Volume 39, Number 09
Movies
Movie News
By Bill Hersey
Oscar-winner Javier Bardem made a quick trip to promote the film No Country for Old Men for Paramount. Javier won his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in his role as Anton Chigurh, the truly weird villain in the Coen brothers film that also won the best film award. I’ve followed the Spanish actor’s career since he was a teenager, and he’s done some really great work. These include Before Night Falls and The Sea Inside.
At the press conference he said he was very impressed with Japan and the politeness of the people; “Tokyo’s so clean, Madrid’s not.” he added.
In talking about the film, he had nothing but praise for the Coens. “I’m an actor, and once I decide to do a film, I do what the director asked me to do. Ethan and Joel Coen look like university students. They don’t speak all that much but they always agree with each other, and are open to questions and easy to work with” Javier told the media.
In regards to difficulties, he said he doesn’t like violence, guns, or blood, but once again, as an actor who accepted the role, “I have to do my job as best I can.” He laughingly added, “My real difficulty was my strange haircut. It’s great to be back with my old style again.”
Javier is really creepy in the film. His outstanding performance was on the level of Robert Mitchum’s role in Night of the Hunter and Robert De Niro’s psychopathic character in Cape Fear.
The actor has some good things coming up. He stars in Love in the Time of Cholera. He’s also going the way of Johnny Depp who sang in Sweeny Todd and will play the lead in the film adaptation of the Broadway show Nine.
Thanks to long-time friend Dick Sano, who’s Senior Vice President of Film Distribution at Sony Pictures, I have over the years met a lot of interesting and important people in the film business. A few nights ago I joined Dick, some of his staff and young rising star, actor Jim Sturgess at Inukaya restaurant in Roppongi. Jim was here to promote 21, a film about six M.I.T students who took Vegas casinos for millions.
Jim has a solid background in British TV movies and series. He gained recognition in the U.S. through his role in Across the Universe with rave reviews for his rendition of many of the Beatles. This year he stars in The Other Boleyn Girl and Crossing Over. Jim’s a cool, laid back and talented young actor. I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.
Sony Pictures will release 21 here on May 31.
Movie Reviews - Untraceable / Charlie Wilson’s War / Good Luck Chuck
by William Casper
Untraceable
Untraceable is a film about a serial killer who posts live footage of his victims being tortured and killed on the internet and invites viewers to be accomplices simply by logging on and watching. An FBI computer surveillance team led by Diane Lane is foiled at every turn in their attempts to bring him to justice.
Untraceable has good production values, is well acted and moves along at a good pace. Dianne Lane is a fine actress and carries the film well. She is well supported by Colin Hanks (Tom’s lad), who puts in a decent turn as her geekier partner. In essence, we are talking about 7even lite with a nod towards Silence of the Lambs, and though all serial killer movies are judged against these two, Untraceable does have original elements particularly the computer stuff. I have no idea whether the hi-tech geekery on show is possible in theory or reality, but it all sounds convincing enough. On the downside, Untraceable’s grim, self-righteous view of humanity as voyeuristic scum is, in my experience anyway, inaccurate. There are also some logic flaws regarding the killer, his methods, his incredible access to resources and his all-knowingness perhaps to be expected to some extent with this kind of film. Whether the world needs another serial killer film at all is open to question, but for those who enjoy them, Untraceable is a solid example of the genre.
Charlie Wilson’s War
Charlie Wilson’s War is the story of how coke sniffing, party animal, liberal Texan Senator Wilson (Tom Hanks) met a sassy, right wing, many times married, republican socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), and together with a shady CIA operative Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), supplied the money to buy rocket launchers for the mujahideen in Afghanistan and helped end the cold war.
Being one of that rare breed that finds almost nothing redeemable about the ubiquitous Hanks and Roberts, I assumed Charlie Wilson’s War would be another bland star vehicle for the already overexposed duo. I then noticed the screenplay (based on George Crile’s book) was written by Aaron Sorkin, the man behind TV’s seminal political drama The West Wing. In addition, the director is Mike Nichols, a man responsible for some pretty decent political dramas himself (Catch 22, Primary Colors) as well as a couple of genuine cinematic classics including the generation-defining The Graduate; at that point any trepidation was replaced by anticipation.
Charlie Wilson’s War is a master class in what mainstream Hollywood could, and should, produce all the time. It is funny, sharp, exciting, packed with incident and characters. It has excellent production values, a tight supporting cast and tells an amazing story that also happens to be true. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the pick of the stars although despite my prejudices I have to admit that Julia Roberts is very good as Joanne Herring. As ever, Tom Hanks, playing the kind of character actors dream of, edges away from the heat in his perennial quest to stay likeable. If only the man Mike Nichols directed in Carnal Knowledge, Heartburn, and Wolf was 15 years younger, this could have been an all time classic rather the very good film it is.
Good Luck Chuck
At the age of 11 the hero of Good Luck Chuck, Chuck himself, is cursed by a young goth girl for refusing her advances. As a result of this curse the ‘adult’ (and I use that word strictly to represent the number of years he has been alive) Charlie, played by stand-up comedian Dane Cook, is destined to never find love; even worse the women he courts are fated to fall in love and marry the next man they date after Charlie. As word of Charlie’s ‘talent’ spreads, woman flock to sleep with him in the hope of meeting a future husband.
Aiming for the same sort of territory mapped out by such films as 40-Year-Old Virgin and the Wedding Crashers, Good Luck Chuck falls way short. It is tacky, tasteless, tedious and packed with the kind of frat boy misogyny that deserves a special R rating all of it’s own. Where 40-Year-Old Virgin, for example, contained tenderness under its crudity Good Luck Chuck doesn’t see the need. Breast joke after breast joke—dentist Charlie has an adjoining office with plastic surgeon Stu (Dan Fogler)—fat women as an affront to our hero, gorgeous women so desperate for love they are literally queuing up to sleep with Charlie; more and more the film feels like the wet dream of an unimaginative teenager. Naturally Charlie’s true love Cam is stunning (she’s played by Jessica Alba) and of course loves animals—she works with penguins. There are one or two funny moments amongst the dross but overall the penguins are by far the best things in the film.
On DVD
Sicko — Michael Moore’s uneven exposure of the American health industry still packs a punch despite its flaws.
A Mighty Heart — brilliant but heartbreaking film about the true kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl. With Angelina Jolie.
The Kingdom — Well made Middle Eastern political action thriller. Great cast including Chris Cooper and Jamie Fox.
Babel — One family has a particularly lousy day in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s over rated but very watchable ‘we’re all connected’ drama. With Brad Pitt.