An Intelligent Spy Movie

Having read so many great reviews on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I went and saw it today prior to the new year. The remake of the BBC TV series, based on John Le Carré's 1974 novel, reminds me of Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd - an extremely intelligent spy movie shot with a lot of smoke, dark alleys and old houses. There's no dazzling hi-tech cinematography a la Mission Impossible or the James Bond franchises.

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson is not particularly well known in North America, but nowadays, anybody and anything Swedish is kind of hot. And he did an excellent job in directing a group of stellar British actors - Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch.

I can't remember how many times I've seen John Hurt performing as a spy in movies. Toby Jones is just omnipresent nowadays in all British movies. And Mark Strong, for once, is not acting a villain's role. This is a dream flick for spy-movie fans like me - very few women (in fact, only one young Russian and another older Brit) who all play supporting roles. M16 has always been an old boys' club, and still is in its present days.

Everything is so old-fashioned in this movie, and deliberately so. In spite of its Cold War era, it's still very relevant to contemporary espionage. Everything is a code name in this movie and you will spend the entire time trying to follow the names of the characters and wondering who the mole is. Of course, things are not what they seem and nothing is genuine in fiction as in reality.

Gary Oldman is constantly compared to Sir Alec Guinness who played George Smiley in the BBC TV series. From the way the reviews are going, the former probably will earn an Oscar nomination.  I might be having too great an expectation of the movie, so as a result, I just found it intriguing but not outstanding. This is a movie that takes a lot of thinking and close following, so my advice is only go see it when you're in top condition. It is enticing enough for me to buy the Le Carré novel after seeing the movie.

Polanski's Achilles Heel

I've been dying to see Roman Polanski's Carnage since I loved the Tony-Award-winning Broadway production of God Of Carnage in 2009. It's still a good movie, and an extremely strong satire. But I don't think the play was ever written for the big screen, and  it certainly doesn't warrant the talent of Roman Polanski to direct it. As per the Broadway production, the script is so strong that all you need are some really strong actors and any director can make the movie come alive.

The acting is every bit as strong as the stage production - you can't ask for better actors than the foursome: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz. Could Polanski just simply use the Broadway cast: Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini? Probably, but in spite of the huge popularity of the Broadway play, the latter cast might not have been a strong boxoffice draw.

French playwright Yasmina Reza, winner of numerous Moliere Awards in France and other international awards, is probably one of my most favourite playwrights together with Sir Tom Stoppard, Chekhov, Oscar Wilde and, of course, Shakespeare. I've seen Reza's Art on stage two times in addition to God of Carnage. Reza's satires are so potent, intense and ironic that they make you laugh so hard, and many times, at the human race itself.

The principle of the whole plot is based on the premiss that every human being has an inborn desire of aggression - it lurks below the basic civility and politeness in everyday life but will emerge as a monster when the right opportunity comes. The two pairs of class-conscious Brooklyn couples started off as a first-time, but friendly encounter trying to focus on the big picture. Bullying on a Brooklyn playground became a subject of confrontation - two unhappy marriages and relationships; the husbands belittling the wives; the bonding between men and the commiseration between the two women; the narcissism  and self absorption of all four characters; and the victimization of art by the Philistines. The movie/play is about hypocrisy and claustrophobia. The irony is what makes the movie extremely funny.

I love how all four actors interpret the characters, but Jodie Foster's depiction of her character Penelope (in spite of her aging complexion) deserves an Oscar nomination! From the stage production, Hope Davis is a much weaker character but you can't miss Penelope's impact from the movie. It's always challenging to convert a play into a movie, even though Reza assisted Polanski with the screenplay of the film. The shocking impact of the play is totally lost in the movie version because the theatre and its audience share the same space, whereas in a movie, the space is just not the same.

I can understand why Polanski chose to shoot a film version of the play - this movie is a study in claustrophobia, one of Polanski's expert subject matters from RoseMary's Baby to The Pianist to this one. He has also collaborated with Reza in the past when he asked her to translate Kafka's The Metamorphosis from German into French in 1988. This translation earned Reza a nomination for the Best Translation in the Moliere Awards and God of Carnage's London stage productioon won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and went on to win Best Play at the 2009 Tony Awards with an American cast.

But the power of the play has not been transferred to the screen version, even behind Polanski's camera. The whole movie was shot in Paris even though the story happens in Brooklyn. This is the first movie shot by Polanski when he first received news about the release of his long exile from the U.S.A. Maybe he's also secretly agreeing with the premiss of the play about his own Carnage instincts from his crime? Every director has his Achilles heel, and perhaps this movie allows us to have a glimpse of Polanski's.

Mission Impossible Franchise Excels

In spite of my dislike of Tom Cruise, I've seen almost all his movies, including all the previous Mission Impossible ones. I went and saw the fourth film from the MI franchise: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol after watching Cruise interviewed by David Letterman on the latter's late night talk show. Cruise was a lousy interviewee, but he does look very good and fit at 49. But I was most intrigued by the line when he was equipped with the climbing gloves before jumping off the tallest building in Dubai and in the world - "blue is glue, and red is dead"!

