Opinions may differ, but I found this exploration of a difficult but rewarding relationship between sisters even better than Rachel Getting Married. Kristin Scott Thomas gives a finely-tuned performance that was nearly as scandalously overlooked at awards time as Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky. I’m not getting into plot points, which are perhaps the weakest element of writer-director Philippe Claudel’s debut film. Certainly a good deal of suspense is generated along the way, but the plot mechanism -- who, what, and why dunnit? -- is the least of the film’s virtues. Moody and painterly, its best aspect is the developing relationship between Kristin Scott Thomas, who has been “away” for fifteen years, after a devastating event that is very gradually revealed, and her estranged but formerly close kid sister, a bright young literature professor played by Elsa Zylberstein. Together they dig out a character who has been buried alive by life and death, and reintroduce her to the world, step by tentative step. It’s all slow, quiet, and beautifully judged. Nothing happens, except a light going back on in the soul of a woman. (2008, dvd, n.) *8* (MC-79.)
It’s a relief to have seen a film I felt like talking about. There’s a wave of interesting new releases next week, and I’m working through the IndieWire critics poll (not as diligently as last year) before making my own pronunciamento on the best of 2008. Their #1 (The Flight of the Red Balloon) I’ve already given a lukewarm review. Their #5 (Happy-Go-Lucky) is my #1 so far, till all the votes are counted. Their #6 (Paranoid Park) earns only a shrug from me -- it was okay for a skateboarding murder mystery with arty pretensions, but the way is wide open for me to consider Milk, when I finally catch up with it, as the best Gus Van Sant movie of 2008.
Paranoid Park (2008, MC-83.) fell in a string of films that I lump together under the rubric, “These Kids Today,” about which I have little to say, except to acknowledge the camera-worthiness of the young leads. Another was Hard Candy (2006, MC-58.). Before Juno, Ellen Page was Hayley, a tough and taunting 14-year-old who does a turnabout on an older man who is stalking her. David Slade’s film was gripping in places, but so manipulative that it evaporated in the mind when it was over, except for the lingering image of a star being born. And in this category I include Friday Night Lights, more the current tv series (MC-84.), which I previewed on DirecTV, than the 2004 movie (MC-70), which I watched again after the fact. The film is much more about Texas high school football, and the true story of one season, than the portrait of community that the tv series has opened into (did I mention that the kids are attractive?). It was amusing to see the few carryovers from movie to tv series, most especially Connie Britton as the coach’s wife, who barely gets a line of dialogue in the film but becomes the central figure of the series, in delicious tandem with Kyle Chandler as the coach (Billy Bob Thornton in movie).
There’s another film I cannot rouse myself to review, but will note that I watched, for its possible inclusion in a Rome-themed film series at the Clark. I had hoped that The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) might pair nicely with Roman Holiday, but I couldn’t convince myself of the fit. It was certainly interesting to see Vivien Leigh (well past Blanche Dubois, let alone Scarlett O’Hara, but still magnetically attractive, despite having just been dumped by Laurence Olivier) at the end of her career playing off Warren Beatty (almost believable as an Italian gigolo) at the beginning of his. Also interesting was the transparent autobiographical intent of Tennessee Williams’ novella about an aging queen of the stage retiring to Rome and the boys thereof, with Lotte Lenya in a celebrated role as the procuress. But the actual Rome footage was clearly second unit stuff, with all the interiors done on a Hollywood soundstage, accenting the theatricality of the whole production, along with a lame voiceover. I was happy to watch it but can’t push it on other viewers. I look forward to being more pushy in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment