Movie Review The Catcher Was a Spy

The Catcher Was a Spy (2018) 

Directed by Ben Lewin 

Written by Robert Rodat 

Starring Paul Rudd, Sienna Miller, Mark Strong, Jeff Daniels, Tom Wilkinson

Release Date June 22nd, 2018

Published July 8th, 2018 

The Catcher Was a Spy stars Paul Rudd as Morris ‘Moe’ Berg, a former major league baseball catcher turned international spy. Berg played 15 years with the Boston Red Sox before retiring at the end of 1938. By 1941 Berg, known as Professor Berg among his teammates, a graduate of Princeton University, sought and received a position at the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA.

Rudd plays Berg as a man of many secrets and discretion. An early scene finds Berg going to a bar, thought by many as a haven for gay men. When he’s followed there by a suspicious teammate, Berg turns to violence to try to cover his tracks. Later, on a baseball tour of Japan next to luminaries such as Babe Ruth, Berg took the initiative to dress in Japanese garb and covertly film footage of a Japanese naval yard. He then parlayed the footage into his position with the OSS.

Sienna Miller co-stars in The Catcher Was a Spy as Estelle, Berg’s girlfriend. The relationship is fraught by Berg’s unwillingness to commit to Estelle, his desire not to have children and Estelle’s seeming awareness of Berg’s proclivities. A side mistress is less aware leading to an argument that illustrates Berg’s commitment to being discrete, even if it means losing someone he appears to care about.

Once Berg moves toward becoming a spy we meet his new OSS boss, played by Jeff Daniels. Daniels’ blunt, blustering military man turned spy is impressed by Berg’s initiative and ambition though wary of the secrets he keeps from the secret keepers. Nevertheless, it’s the OSS chief who assigns Berg to go to Italy and eventually on to Sweden to investigate how close Germany may be to having an atomic bomb.

Along on the mission in Italy, where he faces down enemy fire from fleeing German soldiers, are an army Colonel played by Guy Pearce and a physicist played by Paul Giamatti. Their target is the well known German Physicist Werner Heisenberg, played by Mark Strong. Heisenberg was one of the few scientists who chose to stay in Germany after the Nazi take over and was appointed head of the German effort to make a bomb.

The question is, is he helping or hurting the German cause? The Catcher is a Spy is ingenious and exciting in laying out Moe Berg’s mission and what is at stake. Having been a major league baseball player turned spy, Moe has never had to kill a man and much tension and drama is built around whether he could, if called upon, kill Heisenberg to keep him from building the atomic bomb.

History tells us how that played out but if you, like me, aren’t fully aware how this turned out, it’s an exciting and exceptionally well told story. The Catcher Was a Spy was directed by Ben Lewin, a Polish director best known for his 2012 feature The Sessions starring Helen Hunt, a film that earned high praise for Hunt who was thought to be a possible Oscar contender. Hunt played a sex therapist working with a handicapped man played by John Hawkes in an equally lauded performance.

Similar acclaim could be coming for Paul Rudd who brilliantly plays Moe Berg. Rudd, known for his work as Ant-Man and as the comic foil of director Judd Apatow in several films, plays Berg very low key, almost unknowable. It’s a complex character to play, a man so insular, who kept his own council, with few broad strokes in his personality. Rudd finds smart beats to play, especially employing Berg’s talent for languages which Rudd and the story use late in the film as part of the spy play. Listen for his intentional lack of accent in an important scene, subtle but ingenious.

The Catcher Was a Spy will be a treat for anyone who loves an old school spy movie, one without the trappings of a James Bond or Jason Bourne. The film played as part of a new series of Independent Films at the Putnam Museum. The Putnam is partnering with the New York Film Critics Series to show 10 independent features unlikely to play at local multiplexes. The next feature for the month of July is yet to be announced.

You can keep an eye out for The Catcher is a Spy on on-demand services such as Amazon Prime over the next few months.

