Capone's Art-House Round-Up with MANGLEHORN, A LITTLE CHAOS, and INFINITELY POLAR BEAR!!!

Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a few films that are making their way into art houses or coming out in limited release around America this week (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Do your part to support these films, or at least the good ones…


MANGLEHORN
Wrapping up his thematically connected trilogy of works that examine the changing definition of masculinity in small Texas towns (following PRINCE AVALANCHE and JOE), director David Gordon Green enlists the legendary Al Pacino to play the aging locksmith A.J. Manglehorn, a man stuck in the past to such a degree that it keeps him from forming meaningful relationships in the present day with anyone but his cat. Using the opportunity to remind us that he can dial it back and inhabit a curious and troubling character, Pacino is the reason to see the film, even if some of MANGLEHORN's plot points don't all connect.

The film is essentially a series of conversations, which range from charming and sweet to awkward and painful to watch. Having spent decades pining over a failed relationship, Manglehorn finally gets the nerve to ask bank teller Dawn (Holly Hunter) on a date, but events leading up to the fateful night are distracting and distressing. His cat needs surgery, his estranged investment-banker son Jacob (Chris Messina) is in financial trouble, and a pimp named Gary (director Harmony Korine, shot out of a sleazy cannon), whom Manglehorn used to coach in little league, tries to lure him into one of his "tanning salons" for a good time.

With Nicolas Cage in JOE and now Pacino, Green has grown into a filmmaker who takes actors we know so well, we likely have an impersonation of them in our back pocket, and gives them a chance to remind us just how good they can be. These roles don't really remind us of ones these actors have done before, so it's not like Green is resorting to tapping into nostalgia to make his point that these performers have still got something great left in them. And when we finally get to the date sequence, Manglehorn is so preoccupied, it seemed fated that things will go horribly wrong, and the tension is soupy.

All of this being said and despite Pacino's exceptional work, MANGLEHORN is probably the weakest of the Green's Texas trilogy only because the stakes seem lower. If one crabby, self-obsessed old man leads the rest of his existence alone, is that such a tragedy? But Pacino gives us hints that there is potential for exceptional behavior in this man, even if he wasn't written that way (the screenplay is credited to first-time writer Paul Logan). A gesture with his son, a plea for a second chance with Dawn, and of course the gentle way he has with that darn cat. The capacity is there, but can he, will he make the effort? Green makes us care about the answer to that question.


A LITTLE CHAOS
Why this film isn't getting a wider release stateside is a mystery to me because it's one of the finest character studies I've seen in quite some time, loaded with wit, intrigue and more blue-blood behavior than you can powder a wig with. And even more delightful is that A LITTLE CHAOS was directed and co-written by the great actor Alan Rickman (whose previous directing effort, THE WINTER GUEST, is well worth your time). Set in 17th-century France, Rickman plays Louis XIV, the king who oversaw the bulk of the building of Versailles, along with the help of landscape designer André Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts, currently in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD), who in turn seeks a creative force to help design a special structure in the garden that will resemble an unprecedented outdoor ballroom, eventually known as the Rockwork Grove.

Intrigued by the drawings of local gardener Sabine de Barra (Kate Winslet), Le Notre takes a chance on this commoner's artistic expression to put her in charge of a crew of men, who at first look down upon her for several reasons, chief among them that she's a woman. Sabine also suffers from bouts of paralyzing depression due to a traumatic event in her recent past that isn't difficult to guess, although the specific circumstances are truly awful.

The film makes it clear from the start that the only fact it claims is 100 percent true is that this garden at Versailles exists at all, so clear Rickman and his team are working to create the best cinema they can and not worry too much about the fact. That said, my favorite scene in A LITTLE CHAOS is an event that probably never happened. After the queen dies unexpectedly, Louis seeks solitude at Versailles. Sabine is working on her project when she stumbles upon the king without his fineries or wig on. Thinking this stranger is the royal gardener, she engages him on their mutual craft of landscaping, and the exchange takes several amusing and engaging turns.

