Urban Legend

One of the spate of tongue-in-cheek thrillers that proved so popular in the wake of Scream. A group of pretty university students are being picked off by a serial killer obsessed with urban legends (of “the calls are coming from inside the house” variety). The opening scene strikes the appropriate balance between laughs and scares, but it’s all downhill from there. Led by a gormless Alicia Witt, there’s some fun to be had watching the hot teen stars of the late 90s that never quite made it (Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart, Tara Reid) get slaughtered in predictably “inventive” ways. But when the only thing you take away from a movie is how bad Joshua Jackson looked with blonde hair, you know there’s something wrong.

Avatar

Let me say straight off the bat that I'm a big James Cameron fan. Not only do I love The Terminator and Aliens but I'm also a sucked for True Lies and had a year-long obsession with Titanic when it was first released, one that hasn't dimmed as considerably as it perhaps should have done. So I was looking forward to Avatar with bated breath.

The story, effectively a Dances with Wolves/Pocahontas-type story wherein disabled army recruit Jake Sulley (Sam Worthington) is tasked with improving relations between Earth and a race of aliens called the Na'Vi. With the help of an initially-curmudgeonly-but-not-for-long Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), Jake's mind is transferred into an avatar to aid his integration into the alien race. Of course, Jakes begins to have second thoughts about his objective (to persuade the Na'Vi to move so that Earth can extract a valuable mineral - Unobtanium - from underneath them) as soon as pretty Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) bats her big blue eyelashes at him. Lessons about the importance of environmental awareness and true love across all boundaries ensue.

On a purely visual level, Avatar is spectacular. The claims that this film will change the face of cinema aren't wrong. The 3D effects are eye-poppingly impressive, never more so than in the stunning climax which demonstrates an incredible flair and attention to detail that you just can't find in your typical Michael Bay hack job. Also impressive is the level of care that has gone into rendering the Na'Vi's facial expressions, which is certainly realistic enough to make it feel like you're watching a performance rather than a CG-rendering.

The story is trite but so are most of Cameron's films. But what made Aliens, The Terminator and T2 stand out was the director's myth-making ability, to create an immersive, interesting world around a military horror film in the first instance, and a chase narrative in the second. Even the Upstairs Downstairs love story in Titanic was told with such confidence and bombast that resistance proved futile in being swept away by the self-consciously "epic" nature of the love story at its centre. Unfortunately, this director isn't much in evidence here. The Na'Vi are a jumbled mess of Hollywood's ideas of "ethnicity" and the audience is asked, at various points, to identify them with Native American, Aboriginal, Middle Eastern and New Age culture. These broad strokes are crippling, meaning that the Na'Vi never really seem to have a coherent belief system and comparisons to the similar but far superior Princess Mononoke don't do Cameron any favours.

To Avatar's credit, it never drags over its three hour run and works as high-octane entertainment, but after a twelve-year wait it's a disappointment to Cameron fans and, one suspects, that once cinema has caught up with the special effects on display here, the film itself will fade fast in the memory.

Children of Men

Based on a short story by PD James, Alfonso Cuáron's dystopian fiction is yet another interesting change of pace for the Mexican director following his successful stint on the Harry Potter series. Set in the near future, Children of Men imagines a world in which human beings are no longer able to reproduce. The world has collapsed and only Britain soldiers on, albeit in a rather beleaguered fashion; in the opening ten minutes we see a bomb going off in a coffee shop, illegal immigrants being kept in cages and billboards covered in ominous graffiti such as "Whoever dies last, turn out the light".

Persuaded to help join his activist ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore), Theo (Clive Owen) agrees to assist in gaining a young refugee woman, Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), safe passage to the coast. Although it is hidden from Theo at first, Kee reveals that she is pregnant and that she hopes to make her way to the Human Project, a group of scientists based in the Azores that hope to find a cure for human infertility.

The film drops us straight in the action, smartly offering us little in the way of exposition and instead positing itself as a franctic chase narrative as Theo and Kee attempt to make their way to the coast. Cuarón's vision of the not-too-distant future is spot-on. Murky, depressing and grey, it's not too far removed from today's London which, of course, makes the movie's political subtexts all the more apparent. Although the action scenes are undeniably impressive - especially a couple of outstanding one-shot sequences - the layered characterisation and performances (Owen in particular) help to invest the viewer in the outcome of the story. Technically flawless, this is testament to what a skilled writer/director Cuarón has become over the course of just six films.

Hamlet at Wyndhams Theatre

After buying backseat tickets many many months ago, I finally got the opportunity to see Jude Law as Hamlet last night at the Wyndhams Theatre. I've not seen Hamlet performed before and, of the Shakespeare I've seen, I do tend to prefer the comedies. I've got such entrenched ideas of the tragedies - which I read and studied to death at university - that any variation angers me. I've also got a thing against people in the audience that laugh because most people tend to be a laughing in a "I understood that particular play on words because I know, read and understand Shakespeare. Therefore I must laugh to make sure everyone around me knows that I got the joke even when the joke isn't laugh-out-loud funny." But that's just my cross to bear and I realise I can be a bit of an arse about these things.

Anyhow...this was a solid Hamlet. Nothing spectacular of life-altering but a respectable stab nonetheless. Jude Law was great in the lead role. At first I was put off by his performance, which begins loudly and only increases in volume. He also has a propensity to move his arms about a lot and hop about the stage. Before the First Act was over it seemed as if Law's Hamlet was stark-raving mad already when at least part of the play's tragedy is its central character's sure descent into insanity. What become clear is that underneath this bravado, pomp and circumstance is something altogether sane. During his soliloquys, Law exposes this part of the character to the audience and makes them understand the sadness behind the broken man. The "to be or not to be" soliloquy, delivered by a barefooted Law as he wanders in from the snow, is, as expected, a highlight. This great speech about the gap between thought and feeling is so haunting on the page and just as effective in performance.

The set is regal and bare, plain even but it suits the mood of the play. The lighting is used in particularly effective ways and the production is notable for its careful use of shadow and darkness. Unfortunately, given Law's impressive central performance, the rest of the cast don't really deliver. Penelope Wilton plays Gertrude as a dowdy, nervous woman, thoroughly modern and utterly out of place amongst the other players. I don't necessarily have a problem with Gertrude being played as a sympathetic character (indeed, most of her "crimes" could be read as symptoms of Hamlet's burgeoning madness), but such a homespun interpretation jars completely with the tone of the play itself and ensures that her onscreen death and Hamlet's sudden outpouring of grief as he holds her corpse carries very little emotional weight because of it. Gugu Mbatha-Raw also botches her part and lends precious little to the part of Ophelia.

The underwhelming effect of the rest of the cast does tend to dampen the power of Law's astonishing central performance. It's a solid, impressive production on many levels but, Law aside, it doesn't quite shine.

