THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY

After a overly long gestation period this lesser-known psychological thriller from novelist Patricia Highsmith finally makes it to the big screen.  The year is 1962 and the story opens on the sunny steps of the Acropolis where two American tourists, Chester McFarland and his much younger bride Collette, are having fun enjoying the splendor of the Ruins, whilst nearby Rydal a handsome charismatic Tour Guide has a small group of young wealthy debutantes eating out of his hands.  At Collette's insistence Chester hires the guide to take them sightseeing although he quickly realises that the young man is not all he claims to be.

It turns out that neither is Chester, and the past that he is running from is far more complicated and filled with danger. That night a Private Investigator turns up at Chester's hotel room and threatens to expose him unless he repays the money he swindled from some Clients in a Ponzi-type scheme.  After a struggle in which he kills the man, Chester realises that he will need to quickly flee Athens before the murder is discovered.  So he turns to Rydal sensing that the young man will know someone who can get them new passports to replace the ones that the Hotel had taken off them when they checked in.

As they all need to hideout until the new Passports can be forged, Rydal suggests that they take the night ferry to the distant island of Crete. However when they arrive there the Hotel will not give them rooms without proper identity, so they  catch a decripit local bus into the remote heart of the island hoping that a more basic village inn would take them in regardless. As the journey gets more difficult and fraught the trio seem less elegant and assured particularly as there are strong undercurrents of mistrust developing between them, especially the two men.  Rydal seems fixated with Chester who he thinks off as a substitute figure for his father whom is estranged from, whilst on the other hand Chester suspects that the young man wants to steal Colette away from him.

Suspicion leads to treachery and the pace gets more frenetic as they try to keep one eye on each other whilst keeping the other eye looking out for the authorities in hot pursuit as they start catching up on them.  It's very clear that it's not going to end well for any of them. 

It's hardly a Hitchcock masterpiece like his adaption of Highsmith's 'Strangers on A Train', nor is it Minghella's take on the novelist's 'Talented Mr Ripley' but Oscar nominated screenwriter Hossein Amini in his directing debut does an admirable job keeping the tension level high in this gripping thriller. The moody cinematography is particular is superb adding a very dramatic visual look to this period piece. Whilst the lead actors Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst may not have a great deal of chemistry as a couple, they put in really fine performances as the troubled McFarlands that one expects from these two talented actors  The real joy however is Oscar Isaac who was completely mesmerizing as Rydal, and this following hotly on from his riviting  turn in 'Inside Lllewyn Davies' clearly shows that he is destined to be a major star.

★★★★★★★★

YOU WILL BE MY SON

Paul has always imitated and bullied his rather meek adult son Martin.  He blames his wife's premature death on the sheer stress of looking after puny Martin in his difficult childhood, and although his son has worked hard to take his place in the family winemaking business, he still does not have either the love or respect of his difficult father.

Their rather spectacular Bordeaux vineyard has been in their family for 11 generations so Martin assumes when his father dies he will inherit it next.   Paul has other ideas and when Francois his old Estate Manager and right-hand man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he panics and calls and asks Francois's son Phillipe to come home and visit his dying father. Phillipe has been managing the famed Coppola Winery in California and is a charming extrovert and confident young man  ... the very opposite of Martin.

It soon becomes clear that Paul's motive in persuading Phillipe's visit was a devious plot to make him his heir and adopted son rather than have him visit his sick father. Along the way the wily old man not only breaks the heart of Martin who has put up with being treated with such disdain over years, but he also unknowingly infuriates Francois who has never been rewarded for his enormous part of the vineyards success and now sees this wealthy man just attempting to 'buy' his son.  It will be Paul's eventual downfall.

This monster father & mild son strife is a rather harrowing psychological dark drama more surprisingly so as it is set in the extraordinarily beautiful lush green countryside with its rolling hills and its wonderful ancient chateau.  Paul is played so perfectly by veteran Nils Arestrup who seems to have cornered the market in playing this tough father figures in French cinema ('Our Children', 'The Prophet', 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped'). Martin is played by Lorant Deutsch but poor man, his character is overshadowed not just by handsome Phillipe (Nicolas Bridet) but also from his lively feisty wife Madeline (Valérie Mairesse) who is the only one not scared of facing up to this unscrupulous old man.

