‘MARRIED LIFE’ MAKES GRIPPING AND SINISTER VIEWING.
Wednesday, 16 July 2008 08:54
‘Married Life’ is a film for today – small, intelligent cast, director with a vision (Ira Sachs), and writers with a sly take on what is supposed to be life’s happiest institution. The story appears to be slender at first, but the layering of its plot points is wonderful to watch. Actually, the look of the film is fabulous and luxuriant from the very first frame and the play of music and graphics in the opening titles is a real movie experience. Harry, a diligent, respected man, (played by the inestimable Chris Cooper (‘Adaptation’, ‘Syriana’) decides he must kill his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson ‘Lars and the Real Girl’) because he loves her too much to let her suffer when he leaves her. Harry and his much-younger girlfriend Kay (Rachel McAdams ‘Mean Girls’) are head over heels in love, but his best friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan (Bond, James Bond… etc.)then decides that he wants to win Kay for himself, at LEAST as a conquest. As Harry implements his awkward plans for murdering his wife, the other characters are occupied
with their own deceptions. Like Harry, they are overwhelmed by their passions, but still struggle to avoid hurting others. Married Life is an uncommonly adult film that surprises and confounds expectations. While it plays with mystery and intrigue, its ultimate concern is: “What is married life?” In its sly way, Married Life poses perceptive questions about the seasonal discontents and unforeseen joys of all long-term relationships. Looking for a story to adapt, Sachs pored over stacks of little-known mystery and pulp novels, until he came upon John Bingham’s Five Roundabouts to Heaven. “It was exactly what I was looking for—a really great story about being married,” he says. “I thought this story could be a very intriguing vehicle for me to explore what it’s like to share a bed with someone, over a long period of time.” When Sachs began working with his co-writer, Oren Moverman, they agreed that the film should have a playful tone. “I tried to signal that right away, in the credit sequence,” says Sachs. “The credits give a sense that there is whimsy in the very serious things to follow.’ They also have a strong sense of the period, that delicious time when the smell of masculine tobacco was seen as something reassuring. Why is it that the moment it was outlawed, the fumes started making us cough!! Even though the spine of the screenplay is the wry voice over by Brosnan’s character, Richard, as in ‘American Beauty’which was similarly shaped using the V.O. of Kevin Spacey, this is a device that is quite forgiveable fitting both the style and period of the story. Special mention to the music score by Dickon Hunchliffe with perfectly chosen songs and dramatic beats. Well, anyway, this is, at last, a film that can be enjoyed by grownups, has no car chases, visual effects or explosions. Highly recommended for an adult, mature date movie!! Opens 24th July so don’t miss it. WR
Errol Morris’ ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ a must-see.
Saturday, 05 July 2008 08:55
OK, if you are sick of watching pieces of fairy floss on the screen and are time-poor, then it is the moment you should get into watching documentaries on the big screen. I recently saw this Morris film which illuminates the old material of Abu Ghraib in a quietly shocking way. Like a layer cake, Morris adds information piece by piece and we get to know the perpetrators in great depth. To the point where sympathy for them just makes an appearance for a second or two but then you just scratch your head and ask the question, ‘At what point can ideology be excused for the sin of dehumanisation of fellow man?’ Of course, the answer is complex and I think that this is where Morris excels. Without shaking a Michael Moore type of stick at the baddies (and yes, we are on THEIR side, sadly complicit in this whole darn mess), he hints at his frustration at not being able to figure this one out. The photos, used to great effect in the opening titles, closing and as little breakers, don’t ’say it all’ as has been said by some journalists. This is a complicated matter. How people become caught in the headlights of a dogma of ‘nationhood’, one nation being pitched against another, is clear. Armed forces just can’t exist without dehumanisation of the ‘enemy’. But Morris takes us down the frightening paths of cruelty, many steps away from the Geneva convention. It is very unpalatable, macho material especially the process of getting to know the bullies. They are, of course, just amplified versions of those kids you see in playgrounds. You can see their fundamentalist upbringing in technicolour. Lynndie England comes across as a low intellect try-hard, doing eveil to keep her man. While it is a sad story, even sadder is the fact that audiences are not supporting this meticulously made and gripping film. The sad plight of many docos, including ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’ which only took $275K at the Box Office, yet won an Oscar, and ‘Bigger, Stronger, Faster*’ which has been highly reviewed almost universally acclaimed by the world’s top critics, is around $260K at the moment. The debate on Box Office returns in regard to docos is of current interest.
