Movie Review: Blindness

Blindness (2009) 

Directed by Fernando Meierelles

Written by Don McKellar

Starring Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, Alice Braga, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal

Release Date October 3rd, 2009 

Published October 10th, 2009 

Fernando Meierelles is an infinitely talented director whose features City of God and The Constant Gardener are breathtaking exercises in visual dynamism and urgent storytelling. It leaves one utterly baffled then to find Meirelles the director of Blindness; a dreary, sluggish horror story that features a plague nearly as curious as M. Night Shyamalan's evil oxygenating trees in The Happening.

Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo lead a diverse cast as a husband and wife. The husband is an opthamologist who is suddenly stricken blind. The previous day he had seen a patient who suffered the same affliction. Now the doctor is blind and so is his secretary and each of his patients. His wife however keeps her sight even as she joins her husband in a mass quarantine of people suddenly having been struck blind.

In the quarantine building, the blind are herded like cattle and kept like prisoners. The internal society starts off as expected, frightened but peaceful. Then chaos sets in. A despotic young man played by Diego Luna gets a hold of a weapon and takes the food hostage. He doles out rations in exchange for first jewelry and then sexual favors.

Meirelles observes these events with a bizarre distance, as if the chaos onscreen were an expression of his chaotic mindset. Even the director seems uncomfortable with the actions of his characters. This impression comes in the way Meirelles films the action through either too much darkness or too much light. If the director himself doesn't have the stomach for his action, how can he expect that of the audience?

This is the part of the review where I talk about the elements of the movie you might find most appealing beyond the premise and the technical creation that is the film. Unfortunately, Blindness is one of those rare movies where there really isn't anything appealing. Fernando Meirelles has crafted a thriller without thrills, a parable without underlying meaning. A sloppy, slow moving, dreary slog to a meaningless meandering ending.

What could I possibly recommend about that?

Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo are exceptionally talented people who no doubt were excited to work with a director of Meierelles' resume. That resume likely blinded them to the quality of Blindness, a mind numbing bore of a movie with less hope and exhilaration than even Eli Roth's lowest work. Rapes to murders to people defecating in the halls in service of a go nowhere plot, Blindness is a singularly horrific movie.

Movie Review Letters to Juliet

Letters to Juliet (2010) 

Directed by Gary Winick 

Written by Jose Rivera, Tim Sullivan 

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael Garcia Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave

Release Date May 14th, 2010

Published May 15th, 2010

“Letters to Juliet” could be a very good movie. The premise is engaging and unique and the star, Amanda Seyfried, is so cute that I suspect kittens want to hold her. Sadly, as directed by Gary Winick, “Letters to Juliet” is a wit free wannabe weepy that adheres so closely to formula that one wonders if Winick was threatened with execution if he attempted any innovation.

”Letters to Juliet” stars Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, an American girl traveling to Verona Italy with her restaurateur fiancée (Gael Garcia Bernal) for a little romance and a lot of his business. While the fiancée runs off to collect high end wines and learn new recipes, Sophie heads for the tourist traps beginning with the legendary home of Juliet Capulet.

Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” was set in Verona and the townspeople with a good eye for tourist capturing, have an ancient house with just the right kind of balcony to stand in for Juliet's home. Year after year heartbroken women leave their romantic wishes on the wall.

Over time another group of women have voluntarily gathered the letters to Juliet and set about answering them. Sophie witnesses the gathering of the letters and meets Juliet's secretaries. A writer herself, Sophie accepts an invitation to answer some letters while the fiancée continues his business.

While collecting the letters to Juliet, Sophie finds one that had not been found in nearly 50 years. The letter is from a 15 year old girl named Claire who met the man of her dreams in Verona but has succumbed to family pressures to leave him and return to England. She wants to know if she did the right thing or whether she should return to Italy. 

Sophie writes back and her romantic notions inspire the now 65 year old Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) to return and find out what happened to her lover Lorenzo Bartolini (Franco Nero). Along for the ride, tsk tsk-ing all the way, is Claire's grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) who opposes the trip and holds special enmity for Sophie for inspiring the journey.

Naturally, Sophie offers to join the search for Lorenzo and thus begins a romantic journey across Italy. Or at least, that was the idea.

”Letters to Juliet” sadly is so forced and predictable that it becomes impossible to enjoy even the minor pleasures it has. Amanda Seyfried is an actress who is easy to enjoy. She has a great smile and most notably those great big eyes. It’s hard not to  root for her in a romantic situation and yet “Letters to Juliet” somehow fails to capture that. 

Director Gary Winick adheres to such a dull formula that even the most forgiving audience will have a hard time not deconstructing what doesn't work about it. Worst of the lot is poor Gael Garcia Bernal as the straw man fiancée. Placed as a roadblock to Sophie being with Charlie, Bernal's character is never formidable and instead exists to be awful and irritating enough that we don't mind seeing him cuckolded.

Spoiler alert, Sophie and Charlie are made for each other. They hate each other at first sight. They are forced together on a road trip. They have important things in common. Not for one moment is there an inkling of tension over whether Sophie and Charlie will be together and thus the movie meanders pointlessly toward its predicted conclusion. 

