2012. Dir: Stephen Frears. Starring: Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vince Vaughn and Joshua Jackson. ●○○○○
We've had a couple of bad movies this year, there was the coy and cowardly J. Edgar and the babbling and barmy Dark Shadows, but both of those had some redeemable factors, sure they were failures but you could see the intention of the film-making and in both cases there was a stand-out performance or design element. Lay the Favourite has nothing, limp and irrelevant it has all the dramatic tension and artistry of a made for TV piece about a stripper made good. Except we see supporting character tits and there are a couple of actors who should know better.
Rebecca Hall is Beth Raymer, the stripper-cum-bookie-cum-Columbia graduated writer, on whose autobiography this is based. After a pre-credits encounter with a gun-toting client she's hot-footing it to Las Vegas to get into a safer line, cocktail waitressing in a casino. Not that the audience care - there was no threat in the gun scene and no ambition in the move. Oh well, maybe it will pick up when after a couple of unrelated conversations she walks into the office of Dink, Inc looking for a job. Bruce Willis is Dink, the professional gambler with an opening for a um, well a er, no I don't know why he hired her. To carry money and remember messages apparently. Essentially Dink works the margins in spread betting, employing the algorithms that will pay out regardless of the result. Only that's not interesting so mainly we see large bets on winners and basketball games outcomes because they're easier for an audience to comprehend.
Beth quickly shows Dink she is gifted in understanding the odds by repeating him exactly and being able to sort letters alphabetically in her head. Amazingly we're supposed to believe she's bright too, but we never see any sign of it, especially given the screeching and ditzy performance that suggests you'd tip her as a Waitress but only to get her to leave you alone. After half the movie spent in Vegas where Willis gets in a good mood than loses his temper, rinse and repeat, because of bad results. Not that there's any feeling of risk. Nothing changes; a run of good luck is followed by a run of bad luck and back again. If Dink wins he goes back to his lovely house and demanding wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones in a thankless role) and if he loses he goes back to his lovely house and demanding wife.
Even the romantic elements have no depth to them. Beth and Dink nearly have an affair, but there's no chemistry there. Dink returns to his wife because he really loves her. I guess he does because that's what he says. Not sure why, mind. Maybe because she needs him more than he needs her, or some such rubbish. Beth runs to New York with Pacey from Dawson's Creek. They find happiness. We know this because when she arrives Pacey kisses her on the stairs saying we'll have a wonderful time, and next time they're on screen she's about to go to the Caribbean (to work for a bit with Vince Vaughn) and Pacey asks why she's going when they've had such a wonderful time. Must be the kissing on stairs that's so wonderful.
Talking about Pacey (I know Joshua Jackson wasn't playing Pacey but for all anyone seemed to care about the character he may as well have been) he's filled out a bit and is looking exceptionally cute. So at least I have a new crush as a result of seeing this dire piece of crud.
Where was I? Oh yes, the plot... If you've lost track of what's going on it doesn't matter, there's nothing to miss because there are no stakes. There's a suggestion of the FBI and people going to gaol but nobody was taking it seriously apart from Pacey so it clearly didn't really matter. Finally they all watch a high-stakes basketball game and dance in a New Jersey bar. And it ends.
The performances are either forgettable or irritating, when Vince Vaughn as a loud mouth bookie is best in show you know you have problems. Furthermore there are no technical achievements worth a second glance, maybe a nice line in cheap clothes from Christopher Peterson and Laura Prepon had a striking handbag but that's not enough.
It's dreadful, badly paced, slow-witted and dull. Stephen Frears has hit a new career low and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. Avoid avoid avoid.
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Lay the Favourite
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Tamara Drewe
2010. Dir: Stephen Frears. Starring: Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam and Tamsin Grieg. ●●●●○
Here in the UK we have two left leaning broadsheets; The Independent (which I persoanlly am a reader) and The Guardian which hosted Posy Simmonds comic strip about a Country Girl returning from London, loosely based on Thomas Hardy's Far from the Maddening Crowd. Therefore I hadn't come across her award winning prose, nevertheless having seen the big screen adaptation of 'Tamara Drewe' I feel as though I may have done. The four panel with a joke structure clearly evident in the way Moira Buffini's screenplay had been developed.
The plot follows Gemma Arterton's title character (by the way I have no idea why the inverted commas are on the title card) as she hops between the beds of hunky farmhand Luke Evans, guy-liner wearing drummer Dominic Cooper and married novelist Roger Allam.
All the while the action is underlined and pushed along by the greek chorus of writers (beautifully introduced - "Lesbian Crime" indeed), resident at the retreat run by Allam's long-ssuffering wife Tamsin Greig and a pair of feckless teenagers who fantasize about Cooper's heartthrob band.
It is these sojourns into the lives of the other vilagers that provides the most delight in the film, the love life of Tamara being almost bland in comparison. Grieg plays the abandoned wife, toiling away in her farm kitchen, to perfection. No doubt honed after years of experience at the BBC radio soap "The Archers".
Both of the girls (Jessica Barden and Charlotte Christie) are also perfectly cast, carefully balancing that fine line between boredom and petty vandalism of youth without any indication of malice. The stand out though is Bill Camp (venerable US stage actor with too far too few film credits) as a Hardy biographer wrestling with writer's block and a shifting sense of self-confidence.
The witty banter between the characters is juicy enough to keep you interested, although the tendency to end each scene with a punchline, either comic or dramatic, is quite wearisome. This illustrates the difficulty in basing a film on a comic strip (I refuse to call it a graphic novel). Indeed you could probably watch one scene per day for a few weeks and get as much enjoyment. Some of the vignetttes are brilliant: see Tamsin Greig talking direct to the camera about her husbands infidelity, Jessica Barden's imagined tryst with Cooper and Camp and Evans arguing over the correct insult for Allam's philanderer.
I suppose the trouble with all this is that it doesn't really add up to much, the whole film feels like an extended sketch show. Even at the point that Tamara makes her final choice there's no real explantion why, not even a "she wins him back" scene, the storyline simply ends with an obvious inevitability which perhaps director Stephen Frears couldn't be bothered to explain. Saying that if I could choose between them I probably would have made the same decision - yum yum.
Overall I would say this is a lovely film to catch bits of, and I expect it to become a Saturday afternoon staple, but it fails to fully hand together.
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.
