vague scribblings on a few movies

I am so far behind in my film viewing that I’ve only seen three films in the last four months.

One of these was Gravity.  While 3-D is often annoying and just another gimmick to me, in Gravity it was finely used technology.  The film is breathtaking, occasionally terrifying, with lovely performances from George Clooney as well as the quietly realistic star turn by Sandra Bullock.   Director Alfonso Cuarón (also co-writer with Jonas Cuarón) has a tight rein on his audience as he throws us into a spectacular journey, leading us gently into complacency and confidence, then dropping us into the void.  Between Ms. Bullock and the 3-D, we are following in her wake all the way, hovering between life and death, imagination and reality.  Gravity is riveting and gorgeous.  I left the theatre lightheaded, very glad my feet were on Mother Earth.

12 Years a Slave is a devastating film, a personal and intimate tale of a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery.  We follow Solomon Northup, a black man from upstate New York in the year 1841, down to Washington, to Georgia and Louisiana.  Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup with dignity and passion.  When the excellent script by John Ridley gives him no words, his eyes, his posture, his entire person still speaks to us.  We feel the horror with him and through his eyes, marveling at the obvious monsters and those who appear civil and yet live despicably immoral lives.  The easy-to-spot monsters are portrayed brilliantly by Paul Dano as a psychopath who is master carpenter on the plantation of Solomon’s first owner, Mr. Ford, and the cause for Mr. Ford selling Solomon to the totally mad Edwin Epps, who was frighteningly embodied by Michael Fassbender.   Similar to what I felt when I saw Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, if I were to see Michael Fassbender along the street, I’d cross it.  That’s how scary he is. On Mr. Epps’ plantation we also meet Mistress Epps, a frighteningly cold Sarah Paulson almost as monstrous as her husband. The object of Epps’ obsession is the object of his wife’s malice:  Patsey, a young and beautiful slave who somehow picks more cotton than everyone else and endures nightly rape by Mr. Epps.  Portraying Patsey is an enthralling actor named Lupita Nyong’o whose work here will be long remembered.  12 Years a Slave is a horror show; it appears impossible:  People could not have lived through this.  And yet they did. 

Almost worse than the monsters were the seemingly sane people.  Solomon’s first owner, Mr. William Ford, played with gentle restraint by Benedict Cumberbatch, and his dreadful wife are the sort who appear normal, and yet they are part of this vicious society, confusing someone like Solomon by treating him with relative kindness.  It’s more difficult to recognize or understand Evil when it is well bred.

Director Steve McQueen orchestrates the dark and the light, the despair and the hope, and keeps the story moving while not rushing through moments of silence and reflection that the characters and the audience require.  Cinematography by Sean Bobbitt escalates the contrast between good and evil showing us the beautiful landscapes of Louisiana as they are dirtied by the disfiguring disease of slavery.

Finally, this weekend I saw The Wind Rises, the last film (so he has stated) of Hayao Miyazaki, the masterful creator of such entrancing animated features as Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.  It is, of course, gorgeous.  I gasped as the world rippled in the earthquake that occurs while the main character, Jiro Horikoshi, is riding on a train to university.  The earthquake was visually stunning as it broke down villages and railroad tracks alike, and the fire that followed hard upon it sounded like a monster chasing all the people away.  Masterful. 

Jiro is an historical character, a man who designed airplanes that became fighter planes against the Allied forces in World War II.  He was fascinated by flying, like many another Miyazaki character.  We go on his dream flights with him, beautifully drawn sketches of fantastical airplanes, over soft and shimmering landscapes.  The Wind Rises is the story of a man in love with flying and aeronautical engineering, and then with a woman who shares his vision just because it is his.  It’s a sweet love story and an adventure as the planes Jiro imagines in his dreams are built.  The characters are oddly voiced by a star-studded cast led by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Krasinski, and Emily Blunt. 

Despite its marvelous dream sequences, this film was less enchanting to me than Miyazaki’s previous offerings, so I admit to being a bit disappointed.  But it all goes to show that we are all just humans when our flags are taken away.  Jiro Horikoshi was a brilliant man whose story was worth telling and Miyazaki told it well. 

I just missed the magic.

~ Molly Matera, signing off until the next time with “All the Way with LBJ!”

The Well-Bred Descendants

To be up front about it, I disagree with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.  The Descendants is a nice movie.  It has nice people and nice sentiments.  It is not, whatever director/co-screenwriter Alexander Payne may hope and opine, destined to be a “classic.”  Do you know what’s a classic?  It’s a Wonderful Life is a classic.  It doesn’t just have nice people.  It has mean people.  It doesn’t have a metaphorical bump in the road, it has actions with tragic consequences, it has real conflict, decisions made and regretted, decisions made and rejoiced, obstacles to overcome with pain — and a little help from friends.  Sorry, Mr. Payne.  Pleasant The Descendants is, classic it’s not.

