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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 25 January 2015

A college guy arrives at a party, looks across the room, and sees a beautiful young lady.  He finally summons the courage to speak with her but it’s an awkward exchange.  He’s nervous and can barely look at her in the eye.  His confidence slowly builds as the night finishes with the exchange of phone numbers.

It’s a somewhat unexpected opening to The Theory Of Everything – a two-hour drama that encompasses the life of the renowned British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking (Redmayne).  Instead of concentrating on his many scientific achievements, which have already been well documented, the film focuses on his personal life and the relationship with his wife, Jane (Jones).  The story begins at the precise moment they first met – at a Cambridge party in 1963.

They were just an ordinary couple at first.  They spent time together, went on short trips, and chatted about meaningless things.  All of that changed when Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21.  Doctors estimated he had 2 years left in live and in that time, he’d lose the ability to walk, to speak and to eat.

Recently nominated for his first Academy Award, British actor Eddie Redmayne (Les Misérables) delivers a knockout performance as Stephen Hawking.  You get a strong sense of the suffering, both physical and mental, that his character had to endure.  This is highlighted in a powerful scene where he tries to climb up the staircase at home after a small dinner party.

I’d argue though that the more interesting character is Jane, played beautifully by Felicity Jones (Like Crazy).  The film asks an age-old question – how far would you go for the person you love?  Instead of giving us a fairy-tale style answer, The Theory Of Everything shows just how tough things were for Jane.  She had to give up her own career aspirations and become her husband’s full-time caregiver.

It’s a decision that would take its toll.  Jane opened her soul in a 1999 biography where she said that “it was becoming very difficult – unnatural, even – to feel desire for someone with the body of a Holocaust victim and the undeniable needs of an infant.”  She also had to grapple with Stephen’s rise in fame.  He was winning awards around the globe.  She was still feeding, bathing and dressing him each morning.

Director James Marsh will be more widely known for his work as a documentary filmmaker.  His credits include the brilliant Man On Wire (which won him an Oscar in 2009) and the highly acclaimed Project Nim.  The Theory Of Everything is a well-polished production that showcases the work of two crew members in particular – French cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (The Boy In Striped Pyjamas) and Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (Prisoners).

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including best picture, The Theory Of Everything provides both insight and comfort.  There are many ways to make a relationship work.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 11 January 2015

It’s surprising that we don’t make more family orientated films in Australia.  We’ve certainly proven that they can be successful.  Babe, Happy Feet and Red Dog all made more than $20 million at the local box office (ranking them in the top 10 of all time).  Instead, our focus has been more on dramas, comedies and documentaries.  When it comes to family product, we’re happy to rely on the big budget stuff coming out of the United States.

Australian director Robert Connolly is trying to reverse that trend.  Having already made some terrific adult dramas (The Bank, Balibo and The Turning), Connolly wanted to make something for younger audiences.  His motivation wasn’t financial though.  He’d simply grown tired of taking his own kids to the movies every school holidays and seeing nothing but Americans on screen.  He’d rather they had the chance to see a film shot in this country where Aussie kids are the heroes.

The premise should be easy for children to follow.  Dylan (Oxenbould) is an 11-year-old who lives with his father (Worthington) is a remote part of Western Australia.  Motivated by a competition at his own school, Dylan has a crack at the Australian Paper Plane Championships.  His training runs are dismal but with the help of his teacher and a new best friend, it’s not long before he’s off to Sydney and ready to compete against the nation’s best.

It’s a super-cheesy film that doesn’t always make a lot of sense… but its heart is in the right place.  There’s an important subplot involving another kid (Bakopoulos-Cooke) who has also entered the competition with just one goal in mind – to win.  His dad (Wenham), a former top professional golfer who has been through his share of ups and downs, is trying to tell him otherwise.  What’s the point of being victorious if no one likes you?

Those who saw last month’s Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day will already be familiar with this film’s star, Ed Oxenbould.  He comes from an acting family (his uncle played Ben in the 1990s television series Hey Dad) and is loaded with talent.  He delivers his dialogue so genuinely and it’s also nice to see him using his native Aussie accent this time around.

Connolly and co-writer Steve Worland (Bootmen) have tried to pack a touch too much into the 90 minute running time.  Not all the storylines get the attention they deserve and it’s a rush to wrap them all up in the later stages.  Still, this is a satisfying Aussie family flick that I hope audiences make time for over the holidays.  

