Mixed Bag
Joe's Corner
1. "A Very Long Engagement". A young man and a young woman who have been involved romantically since childhood are seaparated by war (World War I), and the woman gets the news that the man is missing in action. But she's convinced she'd know if he was dead, and becomes determined to risk her own life to find and rescue him. With a plot like that, you could easily get either a Harlequin-romance level love story of almost unbearable sappiness, or a grimly realistic war story akin to the more violent moments of "Saving Private Ryan". But coming from the director who gave us "Delicatessen", "City Of Lost Children", and "Amelie" (with this film's star, Audrey Tatou) what we get is something else altogether. The romantic aspects of the story and the horrors-of-war angle are filtered through director Jeaneau's surrealistic sensibilities, in which few characters or situations are presented in a completely realistic manner, and as a result make themselves felt all the more deeply than if they'd received the traditional treatment. Audrey Tatou gives fans of "Amelie" just a slight taste of her character from that film, but mostly builds some familiar elements into a portrait of a very different kind of person. And of course, as with all of the director's other films, it's great to look at. All in all, not what you might be expecting, but exactly what you're very likely to enjoy.
2. "Meet The Fockers". Talk about contrast... "Meet The Fockers" is a shining example of how to put together all the right elements in all the wrong ways. I was among those who thought the original "Meet The Parents" was quite funny (no classic, mind you, but quite amusing). This 4-years-later sequel loses no opportunity to throw tasteless, juvenile gross-out humor in our faces and wallow in it. That would make this film an embarassment even if it starred people on the level of Ashton Kutcher, but "Meet The Fockers" brings in Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand (the latter in her first movie in EIGHT YEARS) as Ben Stiller's parents, and of course returns Robert Deniro from the original. Memories of "Tootsie", "Funny Girl" and "Taxi Driver" will seem a long, long way off as you watch these three embarass themselves in the name of a paycheck. Does the notion of a cat tricking a dog into leaping into a toilet bowl and then FLUSHING IT strike you as the height of humor? Well, that's one of the MORE respectable gags in this movie. Truly, how the mighty have fallen.
3. "The Phantom Of The Opera". The film version of the Broadway musical is AT LEAST the fifth official theatrical movie of this story, not counting at least one TV version and countless rip-offs and imitations. For the most part, with a very few scenes as exceptions, every one of those versions was more memorable than this one. Andrew Lloyd Webber's tradition of composing basically four or five songs (only one of which is even vaguely good) which are repeated endlessly throughout the show instead of doing a legitimate full score is in full force here, and it gets nearly intolerable to hear the same boring songs that many times. It might have been a little easier if the cast members could actually sing, but rather than getting real singers, or dubbing good actors, director Joel Schuemaker (aka The Man Who Destroyed the "Batman" franchise) does neither, and very few of the cast members can do either. (The exceptions being Minnie Driver, who actually CAN sing but is the only dubbed performer here, and whose acting is WAY below what you'd hope for from a former Oscar nominee, and female lead Emmy Rossum, who can actually sing quite well but whose acting leaves something to be desired.) The phantom himself, Gerard Butler, doesn't look remotely frightening even after removing his mask, just ever so slightly scarred (he has nothing on Lon Chaney).
Now, I suppose I should mention that the film is perhaps the best LOOKING version of this strange love triangle ever filmed, and that the actual final scene is perhaps an improvement on that of the previous versions, but what would be the point? This is still a movie that will only entertain people who took this big lumbering clumsy giant of a musical seriously in its stage version and who think Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the great musical geniuses of our time. And as you can doubtless tell by now, I am NOT one of those people.
4. "The Aviator". And here we have a mixed bag entirely within a single film. Martin Scorcese's story of the life and times of "eccentric" millionaire/aviation pioneer/movie maker/madman Howard Hughes takes a long while to get going, and gives us pretty standard show business cliches while it does, along with such stunt casting as Gwen Stefanie of the band No Doubt playing (badly) Jean Harlowe and a drab, colorless Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner. But the aviation elements of the story are genuinely exciting and lead to some spectacular sequences, and here's the real surprise: Leonardo Decaprio, who you'd think would be more of a natural for the early, shallower, Hollywood-set scenes but doesn't do much in them, shows a bit more depth and range when Hughes' mental state begins to go downhill and his grip on reality loosens... I must say that he surprised me. The man can really act, at least when the material is strong. And there is one major exception to the drabness of the Hollywood scenes: Cate Blanchett helps make up for her colorless role in "The Life Aquatic" by her brilliant turn here as Katharine Hepburn. Much like Jamie Fox in "Ray", she channels her real-life subject so thoroughly it's almost spooky. Voice, mannerisms, personality... she is Hepburn incarnate. So while I wouldn't quite join the chorus proclaiming this "the best film of the year"... it's too uneven and spotty for that... it has more than enough to recommend it. It may not be Scorcese's best ever, but it's certainly his best in a decade or so. And it contains Blanchett's stunning performance: Oscar nomination, anyone? In a week that also gave us "Meet The Fockers" and "The Phantom Of The Opera", you could certainly do a WHOLE lot worse.
