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The Details
Director: Joe Wright
Writer: The screenplay was written by Christopher Hampton, based on the novel by Ian McEwan.
Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Juno Temple

The Opinion
This story is set in England, not long before the breakout of World War Two. Keira Knightley plays Cecilia Tallis, the eldest daughter of a well-to-do family. James McAvoy plays Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis’ housekeeper. The budding romance of these two characters is spied upon by Cecilia’s 13 year-old sister, Briony (a clever writer with a vivid imagination), who catastrophically misinterprets Cecilia and Robbie’s behaviour, resulting in Robbie being charged with the rape of the Tallis’ cousin Lola (Juno Temple) and drafted into the army just in time for war. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but suffice it to say that it is both horrific and bizarrely heart-warming. I absolutely hated Briony but somehow respected her at the same time. Such is the effect of clever film-making. This is a clever film, and there are many things I love about it, however, there are also a few things I struggled to get over which I shall now whinge about…

Ever since I found out that Keira Knightley was given an acting agent for her 16th birthday I have been sceptical of her films. I put her in the same category as Daniel Radcliffe and Kate Hudson, this category being “if I was born to a family that did not have any show-biz connections, I would probably not have the fame or fortune that I do”. In this film she doesn’t lend any more depth to her acting. It seemed like she cut and pasted her romanticism from “Pirates of the Caribbean” (where she was in love with another “Mr Turner”), and her bitchy “I can’t forgive you” acting from “Bend it Like Beckham”. She is ridiculously pretty, which added to the steamy library sex scene, but beyond that she did nothing for me.

The “this is so not a dream sequence ending”. You will know what I am talking about if you have seen it, and if you haven’t I recommend that you do. While it was a clever way to end it, there is no way to prevent your audience from feeling cheated. I prefer and honest ending to happy one so STOP LYING TO ME!

The filmmakers cleverly show you Briony’s point of view first before showing you the actual situation from the participants’ point of view – thereby tracing Briony’s own realisation experience as she ages. For example, Briony, age 13, stares out her bedroom window just in time to see Cecilia and Robbie standing in front of a fountain. Cecilia begins to take her clothes off. She jumps in the fountain, and then comes out, staring daggers at Robbie who just watches her as she pulls on her clothes over her drenched slip. We then are shown that Robbie and Cecilia were flirting and play fighting over a vase which broke and a section of it fell into the fountain. Cecilia dives in, retrieves it, dresses and then storms off. I was really impressed with the way that this was done but at the same time it filled the film with what I like to call British Cringe. British Cringe is the innate skill of British film and tv creative types to create dramatic tension so thick only the sharpest cynicism could cut through it. I am quite a cynical person but in Atonement even I couldn’t get over it. It is so obvious what is going to happen but they take forever to get around to it and the tension just builds and builds. Fans of Faulty Towers and The Office would understand this feeling. I would chew off my own hand just to avoid feeling this way.

The Verdict
I know I have just spent the last few paragraphs saying why I this film annoyed me, but despite the annoyances it is truly just a well-made film. There are really cool dramatic techniques; the filmmakers keep a good pace to make sure we don’t have a baby cast for too long or an older cast for too long, they reverse the action, they use an amazingly long shot sequence for the evacuation to Dunkirk plus others. Do go see it, it’s worth it but be warned – it is stressful and confusing.

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Wanted (2008)

January 11th 2009 03:19

The Details
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Writer: Split across SEVEN WRITERS!! The three of whom wrote the screenplay are Michael Brandt, Derk Haas and Chris Morgan.
Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie

The Opinion
For my third review I thought I should maybe talk about a movie that you should not see. Don’t waste your time on Wanted unless you want to know how to castrate a fascinating storyline and then try to hide this mutilation with ritzy special affects and big name actors. Perhaps one of the reasons for the storyline being so crap was that the filmmakers were so desperate to get it right that they hired too many writers who could not agree and so ended up with the Campbell’s chicken soup and microwaved sandwich bread when what they really ordered was the Homemade Coriander and Kumara Soup with Sour Cream and a side of Lightly Toasted Turkish Peasant Loaf. Man I feel like soup.

Maybe a summary would help, and I am not going to censor it because I don’t want to you see it. James McAvoy plays Wesley Gibson. Wesley is a weedy nerd who works in a call centre and is on medication because he has these massive rushes of adrenalin all the time. The opening section of the film is really funny, humorously cut together and there is the unexpected “pounding on the counter” sex scene but that’s where the positives end. Wesley is being followed and shot at, for a reason he later discovers, and Angelina Jolie turns up to perform some automotive acrobatics and to give Wesley a raging semi. Of course, Angelina’s characters name is “Fox”. She is part of this thing called “The Brotherhood” who is an association of assassins who take their cues from interpreting the weaving mistakes of a several-hundred-year-old loom. Morgan Freeman plays Sloan, who is the head of this ‘Brotherhood’. Wesley is told that if he can control his adrenalin attacks he can use them to effectively slow time down and perform really accurate assassinations. There is an assassin in the brotherhood that went rogue and apparently killed Wesley’s father – who was one of the heroes of the ‘Brotherhood’. Wesley is trained up to take out this rogue but ready for the frustratingly Star Wars-ish twist? The rogue IS Wesley’s father!! Shock horror, and he went rogue because the loom started to tell them to kill each other but Sloan lied and made them kill other people. So a couple of big fight scenes later, everyone except Wesley is dead and Wesley is now meant to be some super hottie saving the world. I believe that this random and poorly written synopsis is more entertaining than actually seeing the movie.

