Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Take Shelter: Michael Shannon digs deep to save family - 5 stars

Take Shelter is a fever dream of a thriller. It plunges you into anxiety and hope, victory and defeat. With humanity in trouble, sensitive everyman Curtis LaForche (brilliantly played by Michael Shannon) is plagued by hallucinations and nightmares.

Director Jeff Nichols lets you decide what this film is about. In an age of uncertainty, Curtis’ dark night of the soul feels universal.

Suspenseful and exciting from start to finish, Take Shelter portends the end. Depending on how you see, it will sweep you away with dread or faith. References to “the economy” and “fresh motor oil” lend timely foreboding.

A construction foreman in northern Ohio, tormented Curtis hides his condition from his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain). He seeks help from a doctor and a counselor, trying to quash his visions.

Shannon (Revolutionary Road; Bug) surrenders onscreen. Gangly, enigmatic and tortured, he remains a loving husband and devoted father to a hearing impaired child Hannah (Tova Stewart, sweetly perceptive).

Curtis wants to save his family at any cost. After visiting his mother (Kathy Baker), who’s institutionalized with paranoid schizophrenia, the quiet man understands that his curse is a gift.

March in step, Curtis’ best friend Dewart (Shea Whigham) and his brother Kyle (Ray McKinnon) tell him. Instead, he secures a home improvement loan to build an elaborate storm shelter. Curtis risks everything – home, family, and the health insurance needed for Hannah’s cochlear implant surgery.

Samantha (Jessica Chastain) takes refuge in family, friends and community. Love grounds and guides her. She sells her embroidery at tag sales to finance the family’s annual vacation.

Prolific Chastain (The Debt; The Tree of Life; The Help) creates yet another excellent character here in a spree of recent big screen roles. Samantha struggles to understand and stay with Curtis.

Natural disaster never looked so breathtaking. Adam Stone uses widescreen photography to see beauty in menace. Flocks of starlings, clouds and twin tornadoes loom. Real and impending catastrophes are colored by mystery and mental illness.

Nichols (Shotgun Stories) captures inner and outer worlds with authority and immediacy. His work is reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s, but with more ambiguity. It’s impressive that this is only Nichols’ second feature.

Tight, flawless editing by Parke Gregg enhances drama. David Wingo contrasts darkness and normalcy with his music.

End or beginning? The perspective of nature as a benevolent force ready to help humanity is missing here. It’s a worthy premise for another film.

If you like Take Shelter, you might enjoy:  The Tree of Life; Insidious; The Debt.

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Take Shelter    2011  /  R  /  2 hours

Cast Overview: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Ray McKinnon, LisaGay Hamilton, Rogert Longstreet, Kathy Baker, Tova Stewart

Director:  Jeff Nichols

Genre:  Drama, Thriller, Suspense, Horror

 

Another Earth: Brit Marling seeks cosmic redo in Sundance award winner ****1/2

 

What if we could start over, erase our most painful mistakes and move forward? Another Earth explores guilt and grace as its signature image, a blue-green planet, hovers above. The sci-fi indie won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize (for films with a science or technology theme) and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2011.

Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling), who has just won a scholarship to MIT’s astrophysics program, parties herself into a stupor and decides to drive home. Speeding along, she gapes at a turquoise disc in the night sky, a newly discovered duplicate planet earth. With sickening inevitability, she crashes head on into another car, killing a mother and son and leaving a father comatose. Dazed, she wanders the scene.

Another Earth blends science fiction, art and emotional truth. Mike Cahill’s feature debut is stark and understated, a contemplation of regret and human possibility. Cahill co-wrote the mesmerizing, imaginative script with Marling, drawing upon the theoretical physics of parallel worlds.

Released from prison four years later, Rhoda is a shell of herself. She moves back in with her upbeat parents and wisecracking brother. In an attic room, she gazes lovingly at a poster of the Horsehead nebula. Rhoda ponders distant Earth 2. She is that far from forgiving herself.

