Movie Review: Unbroken

Unbroken (2014) 

Directed by Angelina Jolie 

Written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese, William Nicholson

Starring Jack O'Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Garrett Hedlund, Finn Whitrock

Release Date December 25th, 2014

Published December 24th, 2014 

Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken" is an incredibly powerful experience. The story of real life war hero Louis Zamperini is a confidently directed film that evokes the best of Clint Eastwood, Jolie's director on "Changeling," while also showing Jolie as a sensitive, inquisitive and assured artist. Far more accomplished and commercial than her directorial debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey," "Unbroken" is the announcement of Angelina Jolie as a director of exceptional talent.

"Unbroken," based on a book by Laura Hillenbrand, tells the story of Zamperini, the son of Italian immigrant parents. He became an Olympic athlete and then a war hero, fighting in World War II in the Pacific. Zamperini, played by English actor Jack O'Connell, was just a teenager when he traveled to Germany to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He was barely into his 20s when he was sent to the Pacific Theater and wound up spending 45 days on a raft after the crash of his B1 bomber.

For most, a plane crash and surviving for 45 days in a raft with two other soldiers would be enough for a lifetime. But Zamperini's story has barely begun. Zamperini and fellow crash survivor Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips were saved from their predicament. Unfortunately, their rescue was a Japanese war ship off the coast of Marshall Island, a Japanese stronghold in 1943. Zamperini would spend the next two years, until the very end of World War II, in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. On top of that, his status as an American Olympic athlete earned him the ire of the sadistic Japanese camp commander Matsushiro Watanaba, nicknamed “The Bird.”

The Bird repeatedly tortured Zamperini, forcing him to race camp guards, despite his obviously emaciated condition. When Zamperini loses the race, The Bird strikes him with a bamboo cane, a sadistic device that The Bird employs almost exclusively in relation to Zamperini. A bizarre relationship develops between the two, one that Zamperini doesn't want but indulges to avoid further torture. The Bird chooses to confide in Zamperini as if they are somehow bonded. This strange bond is what pays off the film's final, triumphant moments, when The Bird gives Zamperini an almost-impossible task and Zamperini uses what strength and will he has left to stick it to The Bird.

That Zamperini survived the war is remarkable given the extraordinary obstacles he faced. Director Jolie dramatizes these obstacles in visceral, frightening fashion. The crisp, beautiful cinematography of Roger Deakins, likely on his way to a 12th Oscar nomination, gives "Unbroken" a classic Hollywood look without taking away any of the gut-wrenching power of the story. The film proceeds fearlessly from one set piece to the next, creating both a entertaining and moving portrait of an American hero without becoming simpleminded hagiography.

Much credit belongs to star Jack O'Connell, who delivers a natural, human performance. O'Connell captures the complex dimensions of Zamperini, who began the war as a devout agnostic and slowly came to give his life completely to God. Stories abound about Zamperini who, after the war, preached the word of God and traveled back to Japan to meet with the guards who tortured him for two solid years. Zamperini returned to forgive them for what they did and to tell them about the word of Jesus Christ. Zamperini allegedly even converted a couple of his former tormentors (but The Bird refused to see Zamperini).

Jolie beautifully captures the life and defining faith of Zamperini in "Unbroken." It's easy to be cynical about how someone who survived such trauma would have a “come to Jesus” moment, but "Unbroken" doesn't linger on that. Instead, Jolie sticks to the fact of Zamperini's faith that created within him the will to survive and drove him to become an inspiration to his fellow prisoners.

"Unbroken" is a remarkable portrait of heroism and triumph, filled with rich details of an extraordinary life. Here’s a man who punched a shark, even captured and ate a shark raw. He accomplished incredible feats in about a decade of his life that was so vast its individual pieces could be complete movies on their own. 

That Jolie has made this life into one singular, incredible film is another feat to be celebrated.

Movie Review: Tron Legacy

Tron Legacy (2010) 

Directed by Joseph Kosinski 

Written by Edward Kitsis 

Starring Garrett Hedlund, Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen

Release Date December 17th, 2010 

Published December 16th, 2010

It's been nearly 30 years since the original "Tron" ended with Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) overcoming his creation, the Grid, and the evil Master Control program, to take control of Encom, the world's largest computer game maker. Picking up some 8 years later, Flynn is still Encom CEO until one day he simply vanishes leaving behind his son Sam.

Flash forward to today and Sam (Garrett Hedlund) is a rebellious 20 something on the outside of Encom looking in. One night, as Sam has just sabotaged the latest big name project of his father's company, simply for kicks, he is visited by Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) his father's old partner who has a strange message for him. Alan has received a page but the fact that he wears a pager is not the surprise, the page came from Kevin Flynn's office at his long shuddered arcade.

