New Releases
THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED Based on a true story, this handsome drama directed by actor Bill Paxton (his second stint behind the camera, following the muddled thriller Frailty) centers on the 1913 US Open and how a 20-year-old American lad named Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself pitted against two British pros — one being six-time British Open winner Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) — for the championship. On paper, it sounds like the usual “brash Yankee upstart shows the stiff-upper-lip Brits a thing or two,” an arrogant notion at this point in time, given how much our international reputation has been stained by the current administration. Instead, the film harbors an unexpected resonance aimed at the downtrodden: Francis and his two British opponents all spring from humble origins, fighting prejudice every step of the way as their grit and determination allow them to beat the ruling class at its own game. It’s an American story in the truest sense: Championing the underdog, it depicts the struggle between the haves and the have-nots — and for once, it’s the haves who are left wanting. What could be more inspiring than that? HHH
INTO THE BLUE With its gorgeous shots of inviting surf and sand, Into the Blue is the very definition of a mindless summer movie. So what do MGM and Columbia Pictures elect to do with it? Hold it until the fall. Then again, that dense thinking goes hand in hand with the doltish shenanigans occurring on screen during the course of this silly yet harmless piffle. Paul Walker, whose primary contribution to the art of film acting is that he can furrow his brow with the best of them, stars as Jared Cole, an amicable beach bum hoping to find sunken treasure in the Bahamas. Jessica Alba, who wears the same vapid look she displayed earlier this year in Sin City and Fantastic Four, plays Samantha, who’s apparently content simply being Jared’s sweetheart. Along with Jared’s insufferable best friend Bryce (Scott Caan) and his opportunistic girlfriend du jour Amanda (Ashley Scott), they not only discover a sunken pirate ship but also a downed airplane containing millions of dollars worth of cocaine. Yet while Jared and Samantha are only concerned with the shipwreck, Bryce and Amanda are more interested in profiting from the coke, a decision that places everyone in danger once the local drug dealers get wind of their discovery. This is the sort of low-IQ fare in which Alba’s derriere receives more close-ups than her face, yet writer Matt Johnson does make an admirable stab at providing some dramatic heft to his script until the inanities finally get the best of him. I especially liked how Jared could hold his breath underwater for what appeared to be five-minute stretches — who was his dad, Aquaman? H 1/2
OLIVER TWIST Roman Polanski finally won his Oscar a few years ago for The Pianist, although it was one of his least interesting directorial excursions: Because that particular Holocaust story was both so personal in nature and so global in its tragic implications, a mindful Polanski stayed away from the cinematic flourishes seen in masterworks like Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby. So what’s his excuse with Oliver Twist? This “re-imagining” (as the press material calls it) of the Charles Dickens classic tinkers with the original tale, but deviation from the source material isn’t its primary problem. It’s that while this timeless tale has been uncorked once again, it isn’t allowed to properly breathe, stewing instead in its own stodginess. It’s a respectable production, to be sure, but compare it to David Lean’s definitive version from 1948 and you’ll notice the lack of fire and ire that seemed to charge every frame of that earlier take. Polanski and Pianist scripter Ronald Harwood regrettably downplay the juicy melodrama, though a couple of performances break through the stifling air: Leanne Rowe makes a favorable impression as the ill-fated Nancy, while Ben Kingsley, although never matching Alec Guinness’ peerless portrayal in the Lean version, turns the sniveling thief Fagin into a figure more likely to be pitied than loathed. As for the child actor essaying the title role, Barney Clark is rather non-descript. HH 1/2
SERENITY Fans of the short-lived TV series Firefly will doubtless want to add another couple of stars to the rating for this big-screen spin-off: The show’s devotees who attended the advance screening were cheering as lustily as Romans watching Christians being fed to the lions. But for those who haven’t already built up a rapport with these characters and their struggles, Serenity is a long slog through sci-fi tedium, mixing elements from the countless space operas that preceded it without bringing anything new to the party. Written and directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), this is set 500 years in the future, with the universe under the thumb of the evil Alliance (not to be confused with the Empire). Its only opposition comes from the crew members of the spaceship Serenity, captained by a cocky scoundrel named Mal (not to be confused with Han Solo). After Mal (Nathan Fillion) and his team agree to protect young River (Summer Glau), a girl with telepathic abilities and an occasional appetite for destruction, the Alliance dispatches its ace operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor, taking top acting honors) to settle the matter. Offering next to nothing in the way of character development or even simple introductions — and scrambling fortune-cookie philosophies in the hopes of coming up with something profound — this is a cinematic flatline, only perking up for a bravura finale. At one point, it’s revealed that when River goes on a rampage, a certain sentence will cause her to drop right to sleep — here’s betting it’s “Wanna go see Serenity?” H 1/2
