Letters to Juliet: Movie Review

Letters to Juliet: Movie Review

Letters to Juliet
Rating: 4/10
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, Christopher Egan
Director: Gary Winick
Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Surely one of the most iconic phrases from many an English lesson and thanks to numerous films, that balcony scene involving Romeo and Juliet is etched into many a romantic mind.
Amanda Seyfried stars as the soon to be married American researcher Sophie, who heads to Verona with her fiancée Victor (Garcia Bernal) to enjoy a pre marriage break.
But instead of splurging on the culture or her, Victor spends a lot more of his time meeting with suppliers for his restaurant and leaves Sophie to her own devices.
So, Sophie ends up under that infamous balcony where many a star crossed lover posts a "letter to Juliet" asking for help. As Sophie follows a gaggle of ladies who answer these letters, she finds herself questioning her own life and destiny.
And that confusion is made even worse, when she answers a letter sent by a girl called Claire. The response she dishes out sees the older Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) head to Verona to pursue her destiny - along with her grand son Charlie (Egan) - how will their intertwined destinies play out?
What can you say about Letters to Juliet? It's another romantic comedy which is light and frothy and pitches squarely for a certain audience who'll be happy with it - high art it certainly is not. Beautifully shot though it is - still, with a canvas like Verona to work from, that's not surprising.
It's scattered with bon mots throughout which will amuse some ("Husbands are like wine - they take time to mature") but irritate others; likewise some of the characterisation is a bit lazy. Victor is clearly not the man Sophie should be with - and thanks to that, you don't actually feel Sophie's choice is as painful or as dramatic as it could be. I know it's still supposed to be romantic comedy with a tinge of drama but it would have injected a bit more bite into it.

There's a few cheesy contrived moments as well as some predictable moments but all in all Letters to Juliet delivers exactly what you'd expect.

The Secret in Their Eyes: Movie Review

The Secret in Their Eyes: Movie Review

The Secret In Their Eyes
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Ricardo Darin, Pablo Rago, Guillermo Francella, Soledad Villamil
Director: Juan Jose Campanella
El secreto de sus ojos (to give it its Argentinean title) arrives on our shores having collected the Academy Award this year for Best Foreign Language Film.
Set in 1999, Ricardo Darin (a popular Argentinean actor) plays former investigator Benjamin Esposito who's retired but not been able to put one case out of his mind.
25 years ago, Esposito investigated the brutal rape and murder of a 23 year old woman - but despite pursuing several leads, Esposito and his partner Sandoval never managed to close the case.
One suspect emerges and the duo try everything in their power to get him convicted - but as Esposito recalls the case for a novel, he begins to realise that he has to reopen the case.
Not only that, but he must rediscover the feelings he buried a long time ago for his boss Irene&.
The Secret In Their Eyes is a solid crime drama; gritty and involving. It also has some wonderful character moments and the partnership between Esposito and Sandoval has some brilliant quirky and humorous moments.
But there's an undercurrent of tragedy in this slightly over long film thanks in part to the lost love theme running throughout. Esposito suffers from a destructive unrequited love and the murdered victim's husband suffers from a mournful desire to find out exactly what happened to his wife. As the truth begins to unravel at the denouement, there's a powderkeg of emotions waiting to explode as the slow burner finally ignites.

The Secret In Their Eyes will drag you in - it may take a little time to get going but once it's got its nails into you, it won't let go.

Where The Wild Things Are: DVD Review

Where The Wild Things Are: DVD Review

Where The Wild Things Are
Released by Roadshow Entertainment
Rating: PG
Bursting onto the small screen is the adaptation of the perennially popular book Where The Wild Things Are.

Max is your typical kid - rambunctious, lacking in boundaries and discipline and blessed with a fiercely imaginative mind.

He spends his time building igloos in the snow and wandering around in a wolf costume.

One day after a fight and heated argument with his mum, he runs off, gets in a boat and heads to an island. That island is Where The Wild Things live - and under the cover of darkness, he meets Carol (James Gandolfini) and the rest of the gang - a group of 10 foot tall hairy creatures wreaking havoc for no reason.