My three main issues with this film are, one) the storyline is so thin I could stick my finger through it, two) they have wasted the time and talent of the awesomeness of Morgan Freeman and three) they try to make James McAvoy do the “nerdy guy turns into a hottie” but it totally dies in the arse. The only time I have seen that actually work is in Stardust, with Charlie Cox.

The Verdict
Okay, I enjoyed the special effects, but I also discovered that without an effective storyline holding the whole thing together, it’s just a demo of what CG software can do. I’m tired of Angelina Jolie playing badass hot chicks with pistols for hands, and I am tired of awesome actors like Morgan Freeman doing dodgy shit when they could have put their talents to much better use. This movie is basically Jumper with a different cast. Really high profile actors play the bad guys, the story is weak and relies on concepts that really need to be better explained, and watching is like going to a high school reunion and looking at all the people going “oh man, I haven’t seen that guy in ages, what the hell was his name again – I need to get the hell out of here”. Don’t waste your valuable time and money, just go cut your toenails or something – I promise you that you will have spent your time more effectively, and would also have enjoyed it more.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

January 8th 2009 02:40

The Basics
Director: David Fincher
Writer: Eric Roth
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jared Harris

The Opinion
First off, the fact that I managed to sit through this film is nothing short of miraculous. Not because the film was bad, quite the opposite, but because I had had a fight with a guy in the cinema parking lot and was worried about the wellbeing of my car. As such, I was pleasantly surprised when the movie actually drew me in. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one of those movies where everyone knows the basic storyline before they go in - its obviously a love story between Benjamin Button (Pitt - duh) and Daisy (Blanchett). Benjamin Button was born in New Orleans in 1918 looking like a waterlogged walnut, suffering from all the ravages of old age. Abandoned by his father, Thomas Button (a button manufacturer oh hah ah), Benjamin is raised by Queenie (Henson) who discovered that Benjamin was getting younger as his years ticked over. However, the film has not been ruined by its trailers and there is a lot more to this movie than originally suggested.

After watching The Curious Case I was struck by how much society treats children and the elderly in the same way – the care that Benjamin received when he was at the start of his life was very similar to that which he received at the end and in Benjamin’s own words “we all end up in diapers in the end”. If I can have a philosophical moment here, this film reminds me of the fact that death is the ultimate equaliser, no one is immune to it no matter the manner of their life. The film also explores how much age has an effect of the behaviour of people around us. At roughly sixteen Benjamin has his first night out at a brothel because Captain Mike (Jared Harris – who reminded me of the man I fought with in the car park) believes Benjamin to be a 70-odd year old who has never had sex. Similarly, Daisy doesn’t really warm up to Benjamin until they are both in their 30s and 40s because he was “just so old”.
It’s these little deeper bits to the movie that really made it enjoyable for me.

This movie is not a movie for people who have issues when facts of life are messed with - you know the folks who watch Back to the Future and whinge about all the things that should have changed but haven't have changed and the people that should be there or here or whatever. It annoyed me how Benjamin's mental state didn't match his physical state. In Fitzgerald’s original short story, at 12 years old Benjamin enjoyed reading, smoking and drinking and was quickly bored by the things that children do. Nearing the end of his life, short-story Benjamin ends up with shorter and shorter term memory like a child. However, movie Benjamin acts like a child when he looks 85 and suffers from dementia when he looks 12. Its really frustrating because my understanding of dementia it develops in brains that are growing old and are losing connections with the memory centres - not something a normal 12 year- old brain would do.

The Final Verdict

This movie is worth going to the movies to see, but if you don’t make it, don’t stress because the value of this movie is its heart, which will be just as enjoyable when it comes out on DVD. I would also like to finally emphasise how amazing this movie must be in order for me to give it a good review, because after I came out of the movie I found that two of my car’s tyres had been punctured with a screwdriver.

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Stigmata (1999)

January 8th 2009 02:27

The Basics
Director: Rupert Wainwright
Writer: Tom Lazarus and Rick Ramage

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Welcome!

January 8th 2009 02:23

Welcome to Reel Films - the place where celluloid can't hide. Here at Reel we check out the latest box office releases and also the films you should have seen but probably haven't to find out which ones are truly unReel and those that deserve to refund us the two hours of our lives and 20 bucks we spent to get in there and eat styrofoam popcorn. Check back reguarly for reviews of the latest and greatest of the big and small screen.

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February 2009

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