Movie Review: Watchman

Watchmen (2009) 

Directed by Zack Snyder 

Written by David Hayter, Alex Tse

Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earl Haley, Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson

Release Date March 6th, 2009 

Published March 6th, 2009 

In his review of Watchmen critic David Poland nails one of the major issues with the movie. Paraphrasing Mr. Poland: Watchmen is like someone recounting a funny anecdote that ends with 'I guess you had to be there'. For anyone who isn't a member of the Watchmen fanboy cult this movie is a meaningless morass of superhero arcana.

For those more familiar with but not in fealty to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons legendary comics series it is a dishearteningly dull and dreary filmgoing experience that takes up 2 hours and45 minutes without providing any insight beyond Dr. Manhattan's desperate need for a pair of shorts.

Set in an alternate reality 1984 where with the help of superheroes like Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) America won the war in Vietnam and Richard Nixon remains President, Watchmen is a desolate fantasy of cold war tension and gritty urban cityscape.

The death of the Comedian, killed in his apartment, thrown through a plate glass window to the street below, sets the plot in motion. One his fellow former heroes, Rorschach thinks he senses a pattern beginning. The Comedian's murder leads him to believe someone is afte masked heroes.

Whether the motive is political, the Comedian has checkered history as one of Nixon's favorite right wing commandos, or something else, Rorschach is convinced the Comedian won't be the last target. He sets about warning former members of the hero group the Watchmen.

First up is his old pal Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) who seems dubious of his old friends' suspicions, but is soon himself passing warnings on to Ozymandias aka the world's smartest man who is more forceful in his dismissal. Next up for Rorschach is the super couple of Laurie "Silk Spectre 2" Jupiter (Malin Akerman) and Dr. Manhattan who have more important things to worry about.

Manhattan is the only one of the group with any actual super powers, he was the subject of an nuclear accident that turned him into a blue ball of energy in human form by his sheer will. He cannot be killed so why should he worry about a mask killer. For her part, Laurie is more selfishly concerned with her growing disconnect with Manhattan whose inhumanity grows more by the day.

She is drawn to Nite Owl for reasons only she knows and soon the two have taken up with each other as Manhattan faces personal exile to Mars after disturbing accusations. Comedian dead, Manhattan leaving earth and a subsequent failed attempt on the life of Ozymandias, further inflames Rorschach toward uncovering a stunning conspiracy that effects more than just the supers.

I have read Watchmen the graphic novel twice and was both times electrified by Moore's urgent storytelling and Dave Gibbons striking images. I don't buy into Watchmen as one of history's greatest bits of fiction but as a rollicking superhero yarn, it is a seminal work of the genre, a work that has shaped much of what came after it in the medium.

Director Zack Snyder seems to be of the opinion that he adapting the bible for the big screen and offers the treatment only a fellow zealot could appreciate. His love for the comic supercedes the judgements that needed to be made to turn the comic into a movie. The religious zeal blinding Snyder to the necessity for cuts and changes that could have made Watchmen something of his own.

Then again, Snyder is best known for being a conduit for the mass reproduction of other people's genius. His debut feature was a modest update but mostly homage to horror master George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. His next feature was an overly literal replication of George Miller's swords and sandals comic 300.

The success of 300 is what brought Snyder to Watchmen after so many other, more talented and unique directors failed to get it going. Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass head an impressive list of filmmakers once attached to this quickly aging bit of cold war superhero suspense but they could never quite get a handle on Moore's prose or compete with Gibbons' visionary squares.

Snyder for his part fails just as they did, it's just that his failure is actually on the screen. The difference however is that where Gilliam and Greengrass wanted to make Watchmen with their own stamp, Snyder is only interested in using the comic as storyboard and replicate the words and images using real actors.

Snyder is like some rich dilletante playing chess with live pieces. His Watchmen amounts to little more than a whole lot of gaudy showing off. Given a budget in the hundreds of millions, Snyder is playing poker with house money to bring his favorite comic book to life before his eyes. He's like Richie Rich hiring the Denver Broncos to play football with his pals in the backyard.