Movie Review Stardust

Stardust (2007) 

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

Written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman

Starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michele Pfeiffer, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller

Release Date August 10th, 2007

Published August 10th, 2007

From the wildly inventive mind of Neil Gaiman comes Stardust. The fantasy of Stardust combines science fiction and romance with some wondrous takes on literary legends. On the surface; director Matthew Vaughn may not seem the ideal choice for such light hearted romantic notions. A protégé of Britain's maestro of violence Guy Richie, Vaughn's first outing as a director was the Richie influenced Layer Cake, a mob story with a pre-Bond Daniel Craig.

Nevertheless, Vaughn pulls off a near masterpiece of genre fiction in Stardust.

Tristan (Charlie Cox) is a fool for romance. He has fallen in love with the most beautiful woman in all of the town of Wall, Victoria (Sienna Miller) and will go to any length to win her heart, even if it means crossing the wall. The Wall that gives Tristan's hometown its name is a magical barrier between the real world and the realm of Faerie, a kingdom ruled by kings and witches and ghosts and flying pirates.

Most citizens are unaware of what is beyond the wall, only knowing that they are never to cross that wall. Tristan however, must cross the wall when he sees a falling star crash beyond the city limits and he promises that star to Victoria in exchange for her hand. Now Tristan will cross that wall and embark on a life altering adventure.

Opposing Tristan, without knowing it, is a trio of witches led by oldest sister Lamia (Michele Pfeiffer). She needs the star in order to replenish her and her sister's powers. Also on the trail of the star is Septimus (Mark Strong). He needs the star in order to finally inherit the throne of Faerie; ahead of his brothers, four of whom have met with an ugly fate, something that the others may meet as well if Septimus is to become king.

Meanwhile, the star is actually on earth in human form. Her name is Yvaine (Claire Danes) and when she is found by Tristan, the real love story and a truly grand adventure begins.

My description of Stardust makes it sound like a trifle, however, thanks no doubt to the hard boiled influences of director Matthew Vaughn, Stardust is a good deal more tart than I let on. The early scenes between Tristan and Yvaine crackle with conflict, as any good romantic match often does. She is aware that she has been sought as a gift for another, and though he finds her striking, Tristan longs for Victoria.

The film doesn't let this torturous banter go on to long and indeed doesn't play many of the typical romantic games in order to place roadblocks in the lovers path. Matthew Vaughn and co- writer Jane Goldman do a terrific job of allowing the romance to develop naturally and create roadblocks organically rather than by what is often dictated by the history of Hollywood romance.

With a light hearted take on some rather dark materials, Stardust is classically English in wit. Take for example Prince Septimus and his brothers. As they seek the crown, four have already been disposed of in ghastly fashion, even before we meet them. Each brother sticks around after his demise; left in the final pose of their passing. This provides a number of big laughs throughout the picture as the ghosts poke about.

The film also mines laughs from an unexpected source. Robert De Niro plays Captain Shakespeare, a blood thirsty air pirate who sails the sky stealing lightning and toughening up on anyone who dares board his ship unwelcome. When the Captain encounters Tristan and Yvaine, high in the clouds, the scene is strange not just for its location but for the wit of De Niro playing against type.

Who doesn't love a great romance? Stardust has a really good one in the story of Tristan and Yvaine. It's a story rife with conflicting emotions and grand romantic gestures and a good deal of suspense. The conclusion is not shocking but it's not predictable either, Yvaine is a star and must one day return to the sky. How that is resolved is a clever bit of romantic engineering, and don't forget that the lovely Sienna Miller plays Victoria.

Stardust also has a grand adventure as we take to the skies with pirates who harvest lightning and do battle with kings and witches. It's a wonderfully literate tale that will delight readers and non-readers alike. For the literate; nods to Tolkien and Shakespeare are a treat, while never distracting from the adventure and romance familiar to everyone. This is an artful yet still populist picture that can dazzle the film buff and the parents dragged to the theater by his teenagers, all in the same scene.

