From Canterbury Tales to Best Exotic Marigold

The trailer for this movie, which I saw far too many times, made it seem idiotic, but in fact The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a sweet and funny movie, maybe a little too long and not something you can really believe in for more than a few minutes but a pleasant diversion. Among other qualities, great acting by an ensemble caste of British veterans who almost alone must account for half of the British foreign exchange: Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson - what is this, a Dickens BBC adaptation? No, apparently an adaptation of a novel, These Foolish Things. I've never been to India, but Marigold seems to capture more of the actual crowding, bustle, danger, poverty, but also life, verve, color, activity than almost any other movie we've seen here recently, more than Slumdog even - at least, the first half of the movie does; as M shrewdly pointed out to me, the Jaipur was pretty much cleaned up by the end of the movie, a very subtle way in which the visuals of the film entirely change our attitude toward the country, in the way that a musical score can affect and in fact create our reactions. The basic plot is that a group of about 8 English folks, all +60 and facing some kind of challenge in England, poverty or loneliness, e.g., travel to a new retirement home set up in India by a young India dreamer (Dev Patel?, star of Slumdog) who hopes to create a big retirement community for English people. The English, a la Canterbury Tales, each have a different story and each have a different attitude toward the country. As you'd expect, this being a comedy, just about everyone is brought around and finds love and happiness and learns to love the country that at first seemed overwhelming and frightening; of course one meanie doesn't get it and is exiled - as is also typical of most great British (and Greek) comedy. Meanwhile, in the subplot, the hotel owner persuades his recalcitrant mom and gets to marry his sweetie rather than give up the hotel and settle for an arranged marriage. Goodness reigns - in movies, if not in life. Plenty of crisp dialogue and sharp-edged British wit (I'm going to splash some water on my face - pray god, I may drown, e.g.) throughout. John Madden's movie breaks no new ground, but it's the kind of thing the Brits have done to perfection and it delivers on its promise.

The ludicrous interrogrations in Foyle's War

I can't quite understand the fuss over Foyle's War, a series of British 90-minute teleplays that seems to have a pretty devoted following - to me, they're not much more than very conventional Agatha Christie-like crime/murder mysteries, with the added fillip that they're set in provincial England (somewhere near the south coast) during WWII. I think what could be appealing, if I were to watch the whole series, is that it covers the scope of the whole war, from about 1940 to 1945, and we see an unusual perspective on what life was like in rural England during the wartime - the first two episodes nicely convey the real tension Englanders felt in 1940 when a German invasion, and perhaps even victory, seems possible or probable - at least in the U.S. we know little about that phase of the war. The war background to the second episode in the series is the evacuation, much by fisherman and other nonmilitary craft and pesonnel, of British forces overwhelmed and stranded at Dunkirk - material that Ian MacEwan brilliantly conveyed in Atonement. So there are some potential strengths to Foyle's War, but the first two episode move at a glacial pace and, worse, they fall prey to the flaws of second-rate mysteries: the clues fall far too easily into the hands of the investigators, complicated interrogations take about 90 seconds (How dare you ask me that! Well, as long as you've asked, I'll tell you everything), the conclusion involves extensive exposition by Detective Foyle, and at the end the crime that he's solved is entirely preposterous. For example, in the second episode (they're not really episodes so much as a series of mysteries involving the same three investigators - their interrelations are touched on but not developed much, at least yet): a group of right-wing pro-German fanatics gather at a country inn for a meeting, power goes out, in the darkness a woman is shot to death. Who dunnit? Suspicion falls on several: her son and her husband both feel oppressed by her, an estranged boyfriend of one of the staff was lurking outside, one guest mysteriously left the room just before the blackout, another hotel guest (not at the meeting) was known to er carrying a pistol. The clues all fall into place, of course, and at the end, you think: if you had to kill her, why would you do it in a room with about 20 potential witnesses? Among other things. Anyway, if you live this type of mystery, Foyle's War is OK, and its view of life in wartime is kind of interesting, although is there any time and place in history subject to more books and movies that England during the war years? Can't we move on?