That might sound like fun but it plays like one fanboy showing off for a bunch of other fanboys and that will do nothing to satisfy those not already in the Watchmen cult. Trust me, if you do not absolutely love Watchmen. If you are not slightly buzzed by the idea of Rorschach coming to bloody life on screen or the thought of Dr. Manhattan blowing up the Vietnamese with the wave of his hand, you have no reason to see this movie.

It's not that there aren't good things about Watchmen, it's just that the good things are as pointless and overbearing as the bad stuff. Jackie Earl Haley for instance is astonishingly compelling as Rorschach. He could have been good in just about any other movie, I assume, Watchmen is merely the role in front of him and he makes the most of it.

The rest of the cast is pretty hit and miss. Crudup effectively captures Dr. Manhattan's otherworldly disconnectedness and Patrick Wilson is not bad as a Bruce Wayne post Batman character who finds life purposeless and dull without his alter-ego.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Carla Gugino hover somewhere in the middle between the good of Crudup and Wilson and the utter disasters that are Malin Akerman and Matthew Goode. Morgan struggles only because most of his character motivation is cut for time. Gugino as the original Silk Spectre is a functionary character who only exists because the plot kinda requires her to.

As Akerman's mother she allegedly pushed her daughter into being a hero. That however, will not be as clear to those who haven't read the book. Akerman tosses off her character's deepest motivation to be a hero in a toss off conversation with Wilson's Nite Owl as they prepare for some kinky masked love making.

The romantic subplot is also an ineffective holdover from the novel. Short shrifted by time constraints, it means little in the context of the central plot and takes up a lot of time for what amounts to some mild well shot female nudity. It doesn't help that Akerman, under an awful wig, is less expressive than Rorschach's masked moving ink blots.

Matthew Goode as Ozymandias is handicapped by the fact that Alan Moore in the comic seemed to find him the least interesting character. His back story is dull and his super power, the world's smartest man is mostly left off screen. He does seem to have super strength, at least in the late fight scenes, but under a David Spade haircut, he doesn't exactly cut an intimidating figure.

Maybe Ozymandias isn't supposed to be intimidating. Maybe that is beside the point but then why the fight scenes? Oh who cares. In the end, that is the real question. Who really cares? Beyond the Watchmen cult, the Watchmen movie will be a curiousity that likely will not linger on to far past opening weekend box office.

Among the cult, I can only hope that they find comfort in their fellow fanboy's indulgence of the thing they love so much. Otherwise we could have mass handwringing on the level of post Phantom Menace depression, a depression that lingers still for far too many basement dwellers.

Movie Review: Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love (2010) 

Directed by Ryan Murphy 

Written by Ryan Murphy, Jennifer Salt

Starring Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, Viola Davis, Richard Jenkins, Javier Bardem

Release Date August 13th, 2010 

Published August 13th, 2010

“Eat Pray Love” has one perfect scene. Julia Roberts is staying at an Ashram in India and seeking peace from the love life that has been her obsession, preventing her from finding clarity. Needing to forgive herself for leaving her loving but forgetful husband played by Billy Crudup, Julia as writer Liz Gilbert flashes back to her wedding and imagines an alternate history where instead of the comic dance he'd done at their wedding, the song they intended to dance to, Neil Young's extraordinary "Harvest Moon," plays. T

he Liz of now takes the place of the younger more frightened Liz and tells her husband all that he will not let her say in real life. The moment moves elegantly between New York and India and the song captures the scene beautifully.

It's a rare moment in what is an otherwise pedestrian film but it's so good that it brought me peace with the film and allows me to tell you now that, despite a wave of my fellow critics trashing “Eat Pray Love,” this is not a bad movie. It's no masterpiece but in its mellow, adult contemporary way, “Eat Pray Love” brings an easy smile, a few laughs and that one perfect moment.

”Eat Pray Love” is director Ryan Murphy's adaptation of the Elizabeth Gilbert's real life bestseller. As played by Ms. Roberts, Liz Gilbert left behind a sad marriage to Stephen (Crudup), a bad timing boyfriend named David who she met and moved in with during her divorce and everything else that made her life miserable yet simple in New York.

The plan is to travel, first to Italy, for the food, then to India to live and pray at an ashram and finally a return trip to Bali where at the beginning of the film she met a medicine man who predicted much of how her life would turn out.