The same lack of tension, drama or humor exists in Claire's search for Lorenzo. The same scene repeats several times as Claire meets a man named Lorenzo, quickly figures out that this colorful weirdo is not her Lorenzo and back in the car we go. We know from the trailer that she finds him and since the film is about Sophie and Charlie, the romantic reunion and its aftermath are an afterthought. 

It's hard to hate a movie set in Italy. The wonderful landscapes and colorful people make for fantastic movie scenery. Oftentimes in “Letters to Juliet” you will notice that Cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo gets as lost as we do in the scenery, letting his stars slip into the background as he loses himself in the glories of the setting.

Pontecorvo's occasional distraction makes for some fun, unintentional comedy, but that is really the lone pleasure one can take from “Letters to Juliet.”

Yes, I realize punishing a romantic comedy for being predictable is like punishing a horror film for too much killing but Letters to Juliet really is lazier than most other romances in the ways it adheres to formula. Add that to the assets that the film wastes, including Seyfried's cuteness and Vanessa Redgrave's grace, and the whole thing becomes worse than just being lazy and formulaic.

Movie Review: Babel

Babel (2006) 

Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Written by Guillermo Arriaga

Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi 

Release Date October 27th, 2006 

Published November 24th, 2006 

Writer Guillermo Arriaga and director Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu are the masters of oppressive atmospherics. Their films have an enveloping sadness that makes early German expressionism seem downright giddy in comparison. Amores Perros and 28 Grams are both exceptionally well made and involving films but neither is an experience that most film goers can take more than once.

The same could be said of their latest, and allegedly final, teaming the towering drama Babel. This multi-arc drama about the fabric of life woven across borders is an overwhelmingly sad experience. Ostensibly the travels of one weapon and the lives it destroys, Babel follows the path of violence, racism and loneliness around the globe in one fascinating and wearying film.

This review contains spoiler information. I recommend you see Babel before reading this review.

In Morocco an American couple, Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett) are on a vacation with a lot of subtext. Susan doesn't want to be here, Richard can't imagine being anywhere else because anywhere else would remind him of the pain back home. The two lost a child and blame each other for it. The pettiness that followed the child's death has driven what would seem to be an insurmountable wedge between them.

In one fell swoop however all of Richard and Susan's problems become meaningless. Traveling on a bus in the midst of the desert; a bullet pierces the window next to Susan striking her in the shoulder. Bleeding heavily and with the only hospital four hours away on this creaky old bus, Richard and the traveling interpreter Anwar (Mohammed Akhzam) make the rash decision to head to a tiny Moroccan village, Anwar's home, where a veterinarian is the only available doctor. They will wait there as international intrigue and red tape hold up a rescue by the American embassy.

Back in Richard and Susan's home, their two remaining children are being cared for by their nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza). Her son is getting married and she has plans to be there but with Susan being shot, mom and dad will not make it home any time soon. In a rash decision, after exhausting all other possibilities, Amelia decides to take the children with her to Mexico for the wedding. A fateful decision given her hotheaded nephew Santiago (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his penchant for trouble.

Just watching the way Santiago carries himself on the drive to the wedding, and at the wedding, you can sense trouble coming and as they wait to cross the border back to America, Santiago, slightly inebriated and carrying a weapon he doesn't want found, you can see the trouble coming and it leads to a drawn out series of heart rending scenes that find Amelia and two young children wandering in the desert before sunrise in search of the border.

The connections between those stories are clear as are the consequences. The third of the stories told in Babel has only a tenuous connection to the rest. Rinko Kikuchi plays Chieko a deaf mute teenager in Japan whose mother has died, an apparent suicide, and her father Yasujiro (Koji Yakusho) is absent. Chieko is obsessed with sex and is  adventurous in the ways only an inexperienced teenager can be.

Chieko's father provides the link to the other stories, his own trip to Morocco and to leave as a gift for his guide, a Winchester rifle, is the catalyst of the whole story. The rifle falls into the hands of a pair of very young goat herders Yussef (Boubker Ait El Caid) and his brother Ahmed (Said Tarchani) and as they childishly test the weapons power and distance; they touch off an international wave that soon consumes them and everyone else.

The multi-layered stories told in Babel are filled with sadness, heartbreak, redemption and humanity. Gonzalez-Inirritu and Arriaga craft a story that while it is extraordinarily well told, it is also oppressive in its sadness and human tragedy. Yes, the sadness and tragedy reveal truths about humanity and love but the journey is arduous and not one you will likely want to take again.

Of the performances, the bravest is young Rinko Kikuchi's who reveals so much of herself, emotionally and physically, that her presence becomes unnerving with every appearance. Though her connection to the plot is tenuous her overall disconnection in her life, through her impairment and her emotional state, she becomes a metaphorical conduit for the the disconnectedness of the other characters in the film.