Transforming amateur footage into a documentary film: 5 Broken Cameras

The 2011 Palestinian-Israeli documentary Five Broken Cameras contains amazingly powerful amateur footage shot over about a five-year span, roughly 2005-2010 by co-director Emad Burnat (and shaped into this documentary film by Burnat and Israeli direct Guy Davidi) - Burnat is a self-described peasant living in a small olive-growing village on the West Bank, father of four boys - around time of birth of his youngest he acquired a cheap videocamera to record his son's growth, as do millions of families around the world. But as his son was growing, so was a huge conflict, as a new settlement arises on the West Bank, encroaching on Burnat's village. So he began taking his camera to various meetings and demonstrations to record what was happening around him - without intending to, he was becoming a documentary journalist. Over the next five years, as the conflicts become more intense and violent, at varying intervals Burnat's camera gets destroyed by bullets, tear-gas canisters, etc. - so over the time of the film he acquires five cameras, each broken in combat so to speak. This film brings us inside the conflict like almost none other ever - we see the violence straight up and unedited, men shot, one even killed. It's obvious that the West Bank Palestinians are treated horribly and are being screwed by the Jewish settlements - though, granted, the film, like many (most?) documentaries is unabashedly polemical. Burnat and the men he photographs talk a lot about being involved in peaceful, nonviolent demonstrations, but it's not entirely clear that they weren't provocative and even violent as they approach Israeli troops. He's very romantic about the pleasant life in his little village, but an obvious subtext to Western viewers is that the women are totally subordinate and in the background, and that the children are subject to relentless indoctrination - all very discouraging - though it was good to see that the Palestinians won a judgment in an Israeli court (imagine that!) forcing the fence or wall to be moved farther away from their village. Still, the hideously ugly settlement continues to rise up, and it's sad and creepy to see the old Jewish guys moving in with the tefillin and mezuzahs. Pretty powerful film, one of the best transformations I've ever seen of amateur footage into a documentary work of art.

A good movie, if you can willingly suspect disbelief

Lasse Hallestrom's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a delightful if entirely preposterous British rom-com that makes no sense if you think about it for even a few minutes, but why would you? The film is craftily disarming, as it's about a crazy scheme - as the title suggests, to build a wild-salmon fishery in the Yemeni desert - that all the participants know is crazy and unlikely but they are obligated to try to make it work. A repeated line in the movie: It's theoretically possible, like a manned journey to Mars is theoretically possible. The rom part of the com is the evolving relationship between the two protags, Ewan McGregor as a nerdy fisheries scientist who's recruited to take on this project and Emily Blunt as some kind of investment counselor (her role never fully clear) who represents the oil sheik who wants to use his personal fortune to make this happen. As the film often reminds us: the relationship between these two is "theoretically possible." If you've ever seen a movie in your life, you know that it will be more than theoretical. Salmon Fishing is lighthearted and warmly if even foolishly optimistic - the kind of good-spirited comedy about talented and sensitive social misfits that Hallestrom has developed over many years. You have to willingly suspend a lot of disbelief to go along with this movie, and you also have to abide by a number of movie tropes, or even cliches, You have to accept the possibility that the love of a good woman can completely change a man's personality. You also have to accept an oil sheik who talks like Khalil Gibran and who truly wants to invest his personal fortune to bring water to parched desert communities. You have to accept yet another press secretary bitch, though she's played with great elan by Kristin Scott Thomas in a movie-stealing role. You have to accept yet another the bitchy wife who gets cast aside and deserves it. And, though in the world we live in "missing in action" means "dead," as McGregor awkwardly puts it, not so in movies (or literature): missing in action means still alive and due to turn up later in the narrative. And yet: it's easy to accept all that in this nicely paced and sometimes very funny movie, and if the end seems too pat and too improbable, so be it, thi is Hollywood (or in this case, CBS and the BBC).

