2011. Dir: Lasse Hallstrom. Starring: Ewan MacGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas, Amr Waked and Conleth Hill. ●●●○○
I hope you don't mind if I waffle a little at the start of this review, can you believe it's been five weeks since I last saw the inside of a cinema, let alone had the opportunity to discuss my findings with you here. I also have the added advantage of having read Paul Torday's novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, dramatised by Slumdog Millionaire's Simon Beaufoy and directed by Swedish helmer Lasse Hallstrom. The novel itself takes an epistolic format with a series of e-mails, interviews, diary entries and Hansard extracts which allow the audience to piece together the events that led to the suggested desert set fly casting. Cinema naturally struggles with translating the myriad of styles into a single movie, although the film nods to social networking and modern communication systems, however the smoothing out of the narrative had the unfortunate side effect of downplaying some of the key themes of the novel.
If the central conceit of establishing the sport of salmon fishing in the mountainous areas of Southern Yemen seems far fetched then you will probably sympathise with Ewan MacGregor the middle ranking civil servant in DEFRA with an expertise in Caddis fly larvae seconded into the project much to his personal chagrin. Perhaps you will just have the confidence that money can buy you anything, including the apparently impossible, like business consultant Emily Blunt. Or maybe there's a third way, maybe all you really need in life is faith - possibly a faith in an greater force, God, if you will - or just faith in the power of idea. It's this third way that is personified by Amr Waked Yemeni Sheikh in the novel, a man who's mere presence changes the way people look at the world, who's softly spoken wisdom nicely counterpoints the stressed actions of our main protagonists and most especially the wheeler-dealer Prime Minister's press secretary Kristin Scott Thomas, in a slightly less sweary version of The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker.
It's perhaps a shame that the film stirs away from the practical difficulties of the project, summarising them in a few ill-tempered rants from MacGregor and an extended section looking at the procurement of the fish, as this reduction of focus (along with other decisions) undermines how important faith is to Waked and to the project as a whole, and as a result lessening the impact. Instead the unlikely romance between MacGregor and Blunt takes centre stage with all the complexities of their personal lives laid bare.
You can't fault the two leads, mind. MacGregor does fusty reasonable well, even if he's fundamentally miscast in a role clearly written for someone much older, struggling at the outset within a failing marriage (and well done to the studio for not writing out that tricky story element). Blunt is as delightful as she always is although the romantic decisions she makes in the final third of the film are hard to keep up with.
Of course both of these performances are blasted out of the movie by Scott Thomas who sets the screen alight every time she gets a chance, her Press Secretary is ballsy and insightful, whizzing from flirtatious to bitchiness and back again often within a sentence. As ever she's the main reason to watch a film, although without resorting to spoilers, her final act is squeezed unforgiveably into a - admittedly quite humourous - punchline.
Once again I find myself drawn back to comparisons with the novel. The central romance is pushed forward whilst the issue of faith is downgraded, the ending is softened to make a joke about ineffective politicians funnier. And I don't want to seem like a like literary snob arguing against the very concept of adapting novels but this is a rare case where I feel Simon Beaufoy his missed the mark, taking an insightful satirical novel and turning into a standard romantic comedy that merely hints at the bigger themes.
Overall I can thoroughly recommend this diverting and pleasant movie, even if I can't honesty say I was stunned by it.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Haywire
2011. Dir: Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Gina Carano, Ewan MacGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum and Michael Douglas. ●●●○○
Imagine you're an international famous movie director, let's take Steven Soderbergh for example, and you're bored one afternoon, channel hoping distractedly waiting for Matt Damon to come over with some beer and you come across a female Mixed Martial Arts contest live on channel 179 and there on the screen is Gina Carano, a fighter perhaps best known for her stint on American Gladiators (she was crush). What would you then think? Well Steve thought that girl punching the hell out of the other girls has real skills, why not put her in a film and so Haywire was conceived.
To be fair this is not the first case of verite casting Soderbergh has indulged in, previously he launched the mainstream career of porn star Sasha Grey in the naturalistic and fascinating Girlfriend Experience, although I can't remember the casting story being quite as random. An Awareness of Carano's skills meant that Soderbergh could commission a script from The Limey scribe Lem Dobbs that simply propelled the character from fight to chase to fight showing off her considerable talents.
And be advised that is exactly what Haywire does.
Carano beats up Channing Tatum in a diner, courtesy of a little help from Michael Angarano (who has barely changed since "Will & Grace"), whom she then tells - thankfully using flashbacks - of the plot so far. You see it started in Barcelona where shady Government guy Michael Douglas and even shadier Spaniard Antonio Banderas hired Ewan McGregor and his freelance military taskforce (including Carano and Tatum) to rescue a kidnapped Chinese journalist which led to a massive chase through the streets for Carano just to knock out an unnamed goon. Then she's sent to Dublin to pretend to be the wife of MI6 agent Michael Fassbender who introduces her to more bearded Euro baddies then promptly tries to kill her then she runs and climbs through Dublin, outfoxing the Garda before ending up at the diner and getting into a snowbound car chase with Angarano and some local cops. Then there's the best bit of deer acting you'll see in 2011.
And breathe.
More people then get shot, there's a fight at Bill Paxton's house, a meeting in an abandoned aerodrome, another fight and Antonio Banderas gets a shave. Then the final credits roll.
