Film Review: Annie

‪ Annie. Rated PG. 118 minutes. Directed by Will Gluck. Screenplay by Will Gluck and Aline Brosh McKenna.

Verdict: In a word, dreadful.

What might have been a landmark reimagining of a popular comic strip heroine turned Musical Theatre Star, ends up being a film of such gob-smacking mediocrity that it becomes almost impossible to keep watching. With all the musicality of a burst fire hydrant, it is impossible to comprehend how the filmmakers responsible have got it so completely wrong.
 
The added cruelty inflicted on us here, is that we really want it to work. The evergreen musical (music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Thomas Meehan) has been enshrined in musical theatre history, with its signature tune ‘Tomorrow’ an instantly recognisable classic. Regrettably, like the rest of the fabulous score that has been slaughtered beyond recognition, it fails to make even the slightest impact – which can only be described as bizarre.

Quvenzhané Wallis, who became the youngest actress to receive a Best Actress Oscar® nomination for her performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild, is wonderful as Annie. And watching the rest of the film fall apart around her only makes the experience of watching it even more excruciating.

Jamie Foxx has a genuine go at the reimagined Oliver Warbucks character, Will Stacks, a mobile phone billionaire. Foxx is the only other cast member who can sing and kind of dance, but the major problem is that he obviously feels incredibly uncomfortable doing so in front of a movie camera. The hopelessly miscast Rose Byrne (as Stacks’ Personal Assistant, Grace) only proves that she can neither sing nor dance, which is awkward in a musical. But nothing will prepare you for the fear and panic that infuses Cameron Diaz’s unwatchable turn as Miss Hannigan.

But whatever the extent of the unjustifiable liberties that have been taken, the two-hour running time can only be described as beyond endurance.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Paddington

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Paddington. Rated G. 95 minutes. Directed by Paul King. Screenplay by Paul King and Hamish McColl. 

Verdict: A near-perfect big screen debut for our refugee from Peru, Paddington Bear. 

As you luxuriate in the company of the ever polite but calamity-prone Paddington Bear (voiced by a perfectly British Ben Wishaw), you may find yourself wondering why he hasn’t managed to find his way onto the big screen before this marvellously imaginative incarnation. 

Since Michael Bond’s A Bear Called Paddington was first published in 1958, his creator has been reluctant to sell the film rights to anyone who might not meet his exacting standards and expectations for what the end result might end up looking like.

It is fascinating to consider just how much a film of its time Paddington’s debut adventure is. When an earthquake destroys the home he shares with his Uncle and Aunty in the jungles of Peru, his Aunt stows him away on board a ship bound for London. Arriving at Paddington Station as a refugee from a far away land, our homeless bear is welcomed by the Brown family – Henry (Hugh Bonneville), Mary (Sally Hawkins) and their children Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin). But when an evil taxidermist, played with vigour by a blonde-bob-wearing Nicole Kidman, wants to have this particular bear in her museum’s collection, the race is on to save Paddington from being well and truly stuffed.

In King (The Mighty Boosh), and the picture-book perfect production design from Gary Williamson, Paddington finds himself in splendid company. The creative excellence on show rewards close attention, especially the painted tree mural that adorns the hallway of the Brown's family home.

And if the shrieks and squeals of delight from the youngest (and the not so young) audience members are anything to go by, then the little, lost bear from ‘Darkest Peru’ has found himself a most suitable new home.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

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Exodus: Gods and Kings. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 150 minutes. Directed by Ridley Scott. Screenplay by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine and Steven Zaillian.

Verdict: A sumptuous visual feast that brings nothing new to the age-old contest.

Since time immemorial, The Bible’s New and Old Testaments have provided film-makers with a rich tapestry of spiritually-charged adventures on a grand scale. It was the legendary Cecil B DeMille who first filmed the story of Moses and The Ten Commandments in 1923 as a silent epic, before revisiting the story in 1956 with Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as his ‘brother’, Pharaoh Rameses of Egypt.

