Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

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

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

 

Snow Flower never blooms in women's friendship tale 2.5/5

 

A woman’s bound foot is a knarled mass of black and blue. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan reveals this metaphor for women’s suffering. Bound feet were called “golden lilies” in ancient China. The soft bones of young feet were broken, making girls highly prized as wives. “Only through pain will you find beauty,” Snow Flower is told. Misery is just beginning for two pairs of friends in this uneven drama.

Snow Flower reveals Chinese tradition and modernity with respect. It’s filled with beautiful scenery and costuming. Still it never captures the depth that women’s friendships must have had then and now. The laotong – “old sames” who enter an arranged friendship and vow eternal devotion – hobble on impossibly tiny, misshapen feet. They communicate in a secret language called nu shu, writing messages in the folds of silk fans.

Unnecessarily complicating Amy See’s novel of the same name, director Wayne Wang (Chan Is Missing; The Joy Luck Club; Maid in Manhattan) adds a second set of friends in modern day Shanghai. He then forces a comparison between modern and ancient friends. Attempting to cover too much ground, the movie jumps back and forth in time. Finally the historic tale is more developed and intriguing.

 

Bingbing Li plays Lily, a bank executive. Gianna Jun stars as Sophia, a writer. As soon as we meet the two best friends forever, we are transported to 19^th century Hunan province. There, Li and Jun play Nina and Snow Flower respectively. The film cuts quickly back and forth to various points in the parallel stories.

Nina and Snow Flower enter arranged marriages and have children. Snow Flower’s husband (Jiang Wu) beats her, but she will not leave him. Typhus wipes out family members. Bands of rebels invade villages.

Under Shanghai’s modern, dim cityscape, Sophia rides her bike in traffic. She collides with a taxi. As Sophia clings to life in a hospital bed, Lily investigates her friend, hoping to find why they have drifted apart. Lily visits a modern art exhibit about foot binding. Images of disfigured feet line a wall. A pop art sign declares: (N)EVER BIND.

When Wang experiments with different cameras for the two eras, this adds to the unevenness. The comparison between past and present is strained.

Good acting by all cannot overcome the film’s awkward structure. In a distracting thread, Hugh Jackman appears briefly as Arthur, Sophia’s Australian lover and club owner. It isn’t the best role for talented Jackman, although he does sing in Mandarin.  

The eroticism of two women deeply devoted to each other is only hinted at in long looks and a near-kiss. Perhaps Wang believed it was not necessary to include lesbian love here. Acknowledging the characters’ desires more openly would have helped illumine these relationships.

Snow Flower ends too neatly with a message that misses the point. These suffering women don’t yet love themselves. True empowerment comes from within.

If you like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, you might enjoy:  Queen to Play; Incendies; Mother and Child.

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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Gianna Jun, Bingbing Li, Vivian Wu, Jiang Wu, Russell Wong, Archie Kao and Hugh Jackman

Director:  Wayne Wang

Genre:  Drama, Foreign Film, Movies Based on the Book

Languages:  Chinese and English with English subtitles

 

 

Captain America: The First Avenger ***

 

Imagine a stirring marvel comics movie where a violent bully breaks away from his boss Hitler and threatens the entire free world. A scrawny, heroic American boy risks his life in a secret experiment. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) emerges a muscular Mr. Universe with superhero powers. His mission: to track down the demonic Red Skull (Hugo Weaving).

Now imagine watching the entire movie wearing dark shades. Captain America: The First Avenger, sets up next year’s comic book feature The Avengers.

The story is exciting at first. World War II is underway. Hitler wins victory after victory. Rogers, a gaunt asthmatic with a brave spirit, is turned down by the Army. He applies again and again. When research scientist and former Nazi Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci, fascinating here) spies Rogers at the World’s Fair in Queens, New York, he sees great potential.

“Do you want to kill Nazis?” Erskine asks Rogers. “I don’t want to kill anyone,” Rogers replies. “I don’t like bullies.” The scientist recruits him for a top-secret training program. Rogers will become the first of a new breed of super soldiers. “Why me?” Rogers asks. A weak man knows compassion, Erskine tells him. Skeptical Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones, very good here) must admit that lightweight Rogers has loads of bravery and character.

