27 November 2007
Film Review Roundup: No Country, Enchanted, Fred Claus, Dan In Real Life
I'm in recovery from my deviated septum surgery, so I thought I'd catch up on the latest movies that I've seen in recent weeks. There are still many films that I haven't seen yet that I'd like to get out and see before they leave theaters; that list includes Gone Baby Gone, Hitman, The Mist, Across the Universe, and possibly Bee Movie. I also really want to see freakin' Southland Tales but there's no way it's going to expand to Tulsa, so that one will have to remain a dream (I'll see it on stupid DVD, I guess).
No Country For Old Men
This film didn't start off well for me, but it wasn't because of the film itself. The lights in the theater that I went to did not dim as they should have when the movie began, and so I had to go out to the manager and ask him politely to get his shit together. That's not exactly true… I didn't really swear, but I wanted to. It was really frustrating to have to do this because Tommy Lee Jones's character has a voice over at the beginning of the film that, by the end, feels like it has thematic ramifications and, well, I didn't get to really hear the voice-over. Damn you, AMC Theaters. If that wasn't enough, someone walked into the theater in literally the last twenty seconds of the film and talked loudly, ruining the last scene. I think it was most likely a customer that was there for the next showing of the film, and they just walked in early. Still, that's another strike against AMC for crowd control. If this wasn't the only good theater that's close by, I'd stop going to it completely. Oh well.
As for the film itself, No Country is an excellent, if perplexing film. After the voice-over from Tommy Lee Jones, the film introduces Anton Chigurh (Javiar Bardem). The guy's a psychopathic killer; one of the more scary ones to grace the screen in a long time. After this, we meet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), as he happens upon a busted drug deal in the middle of the Texas desert. Almost everyone involved is dead already, and both the drugs and the cash still remain. In what must have been a snap decision, Moss decides to take the cash with him. Of course, this isn't the best idea in the world, as other violent men, such as Chigurh, want that cash back.
The rest of the film follows Jones (a sheriff) as he follows Chigurh as he follows Moss and the cash. It's a tense and almost silent film, and it made my heart pound more than once (a scene between Chigurh and a gas station attendant is an especially edgy scene). What makes No Country perplexing is its final twenty minutes. Without giving anything away, the narrative takes a sharp turn and asks the audience to switch gears in a way that is highly unconventional. What you think about the film overall will certainly hinge on whether you accept or reject this turn of events.
I mostly accepted this turn, so the last parts of the film had resonance with me. It's also superbly acted. Besides fine work from Jones, Bardem, and Brolin, other actors such as Woody Harrelson and Stephen Root show up in small but memorable parts, as well. Garrett Dillahunt, of Deadwood fame, also turns in a comic performance opposite of Jones.
It's good to see the Coen Brothers back in top form. I look forward to their next film.
Dan In Real Life
This film is the most recent in a string of Steve Carrell vehicles that is, sadly, not that good. It's not that the film is bad, per se… it's just not that good. The plot of the film follows single-father Dan (Carell), a newspaper columnist, and his three daughters as they go to a family get together at Dan's parent's house. Like all family movies, Dan has many brothers and sisters who all have children and all of them are quirky and interesting, etc. Okay, it's a movie, I get it… I guess it would be boring if Dan was an only child and I wouldn't want to watch a boring family even though I suspect that these big movie families are nothing like anything in reality.
It so happens that while on this trip, Dan goes to the bookstore. At the bookstore, he meets a woman, Marie (Juliette Binoche), who mistakes Dan for an employee of the store. He helps her find some books and, at the conclusion of the scene, learns that Dan is just another customer. So of course they go out for coffee, and of course Dan spends the entire time talking about himself and learning nothing at all about her. Before Dan can talk about his previous marriage, though, Marie is interrupted by an urgent call and leaves.
Dan then returns to his family, and they are all excited to learn about this new woman. One of his brothers, Mitch (Dane Cook), is especially excited for Dan. Then Mitch's girlfriend shows up… and it's Marie! Of course, Marie is perfect for Dan and she slowly realizes that she'd rather be with Dan than with Mitch (only God knows why, though, because Dan spends the entire movie feeling sorry for himself). Also, Emily Blunt, the chick from The Devil Wears Prada, shows up for a couple scenes and is entirely too hot.
