Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Margin Call: how Wall Street crashed the economy - 5 stars

Margin Call is a tense drama about how Wall Street investment bankers caused the 2008 economic collapse, prompting worldwide recession. J.C. Chandor’s suspenseful feature debut is now streaming.

Vivid dialogue and action reveal exactly how the crisis might have happened. Writer-director Chandor captures every nuance with merciless objectivity. His father was a Merrill Lynch executive.

Kevin Spacey gives one of his best performances as Sam Rogers, a world-weary trading manager who frets over his ailing Labrador. After a massive layoff, Sam congratulates the survivors. “Now they’re gone,” he says. “They’re not to be thought of again.”

Impeccably acted, Margin Call has the power of a play. Actors enter and exit. They face one another and themselves. They maneuver. They lie. Trapped in a glass tower, each holds self-preservation dear. Frank DeMarco’s cinematography is by turns stark and shadowy.

Concerned but not caring, the bankers learn about the impending crash from junior analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a former M.I.T. rocket scientist. Laid off risk analyst Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci)  alerted Peter before he left.

Peter is horrified to discover that the firm is fatally over-committed to risky loans. It has 24 hours to exploit this knowledge – or lose trillions. The tale is loosely based on the now-defunct Lehman Brothers.

Owners arrive by helicopter in the night. Each minute is precious. Decisions must be made. Jeremy Irons plays ruthless CEO John Tuld. “Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat,” is his motto. Tuld orders the sell-off.

Self-interest has many faces. They’re providing for their families. They’re living the American dream. They’re hooked on big thrills and bigger risk. Nathan Larson’s score deepens dread.

Chilling and sad, Margin Call is precise and efficient. The players move like automatons. Watching them, you’ll ask yourself, “What would I have done?”

Demi Moore is exquisitely cagey as Chief Risk Manager Sarah Robertson. She reminds Tuld that she did warn the firm repeatedly. Still, heads must roll, he tells her. Hers is one of them.

Also excellent are Paul Bettany as charismatic playboy and manager Will Emerson; and The Mentalist’s Simon Baker as terse, unsmiling leader Jared Cohen.

Tucci is marvelous in a scene on a Brooklyn Heights stoop. Eric tells Will about his engineering career. He once built a bridge that saved drivers commuting time. He yearns to do something real again, to find rewarding, meaningful work.

Margin Call complements Wall Street, where Michael Douglas fills the screen with charismatic greed, and Inside Job, the Oscar winning documentary explaining the meltdown.

Pain and angst eats away at Sam. He hates who he has become. He delivers one final speech to his team, urging them to sell worthless, mortgage-backed securities for million dollar bonuses. True empathy is never shown in Margin Call, except by Sam for his dog.

Fuld coaxes Sam to stay on for awhile. There’s still plenty of dough to be made. Sam confesses: “I need the money.”

In a David Mamet-inspired moment, Peter asks Sam if he’s told his own son about the impending crash. “No, I … didn’t even think …” Sam sputters.

If you like Margin Call, you might enjoy: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; The Company Men; Casino Jack.

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Margin Call    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 45 min

Cast Overview: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci

Director:  J.C. Chandor

Genre:  Drama, History

 

J. Edgar: closet hater tramples democracy - 3 stars

In the dispassionate biopic J. Edgar, director Clint Eastwood dissects a coward and a bully, a tyrant who threatens and lashes out against those he fears.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. DiCaprio appears in almost every scene, committed to a flat, empty man who never changes or grows. In contrast, the actor seems to empathize much more with his Howard Hughes character in The Aviator.

This Hoover is as vain and soulless as he is cold and driven. It’s difficult to like, dislike, or feel anything for him. J. Edgar delves into Hoover’s possible sexual orientation. Here he prefers men, but hides his appetites even from himself in a time of intolerance.

As Hoover amasses power and extends the Bureau’s reach, he lashes out. He deports anarchist Emma Goldman. He illegally wiretaps civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Hoover is floored when he realizes he cannot intimidate King into refusing the Nobel Peace Prize. He justifies his activities as “patriotic.”

Hoover also tangles with then-attorney general Robert F. Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan), who sees through and openly despises the FBI director.

Edgar is devoted to his domineering mother (Judi Dench, outstanding), who tells him, “I’d rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son.”

