Fugitive Pieces

I rarely review older movies here on the site. When I make an exception and do so, it's either because I really like the movie or because it's very underseen and I want to spread the word about it. Fugitive Pieces is a wonderful example of both of these reasons.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

96/100 (116 min, 2007)
Plot: The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, a.k.a Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop down in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett. Based on the hit Broadway musical.
Director: Tim Burton
Writers: John Logan (screenplay), Stephen Sondheim (musical)
Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman

"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks."
— Mary Shelley

“These are desperate times, Mrs. Lovett and desperate measures are called for... “

(spoilers!)

London, Victorian times. Rain falling from the sky, the drops changing into blood, falling into sewage surrounded by filth and rats. That is how Tim Burton's last true masterpiece “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” opens. After 25 years in development, constant casting changes, passing the material from one director to another, Burton finally managed to shot the movie that is both fascinating and horrifying. Opening titles present the message of the story – the evil, the poison, the filth spreads, infects everything it touches. It is unavoidable and once pure is corrupted there simply is no going back.

The tale is that of Benjamin Barker, the talented barbed who once had beloved wife Lucy and their little daughter Johanna. But there was an evil man – judge Turpin, who desired Lucy. He thought of a devious plot, put Barker in jail, raped Lucy and kidnapped Johanna and was raising her ever since. But one day Barker escapes jail and gets back to London, seeking his revenge. He stays in his old apartment over Mrs. Lovett's pie shop. Mrs. Lovett soon becomes his accomplice in his murderous proceedings...

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

(160 min, 2007)

Plot: Robert Ford, who's idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the reforming gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader.
Director: Andrew Dominik
Writers: Andrew Dominik (screenplay), Ron Hansen (novel)
Stars: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell
 

What must be done

"Making "James" was a long and arduous process. There was a well-publicized tug-of-war between director Andrew Dominik, who caught Hollywood's attention with indie title "Chopper" and Warners over the editing of the film. Warners' wasn't entirely in sync with the pacing of the movie, or the length. Dominik was thinking more like 'Terence Malick' in examining the relationship between the famous outlaw and his eventual assassin, Robert Ford, played by Casey Affleck. Warners was in favor of having at least a bit more action. Ultimately, Warners went with Dominik's version, even though Dominik didn't have final cut as part of his contract. Part of the reason was that Pitt, who produced the movie through his Plan B shingle, backed Dominik. At one point along the way, Pitt and exec producer Ridley Scott had put together their own cut. When it tested to only so-so results, they went back to Dominik's. The original cut of "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" was nearly four hours long. It was edited down to two hours and forty minutes, its current run time, at the studio's request. However, it did play at least once at its original 4-hour length, most notably at the Venice Film Festival, where Brad Pitt picked up the Best Actor Award. After the viewing, critics at the festival called the film "majestic.""
- imdb.com

It's funny that Mallick was actually an influence on this movie - unlike horribly boring "The Tree of Life", "The assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" enchants from the very first moments and cinematic magic never fades away from the scenes. Unlike Mallick's pointless drivel this movie has actual story and full blooded characters we care for. Brad Pitt presumably wanted to repeat the artistic success of "James", which he claims is his favorite movie he starred in and that's why he wandered off to Mallick. Well now Mr Pitt has two movies I can't stand in his filmography. The other one being "Troy".

Trick 'r Treat

(82 min, 2007)
Plot: Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: An everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband.
Director: Michael Dougherty
Writer: Michael Dougherty
Stars: Anna Paquin, Brian Cox and Dylan Baker

 Tricks are for kids

Halloween, Samhain, Hallow's Eve.
The most magical day of the year when the line between the world of the living and the world of the dead is at its thinnest. Halloween has magnificent traditions that have been cultivated for centuries - dressing up, scaring people and of course - trick or treating. "Trick 'r Treat" not only captures the atmosphere of Halloween but also does the rare trick of being both good horror movie and good comedy.

We get to see all of the most famous traditions - carving of pumpkins, getting dressed in either scary or slutty costumes and giving kids their candy. Since it's a horror movie we also see obligatory guts and blood - it's definitely not a film for the squeamish as it has a maneuver that I previously saw in "Hostel" and to this day it remains one of the worst things I've seen - cutting of one character's Achilles' tendon. There are also scenes that will remaind you of other films - the crawling severed hand brings "Addams family" to mind and the creepy prologue with scarecrows inevitably brought me back to that horrible afternoon I was freaking out while watching "Jeepers Creepers".

