Tuesday, February 21, 2012
A movie about being someone not doing something
By Edward Copeland
If you're like me, it drives you nuts when the so-called cable news channels continue to call something "breaking news" hours or even days after the initial event occurred. That's why I wonder if I'm wasting space by beginning my review of The Iron Lady heaping praise on Meryl Streep's performance as Margaret Thatcher. Streep Delivers Good Performance isn't exactly a jaw-dropping revelation by now, is it? If it were someone such as Kate Capshaw or Lori Petty turning in a bravura portrayal of the former prime minister of Great Britain, that would be news (as well as a sign of the impending apocalypse). Streep's work though happens to be what's best about The Iron Lady, which otherwise does not offer much worth lauding. Since most of this post consists of brickbats, I may as well begin with something nice.
Actually, I do have something else positive to say about The Iron Lady. The Oscar-nominated makeup job that Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland performed on Meryl Streep to make her look like Margaret Thatcher at various ages deserves the highest praise. It not only succeeds at its primary goal, but achieves this effect without betraying that it is makeup (as opposed to the horrific prosthetics that Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer suffered beneath in J. Edgar). Coulier's credits include being involved in the prosthetic makeup on all of the Harry Potter films as well as working with the prosthetics on Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, where Coulier also did work with animatronics. Helland has served as Streep's makeup and hair stylist on practically every film she's made dating back to 1982's Still of the Night.
It seems appropriate that Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar should come up while discussing The Iron Lady because both exemplify the difficulty filmmakers have making biopics. Somewhere, a book must exist on writing the screenplays for movies about historical figures and chapter one must emphasize, "Find a Framing Device." Inevitably, this almost always means having the movie's subject look back at his or her life (unless it's an epic biopic and the protagonist got killed or assassinated — then the film must begin with his death as in Lawrence of Arabia or Gandhi). In both of the 2011 films about Hoover and Thatcher, the results suffer from Cliffs Notes-like summaries of the subject's greatest hits. At least in J. Edgar, despite the hideous makeup, it comes in the form of Hoover dictating memoirs to a series of agents Hoover enlists as typists, which makes that film slightly better than The Iron Lady, which chooses the controversial path of having the current Thatcher, in her 80s and suffering from Alzheimer's, going through old items and believing she's having conversations with her long-dead husband Denis (played with a complete sense of frivolity by Jim Broadbent, who behaves at times as if he's back on the set of Moulin Rouge waiting for his cue to break out into "Like a Virgin.")
If you go by the description of the film put on The Weinstein Company's official website for the movie, it's hard not to laugh since their description doesn't really match what's on the screen, but then the paragraph below that admits how telling a factual story wasn't a top priority either.
"Set in the present day, The Iron Lady finds Margaret Thatcher, now in her 80s, struggling with the confines of her simple domestic life in Chester Square, London. Haunted by visions of her deceased husband Denis, Margaret is swept away by memories of her past — both personal and political — which shaped her life and career. As Margaret traces her rise to political prominence…(she) must come to terms with a legacy that is both admired and reviled, and grapple with the great personal cost that her convictions have exacted on her supporters, her family, and, finally, herself."
Sounds like that would make for a fascinating movie. Unfortunately, The Iron Lady didn't end up being that movie. I do have to ask if there's an implication that Thatcher's convictions somehow led to her Alzheimer's. Myself, a political and history buff, I would have liked to see an exploration of Thatcher's rise to power and the nitty-gritty of her governance with more that explained why her policies drew both admiration and revulsion. Instead, we keep returning to her old-age dementia and occasionally flash back to her young days as a student (where she's played by Alexandra Roach) and the movie seems like a remake of Iris. The Iron Lady though, much like J. Edgar, lacks any sort of attitude toward its subject. Look how that same website describe the film's director's approach (and why on earth would she be the choice for the film in the first place?)
"Combining fact, fiction and poetic flights of imagination into a new breed of biopic, director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) creates a piercing portrait which reveals the many faces of Margaret Thatcher: the hard-nosed conservative; the woman who demolished barriers of gender and class in a male-dominated world; the spirited wife and mother who longed to change her country for the better. Exposing the private life behind the headlines, The Iron Lady is a moving journey into the heart of an extraordinary complex woman."
