In a Better World

 In a Better World

Directed by Susan Bier

Written by Anders Thomas Jensen

With Mikael Persbrandt, Markus Rygaard, Trine Dyrholm, Milliam Johnk

Neilson

When this year’s academy awards ceremony gave the Danish film IN A BETTER WORLD  the Best Foreign Film oscar, most people had never heard of it.  A pity.  But at long last this brilliant, compassionate, totally unique and poignant film about moral issues is being shown here.  Do not miss it.

In an unnamed Danish town two families intersect.  Both are outsiders; one from London and the other from Sweden.   In a Better World follows the tragic and literally explosive

events that befall the two families.  Violence and its aftereffects are the themes explored in this gripping film.

The story begins in an impoverished African refugee camp where the Swedish pacifist doctor Anton(Mikeal Persbrandt) runs a makeshift hospital deaing not only with malaria and parasites, but also the ravages of violence.  A local Warlord, Big Man, and his henchmen capture local pregnant women and bet on their unborn babies’ sexes.  To see who wins, they rip open the woman’s bellies to find out.  Anton, a kind and hardworking doctor, has to deal with the aftermath of this savagery.

 While Anton is away, his estranged wife Marriane(Trine Dyrholm), a doctor herself, and their docile son  Elias(Markus Rygaard) suffer in his absence.  12 year old Elias is relentlessly bullied at school because he is Swedish and has buck teeth and braces.  Elias accepts the sadistic bullying in a passive way.  In his mind, courageous people don’t fight back.

Sullen twelve year old Christian(William Johnk Nielsen) and his businessman father Claus(Ulrich Thomsen) have just moved to grandmother’s house  from London after the death of Christian’s mother.  Christian intercedes when Elias is being bullied and gets beaten up himself.  However he has a short fuse and savagely wreaks revenge on the bully.

Elias carries the same passive convictions as does his humanitarian father. But his new friend and ally Christian thinks that passivity is weak and unmanly.  He manages to get Elias to agree to his way of thinking.  Treat violence with violence.

There is so much more to this intelligent film. All characters are complex people,

and director Bier plumbs these complexities as we get to know each of them.  Issues of guilt, grief, love and hate are all a part of the story.

In A Better World deals with timely moral issues.  Is harsh, often violent, behavior the way to deal with savagery?  Or does it just feed the vicious cycle of brutality?  Both parents and children in In a Better World are involved in explosive crises.  Each has his own methods of reckoning with upheaval.

The acting in the film could not be better.   There is a startling intensity throughout, and all characters work together to make it all raw and believable.  ,

You will leave the theater wondering how to make sense of cruelty.  And there is enough  cruelty to go around in our world.  If a very evil person is in trouble, do you help him out

or do you let him suffer?  Do you punish violence with reprisals?  How can you depend on peaceful reasoning in an unreasonable world?   Clearly Bier is drawing parallels between violence in third world countries and our own ‘civilized’ societies. She ratchets up the tension and you are drawn into the tempest.  Revenge or Forgiveness? You decide.

 

Jane Eyre

Directed by Cary Fukunga

Written by Charlotte Bronte and Moira Buffina

With Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins and Jamie Bell

From the very start of the latest film version of Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 “Jane Eyre,” you almost physically feel the foreboding misty moors of the Derbyshire Hills. This is a Jane Eyre unlike any other, and there have been as  been many as 30 earlier film versions.

Director Cary Fukunga and screenwriter Moira Buffina have fooled with the chronology of the novel, and their Jane Eyre begins in the middle. The past is seen as flashbacks. Purists might not appreciate this conceit but it works perfectly well in this “Jane.”

Jane (Mia Wasikowska) is a plain and polite orphan who has lived a life of deprivation and loss. After her parents’ deaths she is sent to live with her wealthy but cold-blooded aunt, Miss Reed (Sally Hawkins). Miss Reed wants only to get Jane out of her sight. So off she is sent to the sadistic Lowood School for Girls where corporal punishment is the norm. Of course, Jane is treated cruelly and unfairly, but she does learn to be a teacher.