The other woman in Hoover’s life is his devoted personal secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts in a beautiful, deeply hued performance). In another age, Gandy would have been an FBI agent herself. Unfortunately her part is so underwritten that we never learn who she really is.

In Watts’ best scene, Helen turns down a half-hearted marriage proposal from Edgar. She’s all about work, she tells him. It is Gandy who shredded Hoover’s personal files right after he died, shrouding the details of his activities from then-President Richard Nixon and posterity.

The film feels historically true and accurate. It’s a jarring look at the Bureau’s origins. Hoover represents the worst of America here, contrasting with the FBI heroes that fill movies and television.

J. Edgar underwhelms with its cold, barren treatment of Hoover. Eastwood ranges from present to past, exploring the character’s motives. Yet the film tries to cover too much ground over Hoover’s 50-year government career.

Too much time is spent on the Bureau’s role in the Lindbergh kidnapping case. It would have been more illuminating to explore COINTELPRO, the FBI’s covert action programs against Americans in radical political, civil rights and antiwar groups. The film shows Hoover pioneering criminal science and fingerprinting.

Another great scene involves Hoover’s number two man and longtime friend Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer, spot on as the long-suffering, smitten companion). When Hoover remarks that he’s thinking of proposing to Dorothy Lamour, Tolson goes ballistic and threatens to leave. One furious kiss symbolizes their stilted relationship.

Hoover dictates his memoirs to a series of handsome, young FBI agents in his private office over the years, exaggerating his exploits.

Dustin Lance Black, who won an Original Screenplay Oscar for Milk, penned J. Edgar. Eastwood also composed the score. Tom Stern’s cinematography, James Murakami’s production design and Deborah Hopper’s costumes are excellent. However, makeup for the aging Hoover and Tolson is heavy handed.  

Eastwood crafts a vague, ambiguous story as he interprets history. While unsympathetic, Hoover could have been more interesting.

If you like J. Edgar, you might enjoy:  The Debt; The Whistleblower; Fair Game.

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J. Edgar    2011  /  R  /  2 hours, 17 min

Cast Overview:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas, Jeffrey Donovan, Geoff Pierson, Judi Dench, Ed Westwick 

Director:  Clint Eastwood

Genre:  Biopic, Drama, Period Piece, History

 

 

Hoop Dreams: classic follows two young basketball players - 5 stars

Sport is not always a ticket out of the inner city in Hoop Dreams (1994), a tale of two Chicago boys chasing their basketball dreams. Arthur Agee and William Gates star in the moving documentary written and directed by Steve James.

Hoop Dreams documents the American dream and its long shadow. It’s a heart-rending look at two 14-year-olds who persevere, succeed, fail, and keep hope alive. Richly woven, this documentary conveys a vivid sense of Arthur’s life in Chicago’s South Side, and William’s days in the Cabrini Green neighborhood.

James, writer/editor Frederick Marx and cinematographer Peter Gilbert follow Arthur, William and their families over four and a half years as the players emerge.

The two are recruited by mostly white St. Joseph’s High School, even though each reads at a fourth grade level. The story begins as Arthur and William enter the school with partial scholarships, and ends as the two begin college.

Highs and lows fill the boys’ lives. As Arthur visits St. Joseph’s for the first time, he meets and plays one-on-one with his idol, N.B.A. star Isiah Thomas of the Chicago Bulls. The joy on his face is unforgettable.

Just over a year later, Arthur is expelled because his family is $1500 behind in tuition payments. Arthur’s parents separate after domestic violence. Sheila Agee has lost her job due to a back injury. She was dropped from welfare for a time. Arthur’s father Bo recovers from a crack cocaine addiction as he serves prison time.

Luther Bedford, who later coached Arthur at Marshall Metro High School, believes that St. Joseph’s “would have found a way” to help the boy if he were performing well on the court. The film makes clear why at-risk youth need extra help in order to succeed.

William does well on St. Joseph’s varsity team, and manages to raise his school performance. His scholarship is supplemented by benefactor Patricia Wier, president of Encyclopedia Britannica. Wier also helps William secure a summer job at her firm.

William’s life changes when he becomes a father. When he tears knee cartilage, doctors tell him he may miss a year of his basketball career.

William reveres his older brother Curtis, once a rising basketball star who becomes a security guard. Deemed “uncoachable,” Curtis battled drug addiction. William wants to make his family proud and forge his own identity too.

