Two superior films top the menu this week, one Canadian, but largely set in Lebanon, the other from England. These are all the titles I cover in this edition.
Incendies 4 ½ stars
Another Year 4
No Strings Attached 2 ½
The Way Back 2 ½
Fathers & Sons 3
Marwencol 3 ½
South African Film Festival
Chaplin Retrospective
INCENDIES: A friend saw this, enjoyed it very much and then was startled to learn that it’s Canadian. Like many movie fans, he doesn’t expect films this intense and so profoundly moving from our industry. Quebec’s Denis Villeneuve though, does make them strong (Polytechnique was his last one) and is probably our best director right now. Variety, the trade publication, named him among 10 to watch while the film has just made the short list for an Oscar nomination. The final list comes out Tuesday.
Incendies is a mystery that draws you in and grabs you hard as a brother and sister from Montreal (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Maxim Gaudette) retrace a painful family history. Their mother’s will instructs them to find their father, who they thought was dead, and their brother, who they had never even heard about, and deliver each a letter. The quest takes them to an unnamed Middle Eastern country, presumably Lebanon, where, through flashbacks both sunny and harrowing, we learn their mother was a political activist who got caught up in a civil war.
There are grim scenes in prison, from which she is still remembered as “the woman who sings,” and a revelation that has people gasping, although some scoff that it’s preposterous. Still, the power of Lubna Azabal’s performance as the mother, the beautiful cinematography and the strong direction make this a wrenching and deeply affecting story. In French and Arabic, with English subtitles. (International Village) 4 ½ out of 5.
ANOTHER YEAR: An exceptional film for adults, about real people, happiness or lack of it and, a rarity in the movies, a happily married couple.
Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play the duo as avid gardeners, good cooks and amiable hosts. No wonder they attract a group of emotionally-needy folks to their North London house for dinners, friendly chats and the occasional psycho-drama. There’s a beer-swilling old friend who can’t bring himself to retire from work and natters on that “everything is for young people these days.” There’s an office-colleague who’s all motor-mouth cheerful until a few glasses of wine bring out a deep loneliness. As played by Lesley Manville, she’s alternately funny and maudlin and always compelling to watch. Compared to them, the hosts’ son is quite normal, although busy fending off mild hints from his parents that he should find a wife and deflecting some not so mild flirting from Lesley.
The film is entirely taken up with the interaction of characters like these over the four seasons of the year. The visitors share their hang-ups and the hosts offer sympathetic advice and never judge. There’s a re-boot in the repeating dynamic when the son brings home a self-confident, outspoken young woman who delights all but Lesley. That, and a funeral later on, which introduces a widowed brother of very few words and his angry, abusive son, is about all the story there is. The film is eminently watchable though as it bounces easily between comic and crisis scenes. Director Mike Leigh’s dialogue is sharp and witty with just a touch of cynicism to keep it from becoming cloying. (5th Avenue Cinemas) 4 out of 5
NO STRINGS ATTACHED: She’s a potential Oscar winner for Black Swan, so what is Natalie Portman doing in a middling romantic comedy like this? And opposite a shallow hunk like Ashton Kutcher? She manages to bring a genuine vulnerable character to the film. He’s out-acted all the way.
Think of this like a modernized When Harry Met Sally. That film asked can a man and woman be friends and avoid having sex? This one asks can they have a lot of sex and avoid falling in love? Natalie and Ashton play a couple who (after meeting at four different stages of their lives) strike up a deal. They’ll be available to each other for sex anytime, no emotional commitment allowed. (The film was once to be called F*** Buddies). Emotional strings do form though, as does jealousy, suspicion, break up and other phenomena common to every romantic comedy ever made. So, what sometimes plays as a sharp examination of modern relationships, sinks into a fairly standard rom-com by the end. The laughs are intermittent and there’s a steady and surprising flow of very rude jokes. It’s how young moderns talk in real life, some people say. Maybe, but it’s overdone here. Ivan Reitman, Jason’s dad, directed. He’s known for big hits like Ghostbusters and Dave which came years ago. (Scotiabank, Oakridge and many suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5
THE WAY BACK: Maybe it’s the relentless anti-Soviet message laid too heavily right off the top. Maybe it’s because we don’t really get to know many of the characters we accompany on a grueling trek. For whatever reason, this film by Peter Weir, seven years after his Master and Commander and long after his classics like Witness and The Year of Living Dangerously is not particularly compelling. Odd that, since the story is amazing and apparently true, although not exactly as told in the best-selling book the film is based on.
