Changeling

Dateline Los Angeles, the 1920s. Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) is a hard-working, tram-taking single mother who comes home one afternoon to find her pre-teen son gone without a trace. The LAPD promise to leave no stone unturned in their search for her boy, and after six months of heartbreak they deliver the miracle Christine prayed for. Only maybe it isn't a miracle at all, as she rapidly becomes convinced the boy returned to her is a stranger. But the 1920s is no time for a single mother to speak out against the law and soon she's being dragged off to the nuthouse, while in a farm outside LA another possible - and far more grisly explanation - for her son's disappearance is being uncovered. Director Clint Eastwood's usual sure-footed approach to crime drama stumbles a little as this film (based on a true story) dances between the lofty but plodding tale of one woman against the system and an energetic but tangential police investigation into a farmer turned serial child-killer. Much of the problem lies with the central character: Christine is a dull but worthy saint who is frustratingly passive in this male-dominated tale, and Jolie never gets under her skin. Eastwood's skill in combining human characters with pulp storytelling has served him well in the past, but Changeling is mostly a strident, flat-footed effort seemingly aimed more at grabbing awards than entertaining viewers.

Anthony Morris (this review was published in Forte #447)

He's Just Not That Into You

Turning popular relationship self-help book He's Just Not That Into You into a romantic comedy was never going to be easy, and not just because self-help books are usually somewhat short on those little things movies are built around like story and characters. Pretty much the entire point of the book is that instead of chasing after some guy or waiting for him to call, move onto the next guy and see if he treats you better. But the entire point of pretty much every romantic comedy out of Hollywood is that roughly two hours of misunderstandings, crossed wires, breaking up then making up is what love is all about. So it's to this film's credit that it manages to get as much of the original's message across as it does - even though there is a scene towards the end where one character tearfully rejects every single scrap of clear-headed relationship advice she's been given, and we're expected to cheer her decision to resume stalking guys and being treated by crap... because it's somehow a better path to love? The story here is pretty simple, as we follow a half dozen or so seemingly insanely wealthy Baltimore women (Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson and Ginnifer Goodwin) as they search for love either inside their relationships or in a new one. They string guys along, guys string them along, they get in the way of what they really want, they get their wires crossed, and everything ends relatively happily. As a bonus, we also find out that having no relationship is better than having a crap one and gay guys know nothing about heterosexual relationships, both of which earn this film bonus points for originality. Add in decent performances across the board, especially from the women (Connelly does an especially good job as a woman who's husband is sorta kinda cheating on her in a variety of ways) and a passable sense of humour to balance out the serious stuff, and the result is something that pretty much anyone who's been in a relationship should have no trouble getting into.

Anthony Morris (this review appeared in Forte #447)

The Spirit

To get the obvious out of the way first: The Spirit is nuts. It's not actually a bad movie - the story basically makes sense, the characters are consistent (if very cartoony), and the whole thing is put together with a well-judged sense of style and design - but it is a pretty nutty movie nonetheless. It doesn't really help that this tale of a trench-coated crime-fighter up against a supervillian looking to make himself immortal is trying to tap into a retro-pulp vibe of square-jawed heroes and over-the-top villainy that, whether it's the 90s version of The Shadow or the more recent Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, almost never works on the big screen. Throw in plenty of scenes that are just plain odd (Samuel L. Jackson in a nazi uniform? Eva Mendes photocopying her backside?) and you're left with a film that "quirky" doesn't really begin to cover. Most of this is down to the fact that it was written and directed by Frank Miller, the comic writer / artist behind Sin City and 300. Miller, as anyone who's read any of his comics since about 1997 knows, is a pretty out-there guy with some very firm ideas about what's funny - ideas that don't really match up with what the rest of us think is worth laughing at. Judging by The Spirit, there wasn't anyone around to tap him on the shoulder and point out that, say, having a foot with a tiny head attached hopping around a desk while Samuel L. Jackson says "that is really weird" over and over isn't something a lot of people would feel the need to watch. But despite all that, there's still a certain fascination about this film. Partly it's because it's clearly one man's unique vision, which is always more fun than yet another film-by-committee. Partly it's because it's basically a live-action cartoon that doesn't take itself too seriously. And partly it's because Miller, whatever his flaws, still knows how to keep a story moving forward. Insane this might be, but at least it's never dull.

Anthony Morris (this review appeared in Forte #447)