Finally a bit of luck comes Jane’s way. She is hired to be the governess for the French-speaking daughter of the wealthy Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender).

Her residence is now a massive and elegantly furnished medieval estate of countless rooms. The housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax (Judi Dench), keeps everything in order. She is a kindly sort, always rushing here and there. Jane is treated well in her new situation and her darling charge is very attached to her.

After awhile the stylish, surly, and somewhat spooky, Mr. Rochester comes home for one of his infrequent visits. The house has been elegantly decked out for opulent soirees to entertain a group of his moneyed houseguest  friends. But he has eyes only for the plain, forthright and reserved Jane. However,  he has some skeletons in his closet.  ou probably know the rest if you have read the novel; If you haven’t then, the film will inform you. 

Jane Eyre is about as atmospheric as a film can get. Cinematographer Adriano Goldman gives you a strong sense of place throughout. Gorgeous scenes of Derbyshire’s moors are usually shrouded in fog. It seems to be cold and rainy much of the time. It is an unforgiving land, bleak but beautiful.

Cary Fukunga has been able to capture the spookiness of the story without dwelling on it. There are strange sounds emanating from who knows what; there are loud poundings on doors; the mists conceal approaching figures. But the focus is kept on Jane’s quiet strength, her innocence, her perceptiveness. She is ‘character’ personified..

Aussie Mia Wasikowski demonstrates Jane’s depth with few words. She glows in this role of a woman who has to hide her inner life. At times you feel like you are inside her head. She very quietly bristles with courage.

Michael Fassbender as the handsome rogue, Mr. Rochester, has just the right amount of creepiness combined with an almost carnal sexiness. His passion is not far from the surface. Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax, the goodhearted but crotchety housekeeper, adds the right amount of humor to this splendid film.

This thoughtful and elegant “Jane Eyre” offers superb performances, glorious cinematography, and a very compelling story—there is a reason there have been so many remakes of it. And you see that no matter how plain and lacking in funds a woman may be, she can get a guy: and a wealthy, handsome one at that!

Unknown

Unknown

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

With Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger, Bruno Ganz,

Aiden Quinn, and Frank Langella

“Unknown” begins as an exceptionally good looking American couple arrives in Berlin. They check into their high-end hotel. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) is there to attend an important biotechnology conference, but he has left his briefcase at the airport. He leaves his lovely blond wife Elizabeth (January Jones)at the hotel and grabs a cab to the airport to retrieve the missing case.

There is an accident en route and the cab dramatically careens off a bridge into a river. The female, illegal alien, Bosnian cab driver Gina (Diane Kruger) heroically pulls him out of the rapidly sinking taxicab—then things begin to go terribly wrong.

Harris’s heart stops for a few minutes. He is resuscitated and awakens from a four-day coma in a Berlin hospital. He has no identifying documents; they are inside that briefcase. He rather quickly figures out who he is and goes to the hotel where a fancy reception for the conference is taking place. He approaches Elizabeth, but she does not know him. And there is a man with her who claims he is Martin Harris. 

Not only that, but nobody believes he is who he says he is. The baffled and bedraggled Dr. Harris is forced to roam Berlin, with no ID or passport, trying to figure out  the truth of what has happened. He enlists the help of Gina, the Bosnian cab driver, and Ernst Jurgen, a former STASI agent for the East Berlin Communist government to help him find the pieces to his identity puzzle. You, the viewer, are left to figure out if Harris is who he thinks he is or if he indeed has amnesia.

   From then on, the plot couldn’t be more twisted or convoluted. It would spoil the fun to reveal any of those twists. “Unknown” is entertaining if you do not focus on the implausibilities, of which there are many.

                The film has expertly choreographed car chases aplenty. See the wheelies, cars turning in perfect synchronization, even cars chasing in reverse! Sinister figures with guns drawn are in pursuit on foot! Innocent people are killed! There is even a self-inflicted cyanide poisoning.

