November Movie Reviews
W.
By David Vicari
W. feels more like a stunt than an actual movie: let controversial filmmaker Oliver Stone (Alexander, Natural Born Killers) make a scathing indictment of the current and vastly unpopular U.S. President George W. Bush. Seal the deal with an all-star cast made up to look like the present administration. Fine. I’m game. Give me a shocking, fly-on-the-wall drama or an outrageous satire of a Texas yahoo who becomes President of the free world. This being an Oliver Stone film, the supposed facts in this “biography” are going to be dubious. But that doesn’t matter. As long as he gets the essence of the man. But whatever you do, Oliver Stone, just don’t be boring.
But that is exactly what he does do. W. is simply dull. It’s like lighting a firecracker, waiting with anticipation for it to go off, but then the damn thing is a dud and just fizzles out.
One potentially intriguing aspect of the film is the war room battle of wills between Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) and General Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright). This is sunk by the distraction of Wright – normally a very fine actor – doing a Sherman Klump impression. Come on man, the real Colin Powell doesn’t sound like that. Another unfortunate element is that Wright has what looks to be a cheap, costume shop wig on his head. You can almost see the sideburns peeling off and curling up.
Another interesting idea is a battle of wills between father and son that led us into another war. Bush Sr. (James Cromwell) didn’t find Saddam Hussein, so to prove to daddy that he wasn’t a perpetual screw-up, Bush Jr. made it his mission to find the Iraqi leader once and for all. Stone, however, wants to cover so much ground here that only a small portion of this movie is spent on that situation. It also doesn’t help that Stone felt it wise to go with a fragmented narrative and constantly bounce back and forth through time, killing any dramatic momentum.
The best thing about W. is Josh Brolin. He does a great job as George W. Bush, getting the voice and mannerisms just right. It’s just too bad he didn’t have a stronger film to support him.
Rachel Getting Married
By Megan Staab
Jonathan Demme has done his fair share of documentary films (Cousin Bobby, Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains) and its looks as though he’s implemented that into his current drama, Rachel Getting Married. The documentary style allows for the viewer to be the fly on the wall. The plot synopsis seems simple enough: Screw-up Kym (Anne Hathaway) gets out of rehab to attend she sister’s (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. What follows is a captivating drama that stays with you for days. This film has some exceptional performances. Anne Hathaway is good enough, but her character isn’t very likable. Once the focus shifts off of just Kym and on to her entire immediate family it becomes a much more engrossing film. Rosemarie Dewitt who plays Rachel is amazing. Rachel is the more challenging role and she plays it with ease and grace. Bill Irwin, who plays the father, is heartbreaking, as is Debra Winger as the cold, distant mother. This may not be the easiest film to watch, but it’s one not to be missed!
Body of Lies
By David Vicari
Leonard DiCaprio stars as Roger Farris, a CIA agent out to capture a terrorist in Jordan. At least, that is what I think is going on in this complex action-thriller directed by Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator) and based on the 2007 novel by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. So Farris takes his orders from Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), a man in the states. Hoffman is constantly in contact with Farris by cell phone, and we constantly, constantly, constantly see Hoffman on the phone while he is taking his kids to school, or a soccer game, or something else. Okay! We get it!!! He does a dirty job, but he’s also a devoted family man. Anyway, there are a few good action scenes and a couple of wry exchanges between the two leads, but the story is so convoluted, and a scheme in the third act by the good guys to invent a terrorist cell is kind of ridiculous. They go into this plan without even thinking of the ramifications. Then there’s the shoehorned in romantic subplot with Farris and a nurse (Golshifteh Farahani). It’s nicely handled by the actors, but it seems out of place in this thriller. Mostly, though, what I wanted with Body of Lies was more coherency in the main plot.
City of Ember
By Frtiz Esker
City of Ember is not a bad film. It has some interesting ideas and noble lessons about the importance of individuals taking action and refusing to accept the word of an authority figure solely because they’re in charge, but the overall result lacks a spark and feels like it’s missing something. In a futuristic world, the surface of Earth has become uninhabitable and the residents have fled underground. Centuries later, the underground civilization is running out of resources (thanks in large part to the corrupt mayor, well played by Bill Murray). Two plucky adolescents (Saiorse Ronan and Harry Treadaway) do their best to save the day. Again, the film is sometimes intriguing, but it falls into a sort of no man’s land. It’s too scary for young children, but it’s not quite exciting enough to be really stimulating for older kids. Ultimately, it’s a well-intentioned film that’s hard to really bash, but it’s also hard to recommend.
Standard Operating Procedure
By Fritz Esker
Even though it never opened in theaters here in New Orleans, the new film by acclaimed documentarian Errol Morris (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) is out on DVD and definitely worth a look. The documentary focuses on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. A number of the soldiers prosecuted for abuse are interviewed and Morris successfully pulls off the balancing act of humanizing the soldiers without condoning their actions. A great deal of time is spent on the day-to-day horrors of war and how they can wear on a person’s psyche and make them do things they otherwise wouldn’t do. However, the film refuses to shy away from the fact that the abuses were real, criminal, and went a long way towards making the war in Iraq seem something far less noble than a mission of liberation. Aside from its ruminations on the Iraq War, Standard Operating Procedure also provides an interesting examination of the nature of photography and how an image frozen in time is irrefutable, but also fails to show the full picture. Like last year’s excellent documentary No End in Sight, Standard Operating Procedure is not easy viewing, but it is essential viewing for people looking for a deeper understanding of the current war.