Hush

Adequate low-budget Brit thriller. A young couple, Zakes and Beth (William Ash and Christine Bottomley), are driving down the M1 when they see something scary in the van up ahead, a woman chained up and screaming. When they stop at the next service station Beth gets snatched and Zakes begins a dangerous pursuit of the man in the white van. Writer/director Mark Tonderai manages to muster a few good scares and keeps things moving at a fast lick. Ash's believable performance helps as well, although the now predictable "fleshing out" (Beth had a one-night stand with another man and is considering calling off her relationship with Zakes) of the characters before the film drops them into peril is poorly written and, in the end, serves little purpose. There are also one too many genre clichés to make Hush stand out against the likes of, say, Eden Lake.

Far From Heaven

A masterpiece of American cinema, standing at the pinnacle of Todd Haynes' career so far and featuring a career-best performances from Julianne Moore. Cathy and Frank Whitaker (Moore and Dennis Quaid) are, to all outward appearances, the perfect couple. He the successful businessman, she the doting wife and mother; the very image of familial bliss in 50s Hartford, Connecticut. Yet beneath this facade lies a different truth. Frank is a closeted homosexual and when Cathy catches his in the arms of another man she requests that he seek medical assistance in "curing" his condition. As Frank struggles with his sexuality, Cathy also reaches crisis point. Increasingly alienated from her husband, she turns to her black gardener, Raymond Deagon (Dennis Haysbert) for friendship. The close-minded residents of Hartford are quick to judge, and Raymond's daughter Sarah is forced to bear the consequences when a group of boys knock her unconscious after taunting her about her father's "white girlfriend". Meanwhile, Frank has fallen in love with a young man he met whilst holidaying in Miami and the Whitakers divorce. After her best friend turns her back on her, Cathy returns to Raymond only to discover that he is leaving town, believing it to be in Sarah's best interests.

Haynes is clearly inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk, specifically All That Heaven Allows. The colour palette, Elmer Bernstein's score and direction all point towards 50s melodrama. By recreating the feel of these so-called "women's pictures" today, Haynes is able to bring to the surface the various sexual, social and pyschological tensions that Sirk implied but was never able to say outright. The danger with any reworking is that it can come across as a smirking pastiche, something which this most definitely is not. It's a wonderfully constructed homage to Sirk, one that is able to make explicit all of his more troubling themes.

As such, this is a movie about surfaces. Not only the surface of a person's skin, or that of a "perfect" marriage but of how we perceive ourselves and each other as individuals. Both Cathy and Frank subject themselves to similar kinds of self-dellusion, that they are in love. Frank's revelation to Cathy that he has fallen in love for the first time and that he had no idea "how that felt" is heartbreaking, not just because it exposes the lie behind their marriage but because it exposes how Cathy feels towards Raymond. The Whitakers' separation is handled with an appropriate restraint; their final conversation with each other is over the phone and concerns Cathy's carpool days. The relationship between Cathy and Raymond is similarly subtle. The audience understands their connection (on a physical, emotional and an intellectual level) without their being any need of the script spelling it out.

The performances are all top-notch. Quaid and Haysbert have perhaps been overlook, both providing stellar work here, but Julianne Moore's Cathy is so perfectly realised, both by writer/director Haynes and by the actress herself, that she pretty much overshadows everyone else here. Never once drifting into camp, it's a masterclass in composed melancholy which has drawn comparisons to her (actually very different) performance in The Hours, which was also partly set in the 50s.

This was the movie that made Haynes, one of the most prominent figures of New Queer Cinema with Safe and The Karen Carpenter Story, respectable in Hollywood. No doubt it helped him enormously in gathering together an A-list cast for I'm Not There, his experimental take on the life of Bob Dylan. This, however, is likely to be the film for which he is remembered for some time, the perfect combination of director, writer and star.

Trailerwatch: The Fantastic Mr. Fox

It looks sort of...endearingly cheap? The first few shots of this film kind of creeped me out but I'm pretty sold on it after seeing this trailer. It looks like something you might have seen on CBBC in the late 80s. There's a few good jokes in there as well, and it's nice to hear Meryl sound all motherly ain't it?

I Love You, Man

A "bromance" that is more entertaining than it has any right to be, largely thanks to the effortless chemistry between its two leads. Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) has just proposed to his loving girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones) but she's concerned over his lack of male friends. Keen to find a best man for his wedding, Peter begins interviewing potential candidates, leading to a couple of humorous misunderstandings before meeting Sydney (Jason Segal), a slacker type who encourages uptight Peter to let loose. What follows is a comical reappropriation of rom-com clichés as played out by two straight men. It's a solid concept, although the relationship's inevitable complications, thrown in towards the end of the movie, feel cursory and aren't explored with any real depth. I Love You, Man also, on occassion, feels a little too loose. The actors have clearly been given free rein to improvise, leading to some dialogue that is very funny indeed, but there are a couple of scenes that run on longer than they need to.

That said, this has more belly laughs than your average romantic comedy and the lead performances are just as good as you would expect. Rudd is particularly impressive. Mining The Office and other comedies of embarrassment, his Peter Klaven may be cringe-inducing (his attempts at giving Sydney a nickname are especially funny) but he's also instantly likeable and the movie pretty much coasts by on his charms alone.

Trailerwatch: Dorian Gray

Only a teaser and a fairly poor one at that. Whilst Colin Firth looks like he'll make a decent Henry Wooton and Rebecca Hall's presence can only be a good thing, this looks like a goth romance that completely ignores the source material. I mean, Dorian Gray is meant to be gay right? I know there's that thing with Sybill Vane but to anyone who's read the book it's pretty obvious that Dorian's interests lie elsewhere. The casting of Ben Barnes doesn't thrill me either. He was wet in Easy Virtue and can't see him being a good fit for Dorian but I suppose I'll wait and see.

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

A marvellous contemporary update of Shakespeare's tragic romance. Building on camp aesthetic, hectic editing and beautiful visuals that marked his earlier film Strictly Ballroom and went on to play an even greater part in Moulin Rouge!, Luhrmann's MTV-inspired masterpiece displays an uncanny understanding of his source material. Exposition is kept to a minimum. Instead we're treated to ecstasy-infused dances in drag (a glorious interpretation of Mercutio's Queen Mab speech), a colourful gas station brawl and a soundtrack that includes Prince, The Cardigans and The Wannadies.

Wisely choosing to preserve the original language of the text, Luhrmann's "Verona Beach" setting (actually a mixture of Miami and Mexico City) highlights the melodrama of Shakespeare's story, something which this movie has in spades. The hot young cast are perfectly spearheaded by DiCaprio and Danes, both of whom have never been cast better. Fast, furious and gloriously watchable.

Trailerwatch: Alice in Wonderland

I flip-flop between being excited about this and realising that Tim Burton hasn't made a good film in ten years. In theory, Burton's aesthetic is perfectly suited to Alice. I just hope it doesn't have any gothic trappings, because it really doesn't need any. Mia Wasikowska should make a good Alice (she's ace on In Treatment) but why does this trailer make it seem like Johnny Depp is the only star on show here? The Mad Hatter isn't that big a part in the books and whilst I don't have a problem with A-list cameos from Depp, Anne Hathaway and the like, it's Alice's story, not theirs. The CGI looks a bit ropey too.

