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Movies in Brief (First quarter, 2009 releases)
Ballerina
Whether it's a conscious policy or happenstance, there may be something to
the concept, for art is more than the score or the tuttus. The creatures
of the art can be ethereal in their physical fluidity, gauzily unreal, a
spector of a composer's imagination. But here's a documentary about five of
them that challenges the notion that the human side somehow diminishes the
legend.
With that handle on the systematic development of the chosen few, we get a
clear picture of five dancers to provide more than the usual depth and
demands on the professional level. Alina Somova, the youngest, gets chosen
and is given special training because of the unique line of her long limbs
and the potential they promise. But her inability to break behond her
technical mastery holds her back. In contrast, we meet the fiery Evgenia
Obraztsova and Diana Vishneva, whose excitement and verbal expressiveness is
brought to the stage with such emotional force as to bring tears to a
dance-lover's eyes.
For a glimpse at sheer theatrical power and brilliance of dance, we follow
the great Ulyana Lopatkina who is no less generous is sharing her
difficulties of coming back after a two-year absence because of an injury.
For all her acclaimed mastery, it's predicted that she'll be a changed
dancer. What she does with Swan Lake is original art, beyond anyone's
conceptualization, which more than validates the prediction--only to top that
with her rendering of "The Legend of Love" (by Arif Melikov), a piece of
interpretation that every dance neophyte will want to see and study. Which
tells us that there are great dancers... and there are those in a class with
Lopatkina.
Which makes the biggest point of all, that mastery of an art form is more in
the creative capacity of mind and heart than technical perfection. On top of
that, dancers bring so much sublime beauty and athleticism to musical
composition and to our own capacities for appreciation.
Director Bertrand Normand seems to have inspired all his participants, which
makes his documentary consistently balanced and intimately revelatory. It's
a special treat that informs an interested audience about what goes on in
dancers' minds and lives, featuring one of the more straightforward corpe of
talking heads to learn about it from. Behind-the-curtains was never more
ravishing.
Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia
While that may sound like the preamble to a putdown, it's not--at least in
this case, a film about an American squad mounting an intelligence gathering
penetration of a high-level meeting of Colombian army officers. No less than
General Manuel Valez (Steven Bauer) lays out Colombia's new peaceful approach
toward their largest rebel group, the FARC (leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia) . So it's no wonder that, for action like this, you need
a ready bunch of boys.
But, unexpectedly out of nowhere comes a highly skilled and armed FARC
squad gunning down the Colombian army elite apparently without knowing the
American squad is in the area. But, it's not long before they're all engaged
in combat, with two SEALS killed, one taken alive and Macklin and his petty
officer Kevin Derricks (Channon Roe) escaped to safety.
While they and Boytano try to figure out what the true purpose of their
mission was, a U.S. official comes in theatening to take Boytano's command
away from him if he doesn't cooperate with the political decisions already
made--decisions that put his boys in even greater danger. When a rescue
helicopter pulls away without taking them, and when they see the Colombian
president on TV blaming the Americans for the ambush, it's clear to all that
this has all been a deception for cynical political purposes.
The mission, for the SEALS survivors is to rescue their comrade from the
local FARC headquarters and risk death even further in the attempt to clear
their name. When they learn that the general escaped death, Macklin pays him
a visit in his hospital room to gain his support.
We've seen this kind of action story before. But, the very fact that's
it was done on an obviously tight budget with actors who aren't there for
their thespianic skill, and largely because of the great attention to
tactical details that their true skills make possible, this works with an
almost documentary feel. Not that there isn't stereotyping in Tobias
Iaconis' screenplay, but what's worthy of attention here is no small
accomplishment, which should earn combat medals for the civilians who pulled
it off.
What Doesn't Kill You
Performances by Mark Ruffalo as Brian Reilly and Ethan Hawke as Paulie
McDougan may well be counted among their best, depending as it does, on
a level of naturalism they've got down pat. From early childhood, the pals
hung out where the action--of the criminal kind--was, at least in their
neighborhood. That would be Pat Kelly's (director Goodman) headquarters--his
bar in South Boston. Recognizing emerging talent for his mob activities, he
threw them little missions for a few bucks each which, in their youth, pleased
them no end. All they really wanted to do back then was prove their worth.
Brian, married with two young boys, is the emotional center of the piece as
he copes with wife Stacy's (gorgeous Amanda Peet) discontent about money and
Brian's lack of presence in the home. Paulie has no such restraint and
therefore freer to explore bigger and bigger exploits. But it's Brian who
lands in jail for five years because he takes sole blame for a crime both
committed.
Brian is caught in the paradox of balancing his criminal activities with its
fast, easy money and salvaging his marriage and his fatherhood. His
grappling with these two contradictory impulses is the essence of the story.
We've all spent plenty of time with the self-destructive character before and
this iteration doesn't exactly avoid the tedium of repetition. While
Brian's a sometimes arresting character, one's sympathies waver. It's the
naturalism, carried out in a highly but well edited style, where the film's
holding power lies.
