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Reviews
The Lake House (2006)
Shockingly bad ending to a decent movie!
Spoiler Alert:
So I went to see The Lake House in a preview screening in Sydney yesterday. Throughout the movie, I was really intrigued and even occasionally swept away by the impossible romance blooming on-screen. I had even momentarily forgotten that Mr Reeves doesn't know how to act. And the chemistry of two lovers almost destined never to meet was quite electric. Then the last five minutes of the movie happened, and it destroyed the whole effect! Here comes the spoiler: How on earth is she ever going to correspond with him if she saves him from dying? Remember it is his death that triggers her visit to the Lake House in the first place. But hey, Hollywood just cannot let a decent idea reach its logical conclusion. Everything romantic does not need to have a picture-perfect ending. Try explaining that to the big producers!
The ideal place to end the movie would have been her breaking down at the letter box as he steps into the traffic. If that had happened, The Lake House could have aspired to become a really understated romantic classic. Alas, that is not to be and The Lake House remains quite similar to the central motif of the movie: transparent, vapid and lifeless.
Blow (2001)
Rampant glorification
I am a self-confessed Depp junkie. It is difficult for me not to like him in any film, even if it is the abysmal Secret Window. Blow is no exception. Johnno is spot on as the bright young decadent drug dealer. However, right from the outset, it seems the aim of the film is to justify all George did. Avaracious mother, excessively tolerant dad, friend who back stab the 'good ole bloke', unfeeling wife, and unforgotten daughter. It's almost as if Mr Jung is this really nice guy who has been given the short end all his life!! I mean, c'mon, he is a drug dealer!! And I find it irritating that Depp, and the director, refused to play up the strange amoral complexity that makes a man like George Jung what he is. In fact, the filmmaker is so awed by this guy who led this 'groovy' life that he landed up glorifying a good bloke turned bad, rather than showing the intricacies of nature - and nurture - that create the George Jungs of the day.
Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005)
Boring beyond belief!
With great expectations, I went to see Ketan Mehta's The Rising last night. I have always considered Mehta to be a really gifted director, right from his first critical success with Bhavni Bhavai. Then, there was Aamir Khan, a powerhouse performer. And, last but not least, how can you go wrong with such a dramatic and intense period of history as Revolt of 1857? Well, it seems Mehta has gone wrong. Big time. The Rising is an absolutely tepid piece of cinema - painfully scripted, and boringly directed. As the main character of Mangal Pandey, the inconsequential soldier who became arguably the first martyr in India's fight for independence, Aamir literally sleepwalks through the film. Even when he is supposed to go berserk with anger, the effort is blatantly obvious.
While watching the Rising, two movies kept coming back to mind - Mehta's Bhavni Bhavai and Shyam Benegal's Junoon. In The Rising, Mehta seems to be going back to his Bhavai days, where he used folk elements in cinema to poetic effect. But this time around, those same folk elements come across as blotches on an already grimy landscape.
Similarly, despite his apparent best efforts, Mehta fails miserably in instilling the sense of drama that Junoon had - a movie based around the same historic period and dealing with the revolt. What came across as a bloody and intense uprising in Junoon turns out to be a yawn-inducing rabble-fest in The Rising.
The only redeeming feature of this movie is Toby Stephens. As Pandey's friend and senior, Toby gives his heart and soul to the character. His unshakeable belief in the coda of a soldier, his cynicism at the corruption of East India Company, and his frustrated helplessness against the system make Toby's character by far the most complex and well-rounded of the whole lot. I stopped short of giving this movie one star simply because of Toby.
Marnie (1964)
Brilliant!
Last night I finished watching Marnie for the first time and it took me all of my will-power to not re-view the film immediately after it ended. Marnie is by far the best psycho-sexual thriller I have seen in ages. Admittedly it lacks the classic Hitchcock edge-of-seat stuff (bar the sequence with the cleaning lady) but this is Hitchcock at his grimmest - and his finest in terms of creating 'pure cinema' regardless of the fact that a Philadelphia character has a Scottish accent! The slow camera pans, infinitesimal movements of the head, seamless blend of dream images and reality, use of silhouettes, tight shots and tighter editing (the hunt, the murder scene, the free association scene which is screen-writing at its best) - cinema could never be purer (or more artificial!). In a strange twist of cinematic logic, the apparent 'saviour' of Marnie (Sean Connery) comes across as quite a dark personality, hell-bent on breaking Marnie like he broke the South American wild cat. Coming right on the back of the suave Bond, Sean's Mark Rutland is a tour de force in understated, and often baffled, ferocity. I have heard a lot about how Grace Kelly was supposed to play Marnie. In an alternate universe that film has probably been made but my vote goes to Tippi Hedren. The climax, where she starts squeaking in a scared five-year-old's voice is chilling. The only grouse is too pat an ending, which somehow jars with the overall complex tone of the film. But that is a minor failing in Hitch's masterpiece.
Charas: A Joint Effort (2004)
So near yet so far
Timangshu Dhulia, in my opinion, is one of the more talented filmmakers in the Bollywood jungle. His debut film, Haasil, was quite an honest attempt at showing prevalence of student politics in northern India. It suffered from shoddy editing but the intensity of the director and the actors were enough to hold the movie together. Charas has the same intensity from the actors, particularly Irfan (my favourite). But it seems Dhulia is trying to make a noveau Hare Rama Hare Krishna, what with the choppy editing and the hippie feel to the film. There are moments in Charas when I was completely engrossed and then the next minute the tension falls flat. It was a classic case of so near yet so far.
It's Pat: The Movie (1994)
A bit trite, but thought-provoking
It's interesting to see a movie that hinges on nothing but a single-line plot (what's Pat's Sex?)and yet makes one think. The bizarrely stupid plot forces one to wonder whether gender is at all important or not. Granted, the movie is one long stupid tease, but hey when did you last see a tease that actually had something to say?
Ed Wood (1994)
One of the best movies I've seen
If there ever was a complete film that tugged at your heart, split your sides, and made you think-all at the same time, it's Ed Wood. The film, which I saw recently, just completely bowled me over. Frankly, I am at a loss for words while describing Ed Wood. Perhaps the only way to describe it is as a paean to that eternal loser hiding inside all of us-the loser who, despite a complete lack of talent, chugs on simply because he knows not that he knows not. Don't miss Ed Wood.
It's Pat: The Movie (1994)
A bit trite, but thought-provoking
It's interesting to see a movie that hinges on nothing but a single-line plot (what's Pat's Sex?)and yet makes one think. The bizarrely stupid plot forces one to wonder whether gender is at all important or not. Granted, the movie is one long stupid tease, but hey when did you last see a tease that actually had something to say?