Pleasantville

A charming, clever satire of 50s American ideals and the need for self-liberation. Brother and sister David and Jennifer (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) are transported from the present day into a 50s black-and-white TV sitcom called Pleasantville, a world of good manners and happy families. As the teenagers' liberal attitudes and ideas spread amongst the population, the monochrome world of Pleasantville springs gloriously into Technicolour. As a metaphor for the importance of liberal thinking, it's inspired, and it becomes even more pertinent when the town's moral majority begins to separate out from the "coloured" population.

Joan Allen, as a suburban housewife discovering her sexuality for the very first time, is particularly moving and provides the movie's emotional touchstone, embuing director/screenwriter Gary Ross' enterprise with genuine feeling. A masturbation scene to better anything shown in the American Pie movies and Fiona Apple's cover of Beatles classic "Please Send Me Someone To Love" stand out, but this is a film to savour on almost every level.

A few of my favourite actors

Actors by ben1283 on Polyvore.com

Almost Famous

A whimsical, semi-autobiographical take on early 70s rock 'n' roll by Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe. Fifteen year-old aspiring rock journalist William Miller (Patrick Fugit, earnest) is hired by Rolling Stone magazine to write a piece on emergent new band Stillwater. Travelling on the road with the group, he falls in love with "Band-Aid" (distinguished from groupies by their love of the music rather than the musicians) Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), who is carrying on a one-way affair with lead guitarist Russell (Billy Crudup).

As far as dewy-eyed nostalgia flicks go, this is very good indeed. Primarily a coming-of-age story, William's gradual disenchantment of his idols, their petty in-fighting and, in particular, Russell's poor treatment of Penny, provides a nifty mirror into a world that was, as William's mentor, rock journalist Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) puts it "dying out". Crowe's ear for good music serves him well here too, as evidenced in a rousing group rendition of Elton John's Tiny Dancer. Hudson's playful, enigmatic performance as Penny Lane is the jewel in the film's crown but it's rounded out by some impressive ensemble performances from Hoffman, Frances McDormand (as William's concerned mother), Fairuza Balk and Zooey Deschanel.

17 Again

Sometimes it goes to show that a film needn't be original to succeed. The screenplay for 17 Again, the latest Zac Efron vehicle, doesn't have a jot of originality but still manages to be sharp, funny and heartwarming. Matthew Perry stars as Michael O'Donnell, a star basketball player at high school in 1989 who packed in his chance of a scholarship to marry his girlfriend Scarlet (Leslie Mann) when after she tells him she's pregnant. Fast-forward to the present day and Scarlet has kicked him out of the house, bored with his constant complaining that he never got to fulfil his potential. Magically transformed by some kind of janitor-cum-spirit guide (the one plot element that the script bungles) into his old seventeen year-old self (Efron), Michael re-enrolls in high school with the idea of re-living his glory years and attending college. Along the way he befriends his son, who's being bullied, and his sulky teenage daughter who is dating the school bully.

It's as cheesy as you'd expect, with Michael realising the importance of his wife and children just as it seems to be too late (it isn't, of course). However, Efron's winning central performance and some spot-on pop culture references help make 17 Again shine. There's also something undeniably entertaining about a prudish, moralising middle-aged man trapped in Zac Efron's twinkish body. Whether he's preaching abstinence in a sex education class or trying to convince a trio of admiring girls that they need to respect their bodies, he's consistently amusing. Some nice supporting turns from the ever-reliable Leslie Mann and Thomas Lennon as Michael's sci-fi obsessed best friend help round things out nicely. A surprising winner.

Trailerwatch: An Education and Percy Jackson

An Education. Seems like a pretty straightforward story this. Young girl who plans to go to Oxford meets a dashing young man who shows her a different life, packs in her plans for academia much to the chagrin of her older, wiser parents before realising that glamour ain't quite what it's cracked up to be and learns a few life lessons. In the past. The trailer is well put together, but this glamorous "other" life that the young girl is being offered seems to amount to having drinks with Dominic Cooper. Not that that isn't a pleasant experience in itself but...I'm presuming there will be more to that in the film itself. Carey Mulligan's already won herself some awards buzz and her roles in Public Enemies and the upcoming Brothers can't harm her chances. I've only seen her in Bleak House so can't really say much but the supporting cast is reliable. Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson and personal fave Olivia Williams (she's wearing glasses so I'm guessing she'll be playing the role of "Stern Task Mistress"). Not sure how I feel about Nick Hornby scripting. My fond memories of High Fidelity were muddied by the so-so adaptation, About A Boy and his rubbish YA novel but this looks more serious than lightly playful. And at least it has a woman at its centre rather than one of Hornby's patented manboys.

The second trailer is only a teaser and not a very exciting one at that. Percy Jackson and The Olympians. I believe this one is based on a series of children's books but until they bring out a more exciting trailer then I'm not that bothered for looking it up. "From the director of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" doesn't exactly bode well, Chris Columbus not being the most inspired of directors. Are Greek myths coming back into vogue? Sam Worthington (still not seen him in anything and I'm not that fussed for Terminator: Salvation so I'll wait until Avatar to form a judgement) has Clash of the Titans on his plate so maybe they are. Hope so. This looks pretty CGI-tastic though.

Coraline

A creepy, hugely imaginative story about a young girl, Coraline (Dakota Fanning), who discovers a door into a world of seeming perfection. Her parents aren't the boring, uninterested people she knows in the real world; they treat Coraline like a princess. Trapeze artists, jumping mice and cannons that shoot out cotton candy are just some of the pleasures in this Other world. The fact that all of its inhabitants have buttons where their eyes should be seems a little strange, but that's easy to overlook with everything else the Other world has to offer.

For a children's film, Coraline sure is suspenseful. We know there's something wrong about this world but what is it? And when will Coraline realise it? As with all films aimed at children though, it does have a message, this one being "be careful what you wish for". Behind that though there's something more subtle at work. Like Coraline, the viewer also has to come to an understanding of her parents. The Other world seems so seductive because, in part, we agree with Corlaline: her parents are boring, obsessed with work and slow to show their feelings. Selick turns the table on his viewer by suggesting that a retreat to dull normality is, in fact, the preferable option. All of a sudden, Coraline's parents don't just seem dull, they seem safe. Which is important when your Other mother has turned herself into a creepy spider lady.

I can't rave enough about the design of the film. The Other world is colourful and exciting but there's an eeriness that suffuses every single scene. A frightening, hugely imaginative children's film, much like the sort of children's films we used to get in the 80s (but that could be the rose-tinted glasses talking).