For his lavish account of the epic, faith-based contest between Moses (Christian Bale), Rameses (Joel Edgerton) and God’s messenger, Malak (11-year-old Isaac Andrews), Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Prometheus) has created a sumptuous visual feast that is simply breath-taking in its scale of cinematic wonder. The work of his Prometheus collaborators – cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, Production Designer Arthur Max, and Costume Designer Janty Yates – is nothing less than awe-inspiring. And while everyone wears far too much make-up (especially eye-liner), Exodus never looks less than magnificent.

The screenplay, though, doesn’t do anyone any favours, with Edgerton’s Rameses reduced to a thinly-drawn, snappy, inarticulate and petulant man/child. Bale gradually rises to meet the demands of his role as the great prophet and saviour of the enslaved Israelites, and his realisation that his God has not abandoned him, just as The Red Sea begins to part, is about as good as the acting gets.

What remains troubling about the experience of this film is how Scott fails to bring any new insights about this well-known battle of faith and self-belief into consideration. At a time where faith of any description is increasingly difficult to maintain, the opportunity to challenge us about the role faith might play in our lives is wasted completely. Faith, after all, is about how we feel, not how we look.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: My Old Lady

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My Old Lady. Rated M (mature themes). 107 minutes. Written and directed by Israel Horovitz.

Verdict: Three great performances help this turgid tale of tormented family secrets over the line.

Making his feature film directorial debut at the grand age of 75 makes celebrated playwright Israel Horovitz a unique creative individual. For the occasion, he has adapted his stage play for the screen and cast three superb leading actors – Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas – in what is essentially a three-hander about secrets that haunt the lives of the main characters.

Mathias’ (Kline) life is a complete failure. He is a broke, recovering alcoholic with three unpublished novels and three failed marriages to match. When his estranged father dies, Mathias inherits an apartment in Paris. He travels to France immediately to arrange for the apartment to be sold, only to discover that it is let to Mathilde (Smith) under the ‘viager’ system, where tenants can stay in their apartments ‘for life’. When Mathias meets Mathilde’s adult daughter Chloé (Scott Thomas), sparks fly as the damaged pair battle to defend their right of ownership over the apartment.

Lovers of Paris and human drama, with a romantic flourish, will adore this film. Horovitz certainly lays the emotional baggage on with a trowel, but his cast respond brilliantly under his incisive direction that belies his complete lack of experience as a film director. It is impossible to take your eyes off the irrepressible Smith, who is currently winning new legions of fans as a result of her work in Downtown Abbey.

Kline, who made a name for himself with breakout turns in The Big Chill (1983) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988), has been absent from the screen for a decade. And while the screenplay overplays its hand where his tormented past is concerned, it is an undeniable joy to watch Kline rage against the bottle, the women, and the circumstances that stand in the way of him achieving some sense of closure from what was an incredibly tragic childhood.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 123 minutes. Directed by Francis Lawrence. Screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong. Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins.

Verdict: A bloated outing for the first of the two-part cinematic climax to The Hunger Games.

Beginning where The Hunger Games: Catching Fire left us, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has been relocated to District 13, a rebel-held underground fortress, to recover from the Games. It is in District 13 that the rebellion against The Capitol is overseen by President Coin (Julianne Moore) and Plutarch Heavensbee (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, to whom the film is dedicated).

Knowing Katniss is capable of inspiring people to rise up against The Capitol’s President Snow (Donald Sutherland), Coin invites her to assume the title of ‘Mockingjay’, a symbol of the rebellion. Once she witnesses the extent of the destruction inflicted on the Districts, Katniss agrees to take on the responsibility, but only if the brain-washed Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who Snow is using a weapon to destroy Katniss' influence over the rebels, is rescued from The Capitol and reunited with her.

Whether it is because the final book in the trilogy is being turned into two films (a trend that began with The Hobbit, then the Harry Potter and Twilight films), or that there are not actually any sequences involving the infamous Games, Mockingjay – Part 1 is a mostly forgettable affair. While it ramps up the tension and the action in the second half, much of the first half ambles along in a bloated, self-satisfied manner that is completely at odds with its cinematic pedigree.

Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Water for Elephants, I Am Legend, Constantine) and the always excellent Jennifer Lawrence work wonders with the material’s limited range. And while it might be long time to have waited, the final sequences between Peeta and Katniss are extraordinarily powerful, with Hutcherson bringing real acting clout to the screen for the first, and possibly only, time in the entire movie.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Pride

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Pride. Rated M (mature themes, coarse language, sexual reference and brief nudity). 120 minutes. Directed by Matthew Warchus. Screenplay by Stephen Beresford.

