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Anna Kendricks and George Clooney appear in
the Jason Reitman comedy-drama “Up in the
Air.” Photo by Dale Robinette, Copyright 2009.
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December basically brings out two kinds of movies: the big-budget crowdpleasers aimed at the holiday crowds of teens and families and the earnest, serious films that producers hope will receive critical attention at the end-of-year awards season. Bucks vs. Trophies (both of which mean more dough, of course). Since this column has traditionally eschewed reviews of the most obvious Hollywood pap, I will concentrate on highlighting upcoming pictures that might fall into the “award” category, potentially thoughtful or intelligent fare that will make your dollar better spent.
In what has become a more or less annual event, Clint Eastwood comes through with another intriguing effort, “Invictus,” which tells the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) working together with a South African rugby star (Matt Damon) to bring the races together to compete in the rugby World Cup of 1995. It might be a trick to get US audiences interested in a rugby drama, but the stars and the director should attract attention (opens Dec. 11).
One anticipated event is “Nine,” one of those double-adapted movie musicals, this one a film version of the 1982 Broadway show which was itself based on Federico Fellini’s famous 1962 film “8 ½,” about a creatively-stalled Italian director and the sundry women in his life. The director in this version is played by Daniel Day-Lewis, his first comedic role since the little seen “Stars and Bars” (1988), who is seconded by a string of feminine talent, including Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson and Marion Cotillard – not to mention Judi Dench and Sophia Loren! While it clearly yearns to be a smash, I expect it will run into the same difficulties as other recent attempts to cinematically cash in on major musicals, viz. “The Producers,” “Dreamgirls,” “Rent,” and “Sweeney Todd.” And Day-Lewis as an Italian singing and dancing? We’ll see … (Dec. 25)
A major literary phenomenon, the 2002 Alice Sebold novel “The Lovely Bones,” gets the cinematic treatment from, of all people, Peter Jackson, famed for his massive “Lord of the Rings” and “King Kong” epics. The story of a murdered 14-year-old who observes her family’s life from a heavenly limbo has a solid cast in Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci and Susan Sarandon, but the film must be carried by its lead, Irish-American actress, Saoirse Ronan, last seen to excellent effect in “Atonement” (2007). The trick will be for Jackson to aim for subtle instead of obvious, and it offers a chance for this teenager to become a star (Dec. 11).
Another major novel, “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy, also gets movie treatment this fall. A grim tale of a struggle of a family’s survival in a post-apocalyptic world, it appears to be aiming at critical kudos both for its earnestness and the burdens on its cast, headed by Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen. It could be compared to another bleak Christmas present of three seasons back, “Children of Men,” an end-of-the-world flick which impressed the reviewers even if it didn’t warm any cockles (Nov. 25).
‘Up in the Air’
In my role as movie reviewer, I have already seen a couple of anticipated films coming out in December, which I can readily recommend.
One winner is Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” a comedy-drama of a quality that you rarely see these days. Starting with a smart script (co-written by Reitman) and with solid performances throughout, “Up in the Air” (opens Dec. 4) follows a sleek, very unattached corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) as he drops into sites grim (Detroit) and glitzy (Vegas) to tell employees what “their bosses are too chicken to tell them” – that they are fired.
Unredeemably single, Ryan begins to fall for a female flyer named Alex (Vera Farmiga), who is almost as frequent as he is and just as footloose, and they begin to schedule (they are great at scheduling) airport liaisons. In addition, Ryan – a notorious freelance – has to shepherd around the prim, young efficiency expert Natalie (Anna Kendricks) on his travels after management insists.
The humor in “Up” is understated, insinuating, both in the fencing of the cool cosmopolite Ryan with the naïve Natalie and the neat, adult repartee between Clooney and Alex, which recalls, at best, the sparks of the great 1930’s comedies. But the film doesn’t produce laughs so much as a most timely thoughtfulness about our current downsizing.
The film is full of straight-ahead vignettes of those being fired, and few of them are amusing; the gamut of expected outrage and hurt and revenge is displayed by dozens of character actors you have never seen before (with a couple exceptions: Zach Galifianakis blows up and J.K. Simmons pouts), and you feel for all of them. These mini-dramas present an unexpected gravitas beside the light comedy touch of Clooney (who was born to play this kind of role), and these same firing acts begin, not surprisingly, to change Ryan himself.
Reitman is, for my money, on a roll, having now compiled in just a few years a trifecta of deft examinations of American life in “Thank You for Smoking” (his broadest satire), “Juno” (clever adaptation of a quirky script), and now “Up in the Air.” This is a fellow who is both seriously funny and seriously humane (rated R, 109 minutes).
‘The Young Victoria’
British producers, year after year, come up with handsome versions of their own complex history – what in Great Britain they call “heritage films.” The latest is “The Young Victoria,” a drama which encompasses the period just before and just after the very young Queen Victoria took over the throne in 1837 (when she was merely 18) and when she had to both overcome attempts within the palaces to thwart her reign and to come to terms with a mate, the sterling German lad Albert from Saxe-Coburg.
Emily Blunt impersonates the young princess-queen fully and believably, giving evidence both of a high-spirited person ready to break out of her Kensington Palace “prison” and a woman with a mind who could take on the reigns of an empire. She does it with wide-open, ever curious blue eyes, a manner mingling the prim with the insouciant, and a smooth, “royal” delivery. It’s nice to see Blunt in a different setting from her recent roles, where she has assayed mainly comic parts as contemporary Americans (“Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Sunshine Cleaning,” “The Jane Austen Book Club”) and as the delightfully bitchy Emily in “The Devil Wears Prada,” her most high profile role to date.
Fetching Rupert Friend (“Chéri”) is Prince Alfred, a young man smitten, but a young man also eager to take on his new role as a husband and man of consequence. The two leads have ample chemistry on screen, evident in fervent, if discrete, love scenes in the imperial boudoir. As in so many British heritage productions, a parade of reputable featured players round out a solid cast – actors like Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson, Mark Strong, Harriett Walters, etc. (rated PG, 100 minutes)
Though directed by a Canadian, Jean-Marc Vallée, “The Young Victoria” (opens Dec. 18) could hardly be more British, and it is enhanced by a knowing script by Julian Fellowes (who did so well by “Separate Lies” and “Gosford Park” in recent years) and a most effective, sweeping musical score by Ilan Eshkeri. Then there are, as usual, the castles, the gardens, the gowns and the hairdos … all that good heritage stuff. |