Newcomer Marling is a talent to watch. She embodies desolation with other-worldly poise and willowy beauty. A felon, Rhoda takes a school janitorial job because she doesn’t want to talk to people. She trudges to and from work, hunched, her face hidden under a hood. Eventually she befriends an elderly janitor Purdeep (Kumar Pallana).

 
                            

William Mapother (In the Bedroom and TV’s Lost) plays John Burroughs, a Yale professor and composer who is the other survivor of the tragedy. Rhoda rehearses her confession and knocks on his door one day. When he answers, she loses her nerve. She pretends to be a maid, asking if he would like a free trial house cleaning. Drunk and depressed, he accepts.

The characters of Another Earth don’t interact so much as they revolve slowly through each other’s orbits. There’s a sense of vast eternity, a lonely hum. Mapother and Marling are remarkable alone and together. Dazed and tentative, they become animated, then withdrawn. In time, they grow more fluent with each other.

John confronts Rhoda. He knows she is lying. She has never cashed his checks. The Maid in Haven cleaning service has never heard of her. Still he’s drawn to her. Their romantic pull, while unlikely, is mysterious and certain as a law of physics.

Purdeep acts as a kind of shaman for Rhoda. He’s the first one who is able to evoke real feeling from her. In an exquisite scene, he coaxes her back to life from what may be his deathbed.

Cahill’s cinematography is observant and reverent. His use of a hand-held camera helps build delicious anticipation. John and Rhoda emerge as she clears the clutter of his rural farmhouse. Dust motes float like disembodied souls.

Contact is made with Earth 2. Rhoda enters an essay contest to win a space shuttle trip to the planet. John fears for her safety, but she has nothing to lose. Throughout the film, an astrophysicist muses reassuringly over the radio. “There’s another you out there. . . . Therein lies the opportunity and the mystery.”

The film’s startling end could be seen as inspiring and hopeful. It all depends on how we look at it.

If you like Another Earth, you might enjoy:  Hereafter; The Ledge.

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Another Earth     2011  /  PG-13 /  1 hour, 32 min

Cast Overview:  William Mapother, Brit Marling, Kumar Pallana, DJ Flava

Director:  Mike Cahill

Genre:  Sci-Fi, Indie, Drama

 

The Ledge ****

 

Love drives Gavin to the ledge of a mid-town office building. He must jump by noon, he tells Detective Hollis Lucas. Hollis contemplates leaving his family after discovering his wife’s lies. Two desperate men meet in the suspenseful indie drama The Ledge, now playing on demand before it opens in theaters.

Featured at Sundance 2011, The Ledge showcases excellent acting by Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) as a hotel manager who pursues his beautiful, sad neighbor Shauna (Liv Tyler). Shauna is married to a Christian fundamentalist (Patrick Wilson). The film begins and ends on the ledge, but returns to the story of Gavin and Shauna while suspense builds.

Terrence Howard (Law & Order: LA, Hustle & Flow) provides intrigue as a police detective who has just discovered that he is not the father of his own children. So good at portraying a complex, gentle man smoldering with rage, the actor grounds the film with can’t-look-away screen presence and riveting delivery.

Tyler (The Incredible Hulk; The Lord of the Rings) plays a suppressed, fearful wife with a wild past who lets her husband dominate “for her own good.” “It’s more complicated than you think,” she tells Gavin. Seeking to be rescued, Shauna reels with conflicting needs and desires. This works well in counterpoint to the rooftop rescue underway.

As a lonely man with a mysterious past, Hunnam disguises Gavin’s warmth and generosity with devil-may-care irreverence.  When the jumper gazes at the picture of a little girl in his wallet, we want to know more.

 

Writer-director Matthew Chapman relies heavily on two plot devices. Atheist Gavin clashes with evangelical Joe in a conflict that’s one-sided from the start. The debate between believer and non-believer becomes tedious with dogmatic, hackneyed dialogue.

Gavin suffered a loss that explains his fatalism and dangerous liaison with a married woman. Wilson (Insidious) portrays an obsessed creep (“I am washed, sanctified and justified,”) but never makes Joe sympathetic or fully dimensional. More backstory for the character would have helped.