Granted, there's not much story to build on from the book but what the ever creative director Spike Jonze has dreamt up is stunning in places - and his decision to turn the Wild Things into toweringly tall animatronic full suits (with creatures made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop) is nothing short of cinematic genius.

Shot with a handheld camera, the film is full of beautiful visuals - as well as nightmarish visions and will amaze you from the very moment the Wild Things appear on the screen. They look like cuddly puppets in places - but Carol's temperamental behaviour and tantrums which rock Max's world are brilliantly brought to life by the vocal work of James Gandolfini of Sopranos fame. In fact, it's possible to say Gandolfini's Carol is a creature version of his Tony Soprano - charming and charismatic but with the capability of turning at just the bat of an eyelid.

Where The Wild Things Are is a charming and sweet piece which will win you over.

Rating: 7/10

Red Cliff: DVD Review

Red Cliff: DVD Review

The Battle of Red Cliff
Rating: M
Cast: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro
Released by Warner Home Video

Director John Woo returns to Chinese soil with millions of dollars in Red Cliff, a historical epic about Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi), and the scheming Prime Minister to the Han dynasty Emperor.

The Prime Minister is leading a massive Northern army to quell the rebel warlords of the South.

Filled with sumptuous battle scenes and brutal recreations of the battles which dominated Chinese history, Red Cliff is in places a visual treat. Don't get me wrong, while it looks gorgeous - it is probably a dream film for those who want to study how wars were conducted in years gone by.

But it's ever so slightly hollow - I wasn't quite sure whether some of the close ups of the evil Prime Minister laughing sinisterly were ironic - because if not, they certainly verge on the hammy.

The Battle of Red Cliff is a good story which appears to have been told with a set formula in mind and that hasn't helped.

That said, the battle scenes are quite stunning in places (even if it does come with Woo's trademark slow mo shots)- Red Cliff is an interesting film which doesn't quite engage 100% but as a spectacle it looks fabulous.

Extras: Interview with director John Woo, and a behind the scenes doco
Rating: 6/10 

The Blind Side: Movie Review

The Blind Side: Movie Review

Rating: 5/10
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Jae Head, Kathy Bates
Director: John Lee Hancock
So the film that netted Sandra Bullock an Oscar on the same weekend as she scored a Razzie is finally upon us.
Based on a 2006 book, The Blind Side is the story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a towering gentle giant who's from the wrong side of Memphis. Homeless, apparent family-less and with no prospects at all, Michael's life is changed when his path one day accidentally crosses with Sandra Bullock's brassy, Southern sassy Leigh Anne Tuohy.
The Tuohys are from the right side of town; Leigh Anne's husband owns a heap of Taco Bells and with their Christian way of life and ethics, they never want for anything.
So in the true spirit of altruism, the Tuohys take in Michael and begin to offer him some hope - and some of that hope gives him the belief he needs to play American football.
I know exactly what The Blind Side is aiming for - it has aspirations to be inspirational and is clearly pitching purely and simply at uplifting. But sadly, personally it didn't strike the chord.
Sandra Bullock is good as Leigh Anne but I couldn't shake the feeling having seen other Oscar nominated performances that she didn't quite deserve to walk off with the statuette - she does ballsy and headstrong with a heart well but is it Oscar winning? Well that's for debate I guess.
The supporting performances are good - including Quinton Aaron who does a reasonable job of portraying the down on his luck kid in need of a break.

I can see why The Blind Side did well in America and I can see how it will resonate with some here but I didn't really feel like I was watching something that was told originally; it follows a very set formula and is entirely predictable in its story - although there was a hint of something a bit more of a moral at the end (which was left unexplored), sadly The Blind Side didn't give me the feel good factor that had been promised.

