Movie Review The Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer (2010) 

Directed by Roman Polanski 

Written by Robert Harris, Roman Polanski 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton, Jon Bernthal 

Release Date March 3rd, 2010

Published March 9th, 2010 

Director Roman Polanski will be forever colored by the crime he committed that drove him out of America. His conviction on charges of statutory rape, he had sex with a 13 year old girl, will forever stain his reputation and whether he ever returns to America to face justice or remains in exile somewhere in Europe he will leave behind a tarnished legacy and a lifetime of movies that might have been.

Because of his crimes many people will forever avoid his movies as a form of protest. Those who make that choice will be the least for it as despite his crime Mr. Polanski remains a master behind the camera. The latest example of his genius is the political thriller The Ghost Writer starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan.

Former British Prime Minister Adam Lang has one of the most anticipated memoirs in the publishing industry. His controversial time as Prime Minister, encompassing the height of the war on terror, his good looks and charm should lend itself to a terrific story and a grand slam bestseller.

Unfortunately, the book stinks and the Prime Minister's original ghost writer, a longtime aide, has died. The book is a shambles and a major fix is needed. Enter The Ghost played by Ewan McGregor, an author for hire who specializes in puffery and wordplay. He will sit with the PM and uncover some details that might turn the book into the bedside reader that publishers look for.

While things begin rather simply, the job of the ghost takes a sinister turn when the former PM is charged with war crimes and he is pressed by his bosses to control the story and keep it all for the book. What the ghost discovers is linked to the fate of the previous ghostwriter, the CIA and the PM's wife, played brilliantly by Olivia Williams.

The plot of The Ghost Writer is intricate and endlessly clever. Roman Polanski adapted it from the work of author Robert Harris who modeled the fictional story on real life British Prime Minister Tony Blair with whom Harris was once close. When Blair began working closely with President Bush, Harris turned and The Ghost Writer was born.

The veiled attack on Blair hovers over the thriller story of The Ghost Writer and the real life conceits serve as a sort of magic trick to distract audiences while Polanski and Ewan McGregor work the thriller aspect for smart, tense and even humorous scenes.

This is a master at work, intriguing us with asides while leaving us gasping with plotting, pace and dialogue. The Ghost Writer is relentless in its smooth pace and enthralling storytelling. McGregor is well matched to the role of the clueless ghost who comes in with no interest in politics and finds himself immediately out of his depth.

Olivia Williams is the standout of the superb cast. Playing the jaded, jilted politician's wife she begins a tense and sexy flirtation with the ghost all the while hiding secrets that nag at the back of your mind until their superb payoff. Pierce Brosnan hasn't been this good since his clever turn in 2005's The Matador. Brosnan combines Tony Blair's boyish energy and charm with an undercurrent of menace.

Kim Cattrall rounds out the cast as Brosnan's loyal aide and likely mistress. The relationship is left tantalizingly off-screen while she flirts with McGregor's Ghost in one of many smart, funny, sexy subplots that keep the audience off balance and searching for clues to the big bad behind all the trouble.

Murder, mystery, sex and politics what more could one ask for in a good thriller. With Roman Polanski behind the camera everything comes together under the eye of a master filmmaker who knows just what buttons to push to keep an audience engaged and grasping for the next clue, the next revelation and the final gut punch finish. Some will find the ending of The Ghost Writer unsatisfying. I feel it was the perfect finish and really the only way this story could end.

Put aside Roman Polanski's crime if you can and you will find The Ghost Writer to be a fantastic movie going experience. A brilliant thriller from a brilliant director who has maintained a mastery of filmmaking even as his personal life has been an absolute disaster.

Movie Review The Man from Elysian Fields

The Man from Elysian Fields (2001) 

Directed by George Hickenlooper 

Written by Phillip Jason Lasker

Starring Andy Garcia, James Coburn, Julianna Margulies, Mick Jagger, Olivia Williams 

Release Date September 27th, 2002 

Published May 24th, 2003 

Woman: Are you the man from Elysian Fields?

Man: Is it that obvious?

Just what is this Man From Elysian Fields? Well it's a rare breed of well written, charming, intelligent filmmaking that respects the intelligence and wit of its audience. A film of great wit, that is not afraid to be adult and doesn't compromise itself to the marketplace. Essentially, it's the kind of film I wish there were more of.

The film stars Andy Garcia as Byron Tiller, a down on his luck novelist who spends his free time in bookstores enticing people to buy his novel, a lame thriller called Hitler's Son. Saddened by the fact that after less than a year his book is in the bargain bin, Byron is finally finishing up his second novel. His wife Dena (Julianna Marguilies) is supportive but money is getting tight while she waits for him to finish.