Current Releases
THE CONSTANT GARDENER Based on John Le Carre’s novel, this gripping film from director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) stars Ralph Fiennes as a mild-mannered British diplomat living in Kenya with his activist wife (Rachel Weisz); after she’s murdered, he perseveres to discover the reasons behind her death. With its unblinking 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. HHH 1/2
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE No more frightening than a Chihuahua with a bad disposition, this stilted horror yarn casts newcomer Jennifer Carpenter as the title character, who heads off to college and promptly becomes possessed by demonic forces. The family priest (Tom Wilkinson) is summoned to perform an exorcism, but after the girl dies in his care, he finds himself being defended against involuntary manslaughter charges by an agnostic lawyer (Laura Linney). Tedious rather than tense and sabotaged by its full range of one-dimensional characterizations, the movie alternates between Dolby-enhanced possession scenes that could benefit from some projectile vomiting (or at least a spinning head) and droning courtroom sequences that wouldn’t pass muster on the weakest episode of Matlock. To hell with it. H 1/2
FLIGHTPLAN On the heels of Red Eye comes another aerial thriller. Both films require some suspension of disbelief, but Red Eye at least took care to dot every i, cross every t, and shovel dirt into every gaping plothole. This one, about a widow (Jodie Foster) whose daughter disappears during an intercontinental flight, quickly begins its narrative descent and eventually explodes on contact, creating fireballs of flaws so massive that they obliterate entire theater auditoriums and even singe the concession stands. Foster’s performance deserves a better showcase — instead, she’s much like the lone suitcase that’s left on the baggage claim belt, circling wearily while surrounded by an atmosphere of indifference. HH
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 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 take their time developing all the principal players but never shirk on the laughs. HHH 1/2
JUST LIKE HEAVEN A pastiche of Ghost, Ghostbusters, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and seemingly every other ghost story this side of Bill Cosby’s disastrous Ghost Dad, Just Like Heaven is the latest Reese Witherspoon vehicle that makes ample use of her winsome movie star appeal while largely ignoring the deeper acting chops employed in earlier pics like Election and Freeway. Yet as far as these things go, audiences can do worse, as a clever concept and ideally cast roles make this more bearable than it has any right to be. The plucky actress plays a workaholic who seemingly gets killed while driving home from her hospital job. She continues to haunt her apartment, which proves to be a problem since the place is now occupied by a new tenant (Mark Ruffalo). Ruffalo’s shaggy dog demeanor offers an unexpected counterpoint to Witherspoon’s polished spunk, while Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder summons some laughs as a laid-back bookstore employee. HH 1/2
LORD OF WAR A good idea badly executed, this drama about an international arms dealer (Nicolas Cage) is doomed because writer-director Andrew Niccol can’t resist soft-pedaling his odious central character. And while Niccol rightly feels that the easy procurement of weapons — not to mention the resultant casualties of war (usually women and children) — is an important issue that requires further discussion, he would have had more success had he placed his data in the context of compelling entertainment. Instead, he merely uses numbing voice-over narration to pile on the statistics and crunch the figures. By the time the movie ends, we’re more primed to take a pop quiz than to take a stand. HH
TIM BURTON’S CORPSE BRIDE A fine mix of rot and romance, Corpse Bride finds Johnny Depp providing the voice of a shy Victorian lad who’s set to marry a shy lass (Emily Watson). Instead, he accidentally ends up wed to the title character (Helena Bonham Carter), a lovely (if decaying) young woman who drags him to the Land of the Dead, which resembles nothing so much as a jazz joint populated by beer-swilling skeletons, men with hacked up bodies and a buck-toothed maggot who sounds like Peter Lorre. Burton has returned to the stomping ground of his previous foray into stop-motion animation, 1993’s Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Christmas featured better songs, more interesting characters and a darker sensibility, yet this still qualifies as a marvel of wit and imagination: While the movie is light on boisterous laughs, its visual wit never ceases to delight. HHH
OPENS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7:
IN HER SHOES: Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette.
MIRRORMASK: Stephanie Leonidas, Gina McKee.
TWO FOR THE MONEY: Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey.
WAITING: Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris.
WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT: Animated; voices of Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes.
This article appears in Oct 5-11, 2005.