                Liam Neeson plays the role of the bewildered, innocent man very capably and very seriously. Bruno Ganz is excellent as the retired STASI agent. January Jones is a little flat in her role; however, once you know the plot twists, you may understand why she is so one dimensional. The other performances are fine, it is just that the actors are asked to perform in a film that lacks any logic or credibility. You can’t take this film seriously.

                That said, director Collet Serra’s film is very slick and watchable, dealing with high-stakes terrorism. You wonder if Martin Harris is nuts or if the world is nuts and you are kept guessing until everything is explained in the final scenes. “Unknown” is handsomely filmed and loaded with action. I call it farfetched fun.

Another Year

 Another Year

 Directed and written by Mike Leigh

With James Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, David Bradley and Oliver Mattman

No filmmaker probes and understands the everyday conflicts of ordinary people as does British filmmaker Mike Leigh. “Another Year” takes place in London where a 60-something long-married couple, Tom(Jim Broadbent) and Gerri(Ruth Sheen), seem to have achieved a kind of marital bliss in their golden years. They tend their exuberant garden, cook dinners for their friends and family, and are happy in their careers. Tom is a geologist and Gerri is a NHS counselor. This intelligent and moving film explores them and the complex relationships of their passel of assorted friends and family who are not so fortunate in life and love. Gerri and Tom’s house is the gathering place for these people.

“Another Year” unfolds over one year, divided into four seasons, beginning with Spring. Janet (Imelda Stanton) is referred to Gerri, a counselor at a clinic, because of her chronic insomnia. Her face closed and tight lipped, she is a picture of misery. However, she does not want therapy. She wants a “new life.” The same can be said for the others who surround Geri and Tom, a group who have made missteps in the past. For them there may be such a thing as too late. Some problems cannot be solved. That is life.

Mary (Lesley Manville) works with Jerri. She’s a single, 50ish woman who exudes insecurity with nonstop chatter and worries. She is lonely, obviously desperate to find a man and drinks way too much, grabbing cigarettes when she can. She seems to have no defenses to life’s travails. Gerri and Tom welcome her to dinners at their very homey home. She is unsuited to being single, but her poignant need for affection scares men away. She buys a little red used car, she can’t really afford, much less drive very well, thinking it will change her life. The car brings her nothing but problems.

Ken (Peter Wright) an old friend of Tom’s, is also a frequent dinner guest at Tom and Gerri’s. He is an overweight boozer who drinks to anesthetize himself from his loneliness. He is sweet and kind enough, but also desperate for some kind of connection. He would welcome a “new life,” but it is obvious he will never find what he needs.

Tom and Gerri’s son, 30-year-old Joe (Oliver Maltman), is a cheery and happy-go-lucky guy, probably because he is the product of a stable and happy marriage. He visits his parents, bringing them cheer and gifts, also a girlfriend, Katie. These two are obviously happy and in love.

However, not all is perfect in Tom and Gerri’s life. Their nephew, Carl, is an angry, menacing ne’er-do-well. His father, Tom’s brother Ronnie (David Bradley), is a very troubled man, inscrutable and devoid of affect. Tom and Gerri have to deal with this dysfunctional duo after Ronnie’s wife dies.

Mike Leigh’s films are legendary for their intimate ensemble work. His characters are ordinary people dealing with everyday human sadness. Most of the actors’ work is improvised during the filming. Sometimes the dialog meanders as it does in real life, but throughout it all runs a passionate concern for character.

The actors in “Another Year” work in sync, giving tender and honest performances about the calamities of relationships. Leslie Manville as Mary is outstanding in her portrayal of someone who tries to escape depression with constant chit chat. Her desperation is palpable and heart breaking. Her life is the biggest tragedy in “Another Year.”

Tom and Gerri are the anchor for this collection of people. Their kindness and stability are balm for people who are alone and left out. They can’t resolve their friends’ problems, but they provide a respite of concern and compassion. Throughout each season in “Another Year” they are seen working in their garden together. The garden is abundant, thriving, and healthy in every season—as is their relationship.

