All Sparkle and No Heart
May 17, 2016
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).
D: James Bobin. DP: Stuart Dryburgh. W: Linda Woolverton. Starring: Johnny Depp/Mia Wasikowska/Helena Bonham Carter/Anne Hathaway/Sacha Baron Cohen/Rhys Ifans/Matt Lucas/Andrew Scott. Voice talents of: Alan Rickman/Martin Sheen/Stephen Fry/Toby Jones. (Based on characters created by Lewis Carroll)
Here lies the long to come forward sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 live action version of Alice in Wonderland. With Burton passing the directorial mantel to Muppets helmer James Bobin, the special effects heavy film appears nearly six years after the first. Unfortunately, this film is more visual tricks than story and once again underwhelms in Underland.
Screenwriter Linda Woolverton again works her Disney resume onto this script. However, where I thought Maleficent was fresh, this script lacks anything really new to say about this world. The film is primarily focused on the Hatter’s (Johnny Depp) past and rescuing his family. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) arrives again in her imagination to insert herself into the action, or lack of, in Wonderland. Alice takes on the Hatter’s mission guided by the Hatters friends. She tricks Time, here literally personified by Sacha Baron Cohen, and steals the cronosphere which allows her to travel back in time. Yet, annoyingly, Alice simply says not once, but twice what the plot-line/action of the film will be. Despite its younger audience this is just lazy writing.
Most if not all the humor lies in the character of Time portrayed by Cohen. He brings his signature deadpan and wit to a film that feels mostly decorative. Colleen Atwood again designs an intricate piece of costuming for the film. Half of Cohen’s head seems to be made of gears and other watch parts and his over accentuated Soviet looking armor makes Cohen even taller than he is. Wasikowska’s older adult Alice is no match for him and she seems to blend into the scenery no matter what Atwood dresses her in. Anne Hathaway returns with her poor British accent as the White Queen whose airiness seems sillier here. Of course, in Wonderland there is nothing wrong with silly, but there is just not enough story to back up these performances.
Of course Depp returns as the Hatter, but he is sick for most of the film and seen in the past. Depp has revved him up since Alice in Wonderland and he is more cartoonish than weird. Maybe without Burton he is left to his own devices and that might not be a good thing. Same with Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. It is difficult to care about characters who create the same conflicts across films. Rhys Ifans does a nice turn as the Hatter’s father and it is heartwarming to hear dear departed Alan Rickman’s voice again as the blue caterpillar. Ultimately, Alice Through the Looking Glass tries to age Alice up and create a space that Carroll’s second book did not. I applaud the effort, but special effects cannot be everything. You must have a heart.
A Final Bow for Batman
August 6, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
D: Christopher Nolan. W: Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan. DP: Wally Pfister. Starring: Christian Bale/Gary Oldman/Tom Hardy/Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Anne Hathaway/Marion Cotillard/Morgan Freeman/Michael Caine. (Based on the DC Comic characters created by Bob Kane.)
In all honesty it took my awhile to get to this review. I was very tense after the Aurora shooting, which I actually felt in the theater. I keep my thoughts with the victims’ families and communities. I echo Mr. Nolan’s comments, the movie theater is my home and it saddens me that someone has violated that safe space.
The Dark Knight Rises is probably the most anticipated summer release this year. Not only due to its subject matter, but also because it officially concludes Christopher Nolan’s cinematic interpretation of the Batman story. Nolan’s dominance is hard to ignore and his influence can be seen in this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man and the upcoming summer 2013 Man of Steel, which he executive produced. But did his final installment live up to all the hype?
Where The Dark Knight Rises succeeds is mostly in mood, visuals, and giving fans a clear conclusion to the Batman’s story. Firstly, Hans Zimmer must be praised for his score. His score adds a pulse to the entire film and his Batman theme still resonates after three films. Zimmer’s work creates a base for the mood of Nolan’s Gotham, which despite the Dent act (which gives harsher sentences to criminals) is lit just as dark and gloomy as in the previous films. Yet this darkness echos Bruce Wayne’s (Christian Bale) pain, grief, and loss of identity. Bale’s decision at the end of 2008’s The Dark Knight to put away Batman has clearly robbed him of his purpose. This reclusive Wayne finally allows Bale to show Bruce’s orphaned, damaged edges that have clearly deteriorated his personal life.
Bale, for me, has easily been the best Bruce Wayne. Not only do I prefer this darker interpretation of the story, after all Bruce is just a man with expensive resources, but the films are well balanced between the two spheres of his life. Nolan allows Bale to grapple with Bruce’s need for Batman and his ultimate ignorance that he does, in fact, need his life as Bruce as well. Thankfully, Bale embraces the conflict between these two spheres and provides an intensity and depth on screen that cannot compare to previous incarnations of this character. In this film, Michael Caine steps up his game as Bale’s butler, Alfred. The scenes between them are not only poignant and moving, but act as marker’s for Bale’s journey.
