The Greatest Trick

The violence in Wanted is nigh on indefensible. Sequences where bullets fly through the heads of victims in slow motion graphic detail, then rewind, are only there for one reason: titillation. Wanted is an exercise in puerile adolescent fantasy, and therefore a film that will turn off one audience and attract another.

Based on a comic strip I’ve not read, Wanted begins with spineless protagonist Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) trapped in a meaningless dead end job and living with an unfaithful girlfriend. He knows his life is pathetic, but can’t be bothered to do anything about it. Then when Fox (Angelina Jolie) saves his life and tells him he is destined to become a member of the Fraternity – an thousand year old elite assassination secret society – his life takes a bizarre turn. He discovers his father has recently been murdered by a rogue Fraternity agent and decides to get even. But first he must learn to curve a bullet and do other equally ridiculous things, since Fraternity members all have something akin to superpowers.

This is where any pretence the film had at a Fight Club-style serious message gets lost. The Fraternity are an organisation that gets their instructions from – wait for it – a textile loom. Apparently, this mystical loom has a code embedded in the fabric that when decoded gives names of assassination targets that need to be eliminated in order to save lives. This plot contrivance is so utterly preposterous that even allowing for suspension of disbelief, it unravels at the slightest pull of a thread. Who built the loom? How has it survived for centuries? What happens if you switch it off? Why has no-one switched it off? Who was insane enough to go looking for patterns in the fabric in the first place, and why weren’t they sent to a loony bin?

Even leaving aside the monumentally daft “loom of Fate”, Wanted is absolute nonsense from start to finish. But it’s nonsense with several extremely exciting stunts. Two in particular – one involving a train, the other involving rats, are so ludicrously implausible yet undeniably thrilling, that it’s impossible not to get a little sucked into the testosterone fuelled fantasy. Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (best know for cult vampire flick Night Watch) helms his first English language effort here, and as such emulates everyone from John Woo to Sam Peckinpah, Michael Bay and the Wachowski Brothers, but shows little of the unique visual flair he demonstrated in his Russian language work.

Performances are almost an irrelevancy in the face of such a silly script, but I doubt James McAvoy is destined to become a great action figure. Angelina Jolie, who had recently proved she could act with the likes of A Mighty Heart (also apparently excellent in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming Changeling), takes a regressive, Tomb Raider type step here. Heavyweight actors Morgan Freeman and Terence Stamp also pop up in throwaway roles.

Ultimately, this is hedonistic, nihilistic mess of a film, with pornographic levels of violence, not to mention swearing and other miscellaneous content that will no doubt put off several audience members. And as I mentioned before, it is for precisely that reason that it will also attract several others.

Simon Dillon, June 2008.

Prince Caspian has always been the least interesting of CS Lewis’ Narnia series. Essentially, it’s the one you have to read to get to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – a much more exciting novel. However, director Adam Adamson has used this to his advantage by making significant improvements to the story and reshaping its dramatic structure. As a result, Prince Caspian the film is a more satisfying experience than its predecessor, even though The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a much better book. It’s a curious trend, and one that is shared by the Harry Potter series (Order of the Phoenix was the least interesting of the books, but is so far the best of the films).

For those unfamiliar with the plot, some 1300 years have passed in Narnia since the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Telmarines, a group of humans, have taken control of Narnia and banished all the magical creatures into exile. Prince Caspian, true heir to the throne, is almost killed by his usurping Uncle Miraz and forced to flee into the forests, whereupon he discovers the dwarfs, talking animals etc he had been brought up to believe were extinct. In a moment of desperation, he summons the Pevensie children – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy – back to Narnia (only one year has passed in our world) via Susan’s magic horn from the previous story.

The early Harry Potter films were hamstrung by an over earnestness to follow the books precisely, but thankfully Andrew Adamson doesn’t make the same mistake with the Narnia films. Almost all of the changes he has made make the story better. Most significantly, instead of being a child as in the books, Caspian is a young man. Character motivations are more fleshed out, including a believable rivalry that develops between Peter and Caspian. Less believable is a poorly judged romantic subplot between Caspian and Susan, but that’s a minor nit.