At Marshall Metro, Arthur still does not like school but he makes friends and improves his game. In one of the film’s sweetest triumphs, Arthur helps his team win a championship.

At an All-America basketball camp, William hears director Spike Lee share his honest perspective with the players. "This whole thing is about money,” he says. “The only reason you are here is because you can make their schools win and they can make a lot of money."

Hoop Dreams is filled with crucial game moments for Arthur and William. As crowds cheer, adulation washes over them. They began playing at outdoor neighborhood courts where illegal drugs are traded. Now they are part of a school team. People pay to see them. From the bleachers, their families shout.

William graduated from Marquette University and enjoys a business career. Since graduating from Arkansas Sate, Arthur teaches and speaks to inner city youth. Both have their own families and say this film helped change their lives.

Hoop Dreams won the Audience Award at Sundance 1994. It was recently named the top film in Morgan Spurlock’s Current TV series 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die.

The passion of high school and college sports, less evident in the pros, is alive here. Team spirit and high hopes rule. What Hoop Dreams adds is a call to compassion and inclusion.

If you like Hoop Dreams, you might enjoy:  Hoosiers; The Mighty Macs.

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Hoop Dreams    1994  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 51 min

Cast Overview: Steve James, William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates, Sheila Agee and Gene Pingatore

Director:  Steve James

Genre:  Documentary

Beautiful Boy: mass murderer reaches feuding parents - 4.5 stars

After a campus murder-suicide spree, Kate and Bill Carroll call their son Sammy to make sure he’s all right. Suddenly there’s a knock on the door. Not only has Sammy died. He was the shooter. Director Shawn Ku’s searing emotional drama Beautiful Boy is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Produced after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, Beautiful Boy captures what films so rarely do: a change of heart. Maria Bello and Michael Sheen fascinate as agonized parents forced to open their hearts to each other just to survive.

As the film opens, Kate and Bill sleep in separate beds. Bill wants to move to his own apartment and start over. Kate tries to reunite the family one last time by proposing a Miami vacation.

They stayed together for Sammy’s sake. When he calls them for the last time, Sammy sounds distant and withdrawn. Bill hangs up and goes to bed. Kate persists, asking the 18-year-old how he is. As he rambles on about snowflakes, she listens. Freshman year is hard for everyone, Kate reassures him. The boy has always been different, quiet and sensitive.

Bello (A History of Violence, and now Detective Jane Timoney in television’s Prime Suspect) is stunning. Her evolution as an actor is clear as she balances rage, honesty and heartbreak. She unleashes a firestorm of denial, grief and coping.

Sheen (the London stage veteran who played David Frost in Frost/Nixon) is excellent as a man of long-suppressed emotions who hardly knows himself. Bill moves like a robot each day between home and office. Already an emotional fugitive, he flees further within after the massacre.

Kyle Gallner (CSI: NY; A Nightmare on Elm Street) perfectly captures depressed, troubled Sammy. His eyes say so much more than he does. Television news reports reveal that he slayed 21 before killing himself.

Besieged by reporters, the devastated couple hides in their own home before taking refuge with Kate’s brother Eric (Alan Tudyk) and his wife Trish (Moon Bloodgood). Trish’s alarmed, well-meaning questions only intensify their pain.

Healing begins. As each moment passes, even mundane chores become accomplishments. Michael Fimognari creates intimacy and a dream-like aesthetic with a hand-held camera. Ku wrote the screenplay with Michael Armbruster.

Beautiful Boy is an autopsy of a marriage. Kate and Bill grow closer and careen apart. They lash out at themselves and each other. They collapse in exhaustion.

Perfectionist Kate is a proofreader. She edits the couple’s media statement, allowing Bill to face a horde of reporters himself. Kate also inspires an opportunistic young novelist Cooper (Austin Nichols).

Kate is relentless with herself and everyone around her. Trish gets upset when her house guest begins “fixing” their home and reading bedtime stories to their little boy. The Carrolls move to a motel.

Bill’s pain is primal. He tells his boss (Bruce French) that he has no friends. Meanwhile Kate rifles through Sammy’s bedroom. She reads his school papers. Grasping for answers, Kate and Bill are left with uncertainty.

Everyone is touched in some way by the incident. Even a motel clerk (Meat Loaf Aday) learns compassion when the vilified mother and father seek refuge. They become real to him.