Gripping story beautifully told with an unexpected ending.

P.S. Apart from this being my second Nils Arestrup this week, its my third movie on wine making in as many weeks ('Red Obsession' & 'Somm') ..... I really want a drink now BUT they all featured vintages I could probably never afford!

★★★★★★★★

SIDE EFFECTS

A chronically depressed young woman attempts suicide just days after her new husband has been released from prison after he served a sentence for insider trading. The Psychiatrist on duty in the ER room prescribes different regimes of drugs which do not shake off the 'poisonous fog bank' she is immersed in until she persuades him to give her Ablixa a new wonder drug. Whilst highly medicated she commits a dire crime and when she is tried in court uses Ablixa as her excuse and points the finger of blame at the Doctor for not knowing about the side effects.

This latest (and possibly last) movie from director Steven Soderbugh is one that you should know very little about before you see it. It is a first-rate convoluted thriller that unravels beautifully slowly and reminds you what a master storyteller Mr Soderbugh is when he is on form. It also at the same time takes a hefty swipe at the inequities of how the medical profession are in cohorts with the powerful pharmaceutical industry to over-prescribe untested drugs far too easily.

The plot is unquestionably the star of the piece, and with the exception of Rooney Mara in her just her third starring role, the acting was proficient but hardly remarkable. (Although why Mr Soderburgh keeps insisting on casting the handsome but wooden Channing Tatum is beyond me!)  

If this really is his last movie (save for 'Behind The Candelabra' the Liberace biopic due out on HBO very soon) then it's great that he is going out at the top of his (occasionally shaky) form.  But Mr Soderburgh is part of Hollywood where 'never again' rarely means just that.

★★★★★★★★

STOKER

On the way home to celebrate India Stoker's 18th Birthday her father is in a fatal car crash, and so the movie opens with a funeral and a wake.  They are somber affairs not because of the death itself but the frigid atmosphere between the eccentric India and her aloof cold-fish of a mother. Stuck in their secluded country mansion, India retreats into her grief, whilst mother gets distracted by the sudden arrival of her late husband's handsome younger brother that India had never previously heard of.

Charlie quickly moves into the house and into his sister-in-law's bed whilst its still warm, much to India's annoyance as she doesn't fall for her Uncle's oozing charms. Nor does the Housekeeper who is the only person who actually had known Charlie before, but she mysteriously disappears without a trace the very next morning.

There is another visitor soon, a rarely seen Aunt, who comes to dinner one night specifically to warn the family about Charlie, although she is obviously petrified of him and she leaves she presses her phone number into India's hand asking her to call later. She too disappears. 

Charlie's attention soon turns to India and when her initial distrust turns full circle into infatuation, she becomes aware of his involvement in the disappearance of these people, and is complicit in the violent acts that this unhinged man continues to inflict. She also invokes the seething rage of her brittle mother for taking away the only pleasure/distraction in her rather empty life.

This wonderful stylish thriller is the first Hollywood movie from South Korean leading filmmaker Park Chan-wook who has built his reputation making movies, such as 'Oldboy', that are both beautiful works of art with very brutal subject matters.  The latter of which in this movie, I have barely touched upon, trust me!  Its very interestingly the first screenplay by successful TV actor Wentworth Miller ('Prison Break'), and is visually stunning and beautifully photographed in Tennessee by Chan-wook's regular DP Chung-hoon Chung.

Mia Wasikowska as creepy India and Nicole Kidman as her mother both excel in understated performances as these two detached woman who totally despise each other and lead separate lives in this opulent souless house. Uncle Charlie is played Brit actor Matthew Goode who is wonderfully slimy and much more suited to the part than Colin Firth who was originally attached to the project. And in another scene stealing cameo, my favorite Aussie actress Jacquie Weaver plays Aunt Gwendolyn. 

It's a very subtle piece with a storyline that constantly twists and gets darker and more shocking as it unfolds. The attention to the most minute detail in every sense and on every level ... makes it such a compelling view .... and re-affirms Chan-wook's well deserved reputation as a true auteur.

