In Darkness

In Darkness

Directed by Agnieszka Holland

With Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Furman, Agieszka Grochowsha, Michal Zuraski and Kinga Preis

There are hundreds of stories about the Jews and the Holocaust, however it remains nearly impossible for us to sense the miseries they suffered. In director Agnieska Holland’s film “In Darkness,” you experience the hellishness and terror of existence of a small a group of Jews in Poland during World War II. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film this year.

Imagine living in a noxious sewer infested with rats, filth, stink and unyielding dampness, shrouded in darkness for 14 months. In 1943 in Lvov, Poland, as thousands of Jews were being rounded up to be shot to death or herded into death camps, one small group of 14 escaped to a sewer. This is a chronicle of what happened.

They form an unlikely alliance with Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), an anti-Semitic Catholic sewer worker who understands the maze of the sewers like no one else. Socha is a petty thief who steals and hides his loot from his wife, Wanda (Kinga Preis). He discovers the Jews cowering in the sewer and senses a business opportunity. 

They offer to pay him a huge sum each week if he will provide them with food, water and other necessities. The film shows the shift in his sentiments from capitalizing on their misery to genuine and selfless concern for them and their well being.

“In Darkness” shows how this trapped group tries to live a “normal” life. The few children play games and sing, there are religious services, there is sexual activity. They, although horribly filthy and living in sewer sludge, manage to maintain their dignity.

Socha has to keep them hidden one step ahead of the suspicious Germans. The close calls are totally unnerving to watch. “In Darkness” has all the elements of a thriller. You don’t know what will happen next.

Director Agniezska Holland captures the wretchedness of the group’s underground existence. Much of her movie takes place in oppressive darkness.

The film seems all the more authentic because Holland has filmed it in the three languages used: Polish, German and Yiddish. The characters often don’t understand each other, as it would have happened. All actors do convincing work. Robert Wieckiewicz’s Socha illustrates the complexity of human behavior. In very small shifts his sentiments change as he becomes more humane.

“In Darkness” provides an unflinching and honest look at a horrifying event. It is spellbinding to watch, capturing the aura of what these people endured. It can be tough to watch, but it is worth it.

The Grey

‘The Grey’

Directed by Joe Carnahan

With Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulrooney, Frank Grillo. Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale

“The Grey” is a horror film without a Freddy Kruger, computer-generated monsters, aliens or supernatural, beings. This unsettling film has men dealing with genuine horrors that include a plane crash, subzero temperatures, icy rivers and blood thirsty arctic wolves. Who survives in such situations? What does it take to live through such rigors?

And who better to show us what it takes than Liam Neeson?

Ottway (Liam Neeson) works as a sniper who picks off wolves at an oil rig in Northern Alaska. “The Grey” opens with him ready to commit suicide. He has lost the woman with whom he is in love; he has nothing to live for.

But he is interrupted and next he is boarding a plane bound for home with a scruffy group of ex-cons and outcast workers from the rig. A terrifying scene follows as the plane crashes into the frigid arctic wilds. There remain seven survivors cowering under the protection of the fuselage. Ottway, who earlier was ready to take his own life, now marshals the men to take measures to save theirs. Not only are they threatened by bone-chilling cold and wind, hunger, and injury but also they now are in an area populated with packs of oversize, snarling wolves whose eyes glow into the night. And they have no weapons.

Director Joe Carnahan has made a film much deeper than a film about narrow escapes and death. His film looks at the circumstances that bring out the true selves of each of the men. After being confronted by the possibilities of dying from exposure, tumbling over a cliff, or being torn apart by wolves, these tough guys become reflective. They talk about their families back home. Each man has a story. “The Grey” is also about how various men struggle to survive while others give up. 

Liam Neeson is in top form in “The Grey.” He is implacable, convincingly bonding the group of survivors.  His Ottway is a mythic character.

“The Grey” reminds us that Mother Nature is a most powerful force, and not a necessarily benevolent one. It is man-versus-nature, and you know who usually wins. The viewer feels the relentless mixture of cold and terror. It never lets up.

“The Grey” is an unnerving survivalist epic with breathtaking cinematography. It is also an emotionally involving story that offers heart pounding thrills.

Incredibly Loud and Extrememly Close

Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close.