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 January 2015

In 1995, a 26-year-old woman named Cheryl Strayed embarked on a 1,800km trek through California and Oregon in the United States.  To put that into perspective for those living here in Brisbane, it would be the rough equivalent of walking south to Melbourne or north to Cairns.  It took three months in total and Strayed wrote about her journey in a memoir first published in 2012.  Thanks to the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey, it spent 7 weeks atop the New York Times Best Seller list (in the nonfiction hardcover category).

As part of a panel discussion at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, Witherspoon lamented that Hollywood hasn’t been making enough great parts for women.  It’s something she’s hoping to remedy through her own film company.  It was actually Witherspoon who bought the rights to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.  With the skilful direction of David Fincher and a fantastic performance from Rosamund Pike, it was a huge box-office success and one of 2014’s most talked about movies.

Witherspoon didn’t take the role of Amy Dunne in Gone Girl.  She freely admits that Fincher was looking for “a certain type of woman” and that she did not quite fit that vision.  That’s not the case with Wild.  Witherspoon purchased the rights to Strayed’s book before it had even been released (she’d read an advanced copy) and immediately had herself in mind for the lead.  Tired of playing romantic love interests, this was her chance to create a character that she describes as “flawed, complex, embarrassed, humbled and fierce.”

Adapted for the screen by Nick Hornby (About A Boy), the film’s early sequences portray Strayed as someone who is ill prepared and out of her depth.  She’s brought the wrong fuel for her stove and so cannot cook a warm meal.  She also struggles to erect her small tent (it requires a thorough reading of the instructions).  What the hell was she thinking?  I remember asking that same question during Into The Wild, a similar tale of self-discovery released back in 2007.

Director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) provides the answer by taking us inside Stayed’s head through a series of quick flashbacks.  She hadn’t gone on this epic hike to improve her fitness.  She wasn’t doing it to raise money for charity.  The truth was that Stayed had nowhere else to go.  She was a recovering drug addict with no fixed address.  She had few friends, few family and a husband who had recently filed for divorced (she cheated on him constantly).

Stayed’s journey could therefore be described as a “cleansing exercise”.  She wanted to escape her old life and transition into a better one.  She meets an odd assortment of characters along the way but strangely, these interactions don’t add much to the overall story (aside from providing a bit of conversation to break up long silences).  Aside from a few early stumbles, I’d also argue there isn’t much in the way of “drama”.  The trail is relatively safe and is used by thousands of hikers each year.

Wild is at its most interesting when it delves into Stayed’s past and explores her relationship with her mother (Dern) and ex-husband (Sadoski).  This is ultimately what the film is about – realising who you are and what you want out of life.  Completing the trek was a great physical achievement… but it would have meant nothing if it didn’t change her as a person.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 11 January 2015

Born of Italian parents in 1917, Louis Zamperini found life difficult growing up in the United States.  Bullied at school and struggling to make friends, Louis natural instinct was to rebel.  He drank, he smoked, and he generally got up to mischief.  There’s a flashback scene early in Unbroken where a police officer tells him straight up – “everyone in this town wants you put away.”

You’ll be left with a wry smile when you see how quickly things changed.  Following the advice of his older brother, Louis took up running.  He wasn’t good.  He wasn’t great.  He was amazing.  That’s what you get when you combine hard work with natural talent.

At the age of 17, Louis would become the fastest high school runner (over a mile) in U.S. history.  Two years later, he was representing his country and competing at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Suffice to say that Louis was no longer bullied.  The kid had become a much adored superstar.

Sadly, that would be the pinnacle of Louis’s career.  The 1940 Olympic Games in Tokyo were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II and so he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces not long after.  He reached the rank of second lieutenant and served as a bombardier aboard a B-24 Liberator.

Most war films feature epic gun fights or heroic rescues.  That isn’t the case here.  Unbroken is about something quite different – the power of human endurance.  Louis was aboard a plane that crashed in the Pacific Ocean in April 1943.  After spending weeks floating on a life raft, he was found by a Japanese navy ship and taken to a prisoner of war camp.  He was tortured and beaten by the Japanese soldiers – the most notable being a ruthless, violent prison guard nicknamed “The Bird” who targeted Louis because of his Olympic history.

