Films I Saw In September

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Daniel Alfredson, 2009) The second film adaptation of Steig Larsson's best selling Millenium Trilogy is a watchable enough film, but inferior to its predecessor. The film, like the book, follows journalist Mikhail Blomkvist's attempts to clear computer hacker Lisbeth Salander's name after she is accused of a double murder. Much like the first film, this is very well cast, directed and performed but it's chief flaw lies in its adaptation. Like the first film, and some of the Harry Potter adaptations, it seems to be working with the assumption that you have already read the books and that this knowledge will fill any holes the film has. As a result, certain elements, crucially the solving of the central crime seem to have been completely overlooked. I'd be interested to hear a view from someone who has seen the film but not read the book, but this is a muddled adaptation of a decent modern thriller, which is made all the more frustrating due to the worthwhile contributions of director Alfredson and actors Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist as Salander and Blomkvist.


Precious: Based On The Novel "Push" By Sapphire (Lee Daniels, 2009)
Much acclaimed Oscar worhty film focus on the cheery subject matter of an overwright 16 year old girl (Gabourey Sidibe) in Harlem in the 1987, pregnant for the second time by her father and her attempts to get a decent education despite living with her truly monstrous mother (Mo'Nique). What otherwise appears to be your standard 'worthy issue film' is made somewhat colourful due to the interlude of several musical/fantasy sequences that serve to list the title character out of her never ending gloom. Although this film was much acclaimed when it first came out, I found it to be disappointing and felt the fantasy sequences to be too jarring. True, the alternative would be relentless misery, but it would have been more consistent. Where the film does shine though is in its outstanding central performances. Sidibe is superb as Precious, aggressive, vulnerable and worthy of pity and sympathy as well as frustration. But it's Moni'que's Oscar Winning performance has her mother that really shines; foul mouthed and utterly hateful but definitely human by the end of the film, it's this performance that most people will take away from this.


The Special Relationship (Richard Loncraine, 2010)
The third part in Peter Morgan's 'Blair Trilogy' (After 'The Deal' and 'The Queen') follows Tony Blair (Michael Sheen)'s rleationship with Bill Clinton (Dennis Quaid) while the latter starts off as an inspiration to the young Briton before Blair starts to steal his moral thunder during the Kosovo crisis. Once again, Sheen does an excellent job as Blair, capturing his mannerisms without ever seeming like he's doing an impression. Quaid is also very good as Clinton, getting the voice near pitch perfect. Still, this is definitely the least satisfying of the Blair films, it lacks the classic rival mode of the first, and best one 'The Deal' and the compelling central performance by Helen Mirren in The Queen, but the main blame is with Morgan himself. In choosing the Clinton angle, he goes for a story without any real drama, Blair was never a real threat towards Clinton and considering the multitude of potentially interesting Blair affairs (Iraq, the fuel crisis the latter years of his relationship with Brown) the Kosovo angle sits awkwardly alongside the more engaging Lewisnky affair. So despite some good acting, this is a fairly muddled and clunky thirs chapter. I should add though that it is a TV film and works well in that ballpark unlike The Queen. It's quite interesting that Morgan has thrice chosen to write about Blair when he was at his most popular, and with an actor as good as Michael Sheen, if he does another Blair film, it would be interesting to see one about his fall from grace.


Bloody Sunday (Paul Greengrass, 2002)
The film that brought Greengrass, now one of the finest working mainstream directors to the public eye. This is a justiable angry film about the notorious massacre at a rally in Derry in the 70's recently and officially found to be the total fault of the attacking British soldiers. Although Greengrass, with his hand held cameras, frantic pacing and unflinching detail (which would reach full fruition on United 93), James Nesbitt delivers (alongside 'Millions') his finest dramatic role as SDLP member Ivan Cooper caught in the middle of the carnage. Hard watching at times, but a compelling and disturbing portrayal of one of the darkest moments in modern British military history.


