Film Reviews -- March 2005

(Becky T) Opening March 3, 2005

In this science fiction disaster private detective William Geld (Tim Robbins) flies to Shanghai from Seattle to research a case. He falls in love with his main suspect, Maria Gonzales (Samantha Morton). Sex between couples of like DNA (in other words: incest) is a sin, although they have no inkling of common blood lines. That’s the main story. Thrown in for good measure are: Geld is infected with intuition virus and can tell people facts about themselves that they thought only their mothers knew. A memory-killing drug eradicates segments which might make life uncomfortable. The A-species humans inhabit the best parts of the world and travelling from one part to the next requires a papelle or visa. Everyone else scrounges a living in the worst areas or tries to get through the borders, much like immigrants today. Spanish words are interspersed throughout the text as if Spanglish will be the future norm. In the end, Geld returns to his wife and child after his memory has been cleansed; Maria camps in no-man’s land with all the dirty beggars. Only Dubai and Shanghai, filmed on location to look like Futureland, make the film worthwhile. Otherwise, Michael Winterbottom must have been struggling with some kind of virus himself to have directed something so disjointed and inexplicable. I don’t know any excuse for Tim Robbins having participated in the mess.

(Becky T) Opening March 3, 2005

Three Americans – a demented mother, her grown son and the daughter-in-law – live in a haunted house in Tokyo. A daughter is also in the city, where the three grown children work. During the day, Yoko cares for the mother. Soon Yoko mysteriously disappears and a substitute caregiver, Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), takes over until the ghosts drive her away, screaming for help. The ghosts are a small boy and his mother, both murdered in the house by the father several years prior. They are messy ghosts, scattering household objects, paper, photos, toys, corpses (Yoko and the American family) around the house. Eventually, the police step in, but there is never a clear ending to the story.

Director Takashi Shimizu, encouraged by producer Sam Raimi (himself a well-known director), revised his own successful Japanese film Ju-On (in English: the grudge) for Western viewers. This would be a rare opportunity for any director, but not necessarily an improvement. Compared to the original, The Grudge seems disjointed. Actually only four minutes longer, it tries too hard to give Western audiences unnecessary background explanations. The original Japanese version is logical, whereas The Grudge gets lost in flashbacks. Also, the Caucasians seem out of place in Japan – perhaps Shimizu should have moved the whole thing to a Western country with solely Western actors like remakes of French films. Still, The Grudge (actually more “revenge” than “grudge”) really is a scary movie with creaking ceilings, ghosts popping out from unexpected places and assuming alternative shapes (cat, trusted human, etc.), and people peering behind sliding doors to be scared out of their wits while the music crescendos. The film was very successful at the 2003 German Fantasy Film Festival and The Grudge 2 is in the works. Ju-On is available at The First Videothek in Hamburg.

(Osanna V) Opening March 3, 2005

Hitch, directed by Andy Tennant (Ever After, Anna and the King), brings together Will Smith (Men in Black, Independence Day), Eva Mendes (Stuck on You), Kevin James (TV's The King of Queens) and Amber Valletta (Family Man, The Duplex), in an entertaining romantic comedy.

Alex “Hitch” Hitchens (Smith) is a legendary, but anonymous, date doctor. He specialises in coaching helpless men so that they can woo the woman of their dreams. While his methods are questionable, his intentions are good: he only fosters noble causes and has no difficulty turning down a client if he is in the slightest doubt about his reason for coming to him.

Albert (James) represents the ultimate challenge for Hitch. He is a mild-mannered, embarrassingly clumsy accountant, who is head over heels in love with Allegra Cole (Valletta), a glamorous and wealthy celebrity. The date doctor works his magic and everything is set for true romance to flourish between the unlikely couple. In the meantime, Hitch meets Sara Melas (Mendes), a gossip columnist, in a bar. He is immediately attracted to her and begins seducing her with his tried and true techniques; and it’s working well – until she discovers his identity and jumps to some hasty and misdirected conclusions.

The cast of Hitch may well be the ingredient that makes this movie pretty entertaining. It's a romantic comedy with the predictable twists and turns, but it has enough laughs and charm to warrant a cinema visit for fans of the genre.

