2012. Dir: Tim Burton. Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green and Bella Heathcote. ●●○○○
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the film-making process and I don't begrudge others for enjoying it, but just because there's lots of fun being had on screen doesn't mean the audience will have fun, in fact it's often the case that the more fun the cast and crew appear to be having the less fun the audience have. And there's a lot of fun being had on screen in Dark Shadows.
The film opens with a pointless scene setting flashback narrated by Johnny Depp's Barnabas Collins detailing the history of his relationship with witchcraft practising Angelique Bouchard, played by Eva Green. There's opulent architecture, triple murder and Collins transformed into a multi-knuckled blood-sucking vampire. Tedious and irrelevant the passage only seems to exist to attempt to cover over the gaping plot holes yet to come.
Fast forward 200 years to the mid 1970's and a mysterious stranger is heading to Collinsport, Maine, a young girl answering an newspaper notice for a Governess in the
dilapidated manor, a young girl with a surprising similarity to the ghostly ex-fiancee drifting around the cobwebbed corridors. Not least because both are played by Bella Heathcote. She meets the stern matriarch, Michelle Pfeiffer who remains far more dignified than this trash deserves, and is soon assisting alcoholic psychologist Helen Bonham Carter in the education of the youngest heir to the Collins dynasty.
But wait, where is the unsubtle presence of arch over-actor Depp? Never fear, he is soon to be released from his subterranean prison by an unwitting assortment of building engineers - although quite why they're digging the foundations for a MacDonalds so late at night isn't really answered - and before long he has returned to the family home and vows to restore the fortunes and dignity of the Collins estate.
What follows is approximately 90 minutes of repetitive fish out of water jokes - many of which were in the trailer - oodles of sexual chemistry between Depp and Green (although oddly none between Depp and Heathcote) and a final showdown between witches, vampires, ghosts and most preposterously werewolves. Note I am not saying werewolves are more preposterous than the other assorted monstrous characters however when a character comes on just to admit their Lycanthropic tendencies minutes before the end of the film when there's been no hint of it before smacks of writerly indulgence.
Depp adds another oddball character to his repertoire, neither good nor bad in the scheme of his past work, it is most definitely not in any way original. Whilst the supporting cast relish the opportunity to go for one-dimensional turns reflective of the soapy source material, wasting such diverse talents as Chloe Grace Moretz and Jackie Earle Haley. Only Green, displaying the sultry, slutty, animalism of the slighted femme fatale gives anything close to a performance worth remembering.
Regular Burton collaborators Rick Heinrichs (returning as Production designer after a 11 year absence) and Colleen Atwood (costuming for Tim for the 9th time) have done excellent work hear, mercilessly revealing the 1970's as the most garish an unappealing design decade of the 20th century, whilst staying true to the gothic roots you would expect for this haunted house melee. The design motifs are the stars here with the intricate Collinsport Mansion with it's nooks, crannies and secret passages as much a character as most of the performers. Unfortunately I can't help but wonder whether they've missed a trick here - if the aim of the movie was to replicate the cheap shonkiness of the original series which would explain the drab characterisations and left-field plotting - then why not play around with deliberately crass production design, the sort of wobbly walls and rubber effects that made Ed Wood so memorable.
It's hard to see what Burton is really trying to achieve with this homage to TV mediocrity. Is he celebrating it's joyous unprofessionalism or slyly satirising horror tropes? Either way this film fails to achieve those aims and I really can't recommend it for anyone.
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Dark Shadows
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Michelle Pfeiffer
Happy Bithday to
Michelle Pfeiffer
52 today
I'm not as much of a Pfan as many people her in the web, but I'm crtainly pleased to be sending my best wishes to the notoriously private Michelle. In her own words she has said "It's my profound fear of embarrassment that's kept me going. That's the key to my success." which would be great if it were true, but there's nothing coming up in her diary right now. Given her latest performance (in 2009's Cheri) was exquisite I don't know why she isn't capitalising on that.
Anyway, here's a reminder of her singing in a red dress.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
2009 in Review - Best Actress
In the other three categories there are fillers - I will admit that. I have only seen 42 films, so there have been performances that probably should have been put aside for greater achievements. I don't think that is the case for Best Actress, in fact I could have easily done a top ten with tremendous performances.
1. Maria Heiskanen - Maria Larssons Eviga Ogonblick(Everlasting Moments). By far the most moving performance I saw this year was by a little known Swedish actress in a art-house release that I almost missed at the cinemas. Playing an abused wife, who falls in love with another man but does nothing about it, she ripped my heart in two. 
2. Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married. We may have seen Anne's boobs in the past but this was the film where she truly performed as an adult. Playing the destrutive sister of the titular bride, Anne was a torrent of self-pity and rage with an undercurrent of pure guilt. Excellent.
3. Sasha Grey - The Girlfriend Experience. A deeply unsettling and naturalistic performance where all we see are the layers a professional hooker places around herself. Throughout the film we see them falling apart, and the impact that has on the understanding of your own identity.
4. Michelle Pfeiffer - Cheri. The second courtesan of the list, with Pfeiffer playing someone who knows her best days are behind her and enters into her final doomed love affair. No-one does brittle like Michelle, and the look into the mirror at the close of the film tells us everything we need to know about her future.
5. Abbie Cornish - Bright Star. We end with more doomed love affairs - this time separated by society and by death. Abbie's Fanny Brawne is unafraid to announce her passions to the world (and to do some first class sulking) and this confidence is striking in the final performance.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Chéri
2009. Dir: Stephen Frears. Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Felicity Jones and Frances Tomelty. ●●●●○
Still naff all coming out in June, and I'm still behind on the reviews, so here's one for the latest collaboration between Michelle Pfeiffer and Stephen Frears.
Plotwise the film covers the relationship between Pfeiffer's ageing courtesan (Lea) and Rupert Friend callow youth (known affectionately as Cheri), the son of Kathy Bates. The film does this in four sections; the courting, the arranged marriage for Cheri, the pretending that's everythings fine and the conclusion. Throughout this it is worth remembering that the trailer highlights the comic elements of the film but it is not a comedy. You will laugh but you will also cry, and at the end stare at the final frames in shocked bewilderment.
Cheri opens with a jolly voiceover by the director giving a potted history of the courtesans and some of the more infamous among them (missing out Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!) and soon we're zipping through the streets of Paris meeting the characters. These early scenes are played lighly with loose editing and gentle soundtrack. In fact all elements of the film work together all the way through. As the affair ends the pacing slows and the tunes become more ponderous.
Each member of the technical crew is working at the top of their game, but it's Frears incredible touch in the directors chair that must be responsible for the keeping together of the feelings.
Michelle Pfeiffer is perfectly cast, aloof and upright, but clearly melting behind the eyes. If she gets an Oscar nod this year (not as unlikely as I had thought going in) it'll be the moments she doesn't speak that will play in any clips. Bates almost steals the show mind, giggling and gossiping her way through scenes with malevolent intent. Friend comes off as a bit of an enigma, but that's in perfect keeping with the role.
Whilst the acting noms may be in the balance, Consolata Boyle's (The Queen) costumes must be guaranteed to get her second nod. Dresses and hats so exquisite you want to reach out and grab them.
Overall this is a great little gem of a movie, watch it glisten as soon as you get a chance.