Lebanon (Samule Moaz, 2009)
Along with Hurt Locker, this is one of the best war films of modern times. Set entirely within the confines of a tank, the film follows four Israeli soldiers through the battlefield in the 1982 Lebanese war. All views of the outside world are seen through the tank, and almost immediately, the film is claustrophobic, susenseful, intelligent and thoughful. Like many great war films (Come And See, Cross Of Iron, Hurt Locker and Full Metal Jacket), Lebanon does not concern itself with the politics of the conflict, focusing instead on the lives of the anonymous troops. All four actors give first rate performances, the direction is superb and the whole film is gripping from start to finish.


Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009)
Greg Mottola's follow up to the highly enjoyable 'Superbad' is a huge disappointment, that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Instead of making what should be classed as a 'comedy' it tries to be an 'indie style comedy' in the vein of 'Garden State' or the awful '500 Days Of Summer', as a result it unconvincingly walks the tightrope between both styles and fails on both accounts. Jesse Eisenberg (yes, sadly this isn't a sequel to Zombieland) is an awkward teenager forced to work in a theme park for the summer where he falls for a free spirited quirky indie girl (Kirsten Stewart) and meets some quirky friends along the way. We know exactly where the film is going pretty early on, it follows all the indie comedy blueprints to a T and lacks the jokes and charm of Superbad to make it ok. Also, why is this film set in the 1980's? Does Mottola think he's being "cool" or something? Perhaps I'm being hard on the film because when I watched it, I wanted a proper comedy and didn't get one...but even if I wanted an indie comedy, this isn't what I had in mind.


Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
One of the most acclaimed films in the Ghibli cannon, which again features original characters, gorgeous animation and an engaging (and at times even confusing) storyline. I'm really not the best person to pass judgement on any Ghibli films, I've seen four of them now and I can't bring myself to really love any of them (though Ponyo comes close). So many people I know absolutely love these movies and it's like that particular emotion has been blocked from my brain for reasons I cannot fathom. I like them, I just don't love them. Still, 'Princess Mononoke' has clearly been lovingly put together, has far more intelligence and warmth than 99% of all other animated films these days and puts together a strong vocal cast for the English language version. I would just rather watch a Pixar film personally. It's not you, it's me.


I'm Still Here (Casey Affleck, 2010)
Now that it's been confirmed that the Joaquin Phoenix quit acting/start a hip-hop career stunt was bullshit, something we know all along it's worth taking a step back and viewing 'I'm Still Here' on its own terms. The truth is, it doesn't really matter whether it was real or not, 'I'm Still Here' achieves it's aim stated by Casey Affleck and is a funny and at times fascinating commentary on fame in the modern age. It's an interesting glimpse of how A-listers live their lives with their Entourages and how much they can get away with behaving really strangely and still have a platform to air their indulgences. Phoenix in this 'performance' as himself is superb, only rarely betraying the act. There are some amusing supporting contributions willingly or otherwise from Ben Stiller and especially Edward James Olmos and the film manages to be hilarious at times and quite sad towards the end where the real world comes in, as Phoenix perhaps comes to realise that his histrionics are going to affect his career in the real world. Where he's going to go from here is anyone's guess, but in any case 'I'm Still Here' is a funny and fascinating 'mockumentary' and well worth a look.

The Ghost (Roman Polanski, 2010)
A rather faithful adaptation of Robert Harris' bestseller about an unnamed ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) assigned to write the memoirs of an unpopular, Blair-like politician (Piers Brosnan) after his predecessor has mysteriously died. The film, despite being well acted, has one of the biggest collections of strange accents I've ever seen from Scot McGregor's 'Lahndahn' geezer-ness, Kim Cattral's 'dahling-ness' and Brosnan who takes Blair's chameleon like qualities to the extreme in that he seems to flirt with every accent on the British Isles at some point in a manner that is quite extraordinary. Still, much like the book, the film is always watchable and engaging throughout and directed with an elegiac tenseness from Polanski, proving again he's still a force to be reckoned with, but as with the source novel, the ending is pretty ludicrous and it's a bit silly throughout. Still diverting enough and worth your time though.

Film Of The Month: Lebanon.