Premiered at Sundance, this is about to hit US Theaters next week, and those in Europe in May.

P.S. It's the last film that the late Tony Scott produced.

P.P.S. Spike Lee has just remade Chan-wook's 'Oldboy' in Hollywood.  Why?

★★★★★★★★★

i, ANNA

Veteran actress Charlotte Rampling is in great demand these days averaging three new movies a year.  Like fellow Brit Kirstin Scott Thomas, Ms Rampling successfully flits back and forth to Europe and is equally at home making both French and English movies.  It would be interesting to know what criteria she uses to make her work choices, but for her latest role in this yet to be released new movie, I think it fair to assume that the over-riding factor was that the young man making his directing & screenwriting debut was her son Barnaby Southcombe.

In this rather stunning film noir, Ms Rampling plays Anna, a divorcee and mother, who is quite the femme fatale. We first see her when she is somewhat reluctantly taking part at a Speed Dating Party, and as a consequence ends up going home with a rather pushy man who picks her up.  The next scene has her departing his apartment building in the early hours of the morning at the same time a Detective Inspector is entering it on his way to investigate a murder. It took place in the same apartment where Anna had spent the night, but it is far from clear what actually happened and if Anna is involved.

The Inspector had noticed Anna and tracks her down via her car's licence plates and some days later he follows her to yet another Dating Event.  When they actually 'meet' there is a mutual instant attraction by these two similar lonely people, but we are never sure if the Inspector sees Anna as a potential partner or as a murder suspect (or even a mixture of the two).

Anna is clearly a troubled woman but as the story unfolds it seems its not just the events of that night that are giving her bad dreams but some tragic incident in the past that she only remembers piecemeal. The ambiguity of several of the strands of this rather intriguing story add greatly to the tension and make the outcome completely unpredictable. 

Ms Rampling is pitch perfect as the rather aloof dejected middle-class Anna who is trying to make the best of her pack of cards she has been dealt, and the very believable chemistry between her and Gabriel Bryne as the Detective Inspector really makes this movie work so well.  The excellent cast also includes Eddie Marsan and Hayley Atwell, but keep your eyes peeled for a small scene at the beginning when Anna is given a pep talk by an older woman .....she's played by none other than Miss Honor Blackman (now a mere 87 years old).

It's an impressive first movie from Mr Southcombe and he gave it some great highly stylised touches, and he obvious has a love affair with London which has a crucial starring role in this fine psychological thriller of his.  

Due to be released in the UK in December 2012, but no date set for the USA yet.

★★★★★★★★

ARBITRAGE

It feels like life has turned upside down when you are watching yet another smooth Wall Street operator perpetuate a multi-million fraud to save his own bacon, yet somehow even as he digs in deeper, you actually want him to get away with it.  Robert Miller, the suave debonair banker in this instance, is also cheating on his wife, and also tries to cover up his involvement in his mistress’s fatal car accident, and he is even prepared to sacrifice his daughter’s own career when she discovers the fraud.  His life is a real mess but in this very taut psychological crime thriller, the debut feature film from young writer /director Nicholas Jarecki (directed 'The Outsider' doc.) we are almost happy when Miller somehow manages to prove he has more than nine lives.

Miller, impressively played by Richard Gere who hasn't turned in a performance as good as this since 'The Hoax', seems to have it all.  Beautiful Park Avenue mansion, wonderful supportive wife, two beautiful grown up children, one of whom is his company ‘s CFO, but he is a greedy ‘gambler’.  Not with cards or the like, but speculating on a copper mine in Russia that promises fool’s gold. When this practically bankrupts his company, he cooks the books, borrows some $400 million for a few days from a friend (!) whilst he hopes to sell off his Company at an inflated price to another Wall St concern, but the ‘poker’ bluffing between the two of them almost railroads the deal and threatens to expose Miller's financial shenanigans.

Meanwhile his demanding mistress persuades him to make his long day even longer, and so tired beyond belief he falls asleep at the wheel of the car he is driving them both for a break before he crashes it and kicks off a whole new trail of events that could land him jail for totally other reasons besides the fraud.  What is really good about this tale is that it never follows the obvious path and there are more a few twists that add some real intrigue to this rather excellent wee film.  I'm not giving any spoilers here when I say, that we all know that the rich always get away with murder.

