Director: Isabel Coixet
Genre: Drama
Year: 2008
A strong drama always gets to me and this is precisely that, the story of David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley; Transsiberian, Lucky Number Slevin) a cultural critic, persona and professor who has spend the most of his life living in independence and free from any social commitment. Even the small relationship he keeps on the side with Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson; Vicky Christina Barcelona, Lars and the Real Girl) has no strings attached and is about as consistent as he is liable to get. It is, therefore, a curve ball when, Consuela (Penelope Cruz; Volver, Vicky Cristina Barcelona), a young cuban woman walks into his class and gains his attention without knowingly provoking it. Once grades have been turned in, David decides to try to bed her, but when the resulting relationship turns out to be more than a one night stand, Kepesh’s life is turned upside down.
Dealing largely with relationships, this film also focuses on life decisions in general and the amount of time we spend on earth in relationship to ourselves and others. Keeping the audience point of view strictly David’s, we are able to witness his relationship not only with the two women in his life, but with his son, with his best friend, his co-workers and others around him. Slowly but interestingly we are able to witness the change in his life, which in terms of the film is not always entirely consistent but in general achieves the right point.
Expect a slower film, relatively introspective but very well acted. Kingsley turns in one of his best performances in years and Penelope Cruz steadily gains credibility, with yet another wonderfully acted role (his last two – Volver and Vicky Cristina Barcelona – are also very much worth watching). The directing is very strong and does not beat the subject matter over the head, leaving enough for the audience to chew on while leaving enough openness that in the end, a certain number will find this a relatively sad film and others relatively hopeful. Certainly a film to discuss afterward, given that it presents a number of interesting aspects that are quite intriguing.
Rating: 
Comment: Nudity and sexuality, adult themes and situations, some language as well.
Quote: David Kepesh: When you make love to a woman you get revenge for all the things that defeated you in life.
In the span of a week, I have watched two of the most amazing Science Fiction films in a very long time and I have to say, I love the way Sci-Fi is reinventing itself. Or perhaps reinventing itself is not the right way to put it but rather, more bravely doing what it originally set out to do. Somewhere in the recent past, science fiction gave the impression that it became fodder for the nerds and completely dismissible as high tech fantasy with very little to say. It was a hard argument to counter given that in fact a lot of the stuff out there was indeed crap.
Though inevitably, lines will be drawn to 2001: A Space Odyssey, one can rest assured that the cinematic pretentiousness of the Kubrick film is nowhere to be seen here and the concept itself heads in a different direaction. In fact, everything seems to have been scaled back and though it is, broadly speaking, a slower paced film, it runs with an thrilling undercurrent that does not allow you to rest easy during its lulls. I am hesitant to give to much of the plot, given that this film is largely enjoyed by the plot twists it tosses without trying to put to much emphasis. It does not so much uncover its surprises so much as toss them at you as if they were a given that you should have known all along. It is this presentation that allows us to focus on the ethical points that are brought up and which are frankly on the forefront of our current technological advancement. These are not questions for us to ponder about the future, they are questions that very well we might have to face soon.
As far as the plot goes, the movie revolves around a single miner, stationed in the moon, working for Lunar, capturing large amounts of energy that are launched back to earth in pods and which have allowed us to power up a large chunk of our planet cleanly. Sam (fabulously played by Sam Rockwell; Choke, Snow Angels) is in his last two weeks of duty and after that he will finally be able to go home and meet up with his family once again, hopefully to patch up a few apparent rocky spots that started before he was even stationed here. The film takes place in the last two weeks, which might seem like a short amount of time, but which stretch into a nightmarish lifetime when Sam’s mind starts to come unhinged and all that he knows to be reality is brought into question, relying only on GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey; American Beauty, The Usual Suspects), a computer programed to help Sam during his deployment.
The film does not answer all of one’s questions and enigmatically it leaves some things open for discussion, that make for some pretty interesting post-watching debates. An intelligent, well written script serves as the foundation for what looks like a low budget film but which is delivered like a gem. Do not go into this film expecting big budget explosions, sets and graphics. In fact, one of the odd things about this film was its miniature feel which seems to strike during the outside shots in the moon with the rover. It takes a little getting used to, mostly because we are so accustomed to what Hollywood feeds us, but if you are capable of looking past that little oddity, you will find that film is a very rewarding, thrilling, important film, not only in it’s genre but in general.
I consider myself lucky to have been one of the few people that got to see the world premiere of this particular movie at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, it has given me the opportunity to post a review for this particular film a good two weeks before the film is actually released. I will also disclose that I will try to be a bit more careful with the plot discussion, given that it was asked by the director (Neill Blomkamp) and the producer (Peter Jackson), when they introduced it that no major plot points be revealed in order to keep the mystery about the movie under wraps a bit longer. I am not one to spoil a movie, so the danger of me doing that would have been small, with a good movie, the danger of that is even smaller. Sunshine, another movie that I put in this category is a prime example.
Without ruining the plot of the film for you, I will give you a brief synopsis. Thirty years ago, aliens arrived on earth, not over New York, or some other great North American city, but rather over Johannesburg. There, suffering apparent technical malfunctions, the ship stayed and the attack we humans feared never really took form, instead what we seemed to gain was a wave of alien refugees which where taken in and later moved off to a sectioned off area of the city dubbed District 9. But with mistrust over the alien race and growing numbers in population, Multi-National United (MNU), the company in charge of the aliens well being, decides to relocate the aliens into a concentration camp, even if they try to paint it in brighter colors.