“I don’t believe in monsters,” Ku says on the film’s website. Beautiful Boy not only made me empathize with the parents. It reminded me that I am my brother’s keeper.

If you like Beautiful Boy, you might enjoy:  Rabbit Hole; Blue Valentine.  

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Beautiful Boy    2010  /  R (language, sexual situation)  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Michael Sheen, Maria Bello, Alan Tudyk, Moon Bloodgood, Kyle Gallner, Austin Nichols, Meat Loaf Aday

Director:  Shawn Ku

Genre:  Drama

Ides of March: George Clooney runs for president - 3.5 stars

 

Is old-style politics obsolete? George Clooney directs an all-star cast in The Ides of March, a political corruption drama that’s been eclipsed by Occupy Wall Street and worldwide activism. As history speeds up, this film about seeking political office feels dated.

Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck.; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) loves exploring politics on film. Directing his fourth movie, he evokes deep, honest portrayals of political personalities.

Ryan Gosling is ambitious idealist Stephen Myers, press secretary and strategist for the presidential campaign of Gov. Mike Morris (Clooney). “I’ll do or say anything if I believe in it,” Myers says.

Meanwhile real-life activists call for fundamental social change and a democracy that serve the people. Myers’ allegiance to one politician who will save us seems foolishly naïve. Does anyone really believe that anymore?

Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead on as Paul Zara, Morris’ shrewd campaign chief. Paul Giamatti plays Tom Duffy, the opposing campaign’s strategist who tries to steal Myers. Giamatti is excellent as a hack who’s risen to the national level by playing dirty while managing to stay likeable.

Morris seems to be progressive (Clooney is a Democrat), but the film barely mentions political parties. Can candidates win public office and still maintain their ideals? The choice to ignore money in politics takes the story out of context. The Ides of March becomes more emotional exploration than political story.  

 

Clooney is strong, sure and stoic. Morris deflects a question about religion, declaring his allegiance to the Constitution. Behind the scenes, he is fallible and forced to compromise his principles.

In one of her best roles, Marisa Tomei plays Ida Horowicz, a New York Times reporter. Ida believes so strongly in the system and “the way things are” that she covers nothing but the horse race. Horowicz has completely lost touch with the issues and with voters. She reports instead on behind-the-scenes campaign maneuvers. Tomei’s portrait of a burned out, obsolete journalist is devastating.

In this game there are only foes and allies who can further your interests. Horowicz and Myers joust over their “friendship” with a satisfying turnabout in the end.

Evan Rachel Wood plays Molly Stearns, daughter of the head of the Democratic National Committee. As a campaign intern, her sexcapades reveal a stunning lack of self-esteem. Senator Thompson (Jeffrey Wright as petulant power-broker) threatens to withhold his Ohio delegates unless he’s promised the Secretary of State spot in a Morris administration. Jennifer Ehle (always moving) briefly appears as Morris’ loyal wife.

See it for the acting. The larger-than-life cast is intense. Still, The Ides of March is no Michael Clayton. There are no real surprises. Public officials are corrupt. They’re compromised by special interests. The pressure of running for public office is overwhelming.

Nothing new is revealed. The screenplay is solid, but lacks originality. There is good a plot twist as Myers is indelibly changed by what he sees. Still the movie needs more oomph. It’s based on Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North (2008). Clooney, his frequent collaborator Grant Heslov and Willimon wrote the screenplay.

Horowicz’s words are prophetic: “Mike Morris is a politician. He’s a nice guy. They’re all nice guys. He will let you down sooner or later.”

How will citizens take back their democracy? We’ll have to stay tuned to real life to find out.

If you like The Ides of March, you might enjoy:  The American; Up in the Air; The Men Who Stare at Goats.

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The Ides of March    2011  /  R (language, sexual situations)  /  1 hour, 41 min

Cast Overview:  Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, Max Minghella, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Mantell, Gregory Itzin  

Director:  George Clooney

Genre:  Drama, Political Drama

 

 

 

The Robber: Bourne-like drama chases thoughtful thrills - 4.5 stars

 
 
A record-breaking marathon runner (Andreas Lust) chases his endorphin rush to extremes in The Robber, Benjamin Heisenberg’s real-life drama with Jason Bourne's heart. It's now streaming online.

The rush of marathon competition and victory would thrill most of us. Quiet, intense Johann Rettenberger (Lust) robs banks. He’s hooked on the thrill of a double life. Winning championships seems like his day job. Daring heists are his true passion.

