Archive for June, 2002
124 – Minority Report
Posted by frothy in Minority Report on June 24, 2002
John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is the chief of Precrime, a futuristic law-enforcement program that allows authorities to stop murders – before they occur. In a nutshell, three beings called Precogs (short for “Precognitive”) are able to foresee all killings, usually a day (or less) before they occur. They can identify the killer and the victim, as well as the time of the murder (to the second); it’s up to the Precrime team to figure out exactly where the murder will occur based on the Precog visions.
It’s a system that’s never wrong. The Precogs only see crimes that WOULD have happened, not murders that might have happened. In other words, premeditative killings. (Why can’t the Precogs see other crimes, such as rapes? Because of, as Anderton put it, “the nature of murder”; that is, murder is an act unlike any other crime.)
As a result of Precrime’s efforts, murder in Washington, DC has diminished rapidly – down by 90%. People don’t even think about committing murders anymore; the system is that much of a deterrant.
Which makes it ripe for a setup, doesn’t it?
Enter Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell). He’s with the Justice Department, on orders from the Attorney General, and he wants to examine Precrime a little more closely. He knows no mistakes are made, but he wants to know why. He’s reluctantly given a tour of the facilities by Anderton, and he’s even allowed to see the three Precogs.
Shortly thereafter, the red ball that indicates the name of the guilty rolls a familiar name – Anderton himself. The next ball, showing the victim, reveals a name unknown to Anderton. He doesn’t recognize the name, but he’s supposed to kill the man in less than three days. Needless to say, he runs; needless to say, his Precrime teammates follow.
This much you would have gathered from the endless promos for the film. It looks, on the surface, like a standard Tom Cruise they’re-out-to-get-me movie. In fact, when I saw previews of this movie, that’s exactly what I thought. The man’s been set up like a bowling pin in movie after movie.
But hold on! It’s a lot more complicated than that. Anderton’s task is not only to find out the connection between him and the victim but also to find out who would want him to kill the man – and why. It’s a trip that takes him through some of his own darkest memories (his son was kidnapped, never to be seen again, as a young boy at a public pool).
Anderton is not your typical hero figure, either. He’s hooked on the new drug of choice, which is consumed in the same way an asthmatic would breathe on an inhaler. He tortures himself nightly by viewing old discs (home movies) of his son and his wife, who left him after the boy’s disappearance.
Luckily, though, it’s not a movie that leans heavily on making things up as it goes along, much like Cruise’s last opus, Vanilla Sky. It’s full of twists, torturous but not murky. Characters from John’s past figure prominently into the plotline, but it’s up to him to decide how much importance any one person has in resolving his inner and outer conflicts.
The movie is also filled with wonderful special effects, the kind that enhance a film, rather than simply detract from its essence. It doesn’t depend on these effects to pull it out of illogical missteps, either. Director Steven Spielberg, with this movie, rebounds nicely from the travesty of A.I. to produce what that alternate-reality movie failed miserably to provide: a real, believable plot powered by appealing, plasible characters. The story, based on a Philip K. Dick short story, keeps Anderton on his toes, and the audience along with him. The difference between this movie and many other pretenders is that Minority Report makes the audience care what happens to Anderton at each step of the movie. With many other films, the viewer sort of gives up on the character, either because they can’t relate to him or her or because the pacing of the movie is so turgid as to prevent anything but ennui.
And Cruise is perfect in the role. Absolutely perfect. When I saw the preview for this film, I thought the movie was trying to turn Tom into another Arnold-like sci-fi hero (Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall was also based on a Dick story). I doubted seriously Cruise’s ability to get down and dirty with a role, and pull it off. You may recall he was disfigured in Vanilla Sky; here he goes along a similar route, but his motivations and nuances are perfectly captured. The atmosphere created by the elite cinematography and the dazzling characterization from Cruise himself were the highlights of the movie.
