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paulromney03
Reviews
White Heat (2012)
A quiet but absorbing drama
"White Heat" begins quietly and remains low-key, but it grows on you and the final episode yields a captivating surprise. Its strengths stand in contrast to the failings of "The Hour", another recent drama situated in recent British history. "The Hour" starts out looking like a thriller somehow related to the Suez invasion and Hungarian uprising of 1956; but the thriller plot fades into an inconsequential side-show and all that is left at the end is period soap-opera. "White Heat" follows its characters from 1965 to the present day, with public events mainly occurring in the background and serving as chronological markers, although they do impinge on the lives of two of the characters. Some aspects of the plot are stereotyped, but the drama scrupulously eschews soap-opera glitz, and the characters show plausible development--that's why it grows on you. The actors are generally excellent, but I did feel that the casting of Juliet Stevenson as the present-day avatar of Claire Foy's character was ill judged, since the appearance, styles and diction of the two actors are all strikingly dissimilar. It might have mattered less had the drama been chronologically divided between "then" and "now", but there is no way that the character portrayed by Foy over 35 years could have turned, in another 20, into the character played by Stevenson.
The Hour (2011)
period soap opera dressed up as a period thriller
This drama has been compared to the American series "Mad Men", and I regret to say that the comparison is justified. The comparison rests in the first place on the "period" setting; but the deeper and more damaging resemblance is in the fact that both dramas are ultimately soap operas.
This is less obvious with "The Hour", which is set up as a mystery-thriller complete in six episodes rather than a multi-series workplace drama. However, the mystery-thriller plot turns out to be a tawdry, sadly vestigial side-show. The writer could scarcely be bothered to make it, and the associated mayhem, realistic and plausible. What is left is an office romance drama which is scarcely more realistic. In a nutshell, the dialogue toys with serious issues that turn out to be just a patina on a melodrama.
These defects are the more glaring because the big screen has recently given us a superb example of a "period" thriller in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." But that of course is based on a novel that was, when it was written, a contemporary drama.
One is left, then, with the period setting. Here too, one's efforts to suspend disbelief are constantly challenged. Romola Garai appears in a succession of costumes that seem more calculated to showcase her figure than to approximate mid-1950s workplace attire. And her character would not have asked a question (episode 1) about "Prime Minister Eden" but about "the Prime Minister", or "Sir Anthony".
More damagingly, the setting is inappropriately specific. "Mad Men" is set in an advertising agency, one of many that existed in that time and place. It is patched into historical events - events that actually happened. "The Hour" is a portrayal of an event - a BBC TV programme - that did not happen. It is a weakly realized fantasy.
Why 6 stars, then? Mainly because of the cast. Juliet Stevenson shines in any company; Garai is reliably excellent; but I particularly enjoyed Oona Chaplin's performance as an insecure wife. Either her part was better written than the rest, or she made it seem so.
The men are OK, and Anton Lesser is something more.
Margin Call (2011)
Too much banality, not enough evil
The film is a study of individuals who must decide whether or not to launch a global financial catastrophe in order to save their own skins. It sets out to present them not as psychopaths but as hommes moyens sensuels whose bubble-life within their Manhattan skyscraper office and fancy cars and bars has rendered them insensitive to the havoc they are proposing to wreak on millions of ordinary folk. One of the most powerful moments comes when one of the characters justifies the impending carnage on the ground that the about-to-be-victimized masses deserve no pity because they have been happy to gorge themselves at the trough that is about to be overturned.
The film delivers a powerful situation and argument in a low-key style which, to its credit, determinedly eschews melodrama. I have two major reservations about the screenplay, however. First, for my taste the drama is spelled out too much in the dialogue rather than being felt between the lines. As a result, despite the best efforts of a stellar cast, the characters remained two-dimensional and ultimately left me cold. Second, the moral dilemma is never fully articulated, and so the story, while absorbing, never rises to a satisfying climax. Nevertheless, in the final analysis the film is worth watching both for its seriousness and its cast.