Directed by Stephen Daldry from a book by Jonathan Safran Foer

With Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max Von Sydow,

Viola Davis, Jeffery Wright, John Goodman, and Zoe Caldwell.

“Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close” is a lot of title for a film, but

it is a lot of film. It deals with the emotional convolutions of a 9-year-old boy in the aftermath of 9/11. 

Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) is a brilliant but quirky boy who has a close and engaging relationship with his devoted dad, Thomas (Tom Hanks), a jeweler. Oskar probably has Asperger’s syndrome, and his dad makes up games and riddles to encourage him to interact with people. Then September 11, 2001, happened and everything changed for Oskar and untold others.

His father was in one of the towers. Oskar calls 9/11 “the worst day.”

Consumed with grief, Oskar is convinced that his father has left him a secret message when he finds a key hidden in the man’s closet. The key is inside an envelope with ‘Black’ written on it. He simply cannot deal with his dad’s death, so instead he focuses on finding the lock for the key. He finds 474 Blacks in the New York phone book.

The hyper-intelligent and insistent Oskar assiduously creates volumes of files, lists and maps.. Thus begins an Odyssey through New York’s boroughs to ask each and every Black if they know what the key fits. Nobody knows anything.

His grandmother (Zoe Caldwell) lives next door and has an elderly and secretive man renting a room at her apartment (Max Von Sydow). The “Renter” joins forces with Oskar and accompanies him on his missions. The renter is a mute who communicates with Oscar by writing. They develop a bond.

Director Stephen Daldry seamlessly directs this emotionally potent story. He is no stranger to such films, having done “The Hours,” “Billy Elliot” and “The Reader.” He understands Oskar’s desperation in trying to cope with life after having lost his anchor and biggest fan, his dad.

This is Thomas Horn’s first film. He was cast after he won Kids’ Jeopardy on TV. He holds his own against the adult actors in “Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close” and captures the intensity of his character.

Max Von Sydow is simply wonderful as the “Renter,’ and adds a touch of humor to this gut-wrenching story. Jeffery Wright is excellent as a man suffering with his own loss. Sandra Bullock does well as the mother who cannot replace Oskar’s Dad for him and suffers through Oskar’s rages towards her.

The score by Alexandre Dexplat carries the movie along.

Some will say that “Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud” is manipulative, but books are written and films are made to manipulate our emotions. Also, the ending is a bit tidy, but that really doesn’t detract from the experience of watching this film. 

“Extremely close and Incredibly Loud” will resonate with New Yorkers because they uniquely understand Oskar’s sorrow. But it will appeal to anyone who has grieved or tried to make sense of the passing of a loved one. “Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud” is a powerful and emotionally delicate film, beautifully acted and professionally produced. There is a reason why it has been nominated for Best Picture for the Academy Awards.

The Iron Lady

“The Iron Lady”

Directed by Philipa Lloyd

Written by Abi Morgan

With Meryl Streep, James Broadbent, Alexandra Roach

Meryl Streep has had 17 Academy Award nominations. Her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” has just won her a Golden Globe. Is there anything she can’t do?  

“The Iron Lady” is an intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990. She, a grocer’s daughter, came up from modest origins to become the most influential Prime Minister of England since Winston Churchill, and the first female leader of the Western World. She was one tough lady who, among many other things, confronted Gorbechev, took an unwavering stand against unions, dealt with England’s anemic economy, pushed the Brits into the Falklands War and allowed fasting Irish prisoners to die. She also revived a sense of British pride.

But this film really is a portrayal of an aging Thatcher who has dementia. 

As “The Iron Lady” begins, the elderly Mrs. Thatcher (Meryl Streep) fumbles to give the correct change to a clerk in a grocery store. She returns home where her caretaker is upset that she has ventured outside. She sits down to breakfast with her husband, Denis, and has conversation with him, pointing out that he uses too much butter on his toast. She helps him choose a suit to wear to a meeting. She brushes the lint from his jacket. Only Denis has been dead for several years.

Mrs. Thatcher shuffles around her house, reflecting on her life and career. Flashbacks briefly illustrate her childhood and proceed to highlight her many accomplishments, including her feisty and stubborn interactions with Parliament, her meetings with foreign dignitaries, her launching Britain into the Falklands War.  

