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.