2012. Dir: Tony Gilroy. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacy Keach and Oscar Isaac. ●●●○○
Perspective depends very much on how you look at things. Well, duh! No, I mean that seriously. So as a child when I experienced new movies I was instantly astounded, prepared to proclaim them as cinematic masterpieces. Disney's The Fox and The Hound was the best film ever, Clue a work of comic genius, even the first 18 film I ever saw (Arnie's The Running Man) was claimed as a milestone in on-screen entertainment. For the record only one of those statements would I still describe as true. But what has this to do with my review of The Bourne Legacy? Well, friends, I have never seen a Bourne movie. I have never watched Matt Damon kill someone with a Sunday supplement, nor imagined the moral dilemmas of waking up a programmed Government assassin. So, unlike nearly every other reviewer on the web, I cannot judge Tony Gilroy's franchise extension against the previous trilogy, a comparison that doesn't favour the new film by all accounts, all I can do is compare it to thirty something years of watching action films.
And it's a perfectly acceptable slice of cinema, neither great nor bad, but diverting and fun to watch but utterly disposable.
Given my ignorance of the original movies I'm almost certainly not the target audience, the entire movie concerns a parallel story of The Bourne Supremacy bookended between Paddy Considine's journalist assassination and the trial of David Strathairn's shady CIA controller (brought back in the form of a pointless cameo with Joan Allen and Albert Finney, all of them no doubt enjoying substantial fees for one day's filming). Meanwhile numerous references to secretive projects and Government agencies make very little sense to the casual viewer. The crux being, as the advertising handily suggests, there was never just one. Never just one unaware killer and never just one corrupt agency building an army of unquestioning assassins.
As the news of Bourne's re-integration into society buzzes around the intelligence community, Jeremy Renner's supersoldier Aaron Cross is on exercises in the forests of North America, working his way across mountain and river to Oscar Isaac's isolated cabin. He's an impressive specimen, fighting off wolves bare handed, leaping across vast chasms and breaking records for reaching the shelter. Whilst he and Isaac's sulking number 3 get better acquainted Ed Norton is in damage control mode, pulling strings and closing programmes with cold efficient calculation, and soon Cross has to be taken out of the picture. Cue the start of a long game of cat and mouse where Norton and his cronies scream into telephones whilst Renner trots around the globe, always one step ahead, picking up Rachel Weisz's imperilled scientist and searching for the blue and green pills that stabilize his enhanced capabilities.
The drugs are nothing more than an international McGuffin, explained away with all the pharmacological veracity of primary science project. As the moral implications of taking an injured Iraq vet, with questionably too low an IQ to make an informed decision about his future (yes, this really is a modern Charley) turned into a fit, intelligent junkie able to volunteer for the most complex and dangerous spy missions, not to mention the extraordinary capacity to kill or maim highly trained combatants, are swept aside so Renner and Weisz can have a motorcycle chase on the bustling streets of Manila.
Renner does good action hero, suitably buff yet perennially tortured he has the perfect physicality for this sort of work. Not that he's given much chance to act, there's a nice exchange or two with Isaac, but alas much less chemistry with Weisz, possibly because here character is so underwritten and panicky. Don't get me wrong, no-one does emotional collapse quite like Rachel, but the arc is both predictable and forced.
Where the film sings is the set-pieces. A massacre in a lab is played out in real time with cold, patient camera-work and the extras acquitting themselves well as their plead or bleed through their last moments. Then a major plot twist in Weisz's house is played exceptionally well, switching from an uncomfortable interview to a chaotic gun battle in a blink of an eye. Even the final bike chase, whilst a little too long, showed some great stunt work and some excellent marksmanship.
On directorial and scripting duties Tony Gilroy brings the same high-quality, unimposing style we saw on Duplicity and Michael Clayton but alas he doesn't give his creations the zingy dialogue or intellectual sparring he brought to previous work, leaving us partly detached from the proceedings.