When Gavin and his gay roommate Chris (Christopher Gorham) join Joe and Shauna for dinner one night, Joe makes intolerant comments. The homophobia angle seems contrived in the film, as if cut and pasted from another screenplay.

Although The Ledge is set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, there are no recognizable visual cues that could have added cultural interest. The movie is play-like with its intense, life or death countdown.

The Ledge ends on a strong note as Gavin and Hollis reach parallel resolutions on the worst day of their lives.

If you like The Ledge, you might enjoy: The Perfect Host; Limitless; The Double Hour.

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The Ledge     2011  /  NR  /  1 hour, 43 min

Cast Overview:  Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson, Terrence Howard, Christopher Gorham, Jacqueline Fleming

Director:  Matthew Chapman

Genre:  Suspense, Drama, Mystery

 

The Double Hour ****

 

When a hotel maid sees a guest leap to her death, her own identity fractures in the romantic thriller The Double Hour (La Doppia Ora). Giuseppe Capotondi's first feature film flashes back and forward with shadowy twists and genuine passions that dovetail perfectly.

Known for his music videos, Capotondi expertly crafts intrigue in the tradition of Hitchcock, Scorsese and Polanski. He’s a director to watch as he joins a new generation of psychological thrill-weavers including the Coen brothers, Christopher Nolan, Juan Jose Campanella and David Fincher.

A robbery. A coma. An old priest. A red bedspread. The action unfolds in Turin, Italy, yet it’s already happened. The future is uncertain – or is it? The director creates a landscape of furtive glances, secrets, lies and surprises. Vivid recollections may be real – or not. There is violence, but the film does not rely on it. Suspense is based firmly on direction, acting and editing. By the final scene, it all makes sense.

Russian actress Ksenia Rappoport achingly portrays Sonia, the hotel maid who goes speed-dating to forget the grisly suicide she witnessed. Guido (Filippo Timi of Vincere), a widowed, former cop now running security at a secluded mansion, is the last man she meets that night. He’s handsome, soft-spoken and honest, a far cry from the others. The two continue their conversation in an evening stroll along the riverfront. Both Rappoport and Timi won awards at the 2009 Venice Film Festival for their stirring, enigmatic performances.

 

A double hour, Guido tells Sonia, is the moment when hour and minute are identical. When a digital clock at the opulent mansion displays 23:23, Guido praises that magical time when wishes can be made and granted. As the plot unravels, several double hours mark turning points for the pair.

Capotondi cleverly manipulates man-made and naturalistic details to build suspense. Guido shows Sonia the long-distance mic that he uses to detect intruders. He has recorded afternoons of bird song at the estate too. Guido offers to create a relaxing, sensuous DVD just for Sonia.

Lending fascination are Antonia Truppo as Sonia’s co-worker and friend Margherita; Giorgio Colangeli as the old priest; Gaetano Bruno as the thug Riccardo, and Michele Di Mauro as persistent detective Dante.

The Double Hour was filmed on location in Carmagnola, Turin and the Piedmont region of Italy.

Outstanding writing by the team of Alessandro Fabbri, Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo makes The Double Hour a modest gem where everyday life holds drama and yearning. Guido Notari contributes superb editing.

If you like The Double Hour, you might enjoy:  Shutter Island; The Ghost Writer; The Secret in Their Eyes.

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The Double Hour     2009  /  NR  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Ksenia Rappoport, Filippo Timi, Antonia Truppo, Gaetano Bruno, Fausto Russo Alesi, Michele Di Mauro, Lucia Poli, Giorgio Colangeli

Director:  Giuseppe Capotondi

Genre:  Thriller, Crime Thriller, Romance, Mystery, Foreign Film

Language: Italian with English subtitles

Super 8 ****1/2

 

Friends making a zombie picture meet danger with bravery and imagination in Super 8. The summer movie with a feisty kid’s heart blends rousing story with sci-fi, horror and can-do ingenuity.