 

Main Hoon Na

(Mary W) Opening March 3, 2005

Farah Khan in his directorial debut weaves three plots among toe-tapping, shoulder-shimmying songs in this three hour Bollywood extravaganza. Major Ram Prasad Sharma (Shahrukh Khan) is ordered to pose as a student to protect Sanjana (Amrita Raol), General Amarjeet Bakshi`s daughter from a mysterious bad guy known as Raghavan who wants to derail an exchange of prisoners between Pakistan and India. Ragjavan killed Ram’s soldier father, who on his death bed revealed to Ram that he has a half brother and wants Ram and his other son to scatter his ashes together. Luckily for Ram, his half brother attends the same school as Sanjana and happens to be a best friend of hers. Sanjana, however, has more than brotherly love in mind, and Ram finds good chemistry with his chemistry teacher. Just enough of a little of everything – music, dance, romance, action – for a real good time.

 

Silentium

(Shelly S) Opening March 3, 2005

Directed by Wolfgang Murnberger, Silentium is a fast-paced murder mystery-comedy based on a novel by Wolf Haas. A suicide turns to a murder investigation when a woman (Maria Köstlinger) hires an off-beat private investigator (Josef Hader) to find the murderer of her husband. Her husband had recently accused a Catholic boarding school director of sexual misconduct against him and others during their youth while attending the school. With his sidekick Berti (Simon Schwarz), they go behind the scenes of the Salzburg festival and into the depths of the religious school to find out what really happened. The scene includes the high society, the musically artistic and high church members. The plot twists and turns include a few killings, virgins being forced into prostitution, corruption and many other memorable tidbits. This film is entertaining and there is a lot of humor packed into its main character, Brenner. The plot touches on the sexual issues of the Church which is quite common today but differs from reality when it strays from the legal line of justice. This film decides that it is okay to kill off villains of the church without even a peep from the heroes in the movie. What does that say about our morals of today? What happened to a fair trail? Oh well, it’s only a movie. This film also reminds me of the films that are being made for television. So despite the fact that it is full of wit and suspense, this is not a film that needs to be viewed on the big screen. Save your money and watch it when it hits the local television network.

 

Alfie

(Kirsten G) Opening March 10, 2005

In this year of remakes and sequels, here’s another one: Alfie, a remake of the 1966 film that made Michael Caine a star. This time, Alfie (Jude Law) is a limo driver from England living in New York City, but as in the original he often talks directly to the camera, telling us his innermost thoughts and feelings about the many lovely ladies he seduces. There’s single mother Julie (Marisa Tomei), his on-again/off-again girlfriend; Dorie (Jane Krakowski), a frustrated housewife he chauffeurs; Nikki (Sienna Miller), a beautiful party girl; Liz (Susan Sarandon), a worldly older woman; and Lonette (Nia Long), his best friend’s (Omar Epps) girlfriend. As we witness his conquests, we learn more about Alfie and just how empty, despite all the female companionship, his life really is.

Not having seen the original Alfie, I can’t compare the two. But I can say that this Alfie takes a while to get going, and even when it does, I still wondered where it was going. It seems that director Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride I and II) and screenwriter Elaine Pope want it both ways – Alfie is a womanizer and a cad, but he’s also likeable and someone we can learn from – which doesn’t really work. Yet somehow Law manages to almost pull it off; his acting is the only really excellent thing in the film. Plus, although this film was hyped to be all about sex, it isn’t very sexy – in fact, there is only one really sexy scene, where Alfie and Liz share absinthe, among other things. Overall, by the end of Alfie, I was still left asking, “What’s it all about?”

 

Creep

(Shelly S) Opening March 10, 2005

Director Christopher Smith’s Creep is a horror film that will make you want to puke, at least that is how fellow reviewer Geysa and I felt as we escaped half way through this film. The film starts with a party where Kate (Franka Potente) is planning to meet George Clooney through a friend and since this is a horror film, she never makes there. Instead she is trapped in the subway after hours where her freak ex-boyfriend tries to rape her but then is killed off by a deformed man or monster-like thing. There are many scenes of running through tight and dark tunnels as well as the sound of dripping water. Of course there are a few homeless corpses scattered here and there. Sure I was scared and I still think about this film when I enter the U-Bahn here in Hamburg. I also think Franka Potente and Vas Blackwood did a great job of acting, but somehow I did not really get the story line. I spent most of the time wondering what is this all about and do I really need to feel this sick to my stomach the entire time? I really don’t think so, but perhaps those with a tough stomach will be willing to check this one out for next Halloween.