The real problem with the film, beyond its cookie-cutter/formulaic plotting, is Steve Carell and Dane Cook. Both of them certainly have acting chops (Cook more so than Carell), but it's hard to divorce their previous comic personas from their current, more serious big screen acting choices. In fact, I think Dane Cook would be a much bigger star now if he didn't have to contend with his lousy stand-up comic past. However, he probably wouldn't have been able to break into Hollywood without being a stand-up comic first, so I guess it is a chicken and egg thing for him. As for Carell, none of his big screen work outside of the 40 Year Old Virgin has demonstrated anything beyond an ability to play only one type of character. In fact, it never seems like he is playing a character, but rather we get Steve Carell playing a type of character, if that makes any sense.
Fred Claus
Oh my. This is another one of those November Christmas movies, the kind that is probably written by committee and completely sterilized so that it can appeal to the largest possible audience. It's the kind of movie that you take a young family member or girlfriend to because you can't take them to that R-rated movie you really want to see (and now you know why I went to this movie instead of The Mist). It's also the kind of movie that people like Paul Giamatti, Vince Vaughn, Rachel Weisz and Kevin Spacey act in in order to make some decent money and/or have some material to show to young children inside their own families. At least, I hope those are the reasons they agreed to be in this movie, because if they thought the material itself was good then they were completely wrong. Sure, the idea of Santa having a loser brother is kind of funny, but it's not really that new (it's kind of like the idea of Jesus having a loser brother, only less religious in nature). Much like Dan In Real Life, the plot is predictable and kind of boring, as is the comedy. Vaughn's shtick does save some of the jokes, but the only genuinely funny scene in the film involves Fred visiting a meeting of Siblings Anonymous that features the likes of Fred Stallone, Stephen Baldwin, and Roger Clinton (which I have now spoiled, but whatever… you weren't going to see this anyway, right?). Other than that, this movie is imminently skippable.
Enchanted
Color me surprised, because I didn't think this movie was all that bad. Enchanted starts off in an animated world much like a common Disney animated movie. There are talking animals, and everyone sings, and there is an evil stepmother, etc. We start out by meeting Giselle (Amy Adams), who tells us about the dream she just had about her true love, whom she expects to meet very soon. This true love turns out to be Prince Edward (James Marsden). Edward, though, has an evil stepmother who will lose her power over the kingdom if he marries, so she (evil stepmother) banishes Giselle to a far away land, the most depressing and sad place possible: modern day Manhattan.
Giselle sheds her animated body for a real life body upon entrance to Manhattan, but she brings with her her animated world view (unironic and in love with life and… singing to animals). Giselle meets divorce attorney Robert (Patrick Dempsey), who at first feels sorry for her because he thinks she is a very confused woman. Over the course of the story, though, he begins to be charmed by her. And who wouldn't? This is all complicated by the fact that Edward comes to Manhattan to save Giselle, the fact that Robert already has a girlfriend, and the fact that the the stepmother's henchman comes to New York to try to kill Giselle. The narrative builds to a surprisingly scary (for a two year old, I guess) battle that involves a dragon, and the whole thing concludes in a happily ever after sort of way… but hey, it's a Disney movie, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. It all makes for a good time at the movies for a family, or I guess a date (again, if you can't get your girlfriend to the R-rated stuff, which would kind of suck).
2 Comments currently posted. Trackback URL
Film Review Roundup: No Country, Enchanted, Fred Claus, Dan In Real Life says:
Charles says:
If you’ve never seen the big, quirky family thing in reality, I’m pretty sure you’re going to be living it for the next 15 or 20 years. Just think about Christmas with us and all the cousins when we’ve each got 3 or 4 kids.
hyalineskies
[…] Screwtape Chronicles added an interesting post on Film Review Roundup: No Country, Enchanted, Fred Claus, Dan In Real Life […]