Rating: MMMMM

Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Invictus tells the story of the true events that followed the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa, and Mandela’s subsequent attempt to unite his fragile and divided country with the help of South African rugby captain, Francois Pienaar.

Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon,
Running time: 133 mins

Based on John Carlin’s bestselling book, ‘Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed a Nation’, Invictus begins just after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison – with one scene in particular capturing the separated nature of the country, presenting two playing fields bisected by a long road – on one side white schoolboys play rugby, on the other black children play football. In this scene along with many others (and coupled with the use of real archive footage) Eastwood clearly and simply presents South Africa as a culturally divided nation torn apart by apartheid, but one that Mandela (Morgan Freeman) aims to rebuild.

Following the dissolution of the apartheid system and the oppressive politics that went with it, there is feeling in the country that all symbols and remnants of white Afrikaner power should be disbanded in order to build a new South African identity. However, Mandela recognises that this could potentially deepen the cultural rift between whites and blacks. While attending a Springboks rugby match, Mandela realises that uniting the country behind the national team would be a great foundation on which to build the new South Africa. President Mandela therefore enlists the help of the Springboks’ captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) and the two work together to make the rubgy team an emblem of national unity and one that all South Africa could support.

From the outset, Invictus is a warm, intelligent, inspiring film that presents its vision of hope with impressive conviction and overwhelming power. The film boasts a great script, (which is in fact surprisingly funny as Freeman is given some charmingly pithy one-liners as Mandela) great performances and a wonderful spirit that will win over those not au fait with rugby, sport or knowledge of the period in South African history. Eastwood has delivered a beautiful film that combines wonderfully directed personal scenes (those between Mandela’s security team are great, as are those between the President and Pienaar), emotional and haunting moments (where Pienaar visits Mandela’s cell on Robben Island is wonderful) and fast-paced adrenaline-charged rugby sequences.

In a role he was seemingly born to play, Morgan Freeman is completely convincing as Nelson Mandela, possessing all the gravitas and presence needed to play the man who has become such a symbol of greatness and goodness around the world. While Freeman’s accent does falter at times, this is a minor problem in a performance that is otherwise pitch perfect – Mandela is never presented as all-knowing and godlike, but a man struggling with his own problems, living apart from his family and estranged from his wife.

Matt Damon is also very good as captain Francois Pienaar, lifting what could have been (in the face of the Mandela character) a fairly dull and quiet role into the realms of inspiration, particularly in the Robben Island sequences and the closing stages of the rugby world cup final between South Africa and the fearsome New Zealand All Blacks.

Invictus is a wonderful, charming and uplifting film that will satisfy sports fans and newcomers alike. Eastwood has produced a piece of work filled with moments of sheer joy that will have you misty-eyed and a sense of hope that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled. One of the best films of 2010 so far, just fantastic.

Rating: MMMMM

Rating:

From celebrated director Jane Campion comes a biopic of nineteenth century Romantic poet John Keats, exploring his romance with Miss Fanny Brawne, beginning in 1818.

Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, Paul Schneider
Running time: 119 mins approx.

Critically acclaimed for her early 90s period drama The Piano, New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion has created a beautiful and heartbreaking film in her latest effort, Bright Star. Exploring the life of John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his doomed love affair with Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), the film is beautifully shot – Campion makes excellent use of colours, textures and lighting to a wonderfully romantic effect. One scene in particular in which Fanny reads one Keats’ love letters takes place in a wooded sea of violet-hued bluebells, the bright purples and swathes of green perfectly contrasting each other. Throughout the film Campion uses her pastoral setting very well, utilising the landscape, trees, woods and flowers to create a believable and stunning world for the characters to fall in love in.

And fall in love they surely do. After an initially frosty first meeting, the feisty Fanny Brawne enlists Keats to teach her about poetry and language. At first, Fanny is not much enamoured by the young poet but this feeling changes rapidly after she notices Keats’ anxiety and affection for his brother who lies seriously ill. The two then meet with quickening frequency and find themselves entangled in a passionate love affair that sets the wider community gossiping. However, with Keats’ own health in serious speedy decline, a dark shadow is cast over the lovers’ affair, one that even the strongest love cannot overcome.

The gentle and tragic story of Bright Star is very well directed with the exception of a few scenes which are too languorous – it appears that Campion was aiming to create moods of tension and repressed passion but instead these scenes simply run out of steam.

Consequently the second act is slow and needs more dynamism and drama to keep the film interesting. However, in terms of acting, Bright Star certainly excels. Abbie Cornish is very good as the headstrong Fanny Brawne, simultaneously eliciting sympathy whilst not being an instantly likeable lead heroine. However, as her love for Keats blossoms, so does our fondness for her, to the point that her sorrow in the film’s tragic conclusion is heartbreaking. Cornish’s performance in this particular scene is excellent – Cornish presents Fanny feeling the emotional pain physically and with an arresting intensity.

