Breach (***)
Breach is based on a true story, and follows the investigation and eventual arrest of Robert Hanssen, "the worst spy in U.S. history" as he is described in the movie. Before a case was finally built against him in 2001, Hanssen worked in the FBI, and sold huge amounts of classified information to which he had access. The movie begins with a young FBI agent, played by Ryan Phillippe, getting the assignment of posing as his new clerk, essentially distracting him enough to allow for his possessions to be sifted through for evidence.
Hanssen is played by Chris Cooper, who portrays him as an arrogant, controlling, super type-A personality sort of figure. He constantly talks down to Phillippe's character, Eric O'Neill, treating him as an errand boy, despite seeming to have a certain respect for his talents. At the same time, Hanssen is (or at least seems to be) a very pious and traditional Catholic. A good part of the film deals with Hanssen attempting to become sort of a father figure and spiritual advisor to O'Neill, which puts him at odds with O'Neill's non-practicing wife, who knows Hanssen only as O'Neill's boss and not as a man under investigation.
Over the course of the movie, the FBI attmpts several ploys using O'Neill to gather evidence from Hanssen's car and his PDA, amoung other things. Gradually, O'Neill becomes frustrated and somewhat paranoid of the constantly suspicious Hanssen. The film's biggest moments of suspense are examples of O'Neill having to think on his toes to weave through precarious situations where he has to stay in character as Hanssen's loyal assistant and yet at the same constantly distract him from the searches taking place around him.
The movie is worthwhile because Hanssen is an interesting character and Chris Cooper's performance is very good, but the film never really builds a tremendous amount of tension, despite the espianoge and spy games that are central to the story. The movie never seems to make up its mind as to whether it's trying to be a triller and focus on the actual circumstances of Hanssen's treason and O'Neill's investigation, or to be a movie focused on the subtleties of Hanssen's character. At many times it seems to be the latter. There are several scenes of Hanssen in mass, which he claims he goes to on a daily basis, which would seem to suggest that the movie is trying to focus on the apparent hypocracy of his character. But in the last act of the film there are two scenes which seem like they're trying to be climax of a Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan type of espionage movie. Because so much of the film before this point has been so introspective of Hanssen, they don't have the tension you would expect them to have. The movie as a whole seems somewhat slow-going and unexciting, especially considering the gravity of what both main characters are involved in. The film is interesting, but doesn't seem to exact all the potential from the true story on which it is based.
--EK
Friday, March 23, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
The Prestige
The Prestige (****)
Off the heels of directing the excellent Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan directed The Prestige, a film with a very different subject, but which not only has the same dark visuals, but is equally enticing. The film follows magicians in 1890s London, played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, who are somewhat different in technique, but are both at the top of their profession. Jackman's character has mastered the acting and the showmanship required to hook an audience, while Christian Bale's character has mastered the actual innerworkings of the illusions, in part because of his total devotion to his craft.
The two men are connected by a man named Cutter, played by the always ridiculously cool Michael Caine, who serves as a mentor and maybe a bit of a father figure to both of them. An incident occurs causing the illusionists to dispise each other. They engage in a riviarly where each sabotage's the other's performances, in part to physically hurt the other, and in part to show their superiority in sleight of hand. The rivialry comes to a head when Christian Bale's character, Alfred Borden, debuts his "The Transported Man" trick, where he is seemingly able to walk through a door and walk through another on the opposite side of the stage within a fraction of a second. Robert Angier, Jackman's character, becomes obsessed with the seemingly flawless illusion, dismissing Cutter's claim that the man who emerges from the second door is simply an excellent body double.
Angier's obessive quest for the secret of the illusion leads him across the pond to America, and more specifcally to Colorado Springs. It is against this snowy backdrop that Nolan displays some hauntingly beautiful visuals, which represent the very best of the film's overall excellent cinematography. Angier travels to Colorado to visit the eccentric scientist Nikola Tesla, played by the homo superior himself, David Bowie. Angier presses him about the possibilities of teleportation, convinced that Borden's illusion is rooted in science, and not just deception. It is here that the film takes a turn towards science fiction. This could've been extremely campy and ruined the entire film, but Nolan's direction and the screenplay (which was written by Nolan and his brother, Johnathan) gives it a sense of legitimacy and makes it all work.
At the beginning of the film, Cutter explains in a voice over that a magic trick consists of three parts: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. These scenes with Tesla would certainly represent the film's "turn" if it can be said to have one. What began as a film about two men in a professional and personal rivalry, becomes a deeply philosophical film with much more universal themes. The film's "prestige" then, is its revealing ending, which again, could have played out in a very B-movie way, but is handled excellently. Some people probably won't be thrown off by the end reveal (I don't consider myself that good at guessing plots before they play out and I partially predicted the events of the ending correctly, though I didn't have an explanation for them) but I think most everyone will find it compelling regardless.