A gray pall covers the entire 2-D version of Captain America. The movie is so visually dull that its story grows lackluster. Reviewers who saw the 3-D version have complained about an even darker effect. Too bad director Joe Johnston didn’t take a cue from Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), who married noir with occasional daylight. Johnston’s film isn’t noir, though. It’s just gray.

 

Transformation is overshadowed by special effects. Captain America loses energy in its second half. Repetitive action, stiff formality and a disconnected feeling among cast members don’t help. Oh, for the heart and pizzazz of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man! Absent is the rich character and interpersonal sparring of the X-Men: First Class!

Johnston (Jumanji; Jurassic Park III; October Sky) could have filmed Captain America in black and white. This would have been more interesting and lively. He does capture beautiful 1940’s detail here.

In emphasizing period detail and computer-generated effects, the director neglects character development. Often lacking are the complexities of authentic interpersonal tension (achieved so well in X-Men: First Class). The rapport between Evans and his love interest, training officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), feels forced and underdeveloped.

Evans creates a strong, brave, soft-spoken hero (combining shades of Superman and Clark Kent). Sebastian Stan plays his best friend Bucky Barnes. Weaving (Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy) is fun to watch as dastardly Red Skull, a power-hungry villain almost incoherent with hatred.

Red Skull is backed by an army of robo-soldiers who make up the Nazi research group Hydra. “Hail, Hydra!” they cry. “If you cut off one head, many will grow it its place,” a dying spy warns Captain America.        

A twisted reference to the tree of life symbol (a tree that joins heaven and earth) is shown as an invasive, sinister “Tree of the World” emblem for Hydra.

Why mask the red, white and blue with unrelenting gray? The choice reflects America’s widespread national cynicism. A languishing economy, natural disasters and terrorist acts have made such cynicism popular. Captain America is doing extremely well at the box office.

Promising inspiration, Captain America doesn’t deliver. Thankfully, this marvel comics movie ends with a dash of hope. Samuel L. Jackson reminds us that this tale merely sets up the future adventures of The Avengers (2012). Starring will be Evans, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Jackson as Nick Fury, and many more. The Avengers is being directed by Joss Whedon.

If you like Captain America, you might enjoy:  X-Men: First Class; Thor; Iron Man 2.

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Captain America     2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 4 min

Cast Overview:  Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Ken Choi, Stanley Tucci

Director:  Joe Johnston 

Genre:  Comic Book, Adventure, Fantasy

 

The Tree of Life *****

 

A family drama interpreted spiritually and artistically, The Tree of Life is a sweeping tale from the beginning to the end of time. Terrence Malick’s epic masterpiece won the Palme d’Or, top prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupery. To fully appreciate Malick’s fifth feature, we must experience it with the heart.

A mother asks why her son is dead, who God is, and why we are here at all. Set in 1950's Texas, the film is all yearning, exploring, imploring. It’s a stark contrast to the loud, violent fare filling modern multiplexes.

After Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) receives news of her 19-year-old son’s death, Malick returns us to our cosmic origins. Galaxies form. Earth develops. A couple meets. A child is born. Hundreds of beautifully composed images shape a quiet, elegant whole. Upheavals, universal and personal, take on a stately grace. The soundscape is lyrical. Even protozoa and dinosaurs demonstrate gentle intelligence.

Malick's sparse dialogue and interior monologues accompany these scenes like poetry. Lush cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and the orchestral score by Alexandre Desplat are a revelation.

 

Mrs. O’Brien teaches her sons two ways through life. The way of grace accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, insulted or injured. The way of nature (i.e., the way of the ego) dominates others, pleases itself and dwells in unhappiness. “Love is smiling through all things,” she says.

The Tree of Life shows the relationship of young Jack (Hunter McCracken in a stirring debut) and his strict, sometimes unhinged father (Brad Pitt in an Oscar-worthy dramatic performance). 

Pitt reveals a complex go-getter in the aerospace industry, a stern father who is an avid fan of Brahms. Yet O’Brien can’t reconcile the strains of a concerto with his family assembled around the dinner table. His sons never show him enough respect or measure up to his machismo.