Company Men

Company Men

Written and directed by John Wells

With Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Kevin Costner, Craig T Nelson and Maggie Walker

Times are very tough for the executives in “Company Men,” an angry film about the devastating effects of corporate downsizing. This topical drama, directed and written by John Wells, probes what happens when people lose their jobs. We define ourselves through our work, so without our work, who are we?

Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is a hot shot super sales person at GTX Transportation Services. The film opens with a shot of his several-story colonial house with his Porsche in the driveway. James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson), the CEO, is downsizing GTX, cutting out the division that deals with shipbuilding. Bobby, along with hundreds of other long time employees, are let go. The mortgage on that big colonial house, Bobby’s exclusive golf membership, the Porsche and other expensive accoutrements become history.

“Company Men” focuses on Bobby, Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) and Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), who are mid- to-high-level employees at GTX. They are victims of downsizing, and they deal with their job losses in very different ways. James Salinger, the boss, cares only about shareholders and the bottom line. His long-time business partner and friend, Gene, is the moral compass of the film. A man of conscience, he is deeply troubled by loyal employees getting the hatchet job. Salinger’s cold-eyed response to Gene’s pleas to curb the downsizing is, “My job is to run a business not a charity.” Then Salinger fires Gene. Salinger takes home $22,000,000 a year. He has no worries.

The fired employees are given office space at an outplacement firm from which to perform their job searches. They place calls that are not returned. They go to interviews where they are kept waiting or are part of cattle call of dozens of applicants. Things don’t look good at all. Sixtyish Phil, when let go, is told to dye his hair and to expunge any job history prior to 1990 on his resume, because it will make him appear old—and no one hires an old person. His wife makes him leave the house every morning with his briefcase and come home after 6 p.m. to keep up appearances. He thought he was important, but learns he is a nobody without the position at GTX. His is the most poignant story in the film.

But the main focus is Bobby and how he copes. He is not even 40 years old, has an MBA, but there are qualified younger men out there who will accept less salary. In the beginning he has little humility. He refuses to give up the golf membership, the house, the Porsche. That changes after months of joblessness when he realizes he can’t afford his life. His wife, Maggie, is more clearheaded and pragmatic, ready to make  financial sacrifices.

Director John Wells, who created ER for television, has created a perceptive and absorbing film. You empathize with the men, one day successful and respected, who the next day can’t get people to return their phone calls. Without their work they are “nothing,” to themselves or anybody else. “Company Men” is a film for the recession era.

Gene muses about the days when people actually built or made things for a living. People made an honest wage by actually creating or building something. Those days are long gone.

Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine

Scenes from a Marriage 

Directed by Derek Cianfrance

With Ryan Gosling, Michelle Lee, Mike Vogel and John Dorman

The most whimsical scene in “Blue Valentine” occurs when Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) do an impromptu song and dance routine together. He plays the ukulele and sings “You Always Hurt the One You Love” while Cindy tap dances. This is the moment when they fall in love.

It also foreshadows what happens down the road in their relationship. When they meet, everything is magic; by the end of the film they can barely tolerate each other.

“Blue Valentine” takes place in two time frames, six years apart. In the first,

Dean and Cindy are falling in love and in the second they can barely tolerate each other.

In the beginning Dean, a high school dropout, works for a moving company. While not ambitious, he has appealing warmth and a childlike playfulness. Dean’s tenderness is reflected as he moves an old man into a nursing facility. He thoughtfully and tenderly sets up the old man’s mementos.

Cindy is a pragmatic person with higher aspirations. She plans to get a medical degree. 

Dean first sees her visiting her beloved grandmother in the nursing home. He begins a campaign, which includes bouquets of flowers, to get her to date him. His sweetness and vulnerability finally appeal to her, and she gives in.

Six years later, Dean’s hair is thinning; he is chain smoking and drinking beer in the morning. He goes to work, now as a house painter, and comes home to continue the beers. He and Cindy are married. There is a daughter, Frankie, upon whom he dotes. He is happy being Mr. Mom, raising Frankie

while Cindy works long hours. 

Cindy, the main income earner, is not so satisfied. She works exhausting hours as a nurse, having given up her aspirations to be a doctor. Cindy asks Dean, “Isn’t there anything you’d like to do with your life?” He replies that he is living his dream.