Simply, The Prestige is a film which, on the surface follows a figurative chess match between two bitter rivals, and on quite another level provides a study of depecption and of human nature. Either way you choose to look at it, it is exellent, and anyone who felt what Nolan did for Batman was a breath of fresh air for the character will certainly love his latest work.
--EK
Off the heels of directing the excellent Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan directed The Prestige, a film with a very different subject, but which not only has the same dark visuals, but is equally enticing. The film follows magicians in 1890s London, played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, who are somewhat different in technique, but are both at the top of their profession. Jackman's character has mastered the acting and the showmanship required to hook an audience, while Christian Bale's character has mastered the actual innerworkings of the illusions, in part because of his total devotion to his craft.
The two men are connected by a man named Cutter, played by the always ridiculously cool Michael Caine, who serves as a mentor and maybe a bit of a father figure to both of them. An incident occurs causing the illusionists to dispise each other. They engage in a riviarly where each sabotage's the other's performances, in part to physically hurt the other, and in part to show their superiority in sleight of hand. The rivialry comes to a head when Christian Bale's character, Alfred Borden, debuts his "The Transported Man" trick, where he is seemingly able to walk through a door and walk through another on the opposite side of the stage within a fraction of a second. Robert Angier, Jackman's character, becomes obsessed with the seemingly flawless illusion, dismissing Cutter's claim that the man who emerges from the second door is simply an excellent body double.
Angier's obessive quest for the secret of the illusion leads him across the pond to America, and more specifcally to Colorado Springs. It is against this snowy backdrop that Nolan displays some hauntingly beautiful visuals, which represent the very best of the film's overall excellent cinematography. Angier travels to Colorado to visit the eccentric scientist Nikola Tesla, played by the homo superior himself, David Bowie. Angier presses him about the possibilities of teleportation, convinced that Borden's illusion is rooted in science, and not just deception. It is here that the film takes a turn towards science fiction. This could've been extremely campy and ruined the entire film, but Nolan's direction and the screenplay (which was written by Nolan and his brother, Johnathan) gives it a sense of legitimacy and makes it all work.
At the beginning of the film, Cutter explains in a voice over that a magic trick consists of three parts: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. These scenes with Tesla would certainly represent the film's "turn" if it can be said to have one. What began as a film about two men in a professional and personal rivalry, becomes a deeply philosophical film with much more universal themes. The film's "prestige" then, is its revealing ending, which again, could have played out in a very B-movie way, but is handled excellently. Some people probably won't be thrown off by the end reveal (I don't consider myself that good at guessing plots before they play out and I partially predicted the events of the ending correctly, though I didn't have an explanation for them) but I think most everyone will find it compelling regardless.
Simply, The Prestige is a film which, on the surface follows a figurative chess match between two bitter rivals, and on quite another level provides a study of depecption and of human nature. Either way you choose to look at it, it is exellent, and anyone who felt what Nolan did for Batman was a breath of fresh air for the character will certainly love his latest work.
--EK
The Last King of Scotland
The Last King of Scotland (***1/2)
The Last King of Scotland begins with Nicolas Gerrigan, a recently graduated med student in Scotland, perhaps unwilling to follow in his father's footsteps as a physician, deciding to travel somewhere at random. He ends up picking Uganda, follows through with it, and ends up working as a doctor at a mission there. He meets a married woman working there, played by Gillian Anderson, and nearly seduces her into an affair. But his travels take a drastic turn shorter thereafter, as he treats Idi Amin, the new Ugandan president (read: oppressive dictator), who injures his hand in a car accident. Distracted while treating the injury, Gerrigan shoots and kills a noisy and apparently injured cow using Amin's own pistol. Amin, impressed by his initiative and fearlessness, oppoints Gerrigan as his personal physician.
Slowly, Gerrigan's job as Amin's physician morphs into a job as his political advisior, as Amin becomes increasingly impressed with Gerrigan's character as he gets to know him more. Amin puts a great amount of trust in Gerrigan, partly because, being from Scotland, Amin feels Gerrigan somehow shares a distrust of the British, a feeling Amin developed as a boy growing up under British occupation. Gerrigan is, at first, a loyal lackey, hinging on every word Amin says about improving Uganda's infastructure, and gratefully accepting Amin's lavish gifts. It is only late in the film, and after Gerrigan has made several crucial mistakes, that he begins to piece together the gruesome reality of Amin's Ugandan revolution.
Forrest Whittaker won an Oscar for the film, and his performance is clearly the strong point. Whittaker at times shows Amin's charismatic facade that drew Gerrigan in, and at other times is nothing short of terrifying. Near the end of the film, as world opinion is turning sharply against Amin, and Gerrigan is administering him uppers to get him through the day, Whittaker simultaneously shows his almost pathetic state of frustration, and his enduring and frightening vengefullness.