Verdict: A life-changing tale, brilliantly told.

If a film were to exist that is so entirely of its time, then this perfect example of a big-hearted and important story, brilliantly told, is it. Beresford’s superb screenplay crashes through and dismantles preconceptions, hate, suspicion, bigotry and prejudice one scene at a time, before reaching an overwhelming zenith in its final sequence that is guaranteed to melt even the hardest of hearts.

Based on actual events, Pride tells the story of an unlikely alliance between a group of gay and lesbian activists in London and the small mining community of Onllwyn in Wales, who are struggling to survive the crippling effects of the 1984 UK miners’ strike. Realising the media, the police, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher are their common enemies, the mining families and the activists attempt to find common ground in the hope that together, they might triumph in the face of soul-destroying adversity.

While it certainly owes a debt to Billy Elliott and The Full Monty, Pride stands alone in the way it unites seemingly disparate threads and contradictory agendas to fulfil its grand storytelling ambitions.

One example of Beresford’s many illuminating juxtapositions is the personal toll the effects of both the strike and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are having on two very different communities. Why, in the face of such a deadly virus, one character asks, should members of the gay community care about the extent to which the miners and their families are suffering?

The result, under Warchus’ inspired direction of his exceptional cast, is that we are constantly challenged to hold on to what we believe is important. That you just might leave the cinema with your belief system tipped on its head is only one of the many surprising gifts this extraordinary film provides.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Interstellar

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Interstellar. Rated M (science fiction themes and infrequent coarse language). 169 minutes. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan

Verdict: In space nothing is as it seems.

There are a number of massive holes in the Nolan brothers’ extraordinary labour of love, and they are (not in any particular order) wormholes, black holes and plot holes. But none of Interstellar’s flaws (of which its long running time is one) come close to ruining the effectiveness of this magnificent, entirely immersive cinematic experience.

Earth is almost uninhabitable, and NASA’s scientists believe the only way to ensure the human race doesn’t become extinct is to resettle on another planet. Previous astronauts have failed to return from searching for likely candidates, so the job of travelling through the wormhole to distant galaxies falls to Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), Amelia (Anne Hathaway), Doyle (Wes Bentley) and Romilly (David Gyasi). What they discover will forever change the way time, space and the possibilities for our future are comprehended.

Nolan (The DarkKnight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight) cements his reputation as one of the most imaginative directors at work in film today. Together with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and frequent collaborator, Production Designer Nathan Crowley, Nolan creates sequences of often jaw-dropping wonder.

The performances from Nolan’s deeply committed ensemble are excellent, with McConaughey in particular delivering yet another superb performance of immense emotional and psychological range.

Kip Thorne’s theories about astrophysics play out here as a multitude of theories about the time/space continuum on the edges of, and within, our solar system, but Interstellar’s genuine emotional clout involves the value of family. And as the dazzling visuals begin to fade from memory, it is the scenes between Cooper and his daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain and Ellen Burstyn share the role) that make the important and lasting impressions.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Fury

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Fury. Rated MA15+ (strong war themes, violence, blood and gore and coarse language). 134 minutes. Written and Directed by David Ayer.

Verdict: A gruelling saga about the horrors of tank warfare.

Fury begins as World War 2 enters its increasingly urgent final stages, the Allies are now deep inside Germany on the march to Berlin, and its stark opening sequence gives absolutely nothing away about what is to come.

A battle has obviously been fought, but it’s impossible to know who might have won. A fatigued Sherman tank commander ‘Wardaddy’ (Brad Pitt) appears from within a smouldering tank, Fury’, and kills a dazed survivor who is riding past on his white horse by plunging a knife into his eye. It is a brutally efficient moment, full of intense hate, with which Ayer signals that his film is not going to be an easy ride. Ever.

Returning to a makeshift command centre, Wardaddy and his crew Boyd (Shia LaBeouf), Grady (Jon Bernthal) and Trini (Michael Peña), report that Fury’s gunner has been killed. Replacing him is a recently enlisted, young administration assistant Norman (a superb Logan Lerman), who will soon find himself trapped in an unrecognisable world that will change him forever.

