Depp & Burton Together Again At The Multiplex

I went today with my Varsity Theatre co-worker friend Molly to see SWEENEY TODD: DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET at Movies At Timberlyne. I realized as we pulled up that the last time I'd been to this particular multiplex was for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp deal. So I decided that I'll only go to Timberlyne to see Burton/Depp movies from this day forward. So I won't be back 'til 2010 when Burton's live action ALICE IN WONDERLAND is released. Depp as the Mad Hatter - can't hardly wait.

So onto the picture show:

SWEENEY TODD: DEMON OF FLEET STREET
(Dir. Tim Burton, 2007)

I went in to this completely unfamiliar with the original 1979 Steven Sondheim musical (I say "original" loosely - that was based on a 1973 play by Christopher Bond which was based on...oh, you get the idea) so I liked letting it play out with no comparing notions. To me it was essentially the 6th in the Burton/Depp series - which are usually gothic twisted stories with a misunderstood but still magnetic protagonist with an odd affliction or vision and all the visual splendor that a crazy haired madman director can provide.

This time though Depp is singing and not badly I admit. Burton's wife and reporatory member Helen Bonham Carter has good pipes too. In fact all of the cast -Sasha Baron Cohen (BORAT!), Alan Rickman, and Jamie Campbell Bower all sang without embarrasment - I just wish they had better songs to sing. But I'm getting ahead of myself, first let's get onto the obligatory plot description.

Depp in the title role, with all the strained intensity he brought to Captain Jack Sparrow, shows up in London after years in exile. He finds that his beloved wife poisoned herself and a daughter is being held captive by an evil Judge (Rickman) - the same Judge who had him exiled.

His old landlady (Carter) runs a scummy roach-ridden meat-pie emporium and after a taste of one of her 'orrible pies she returns his treasured set of razors - which shine like EDWARD SCISSORHAND's blades in the light. Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower) - the young sailor who brought Todd home, falls in love with Todd's daughter (Jane Wisener) and plots to save her from the evil Judge. Todd, while planing his revenge against the Judge, goes into an odd business venture with his lusty landlady. He, with Barber shop set-up, slits the throats of his customers and drops them through a chute to her basement to be used for meat in her 'orrible pies.

Maybe, as I was told, the editing down to 2 hours from 3 of the original score made for a lot of concessions but the amount of fragmentary non-gripping verses without choruses and then overlong sequences based on a flimsy overdone melody left me buried musically. None of the songs were catchy enough for me to remember right now is what I'm saying. The look of the film with its grey hued tones contrasting with the bright rich red color of blood lives up the best of Burton except that the flour whiteness of Depp's and Bonham Carter's skin almost gave me snow blindness.

Typical of Burton there are a handful of fitfully funny bits - Depp's unchanging gloomy mug in the one sunny fantasy scene song that Bonham Carter sings ("By The Sea") is one that comes to mind. Still the whole thing seems to lack ommph. Full sequences are better than passable but there was no real passion present.

Depp and Burton next time out should sink their teeth into such material not just nibble. I mean a musical mind you, one with a costume ball rape scene and scores of bloody slit throats, should be a full meal not a glorified Hors d'oeuvre. Just sayin' that this choppy LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS meets DELICATESSEN could've been so much more.

More later...

An ATONEMENT Assessment and Award Season Annoyances

The Golden Globes ceremony was reduced to a press conference and the fate of the Academy Awards (the Oscars ya know?) is up in the air all because of the damn long ass writer's strike. Why does this have to happen in a time overflowing with actual quality product to appraise? I mean in most other mediocre years we can blow this off but this time out there are a bunch of deserving films and crowds of actors just waiting around to be recognized then ridiculed (that's where the writers come in) by their peers or whoever.

As for how good movies have been lately, I don't recall reading the phrase - cue that voice-over announcer guy: "...is one of the best movies of the year" in as many reviews in previous years as much as I have for 2007. Like I said in an earlier post I'm holding out on making the Filmbabble Blog Top Ten Of 2007 list at least until I see THERE WILL BE BLOOD (which opens on the 18th) though it will be another month before PERSEPOLIS comes to my area so I know that I'll still feel like I'm jumping the gun. Anyway for the moment I have more movies to catch up on including 2 that have that "one of the best movies of the year" tag hanging on them - first off:

ATONEMENT (Dir. Joe Wright, 2007)

In this production of the acclaimed bestselling novel by Ian McEwan set mostly in the 1930's, we are taken from snooty British sitting rooms to the bloody battlefields of war torn France and then back to occupied London and the journey is gripping every frame of the way. But it is the power of the written word that fuels this film and fills the head of Briony Tallis (a coy Saoirse Ronan) a 13 year old member of a wealthy English family. From an overhead window in her family's mansion she sees her older but not wiser sister Cecelia (Keira Knightly) with Robbie - the son of the housekeeper. Possible Spoilers! - What happens next is seen from 2 different perspectives - Briony's and that of the would be lovers. Later that evening after a tense dinner and the turmoil caused by missing twin brothers again Briony sees, or mis-sees if that's a word, something that changes her life forever. The unfolding and refolding of events here is so juicy that even if you've read the book you'll want to discover yourself so I'll discontinue my ambiguously tortured plot recap.

