I Am Legend - Review

I’ve never been prouder of Hollywood. They’ve taken a dark, eerie, and emotionally shattering post-apocalyptic script and turned it into a big budget blockbuster starring Will Smith, without compromising any of the challenging, gut-wrenching content that made the whole thing so tragically beautifully haunting in the first place. I Am Legend is an absolutely uncompromising film, the solitary and hopeless story of one man, staying alive and refusing to surrender even when there’s no longer any reason to continue. It sticks with that too, not as a setup to some big action set piece, but as a genuinely moving, horrifying, and thrilling journey into one man’s lonely, desperate hell.

That man, the last man, is Will Smith as military scientist Robert Neville. I guess he’s also technically speaking, mayor of New York and president of the United States, since there’s no one else left to fill the jobs. Three years ago, the population of planet Earth was wiped out by a plague, and as far as Robert can tell he’s all that’s left. Except that is, for the mindless, vicious, vampire-like, sunlight allergic creatures which scream, hunt, and bloodlust just outside his front door each and every night.

Robert has survived for two reasons, and neither of them have anything to do with his natural immunity to a world-killing disease. That only helped him survive the first wave of dying. He’s lived this long because he’s smart and because he’s utterly focused, unwavering in his determination, no matter how ludicrous or far-fetched, to “fix this”. Each day he follows the same, specific, carefully thought out routine. He gets up, he eats, he hunts, he looks futilely for other survivors, and he looks for a cure. When the sun goes down, he bars the windows and hides in his bathtub with his only companion, a German Shepherd named Sam, praying that tonight won’t be the night that his carefully planned precautions fail, and the monsters find him.

Much of the film is spent watching Robert toil under these conditions, as the already dead world around him starts to crumble even further. The monsters he’s been avoiding are getting worse, he’s no closer to finding a cure, and he’s long since run out of hope. It soon becomes clear that Robert keeps working and living not because he really thinks he’ll succeed, but because there is quite simply nothing else for him to do. It is what’s kept him sane and strong so far, but soon what little strength he has left is put to the test.

Will Smith is quite simply commanding as Robert Neville. Unlike his other big-budget efforts, he’s calm and restrained as Neville, remaining not only catchphrase free, but also managing to be utterly broken and vulnerable beneath a complicated veneer of determination and strength. We knew Will Smith could act, we just haven’t seen him do it in anything with a major Hollywood budget. Finally though, he’s fully cast off the Big Willie persona that earns him all those paychecks and turned in something deep and mesmerizing. And he has to, because the movie rests entirely on his shoulders. For most of its running time, there are no other characters. Will simply is the movie, his only sounding board an expectedly silent canine companion.

Meanwhile, this is still a big-budget, Hollywood action movie… of sorts. It’s full of all the usual, splashy (and sometimes bad/unnecessary... what ever happened to animal trainers and prosthetics?) CGI and eye-popping set pieces. The film would be worth seeing just for its opening scene alone, in which Will Smith pops a rifle out the window of his “borrowed” Ford Mustang and goes high-speed deer hunting through downtown New York. Warner Brothers got their money’s worth. Except where other action movies would be loud and jittery, I Am Legend is still and quiet. It looks glossy, but director Francis Lawrence makes his movie zig when all the big money behind it might normally urge him towards zag. The movie takes chances, assuming its audience is up for more than ear-splitting explosions, zombie retreads, and happy, catchphrase laden endings; even if this is an effects heavy, tentpole Holiday pic. I can't however, help wishing the film's final script had taken it even further. It ends almost too abruptly, where earlier drafts of the script went even further in putting Neville through the wringer. But perhaps that's asking too much. Even as it is, it's hard to say if it’ll pay off, smart and downbeat rarely plays mainstream (just look at the fast disappearance of Frank Darabont’s The Mist), but if you’re up for melancholy and contemplation in an action-thriller; then it just doesn’t get much better than I Am Legend.