In precisely the same manner in which Steven Spielberg took us deep within the Normandy Landings in Saving Private Ryan (1998), Ayer’s forensic examination of the horrors of tank warfare refuses to do us any favours whatsoever. The relentless battle set pieces are astonishingly realistic, and the exceptional performances from a cast who are obviously deeply engaged with the uncompromising material, are almost obsessively captured from every possible angle.

Fury is a deeply unsettling, chaotic film to watch. Just how difficult it becomes to experience will simply be a question of whether or not you have the stamina.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Dracula Untold

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Dracula Untold. Rated M (horror themes and violence). 92 minutes. Directed by Gary Shore. Screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

Verdict: This dark and brooding drama about how Dracula came into existence falls short of the mark.

Since Irish author Bram Stoker created Count Dracula in his 1897 novel Dracula, the character has inspired the imaginations of film and television makers around the world. He has been enjoying something of a renaissance, thanks largely to Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels (adapted for television as True Blood) and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series.

In Dracula Untold, we have a bold reimagining of how the character came to be, and a confident debut from fellow Irishman Shore. Sazama and Sharpless’ also debut with their screenplay, and the film’s grand ambition and its many flaws, in equal measure, can be attributed to this fact.

Basing their screenplay on the legendary Vlad the Impaler, the writers have created an interesting story about how Vlad (Luke Evans) encounters Master Vampire (Charles Dance) in a cave, high up in the mountains. Vlad, who is desperate to save his people from the marauding Turkish army, makes a deal with the Master that if he can have the powers of a vampire for three days, he will be able to single-handedly defeat his enemies, and ensure that his young son, his wife and his loyal followers are safe from harm. What Vlad must not do during his time as a vampire is consume human blood. If he does, he will remain one forever.

Cinematographer John Schwartzman (Saving Mr. Banks, The Amazing Spider-Man, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon), ensures that the film looks great, while the visual effects department over-use the ‘Vlad turning into bats’ sequence to the point of tedium. While it falls well short of being the unforgettable entry into the cinematic world of Dracula it might have been, there is certainly much to admire about its gothic horror pretensions.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Gone Girl

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Gone Girl. Rated MA15+ (strong sexualised violence, blood, sex scenes and coarse language). 149 minutes. Directed by David Fincher. Screenplay by Gillian Flynn, based on her novel. 

Verdict: With not a Marvel superhero in sight, it’s time for a hyper-sexualised, meltdown thriller. 

When Nick Dunne’s (Ben Affleck) wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) vanishes on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, the brooding Nick finds himself becoming the prime suspect in her disappearance. Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) does her best to remain objective, while his sister Margo (Carrie Coon) steadfastly remains his strongest ally. 

As the media (who camp outside Nick and Amy’s home), feed on the story and fuel the public’s hatred and suspicion of Nick and his motives, the circumstances surrounding Amy’s disappearance take a spectacular turn for the worse.

Flynn’s screenplay is the perfect antithesis to the lovelorn, teen angst genre that, along with characters from the Marvel Universe, have been taking up more than their fair share of time on our cinema screens lately. Gone Girl is a sharp, cynical story about the collapse of a marriage, and how seething contempt and misery can destroy what was once a perfectly contented union of soul mates.

Fincher’s (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac, Fight Club, Se7en) vision for the film matches the story’s spare, clinical brutality, and his frequent collaborator cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, realises that grim vision faultlessly.

If Affleck’s performance as Nick is unconvincing, it is because he has done much better work than this (Argo specifically), and Pike’s Amy suffers from having to escort the story into the realm of the ridiculous.

Even though there are certainly movies that cover similar terrain in a superior manner, lovers of thrilling, and somehow occasionally hilarious, human meltdown drama will more than likely savour every horrible minute.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Planes: Fire and Rescue

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Planes: Fire and Rescue. Rated G (some scary scenes). 84 minutes. Directed by Bobs Gannaway. Written by Bobs Gannaway and Jeffrey M Howard. 

Verdict: An excellent, but much darker, follow-up to Disney’s wonderful world of Planes. 

