Jamie passion and passionfruit!

A strange Japanese film which has some very enjoyable moments and a weird mix of the mundane, the supernatural and anime comics.  Definitely one of the most inventive works of the year and evidence that Asian directors have plenty of imagination.  Katsushiro Ishii is the name to recall here and he conjures up a very nice tale of an ordinary family living in a village outside Tokyo who each have their dreams and challenges to confront.  The scene where the brother records a song is hilarious and the legacy of drawings the grandad leaves for the family is also one of the most touching moments I’ve seen on film for ages.  For all that, the film is a little uneven and the pace seems to drag in parts no doubt in part from a poor translation.  Still, for variety and ingenuity ‘A taste of tea’  gets a good recommendation from me.

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I enjoyed this comedy.  It may not be the best movie ever but Ben Younger’s second film has three great assets.  One is a very realistic and witty script which comes across as genuine and batty and so much the opposite of the Da Vinci Code.  Secondly, any film with the luminous Uma Thurman gets a few extra points.  She doesn’t do that much here but she looks great and she is a sort of icon.  Finally, a lesson in comic acting by Meryl Streep with her famous ability at accents (New York Jewish shrink, this time) thrown in.  Various scenes had me laughing out loud and as a whole I just enjoyed Prime from start to finish.  The ending is not entirely convincing and there are questionable elements (the pie throwing friend) but overall it works.  Good music too and lots to think about regarding relationships with large age differences.

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The more famous the film, the less I feel inclined to write about it.  Especially after so much ink has been pored over it.  If you have read the book, this is distinctly less gripping.  It is a reasonably made thriller with a very interesting subject to explore but despite Ron Howard’s painstaking efforts at momentum, it comes across as being all rather bland, except for Ian McKellen as the duplicitous Leigh Teabing.  Hanks and Tautou are mere cyphers and there is too little time really spent on the Opus Dei part (for obvious reasons).  So, at the end, we may well ask ourselves – and is that all?  Because despite the importance of the topic, the film has limited itself to the format of a very predictable action movie and that is not really the best  vehicle for all this.  Hans Zimmer’s music overpowers, as it often does, and the script and photography do the necessary, no more.  Mechanical and soulless.

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This triptych of short films featuring three great directors is as uneven as you get.  The first film, The Dangerous Thread of Things,  by Michelangelo Antonioni is full of nubile young things but is completely laughable and has the worst script and acting I’ve seen for ages.  A complete disaster.  Number two, Equilibrium, by Steven Soderbergh has a nice starting point, the therapy session in which the patient’s problem is secondary to the psychologists interest in spying on something across the street.  Alan Arkin is good as the shrink and we get to see the mature Robert Downey Junior as the patient.  But for all its promise, it goes virtually nowhere and is self-conscious.  Nice black and white photography.  Number three, The Hand by Wong Kar Wai is a small gem of a picture concerning the attachment between a prostitute and an apprentice tailor over a series of years culminating in 1963.  Gong Li is magnificent as usual, Chang Chen is also great but the beauty of the film is in the simplicity of the story, the choice of scenes, the excellent camera angles which show us just enough, Chris Doyle’s rainy grainy photography and a beautiful roundness make it a first class piece of film making.

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There is nothing to make this Mexican film as likeable as it is because it is certainly nothing new.  The old Romeo and Juliet story, boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls in love with a rich girl with a social conscience  and then face all the family and social pressures to split up.  He is a talented artist and she has a bit more going for her than her spoilt rich friends.  The most interesting feature is that the context is modern day Mexico City and the class divide is as wide as ever.  However, the film is watchable with a funky modern video feel to it but you have to allow it a fair bit of poetic lience especially in the dramatic finale. 

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A surprisingly absorbing drama adapted from the theatre of two couples and how they cope with the break up of one of them.  This film based on Donald Margulies play is an HBO production, which never saw the light of day in cinemas here but under Norman Jewison’s experienced direction proves to be a good exploration of the glue that keeps people together and the fact that we never really know what keeps a couple together.  The four leads all act very well, Andie McDowell does well in a rather unsympathetic role, Dennis Quaid is great as her husband who is all a bit rocked by events, Toni Collette continues to demonstrate her skills and versatility as Beth and Greg Kinnear is fine as her ex.  Good music by Dave Grusin and Roger Deakins effective photography all add up to a satisfying film that makes you think.

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Jane Fonda’s return to the big screen alongside Jennifer Lopez.  Not exactly auspicious.  The result isn’t exactly the best either.  But it is watchable if you suspend all disbelief.  Fonda has good comic timing and looks as if she knows she is supposed to ham it up and is helped by sidekick Wanda Sykes.  Lopez does another of her poor good little girls from the wrong side of the tracks trying to better herself and is frankly boring and unbelievable.  Michael Vartan as the fiance is just a wimp and relegated to the back bench most of the time.  What this film is, is a throwback to the romantic comedies of the forties and fifties.  Trouble is, they are no longer even remotely relevant today and the actors need to be somewhat better all round to pull it off.  Let’s hope someone gives Fonda something meatier next time ... and as for Lopez – give it a break!