This is a chase film and cinematic exploration of movement, darkness and light. The runner hones his crimes as carefully as his cardio training. Like Robert De Niro’s Neil McCauley in Heat, Rettenberger is compelled to pull off big heists. Like McCauley, he vows never to return to prison.

More myth than character, Rettenberger lives on the edge, fully alive. He has little use for the money. Wearing a Ronald Reagan mask, the real crook (Johann Kastenberger) robbed up to three banks a day, earning the nickname Pumpgun Ronnie.

The Robber is based on Martin Prinz’s novel On the Run, which tells how the marathoner terrorized Austrian banks in the 1980s. Prinz co-wrote the screenplay with Heisenberg.

Rettenberger loves solitude. He has no family ties or real friendships. This is his fatal flaw and his fascination.

The love of Erika (Franziska Weisz) entices Johann. In spite of herself, she is mesmerized by criminal life. The two see a crime movie on their first date. Erika gushes over a shootout scene. Johann smiles knowingly to himself.

Erika and Johann knew each other in childhood. Even then he was stealing treats from her mother. She offers Johann in an extra room in her flat. One day she finds a cache of bills stuffed under his bed. Johann discovers Erika sitting on the carpet in his room, wearing the bank robber’s mask, her eyes teary.

 
 

Lust (Revanche) fascinates even in a spare story with little dialogue. Cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider evokes chase and race scenes with Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner fascination. The low-budget film achieves great suspense. In one scene, Rettenberger leaps out of a window at police headquarters and flees.

The characters shape shift as Vorschneider films dark scenes with tremendous depth, color and visual interest. As Johann and Erika make love, the two come alive with the tentative commitment of those on the run.

Exquisite images abound. There’s a surge of runners before dawn, headlamps bobbing. Later, police flashlights close in as Rettenberger takes refuge in a dark forest.

Dialogue is another great treat in The Robber. “Jealous?” Erika asks Johann. “For a second,” he answers. “That’s nice,” she replies.

In a plot twist, Johann veers into violence. The runner’s face and whole body congeal when his parole officer (Markus Schleinzer) dogs him after a championship. This sets off the trophy-bearing Rettenberger.

Carefully crafted and executed, The Robber is a fine film that could have benefited from deeper character development. At least Heisenberg has given us more food for thought than the famous Bourne films.

The Social Network's Andrew Garfield is set to star in an American remake of The Robber, according to Filmofilia.

Clutching desperately to love and freedom, the anti-hero fascinated me until the film’s end under gray skies on the autobahn. Sony has purchased the rights for an American remake.

If you like The Robber, you might enjoy: The Tree of Life; Missing Pieces; The Debt.

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The Robber     2010  /  NR (violence, sex)  /  1 hour, 28 mins

Cast Overview:  Andreas Lust, Franziska Weisz, Florian Wotruba, Johann Bednar, Markus Schleinzer, Peter Vilnai, Max Edelbacher

Director:  Benjamin Heisenberg

Genre:  Drama, Crime, Sports, Biopic

Languages:  German with English subtitles

 

 

Contagion: Soderbergh directs cool, tense pandemic thriller - 5 stars

 
 
 
As a deadly virus spreads, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion tracks personal stories of survival and activism around the globe. The thriller reveals exactly how a pandemic could happen. Freedom, responsibility and control are explored.  

If you’re seeking terror or melodrama, you may not like Soderbergh’s latest. It’s moving yet thoughtful even when mass hysteria erupts. A handful of citizens and government officials fight the good fight against lethal MEV-1, which spreads through the air and on surfaces. It kills one out of every four people exposed.

With great ensemble acting and a docudrama feel, the film is similar to the director’s drug war drama Traffic (2000). Suspense is heightened with a frenetic soundscape by former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez (who also composed the score for Traffic).

Civilization and public services are strained as looting and panic spread. U.S. forces are deployed. Mass graves are dug.

In the name of public safety, we’ve given much power to Big Pharma and government. Contagion raises awareness about the limits of our national preparedness as values, profit and politics clash. 

As a soulful everyman, Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon) is a husband and father who loses his wife and son to the virus. Emhoff locks down his own teenage daughter in order to save her life, burying the pain of his wife’s infidelity.