 

The Sea Inside (Mar Adentro, Das Meer in mir)

(Coppelia HB) Opening March 10, 2005

“I consider that living is a right and not an obligation.” This is the firm belief of Ramón (Javier Bardem), who for 27 years has lain in bed as a quadriplegic after suffering an accident when he jumped into shallow water and broke his neck. His body is worthless, and he’s totally dependant on others for his survival, yet his mind is brilliantly active, witty, sensitive and humorous. The film is based on the true story of Ramón Sampedro, who received attention from the press when he officially petitioned the Spanish legal system to allow him assistance in bringing his life to an end. They opposed his request, and in 1996 he published all he wrote in Letters from Hell. He then came up with a plan to commit suicide without anyone actually being by his side and physically helping him. He consciously ended his life on January 12, 1998. The young Alejandro Amenábar, previously known for The Others starring Nicole Kidman, brilliantly directed, wrote the script, and composed the music. This movie has already won the Grand Special Jury Prize and Young Cinema Award for Best International Film at the 2004 Venice Film Festival.

The setting for this life drama is the coast of Galicia, in an old isolated farmhouse where Ramón lies in bed and stares out his window into the expansive and barren landscape. Here he finds the freedom to leave the confines of his bed and body by flying away in his daydreams, often back to the beach, to the place of the accident. According to his former existence, when he was mobile, he does not live a dignified life. Ramón’s only wish now is to die, and the state and church are against him. Surrounded by a loving, supportive and mostly accepting family, his sister-in-law, Manuela (Mabel Rivera), takes tender care of him while his nephew and father build the contraptions he creates to make his life more comfortable. In his legal plight, he is assisted by the lawyer Julia (Belén Rueda), who falls in love with him and is willing to assist him in his euthanasia as she will follow suit since she also has a debilitating disease. She promises that after his book is published, she will return with the first copy and then they can leave this world together. But the first book arrives in the mail and he realizes she has lost the courage. Then there is Rosa (Lola Dueñas), the factory worker who is alone in the world with only her two young children and who also loves him. She, however, desperately wants him to live and tries to make him change his mind. Yet he knows that only the person who truly loves him will help him to fulfill his death wish.

This film will touch your soul and make you laugh and cry in the realization of its beauty and depth of spirit. Who has the right to decide over one’s life – the individual, the state, the church? “Who am I to judge those who want to live, but I want to die… we all die.”

 

Darwin's Nightmare (Darwin's Alptraum)

(Becky T) Opening March 17, 2005

Tanzania’s Lake Victoria was irreversibly altered when someone put Nile perch into the water. This new species killed off almost all other fish, to rule supreme in the world’s second largest lake. Because there is a huge European market for Nile perch filets, farmers left their fields to fish. New factories opened where thousands of workers now cut and pack the best pieces for export. Every day Russian pilots land their cargo planes on Mwanza’s rudimentary landing strip. After a few days in town, each one takes off for Europe with 500 tons of iced fish. Since Tanzania is suffering from famine, the fish carcasses, heads and bones, are loaded onto trucks and driven inland where the poor smoke them for dinner. Women migrate to the town to pleasure the pilots ($10 a customer). Unprotected street children melt Styrofoam fish containers over an open fire and sniff the glue produced. Thus, a new evolutionary chain is created, with the only missing link being confirmed information about the cargos brought into the country before picking up the fish. Unconfirmed but suspected is that the planes carry arms for Angola. Director Hubert Saupers travelled light (just one friend and a small camera) and talked to everyone from the one-legged orphan boy to the prostitute who wants to learn computer skills to the CEO of the fish factory. It’s amazing how the English language controls international communication, much like the Nile perch the commerce. It was long, tedious work, spent waiting for film opportunities and bribing officials. They had to pretend to be pilots, businessmen, etc., in order to gain access. This documentary won the 2004 European Film Prize, as well as five other prizes in Venice, Montreal, Copenhagen, and Paris. Do not miss it and note how carefully you investigate the next fish you fry.

 

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Die Tiefseetaucher)

(Patricia R) Opening March 17, 2005

Take a deep breath before you dive into the water with Team Zissou – it seems like a long time before you’re back on the surface. But at least you get to see some amazing fish.

Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is an aging oceanographer à la Jacque Cousteau, who has been somewhat successful making documentary films, followed up by merchandising with even a Team Zissou fan club. However his aquatic world is showing signs of decay. His ship (the Belafonte), submarine, sea plane, hot-air balloon, helicopter and Mediterranean island all need time in dry dock for repairs. His latest money-making adventure is to catch the jaguar shark that attacked and killed his former partner. He promises his public to kill it for revenge.