When Sam goes to investigate he stumbles on a secret basement office and a strange looking computer. After a vain attempt at hacking it Sam suddenly finds himself struck by a laser and sucked inside the computer. He is now on the Grid, the seemingly mythical creation his father spent years trying to create.

Unfortunately for Sam the Grid is not a safe place. Run by the program Clu (Jeff Bridges?), it's a harsh digital realm where Programs are killed for sport in virtual gladiator arenas. Before Sam can be killed by Clu, he is rescued by Quorra who takes him to the creator, his long lost dad Kevin. The father and son reunion is short lived as the portal back to the real world closes soon and Sam must convince Kevin to go head to head with Clu in order to escape.

That is a linear interpretation of the plot of "Tron Legacy" and the futility of my description should be well in evidence. Tron Legacy is clearly not a movie that thrives on plot or detail. Instead, Tron Legacy just wants to have a good time playing with digital toys and listening to Jeff Bridges play a serious version of his The Dude from the Big Lebowski.

You think I'm kidding but listen to some of Bridges' lines like "Clu, your breaking my Zen man" or "I'm gonna go knock on the sky and see what I hear," lines delivered with a very Dude-like inflection. Those are actual lines from the movie Tron Legacy, not a parody, not a youtube mash-up, but actual lines delivered by Jeff Bridges with a level of 'I can't believe they are letting me do this' smugness.

Not that there is anything wrong with that smugness really. There is a good deal of entertainment to be found in how much Bridges relishes his freedom to be out there doing his own thing against this self serious digital background, it just goes against the grain in the most noticeable ways, ways I'm not sure were intentional.

Bridges is at times the only one in how goofy all of this really is. Well, he and Michael Sheen who takes on a role in "Tron Legacy" that only Ziggy Stardust could love. Sheen plays Zeus a nightclub owner who may or may not be fomenting rebellion against Clu and may or may not be an ally of Quorra and Flynn.

All Zeus really does is give rise to odd, unnecessary questions about this place called The Grid. When Sam arrives he is arrested immediately by Clu's guards. Why? We don't know. Then, after his stripped and dressed by refugees from a futuristic Marilyn Manson video, he is dropped into the game arena where he fights battles familiar from the first Tron movie, the Frisbee game, in front of a massive cheering, mostly unseen crowd. Who are these people in the crowd? What do they do? What function do they serve for Clu as he is creating what he calls a perfect world?

These questions are not the least bit important but they rise up in the mind while you are waiting for the next big digital landscape to emerge. Anytime Tron Legacy pauses for some exposition, a father son chat or whatever, the mind of the viewer can tend to wander to questions like why do computer programs need a bar? What do computer programs drink and why? Do they have food? Does Kevin Flynn have food? What has he been eating for 20 years trapped in a computer?

Again, none of this matters but so much of "Tron Legacy" is so massively dull that you cannot help but wonder. Then, Jeff Bridges will say something dude like and some cool looking effect will pop up and you will be transfixed for a moment. The moments unfortunately, don't really add up to much. By the time you come to understand Clu's bad guy motives you aren't likely to care.

"Tron Legacy" exists as a brand that Disney hopes to capitalize on like "Pirates of the Caribbean." It's a machine built to create sequels and make money. There are pleasures to be found in amongst all the goofiness but they are too few and far between to really recommend "Tron Legacy" as a whole.

At 2 hours plus, Tron Legacy wears out its welcome and while the effects will no doubt dazzle kids, mom and dad will be checking their watches regularly in between the minor giggles induced by The Dude as he abides a CGI universe.

Movie Review: Country Strong

Country Strong (2011) 

Directed by Shana Feste

Written by Shana Feste

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester, Tim McGraw

Release Date January 7th, 2011 

Published January 8th, 2011 

Country Strong is a stunningly bad movie. An overwrought tale of addiction, failed romance and country music, Country Strong was written and directed by Shana Feste as two different movies. One version of Country Strong is a straight drama about a falling star and the other is a gritty indie drama about an alcoholic struggling to get clean in the harsh light of fame. Director Feste crashes these two movies into one another and the result is a massive wreck at the corner of Lifetime Movie Network and the Independent Film Channel.

Gwyneth Paltrow stars in Country Strong as Kelly Cantor a country diva who evokes what Taylor Swift might look and sound like in 20 years. As we join the story Kelly is in rehab for some yet to be revealed reason. In treatment she is being romanced by an orderly named Beau (Garrett Hedlund, Tron Legacy) who happens to be a small time country singer. We know there is romance here because of their moony exchanges while Beau tries out a song for the diva in her room.

