MOVIE REVIEW
The Three Musketeers (2011)
Rolf Konow/Summit Entertainment
Not sure what Alexandre Dumas père ever did to deserve having “The Three Musketeers” defiled for the big screen more than 20 times. With the exception of the 1921 Douglas Fairbanks and the 1948 George Sidney versions, few are even remotely watchable. It seems that with each new stab at upping the ante, the story’s quality takes another hit. If you don’t think it can possibly get worse than the one with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O’Donnell and Oliver Platt from 1993, just wait until you see the new 3-D treatment.
Continue reading “It Takes More Than a Good Man to Prevent a Catastrophe” »
MOVIE REVIEW
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
Nicole Rivelli/Oscilloscope Laboratories
For many mothers, their primal, taboo fear is that the children they give birth to will be something unrecognizable, something they cannot control, maybe even something evil. “Rosemary’s Baby,” which was based on a hugely successful novel, took this fear to the extreme. But now there is the only slightly less extreme “We Need to Talk About Kevin” — also based on a novel — and coming to our screens with the same level of horrified anticipation.
Continue reading “Sowing the Bad Seed” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Guilty (2011)
Jean-Claude Lother/Mars Distribution
Vincent Garenq’s “Guilty” is signposted in its exposition as a faithful adaptation of a series of memoirs entitled “Miscarriage of Justice” by Alain Marécaux. Mr. Marécaux (a remarkable Philippe Torreton), a family man who is too often distracted by his job as a bailiff, is left shattered when he and his wife are arrested in the middle of the night on suspicion of involvement in what would come to be known as the notorious Outreau pedophile ring.
The accusations leveled at Mr. Marécaux seem incredible and baseless, yet in an instant his life begins to disintegrate around him. As it transpires, the Marécauxes have been accused of the worst sort of infidelity by persons unknown; and yet despite the lack of evidence or motive, they are remanded in custody.
Continue reading “Trial by Error” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Descendants (2011)
Fox Searchlight Pictures
“The Descendants” is at a serious disadvantage when held up against other films by Alexander Payne. But that’s only because Jim Taylor’s whip-smart dialogue is noticeably absent this time (although he is still onboard as a producer). Once you get past the screenplay’s higgledy-piggledy treatment of Kaui Hart Hemmings’s source novel, the film ultimately proves another success for Mr. Payne. To wit, he convincingly pulls off the central conceit that a woman in her right mind would actually cheat on George Clooney with Matthew Lillard, which is no small feat if you really think about it.
Continue reading “Pupukahi I Holomua” »
MOVIE REVIEW
A Dangerous Method (2011)
Liam Daniel/Sony Pictures Classics
Many of those who have seen “A Dangerous Method” have complained about it not being Cronenbergian enough. Although it revolves around two titans in the field of psychology, the film isn’t that psycho-thriller you’re expecting and doesn’t showcase anything nearly as spectacular as Miranda Richardson juggling three roles. Think of it instead as the David Cronenberg equivalent of David Lynch’s “The Straight Story.” Essentially, “A Dangerous Method” is a deeply political cautionary tale from a staunch atheist about the price of conformity and repression.
Continue reading “A History of Conformance” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Johnny English Reborn (2011)
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Rowan Atkinson is synonymous with Mr. Bean, which could mean either that he has taken the character to an art form or that he is a one-trick pony. “Johnny English Reborn” would suggest the latter. Although Mr. Atkinson might in fact be capable of much more, makers of this film seem intent on preserving the winning “Mr. Bean” formula — which also means not alienating the “Mr. Bean” audience. There are only so many moves you can bust comedy-wise to the inoffensive, family-friendly, PG-rated tune, and “Johnny English Reborn” just about exhausts the entire repertoire. Yes, there’s a poop joke in the form of a soiled diaper.
Continue reading “Diapers Are Forever” »
MOVIE REVIEW
360 (2011)
55th BFI London Film Festival
Opening the BFI London Film Festival is Fernando Meirelles’s “360” — in reality an international production, but for London’s purposes the director’s second British film after “The Constant Gardener.” It’s a modernization of Arthur Schnitzler’s sexual-morality play “Reigen” (a k a “La Ronde”) adapted by acclaimed screenwriter Peter Morgan, who’s had most of his success with semi-fictionalized biographies such as “Frost/Nixon” and “The Damned United.”
Although the material is venerable, the film comes across as something of a Johnny-come-lately to the fad of interconnected stories, popularized in the last decade by Mr. Meirelles’s Latin American peer Alejandro González Iñárritu (who was surely first choice for this project).
Continue reading “The Constant Globe-Trotter” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Headhunters (2011)
Erik Aavatsmark/TrustNordisk
Stieg Larsson’s phenomenally successful Millennium trilogy has bought gritty Scandinavian thrillers to the world’s attention, which has undoubtedly rubbed off on Norwegian novelist Jo Nesbø. Famed for his pitch-black Harry Hole crime-thriller series, Mr. Nesbø is particularly skilled in crafting the flawed good-guy character (Hole, a brilliant detective, is also a heavy smoker and an alcoholic), an art that is clearly evident in Morten Tyldum’s adaptation of Mr. Nesbø’s 2008 stand-alone novel “Headhunters.”
Continue reading “Right Person for the Inside Job” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Like Crazy (2011)
Fred Hayes/Paramount Vantage
“Like Crazy” is the story of an attachment, but without the glue. It is meant to be a romance between British journalist Anna (Felicity Jones) and American furniture maker Jacob (Anton Yelchin), who meet cute as students in Los Angeles and rapidly fall in love. Drake Doremus’s direction styles the film in a series of brief vignettes, skipping forward like a highlight reel, with the unfortunate result that we never get under Anna’s or Jacob’s skin. After a problem with American border control, they text; they call; sometimes they even meet in her cramped London apartment. But beyond the scenes of their initial attraction, their relationship is oddly hollow.
Continue reading “Distance Lends Disenchantment” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Las acacias (2012)
Verve Pictures
“Las acacias” is about a long-haul truck driver, Rubén (Germán de Silva), and the once-in-a-lifetime chance which arrives in his cab in the shape of Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) and her little daughter Anahí (Nayra Calle Mamani). He was hired for a three-day trip driving her past the Paraguayan border down to Buenos Aires; but the baby was not originally part of the deal. Director Pablo Giorgelli filmed in what looks like a real truck — the movie is named after the load of lumber Rubén is carrying — in patently real locations in Argentina and uses this unlikely setup as an opportunity to explore the size of the human heart.
Continue reading “A Kindred Spirit Gets a Lift” »