Birth

Ten years after the death of her beloved husband Sean, Upper Manhattanite Anna (Nicole Kidman) is engaged again. However, at a party to announce her engagement to solid, understanding Joseph (Danny Huston), a young boy (Cameron Bright) appears who claims to be Sean's reincarnated spirit. This might sound like a hokey supernatural drama, but Jonathan Glazer has created a thoughtful mood piece and managed to extract one of Kidman's finest performances.

Sean's arrival at first extracts only laughs from Anna, but when Sean becomes more insistent in his advances, a glimmer of uncertainty opens up within Anna that expands as it becomes apparent that his knowledge of her dead husband extends far beyond the trivial and into the thoughts, feelings and secrets they shared when they were together. Or does it? Both Glazer's script and Kidman's careful performance are attuned to the possibility that she is quite capable of fantasising the boy into something he is not. Indeed, a plot twist towards the end of the film would seem to suggest that their relationship might not have been as perfect as Anna remembers it. This is reflected in the ickier implications of Anna's relationship with Sean, which rears its ugly head several times but is ultimately something which Anna is unable to meet head-on.

Glazer's evocation of mood here is excellent, bolstered by an appropriately eerie score from Alexandre Desplat. The increasingly disturbed nature of this central relationship becomes quite a bug to bare within her privileged family; the arrival of an eerily self-possessed child from downtown into their upper middle-class world seems to be more of a problem than Anna's possibly paedophilic tendencies. It is unfortunate that the film is forced to show its hand at the end of the film, which spoils some of Glazer's subtler work earlier on. However, Birth is definitely a worthwhile watch and Kidman has never been better.

Definitely, Maybe

A likeable, smart romantic comedy with a rather uncharismatic Ryan Reynolds playing Will, an ad exec who has just received divorce papers from his wife. Prompted by the imminent separation of her parents, daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin, irritating beyond belief) asks to know how they first met and fell in love, hoping for a reconciliation. Will agrees, but on the condition that Maya has to guess which of the three women Will has loved, ended up becoming his wife (he's changed their names). The choices are college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), intelligent sophisticate Summer (Rachel Weisz) or fiery free spirit April (Isla Fisher)?

Will's story begins in the early 90s as he works on the Clinton campaign and the passing of time is marked by obvious political signifiers rather than the fashion or the music. The first third of the film is the least successful. Elizabeth Banks is stuck in the same cute-but-dull role that she's mined to better effect elsewhere. Definitely, Maybe is much more interesting when we're in the company of Summer and April. Rachel Weisz manages to make a potentially irritating character sympathetic and believable. Meanwhile, Isla Fisher demonstrates that she's the most gifted comic actress this side of Anna Faris with a totally lovable, sparkly performance that's equal amounts flinty wit and vulnerability.

It's obvious from a fairly early stage who Will truly loves out of the three women, but the script has some fun with themes of storytelling, pointing out Will's ability to write and rewrite his own destiny. Or perhaps that's reading too much into a film that is, ultimately, just some good-natured fun.

The Class

A supremely confident movie, based on François Bégaudeau's semi-autobiographical novel Entre Les Murs and starring the author himself as the teacher at the centre of the story, it's easy to see why Laurent Cantet's movie has been such a critical success. Spread out over the course of an academic year, the film documents François' time as a French teacher, following his interactions with both the students and the faculty.

The first hour or so of the film feels almost loose, as the viewer is invited to observe the dynamics of the classroom and François' interactions with the class. These scenes are electric. Certain abrasive students come to the fore, not only as a way to avoid work but also as a way to confirm their standing amongst their peers and to question the socio-political prejudices of their teacher; at one point, a student asks him why he only ever uses Caucasian names when he writes out examples of French on the blackboard. However, this improvisational feel belies the work that has gone into the incredibly nuanced screenplay. We witness the ebb and flow of the classroom. A girl who was friendly the previous summer is sullen when she returns for the autumn semester, two friends fall out only to make up again a few weeks later, the more academically gifted students struggle to make themselves heard above their noisier classmates. François is aware of all of this but the students' private lives remain hidden as, indeed, does that of François himself. A parent/teacher evening provides the viewer with some context as to the students' home lives but the script acknowledges the impossibility of the teacher ever "knowing" his students and vice versa.

The climax of the film comes when two girls hear some disparaging remarks François makes about a Malian student, Suleiman, during a teachers' conference. When they inform Suleiman of what the teacher has said, François calls them both "pétasses", a word that that, in certain contexts, can mean "slut". This leads to a confrontation in class and Suleiman storms out of class, accidentally striking another student with his backpack. It is here that Cantet's fascination with language - how it can be used and misappropriated - comes most obviously to the fore. Although François tries to qualify his use of the word "pétasses" he eventually finds himself fighting with the girls in the playground, symbolically battling it out on their turf. His intellectualisation of the confrontation is of no use here and, as far as the two girls are concerned, he has shown his true colours. The additional possibility that Suleiman may be sent back to his home village in Mali adds a further dimension to the school's decision as to whether to expel him or not, and another layer to François' troubled central character.

The Class also involves a hugely moving final scene, which not only radically alters François' assumptions about his students but those of the viewer themselves. We are just as prone to the prejudices and second-guesses of the teacher. A student we had previously thought as sullen and disruptive reveals that she has not only read but understood Plato's Republic and another girl, one who we had barely noticed, reveals that the school year has taught her nothing, that she doesn't understand any of her lessons and that she is frightened about what her future might hold. It's a bold, upsetting final scene and one that lingered long in my mind.

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People

An aimiable enough romantic comedy based on Toby Young's memoir detailing his stint at Vanity Fair. Simon Pegg - all flailing limbs and pratfalls - plays Toby, here offered a job at the fictional celebrity magazine Sharpes, run by media legend Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges). Desperate to land a date with glamorous up-and-coming actress Sophie Maes (Megan Fox), Toby is paired up with sober junior editor Allison (Kirsten Dunst) with whom, of course, he's destined to fall in love with.

Knowing where a story is going doesn't have to be a problem if we enjoy the journey but, although likeable enough, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People is almost completely devoid of both laughs and charm. A cast of such good actors (and Megan Fox) are ultimately unable to do much with the limp material (including a dead chihuahua, a transsexual and a Polish landlady), although Kirsten Dunst again shows how good she can be even in middling rom-coms such as this. Even if the ending was a bit of a cop-out, at least The Devil Wears Prada had a bit more bite to it...

Confessions Of A Shopaholic

Based on a book by Sophie Kinsella and relocated to New York, Confessions Of A Shopaholic is much more satisfying and funny than it has any right to be. Nearly all of this is down to Isla Fisher, whose perky, adorable performance gives the so-so script a spark that few actresses outside of Anna Faris could have managed. Fisher plays Rebecca, a self-confessed shopaholic whose love of Louis Vuitton and Prada have helped her mount up a rather tremendous amount of debt, a debt she's unable to pay off given that she's just lost her job. Luckily, she finds a new job at Successful Savings magazine (irony alert!) under the tutelage of dreamy-but-penside Luke (Hugh Dancy, rather damp). Rebecca puts financial problems into language that people can understand, namely shoes and handbags apparently, and successfully manages to fib her way not only into the boss' affections but also to catch the eye of Alette Naylor (Kristen Scott Thomas), editor-in-chief of a top fashion magazine.