The rehab idyll is broken up by the arrival of Kelly's husband James (Tim McGraw) who announces that Kelly is leaving rehab early to get back out on the road and reclaim her career. In a fit of bad judgement James is sending his wife back out on the road just 6 months after her breakdown on stage during a concert in Dallas. Moreover, genius James is sending her back to Dallas for her big comeback show at the end of the tour.

Joining Kelly as her opening act is 19 year old Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) a mousy wannabe Carrie Underwood with the brains of Kellie Pickler. James chose Chiles personally and the sexual tension between the married man and the rising teen diva is yet another of James's brilliant moves that seem orchestrated to drive his already fragile wife over the edge. Thankfully, Kelly has brought Beau along as both a lover and protector.

The creepy love quadrangle is one of the stranger touches of Country Strong as bot James and Beau lust after the teenager while sleeping with Paltrow's troubled 40 year old alcoholic. This is part of the wannabe indie vibe that writer-director Shana Feste wants to make even as most of the movie is a big, glossy, classically showbiz drama.

The dissonant tone of Country Strong clangs and bangs along and Shana Feste matches it with a shooting and editing style as clunky and discordant as the two movies she is banging into one. Scenes begin and end in strange places at odd angles and at times all we in the audience can do is laugh at the oddity of what we are witnessing.

How strange and out of tune is Country Strong? The one actual country music star in the cast doesn't sing until the closing credits. While actors Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester play singers and get on stage, the one person to actually sell a few country records, country superstar Tim McGraw is the one person on the screen called upon just to act.

That's not to say that the music of Country Strong suffers for having actors playing singers; each of the stars actually come off surprisingly well. Gwyneth Paltrow gave fans an earful of her warble in the long forgotten karaoke drama Duets singing alongside Huey Lewis. In Country Strong Gwyneth's voice is stronger and more confident bringing to mind a slightly less engaging Shania Twain.

Garrett Hedlund as Beau is the films one true revelation. Hedlund has a terrific deep drawling voice that fits perfectly the old school, twangy laden country songs that are Beau's forte. Leighton Meester's meek voice is well cast. The Gossip Girl star fits perfectly the role of the pretty pop country star whose best work is created in the studio with the aid of a great producer who can hide her faults.

When Country Strong takes to the stage things get lively and fun. Off of the stage Country Strong is a disaster of high camp melodrama and wannabe indie movie grit. If writer-director Shana Feste had embraced this trainwreck with a bit of irony and humor she might have turned Country Strong into a honky tonk Black Swan with Gwyneth as the cracked diva, Leighton Meester as a ditzy version Mila Kunis's scheming wannabe and McGraw taking on Vincent Cassell's taskmaster with a Tennesse twang replacing the haughty Frenchness.

It would cost the film Hedlund's voice, his character is far too earnest to survive this version of Country Strong, but it would be a better and far more interesting movie and it would free Hedlund to go make a real country record of his own. I know, I have to review the movie that was made and not dream of the movie I wish were made but I had little else to do while I waited out Country Strong's final odd yet somehow conventional twist.

Movie Review: Four Brothers

Four Brothers (2005) 

Directed by John Singleton 

Written by David Elliott, Paul Lovett

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence Howard 

Release Date July 1st, 2005 

Published July 1st, 2005 

The amazing John Singleton has, according to some, never lived up to the potential shown in his debut feature Boyz N The Hood. This perception is not shared by this critic. I have enjoyed all of Mr. Singleton's films, save his Shaft remake out of fealty to the original as much as a negative opinion of the filmmaking. His Baby Boy and Rosewood are extraordinarily underrated and even his most commercial effort, the car porn 2 Fast 2 Furious was at the very least high camp popcorn entertainment.

Mr. Singleton's latest effort, the revenge drama Four Brothers, combines elements of Mr. Singleton's artistry and commercialism better than any of his previous films. This ostensible modern remake of the John Wayne western The Sons Of Katie Elder, is stylish in its homage to classic westerns and the ouvre of Charles Bronson and brilliant in its sense of compelling violence and family drama.

Mark Wahlberg stars as Bobby Mercer, the oldest of four troubled adopted sons of the saintly Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanigan). When Evelyn is killed in the midst of a convenience store robbery Bobby comes home to reunite with his brothers, Jeremiah (Andre 3000 of the rap duo, Outkast), Jack (Garrett Hedlund) and Angel (Tyrese Gibson). Soon after the reunion Bobby rallies his brothers to find the guys who killed their mother.