Alvin and The Chipmunks - Review

Alvin, Simon and Theodore have been a part of American culture for nearly half a century. They’ve covered just about every genre of popular music, from the country stylings of Garth Brooks to the top of the pop charts with songs from Madonna and Michael Jackson. I’m not sure how many times the little guys have been reinvented, but the music has always been at the heart of their adventures, and this latest retelling sticks to that tradition.

There’s a little bit of something for everyone. Folks who grew up listening to The Chipmunks will be delighted by the return of classic songs like “Christmas Don’t Be Late” and “Witch Doctor”, both of which are cleverly woven into the plot. Youngsters who have never met the characters before (which shouldn’t be surprising since they haven’t been in theaters in over 20 years) will be excited and entertained by all the slapstick antics. Everyone else in between can enjoy the charming script and holiday-appropriate story about what’s really important in life. Pay no attention to those pathetic looking hip-hip posters that Fox is flashing everywhere; the movie isn’t that ridiculous.

This film isn’t the first for the trio, but it is easily their best, getting back to where it all began: a down on his luck musician and three singing chipmunks. Dave Seville (played by Jason Lee who, I’m sad to say, is the weakest acorn of the bunch) is just about to abandon his career as a song writer when he crosses paths with orphaned baby chipmunk siblings. To his surprise and good fortune, they just happen to be amazing singers and dancers.

Inspired, Dave brings them into his house, never imagining the massive levels of havoc that such little creatures are capable of wreaking. And yet, despite their unintentionally destructive ways, they do have a knack for music. In no time Dave’s songs and their voices begin sweeping the world. But, despite their musical partnership, the four begin to reach the inescapable reality that they’re becoming a family.

If the story ended there it would be a bit too schmaltzy, so the movie takes a page from the real world of child music celebrities to fill out the second act. Without regret or apology it takes a swipe at a music industry known for exploiting young performers as the Chipmunks find themselves lured away from Dave by a record company interested only in their ability to generate major amounts of cash.

Focused on glamour and greed, the studio markets the Chipmunk brand to frothing fans who wouldn’t recognize good music if they heard it. Over-worked, under-loved, and forced to sing ridiculous songs, the boys become victims of a frenzied industry bent on milking every last dollar out of them, no matter the expense or damage to the boys. Fortunately for the little guys, they have a father figure who loves them and manages to pull them back before their lives are destroyed. If only Britney Spear’s parents had been as loving as ol’ David Seville.

Alvin and the Chipmunks is wonderfully fun, even if it is a little creepy to hear Alvin singing the words to “Don’t You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me”. If you love The Chipmunks, this is a great new chapter to add to your memories; and if you’ve never really gotten to know them before, this movie is a perfect place to start.

Atonement - Review

This year has been rife with cash-in sequels and inferior remakes. Sure, Transformers was fun. Okay, so Shoot ‘Em Up made me bounce up and down like a giddy child with it’s over the top absurdity. But occasionally you feel that, even though these big dumb action movies are fun, after the hundredth movie where the plot exists solely to provide a link from set-piece A to set-piece B, you start to wonder if the art and the storytelling of cinema has gone down the pan. Flashy, over the top music video directors are all the rage, but they’re all visuals. They come across as having no concept of how to tell a real story or how to present characters that aren’t stereotypes. With his second movie Atonement, and at only 35 years of age, British newcomer Joe Wright strides confidently on to the scene and makes the like of Zack Snyder and Brett Ratner look like they learned their craft from a “For Dummies” book.

Briony Tallis is a highly talented 13 year old daughter of a well to do family in pre-WWII England. While her cousins want to go swimming in the lake, she wants them to help put on a performance of her latest play. However, with this talent comes a feverishly overactive imagination. When she sees an incident between her elder sister Cecilia (Knightley) and servant’s son Robbie (McAvoy) on a hot summer’s day, her immature imagination misconstrues an awkward flirtation as something darker. Briony’s imagination continues to twist events throughout that day with terrible consequences.