 

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) first contracts the virus on a Hong Kong business trip. She stops over in Chicago to cheat on Mitch with an old flame.

Back home, Beth thinks she has jet lag. She develops seizures and foams at the mouth. Within hours, she is gone. Mitch is quarantined at the hospital, where doctors confirm that he has developed immunity.

Best Actress Marion Cotillard is fascinating as Dr. Leonora Orantes, a World Health Organization epidemiologist who is kidnapped while she explores the virus’ origin in Hong Kong. Orantes develops a Stockholm Syndrome-like devotion to her captors, who are sure that the U.S. is hoarding a cure.

Laurence Fishburne is excellent as Dr. Ellis Cheever, director of the Centers for Disease Control. Cheever follows protocol, but struggles when he has the chance to save his own fiancée by breaking confidentiality.

Jennifer Ehle (fantastic as Dr. Ally Hextall) and Elliott Gould (Dr. Ian Sussman) are gutsy researchers who break rules to expedite a cure.

 

Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) is sent by Cheever to coordinate emergency preparedness. As soon as she develops symptoms, Mears believes she is doomed. Lying in a stadium of sickbeds, she offers her raggedy quilt to a nearby patient.

The most fascinating and misunderstood character in Contagion is Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), a blogger who criticizes Big Pharma’s profit motives and government bureaucracy. Krumwiede plays an important adversarial role as he reveals the limits of institutional effectiveness.

What Law brings to light is health freedom and the use of nature to stay healthy. When Krumwiede drinks a glass of water with a few drops of Forsythia essence in it, he tells his on-line audience of millions, “If I’m still here tomorrow, it worked.”

The blogger survives. He wants to inform and help others while making his own profit. A run on a San Francisco pharmacy ensues for the healing essence. (In reality, there are many reputable sources for complementary and traditional Chinese medicines. Krumwiede could not corner the market on it.) 

A vaccine becomes available 90 days later. Survivors must vie in a national lottery for the scarce cure. The scene evokes Waiting for Superman, where students draw numbers to win the chance for a quality education.

As cinematographer, Soderbergh uses middle-distance shots, close ups and color to achieve master effects. Contagion is his first IMAX film. Especially vivid are microscopic images of the mutating virus, and the fateful flight of an Asian bat.

Soderbergh has made a cautionary classic for our time.

If you like Contagion, you might enjoy: 2012; The Debt.

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Contagion     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 42 mins

Cast Overview:  Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Elliott Gould 

Director:  Steven Soderbergh

Genre:  Thriller

 

 

The Debt: Mirren, Chastain star in classy spy thriller - 5 stars

 

Classy and exciting, The Debt draws you in until the very last scene. John Madden’s film about an Israeli secret service mission is 2011’s best thriller to date. Excellent acting, screenplay and cinematography combine in this remake of the thriller Hahov (2007).

The arc of story is deepened with both mature and young versions of Mossad agents Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain), David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds and Sam Worthington), and Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson and Marton Csokas).

The story first unfolds in 1997 Tel Aviv. Rachel and Stephan’s daughter Sarah has written a book about her parents’ role in a heroic mission. Concern marks Rachel’s face at a book party and later during a television appearance.

The real action begins in 1965. The agents plan to capture Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen) and bring him to justice. With all the urgency of young patriots seeking to make history, they prepare every detail.

 

Mirren and Chastain provide The Debt’s moral center. Both are stellar and memorable. It is a real treat to see their work in tandem as the film explores truth and honor.

Mirren is precise and soulful as Rachel faces a crisis of conscience. When a shameful secret emerges, she is forced to return to service.

Fear and mourning don’t stop the mother and grandmother Rachel. She’s smart, gutsy and angry. Finally, she has a change of heart. Mirren fascinated me until the very last scene.

Prolific Chastain (excellent in recent notables The Tree of Life and The Help) is intense, passionate and athletic. Soon a love triangle develops as she lives in close quarters with David and Stephan.

Each agent has been damaged by the Holocaust in some way. David lost his entire family.

The team confirms that Vogel has changed his name and is a practicing gynecologist in East Berlin. Young Rachel’s visit to his office is sure to become a classic scene. Later, a huge scar on Rachel’s right cheek seems to symbolize Israel’s search for justice and healing.  

Capturing Vogel in broad daylight is suspenseful, but moving him to Israel proves difficult. With Nazi soldiers on high alert, the team hijacks a truck near a train station. Complications arise.