According to the cops, the friendly detective Green (Terrence Howard) and the shady detective Fowler (Josh Charles), Mrs. Mercer was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, soon after launching their far more extensive and violent investigation, the Mercer boys uncover a dangerous conspiracy that leads to the halls of Detroit's City Council and naturally to the city's top thug, Victor Sweet (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Each of the four brothers is a fully fleshed character with backstories that include multiple stays in prison, the military and a litter of failed relationships. For Angel, returning to Detroit means rekindling a dangerous romance with Sofi (Sophia Vergara) that, while not the film's strongest plot, does provide much of the film's humor. Vergara is very sexy but underserved by a role that simply asks her to be needy and screechy when she is not needed to simply provide eye candy.

Hustle and Flow's Taraji P. Henson shows up in Four Brothers as Jerimiah's wife. Her role is limited to being constantly worried and put off by her husband's brothers and the trouble that seems to follow them, but Ms. Henson is a welcome presence for what little screen time she has.

Surprisingly there is no attempt to give Bobby a love interest, a choice that breaks the mold of typical screenwriting that always calls for the star to be paired with someone. That someone, more often than not in films so heavily infused with testosterone, is a functionary role, a mere plot point and not a character.  So it is a welcome relief that the filmmakers refrained from employing that tired device.

While some complain that a career as a genre filmmaker was not what they had hoped for in John Singleton, I think it suits him. Moreover it suits the genre film to have such a talented artist bringing such talent to bear on what is essentially B-movie material. It would be nice to see Singleton deliver another powerful drama like Boyz N The Hood or Rosewood, but I for one will follow Mr. Singleton's work wherever it takes him.

Movie Review: Death Sentence

Death Sentence (2007) 

Directed by James Wan

Written by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers

Starring Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston, Garrett Hedlund, Aisha Tyler, John Goodman

Release Date August 31st, 2007

Published August 30th, 2007

Death Wish is the Citizen Kane of revenge movies. That 1974 film starring taciturn tough guy Charles Bronson is too revenge what Julia Roberts is too romantic comedy. The writer of the book Death Wish, Brian Garfield is said to have liked the movie but subsequent sequels that deviated from his best selling book series had turned him off to Hollywood.

Now, more than 30 years later, one of Garfield's Death Wish follow ups, Death Sentence, has been turned into a Hollywood feature and while the author is said to be satisfied with the final product, audience expectations will be left unfulfilled.

Kevin Bacon stars in Death Sentence as Nick Hume a father of two with a great wife (Kelly Preston) and a great job that has given his family security. That security is shattered in the blink of an eye when, after taking his oldest son Brenden (Stuart Lafferty) to a hockey game, Brenden is gunned down at a gas station as Nick looked on.

The murder was committed by a teenager as a gang initiation ritual. Nick saw the kid who did it but when he is told that prosecutors will seek a plea bargain rather than a trial, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Nick tracks down the kid and reaps his vengeance. Actions have consequences however and when it turns out that the kid is the little brother of a ruthless gang leader named Billy Darley (Garrett Hedlund), Nick finds himself at war to protect what is left of his family.

Directed by James Wan, Death Sentence is a complicated revenge fantasy that becomes more and more outlandish as it goes on. Though grounded by a serious star performance by Kevin Bacon, Death Sentence paints an increasingly loony series of deaths and reprisals into its plot, so many that you may have a hard time keeping track of who's dead and who's alive.

That said, James Wan is a pro director. He was the progenitor of the Saw series with co-writer Leigh Whannell and invented the complicated aethetics and plotting of that terrific series. His follow up directing gig, Dead Silence was a twilight zone influenced mindfuck that worked cheap thrills into a grand guignol plot. With Death Sentence he makes an uncomfortable transition out of the horror genre.

In tact is Wan's talent for tight, quick visuals and snaky storytelling. What is missing however is depth and perspective. Where Saw is an intricate morality play covered in blood and Dead Silence was a twisty Twilight Zone homage, Death Sentence is mostly about its violence with only a passing glance at the merits of revenge.

Death Sentence wants to ask the question 'what would you do if someone killed your child'. Unfortunately, the script from first time writer Ian Jeffers becomes distracted with the battle of wills between Kevin Bacon's everyman and Garrett Hedlund's ruthless villain. The battle is kind of compelling but as the violence becomes more and more over the top; the perspective goes missing and it becomes little more than a series of staged gun battles.

It's a shame because there is a good deal of potential in this movie. One big missed opportunity comes in the character of Bones played by John Goodman. Introduced as a gun dealer, Bones' connection to one of the two main protagonists is a sly inclusion that should have had a more interesting payoff. As it is, the potential for this character is unrealized after just one terrific scene between Goodman and Bacon.

Death Sentence is a movie that should be better than it is. With Kevin Bacon's exceptional lead performance and director James Wan's skilled direction, it should be more satisfying than it is. As it is, Death Sentence is a modest disappointment. Not a bad film, just not a good enough film for me to recommend.