One of the best things about the film is the main monster - the spirit of  Halloween incarnated in the form of a child with pumpkin for a head. That spirit ensures that everybody honors Halloween's traditions and if they don't...well, there is a bloody trick coming. There are four separate stories in the movie, each containing fair amount of scares and laughs and just the right level of gore and creepiness. Something that distinguishes "Trick 'R Treat" from other productions is that writer/director Michael Dougherty doesn't abscond from something not many would do - killing children on screen. But as Halloween is the most fun for the kids it's probably the best  and the most effective scare in the movie - I myself would never let my child go trick or treating alone in the evening on the scariest day of the year.

August Rush

(114 min, 2007)
Director: Kirsten Sheridan
Writers: Nick Castle (screenplay), James V. Hart (screenplay)
Stars: Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Saccharine sounds

As a romantic, I love heartwarming movies and fairy tales - I believe in soapy stuff like soul mates, destiny, love at first sight - it's rare, but one can't be sure it doesn't happen. But I hate too much sugar and sweetness and there is such thing as too much sentimentality in a film - „August Rush” is an example of the sentimentality and sweet lovey dovey moments in such concentration it will make you nauseous, maybe even sick to the point you fast forward.

The story goes like that – Lyla, violinist and Louis, singer for rock band spend the night together and fall in love. The boy is not right for her according to her dad, so their ways part. But a child is born some time later and because of lies and intrigue Lyla doesn't know it is alive. 11 years later that child uses music to find his parents.

The child, named Evan has a wondrous music gift and can create symphonies out of nowhere – too bad that, except for the last few moments in the movie, those symphonies of his sounded more like irritating noise to me. I never thought I'm going to say that but „The Soloist” puts this movie to shame in this area. And „The Soloist” is an awful movie. Plus the amazing gift to create music subplot doesn't even work here - it's too absurd. When you are watching a movie like this you are supposed to automatically buy the things you see. When I was watching "Perfume" I didn't have to wonder why Grenouille had this amazing gift of hightened scent, I just kept watching the movie without any "but how?". Here not only I couldn't listen to that "music" without cringing, its origin - which basically was, what? God, magic, unicorns and rainbows? - puzzled me throughout the film.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

(114 min, 2007)
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Writers: William Nicholson, Michael Hirst
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen and Geoffrey Rush

It's not love that conquers all. It's strength.

(spoilers ahead)

Nine years before „Elizabeth – Golden Age' premiered people all over the world got to see 'Elizabeth' and they all fell in love in Cate Blanchett – fair, porcelain, redhead with such force in her and so much acting talent everyone were knocked off their feet. Because Blanchett is, in fact, so interesting, she can carry a film all by her own. She can even make it a very good film, solely because of her performance. But one thing I cannot stand is when the movie has story, has characters and has brilliant actors. But what it doesn't have is soul.

The first part of the movie dealt with how Elizabeth became a queen, as a young girl, in love with someone who she cannot marry for political reasons, dealing with religious conflict her father and her sister (Bloody Mary – when will we get a decent movie about her?) provoked. The second part shows us mature Elizabeth with even bigger problems – despite two story arcs similar to first part, Elizabeth has to deal with great Spanish Armada and assassination plot that ends up in difficult decision to sentence to death royal blood, Mary Stuart.

Cate Blanchett is asked to do many things here. She is asked to portray a woman, who was one of the greatest rulers in the the history of the word, asking a simple pirate to kiss her. She is asked to portray her as jealous and vain. I was disgusted by some of the scenes, but not by Blanchett, nor by the character but how poorly the writers showed it and handled it. There is neither consistency here, nor respect for characters. Blanchett is too good for the movie and her performance, even in such poor circumstances is so powerful and similar yet in many subtle details different from her work In 'Elizabeth'. She has amazing moments – the speech she gives to her troops before the battle and when she shows how wonderfully temperamental Elizabeth really was - “I, too, can command the wind, sir! I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare when you dare to try me!”. Not to mention the murder attempt where the shooter is staning in front of her with a gun and she just stands her in all her might and glory. I was surprised he actually took a shot, I don't think many people would.