The Pevensie children – Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell as Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan respectively – all contribute decent performances, but only Henley’s excellent Lucy really stands out. Newcomer Ben Barnes does fairly well in the lead, and on the basis of this I look forward to seeing him in the Dawn Treader film next summer. However, Sergio Castellitto’s Miraz lacks the necessary menace to make a truly memorable villain like the White Witch. Elsewhere Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davies provide good support as dwarves Trumpkin and Nikabrik respectively. Davies’ appearances in films like this are inevitable and welcome. Those with long memories will also remember he played warrior mouse Reepicheep in the BBC TV version. Incidentally, Eddie Izzard does a decent job of voicing Reepicheep in this version.

Also worth mentioning are Damian Alcazar, Simon Andreu, Predrag Bjelac, Peter Bowles, and Juan Diego Montoya Garcia as various Telmarine dignitaries and generals whose political intrigues and backstabbing provide an interesting diversion for older audience members. Rounding out the cast, are Ken Stott, who makes a decent fist of Trufflehunter the Badger, and Cornell John who brings the appropriate gravitas to centaur Glenstorm (described by the filmmakers in a particularly absurd fit of political correctness as an “African Narnian”). Finally, Liam Neeson has a welcome but brief return vocal appearance as Aslan the Lion.

The action set pieces are all good, and occasionally even outstanding – especially the Lord of the Rings-esque battle sequences, one which involves Ent-like trees. Another excellent sequence details an ill-conceived night attack on Miraz’s castle. Best of all is a stunning, all too brief sequence where a hag, werewolf and renegade dwarf lure Caspian into summoning the White Witch back from beyond the grave. The special effects compliment these scenes well and are certainly an improvement on the first film. Also improved is the cinematography, which uses beautiful New Zealand locations to splendid effect. Even Harry Gregson-Williams’ music score has improved.

The Narnia books are all spiritual allegories, and here the allegory seems to be something vague about the restoration of true faith after a perversion, possibly referring to the reformation. Less vague are strong lessons about crisis of faith and how arrogance can cause us to fight battles that require divine intervention in our own strength. Most interestingly, there is an understated but clear condemnation of using sorcery, even if only as a means to an end, which should please Christians who have issues with a certain Mr Potter. Other traditional virtues such as courage, loyalty, honour and standing against evil are all extolled, so there’s plenty to praise from a moral perspective.

Overall, Prince Caspian is a darker, tougher ride, but it’s also more humorous than its predecessor (one priceless moment involving Reepicheep and a cat in particular). Families of all ages will enjoy this, especially children, and although it’s not a monumental, groundbreaking work like The Lord of the Rings, I would argue it is actually better than the book on which it is based.

Simon Dillon, June 2008.

This summers cinema releases are proving to be full of hidden, underrated gems amid the usual blockbuster fluff. The Escapist is the latest addition to this trend – a stripped down, no-nonsense prison break thriller starring Brian Cox as Frank Perry, a man desperate to make amends with his daughter on the outside before she dies from a drug habit.

The audacious narrative structure cuts back and forth between the escape itself and the planning thereof, cleverly creating two nail-biting plotlines designed for maximum suspense. Not only do viewers want to know if the prisoners will escape, but how Frank overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles prior to the break out. Most of these obstacles are not caused by the authorities but by top convict Rizza (Damian Lewis), a creepy and spectacularly nasty piece of work.

Cox is excellent in the lead and other cast members – including Joseph Fiennes, Liam Cunningham, Seu Jorge and Dominic Cooper – all provide good, albeit stereotyped, support in their various roles. Speaking of stereotypes, many of the usual prison drama clichés are present and correct, but are put to compelling use by Daniel Hardy and Rupert Wyatt’s strong screenplay.

Wyatt also makes his directional debut, and in this area is completely in control. By deliberately eschewing exterior shots and keeping the action set exclusively inside the prison and underground tunnels, he achieves a tremendous sense of claustrophobia. The prison Frank is escaping from is not a modern one (as a friend of mine who visits prisons once said, they are better than some hotels he’s stayed in), but a properly old-fashioned, grim, nasty place where guards are barely visible and do not interfere in the regime Rizza has set up.