Most of the people in the film are … pleasant.  There’s minimal conflict that is readily overcome.  Nevertheless, the across-the-board excellent performances, the simple structure, and the ultimate niceness of everybody makes for a nice couple hours at the movies.  If you want drama, complications, belly laughs or truly insurmountable odds, this is not the film for you.

In brief, Matt King has two obstacles to living a quiet yet fulfilled life:  First, that his wife Liz had an accident that has left her comatose with little likelihood of recovery.  This puts him at her hospital bedside trying to do his job (he’s a lawyer) and attempting to take care of their two daughters, teenaged Alexandra and 10 year old Scottie. All the while, of course, imagining how much better he'll make their lives together if only his wife will wake up.  Second, he is a descendant and trustee of a family that goes back to mid 19^th century Hawaii when one missionary (a Mr. King) married a Hawaiian princess.  This has left “the Descendants” wealthy, although too many cousins have lived off their inheritance, and it dwindles. There’s one pristine piece of land left that the family holds in trust. Most of Matt’s cousins want to sell to developers; a few want to hang on.  The family vote will happen in a few days.  Matt King (apparently the only responsible adult in the family) as primary trustee has veto power to the vote, so we know how that plot line will turn out from the very beginning. 

George Clooney is lovely as Matt.  This is a balanced performance of an imperfect (read “normal”) man trying to be moral and fair and good.  Matt does well at this, although we wish, for the sake of his future ulcers, he’d let loose a bit more.  Initially Matt’s teenaged daughter Alexandra (a gorgeous performance by Shailene Woodley) appears to be a handful, but once the great revelation of the cause of her anger is made, she settles in as helpful, kind, moral, and a good caregiver to her younger sister Scottie (an affectingly true performance by Amara Miller). Alex also has an odd best friend named Sid, played endearingly by Nick Krause.

It’s not very long before we know Matt’s wife Liz won’t be coming out of her coma.  Matt doesn’t tell anyone this at first — it’s as if he’s punishing himself by carrying the burden alone.  So part of what’s happening here is watching Matt engage in self flagellation as he puts off telling Liz’s many adoring friends and family that she will die soon, and they should go to the hospital to say their goodbyes. 

The great revelation, of course, is shown in trailers, so this is hardly a spoiler.  Daughter Alexandra tells Matt that his wife was having an affair.  This is as destructive to Matt’s world view as his wife’s coma.  And he can never mention it to anyone.

Clooney, Woodley, and Miller (a.k.a. Matt, Alex, and Scottie King)

OK that’s all earth shattering for the people involved, of course.  But it’s all smoothed out in the filming.  Awfully nice people.  All neat, clean, and terribly sweet.  There’s nothing really to overcome here.  Death cannot, after all, be overcome.  Telling people that Liz is going to die is hard, and Matt cannot overcome that without his daughters’ support.  Matt is so adult and mature that he goes out of his way to tell the man with whom the comatose wife was having an affair that he’d best go to say goodbye.  He manages to do this without telling the man’s wife when they all meet, not accidentally.  This quest of discovery about the man his wife loved  affords Matt — under the guise of full disclosure — and his daughters, and the ubiquitous Sid the opportunity to go to the island where they own land, so we see the unadulterated shorefront acres that may be sacrificed to humans in the next few days.

 An annoying coincidence revealed by Matt’s cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges) is that the wife’s lover, Brian Speer, is a realtor who could profit hugely depending on the King family’s choice of what to do with the aforementioned land.

Matthew Lillard is very good in the role of the realtor/adulterous lover, showing fear of discovery and loss of his family, the most emotional depth Speer has. 

These are all excellent performances, from Clooney, from Judy Greer as the wronged wife of Brian Speer, from Lillard himself.  Robert Forster is smackable as a mean SOB, Matt’s bitterly brutal father-in-law, who is redeemed by his loving treatment of his wife, a gentle woman stricken with Alzheimer’s. 

Best of the bunch is the eldest daughter Alexandra — simple, true, smart-alecky and smart.  Plus Ms. Woodley has the unneeded bonus of being lithe and lovely.

The film left me grateful that I don’t have children, then sorry.  Cue Sondheim.  Alexander Payne directs smoothly, and Hawaii needs no assistance in appearing beautiful. The Descendants is polished and shiny.  It’s a pleasant way to while away some time, but does not require a big screen or the expenditures attached thereto.  Feel free to wait for the DVD or cable.

~ Molly Matera, signing off.  I think I’ll watch It’s a Wonderful Life….