Minority Report: 8.5
123 – Monster’s Ball
Posted by frothy in Monster's Ball on June 17, 2002
Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) is the middle generation of three generations of prison guards. His father Buck (Peter Boyle) is long retired and a near-invalid, using a walker and leaning on an iron lung. His son Sonny (Heath Ledger) is a novice guard. Hank and Sonny work together on Death Row and are among the guards responsible for the executions (Hank’s in charge).
The first thing that strikes one about this particular group of men is the level of racism that’s apparent in each one. Buck’s the worst – he screams at young black kids who happen to wander onto “his” property (all three Grotowskis live together) and is liable to spout off some hateful rhetoric at any time. Hank’s not a lot better, but his feelings seem tempered in contrast to Buck; he seems more weary than angry. And Sonny is actually friends with that same neighboring black family whose kids come over every now and then.
Thus the line of racism is significantly watered down as the generations progress. This is not to suggest that Sonny is an angel, or that Buck is the absolute devil. Sonny and Hank share the same hooker (though not at the same time); all three men drink, smoke, and cuss like sailors. In short, they’re simply not nice folk.
While Hank and Sonny are transporting a prisoner to the electric chair, Sonny takes ill and can’t continue. Because of this, the prisoner (who had bonded a little with the compassionate Sonny earlier) suffers a little during his execution. Enraged, Hank attacks his son in the locker room after the execution, and the other guards have to separate them.
That’s one relationship being examined – that of Hank and Sonny. The other is the more important one, however. The widow of the executed prisoner, Leticia Musgrove (Halle Berry), is trying to make ends meet as a waitress. But her car constantly dies on her, and after being late to work repeatedly, she’s fired – shortly after her husband is executed. She has one overeating kid to feed, too. She does get another job as a waitress, but has to ditch the car when it dies a final time. Walking home in the rain, her son (who has to come with her; can’t leave him home to binge) is hit by a car. Hank happens to be passing by, and with some reluctance (remember, he is racist, if not as bad as his father), he stops to help.
There’s a wonderful dichotomy between the relationship between Leticia and her son and that between Hank and his son. Milo Addica and Will Rokos, who wrote the screenplay, weave a very effective tale that manages to keep all of the characters interesting and relevant. What makes Hank act the way he does? What are Leticia’s motivations? And it would be very easy for the actors to portray the characters as nothing more than stereotypes – Hank the nasty, racist white male, and Leticia the vulnerable, victimized African American woman. But both Thornton and Berry rise above their characters’ limitations – Hank’s not the devil he might think he is, and Leticia isn’t the angel that a lesser actress might make her out to be.
It’s also worth mentioning that each of the two leads has something shocking and powerful happen to them near the beginning of the film, before they really meet. These two events have a huge impact on the characters – you might call the events “life-altering”. The events allow us to see actual change in the character. Not sudden change, which can be jarring and unrealistic, but gradual, authentic, eminently believable change.
The performances by the leads are nothing short of sensational. Berry won the Oscar for Best Actress for her work here. Yes, you read right – Halle Berry. She of The Flintstones, Swordfish, and being married to David Justice fame. See, this is what happens when you give a good actress a great role. The best actresses will rise to the level of the role; the mediocre actresses will sink below it, collapsing under its weight.
Thornton has a tendency to pick offbeat, idiosyncratic roles, albeit usually with a Southern twist. His Hank is not a carbon copy of your stereotypical Dirty White Boy; he’s a multilayered character with charm and evil mixed in. The film doesn’t make him out to be a complete hero; just a flawed one. By the movie’s end, he has come to grips (a little) with his failures and his shortcomings.
Berry and Thornton have a great supporting cast in Boyle and Ledger. When you think of a hateful, misanthropic, misogynistic demon, you don’t think of Peter Boyle, who’s turning in great comedic work on the TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond”. But after this movie, you sure do. Great job. And Ledger – well, I know him best from The Patriot, as Mel Gibson’s oldest son. In that movie, he was tough, but he was still a boy in a world of adults. That boy’s grown up, and Ledger proves his mettle as an actor in this role.