He is joined on board the Belafonte with an eccentric crew that includes his ex-wife (Anjelica Huston), a reporter (Cate Blanchett) who reads aloud Proust’s A la Recherde du Temps Perdu to her unborn child, a Kentucky Airways pilot who claims to be his illegitimate son and a security guard who sings old David Bowie songs, samba style, in Portuguese (Seu Jorge). The crew all wear little red knit caps that reminded me of the Where's Waldo? children’s books.

This is the third film that director Wes Anderson has made with Bill Murray; Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums were their other comic films about dysfunctional families. Co-written with Noah Baumbach, Anderson said that the concept came from a short story he had written in college but never finished. That explains it!

Bill Murray plays his perfect deadpan fall guy act but there’s no one bouncing off him. Too disengaged, disconnected and disorienting to keep up any momentum – more a feeling of vertigo – not knowing where’s up unless you follow the bubbles. The film lacks both the emotional intensity of a Moby Dick (adapted by Angelica Huston’s father) and the creative curiosity of the old Cousteau documentaries.

The most visually appealing was the bisection of the research ship Belafonte, showing all five stories that included a laboratory and spa. The exotic fish swimming by were actually three-dimensional models with stop motion animation.

 

Old Men in New Cars (Gamie maend I nye bler)

(Becky T) Opening March 17, 2005

In this Danish film by Lasse Spang Olsen, Harald returns from a prison stint to find that his two designated accomplices are more interested in a cooking contest than crime. He revives their criminal thinking, and their first deed is to free Ludvig, whose father needs a kidney transplant. I don’t understand why this film was so long in coming back to Hamburg after the 2002 FilmFest Hamburg. It was one of my favorite films for the black humor (Ludvig is a hilarious serial killer – which is hard to imagine), the bit parts (a spaced-out girl with worse problems than bank robbers) and the dialogue full of snappy quips.

 

In Good Company (Reine Chefsache)

(Karen P) Opening March 24, 2005

Director Paul Weitz (About a Boy) writes and directs a most believable storyline depicting today's global economy and his disturbing concept of today's Corporate America. What is even more thought-provoking is his favorable twist toward strong family values including the development and importance of solid, lasting friendships. The question his material poses is: When all is said and done, what is really important in life?

Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) is a 51-year-old managing editor for a well-known sports magazine. He has had an amazing career, is at the top of his game and works with a great team of people that he put together. His wife, Ann (Marg Helgenberger), and two daughters, Alex (Scarlett Johansson) and Jana (Zena Grey), are the pride and joy of his existence. They are a loving family; they genuinely care about each other and communicate effectively their level of caring. Well, let's say, that those levels of caring are portrayed with a delightful sense of humor that is natural and endearing. Suddenly changes happen in the Foreman household that takes them off guard. Dan's company is bought out overnight and he suddenly has young 26-year-old Carter (Topher Grace) as his boss who knows nothing about the business except how to motivate people using questionable ethics. Driven by selfish greed and ambition, Carter is caught up in the web of climbing the corporate ladder at someone else's expense until he meets Dan and his family. How they will deal with each family member's crisis has to do with choosing to keep in good company or not, and to keep working at what is important in life.

(Adele R) Opening March 24, 2005

Alfred Kinsey’s book, based on his ground breaking scientific research, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, was first published in 1948 and sold out within days. Eventually, it became the basis for the first school classes in sexual education, the underlying impulse for the 60s sexual revolution, and the background for the Masters and Johnson study of sexuality, Human Sexual Response, published in 1966. Today, the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, along with many other scientists and their research centers, continue the study of sex, gender and reproduction to help doctors, psychiatrists and all of us understand this most basic, and often still, most misinformed, aspect of human behavior. Even as this movie is being seen by audiences in America and Europe, Kinsey continues to be regarded as a controversial scientist and his work is vilified and depreciated by forces who oppose the study of sex and the answers that come from it. This film is a brilliant biography of Alfred Kinsey and his revelatory research.

