Movie Review Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon (2008) 

Directed by Ron Howard 

Written by Peter Morgan 

Starring Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Hall 

Release Date December 5th, 2008 

Published December 4th, 2008 

Need and desperation defines Frost/Nixon, a battle of wits between two men of completely different wit. David Frost (Michael Sheen) was a television host whose stardom was on the wane. Having lost his American talk show, Frost was working in Australia with the occasional English special. Frost longed to get back the spotlight and especially get back the celebrity he'd enjoyed in the United States. His longshot bet to get it back was an interview no one thought he could get. 3 years after having been impeached and pardoned, Richard Nixon was living in exile in California and longing for a comeback of his own.

Though his memoirs meant alot to him, he was getting nearly a million dollars for his story, a near record at the time, the writing process was lonely and he longed for a national spotlight. Nixon had standing offers from all of the network big wigs but people like Mike Wallace had too much power and would not accept limitations on the kinds of pointed questions they could ask. David Frost on the other hand had no power. He had no stature to make demands and his reputation for softball celebrity interviews gave no indication that he would make a difficult interview for the cagey former President. Frost also offered something else the networks refused, he was willing to pay for the interview.

Feeling he could interest a network or syndicator later, Frost willingly put every penny he had into paying for the interview from several hundred thousand for the President to the very production and recording of the interview. Even without the assurance that he would have a venue to air the interview. Frost may not have been in much of a position to intimidate the former President but he was crafty. With the help of his longtime producer John Birt (Matthew Macfaydyen), Frost found a pair of top flight investigators to help write the questions and prep the interviews.

Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) was a former ABC News producer and James Reston Jr (Sam Rockwell) was a Watergate scholar having already written several books in just the three years since the President's downfall. It was Reston, the zealot, who saw the interview as the opportunity to give Nixon the trial he never had. Frost/Nixon began life as a two man stage play written by playwright Peter Morgan. He dramatized the conversations between Frost and Nixon on camera and off and in so doing gave audiences unique insight into these two extraordinarily different personalities.

It is also Peter Morgan who turned his two man play into a multi-character screenplay and his care and craftsmanship is why so little of the drama and tension has been lost by the addition of characters and scenes away from the actual interviews. Ron Howard proves to be the perfect director for this material. A mainstream auteur, Howard knows how to please an audience and do so without making things insultingly easy to follow. His knack for real life drama shown in two Best Picture nominees, Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, is very much on display in Frost/Nixon.

When Nixon says to Frost "When the President does it, it isn't a crime" even the most ardent Republican could not miss the obvious allusion to things that Dick Cheney has come oh so close to saying himself in numerous interviews about the Iraq war and other scandalous events of the Bush administration. President Bush also, to a lesser extent, when it comes to issues of rendition and torture, has walked the line of nearly saying the same thing about Presidential power.

The key to Howard's direction of that scene, that approach to Nixon’s abuse of power and its historic context, and of the subtext as a whole, is not to overplay or underline the point. The moment in the movie is breathtaking both for the subtext provided in recent American history and for how it plays between Nixon and Frost. As Frost pauses not knowing how to react to such an extraordinary answer, the moment hangs in the air like a sword over both of their heads. Can Frost follow up? Does he need to? Can Nixon recover? This is one of three breathtaking moments in this movie, the other two I will leave you to discover.

Frank Langella's Nixon is a wounded soul who you almost come to sympathize with. Almost. I am among those who could never forgive such horrendous corruption. But, seeing Frost/Nixon, you get an impression of a man with great conviction. A man who, if he were not so paranoid and power mad, could have been a great President. Michael Sheen meanwhile, is very effective as David Frost, capturing both the blow dried pretty boy and the feisty, crafty scoundrel who may have been just the right man for the job. In the end it was Frost who cemented Nixon's image in our minds. Some revisionists may claim that Nixon came away better for the interview but those Watergate moments are the ones that people will always take away.

Frost/Nixon is one of the best films of 2008.

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. 