On the plus side, Law's "poetic flights of imagination" didn't include having Streep crawl across the roof of No. 10 Downing Street singing some appropriate cut from Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" as a group of protesters appear from nowhere and begin crawling toward her. Actually, that might have improved the movie. I can't be certain this portion of The Iron Lady falls into fact, fiction or a poetic flight, but in a flashback to Thatcher (then Roberts) and her first runs for office as a Conservative seeking the strong Labour seat at Dartford in 1950 and 1951, she meets Denis Thatcher, who proposes and they wed in late 1951. After his proposal, the film shows them dancing to "Shall We Dance?" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I, which didn't open on Broadway until March 1951 and didn't mount a West End production until 1953. How soon the original cast recording came out and the song made its way across the ocean, I have no idea.
As if selecting Lloyd as director for her second feature film wasn't an odd enough choice, the screenwriter turns out to be Abi Morgan, co-writer of the overrated, empty-headed Shame so I suppose we should be grateful that we didn't get any scenes of Maggie in bondage gear. Actually, adding Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher to Shame might have helped that film — Lord knows all the characters in that film needed a stern talking to. I should say, to Morgan's credit, she also wrote the fine HBO miniseries Tsunami: The Aftermath, so she's eclectic.
Which brings us back to Streep, the best thing The Iron Lady has going for it. She looks and sounds like Margaret Thatcher, though I have to ask — is this truly a great Streep performance or an example of great Streep mimicry? The foundation upon which she must perform isn't sturdy in the least, so how deep can Streep delve into Thatcher when she's in a movie that freely admits it's mixing fact, fiction and "poetic flights of imagination" for some new kind of biopic? Does her work in The Iron Lady really equal or top her performances in Doubt, The Devil Wears Prada, Adaptation, The Bridges of Madison County? I know it doesn't come close to A Cry in the Dark, Out of Africa or Sophie's Choice.
Tweet
Labels: 10s, Broadbent, DiCaprio, Eastwood, Hammerstein, HBO, Musicals, Rodgers, Star Wars, Streep
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Happiness is never distributed equally
By Edward Copeland
When a new Mike Leigh film opens, it's wrong to say you "watch" it. "Eavesdrop" seems to be a more appropriate verb, especially in the case of Another Year.
With Another Year, Leigh isn't telling a story as much as letting you observe a handful of characters. They aren't particularly fascinating characters, at least in usual movie terms, but seem defiantly ordinary. However, Leigh's fictional characters and the talented performers who inhabit them never fail to capture your attention and hold onto it.
Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen), a longtime, happily married couple, serve as the center of the small universe around which Another Year revolves. Tom works as a engineering geologist, Gerri as a counselor and they have a 30-year-old son, Joe (Oliver Maltman).
Even though the film will keep its focus on Tom and Gerri and those who orbit their galaxy, they aren't even the first two characters we see on screen. Instead, Leigh opens as one of Gerri's colleagues Tanya (Michele Austin) counsels a woman, Janet (Imelda Staunton, in a great two-scene cameo) about her insomnia and dissatisfaction with life in general. When Tanya asks Janet to rate how happy she is on a scale of 1 to 10, Janet answers, "One."
After Staunton's character vanishes after her two early scenes, some viewers may wonder what the point of her scenes were, but she's there to set up Another Year's theme: Happiness, or the lack thereof, specifically in the form of Gerri's friend and co-worker Mary (the marvelous Lesley Manville).
Mary could be a tragic figure, except unfortunately there are too many Marys in the world (and even worse, not enough Toms and Gerris, though even they have their limits). Mary is single, easing past middle-age and a functional alcoholic — and she clings to Tom and Gerri as if they were a life preserver which, in a way, they are.
It's easy to see why Mary relishes the time she spends at her friends' home — the warmth it emits practically emanates from the screen and wraps itself around the viewer as well. Mary dreams of a life that includes a mate, but her fantasies exceed her dreams. She puts off the advances of another damaged friend of Tom and Gerri's, Ken (Peter Wight), and somehow has imagined herself as a possible mate for Joe.
One of the film's best scenes comes when Joe brings home his hyperactively buoyant new girlfriend Katie (Karina Fernandez) and Mary drops by (unexpectedly, as she usually does) and Leigh builds tension around the simple serving of a cake. Leigh films it in a series of slow closeups of all the actors in the room, escalating the strain that lies beneath the surface.
For a plotless film such as Another Year, the success or failure of the enterprise largely falls upon the strength of the casting and Leigh doesn't have a weak link in his ensemble.