Feel free to breathe again.
There is some connective plot involving everyone double crossing each other, and not everything in Barcelona or Dublin was quite what it seemed, but ultimately that doesn't matter ("It's always about money." as McGregor states in the trailer). Nor does it matter that Carano gives a performance that's dead behind the eyes, after all acting isn't really why she was hired and most of the heavy work is given to her co-stars, including a very impressive supporting turn by Paxton as her father, his thoughts projected plainly as he watches his daughter at work with a mix of fatherly pride and understandable shock.
How then does it work as a vehicle to showcase Carano fighting skills? The answer is surprisingly well. The melee in the diner, most of which is in the trailer, is perhaps forgettable but the chase in Barcelona, with Carano gaining on her quarry over 3-4 minutes shows her determination, commitment and fitness. You actually believe in these scenes that she could do this and take the guy out - I expect that's because she could. There's no wire work no stunts, the fights seem exceptionally real and Carano can clearly take care of herself, putting the usual action heroines (Anjelina, Milla) to shame.
The action scenes are also surprisingly interesting, the hotel set face off with Michael Fassbender (no spoiler it's in the trailer) is frantic and brutal, with the usual cliche's of broken glass shelves and smashing through doors incorporated well into the choreography. The final fight at a beach (I won't divulge who it's with) is also exceptionally well shot and edited together with each punch or kick bringing in a new shot at a more fascinating angle, providing the viewer with a 360 degree idea of the surroundings of the tense battle. We even get a chance to see her vulnerability, whilst climbing buildings through Dublin, Carano falls about 5 foot and it clearly hurts, winding her character and forcing her to rethink her strategy, being small rather than fast.
It's a great section of action scenes that really remind us of how punch-ups should work in cinema, there's always a understanding of the effort and geography of the battle, something which many of the more seasoned action director need to sit back and remind themselves of.
That said the utter lack of sensible plot or characterisation makes it very difficult to fully recommend this movie. Probably not worth the trip to the cinema, but if you ever tune in on a Friday night you will be drawn into the action and have to watch it until the end.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Beginners
2010. Dir: Mike Mills. Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic and Mary Page Keller. ●●●○○
I expect that my soul is dead inside, with nothing approaching a warm fuzzy core, otherwise wouldn't the whiny and emotionally cloying spectacle of Mike Mills sophomore directorial effort, Beginners, have had me aching for the pain of the characters instead of checking the time throughout the screening and finding my mind wonder what the point of individual scenes was whilst watching them. Especially annoying as certain elements dragged down the positive and balanced view of sexual orientation and a beautifully judged father son relationship.
Opening with Ewan McGregor's Oliver clearing the apartment of his recently deceased father Hal(Christopher Plummer) the film flits between timeframes, falling back to the last five years of Hal's life, a period when he is finally able to come out to his adult son and yet a period where he must battle and - ultimately lose - the fight against cancer, and pushing forward to Oliver dealing with the grief and forming a blossoming romance with Melanie Laurent. A relationship that fully underlines the cultural shift in social conventions; emphasising that Oliver and Anna may experiment sexually and emotionally with other without redress whilst Hal had to deny his sexuality - acknowledged but suppressed - in order to conform.
It was only with the passing of Hal's wife and Oliver's Mother (played in obscure flashbacks as a 40 something liberal housewife by Mary Page Keller) that Hal is able to be true to his feelings and live the gay lifestyle he had been denied. He guts his wardrobe, thrusts himself into promoting LGBT equality and enters a relationship with the fey, sensitive Andy (an unrecognisable Goran Visnjic), a gay stereotype always on the hunt for homophobia and battling with abandonment issues since being rejected by his family.
The relationship between Plummer and McGregor is easily the best thing in this movie, as Hal painfully recounts the tough choices he had to make to keep the family happy Oliver moves through indifference to respect to a new level of devotion to his father. Both of the actors reach levels of performance quality that simply can't be sustained elsewhere.
Not that necessarily a fault of the other actors, but mainly of the twee and self-consciously kooky screenplay. The romance between Oliver and Anna is particularly vexing, as they meet as a fancy dress party, he's recovering from his fathers death by dressing as Freud and bringing his father's Jack Russell. She's hiding her laryngitis by dressing as Charlie Chaplin. They literally "sleep" together before eventually developing a better understanding of the history of melancholy (and trust me they leave little out of that) whilst roller skating in the lobby of a top hotel.
This indie spirit, with is cutesy repetitive narration (complete with on-the-nose graphical depictions), alluring sub-titled performance from the Jack Russell and all the best of intentions eventually became as fussy and cluttered as the over-dressed sets. The worst thing is most of the moments relating to the romance seemed either forced or horribly derivative. Even the glimpses we get of Oliver as a child, being dragged round galleries by his free spirited, extroverted mother doesn't work as the third wheel of Hal barely gets a shadow.
I would have preferred a movie which skipped Plummer's reminiscences (as perfect as he is in the role) and skipped straight to the truth of the past, showing how marriage worked for the unlikely couple. I understand the film was a form of therapy for writer/director Mills, like his central protagonist he experienced his father's outing late in life with just a few years before his passing.
Ultimately I would have to say the film fails for me, especially in the romantic plotline, but it's not without it's charms and may be worth watching if the issues presented are in anyway applicable to your life.