Young Jack has begun breaking windows, stealing and tormenting small animals. “I’m as bad as you are,” Jack tells his father. Grace touches him one day and he experiences a change of heart. Jack apologizes to the brother (Laramie Eppler) he has hurt. He is kind to a neighborhood boy scarred in a house fire.

“The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by.” As Jack’s mother, Chastain is grace personified. She evokes a woman so gentle that a butterfly lands on her outstretched hand. When she disinfects a child’s cut and blows on it, we can feel her cool breath.  

 

Childhood innocence is gradually worn by the rules of society. “It takes fierce will to get ahead in this world,” Jack’s father tells him. The boy is forbidden to cross the invisible property line of a neighbor’s yard.

Sean Penn plays Jack as an angry, disillusioned man still grappling with his difficult father. Every year he lights a candle to commemorate his “true, kind” brother. Best Actor Penn delivers strong supporting work as he looks to the celestial skyscrapers of Houston for solace. They are a kind of postmodern church for Jack.

An asteroid strikes, causing massive tsunamis. Jack wanders a beach afterwards, filled with awe and wonder. It is a new beginning.

If we are open to it, The Tree of Life imparts a direct, mystical encounter between God and humans. Malick uses Christian references as the family attends church in Waco, Texas. The tree of life is an ancient symbol of heaven and earth in many religions.

The director continues his fascination with nature and the manmade world. The fields and forests of Jack’s childhood are a respite from searing inner conflicts. A universal perspective helps Jack heal years later. 

Douglas Trumbull’s special effects are natural and imaginative, resonant with the film’s ordered harmony. Superb editing is accomplished by Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber and Mark Yoshikawa. 

Malick makes films with great care and thought. After studying philosophy at Harvard, he directed four films over four decades, The New World, The Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven and Badlands.

"He is working within a Hollywood system, but in a unique and personal way, much the same as Kubrick did," according to Hannah Patterson, author of The Cinema of Terrence Malick: Poetic Visions of America. "There is that level of mystery that comes from not doing interviews and not being in the public eye,” she said. Malick allows his films to speak for themselves.

Three years in the making, The Tree of Life is the director’s most epic and spiritual film to date. It reveals civilization as an experiment, a tiny shard of all that is.

Malick’s newest project stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Rachel Weisz. It is scheduled for release in 2012.

 If you like The Tree of Life, you might enjoy: Of Gods and Men; I Am; 127 Hours.

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The Tree of Life     2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, Irene Bedard, Jessica Fuselier, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan 

Director:  Terrence Malick

Genre:  Drama, Indie, Period Piece

 
 

Miral ***1/2

 

A schoolgirl flirts with terrorism and falls in love in the controversial drama Miral. Jewish American director Julian Schnabel directs this film from a Palestinian perspective.

Miral follows four generations of Jerusalem-born Muslim women beginning in 1948, before Israel was formed. Hiam Abbass (The Visitor; Lemon Tree) plays Hind Husseini, an affluent woman who converts her father's estate into an orphanage for war refugees. Graceful Abbass conveys matter-of-fact compassion, especially in a scene where she finds children, huddled and dirty, abandoned on a street.

The character of Hind is based on the real social activist who founded the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage and school. Hind meets quirky, charming Col. Edward Smith (Willem Dafoe) at a holiday party. The two sparkle together, but she chooses to devote her life to displaced Arab youth. Vanessa Redgrave shines in a very brief appearance.

The film also depicts the life of Nadia (Yasmine al Massri), beginning with a rape by her father. Schnabel (Before Night Falls; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) reveals the scene by focusing on a bed frame moving up and down. Nadia flees home. Later, we see Nadia’s belly in slow motion, dreamlike, as she performs at a club. By the time Nadia gives birth to Miral, she is full of self-hate and drowns herself in the ocean.

Thrown into prison for punching a heckler on a bus, Nadia meets her compassionate cellmate Fatima (Ruba Blal), a nurse who helped a Palestinian prisoner escape from a hospital, and later left a bomb in a crowded theater.

After her mother’s death, Miral will live at Hind’s orphanage but will be allowed to visit her father Jamal (Alexander Siddig) every weekend. Siddig (Syriana) is wonderful as a devout Muslim.