Manville is a wonder, milking the humor and pathos out of Mary, hitting just the right note at the right time. She can make you feel for Mary one moment and make you want to slap her silly the next.
The always dependable Broadbent gives the best performance he's given in ages as Tom and Sheen proves just as good as the level-headed Gerri and as a pair, Sheen and Broadbent make a believable couple.
In addition to all the other performers named above, fine work also comes from David Bradley as Tom's older brother, facing life as a widower, and Martin Savage as Tom's troubled nephew Karl.
Leigh has the audacity to tell the truth that not everyone's life turns out well and that some marriages do miraculously go on blissfully for decades and to mix them in the same movie.
While I was writing this review, wanting to doublecheck one character's name and the performer who played her right, I was surprised by the negative reviews of Another Year that I found that found it "smug," full of caricatures (one admitted "hating" all the characters) and even criticized the acting — and some of these critics were ones who fell all over the torture called Blue Valentine or the disaster Nicole Kidman inflicted upon Rabbit Hole. I guess a movie marriage must be in a state of disrepair or there's something wrong with the film.
You would think as damaged as the character of Mary (or Ken or Ronnie for that matter) are would satisfy their need for suffering. Who knew Leigh was being courageous by acknowledging that not everyone in the world finds a mate, even for a bad relationship? That people like Mary do become dependent on friends like Tom and Gerri because it's as close to intimacy as they get and it can get on those friends' nerves. It's sad, but it's true.
I've usually found Leigh's films to be hit or miss, but always with solid performances. In Another Year, everything comes together and he produces one of his best efforts, striking every chord perfectly. Most films work best when they don't have any extraneous scenes, but Another Year works so well by taking the opposite approach. Many parts don't seem pertinent as you watch them, but Leigh's thinking several moves ahead of you and eventually you realize why that sequence, like all the others, were absolutely essential.
Tweet
Labels: 10s, Broadbent, Mike Leigh, Nicole Kidman
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Sunday, January 02, 2011
From the Vault: Richard III
And therefore — since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair, well-spoken days, —
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Richard III, Act I, Scene I
Prove a villain he does in what may be the most imaginative, entertaining film adaptation of a Shakespeare play ever.
Adapted from an acclaimed stage production, Richard III transplants the Bard's historical play from the 15th century to a fictionalized England of the 1930s, where a bloody civil war rages and the pseudo-fascist Richard of Gloucester conspires to seize the throne from himself — at the expense of many family members.
When we first see Richard on screen leading an attack on reigning King Henry and his troops, a gas mask hides his face and causes Richard to breathe heavily and evoke a far more humanistic movie villain — Darth Vader. The allusion to Star Wars ends up being wholly appropriate because this is Shakespeare revised to be a movie, not just a filmed version of the play.
Sir Ian McKellen plays Richard, repeating his stage triumph and showing why he often earns the label of the foremost Shakespearean actor of his generation. This is Shakespeare delivered conversationally with as much respect for the context as the poetry. McKellen doesn't cradle the lines as if he fears they're so delicate that they might break: he charges full throttle and brings Richard to brilliant, rousing life.
An excellent cast supports McKellen, including Annette Bening as Queen Elizabeth, Nigel Hawthorne and John Wood as Richard's brothers Clarence and Edward and Maggie Smith as his mother, the duchess of York.
Lesser known but recognizable performers such as Kristin Scott Thomas as the widowed Lady Anne and Jim Broadbent as Lord Buckingham, Richard's co-conspirator, also add to the fun. The cast's weak spot turns out to be Robert Downey Jr. as Earl Rivers, Elizabeth's brother. Downey's line readings sound so awkward that it comes as a relief when he's dispatched by Richard's henchman (Adrian Dunbar).
Richard Loncraine directs Richard III at a galloping pace and though some purists may dislike cuts in the text, the omissions do not come at the expense of the story's flow, unlike the recent film of Othello.
Too often people of all ages treat Shakespeare as if his plays are museum pieces, treating them more like medicine they have to take than entertainment. With this film, perhaps that view can change as its stunning visuals and realistic action manage to keep reluctant viewers' attention while McKellen's exquisite acting helps the words penetrate their mind.