As Keats himself, Ben Whishaw is haunting, having a suitably poetic quality about him. He is at all times thoroughly convincing as the young poet, being attractive, quiet and possessing a certain beautiful melancholic air. The only problem with Whishaw’s portrayal of Keats is that the character could at times do with some angry passion to measure the tender embraces and pained looks that seem to dominate his relationship with Fanny.

Bright Star is a beautiful, gentle and tragic romance that combines wonderful production design with good storytelling to haunting effect.

Rating: MMMM

As soon as I did so, my vegetative state took on a new guise as one rapt, transfixed by what I saw: glossy visuals, beautiful shots and clever mise-en-scene, stellar acting and a script on a level with Aaron Sorkin’s best work.

Set in early 60’s America amongst an elite community of advertising executives, the show explores politics, socioeconomic issues, sexism and ethnicity with apparent aplomb and proves what a hellish world the office workplace could be for women at the time, unprotected by the sexual harassment laws of today.

Admittedly this is all based on the first episode alone, but this is the first intelligent, high-quality series since ‘The Wire’ that I’ve got really excited about.

Review of Coco Avant Chanel, biopic of  French fashion designer and style icon,
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou and Alessandro Nivola. French with English subtitles.

Director: Anne Fontaine
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Alessandro Nivola, Benoit Poelvoorde, Marie Gillain
Running time: 105 mins

Coco Avant Chanel as one might expect from the film’s title, tells the story of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s early life, in her younger days before the advent of her now world famous fashion house. The film charts Chanel’s origins from coquettish young cabaret dancer to professional hat maker, going on to design and make clothes to sell in her Paris store, a shop which still stands today.

Coco Avant Chanel is beautifully shot, cutting effortlessly between intimate interior scenes in the social world that Coco finds so stuffy and the fabulously lit outdoor sequences displaying rural France in all its pastoral glory. It is clear that no expense has been spared by the art department with a wealth of costumes and colour palettes that are visibly authentic and correspond well to Chanel’s signature styles. But never is the art and design of the film allowed to take over the story of Chanel’s often troubled life. And it is these peaks and troughs which make her such an interesting personality. Audrey Tautou is excellent in the title role, although never conjuring the same kind of engagement she achieved in the superb Amelie (2002) – this is perhaps due to the very nature of Chanel as a personality, a somewhat aloof and distant woman, battling with emotional demons and familial hardships. Alessandro Nivola is excellent as Chanel’s love interest, Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel, mastering both British and French accents with effortless aplomb. The supporting cast including Chanel’s rich benefactor Balsan and sister Adrienne are also very good.

Living at a time where corsets and bustles were the norm, Chanel instead rejects the conventional forms of dress, refusing to subscribe to the corseted fashions of the day and wearing dresses and blouses without the customary whalebone support. However, Chanel’s decision to do so is not entirely linked with mere creative whim – it demonstrates both her practical nature and uniqueness. Instead of riding side-saddle surrounded by copious amounts of skirt fabric like her female contemporaries, Chanel chooses to wear masculine trousers and shirts enabling her to straddle a horse like a man – thus freeing herself of the restrictions posed by women’s fashion. However, Chanel’s rebellious attire and behaviour divides the opinions of those around her – some believe her to be a shameless radical who should know better, whereas some approach her outfits with a certain reverence and admiration. One lady is so fascinated by Chanel’s wardrobe choices that she asks her to design and make her a hat, a commission which sets Coco on a journey which will eventually lead her to make her fortune in Paris, the fashion capital of the world. Where the film succeeds particularly is in the sequences demonstrating Chanel’s keen eye for detail, panning around to focus on patterns of lace, particular colours, shapes, lines and textures that strike the young designer.

Coco Avant Chanel is a pleasing and interesting study of an intriguing woman, one whose life will continue to fascinate long after the credits roll. An entertaining watch not just for fashion lovers, and a well put together piece of drama that is a credit to the biopic genre.

Rating: MMMM

Rating: MMMM

Review of Michael Mann’s ‘biopic’ of the notorious American criminal, John Dillinger.

Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, David Wenham, Stephen Dorff
Running time: 140 mins

In the 1930s, America was swept by a crime wave, with the notorious criminal John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) at the centre. Michael Mann’s new film follows Dillinger, his associates and a special team of Federal Agents – led by Melvin Pervis (Christian Bale) – in their attempt to take down Dillinger and his gang.

