New Releases
THE CONSTANT GARDENER Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles seemingly came out of nowhere to make his mark on international cinema with the powerful City of God, and it’s nice to see that he hasn’t cut himself any slack with his follow-up feature. Strong enough that it should have been held for year-end release rather than tossed away during the waning days of summer, The Constant Gardener is a gripping film that somehow manages to make its central romance even more compelling than all the attendant global intrigue. Based on the novel by John Le Carre, the film stars Ralph Fiennes as Justin Quayle, a mild-mannered British diplomat living in Kenya with his outspoken activist wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz). They don’t seem like the most compatible match, and after Tessa is murdered, further details emerge that cast a dark spell on her fidelity and paint their marriage as a troubled one. Unfazed, Justin is nevertheless determined to solve the mystery of her death, and what he uncovers is a scandalous affair involving pharmaceutical conglomerates, low-life assassins and high-ranking British officials. With its unblinking (and accurate) examinations of the soulnessness of corporations and the grotesque manner in which the western world continues to ignore the plight of impoverished African nations (an angle it shares with Hotel Rwanda and The Interpreter), The Constant Gardener reverberates with a torn-from-the-headlines urgency. Yet what’s most startling about the movie is the gale force of its love story, featuring characters so vividly brought to life (both Fiennes and Weisz are terrific) that you leave the theater with a lump in the throat to accompany the fire in the belly. 3.5 stars.
A SOUND OF THUNDER Half the pleasure of time-travel flicks is the opportunity to engage in post-screening discussions in an attempt to straighten out the pretzel plot, but this only works when the movie’s internal logic makes sense (see: Back to the Future, The Terminator, Twelve Monkeys). In the case of A Sound of Thunder, it’s apparent that even the film’s creators have no idea what sort of drivel they’re spewing, thereby making a hasty retreat to the parking lot the best post-viewing option. A loose adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s decades-old story, this casts Ben Kingsley (atypically hamming it up in a desperate attempt to make his presence known) as a billionaire who, in the movie’s setting of 2055, runs an outfit that for an exorbitant price enables its clients to journey back to prehistoric times to shoot their very own dinosaur. The leader (Edward Burns) of the expedition presses the rule that nothing in the past can be changed lest it sets into motion events that could alter the course of history. Of course, something goes wrong, and soon the future world of 2005 is overrun with all manner of deadly creatures, including ones that look like baboons dipped in shellac. From the manner in which the evolutionary changes come about to the hasty (and illogical) denouement, there’s very little in this Jurassic dork of a movie that works — least of all the laughable CGI critters. 1.5 stars.
Current Releases
BROKEN FLOWERS Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, Jim Jarmusch’s latest takes Bill Murray’s accidental tourist from Lost In Translation and drops him into About Schmidt Americana territory. Here, Murray plays Don Johnston, whose catatonic existence receives a much-needed jolt when he learns he may have a son he never knew about. He embarks on a road trip to locate the mother — the candidates are played by Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton and Frances Conroy — but as he moves from woman to woman, the mystery of the son becomes almost incidental; more prominent is the manner in which the hostilities increase the further he travels, as if by opening the door to his past ever wider, he risks permanent damage to the roiling emotions he’s kept bottled up. This is a movie of wry humor and wry observations, and because Jarmusch never feels the need to spell out every character nuance or tie up every narrative thread, it’s certain to strike many viewers as much ado about nothing. But for those who appreciate the delicacy with which Jarmusch can spin a tale, the film will seem like that proverbial rose by any other name. 3.5 stars.
THE BROTHERS GRIMM Terry Gilliam, the former Monty Python member whose peculiar brand of genius doesn’t always translate comfortably to his motion picture endeavors, has concocted an overstuffed boondoggle that’s miles removed from the mind-bending highs of Brazil or Twelve Monkeys. Wrestling with a muddled screenplay by Ehren Kruger (The Ring Two), Gilliam has created a noisy and nonsensical eyesore that quickly morphs from a movie into an endurance test. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are cast adrift as the title characters, con artists whose ability to fool the local yokels of Germany with their fabricated yarns gets put to the test once they encounter genuine monsters. A bright idea threatens to surface every now and then, but it’s quickly bludgeoned to death by the rest of this fractured fairy tale. 1 star.
THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN The summer’s most unexpected surprise, The 40-Year-Old Virgin mixes honest sentiment and raunchy humor in a manner that’s more satisfying than in just about any comparable modern comedy, including Wedding Crashers — in fact, not since There’s Something About Mary has a movie combined these disparate elements so seamlessly. Steve Carell plays Andy, a man-child who sports an impressive collection of comic books and action figures, rides a bicycle to work every day, and never has even come close to knowing the joys of a relationship, let alone the attendant carnal pleasures. His co-workers (Paul Rudd, Romany Malco and Seth Rogen) make it their mission in life to hook Andy up; he eventually bumps into a few prospects, the most promising being a single mom (excellent Catherine Keener). Carell and director Judd Apatow (who collaborated on the script) take their time developing all the principal players but never shirk on the laughs. 3.5 stars.
