Two For The Price Of One
I saw both of these pictures "back to back" yesterday at theatres only a block apart (the Landmark Uptown and the Landmark Lagoon in Minneapolis), and it would be hard to think of two movies that were more thoroughly different... that is, aside from both of them being top quality. If they both sound like winners to you, you have very wide-ranging tastes.
1. "Transsiberian". Ever had a nightmare vacation where it seems like everything is going wrong? I can pretty much guarantee that however bad it was, it was paradise compared to the one endured by Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer in "Transsiberian."
Harrelson and Mortimer play a couple going through a rough patch in their marriage, who have just finished a trip to China on behalf of a church organization that helps children in need. They COULD have returned home by plane, BUT NO... train fanatic Harrelson decides that a nearly week-long train trip through Russia to Moscow would be just the thing first. Let's just say he lives to regret it. Particularly as a result of several characters they encounter on the train, primarily another young couple (one Spanish, one American) who seem nice and friendly on the surface, but might just possibly be involved in a recent murder and theft of money and drugs... and then there's Ben Kingsley as a Russian police officer searching for the missing money & drugs and those responsible, and who begins to suspect Harrelson & Mortimer.
This is one of those movies where virtually nobody is what they seem. The thing is, though, I've seen more than my share of those, and once I become aware that the movie I'm watching is one of those, I can generally figure out what the twists and turns are going to be. Not this time. After a first half that sets up the story and characters, and is filled with a gradually increasing atmosphere of dread, the second half of this film clamps down on you and doesn't let go, constantly twisting and turning and revealing surprising new developments that I literally never saw coming. Not even once. That might just mean that this picture will never reach a wide audience, since the American moviegoing public doesn't seem to LIKE to be surprised, and even in suspense thrillers wants to know exactly what's going to happen in the rest of the movie within the first five to ten minutes. But if there are still viewers out there who can actually appreciate a movie that you can never be entirely sure about unti literally the very last scene, you owe it to yourself to catch this one.
There's also much to admire for fans of excellent acting... both the "name" stars (especially an ominously sinister Kingsley) and the lesser known supporting players do expert jobs. The musical score adds much to the tense atmosphere without ever going overboard, and the use of tacky American pop songs on the train's Musak system actually manages to do the same... as well as providing some very welcome comic relief. And co-writer/director Brad Anderson, whom I had previously been familiar with only from romantic comedies like "Happy Accidents" and "Next Stop Wonderland" (although I know he's had some experience in horror as well) proves to be a more than capable Hitchcock surrogate, and it would certainly not be bad news at all if he decided to work in this genre again.
Technically, this isn't really an "art" type movie in spite of its playing in a Landmark theatre, but why quibble when the film in question is one of the best suspense pictures of the past few years? If you're at all like me and are frustrated at how long it's been since your last vacation (in my case, just over 4 1/2 years), "Transsiberian" may just change your mind as well as provide you with a pleasurable couple of hours in the theatre. There are, after all, worse things than boredom.
2. "Frozen River". It seems like there's never more than a few weeks that go by without reading a review of some new movie stating that the star gives a performance that's guaranteed to be recognized at Oscar time. I usually take those things with a large grain of salt, even when they appear as consistently as they do in the reviews I've seen or "Frozen River". But now, having seen the film myself, allow me to join the chorus. If Melissa Leo does not at the very least receive a NOMINATION for her leading role in this picture, the Oscars will truly reveal themselves to be the joke that they are often said to be.
Leo plays a single mother (as the result of her husband's recently deserting the family) of two sons, struggling to barely scrape by on her salary as a clerk at a local dollar store in her small town in northern New York state, near the border with Canada... and dreaming of purchasing a DOUBLE-wide mobile home to replace her current single-wide residence. This isn't easy when she is barely able to keep most of the family's posessions from being reposessed, and can't look towards a promotion or raise at her job to help out. Then, through an unusual set of circumstances, she falls in with a Mohawk Indian woman who has been smuggling illegal immigrants across the border from Canada, and joins her in her work, in order to get the money she needs to live her dreams. If you expect things to go smoothly, you don't really understand what kind of a movie this is.
Roughly 98 or 99 times out of a hundred, when a big Hollywood studio does a story about low-income people struggling to just barely keep their hold on the BOTTOM rung of society's ladder, the result comes off as smug and patronizing. And although indie films have a better average in this regard, they don't always avoid those pitfalls, either. "Frozen River", on the other hand, is almost frighteningly authentic. Much of that is because of a sharply observant script and direction, but I don't think it should be underestimated how much of it is due to the stunning performance of Melissa Leo in the lead. A character who doesn't always appear on the surface to be easy to like, Leo nonetheless impresses with her creation of a devoted mother who will stop at nothing to give her family the life she thinks they deserve. She even eventually reveals amazing depths of caring and selflessness bordering on heroism, even towards people outside of her family whom she wouldn't seem to have any obligations towards. This is a character you will not soon forget.
"Frozen River" is certainly not an easy movie to watch, and it might not be quite exactly the correct way to put it to say that you will "enjoy" it. But there are many things that movies can do and many ways they can move you, and to demand that every film has to be 100 percent "feel good" ALL the time will rob you of some of the most impressive film making achievements by some of the most daring, and expert, film makers. If you're willing to go a little outside of what might be your usual comfort zone and experience a movie that will bring you about as close to life on society's fringes as a film can take you, you will be richly rewarded by seeing "Frozen River". Adventurous moviegoers will definitely not regret it.