Unfortunately, Byron's publisher doesn't like the new book, which Byron says is about migrant workers. Without a publishing deal, Byron begins searching for a job but finds no one is hiring out-of-work writers.

With no real prospects, Byron finds himself approached in a bar by a stranger named Luther Fox (Mick Jagger. Yes, that Mick Jagger. Is there any other?). Luther claims to have the solution to Byron's problem and gives him a business card for something called Elysian Fields.

Elysian Fields is the cover name for an escort service that pairs men with lonely women to escort them to events when their husbands aren't available and on some occasions sleep with them. Of course, this isn't anything Byron would ever do because he's happily married but when Luther tells him he doesn't have to sleep with the women, he agrees.

After lying to his wife, saying he was spending late nights with hi editor, Byron escorts a gorgeous woman named Andrea Alcott (Olivia Williams) to the opera. Why does a woman as beautiful as Andrea need an escort? Because her husband is dying of diabetes and has agreed to allow her to date. Andrea's husband Tobias (James Coburn) also happens to be an award-winning writer whom Byron has idolized. He doesn't find this out until he is caught sleeping with Andrea and is introduced to the couple’s arrangement.

The set up sounds forced and convenient, only in my feeble explanation. The real joy of The Man From Elysian Fields is in its dialogue and characters, all of whom are well inhabited by one of the best ensemble casts I've seen in a long time. Forget what you think of Mick Jagger as an actor, he gives a stellar performance here as the narrator and devil on Byron's shoulder that slowly becomes his conscience.

Andy Garcia is becoming one of the most reliable actors in Hollywood, consistently seeking out and finding great roles and great scripts. Garcia is aided greatly by a wonderfully sympathetic performance by Julianna Marguilies.

In his final performance before his death in 2002, Oscar winner James Coburn is magnificently witty and gruff. His love story with Williams is tender and believable as written by screenwriter Philip Jayson Lasker. Though some of Coburn's dialogue borders on being too well written Coburn reigns it in with the glint in his eye. It is a little strange to watch the late Coburn portray a character that is dying but the performance is so good that it feels like the perfect coda for his career.

There really is little to complain about in The Man From Elysian Fields. Director George Hickenlooper so elegantly crafts this film that even when it’s at times breezy, it’s acceptable. It's just so well written. It's not laugh out loud funny but intelligently witty. It reminded me of the kind of film Hollywood made during its glory days of the 1950's, though with a story that likely couldn't have been made in the days of the Hays code.

Movie Review Peter Pan

Peter Pan (2003) 

Directed by P.J Hogan 

Written by P.J Hogan 

Starring Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, Rachel Hurd Wood, Olivia Williams, Lynn Redgrave 

Release Date December 25th, 2003 

Published December 24th, 2003 

There is a tradition on stage and in televised versions of Peter Pan that has Peter portrayed by a woman. I can’t pretend to understand why this is but it does remove some of Author J.M Barrie’s more uncomfortable suggestions about Peter and Wendy’s attraction to one another. In director P.J Hogan’s new film adaptation of the more than 100-year-old fairy tale, a boy rightfully portrays Peter. Though somewhat muted, the Peter-Wendy dynamic is once again in play. Whether or not it is to an uncomfortable degree is up to the viewer.

The legendary fairy tale about the boy who refuses to grow up stars Jeremy Sumpter in the role of Peter. However, from the beginning it’s clear that the real star of the show is Wendy played by Rachel Hurd Wood. When we meet Wendy we, like Peter, float to her window and listen in as she dazzles her younger brothers John (Harry Newell) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell) with stories of pirates, Indians and swordplay.

Their revelry is broken by the arrival of their aunt Millicent (Lynn Redgrave) who informs their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Darling (Jason Isaacs and Olivia Williams), that it is time for Wendy to begin training for marriage. This means moving her out of her shared bedroom with her brothers and beginning training in elocution and manners. Essentially, it means it’s time to grow up.

Spying on this scene, Peter decides to reveal himself to Wendy and invite her to Neverland where she won’t have to grow up. This choice is made much to the dismay of Peter’s best friend Tink (Luvigne Sagnier). The scene is filled with meaningful looks and gestures of tentative flirtation and almost uncomfortable sexual tension. At Peter's invitation, Wendy with her brothers in tow is ready to fly off to Neverland.