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Cannes Palme d’Or winner in 2005 from Belgium and the second release of a Dardennes film here this year (Le fils was reviewed in January).  I must say I liked this one a lot more.  Again minimalist in story and style but everything fits perfectly and adds up to a gripping tale of the immaturity of a young father, the lack of social network and structure to help young people grow up and acquire the sense they need not to be swallowed up by the street and by the blind commercial ambitions of our time.  Bruno (Jeremie Regnier), does everything wrong or so it seems.  He is lukewarm about the responsibilities involved with his new baby which his girlfriend (Deborah Francois) takes more seriously.  He thinks he can avoid work and survive by living off theft, street trading and begging and this ‘business’ mentality includes subletting his flat and even selling the newly born.  Then, things start to fall apart.  We see how realistic this behaviour is in the grey and cruel modern world where parents disown children and adults grow up being no more mature than they were as kids.  The result is a very sad film with very human people with some sense of hope at the end.  Regnier is excellent and the direction and camerawork shine.

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After the missed opportunities of Anna’s summer here is a film which we know lots about.  It could have been a predictable remake.  But not in the hands of Peter Jackson.  He brings us a triumphant film of love, of respect found in the strangest places, all after a weird and terrifying journey to Kong’s island where the humans have one escape (or not) after another from dinosaurs and other slimy creatures.  The graphic side of the movie is superb and the fight and chase scenes as excellent and thrilling as you’d expect.  Back in New York for the climax and we get a great sequence up the top of the Empire State Building.  It will never be the best script in history and the characters have limted development but as a movie, this is a very good one.  Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow is excellent and the rest of the cast do well.  Jack Black makes a good villain!  Although the first part drags a bit, the middle and end keep you on the edge of your seat and show just what a talent Jackson and his team are.

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This Argentine film has a good pedigree.  Director Israel Caetano has previous films like ‘Un oso rojo’ and ‘Bolivia’ to his credit.  Lead actor is Rodrigo de la Serna (Motorcycle Diaries) and one of the supports is Pablo Echarri, leading TV actor.  The theme – the escape of four men from a detention centre in greater Buenos Aires during the dirty war is both tragic and relevant today as society still comes to terms with that dark recent period of local history.  And yet, I couldn’t get into this film for a long time.  The first part which is the kidnapping of footballer Claudio Tamburrini, is quite drawn out and fairly predictable, even if Caetano knows how to set up a shot.  The middle part which is in the detention centre complete with torture is ok but I found it confusing with local slang and a furry sound quality.  It looked pretty authentic.  Finallly, we got to the escape part which really was exciting and suspenseful.  Again, it was hardly novel apart from the nudity, but as a metaphor for the Argentine public faced with official abuses of power it had its relevance and poignancy.  It is also a true story and a happyish ending compared to so many similar stories.  So, good acting, some excellent scenes and good camerawork but in the end I found it hard to like and probably would need to see it again for a better appreciation.  Trouble is I can’t really be bothered for now.

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On a cold depressing weekend, this film was the right tonic.  At first, life seems a disaster for Drew Baylor, intelligently played by Orlando Bloom.  He is ridiculed at work and sacked by slimy boss, Phil (Alec Baldwin)  for losing the company millions.  Then his girlfriend dumps him and then his dad dies.  He is deputed by mum to bring the ashes back from dad’s hometown in Elizabethtown, Kentucky where dad`s famly live – one of those rambling eccentric families with all the noble values that city slickers have now lost.  They want a burial, his mum (Susan Sarandon) wants a cremation.  In his confusion and discovery, up pops Claire, one of those off-beat air hostesses that rarely exist in reality – I have met maybe two in 20 years of travel - who gives him a chance to philosophise, grieve, take a new perspective on life and find himself – falling in love on the way.  Cameron Crowe has written a witty script which is fresh and charming even if a little far fetched.  Orlando Bloom is a calm and interesting central figure.  Kirsten Dunst can do slightly wacko and very attractive down to a tee, Susan Sarandon has a great scene towards the end of the movie.  Not a masterpiece but thoroughly enjoyable.

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A weird old documentary in which we visit the Friedmans of Long Island who are by no means a miles difference from The Squid and The Whale family.  There are the same centrifugal destructive forces in the family – the egoistic obsessive father, the obsessive sons, the passive aggressive mother ....  This time however pedophelia and child abuse of young students is in the mix.  Did they or didn’t they?  The investigators were mostly sure of it and there were loads of testimony against them but precious little hard evidence – no marks to the children, etc.  In the end, the inevitability of being convicted led father and son to plea guilty and serve time but we are hardly convinced legally of their guilt.  Emotionally, their strange approach to life and the eldest son’s obsession with filming everything  does tend to stick a few nails in their coffin – they appear like the types who could do this sort of thing and the fact that the mother wouldn’t stand by hubby didn’t help.  I’m not sure if I liked this documentary much but it is a solid piece of film making with a remarkably even handed approach. Andrew Jarecki extracts some lovely comments from the family the best being the wife’s wistful thought that the husband used porn magazines to meditate to! The homemade film he had access to is a boon for any director as is this dysfunctional family who just go to prove that truth can be way stranger than fiction.

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