Prolific director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek [2009]; Mission: Impossible III; television’s Lost), joins forces with his mentor Steven Spielberg, who produces the film. Super 8 features excellent character development, human interest, direction, story, action, special effects, new talent and self-discovery.

With heart, soul and skill, Abrams and cinematographer Larry Fong have drawn on Spielberg’s legendary work to develop an original, deeply moving film. Spielberg classics like E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and Jaws come to mind.

A horrific crash of a U.S. Air Force train sends the friends scurrying as they shoot a scene. Causing the accident is a white pick-up truck that meets the train head-on. Special effects heighten the fantastic wreck.

One of the train cars thunders. Something big and strong bursts out, disappearing into the night. The driver of the pick-up, a biology teacher, is still alive. “They will kill you,” he warns. “Do not speak of this or else you and your parents will die.”

Along with sheriff’s deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler of Friday Night Lights), the group watches the Air Force swoop in to clean up the top-secret wreck. The deputy’s 12-year-old son Joe (exciting newcomer Joel Courtney) seeks the truth. Joe has just lost his mother in a steel mill accident. As a leader with character, Courtney brings to mind Wil Wheaton in Stand By Me.

Joe’s distant father forbids him to make monster movies with his friend Charles (fantastic Riley Griffiths). Griffiths is a revelation as a never-say-die director. Driven and immersed in his visions, he takes charge and makes movies with scant resources. He’s a joy to watch.

 

Talented Elle Fanning, so mature and authentic in Somewhere, plays Alice, the girl who agrees to join Charles and his friends in their latest production. Fanning captures pre-teen angst as a budding actress who enchants the boys. Cary (Ryan Lee), a tiny terror with braces, plays the zombie and creates special effects. Cameraman Preston (Zach Mills) and leading man Martin (Gabriel Basso) also star.

Other notables include AJ Michalka (The Lovely Bones) as Charles’ caustic sister Jen. Ron Eldard plays Alice’s drunken dad who blames himself for the death of a co-worker.

As dogs flee town and electrical engines vanish from cars and homes, Abrams keeps the alien mysterious for a long while. Surprising plot twists add to the excitement. A touch more editing could have enhanced the film, particularly during the movie’s lengthy crescendo.

The innocence of 1979 feels fresh and immediate as Joe and friends act with gutsy inspiration. Free of cynicism, the movie maintains a sense of adventure through the end credits.

Like many sci-fi movies, Super 8 asks: What does our government know about alien civilizations? What are they hiding?

If you like Super 8, you might enjoy:  X-Men: First Class; Source Code; 2012.

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Super 8     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 52 min 

Cast Overview:  Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Gabriel Basso, Noah Emmerich, Ron Eldard, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Glynn Turman

Director:  J.J. Abrams

Genre:  Sci-Fi, Thriller, Suspense

 

The Perfect Host ****1/2

 

Do we ever really know someone? Emmy and Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce stars in a twisty, stylish crime thriller The Perfect Host, now playing on demand before it opens in theaters. Aussie director-writer Nick Tomnay’s fascinating romp explores misleading appearances and the jagged edges of personal psychology.

Hyde Pierce powers the low budget film’s comedic horror, showing the full range of his incredible acting talent. Best known as neurotic, ever-frustrated Dr. Niles Crane on television’s Fraiser series, Pierce (Nixon, Full Frontal, Spamalot and Curtains) is nice and oh-so-naughty here, transcending metrosexuality as he plays Warwick Wilson, a refined gay man throwing a dinner party.

Just as Niles desperately seeks the love of Daphne, Warwick burns for unconditional affirmation of his own worthiness. “Love me. Love me,” he says during a kinky scene.

Premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, The Perfect Host is a chess game of moves and countermoves. The story turns surreal in a posh, Los Angeles suburban home. The straightforward is suddenly turned on its head. We’re challenged to decide what’s real and what’s illusion. Survival is at stake as “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Also excellent is Clayne Crawford (A Walk to Remember, 24) as John Taylor, an unlucky bank robber on the lam who rings Warwick’s doorbell. John steals a postcard from Warwick’s mailbox, pretending to be a friend of a friend. The crook is in for the surprise of his life. Crawford deepens his character with surprising humanity.