While Cate Blanchett's role is limited by her character's injury, Brad Pitt as her husband has a number of meaty moments and nails each one of them. Pitt has always been a star but in Babel Pitt shows a maturity that is more than just his newly graying temples. Stripped of his charm, his model perfect features masked by an ugly salt and pepper beard, Pitt is a real human being in Babel rather than the movie god of the past. It's a transformative performance and a potential academy award nominee.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inirritu is so observant of his characters and so delicate in telling their stories that his films can kind of sneak up on you emotionally and devastate you more with unexpectedness than most other films. His gentle observation is given an edge by a propellant story by Guillermo Arriaga that moves inexorably towards tragedy. Every step of the way feels inevitable even as we silently call out to these characters to make different choices, the choices that are made are fated and that much more powerful in demonstrating the characters powerlessness.

Babel is a movie of such profound, claustrophobic, sadness that  to assign popcorn entertainment aspects to it seems a futile, almost disrespectful thing. The most appealing thing about the film, the reason to see the film, is for the performances. This exceptionally talented cast will be a big part of the Oscar telecast in February.

I have already praised Rinko Kikiuchi's brave and revealing performance. Her main competition in the Best Supporting Actress race is likely to be co-star Adriana Barraza whose Amelia makes wrong decisions from the first moment but still manages to win your sympathy. No matter the circumstance, son's wedding or no, there is no way to justify her taking those two very young children to Mexico, and yet Barraza makes us understand this decision and easily holds our sympathy as things spin tragically out of control.

If I have one issue with Babel it is the Jobian sadness heaped on Pitt and Blanchett's characters. They are a married couple who are on vacation recovering from the loss of a child when Blanchett is shot. As she is in surgery in Morocco, her remaining children are facing grave danger in the desert border between Mexico and America. Are we to believe that such tragedy could be heaped on one family in such a short time? It's a minor quibble and the drama and storytelling being as strong as they are make it easy to forgive.

Babel is oppressively sad and not a movie you will likely experience more than once. As an experience however, it is more than worth having once. Well acted, written and directed, Babel is an almost certain Oscar contender so if you are a fan of Hollywood's biggest night you will want to have seen the movie that will likely over-populate the acting categories. Babel is an extraordinary film for fans of great drama and great filmmaking. If an experience of near un-ending tragedy and heart wrenching sadness is not the kind of moviegoing experience you want, then I would not recommend Babel.

Movie Review The Kindergarten Teacher

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) 

Directed by Sara Colangelo 

Written by Sara Colangelo 

Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar, Gael Garcia Bernal 

Release Date October 12th, 2018 

Published November 17th, 2018 

Due to a dire lack of new releases to talk about I decided to continue the theme of Netflix movies from this past year. Another movie I missed out on when it premiered on Netflix in 2018 was The Kindergarten Teacher starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. This is one of the most distinctive movies of the last year. The premise is eye catching and the way the story plays out is bold and necessary and surprisingly unexpected. 

The Kindergarten Teacher stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lisa, the Kindergarten teacher of the title. Lisa is married to Grant (Michael Chernus) with whom she has two High School age children. Her hobby is poetry and she attends an adult education class where she shares her honestly banal talent. Her teacher, Simon (Gael Garcia Bernal), is a dreamboat college professor who is rightly not impressed with her work. 

The plot kicks in when Lisa hears a kid in her class, Jimmy (Parker Sevak) randomly begin to spout poetry. It’s quite good poetry, well beyond the talent of a 5 year old. Lisa is mesmerized by the beauty of Jimmy’s poetry so much that she writes it down and then presents it to her class as her own. When her teacher is clearly excited by her new work she begins hounding the kid for more poems which he delivers on. 

This sounds like the premise of a bad 90’s comedy where she will have to reveal who really wrote the poems at the end while simultaneously delivering a monologue about the lesson she’s learned from her terrible mistake in stealing from this child. That, however, is not this movie. The Kindergarten Teacher, directed by relative newcomer Sara Colangelo, goes in a completely different and disturbing direction. 

This is a very brave and bold performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her Lisa is more comparable to Salieri from Amadeus than she is with any traditional type of character. She is genuinely excited by Jimmy’s incredible talent but behind her eyes you can sense a disturbing sort of jealousy that takes on a whole other level of creepy when you remember that she is jealous of and dedicated to a 5 year old child. 

What made the movie that much more interesting for me is that people react to Lisa’s obsession with this kid’s poetry in a perfectly appropriate fashion. Her teaching assistant clocks it when Lisa continuously takes Jimmy out of class during naptime, Jimmy’s nanny is clearly uncomfortable with the odd and obsessive way Lisa talks about Jimmy’s talent and how it needs to be nurtured and though he eventually hires Lisa to watch Jimmy after school, Jimmy’s dad catches on after Lisa takes Jimmy to a poetry reading at night in the city. 

Where the film goes from there is for you to discover. It’s both predictable and unpredictable. I found it unpredictable because most mainstream films don’t have the bravery that The Kindergarten Teacher has. Writer-Director Sara Colangelo takes the film to places that are natural progressions and rarely settles for what we expect from lesser films. We’ve been trained to look for the easy ways out and I can say that The Kindergarten Teacher rarely takes the easy way out. 

The Kindergarten Teacher is streaming now on Netflix. It’s Rated R, for some nudity and sexuality but that doesn’t have anything to do with the main plot. The film is kind of creepy but not that creepy.