pKinsey, born in 1894, grew up with a cruel, stern and dominating father in a strait-laced age. As a child, he developed a fascination for biology and even at a very young age, observed and recorded the habits of animals and insects in his area with scientific devotion. With a doctorate from Harvard, Kinsey came to the University of Indiana in 1920 as an assistant professor in Zoology where he was an expert on the gall wasp. (He collected over a million samples.) There he met and married the unconventional Clara McMillen, one of his students. His own experience with sex, both the repression caused by his father’s extreme views on the sinfulness of sexuality and the happy discoveries he made with his wife, gave him great compassion with students who confessed to sexual problems in their marriages. Spurred by the unhappiness of some of the students, he began teaching a class on marriage, which focused, daringly, on sex. Soon his students were bombarding him with questions, and he realized that neither he, nor anyone else, seemed to know very much about human sexual behavior. What WAS “normal”? Was anything not “normal”? What about masturbation? Homosexuality? Frigidity? And where does love come into the picture? As a scientist Kinsey resolved to study sex scientifically and unemotionally. Needless to say, he wasn’t entirely successful with the latter.

The director, Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters), who also wrote the film, chose Liam Neeson to play Kinsey and Laura Linney as his wife, “Mac”. Both are truly wonderful in their roles. Neeson perfectly embodies the driven scientist and Linney, gently ironic, is loving and deeply involved from the very first. Kinsey’s research on human sexuality was supported (much to the surprise of their boards) by both the University of Indiana and the Rockefeller Institute. But after the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953, which was seen by the public as an attack on American moral values and the sanctity of American women, Kinsey’s life changed. Public outrage and scorn, the loss of his financial benefactors and the inevitable problems his research team experienced with the sexually-free utopia in which they had been living, caused him great anguish. He died in 1956, certain his life’s work had been a failure, according to his biography.

Kinsey developed a method of interviewing his subjects designed to put them at ease and make it possible for them to answer the most intimate questions. Condon, very successfully, uses this same technique to tell Kinsey’s own story. The result is a riveting, often moving, film that leaves you bubbling with questions and enough material for days of intense conversation with your friends and family.

 

Million Dollar Baby

(Becky T) Opening March 24, 2005

The job of the cut man is to stench the blood of boxers, so that they can continue fighting under the eye of the referee, who will disqualify in case of serious injuries. Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) was a cut man for Scrap (Morgan Freeman) until Scrap lost an eye to the sport. Now Frankie runs The Hit Pit, a training club in Los Angeles and Scrap is his 24-hour janitor. Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) trains at the club with initially no encouragement. Everything is against her: she is a girl; she is too old (30); she is uneducated and from the Missouri Ozarks; she works fulltime as a waitress. Naturally, once in the ring, she wins every fight until an injury stops her career. From this point we have a completely different film about a father-daughter relationship and guilt and morals. Maggie is immobile in a hospital bed wishing for death. Frank consults the priest about assisted suicide, saying, “By keeping her alive I’m killing her.” Scrap runs the club.

Eastwood, Freeman, and Swank are excellent as always. With over a hundred films between them, they have received every national and international award. In 1995 Eastwood attended the Filmfest Hamburg to receive the Douglas Sirk Prize for life achievement. He still amazes everyone as an actor (although here, his voice sounds forced) and director. Swank worked out in a Brooklyn Gym until she acquired a boxer’s physique. The film is no more violent than any other boxing report. If you hate boxing, you’ll find this violent; otherwise, the blood is necessary for the plot.

My complaint is that the story is not original. Based on Rope Burns by F.X. Toole (who was once a cut man), the first half is Girlfight and Billy Elliot about achieving a goal with the help of someone who cares. From there we go to The English Patient or Coming Home about being bedridden and physically handicapped, to end with Mar Adentro about the moral implications of assisted suicide. The title is misleading, since Maggie loses her million-dollar fight, although her hillbilly family thinks she has the cash; she is most certainly not a babe. Why did Frank’s own daughter leave him 23 years earlier, never to answer his letters? Why is he studying Gaelic and why the words Mo Cuishle? What’s with his motto ”Always Protect Yourself”? Why did this film get seven Oscar nominations?

Second Opinion by Kirsten G

How does a bond of love and friendship develop between two people, and how far is a person willing to go for the one he loves, are two of the central questions in Million Dollar Baby, actor/director Clint Eastwood’s follow-up to his highly acclaimed film Mystic River. Like River, Baby is also a story about redemption: here, those needing to be redeemed include Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), a boxing trainer nearing the end of his career, and Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a little-educated but determined 31-year-old who wants desperately to be a professional boxer. When Maggie shows up in Frankie’s gym, asking him to manage her, Frankie flatly refuses but is eventually nudged into the job by his right-hand man, former boxer Scrap (Morgan Freeman), who looks after the gym. After a lot of hard work, Maggie starts to fight and win, but soon things take an unexpected turn, resulting in some difficult decisions for both Maggie and Frankie.