As the lovers in this romance novel by way of Masterpiece Theater foray McAvoy has the earnest can-do spirit that Robbie had in spades in the book while Knightly seems an empty but still elegant vessel for whatever stressful emotion comes her way. Briony is played by 3 different actresses over 60 years - the before mentioned Ronan at age 13, at age 18 - Romola Garai, and (credited as Older Briony) Vanessa Redgrave - all with the right dash of pathos. The fractured narrative, of which is so popular in modern film these days (Tarentino et al), is actually nicely faithful to the novel's construction. Having just finished the McEwan novel right before going to the cinema I had the text fresh in my brain while viewing. I was at first annoyed how scores of inner dialogue often had to be condensed down to one spoken line but when it sank in I was amazed how much was true to the tone and intent of the 349 page tome. ATONEMENT is a surefire Award season favorite - if that season ever really gets going that is and yes, ahem, it's one of the best movies of the year.

New on DVD:

AWAY FROM HER (Dir. Sarah Polly, 2007)

When I first heard what the story of this film was I thought it might be a candidate for the saddest premise ever. Julie Christie plays a woman suffering from Alzheimer's whose loving husband of 44 years (Gordon Pinsent) has to deal with having her institutionalized and bearing witness to her falling in love with another man - a mute (except for some whimpering) fellow patient portrayed by Michael Murphy. See what I mean? Saddest. Premise. Ever. But that Comic Book Store Guy cheapness is uncalled for because, as someone says about Christie in the film, this has too much class for that. No false rhythms or maniputlations here, even the typical fractured storyline has a one piece of the puzzle at a time thing happening that doesn't feel as it does often as a filmmaker showing off.

In the early scenes there is a romantic, not romanticizing, introduction to this old married couple's current life and situation. On a walk through the snow near their cabin, while admiring some flowers Christie remarks "sometimes there's something delicious about oblivion" as she admits she forgets the color yellow immediately after looking away. For her to be admitted to the Meadowlake Treatment Facility Christie and Pinsent, to his protest, have to be separated for 30 days while she settles in. After this period Pinsent returns to find his wife huddled beside the wheelchair-bound always unhappy-looking Murphy who they both know from the past. That this past is never fully explained but hinted at is one of the film's many subtle charms. Simple lines of dialogue say so much while fleeting shots from the principle's memories say much more so there is no need for elaborate exposition or full flashback scenes - we get all the backstory implications that we need.

Pinsent takes comfort by consoling with Murphy's sardonic wife played by Olivia Dukakis who has been through the same tribulations but from a different angle of angst. Much of the motions these characters are going through can be painful to watch throughout "Away From Her" but the aching adds to the overwhelming beauty of the piece. Polley's fluid pacing and choice of music (Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" sweetly serenades Pinsent and Christie as they slow dance the last night before her hospitalization) is note perfect. There are many quotations throughout as books are read out loud (Auden's "Letters From Iceland", Macloed's "No Great Mischief", and even bits from Alzheimer's info guides) making this the first movie I've seen recently that has "Quotes and Excerpts" listed in the end credits in the same fashion as soundtrack selections. Through all of these well choosen details it's the lead performances by Pinsent and Christie that make this a must see. Christie, acheiving grace through the clouded confusion of Alzheimer's combined with Pinsent's attempt to keep his dignity through his helpless desperation is heartbreaking again and again. Whatever this nearly flawless film's fate award-wise it will be surely loved by people for ages - it's a genuine "tearjerker" and I mean that in the least cynical sense of the word.

And now a film also fairly new to DVD that I don't think anybody said was "one of the best movies of the year":

BUG (Dir. William Friedkin, 2007)

Oh, where to begin about such a movie as BUG. Okay I'll try and break it down: it's a William Friedkin film - he of THE FRENCH CONNECTION, THE EXORCIST, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. fame. It's a paranoid thriller involving a drinking, pot smoking, pale-looking Oklahoma woman with eyes that look cried out (Ashley Judd). She has a ex-con ex-husband (a dependable clichéd role - usually wears a wife-beater of course) played by the Sinatra wannabe jazz crooning SunCom shilling Harry Connick Jr. who she thinks is calling her shabby ass motel room and just breathing on the line. A lipstick lesbian best friend R.C. (Lynn Collins) in a loose bar scene introduces her to an odd but well groomed (for a drifter that is) hitchhiker - a creepy yet still reasurring Michael Shannon. So far so low key but that's how these types of set-ups work. After their tastefully artsy sex scene Shannon soon believes the room is infected by microscopic bugs that Judd struggles to see. He reveals after suffering bloody bites, egg inplantations, and odd freak-outs that he was the subject of military experiments and that the bugs...oh wait, that's a spoiler.