Emma (1996)
The quintessence of mediocrity
Seeing this recently for the first time in 15 years, I was disappointed by its mediocrity. A talented cast is largely wasted, and among their number I do not include Paltrow, who hardly qualifies as talented on this evidence. Her stilted, mannered, plodding approach to her lines suggests that her energy was sapped by the effort of achieving an appropriate accent. However, this was clearly not a problem a few years later in Shakespeare in Love, and the faults of her performance here merely exemplify those of the production as a whole -- faults for which, one imagines, McGrath is largely to blame, though his Nicholas Nickleby a few years later shows that he too was capable of better. The movie is to be cherished for Juliet Stevenson's marvellous (though sadly truncated) turn as Mrs. Elton, but on the whole the film falls far short of the lively, sensitive, and above all natural, TV version of 2009, in which Christina Cole's Mrs Elton is only one of several outstanding performances.
The Singing Detective (1986)
Much Ado About Nothing
Being well aware of the Dennis Potter mystique, and having fond recollections of his first TV play, which I saw prior to emigrating from the UK in 1966, I looked forward to this serial with great anticipation only to be sadly disappointed. It is a remarkable exercise in technical virtuosity, but its ethical content is minimal, by which I mean that it has little or nothing to say about the human condition.
This does not mean that there are not brilliant and enjoyable episodes, but they remain episodes -- they do not add up to anything larger than the sum of the parts. My favourite episode is the Dickensian portrait of the sadistic schoolteacher in Part 4 -- marvellous writing, and a note-perfect performance by Janet Henfrey. Generally speaking, the acting is first-rate and the direction enjoyably deft. The selection of 40's hits is terrific, especially Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in "Accentuate the Positive." But it does not jell.
In the last analysis, I'm reminded of H. G. Wells's parody of Henry James, quoted by E. M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel. In that instance I'm with James and against Wells, but as applied to The Singing Detective Wells's criticism is spot on.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Take away the gimmick and what's left?
The cinematography is top-notch, and Cate Blanchett is luminous as only she can be -- which might eventually become boring if it were all she could do, but of course she can do much more. The narrative is initially absorbing, but as it unfolds what emerges is a soppy, sentimental, feelgood yarn with not much of a point to it -- make that no point at all. I enjoy fantasy, but it should compel belief, not disbelief, and details count. The notion that an American tugboat could have been working in Murmansk prior to the involvement of the US and the USSR in the Second World War (or even during the war) defies belief, and so does the fact that the hero survives his boat's ramming of a U-boat with his spectacles intact. But is anything better to be expected from the writer of Forrest Gump? Brad Pitt turns in his usual wooden performance, though to be fair the role is so insipid that his casting may in this instance be ideal. I gave the film 5 stars, but I'm regretting my generosity.
Copenhagen (2002)
Intriguing but disappointing
Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen" is a fascinating play, possibly a great one. This stripped-down version is worth watching if you have not seen the original, but it has been "adapted" to fit a TV time slot and leaves out too much. A distinguished cast turns in gripping performances, substantially helped by the constant reiteration on the soundtrack of one of Schubert's most haunting slow movements. But after reading the play and then watching the film again I found that many nuances are lost. A drama has been turned into a recitation.
These criticisms reflect above all on Howard Davies, who adapted the play and directed the film. Perhaps he is not to blame for the misbegotten notion of hacking the play down to the trunk, but the pruning (or maybe butchering) could have done more competently. I could not believe my ears when I heard Rea (Bohr), in a description of the process of nuclear fission, utter the words "two hundred and eighty" although Frayn's original text clearly states (in numerical form which I cannot reproduce here) "2 to the 80th power ... a number with 24 noughts." Whether Davies authored the error or merely let it pass as director, it is evidence that he was simply not up to the job. Still, the person who should hang is the one who thought of cutting the play down to 90 minutes in the first place.