Atonement might possibly qualify as one of the most visually stunning films of the year. Wright doesn’t use shaky-cam or the hyperactive editing common of his young directorial peers. In fact, where other directors seem determined to blind and overload your senses, Wright slams on the brakes. His previous movie Pride and Prejudice was a visually impressive film in itself, but for Atonement he brings his A-game. There are many moments which wow but one scene in particular, a 5 minute single-take steadicam shot, is stunning not only for its immaculate choreography but also a bizarre detached quality which adds to the interpretation of how the character we are following feels.

Despite his young years Wright comes across as a more mature director of the old school than a Hollywood-chasing, MTV-alumni. Like fellow Brit director Ridley Scott he tells his story both through visuals and narrative. He makes the two work hand in hand. This is a darker, downbeat, more mature tale than Austin’s fluffy romance and Wright adjusts his handling of it accordingly. He goes out of his way to establish mood, using slow deliberate shots and never rushing to get to the next scene, even if it might be more important to the story. But this narrative pace suits the tale and it never feels as if it’s dragging its heels. Wright wants you to care about the main characters, to understand what they are going through, so that if and when things go wrong, you care. You feel. You understand. They aren’t stereotypes, they aren’t caricatures, they are people. And that makes anything they go through all the more real and relatable and powerful. It’s refreshing to see a movie not pushing you around urging you to keep up with a freight-train rush to the finale and more interested in the people than the set-pieces around them.

That attention to detail is such that even sound plays a huge part in Atonement. The sound editing is heightened to the point that you can hear every little noise from an incessant fly buzzing to Cecila taking a drag off her cigarette. Sounds within the movie also become seamlessly incorporated in to Dario Marianelli’s score in a surreal yet effective way. It all helps come together to give Atonement a sometimes almost dreamlike quality apt to the movie’s tone and themes.

None of the actors can be faulted. McAvoy is charming and likeable as the lowly servant’s son with ambitions in life and a pining for his lost love, Cecilia. With roles like this and his turn in The Last King of Scotland, McAvoy is slowly building himself a resume of great performances and is surely another talent to watch in the coming years.

The always unpredictable but always stunning Keira Knightley proves that when the director is more interested in the characters than the special effects she can put in a good performance. As the bored elder Tallis she successfully captures differing sides to Celila which emerge as the story progresses. McAvoy and Knightley also work well together on-screen. They capture perfectly a repressed desire for each other that eventually has to boil over.

Even young Saoirse Ronan handles herself well as young Briony, whose talent for writing may be more mature than most but is ultimately still a naïve young girl, not yet privy to the workings of adult life. Her strong performance makes it easy to see why Peter Jackson has cast her in the even more challenging lead role of his adaptation of The Lovely Bones. All the leads are propped up by a strong supporting cast of knowns and unknowns who cannot be faulted.

Atonement is a film about love against the odds. But it is also a film about the power and danger of a lie. It’s impossible not to be moved by it, even if like me, you usually approach war-time period dramas with the kind of anti-enthusiam usually reserved only for an Uwe Boll movie.

Sweeney Todd - Review

Sweeping, tragic, epic and strange, Sweeney Todd is, without reservations, one of the best films of the year. Blessed with the oddly perfect pairing of director Tim Burton’s gloomy visuals and Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant music and lyrics, it’s a clever adaptation of a notoriously difficult Broadway play. While remaining respectful to the source material, Burton has created something very much his own. It’s grisly and darkly funny in the way we expect from him, but also more emotionally resonant and genuine than perhaps anything he’s done in his career.

Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) was a happy barber in London, blessed with a beautiful wife and child who, unfortunately, were also admired by the loathsome Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). Turpin sent Barker to an Australian prison on false charges and took wife Lucy and infant daughter Johanna as his own. Lucy poisoned herself, leaving Johanna as Turpin’s ward. Back in London after 15 years in exile, Barker, having renamed himself Sweeney Todd, is out for revenge.