Role Models

Being a comedian in America sometimes looks like the hardest job in the world - yes, even harder than working in one of those African diamond mines where they kill you for asking for oxygen. That's because Americans seem to want their entertainment to have sappy, moralising, false-emotion-packed "heart", which is pretty much the exact opposite of funny. And even though American comedy often seems to have shaken off this burden of having "heart", you don't have to wait too long before it starts sneaking back. So, after a few years of generally heart-free - and therefore, very funny - comedies, it's a little worrying to check out something like Role Models and discover that there's just a little bit more "heart" here than one might have expected. Put another way: the premise of this movie is that a couple of energy drink salesmen - the downbeat Danny (Paul Rudd) and the party guy Wheeler (Seann William Scott) - get hopped up on their own product, commit one too many crimes, and only escape jail because Danny's lawyer ex-girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) cuts them a deal to help out at a big brother-style charity for kids. This set-up, which sounds like the kind of thing a current movie comedy would make fun of, is played pretty much straight: no wacky mix-ups, no crazy slip-ups, they break the law and this is their for-real sentence. Then when the guys pair off with their kids - Danny gets a live-action role-playing nerd played by Superbad's McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), while Wheeler gets a foul-mouthed, breast-obsessed pre-teen - the hijinks are interspersed with the occasional straight-faced "you gotta take care of kids" and "kids should be free to be who they want to be" scene. Make no mistake, there is plenty of funny stuff going on here, with the kids especially bringing the laughs in serious doses. The live-action role-playing finale is a classic, the running jokes about Kiss and Wings are hilarious, and there is no doubt whatsoever that comedy fans will find this well worth the money. But it's got to be said: this movie contains scenes of gratuitous, occasionally jarring and not really that much fun "heart".

Anthony Morris (this review appeared in Forte #444)

Doubt

The year is 1964 and New York's St Nicolas Catholic school operates under the chilly gaze of iron-fisted tyrant (and principal) Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep). Her superior and parish priest Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a far more likeable and easy-going man - so naturally Aloysius is far from his biggest fan, and advises the other nuns to keep a close eye on him. But when Sister James (Amy Adams) comes to Aloysius with vague suspicions about Flynn's dealings with a 12 year-old black student, are Aloysius' actions based on genuine concern or her own darker desires? Based on his own play, writer / director John Patrick Shanley has created an at times stagy but none the less compelling exploration of conflicting attitudes and the stresses placed on "truth" when it's one person's word against another's. Reminiscent at times of David Mamet's famous "who's side are you on?" play Oleanna but with the occasional forced parallel with the self-serving methods of the War on Terror (says Aloysius: "In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God") shoehorned in, it's the kind of stagy, verbose film you can't help feeling would be a lot more effective left as a play. But outstanding performances from Streep and Hoffman make even the rare flat moments watchable, and the many gripping scenes soar.

Anthony Morris (this review appeared in The Big Issue #321)

Seven Pounds

There's something not quite right about Ben Thomas (Will Smith). And not just because this film opens with him calling 911 to report his own suicide. He's using his power as a tax inspector to check up on the personal lives of a bunch of people, all of whom seem to be suffering from one kind of serious illness or another. Then there are the flashbacks of happier times with a wife who doesn't seem to be on the scene any more, and memories of a job that seemed to have something to do with building spacecraft don't quite fit in with his current work with the IRS. On the one hand he's helping old ladies in a nursing home, on the other he's abusing a blind meat salesman (Woody Harrelson) over the phone, and when he starts to develop a relationship with a woman with a heart condition (Eva Mendes) who he's supposedly auditing it's kind of difficult to work out where things are going to go. Well, it is unless you figure out the mystery at the heart of this film, which is pretty easy to work out despite the story constantly jumping backwards and forwards in time for no real other than to obscure events. There's enough going on in this film to keep things reasonably watchable even if you do work the mystery out early, but like a lot of Hollywood films of late this takes a fairly interesting central idea and - rather than actually explore the ramifications of that actually pretty creepy idea - turns it into a fairly stock-standard love story (this time of the doomed variety). Thankfully, good performances from Mendes and (especially) Smith make the love story engaging enough right up until a overblown, sappy finale that fails to hit any of the emotional highs it's so desperately straining towards. This is one of those worthy films that does a really good job of being just bland enough to offend no-one while looking classy enough to make you feel better for having sat through it, and those who liked Smith better when he was funny might as well keep on walking.

Anthony Morris (this review appeared in Forte #444)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

There's really two ways to look at The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: if you're after the quirky tale of a man born old who grows younger with every passing day, then you can probably wander out for a coffee during the middle hour and a half (well, leave after the first hour and come back to catch the final half hour) of this three hour film. If you want to watch a fairly bog-standard love story about a couple who take their time about getting together, then that middle hour and a half is the film for you. Which is a bit of a shame, as while bland love stories between people who aren't all that interesting is pretty much a staple of blockbusters these days, a movie about someone growing younger isn't something you see every day and so seeing a bit more of it could only have been a good thing. The problem really is that once you get past puberty the next thirty years are pretty much the same no matter what direction you approach them from, and even after that there's not a whole lot of difference until you get towards the very end of life. So the decision to fill the space with a love story between Benjamin (Brad Pitt) and Daisy (Cate Blanchett) probably seemed like a good idea, especially as they get to meet in the early 1930s when he looks about 80 and she's barely in her teens. But as they grow up he turns into a fairly bland "everyman" character while she's an arty dancer who's a touch annoying, and who really cares about their doomed love when he's a guy growing old in reverse? The special effects used to create this reverse aging are outstanding and basically seamless and the whole project reeks of class, but for anyone hoping that a life lives backwards who reveal more insight than "being a kid and being an old man are really a lot alike" this has to count as a disappointment.

Anthony Morris (this review appeared in Forte #444)