Let's face it, the scene from the Dubai building is definitely worth the $20 IMAX ticket price. Plus the sand storm as a backdrop is absolutely amazing. I'm surprised that director Brad Bird has only done four movies - most of which were associated with Disney or animations. But Bird has managed to win rave reviews for each of his three previous movies - The Incredibles, The Iron Giant and Ratatouille which won him an Oscar not too long ago. This one is no exception - in fact, I think it's the best among the four MI movies.

Like the James Bond character, Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt is not particularly credible but he's well known for doing all his stunts himself and you have to respect a baby-boomer mega star for taking such risks. Leading actress Paula Patton is attractive at 36, particularly having just given birth to a son about a year ago. But she just can't act - even Maggie Q was better in a previous MI version. Patton is erstwhile best known as the daughter-in-law of Canadian actor Alan Thicke and the wife of Grammy Award singer Robin Thicke. Dashing Lost star Josh Holloway has a brief appearance in this movie but too short a time to make any impact. And God knows why Cruise has to give Anil Kapoor such an unchallenging role as a Mumbai billionaire!

But the star of the film is Jeremy Renner who always steals the show in all the movies he's in whether he's the lead actor or not. He received Oscar nominations for Best Actor in The Hurt Locker and also as Best Supporting Actor in The Town. Now that he has inherited the Bourne sequel from Matt Damon, his star power is only going to further advance. Rumour has it that he will inherit the MI franchise too when Cruise retires.

If you're looking for pure entertainment without any logic, Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol will not disppoint you this Holiday Season.

A Powerful Remake About Girl Power

Having just seen the Swedish original of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I was almost determined not to like the Hollywood remake starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer and Robin Wright. But the American version is a better movie in a lot of ways.

Director David Fincher is always superb at making tight and enticing movies. I've seen most of his previous productions and I do like his most recent ones such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network. On The Girl movie, he's got such a challenging task given the huge popularity of both the Trilogy books and movies. But he did an excellent job and most professional film critics also like it.

I like the U.S. version better because, first and foremost, I'm not a huge foreign movie fan. I always feel that reading English subtitles without understanding the language in the movie is a big loss. This is particularly true with such a complicated murder plot. Under Fincher's lens, Helstad in Sweden is so frostily beautiful and serene as a backdrop for a crime scene. The pace of the movie is also much tighter and faster than the original version.

There is, of course, the comparison of the actors and a huge hoopla about Rooney Mara who plays the American version of Lisabeth Salender. Well, she's excellent all right, but I prefer her Swedish counterpart Noom Rapace who's cooler and even more void of emotions than Mara. Also, even with her shaved eyebrows, Mara is still too good-looking as the punk heroine Salender. The very significant rape and revenge scenes which take place at the probation officer's bedroom are much more powerful and chilling in the Swedish film than the American one. But Fincher deliberately leaves much of the imagination to the audience without as much graphic demonstration. Mara will probably win The Golden Globe Award but Noom Rapace should have won the Oscar.

Daniel Craig did a great job as journalist Mikael Blomkvist. But even when he looks tired and beaten up, he can't contain his sex appeal. No journalist in real life would ever have that body and look so good even under the down coat and jeans. Craig is one of those rare actors who looks good both half-naked and fully-clothed without his Bond tuxedo. Both Christopher Plummer and Robin Wright are strong in their respective roles but so were their Swedish counterparts.

With this U.S. version, you will be impressed by the stark minimalism of Martin's home; the frigid landscape of Sweden; and the mesmerizing musical score throughout the film. But, more importantly, you will have a very strong lasting impression of ultra feminism exhibited by the movie's protagonist Salender - if you wrong me, I will eat you alive and give you back 10 times what men gave women. To Salender, everything is proactive and taking charge, even in all the sex scenes. But that's why the ending of the Hollywood version is kind of disappointing. Salender is not supposed to care about any relationships with men at all, and yet in this movie, she does and that really makes her character a bit weaker than the Swedish original. I would be interested to know how the novel from the first Millennium Trilogy ends.

Another Movie On Wall Street Greed

Margin Call is a good movie, but not an excellent one. I had in mind the TV movie Too Big To Fail to compare and the latter is a much stronger production in every way.

However, given the low budget and the excellent cast, Margin Call did a reasonably good job in portraying the greed not only of Wall Street, but also of everybody's. There are a few lessons learned from this flick: money can't buy you happiness; the current global economic recession is the outcome of universal greed; and corporate slaves have to be sacrificed when the going gets tough.

Even if you don't like the story, you must like the stellar cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons and Simon Baker (from The Mentalist). Paul Bettany has always been a great actor, but he outshines everybody else, even Irons and Spacey, in this one. Well, he plays a gum-chewing, foul-mouthed investment banker who nails why his firm is in the doldrums - these brokers are there to save their bosses' asses and to save the normal people and everybody is the victim of their own greed.