Even for a frothy romantic comedy, this spends far more time on its protagonist's not-wholly-honest rise to the top than it ever does on the inevitable downspiral and life lessons learned, which works much more in its favour than you might expect. Although there are several questionable elements to the story (would Luke really be duped by Rebecca, for instance?), the amount you're prepared to forgive if there's a good central performance is considerable. After scene-stealing roles in Definitely, Maybe and Wedding Crashers, Isla Fisher seizes her first lead role with both hands, not letting go for a second. The pratfalls and humorous misunderstandings that make up 90% of the film would've felt lame and clichéd in other hands, but they are handled so endearingly here that it's difficult not to be swept away in it all.

In The Bedroom

Surely on the most impressive debut films of the last decade, Todd Field's study of suburban grief is the kind of film that welcomes hyperbole. The story is focused on a middle-aged couple, Ruth and Matt Fowler (Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson), whose son Frank (Nick Stahl) is carrying on an affair with an older woman, Natalie (Marisa Tomei), who is still in the process of divorcing her abusive husband. How serious is Frank about Natalie? It's a question of great concern to Ruth, who is worried that the relationship will impinge upon his plans to study architecture at college. Matt is more benign about the situation, perhaps because he seems to harbour regrets of his own about pursuing a career in medicine rather than following in his father's footsteps as an offshore fisherman.

The first third of Field's movie is concerned with establishing location and character. The cast are given plenty of room to inhabit their characters, perfectly displaying the small tensions and concerns underlying the family dynamics. At the forty minute mark, the movie takes a tragic and unexpected twist. What follows is a study of the different ways in which people grieve, with the emphasis firmly on small details (Ruth's sureptitious glance as her husband helps himself to another glass of wine, a hand run over the ladder of an abandoned treehouse). A blazing row between Ruth and Matt in which truths are told and unkindnesses traded prompts a further, yet more unexpected twist.

Of the four main players, Sissy Spacek arguably makes the biggest impression. Her struggle not only to make sense of her own emotional reaction but also that of her husband's is palpable in every facial twitch, every gesture. Tom Wilkinson is almost as impressive, stoically providing the movie's necessary emotional core.

What is most remarkable about In The Bedroom is how both of its twists work so well in colouring your view of the remaining segment. The first third, a study of a New England family, is subtle, relaxed almost, giving the characters time and space to burrow their way into the viewer's subconscious. The second third is emotionally draining, horrifying, laced with the eerily beautiful Eastern European folk music that Ruth teaches at her school. Field's final act is one of tense manipulation. We know what's coming but we're uncertain as to whether we want to see it. Like David Cronenburg's later A History Of Violence, this is a study of suburban living, of how any disruptions, no matter how horrible, can be quelled, repressed and forgotten so that life as we know it can continue. As such, this is a chilling masterwork in grief and the reassertion of middle-class "normality" after a tragedy.

Blindness

Fernando Mereilles has created a visceral film out of José Saramago's allegorical novel about an unnamed city that suddenly becomes blind. Unfortunately, and in spite of its obvious good intentions and faithfulness to the original source, the overriding impression is one of a rather clunky post-apocalyptic thriller. Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore play an opthamologist and his wife. He is one of the first people to go blind and she remains the one person who is unafflicted. Inititally, the blind are swept into an isolated facility so as not to infect the rest of the population. Moore's character claims blindness in order to stay with her husband and it's through her eyes that we see the ensuing descent into chaos.

Although the rest of the cast is strong, Julianne Moore is riveting. It's such a pity that she gave two such strong performances in 2008 (the other being in Savage Grace) that won't be seen by a wider audience. As the script doesn't seem overly concerned with character, its through Moore's expressive face that we feel the burden that she has to carry.

For a film that didn't really satisfy me, this gets an awful lot right. The direction and cinematography, both designed to emulate the sensation of blindness are varied and expressive, although those who have seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly might note some similarities. Mereilles' vision of social degradation is remarkably convincing, scary even. It certainly helps that the location is so carefully established as an oppressive, frightening metropolis bleached of both colour and familiarity. This helps the movie to establish itself as an allegory, but it is this very thoughfulness that ultimately cripples the movie. In spite of Mereilles' careful use of location and a well-chosen cast, certain story elements don't carry over well from the source material. In the novel, the fact that none of the characters had names seemed conducive to Saramago's style of writing but here it appears obvious, patronising even; Danny Glover's voiceover doesn't help. The message of Mereilles' movie seems like one we've heard before, and the script doesn't have enough subtlety of expression to make us really care for these characters.

Having said that, the best scenes (notably an attack on Gael García Bernal's tyrannical inmate) are tense and frightening and any fans of Julianne Moore are bound to want to check this out.

The Painted Veil

1920s London and Kitty (Naomi Watts) is nearing an age where she will be deemed "unmarriagable". Desperate to escape her stifling family home, she hastily marries dull bacteriologist Walter (Edward Norton), who just as hastily whisks her off to Shanghai. There, Kitty has an affair with a married man (Liev Schrieber) and when Walter finds out he punishes his wife by taking her with him into the middle of a cholera epidemic in rural China. What begins as a battle of wills between the mutually resentful couple turns into a love story as their difficult living conditions force Kitty and Walter to see each other in a different light.

Naomi Watts and Edward Norton are well matched, both offering powerful, complex performances. Stuart Dryburgh's cinematography and Alexandre Desplat's score are equally impressive. There are clear parallels drawn between the cholera epidemic and the diseased marriage between the central characters. Whether this conflation of national problems with Kitty and Walter's problems is offensive will probably depend on your point of view but, this problem aside, The Painted Veil is a deeply felt period film about the darkness of the human condition.

Shutter Island Trailer

How bloody awesome does this look? I knew next to nothing about Scorsese's new movie other than its name, which put me off for some strange reason. I had no idea it was a thriller/mystery film, for instance. Or that it had people going mad. I did know that Michelle Williams was part of the cast, which is always a good reason to see anything. And DiCaprio is pretty much a given for Scorsese now. I had no idea that Patricia Clarkson was in it either and, from what we see of her here, she's looking pretty mental. Shutter Island is based on a Dennis Lehane novel and though I didn't enjoy Mystic River nearly as much as a lot of other people did (Laura Linney + rubbish Lady Macbeth role = FAIL), I'm more than interested to see this. Shame it probably won't hit the UK until the end of the year though...

Sliding Doors

Every once in a while, I'll notice that Sliding Doors is on Film4 and I can't help but be taken in all over again. Basically a romantic comedy with a twist, at the start of the movie Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) is sacked from work and misses her train home. Or she doesn't. In another, alternate reality Helen catches the train in the nick of time and gets home to find her boyfriend having sex with another woman. Whilst one Helen blithely continues with her miserable life, the other gets a hair cut, sets up her own PR company and meets-cute with James (John Hannah), a guy she shares a lift with.