A visually fascinating film with no easy answers: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild is quite unusual and very good - interesting to look at right from the first frames, apparently shot on location in small communities on the Louisiana Delta, and featuring most or maybe all amateur actors and nonprofessionals cast just for this movie; the movie in some ways calls to mind the great Pan's Labyrinth, both in its focus on the mind of a young girl often in conflict with tyrannical and crazy father, and especially in its use of flashes of symbolism and fantasy to highlight and prefigure elements of the young girl's thinking. At times we see scenes of wild animals - loosely based on wild boars (her father keeps one in captivity) and the extinct oryx (she sees a tattoo of one); at other times we see the polar icecap melting and crumbling - as two examples; but Beasts is not a fantasy film - it's a realistic drama, full of tension and of ambiguities. The young girl, Hushpuppy, lives with her father who is quite cruel to her many ways, but also at times very loving and playful - it's hard to get a reading on him, which is part of the beauty and the complexity of the film; they live in a very supportive and friendly impoverished community, so we feel that someone will look out for H's welfare even as her father slides deeper into illness and alcoholism, but the adults in the community are well-meaning yet not all that competent - there's a lot of drinking and general neglect of the welfare of others. The heart of the story is the reaction to what is apparently Hurricane Katrina, as the father keeps Hushpuppy on the small island (called the Bathtub) through the storm, against all advice; after the storm, everything is in ruins, but the few survivors resist attempts at resettlement. H. finally flees from her father, learns or at least surmises some things about her mother, whom she has never met (most likely, we learn, mother was a barmaid or prostitute), and finally H. is reconciled with father as he is dying (not very credibly, alas). A tight movie, with strong characterization and fine acting (a little too much V.O. for my taste), always visually interesting and viscerally powerful (you'll gasp at some of the scenes, such as the fire in H's "house"), a strange mixture of pastoral idyll and brutal rural poverty that leaves us with questions about the extent which we're responsible for the lives and well-being of others - no easy answer here, except that it's clear this young girl should not be left in the care of her father or of her dissipated neighbors either.

One of the best Elmore Leonard adaptations: Jackie Brown

Inspired by an ongoing online discussion with two WOHS friends, which has led us to talk about whether to see Django Unchained, last night I watched an early Quentin Tarantino film much touted by AW, Jackie Brown, from 1997, I think - with Pam Grier in title role, Samuel L. Jackson as the street thug gun runner, and Robert de Niro giving an excellent performance as Jackson's recently sprung sidekick (also Robert Forster, whom I don't really know, in a fine turn as a bail bondsman whom Grier draws into a weird double-crossing scheme). All you really need to know is that this is an Elmore Leonard-based project (based on his novel Rum Punch), and it has all of the Leaonard traits and quirks, for better or worse: strong over-the-top nearly cartoonish characters, probably accurate knowledge of the argot and lingo of criminals, episodic narrative development, and plot with lots of twists and kinks that ultimately leaves you thinking: huh? Tarantino seems to stay close to the source, and the movie logs in at well over 2 hours, which is probably too long for a crime movie that really doesn't move much beyond the conventions of the genre but is maybe necessary because of the plot complexity: any editing would either jettison key plot elements of leave us with nothing but plot. And what does make the movie are some of the great scenes involving Jackson: his visits to the bail bondsman's office, smoking away, a bag of cash at the ready; his visit to an accomplice who's turned; his drinking scene with De Niro as they discuss De Niro's fling with Jackson's squeeze (Bridget Fonda). Obviously QT is known for the extreme violence in his films, but though JB is loaded with menace and nuance, it's not graphically violent: there are 4 shooting deaths, but each is quite sudden and shown by indirection. I really question with Jackson would have walked into the darkened bondsman's office late at night in the final sequence - hasn't he seen Seven Samurai? Obviously QT has - but on the whole it's a very entertaining movie that does not feel overly long: doesn't have the depth and scope or the unique qualities of QT's early Reservoir Dogs, but it's as good an Elmore Leonard adaptation as we're likely to see. Maybe QT should try another one?