It was really very much Mr Gere’s show, but he had an excellent supporting cast that included the superb Susan Sarandon as the wife, Brit Marling as the daughter, Laetitia Castra as the mistress, and Tim Roth as the persistent homicide detective.

P.S. I must confess that I had too check out Wikipedia to discover what arbitrage actually means.  I knew that it was probably one of those new high fangled terms that some Wall Street type had concocted to keep outsiders in the dark about yet some other scheme to make money out of other people’s money by issuing a lot of indecipherable paper.  Wiki is helpful BUT maybe I am little too ‘unworldly’ because I still couldn't grasp exactly what it is .  But on the other hand, I will probably never need to know.

★★★★★★★★

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

As the film opens it shows Eva living a squalid life on her own as a total social outcast where strangers assault her in the street.  Life has not always been like that and through a whole series of flashbacks interchanged with the present, we learn how she ended up like this.

Once happily married and with a very promising career, an unwanted pregnancy threw her off-balance. Eva struggles to bond with Kevin her son from the moment he is born and the discernible tension between the two of them escalates at an alarming rate as he grows up into menacing and highly disturbed teenager.  The fact that with his schizophrenic behavior he acts like the most perfectly behaved boy in front of his father drives a deep wedge between his parents that becomes the main cause for their divorce.

When Kevin eventually snaps (saying more would be a pot spoiler), Eva is still there for him, even though she still fails completely to establish any bond with him at.

It’s a frightening harrowing story made so very real by Tilda Swinton’s powerful performance as the quietly desperate and tormented Eva: she is on screen the entire time and so stunningly portrays her utter wretched loneliness through long silences which really get under your skin. Ezra Miller as the menacingly Kevin is so perfect and totally convincing, and a wonderful new acting talent to look out for.


In the end Eva comes to question if she ever loved her son, but I’m not that convinced by then that even if she had, this icy horror of a family tragedy would have been avoided.

This stunning psychological drama is a gem of a movie: be warned you will need to concentrate real hard at the beginning as the first strands of the story start to be revealed, but once you are hooked you will stay fixed on the edge of your seat till the very end.  Even if I wasn’t a big fan of Ms. Swinton’s, I would still think that she must deservedly be a shoo-in for a Best Actor Oscar for this performance here: she is that good, and more.


P.S. It's theatrical release in the US is slated for Jan '12


★★★★★★★★★★

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE

Martha escapes from an extreme Cult where she has been living and moves in with her newly married older sister and tries and live a ‘normal’ life again.  The trouble is that Martha was probably never ever ‘normal’ even before she suffered all the abuse from the members of the Cult, so her attempts at assimilating herself into her sisters new life risks all their happiness esp. when her paranoia kicks in, as it does often for no real rhyme or  reason.

This psychological drama was being misguidedly over-hyped as potentially the big breakout movie of Sundance i.e. this year’s The Winter Bone (a 2010 that went on to get 2 Oscar nominations).  It is an interesting and good movie but its flawed script leaves the story floundering at times, and our interest along with it too.  The biggest selling point is the fact that it stars Elisabeth Olsen, the younger sister of THOSE twins, and she, unlike her siblings, can actually act.

★★★★★★

THE PERFECT HOST

Warwick Wilson seems like the perfect host as he carefully sets his immaculate dining table in his chic Hollywood apartment and everything seems in its right place.  The doorbell rings and a stranger pretends to have just met Warwick’s closest friend in Australia and as the airline has lost his luggage, he’s been mugged and his car has run our of gas, he needs help.  Warwick lets him in and the terror begins.  The man, John, is actually on the run from a bank robbery he has just committed and needs sanctuary.  He has however unwittingly chosen the wrong place for safe haven, and gradually the terror begins.

In this wonderful black comedy/thriller this superb two-handed story has seemingly endless  totally unexpected twists and turns, some ridiculously bizarre, but all utterly entertaining and you never really leave the edge of your seat throughout.  David Hyde Pierce has the perfect quirky mannerisms for the being the fastidious and more than slightly crazy Warwick, and he is equally matched with an exacting performance by young Clayne Crawford as John.