But “Iron Lady” is not an epic film about Margaret Thatcher’s consequential life. It never really shows what made her exceptional.  Instead it deals with her dementia, her flights of fancy, as when she converses with Denis, her confusion and how she tries to mask it. In this way, the film humanizes her, but it is a bit cruel because Mrs. Thatcher is still alive at age 86.

The reason to see this film is Meryl Streep. Her transformation is absolutely uncanny. Her voice, her accent, her posture, her demeanor are flawless; she is Margaret Thatcher. She captures the idealistic, confident younger Margaret Thatcher who is tone deaf to criticism. She embodies the fading dignity of the older Mrs. Thatcher, now restricted to her home, struggling to maintain her poise.    

We have gotten so used to Meryl Streep’s acting abilities that we almost take her for granted. It seems her expressions, her nuance of character are givens. As “The Iron

Lady” she dazzles. You cannot take your eyes off of her. In a way, her performance overpowers the film. All the more reason to see “The Iron Lady.”

War Horse

War Horse

Directed by Steven Speilberg

Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski

With Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullen, Niels Arestrup, Jeremy Irvine, Tom Hiddleston

Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” resurrects the old-fashioned epic type of filmmaking, complete with sweeping panoramas, powerful music, direct storytelling and gut-wrenching appeals to emotion and sentimentality. There are those who will criticize it for that very reason, but take note, “War Horse” is a strong , stirring and affecting film for everyone.

The film begins with gorgeous sweeping panoramas of a verdant countryside in Devon England. A mare is giving birth to her colt as World War I begins. The colt is Joey, the protagonist of “Warhorse,” a story based on the 1982 children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo.

Young Joey is purchased at auction by a drunken farmer(Peter Mullan) who overpays for the horse to spite his landlord, who is also bidding on the horse. When he takes the horse home his wife (Emily Watson) is furious, but his son, Albert, is entranced by the beautiful animal. They bond and Albert trains Joey. However, the bills for his father’s farm must be paid, and Joey is sold to an English officer (Tom Hiddleston) and the animal is taken across the English Channel. Albert is devastated, and vows to somehow reconnect with Joey, who will now be used as a war horse. 

The story proceeds through a series of Joey’s owners, including the English officer , an elderly Frenchman farmer (Niels Arestrup) and a kindly German officer, among others. Joey inspires those who encounter him with his intelligence and “heart.” All of this is shown against the backdrop of the violence and slaughter of World War 1, a very far cry from the paradise of Devon’s bucolic beauty. The battlefields in War Horse are absolutely brilliantly staged. Warfare had been modernized, and tanks and machine guns ravage the combatants, along with swords and carbines. Fields are strewn with bodies of humans and their mounts. 

There is a harrowing scene culminating when a panicked Joey becomes ensnared in the ubiquitous coils of barbed wire used to keep back the enemy. A badly injured Joey can’t move, and both a German and an English soldier work together to free him.

Steven Spielberg’s sentiments have always been anti-war and this film chronicles the horrors of conflict: the fear of the soldiers; the total devastation of the landscape; the ugliness of slogging through the mud with heavy artillery; the fragmentation of families.  He does not focus on the gore and guts of conflict, but he does not need to: The message is delivered loud and clear. 

There are those who will say that “War Horse,” being a Disney production, has too many maudlin, sentimental and contrived moments. That the Devon countryside is just too idyllic; that Albert’s house is too charming and too perfect; that the heart-wrenching separation of Albert and Joey has been  manipulated to bring tears; that the appeal to nostalgia is too obvious; that the “Happy Ending” is just too unrealistic. To them, I say, “War Horse” is a movie full of adventure, sensitivity and soul. It is an entertainment with stunning cinematography (Janusz Kaminski) and top notch performances from a mostly unknown cast. The film illustrates the power of animals to bring out the humanity

in people. 

“War Horse” is a sweeping Hollywood epic of the finest sort. I suggest you take a box of tissues to the theater.

The Artist

The Artist

Directed by Machel Hazanavicius

With Jean DuJardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, and

John Cromwell

“The Artist,” an all new silent film in black and white, is as much fun as any ‘talkie.’ This utterly delightful film doesn’t need words to tell its story. French Director and writer Michel Hazanavicius  has composed a love letter to the past. The time is 1927 and we find matinee idol George Valentin (Jean DuJardin) on top of the world. He is a silent film star with a thousand-watt smile, starring in everything from adventure films to romances. His loyal Jack Russell terrier (Uggi) accompanies him wherever he goes. One day he literally bumps into Peppy (Berenice Bejo), a walk-on extra. The sparks fly. And he takes her under his wing, getting her successively larger parts in his films.  