They argue. She is tired of his flakiness and now finds him unappealing.

He tries to resurrect the marriage. They fight. She becomes humorless, looking at him with cold eyes. She wants out but he does not.

“Blue Valentine” accurately chronicles the pain that destroys a relationship.

 Dean continually screws up by either drinking or losing his temper when all he wants is to repair the troubled relationship. Intimate, raw scenes show Dean and Cindy having sex when they are falling in love and then again when love has been depleted. The contrast is painful to witness.

Director Derek Cianfrance lets us understand and feel the wounds of this marriage. “Blue Valentine” is written so you understand both sides.

Neither Dean nor Cindy is totally at fault. The scenes of the relationship’s beginning are filmed with color and light; later the cinematography has a bluish hue, capturing the sadness and bleakness of the crumbling marriage. Many conversations are improvisational: everything is up close and very real to the viewer.

The performances of Michelle Lee and Ryan Gosling do not feel like acting. Their tears, bitterness, tension and resentment feel like the genuine article.

Both actors gained 15 pounds for the contemporary scenes so they would appear older and more weary than they did in the beginning younger’scenes.

This is no movie for fans of romantic comedies or happy endings. “Blue

Valentine” is a heartfelt and honest story about marital misery. This is an intense drama of depth and sensitivity with extraordinary performances.

It will stay with you for a long time.

Somewhere

“Somewhere”

Directed and written by Sofia Coppola

With Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning

“Somewhere”

Nowhere Man

A shot of a Lamborghini circling round and round  in an empty desert opens  “Somewhere.” That vision is a metaphor for what follows in Sofia Coppola’s hypnotic new film. The driver, Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), is a movie star whose life is heading nowhere—but he is going there in style. This quiet film is about a pampered film star who is reassessing his life. The film examines the emptiness of celebrity.

Johnny lives in the Chateau Marmot, the Hollywood hotel famed for its decadent show business tenants. He may be surrounded by fans and gorgeous women, but psychologically he lives in isolation, having no taste for the excesses of stardom.

When identical twin pole dancers entertain him in his room he nods off. He falls asleep while having sex. He is blasé about the paparazzi. Unshaven, uncombed, he seems to always have a cigarette, a bottle of beer or a drink in his hand.   

He is always polite but also expressionless, aimlessly meandering from press junkets to parties. There seems always to be some kind of party going on, but he doesn’t participate in the fun. He drifts through life.

Women may throw themselves at Johnny, but he only has eyes for one. Chloe (Elle Fanning) is his 11-year-old daughter from his prior marriage. His ex has suddenly left town and asks Johnny to take care of her. Neither parent has made much time for the lovely Chloe but now Johnny has to get off his couch.

Johnny takes Chloe to ice skating practice and is dazzled by her gorgeous performance. They order ice cream from Room Service in the middle of the night. She plays video games on his 50- inch TV screen. In a way, she is teaching him how to live. With Chloe, he is forced to react.

Sofia Coppola both directed and wrote “Somewhere.” Daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola, she knows a thing or  two about Hollywood. Hers is a thoughtful film about the emptiness of celebrity. These themes were covered also in her “Lost in Translation” and “Marie Antoinette.”

Stephen Dorph inhabits Johnny Marco, acting in a very natural, minimalist way. Feelings barely register on his face. Elle Fanning is incandescent as the child who awakens the lost soul of her father. She and Stephen Dorph have terrific screen chemistry.

Nothing much happens in this film. It is filmed in the washed out but golden light of Los Angeles. The camera lingers on scenes much longer than movie viewers are accustomed to. “Somewhere” is a story about Hollywood, but by no means is it a Hollywood film. There is no action and no ‘big” scenes. The slow pace of this film will bore many moviegoers but this timing is intentional and reflects the ennui Johnny feels towards the world.

Incidentally “Somewhere”  won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. It is an exquisite meditative story. If you want a traditional story with a well defined beginning, middle and end, see “True Grit,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Fighter” or many others.  “Somewhere” is completely different.