It must be a great luxury indeed to be able to call upon Robert De Niro to play a supporting character of such little substance. Sure, turning up on set for a few days to do your scenes might be financially rewarding, but this character could have been played by any number of journeyman actors.
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Continue reading Limitless
Turk’s Head packs another powerful punch in the cinematic portrayal of dysfunction and discord among France’s immigrant population. That the slight imbalance in the treatment of its protagonists detracts from its final impact is a great shame.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Turk’s Head
The Adjustment Bureau favours the modern style of not over-explaining itself, and eventually ends without ever truly declaring the nature or interests of the shadowy characters whom Norris and Elise must deal with. This gives the film a sense of intangible threat.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading The Adjustment Bureau
Dujardin and Dupontel are both highly regarded stars of French cinema, and they develop an uneasy rapport that perfectly suits the nature of their relationship. It is the performance of Alvaro as the steadfast and moderate Louisa, however, that grounds the film and allows its audience to engage.
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Continue reading The Clink of Ice
One could be forgiven for asking what purpose is served by repackaging and rebranding the same film over and over, other than the obvious answer: the pursuit of wealth. As far as modern romantic comedies go, No Strings Attached is at best passable.
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The soundtrack is catchy enough, and the film’s design is first rate: technically, Morning Glory bears all the trademarks of a big Hollywood production. Although the obvious talent on display may serve as a diversion, it is hard to see many viewers watching Morning Glory again.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Morning Glory
When a story is split into two separate films for no higher purpose than to bilk the movie-going (and dvd-purchasing) public out of their hard-earned cash, it becomes irrelevant how well written or produced it is. This decision is the fundamental, unifying problem that ultimately betrays the film.
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If the alternative was a three hour, frenzied adaptation of the entire book, then I suppose this was the better option, but you can be certain that once the DVDs of both parts come out people will simply watch them back to back, anyway.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Timing, they say, is everything, and yet it is unfortunately rare to see a film so wonderfully conducted as this one. Waititi allows his film a gently comic introduction that adroitly establishes time, place and milieu, before swiftly and surely introducing the crises that Boy must overcome, and then deftly pulling everything together to end in just 87 minutes.
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Foster conveys all this and more in a facial tick, or a look that could break hearts the world over. Above all else he is required to be taciturn, and were it not for his great talent there is no way his character could be so successfully conveyed.
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That Cattrall’s accent is so bad and no-one seems to have realised during production is astonishing, and one wonders why Polanski didn’t just throw in the towel and hire a British actress to play this British character.
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In the long run, however, The Ghost Writer is a little disappointing. The mystery is so well crafted, the pieces of information scattered along the way so tantalising, that the end result is a bit of a letdown.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading The Ghost Writer