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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 04 March 2008

In The Valley Of Elah begins with a phone call.  Retired army man Hank Deerfield (Jones) picks up the receiver and is told by a military official in New Mexico that his son, Mike, has gone AWOL.  He hasn’t been seen on base since last Saturday.  This comes as a shock to Hank and his wife Joan (Sarandon).  They didn’t even know that their son was back in the U.S. – they thought he was still on a tour of duty in Iraq.

Hank drives from his home in Texas to the base in New Mexico to find out what’s going on.  He suspects something is wrong – it’s not like his son to run off and not contact anyone.  Hank’s worst thoughts are confirmed when Mike’s body is found in scrub off an isolated road.  The body was almost unidentifiable – it had been set on fire and cut into several pieces.

As the reality sets in, Hank finds himself on a pursuit for the truth.  Who could have done this to his son?  He finds a sympathetic friend in a young police detective named Emily Sanders (Theron).  Not happy with the investigation being conducted by the army police, Emily and Hank do their own sleuthing.  They realise there were inconsistencies in the witness statements and problems with the way the crime scene was examined.

Their quest for answers won’t be easy however.  The army police don’t like being “shown up” by a retired officer and an inexperienced police detective.  Furthermore, there are those who know the truth that are doing their best to throw Emily and Hank off their trail.

We’ve all seen these who-done-it thrillers before.  Most of the time, a brainy detective picks up on a bunch of clues (that no one else sees) and solves the crime.  I’m often critical that it’s just too easy.  In The Valley Of Elah is a little different and this is what elevates it above those predictable thrillers that I just spoke of.  There are a few “red herrings” and Emily and Hank make their fair share of mistakes along the way.  You can sense that Emily is a little out of her depth and that Hank sometimes acts with his grieving heart instead of his head.  They’re an interesting duo.

The writer-director of the film is Paul Haggis.  Haggis is one of the best screenwriters in the business today.  In the last four years, he’s penned the scripts for Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags Of Our Fathers and Casino Royale.  He’s a very talented craftsman and this film further solidifies this reputation.  Haggis avoids standard clichés and has a knack for writing plausible dialogue.

In The Valley Of Elah earned Tommy Lee Jones an Academy Award nomination for best actor (he lost to Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood).  It’s a terrific performance from Jones and having recently praised him No Country For Old Men, I’m convinced that he’s in the best form of his career.  He never over acts and keeps things simple.  Jones is a class act.

We don’t usually see a lot of quality movies in the post-Oscars slump but here we have an exception.  It’s a good one.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 February 2008

One of my top 10 movies of 2006 was The Squid And The Whale.  It starred Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels and was the story of one very messed up family.  It was black comedy at its finest – extremely funny but uncomfortable to watch at the same time.  Writer-director Noah Baumbach deservedly received an Academy Award nomination for his original screenplay.

Margot At The Wedding is his follow up and the subject matter is very similar.  Pauline (Leigh) and Margot (Kidman) are sisters who haven’t spoken for a number of years.  Pauline has extended the olive branch to Margot and asked her to come to her wedding.  She is to marry Malcolm (Black), an unemployed artist who specialises in writing letters to the editor.

Every character in this film has deep, psychological issues.  When I looked at them on screen, I chuckled and thought to myself “these people are nuts”.  At the same time though, I realised that I knew people with similar personality traits.  These people will keep you on your toes whether you like them or not.  Noah Baumbach has developed a knack for creating flawed, yet interesting, characters.

Pauline and Malcolm may be about to get married but you wouldn’t think it when you see them interact with each other.  It’s a strange relationship at best.  It left me wondering how they met in the first place.  Margot has an equally perplexing relationship with her teenage son (Paris) who looks more like a girl than a boy.  They are very open with each other to a point where it’s kind of creepy.

I really enjoyed the start of the film but Margot At The Wedding couldn’t maintain its opening pace.  Once the character introductions were out of the way, nothing much seemed to happen.  I was expecting some major confrontations between certain characters but they never eventuated.  It all kind of fizzled out with a weak ending.  Maybe there was some hidden message that I missed.

The performances are decent and it’s good to see Nicole Kidman is a “meatier” role.  Her careeer has stalled following her Academy Award win for The Hours in 2003.  Her selection of films (The Invasion, Bewitched, The Stepford Wives) has left many scratching their heads.  Margot At The Wedding gives Kidman a chance to play a character (albeit an unlikeable one) with depth.

There are a few good jokes and a few eye-opening surprises but there’s just not enough material to make this movie last the distance.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 28 February 2008

We Own The Night is an American cop drama set in the late 1980s.  It centres on a Bobby Green (Phoenix), a youngish guy who runs a successful nightclub in Brooklyn.  It’s always packed with people and Bobby does whatever he can to make sure they all have a good time.  The owner is impressed with Bobby’s work and together, they’ve agreed to put together a plan to set up another nightclub in Manhattan.

Bobby’s father and brother are New York City police officers.  They are Bert (Duvall) and Joe (Wahlberg).  Bobby has always seen himself as the outsider of the family because unlike his brother Joe, he didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps.  He never speaks of them and doesn’t see them very often.  He lives his own independent life by running the nightclub and spending time with his girlfriend, Amada (Mendes).