Of course, at its heart this is B-movie nonsense, but it’s very gripping B-movie nonsense, even if it’s essentially a British version of Prison Break boiled down to a tight 102 minutes instead of dragging it out over endless weekly episodes. It also has a strangely existential twist ending which elevates it above and beyond anything Prison Break had to offer. Although it’s not quite in the same league as Midnight Express or The Shawshank Redemption, The Escapist is still a very fine piece of work and well worth a look – if you can stomach the very strong language and occasional nasty burst of bloody violence.

Simon Dillon, June 2008.

Ang Lee’s 2003 version of Hulk was an interesting failure. Lee, known for such thoughtful, dramatic fare as The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility and Eat Drink Man Woman was a too cerebral choice for helming a Hulk movie, and the film he produced provided a plethora of existential musings on the ambivalent nature of anger, Freud and associated oedipal trauma but skimped on adrenaline pumping action. Its main problem was that it took itself far too seriously (if Schindler’s List and The Passion of the Christ can have funny bits, surely Hulk could have lightened up a bit). Subsequently, Marvel reacquired the rights and after the success of Batman Begins and Casino Royale, decided to capitalise on the current trend for “rebooting” a franchise (in other words, starting again by pretending all previous incarnations did not exist).

In contrast to Ang Lee’s version, The Incredible Hulk is a far more straightforward affair; a no-nonsense comic book movie which dispenses with the origin story in the opening credits and has action from the word go. But it’s also a much less emotionally involving story. In fact, the characters are more sympathetic in the 1977 TV movie by Kenneth Johnson (who went on to make the superb V miniseries).

That’s not to say Ed Norton isn’t good in the role of Bruce Banner, but there are maddening gaps in the plot. Rumours the film was pared down from a considerably longer cut under protest from Norton and director Louis Letterier might go some way to explaining this, but its pointless to speculate on whether this would have improved the film or not. In the meantime, we are left with the usual variation on Jekyll and Hyde – gamma radiations experiments that go wrong cause scientist Banner to become the Hulk when he gets angry. In this version, he goes undercover in Brazil trying to find a cure, leaving behind girlfriend Betty Ross (a suitably tearful Liv Tyler), whose exact involvement in the original experiment remains maddeningly unclear, again possibly as a result of the scenes left on the cutting room floor. The US military discover Banner within minutes of the film beginning (via a nifty Stan Lee cameo) and there follows a well directed action sequence reminiscent of last summers rooftop chase in The Bourne Ultimatum.

Unfortunately, as the film progresses, the action sequences become increasingly boring, and the characters less interesting. Despite the occasional interesting touch (a sequence involving sonic weapons for instance), the CG is only occasionally convincing, and a ludicrously overextended final smackdown between Hulk and monstrous nemesis Abomination (Tim Roth after taking a similar dose of gamma radiation) is utterly uninvolving and cartoonish.

Marvel clearly intend this to be a potential franchise. Alternatively, given a Tony Stark cameo at the end and with a Captain America movie announced, they might want to make an Avengers film with Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America et al, and are introducing these heroes with their own movies one by one. At any rate, on its own terms The Incredible Hulk is faintly entertaining fluff, but it’s not as smart or fun as Iron Man, which itself was no masterpiece. The smart money is still on The Dark Knight as this summer’s potentially classic comic book movie.

Simon Dillon, June 2008.

By now, Ben Affleck has been dismissed by most as an actor of limited range. However, based on the strength of his 1997 screenplay for Good Will Hunting, I had always hoped he would get back behind the camera. With Gone Baby Gone, he has crafted an extremely good film, establishing himself as a very serious director and a real talent to watch. If that means the death of his onscreen career, it is a sacrifice well worth making.