As I said at the beginning The Bourne Legacy isn't a bad film, but it's no great one either. Probably worth renting but not the trip to the cinema. Although personally I'm going to have to fork out on the original trilogy before watching it again.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
The Bourne Legacy
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Joan Allen
Happy Birthday to
Joan Allen
55 today
Joan's attitude to acting is fascinating, she's regularly quoted as relishing the opportunity to cry, scream, laugh and even be lustful in a controlled environment ensuring she need not do it in real life. Next up is her third stab at CIA Deputy Director in The Bourne Legacy.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Hachi: A Dog's Story
2009. Dir: Lasse Hallström. Starring: Richard Gere, Sarah Roemer, Joan Allen, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Jason Alexander. ●●●●○
It's no secret that I like the simple things in life. I have lost count of the number of times I have said in reviews that a simple story well told can reach the highest level of film-making. So it was with great delight that I watched Hachi: A Dog's Story, a simple dog's story.
Based on a true story, only transplanted to a more sellable US setting, the film explores the fundamental relationship between one man and his dog as Music Professor Richard Gere adopts an Akita puppy he finds at the local train station. Through each other they learn what a true friend is. Spoilers follow after the jump.
We are treated to watching the two of them bond for an hour, Gere trying to teach Hachi (Japanese word for 8) how to fetch, Hachi's insistence on following his master to the town station; this is especially important as Hachi develops a routine whereby he follows his master every morning, then returns at 5 to pick him up. They share moments of elation, comfort and misery. As a previous dog owner myself I fully appreciate falling asleep on the couch with dogs on your lap and being told they we must all stay there because something has been chewed.
Then, suddenly, Hachi won't follow his pack leader and in a bizarre twist of behaviour takes Gere his ball. Everything that sets Hachi apart from other dogs is turned on it's head. There's even a burst of aggresive barking. We are lead to believe that Hachi is exhibiting his dissatisfaction at being treated lower on th social strata within the pack - Gere's daughter had annouced her pregnancy and he had also spent more time with his testy wife (Joan Allen giving a flawlessly underplayed performance - nicely tipping the audience off to the history of the family and their relationships).
The behavioural differences turn out to be more complex when out of the blue Gere collapses in his lecture hall, breathing his last and letting the ball Hachi had passed to him roll out of shot. The dog then mounts a vigil, returning to the train station each night to wait for his former master who will never return.
The story is mawkish, sentimental and signposts all the plot developments early on. Nevertheless it can be forgiven these flaws for the simple reason that it works. That sense of loneliness and loyalty the film evokes in it's third act is so profound that there literally wasn't a dry eye in the house (I personally wept like a baby).
I will critisize the bookending (why do they do it?) as Gere's grandson - who you will remember never met his grandfather - relates the story to his class. This is certainly a step too close to bathos and the grotesque image of pre-pubescent schoolchildren pretending to cry nearly killed off the emotions felt in the rest of the film.
The performances were serviceable throughout with the notable stand-out of the dog's playing Hachi. The pup wo played him in the early scenes particurlarly displayed a shocking range, along with serious come-to-bed eyes.
The dog vision segments were inventive using a bleached black and white footage and muffled soundtrack, but needed more of them to fully appreciate how they worked to establish the relationships, especially as the film focussed well on the co-dependence of the relationship. Well done to d.p. Ron Fortunato (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Catch a Fire).
Lasse Hallström did a fine anonymous job in the directors chair, it's may not be up there with his Swedish output but he crafted a better movie than he's made for a long time.
Overall Hachi was a fine example of what every dog-based film should be. An uplifting portrayal of that very special relationship between a man and his best friend.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Joan Allen
Happy Birthday to
Joan Allen
53 today
Joan's been robbed more times than anyone should be (you know what I'm talking about) which may explain why she's doing dreck like Death Race these days. You can't be disappointed if you know the critics will hate it. Hachi, the faithful dog film she wrapped last year, was one of my top 20 most anticipated releases for 2009 however after a poorly received opening at the seattle festival I doubt it'll ever see cinematic release. Not sure what my next Joan fix will be now.
