Film Review: Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies. Rated M (mature themes, violence and coarse language). 141 minutes. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen.

It is 1957, the height of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. Increasingly desperate to learn of the other’s intentions, the great foes create vast espionage networks, resulting an atmosphere of absolute fear, paranoia and suspicion.

Based on a true story, Bridge of Spies begins with FBI agents arresting Soviet spy Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance). Needing Abel to at least be seen to be getting a fair trial, the US government appoints easy-going insurance lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) to represent him. Donovan is expected to simply go through the motions, but as he becomes more involved in the case, he seeks Abel’s acquittal, making him an enemy of the American people.

Meanwhile, in the skies over the Soviet Union, US Air Force pilot Francis Powers (Austin Stowell) is shot down and captured while he is flying a spying sortie, photographing the lie of the land. The CIA decides that Donovan is their man to travel to Germany and negotiate a prisoner exchange: Abel for Powers.

Production Designer Adam Stockhausen (The Grand Budapest Hotel, 12 Years a Slave) expertly recreates the classic look and feel of the 1950s, and the film’s striking authenticity is due to his vision, and the equally superb work of Spielberg’s frequent collaborator, Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski.

Strangely, for a film about some of the greatest threats to the survival of the human race, there is hardly a thrilling or dangerous moment to be had. Instead of being an edge-of-your-seat political thriller with so much at stake, Bridge of Spies coasts along on something like cinematic autopilot until, two hours and twenty minutes later, it ends precisely as you expect it to.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks. Rated PG (mild themes). 125 minutes. Directed by John Lee Hancock. Written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith.

Verdict: This big-hearted, engrossing tear-jerker kicks off 2014 in magical style.

If this splendid film about P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson) negotiating with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) over the rights to film her beloved Mary Poppins is anything to go by, then 2014 is going to be a great year at the cinema. What, at first, appears to be a film that is going to quaintly recall the relatively unknown story about the creation of one of Disney’s masterpieces, soon reveals itself to be a brilliantly written and acted story that will capture, and then melt, your heart.

Thompson is spell-binding as the perfectionist Travers, who travels from her home in London to the Walt Disney studios in Los Angeles to oversee the big screen adaptation of her beloved novel. Running in tandem with the showdown between the incredibly proper Mrs Travers and the determined Disney, is the story of the author as a young girl – Ginty (Annie Rose Buckley) – growing up in Australia, full of admiration for her alcoholic father Travers Goff (Colin Farrell).

Hancock (The Blind Side) directs what might have been an unwieldy affair masterfully, with the transitions between Australia in 1906 and LA in 1961 beautifully handled. John Schwartzman’s (The Amazing Spider-Man, Seabiscuit, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon) cinematography is gorgeous, as is Michael Corneblith and Daniel Orlandi’s (who collaborated on The Blind Side and Frost/Nixon) perfect production and costume design respectively.

Veteran composer Thomas Newman’s (American Beauty, Skyfall, Finding Nemo) score powers the story-telling beautifully, while still allowing the Sherman brothers’ (B. J. Novak plays Robert and Jason Schwartzman plays Richard) unforgettable songs from Mary Poppins (Let’s Go Fly a Kite is an absolute high-point) to star, as rightfully they must.

Hancock’s faith in his stellar cast is rewarded by superb performances from everyone, and from about the halfway mark until its heartfelt conclusion, be sure to have tissues handy. Quite a few.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 134 minutes. Directed by Paul Greengrass. Screenplay by Billy Ray, based on A Captain's Duty by Richard Phillips.

Verdict: It might have been wiser to sail with the pack.

If it’s light and breezy distraction you’re after, then bypass this uptight and intense thriller about cargo ship Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) and his unfortunate crew as they battle for survival against a band of marauding Somalian pirates, led by the rather optimistically named Muse (Barkhad Abdi).

Phillips’s autobiographical account is embroiled in controversy, with many of the crew involved in legal action against the ship’s owner – the Maersk Line – for what they claim was dereliction of duty. The only nod to Phillips’ alleged lapse of judgment is the pirates discovering his ship is charting a course closer to the Somalian coastline than the rest of the vessels all sailing the same route – a fact that apparently informed their decision to attack it.

Anyone involved in primary industry knows the most direct trade route is the most desirable, and with faith in the water cannons onboard used to sink rickety old pirate boats, some token security drills and rusty old padlocks, Phillips takes his chances. Whether you blame him will depend on how much you end up admiring the tenacity of the opportunistic Somalians, for who Ray’s (The Hunger Games, Flightplan) screenplay provides millions of dollars worth of motivation.

Greengrass’s (Green Zone, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93, The Bourne Supremacy) and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd’s (Green Zone, The Hurt Locker, United 93) hand-held camera in confined spaces technique comes to the fore early and never lets up. The result is a powerful, if relentless, study of motivation, brilliantly edited by Christopher Rouse (Green Zone, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93, The Bourne Supremacy).

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Rated PG (mild themes and coarse language). 129 minutes. Directed by Stephen Daldry. Screenplay by Eric Roth. Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Verdict: Lovers of great drama will be richly-rewarded by this compelling exploration of grief, hope and the power of imagination.

One of the major issues involved with making a film about the events of September 11 is the fact that the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center were so widely broadcast – and witnessed by people around the world – in real time. Most of us remember where we were and how we felt – and the analogy at the time (an attempt, perhaps, to make sense of the incomprehensible horror), was that it was like watching a movie.

The challenge, then, for filmmakers taking on “the worst day” is as simple as it is complicated: what are you going to tell us about this preposterous act of terrorism against a country’s civilians that we haven’t already been told? How, ten years later, are you going to further illuminate the events and/or the lasting legacy of what happened on September 11?