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Reviews
Orphan (2009)
Great job by Isabelle Furhman; morally offensive storyline/message
*Contains Spoilers*
I have very mixed feelings about this movie.
First the good points. Undoubtedly the best thing about this movie is young Fuhrman as Esther, who is more of a second main character rather than just an antagonist. She was absolutely charming, even mesmerizing. Her character easily commanded every scene she's in, from her literary speech (if sometimes convoluted in particular circumstances) to her dashing aristocratic appearance, to the various forms of art at her fingertips. Moreover, Esther was like a Renaissance girl, projecting rare values of intelligence, elegance, and artistic style.
As to other characters, Farmiga as the mother was suitably neurotic and conflicted; Sarsgaard did well conveying the tired father clinging to rationality. The child actors were also good.
The cinematography and music score did the job well, so the movie was solid in these respects (the burst of Tchaikovsky from under Esther's fingertips was particularly refreshing in this day and age). The visual style was brilliant at times – the idea about fluorescent paint that glows in violet light (or whatever) was well-placed. The end credit sequence deserves separate praise. However, I wish the director did not resort so often to worn-out "thriller" clichés (mirror closed to reveal person standing behind, sudden bouts of nerve-grating sound etc.) which date back to Hitchcock, were cheap and trite 20 years ago and are just pointless today. I think the film would rather have benefited from a more subdued approach – it would have more effectively emphasized the realistic violence, instead of putting the viewer into a cheap slasher flick mood.
And now, the bad points.
First off, the movie is politically and socially offensive. Abuse against adopted children, including those from Eastern Europe and Russia, is a serious problem. To make a movie depicting the adopted child as a horrible villain who inflicts injuries on herself just to incriminate the well-meaning, recovering alcoholic mother, attempts to sexually seduce the father and kill the other children, can be seen as an attempt to implant a suggestion that real-world domestic abuse aimed at adopted children is somehow "their own fault". Needless to say, this came off as terribly wrong, at least for this viewer. It's kind of like making a movie about a dark-skinned person who is a completely irredeemable criminal, but evades justice by exploiting his minority status. Except "Orphan" is even worse, because adopted children are probably the most vulnerable and defenseless members of our society. This wouldn't have been so prominent if the movie had been taking itself less seriously – e.g. a plain horror or slasher flick. But this film tries hard to be "realistic" – thus making its unrealistic plot line much more offensive.
What makes it even worse, is that the DVD/Blu-ray come bundled with a public service announcement which encourages domestic adoption over foreign. This means that the vilification of foreign children (in particular from Russia and Estonia) was done ON PURPOSE and not as an oversight. It seems like the authors WANTED to portray foreign children as evil so that overseas adoption is discouraged. This sort of political agenda is just plain disgusting.
I also didn't enjoy how the authors turned Esthel into a "sex doll" at one point. It was so pedophilic, and incestuous to boot. I don't know how the young actress felt (she was 12 at the time), but I certainly frown upon these instances of pedophilia and incest that sometimes make their way into modern movies. It just seems like blatant exploitation. Even movies like "American Dream" or "Lolita" (both versions) didn't stoop so low. And again it conveyed the meaning that if adopted children get sexually abused, it's their own damn fault. Not a highly moral message by any standards.
Furthermore, the authors failed to develop their own premise. After ambitiously laying the groundwork (and offending the hell out of us in the process), when push comes to shove they bail out in a way that is both repulsive and disappointing. Suitable for a thriller, but not for a character drama the movie was shaping up to be. After milking it for all the exploitation they could manage, the authors abandoned the theme of child crime, instead taking the safe, if superficially "scarier", route. So, Esthel's not really a child, but a freak of nature, and promptly transforms from a beautiful young girl into a disgusting woman with bad teeth. Obviously just so that she can be killed without any moral controversy.
