Movie Review Insomnia

Insomnia (2002) 

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Written by Hillary Seitz 

Starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Maura Tierney, Martin Donovan, Nicky Katt

Release Date May 24th, 2002 

Published May 23rd, 2002 

How many times has Al Pacino played a cop? About half as many times as his cohort Robert Deniro, but that is still a lot. However, Pacino has never played cop in a film directed by Christopher Nolan. That is an important distinction. As Nolan has shown, in his previous efforts Memento and Following, that genre is a dirty word. With Nolan at the helm, you know you’re not in for your typical police procedural.

Insomnia has Pacino playing Detective Will Dormer, on loan from the LAPD to an old friend who is the sheriff of Nightmute, Alaska. Dormer and his partner Hap are momentarily escaping an internal affairs investigation that threatens to destroy Dormer's high profile reputation. On arriving in Nightmute, Dormer is met by a young local cop named Ellie Burr (Hillary Swank) who fills us in on how well known Dormer is by discussing his many big cases which she studied while in the police academy.

As for the case itself, a teenage girl was found in a garbage dump having been beaten to death. The case breaks quickly as Dormer and the local cops lock onto a suspect after the discovery of the dead girl’s personal items. The discovery leads to a stakeout that goes horribly wrong, leading to the death of Will's partner and a cover-up that calls Will's integrity into question.

While investigating under the noses of the local cops, Dormer uses some questionable tactics to discover a suspect, a mystery writer named Walter Finch (Robin Williams). Somehow, Finch knows Dormer's secret and tries to use it against him. This begins a cat and mouse game where the mouse proves to be smarter and more adaptive than the cat. 

Insomnia isn't about police procedure and chase scenes, it's about atmosphere and intellect. Williams and Pacino play fantastic cat and mouse with Williams tormenting Pacino with his inability to sleep due to Alaska's never-setting summer sun. Both Williams and Pacino are spectacular as they leave their previous screen chewing person's behind.

Director Christopher Nolan brilliantly uses the never-ending sunlight of this unusual and unlikely location as the perfect backdrop for this intensely dark suspense flick. As Pacino drives around at 3 in the morning and the sun shines, it is as if the light turned his mind into a prison shining a harsh light on his guilty conscience and many regretful decisions.

Nolan is becoming one of the best directors in the world, an auteur whose genius lies in keeping both the audience and his characters off balance. In Memento it was Leonard's short term memory, in Following it was the young man’s writer's block and guilty conscience, and in Insomnia it's Dormer's inability to sleep that keeps the audience and the characters from ever getting comfortable or complacent.

Insomnia is a strong move into the mainstream for Christopher Nolan who manages to make a Hollywood film without compromising his artistic vision and Auteurist style.

Movie Review: Enough

Enough (2002) 

Directed by Michael Apted

Written by Nicholas Kazan

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell, Noah Wyle, Juliette Lewis, Dan Futterman

Release Date May 24th, 2002 

Published May 21st, 2002 

For all the jokes about Jennifer Lopez's personal life, singing career, and her backside, one thing people shouldn't joke about is her acting. With her performances in Out Of Sight, The Cell and the very under-appreciated Angel Eyes, J.Lo has proven she can act. Though her latest film Enough isn't as good as her previous films, it certainly wasn't her fault.

Enough is the story of Slim (Lopez), a waitress who while being hit on by a jerk cop named Robbie (ER's Noah Wylie), is saved by Mitch (Once & Again's Billy Campbell). What appears to be love at first sight turns into a marriage gone wrong. Several years after Slim and Mitch get married and have a baby named Racie (Tesa Allen), Slim finds out Mitch is cheating on her. When Slim confronts him, he beats her up. Slim eventually escapes and Mitch goes after her, leading the film from “movie of the week” drama to ridiculous revenge flick.

I saw a preview screening of Enough and I wonder if maybe the film wasn't finished yet. I say this because the first third of the film is such a complete mess your left wondering if a first-year film student high on Jolt Cola and Marlboro Lights edited it. Rather than developing a relationship between Slim and Mitch that makes sense, the film employs silent movie title cards to inform the audience of the stage of their relationship. Thus the audience is left wondering just what each character’s motivation was for being together at all.

The film does have some effective moments, mostly when J.Lo is on the run and training to fight her husband. Director Michael Apted does what he can with the limited script and effectively uses omniscient narration to build tension, especially in the film’s fight scene crescendo. In the end though, Enough is a ridiculous, revenge fantasy meant to appeal to the same girl-power feminists who made Ashley Judd's Double Jeopardy a 100-Million hit. See Enough for Jennifer Lopez's stellar performance, but if your not a fan, skip it. 