How much of our lives are mapped out for us? Can we really turn our lives around just by looking at things differently? Although Sliding Doors addresses some interesting themes, it's essentially a romantic comedy with a neat twist. Thanfully, the twist serves the story well and it's a credit to director Peter Howitt that he keeps both stories up in the air with relative ease. What's fascinating about the film is how perfectly it manages to capture the late-90s.

Gwyneth Paltrow was busy in 1998; six of her films were released, one of which was multi Oscar-winner Shakespeare In Love. Since then she's mostly been known for a couple of brilliantly dour supporting roles (The Royal Tenenbaums, The Talented Mr. Ripley) and a string of embarrassing failures (Shallow Hal, View From The Top). Sliding Doors shows her at her most likeable and personable, which is still a pleasant surprise given the way that public opinion turned against her after her blubby speech at the Oscars. There are some lovely supporting performances here, notably John Hannah (where is he?), but it's Gwyneth that really shines here.

Another one of the big reasons why I love this movie is its soundtrack. Blair, Dodgy, Jamiroquai and Olive all achieved the peak of their fame at the time, just as Britpop was ending. Their inclusion on the soundtrack helped encapsulate Sliding Doors in the late 90s. The obligatory female singer/songwriter component comes from Aimee Mann, Abra Moore and Dido. Both Mann and Dido were to become ubiquitous on movie soundtracks within the next couple of years so their appearance here might come as a surprise. Aimee Mann's Amateur is a particularly good song choice, played just after Helen discovers that her boyfriend has been cheating on her. Abra Moore's Don't Feel Like Cryin' comes later on, when alterna-reality Helen is putting her life back together.

And, of course, no discussion of Sliding Doors would be complete without bringing up the sucker-punch of an ending. It's here that the film's high concept ideas really gel with the story. In both realities, Helen discovers that she's pregnant before being involved in an accident. In both realities, Helen loses her baby. Whilst our expectations of romantic comedies have led us to believe that the happier Helen will survive, the film does a neat little U-turn. James' final moment with Helen's body is all the more moving because we weren't expecting it. Instead, it's the "other" Helen that has survived, but the film's final moments hint that the two realities aren't as distinct as they might first appear. She finally sees her boyfriend for what he is, orders him to get out of her life and, as she leaves the hospital, runs into James. Her anticipation of James' non-sequitar (the same non-sequitar that he baffled her with in the "other" reality) suggests that Helen's alter-ego might not have died after all, that she has in fact merged with this Helen. It's here that the movie's twin themes of fate and self-determination dovetail perfectly, giving the perfect ending to one of the most impressive romantic comedies of the 90s.

He's Just Not That Into You

A rather strange ensemble romantic comedy adapated from a self-novel that was, in turn, adapted from a one-liner in Sex and the City. Earnest, optimistic Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin, cute as a button) frets when Conor (Kevin Connolly) doesn't call after their first date. Seeking advice from Conor friend, bar-owner Alex (Justin Long), an unconvincing lothario willing to dispense more honest dating advice than her co-workers Janine (Jennifer Connolly) and Beth (Jennifer Aniston). Meanwhile, Conor wants Anna (Scarlett Johannsson) to commit to him, but she's too busy having an affair with Ben (Bradley Cooper), who's married to Janine. Beth is also having relationship problems; although they've been together for seven years, her boyfriend Neil (Ben Affleck) remains adamant that he's not interested in marriage. In yet another plot strand, Anna's friend Mary (Drew Barrymore) is trying online dating without much success.

The film starts off promisingly, in part because several of the observations it makes about dating and relationships are true. The problem is that they never feel painfully true. He's Just Not That Into You treads a sort of middle ground, unsure whether it wants to offer up a self-help guide or heart-warming romantic comedy. There are far too many plot threads, with Aniston and Barrymore (both such naturals at this sort of thing) feeling particularly under-utilised. A lot of the stories feel like they could've been feature length themselves, which means the movie feels crammed and overlong.

The one character that really resonates is Janine. Jennifer Connolly's buttoned-up performance is irritating at first, but her slow combustion as she realises that she may have married the wrong man feels like it's wandered in from a much better movie. It's a shame that such a fine actress (and an Oscar-winner at that!) should be reduced to flabby rom-coms like this.

And In The End...

ER finally breathed its last on UK television screens last Thursday. As the summation of fifteen years it was a restrained finale, with little of the sentimentality that has marred the show in its later seasons.

The plot is reminiscent of an episode from season one or two; plenty of plot threads, long takes down the hospital corridors, the focus spread evenly between the characters, some screwball humour, tragic deaths and uplifting survival stories. There were even a few more definite nods to early seasons: the opening shot of Lydia (hooray - Lydia's back!) waking up Morris is stolen from the pilot episode, as is the clock counting down twenty-four hours. The one new character, medical intern Julia Wise (Alexis Bledel), was clearly meant to remind us of Carter's early days in the ER and her motivational talk with Brenner echoed a similar conversation Carter had with Greene back in the day. We also got the opening credits back, which was a lovely lovely touch.

Throughout Season 15, we've seen the return of several old characters. This has, for the most part, worked well. The focus has been, wisely, kept on current cast members, ensuring that Season 15 never felt like one long goodbye. The one exception to this was Alex Kingston's misjudged reappearance as a wise advisor to Neela and I was pleased to see her redeem herself here. Although it was great to see Kerry and Susan again, the brief sequence that Corday and Benton got to themselves was one the episode's highlights. THE CHEMISTRY'S STILL THERE. DUMP CLEO, BENTON! I NEVER LIKED HER ANYWAY.

I was thankful that there was at least one happy ending. Despite furiously hating Gates for quite some time now, the moment when Sam held his hands was perfect. We assume that they get back together but the point wasn't rammed home. The reappearance of Rachel Greene was also a real pleasure. Frank's face when she tells him that she's Mark's daughter made we well up. It also added a great deal to what was the main theme of the episode, that of rotation, of looking back whilst still looking forward. Mark may be dead but, as Carter says, there's another "Dr. Greene" at County General. The death of the pregnant woman but the survival of the twins she gave birth to, which may have been a reference to seminal Season 1 episode Love's Labours Lost. The appearance of Julia Wise, a character that we immediately identified and sympathised with, mostly due to Bledel's standout performance. The disaster that we never get to see. The final shot of County General as the familiar credits return...

As a longtime fan of the show, even during its later seasons, I really don't think I could fault And In The End... Sad without being sentimental, providing us with some closure but not so much as to feel like a frantic tying-up of loose ends. Excellent performances all round. It was pretty much everything I loved about the show giftwrapped into a single episode.

Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events

In the tradition of all great children's films, Brad Silberling's adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events offers a dark, scary vision of adolescense.  No sooner do we meet Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken) and Sunny Baudelaire, then they are orphaned and packed off to their distant cousin, Count Olaf (Jim Carrey in a rubbery, OTT performance).  It soon becomes apparent that Olaf wants nothing more than to get rid of the children and claim the family fortune.  Pursued by Count Olaf in a variety of guises, the Baudelaires stay with their herpetologist Uncle Montgomery (Billy Connolly) and then with their paranoid Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep).

Adapted from the first two Lemony Snicket novels, Silberling's film feels very episodic, and those who find Jim Carrey irritating will find nothing here to win them over.  However, the imaginative set design and some excellent performances from Browning and Aiken really make this stand out.  Both of these elements, plus a brilliantly macabre sense of whimsy, combine to give the film a real emotional weight that is lacking from the majority of children's movies.

Lantana

Ray Lawrence's movie, adapated from Andrew Bovell's play Speaking in Tongues, drew comparisons to Magnolia upon its release.  Both films have a set of disparate characters who are interlinked in a number of unusual ways, both films play with "big" themes such as love, loss, marriage, betrayal and fatherhood.  But whilst Magnolia never quite steps out of Robert Altman's shadow, Lantana quietly confirms itself as the superior film.

The story roughly revolves around four couples.  Married police detective Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) is having an affair with Jane (Rachael Blake), who has recently separated from her husband Pete.  Whilst Leon is investigating the disappearance of psychiatrist Valerie (Barbara Hershey) he discovers that his wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) was one of her clients.  Valerie had recently published a book about the murder of her young daughter, an event that had crippled her marriage to John (Geoffrey Rush).  A high-heeled shoe thrown into the bushes across from Jane's house leads her to believe that her neighbour Nick, happily married to Paula, may be linked to Valerie's disappearance.

Lantana's greatest strength is in the way it misleads its audience at almost every turn.  Although all four couples are connected to Valerie somehow, things are much less complicated and more mundane than any of the characters at first believe.  Just as Valerie imagines her husband to be having an affair with a male client of hers, Leon believes John to be involved in his wife's disappearance and Jane believes her neighbour to be a murderer.  Each and every character deceives themselves, imagining complex answers to the questions they ask but more often than not faced with their own ordinary lives.  What at first seems like a labyrinthine murder mystery transpires to be a slow-burning, sophisticated drama about four suburban couples and the lies they tell themselves.

The performances are uniformally stunning.  Anthony LaPaglia has never been better and he's easily matched by Oscar winners Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey.  The real stand-out though is Kerry Armstrong, in her feature film debut.  Everything about her seems perfect, from the slightly over-exaggerated embarassment when her salsa teacher dances with her, to her moving monologue about being middle-aged.  It's a beautiful, empathic, intelligent film which is, along with Japanese Story, possibly the best movie to come out of Australia in the last ten years.

Joshua Jackson

He's an awful lot hotter in Fringe...

...than he ever was in Dawson's Creek.

United States Of Tara

I rushed through the final four episodes of Toni Collette's new Showtime star vehicle, United States Of Tara this morning and I've got to say that in spite of its flaw, I've enjoyed all twelve episodes immensely.  Collette plays Tara, a 35 year-old wife and mother with dissociative identity dissorder and whom, at the most inconvenient of times, is prone to slip into one of several personalities: T, a rambunctious 16 year-old, Buck, a beer-guzzling homophobic male and Alice, a prim and proper housewife.

What makes the show more than just a gimmick is its strong supporting cast.  Tara is surrounded by a loving, suitably dysfunctional family: her husband Max (John Corbett), daughter Kate (Brie Larson), gay son Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) and sister (Rosemarie DeWitt).  Each has their own story, which helps this to feel more like an ensemble drama rather than a star vehicle for Collette.  Created by Juno's Oscar-winning scriptwriter Diablo Cody, some of the arch, affected dialogue of that film has filtered through.  Kate and Marshall especially often come out with expressions that seem too adult or unrealistic.  Thankfully, this is tempered by the writers' keen observations of the family unit and a hefty dose of heartfelt sentiment that gives the show the kind of genuine warmth that Juno was lacking.

Although Collette is impressive in the central role, once we've seen all of her alternative personalities (or "alters") she doesn't have much else to show.  She's not bad by a long stretch.  The way her body movement and facial expressions change whenever she transitions into one of the alters is fun, clever even.  But her performance doesn't have the same subtlety that, say, Michael C. Hall exhibits in Dexter, another Showtime series where the protagonist/antagonist (depending upon which way you look at it) is required to play more than one version of themselves.  The real breakout star is bound to be Keir Gilchrist, whose romancing of Jason, a bi-curious pastor's son is the series' sweetest, most finely-written and acted storyline.  The marvellous Rosemarie DeWitt, so fantastic in both Mad Men and Rachel Is Getting Married, also brings an enormous amount of depth to her discordant relationship with Tara.

Some of the dialogue may grate and the soundtrack might veer a little bit too close to whimsy for some people's tastes, but this is an adorable, occassionally very funny drama series that easily transgresses its gimmicky central concept.

Dollhouse Renewed

After being in Devon for a week, I didn't have a chance to watch the Dollhouse finale until yesterday and then I wake up this morning to find that the show, previously thought to be dead in the water, has been renewed by Fox for a second season.  The surprise move by the network that previously cancelled Firefly is supposed to have come because of the strong online viewing figures and the hoped-for strong DVD figures.  The series is set to return in the autumn with a thirteen episode run, each of which will be cut down to 42 minutes rather than the slightly longer episodes in series 1.  This is said to be one of the ways in which Joss Whedon will be reducing costs on the show, although there's whisperings that some of the cast might be axed.  Please not Sierra.  Or Victor.  Or Adelle.  Or Whisky.  Especially not Whisky because I don't think I can stomach TV without Amy Acker in it.

So Episode 12.  The final episode unless we're counting Epitaph One, the post-apocalyptic "coda" episode that will only be available on DVD.  Bloody good wasn't it?  I had a few minor quibbles.  Mainly Alan Tudyk, who I love and adore and was so good in the previous episode, didn't really shine here.  After all the build-up to Alpha, now we finally get to meet him he's not as fun to watch as I'd hoped he would be.  That final chase sequence, with Alpha dangling Caroline's identity "wedge" over a railing and her chasing up the stairs to catch him wasn't really dynamic enough and was poorly directed.

These two episode aside, this was a stellar episode and it does now feel that we're nearly there, that Dollhouse has almost fulfilled its early potential.  I've been championing Eliza throughout the show's run, although a lot of critics have pointed out what they believe to be her limited acting abilities.  What's thrown people is that the show's concept seems to offer an acting showcase for one actress when, as the past six episodes have shown, Dollhouse is much more of an ensemble piece.  There have also been precious few "actorish" moments, y'know, all the tears and drama stuff that you might expect from a show where the supposed lead plays a different character week in and week out.  She's been quietly convincing in every episode, particular as the blind woman in True Believer, Patton Oswald's dead wife in Man On The Street and as a middle-aged woman in Haunted.  One of the show's major story arcs has been the derailment of nearly all of Echo's assignment.  She doesn't get the fun Alias moments like Sierra, or the suave James Bond-ish moments like Victor in A Spy In The House Of Love.  I digress.  Anyway, Eliza's great.