Bringing illegal alien issues, quite literally, to the table, this movie carries a bit of social commentary in its subtext even while providing a thoroughly enjoyable film on the surface, full of thrill, intrigue and ultimately action. Breaking form with the typical Hollywood movie, this film uses its lower budget to its advantage, delivering a fast paced, documentary formatted film. Its quick editing and rapid delivery leaves very little room for breath off the start and never quite slows down. There is great usage of special effects and humor, but it is the acting of the Sharlto Copley’s portrayal of Wikus Van De Merwe that truly seals the deal.
Right off the top of my head I would say this was one of the best films of 2008 and it goes to explain the number of nominations and awards it received, though disappointingly, that list does not include Best Picture. Given that the field was five and and that I have not watched every nominated film yet, it would be unfair of me to make any criticism on the matter, save for the fact that I did see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and I do think this film is better than that one.
Set in the 1950’s before globalization took hold and when there was an unspoken ritual to how things are done, the Wheeler’s marriage is displayed with frank openness, at its worst moments and some tender moments in between. Its fantastic art direction and set design allow for the viewer to submerge into the role and the script and directing further enhance that with numerous details that are not important in and of themselves, but which serve to subtly create a story which becomes easy to relate to, for better or worse.
The secondary cast, however, is not to be under appreciated, regardless of the small amount of screen time they might have received. Kathy Bates (The Golden Compass, Love Liza), as Mrs. Helen Givings brings to the screen her most significant role in years, portraying a real estate agent responsible for bringing the Wheelers to the house on Revolutionary Road, from which the film gets its name. Bates plays an unforgettable woman with her own nuances and which represents that average of life in the 1950’s, only to be overshadowed by the performance of Michael Shannon (Before the Devil Knows You are Dead, Lucky You) as John Givings, her middle age son recently committed to an asylum after a break down. Bringing a poignancy and absolute honesty to his character, Shannon’s character shines in the few scenes he gets, ironically as the seemingly most sane person in this story and the one with most apparent clarity, however uncouth he might be in the delivery of his opinions.
Few are the films that match or improve on the first installment. By nature, it would seem, sequels are destined to suck, with a few notable exceptions. Oftentimes the trap is to use the formula for the original film, change a few aspects here and there, add more drama and call it a sequel. The problem with that – one of them anyway – is that nobody wants to see the same thing twice with the names and faces changed.
So, take the fractured lives of these people and bring them all to culmination at the unexpected wedding of William (Kevin Bishop), Wendy’s younger brother to a Russian ballerina, to which they are all invited, bringing together once again the entire group of former friends, along with all their baggage.
It helps that the characters are no longer new, we have their background, we know their story, we already relate to them, so that in this film we can simply hit the ground running and as a result we get something that is more complicated than the first, contextually and literally. Take the editing, for example, which was often broken up in the first but elevated on this second installment and curiously the title of the film is applied not only to its theme, but also to the way the story is put together, making for a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle that is a thrill to see put together at the end.
For starters, allow me to say that you should not watch this movie while eating cold pizza. Or eating anything for that matter…not very conducive to the appetite. Really.
It does not start off too bad, honestly, setting the story at a remote location in rural France where two young college girls, Marie (Cecile de France; The Spanish Apartment) and Alex (Maïwenn Le Besco; The Fifth Element), are heading to take some time away from the busy urban life to focus on their studies. They are welcomed by Alex’s family in the middle of the night, out in a farm that is too far from neighbors, let alone civilization. That is when things go wrong, unexpectedly an uninvited guest makes his presence known in a most gruesome fashion and proceeds to eliminate the family members one, by one, unaware that Marie has alluded him. When the shock sets in and Marie gains the upper hand over her role of victim, she opts to go after her tormentor with a vengance.
Trailing from one senseless moment of violence to the next, failing to truly capture the power of an implied moment and instead giving us the gory details that are less than believable due to make up that comes close but fails to convince. The film gets off to a rocky start, but soon hits an interesting pace when there are ultimately three characters left and the story becomes a captivating game of cat and mouse. Suddenly, it would seem, this film finds its self and it goes from becoming a simple slasher story into an actually intriguing thriller that uses Cecile de France to great merit, making of her a believable heroine, both beautiful and powerful at once, capable of standing her own, believably. As the murders come to a crawl and the film develops into this suspenseful tale it nearly redeems itself…that is until you hit that ridiculous twist that makes Shyamalan look coherent. Everything falls apart.
In an effort to not ruin the film for those that might actually get something out of this, I will simply say that the trick this film employs is not only preposterous and impossible but down right insulting to the audience, expecting it to believe the unbelievable. We are unavoidably, completely manipulated and forced to accept a film that after this development fails to work no matter which way you cut it and it continues to surprise me that films this poorly written continue to make the circuit. That nobody in the production team realized this ending did not work in the least surprises me, and does speak volumes about the sorry state this genre happens to currently be in. I do not recommend this film at all, with a slow start and awful ending, the thrilling middle part is not worth your time or money.