Movie Review The Kingdom

The Kingdom (2007) 

Directed by Peter Berg 

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan 

Starring Jennifer Garner, Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins

Release Date September 28th, 2007

Published September 27th, 2007 

The trailer for Peter Berg's The Kingdom promises much more than the film delivers. Watching the trailer you expect big action, political intrigue and some mystery. What you really get in The Kingdom is CSI: Saudi Arabia. The first two acts of The Kingdom play out with the precision of your average episode of Jerry Bruckheimer's cop science show. The last third of The Kingdom however becomes something close to what was promised. The third act of this foreign set thriller becomes such a rousing action piece that I can forgive much of the dull imitation of a TV cop show that is the first two acts.

In Riyadh Saudi Arabia there is a strip of land where hundreds of American oil workers have recreated America on Saudi soil. It is here that that the terrorsts of the new thriller The Kingdom strike and kill more than 100 Americans and several of their Saudi protectors. Also killed in this attack are a pair of American FBI agents.

After some political maneuvering the FBI's Evidence Response Team leader Ronald Fleury gets his team, including Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), on the ground in the kingdom, as Saudi Arabia is called in private. They are not welcome as their Saudi Arabian police bodyguard Col. Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom) explains and American diplomat Jim Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) underlnes.

The teams goal is to find the weapons used in the attack, link them to a specific terrorist and kill him. That it plays out quite that simply is both a virtue and a curse for this interesting but not entirely satisfying thriller. Directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, The Rundown), The Kingdom attempts to be a mystery, a forensic thriller and an action movie and only succeeds at one, and then only in the final act of the movie.

The last third of the film is an extended action sequence involving the capture and near beheading of one of our heroes and his friends' desperate, violent attempts to rescue him. These scenes are expertly captured by Berg's handheld, whip pan camera and in Matthew Michael Carnahan's hard boiled, tight lipped dialogue.

The striking moment, and the films most true, comes as Foxx's Fleury and his Saudi counterpart kick down the door of a potential terrorist. Just before the action kicks in, Foxx asks casually but with some urgent good humor, which side of the door Allah was on. The Saudi's matter of fact response "We'll see" feels real, it sounds like a part of a story that someone might tell over beers after surviving it. It's the most authentic moment in the movie.

Solemn with bursts of awkward wit, the script by Matthew Michael Carnahan fails to give weight to the picture beyond the obvious dangers of the mission. Attempts at politics are fumbled miserably as scenes involving Richard Jenkins as the head of the FBI and Danny Huston as the Attorney General happen without context or consequence. Two fine actors are wasted in a subplot that never develops, in an attempt to bring political weight where none exists.

So just what is the political perspective of The Kingdom? There really isnt any. The film makes passing references to 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, and the war in Iraq. However, the politicians of The Kingdom are fictional as is the films terrorist attack which is loosely based on the 1997 Khobar Towers bombing and the struggles of the FBI in conflict with the Saudis and our own government, but it takes place in a modern context.

The films allusions of depth come not from politics or a subtext of war criticism or the futility of terrorism but rather more facile references to how Americans and Saudis and even terrorists are all just people with families to protect and care for. Thus why we have a few uncomfortable scenes where Jamie Foxx is established as a loving doting dad, scenes where his Saudi counterpart Col. Al Ghazi is seen caring for his two sons and even a scene of a terrorist comforting and teaching his young son about Jihad and American imperialism.

The family scenes feel like a fratboy's attempt at being deep and meaningful and Berg has always carried that fratboy air about him. Writer Matthew Michael Carnahan too has that air of fratboy toughness without thought, sensitivity only in the broadest strokes. In the end it is that fratboy sensibility that makes them terrific with crafting visceral action scenes but at a loss to tell us what it all means or give us anything deeper than 'everyone has a daddy'.

The Kingdom is a deeply flawed action picture that succeeds because its creators are skilled in the art of action and at holding a surface of professionalism. The film always looks good, keeps a good pace, even at 2 hours plus, and it certainly feels like it should be important. Unfortunately, there isn't much beneath the surface of The Kingdom.

A kickass third act is what recommends The Kingdom. If you go in with lowered expectations, lower than the Oscar nominatable expectations I had from that killer trailer, and you may find yourself enjoying The Kingdom.