Peet is great and leaves no question in anybody's mind what Brian has to lose
if he can't straighten out the track of his life. His desire to be a dad
amplifies that theme and the story isn't afraid to ply those waters. Hawke is
quite exceptional as he constructs the role of a charming, hopelessly
unsalvagable petty criminal who finds happiness only in the scoring of a
bundle of money.
Technically, all is well, with composer Alex Wurman going for originality
musically.
The film is caught in the tension between wanting to provide depth of social
implication and gunplay action but the symbiosis doesn't generate a tight
grip. It's style that holds our interest but it's style that also makes 100
minutes seem like 130. Still, very nice try and a fine product for the
festival and arthouse circuit.
Poison Ivy: The Secret Society
So why does she becomes the sexual aggressor with the first guy she meets on
campus, Blake (Ryan Kennedy)? Obviously a womanizer, maybe she's turned on by
the fact that he's the son of one of her professors, and interns in the office
run by his mother. Talk about connections. Are we smelling anything yet
about the level of writing? Hang in, there's worse to come.
It seems she's been tapped for membership in the evil Ivy Society purportedly
because Azalea (Shawna Waldron), the leader of the sorority, has eyes... no,
not for Daisy... for the internship! And, Azalea is all about playing
political dominatrix to get what she wants, including trading her body
for access to the campus mainframe where grades can be "fixed." Who's her
trading partner in this pursuit? Why Blake. Of course.
This crowd is as saturated with distrust and moral issues as the film is with
the regularity of sexual sequences that halt all other dramatic
considerations so that we may indulge ourselves--giving away the probable
porno pedigree of the material and the reason that, under Jason Hreno's
direction, the supposed drama is little more than a simulation. The only
thing that's real is Waldron's considerable beauty.
Tokyo Sonata
The husband and father whom we follow is middle manager Ryuhei Sasaki
(Teruyuki Kagawa), married to attractive, loyal Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi) and
father to two sons, teenage Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) and young, school terror
Kenji (Kai Inowaki) . All are troubled in their individual ways and Ryuhei
doesn't make it any better for anyone. Tyrannically, he forbids Kenji to
follow his desire to learn piano and comes down hard on Takashi when he
decides to join the American Army. When Takashi asks why he's so against it,
Ryuhei insists that it is he who will protect the family. Fat chance.
The narrative goes along on this unmerry way with pockmarks of awkwardness in
the storytelling and not a trace of humor or a momentary lapse into
lightness. We're treading very heavy water, here.
This becomes even more evident as the film progresses and the story falls
apart sooner than the family does. Of the three writers, none seems to know
how to accomplish a natural resolution and, when a pathetic thief (Koji
Yakusho) randomly picks this family's apartment to break into--to more or
less start the third act on a new, farcical (and preposterous) note--we're
suddenly in a whole new movie which, creeping up on two hours, feels
unendurable.
There are many Japanese films that play well to the home audience but never
achieve stateside distribution. If this amateurish effort is an indication of
the prevailing standard, it explains why this may be so. But why it's been
chosen as an exception is a mystery. Maybe it was a matter of connections.
It sure wasn't skill in writing or directing.
Shall We Kiss? (aka, Un Baiser S'il Vous Plait)
His framing device is Gabriel meeting attractive businesswoman Emilie in the
town of Nantes, when Emilie is on a one-day business trip and where Gabriel
is a local resident. They go through the stages of cautious attraction,
dining together and arriving at her hotel in his outsized vehicle having
enjoyed the companionship and a romance that's merely implied. When he tries
to kiss her, she bolts away. But, as she explains, it's because of the
importance she attaches to a meeting of lips, which stems from a
life-changing event in her life.
Judith's response matches Nicolas' indecisiveness without guile or complaint,
making for the intrigue of their relationship's development while defying any
sense of hipness--pointing out the irrelevancy of what we may consider a
standard requirement in such matters. Here, artificiality becomes reality,
and it will apply to the framing relationship as well. You remember... the
couple telling and following the tale in a Nantes hotel room?
Moiret's construction does work, showing the variability of certain basic
themes in drama and how, on an obviously low budget and no frills, but with a
credible cast adopting the offbeat behavioral norms, he creates a world that
is engaging enough to hold your quiet interest. Relying on an exaggeration of
conduct, Moiret somehow finds a way to tell a double story that has much to
do with sex while avoiding much depiction of the titillating details or
erotic content. Ledoyen, Mouret, Gayet and Cohen deliver the goods in a
consistent skein that holds together as much for its discipline as for the
team's thespian talent and the women's seductiveness. Can I feel you up
now?
Perestroika (aka, The Restructuring)
The script is full of dialogue about returning to a new Russia and the
astrophysicist's confusion about all things not astral. Like coming to terms
with the probability that he's the father of a fetching young teenager with a
mind of her own, and not able to make much sense out of the string of women
who seem to pile on as exes of all kinds. Just seems like there's a whole
univers of women with a claim on him. The cosmos never had it so good.
Unfortunately, the musical staging and oddball visual tricks and awkward
narration give it so little gravity that it loses all cohesion.
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~~ Jules Brenner
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