1. Planted idea that adopted foreign children lie about being abused and in fact abuse themselves; 2. Planted idea that adopted foreign children are dangerous to their adopted families and everyone else; 3. Planted idea that recovering alcoholic mother publicly abusing her adopted child may actually have "good reasons"; 4. Exploited sexual perversions by putting a 12-year-old child actress into a "sex doll" and making her attempt sexual seduction of her adopted father; therefore also planting an idea that sexually abused adopted children have themselves to blame; 5. After the above was achieved, stopped and did NOT explore what could really happen if a child actually did turn violent, taking instead the cheap and easy "monster-of-the-week" way out.
All-in-all, a majorly uneven movie. Great job by Fuhrman, solid acting by everyone else, adequate (and a few times excellent) cinematography and music are all undermined by a morally offensive plot, a finale that feels like a cop-out, and an extremely underhanded "message".
Stay Cool (2009)
Underwhelming.
I watched this movie for the sole reason of hoping against all odds that this might be Winona Ryder's big break. Unfortunately, it turned out to be yet another uninspired drivel she managed to get mired in during the last decade.
As a fellow reviewer mentioned, the movie's premise is believable and actually promising (a revisit of the teenage angst/fitting into society theme but in the context of a grown-up character could have been just right for Ryder, who had success in this field - Heathers, Roxy Carmichael etc.), the casting is reasonable, but the execution is a flop. Both unrealistic and uninspiring is how it came across to me.
*Spoilers below*
The main character's plight is resolved in a disappointing manner.
He gets into a fight with an ex-bully and gets severely beat up right before his appearance on local TV and his speech at high school graduation. WTF was that about? The guy is 38 years old, he's supposed to have at least either brains or brawn by now (preferably both), yet he behaved like a stupid kid. No, getting beat up is not cool, or smart; it shows a complete lack of progress from his submissive school mentality - and such progress apparently was intended as the main point of the storyline.
He "hits" on a teenage high-schooler (played by a girl who's at least 25, as are all the "highschoolers" in this movie). While this topic was poignantly and deeply explored in films like "American Beauty", here it's a pathetic mess. If he doesn't want a relationship with a teenager, why does he allow her to hug and kiss him, goes to the prom with her, and later takes her to an after-prom party? Weird behavior for a 38-old-man who was asked to deliver a speech at the graduation (and is therefore tasked with being a role-model of sorts for the teens). If, on the other hand, he decided to overcome his complexes this way, why didn't he play it to the hilt and have sex with the girl (she is 18)? So, either stupid or cowardly - again, no progress from his high-school persona.
The "book" he wrote is a real "masterpiece": a simple retelling of his high-school failures using aliases instead of real names, it is very uncomplimentary to his former classmates, including one of his best friends. In fact, I was surprised the unflattering passages which flagellate this guy's life choices did not cost the hero his friendship, period.
The "speech" he gave at the graduation was a mish-mash of brainless clichés about how high-school life creates memories and influences you (well, duh!) and apparently nothing more than a passage from his own book (talk about shameless plugs and laziness!) Finally, the big storyline of his relationship with Scarlet (Ryder) was basically left hanging. Yeah, he sleeps with her once, and then leaves town. Was this what all the fuss was about? One single sex event? I'm sure she'd do it just for the fun of it (she's also 38, let's not forget that), so why build up so much expectations only to end it with a meaningless pat on the back and goodbye? The two were shown to be seriously attracted to each other, so why does he run away? Again, this is not an adult solution, it's the way a whiny teenage kid could react, afraid of anything serious.
*End spoilers*
All-in-all, a disappointing movie. Doubly so for me: as a long-time fan of Ryder, it's painful to see her struggling with this kind of low-quality spiritless crap. She's obviously not made for the kind of plain, tasteless, brainless mulch that passes for film like "Stay Cool". I'm sure that, given a powerful unorthodox director who would play to her strengths in a movie that is not afraid to break new ground, she could shine again. Case in point: her small but vicious appearance in Aronofsky's Black Swan (now there's a movie I have no regret of watching!), which was sadly very brief but gave a good taste of how wickedly effective she can be. Someone like Tim Burton or David Lynch could certainly use her well; too bad nothing of the sort is even envisaged at this point. Which is sad because it seems an entire era of film-making is silently retiring instead of pleasing us all with new masterpieces.