Tweet
Labels: 90s, Bening, Broadbent, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Remakes, Robert Downey Jr., Shakespeare, Star Wars
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Saturday, June 05, 2010
From the Vault: Bullets Over Broadway
The arc of the story in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway builds slowly into one of the cleverest plots the filmmaker has invented. Similar in spirit to last year's buoyant Manhattan Murder Mystery, Bullets tells an entertaining period piece about what happens when the worlds of gangsters, artists and theater folk collide in 1920s New York.
John Cusack stars as Daniel Shayne, a budding would-be Eugene O'Neill trying desperately to get his latest play staged on Broadway. His producer (Jack Warden) finally secures financial backing but it comes with a catch — Shayne must compromise his artistic integrity by allowing the untalented mistress (Jennifer Tilly) of the mob-connected moneyman (Joe Viterelli) to act in the show.
The twists and the slow climb that the script by Allen and Douglas McGrath take are integral to the story's enjoyment, so it's best to refrain from any further plot description.
The performances sparkle across the board, especially Chazz Palminteri as an underworld thug who keeps tab on the mistress and injects his two cents into the play's revisions and Dianne Wiest, who creates a great comic character as a fading theatrical legend.
What's so welcome about Bullets Over Broadway is that Allen uses more subtlety as he pontificates about many familiar themes than he's shown in years.
Bullets also manages to be funny as hell. It boasts a stellar supporting cast including Rob Reiner, Jim Broadbent and Tracey Ullman in addition to those mentioned above.
After a couple of retreads and one big misfire, it's reassuring to see Allen back on solid footing, especially in such a clever, funny package.
Tweet
Labels: 90s, Broadbent, Jack Warden, O'Neill, R. Reiner, Wiest, Woody
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Stiffer than the corsets
By Edward Copeland
Costume dramas need not be well-dressed bores — honest. I know because I've seen them. One of the producers of The Young Victoria, Martin Scorsese, even made one called The Age of Innocence. For some reason though, the sets are dressed, the performers are clothed and instead of a compelling tale resulting, too often rigor mortis sets in, as if everyone fears dramatic action will somehow start tearing seams asunder. Alas, this is the case with The Young Victoria.
Emily Blunt takes on the early years of England's longest-reigning monarch, surrounded by a schemer, Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), who hopes to usurp her path to the throne, thinking she's too young and longing for the power, aided by Victoria's mother (Miranda Richardson). Meanwhile, the film also depicts the romance between Victoria and Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) that led to marriage and nine children.
With all this story, this cast (which also includes Jim Broadbent and Paul Bettany) and a script by Oscar winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), you'd think it couldn't miss, but boy does it. Aside from some sparks from Strong and Blunt, everything plays at the quietest, slowest, dullest level. As my mind frequently wandered, I kept wanting Blunt to age into Judi Dench-widowhood and meet Billy Connolly so I could watch Mrs. Brown again.
Tweet
Labels: 00s, Broadbent, Dench, Scorsese
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Harry Potter and the half-baked script
By Edward Copeland
With the arrival of each new Harry Potter film, I've made it clear that I've never read any of the books yet I've been amazed how each installment grew in depth and quality once they got rid of director Chris Columbus from the first two installments. The previous entry, Order of the Phoenix, slipped a little and was the first of the films that felt to me as if it had been condensed to the point that a lot had been left out from the book. However, Imelda Staunton's delightful performance, the best in the entire series, more than made up for that film's flaws. This time, with director David Yates returning to helm Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was the first time, even including the Columbus efforts, where I watched most of the time bored and dumbfounded.
As with all the other adaptations, the Half-Blood Prince was written by Steve Kloves, the man whose great work as writer-director on The Fabulous Baker Boys inspired J.K. Rowling to select him to adapt her books to the screen in the first place. However, the Half-Blood Prince plays like a muddle. By the time it reveals who the Half-Blood Prince is, I still had no (and still don't have any) idea what that really meant and what its significance was.
As in Goblet of Fire, Harry's friends Ron and Hermione (Rupert Grint, Emma Watson) stay pretty much segregated to the sidelines except for one sequence where Grint proves quite charming and funny when Ron becomes enchanted by a love potion. Daniel Radcliffe still does fine as Harry, but this time out the heavy lifting seems to be handled even more than usual by the veteran British pros such as Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman.
The actor who shines the most in this outing is the series' newcomer, Jim Broadbent, playing a former potions professor that Dumbledore (Gambon) lures back to Hogwarts because of the connection he had to Lord Voldemort back when he was just a student named Tom Riddle and hadn't turned to evil. Every note Broadbent strikes — fear, guilt, excitement — seems just right. He's really the only aspect of the Half-Blood Prince that saves it from being a complete bore.