It is in theatres now. Scary stuff but leaves you with a reward at the end of knowing that you haven’t just sat through a couple more hours of cinematic pap. WR
‘Hancock’ a terrific concept but fizzles quickly
Wednesday, 02 July 2008 08:56
Here’s a case of too much high concept and great visual effects and not enough actually engaging with an audience. ‘Hancock’ a yet another mugging vehicle for the great and greatly loved Will Smith. However, since ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ which lifted the bar on his dynamic range I just want to see the man really acting again! The script for ‘Hancock’ feels too much like a studio paste-up following an examination of the story-boards. Charlize Theron plays the wife of his rescuer and she has a secret which makes sense of her blood shot eyes and meaningful looks in the first act. But somehow, it all just doesn’t come together. Having said that, there is a stack of laugh-inducing pratfalls and encounters. There are just a few too many visual effects for my liking and these rather bog down what could have been a ground-breaking STORY. Remember that old chestnut? Films need a great one.
The relationship between Ray and Hancock has so much potential and yet it just stays where it starts.
Still, it’s a good ‘Sat’dee-matinee’ film and Will Smith is always nice to look at. Jae Head as the son, Aaron, has a charming screen presence and acquits his job well. The soundtrack is fun. Charlize has way too many closeups and not enough to do really, almost as though they plumped out her story as a token. Come on, chaps, where was the sexual tension all round? Where were the fun story lines of how this race reproduces or why they can’t? Just in time for the school holidays tough, it is very ‘inoffensive and white bread’ and has nothing offensive so send the kids down to the Multiplex and try to get them to take their popcorn and coke litter OUT of the theatre afterwards. Opens 3/7 on General Release.
‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ latest from Mike Leigh and a joyful experience.
Sunday, 22 June 2008 08:58
Depending on the way you look at it, primary school teacher Poppy, the lead character in Mike Leigh’s ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ is either the world’s
most annoyingly positive woman or one whose kindly, sweetness is an example to all. She is not quite Eliza Doolittle, never poshing up to meet her man, not quite Cinderella. But at the heart of it is a search for love and acceptance, though we never quite find out what has made her semi-argumentative word games roll so thick and fast from her chatty lips. The opening scenes of her cycling though the streets of the middle of London, are certainly joyful and this sets up her desire to look on the bright side of every situation. She would be a gem of a teacher and I wish our children had possessed her drive, commitment and talent, not to mention her love for her class. Her reaction at the end of her school day to the loss of her bicycle is of bright and cheery acceptance rather than anger. This borders on Aspergers. As also does her annoying habit of countering every question or conversation with a smart-alec response, but, like The Fool of King Lear, there are truths beneath all she says. The only scene that both puzzled and entranced me at the same time was the encounter with the Irish homeless man, mentally ill, speaking gibberish, and I wondered whether Poppy perhaps thought he was a precursor to her own potential fate? Maybe, maybe not. you will have to make up your own mind. The tale does revolve to some degree about her need to take driving lessons and her strange relationship with her instructor, a passive aggressive man, Scott. There are some hilarious scenes with Scott and eventually it all comes to a head and they argue. Some pretty important points are made about school bullying, and, with some diversions into flamenco classes, Poppy eventually focuses on Tim, a social worker, with whom she has much in common. It gallops along and is not boring for an instant. The school scenes are gems and the niceness of Poppy and her flatmate Zoe, a charming spine to the narrative. Leigh, as usual, manages to give the most chaotic lives a sort of cosmic meaning and his actors, yet again, rise to the task and give memorable performances. But oooooh, those Pommie teeth!!!! Send in the emergency Osmond SWAT team immediately!!!
Opens Thursday. 26th May around Australia.
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