The film begins as Sweeney arrives on a ship into a grim, ghostly London, taking leave of shipmate Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower). The camera then flies through the grimy streets, pausing to take note of clusters of prostitutes or drunks, while the music (but not lyrics) from “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” plays in the background. It’s an exhilarating ride, and Burton’s first opportunity to announce that no, you’re not in the theater any more.

Sweeney soon pays a visit to Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), his former landlady who sells meat pies from the shop below his old flat. She’s preserved Sweeney’s razors for him all these years, and with them in hand he announces “My arm is complete again.” He sets up shop as a barber with the single goal of bringing Turpin beneath his blade. In the meantime though, a run-in with arrogant rival barber Signor Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen) and a just-missed opportunity to shave Turpin unhinges Sweeney a bit. “We all deserve to die,” he tells Mrs. Lovett, and he sets out to cut the throats of as many men as he can. And with the price of meat what it is, Mrs. Lovett reasons, why waste all the material that’s already in the shop?

That is, forgive me, the meat of Sweeney Todd’s story, along wit a subplot that finds Anthony in love with teenage Johanna (Jayne Wisener) and conspiring to spirit her away from Turpin’s grasp. Anthony and Johanna’s parts have been significantly reduced from the musical, with several songs and scenes eliminated entirely. The effect is interesting: it shortens the story, which had to happen (the stage version is 3 hours long!), and throws more attention to the dark, bloody antics of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. There is love in the air, yes, but it’s overpowered by the stench of blood.

As with any Burton production the visuals are the thing here, and they’re spectacular. Sweeney’s London is a monochromatic swirl of black and gray, right down to Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett themselves, pale as ghosts with eyes rimmed black. The muted colors never feel tired, especially when those colors start to be complemented by bloody reds. All the interiors are cramped and filthy, and the streets are even worse; you’re sucked into the vortex with Sweeney, a world with no color and no hope.

Depp and Bonham Carter moor the gothic story with their terrific performances, jumping into their parts with complete disregard to their lack of singing chops. They accomplish the more important task of making what could be caricatures elementally, achingly human. Depp’s Sweeney is as wronged as the poor saps who suffer his close shaves, and you root for him even as he rejects every moral code he has set for himself. And a surprisingly restrained Bonham Carter is a wondrous Mrs. Lovett, in love with a man who can’t see her and willing to do whatever it takes to win him—cannibalism included.

The supporting cast is superb down the line, particularly Campbell Bower and Wisener, with youthful good looks and powerhouse singing voices that nicely contrast the decrepit, doomed pie makers. Rickman is, as always, deliciously villainous, and his scenes with Depp practically emit sparks. Timothy Spall, as Turpin’s unctuous assistant Beadle Bamford, is always welcome, but it’s Baron Cohen who steals the show as Signor Pirelli—he’s a consistent delight in his entire short-lived part.

Burton’s vision of Sweeney Todd allows room for a little humor, particularly Mrs. Lovett’s “By the Sea” song, which envisions her wedding to Sweeney in a candy-colored world, though they both remain pale-faced and dour. When it’s time to turn to tragedy, though, Burton holds nothing back, and ends the film on a note of such shocking darkness you almost beg for an epilogue.

The bloodletting in the final third of the film is rough, but with one glorious exception, you always see it coming, and it likely won’t get in the way of anyone who could handle Javier Bardem’s air gun in No Country for Old Men. The purists should be satisfied that Sondheim’s music is largely intact, and performed ably and energetically; movie fans across the board should be thrilled that a great musical drama can be turned into a great film, a film as gripping and heartbreaking as any in which characters don’t burst into song. Sweeney Todd is often considered Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece; it’s too early to say, but it may be Tim Burton’s as well.