Reviews by members of the AWC Film Group of films slated to open in Hamburg in November 2003

 

The Matrix Revolutions

(Becky T) Opening November 5, 2003

In the first Matrix film, Keanu Reeves was Neo, the chosen one. A wild guess that this could be a synonym for Jesus is confirmed with a bang at the end of Matrix Revolutions when Keanu sacrifices himself for mankind and rises to heaven, spread out in the shape of a cross and accompanied by a hymn. His disciples hug each other. This isn’t the epitome of originality, but it was always a good story. I wonder if the born-again Christians will protest such blasphemy. Here the texts are asinine: I believe in him; What the devil is going on; Every beginning has an end. The two best sentences are “Open the gates,” and “I never finished boot camp,” also not very original. The final impressive battle scene lasts 25 minutes which seem like 50 and borrows from Star Wars (huge dinosaur- and smaller spider-looking weapons) and World War I (loading the cannon by hand) and Metropolis (prototype for Zion, the city under siege). Trinity perishes for love which is just as well since Carrie-Anne Moss looks close to murdering Keanu herself if she must wipe up after him one more time, e.g., when driving one-handed, her other hand in his because he’s blind. There are a few new characters such as Trainman, a bum with rotting teeth (Bruce Spence), a nice family from India who are – what else – computer programmers, and a new Oracle (Mary Alice). It is obvious that the first Matrix succeeded because it started in a semblance of a real world where we could identify with Neo. Now it’s all science fiction with no reference to any world we might know. Neo will surely rise from the dead if the money is right. The credits which go on for fifteen minutes or 20 pages in the press packet are a great source of names for your new baby, such as: Essie, Marky, Ousaun, Huckle, Jolyon, Lyall, Eucla, Tamsin, Callum, Eamon, Wedrell, and Laide. The press screening was held under strict security. Men in suits, who could have been Agent Smith clones without the sunglasses, peered at us throughout, daring us to record a word, as if we would want to.

Heirankl

(Patricia R) Opening November 6, 2003

Hierankl is a beautifully crafted family story, filmed in the picturesque setting of Chiemgau, a setting so beautiful it could be mistaken at first for a Bavarian butter commercial. This is a picture of the author's homeland and his story about home and homecoming, and what feelings those words evoke; feelings of love and pain, memories and secrets.

Lene, played by Johanna Wokalek (Aimee und Jaguar), standing at the München train station must make a decision - go back to Berlin where she lives or go home to visit her family in the Southern Alps. She hasn't seen her family for years, having moved to Berlin at sixteen after a quarrel with her mother. She yearns to go home and see Hierankl again. Her father's sixtieth birthday celebration is planned and it is a reason to see everyone again, including her brother. She heads south with three important questions on her mind: “hast Du Sex, hast Du Familie, bist Du in Bewegung? Dreimal ja ist das Paradies, zweimal ja brauchst Du für Dein Glück und einmal ja zum Überleben.“

At home many closely held family secrets begin to unravel. Her mother Rosemarie, played by Barbara Sukowa (Die bleierne Zeit) and father Lukas, played by Josef Bierbichler (Theater Heute) begin to open up at the outdoor picnic celebration after a few bottles of wine and toasts were shared among the guests.

This high quality film was awarded the Förderpreis Deutscher Film at the München Filmfest for the best director, Hans Steinbichler, and best actress, Johanna Wokalek.

The Barbarian Invasion (Les Invasions Barbares)

(Becky T) Opening November 13, 2003

Much ado has been made of this film by Denys Arcand of Quebec, Canada. He is known for the Decline of the American Empire made 17 years ago and also for Jesus of Montreal. Now he has invited the original group of actors from Decline to come together in an ensemble film. Rémy (Remy Girard) is dying and his son, ex-wife, girl friends, friends and colleagues gather at his hospital bed to accompany him to the other side. Soon they all move to a house on a lake where dying is more comfortable. Perhaps it would be beneficial to see the 1986 film in order to understand the references to capitalism, imperialism, socialism and getting your due. Otherwise, it is a slow and boring film, in spite of the fact that it won two golden palms at Cannes 2003.

The Italian Job 1/2

(Kirsten G) Opening November 13, 2003

What do you get when you cross Oceans 11 with Hackers? You get The Italian Job, an update of the 1969 film of the same name. This Job features Mark Wahlberg as Charlie, the leader of a team of specialists who plots an intricate robbery of 35 million dollars worth of gold bars from a palazzo in Venice. Using the talents of each member of the gang – inside man Steve (Edward Norton), computer hacker Lyle (Seth Green), explosives expert Left Ear (Mos Def), getaway driver Handsome Rob (Jason Statham), and veteran safecracker John (Donald Sutherland) – the job goes off without a hitch, until one of the gang betrays them. It will take all of their efforts, plus the help of Stella (Charlize Theron) – a good girl who turns bad – to track down the traitor, steal back the gold, and get revenge.

