Film Review: Unbroken

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Unbroken. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 137 minutes. Directed by Angelina Jolie. Screenplay by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson. Based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand. 

Verdict: An incredible story about the power of Faith. 

Since the end of hostilities in 1945, writers and filmmakers have turned to World War 2 as a source of rich dramatic material. The treatment of Prisoners of War by their Japanese captors has featured prominently, with The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983), and The Railway Man (2013) just three of the most well-known films to explore the subject. And unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade or so, you will know how gruesome that subject can be. 

While Jolie, cinematographer Roger Deakins, a quartet of writers and an outstanding ensemble of actors have undeniably made an excellent film, Unbroken struggles to bring any new insight or justification to the essential conflict, which it pursues with relentless, almost breathless, vigour.

Louis Zamperini’s (superbly portrayed by Jack O’Connell) story is an incredible one, and the best of Unbroken is when the film focuses on the extraordinary good fortune that ensured Zamperini’s continued survival against all the odds. It is little wonder that Zamperini made a pact with God to serve Him for the rest of his life if he was to survive the horrors that he endured on a daily basis – a pact Zamperini held to until he died in July last year.

Mutsuhiro Watanabe’s (Takamasa Ishihara) obsession with breaking Zamperini’s body and spirit becomes, simply, incomprehensible, and Unbroken’s bleak, brutal and unforgiving second act becomes harder and harder to watch. And then the reason crystallises. It is not a film about forgiveness in the same way that The Railway Man is. Unbroken, instead, is one of the most perfect films about the power of an unbreakable Faith – especially in oneself – in recent memory.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Maleficent

Maleficent. Rated M (fantasy themes and violence). 97 minutes. Directed by Robert Stromberg. Written by Linda Woolverton.

Verdict: A glorious reimagining of a classic fairytale.

Here, possibly for the first time this year, is a film that justifies not only its every precious moment on the big screen, but a film that will fire the imaginations of its target audience to an inestimable degree. This is a Sleeping Beauty for our time, where the kiss from an impossibly handsome prince (Home and Away’s Brenton Thwaites) just might not cut it any longer.

In her flawless adaptation of Charles Perrault’s original fairytale and Disney’s animated classic Sleeping Beauty (1959), Woolverton gloriously reimagines the evil Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), with Jolie gliding, striding and soaring through the story with an astonishing performance of immense range. The scene where Maleficent wakes to discover that Prince Stefan (Sharlto Copley) has cut off her wings in order to claim the throne, justifies the price of admission alone.

Sam Riley (On the Road) is a revelation as Diaval, Maleficent’s loyal shape-shifting raven, and the witty banter he shares with her lends the film a much-needed lightness of touch. As do Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple as the trio of hapless fairies who are charged with caring for the princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) until the day after her sixteenth birthday, when Maleficent’s ‘sleeping curse’ will end.

Stromberg’s career in art direction (he won Best Achievement in Art Direction Oscars® for Alice in Wonderland and Avatar), sets him up perfectly to rule over the film’s grand visual style and effects, while the cinematic command of veteran Australian cinematographer Dean Semler is ever present. Recalling the magic of waiting for the page of a book of fairytales to be turned, we wait with breathless anticipation to see what these masters of their art will create for us next. And they never disappoint.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.