FOUR BROTHERS John Singleton helms this standard revenge flick that was a lot more fun when John Wayne and Dean Martin tackled the basic premise in The Sons of Katie Elder. The brothers of the title are Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund), raised by a foster home provider (Fionnula Flanagan) after nobody else wanted them. Now grown up, the lads return to their Detroit home after they learn that their mom was killed during a convenience store holdup. But as the siblings snoop around, they realize that she wasn’t an innocent bystander but the target of a planned hit. The four lead actors establish an easygoing camaraderie, but that isn’t enough to overcome silly supporting characters, a hard-to-swallow plotline and a ludicrous climax set on a frozen lake. This is also the sort of movie where a villain’s ruthlessness is established in short-hand by the fact that he swipes a fat kid’s candy bar! 2 stars.
MURDERBALL This Sundance favorite is a movie that’s easier to admire than adore, and its makers wouldn’t have it any other way. Though its focus is quadriplegic men who play wheelchair rugby, this documentary refuses to traffic in easy pathos and cheap sentiment: Its emotional moments are earned the hard way — that is to say, honestly. Clearly, Murderball doesn’t want us to feel uplifted by the everyday struggles of these men; instead, it neatly averts the audience condescension that’s invariably generated by documentaries of this ilk by forcing us to view its characters as equals, as guys — sometimes likable, often not — who are macho jocks first and physically impaired men second. The movie loses steam whenever its attention turns to the on-the-court rivalry between the US and Canadian teams; far more compelling are the personal glimpses of people whose broken bodies are no match for their brawny spirits. 3.5 stars.
RED EYE Red-Eye qualifies as the best movie that director Wes Craven has ever made: Unlike his usual junk (The Last House On the Left, Scream), this at least feels like an A-list project rather than the masturbatory exercises in misogyny he tends to foist upon the public. Rachel McAdams delivers a strong performance as Lisa Reisert, whose flight home to Miami turns into a terror trip once she discovers that the charming guy (Cillian Murphy) sitting next to her will involve her in an attempted political assassination. Red Eye may not expand the parameters of the thriller genre but it certainly knows how to make its way inside its well-established conventions. Unfortunately, that can only take it so far, and even at 85 minutes, the movie begins to coast as it reaches its obvious climax. Still, considering I once wrote that I would never subject myself to any more Craven images, this is enjoyable enough to make me glad I gave him a second — or would that be fifth? Or eighth? — chance. 2.5 stars.
THE SKELETON KEY Kate Hudson stars as Caroline Ellis, a caretaker who’s hired to look after a stroke victim (John Hurt) residing in a creaky mansion in the middle of the Louisiana swamps. The patient’s wife (Gena Rowlands) views Caroline with suspicion, though she quickly earns the trust of the elderly couple’s lawyer (Peter Sarsgaard); at any rate, it’s not long before it’s Caroline who has to keep her guard up, as mysterious events suggest that a paranormal presence might be living within the house. The supernatural element extends beyond what’s talking place on the screen, as it appears that Rowlands, delivering a performance of high camp, has been possessed by What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?-era Bette Davis. While enjoyable, her overripe turn dilutes the story’s potency, though the movie rights itself in time for a satisfying twist ending. 2.5 stars.
VALIANT This animated feature clocked in at 109 minutes during its recent run in England, and for once, I’m glad of the short attention spans of American tots, as the movie has been mercifully chopped down to 76 minutes for its stateside engagement. The most interesting moment in this turgid film is the revelation at the end that of the 53 Dickin Medals given to animals for bravery during World War II, 31 of them went to pigeons. That sounds like a compelling subject for a live-action documentary (March of the Pigeons?), but instead, the topic has been tossed away on a rigidly rote cartoon that features the usual mix of audience condescension, uninspired computer-animated graphics, obvious morals aimed at small children and, oh yeah, flatulence gags. Ewan McGregor, in his second 2005 tour of duty in a mediocre cartoon (following last spring’s Robots), provides the voice for the title character, who gets to prove his mettle by delivering important messages as part of the Royal Homing Pigeon Service. 1.5 stars.
OPENS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9:
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson.
JUNEBUG: Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz.
THE MAN: Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy.
AN UNFINISHED LIFE: Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez.
This article appears in Sep 7-13, 2005.