Among our great current filmmakers, count the Dardennes Brothers

There are many great young filmmakers at work across the world - getting critical acclaim and numerous prizes but not even close to the budgets or royalties that accrue to the giants of the U.S. screen with their too often overlong and tiresome big-budget projects - and among the greats Ithink anyone would have to put the Dardennes Brothers, of Belgium, at or near the top of the list. Their L'enfant was one of the great films of the past decade, and their newest, Kid with a Bike (Le gamin au velo) is another great film in their distinct narrative mode: tightly scripted stories of young people struggling to get by in the working-class cities on the France-Belgium border. In Kid with Bike, the main character is an early-teenage boy living in a group home and angry at the world because his father has more or less abandoned him. Story begins as kid tries to leave the home to go back to his father's apartment and reclaim his bike. His journey to his father's apartment ultimately reveals to him the painful truth that his father has no affection whatever for him, he's been abandoned. Though a very kind woman takes on the risk of being his weekend parent or guardian, the boy is still deeply troubled, as we see in scene after scene - very difficult for him to accept her love, or anyone's, and very difficult for him to welcome this challenging child. Part of the beauty of this dramatic film, aside from its realism of subject matter and its almost documentary approach to storytelling, is the edginess and ambiguity: there are never easy and sentimental solutions, as we would find in many American movies (and, to be fair, in European movies as well); and, as in all Dardennes films, I think, the ending is a little bit jarring and unresolved and open - thought the episode itself is drawn through an arc to a natural conclusion, it's obvious to all of us that these are not the end of the problems for this boy and his adoptive mother - that he has been scarred by his father, by his time in the group home, by the cruelty of the world in which he has just barely managed to survive, and there will be many trials ahead for him and for all who know him. The Dardennes films are like a contemporary, somewhat darker version of the early Truffault films - and it will be interesting to see if they "grow" some of their characters through time that way he did through 500 Blows and beyond.

Quirky comedy completely dominated by the performance of Sally Hawkins

There are few if any movies more dominated by the charm of the central character (or the performance of the lead actress) than Michale Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, a totally winning British comedy (2008 - I'd thought it was more recent) , in which Sally Hawkins (unknown to me till now) plays the title character, Poppy, an upbeat, energetic, spirited, eccentric 30-year-old Camden Town/London single, over the course of a few weeks of her life. Movie opens with Poppy riding a wobbly bicycle through London streets (something about the editing and soundtrack in this sequence seems Parisian); she leaves her bike, shops a bit, including a visit to a little bookstore in which she tries to make conversation with the sullen proprietor - her persistence and her good humor in the face of his indifference is a key to her character that will unfold throughout the movie - and her bike is stolen. She notes something like "Didn't even have a chance to say good-bye." This attitude is almost a little crazy, and later in the film she does take some risks, esp in reaching out to a man who seems to be schizophrenic, that are unwise, but in keeping with her unique personality.  The stolen bike is the first strand in the thin plot of the movie: Poppy thus begins to take driving lessons, and her tempestuous relationship with her instructor, a probably unbalanced and certainly racist young man, through weekly lessons, gives us a window onto how Poppy's mind works and how she confronts conflict and evil. There are a # of surprises throughout the film, which I won't give away except to say that your impression of her and her friends from the first few sequences - their night at a club and afterwords - will not prepare you for who she is and what she does with her life. The scene in which she and her flatmate visit the pregnant sister is great, as is the flamenco class, if a little over the top. While Hawkins deserves tons of credit for her great performance - which I hope won her some awards - Leigh also deserves credit for the screenplay that allowed the Poppy character to come to life - optimistic and silly and lovable brought just to the edge but not over the edge of cloying; she's someone you think you'd want to know as a friend or neighbor - but then again, in real life, maybe not - she might be just too much day after day. Leigh also kept the pace of the movie moving along very well so that, at nearly two hours, it never seemed to lag and did not seem - as so many movies do - to go on just a few scenes (or in some cases way too many scenes) too long. Leigh is an under-appreciated director, and Happy-go-Lucky, quirky though it is, is one of the best of recent comedies.