The first plot twist leads to surprising revelations about Warwick, John and Simone (Megahn Perry), the bank robber’s girlfriend. As characters veer into the unexpected, Tomnay skillfully keeps the Hitchcock-like action on track in this darkly funny exploration of human idiosyncrasy.

John Swihart’s original score suits the movie’s many moods and adds to the fun.

 

Grammy winner Helen Reddy, who topped the Billboard charts in 1972 with her women’s lib tune I Am Woman, delivers a strong supporting role as Mrs. Knight, Warwick’s concerned neighbor. Also starring are Nathaniel Parker as Detective Morton, and Joseph Will as Detective Valdez. Morton wants to take a cold case one step further.

The Perfect Host (on Twitter @perfecthost) turns into a who’s who of crime and punishment. Based on Tomnay’s short film The Host, it maintains edgy action and bizarre fascination until the very end.

If you like The Perfect Host, you might enjoy: Shutter Island; The Ghost Writer.

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The Perfect Host     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 34 min

Cast Overview:  David Hyde Pierce, Clayne Crawford, Helen Reddy, Nathaniel Parker, Megahn Perry, Joseph Will, Tyrees Allen, Annie Campbell, Indira G. Wilson, Cooper Barnes

Director:  Nick Tomnay

Genre:  Thriller, Suspense, Indie

Trollhunter *****

 

Troll!  When tourists disappear and trees topple, a feisty band of film students seeks the facts. Legend has it that trolls rule the northern wilds of Norway. Those stories can’t be anything more than just fairy tales – right? André Øvredal’s send-up of the crusty creatures Trollhunter delivers giddy thrills.

Much like The Blair Witch Project with the scope of Jurassic Park, the folklore-inspired expose stars solitary trollhunter Hans (comedian Otto Jespersen) and the cheeky students who follow him. With an enigmatic slash across his face, intense Hans lives in a smelly trailer festooned with furry tails. Deep gashes pierce his SUV, which has been retrofitted with metal teeth and huge spotlights.

The trollhunter speeds off each night without warning. He must know something about the disappearances, the Volda College students believe. “Get lost!” he warns Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud).

The gang persists. “Do you think Michael Moore gave up after the first try?” Thomas asks. People have the right to know what’s behind the accidents, insists soundwoman Johanna (Johanna Morck). Cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) appears late during a critical moment. Blaming bears and tornadoes, the government and mainstream media seem clueless.

A government conspiracy is uncovered. The Wildlife Board has known about trolls all along, but denies their existence. The head of the ultra-secret Troll Security Service Finn Haugen (Hans Morten Hansen) hires a crew of Polish painters (led by Robert Stoltenberg) to plant false evidence at accident scenes.

Comedians Jespersen, Tosterud, Hansen and Stoltenberg elevate Trollhunter's dark comedy and interesting character development. Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg appears in a cameo at the film’s conclusion.

With deadpan sincerity, Jespersen portrays a man attuned to freaky nature who strives to do right. Hans walks a fine line between protecting citizens and treating the mammals humanely. He confesses that he once led a murderous government mission against the trolls. Now he’s relieved that someone will document their existence.

Hans has one major weapon to combat rampaging trolls. Bright UV light makes them calcify, causing them to explode or turn to stone. “I’m not brave,” he tells Thomas. “This is dirty work.”

The lively, low budget adventure was featured at Sundance 2011. Writer-director Øvredal told Io9 that Hans’ character was partly inspired by Robert Shaw’s Quint in Jaws. 

Tall as trees, trolls can live for over a thousand years. Not too bright, they eat rocks and smell like troll stench. They’re a far cry from the homely-cute trinkets with orange or green hair. Tosserlad can sprout up to nine heads to lure lady trolls. A three-headed giant sends the hunter and initially skeptical trio scrambling.