I will fess up that I started to watch this late one night  but was so tired and not engaged and I fell asleep. I’m so pleased I persevered and watched it again when I was awake, as it is a wee gem, albeit a little mad.

P.S. In my continuing series of 'Where Are They Now', watch out for Cathy Knight one the dinner guests was played by Helen Reddy. Thankfully she doesn’t sing.


★★★★★★★
 N.B. this trailer does contain a few spoilers, you may want to skip it and go straight to the dvd ... its worth it

DRIVE

The brilliant opening sequence when three men are in the getaway car escaping from a heist and being driven at reckless speeds through the streets of LA with such a cool determined proficiency that sets the pace for what’s to follow in this wee rather bloody movie. 

The Driver  … and he is never called by anything by either that or The Boy …. is a professional stunt driver for the movies who occasionally does a few extra ‘jobs’ for his criminal mates on the side.  Driver seemingly has no past and we barely find out much of his life, as he is the strong silent type that says little about anything.

He befriends Irene a young woman in his apartment building that lives there with her son whilst her husband Standard is in jail.  When he gets released he is blackmailed by a couple of thugs who set him up to do a burglary to pay back the debt they claim he owes them.  Driver offers to help by driving the getaway car, and when the robbery goes belly up and Standard gets killed, Driver is pursued by the thugs to retrieve the money that they stole for them.

It all goes wrong ….. and gets very violent … but its hard to give more plot here without it containing spillers.

There are several things that sets this movie way and above from being just yet another car-chase caper.  Firstly Ryan Gosling is totally superb as Driver and with very little dialogue throughout he puts in a highly nuanced performance that so sets him head and shoulders above other actors of his generation … he snaffled an Oscar nod for ‘Half Nelson’, and I would be very surprised if this turn here didn’t earn him his second nomination.

Carey Mulligan played Irene who was almost too nice to be mixed up in crime  … the camera does love Ms. Mulligan so.

And another major plus was the fact for a change all the supporting roles were well rounded with depth and resonance and gave the very talented cast something to get their teeth into.  Particularly funny man Albert Brooks being deadly serous as one of the Crime Bosses, and the delightful Christina Hendricks (from Mad Men) who I failed to recognize at first, and who was a professional criminal.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (that's my second Scandinavian director this week) who picked up an award at Cannes for this movie, and he obviously excels in violent ones as another of his earlier ones is Bronson, which has been on my Netflix list far too long.

The cars may go fast, but the movie goes at a slower pace, which adds to its attraction.  Definitely one worth watching.

PS Trivia … don’t blink when in the very short scene where a bullet is being removed by Russ Tamblyn who plays the Dr.  Where has he been since he was a West Side Story Jet decades ago?


★★★★★★★★

THE BLACK SWAN

Nina is a very typical ballerina obsessively consumed with the New York City ballet company where she is desperate to be plucked from the Corps to be a Principal. Egged on by her former ballerina mother Erica who is desperate that her daughter gets the big break that she never had, and so exerts a suffocating control over her. When the autocratic artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace the prima ballerina for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, his first choice is Nina.  However the role has two personas and whilst she fits the pure White Swan role perfectly, there is a newer, more sensuous dancer Lily who is the personification of the darker Black Swan and so becomes Nina’s rival. As the two young dancers develop a very twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side, which ultimately threatens to destroy her.

This is a wonderful melodrama and all the different relationships in the story are as dramatic and as passionate as the ballet itself and the tension never really lets up, except on the odd occasion when its let down by some stilted script.  Natalie Portman as Nina gives her best performance to date and is so convincing as the tortured dancer we can forgive the fact that is not really her  we see dancing  on the screen most of the time.  It is very much her picture although Mila Kunis as Lily is quite remarkable, as is Barbara Hershey as the mother and Vincent Cassel as the intimidating Director. And I totally did not recognize Winona Ryder in her turn as the retiring prima ballerina.

R.T.V. It is one unquestionably one of the best movies of the year and my only  issue with it is the fact that director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) intended this to be a psychological thriller but with the sheer amount of blood and violence it seemed a tad more like  a scary horror movie to me

★★★★★★★★