Ahoy, squirts! Quint here... Got more Toronto stuff... right now Tarantino's onstage talking about John Saxon being awesome. Gotta run! Enjoy these reviews!
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
Ahh, the British. You can always count on them for quality entertainment. Stephen “High Fidelity” Frears brings us this year’s guaran-damn-teed Oscar bait, a cracking film about a widow who opens a legendary theatre in pre-WWII London. Mrs. Henderson is Mrs. Best Actress Dame Judi Dench, and rest assured she’ll be on the nominee ballot come February. She plays the part as though it were written with her in mind, which it probably was. She’s the classic young-at-heart septuagenarian who wants to carry on like she’s a twenty-year-old spitfire, taking shit from no one, least of all show producer Vivian Van Damme, Mr. Bob Hoskins, who is at his best as well. It’s two greats, making each other look even better. The proceedings move along beautifully, with a nice light tone from the get-go, and by the time the Blitz happens you actually care about the fate of the troupe. Said troupe is fronted by popster Will Young, who fits into the vaudeville setting perfectly. At first I thought someone had cleaned up Rupert Wainwright. Christopher Guest gets a small role as London’s theatrical censor, and has fun playing the uptight monocle-dropper.
Everything about the film works. It’s a delicate balance, but it never gets preachy, nor too melancholy. Frears is truly one of Britain’s best filmmakers, and a quick look at IMDB shows that he’s directing Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen”, so that should be something special as well.
Oh, did I mention that the theatre was legendary thanks to a topless revue? No? Perhaps I should have. Ah well. Too late now.
BREAKFAST ON PLUTO
From wartime London to 1970’s Ireland. Neil Jordan, who never fails to raise eyebrows (“Crying Game”? “Butcher Boy?” Helloooo...) is back, with Cillian “28 Days Later” Murphy playing a transvestite who gets caught up in a civil war while on a search for his long-lost mother. Now, if that’s not Oscar bait, I don’t know what is. It’s one hell of a film, based on Pat McCabe’s novel, who also wrote “Butcher Boy”. The film sees the rise of “The Troubles” through the eyes of Kitten, a woman trapped in a skinny dude’s body. Man, he’s got nice eyes though. The story is broken into 36 chapters, which helps keep the pace quick, since no chapter lasts more than a few minutes. We’re introduced into his/her world at a breakneck pace, which settles down into a steady groove for the remainder. It’s pretty episodic, but Murphy’s performance and the fantastic writing keep you spellbound throughout. This is one hell of a capper for 2005 for him, with “Batman Begins” and “Red Eye” just the warmup. The supporting cast is solid, featuring Liam Neeson as his father, the Father, Stephen Rea as a magician, and friggin’ Bryan Ferry as, um, a customer. Seek it out as soon as it hits your neighborhood.
CAPOTE
Oh hey there, it’s the third Oscar bait film of the day! This time it’s Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the legendary Truman Capote as he writes “In Cold Blood”, the genre-smashing real-life story of two killers in 1959 Kansas. The writing of the story drove Capote into a deep depression he never truly recovered from. Hoffman is stunning. It’s a note-perfect performance, capturing the fey demeanor of Capote, as well as showing the demons that consumed him. Director Bennett Miller’s dramatic directorial debut is impressive, keeping things muted and intimate, matching the sparse Kansas landscape (even though it was shot in Manitoba, which doubles flawlessly). We see Capote at his strongest, weaving animated tales at cocktail parties, then we watch him crumble as he gets deeper and deeper into what he knows will be his greatest work, despite the price he knows he will pay. He happily gets the killers a better lawyer to get a stay of execution so he can finish the interviews, and nearly gets them off on a technicality in the process. Capote was legendary for his selfishness and jealousy of others’ success, here it’s shown via Harper Lee, played by the always perfect Catherine Keener, as she releases To Kill A Mockingbird to heavy acclaim as he drinks himself stupid worrying about if he’ll ever get to finish his own novel. It’s a great script, and Miller has proven himself to be an actor’s director while keeping the look simple, locking in on the incredible performances instead of flashy edits and epic shots. Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, and Bob Balaban round out the solid cast. Great stuff. I feel bad for the other Capote film in production “Have You Heard?”, which tells the same basic story. They would have been better served in telling his entire life story rather than dwell on this section of his life.
ELIZABETHTOWN
Yeah, yeah, you’ve got a shit-ton of reviews, but here’s another. The Paramount rep announced that this cut will NOT be the final version, Cameron Crowe made this for the festival circuit, and the final theatrical cut will probably be shorter. Perhaps MUCH shorter. I can see why, since the film feels like it’s over at the memorial service, then goes on for another twenty minutes or so. I felt that the trailer showed every major moment of the film, so nothing really surprised me. It’s overlong, too damn cute, too much of an infomercial for “America’s Midwest!”, and too damn full of Great 70s Rock Songs. Yes Cameron, you love the music of the era, we get it. Half the budget of his films must go to music clearances. The performances are pretty good, Orlando does a good job as the overstressed idea man who let his family life slip away, Kirsten Dunst is, well, cute, and the People Of Kentucky are just super, fine people. But dull. You see, people of the Midwest are a simple folk, who just don’t get Big City Livin’, and everything west of Texas is California. It’s a message that we’ve all heard before, and Crowe just doesn’t bring much fresh material to the table. Half the theatre will bawl regardless, since you can’t help but project your own relationship with your father into it, be he dead or alive, so it clearly connects on some emotional level, but it’s all pretty shallow. The script needed to be gutted and rebuilt, but Crowe must have felt that the emotions would win the day. Call it a draw.