A Single Man: Movie Review

A Single Man: Movie Review

Rating: 8/10
Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode
Director: Tom Ford
Finally, the Oscar films are making their way to our cinemas.
The latest is A Single Man, based on the book of the same name, the directorial debut of Tom Ford and the film which saw plaudits rained down upon its leading actor, Colin Firth.
Firth stars as Professor George Falconer, a gay English professor who lives in 1960s Southern California. As the film begins - and via viewers' flashback, he's told by a phone call that his long term partner Jim (Goode) has been killed in a car crash.
Struggling to find any reason to carry on after the death of his 16 year relationship, and reflecting on his past and seemingly empty future, Falconer sets about planning for the end of his life via suicide.
What follows are his attempts to say goodbye and bring some order to his life at the end - and the seemingly mundane duties of his last day at college, dinner with his old friend Charlie (Julianne Moore) and drinks with a student Kenny (About a Boy's Nicholas Hoult) all bring a special significance to Falconer.
A Single Man is a stylistically heavy film - it won't surprise you to learn that it's from the same production design team who make TV's Mad Men; in fact a lot of the stylish recreations of the time are perfectly encapsulated on the screen.
But Ford's made a ham fist of some of his direction - there's plenty of close up scenes focusing on eyes; be it of people or in one case of a massive poster; these seem odd distractions and motifs which don't really fit in.
Likewise Nicholas Hoult's Kenny appears to have been airbrushed to within an inch of his life; with his spray tan and bleached teeth, it's like watching a mannequin - again, there's nothing wrong with his performance, but it just distracts from the overall feel.

However - those are just minor niggles because A Single Man is Colin Firth's film. I'll freely admit I've never really rated him (sorry ladies, I know many of you are thinking of that scene from Pride and Prejudice) as an actor - but after this performance, I really am going to have to re-evaluate him because he's sensational and sears on the screen in this.
One scene when he's told of Jim's death is just stunning to watch; in just a few moments Firth conveys every conceivable emotion you'd expect of someone who's just been told their one true love has died; it's heartbreaking to watch and yet mesmerizing to see him perform so well. Firth commands your attention and never once betrays that commitment.
Where A Single Man also works so well is in its portrayal of Jim and George's relationship - never once is it in your face; it's subtle, tender and loving, a relationship to aspire to and thanks to that, you fully understand George's emotive response to his loss.

A Single Man is a slice of sophisticated cinema; it's slick (perhaps a little too much in places) but thanks to Colin Firth, it's a hypnotic film which will be cherished by many.

New York, I Love You: Movie Review

New York, I Love You: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Rachel Bilson, Cloris Leachman - and a host more
Director: Natalie Portman, Anthony Minghella - and a host more
New York - a diverse city and a collection of cultures.
New York, I Love You - a diverse collection of stories all tied together by the city they're set in. And a sequel of sorts to Paris, Je T'Aime.
This film's comprised of 11 stories of around 10 minutes long and they cover a whole range of story topics - the only ever common theme is NY itself.
And it's not just a wealth of acting talent involved too, there's a whole heap of directors - including the late Anthony Minghella (to whom the film's dedicated.)
As with any collection of anthologies and like a box of chocolates, there's some good ones and some duds that you tolerate. But as the stories themselves are only 10 minutes long, it means if you're ever bored or irritated by one of them, another one's knocking in the wings waiting for your attention.
Some are more successful than others - I loved the sparkle and sleight of hand of the story of Anton Yelchin's dumped boyfriend off to the prom; thanks to some crackle and rug from under your feet moments, there's a lot to love about this story where not everything is what it seems.
Likewise, the story of OAPs Abe and Mitzie has a universality around it - and many of us will recognise something of themselves in their tale.
The less successful segments sadly make the 10 minutes a difficult ask - Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci's tale of books and connections doesn't work as well as it could; but to be honest the diamonds outweigh the lumps of coal.
Sure, there are some common links to these vignettes; characters who drop in and out of frames - but each story is its own beast.

Stringed together by some obligatory shots (and at times unoriginal shots) of the skylines, of life in the city, of shapes and jazz New York I Love You has excellently conveyed the feel of the Big Apple and will find you lost in them for around 100 minutes.