Indian actress Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) brings depth and complexity to the role of Miral. Following the Intifada in 1987, Miral is asked to teach Palestinian children in a refugee camp. She becomes radicalized and begins to fall in love with revolutionary Hani (Omar Metwally). 

 

Miral is detained for 24 hours, questioned and whipped. After the girl is released, Hind urges Miral not to get involved in politics, for it might endanger the orphanage. Jamal forbids Miral to hang out with Hani and his crowd. She screams at him, “You just don’t understand anything!”

Jamal sends Miral away to her aunt’s home in Haifa, where she meets her cousin’s Jewish Israeli girlfriend Lisa (played by Schnabel’s daughter Stella). As the friendship unfolds, Miral asks, “How can you love an Arab man?” He is a good man who "kisses like an angel," Lisa says. 

Can a budding terrorist reform? Miral comes full circle by the end of the film. Metwally (Munich; The City of Your Final Destination) is convincing as his idealism ultimately leads him in the direction of peace.

Miral is a moving study of personal transformation set in geopolitical turmoil. It is worth seeing despite numerous flaws. The project is marred by occasional preachiness, weak dialogue, uneven editing, odd musical score, and poor makeup to simulate aging for Hind.

Produced by the Weinstein Company, Miral’s screenplay was adapted by journalist Rula Jebreal from her own semi-autobiographical novel.

If you like Miral, you might enjoy:  Lemon Tree; Ajami.

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Miral  2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 52 min

Cast Overview:  Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto, Alexander Siddig, Omar Metwally, Yasmine Al Massri, Ruba Blal, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Stella Schnabel

Director:  Julian Schnabel

Genre:  Drama, Foreign, Drama Based on the Book

Language: Arabic and English with English subtitles

Meek's Cutoff *

 

In a death march with no plot, faceless pioneers say nothing or mumble incomprehensibly in the indie western Meek’s Cutoff. The film won a Piaget Producers Award at the Spirit Awards.

Life for three emigrant families facing almost certain death on the Oregon Trail in 1845 could make for a fascinating exploration. Instead Director Kelly Reichardt shows off in her “minimalist, radically unfashionable style” (Variety). It’s a movie that viewers will hate or love within the first five minutes.

Michelle Williams stars as Emily Tetherow. Emily and other women gather kindling. They knit. They read books. Oh, and they’re litterbugs too.

Native Americans are cursed as “no better than animals” by the group’s scout Meek (Bruce Greenwood). He is hidden under a beard, long locks and fancy, fringed buckskin. Williams sums up her feelings about him: “it’s all vanity.”

Meek and another man capture a Cayuse Indian, threaten to shoot him and chain him up like an animal each night. The menfolk demand that he lead them to water, or else surely they will die. They don’t speak his language, and he doesn’t speak theirs. He guides them anyway, to where we do not know.

Emily approaches the Indian, repulsed by his “stench” yet strangely attracted. She offers him food and stitches up his moccasin. Deadpan Emily points a rifle at Meek when he’s about to shoot the Indian. Some believe this is a feminist moment.   

The Indian (Rod Rondeaux) sings over a sick man, and later speaks aloud to nature all around him. Here is a radically different worldview, a Native American's direct connection with nature. Yet these moments don’t inform or enrich. Instead the travelers stand wooden, looking catatonic. Conflict is watered down to a gruel in a wasteland of a script.

There are ways to craft characters we care about, facing death and a foreign culture terrifying to them. There are ways to forge quiet, interesting character studies. Reichardt fails to find a way. Williams, Rondeaux and Will Patton manage to register onscreen somehow.

Filmed in Burnes and Hines, Oregon, the vistas are marred by garish, streaky light. Inadequate night lighting renders faces and movements indiscernible. Sound effects cut in and out strangely. Jeff Grace’s strings screech like nails on a chalkboard.  

Poor production values, pitiful acting and scant story earn an “F” for Reichardt. Known for her microbudget efforts, she directed the almost equally boring Wendy and Lucy (2008), where Williams also appears.

“Hell is full of Indians,” says Meek. No, hell is full of movies like this one.

Other films you might enjoy: True Grit; Even the Rain; Crazy Heart.