Due to some controversial subject matter, Baby has polarized audiences in the U.S. However, I felt the decisions the characters make are entirely consistent with actions and motivations shown earlier in the film, and the phenomenal acting performances of Eastwood, Swank, and Freemen sell the plot twists. Several story points are left unresolved, which was a bit frustrating, but the questions raised make for interesting post-viewing discussions. Overall, Baby teaches some important lessons – money (even a million dollars) doesn’t buy happiness, always trying to protect yourself can’t guarantee you won’t get hurt, and family can be found in unexpected places – without being preachy, and the film is well-worth a viewing.

 

Wimbledon (Wimbledon - Spiel, Satz und ... Liebe)

(Kirsten G) Opening March 24, 2005

Tennis gets its day in the sports-film sun in Wimbledon, a light but pleasant drama-comedy about opposites who attract. The opposites are Peter Colt (Paul Bettany of Master and Commander and A Beautiful Mind), an aging British tennis star on his last legs, and Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst of Spider Man 1 and 2), a hot young American tennis star on the rise. Peter, once ranked 11th but now ranked 119th in the world, has a wild-card entry to Wimbledon, after which he plans to retire from professional tennis. While there, he meets Lizzie, who changes his game and his life. Soon, he’s playing like the star he never realized he was. Can Peter make it to the top, and get the girl besides?

As this film is utterly predictable, the answer to that question is apparent from early on, but it’s still fun getting to the resolution. Unfortunately, the character development on all characters but Peter is minimal, and most of the actors can’t seem to rise above the limitations the script places on them. Only Bettany is a standout, showing good chemistry with Dunst and proving that he can carry a film all on his own. The action shots of the tennis matches are done pretty well, and the final match is exciting, but the film never rises to its full potential. As an enjoyable diversion on an airplane, or for a quiet evening at home, Wimbledon might be just the ticket, but otherwise, it’s an event you can pass on.

 

Brothers (Brothers - Zwischen Brüdern, Brødre)

(Adele R) Opening March 31, 2005

Suzanne Bier, director of the deeply moving Open Hearts, and one of Denmark’s five top films, The One and Only, has again brought a compelling story to the screen with two superb actors, Ulrich Thomsen (Celebration, Killing me Softly and The Inheritance) as Michael, and Connie Nielsen (One Hour Photo) as Sarah.

Michael, a successful career soldier with a lovely wife and two sweet little girls is on his way to Afghanistan for his second tour of duty. His brother Jannik (Nicolaj Lie Kaas) is just the opposite, a heavy drinker, ex-con, drifter. But he deeply admires his older brother and in the warm relationship between the two, there is neither animosity nor jealousy. Then Michael’s helicopter crashes in the desert and he is presumed dead. To everyone’s astonishment, Jannik slowly takes responsibility for Michael’s family, installing the kitchen which had been languishing half-finished for years, being an affectionate and dependable uncle for the girls and even getting a job. And between Jannik and Sarah, mutual grief gives way to a growing warmth. And then Michael turns up alive, badly traumatized by his experience as a prisoner in Afghanistan.

In a statement on the film, Bier said she likes “to get under the skin of my characters”. With her films, she gets under ours, too.

 

Machuca

(Coppelia HB) Opening March 31, 2005

The backdrop of this historical drama is based on real events that occurred during Allende’s socialistic presidency and ensuing military dictatorship by Pinochet. Father McEnroe (Ernesto Malbrán) is the priest and director of an elitist private school where a social experiment is underway to integrate underprivileged children from the surrounding shantytowns into the classrooms. Director André Wood actually participated in this experimental educational project as he grew up in Santiago and attended this school. This fabulous film depicts the friendship between Gonzalo Infante (Matias Quer), son of a well-to-do family, and Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) from the slums across the river. Father McEnroe envisions teaching the children to treat each other with respect as fellow human beings, regardless of social or economic background, but reality amongst the school children, and their parents, proves to be a different story. As the eleven year old boys come into each other’s worlds, they find a way to overcome their differences through friendship and trust. Part of this process is shared by Pedro’s neighbor Silvana (Manuela Martelli), who is older and fiery and leads the boys into the exploration of intimacy. She delivers a brilliant performance as a feisty teenager that fights back with tooth and nail. As nationalists and communists clash, the surrounding country plunges into chaos. These are tumultuous times with food shortages, and people waiting in line on end to obtain basic goods which are actually being stockpiled. On September 11, 1973, there is a military coup and Pinochet takes over, imposing a military regime that proved to be deadly to many. Overnight the illegal shantytown disappears and so does Pedro Machuca. The end is a sobering tragic reality. This is Wood’s fourth film and has been described as “a masterpiece of South American cinema.”