1. "A Very Long Engagement". A young man and a young woman who have been involved romantically since childhood are seaparated by war (World War I), and the woman gets the news that the man is missing in action. But she's convinced she'd know if he was dead, and becomes determined to risk her own life to find and rescue him. With a plot like that, you could easily get either a Harlequin-romance level love story of almost unbearable sappiness, or a grimly realistic war story akin to the more violent moments of "Saving Private Ryan". But coming from the director who gave us "Delicatessen", "City Of Lost Children", and "Amelie" (with this film's star, Audrey Tatou) what we get is something else altogether. The romantic aspects of the story and the horrors-of-war angle are filtered through director Jeaneau's surrealistic sensibilities, in which few characters or situations are presented in a completely realistic manner, and as a result make themselves felt all the more deeply than if they'd received the traditional treatment. Audrey Tatou gives fans of "Amelie" just a slight taste of her character from that film, but mostly builds some familiar elements into a portrait of a very different kind of person. And of course, as with all of the director's other films, it's great to look at. All in all, not what you might be expecting, but exactly what you're very likely to enjoy.
2. "Meet The Fockers". Talk about contrast... "Meet The Fockers" is a shining example of how to put together all the right elements in all the wrong ways. I was among those who thought the original "Meet The Parents" was quite funny (no classic, mind you, but quite amusing). This 4-years-later sequel loses no opportunity to throw tasteless, juvenile gross-out humor in our faces and wallow in it. That would make this film an embarassment even if it starred people on the level of Ashton Kutcher, but "Meet The Fockers" brings in Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand (the latter in her first movie in EIGHT YEARS) as Ben Stiller's parents, and of course returns Robert Deniro from the original. Memories of "Tootsie", "Funny Girl" and "Taxi Driver" will seem a long, long way off as you watch these three embarass themselves in the name of a paycheck. Does the notion of a cat tricking a dog into leaping into a toilet bowl and then FLUSHING IT strike you as the height of humor? Well, that's one of the MORE respectable gags in this movie. Truly, how the mighty have fallen.
3. "The Phantom Of The Opera". The film version of the Broadway musical is AT LEAST the fifth official theatrical movie of this story, not counting at least one TV version and countless rip-offs and imitations. For the most part, with a very few scenes as exceptions, every one of those versions was more memorable than this one. Andrew Lloyd Webber's tradition of composing basically four or five songs (only one of which is even vaguely good) which are repeated endlessly throughout the show instead of doing a legitimate full score is in full force here, and it gets nearly intolerable to hear the same boring songs that many times. It might have been a little easier if the cast members could actually sing, but rather than getting real singers, or dubbing good actors, director Joel Schuemaker (aka The Man Who Destroyed the "Batman" franchise) does neither, and very few of the cast members can do either. (The exceptions being Minnie Driver, who actually CAN sing but is the only dubbed performer here, and whose acting is WAY below what you'd hope for from a former Oscar nominee, and female lead Emmy Rossum, who can actually sing quite well but whose acting leaves something to be desired.) The phantom himself, Gerard Butler, doesn't look remotely frightening even after removing his mask, just ever so slightly scarred (he has nothing on Lon Chaney).
Now, I suppose I should mention that the film is perhaps the best LOOKING version of this strange love triangle ever filmed, and that the actual final scene is perhaps an improvement on that of the previous versions, but what would be the point? This is still a movie that will only entertain people who took this big lumbering clumsy giant of a musical seriously in its stage version and who think Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the great musical geniuses of our time. And as you can doubtless tell by now, I am NOT one of those people.
4. "The Aviator". And here we have a mixed bag entirely within a single film. Martin Scorcese's story of the life and times of "eccentric" millionaire/aviation pioneer/movie maker/madman Howard Hughes takes a long while to get going, and gives us pretty standard show business cliches while it does, along with such stunt casting as Gwen Stefanie of the band No Doubt playing (badly) Jean Harlowe and a drab, colorless Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner. But the aviation elements of the story are genuinely exciting and lead to some spectacular sequences, and here's the real surprise: Leonardo Decaprio, who you'd think would be more of a natural for the early, shallower, Hollywood-set scenes but doesn't do much in them, shows a bit more depth and range when Hughes' mental state begins to go downhill and his grip on reality loosens... I must say that he surprised me. The man can really act, at least when the material is strong. And there is one major exception to the drabness of the Hollywood scenes: Cate Blanchett helps make up for her colorless role in "The Life Aquatic" by her brilliant turn here as Katharine Hepburn. Much like Jamie Fox in "Ray", she channels her real-life subject so thoroughly it's almost spooky. Voice, mannerisms, personality... she is Hepburn incarnate. So while I wouldn't quite join the chorus proclaiming this "the best film of the year"... it's too uneven and spotty for that... it has more than enough to recommend it. It may not be Scorcese's best ever, but it's certainly his best in a decade or so. And it contains Blanchett's stunning performance: Oscar nomination, anyone? In a week that also gave us "Meet The Fockers" and "The Phantom Of The Opera", you could certainly do a WHOLE lot worse.
posted by Joe Bunce at
4:46 PM
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