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Meek’s Cutoff     2010  /  PG /  1 hour, 44 min

Cast Overview:  Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson, Neil Huff, Tommy Nelson, Rod Rondeaux

Director:  Kelly Reichardt

Genre:  Indie, Western, Period Piece, Drama

Water for Elephants ****

 

 

Beyond the big top, life is hell at Benzini Brothers Greatest Show on Earth. Animals are fed rotting meat and work until they collapse. Humans subsist on hooch and three squares, waiting weeks for a paycheck. Layoffs are dispensed by red lighting, with men thrown from a moving train.

The circus is home to a small, dedicated band seeking more than survival during the Depression. These beings want excitement and greatness, the chance to break free and be loved and accepted.

The show is built on illusion, but we may as well believe in this uneven adaptation of Sara Gruen’s novel Water for Elephants.

A madman drives this circus. Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) brings the most energy to the drama as ringmaster August. Bombastic, terse and menacing, Waltz plays a paranoid schizophrenic who pours champagne one moment and brutalizes his wife Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) the next.

Director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend; Constantine) crams too much of the book into this film, and peers most at its harshest realities.  As a result, the action lags occasionally and we are left feeling grim.

Robert Pattinson seems to play Robert Pattinson rather than orphaned veterinary student Jacob Jankowski, displaying a Twilight-like, flat affect with a hint of smolder. The actor achieves some chemistry with glowing Witherspoon, and he convincingly relates to Rosie the elephant and other animals.

The love of animals and a “sixth sense” about the beasts draw Jacob and Marlena to each other. Tai, the elephant who plays Rosie, looks mournful as she’s brought in to save the struggling circus. We learn that she likes whiskey and lemonade, and answers to commands in Polish. Rosie performs her duties with uncanny wisdom. She’s capable of flashes of humor and rebellion.

This film received the No Animals Were Harmed (R) designation of the American Humane Association.

 

Pattinson’s low key approach doesn’t always stand up alongside colorful Waltz. In one confrontation with August, Jacob seems to fade into a wall. A high point is an early scene where the two leap atop boxcars of a train snaking into dusk.

Hal Holbrook ties the film together with early narration. As Jankowski in his nineties, he visits a modern-day circus and tells his story to Charlie (Paul Schneider). “I had a good life, you know. A big life.” With melodious voice and teary eyes, Holbrook is a treasure.

Reese Witherspoon is a regal survivor. In keeping with the tone of the film, she remains cool and removed. Delivering some wonderful equestrian acrobatic scenes, she loses the Witherspoon warmth found in Election and Legally Blonde.

“Out there I got nothing, just like everybody else” says Marlena. “There is something better for you,” Jacob tells her.

An excellent supporting cast includes Jim Norton as the roustabout Camel, and Mark Povinelli as Jacob’s roommate Walter.

Despite its PG-13 rating, Water for Elephants is not a feel-good, family film. Ultimately uplifting (screenwriter Richard LaGravenese uses Gruen’s delightful surprise ending), it dwells in a sad, gritty place.

Several violent scenes are added late in the film. These depart significantly from the novel. There was no need for them, since Gruen’s vision and her beloved animals deliver a baptism that is powerful enough.

If you like Water for Elephants, you might enjoy:  Red Riding Hood; The Last Lions; Born to Be Wild.

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Water for Elephants     2011  /  PG-13  /    2 hours

Cast Overview:  Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, Cristoph Waltz, Paul Schneider, Jim Norton, Hal Holbrook, Mark Povinelli, Richard Brake, Tai, Uggie, Ice, Major

Director:  Francis Lawrence

Genre:  Drama, Romantic Drama, Drama Based on the Book, Period Piece

The Conspirator ****

 

A moment of history richly imagined by Robert Redford, The Conspirator is less about Mary Surratt, and more about the controversy around her and American ideals of liberty following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. 

The events following the assassination, carefully researched by screenwriter James Solomon, are impeccably executed by Redford and his team in a thoughtful, understated courtroom drama. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton (Kevin Kline) orders a quick, decisive military tribunal for widow Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), keeper of the boarding house where John Wilkes Booth (Toby Kebbell) held secretive meetings.