Seven men escape from a Siberian prison camp in 1940 and walk south, 4,000 miles through Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert, over the Himalayas, into India. They’re joined along the way by a young woman from Poland (a charming Saoirse Ronan) and only four of those eight make it to their destination. The film gives us all the details of their hardships, including thirst, cold and sandstorms, and offers a defiant philosophy, thanks to one of the walkers, that “survival is a kind of protest”. But you’ll remember the spectacular landscapes more than the people on the trek. Jim Sturgess is supposed to be the leader but proves a weak presence in the film. Colin Farrell is stronger but bails out midway. Ed Harris is the most interesting character with his warning: “Kindness. That can kill you here.” You can read about the disputed story at this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11900920). (International Village Cinemas) 2 ½ out of 5.
FATHERS & SONS: Vancouver director Carl Bessai followed up to his award winning Mothers & Daughters with this similar-in-style look at the other parent-child relationship. (He’s got a look at brothers and sisters coming soon). This one is uneven but often very funny, sometimes sad and occasionally angry.
There’s a roll-call of top Vancouver actors in the cast. Ben Ratner’s character first meets his father, a comical Jay Brazeau, at a funeral. They don’t get along. Blu Mankuma gave $100,000 to a community centre and his son is furious. “What have you done for me lately,” he asks. A South Asian son is embarrassed when his gay father (Little Mosque on the Prairie’s Manoj Sood) creates a Bollywood-style dance number for his wedding. And four brothers (including Tyler Labine and Tom Scholte) argue and bring back old sibling rivalries as they gather in their late father’s house and ponder his will and his tough child-raising ways. The material was improvised in workshops and that gives the film a lively, natural feel. The ideas aren’t new and the production is modest, but it is well-acted and entertaining. (International Village) 3 out of 5
MARWENCOL: This odd and appealing documentary gets a regular run from now until Wednesday and deserves your attention. It’s fascinating for anybody interested in mental health issues, art and toys. It’s about Mark Hogancamp of Kingston, N.Y. who found a distinctive self-therapy after he suffered brain damage. He was beaten up outside a tavern, for reasons the film only reveals far into its 83 minute running time. He had been an expert sketch artist and now with damaged motor skills and memory loss, he had to turn elsewhere. He built a 1/16th scale model village in his backyard and created dioramas of World War 2 in Belgium. Barbie dolls and action figures became soldiers and townspeople, acting out complex stories with fantasy parallels to his own life. He’s shown as an American air force pilot and his attackers as German S S troops.
He photographed these scenes to depict elaborate story lines involving spies, bar girls, Nazis and freedom fighters. The photos were so well done, especially the lighting and the backgrounds, that they were discovered as art, published in magazines and given a gallery showing. The Globe and Mail put the film on its 10-best list for last year. I wouldn’t go that far but do recommend it as a stirring essay on the human spirit. (VanCity Theatre) 3 ½ out of 5
SOUTH AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL: Vancouver’s newest film festival wants to show us “the new face” of South Africa with eight films over two days, Saturday and Sunday. I’m especially interested in these two.
SKIN, the opening film, tells the almost incredible true story of Sandra Laing, who was born with dark skin to a white family, a genetic anomaly that brought on a 30-year struggle. Her father went to court to have her declared white. When she went to school she was classified as colored, then re-classified again as white. Later, living with a black man and bearing his children, she had to fight to be classified again as colored. At that point, her father disowned her. She’s portrayed by Sophie Okonedo, who was in Hotel Rwanda, while Sam Neill plays her racist father.
JERUSALEMA shows that the country’s problems did not end with apartheid. Drug deals, shoot-outs and armed robberies are the new reality brought on by the unrelenting poverty. The film tells the true story of a Johannesburg petty criminal who shoots for the big time with an elaborate scheme in the city’s most crime-infested district. He highjacks slum buildings by organizing the tenants against the landlords. Both the police and local drug lord come after him.
The films are showing at the Granville Theatre. You can find info, times and more at http://vsaff.org.
CHAPLIN: The Pacific Cinematheque has started an ambitious retrospective of one of the movies most important artists. Charlie Chaplin is instantly recognizable for his endearing little tramp character. He was also a pioneer on the business side and a contributor to the visual language of movies.
You can watch brand new prints of many of his best films, including his Hitler parody, The Great Dictator, his World War 1 satire, Shoulder Arms, and his more serious satire of industrialization, unemployment and global economic meltdown, Modern Times. There are many more, both feature length and shorts. Check out http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/chaplin for details.
NOTE: The photos were supplied by the movie studios and are therefore the exclusive property of their copyright owners.