Stardust is a big step forward for director Matthew Vaughn. His leap in genre from hard boiled crime to light as a feather romance and broad science fiction; is a leap most directors could not make. His range is only a small example of his talent. Watching Stardust you sense a director of great confidence, poise and imagination. Beneath the surface of sometimes surly dialogue, is the soul of a poet and a big heart. All of which will serve Vaughn well as he strives for his first masterpiece.

Stardust is almost there. A terrific example of a talent on the rise, Stardust is a crowd pleasing romantic adventure for any audience.

Movie Review American Sniper

American Sniper (2014) 

Directed by Clint Eastwood 

Written by Jason Hall 

Starring Sienna Miller, Bradley Cooper 

Release Date December 25th, 2014

Published December 21st, 2014

One scene in “American Sniper” wraps up who Chris Kyle truly is. Set atop a rooftop in Iraq, among a group of other snipers protecting a convoy, Chris Kyle spies a chance to kill a rival sniper. This rival sniper, a former Olympic shooting champion from Syria, has been picking off American soldiers from an incredible distance for some time now.

The rival sniper is about 1000 yards away and Chris can just barely make out his presence from a brief flash of light. The shot is nearly impossible but what makes the situation even more dangerous and compelling is that Kyle cannot make the shot without tipping off nearby insurgents to the presence of American soldiers on the rooftop.

Here is where Chris Kyle is truly revealed: will he take the shot and compromise his own safety and that of his fellow snipers for the chance to kill his ultimate rival? All at once we come to know Chris Kyle as competitive, dangerous, loyal to a fault, vengeful, protective, arrogant and devoted to a very particular cause: protecting the men on the ground.

Kyle takes the shot and remarkably, though 1000 meters away, he does take out his target. The shot then alerts the insurgents who quickly converge on the building. In this moment a new Chris Kyle is born, a vulnerable, frightened and remorseful man who in the midst of the coming chaos calls his wife to declare that he’s ready to come home. Bear in mind, in this moment, there is no guarantee that he will leave this rooftop.

Bradley Cooper infuses this scene with gut wrenching authenticity. Chris Kyle’s time as a soldier ends in this moment and the grief, relief, fear and catharsis arrive in waves. Director Clint Eastwood amps the scene with powerful, confident angles, quick cuts between Kyle, his wife back in Texas, an approaching sandstorm and the blur of faceless enemies rushing into the building.

The tension of this scene exhausting in the best possible way as we have been on a rollercoaster of emotion already and the scene plays like the last major climb and climactic drop. Many of us will never know the exhilarating fear brought about by actual life or death combat and this scene is likely as close as we will ever get.

Many critics have claimed that “American Sniper” is a jingoistic celebration of a warmonger. This dismissal of the film ignores the many conflicting emotions at play in the rooftop scenes. In the space of several minutes Chris Kyle is revealed as a man of great determination, skill and patriotism as well as a man who is quite vulnerable, dangerously competitive and arrogant and carrying enough guilt to have developed a death wish.

It’s not clear if Chris Kyle wants to die, the call to his wife seems like an indication of something to live for, but here he is initiating a situation that very likely will get him killed. That he is willing to die so that others may live is noble but the scene does not portray a noble sacrifice but rather a man in a fit of pique, defying orders with an agenda all his own. To this point, Chris Kyle has been a model soldier and yet he defies orders and likely got men killed in his single minded pursuit of his own goal.

Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper do not cower from the uglier side of Chris Kyle’s life in “American Sniper” and the rooftop sequence is a fine example of their complex and thoughtful take on his life. At every turn of “American Sniper” we in the audience are invited to see to Chris Kyle and make up our own mind whether we find him heroic or not. This is not hagiography, as the rooftop sequence indicates, this is one of the most raw and honest portrayals of the complexity of being a soldier ever put to screen.