In this sequel to Planes (2013), Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cook) is spending his post-race glory in relative peace and quiet amongst his friends in Propwash Junction. But when his gearbox fails at high altitude and cannot be repaired or replaced, Dusty’s days as a world champion racer are suddenly numbered. 

Realising that he might never be able to race again, Dusty flies to Piston Peak National Park to learn how to become a certified fire-fighting plane. And when lightning creates a monster firestorm in the national park, Dusty learns that his daredevil racing heroics also have a place in his newfound career.

Like Planes, Mark Mancina’s fantastic score and the cavalcade of planes, cars, trucks and trains are superbly realised, with the 3D camerawork simply exceptional during the many aerial sequences. Gannaway captures not only the vast aerial sweep of the story, but also the sequences of powerful drama that some of the younger audience members might find a little overwhelming.

Gannaway and Howard’s action-packed screenplay certainly doesn't shy away from reaching for dramatic highpoints, and once the firestorm well and truly takes hold of Piston Peak National Park, there are very few places where either we, or the characters, can hide.

Setting the better part of the story in a National Park’s fire and rescue facility provides the animators with countless opportunities for wonderful environments and characterisations, with the Native American firefighting helicopter Windlifter (Wes Studi) an inspired piece of character design.

Planes: Fire and Rescue is often a breath-taking film to experience, and the young ones will more than likely love it for its vivid colour palette and its determination not to be patronising or condescending on any level.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner. Rated M (violence, science fiction themes and sustained threat). 113 minutes. Directed by Wes Ball. Screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers and T S Nowlin. Based on the novel by James Dashner.

Verdict: The latest entry into the ‘teens against the rest of the world’ genre is an undeniable ripper.

If an award existed for the film that wastes no time getting on with it, The Maze Runner would win hands down. Within seconds of the cinema lights dimming, our protagonist Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) rides a goods elevator known as ‘the box’ up into the Glade – a verdant oasis at the heart of a super-structure known as ‘the maze’.

A dazed Thomas is greeted by a group of young men who have spent as long as three years learning to survive in the Glade, with selected ‘Runners’ entering the maze to try and find a way of getting through it. Those that are not brutally dispatched by robotic ‘Grievers’, live to tell the tale of escaping the horror that lies within the monumental, shape-shifting structure. Thomas is determined to triumph over the structure, and when the box delivers a young woman, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), the circumstances in which the ‘game’ is played are changed forever.

While it owes a debt to stories like William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, there is no doubt that Dashner’s novel, and this fast and efficient cinematic adaptation, are masterclasses in storytelling.

Ball makes an impressive feature-length debut, setting a cracking pace and keeping the focus firmly on what is at stake for his characters. His faith and commitment to an uncluttered style is well rewarded, with his ensemble delivering excellent performances. O’Brien (Teen Wolf’s Stiles), who is rarely offscreen, is simply outstanding as the young hero who refuses to play by the rules.

While there might be a sense of wearying familiarity with the ‘teens against the corrupt adult world’ genre, The Maze Runner, boasting Marc Fisichella’s superb production design, is a compelling and involving adventure that deserves to be experienced on the big screen.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Into the Storm

Into the Storm. Rated M (mature themes). 89 minutes. Directed by Steven Quale. Screenplay by John Swetnam.

Verdict: Sound and fury signifying nothing.

Anyone with fond memories of Jan de Bont’s ground-breaking Twister (1996), or any other film that focuses on the impacts of extreme weather events, will find Quale’s (Final Destination 5) offering almost instantly forgettable. While the sound and visual effects are great, the film lacks the necessary menace that these kinds of ‘Mother Nature as fiercely unforgiving adversary’ films need in order to sustain our interest in the scenes of relentless destruction and devastation.

In the all-American town of Silverton, everyone’s a film-maker. As the townsfolk brace for an epic series of tornado touch-downs, the hapless cast run around with a dazzling array of smartphones and video cameras filming anyone and anything that will stay still long enough.