Along the way, of course, Liz meets a cast of colorful new friends, finds peace and self discovery and as the title spoils, she finds love. Whether that love can be balanced with newfound peace of spirit is a surprisingly well played and rather unique romantic obstacle. No doubt the best of Liz's new friends is Richard played by Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins. 

Liz and Richard meet in India and he glosses her with a rather precious nickname that sticks only because Richard Jenkins truly believes in how clever it is. Jenkins sells the Pray portion of Eat Pray Love like no other actor could and even saddled with a back-story monologue that strangle many other actors, he makes it work and the movie loses something important when he leaves. 

The last portion of the film is centered on Oscar winner Javier Bardem as Felipe and Liz's willingness to believe in love again. It sounds trite, it is rather trite but you will have to try hard not to like Bardem's big broad smile and his quirky, sweet way of expressing his love. Bardem has rarely been this free and easy on screen and it suits him surprisingly well. 

I don't see why men cannot be comfortable talking about love as a concept and a feeling. Why does this frighten us so much? I will boldly state here and now, I believe in love and while I have had my heart broken more than once, I wouldn't want to live in a world where the possibility of love is not right around the corner. Films made for women, like “Eat Pray Love,” are perfectly comfortable with this subject and part of the pleasure of the film is the ease and grace with which these ideas are assessed, mulled and demonstrated. 

”Eat Pray Love” comes up short as anything more than a minor pleasure. Though Eat Pray Love seeks answers to big questions the answers too often are general and easy on the palette, few hard truths here. “Eat Pray Love” doesn’t challenge the audience, it is neither bold nor aggressive about it's ideals, aside from the love of a great Italian past. 

That said, fans of the book should be satisfied and those who have not read the book can bask in the glow of Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem's beaming smiles and Richard Jenkins' exceptional wit and depth. And don't forget that perfect moment I mentioned. Neil Young fans especially will find themselves bursting with emotions and inspirations, thoughts of lost love. It's one of the best scenes in any movie so far in 2010.

Movie Review Public Enemies

Public Enemies (2009) 

Directed by Michael Mann

Written by Ronan Bennett, Ann Bideman, Michael Mann

Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff

Release Date July 1st 2009

Published June 30th, 2009

Public Enemies arrives in theaters with the hype and release date of the typical summer blockbuster. However, this is so not a typical summer blockbuster that the ad campaign, trailers and 4th of July weekend release date actually threaten to be detrimental to the film. The idea of Public Enemies as a blockbuster is a disservice to the actual movie, a far more meditative and unique movie. 

Thoughtful, filmic and observant, this crime drama from the brilliant Michael Mann is everything your average summer movie is not. Yes, there are chases, bank robberies, and bullets and the look evokes classic gangster movie mythology but Scarface this is not. Michael Mann sets out with a goal of capturing history in his lens and in doing so brings an almost documentary realism to the proceedings.

In striving for gritty realism, Mann eschews the outsized, mythic and outlandish aspects of the gangster/anti-hero stories of the past. Thus much of what audiences are expecting to get in Public Enemies will not be there.

Johnny Depp stars in Public Enemies as the legendary outlaw John Dillinger whose life revolved around robbing banks. Dillinger lived for little else than the thrill of the hold up. Everything else in life from women to the trappings of fame in fortune were distant second to pulling off a bank job quickly and efficiently.

Dillinger is alleged to have robbed more than 2 dozen banks and even a couple of police stations. He famously escaped from prison twice as well, both prison breaks, daring and unique as they are, are featured in the film. Ironically, as bold and daring as these escapes are, director Michael Mann refuses to make them cute or play up the naughty anti-heroic fun that other directors might have reveled in.

Mann observes these escapes and if you happen to find it humorous that Dillinger escapes one prison with a wooden gun and by stealing the warden's own vehicle, driving it past a small army of soldiers meant solely to stop him, that is your prerogative. For Mann, Public Enemies is not a celebration of the American anti-hero or the Robin Hood myth of Dillinger.

Public Enemies is a dry observance of a historic figure, the important moments of his life and his death. The performance of Johnny Depp is most evocative of the director's intent in bringing the life of John Dillinger to the screen. Here Depp is free of mannerism, tics and actorly flourish. All of the colorful aspects of past Depp performances are gone from his Dillinger in favor of a quiet intensity.