What stuns me is that he story structure ad character development is poor but the dialogues are beautiful, there are so many memorable lines from the movie but my favorite is without any doubt “We mortals have many weaknesses; we feel too much, hurt too much or too soon we die, but we do have the chance of love.” spoken by Clive Owen.

Michael Clayton

(119 min, 2007)
Director: Tony Gilroy
Writer: Tony Gilroy
Stars: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson
 

Without Negotiations

"There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.”
- Sophocles

„Michael Clayton” is one of the most important movies of 2007, nominated for Academy Award, among others, for best picture of the year and included on top ten lists of many critics. It is also one of my favorite movies, intense thriller telling the story of the „fixer” in law firm, former district attorney who has to deal with a crisis when his friend Arthur, brilliant lawyer who handles the case of 3 billion dollars class action lawsuit against massive copany as its defense lawyer has a nervous breakdown. The intrigue involves ambitious lawyer working for their company Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) and its boss Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack).

The characters are perfectly constructed – we know seemingly little about them, but it's enough to have impression of how their lives must look. Clayton has a young son, who he doesn't get to see often, nor does he has time to have real discussion with him, he is divorced. He has drug addicted brother because of whom he lost business and faces bankruptcy. Worse of all – he is addicted to gambling and has just got back on his feet again. He is alone, grim, frustrated. But he is good at his job and it seems to be everything in his life – not that it would make him happy.

Clooney's performance is truly the best one in his career. He was excellent in „Up in the Air”, „Burn After Reading” and „Solaris” but his work here is exceptional. He seems perfect – elegant suits, great manners, always there for his company, but underneath there's rage, same rage expressed by Arthur. Emptiness, wasted life. Frustration for living every day as a fixer, doing something he really doesn't want to do, but has to because by some miracle he is good at it. With private life in pieces, with nothing to look forward to. That's why after he wins in the end he still looks defeated in this cab. And that's why it's so remarkable and full of hope that even a man who is destroyed, who has no reason to go on, can stand up and do the right thing. When you think of how lawyers are portrayed in the cinema you probably think of Richard Gere in “Primal Fear” or Keanu Reeves in “Devil's Advocate” - cynical, successful, poised, content. And here is a lawyer who not only has financial problems, who is not only not surrounded by beautiful women, but who also, with every day, falls more and more into emptiness and nothingness of his existence. He is far from being hot-shot lawyer cinema always presents – he is almost invisible and what's even more interesting – his job requires him to be like that. He is a “janitor”, he cleans up other people messes. He is the first one on the line – dealing with frustrated clients and employees. The juiciest part of lawyer's job omits him – he finds the best possible people to the job he really wants to do himself (the scene where he tells Mart he wants to go back to court).

Persepolis

(96 min, 2007)
Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Writers: Marjane Satrapi (comic), Vincent Paronnaud (scenario)
Stars: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Gena Rowlands

Road to maturity

“You'll meet a lot of jerks in life. If they hurt you, remember it's because they're stupid. Don't react to their cruelty. There's nothing worse than bitterness and revenge. Keep your dignity and be true to yourself. “

“Persepolis” is a 2007 French animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film uses same style as the novel – black and white animation, although it has some scenes shown in color.

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own. With Marji dangerously refusing to remain silent at this injustice, her parents send her abroad to Vienna to study for a better life.

The Cake Eaters

(86 min, 2007)
Plot: Two families are brought together by the return of one family's son -- a reunion that conjures up old ghosts and issues that must be addressed.
Director: Mary Stuart Masterson
Writer: Jayce Bartok (screenplay)
Stars: Elizabeth Ashley, Jayce Bartok and Bruce Dern

Before she dies.

“what is death
the walking away from wind
from the cool touch of a bedsheet
from the smell of yellow walls
from the studious look
of your eyes
which probe the breath
delicately arising in the deep
of lungs (...)”
- Halina Poswiatowska, "what is death"


This is the movie worth seeing for two reasons only – the character and the performance given by Kristen Stewart. She was fifteen during filming it and she already had so many courageous roles in her filmography. When I see people being in awe for that little girl from “Kick-Ass” because she shoots and swears and I hear “oh my God, she is so awesome” I'm nauseous. Stewart is one of the very few amazingly good and beautiful young actresses nowadays, there is a reason for which we have so many close ups of her face in every movie she's in.