It's the only scene in the film with only Winslet and Rickman, and you can almost feel the air around them get richer from having two such charming and note-perfect actors just share space together. It's like a great concert or dance recital, and when the scene concludes, you're almost ready to clap. The later scene in which they meet again in a larger group, and they must pretend they're meeting for the first time to keep up appearances, but the moment plays off their original encounter so beautifully, and by the end, all of the upper-crust types around them are in awe of this plainly dressed woman with messy hair who has so completely captured the king's attention (non-romantically, of course).

Although he's married to the wickedly jealous Madame Le Notre (Helen McCrory), André is so moved by Sabine's work and mind that he begins to fall for her. Honestly, the film is so good, I'm not sure the love story really adds much to the occasion, but Schoenaerts is so dreamy with his long hair and exotic puppy dog eyes (he's Belgian) that I'm sure a certain portion of the audience will be just fine with a superfluous few minutes of kissyface.

A LITTLE CHAOS is paced to perfection, it deals with the intellectual side of design theory in a way that makes it clear and interesting, and it features some of the most stunning period costuming I've seen in quite some time. What's also fascinating is observing the interpersonal politics surrounding Sabine. Some of the elite (including Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, played by Stanley Tucci) are desperate to get to know her just because she's a new face in a court full of familiar ones. Others want to know her because they actually respect her as an artist. The film is packed with great observations like that, and it's well worth seeking out as it makes its way through the art-house circuit.


INFINITELY POLAR BEAR
I don't consider myself a particularly politically correct kind of person. I don't wince when a comedian tells a seemingly off-color joke about any one group, mostly because, quite often, the joke teller is making a point about racism or sexism or some other form of prejudice or entitlement. But for whatever reason, I rarely find characters with mental illness in movies or television especially easy to laugh at or with. I don't have a history of it in my family or among my friends. I'm not offended by such portrayals; they just don't make me laugh as a rule (with certain exceptions, I'm sure, but I can't think of any). Granted, the long-on-the-shelf INFINITELY POLAR BEAR is not a comedy, but it does often want us to find the manic-depressive behavior of Cam Stuart (played with a certain gusto by Mark Ruffalo) endearing or humorous; I found it neither, no matter how appealing I find Ruffalo as an actor.

Writer-director Maya Frobes based INFINITELY POLAR BEAR on experiences she had growing up with her father, so naturally I looked to the characters of Stuart's children (played beautifully by Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide) for signs of how they responded to their father sometimes energetically positive, sometimes crushingly sad behavior. And not surprisingly, they often react with a mixture of confusion and fear, especially in the 18 months in the late 1970s when they live only with him in Cambridge while their mother Maggie (Zoe Saldana) goes to New York to get her MBA.

The moments in the film where Cam is attempting with a great deal of difficulty to learn how to balance his meds with his creative impulses, which can lead to interesting inventions and experiments around the house, but also explode into moments of panic and feeling trapped in their cramped apartment.

Making her living as a screenwriter on such works as "The Larry Sanders Show" and THE ROCKER, as well as contributing to the third DIARY OF A WIMPY KID movie and the animated feature MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, Forbes makes her directorial debut with Infinitely Polar Bear, and it bears the trappings of a filmmaker who trusts their actors a little too much to get the tone right. And with Ruffalo as your driving force, that's understandable. But as good as he is in spots in this piece, at other points, he's all over the place and its maddening and irritating to watch. Cam's refusal to really address his condition is doing real damage to his children and his marriage, and the film often treats his illness like an excessive quirk. For most of the film, I wanted to throttle him.

My other problem with the film is that Zaldana isn't in it enough. When she's around, the film is usually endearing and tolerable. She's not just a stabilizing force to Ruffalo's character; she re-energizes the entire film with an underlying cool that is impressive. It's too bad she's absent from large portions of the film. I certainly didn't hate the experience of watching INFINITELY POLAR BEAR; I just wished I'd loved enough of it to recommend.

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
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