But then it is 1929. Not only is the stock market about to crash, but so is Valentin. The studio Boss (John Goodman) has noticed Peppy and has also decided that the future of film is in the “talkies.” Peppy gets the starring roles, but Valentin wants nothing to do with these new kind of movies.

He finances his own silent film, which is a colossal flop. His fortunes crumble.

Valentin is now a “has been,”  and quickly discovers his own insignificance. Peppy is the exciting new star du jour. The scenes of Valentin losing his self esteem and his fortunes are cleverly realized and acted with a poignancy that will surely tug at your heartstrings. As much as Valentin suffers, Peppy’s stardom accelerates. Nonetheless, he longs for her and she has never forgotten his kindnesses to her. 

“The Artist” is not a totally silent film. Aside from some printed subtitles, there is a musical score as well as several spoken words. But dialogue is irrelevant because the silence speaks volumes.  Both Jean DuJardin and Bernice Bejo give flawless performances, never overacting. A film such as “The Artist” could have been done in a campy manner, but the lead performances are just right.

For people who are familiar with silent film, “The Artist” serves up a nostalgia that is nearly painful. There is a sense of a longing for the innocence and simplicity reflected in that medium: free of the murmur of voices, the clinking of glassware , the blaring of horns, the racket of car chases, the cacophony of life. That “The Artist” is in black and white makes it all the more reminiscent of that bygone era. It seems we have lost much with the technology and sophistication of modern filmmaking.

Director Michel Hazanavicius has made it possible for us to take a joyous and fun-filled journey to the past. You will surely embrace the experience as also the most delightful and exciting film to come our way in a long time. This charming film gives us a joyous journey to the past.

The Descendents

The Descendents

Directed by Alexander Payne

With George Clooney, Amara Miller, Alex Woodley. Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, and Judy Greer

A drama about a family grieving over the loss of a mother might not sound like cinema amusement. But “The Descendents,” directed by Alexander Payne, is exactly that. This heartfelt film is both tragic and humorous at the same time.

The drama unfolds in Hawaii. Matt King (George Clooney) has buried himself in a real estate deal involving 25,000 unspoiled acres of Hawaiian paradise that have been owned by his extended family for generations. This land is about to be sold to a land developer. He is the trustee and must sign for the deal to go through. Meanwhile, he has also been a remote husband and father.

However, Matt is distracted. His wife, Elizabeth, has had a boating accident and lies in a coma from which the doctors say she will not recover. He now must break the news to his daughters, 10-year-old Scotty (Amara Miller), and a troublesome teenage Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). As he is reeling from this tragedy, his surly and resentful daughter Alexandra informs him that Elizabeth was cheating on him with a local real estate guy.  

Matt struggles with becoming both mother and father to his daughters as he confronts his rage towards his comatose wife. He is furious with her, but has no way to reach her, since she lies in a coma.  

In the meantime, Alexandra is accompanied by Sid (Nick Krause), a sweet but baffled looking boy, who adds comic perspective to what is going on in the family drama. Complicating Matt’s life is Elizabeth’s father (Robert Forster), who blames Matt for Elizabeth’s accident and thinks his daughter was a saint. Alexandra remains contemptuous of her father. Scotty is lost in grief.

Matt contemplates the meaning of his family heritage as he ponders whether to sign off on the sale of the family ‘Eden” on Kuai. His extended clan fully expects him to sign. He also must create a future for his own family.

George Clooney’s performance is nuanced and honest, and surely he will receive an Oscar nod. His Matt is a study of mixed emotions. Shailene Woodley is right on as the sullen daughter. Robert Forster is excellent as the father who has no where to displace his hostility except towards his son-in-law . 

Alexander Payne, whose last film was ‘Sideways,’ is a director who is a keen and tender observer of people in crisis and who understands human foibles. He seems to be saying: In life you certainly will make mistakes, but don’t let that keep you from going forward. His characters are remarkably human and real. And he is able to make us laugh throughout this beautiful, emotionally complex film that deals with tragic loss. In addition, the setting in lush Eden- like Hawaii is pure pleasure to experience on the big screen.