Besides, it is his brother, Casey Affleck, who really has the acting talent. Here, as Boston private investigator Patrick Kenzie, he is almost as outstanding as he was in The Assassination of Jesse James. Kenzie is hired to look into the case of missing four year old girl Amanda McCready – a case that will eventually become an obsession for him. Affleck plays the role brilliantly; at once naïve yet wise, quiet but angry, and although he doesn’t look tough, it soon becomes clear he is very capable of taking care of himself.

The entire cast is provided with fully rounded, three-dimensional characters to really get their teeth into. Michelle Monaghan is excellent as Angie, Kenzie’s partner both romantically and professionally. Kenzie’s relationship with her begins to unravel as the story progresses, and it eventually becomes clear that his obsession could cause him to lose her. Amy Ryan provides brilliant support as Amanda’s drug addict mother Helene, who at first appears a hopeless case; childish, utterly irresponsible and seemingly unconcerned with her daughter’s disappearance. However, it soon becomes clear that she is grief stricken and desperately wants to change, even though she doesn’t know if she can.

Morgan Freeman brings the expected gravitas to the part of Jack Doyle, a police captain who lost his own daughter years previously and Ed Harris also has a terrific role as tough, cynical cop, Remy Bressant. Even the smaller parts, played by John Ashton, Amy Madigan, Titus Welliver, Edi Gathegi, Madeleine O’Brien and others, are hugely memorable.

In adapting Dennis Lehane’s novel, Affleck’s technique is simple but effective. He’s not afraid to use hand-held cameras, or to stage suspenseful sequences in near darkness, whereas a more anxious director making his debut is unlikely to be as experimental. One particularly effective moment where a character has killed someone for the first time sees said character staring at their reflection in a window. The reflection is ghosted, like a bad television reception, subtly suggesting how that character will never be the same. The gritty tone of the Boston neighbourhoods feels as real and believable as it did in Clint Eastwood’s similarly themed Mystic River (which was also written by Lehane). Speaking of influences, Affleck references several previous films concerning child abduction/death, including Don’t Look Now, The Pledge and even Fritz Lang’s 1931 classic M.

There are many, many fascinating issues raised by this dark and riveting thriller. Firstly and most obviously, it taps into the vein of cultural fear currently gripping ours and other western nations regarding child safety. Yet it does not exploit that fear for lurid purposes, but instead gets the audience to think about a more profound issue: just who do children belong to? The Bible is clear that children are a reward from God and that they only belong to their parents for a season. The film seems to side with this argument, and in its own subtle way condemns the argument prevalent in our society that everyone has the right to a child. Finally, and most contentiously, it discusses what role if any outsiders should have in protecting children, and suggests that sometimes intervention is not a good idea, even when the mother is an irresponsible drug addict. Outside of child protection issues, the film touches on themes of obsession, justice and revenge, and doesn’t offer any glib easy answers. Taking the law into ones own hands is questioned, as is “positive” corruption. Depending on the views of the person watching, the viewer will either cheer or condemn Kenzie’s uncompromising actions at the end.

Gone Baby Gone has had something of a troubled history on this side of the pond. Initially slated for release over a year ago, distributors decided to delay the film because of similarities to the Madeleine McCann case (indeed, the girl in the film does bear an uncanny resemblance). I am always cynical about such moves, since distributors claim it is to be sensitive, when in truth it is because they are worried it will affect box office takings. Such was the controversy that for a time it appeared the picture might go straight to video or wouldn’t get a UK release at all.

Thankfully, common sense prevailed and the film has finally been given a cinema run. Not that I expect it to do well as it is the wrong time of year for such intelligent fare, and it will no doubt drown in an ocean of summer blockbusters. If Gone Baby Gone is destined for obscurity, then that is a crying shame, as it is easily one of the best I have seen this year, and certainly the most underrated. Based on the strength of this extraordinary, haunting film, I eagerly look forward to Ben Affleck’s next project. It only remains for me to issue the obligatory warnings about repeated use of very strong language, as well as some violence, but much of this is mitigated by the setting and subject matter. Gone Baby Gone isn’t for everyone, and some of its plot developments are predictable, but for those who like strong, serious, uncompromised cinema which grapples with difficult issues; this is emotive, gripping, thought provoking stuff.

Simon Dillon, June 2008.