The Psychology Of Ruthless Competition

I was so reluctant to see Rush when I first watched the trailer. But a New York Times rave review convinced me otherwise. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised emerging from the cinema tonight.

My confidence in Ron Howard the director also explained why I changed my mind about going to this movie. Howard has the track record of undeniably great works, including Apollo 13, Backdraft, A Beautiful Mind and Frost/Nixon. Similar to Ang Lee, his talent is so diverse and he has demonstrated great versatility in a wide range of film genres.

Howard's directorial debut in 1977, Grand Theft Auto, was his only other movie focusing on cars. Other than that, Howard admitted that he knew nothing about car-racing prior to making this movie. It was the talented British screenwriter Peter Morgan, with whom Howard collaborated in Frost/Nixon, who first approached him with the script. Howard became interested and started taking some lessons in Formula Three racing in order to get a feel of the thrill. Morgan, whose wife is Austrian, also met with the real Niki Lauda for some 30 dinners in a Vienna restaurant to get an in-depth analysis from the former world champion himself.

The resulting work is a superb work of art. Howard took the audience right behind and in front of the racecar driver's seat - with the camera so close sometimes that you could almost count the driver's eyelashes. But you don't need to be a racecar fan to enjoy this movie. Technically, it may be a movie about autoracing, but Howard really took the sport to a macro level - it's the psychology of competition between the two rivals - British James Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (played by Daniel Bruhl) - which was fascinating. Two polar-opposite individuals with different philosophies in life anchored the rivalry, respect and a life-long love-hate relationship between the two top drivers of the 1970s. Howard also left it to the audience to determine whose side are they on. As a director, he was deliberately unbiased.

Both principal actors are superb. Australian heartthrob Chris Hemsworth (best known for his role in Thor) has the good looks and charisma of playboy Hunt, while Spanish-born German actor Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds) demonstrates the precision, determination and ruthlessness of Lauder. Both were world champions, but in the end, the film left you questioning whether you're the living-for-the-present Hunt, or the committed, serious and hard-working Lauda. One may be intoxiated by Hunt, but it's the tough, persevering Lauda that one wants to emulate in life.

In spite of the film's dramatization of the dangerous sport, the movie is also very true to history which makes it all the more fascinating. The 64-year-old Lauder provided a lot of input and the movie was shot in actual racing circuits in 11 locations in England and Germany. Full attention to detail was paid to the era of the 1970s. If you like docu-dramas, you will love this film!

Prisoners - Best YTD 2013 Movie

I've never seen any of Canadian (Quebec) director Denis Villeneuve's previous movies - not even Incendies in 2011which has won so many awards and accolades. But after watching Prisoners today, I will put his works on my must-watch list in the future.

Prisoners is, so far, the best film I've seen this year. In spite of its three hours in length, every screen shot is worth the attention. The film made its debut at the Telluride Film Festival in August followed by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last month and began its appearance in cinemas across Canada today.

The two lead actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are both excellent and there are already a lot of Oscar-nominated projections. The hot-headed Jackman, in his Wolverine kind of way, is a sharp contrast against the calm, cool and intelligent Gyllenhaal. Both actors have to hide their obvious good looks to make their roles convincing.

But the greatest success should go to director Villeneuve who does not under-estimate his audience. He makes us work throughout the movie and never gives us the obvious explanation in any of the sub-plots or even on the suspects. As a crime thriller, he has not only managed to entertain us, but he challenges and provokes us to think, digest, rationalize and analyse. The movie is dark and violent, but the scariest thing is that it closely reflects what's been happening in North America, particularly in the U.S.A., in real life - the kidnapping and disappearance of so many kids! The most poignant question raised by the film is - how far would parents go to find and save their children when they've been abducted and kidnapped?

I've seen many crime dramas both on TV and on the big screen, so it's not difficult for me at all to guess very early on who's the responsible criminal - obviously not the usual suspects. But even so, the director puts us, the audience, in the difficult situation faced by parents. There are threads and clues in every scene, and we have to put them all together ourselves. Villeneuve also mocks religion and fate throughout the movie. Is God really looking after us and can we really control fate?

Keller Dover's  (Hugh Jackman) motto in life has always been "pray for the best, and be prepared for the worst," but was he ready for the worst when his daughter was kidnapped? Unfortunately, his motto has also always been mine as well, and this movie makes me wonder whether this point of view towards life is realistic or not since there's so much in life that we cannot control!

The cold, wet Pennsylvania weather, where the story takes place (the movie was actually shot in Georgia), exhibits a character of its own - just like the role of Seattle in the AMC crime drama The Killing. As the plot thickens and both cop and father get more desperate and frustrated, the weather also further dampens and worsens.

Kudos to Villeneuve and screen writer Aaron Guzikowski who went into great lengths to portray a good, workaholic cop who has a conscience and on whom law and order can be trusted. Mark Wahlberg is one of the executive producers of this film and was once considered in the lead role. I'm convinced that having played a similar character in The Lovely Bones, he could have played Jackman's part equally well.

I'm not sure whether this film can be stomached by parents who have young kids. But I'm definitely giving this flick a two thumbs up!