Cinerant

Weekend Movie Roundup

Brokeback Mountain--calling this the "gay Gone With the Wind" might be a bit excessive, but saying it's one of the year's best isn't. I'll post separately on this later. It deserves its own post.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe--Marketing stories aside, the film works. It's not perfect, but then, the book isn't either. Still, it's a great ride, very exciting and thoroughly entertaining. It moves at a brisk pace and is quick, clear, and to the point. The battles are intense (maybe a little too much for young kids), but engaging, entertaining and inspiring.
The biggest flaw is the casting of the four young actors. While adequate, I think more convincing actors could've been found. The amount of emotional engagement lacks a little. Even Tilda Swinton doesn't come off as terrifying as I thought she would. Maybe it's a director thing. (Director Andrew Adamson has hereforeto worked in animation, so that might be part of the reason). I found it a little off-putting that I thought the most engaging character was Mr. Beaver.

Pride and Prejudice--Matthew MacFadyen is a million times better than Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. He's dashing, charming, prideful, pompous, and enough to make anybody's heart melt. I abhorred the BBC mini-series version of this adaptation. It was long, dull, full of dancing, and too full of Firth. The first twenty minutes of this movie had me fearing this version would be less of the same, but after those laborious minutes of set-up, thankfully the film started to move quickly and turned into a pleasant little piece. Keira Knightly equips herself well. I still wouldn't give her the Oscar nomination she might very well have coming her way, but she doesn't deserve a Razzie either. The film is good, but at some point during the night, I found myself wanting to go home and watch Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. I didn't take that as a sign of greatness.

Walk the Line--I realized I hadn't talked about this one yet, even though I've seen it twice now. This is the perfect example of "an actor's movie." Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon own the movie from top to bottom. The story isn't bad, it's just not as well-defined as it should be. The real draw of this bio-pic is the relationship between Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. When director James Mangold focuses on that, the film soars. When he wanders into other aspects (most notoriously, Cash's relationship with his dad), the film falters and takes on a "been there, seen that" feeling. Nevertheless, the motion pictures soars in comparison to last year's Ray, partially because of the one-two punch of Phoenix and Witherspoon's performances, but also because the actors do their own singing, which roots the film in a much stronger reality than Taylor Hackford's ode to Ray Charles.

posted by cinegod @ 3:47 PM