Based on a stage play (it ran in London and Chicago in 2001 and Shannon played the same part) by Tracy Letts that I'm straining to visualize, except that BUG mostly takes place in the same location - Lane's hotel apartment and is very talkie for a suspense flick. It's filmed apparently out in the middle of nowhere (Louisiana actually) and from the few night time exterior shots taken from a plane we definitely get that out in the middle of nowhere feeling inside. As a conspiracy film buff I'm normally a sucker for a premise that involves unseen government agents, ranting protagonists who may or not be crazy, and are set in a world where as the NetFlix envelope said "No one - least of all the authorities - - can be trusted" but I couldn't get onboard with BUG. Its tone as Judd and Shannon descend into hammy madness is transparrent and the intensity it tries for comes off predictible and pretty dismisable - especially the ending. This may be a project that Friedkin feels is one his most personally intense (or something like that - I'm not watching the DVD featurette again) but it's really just another soon to be forgotten Ashley Judd thriller throw-away.

More later...

Politics Schmolotics: A Droll CHARLIE WILSON & A Serious BREACH

Alan Rudolph: "Does Political scare you?"
Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins): "Political doesn't scare me. Radical political scares me. Political political scares me.
Alan Rudolph: "This is politiely politically radical, but it's funny."
THE PLAYER (Dir. Robert Altman, 1991)

Politics doesn't play well at the multiplex. If you don't believe me just ask the makers of LIONS FOR LAMBS. Despite critical acclaim people have stayed away in droves from just about every Iraq-related drama and especially documentary fare like NO END IN SIGHT as well so it appears that these days - political scares moviegoers. Keeping this in mind I made it out to the Lumina Theatre last week to see the Mike Nichols/Tom Hanks comic drama CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (which actually at #6 on the box office charts is doing pretty well) and I cozied up to the warm DVD player to watch BREACH so consider me unafraid of political. Or at least political pop pieces like these:

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (Dir. Mike Nichols, 2007)

The charismatic senator famed for funding arms for Afghanistan against Soviet occupation is a tailor made role for Tom Hanks. He's a charmer with a bevy of buxom secretaries, always a stiff drink in hand, and a penchant for punchy one-liners like "You know you've reached rock bottom when you're told you have character flaws by a man who hanged his predecessor in a military coup". Unfortunately the film is as glib as his character. Hanks glides through many West Wing-esque walk and talks (with the Aaron Sorkin scripting that's got to be a given) and his scenes with Julia Roberts (as Texas socialite and activist Joanne Herring) with such a winking detachment that we never really feel invited in to his story - as fascinating on the surface as it is.

It starts out so promising - for instance Phillip Seymour Hoffman has a show-stopping shouting intro but then even he falls back into a laconic gruff presence. At one point, as if to borrow the gravitas from a far better satirical standard barer, Ned Beatty shows up to give a speech which helps the proceedings a little but NETWORK this ain't. With the A-list gloss stripped away Wilson's war story would be better told as a History Channel documentary. Sure, it sucks that people opt for fake history bullshit like NATIONAL TREASURE over films based on such juicy real events but when it's the too smug for fun CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR - moviegoers might be better off with cinematic junk food.

BREACH (Dir. Billy Ray, 2007) "He was trying to commit the intelligence equivalent of the perfect crime" says Paul Moore of his former collegue Robert Hanssen (from a MSNBC report enititled "Mole" included as a bonus feature on the just released DVD). Hanssen, who sold military secrets to Russia during the height of the cold war, has had his story told before (the 2002 TV movie MASTER SPY: THE ROBERT HANSSEN STORY starring William Hurt) but this time the perspective is through the eyes of an upstart FBI agent wannabe Eric O'Neill (a stoic but moody Ryan Philleppe).

As Hanssen, Chris Cooper, in a career best performance, is suspicious but mostly oblivious to the scrutiny his position and power was undergoing. O'Neill is kept in the dark too at first - thinking that he's assigned to Hanssen because as he is told by a handler (Laura Linney) that he is a sexual deviant. Despite this he builds a grudging respect for the man and even believes that his superiors have no case. This naive view shatters as the world of Hanssen's making becomes mindblowingly clear. Some liberties were taken with the story - in actuality O'Neil knew going in what they were after Hanssen for - and a number of dramatic liberties are taken but the essence of the story remains sharply intact. Like Billy Ray's previous film - the excellent SHATTERED GLASS the tension has a palpable edge missing in a lot of current thrillers. BREACH is a quietly absorbing tightly told tale of homegrown espionage and one that never forgets or lets us forget how high the stakes are.

More later...