1. "Transsiberian". Ever had a nightmare vacation where it seems like everything is going wrong? I can pretty much guarantee that however bad it was, it was paradise compared to the one endured by Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer in "Transsiberian."
Harrelson and Mortimer play a couple going through a rough patch in their marriage, who have just finished a trip to China on behalf of a church organization that helps children in need. They COULD have returned home by plane, BUT NO... train fanatic Harrelson decides that a nearly week-long train trip through Russia to Moscow would be just the thing first. Let's just say he lives to regret it. Particularly as a result of several characters they encounter on the train, primarily another young couple (one Spanish, one American) who seem nice and friendly on the surface, but might just possibly be involved in a recent murder and theft of money and drugs... and then there's Ben Kingsley as a Russian police officer searching for the missing money & drugs and those responsible, and who begins to suspect Harrelson & Mortimer.
This is one of those movies where virtually nobody is what they seem. The thing is, though, I've seen more than my share of those, and once I become aware that the movie I'm watching is one of those, I can generally figure out what the twists and turns are going to be. Not this time. After a first half that sets up the story and characters, and is filled with a gradually increasing atmosphere of dread, the second half of this film clamps down on you and doesn't let go, constantly twisting and turning and revealing surprising new developments that I literally never saw coming. Not even once. That might just mean that this picture will never reach a wide audience, since the American moviegoing public doesn't seem to LIKE to be surprised, and even in suspense thrillers wants to know exactly what's going to happen in the rest of the movie within the first five to ten minutes. But if there are still viewers out there who can actually appreciate a movie that you can never be entirely sure about unti literally the very last scene, you owe it to yourself to catch this one.
There's also much to admire for fans of excellent acting... both the "name" stars (especially an ominously sinister Kingsley) and the lesser known supporting players do expert jobs. The musical score adds much to the tense atmosphere without ever going overboard, and the use of tacky American pop songs on the train's Musak system actually manages to do the same... as well as providing some very welcome comic relief. And co-writer/director Brad Anderson, whom I had previously been familiar with only from romantic comedies like "Happy Accidents" and "Next Stop Wonderland" (although I know he's had some experience in horror as well) proves to be a more than capable Hitchcock surrogate, and it would certainly not be bad news at all if he decided to work in this genre again.
Technically, this isn't really an "art" type movie in spite of its playing in a Landmark theatre, but why quibble when the film in question is one of the best suspense pictures of the past few years? If you're at all like me and are frustrated at how long it's been since your last vacation (in my case, just over 4 1/2 years), "Transsiberian" may just change your mind as well as provide you with a pleasurable couple of hours in the theatre. There are, after all, worse things than boredom.
2. "Frozen River". It seems like there's never more than a few weeks that go by without reading a review of some new movie stating that the star gives a performance that's guaranteed to be recognized at Oscar time. I usually take those things with a large grain of salt, even when they appear as consistently as they do in the reviews I've seen or "Frozen River". But now, having seen the film myself, allow me to join the chorus. If Melissa Leo does not at the very least receive a NOMINATION for her leading role in this picture, the Oscars will truly reveal themselves to be the joke that they are often said to be.
Leo plays a single mother (as the result of her husband's recently deserting the family) of two sons, struggling to barely scrape by on her salary as a clerk at a local dollar store in her small town in northern New York state, near the border with Canada... and dreaming of purchasing a DOUBLE-wide mobile home to replace her current single-wide residence. This isn't easy when she is barely able to keep most of the family's posessions from being reposessed, and can't look towards a promotion or raise at her job to help out. Then, through an unusual set of circumstances, she falls in with a Mohawk Indian woman who has been smuggling illegal immigrants across the border from Canada, and joins her in her work, in order to get the money she needs to live her dreams. If you expect things to go smoothly, you don't really understand what kind of a movie this is.
Roughly 98 or 99 times out of a hundred, when a big Hollywood studio does a story about low-income people struggling to just barely keep their hold on the BOTTOM rung of society's ladder, the result comes off as smug and patronizing. And although indie films have a better average in this regard, they don't always avoid those pitfalls, either. "Frozen River", on the other hand, is almost frighteningly authentic. Much of that is because of a sharply observant script and direction, but I don't think it should be underestimated how much of it is due to the stunning performance of Melissa Leo in the lead. A character who doesn't always appear on the surface to be easy to like, Leo nonetheless impresses with her creation of a devoted mother who will stop at nothing to give her family the life she thinks they deserve. She even eventually reveals amazing depths of caring and selflessness bordering on heroism, even towards people outside of her family whom she wouldn't seem to have any obligations towards. This is a character you will not soon forget.
"Frozen River" is certainly not an easy movie to watch, and it might not be quite exactly the correct way to put it to say that you will "enjoy" it. But there are many things that movies can do and many ways they can move you, and to demand that every film has to be 100 percent "feel good" ALL the time will rob you of some of the most impressive film making achievements by some of the most daring, and expert, film makers. If you're willing to go a little outside of what might be your usual comfort zone and experience a movie that will bring you about as close to life on society's fringes as a film can take you, you will be richly rewarded by seeing "Frozen River". Adventurous moviegoers will definitely not regret it.
posted by Joe Bunce at
8:24 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home