Once in the pink clouds and green jungles of Neverland, Wendy hears the legend of Captain Hook (as tradition holds, Jason Isaacs, who also plays Wendy's father) and his band of pirates. Of course, Wendy's clumsy little brothers are immediately captured and it's up to Peter and Wendy to save them. In a wonderful action scene filled with terrific humor and exciting swordplay, Wendy and Peter save her brothers and introduce us to Hook's other nemesis, a giant alligator with a ticking clock in its stomach. The gator was previously bitten off Hook's hand as the result of a previous fight with Peter.

All of this happens very quickly. Director P.J Hogan keeps the pace and humor moving all the way through the film slowing down only momentarily for romantic interludes between Peter and Wendy. Despite what a number of critics have said about the sexual tension and romance between Wendy and Peter, it's not as creepy as it sounds. In fact, what director P.J Hogan really captures is the breathless exhilaration of first love. What Wendy and Peter experience is the first rush of the pubescent realization of romance and you can read a lot more into that if you like. I prefer the chaste impression of two kids for whom a kiss is the most sexual idea in the world.

Many films have attempted to capture the essence of that transition from adolescence into puberty, but few films are this successful. Entirely through the use of metaphor, Peter Pan is more true to the confusing emotions and careening hormones of puberty than most films that tackle the subject head on.

To top it off the film also is one of the best looking films of the year. The special effects and production design are as spectacular as anything you've seen this year and bring even more magic to this already magical story. Credit Cinematographer Donald McAlpine and Production Designer Roger Ford with fully realizing Neverland like never before.

At the helm of it all is Hogan who comes out of nowhere with a surprisingly confident rendering of this usual material. Hogan, with the help of Michael Goldenberg, also tackled the adaptation of the screenplay giving the whole production an unexpectedly auteurist vision.

The acting by these novice young actors is also spot on, especially young Rachel Hurd Wood who is spectacular as Wendy. She brings some amazing, unspeakable quality to Wendy that I can't quite put my finger on. Call it star quality or presence, whatever it is, it's something special. She and Jeremy Sumpter, best known for his work in 2002's Frailty, have a chemistry that many adult acting pairs would envy.

This film is a terrific surprise. An exciting, visually spectacular family film. A film that never panders and never pulls back from its rich subtext the way most cookie cutter Hollywood films in the same vein do. This is a film for the whole family, a story that will entrance children with its safe but exciting action and entertain adults with its rich subtext and storytelling. Peter Pan is one of the best films of the year.

Movie Review Seventh Son

Seventh Son (2015) 

Directed by Sergei Bodrov

Written by Charles Leavitt, Steven Knight

Starring Jeff Bridge, Julianne Moore, Ben Barnes, Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington, Olivia Williams, Djimon Hounsou 

Release Date February 6th, 2015 

Published February 5th, 2015

There is a sad and desperate affliction plaguing middle aged Hollywood stars. I’ve come to call it “Nicolas-Cage-Itis.” NCI, as we will henceforth refer to it, strikes when an actor reaches of a level of age and stardom where they are no longer seen as viable leading men but can’t pull themselves from in front of the camera.

The dissonance between their faded place in the pop ephemera and their own perception of their pop mortality clash and a level of madness emerges that leads to making movies of questionable taste and quality. John Cusack, for one, has succumbed mightily to NCI and will in 2015 star in a film project so bereft it likely will never be seen outside of China.

Other actors look on the verge of an NCI flare up, Johnny Depp is perilously close, Keanu Reeves seems to have pulled back from the brink but still could go either way and Tom Cruise is just one batshit crazy sci-fi movie from a full blown case. Sadly, however, the most recent fully diagnosed case of NCI is Academy Award winner and all around good dude Jeff Bridges.

With his “RIPD,” “The Giver,” and “Seventh Son” triumvirate it’s clear Bridges is in the throes of a full on Nicolas-Cage-Itis breakdown. He’s already begun the ‘bizarre accents are why I make movies’ phase of the illness. Soon, he will be experimenting with his hairline and having massive tax problems.

“Seventh Son” was the final piece of the NCI diagnosis. This misbegotten YA adventure movie stars Bridges as a mystical witch hunter named Master Gregory and while you might be tempted to believe Bridges wanted to play a mystical witch hunter named Master Gregory on a lark, it’s clear he chose the role because he was allowed to speak in a manner of his choosing, something akin to Morgan Freeman without teeth.

Yes, the accent is really the only reason Bridges wanted to play Master Gregory. Any director indulgent enough to allow his star to mush mouth his way through an ostensibly teen-friendly blockbuster adventure clearly isn’t asking much of his star. No, Bridges and his star power quite clearly dominate every aspect of “Seventh Son” which means nothing too challenging and only the vaguest sense that anyone gives the slightest damn about the material.