The Last Word (2008)
Writer talent shamelessly destroyed by false morality
Caution: spoilers ahead. This is a spoilered review, so be warned.
The film starts out as original, even bold. The character of Evan is very well fleshed and sympathetic (at least from my standpoint). The premise is quite believable, with a certain slightly decadent/slightly post-modern charm, and definite intelligence.
However, once the drama begins to unfold, the movie's charm slips away, while the gaping maw of Hollywood threadbare *romantic* morality looms into view. And promptly eats the main character.
As it turns out, writing beautiful poetry or prose for someone's grand exit out of life is a shameful sin. Only depressed people with the obligatory abused childhood may contemplate doing this for a living. And that these people must be punished, and corrected in their ways.
Charlotte (Winona Ryder) was deeply estranged from her brother, they haven't seen each other or talked for a long time, and she wasn't there for him when he chose to commit suicide. On his funeral, she spots Evan, the professional death note writer (accomplished, too, - as we're told, one of his notes won a writing award) and chases him relentlessly, ignoring his uncertainty and basically throwing herself at him. When Evan finally submits to her *charms* (after having been cornered on a roof, no less), the situation changes dramatically. Evan eventually becomes truly enamored with Charlotta, while she begins to demand total knowledge of his life.
Out of completely misplaced chivalry (the usual plothole of Hollywood romances, and a definite hint at the travesties to come), Evan chooses to hide his occupation, in pointless hopes of avoiding the very questionable risk of causing psychological discomfort to his lover.
Needless to say, Charlotte finds out, and of course, like in all those B-grade low-brow romances, she immediately throws her "love" towards Evan overboard under the double pretext of "deceiving" her and being a soulless jerk who dares to ornament people's deaths in beautiful poetry.
At this point one might wonder why the work of the common undertaker or grave monument sculptor is not being so stigmatised, but someone writing "death notes" should be perceived as a deviant. Moreover, history knows plenty of brilliant poets that were obsessed with death to a certain degree (Poe, Baudelaire and Rimbaud to name but a few), and no one dares to label them soulless or uncaring.
The crushed Evan is not allowed such blasphemous thoughts, however. After a pathetic encounter with a mugger, where Evan's emasculation is finalised (he cries like a child and says his sorry for hitting the mugger back after the bastard pistol-whipped him), he dutifully abandons writing, leaves town, and engages in a pointless, stupid Luddite-like business of letting raging morons throw electronic equipment that baffles their tiny minds off a cliff, while filming this ordeal.
This final scene may very well be seen as a meta-comment on the movie itself, which abandons an intelligent and promising premise in favor of filming the pointless rage of a moronic woman and the damage it caused to a sophisticated piece of equipment that was the protagonist.
All in all, while amusing (from an academic standpoint), it was really sad to watch. It sends a deeply flawed message. This movie and others like it have a lot in common with older, male chauvinist "taming of the shrew" scenarios, only with the roles reversed. It's quite shocking in this day and age to see such primal, degenerate values at work. I feel particularly sad for Winona's participation as in the past she played characters similar to Evan but from a female perspective, and usually managed to maintain the integrity of these characters. Too bad she didn't recognise this movie for what it really is - a low-grade "romance" replete with false morals, masquerading as something thoughtful and stylish.
However, once you realise all this, you can appreciate the movie from a different angle - that of Fatum in the hands of moralising authors against the protagonist struggling to maintain his integrity. Like any Greek tragedy, this one ends tragically.
I gave this movie an 8 due to the following: 1) good premise; 2) Wes Bentley is very good as Evan; 3) the movie may be appreciated on a different philosophical level once you come to grips with its skewed morality; 4) baby-scaring therapy was hilarious; 5) I adore Winona Ryder.
If you have any comments on this review, feel free to check out the message board where I've posted a more erratic & angry version for discussion.