Director Yates' pacing is way off here. The atmospherics are solid as usual, but I don't know why this chapter came off as seeming so messy. The final book in the series is being broken up into two movies, so perhaps that will eliminate some of the problems of leaving things out, but it concerns me that Yates has been entrusted with the reins once again since his two efforts have been the weakest non-Columbus outings in the film series.
Tweet
Labels: 00s, Broadbent, Gambon, Maggie Smith, Rickman, Sequels
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Portrait of a movie as a near-miss
By Edward Copeland
With the exception of the dark-spirited fun that is Bad Santa, all of Terry Zwigoff's films as director since the great documentary Crumb have revolved around art to some extent.
Reuniting with Daniel Clowes, the author of the comic and screenplay for Ghost World, Zwigoff released Art School Confidential last year, to mostly mixed reviews. While it doesn't come close to his last three films, there certainly is more there than most gave the film credit for.
Max Minghella stars as Jerome, a freshman at a somewhat prestigious arts college who hasn't found time for romance or a way to truly satisfy his artistic yearnings, being that much of his time has been spent on the wrong end of bullies' fists. Strathmore Academy offers him a chance at a new start on all levels through a beautiful young woman (Sophia Myles) and a professor who acts as a somewhat loopy artistic mentor (John Malkovich).
Much of the comedy, while familiar, works thanks to the stellar supporting cast which in addition to Malkovich includes Ethan Suplee, Joel David Moore, Jim Broadbent and Steve Buscemi. The jabs at college and the art world have been done many times and better, but they still land on their targets more often than they miss. However, then comes the serial killer subplot.
I'd read most of the criticisms of the movie relating to this story strand, so I was prepared for it. Still, the reason the killer plot doesn't work is less because it seems out of place it's that once it develops, it's pretty clear where it's headed and what the film has in mind as an ultimate statement and that also has been done much better elsewhere (From The King of Comedy to To Die For and others too numerous to mention).
As a result, I got impatient because I was so far ahead of the film and I think that is what ultimately sinks it. Still, there are enough engaging moments and funny moments to save it from being a complete misfire.
Tweet
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
With the exception of the dark-spirited fun that is Bad Santa, all of Terry Zwigoff's films as director since the great documentary Crumb have revolved around art to some extent.
Reuniting with Daniel Clowes, the author of the comic and screenplay for Ghost World, Zwigoff released Art School Confidential last year, to mostly mixed reviews. While it doesn't come close to his last three films, there certainly is more there than most gave the film credit for.
Max Minghella stars as Jerome, a freshman at a somewhat prestigious arts college who hasn't found time for romance or a way to truly satisfy his artistic yearnings, being that much of his time has been spent on the wrong end of bullies' fists. Strathmore Academy offers him a chance at a new start on all levels through a beautiful young woman (Sophia Myles) and a professor who acts as a somewhat loopy artistic mentor (John Malkovich).
Much of the comedy, while familiar, works thanks to the stellar supporting cast which in addition to Malkovich includes Ethan Suplee, Joel David Moore, Jim Broadbent and Steve Buscemi. The jabs at college and the art world have been done many times and better, but they still land on their targets more often than they miss. However, then comes the serial killer subplot.
I'd read most of the criticisms of the movie relating to this story strand, so I was prepared for it. Still, the reason the killer plot doesn't work is less because it seems out of place it's that once it develops, it's pretty clear where it's headed and what the film has in mind as an ultimate statement and that also has been done much better elsewhere (From The King of Comedy to To Die For and others too numerous to mention).
As a result, I got impatient because I was so far ahead of the film and I think that is what ultimately sinks it. Still, there are enough engaging moments and funny moments to save it from being a complete misfire.
Tweet
Labels: 00s, Broadbent, Buscemi, Malkovich, Terry Zwigoff
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Busy, busy Peter Morgan
By Edward Copeland
A week from today, Peter Morgan could win an Oscar for his screenplay for The Queen. Even if he doesn't, odds are he will have helped the winners of both lead acting trophies to their wins, since he also co-wrote The Last King of Scotland. On top of that, his hit play in London, Frost/Nixon, will soon debut on Broadway and has already been optioned as a feature. Morgan certainly has reached a career boiling point and another example premiered on HBO last night in the form of the film Longford starring Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton.