Movie Review Star Wars Episode Two Attack of the Clones

Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002) 

Directed by George Lucas 

Written by George Lucas 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Natalie Portman, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid, Frank Oz, Joel Edgerton, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker 

Release Date May 16th. 2002 

Published May 16th, 2002  

Did you like The Phantom Menace? I thought I did but when I watched it, to prepare for Episode 2, cracks began to show. Where I once actually attempted to defend Jar Jar Binks, I now see how completely indefensible the character is. On the 12th viewing, Phantom Menace doesn't hold up. The film was efficiently crafted but lacked a soul. Episode 2: Attack of the Clones is also efficiently crafted but like Phantom Menace it too lacks a soul.

We rejoin the story as Senator Padme Amidala, the former queen of Naboo, arrives for an important vote on the formation of an army of the republic, an idea she is uncertain about. Upon her arrival there is an assassination attempt. Amidala survives and is put under the protection of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). While Obi-Wan is assigned to hunt the bounty hunter who orchestrated the assassination attempt, Anakin is told to escort Amidala back to Naboo and keep her safe.

The setup is a little obvious but then Lucas merely uses characters as transitory figures in between awe-inspiring effects. So now Anakin and Amidala are alone and as we already know they fall in love. The inevitability of their relationship takes away from the love story, but not nearly as much as Christensen and Portman's lack of chemistry and Lucas's quickest way to get the point across scripting.

Christensen isn't bad but he's not great. Rather than communicating the tortured soul that would lead to the dark side, Christensen communicates, for the most part, with whining and crying. Christensen played a similarly whiny and tiresome character in last year's Life as A House, and at this rate it is difficult to envision him improving much beyond what we've seen. 

Natalie Portman also isn't very good at all in AOTC. Whereas in Phantom Menace Amidala had courage and intelligence, now Amidala has become full of angst and moony eyes over Anakin. Also, the fact that Amidala looks as if she hasn't aged is an unavoidable criticism. Ewan Mcgregor and Samuel L. Jackson are strong but are let down greatly by Lucas's transitory script which forgoes wit and intelligence in favor of spiritual platitude and dull transitions from special effect to special effect.

Of course, Attack of The Clones isn't about dialogue and characters, it's about action and, in that aspect, it doesn't disappoint. The special effects are spectacular, and while I still prefer real sets and actors, Lucas has done a remarkable job of creating a whole universe almost without them. The special effects give the film an epic feel, especially the many landscapes of Tatooine, Coruscant and Naboo that are fully realized places made from absolutely nothing.

Of course, the scene that will get people through the door is Yoda's fight scene. At the showing I attended Yoda's CGI confrontation with Christopher Lee's Count Dooku elicited loud cheers from the audience. I couldn't help but to get caught up a little myself.

AOTC isn't bad but it seems like two plus hours of exposition for the far more interesting Episode 3, the episode that completes Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader. And while I would like to have seen better acting and dialogue, I have a feeling George is saving the really good stuff for the next film.

Movie Review: Unfaithful

Unfaithful (2002) 

Directed by Adrian Lyne

Written by Alvin Sargent, William Broyles Jr. 

Starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Olivier Martinez, Michelle Monaghan, Chad Lowe 

Release Date May 10th, 2002 

Published May 9th, 2002

I have never understood people's desperate need to get married and buy a house in the country. Being a city person, I just can't imagine leaving behind the constant motion for the quiet serenity. There is something very dull sounding about spending the rest of your life with someone so far away from where there are things to do. Maybe that is what drives Diane Lane's seemingly happy, married mother of one to risk her marriage on a stupid fling. Or maybe she just needed to be in a city.

In Unfaithful, Lane is Connie Sumner, mother of one son named Charlie (Malcolm in the Middle's youngest, Eric Per Sullivan) and wife of Edward (Richard Gere), a businessman whose business is never really explained. The marriage is typically mundane. Edward takes the train into work every day and comes home at the same time every day. Connie doesn't work as often as Edward; her job obtaining items for auctions brings her into the city maybe once a week. 

On one particularly windy day, as Connie is shopping for her sons ninth birthday, the wind literally blows her into the arms of a handsome rare books dealer named Paul Martel (Oliver Martinez). Paul is a good ten years younger than Diane, but his lust for her is quite obvious. Maybe having a younger man find her attractive (or maybe Paul's cheeseball game, in which he gives her a book that he has planted in a particular spot for just this occasion) something stirs in Connie and her intrigue will lead her to stray from her marriage.

Edward is not entirely clueless. In fact, after Connie's first meeting with Paul, Edward senses something is wrong. Eventually Edward's suspicions grow to the point where he hires a private detective to follow his wife. Of course, he finds out what he suspected is true and this leads to a plot twist that is surprising, not for shock value but for how studied and quiet it is.

Director Adrian Lyne does something interesting with Unfaithful. A less-skilled director would have made Unfaithful into a predictable thriller with either the husband or the lover as some kind of psycho who flies into a rage and tries to kill everyone. Lyne, however, is more interested in the effect on the marriage. All of the actions taken by the characters are a logical extension of real emotion and not mere plot manipulation. Even toward the end, when the film takes its twisted turn, the actions still feel realistic.

