MOVIE REVIEW
The Tourist (2010)
Peter Mountain/Columbia Pictures
These are tough times for froth. When half of mainstream cinema is pastiche already and most of the rest wants its childhood back, what does deliberate frivolity even look like? "The Tourist" has a go at finding out, no thought in its pretty head beyond the visual pleasure of packing two pocket-rockets of screen presence off to Europe and having them stand in front of exotic buildings. Purged of every molecule of guile, it leaves the audience in a mild state of free fall, waiting for Hollywood snark that never arrives.
Continue reading “Venice Plays Itself” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Creation (2009)
Liam Daniel/Newmarket Films
“Creation” achieves the impressive feat of reducing Charles Darwin and his work to fodder for stiff-lipped, cumbersome dramatics. It’s amazing that a story of the man behind the most revolutionary idea in human history could feel so flat and uninspired. But director Jon Amiel achieves the seemingly impossible by hewing to a stock chamber-piece approach that contradicts the wholly modern, innovative way his subject lived his life.
Continue reading “A Beautiful Mind Boggles” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Young Victoria (2009)
Liam Daniel/Apparition
“The Young Victoria” breaks no new ground in the realm of period
pieces. It’s concerned — as have been many of its predecessors with royals as
subjects — with the burdens of monarchy such as the pressures to produce an
heir, confront complex palace intrigue and find a way to connect with the
outside world.
Yet it’s a work of high, refined craft from director Jean-Marc Vallée
and screenwriter Julian Fellowes. With an appropriate emphasis on the quieter drama beneath the magisterial splendor and Emily Blunt’s terrific, empathetic performance as Queen
Victoria, it achieves the challenging feat of making a narrative set in the
early 19th century seem wholly contemporary, without needless
stylistic quirks or anachronisms. Ms. Blunt’s performance succeeds because she makes the ultimate icon
relatable, playing the longest reigning British monarch with the vulnerability
and unease of anyone forced into a difficult position before he or she ready.
Continue reading “Victoria’s Secret” »