The Golden Compass (2007)
Makes a great case for a sequel
An impressive achievement. I expected the worst after Peter Jackson's egotistical butchery of The Lord of the Rings, but Chris Weitz's adaptation of Northern Lights is exemplary in its deference to the text. Obviously no film can capture all the nuances of a rich literary narrative, and this one misses a lot in its brisk progress through Philip Pullman's ingenious plot. I felt that the Gyptians in particular were given short shrift. They constitute a masterly collective characterization which depends on dialogue, and the screenplay cut this too drastically to convey the full flavour. But the two other major characterizations in this volume of the trilogy -- Lyra and Mrs Coulter -- were well served by the screenplay and brilliantly realized by Dakota Blue Richards and Nicole Kidman. The musical score and the cinematography are both ravishing but always complement the narrative, which is unexpectedly gripping and moving.
The film as a whole is well cast with the exception, perhaps, of Ian McKellen as the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison. His diction is too mellifluous to capture the character's rough edges, and my wife, who has not read the book, was irresistibly reminded of Gandalf. The only major flaw, however, is the ghastly sappy song which crushes one's mood as the post-movie credits commence: they might as well have cut to one of the interminable Coke commercials that preceded the film. We fled.
Bottom line: a well-told, well-acted story, which achieves unexpected tension and pathos. With Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Sam Elliott waiting in the wings for their moments of glory, I want more. But a lot will depend on finding the right actor to play Will Parry.
Margot at the Wedding (2007)
An affront to the intelligence
This film is trash. The characters, and their motives and relationships, are comprehensively unconvincing. The editing is equally inept, leaving loose ends that are clearly inadvertent. Never has 90 minutes seemed so long. Played for laughs, it could make a neat episode of "My Name is Earl." Yes, there's about 22 minutes' worth of material here.
It is hard to imagine how the movie could have got made, let alone hooked Kidman and Leigh as stars, were it not that the writer-director is the latter's husband. It has the feel of being based on a short story (not a novel -- there's too little there) that the writer couldn't get published. (I hope he couldn't get it published!)
Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
A over-long, poorly told story about boring people
I'm not a huge fan of slick Hollywood phoniness, but this film made me long for "Hollywood values". At least the boys and girls of Tinseltown know how to tell a story. If you are going to tell a story about a cultured, upper-middle-class woman falling for a not-too-bright, ill-mannered jerk of at best average appearance, you need to develop the characters, their motives, and the dynamics of their inherently implausible relationship convincingly. What this film needs is a lot more preliminary development of Minnie's character and a good deal less of the repetitious, one-note, top-of-the-lungs interaction between her and Moskowitz. It needs, in short, a better script and better direction. Cassavetes may have been a luminary of US independent cinema, but on this evidence at least his importance is strictly historical.
Voyna i mir (1965)
A pedestrian travesty
I have only seen this film in the widely condemned Kultur pan-and-scan version with English subtitles, so I have not experienced it in its full wide-screen glory. But what I saw was a travesty of the novel. The novel combines a savagely satirical comedy of manners with an unsparing quest for moral truth. Bondarchuk and co. have reduced it to a Hollywood-style love story, essentially no different from the US version.
The characters of Nikolai Rostov and Marya Bolkonskaya are reduced to bit parts, and Nikolai's relationship with Sonya vanishes. Crucial scenes are left out: e.g., Prince Andrei's visit to his father's abandoned estate and the entire narrative epilogue. So much for the film's vaunted faithfulness to the text. It is like a parrot reciting Shakespeare, only not funny.
I suppose the tip-off is Bondarchuk's ludicrous casting of himself as Pierre. He was twice as old as the character, and it shows. Tikhonov as Prince Andrei looks the part. Savelyeva gives us Natasha's ugly-pretty aspect and ebullience, but the character's charisma did not come through to me. The girl is supposed to be jailbait, for heaven's sake.
The film is a Soviet hack-job. If you enjoyed the novel, don't waste your time and money on this.