Saturday 3 March 2012

The Descendant must decide



Matt King (George Clooney) is a lawyer living in Hawaii, a descendant of the Aloha State’s royal bloodline stemming from the union in the 1840s between a missionary's businessman son and a native Polynesian princess. In fact, Matt is the sole executor of the family trust which owns a vast plot of land worth billions of dollars. All the family members, various cousins scattered over the islands, have agreed to cash in and now just need Matt to play his role and negotiate the sale. There is some urgency, since in seven years a change in legislation means that the sale will no longer be possible.
The film starts with Matt having to cope with the fact that his wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), is now in a coma following a water-skiing accident. Elizabeth has been enjoying the Hawaiian life whilst Matt (who hasn't been on a surfboard for 15 years) has been busy earning the family crust. Matt has been neglectful of his family and can barely control his two daughters: 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller). Matt has a strained relationship with both daughters, but Alexandra reveals that Elizabeth has been unfaithful and in fact was about to ask for a divorce when the accident happened. Elizabeth’s doctor then explains that she will not recover.
This film by Alexander Payne is about how Matt copes with this intense situation, his anger at his comatose wife, his frustration at trying to rebuild his relationships with his daughters, and helping friends and family to say their good-byes to Elizabeth. Her living will requires that he have her support system switched off in these circumstances. There is truly convincing acting from Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller to compliment Clooney’s masterful portrayal of Matt and Alexandra’s tag along boyfriend Sid (played by Nick Krause), who is both precocious and insightful (as it turns out), provides some of the humour.

Saturday 14 January 2012

The Artist - a must see



In the late nineteen-twenties a newspaper publishes a picture of heart-throb silent screen star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) being kissed by Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). The young aspiring Peppy has yet to embark on her career in the new "talkies" but in a touching subsequent encounter in George's dressing room, he gives her a gift.  It is the idea of how to make herself memorable and stand out from the other actresses: quite simply, that she should always wear a beauty spot. This is a love story, powered by the ambition and gratitude of Peppy, overcoming the pride George.
George refuses to adapt to the new talkies medium and this soon puts him into decline, losing his wife, wealth and self-esteem. Peppy, now wealthy but living alone in her giant mansion, does not forget him and ... well you'll have to watch this brilliant film to find out what happens.
Whilst deploying all the modern techniques of modern cinema production: camera angles, editing and production, this film cleverly exploits the recursive device of being produced in square aspect ratio black and white silent movie format. Reminding us how powerful and expressive silent movies can be, this emphasises Georges dilemma: why do we need the talkies when the silent movie offers all that is needed. The story is told for the most part from the facial expressions of the actors with a whit and elegance far more sophisticated than the standards of the 1920, it must be said, but the constraints of the medium do not prevent the heart-warming story from bursting through with an impact that defies the budgets of so many modern films.
I suspect that this film is not the start of a new genre but will never-the-less be remembered alongside many seminal cinematographic experiments.