There will be some who find this movie too slow; granted, if you’re looking for action, this won’t appeal to you. But it’s an excellent story, and not as simplistic as it may seem on the outside. It’s very well written (meaning that there are few plot holes), and ably directed. You may be fascinated, as I was, with the character development from beginning to end. Things are not – pardon the expression – treated as black-and-white issues; there are varying grays that are resolved and not resolved by movie’s end.
Monster’s Ball: 8
122 – The Mothman Prophecies
Posted by frothy in Mothman Prophecies on June 11, 2002
John Klein (Richard Gere), a Washington Post reporter, finds himself somehow drawn to a small town in West Virginia. In fact, his car dies, along with his cell phone and watch. He knocks on a nearby house to call for help, and the man who answers the door attacks him, saying Klein’s been around three days in a row. But has he?
Two years earlier, John’s wife died from injuries sustained in a car wreck, and before she died, in an apparent delirium, she had been etching weird drawings. Could her drawings have some connection with this town?
Based on true events, The Mothman Prophecies follows John through his search for the truth. People in the town report seeing a strange being – are they lying, or are they misinterpreting? Are they simply seeing UFOs, or is there more to the story? Intrepid reporter that he is, John wants to know more – although of course his thirst for knowledge is accompanied by a need to know what happened to his wife (why did the car crash?).
Thrillers such as this one are pretty hard to come by. It’s not exactly a horror movie, but there are more than enough creepy moments to send a few chills reverberating through your body. It’s a film that relies less on special effects than on such quaint ideals as character motivation and development and atmosphere. In fact, this movie’s just brimming with atmosphere. We’ve all seen those cheesy movies in which a car runs out of gas along a desolate country road, and then BAM – some serial killers make dinner or belts out of the hapless occupants. But in this case, the monster is hardly ever seen, thereby heightening the scares.
At the centerpiece is Gere as Klein. I’ve never, ever been a Gere fan; it seems to me he has one expression. He’s never been terribly emotive and has been known in recent years more for the age disparity with his female costars than for anything else (they get younger, he stays the same old dude). Call him ruggedly handsome if you will, but vacuity is never really appealing.
But this is not your typical Gere at all. He definitely turns in the best work of his career. Sure, he was appealing in Pretty Woman, but it was Julie Roberts’ movie. Officer and a Gentleman? Ok, but that was Lou Gosset Jr.’s movie. Primal Fear? Red Corner? Runaway Bride? No, no, no. This is acting on a ledge for Gere. It’s a true departure from the romantic comedies and the sly psuedo-mystery/dramas. Ordinarily, I would think such a movie would expose Gere for the terrible actor he is. But I would be wrong. This movie was so well written and directed that Gere rose to its level, rather than sinking it. That’s a huge credit to him as an actor.
Now, I need to differentiate between good acting and appeal. An actor can look good or be charming in a role and still be a bad actor; by contrast, an actor can look uncharming and turn in a great performance. But what’s key is how the actor draws the audience in – do they sympathize with his plight? Are they on his side? How good of an actor he is will answer that question.
Gere’s Klein starts out as an average joe, and then we get to see him slowly descend into madness – we even descend a little with him. That vaunted atmosphere is so vibrant and realistic that we turn when he turns and feel things he feels. This is an absolute hallmark of excellent filmmaking (by Mark Pellington, whose only other big film was 1999′s Arlington Road). The writing is crisp and eminently believable, and the acting in addition to Gere (including Laura Linney, Debra Messing, and Will Patton) is simply superb. And don’t forget the prophecies part of the title, either; this “Mothman” entity issues warnings to whomever it deems worthy. Which sounds good, as long as one can interpret them correctly. Apparently, many have not.
The story is based on actual events that took place in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, but this is no Amityville Horror story. With Amityville, one could distance oneself from the experiences of the family involved; we could say that it would never happen to us, it was only a movie. This is a little trickier with The Mothman Prophecies. It’s a creepy, tingly movie that gets under your skin and crawls all over your heart.
