self-discovery as well as recovery of the quest object. Chihiro is a grouchy only-child sub-teen being forced to move away from her friends by her parents when the family stumbles across what appears to be a theme-park but is in fact the grounds for a bath-house for the gods and nature spirits of traditional Japanese belief. When her parents are transformed into pigs, Chihiro must find a way to save them, while herself surviving in the spirit world of the bath-house. Renamed Sen by Yubaba, the malevolent witch-owner of the bath-house, and assisted by Haku, a strange youth apprenticed to Yubaba, by Kamaji, a multi-legged being who runs the bath-houses engineering section, by other servants and some of the spirits, Chihiro embarks on a picaresque journey of wonder and discovery. The English version of the film has been dubbed by an interesting group of actors, under the direction of John Lasseter, the director of many of the Pixar animations. But it is Miyazaki's script and the animation put together by him and his colleagues at his Ghibli studios which are the true star here. The strength of the imaginative creation and the quality of the animation work match each other well. The spirit world of the bath-house and the episodes which test Sen (and Haku) are well thought out and carry us logically through a largely illogical world. This is fantasy creation at its best, augmented in the strong Lasseter-directed English version by the talents of, among others, Suzanne Pleshette, David Ogden Stiers and Michael Chiklis. The two-disk DVD we rented also has a quite interesting (although occasionally too Japanesy) paean to Miyazaki and his crew in the form of a "making of" documentary. I thoroughly recommend Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi and will be trying to see the rest of Miyazaki's works in the future.
Also seen on DVD
The surprising thing about 8 Mile is not that Eminem is so much more successful in his transition to film than contemporaries like Mandy Moore, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears and the Spice Girls - but then he is much more talented as a singer-songwriter and more creative than any of them - but that it is such a conventional musical biopic. It stands in a long tradition of Hollywood musicals dating back, at least, to 42nd Street. It reminds me most strongly of the "Gotta Dance/Broadway Melody" sequence from Singin' in the Rain which satirised earlier film versions of the boy-from-the-sticks overcomes adversity to succeed as writer/performer. Eminem is here cast as "Rabbit" Smith, in a semi-autobiographical story of how he rose to some success through his ability at 'signifying', the combination of rap and insult that arose from street contests of wit. Rabbit's contests are on the stages of Detroit's poorer district, exemplified by the eponymous roadway through it. Rabbit is poor white trash in a society dominated by upwardly mobile blacks. That their upward mobility is through gangs, violence and crime is not disputed, but many hope to break out through music. Rabbit's mother is a desperate divorcee, sleeping with a much younger man, and there is a young sister whom Rabbit cares for. The relationship with his mother, well played by Kim Basinger, who seems to have found a niche playing supporting roles in Curtis Hanson movies, varies between hatred, contempt and grudging love. The home background provides the impetus for Rabbit's desire to succeed, and the support of his (largely black) gang of rappers keeps him going. Curtis Hanson, whose earlier movies including LA Confidential and Wonder Boys indicated a striking talent, again shows style and substance can be combined in a mostly no-name movie with a decent script, some inventive direction and a good score. I was happily entertained by this movie and it's forced me to re-evaluate Marshall Mathers as a performer. His acting and his lyrics indicate that he is something more than a trash-talking woman-hater. Eminem is going to be around for a long time.
Reign of Fire is the silliest SF idea in a along long time. The McGuffin is that, in the near future, human activity wakes from their slumber a race of fire-breathing dragons who proceed to make mincemeat of mankind's best weapons and fighters, destroy our cities and take over the world. Except of course for the gallant band of people gathered around Quinn in outback England and a unit of US soldiers under the command of the crazy Van Zan who nurtures a hope of wiping out the flying reptiles and bases this on the theory that - SPOILER ALERT - there is only one male dragon and all the rest are female. All he needs to do then is kill the male - by a rapid infusion of napalm into the mouth, exploding the fire-making sacs therein - and the dragons will disappear. Now if you can believe all that, accepting the performances of Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as the protagonists is a piece of cake and you might even accept as credible the female soldier essayed by Bond alumna Isabella Scorupco. Personally, I find it would be laughable if it weren't so dark and dire.
Every so often Steven Spielberg forgets that he is supposed to be a serious film director and has a bit of fun. Catch Me If You Can is his second movie of 2002 and is a bit of fluff in with Leo di Caprio shows he can do light-weight and Tom Hanks shows he no longer can.
[Note: Information about the movies mentioned, including cast and crew lists and all sorts of trivia, is available at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).]