Hollywood- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I must say, I was quite intrigued to see the film after viewing the trailer.  There was a lot of hype about the book and it was recommended to me that I read it but I never got around to it so I was very excited to watch the film when it came out.  I knew there was a small film that had already been released about the movie that didn’t get much of a following so it would be interesting to see how this one would fare.  The movie was unlike any I had ever seen before.  Written by a Swedish writer but made by American filmmakers, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is very much a story within a story.  Set in Sweden, it is about a journalist Mikael Blomkvist who consults the help of a girl named Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo and an outcast from society, to help him solve the mystery of a woman who went missing forty years ago.  Mikael, aided by Lisbeth, is commissioned by the wealthy family of the young girl who went missing to help investigate, but the more information they uncover the more they realize how much corruption exists within the entire family.  Additionally, Lisbeth Salander is an intriguing character herself with a suspicious background, a punk attitude with piercings, tattoos, and gothic style, and an amazing talent of computer hacking.  All of these elements combine to make the movie deeply suspenseful and wildly thrilling.  You can’t miss a beat in order to make the well-developed mystery play out.
I found the movie as a whole to be quite graphic, but at the same time I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen, even in the lengthy two and a half hour movie.  The provocativeness definitely makes it feel more distinctly European influenced.  I think in many ways the film stretched the limits with its explicit scenes, both sexually and violently.  I even wondered if a rating of R was high enough.   That being said, I would highly recommend it and watch it again.  In many ways the film does what Hollywood does best- pushes the envelope and encompasses what is trendy now.  Combine that with the spectacular acting and special effects and you have a film impeccably orchestrated and leaving the audience wanting more.

Hollywood- Forrest Gump

In an Oscar year that beat out Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction for Best Picture, the audience should expect this film has to be nothing less than epic.  Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks as the leading role is one of my favorite movies of all time, and represents the epitome of American Hollywood film and what it is all about.  The 1994 movie reeled in a whopping six Oscars that night (including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects), and was nominated for 13.  Normally I don't buy much into Academy Award winners and losers, as they are typically rigged and involve upsets just to make for an entertaining and suspenseful night.  Yet I think the 67th Academy Awards got it right that year.  Forrest Gump simply deserved the acclaim.  The plotline of the movie is genius- a drama with romance, comedy, and action about a simple, below average intelligence man whose life randomly crosses with major events in the second half of the 20th century, including an encounter with Elvis Presley and John Lennon, meeting two presidents, the WaterGate scandal, the Vietnam War, the tumultuous  and drug ridden 60s and 70s, and an early investment in Apple, to name a few.  My favorite part about the film is the symbolic feather that floats around in the sky through the beginning and ending scenes: a feather blowing in the breeze to represent the randomness of life, but somehow the destiny of it landing on the particular man, Forrest Gump.  As if all parts of the film are not impeccably created, the music is worth mentioning as, being a distinctly American film, the producers chose only to use only American music in their soundtrack that covers fifty years of fantastic music and famous artists.  The soundtrack to the movie, a two-disk set, was one of the top grossing albums of all time, selling 4.42 million copies.  Additionally, many lines in the film have made their way into pop culture and modern slang, including "Stupid is as stupid does," "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get," and "Run, Forrest, Run!"  Overall, the film as a whole is just heartwarming because of its simplicity.  The fact that one man's life could involve so many epic events of the time is quite unbelievable but does not at all seem so while watching.  Forrest Gump the movie makes a statement about destiny and honesty of life.  I feel as though film critic Roger Ebert summed up the movie best with his statement, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like Forrest Gump. Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream...The screenplay by Eric Roth has the complexity of modern fiction...[Hanks'] performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths....what a magical movie."  I highly recommend it.

British - The Woman In Black

The Woman in Black is the story of young solicitor Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) who is sent to clear up the affairs of a recently deceased woman who lived in a remote house in the marshes. When he arrives he finds that the house holds something far more frightening than paperwork that will turn his life upside-down.

Directed by James Watkins the Woman in Black is not a particularly faithful interpretation of the book, at least not in terms of the way things pan out in the story. Certain things have been changed throughout the course of the story though the core elements that made the story so chilling originally are still intact, such as the fog with a mind of its own and the most disturbing rocking chair ever to be written about. However absolute dedication to following the original is not always necessary (hence this is a filmic adaption) as long as it works well on screen and stays true to the core elements of the original story, and this is something that the film does very well.

When I first heard that the Woman in Black was being made in to a film I was very excited. Ever since I first saw it at the theatre it has been one of those stories that have resonated with me for a long while, so I awaited the trailer with anticipation. When I first heard that Daniel Radcliffe had been cast as the lead I was met with a feeling of trepidation at how good this film would be, considering my view that I find him to be quite a wooden actor and struggled with liking his acting throughout all 8 Harry Potter films. But my love of the Harry Potter books and the amazing quality of the films overall won me over, but there was always that feeling for me that Daniel was not quite right. I also had the feeling that the lead character, having played such a defining part as Harry Potter, could serve to detract from the film overall.

