What's On At The Moment

Enough politics, back to movies! What have I seen recently?

Next - 2.5/5

Movie adaptations of Philip K Dick's Sci-Fi stories have, over the years, produced some of the most intelligent and compelling films in the genre - Blade Runner, Minority Report or last year's A Scanner Darkly. Let's be clear from the outset that Next, based on Dick's story The Golden Man, isn't one of them. In fact, it's an incredibly big and dumb film. The script is incredibly clunky, some of the CGI effects are decidedly ropey and the story ever so slightly on the ridiculous side.

Nicolas Cage plays a man born with the ability to see a few minutes into the future but only in relation to his own life. Julianne Moore plays the FBI agent who tries to recruit him to help her stop a nuclear bomb going off in Los Angeles, while Jessica Biel is there to look pretty basically. The plot allows the director to have tremendous fun showing you something, then rewinding and doing it a different way - a trick he rather over-uses and the ending is one of the most irritating in recent cinema. Cage mugs his way through the whole thing in smug "I'm getting paid for this nonsense" mode, Moore looks continually perplexeded, presumably wondering how on earth she's meant to speak this dialogue and Biel does look pretty, but has a totally bland character.

If you can leave that aside - its actually all rather fun, sometimes unintentionally so. And some are Cage's escapes - anticipating every move of his pursuers are very well executed. A film not to be taken too seriously, but definitely entertaining in its own way.

The Painted Veil - 3/5

An adaptation of Somerset Maugham's classic tale. The excellent Naomi Watts stars as a young woman who marries as stiff-lipped research doctor (Edward Norton) in order to escape from her mother. Not loving him, and bored with life in Shanghai, she embarks on an affair with the underused Liev Schrieber. The good doctor, then displays a hitherto unsuspected vindictive side and drags her cross country to the cholera infested small town where he has volunteered to help out. During the course the outbreak, the couple see a new side of each other and gradually come back together and fall in love.

The storyline of growth, redemption and restoration has the potential to be compelling and moving, but manages to be just interesting and intringuing. You can tell a film is struggling when the scenery is almost as interesting as the action, although in this case the locations are gorgeous. The main weakness is with the usually reliable Norton - whether through mis-casting or poor scripting. He remains too much of an enigma, too much of a cerebral cold fish to really engage the audience and whilst we're told much of his heroics in battling the epidemic we don't really see enough of it to lend complete credibility for Watts' new found passion for him.

Able support is provided by Toby Jones (the short fat Lord from Amazing Grace) and a welcome return to the big screen for Diana Rigg as the Mother Superior of the convent in the cholera-ridden town. There are some nice touches along the way, but the whole falls rather short of the emotional punch it could and maybe should have packed.

Fracture – 3/5

This is an inherently pulpy thriller. Essentially a two handed affair of cat and mouse between Anthony Hopkins’ coldly calculating engineer who shoots his wife and Ryan Gosling as the hot-shot DA charged with putting him behind bars.

Hopkins seems to manage to combine elements of two of his previous creations. He has the cold calculating amorality and arrogance of Hannibal Lecter, but strangely combines this with the humour and perpetual tinkering with things of Bert Munro of The World’s Fastest Indian. He also the sense not to take this too seriously and is never less entertaining.

Gosling starts out all pride and self-assurance. He’s so cocky that in the early exchanges its hard not to root for Hopkins and wish for his comeuppance. The committal hearing where Hopkins sizes him up in an instant and carefully baits his trap is a joy to behold. However, as the film goes on and Gosling moves from being driven over-confidence and the desire to win to an actual real-desire for justice and concern for the victim, he rediscovers his more human qualities and Hopkins’ cold-blooded sociopathic tendencies start to look a whole lot less attractive.

There’s nothing too original here, but its cleverly plotted and competently executed. A talented supporting cast are more or less window-dressing to the two leads who will hold you interested throughout their little dance.

This is England – 4/5

Director Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes, A Room for Romeo Brass) latest starts with a montage of clips from the 80s, but as these turn into clips from the Falklands and street violence it becomes clear that this won’t be a rose-tinted nostalgia trip.

Shaun (excellent newcomer Thomas Turgoose) is a young lad who lost his dad in the Falklands and is bullied at school for his outdated dress sense. He’s adopted by a bunch of good-natured skinheads and a makeover later he’s found a place to belong. However, this happy bunch is disrupted by the return of Combo from prison who injects a note of racism and violence. Unfortunately, some of Combo’s views tap into Shaun’s need for a father-figure and he’s soon drawn into Combo’s world.

From there on things follow a depressingly predictable route, but the film is carried by a nice eye for period detail and wonderful performances, not just from Turgoose but also Stephen Graham, who brings depth and internal conflict to the role of Combo.

A romantic involvement between Shaun and a much older girl feels like a bit of a mis-step, but otherwise this is a thoroughly engaging, if rather bleak film.