Trolls turn furious when they smell the blood of a Christian. For this reason Hans insists that only non-believers can tag along. This detail has some historical basis. When Christianity took hold in Norway during the 13th century, people stopped believing in and worshipping trolls.

 

A rabid Ringlefinch takes the bait on a bridge, flinging Hans aloft like a plaything. Luckily the group comes to his rescue. A veterinarian later confirms that the troll was diseased. Hans fills out the government requisite Slayed Troll Form.

When power lines are ripped down around Mountain King territory, Hans and the gang travel far north to investigate. A massive, renegade Jotnar stalks them. Supersized like the Abominable Snow Monster from TV’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, this troll may be the most ferocious of all. Just then the Wildlife Board shows up.

Deliciously suspenseful, Trollhunter features production design by Martin Gant and sound design by Baard Haugan Ingebretsen. Impressive CGI and seamless visual effects are supervised by Øystein Larsen. Big set pieces and fearsome sound evoke the best of the Hollywood creature features.

Cinematographer Hallvard Braein achieves relatively steady handheld camerawork amidst beautiful valleys, forests, mountains and fjords. Film locations included Vaatedalen, Juten Heiman, and Sogn og Fjordane. 

Menace or national treasure? It seems trolls want to eat, reproduce and roam in peace. The pathos of the trolls will impress animal lovers even while mock bear carcasses and live goat bait may disturb some.

If you like Trollhunter, you might enjoy:  Insidious; Apollo 18; Splice.

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Trollhunter     2010  /  NR  /    1 hour, 33 min

Cast Overview:  Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Hans Morten Hansen, Johanna Morck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Knut Naerum, Robert Stoltenberg, Torunn Lodemel Stokkeland, Marte Brauteset

Director:  André Øvredal

Genre:  Mockumentary, Horror, Foreign Film

Language: Norwegian with English subtitles

 

Cave of Forgotten Dreams ****

 

New wave German filmmaker Werner Herzog reveals a protocinema of Paleolithic drawings in the documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Herzog’s enthusiasm is contagious in this unprecedented filming of Chauvet Cave in southern France. Here Earth’s earliest known drawings, about 32,000 years old, were discovered in 1994.

Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger’s exquisite 3-D images show horses gallop, and now-extinct cave bears and cave lions stalk the undulating walls glittering with calcite. Woolly mammoths peer back at us. Spotted panthers prowl.

The 3-D camerawork brings viewers more deeply into the cave. Herzog’s offbeat narration and signature metaphysical musings keep the film lively. A sacred feeling is evoked in kinship with the ancients.

Cave bears clawed these walls. Leaving their mark on the drawings, they seem like collaborators. Only a small camera and four small, portable panel lights were allowed. Filmed under strict limitations to protect the delicate ecology, the scenes inspire awe.

Since ancient artists carried torches to provide light, Herzog theorizes that they held these aloft and danced, their shadows moving with the animals in an ancient cinema. Impishly, he shows us a clip of Fred Astaire dancing with his own shadow in Swing Time.             

 

In a striking marriage of science and art, a laser spectroscopy image is shown. Hundreds of thousands of points of light reveal every detail and contour of Chauvet Cave's 1300 feet. Jean Clottes, head of the scientific team studying the cave and its art, shares his excitement and theories.

Europe was a dry, cold glacial land back then. One could journey on foot from England to France and Germany. Dominique Baffier, archaeologist and curator of Chauvet Cave, tours the drawings. Each one tells a story, she believes. Rhinoceros lock horns. Bison run, their multiple legs meant to show movement.

Archaeology Magazine reports that the Chauvet artwork was created 35,000 years ago, and again 5,000 years later. Looking fresh and new, the images have been carbon dated.

Fantastic beauty fills the cave. Stalactites and stalagmites glow. Some formations unfurl like candy ribbon. Others evoke thin, frozen needles of rain.  

In another mystery, only one human form was drawn. On a rock pendant, the bottom half of a woman with Venus of Willendorf proportions appears. The team mounts its camera on a stick to reveal the upper half of the image for the first time. It is a bison head.