As with Collateral and Miami Vice, 2009’s Public Enemies is photographed digitally, a technique which tends to add a slight blur to the frames. In Mann’s two previous films this worked well, adding an aesthetic quality (especially the slick urban environment of Miami Vice) that when coupled with the predominant use of steadicams, gave a documentary feel. Sadly, Mann’s penchant for shooting in this way does not work well here. Public Enemies being shot with steadicams and on digital detracts from the overall style. The period setting causes the inevitable blurring to seem very out of place – as the film cannot possibly be a documentary the action therefore seems contrived and false. Mann can also be faulted for his direction, in that his actors sometimes deliver lines of dialogue that are barely comprehensible through being spoken too quickly, quietly or lost under heavy accents. The action sequences in the film whilst being very well executed are at times too lengthy and poorly lit to be engaging – one scene has two of Dillinger’s gang members running through a dark forest, pursued by the feds, all of which is very difficult to distinguish in the dark (although this near-blackness does allow for the gunfire to illuminate the characters’ faces which is a nice touch). However, these are minor setbacks in an otherwise excellent film.

As ever, Johnny Depp excels in a charismatic role – the real life John Dillinger was reported to be an engaging and captivating personality, one that Depp masters and delivers very well. Certain scenes present Dillinger’s charisma shining through a tough-guy persona, including a moment where Dillinger offers a woman a warm winter coat when he and the gang have just taken her hostage. It is in the scenes with love-interest Billie Frechette (played to sultry, sassy perfection by La Vie en Rose’s Marion Cotillard) however, that Dillinger is at his most charming. One scene in particular has a coquettish Billie in the bath, leaning her leg in an overtly erotic way, to which Dillinger responds superbly. This playful rogue behaviour is also in abundance in what is arguably one of the film’s best scenes, where Dillinger takes a visit to the Police department building and blithely walks around the special ‘John Dillinger Unit’, a whole detail of police assigned to tracking and apprehending him. Surprisingly enough, Depp outshines his co-star, super-ego Christian Bale as the latter portrays Agent Purvis with a lack of intensity or depth. This said, Bale’s performance may seem underwhelming in contrast to Depp’s maximised screen time and much of the plot given over to the romance between Dillinger and Billie Frechette (which may anger some audiences, eager to see the number of tommy gun battles so promised in the film’s trailer).

Public Enemies is yet another sterling addition to the already stellar Michael Mann canon, providing an interesting narrative trajectory, good performances, wonderful period details and costumes and the best insight into crimefighting in 1930s America since The Untouchables.

Rating: MMMM

Review of Doubt first published in a February 2009 issue Spark*, the newspaper of Reading University Students’ Union.

Director: John Patrick Shanley
Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Running time: 104 mins

For those who have only seen Meryl Streep in recent summer romp Mamma Mia or the fashion-themed fun of The Devil Wears Prada, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt is a great window onto some of her more serious performances. This is for the primary reason that Doubt is well and truly Streep’s film, despite what the film’s Oscar nominations might suggest (an acting nomination for Streep, Hoffman and Adams). But this is also one of the main detractions from the film: Streep’s powerful performance (which undoubtedly – pun intended – is excellent) is left to dominate and overshadow the film itself. Adams’ performance is very good, although she seems to maintain a look of anxious trepidation throughout the entire film. Hoffman’s performance follows his usual excellent standards, simultaneously conveying an uncomfortable creepiness and kind benevolence.

The film features some clever subtle moments, one where Sister Aloysius (Streep) forces Sister James (Adams) to eat a piece of gristle that she previously spit out and put on her plate with one piercing look from her beady eyes – conveying the silent power and domination that Sister Aloysius holds over Saint Nicholas School and the rest of the nuns.  The nun who is suffering from sight deterioration placing the figures in the nativity crib at Christmas is also deftly handled. So is the cinematography, with some interesting off-balance and low-angle shots.

However, aside from three very good performances, Doubt fails to deliver on pretty much any other level. The film’s premise is basically all that happens in the film: nun/principal of Catholic school suspects and accuses priest of having a questionable relationship with a student. Doubt tries but never succeeds in escaping from this problem – nothing happens in the film that you haven’t already seen in the trailer. As for the ending: on one hand, the film’s climax which breaks with conventional explorations of mystery (by giving no answer one way or the other whether Sister Aloysius’s suspicions were correct or not) is an interesting one, leaving the audience to work out their own conclusions and judgements. On the other hand however, the film’s ending leaves the audience with a lack of real resolution and ‘closure’, forcing further questions to be asked than any to be answered. For some this would be to the film’s credit, but sadly not for this critic. There is an overriding sense of heavy-handedness in the film’s dialogue and smaller lead-up scenes which begins to grate and eventually becomes very irritating: “it takes a cat to catch a mouse” and “the wind has changed” are both lines that smack of poor writing that scream of try-hard symbolism.

All in all, Doubt marks another great performance from the ever-excellent Streep and Hoffman, and further establishes Adams’ reputation from being a star on the rise. But the overwhelming lack of dynamism and pace makes what could otherwise be a tense and intriguing drama into a tedious and dull 100 minutes. Perhaps Doubt works better on the stage (the film is a celluloid version of Shanley’s own play), but to be frank, I’ve seen enough.

Rating: MMM