The Italian Job starts off with a bang and never really slows down. The gang is small enough to get to know and care about each member, and Wahlberg and Theron have nice chemistry. There are quite a few laughs, mostly provided by the Lyle and Handsome Rob characters, and the final heist is all adrenaline. The downside of the film is that there’s not a whole lot of substance behind the adrenaline, but that may not matter. If all you’re looking for is pure, mindless entertainment, this film does the job!

Kops

(Becky T) Opening November 13, 2003

Jessica Lindbladt comes to the Swedish village of Högsboträsk to close down the local police station for lack of work. Faced with unemployment, the four cops Jacob, Benny, Lasse and Agneta (two named after ABBA) increase the crime statistics themselves with a little bit of shop lifting, defacement of walls, burning down the hot dog stand, and kidnapping a local resident. Their second-hand knowledge of crime comes from the Matrix films and television. This is director Jares Fares’ second comedy hit (seen by one in every eight Swedes; the first hit was Jalla Jalla). It won the Audience Favorite prize at the Hamburg film festival. Fares immigrated at age 10 to Sweden from Lebanon and his whole family (parents, grandma, five brothers and sisters) helped with the production on both sides of the camera, especially his brother Fares Fares who plays Jacob, the shy lover. Go see it before Adam Sandler makes a mess of the remake.

L’Auberge Espagnole

(Thelma F) Opening November 13, 2003

I saw this film a year ago in France and was sad to think that it might never come to Hamburg. So, I am delighted that this fun film about exchange students in Spain is here for you to enjoy and identify with if you were, or have had experiences with, exchange students, or have lived in a foreign country – and who hasn’t in our group?

Finding Nemo 1/2

(Kirsten G) Opening November 20, 2003

If you are interested in seeing the best computer-generated animation out there today, look no further than Finding Nemo, the latest offering from the Pixar/Disney team that brought you Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Monsters, Inc. But good animation does little if there’s not a good story to support it, and Finding Nemo delivers here as well. It tells the tale of two clown fish: Marlin (voiced by actor/director/comedian Albert Brooks), a loving but overly-cautious father, and Nemo (voiced by Alexander Gould), his adventurous son. When the two get separated in their Great Barrier Reef home, Marlin is forced to leave to search for Nemo, teaming up along the way with the loveable but forgetful fish Dory (wonderfully voiced by comedian Ellen DeGeneres) and enlisting the help of several other colorful characters along the way.

Finding Nemo stands out in many ways. Its portrayal of an underwater world is groundbreaking, with elements such as lighting, murk, and surge/swell combining to realistically portray reef and fish tank environments. The story has aspects that almost everyone can connect with: kids can relate to overprotective parents, parents can relate to being afraid for their children, and we expats can relate to being “fish out of water”! The voice acting is also very well done; Brooks and DeGeneres play off of each other perfectly. Overall, you will be hard-pressed to find a more heart-warming tale for all ages this holiday season.

The Guys

(Adele R) Opening November 20, 2003

Directed by Jim Simpson with Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia

In the days and weeks which followed September 11, 2001, New Yorkers experienced a shockingly different city from the brash, tough, frenetic place they had always known. New York was gravely wounded, and the pain and fear was reinforced on every street corner by the photos of the missing and the searing messages of loss posted on lamp posts and trees. Every park, and, most shockingly, all the fire stations in the city were lit with candles and filled with flowers and slips of paper with words on death. Public funerals and memorial services took place in all five boroughs every day and the people were quiet, tearful and aching with grief.

In a very tragic and personal way, the city’s heroic firemen became stand-ins for that loss of life for millions of people whose own family and friends were thankfully not affected. Although most of the men of the New York Fire Department lived in the boroughs-—Staten Island was particularly hard hit--they worked, anonymously, fighting fires, saving lives in daily, unremarked demonstrations of courage, all over Manhattan and the five boroughs, invisible to the thousands who hurried past the fire stations or waited impatiently to cross the street while fire trucks tore screaming down the avenues.

But 9/11 changed that. On that one day, NYFD lost 363 men. Before that, the department had never lost more than six in a year. Suddenly almost every fire station in all the neighborhoods across New York had lost someone; one lost every man.

The Guys, directed by Jim Simpson, is a movie about one fire station in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which lost eight men of 14, and their captain, Nick, who was faced with the terrible task of delivering the eulogies at the memorial services and funerals of his men.

Nick (played with incredible sensitivity and painfully taut helplessness by Anthony LaPaglia) is introduced to a New York City journalist who agrees to help him write the eulogies. Joan (movingly portrayed by Sigourney Weaver), struggling with her own essay on grief in the aftermath, is deeply grateful to be able to be of some use, to atone in some way for her luck in not losing any of her family or friends.

The early part of the movie moves very slowly, perhaps tediously, as Nick sits at a table struggling to give life to the lost men in his company for Joan and she takes his disjointed, inarticulate descriptions and turns them into eloquent prose. But stick with it because the movie grows, and the aching grief is brought home, cumulating as it must, in one of the countless memorial services with the suddenly all-too-familiar keen of bagpipes. The film itself is a memorial and as memorials sometimes do, it brings in a small, gentle way, a form of understanding and acceptance for that terrible day.