The Mothman Prophecies: 8
121 – Insomnia
Will Dormer (Al Pacino) is a Los Angeles cop who is sent along with his partner to a rural Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a young girl. While chasing a possible suspect, however, Dormer accidentally shoots his partner, with whom he had had a recent argument, in a dense fog. Rather than admit his own guilt, though, Dormer tries a coverup, thinking that no one could know what really happened. But someone did see – the man Dormer and his partner were chasing.
What follows is a taut cat-and-mouse game. Walter Finch (Robin Williams) knows what really happened in the murky fog, and he’d like to help Dormer cover it all up – but for a price. And in addition, the shooting of Dormer’s partner is also being investigated, separately, by a novice detective named Ellie (Hillary Swank), who idolizes the veteran cop. Something’s got to give – Ellie’s a great young mind, and it’ll only be a matter of time before she figures it out, right?
Every movie, save for the mindless, faceless action films, must have some kind of hook for the audience, something to make it unique. In this case, it’s the fact that Williams is playing a bad guy – an atypical role. And it’s a great role for him, too, as he does a fine job getting to the meat of the character. Pacino’s got a good character to play as well – think Serpico – and he’s at his best while underplaying thinking man’s roles (okay, I’m not forgetting his younger, wilder days as Michael Corleone, but his best work as a pure actor are with these roles). Add in the beautiful Alaska scenery and the fact that it’s light out for much, much longer periods than it is for those of us in the continental U.S., and you have quite the setting for a modern film noir, so to speak.
The title comes from the fact that Dormer simply can’t sleep after he’s accidentally (or was it an accident?) shot his partner. He’s haunted by images of his dying partner; racked with self-doubt, he also has trouble sleeping because of the endless light in Alaska, resorting to taping his shades closed and placing objects in front of the window to make it darker. And because of his inability to sleep, he becomes very strung out, unable to think clearly.
This movie is from the director of Memento, which was a fascinating film noir in its own right, expertly written and directed. Because Memento was so good, I did have higher hopes for Insomnia. Insomnia isn’t nearly as good as Memento, but it’s still a very well done, intriguing psychological thriller with an excellent cast.
Insomnia: 6.5
120 – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Posted by frothy in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on June 4, 2002
Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is a 10-year old British lad who has a zigzag scar on his forehead. He lives with his aunt and uncle and rotund, snotty cousin, who thoroughly despise him and make him live in a cupboard below a staircase. And all looks quite lost until the day Harry receives an invitation to attend the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and he’s carried away by the giant Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane).
Harry quickly learns that his mom and dad were a witch and wizard, respectively, and that they died while protecting him from the superevil Voldemort (also known as He Who Must Not Be Named); but Harry also learns that there’s something about him that protects him from Voldemort. With his trusted new friends Ron and Hermione, Harry must find out what’s in the trap door at Hogwarts that’s guarded by a three-headed dog named Fluffy – and that certain bad guy or guys wants to get a hold of.
As serious as the plot seems, this is a most fanciful movie. It’s quick paced, so as not to let the little kippers fall asleep, and is full of all of the dazzling effects you’d expect from a wizards and witches movie. It has quite a few things going for it (it did make a zillion dollars, so it must have something going for it), including a brisk, crisp script that’s pretty close to the book, excellent performances from top to bottom, and those omnipresent effects that by now are fairly workaday to most of us.
Author J. K. Rowling insisted that all of the cast – or at least those with speaking roles – be British, and as a result we get some of England’s finest: Richard Harris (who’s actually Irish), John Hurt, Maggie Smith, Ian Hunt, John Cleese, Richard Griffith, Julie Walters, Coltrane, and Alan Rickman. It’s a magnificent roster, and each actor appears to be having a great time playing dress-up and spouting some downright hilarious lines.
This is a popcorn movie. Is it a date movie? Um, no. Your date might think you’re an idiot if you sit down to watch this. But it IS a great movie to watch with your kids, and you might even get them to read the books. And hey, anything that gets kids to read something thicker than a pamphlet is usually a good thing.