In a small town in the countryside, Georgia Kaminski (Stewart) is a fifteen year-old girl with Friedreich's ataxia (a genetic disease that causes progressive damage to the nervous system resulting in clumsy movements, speech problems, heading to heart disease) while in a flea market selling goods with her grandmother Marg, meets the shy twenty-years old Beagle Kimbrough, who works in the cafeteria of her school and is the son of the local butcher Easy. Beagle spent the last years taking care of his ill mother while Easy and Marg have secretly been lovers for many years.

The movie is directorial debut by actress Mary Stuart Masterson and she did a big mistake at the very beginning. We see both of the families, whilst Masterson should have focused on Georgia's family only. The girl is fascinating, so is her friendly grandmother and manipulative mother. Everything else that's going on with Beagle's family is boring and cliche. Had the movie focused on Georgia not only could have Stewart develop her performance even more, most likely winning some major awards for it, but the movie would be interesting instead of being so incredibly dull. The only scenes worth seeing are the ones with Kristen in them.

Because of her disease Georgia is slowly losing control over her body. She knows she won't live long (the disease is incurable, despite various attempts made by her mother) and her current condition, being disabled and needing help all the time, going to the bathroom, going upstairs, walking on the hallway and holding on to everything in sight, is as good as it will get. So she tries to make the most of it, before she's going to die, before she's going to lose the control over her body completely. Her character is especially heartbreaking because of her mother, who uses Georgia as her art project, takes pictures of her, tries to control her life and is overprotective. On the other hand Georgia's mom is the most complicated character in the film – she takes photos of the girl and deprives her of her time, time she has so little of, but at the same time she just wants to have pictures of her beautiful daughter before she is gone and takes care of as best as she can. Georgia's grandmother is the only person who gets her and looks after her, having had a lot of fun in her time and knowing Georgia can't waste any day. All of those three characters where superbly played.

Everything else going on in the movie is dull and bland. The ending makes entire film pointless, but due to amazing work by Kristen definitely not forgettable – this is her most mature performance yet, her portrayal of the strong but disabled girl is amazing, especially the moment where she spreads her arms on Beagle's motorcycle. The girl is so brave with her choices of movies and roles, as much as I like “Twilight” films I'm not sure they realize how lucky they are to have her there.

I wish the movie focused more on complex relationship between Georgia and her mother and her art project. It is said in one scene that she is doing this to rise the awareness of the disease, but later on in the movie, when Georgia cuts off her gorgeous long hair, it's apparent it's not the only reason. The script had amazing potential and it was wasted, which a great shame because this movie doesn't deserve the strong performances you'll find in it.

48/100

Atonement

(123 min, 2007)
Plot: Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a 13-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. Based on the British romance novel by Ian McEwan.
Director: Joe Wright
Writers: Ian McEwan (novel), Christopher Hampton (screenplay)
Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Brenda Blethyn
 

Come Back

"Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."

- William Blake

War. The most devastating force, shredding any source of hope to pieces, slaughtering, bathing the surroundings in blood from the beginning of the world. Where innocent die, where all that is good vanishes, where bravery and heroism are nothing comparing to destruction and havoc left behind.

Love. The emotion that builds the importance, filled with passion, lust, the feeling that has been pushing people towards the most extreme actions from the beginning of our race. The force that inspires the best and also the worst in people.

„Atonement” is one of the most devastating movies ever made. Not only because war abolishes love and leaves nothing but guilt and crashing pain behind, but also because viewer's emotions are cruelly treated by the story, by the director and most of all by the construction of the film.
The movie has 3 main characters – Cecilia, young, beautiful, rich girl, Robbie poor but ambitious man in love with her and Briony, Cecilia's sister, gifted storyteller and a girl of amazing imagination. A chain of coincidences, badly misinterpreted events and Briony's young age and lack of experience leads to the separation of Cecilia and Robbie, right after they both realize they love each other. Crime, prison and war enter. Briony's accusation, as the girl gains perspective slips farther and farther away from the truth, as young lovers separation keeps them distant. Cecilia waits for Robbie, Robbie waits for war to end and Briony waits for atonement and absolution, sadly, the latter is not destined to be granted to her.