Longford tells the true story of Frank Pakenham, the 7th Earl of Longford, whose conversion to Catholicism led him during his long tenure in the House of Lords to make frequent visits with prisoners in an attempt to help them any way he could, saying that he found visiting prisoners one of the most rewarding things he ever did.
His missions of mercy hit a bump in 1965 when he responded to a letter from Myra Hindley (Samantha Morton), part of a notorious pair convicted for truly heinous crimes committed against five young children. Frank finds her not to be the monster the press has painted her as and spends years trying to get her a parole hearing, alienating his family, including his wife (Lindsay Duncan, miles removed from her role as Servilia on Rome).
However, he ignores warnings that Myra might be using him, especially when they come from her partner in crime Ian Brady (a great performance from Andy Serkis, freed from the digital bondage of Gollum and King Kong).
The actors are superb across the board, especially the always amazing Broadbent. While there certainly have been better HBO films, Longford does tell a quite interesting one as a script by Peter Morgan shows someone who seems to have some keen insights into the workings of Britain's upper classes.
Tweet
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
A week from today, Peter Morgan could win an Oscar for his screenplay for The Queen. Even if he doesn't, odds are he will have helped the winners of both lead acting trophies to their wins, since he also co-wrote The Last King of Scotland. On top of that, his hit play in London, Frost/Nixon, will soon debut on Broadway and has already been optioned as a feature. Morgan certainly has reached a career boiling point and another example premiered on HBO last night in the form of the film Longford starring Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton.
Longford tells the true story of Frank Pakenham, the 7th Earl of Longford, whose conversion to Catholicism led him during his long tenure in the House of Lords to make frequent visits with prisoners in an attempt to help them any way he could, saying that he found visiting prisoners one of the most rewarding things he ever did.
His missions of mercy hit a bump in 1965 when he responded to a letter from Myra Hindley (Samantha Morton), part of a notorious pair convicted for truly heinous crimes committed against five young children. Frank finds her not to be the monster the press has painted her as and spends years trying to get her a parole hearing, alienating his family, including his wife (Lindsay Duncan, miles removed from her role as Servilia on Rome).
However, he ignores warnings that Myra might be using him, especially when they come from her partner in crime Ian Brady (a great performance from Andy Serkis, freed from the digital bondage of Gollum and King Kong).
The actors are superb across the board, especially the always amazing Broadbent. While there certainly have been better HBO films, Longford does tell a quite interesting one as a script by Peter Morgan shows someone who seems to have some keen insights into the workings of Britain's upper classes.
Tweet
Labels: Broadbent, HBO, Television
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
From the Vault: The Crying Game
Col, the wise and knowing bartender in The Crying Game asks the question, "Who knows the secrets of the human heart?" Both secrets and heart are at the center of The Crying Game. Stephen Rea portrays Fergus, a member of the Irish Republican Army, who participates in the abduction of a British soldier (Forest Whitaker).
The problem is, Fergus isn't completely cold-hearted and he allows himself to develop a friendship with the soldier and, when asked to deliver on a favor, decides to fulfill it.
Neil Jordan wrote and directed The Crying Game and it is one of the most original screenplays in a long time, constantly surprising the audience with its shifts in moods from suspense to humor, from romance to betrayal. For most films, mood swings are a balancing act that's hard to pull off. In The Crying Game, the shifts are deftly handled, always seeming just right. By the film's end, the viewer can't help but smile at the epilogue that some may think unnecessary but, when you let it sink in, turns out to be the perfect end to a perfect movie.
In addition to Rea's great performance, he is surrounded by a great supporting cast including Whitaker, the marvelous Miranda Richardson as his fellow terrorist, Jim Broadbent as the bartender Col and, most of all, the film debut of Jaye Davidson, in the pivotal role of Dil, the soldier's girlfriend.
Technically, the film soars as well, using the title song, a hit in England during the 1960s, and tunes ranging from the original, good version of "When a Man Loves a Woman" to a different rendition of "Stand By Your Man" to set the film's mood in crucial scenes.
Additionally, the musical score by Anne Dudley and crisp editing that holds the entire package together are excellent as well.
At its heart, The Crying Game is more than a thriller, more than a love story - it's a filmed essay on human nature, a wonderful tale that demands discussion after it has been seen.
TO READ ON, CLICK HERE