Young Stephan wants to save face after the botched mission. David goes along. Rachel objects and finally relents. Years later she tells Stephan, “I knew we’d be punished. I knew we’d have to pay.”

Award winners Mirren and Wilkinson set the bar high. Hinds makes the most of his tragic, brief appearance. Csokas brings young Stephan to life with swagger and sex appeal. Worthington (Avatar) sensitively portrays the deeply wounded David.

Called the “surgeon of Birkenau,” Vogel’s character seems to be based on Dr. Josef Mengele. Mengele conducted human experiments during World War II, including changing childrens’ eye color. This caused blindness in many, a fact mentioned in the film.  

The Debt was adapted from the original movie by screenwriters Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan.

Madden (Shakespeare in Love; Proof) does a superb job with sustained suspense and riveting action. His film is intellectually satisfying and heartfelt.

If you like The Debt, you might enjoy:  Hanna; SALT; Incendies.

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The Debt     2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 51 min 

Cast Overview:  Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jesper Christenson, Marton Csokas, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Romi Aboulafia

Director:  John Madden

Genre:  Thriller, Drama

 

 

The Whistleblower: sex trafficking exposed in dark thriller ****

 

If you are able to watch sex trafficking, cruelty and torture, see The Whistleblower. Rachel Weisz stands up to sex traffickers in this fact-based thriller about human rights violations in postwar Bosnia. Director Larysa Kondracki relays horrible truths using noir and cinema verite in her feature debut.

The Whistleblower does not let you look away from war atrocities. With a docudrama feel, it is suspenseful, violent and jarring. There is a graphic rape scene. Female slaves are kept in filthy, torture-chamber barracks. Nebraska cop Kathryn Bolkovac is the real whistleblower.

In the opening, Ukrainian teen Irka (the director’s sister Rayisa Kondracki) urges Raya (Roxana Condurache) to travel with her to a job opportunity in Bosnia. Neighbors and even family members lure young women like these. Desperate to escape struggle and poverty, Raya accepts.

A divorced mom, Bolkovac arrives in Sarajevo in 1999 for a six-month contract. The $100,000 tax-free paycheck will allow her to move closer to her daughter. Soon Bolkovac finds herself confronting police, local thugs, and even her fellow United Nations peacekeepers-for-hire.

Bolkovac is outraged to find that her co-workers are complicit or participating in the prostitution slave rings. Diplomatic employees have full immunity, and locals are unlikely to be prosecuted. Bolkovac’s employer at the time, security contractor DynCorp International, works for the United States today in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Best supporting actress Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) conveys the soul of the film. Bolkovac is urged to look the other way. She refuses.

Glib acceptance reigns. “Those girls are whores of war. It happens,” an agency commander says.

The ferocious activist faces off against peacekeepers and investigates brothels in the night, often alone. Unafraid, Bolkovac does her job. It’s a portrait of a true hero with no need for a costume or special effects.

 

Bolkovac backs the first successful post-war court decision for a domestic violence victim. She gets noticed. Vanessa Redgrave appears briefly as the real Madeleine Rees, then head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Rees offers Bolkovac a position in the U.N. Gender Affairs Office, where she will investigate sexual assaults. Bolkovac accepts as her peacekeeping contract runs outs.

Other U.N. officials ignore Bolkovac’s revelations about the international sexual assault on girls. The activist eventually was fired from her U.N. position. She won a wrongful termination suit in 2001. Bolkovac co-wrote the screenplay with Eilis Kirwan based on her book The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice.

David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) is brooding and shifty as Peter Ward, an internal affairs officer who offers to help the whistleblower. Monica Bellucci plays a diplomatic burnout who sees a bit of herself in the idealistic American.

The Whistleblower is a Third World Erin Brockovich. It provokes questions that demand answers. It shows the war within war, violence against women, on a massive scale.

In a respite from violence, Bolkovac has an affair with one of her co-workers Jan (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). In real life she later married her co-worker.

This film conveys important information. I felt honored to watch a woman dare to stand up for justice. I also noted that The Whistleblower does not depict forgiveness from any party. Leaking information to the BBC seems to be Bolkovac’s only option.

Spiritual teachers including Marianne Williamson advocate brief meditation while surrounding horrific situations with light and love. Personal power can be exercised by imagining and intending a better world.