Joining Bridges with her own mild case of NCI is Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore. Bridges’ Lady Friend from “The Big Lebowski” plays a witch that Gregory once loved, then hunted and now hunts again after she escapes from the prison he made her years before. The love story aspect is left thankfully to the willing imagination as the movie is given over to high camp vamping and the chewing of scenery.

It’s difficult to decide what is more dispiriting about “Seventh Son:” Bridges and Moore’s dull, camp excess or the abysmal love story tacked on to their teenage sidekicks. Ben Barnes Barnes and Alicia Vikander play star-crossed lovers, witch-hunter apprentice and witch, respectively, with about as much romantic chemistry as mismatched shelving units. If you need a sense of just how invested the film is in Barnes’ apprentice character, his name is Tom Ward. Tom Ward. “Seventh Son” is set in a world of Witches, Dragons and shape shifting Bears and Leopards and they are battled by a guy named Tom. At least Gregory gets call himself ‘Master.’

“Seventh Son” is an incredibly depressing piece of work. It’s a YA adaptation, it’s dreary and lumbering with about as much wonder and excitement as a trip to the DMV. But, of course, the dreariest of the dreary is watching Jeff Bridges entertain himself. Bridges is playing an elaborate prank that’s only funny for him. He’s fully aware of how ridiculous he looks and sounds but he’s also wildly entertained by it. We, on the other hand, are just hurt that our hero won’t let us in on the joke.

Mr. Bridges’s case of NCI is in that hermetic stage where a selfish negation of all outside opinion leads to humiliating career decisions that the star doesn’t fully realize they’re making. NCI blinds the star from seeing how silly they look and consequently divorces them from reality enough that they take a strange pride in their own oddity.

Can Mr. Bridges recover from this devilish disease? It’s hard to say. The progenitor of NCI, Nicolas Cage Esquire, does, on occasion, allow his talent to emerge from behind his lunacy but seemingly only by accident. Maybe it will be by accident that we will once again see Mr. Bridges. For now, sadly, his NCI has fully overtaken his good sense and “Seventh Son” is the signifier of his full blown madness.

Movie Review Hanna

Hanna (2011) 

Directed by Joe Wright 

Written by Seth Lochhead, David Farr 

Starring Saorise Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng 

Release Date April 8th, 2011 

Published April 7th, 2011 

Hanna (Saorise Ronan) is a teenage girl living in the forest with her survivalist father (Eric Bana). Eric Heller has dedicated his life to teaching his daughter skills needed not just for survival in the wild but survival in a world where unseen forces are trying to kill her. Eric's motto, drilled into Hanna's brain daily, is 'adapt or die.' The incongruity of such harsh words coming from the mouth of a lithe blonde 15 year old girl is jarring as so much of the movie Hanna is jarring.

Directed by Joe Wright Hanna is an exercise in style and substance. Wright, best known for his Oscar nominated "Atonement," brings a great deal of action movie style to "Hanna" with long, uncut takes that have the camera following characters through complex choreographed fights that are refreshing compared to most other action movie director's affinity for  super fast edits that hide the action behind layers of trickery.

As I mentioned, there is also an experimental substance as well. Unlike the brainless titillation of "Sucker Punch," "Hanna" takes a teenage girl with unique fighting skills and examines the effect such disturbing ability might have on a girl rather than dressing her in fetish gear and exploiting her nubile flesh. This examination does not come with long periods of expository dialogue but rather plays on the extraordinary face and in the actions of star Saorise Ronan.

Matching Ronan's superb performance is that of Cate Blanchett as calculated C.I.A killer Marisa Wiegler. Wiegler was Eric Heller's handler on a black op that abruptly ended. Both Hanna and her late mother were part of this aborted operation and when Heller tried to keep them from being eliminated, Wiegler tried to kill him and did kill Hanna's mother. Blanchett's deep cold performance has odd nuance and a chilling resolution. This is a relatively small role for such a well known actress but Blanchett treats the part with the seriousness of a Bond villain and the complexity of the kind of part that could earn her an Oscar nomination.

The rest of the cast, including Jason Flemyng, Olivia Williams and Jessica Barden as members of a family who befriend Hanna on her journey from Morocco to Germany to the German thugs that Marisa hires to capture Hanna and kill anyone she comes in contact with, are exceptionally well placed within this unique story. Tom Hollander is especially chilling as the constantly whistling killer, Isaacs, whose ungodly creepiness leads to a pair of exceptional final act scenes.

Complex and exceptionally well directed, "Hanna" is a real stunner.