Diane Lane is receiving the best reviews of her career for this role, and they are deserved. Gere is also strong, but the film's best element is director Adrian Lyne, whose lovely camerawork and studied pacing brings a realistic portrait of a troubled marriage that shouldn't be troubled.

Unfaithful is an interesting portrait of the need to break routine and cause change in one's life even if that change is painful and unnecessary. No matter how much two people love each other, there is only so much they can do together without getting bored. That may not be romantic or moral, but anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship can understand the need for personal time and space and the need to have something that is entirely your own. This doesn't justify cheating on a wife or a husband but a film like Unfaithful provides a logical explanation of this destructive behavior.

Movie Review Spider-Man

Spider-Man (2002)

Directed by Sam Raimi 

Written by David Koepp

Starring Tobey Maguire, James Franco, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, Bruce Campbell, J.K Simmons

Release Date May May 3rd, 2002 

Published May 2nd, 2002 

I must admit that when I heard Tobey Maguire had won the role of my favorite superhero, Spiderman, I was quite disappointed. How could the Cider House Rules geek be a superhero?!? Well, I'm glad that I now must eat those words because Tobey Maguire is a terrific Spiderman and now, I can't imagine anyone else doing this role.

As the film begins, we are introduced to science geek Peter Parker, a shy introverted kid who’s only friend is Harry Osborn (James Franco) and nurses a crush on the girl-next-door Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). I'm sure most people are familiar with the origin of Spiderman; he was bitten by a radioactive Spider and began to take on the spider’s traits. The ability to spin webs, strength 10 times normal and of course the amazing ability to crawl up walls.

Suddenly the shy kid is a muscled-up superhero and immediately looks for a way to cash in on his newfound abilities. He finds it in a wrestling ring with a huge guy named Bonesaw (The legendary Randy “The Macho Man” Savage). Peter, now calling himself Spiderman, defeats Bonesaw to win $3,000 dollars, however the promoter refuses to pay the full amount. The promoter’s office is then robbed, and Peter skips an opportunity to catch the thief. The decision to let the thief get away is a fateful one as it is the same thief who shoots and kills Peter's beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson).

Parallel with Peter Parker's story is that of Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), father of Peter's friend Harry and the president of Oscorp. With his company on the verge of losing a major military contract Osborn decides to test his controversial new weapon on himself. Needless to say, the experiment is a mistake and causes Osborn's personality to split between Norman and his new alter ego, the Green Goblin.

It's a classic comic book story and transfers to the screen extremely well thanks to the brilliant director Sam Raimi. Raimi could have just used his big budget for nothing but special effects, but instead he uses it to create a whole universe for Spiderman and his supporting cast to inhabit. Whether it's Aunt May and Uncle Ben's row house, Peter's High School, or even a professional wrestling ring, the comic book sheen that Raimi and his team brings to Spider-Man looks terrific. 

Maguire is excellent; he makes Spiderman and Peter Parker come to life. Maguire never plays him like your typical, all-powerful, unkillable superhero. He plays him as a human who can bleed and get angry and has to fight his emotions as well as his pursuers. Kirsten Dunst has it easy, she merely has to smile, and the audience falls for her the same way Peter Parker does. Dunst is a wonderful actress who builds great chemistry with Maguire. Willem Dafoe is effective as Osborn/Goblin, he certainly can play a believable psycho and in Spiderman he does so with only a little bit of scenery chewing.

It is rare that a summer blockbuster actually meets expectations; it is far rarer when one surpasses them. Spiderman does exactly that and is one of the best movies I've seen this year and one of the best blockbusters of all time.

Movie Review Hollywood Ending

Hollywood Ending (2002)

Directed by Woody Allen 

Written by Woody Allen

Starring Woody Allen, Tea Leoni, Treat Williams, Mark Rydell, Debra Messing

Release Date May 3rd, 2002 

Published May 2nd, 2002

Being from the Midwest, Woody Allen's humor is somewhat lost on me. Allen's humor is at times very specific to New Yorkers, which can be a turn off to Midwesterners like myself. In his latest film, Hollywood Ending, Allen isn't too New York. Oddly enough, the lifetime New Yorker is too Hollywood. 

In Hollywood Ending, Allen is Val Waxman, a washed-up former Oscar winning director now working on TV commercials in Canada. Val's luck is about to change with a little help from his sympathetic ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni). Ellie is now a Hollywood producer and is pushing her studio head fiancee (Treat Williams) to hire Val for a movie called "The City That Never Sleeps." Val is not an easy sell for the studio as he has a history of being difficult including outrageous demands of time, money and even daylight. After some prodding and a meeting with Val, the studio reluctantly agrees to hire him with the caveat that he can be fired at any moment.