Movie Review The Kids Are Alright

The Kids Are Alright (2010) 

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko 

Written by Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Bloomberg 

Starring Mia Wasikowska, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson

Release Date July 9th, 2010 

Published August 1st, 2010 

An unconventional family in an unconventional movie; “The Kids Are All Right” tells the story of a lesbian couple named Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) and their teenage son and daughter, Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and Joni (Mia Wasikowska). The picture of modern domestic bliss in their comfortable upper middle class niche; this family is in just the right moment to be upended.

Upended they are when the kids seek out the man who donated the sperm that impregnated their moms. The donor daddy was Paul (Mark Ruffalo) a bachelor restaurateur living the California ideal of wine, women and organic coop farming. He's shocked to hear from Joni and Laser but willing to meet and after meeting them he becomes a part of their lives. Naturally, though they put on a brave face, Jules and Nic are a little hurt and a little threatened by Paul. With Joni leaving for college soon they are concerned about losing precious moments with her to Paul. To rectify the situation they attempt to connect with Paul and it goes well for Jules, not so well for Nic.

You may be able to guess what happens next but not the way these characters react to these changing circumstances. Writer-director Lisa Cholodenko has gathered an expert cast into a modern and unique story of love, family, sex, heartache and self discovery. Surrounding these dramatic developments are comic moments that are painfully awkward yet somehow round the corner from embarrassing to shockingly funny.

In a cast filled with standouts Annette Bening is the star. Though some may find her control freak character shrill, Ms. Bening turns this around with one touching and brilliant scene that is arguably the finest bit of acting in any movie this year. An uncomfortable dinner at Paul's house finds Paul and Jules finally sharing a common interest, singer Joni Mitchell, and Ms. Bening heartachingly warbling a piece of her favorite song.

In the film's timeline this scene arrives at a turning point and as the scene plays out we become lost in this moment of pleasure tinged with sadness. It's a moment that sets the pace for everything to come after it and the moment bonds you not just to Ms. Bening's Nic but to the film and the emotional journey of all of these characters.

While Ms. Bening is the star, Mia Wasikowska is the film's MVP quietly holding the emotional center while all around her grow chaotic and emotional. She too will have her moment of emotional breakdown but her center is strong and her recovery quick. Best known for her role as Alice in Tim Burton's unctuous “Alice in Wonderland,” this is the first time Ms. Wasikowska has been allowed to stand apart from the background and she really proves her dramatic chops.

”The Kids Are All Right” is not flawless. The story grows restless and the awkward comedy is, at times, wearying but for the most part this is a wonderfully adult dramatic comedy with a good head and a better heart. Lisa Cholodenko has a strong sense of character and place and with this cast there was simply no going wrong.

Movie Review The Island

The Island (2005) 

Directed by Michael Bay 

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Caspian Tredwell-Owen 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi 

Release Date July 22nd, 2005 

Published July 21st, 2005 

If you cannot appreciate the exquisite irony of director Michael Bay remaking a film, Parts: The Clonus Horror, that was a feature attraction on the cult TV classic "Mystery Science Theater 3000", then clearly we are not on the same page. Here you have the single most hackneyed director of all big budget directors taking on material that is already bad with the chance to actually make it worse. That is just beautiful.

(Note: According to recent litigation, Michael Bay and Dreamworks are fighting a copyright lawsuit from the Director of Parts: The Clonus Horror)

My enjoyment however is short lived. Because, though I still despise the work of Mr. Bay, I cannot hate his new film The Island, a film that inspires admiration for being the rare remake of a bad film into a moderately watchable film. There is something praiseworthy about not remaking a good film and instead making a bad film better. That doesn't mean The Island is a great film but it is at least much better than I had expected.

Ewan McGregor stars in The Island as Lincoln Six Echo, one of only thousands of survivors of some sort of plague that has contaminated the earth. Forced to live in an underground facility, Lincoln and his fellow white-jump suited neighbors have their every whim catered to and every action monitored. After surviving the plague, with the help of Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean), each of the survivors had to relearn how to read, write and do generally anything that may have come easily to them before.

This is not exactly the most exciting way to live. In between being re-educated, Lincoln cannot eat what he wants, a computer monitors his every action, and he cannot interact with the opposite sex for fear of.... well we aren't sure. It is just forbidden by the powers that be that the survivors cannot be involved with one another. This is hard on poor Lincoln whose best friend is the beautiful Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johannsson) who seems to share Lincoln's forbidden attraction.