His speech towards the end sums up the destiny of Wall Street: "...People want to live like this in their cars and their big f...ing houses that they can't pay for....I take my hand off and the whole world gets really f...ing fair really f...ing quickly and nobody wants that. They say they do, but they don't! They also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from. That’s more hypocrisy than I’m willing to swallow. F... them. F... normal people!"

Demi Moore doesn't have a huge role in this film, but she has aged a lot - not all the plastic surgery in this world could save her from reality. And this movie was shot prior to her breakup with Ashton Kutcher. Cut that waist-long hair and maybe she'll look a bit younger?

If you like this movie, go rent the DVD Too Big To Fail and this will pale by comparison. If you don't like this movie, then all the more you'll have to see the made-for-TV movie starring every good actor under the sun including a cameo role of Christine Lagarde before her ascension to the IMF throne.

Eastwood's Biggest Flop

I went and saw J. Edgar because I always like Clint Eastwood as a director. Unfortunately it's a big disappointment, and probably one of Eastwood's worst movies in my opinion.

Watching this movie is like reading a biography without any punch lines or great quotes. The flick is kind of disjointed with flash backs between Hoover's younger and older days. But there's absolutely no climax, no suspense, no thread sewing all the parts together. And it's plain boring!

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of fine acting - from Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Josh Lucas and, particularly, Hoover's love interest Clyde Polson played by the dashing Armie Hammer (the twins in Social Network). I never understood Hollywood's fascination with Leonardo Di Caprio as an actor, and his performance in this movie is once again overdone and exaggerated as he did in his other biographic epic - portraying Howard Hughes in The Aviator. It scares me to think about sitting through another two movies he's currently filming - The Great Gatsby and Sinatra.

I also thought the make-up in this movie is not particularly well done - too contrived and unnatural. But the same happened in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain and it ended up winning a lot of awards!

Clint Eastwood definitely can do much better!

No Empathy For Sex Addiction In 'Shame'

I can see why the Cannes Film Festival was fascinated by British artist Steve McQueen's Shame. Lead actor Michael Fassbender (Hollywood's It boy this year) won the Best Actor Award at the Festival. McQueen himself won the Festival's first-time director award a couple of years ago with his first movie Hunger, also starring Fassbender.

With its extremely slow pace and artistic shots of New York City - its subway, its dark alleys, its wide extensive highways and its stunning architecture, you almost have to appreciate this movie not because of its content, but art for art's sake. McQueen is best known for making a couple of silent movies and believes that 'less is more' in terms of screenplay. He also represented Britain at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

But other than its art, I just can't build up any empathy for the sex addict in the film. The whole movie is extremely disturbing - polar-opposite brother and sister, Brandon (Fassbender) and Sissie (Carey Mulligan), are both perturbed, self-destructive individuals. The cold yet beautiful architecture in New York City emphasizes Brandon's loneliness. But the whole movie lacks rationale - there are just art and emotion or the lack of emotion in the case of Brandon. The director and writers see no need to explain what brought Brandon to this pitiful state. Everything is subject to the audience's own interpretation, including the movie's ending.

Nobody can resist Fassbender with his sculpted body in a lot of stark nudity, but I can't understand why he won the Best Actor Award at Cannes. I also don't get his pain. In North America, when you have an addiction, you go get treatment, not to forever indulge in your problem. I guess I'm too rational to appreciate this kind of art! The only merit in this movie is Sissie's performance of the song New York, New York in a totally unique way.

You should stay away from this movie if you can't stomach darkness and self-destruction!

No More Alohas Please

Here's where I once again disagreed with professional movie critics. George Clooney in Hawaiian shirts in The Descendants just doesn't work for me.

First of all, the movie is so slow. It takes a while for the plot to really unfold. The bottom line about the story is a dysfunctional American family achieving harmony after a major tragedy. Well, how novel is that? Apart from a few witty lines here and there, mostly from the kids and teenagers in the flick, everything else is predictable.

Director Alexander Payne has a good track record - I like About Schmidt and the Oscar-award-winning Sideways. I also like his ex-wife Canadian actor Sandra Oh. For such a fine screenplay writer to come up with this movie just puzzles me. He's consistent with his style of focusing on adulterous relationships in married couples, but I don't like a predictable movie. I'm in the cinema to be wowed, surprised and entertained. The Descendants didn't accomplish any of that.

There's one saving grace for this movie - Shailene Woodley who plays Clooney's 17-year-old daughter is a good actress with a fresh, angelic face. There are also talks about Clooney getting an Oscar nomination for this role, but I really don't think that's going to happen. He's beginning to bug me immensely in both his private and professional lives lately. The whole emphasis on his handsome looks is really overdone. He's never a good actor because he always plays himself in all the movies.

What's most annoying about this film is the irritating Hawaiian-themed music throughout the movie. I guess it all depends on how much you like Hawaii - I can't stand the place, not to mention its music.

Call me prejudiced, but anything about cheesy Hawaii is just not for me!