Bobby is about to connect with his father and brother once again but it’s not by choice.  Bobby’s club has become a haven for drug dealers in the area.  Deals have taken place and the police are interested in a Russian mobster named Vadim Nezhinski (Veadov).  As head of the narcotics division, Joe authorises a raid on the nightclub and takes a bunch of patrons into custody.  It’s not good for the image of the club and Bobby is less than impressed.  He lets his brother know exactly how he feels.

Everything changes though when Joe is shot outside his home.  Bobby learns that Vadim Nezhinski and his compatriots were behind it.  The gravity of the situation starts to sink in.  Bobby realises that these drug dealers are very powerful and that the lives of his family are in jeopardy.  It’s time… to take a side.  Bobby agrees to be an undercover operative to help bust those who are bringing the drugs into New York City.

We Own The Night is a decent film which has been written and directed by James Gray.  Gray’s last film, The Yards, was released back in 2000.  Both films star Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix so I’m guessing they all have an appreciation for each other’s work.

Whilst it’s easily watchable, We Own The Night didn’t have the heightened suspense factor that I was hoping for.   At times, it plays out like a predictable drama where you know exactly what’s going to happen next.  The performances are good but it’s not in the same league as a film like The Departed.  It’s good but nothing too special.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 February 2008

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly is both beautiful and tragic.  It sounds like a contradiction but I don’t know how else to describe it.  Writer Ron Harwood (The Pianist) and director Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls) have taken an incredibly depressing story and have used it to inspire us – to make us appreciate the value of life.

On December 8, 1995, 43-year-old French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby (Almalric) suffered a stroke and fell into a coma.  When he awoke several weeks later, he found himself lying in a hospital bed and paralysed from head to toe.  The doctor described his condition as being called “locked-in syndrome”.  Despite being conscious, Jean-Dominique could not move or speak.  He was effectively trapped in his own body.

Ask yourself the question – could you live like this or would you rather die?  I think I know what most people will say.  When Jean-Dominique’s family and friends come to visit, he just has to sit there and watch them talk.  He cannot tell them what he feels.  He cannot reach out to touch them.  He cannot even smile at them.

What if I were to tell you that this film is based on Jean-Dominique’s own words?  Would you believe me?  How could it be possible?  With the help of a speech-therapist named Henriette (Croze), Jean-Dominique developed a system of communication using the only part of his body which he had control over – his left eye.  Henriette would read out letters of the alphabet and Jean-Dominique would blink when she said the letter he wanted.  Ever so slowly, he could spell out words, sentences, paragraphs.  He could finally tell people what was going through his mind.

In 1997, his reflections on life were published in a novel called The Diving Bell & The Butterfly.  According to the internet, the book was 144 pages long.  Just think about that for a moment.  Every word in that book was written by a translator based on the blinks of a paralysed man.  I am in awe of Jean-Dominique Bauby.

The story is amazing but the way in which it has brought to the screen is equally brilliant.  For the first half of the film, we see everything through Jean-Dominique’s eyes.  All we do is look straight ahead and listen to whoever is standing there.  It’s frustrating to watch but this is exactly how Jean-Dominique would have felt.

In the second half of the film, we take a step back.  With Jean-Dominique able to communicate, the film takes on more colour and more emotion.  We reflect back on some of his most treasured memories.  There are some particularly touching scenes involving Jean-Dominique and his elderly father (played brilliantly by Max von Sydow).

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly has been nominated for four Academy Awards including best director and best adapted screenplay.  I never cry in movies but my eyes were moist by the end of this one.  It’s a film to remember.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 February 2008

Two guys find out they only have a few months to live.  They’d never met before but became friends after sharing the same room at the hospital.  Between them, they put together a “bucket list” – a list of things they want to do before they kick the bucket.  With a new lease on life, they begin their quest to tick as many things off the list as possible.

That pretty much sums up The Bucket List.  It may sound like a sad film but The Bucket List is better described as a feel good movie.  Once these guys come to the realisation that there isn’t long left in their lives, they use their time wisely.  Each passing day seems to have more and more value.  They do some fun, crazy things together.  There’s plenty of food for thought and I’m sure it’ll have many thinking about what they’d do in the same situation.

Given that the film will reduce most audience members to tears, I feel a little guilty in heavily criticising it.  I liked the film’s spirit but I hated the farcical storyline.  At times, it felt like I was watching a cheesy American sitcom where all the characters are phony and the situations they find themselves in are ludicrous.

To provide a little more background information, Carter (Freeman) is a mechanic who has worked hard for 45 years.  For as long as he has been married, he’s put his wife and kids first.  There are a lot of things he’d like to have done but never really got around to it.  Edward (Nicholson) is a multi-millionaire who has a lot of investments.  He has the reputation for being a hard-nosed businessman and doesn’t seem to have many true friends.  He never married and lives alone.  As you can tell, these guys are an odd couple.  They’d never have been friends outside of these circumstances.

Cater and Edward go on a trip around the world and see places like the Great Pyramids in Egypt and the Great Wall of China.  They fly in Edward’s private plane and are accompanied by an assistant (Hayes) who organises everything for them.  I guess if you’re going to go out in style, it helps to have plenty of money.  This is another reason why I think this story is too hard to believe.  Couldn’t these characters have been a little more realistic?  Maybe I’m being too picky.

Seeing The Bucket List again is not something I’ll be putting on my own bucket list.  Life’s just too short.