 

Pooh’s Heffalump Movie (Heffalump - Ein neuer Freund für Winnie Puuh)

(Shelly S) Opening March 31, 2005

Directed by Frank Nissen, Pooh’s Heffalump is a welcome surprise animation which contains no sex, violence or heavy moral issues and is appropriate for small children. Like Laura’s Stern, this animation seems to be swimming against a stream of current dismal kids films geared towards the teenies. The story begins deep in the forest next to the Hundred Acre Wood. Winnie the Pooh’s gang hears a strange rumbling sound and investigate it. Soon the expedition takes form and the crew hunts for the dangerous Heffalump creature which in essence is a funny purple elephant-like creature. The excitement slowly builds while Pooh, Tiger, Piglet and Eeyore explain step by step to Roo, what is needed. Everyone is caught up in the excitement or organizing the expedition, especially little Roo. But in the end his friends tell him that he is too small and that it is too dangerous to go. Naturally Roo disagrees and decides to muster up his courage to go out on his own. The others spend hours looking for the Heffalump, while Roo finds Lumpy, the Heffalump, very quickly and, through a bit of rough play, realizes what a nice friend Lumpy makes. While enjoying their time together Lumpy forgets to be close to his mother and soon realizes that she is lost. At that point, he is then captured by Pooh’s gang. The story, of course, ends on a sweet note; the length is short and definitely works well for small kids. The film has nice up-beat music from Carly Simon which the kids also seem to enjoy. The only major flaw is that this film should be called Roo’s Heffalump not Pooh’s Heffalump since Lumpy is Roo’s friend and not Pooh’s.

 

Vanity Fair (Vanity Fair - Jahrmarkt der Eitelkeiten) 1/2

(Osanna V) Opening March 31, 2005

Directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), this adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel stars Reese Witherspoon, Gabriel Byrne, James Purefoy and Romola Garai.

Becky Sharp (Witherspoon) is the daughter of an English painter and a French music hall singer who is orphaned at a young age. Brought up at a girls' boarding school, she is clever enough to become governess at the run-down home of Sir Pitt Crawley (Bob Hoskins). She proves her talent not only in teaching but also in preparing the household for the visit of Sir Crawley’s wealthy sister Lady Southdown (Geraldine McEwan). The elderly lady takes a liking to Becky and convinces her to leave her brother’s house and become her companion. The relationship blossoms until Becky and Lady Southdown’s favourite nephew, Rawdon Crawley (Purefoy), fall in love and marry in secret. From that moment on the young couple are condemned to a life of dwindling resources and goodwill, until the Marquis de Steyne (Byrne) – who collects paintings by Becky’s father – steps in as benefactor. Unfortunately, his motives are not purely altruistic and, with time, Becky has to make the choice that will change the course of her life. Over the years, she enjoys one constant relationship: her friendship with Amelia Sedley (Garai) which, in spite of various trials, wins through in the end.

Having not read the book, I can not say how good an adaptation this is. My impression during the first half of the film was that Becky is a clever young woman who takes a healthy advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. Whether due to Witherspoon’s acting or the role itself, I did not perceive her as a scheming conniver, bent on climbing the social ladder at all cost. She marries for love and is faithful through many difficulties; and I was enjoying the movie until… at some point around the middle I got lost. It was as though the second half of the story suffered from the editor’s scissors; as if the producers wanted to pack in more than possible. Scenes and developments lost continuity; background characters stepped forward with increased significance for no apparent reason; and time sequences made no sense.>

I also had difficulty with the choice of music for some passages; on the other hand I found the costumes and sets well done. However, all in all, the film was disappointing and easily forgotten.

  Questions?

For more information about the AWCH Film Group, contact us by filling out a feedback form.

 

Return to:  Film Reviews 2005 Home

Return to:  Home