Lessons of Darkness

Bye Bye 2008

And with these two negative reviews, 2008 is officially a wrap. See you all in the new year!

In Theaters:
Bedtime Stories (Slant magazine)
Marley & Me (Slant magazine)

Defiance (2008): C

Can no one stop Ed Zwick’s reign of mediocrity? The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond director delivers yet another one of his action-packed historical dramas with Defiance, in which heroes brood, hunks curl up with hotties under warm blankets, brothers squabble, and stuff goes kaboom with deadening predictability. Zwick’s trademark talk-explosion!-talk-gunfire!-talk template is at this point so set in stone that his latest could have been directed by any second-unit director, though there’s little about this reality-fashioned-into-fantasy “true story” – aside from leading man Daniel Craig’s participation – that might reasonably entice aspiring auteurs. In 1941, with Nazi-collaborating Polish police forces slaughtering Jews (including their parents), brothers Tuvia (Craig), Zus (Liev Schrieber) and Asael Bielski (Jamie Bell) flee into the Belarusian woods, where they establish a makeshift camp that’s soon inundated with Jewish refugees from neighboring towns. Tuvia and Zus are at odds over how to combat this National Socialist terror, with Tuvia choosing to function as protector-savior-Moses to the exiles and Zus opting for kill-'em-all military duty alongside the forest’s scheming Soviet forces. The particulars of their ostensibly stirring tale, however, aren’t of any real concern, since they merely fill in the gaps between conventional romantic gazes, noisy combat and valiant speeches. Defiance smacks every clichéd note with maximum gusto, but given the absence of depth and mystery to its narrative and characterizations, there’s virtually no reason to even pay attention – if you’ve seen any of Zwick’s prior faux-serious slam-bang period pieces, you’ve already seen this one too.

Good (2008): C+

As with this season’s Adam Resurrected, Good’s most impactful moment involves concentration camp prisoners playing, with orchestral instruments, a lyrical death march for impending gas chamber victims. And like Paul Schrader’s film, Vicente Amorim’s drama – adapted from C.P. Taylor’s 1981 play – is otherwise decidedly blunt and unaffecting. In 1933 Germany, liberal professor John Halder (Viggo Mortensen) is perturbed by the ascendant Nazi party’s book burning, yet only meekly raises his voice in objection. Married to a remote pianist (Anastasia Hille) and caring for his senile mother (Gemma Jones), Halder feels trapped until he meets, and is seduced by, a student named Anne (Jodie Whittaker) who’s the epitome of Aryan beauty. Halder’s passive role in their affair and subsequent marriage mirrors his rise up the national socialist ladder, which Amorim’s film depicts as a process facilitated not by dastardly beliefs but by cowardly, selfish, easy acquiescence. Halder is recruited into the SS (as an honorary member, and then ultimately as an active one) because of his novel about assisted suicide that the Fuhrer personally admired for its portrait of humane murder, the obvious reason for Hitler’s true interest in this theme left shrewdly implicit by John Wrathall’s screenplay. The rest of the film, however, is a case of obvious repetition, with Halder’s course of action repeatedly, predictably driven by craven personal expedience, damn the consequences for those like his Jewish friend Maurice (Jason Isaacs). Mortensen’s limp, indecisive gestures and quiet, quavering voice ably convey Halder’s weakness. Yet Good – directed with passable, somewhat stagey formality by Amorim – definitively establishes its argument so early on that, aside from its final revelation regarding Halder’s sporadic hallucinations, it only mildly stirs the head or heart.

Last Chance Harvey (2008): C-

It’s mildly refreshing that Last Chance Harvey isn’t tween-minded, but that doesn’t mean this adult rom-com is smart, funny or moving. Writer/director Joel Hopkins’ story begins dreadfully, clumsily crosscutting between lonely American divorcé Harvey (Dustin Hoffman) and lonely British statistics agency employee Kate (Emma Thompson) as they each suffer an identically uncomfortable, depressing night out in the company of people from whom they feel detached. Harvey’s in London to attend the wedding of estranged daughter Susan (Liane Balaban), which just reminds him of his failures and loneliness, while Kate is cell phone-hounded by her mother (Eileen Atkins), who thinks her Polish neighbor is a murderer (look, he’s carrying a body-shaped bag!) and who persistently frets over her daughter’s single status. When Harvey and Kate finally meet, their initial rapport has a tinge of nastiness that momentarily hints at spikier stuff to come. But no, Last Chance Harvey soon proves to be merely sentimental slop for the 50-and-older crowd that's made sporadically tolerable by Thompson's winning charm but, unfortunately, is largely dominated by Hoffman's grating, cloying performance. Hopkins feigns serious interest in the trickiness of later-in-life love while indulging in corny humor (a sequence that finds Kate trying on dresses is a sheer embarrassment) and even worse bathos, which – typified by Harvey’s attempts to reconcile with Susan over crimes of aloofness that are left ill-defined in order to keep him from seeming like an irredeemable cretin – relegates the action to rote drivel.

The REAL Next-to-Last

Well, I guess this is, in fact, my second-to-last link dump of the year, since a final one will show up right before Christmas next week. Nonetheless, it's the big one - in terms of featuring high-profile awards contenders - that I was referring to a couple of nights ago.

This Week:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Slant magazine)
Revolutionary Road (Slant magazine)
Valkyrie (Slant magazine)

Next to Last

Here's a quick link dump for this Thursday evening, with my final 2008 one to come next week that'll include reviews of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Reservation Road, and a thriller featuring a very silly-looking eye-patched superstar.

Now Playing:
Seven Pounds (Cinematical)
Yes Man (Slant magazine)
The Tale of Despereaux (Slant magazine)

indieWIRE: Critics' Poll '08

For the third year running, I was invited to participate in indieWIRE's annual film critics' poll. While the poll's final results will be released shortly, ballots have already gone online, including yours truly's, a link to which can be found below.

My indieWIRE Critics' Poll '08 Ballot

2008: Year In Film

 
With the year coming to a close, it's time again for the annual ritual of critics' top ten lists. Over at Slant magazine, Ed Gonzalez and I (as well as Bill Weber and Andrew Schenker) detail our favorites from 2008, a year that didn't exactly overwhelm with amazing films but offered enough good stuff to prevent the past twelve months from being a total bust.

2008: Year in Film (Slant magazine)

Happy Holocaust!

For the first of my two year-end features for IFC News, I take a humorously critical look at this award season's notable trend: Holocaust-themed dramas.

Dear Moviegoers -- Happy Holocaust! Love, Hollywood (IFC News)

Link It Up

I can't believe I only just now thought of this post title, given that the song it references is one of my all-time least favorites. Anyway, I digress. Here are this week's two new links.

Out Now:
Gran Torino (Cinematical)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) (Slant magazine)