Two romantic comedies go head to head this week: one very good, the other bad. There’s also a smaller tussle by movies about music and a thought or two about children.
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER: This is one of the best romantic comedies in years because it feels authentic. The couple, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, comes across as real people you can identify with. Best of all, you grow to like them and root for them. He’s a greeting card writer with a pessimistic bent. She’s Summer, the new hire in the office, and even though she insists she’s not looking for anything serious because love is just a fantasy, he’s smitten. The film, which warns right off the top “this is not a love story,” charts their 500-day relationship pretty well from the day it ended and bounces back and forth in time to its various high and low spots. That unusual structure keeps it busy and light on its feet. Yearning, elation, playful visits to a karaoke bar, record store and IKEA and ultimately rejection are all carefully documented, mostly from his point of view, though. She remains largely a mystery, one of the few shortcomings in this hip and funny movie. The two stars are wonderful. (5th Avenue Cinema).
THE UGLY TRUTH: Titles like that are dangerous. They just invite wisecrack lines from reviewers, especially if the film is as bad as this. I didn’t buy a word of this alleged romantic comedy. Katherine Heigl plays a California TV producer with about as much authority as a kid fresh out of BCIT. She certainly can’t control Gerard Butler as the new commentator that her boss has hired for her morning show. He stirs up the show and boosts the ratings with rants about men, women and sex. He tells her to learn how to “inspire an erection.” In the real world he’d face a sexual harassment complaint and the station would have the FCC on its back. Not here. But little in this glossy, high profile film is real. Instead, we get a succession of gratuitous sex jokes and the dirty language that goes with them. Heigl seems like a nice person. How did she allow herself to be sunk into this mess? The film also pretty well reverses much of what the women’s movement supports. (Check out the ending). There’s one bit of reality, though; as the on-air sex talk proves popular, the station’s management orders more, cutting back the news to make room for it. The film has nothing to say about that. (At theatres all over).
G-FORCE: This is the kind of children’s film that has parents in a quandary. It has no lessons to teach and no social significance at all. But it sure does entertain. It’s like a James Bond adventure for kids, with huge set-piece action scenes, lots of explosions and a villain (Bill Nighy) out to control the world. On the other side are three guinea pigs and a mole trying to decipher his computer files. They’ve been trained as government agents by Zach Galifianakis (last seen as the brother-in-law in “The Hangover”). Another agent (Will Arnett) is trying to catch them to shut their project down. The result is an extremely elaborate, fast-moving and loud 89 minutes from blockbuster producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. The film mixes live action, computer animation and effects and terrific 3-D. It’s used here as the gimmick it really is. Lots of things are dropped, pointed or thrown at us, particularly shattered glass. (At the Park and many other theatres).
ORPHAN: The latest evil-child movie is really on to something for quite a while. It methodically spins a web of real-life terrors within a family: distrust, self-doubt, and regret for past-actions. Then it undoes the good work with an implausible twist and has to turn to horror movie clichés to wind things up. Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard are thoroughly believable as a troubled couple who want a third child after their own was stillborn. They adopt one who seems ideal, a polite young girl who loves to draw and play piano. “I guess I’m different,” she says sweetly and soon intimidates her new siblings, cozies up to dad and has mom uttering suspicions that nobody believes. The mood gets nicely creepy although a few speeches along the way bring on some unintended laughs. A shock opening and an absurd last line don’t help either. (At theatres all over).
THROW DOWN YOUR HEART: This is a warm, sometimes emotional musical documentary. Banjo player Bela Fleck, searching for his instrument’s origins, takes a tour of four African countries and makes music with some great players and one very moving singer. At last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, it was voted the most popular of all the documentaries and now it kicks off an ambitious series at the VanCity Theatre. From now until August 18, almost two dozen films will be shown bringing you The Stones, Woodstock, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Miriam Makeba, Marlene Dietrich, gypsies, Brazilian samba…. The list goes on. Check out www.vifc.org/films/special/summer.htm for all the details.
ROCKSTEADY: THE ROOTS OF REGGAE: This documentary is about as amiable as every Jamaican I’ve ever met. The fact that it’s a Canadian and Swiss co-production may also have helped. It’s a look back at the music that came immediately before reggae. Rocksteady was essentially a slowed down form of ska, with a lot of influences mixed in from black American pop and soul. Bob Marley’s early records were in the style. We’re most familiar with two songs, Rivers of Babylon, covered by Boney M, and The Tide is High, covered by Blondie. This film gives us the originals through the memories of some of the people who were there. They were brought together to record an album and perform in concert. Judy Mowatt, Derrick Morgan, Leroy Sibbles and others recall the optimism of independence and the later coming of rude boys (urban gangsters) and political turmoil. Except for Rita Marley who takes us into the kitchen where she and Bob first had sex, the stories aren’t remarkable. The real attraction is lots of good music.
(Granville Theatre).
REVANCHE: This is a near masterpiece from Austria that was one of my favorite films last year at the Vancouver Film Festival and was then nominated for an Oscar. It starts out grim but takes a few mood turns before a satisfying end. A small-time employee at a Vienna brothel falls in love with one of the women, but loses her in a botched robbery that was supposed to gain them a ticket out of there. He retreats to the countryside, to his grandfather’s farm. He still wants revenge, though, against a small-town cop. What form it could possibly take and how he handles the struggle within him makes for a tense and engrossing second half. (Pacific Cinematheque).
Also playing …
HUMPDAY: A low-budget film from Seattle that’s drawn some positive reviews. Two old college buddies (played by Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard) re-connect after many years, have too many drinks and drugs at a party and decide to enter a contest by making a gay porn film. The twist, of course, is that they’re straight which may or may not give them an advantage. A lot of improvised dialogue explores friendship and male identity. (Tinseltown).