Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Two films that were stage plays have made it to the screen.  And both share the same problems of being shot in a restricted location and the need to lighten up the dialogue so we can cope with a feature length talk and little action.  Neither succeed fully although one manages it better than the other.  This is Tape by Richard Linklater – a three-hander with Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Robert Sean Leonard.  A strange meeting of old school mates in a dingy hotel room, a forced confession and a weird power game of lies and truth and dare as the three have different memories of a particular event ten years previously.

The acting is all rather stagy at first especially from Hawke and it is the arrival in mid film of Thurman who really sets things alight.  To see three good actors with a good script is great but in the end I felt it would have been better seen on stage.  In addition not all the motives are too clear – what is Hawke’s motive – revenge?  Jealousy, Spoiling tactics?  Or has he got a screw loose?  Interesting.

El método is the latest film by successful Argentine director, Marcelo Piñeyro.  This time he is filming in Madrid and has taken the play El método Gronholm and adapted it with coscreenwriter Mateo Gil.  The script is great and there is a most interesting debate in the film about how far people will go to beat the others to get a job, how loyal or treacherous they are, what you should reveal in job interviews  etc.  The problem is that as a film it gets pretty static and talky and I found it dragged terribly at one point.  Added to that the backdrop of a protest against globalisation outside the Madrid office building where this big brother type of job elimination contest is taking place is none too subtle.  The theme and some of the actors stand out in this film which comes across as a partial success – interesting if not entirely convincing.  Hats off to Ernesto Alterio, Natalia Verbeke and Eduard Fernández in particular while Pablo Echarri, Carmelo Gómez and Najma Niwri also give attractive performances.

Tape ¶¶¶ +

El método ¶¶¶