Love Actually (Tatsächlich…Liebe)

(Kirsten G) Opening November 20, 2003

For a film sure to warm your heart this holiday season, see Love Actually, the directorial debut of screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary). A film billed as “the ultimate romantic comedy” in its production notes, Love weaves together the lives of over 14 different characters at various stages of being in love – everything from crushes to family love to friendship to love lost. The cast is a who’s who of British film, including Hugh Grant as the bachelor Prime Minister of England, Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman as a comfortable married couple, Colin Firth as a broken-hearted writer, Liam Neeson as a just-widowed stepfather, and Keira Knightly as a new bride. Americans Laura Linney (as a lovelorn office worker) and Billy Bob Thornton (as the U.S. President) are also in the mix.

The film is a little over the top and not particularly realistic in its plot, but the emotions portrayed on screen are genuine. The acting is excellent, especially from Thompson and Firth, and the dialogue is priceless. I laughed and cried throughout (both from sadness and joy). An especially funny storyline is the one where Firth falls in love with his Portuguese housekeeper; she doesn’t speak a word of English, and he tries words in just about every language except Portuguese. The translation of his attempts at Portuguese is absolutely hilarious. My only questions are whether some Americans will be offended by the storyline with the PM and the President and whether the film is too “chick flick”ish for guys, but I think it’s worth a try. If you’re looking for a film that actually doesn’t have any blood or Kung Fu, Love Actually is the one for you!

Second Opinion by Osanna V 1/2

Richard Curtis (director and screenwriter) brings together some of Britain’s best known actors – Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy, Keira Knightly – in a delightful, funny and touching multi-romance, showing love from every possible angle.

Eight stories successfully weave their way through this two-hour-and-ten-minute film: The prime Minister (Grant) falling in love with a new employee at No. 10 Downing Street; an author (Firth) escaping a broken heart to the south of France; a married couple (Thompson and Rickman) working their way through a classic hiccup in their marriage; the recent widower (Neeson) building a relationship with his 11 year old step-son; the former rock star (Nighy) making a dubious come-back; the newlyweds and the misunderstood Best Man; the American girl with a major crush on one of her office colleagues; the young Brit who decides that the US is the land of love opportunity for him.

While some of the stories are pure comic fantasy (I mean, Hugh Grant as prime minister?), skirting the edge of the ridiculous while somehow remaining thoroughly entertaining, others touch on very real situations (Thompson once again is brilliant) which often bring tears to the eye. Each tale is complete – even if some are quite short and others left open-ended. The movie opens and closes at the Arrivals gate at Heathrow airport, where an observer can see a hundred different, loving encounters between people and wonder what their background stories might be, and we hear Grant’s voice saying: General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed – but I don’t see that – seems to me that love is everywhere.

Between Strangers (Zwischen Fremden)

(Becky T) Opening November 27, 2003

The director is Eduardo-Ponti-the-son-of-Sophia-Loren. He probably wonders when he will earn enough credits to drop the Loren connection, but it won’t be with this film. He has managed to gather a sterling cast, led by his mamma and her friends, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Gérard Depardieu. Also excellent are Mira Sorvino, Deborah Unger, and Pete Postlethwaite. Three women make friends around a table at the airport. Each has taken control of her own life and optimistically has a flight ticket in the right direction. Before this we sit through explanations of their problems. Olivia gave up her daughter at birth and remained childlessly married to wheelchair-bound John. She also sacrificed her artistic ambitions. Natalia, a successful photographer for Life magazine, has gained fame and fatherly approval with a report from an African village. She realizes that she has no idea what happened to a small girl in the photo and whether she perished when she could have been rescued instead of photographed. Catherine, a successful cellist, was orphaned at age 10 when her father murdered her mother and went to prison. Upon his release, she leaves her own small daughter to wreak revenge upon him. Three women, three small girls, and three disappointing men are too contrived. Although I shed a tear or two, my fellow journalists laughed in all the wrong spots.

Mystic River 1/2

(Kirsten G) Opening November 27, 2003

A power cast and director give Mystic River, the new film based on the best-selling mystery novel by Dennis Lehane, quite a punch. Sean Penn (Jimmy), Kevin Bacon (Sean), and Tim Robbins (Dave) play three childhood friends who drifted apart after a terrible event. Jimmy does time in prison, then marries and has three daughters; Dave drifts from job to job but marries and has a son. Sean becomes a cop whose wife leaves him. The three meet again after a murder, which sets into motion a tale of guilt, loyalty, and betrayal.

The acting in Mystic River is dead on and very compelling. Penn, Bacon, and Robbins are wonderful, as are Laurence Fishburne as Sean’s cop partner, Marcia Gay Harden as Dave’s wife, and Laura Linney as Jimmy’s wife. Director Clint Eastwood gets the most from his cast, and the directing and cinematography are also well done. However, the film’s one weakness is its message, which was not very clear to me. But the film did provoke a good after-viewing discussion, and the mystery kept me guessing, so overall this is a river worth wading into.

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