Batman’s journey in this film is littered with clear visual winks at the audience and acknowledgements of Batman’s legacy. When Bale first appears donning his once abandoned suit, the music pulsates, and cinematographer, Wally Pfister, shoots his Batman in one shot. From toe to pointy ear as his cape billows behind him and he pulls up a bad guy with just one hand. Pure idealism at best, but also pure fun. Later in the film, Bale as Batman is seen, with one leg up, atop a skyscraper, surveying his city below. And ultimately, it is these visual moments that remind all of us that though Nolan’s interpretation of this comic book character are considered more realistic, he has not forgotten the origin and the thrill of the orphaned boy who becomes a city’s crusader.
However, where The Dark Knight Rises falters is in its female characters, plot anomalies, and simply put…Bane. Unfortunately for this franchise, Nolan is not adept at casting women or let alone directing them. Marion Cotillard’s Miranda comes out of nowhere to seduce Bale’s Bruce, but is giving so little to work with that she seems ancillary to the story. Rumor has it Nolan even re-worked the shooting schedule to accommodate her maternity leave, so to speak, from films. Although she was wonderful in Nolan’s 2010 Inception, this seems to much like she was left to her own devices and came up short. Where the real travesty lies is with Anne Hathaway’s Selina/Catwoman. Thankfully, she does not ruin the film. But one cannot help but begrudge Nolan for not using the character to cast someone completely new and, ahem, interesting. With Hathaway the film’s casting just seems too safe. Her Selina is clean, crisply articulate, and just far too all-American. Personally, I believe Hathaway was probably far too focused slaving away at the gym to fit into her latex suit to bother with developing a character. And at some point we have to concede that Catwoman needs to be a little bit sexy and a little bit dirty, like Bruce. And Hathaway is just not that.
As for plot anomalies there are a few. Some characters will connect Bruce Wayne and Batman rather seamlessly, others apparently take three years to put it together. For a powerful corporation, Wayne Enterprises apparently has some glaring cracks that conveniently show themselves. Yet you almost want to forgive these misgivings as it is clear that Nolan and his co-writer (his brother) had fun writing this film. The Dark Knight Rises has the most one-liners and silly goofs out of the three films. And one walking silly goof is Mr. Tom Hardy as Bane. Thundering and massively built, Hardy tries his hardest (har-har) to act his way out of his face mask. Nothing compared to Heath Ledger’s Joker (but no one will ever top that), Bane’s purpose seems far too simple and literal to mean anything. Apparently he seeks revolution and a chance to give the city back to the people in order to eliminate corruption. An apparently direct analogy to the state of this country, somehow something is lost in translation. Rather Hardy, with a hilarious sort of Sean Connery spoofed voice that is at times inaudible, does all the groundwork for a later reveal that proves he’s just as null and void as his brain.
But Nolan does not succumb to his faults. He gives us an ending. He gives us ever present and loyal Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and introduces Joseph Gordon-Levitt to more fans as Officer Blake. These strong supporting roles actually carry the film and help to balance out the moments that get out of hand and the plot holes that will leave some shaking their heads. At the end I left the theater sad the films were ending, yet smiling as Batman is forever re-incarnated on screen and like all creative things, never truly an end.
10 Spring Must Reads for Moviegoers
March 3, 2011
1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Out in April, this adaptation will star Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon. Hoping that it will be both better than the Twilight series for Pattinson and better than the 2004′s Vanity Fair adaptation Witherspoon was in, we can all breathe a bit easier knowing how well put together the book is. Also, there is an actual reason to have an elephant in this one.
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Really is this necessary? I don’t care how prolific it wants to be, lets put it to rest. Just like Austen. Let’s have a generation that learns the book before the film. Still mad at Jamie Bell.
3. Atlas Shrugged (Part 1) by Ayn Rand. Set for an April 15th release. Such a massive undertaking with a somewhat unknown director. Still on my to read list, but safe to say itll be a slog as they are cutting the book into more than one film.
4. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II by J.K. Rowling. In theaters this summer. No argument needed. If you haven’t read any, you have a couple of months before the first part of the final chapter comes out. Get on it. Now.
5. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Roald Dahl. June 17. If you didn’t read this as a child, you truly missed out. I don’t know how I feel about the story changes and the casting of Jim Carrey, but the only way to know is to see it.
6. One Day by David Nicholls. Set for a July release, this film stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess as former college sweethearts who visit each other every year to see where they are in their lives. On my to read list. But shot in London, Edinburgh and Paris…hmmm.
7. Snow Flower & The Secret Fan by Lisa See. July 2011. Also still on my to read list. Hugh Jackman stars in a story set in 19th century China and centered on the lifelong friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid cultural norms imposed on women.
8. The Help by Kathryn Stocket. Set for an August 2011 release starring Easy A‘s Emma Stone, who can also be seen in the next Spiderman film.
9. On the Road by Jack Kerouac. In post production.
10. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. David Fincher is directing the first American-Hollywood version of this series starring Rooney Mara of Social Network craziness.