Much of the performance remains behind his eyes. Watch the eyes and see Dillinger the man, coldly practical but also frightened, confused and conflicted. Some will sit impatiently waiting for what's behind those eyes to be expressed in some kind of physical or verbal flourish. I can tell you now, you will be left waiting. This is Johnny Depp at his most quiet and controlled. It worked for me, it may not work for most, especially you fans of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Now, I say the film is cold and observant. However, where there is warmth is in the classic touch of Cinematographer Dante Spinotti who brings a hint of classic gangster movie to the film. At times, and it is fleeting, the film takes on the look of the old Warner Brothers period gangster films whose mythic anti-heroes the film so ironically brushes aside. It is nevertheless an at times breathtakingly beautiful tribute to old Hollywood.

Also spectacular is the period production design of Nathan Crowley, the costume design of Colleen Atwood and the superior editing of Jeffrey Ford and Paul Rubell. These aspects of the film often make readers of movie reviews roll their eyes and say who cares but Public Enemies is a movie that revels in and works brilliantly because of these oh so intricate and detailed touches.

Not your typical blockbuster, Public Enemies is an extensively detailed and ingenious piece of filmmaking. An classic Oscar contender dressed up as a blockbuster star vehicle for a fourth of July weekend. I love, love, love this movie but I can understand if some people walk out unsatisfied, Public Enemies is not exactly the movie that the marketing campaign sold you on.

Movie Review: Big Fish

Big Fish (2003) 

Directed by Tim Burton 

Written by John August 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Steve Buscemi, Alison Lohman, Marion Cotillard, Danny Devito 

Release Date December 10th, 2003 

Published December 9th, 2003 

Tim Burton is a grand storyteller with a painter’s eye for color and depth. His films are often beautifully rendered and smartly written, a very rare combination. When his talent is fully engaged, as it was on his masterpieces Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow, he is an auteur that ranks with the all time greats. 

However, there are occasions when Burton seems less than engaged with his material, such as in his blockbuster works Planet Of The Apes and Batman Returns. His latest effort, Big Fish, looks like his kind of material but has moments when Burton doesn't feel fully committed to what is onscreen.

Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney portray Edward Bloom at two very different times in the man’s life. McGregor is the upstart Edward having grand adventures on his way to being something big. Finney's Edward is an old man on his deathbed, endless recalling the exploits of his young self.  Edward's son Will (Billy Crudup) has heard all of his father’s wild tales over and over again since he was a child. Now as his father's life is coming to an end, Will longs to know the truth. Instead, all he gets are more wild stories.

These dream sequences of young Edward Bloom are the kind of wild fantasies that Burton feels perfectly at home in. These stories include a real life giant played by Matthew McGrory, a circus with an eccentric ringleader (Danny Devito) and a city lost in time where there are no streets, just grass, and no one wears shoes. All of the stories are told with a magical veneer and there is slight sheen over the picture in these scenes that add to the dream imagery.

The central story to the flashbacks is Edward's romance with his wife Sandra, played by Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange. The romance is sweet, sincere and lovingly old fashioned and easily the film’s strongest subplot. What surrounds that story however, is somewhat unsatisfying.  We in the audience are like Edward's son, looking for a little bit of the real Edward Bloom. Listening to Albert Finney wheeze through a flashback setup, its not hard to see why Will is so exasperated with his father.

For his part Tim Burton isn't all that invested in his non-flashback scenes, preferring to put his artistic focus on the fantasy elements of the film. He seems to treat the other stuff as filler that give the flashbacks just enough context to get by. This makes for half of a very satisfying film.

The dreamlike fantasy flashbacks are artfully crafted fantasy, eye candy, humor and beauty. Unfortunately the other scenes, the non-fantasy scenes, are unsatisfying melodrama and good deal of screen chewing by Albert Finney. Billy Crudup does his best to ground these scenes, doing so well that he darn near saves the film with a terrific scene that takes place in a hospital room. It's a touching scene but not enough for me to give Big Fish a full recommendation. It’s not bad but this is not Burton at his best.