Animals and humans shared a common, dreamtime existence then. Trees spoke. Have we forgotten how to listen? The footprint of an eight-year-old is found next to a wolf paw print. Herzog wonders whether they walked side by side.

The cave was used for drawing and ceremony, experts believe. There are no human remains. Animal bones, including cave bear skulls and even a golden eagle skeleton, carpet the floor. A Bear Skull Altar faces the cave’s entrance. Bits of charcoal are strewn about like remnants of incense.

Herzog interviews several odd, passionate spiritual seekers. Reindeer-skin clad Wulf Hein plays The Star-Spangled Banner on an ancient flute made from a vulture’s ulna. Archaeologist Julien Monmey shares a story about an Australian aborigine. When asked why he was painting on rock, the aborigine replied, “I am not painting. The hand of the spirit is painting.”

Marring this beautiful documentary is its obtrusive soundtrack, ill-suited to quiet reverence. When Herzog asks his team to observe silence and listen to the cave, moviegoers listen with them for only a few seconds before the heavy-handed score intrudes. Herzog also invites a master perfumer along, but he is unable to detect much aroma.

Risking his life to uncover mystery and truth in his work, 68-year-old Herzog explored some of the most remote areas of the South Pole in Encounters at the End of the World. In Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man, he delved into man’s improbable visions and showed the price for realizing those dreams.

In a surreal coda, we see a nuclear power plant some 20 miles away from Chauvet Cave. Its super-heated water prompted officials to build a tropical biosphere dome there. Alligators were introduced. They thrive, some mutating into a ghoulish white.

Might the reptiles escape one day and invade the Chauvet area, once covered by thousands of feet of ice? Two albino alligators face each other in the waters, teeth bared. Herzog asks whether we are doppelgangers, ghostly doubles of the ancients.

If you like Cave of Forgotten Dreams, you might enjoy: The Wind Journeys; Sanctum.

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams     2010  /  G  /    1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Werner Herzog, Dominique Baffier, Jean Clottes, Jean-Michel Geneste, Carole Fritz, Gilles Tosello, Michel Philippe, Julien Monney, Charles Fathy 

Director:  Werner Herzog

Genre:  Documentary, Nature, Science, Spirituality

 

Hanna ****1/2

 

A freak claims her identity and kicks serious butt in the action thriller Hanna. Saoirse Ronan, the sweet, wide-eyed dead girl of The Lovely Bones and young Briony in Atonement, stars as the dispassionate hunter.

Hanna lives near the Arctic Circle with her fugitive spy dad Erik (Eric Bana of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Munich).  Hanna speaks German, Italian, Spanish and Arabic.  She can hunt, shoot, track, gut a deer for dinner and evade capture.

Hanna has been genetically engineered to be the perfect soldier.  But anyone who thinks for themselves and tries to do what is right might upset the natural order of things. Enter it-rhymes-with-witch CIA operative Marissa Wiegler (devastating Cate Blanchett).

Director Joe Wright (known for Atonement and The Soloist) explores what makes us human in a techno-human world. He succeeds as Hanna achieves more depth than the usual action film. She’s a science experiment grown into a secret agent girl with soul.

Approaching womanhood, Hanna tells dad she’s ready to leave their cozy cabin.  This will mean flipping the switch of a device that will bring special forces swooping down upon them.  Hanna will have to use everything she’s learned to protect herself and avenge her mother’s killer – guess who?

Wiegler considers Hanna and her rogue asset father threatening to national security (we’re not told why). She dispatches teams of assassins to pursue both father and daughter. Tom Hollander plays creepy, whistling Isaacs.

Displaying impressive fighting skills on the run, Ronan (just 16 at the time of filming) reveals vulnerability and the soul of wonder. “What does music feel like?” she asks the whimsical, grisled proprietor of an abandoned Grimms theme park. The Chemical Brothers provide innovative, Euro-metal soundtrack.