The finale also did a good job of tying up loose ends whilst also creating new stories and rearranging its story elements to a sufficient degree to make us want to know what happens next, much like Angel did at the end of season 4 with Home.  One thing that I'm thankful for is that Paul Ballard seems assimilated into the Dollhouse.  His hunt for the Dollhouse was beginning to get tiresome and at least now he's inside, he can have relationships with characters other than November.  We've also got a sentient Doll, Whisky.  I was intrigued by her statement "I know who I am", her decision not to look at who she was before she entered the Dollhouse and her question to Topher, "Why was it important that I hate you?"

Other things that were generally awesome:

Composite Echo.  The moment when we witness all of Echo's previous personalities assimilating was a big pay-off to all of the procedural episode we had to slog through at the start of the season.

Sierra coming onto Paul Ballard.  Big lulz there.

Ballard's sacrifice for November.  This was perhaps the first moment in the entire run where I was genuinely moved and who else was expecting him to save Caroline?  The use of Beck's cover of Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes, was a nice touch.

"I'm not anyone because I am everyone."

Nine Trailer Now Up

The trailer for Rob Marshall's new musical Nine is now available and, boy, does it look exciting. I'm not familiar with the Broadway show, being British and all, but the 2003 revival starred Antonio Banderas (never really done it for me) and Jane Krakowski (who: LOVE). The trailer doesn't really tell you what the film's about, only that there's lots of glitter, singing, pretty ladies and Daniel Day Lewis being sprightly.



The ensemble cast include - hold your breath - Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Fergie and Kate Hudson. Pretty amazing, huh? If you discount Fergie. Although I quite liked her in Planet Terror...maybe she'll surprise? She looks dog rough here though, that's for sure. From the look of the trailer, the emphasis will be on Day Lewis, but I hope Nicole gets a look-in. She badly needs a hit. I can't remember the last commercially successful movie she was in. Maybe The Golden Compass? Even that wasn't successful enough for a sequel (read: FAIL).

I'm not hugely enamoured by Rob Marshall though. Chicago always seemed very by-numbers to me and I'm still not entirely sure how he managed to turn Memoirs Of A Geisha into such a borefest. Regardless. There's singing, and actresses being all throaty, crying and shit. I'm in.

Jennifer Jason Leigh

I was reading a review of Charlie Kaufman's first film as writer/director, Synechdoche New York (which I'm glad is spelt phonetically on the posters because otherwise I'd be a wee bit unsure how to pronounce) and saw Jennifer Jason Leigh among the credited cast. Then I though, where has she gone to? Is she busy mothering her babies with Noah Baumbach in what one can only hope is a better environment than what we're led to believe Daddy Baumbach grew up with? Does Hollywood not want her anymore? Is it her age (47)?

After an eye-catching, body-ripping turn in road movie-cum-horror classic The Hitcher in 1985, Jennifer clocked up a string of critical and commercial successes in the early 90s. Roles as diverse as prostitute Tralala in Last Exit To Brooklyn, as writer and poet Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle and psychotic roommate Hedy Carlson in Single White Female showed her range. She also got to work with some on the 90s most respected auteurs, Robert Altman in Short Cuts and Kansas City, the Coen brothers in The Hudsucker Proxy and David Cronenburg in eXistenZ. Possibly my favourite JJL performance, and one that seems to have passed a lot of people by, is the emotionally scarred Selena St. George in Dolores Claiborne, easily one of the best Stephen King adaptations and featuring a trio of fantastic female performances from Leigh, Kathy Bates and Judy Parfitt.

So what happened? She didn't exactly disappear off the face of the earth, but after The Anniversary Party (a film she wrote and directed with friend Alan Cumming) met to a mixed reception in 2001, JJL seems to have been offered smaller and smaller roles, despite the fact that she's a proven leading lady and a talented character actor. Her supporting roles in the 00s have been unfortunate, collaborations with good directors who pick Leigh to star in a not-terribly-good film. Small roles in Road To Perdition (I know there are plenty of admirers out there but Paul Newman and Conrad Hall's cinematography aside, I found this a particularly vacuous movie), In The Cut and Palindromes went largely unnoticed. Likewise, JJL's performances in independent films The Machinest and The Jacket were ignored, with most of the attention going to Christian Bale's emaciated lead and a confusing, twisty plot respectively. Both Brad Anderson, director of The Machinest, and John Maybury, director of The Jacket, has produced fine, interesting work previously, notably Love Is The Devil, so it's easy to see why Leigh chose to work with them. But something didn't click.

Likewise, her return to leading lady, alongside Nicole Kidman in Margot At The Wedding (directed by her husband Noah Baumbach), didn't quite meet expectations. Both Kidman and Leigh are on fine form, but Jack Black is hopelessly miscast as Leigh's dopish husband, and the dialogue feels too arch, the family dynamics too fucked and the characters even more unlikeable than in Baumbach's previous film The Squid And The Whale. Not that any of these things are necessarily indicative of a poor film, but they might go some way to explain its poor performance at the box office and the lack of award nominations.

According to Wikipedia, Leigh has turned down an impressive selection of roles, including sex, lies and videotape, Pretty Woman, Boogie Nights and LA Confidential. She was also considered for the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns, Ada McGrath in The Piano and Sarah Connor in The Terminator. Any one of these films could've consolidated her fame and given her the star quality that she clearly deserves but perhaps doesn't want or need.

The Night Listener

A turgid thriller based on a potentially fascinating story. Adapted from Amistead Maupin's autobiographical novel of the same name, The Night Listener tells of a gay radio broadcaster, Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), who is sent a disturbing memoir. It tells of the extensive sexual abuse suffered by Peter Logand (Rory Culkin), a fourteen year-old boy with AIDS now living with a social worker, Donna (Toni Collette). Gabriel begins to talk to Peter over the phone and quickly becomes attached to the boy and to his tragic story, and the relationship takes on a creepy co-dependent air in the wake of Gabriel's long-term boyfriend Jess (HIV-positive and intent on living his life to the full) moving out of the house. When Jess notices the similarity between Peter's voice and Donna's, and when it transpires that nobody besides Donna has ever seen Peter, Gabriel becomes suspicious.

In spite of its interesting subject matter, Patrick Stettner's film is almost a complete failure. Anyone who is familiar with the real-life story upon which this is based or has simply seen the trailer will hardly be surprised by the "twist" in the story. This wouldn't be a problem if The Night Listener had anything else to say but any commentary on the nature of the relationship between Gabriel and Peter is lost in a half-baked thriller that doesn't go anywhere. Robin Williams delivers a restrained performance but the usually reliable Toni Collette hams it up something awful. Flat, dull and, in the end, rather pointless.