Quick Review - The Impossible

Inspired by a true story, J.A. Bayon's The Impossible dramatizes the harrowing ordeal of the Bennett family, who were separated by the catastrophic tsunami that rocked southeast Asia on Boxing Day 2004. It's a fairly “Hollywoodized” version of the truth (although the production is predominantly Mexican), but there's no reason for that to be a dismissive description. Bayona heightens the visceral experience of this real life horror story by leaning on, naturally, horror movie tropes. The gripping sound design, cringe-inducing makeup, and waivering string music all contribute to Bayona's innovative real-life-as-horror approach.

Stars Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, and Tom Holland also do excellent work at embodying the fear that Bayona is going for. While one can be justified in criticizing the film for narrowing its dramatic eye on the wealthy tourists while brushing the devastated Thai people under the rug, I wonder if rectifying that would really have benefited the focused script all that much.

*** out of ****

Review - Beginners

Beginners, Mike Mills' gentle little drama about the generation-spanning challenge of finding happiness, succeeds in great part due to its three central performances and Mills' thoughtful screenplay. Ewan McGregor plays a lonely graphic artist still quietly reeling from a death in the family; his father, excellently played by Christopher Plummer, was 75 years old when he came out about his homosexuality and proceeded to try and grab once last slice of happiness before his terminal lung cancer took over. This story is told in flashback while we follow McGregor's pursuit of a relationship after his father's death. Having met an eccentric woman at a party, the softly radiant Melanie Laurent, he revels in his new found love, but his private insecurities about the finite nature of happiness threaten to sabotage the burgeoning romance. Mills' script and direction are beautifully restrained, employing a melancholy sense of humour when needed to lighten his film's understated but deep-running sadness.

***1/2 out ****

Best of the Decade #1: Moulin Rouge! (2001)

No film this decade embodies the passion, excitement, innovation, power, and sheer magic of cinema quite like Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann's spectacular spectacular reinvention of the movie musical for the 21st century. It is an unparalleled triumph. Taking a simple premise of star-crossed lovers and a seemingly random collection of pop music hits (featuring everything from the "Can-Can" to "Like A Virgin"), Luhrmann gives us a work so original and unforgettable, to compare it with any other film would completely defeat its purpose. This is a movie to treasure and experience for the pure joy, sensuality, and romance with which it drips. Not to mention that incredible eclectic score! This is why we go to the movies.

Where other films would buckle under the weight of such stylistic excess, Moulin Rouge! thrives off of it. The sets and costumes are more dazzling than you could even conceive in your imagination, so vibrant and colourful that they can survive Luhrmann's quick-moving camera and wild editing and come out just as sparkly on the other side. Even more importantly than the visual design, it's the performances that really light up the screen. Nicole Kidman is sassy yet heartbreaking, the tragedy of her character cracking through her sexy exterior more and more as death slowly overcomes her. As her fresh-faced and idealistic lover, Ewan McGregor bursts forth with an enthusiasm that, had it not been as overacted as it was, could have sabotaged the whole project. But McGregor knows the exuberance his part calls for, and he and Kidman play beautifully off each other, making their fairytale love seem real and believable in an unbelievable film. The supporting cast members are all aces, with special mention to Jim Broadbent as the gargantuan showman Harold Ziegler.

To claim the decade's best film is perfect would be false, but its imperfections are its charms, its eccentricities are why we love it. We love it for its frenetic humour, its energy, its ingenious use of music, its utter beauty, but most of all, for its tear-jerking and indelible love story, the least gimmicky and most beautiful thing any film could boast.

A Masterpiece.

Here's my favourite scene not only from Moulin Rouge!, but from any movie of the decade:

Thus concludes my year-long countdown of what I considered the best movies from 2000-2009. I'll officially wrap things up on New Year's with a specialawards ballot indicating the decade's greatest achievements in all the usual categories (I'm just geeky that way).

Review - The Ghost Writer

Flying under the radar this year is Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, a slow-burning political thriller with intrigue to spare.

Ewan McGregor plays an acerbic writer hired to ghost write the memoirs of a retired British PM (Pierce Brosnan) at his seaside home in America. After a few puzzling discoveries, he begins uncovering secrets that reveal an unsettling truth, naturally putting him in a position of peril.

The script cowritten by Polanski and the novelist Robert Harris is smart and ironic. Polanski's style is simple and unflourishy, calling basically on the fine performances (and occasionally Alexandre Desplat's stringy score) to ease tension out of this gradual film. McGregor and Brosnan are both strong, while Olivia Williams provides the best turn as the former PM's suspiciously icy wife. The setting and production design add nicely to the chilly atmosphere.

Unfortunately, having flown beneath the radar most of the year, I can't imagine The Ghost Writer will earn any Oscar recognition. Pity, as consideration for Best Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress (Williams) would be most welcome.

*** out of ****