An interlude with a hippie family driving their van through Morocco and Spain allows Hanna to explore relatively normal life and social relationships. She goes on a date, but that first kiss is not like anything we’d expect. Jessica Barden plays Hanna’s talkative, tender friend Sophie who calls her a freak.

Desperate to fit in while embracing her wild strength, Hanna’s reunion with dad becomes a wildcat confrontation.  Bana is manly-cool in the scene and during a number of chases and hand-to-hand tussles.

 

The energetic screenplay was penned by Seth Lochhead and David Farr. Cinematographer Alwin Kuchler is both fluid and frenetic with widescreen framing. Sarah Greenwood lends beautiful production design.

Hanna has been trained to kill when necessary, but wants to stop. Like Angelina Jolie in SALT but more touching, Ronan approaches superhero status as she stands in her power.   

If you like Hanna, you might enjoy: The Lovely Bones; The Soloist; Red Riding Hood.

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Hanna   2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 51 mins

Cast Overview:  Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng, Jessica Barden

Director:  Joe Wright

Genre:  Action Thriller, Adventure, Mystery

Unknown ***

 

Who is Dr. Martin Harris and why do shady characters pursue him? Liam Neeson explores identity, good and evil in the international mystery thriller Unknown.

Neeson and an excellent cast enlivensthis suspenseful B movie as the star continues to recover from the loss of his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a Canadian ski accident in 2009.  Neeson has thrown himself into action thriller performances such as Taken, Clash of the Titans and The Next Three Days. He completed his work on Chloe right after Richardson died.

Harris arrives in Berlin for a biotechnology conference with his ravishing young wife Liz (mysterious, elegant January Jones).  A briefcase containing his passport is left behind at the airport. This unleashes a string of mishaps beginning with an automobile accident that leaves him in a coma for four days.

 

When he awakens, Harris is warned about his fractured and rearranged memory. He is sure of one thing: he is Dr. Martin Harris.  Armed with his wits, a bankroll of euros and shattered images from the past, Harris tracks down his wife at their hotel.

To his surprise, Liz denies knowing him. Instead she accompanies an imposter (Aidan Quinn), who claims that he is Dr. Martin Harris. With no passport, Harris is ejected from the hotel.

Tantalizing events follow. A menacing stranger follows Harris in a U-Bahn tunnel, and later poses as a hospital employee during a follow-up MRI. Eva Lobau plays a helpful nurse. 

Bruno Ganz is fascinating as Ernst Jurgen, a former member of East Germany’s secret police and now a freelance troubleshooter who agrees to help Harris.  Jurgen and Harris unearth more puzzle pieces. A Saudi prince will speak at the conference. Harris’ lifelong friend Professor Bressler (Sebastian Koch) is bringing his daughters Lily and Iris to the gathering. The botanical names of two flowers hold great significance, but Harris can’t recall what that is.

Diane Kruger lends a lively performance as Bosnian illegal Gina, the taxi driver who saves Harris’ life after the crash. Harris tracks her down at her new waitressing job in a café. Paid to keep silent, Gina’s goal is to save up enough to become a naturalized citizen.

Who are we really? Does the sum of our actions define us? When Rodney Cole (Frank Langella) arrives in Germany, Harris begins to question who his real friends are.

Unknown is filled with good chase scenes (by car and on foot), hand-to-hand brawls, crashes and a drawn-out explosion. Buoyed by an excellent cast, Unknown is less visceral than Taken and features a more interesting theme.

Cinematographer Flavio Labiano renders stately, cold and modern German vistas. The film is hampered by a weak script. 

In an Esquire interview, Neeson spoke about how he deals with grief. “I think I survived by running away some. Running away to work.”  The persistence of pain two years later, according to the actor, is “just extraordinary.”

If you like Unknown, you may enjoy: The Secret in Their Eyes; The Town; The American.

Unknown   2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 53 min

Cast Overview:   Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz, Frank Langella, Eva Lobau

Director:  Jaume Collet-Serra

Genres:  Drama, Mystery, Thriller