The movie's main weakness is Gerrigan's character. It has nothing to do with the performance of James McAvoy who does a very good job opposite of Whittaker. But the film doesn't do a great job selling Gerrigan and how he gets into such a tumultuous position. The Gerrigan character is ficticious and a composite of several characters from the novel of which the film is based. At times it seems like this composite was never fully fleshed out. The film never really establishes why Gerrigan so brashly steals Amin's gun to shoot a cow and yet at other times seems as nervous and uncertain as you would expect a man barely out of college to act in unfamiliar territory. It never establishes how Gerrigan appears to be as well-studied and composed as a seasoned doctor, and yet seems so naive and oblivious to much of anything else going on. I've never read the novel, but judging by the issues with Gerrigan's character, I can guess that the film may have benefitted from staying closer to the original work.
The Last King of Scotland clearly is not flawless, but Forrest Whittaker's performance alone makes the film worth watching. Furthermore, the film does an excellent job of documenting the rise and fall of Amin, one of many figures in Africa who caused the deaths of many, and yet is much less infamous than he would be had he existed in the "first world." In this way, The Last King of Scotland is invaluable.
--EK
The Last King of Scotland begins with Nicolas Gerrigan, a recently graduated med student in Scotland, perhaps unwilling to follow in his father's footsteps as a physician, deciding to travel somewhere at random. He ends up picking Uganda, follows through with it, and ends up working as a doctor at a mission there. He meets a married woman working there, played by Gillian Anderson, and nearly seduces her into an affair. But his travels take a drastic turn shorter thereafter, as he treats Idi Amin, the new Ugandan president (read: oppressive dictator), who injures his hand in a car accident. Distracted while treating the injury, Gerrigan shoots and kills a noisy and apparently injured cow using Amin's own pistol. Amin, impressed by his initiative and fearlessness, oppoints Gerrigan as his personal physician.
Slowly, Gerrigan's job as Amin's physician morphs into a job as his political advisior, as Amin becomes increasingly impressed with Gerrigan's character as he gets to know him more. Amin puts a great amount of trust in Gerrigan, partly because, being from Scotland, Amin feels Gerrigan somehow shares a distrust of the British, a feeling Amin developed as a boy growing up under British occupation. Gerrigan is, at first, a loyal lackey, hinging on every word Amin says about improving Uganda's infastructure, and gratefully accepting Amin's lavish gifts. It is only late in the film, and after Gerrigan has made several crucial mistakes, that he begins to piece together the gruesome reality of Amin's Ugandan revolution.
Forrest Whittaker won an Oscar for the film, and his performance is clearly the strong point. Whittaker at times shows Amin's charismatic facade that drew Gerrigan in, and at other times is nothing short of terrifying. Near the end of the film, as world opinion is turning sharply against Amin, and Gerrigan is administering him uppers to get him through the day, Whittaker simultaneously shows his almost pathetic state of frustration, and his enduring and frightening vengefullness.
The movie's main weakness is Gerrigan's character. It has nothing to do with the performance of James McAvoy who does a very good job opposite of Whittaker. But the film doesn't do a great job selling Gerrigan and how he gets into such a tumultuous position. The Gerrigan character is ficticious and a composite of several characters from the novel of which the film is based. At times it seems like this composite was never fully fleshed out. The film never really establishes why Gerrigan so brashly steals Amin's gun to shoot a cow and yet at other times seems as nervous and uncertain as you would expect a man barely out of college to act in unfamiliar territory. It never establishes how Gerrigan appears to be as well-studied and composed as a seasoned doctor, and yet seems so naive and oblivious to much of anything else going on. I've never read the novel, but judging by the issues with Gerrigan's character, I can guess that the film may have benefitted from staying closer to the original work.
The Last King of Scotland clearly is not flawless, but Forrest Whittaker's performance alone makes the film worth watching. Furthermore, the film does an excellent job of documenting the rise and fall of Amin, one of many figures in Africa who caused the deaths of many, and yet is much less infamous than he would be had he existed in the "first world." In this way, The Last King of Scotland is invaluable.
--EK
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Bad song lyrics of the day #2
"It's like a deadly game of freeze tag,
I touch you with a 44 mag and you're frozen inside a body bag"
--Dr. Dre and Ice Cube - "Natural Born Killers"
I touch you with a 44 mag and you're frozen inside a body bag"
--Dr. Dre and Ice Cube - "Natural Born Killers"
Monday, March 05, 2007
Bad song lyrics of the day #1
"Invisible kid
Locked away in his brain
From the shame and the pain
World down the drain
Invisible kid
Suspious of your touch
Don't want no crutch
But it's all too much"
--Metallica - Invisible Kid
I fully intend on making this a recurring thing for some reason. Most of them are probably going to be from this album.
Locked away in his brain
From the shame and the pain
World down the drain
Invisible kid
Suspious of your touch
Don't want no crutch
But it's all too much"
--Metallica - Invisible Kid
I fully intend on making this a recurring thing for some reason. Most of them are probably going to be from this album.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)