There’s a moment early in the film where Louis’s brother gives him a piece of advice that he would carry with him throughout the ordeal – “if you can take it, you can make it.”  Louis didn’t fight back.  He didn’t ask for help from his fellow prisoners.  He didn’t devise a cunning escape plan.  He didn’t try to kill himself.  Louis’s strategy was simple – to fight the fight inside.  He kept quiet, took the beatings, and prayed that the U.S. would one day with the war.

This is a very impressive feature from actor-turned-director Angelina Jolie.  While she’s a relative newbie in terms of direction (she’s only made one feature film previously), she’s backed by a ridiculously talented crew that includes cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption), composer Alexandre Desplat (The King’s Speech), and editors William Goldberg (Argo) and Tim Squyers (Life Of Pi).  The screenwriting team, that includes 4-time Academy Award winners Ethan and Joel Coen (No Country For Old Men), also deserve praise for the breadth of material covered in the two-hour running time.  It never at any stage feels rushed.

I wasn’t familiar with British actor Jack O’Connell (This Is England, 300: Rise Of An Empire) prior to the film but I’m his latest fan thanks to his stellar performance as Louis.  He looks like a defeated wreck throughout much of the film’s second half (kudos to the make-up artists) but you can see from his eyes and his body language that he will, as the film’s title suggests, remain “unbroken”.  It’s tough to watch but also hugely inspiring. 

In a big coup for the Australian film industry, most of Unbroken was shot in Queensland and New South Wales.  It hasn’t quite generated the Oscar buzz that many were anticipating but it’s performed very well at the U.S. box-office (it’s already made more than $100m) and that’s great to see.

You can read by chat with star Miyavi by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 January 2015

American Sniper tries to juggle too many balls and ends up dropping every one of them.  One third of the film wants to celebrate a brave, real-life American hero.  Trained as a Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle (Cooper) was a proficient marksman who went on four tours of duty during the recent Iraq War and was credited with 160 enemy kills (more than any other sniper).  He was so successful that a group of Iraqi insurgents placed a lucrative bounty on his head.

In the opening half hour, we see Kyle’s first kill in the deserted Iraqi town of Nasiriya.  Lying patiently atop a multi-story dwelling, he spots a mother and child holding a grenade.  Do they intend to hand it over as a gesture of goodwill?  Or are they planning a suicide bombing?  When the child starts moving towards a group of U.S. soldiers, Kyle takes him out with a single gunshot.

It turns out to be the correct decision as the film is very clear to point out that the kid was “evil like I’ve never seen before.”  Why does everything have to be so simplistic though?  I realise he helped save a lot of soldiers (we see him honoured repeatedly) but did Kyle ever kill someone he wasn’t sure about?  Did he take pleasure from killing people (like he did animals)?  It feels like we’re getting a sheltered, overly patriotic view of who this man was.

Another third of the film wants to be a Hollywood-style action thriller.  Several scenes involve Kyle hunting down a Syrian born sniper named Mustafa who was once an Olympic shooter.  This never happened though.  It’s a largely fictional subplot that has been created by screenwriter Jason Hall because all action films need a keynote “villain”.

There’s no chance that you’ll sympathise with Mustafa since we know nothing about his past or his motivations.  He’s just a bad guy with a big gun who doesn’t say a word throughout the whole movie.  Bradley Cooper has described the film as “character study” as opposed to a “political movie” but it is noticeably unbalanced given the lack of time spent exploring the mindset of the insurgents.  If you want me to celebrate Kyle as a hero, at least show me what he’s fighting for and who he’s up against.

The other third of the film is trying to be a relationship drama that explores the heavy emotional toll that often comes with military service.  Kyle found it difficult to return to a “normal life” after his lengthy tours.  Part of him was glad to be home with his family but another part wanted to be back in Iraq and doing what he loved.  There’s a powerful moment when his wife (Miller) puts him on the spot and says “even when you’re here, you’re not here.”

The troubled connection between Kyle and his wife is the script’s most interesting element.  We finally get to see him as a human as opposed to an action hero.  He suppresses his suffering and refuses to talk about his work.  She tries to get him to open up and seek professional help.  Sadly, this area isn’t given enough screen time and is used more as a quick interlude to break up the numerous wham-bam shooting sequences.

I won’t spoil American Sniper’s climax except to say that it is laughably bad.  After discussing various possibilities, director Clint Eastwood decided to wrap up Kyle’s story before a particularly significant event.  It’s just another example of the film going with simplicity over complexity.