Stanton asks Senator Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to represent the accused. Johnson, a Southerner, asks Union war hero Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) to serve as defense attorney, believing that Aiken has a better chance to secure justice for the accused.

A trial by a jury of one’s peers is guaranteed to civilians of the United States under the Constitution. Surratt was a civilian. In eerie similarity to the stance of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney under The Patriot Act, Stanton reasoned that preserving the union and appeasing an angry public justified the military trial.

Aiken believes Surratt is guilty and does not want to represent her. After being wounded in battle (shown in the film’s stirring opening), Aiken returns to his wife Sarah (Alexis Bledel), who has waited for him for years. Now a member of elite society in Washington, D.C., Aiken seems poised for future success.

Johnson issues a challenge to Aiken. If the young lawyer can prove Surratt guilty, he will be released from his duty to defend her.

A fierce debate over legal principle ensues. Aiken becomes earnest not so much to defend Surratt, but to protect the Constitutional right to a fair trial.  If human rights and civil liberties can be suspended for one, then all of society is in peril, he asserts.

Aiken argues that Surratt’s son should bear primary responsibility for aiding Booth. John Surratt (Johnny Simmons) invited Booth to their home. Fleeing after the assassination, he remained in hiding during his mother’s trial. Aiken attempts to flush him out, appealing to his sister Anna (Evan Rachel Wood), to the family’s priest (Russell Cook), and to Surratt herself. 

 

Surratt remains silent and steadfast to protect her son. With bleak endurance, she remained in solitary confinement for over a month before meeting her attorney. As the tribunal begins, she realizes that she will be found guilty. Clutching rosary beads, she begins a hunger strike.

“I am innocent,” Surratt proclaims. She tells Aiken that she was ignorant of what Booth was plotting. She blames herself for being an overprotective mother who wouldn’t let her son enlist.  Surratt maintains that she rented out rooms only to earn a living for herself and her children.

Wright sacrifices herself in service to the film, preserving Surratt as a mysterious, mirthless figure. The actor expertly underplays emotion, betraying the character’s bitterness towards Northerners in just one scene. She embodies the contradictions of an imperfect woman firm in her Catholic faith. Wright’s performance is reminiscent of her role as a grim, enduring wife in Unbreakable (2000).

McEvoy steps forward with powerful nuance. Aiken struggles mightily with conscience, principle and the passions of the day.  He and Surratt do not like or trust each other at first. Gradually they build mutual respect even when they disagree over his methods. Aiken grows protective of Surratt, suggesting a tender stewardship of freedom.

Strong performances are featured throughout. Colm Meaney presides over a kangaroo court as fiery General David Hunter. Danny Huston plays long-winded prosecutor Joseph Holt leaving nothing to chance. Norman Reedus is memorable as conspirator Lewis Payne. Louis Weichmann (Jonathan Groff) delivers wavering testimony. Wilkinson plays a moderate to Kline’s open partisan.  

“I don’t know what she’s guilty of,” Aiken confesses to his friends.  It’s left to the viewer to decide whether the only female co-conspirator charged was innocent or guilty. Sacrifice is the price to be paid for freedom.

Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel uses a softly blurred focus and sepia tones, conveying a hardscrabble era. White sunbeams pierce cigar smoke especially during courtroom scenes. Such were the passions that swirled during and after the Civil War. Occasionally the effect is overdone, particularly in a scene where Aiken is obscured behind a dust cloud.

Redford’s creation stands in historical counterpoint to more passionate, partisan films about civil liberties and the American conscience such as Fair Game and Green Zone.

Fascinating realism allows us to forget that we are watching a movie. Superb direction, acting and script are enhanced by precise historical detail and an exploration of liberty that remains relevant today.

If you like The Conspirator, you might enjoy: Even the Rain; Fair Game; Green Zone; Of Gods and Men; The Eagle.

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The Conspirator    2010  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 3 min

Cast Overview:  Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Tom Wilkinson, Alexis Bledel, Danny Huston, Justin Long, Colm Meaney, James Badge Dale, Johnny Simmons, Toby Kebbell, Jonathan Groff

Director:  Robert Redford

Genre:  Historic Drama, Period Piece, Drama Based on Real Life