From Germany we received the following review of Wim Wender's award winning MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL...
I like your website and thought it is time to give something back. I
just saw Wim Wender's new movie: "Million Dollar Hotel". What follows is
my spoiler free review:
Review:
Wim Wender's new movie "Million Dollar Hotel" just opened in germany
after it won a "silver bear" at the Berlinale. It stars Jeremy Davies,
Milla Jovovich, Ammanda Plummer, Julian Sands and - of course - Mel
Gibson.
Mel Gibson plays Agent Skinner who investigates a death in the Million
Dollar Hotel. Agent Skinner is not your ordinary garden variety FBI
agent. He is lean-mean investigation machine which goes by the nickname
"cruise missile". A name he just might have invented for himself.
The "cruise missle" wouldn't be investigating any death in the "Million
Dollar Hotel" if the victim didn't happen to be the son of an industrial
tycoon. Contrary to its name the people living in this hotel are living
an american nightmare. Most - if not all- would be better off in
psychological care, but can't afford it and are dumped in the "Million
Dollar Hotel".
That's as far as the setup goes. The "Hotel" and foremost its
inhabitants form a microcosm which metaphorically resembles society as a
whole. This stylisation brings with it that every cardboard cliche is
living in the "Hotel" e.g.: a drunk, a drug addict,. a con artist
etc.... and even somebody who thinks he is the fifth Beatle. This is
both good and bad. It could open up another layer of allegories,
structure and interpretation while having the drawback of not having an
poetic look at "real" (whatever this means in movies) characters. This
always has been something which Wenders was good at. While I do not
think the movie succeeds at presenting an interesting metaphorical
layer, I also do not think that the absence of Wenders trademark
characters is such a bad thing. I alway hated it when he tried to mix
it with his (IMO) rather simplistic view of society and technology ( I
hated: "to the end of the world" and "the end of violence"). What's left
? There is only one definitiv answer: Agent Skinner.
He is the most interesting character in this movie and - hell - he
should have his own franchise. Mel Gibson does reprise some aspects of
his role in Payback (which in the combination with Gibson doesn't make
it completely original) but the character goes way beyond that. Skinner
feels superior towards everybody and let's them know it the hard way. He
is an egomaniac-know-it-all-investigation-machine who thinks he got it
all figured out before the dawn of time. Even the bizarre story he gives
as an explanation for his current "state" (hilarious and moving !) only
underlines this. Or does it ? Even when he fails - and he does - he
fails with style and a (little) bit of soul.
The other plot-line (the center-piece) is the building romance between
Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies) and Eloise (Milla Jovovich). This romance comes
nearest to vintage Wenders and we all know it only to well. For me it
didn't quite work. The "slowness" and "shyness" of Tom-Tom who also
serves as the narrator of the movie didn't really help get me
interested. And to be quite frank: the chemistry between Tom-Tom and
Eloise never seemed to really work.
Wenders - as usual - hammers down his (naive) grasp of humanity. With a
little bit of malicious intend one could summarize it: "all the
sophistication (skinner) doesn't help understanding the most simple and
basic human need for love (tom-tom)".
Hey, in despite of this I still liked the movie !
And that's the first Wenders Movie about which I can say that,
wholeheartly. The movie is way above average and it's one of those
movies where everybody should go and see for themselves. But you
defininetly should GO ! And if it's only because of Agent Skinner. He is
a modern day Don Quixote fighting the Windmills in his own mind.
jojodyne
germany
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