When I first sat down my feelings were confirmed as for the first half of the film I could not escape the fact that I was watching Harry Potter on screen and when he shouted out the character name ‘Keckwick’, it sounded an awful lot like he was calling out for his faithful owl companion, which was quite unfortunate. There was also the problem that the designer stubble and long sideburns given to Arthur Kipps did not detract from the fact that he was at least 10 years younger than any of his peers in the town.

However the halfway point was around the time that the quality of the film won me over and I found myself becoming totally absorbed in the film, totally forgetting it was Harry Potter on screen and I started to believe him for the character he was playing and I would argue that this is Radcliffe’s best acting performance to date.

It was also around this time that the film really started to build up suspense and you could feel it growing within the audience as you could see people tense up in anticipation of scenes where they would be jumping out of the seats. This is something that I feel the film did immensely well. It is very rare that I find myself physically jumping in a film and throughout the course of this film I jumped on numerous occasions. Moments, such as the scene where Kipps puts his hand to the window to be met with a girl’s face emitting a shrill scream or the scene where the fabled rocking chair was introduced to us truly made me jump and gave me shivers down my spine for a good time afterwards.

The presentation of the film also, I believe, was stunning, the long winding road to the marsh where the house was and the house itself, really helped to build on the story and the tension overall. Aspects such as the long dark corridors and gates engulfed in vines helped to create an atmosphere that was truly chilling.

I think that this film really is a very successful adaption of a classic ghost story, and once you get past the inescapable fact that it is Harry Potter on screen it is an intensely engaging and truly scary film. I would recommend this film to anybody who enjoys the excitement of having a film scare you or loves going to watch a good horror film, as this is a film that will have you staring over your shoulder for a long time afterwards.

Italian - La Vita e Bella

     La Vita e Bella (or Life is Beautiful) directed by and starring Italian comedian Roberto Benigni, is celebration of life, love and most of all, a modern fairy tale. It stars The lighthearted angle of this film, though set around Holocaust times, has been criticized by many who feel it made a mockery out of a tragic situation but many others feel it to show the resilience of love and life in a tragic and hopeless world.
     The reason one could label it under “fairy tale” is due to its many blatant characteristic and parallels: the poor and humble man one day meets a beautiful princess and falls in love with her. She is charmed by him but is already engaged to/under power of a rich and powerful man. The ...peasant rides up on a horse and saves her, carrying her into the distance to live happily ever after.
     The film is split up into two parts, before and after the fairy tale. The first part introduces the characters as any story would and brings them along the hero’s journey until he “rescues” his fair lady and rides off. At no point is one afraid that “the princess” would change her mind and run off with the wrong man because that’s not how stories of this nature end up. Everything that could be negative is also lightened and put through an almost naïve filter so that the audience can feel a sense of safety and security in the plot.

     The second part of the film is the one most criticized and controversial, the portrayal of the Holocaust and the treatment of the imprisoned Jews. Some critics ask “What was Bergnini thinking when he made a comedy featuring this terrible event?” It is believed that instead of making fun of it, he was trying to continue on with the child like view portrayal of the story as seen in the first part. Although the general audience watches the movie with the knowledge of what is happening, the child character in the film is oblivious so in the spirit of storytelling, the film continues on as if made for a more naïve audience of children Giosues’ age. When Guido, for example, is taken off to the police station to be “interviewed”, we know as young adults educated in world history that he is being checked to see if he is genetically liable to be thrown into the concentration camps. Also, the camera doesn’t then go with Guido to the interview, it stays on the little boy and we can easily forget about it as if it were nothing, like the son perceives it to be. Guido also connects to his wife in almost “magical” kinds of ways, projecting his voice and music throughout the grim Nazi death camp in the harshest of times.
In all I think that this is a wonderful film that has strong message, portrayed in a surreal way and is a must see on anyone’s film list.

Bollywood - Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India

    Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, when released in 2001, was the biggest thing to come out of Bollywood in terms of budget. Eleven years on, it still remains a superb addition to an already impressive film collection by director Ashutosh Gowariker.

    Lagaan is the tale of a resilient Indian nation fighting the tax (Lagaan) brought in by the British rule. After the British announce that the Lagaan will be doubled, an opposition is formed, and with it, a quintessentially British challenge is thought up by the Indian opposition: a game of Cricket. A game of Cricket to decide upon the Lagaan being doubled. In this heartwarming tale of the power of the united, the Indian villages are lead by a young man named Bhuvan, who leads the amateur Indian cricket team against the veteran, and creators of the game, British side.
 

    Trying to review a 3 hour and 40 minute epic film in under 300 words is a challenging task, but I will say this about Lagaan: it is engrossing, and cutting it any shorter would have been at the sacrifice of its attention to detail, the dramatic influence such as waiting for the rain to come so that the cost Lagaan can be me and beauty of the simplistic rural Indian lifestyle that came at the turn of the 20th century. Lagaan is a Bollywood blockbuster that will have you in tears, of joy and sadness, but will leave you with that warm, funny feeling that you get when you know you have seen something quite special.

Written Review!

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