The only real excitement in the facility is a nightly lottery where one person is selected to leave for the final unspoiled place in the world, The Island. It's a dreamlike paradise in place to keep people doing their jobs and not rocking the boat out of fear they will never be allowed into paradise. Lincoln, however, seems unconcerned about the island.  That is not to say he is not interested in the outside world, but he prefers the earthy meanderings of one of the facilities utility workers, McCord (played by Steve Buscemi), the rare person with a good memory of the world before the plague

It is while visiting McCord that Lincoln stumbles upon a frightening secret:  there is no island and his life and the lives of everyone he knows are not at all what they believe. The film's commercials give away what should have been a surprise twist.  There was no plague.  Lincoln, Jordan, and everyone they know, aside from Dr. Merrick and his staff, are clones. Lincoln and everyone he knows have been created as spare parts for rich people just in case they find themselves needing a kidney or liver or other body part. A trip to the Island is really a trip to execution after whatever necessary body parts are harvested.

The Island has a very intriguing sci-fi setup that establishes a classic sci-fi story in just the first third of the film. It's unfortunate that Bay abandons this direction after only 40 minutes or so. From there the film reverts to the classic Michael Bay formula: run, scream, boom! Lincoln is able to rescue Jordan right before she is to be shipped to the island and once they escape it's all explosions and chase scenes as Dr. Merrick hires ex-military mercenaries lead by Djimon Hounsou to track them down and kill them before they can reveal the secrets of the facility.

What I cannot deny is that much of The Island is very entertaining even after its most interesting scenes are long forgotten. Bay's explosions and chases are bigger and louder than ever. Stylistically, Mr. Bay has never evolved from his days directing commercials and music videos, however he has become more professional.  His work is tighter and better executed than it ever has been before. Now if he could only evolve past the need to stuff his film with product placement, maybe more of his films would be as watchable as The Island.

Mr. Bay's work on The Island is greatly aided by a story that is better than any Bay has ever attempted to tell. The sci-fi premise is intriguing and though it is too quickly abandoned, the two stars, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannsson deliver winning performances that carry the audience through Bay's usual special effects bonanzas. There has been a little buzz about the film having a message involving cloning but this is still a Michael Bay movie and messages or morals are really not welcome.

Working with Bay for the first time on The Island is Cinematographer Mauro Fiore and the teaming is a strong one. Deep cold blues and darkness fill the indoor scenes but it is when the characters leave the sci-fi prison that Mr. Fiore really shines.  Mr. Fiore's sun baked visuals mimic the feeling of the protagonists who have never seen the sun before.  At first it is bright, almost blinding, and then slightly burned but focused.  

Fiore was perfectly prepared to work with Bay after working twice with another music video veteran Antoine Fuqua, first on Training Day and then on Tears of the Sun. Both of those films featured a similar slightly washed out or burned look that played well against the stories being told. As strong as Mr. Fiore's work is Bay's visual style still tends toward the facile perfection of music videos, though that likely owes more to his quick-cut editing style and lemming-like loyalty to slow motion under and up camera moves.

The Island is not a great film but by the standards set by Michael Bay's previous films, it is a regular magnum opus.  I still don't hold a great deal of optimism for Bay's future career, so I might be inclined to even say this is his Citizen Kane.  About as close as he'll get at least.  By realistic standards, The Island is an entertaining but flawed sci-fi action piece with two terrific stars who make the film better by the force of their charisma and star power. For Mr. Bay, hopefully it's a sign that his next movie, an adaptation of the kids cartoon "Transformers", might not completely suck.

Movie Review The Invisible

The Invisible (2007) 

Directed by David S Goyer 

Written by Mick Davis, Christine Roum 

Starring Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Marcia Gay Harden

Release Date April 27th. 2007 

Published April 26th, 2007 

The Invisible is one of the more abused Hollywood releases of the last year. The teen centered, metaphysical thriller was to be released in late 2006. It was then dumped into the mire of early January. Then, with little notice, the movie was bumped to April. How little care was taken with this latest rescheduling? Trailers for The Invisible ran, even a week before the film's April 27th release, touting the film's January release. Ouch!

Released without being shown to critics, another unkind cut, The Invisible is a sad case of a studio that did not know what it had. This is a smart, thoughtful, spiritual thriller with a star making performance from Justin Chatwin and from director David S. Goyer. Star making; had the studio not screwed things up so badly.

Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin) is a privileged teen who has every material comfort he could want. Smart, good looking and popular, Nick is even on his way out of the country having been accepted into a prestigious English writing school. Unfortunately, before he can board the plane for London; Nick is involved in a case of mistaken identity.

A group of thugs led by the troubled and abused Annie (Margerita Levieva); through a misunderstanding, come to believe that Nick has turned them over to the cops after they were busted for a robbery. Seeking him out late at night on a dark empty street they drag him into the woods with the intent of just beating him up. They end up beating him to within an inch of his life and hiding the body.

Nick is not dead but he's also not alive. Emerging from the forest seemingly unscathed; Nick arrives at school and finds that no one can see or hear him; he is Invisible to the living. After some soul searching, Nick realizes that he may still have a chance to live if he can convince Annie to help him find his body and save his life.

Directed by David S. Goyer, the writer behind the Blade movies and Ghost Rider, The Invisible is a surprisingly thoughtful and involving melodrama. Spiritual, though not religious, The Invisible unfolds a metaphysical mystery that explores human nature, compassion and forgiveness in the guise of an average teenage ghost story.

Justin Chatwin, who played Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds, looks and carries similar mannerisms to a young Tom Cruise. It is uncanny; the ways this kid evokes Cruise circa Taps, The Outsiders and up to The Color of Money, his pre-scientology phase. The kid is charismatic, handsome, and carries that indescribable star magnetism that should make him a big star.

Chatwin brings a thoughtfulness to Nick that is unexpected from a character in a b-movie teen ghost story. But then, thankfully, nearly everything about The Invisible defies expectations. It's supposed to be another teen horror movie from the marketing. It's supposed to be a B-movie because it has no recognizable stars and it's supposed to stink because the studio didn't show the film to critics ahead of time. The Invisible turns all of these expectations on their ears and comes out a smart, meditative and immersive moviegoing experience.

Based on a novel by Swedish writer Mats Wahl, The Invisible is; not surprisingly, an existentialist meditation on the philosophy of existence. Nick falls into the cracks between life and death and is forced to examine why he wants to live and take action to save his own life. Annie on the other hand is uncertain about her wanting to exist. She has lived in the shadows of life; going unnoticed, in her own way; Invisible, unless she was crossed. She confronts her dark existence in dealing with Nick and finds the meaning of her own life.

Heavy stuff for what was expected to be just another teen movie. That is what is so great about this picture, the way director David S. Goyer and screenwriters Mick Davis and Christine Roum never settled for just a ghost story, just a horror movie or just a mystery. The Invisible has a rich inner life, a subtext that is so often missing from modern, mainstream Hollywood movies.

The Invisible is a thoughtful, entertaining, even exciting movie that defies all expectations. Hollywood Pictures, the Disney subsidiary that released The Invisible, may have had no confidence in the film but no matter. The Invisible thrives despite its studio indifference. The movie thrives on smart storytelling, good action and terrific direction from rising filmmaker David S. Goyer.

Don't judge a book by its cover and don't judge The Invisible by its studio indifference. This is a terrific movie that deserves your attention.

Movie Review The Invasion

The Invasion (2007) 

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel 

Written by David Kajganich 

Starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright

Release Date August 17th, 2007

Published August 16th, 2007 

The latest incarnation of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, that legendary cold war parable based on the novel by Jack Finney, is one those mythically troubled Hollywood productions. Not quite the historic Hollywood disaster of Bonfire of the Vanities or Ishtar, but with more than a little in common with the recent disastrous Exorcist prequel(s), The Invasion was once directed by an up and coming director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, before being almost entirely reshot by V For Vendetta helmer James McTiegue, with guidance from his producing partners Lana and Lilly Wachowski, The Invasion is a bizarre hybrid of failed ideas and pieces that just don't fit. 