Plus the special effects merely enhance the show; they aren’t the show itself. The real star is the precocious Radcliffe (who’s been signed to a few more Potter films, by the way) , who essays the young magician perfectly. Too often kids come off as snotty or impossibly cute in movies; Radcliffe is neither, and neither, by extension, is Harry Potter. I’ve seen too many films in which the kids are nothing more than glorified brats, even when they’re the heroes – but not our fair Mr. Potter, who saves the day through his courage, wits, and intelligence. Oh yes, and love.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: 8
119 – Vanilla Sky
Posted by frothy in Vanilla Sky on June 3, 2002
In an era of big-budget, super-duper special effects movies, a lot of people pine for the old days when plot meant something and characterization was key. Well, look what we get. A convoluted, disinterested absurd piece of pablum that’s not worth the celluloid on which it was filmed.
Vanilla Sky is about a dashing young publisher named David Aames (Tom Cruise) who has two women in his life – his “buddy” Julie (Cameron Diaz) and mysterious new woman Sofia (Penelope Cruz), who just happens to be his best friend’s girlfriend. David feels he’s being stalked by Julie, who wants more than sex, but he can’t keep his eyes and hands off Sofia. You can see this is just heading for trouble.
Much of the plot centers around a violent car crash in which David emerges with a disfigured face. What happens after that is quite surreal – kind of like floating in a dream in which at once everything and nothing seems to have meaning. Under such circumstances, one can twist logic and reality into whatever one desires (in this case, “one” would be the screenwriter). Anything can happen and be justified. That’s great, but it doesn’t always make for a good movie, just as free association doesn’t make for a good novel.
To begin with, Cruise himself seems miscast, although ironically so. He’s the kind of movie actor who much of the world sees as the cocky, arrogant, preening archetype of male stars, always worried about how they look. And yet here he is with a horribly ugly face – is he trying to tell the world, “Look, I can play creepy-looking, too!” No, Tom, you can’t.
And for at least the third movie, I hear Cruise utter these words, or a variation: “I’ve been set up!” He sure gets set up a lot – see The Firm, this one, and the upcoming Minority Report, to name three. What it all goes back to is his characters’ inability to believe they themselves have done anything wrong, ever.
Secondly, there’s a huge lack of chemistry between any of the three leads, especially between Cruise and Cruz. I’m sure there are legions of people who believe Penelope Cruz is the cat’s pajamas, but don’t count me among them. I didn’t find her particularly attractive or alluring in the movie. I won’t waste space picking apart her obvious physical issues, but please – let’s not place her on some goddess pedestal. But for a couple that apparently fell for each other off the set, Cruise and Cruz don’t seem particularly enamored of each other on it. Yes, they make goo-goo eyes to each other. Snoresville.
And that plot! It’s one thing to have twists and turns, each leading to more questions and mysteries, and it’s quite another to have each twist cancel out the last twist. The movie kept negating itself. I know it was trying to show that the line between dreams and reality can be seriously blurred, but you can’t have each scene render the last one irrelevant. Instead of being clever, all this does is confuse and frustrate the viewer.
About the only real spark of life comes from David’s best friend Brian, played by Jason Lee. And you know, when Jason Lee’s the only one making things happen, you know you got yourself a crappy movie. There are supposed heavyweights in this movie – Cruise, Diaz – and your best performance is by Jason Lee of Mallrats and Almost Famous (another Cameron Crowe movie, like this flop)? Geez!
I’m glad I didn’t see this in the theater, although I might not have been so critical if I had (you know, it’s the classic “I spent $8 on this, so I’m gonna like it!” rhetoric). I don’t think Cruise’s career is in any kind of jeopardy, as evidenced by his usual $20 million paycheck. He might want to develop an additional facial expression or two, however.
This is a bizarre, pointless movie that seems to take delight in its tortured script, wallowing in its own nonsense.
Vanilla Sky: 3
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