Quale and Swetnam’s miscalculation is that unlike the hand-held camera found-footage masterpieces Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cloverfield (2008), the secret to the dramatic success of this particular style of film-making is as much about what we don’t see as what we do. Donnie (Max Deacon) and the love of his life Kaitlyn’s (Alycia Debnam Carey) near-death video messages from within a flooded paper-mill, for example, are nothing compared to the famous camper’s video diary sequence from Blair Witch Project.

The competent cast of bland lead characters is also frequently upstaged, hilariously, by two Jackass-inspired locals who are desperate for their five minutes of YouTube fame. The scene involving their family swimming pool and their furious mother is an absolute highlight, which is bizarre given how it is the least expensive sequence in what is obviously a massive effects budget extravaganza. Had Into the Storm managed to generate at least one more original idea, it might have been a good deal more interesting than it is.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Expendables 3

The Expendables 3. Rated M (action violence and coarse language). 126 minutes. Directed by Patrick Hughes. Screenplay by Sylvester Stallone, Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt.

Verdict: Chaos reigns as the Kings of Cinema shoot lots of people.

You have to hand it to Sylvester Stallone. That The Expendables works at all is due not only to his monumental onscreen presence, but his ability to gather all his mates together into one of the largest ensembles in recent memory. And what a cast it is.

The spectacular opening sequence (there’s always one in an Expendables movie) sees Barney (Stallone) and the team freeing Doctor Death (Wesley Snipes) from a train that is delivering him to a high-tech prison. The team needs the good Doctor’s help intercepting a shipment of weapons being sent to arms trader Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) in Somalia. When the operation goes pear-shaped, Barney retires the old team members and recruits a new, more agile and technologically savvy gang.

The fatal flaw in the concept lies in the casting of Mel Gibson, who is spectacular. Plagued with all sorts of public relations disasters in his private life, Gibson burns up the screen from start to finish. When you add Harrison Ford (who replaces Bruce Willis) and the indefatigable Arnold Schwarzenegger to the mix, the young’uns (including Kellan Lutz who is currently starring as Hercules) are at a distinct disadvantage.

Australian-born Hughes and cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr are on their way to becoming a formidable duo behind the camera, but the chronic over editing (Sean Albertson and Paul Harb) suggests that this is not the break-through they might have hoped for. There are some magnificent close-ups of Stallone, Gibson and Ford (whose faces reveal years of cinema history), but the bulk of this disappointing outing for the Kings of Cinema is just migraine-inducing, blood-lusty chaos.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Hundred-Foot Journey

The Hundred-Foot Journey. Rated PG (mild themes and infrequent coarse language). 122 minutes. Directed by Lasse Hallström. Screenplay by Steven Knight. Based on the novel by Richard Morais.

Verdict: A simple yet involving story, beautifully told.

In the midst of Marvel Studios’ quest for global cinematic domination comes this gorgeous film about prejudice, food and the importance of healing life’s painful experiences by refusing to be defeated by them.

When political tensions erupt into violence, Papa (Om Puri) and his family flee their Mumbai restaurant and travel to Europe where Papa dreams of rebuilding their lives. After becoming stranded in a quaint French village, Papa purchases a dilapidated building and opens an Indian restaurant directly opposite Madam Mallory’s (Helen Mirren) famously upmarket establishment.

Knight’s by-the-numbers adaptation of Morais’ novel provides the perfect blueprint for the stylish Hallström (Chocolat, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) and his cinematographer Linus Sandgren (American Hustle) to deliver a sumptuously styled and photographed romance to the screen.

Puri and Mirren are delightful as the formidable elders, while Manish Dayal’s performance as Hassan (the eldest son who is a brilliant cook) perfectly captures the wide-eyed innocence and vulnerability of a young man on the cusp of greatness. While Puri and Mirren get all the fun of the spirited combat, it is Dayal who convincingly reveals the story’s heart and soul with a beautiful, revelatory performance of heart-melting sincerity.

Charlotte Le Bon is perfect as Marguerite, an ambitious and equally talented young chef employed by Madam Mallory, who refuses to allow her romantic feelings for Hassan to distract her from becoming a renowned chef.

It feels like a long time since we’ve experienced such a rich and beautifully told story in the cinema. The Hundred-Foot Journey’s over-riding message – that sometimes the solution to life’s troubles might be closer than you imagined – is a memorable and important one.

Just remember to eat before you go.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.