The Whistleblower is roughly hewn in a way that suits its ugly subject. It was filmed quickly on a low budget, mostly in Bucharest, Romania.

One important scene feels staged. The screenplay is choppy and sometimes preachy. Yet great performances from Weisz, Strathairn and others animate this relentless movie. Plato’s Cave comes to mind during a particularly tragic turning point.

A twisty ending provides little relief. The film closes with statistics about continued sex trafficking worldwide.

According to Foreign Policy’s Turtle Bay blog, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon invited Kondracki to show the film at U.N. headquarters “to top U.N. officials and representatives of governments that supply peacekeepers to U.N. missions.” The screening is scheduled for the week of October 10.

If you like The Whistleblower, you might enjoy:  A Call Girl; Miral; Lemon Tree.

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The Whistleblower     2010  /  R  /  2 hours

Cast Overview:  Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn, Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci, Roxana Condurache, Rayisa Kondracki

Director:  Larysa Kondracki

Genre:  Drama, Thriller, True Life, Drama Based on the Book

Languages:  English and Croatian with English subtitles

 

Sarah's Key: Kristen Scott Thomas stars in Holocaust drama ****

 
 

An American journalist living in Paris (Kristen Scott Thomas) is obsessed with a Holocaust story. Sarah's Key is a thrilling search for truth about France’s role in the Holocaust seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Sarah (Melusine Mayance). The film is based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel.

French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s film exposes the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup during World War II. Many moviegoers will learn about the incident for the first time here.

In the roundup, thousands of Jews living in Paris’ Marais neighborhood were forced into a sports stadium, torn away from family members, and shipped to concentration camps. Julia Jarmond (Thomas) convinces her editor to let her write a 10-page article documenting the 60^th anniversary of the roundup.

Two parallel stories unfold. Julia pursues leads and interviews witnesses. She discovers that she is personally connected to the Starzinski family, Polish Jews living in Paris during the German occupation.

 

Sarah Starzinski’s story is told in flashbacks. Police arrive one day. Sarah dashes to protect her young brother Michel. She locks him in a closet for safekeeping, sure that she will return soon. Days pass in the crowded stadium. Panic and disease spread. Desperate to return and rescue Michel, Sarah falls ill.

Under Nazi order, French police arrested 13,000 Jews in July 1942. The prisoners were forced into the Velodrome d’Hiver, an indoor bicycle racing track. With no access to running water or toilets, they slept in their seats or on concrete floors. Families were separated and herded into trains bound for French internment camps.

Thomas (The English Patient; I’ve Loved You So Long) and Mayance play off each other beautifully with moving character studies. Past and present feel immediate and urgent. Thomas is intent and driven as she speaks both French and American English. Her brilliance shines despite a script that often emphasizes the obvious. Mayance is a talent to watch, lively and convincing here.

Julia learns that Sarah escaped from the Beaune-la-Rolande camp in Loiret. She tracks down a farm couple (Niels Arestrup and Dominique Frot) who sheltered the girl from Nazi soldiers. The mystery of Sarah’s life deepens as Julia locates her surviving relatives, including William (Aidan Quinn).

Julia travels abroad to pursue the story. She argues with her French husband Bertrand (Frederic Pierrot) and reassures her teenage daughter Zoe (Karina Hin). In one of the film’s contrived moments, Julia learns that the Starzinski’s apartment was acquired by Bertrand’s family in 1942.

The director relates a powerful chapter of history. Tellingly, it is a French soldier who helps Sarah escape from the camp.

In real life (and beyond the scope of Sarah’s Key), other roundups followed. Prisoners were eventually deported to Auschwitz. In 1959, fire destroyed much of the Vel’ d’Hiver. Apartments and a Ministry of the Interior building stand on the site today.

Julia’s part was over-written and weighs down the narrative. Emphasis on Julia’s pregnancy and failing marriage is distracting. The epilogue feels too neat and becomes trite. Yet Sarah’s Key brings history to life with personal revelation. Paquet-Brenner has made a daring, important film.

If you like Sarah’s Key, you might enjoy:  Winter in Wartime; Of Gods and Men; The King’s Speech.

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Sarah’s Key     2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 45 min

Cast Overview:  Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique Frot, Gisele Casadesus, Aidan Quinn

Director:  Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Genre:  Drama, History, Books on Film

Languages:  English, French and German with English subtitles