So excited is Val at landing the job that he loses his sight. Val suffers from psychosomatic blindness. So, Val should probably drop out of the picture until he gets his sight back, but on the advice of his agent Al (Mark Rydell) he stays in the picture even though he thinks he should quit.

Val: "Don't you think people will notice a blind director?"

Al: "What? Are you kidding me? Have you seen these movies today?"

Allen has some terrific moments of physical comedy, built around his being blind and attempting to negotiate the movie's set. With the help of an on-set translator (Barney Cheng), hired to help Val communicate with his Chinese cameraman, Al and Val try to make it seem like everything is fine so that Val doesn't get fired. Eventually Ellie discovers Val's secret and then she too tries to help him pull it off.

The cast is rounded out by Debra Messing as Val's ditzy girlfriend and George Hamilton as a vapid movie producer. The cast is good as is most of Allen's script, but Hollywood Ending is troubled by a tendency to be too Hollywood. A lot of the film's humor is aimed at the film industry, which is a ripe place for satire. However, it is at times a little too inside the industry. Jokes about agents and references to the director's guild will be lost on casual film fans.

Allen still has a great ear for dialogue and his classic self-deprecating humor is well in place, but Hollywood Ending is just not funny enough. While Hollywood is a wonderful source for satire (see David Mamet's hysterical State & Main), Hollywood Ending just doesn't have enough good jokes. The humor is scattered throughout and in fact the film is funnier in scenes between Allen and Tea Leoni as they rehash their failed marriage. Allen is indeed a funny guy, maybe someday all of us will get the joke.

Movie Review: Deuces Wild

Deuces Wild (2002)

Directed by Scott Kalvert

Written by Christopher Gamble 

Starring Brad Renfro, Stephen Dorff, Fairuza Balk, James Franco, Johnny Knoxville, Matt Dillon, Norman Reedus, Deborah Harry, Frankie Muniz 

Release Date May 3rd, 2002

Published May 3rd, 2002

The troubles of actor Brad Renfro are well documented. Renfro has had multiple run-ins with the law and is also notoriously difficult to work with. What gets lost in Renfro's problems is the fact that the kid is one hell of an actor. Renfro has a Brandoesque persona, handsome with deep soulful eyes that emit a piercing gaze that cuts like a knife. Sadly, Renfro's troubles have kept him from the acting status his work aspires to and is likely the reason he is relegated to such B-release fare as Deuces Wild.

In Deuces, Renfro plays Bobby, a street tough who runs with a gang called the Vipers. The film begins in flashback with Bobby's brother Leon (Stephen Dorff) carrying the limp lifeless body of their brother Al. Al is dead from a drug overdose administered by rival gang members Marco (Norman Reedus) and Franky (Balthazar Getty), members of the Vipers.

Three years later Leon is the leader of the Deuces and Bobby is his thuggish enforcer. The Deuces are dedicated to keep drugs off their block. This comes into conflict with the Vipers and their leader Marco, fresh from jail and looking for revenge against Leon for sending him there. Neither gang can make a move without the approval of a local mobster named Fitzy and played semi convincingly by Matt Dillon.

Deuces Wild is as much a gang movie as it is a love story, as Bobby falls for a Vipers girl named Annie (Fairuza Balk). The courtship between Bobby and Annie would be sweet if it weren't steeped in cliché and bad 50's dialogue. In fact, the whole film is buried under clichés from West Side Story, The Outsiders, Lords of Flatbush and whatever greaser gang movie you can think of.

It gets worse, even with the problems of the ridiculous attempts to ape 50's lingo, the film introduces and dismisses subplot after subplot. Marco seeks revenge on Leon for sending him to jail, while we in the audience find out in a dream sequence that it wasn't Leon who did the deed, a piece of information that makes no difference whatsoever and is never resolved. Then there is Leon's romance with Betsy (Soprano's actress Drea Demateo), which exists solely to provide Leon with something to do while not beating the crap out of people in fistfights.

And why does Leon feel so bad about everything he does? Where is the commitment to the cause? In one scene he watches as the Vipers burn down his block. In another scene he admonishes his gang for acting against a pair of drug dealers moving into their territory. It was interesting to note that gangs of 50's Brooklyn only controlled one block. Literally one block! So, the Deuces kept drugs off of one city block, but if drugs were sold right around the corner, it was all good.

Renfro for his part is uncomfortable with the lame attempts at 50's dialogue, but still communicates with body language and his laser stare. This kid is a contender, as he showed in Apt Pupil and his Tour De force performance in Bully. With Deuces Wild, Renfro signals an attempt to move into mainstream Hollywood roles. Here's hoping he develops the same eye for Hollywood material as he has for his indie work, and that Deuces Wild is just a minor annoyance on the way to an Oscar nomination.