Now, this compromised, reshot version of Hirschbiegel's take on the Body Snatchers legend is finally on the big screen and the result is, as predicted, an utter disaster. The Invasion is a nonsense movie comprised of half baked political ideas and lame, over the top action set pieces. The last time Nicole Kidman starred in a big budget remake the result was the dreary, nonsensical recreation of The Stepford Wives. Working on that highly troubled production should have taught the Oscar winner a lesson yet here she is in The Invasion starring as psychiatrist Carol Bennell. This mother of one son, Oliver (Jackson Bond), is a dedicated mother and doctor

Dad, Tucker (Jeremy Northam) is a scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and when the space shuttle Patriot crashes leaving debris spread across several states he is surprised to be called to the scene. It seems the ship is coated in some sort of alien ooze. When Tucker is accidentally cut by a piece of debris he is soon changed and an alien virus is set loose on the planet. Beginning as what many feel is a flu epidemic, Tucker uses his position at the CDC and his access to the President of the United States, to spread the alien virus and his first target is his son.

It will soon be up to mom and her scientist boyfriend Ben (Daniel Craig) and another scientist, Dr. Galleon (Jeffrey Wright) to discover the virus, uncover the conspiracy and stay uninfected long enough to discover a cure. There are germs of many ideas in The Invasion and a good deal of high minded ambition as well. Unfortunately, not even two talented directors, Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) or pinch hitter James McTiegue (V For Vendetta), and a script overhaul by the Matrix team can seem to wrangle these ideas or ambitions into a cohesive story.

It's clear that the makers of The Invasion desperately wanted the film to be relevant, even political. However, lacking any idea of what metaphor it wants to represent or political philosophy it supports, The Invasion flails in many different directions with no real target to aim at. Allusions are made to the genocide in Darfur, the roiling conflict between Israel and Palestine, and to the war in Iraq but the film doesn't really have a discernible opinion about any of these issues. Rather, each is used as an unsettling plot point in a truly confusing final act that will have some wondering if the aliens are really the bad guys. Yes, the film is so bad, you may just root for the destruction of humanity.

Even through the morass of a thoroughly confused plot, the talented cast of The Invasion manages to make the movie rather gripping. Nicole Kidman is an actress of tremendous strength and fortitude and she sells the tension of the alien invasion extraordinarily well. Though she is a little too convincing as an icy, emotionless, zombie, Ms. Kidman's tenacity and the well calibrated action of The Invasion do manage, from time to time, to move you to the edge of your seat.

Is this really the film that Daniel Craig meant to follow up James Bond with? Not really, actually he was given the role of 007 during shooting of The Invasion. It was only after he completed work on Casino Royale that Craig was called back to reshoot scenes for The Invasion that would hold the film until after Casino Royale. A bummer for Craig who I'm sure wishes he could have had a stronger follow up for Bond than playing second fiddle in a tragic sci fi misfire like The Invasion.

On a more disturbing note, whose awful idea was it to bring the alien virus to earth on a crashing NASA space shuttle? A crash that is not merely reminiscent of the 2003 crash of the space shuttle Columbia but so obviously modeled on the details of that tragedy that a lawsuit would not be out of the question. The crash in The Invasion is spread predominantly over Texas with debris that spread over several southern states. This was the near exact fate of Columbia.

Shame on the producers of The Invasion and the studio for including something of such poor taste and utter disregard for the brave men and women of Columbia and their families. They deserve far better than to have their tragedy be a plot device in some B-movie sci fi schlock-fest. Will we ever see director Oliver Hirschbiegel's original cut of The Invasion? Maybe, maybe not. No one expected to see Paul Schrader's Exorcist prequel or Ridley Scott's Blade Runner but both are now widely available. Hirschbiegel's version no doubt still exists somewhere and will likely be sought after by many a curious sci fi fan due to how uproariously terrible the reshoots clearly are.

Let us keep in mind however, that there is nothing in what is left of The Invasion that holds much promise for a better version to exist in the shadows. The whole misguided enterprise looks more simply like a case of a movie in search of an idea that never really found one. Covering the holes and the cracks with skillful car chases and  well staged gunplay, the Wachowski's and director James McTiegue likely did all that they could with the materials on hand.

Don't hold out too much hope sci fi fans. Let's try and put this Invasion behind us.