Review: Noah (2014)

★★☆☆☆
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone

The name Noah conjures up tonnes of biblical talk, a song, or maybe even a little bit of chick-chat about The Notebook (but we can ignore that last one for now). We all know the story: Noah gets told by God that he is going to annihilate the world but he can't save all the animals that are worthy of saving so Noah has to help! 

So walking into the cinema I had certain preconceived notions about how good this film would, or even could, be. Personally I believe that stories in any religious book are not true, but rather cautionary tales designed to spread the word and inspire followers to do good. Even so, I have had a suspension of disbelief in tales that seem much more far fetched than this so I decided to give it a chance and allowed the epic trailers to draw me in.  

It started with an animation to give you some context which was really nicely done so it raised my hopes. Unfortunately the rest of the movie did not quite deliver on this. Visually, the world that was portrayed seemed somewhere between a graphic novel adaptation and a post-apocalyptic world. The latter of which was what they were going for. This completely shattered the suspension of disbelief for me. Not only was it quite clumsy in appearance but also for a story as well known and as scrutinized as this distractions from the story were just completely unnecessary. When the ark is submerged by water the geek in me couldn't help but feel like the ark would have been completely crushed. 


At the heart of this tale is the story of a family of three boys and a wife (Connelly), headed by Noah (Crowe). They take in a young girl, Ila (Watson), when they find her amongst a wreckage as a lone survivor. When speaking of stand-out performances Emma Watson has to be mentioned as she was positively distracting for all the wrong reasons. She wasn't by any means the worst thing in this, but having to watch an actor play a character you have to empathise with so dearly only to get annoyed by her, severely hinders any emotional connection you could build with the heart of this story. Being unable to attach myself to the heart of the story made the second half of the movie difficult to watch without shifting around and fidgeting. The entirety of the second half focuses on Noah's battle to do the Creator's work and whether this means the extinction of the human race and so it begins to drag quite heavily.  

Every great story has a fantastic bad guy. Tubal-Cain (WInstone) seems to be everything you would require of a biblical baddie on paper, but in actuality the character seemed somewhat lacking in any real substance. Winstone surpassed my expectations, although this may be because he was playing a sort of gang leader rather than the complexities of character. 

After succumbing to the slightly ridiculous nature of this film my favourite part has to be Anthony Hopkins as Methuselah. He was fantastic to watch. Hopkins is great as a guiding figure and for the few moments he inhabits the screen he is a joy to watch.

It was an interesting re-imagining of an old tale, but unfortunately it didn't quite work out. A huge shame for a movie that promised so much. 

Review: Amour (2012)

★★★★★
Director: Michael Haneke
Writer: Michael Haneke
Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuealle Riva

An elderly couple, Georges (Trintignant) and Anne (Riva), enjoy music as retired music teachers. One morning over breakfast Anne suffers a stroke and we follow their journey as Anne's health declines and the couple try to cope. 

This is undeniably a beautiful piece of cinema. Set predominantly in the couple's home it is also one of the most simple in terms of backdrop. The spectacle is reserved for the haunting performances by Trintignant and Riva. Their portrayal of a very real issue faced by many elderly couples is full of love, pain, sadness and annoyance. It is not a case of a couple saying their last goodbyes and regrets, but rather it's a very true portrayal of two people who have lived out their lives with one another and have those small idiosyncrasies that may annoy each other from time to time.

Haneke has written two of the most complex characters I have ever seen onscreen. They are so realistic that you feel these characters are based on real people and suspension of disbelief is not difficult. You are immersed immediately. It is a heartwarming and heartbreaking piece of cinema that will keep you in your seat for a long time after the credits have finished rolling as you wipe away tears and hold on to your loved ones.  

Review: What Maisie Knew (2012)

★★★★☆
Directors: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Starring: Onata Aprile, Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgård, Steve Coogan 

What Maisie Knew is a heart wrenching story of a family's breakdown seen through Maisie's eyes (Aprile). Maisie's mother, Susanna (Moore), is an aging rock star in the midst of a divorce and custody battle with art dealing husband, Beale (Coogan). The film is a beautiful and bittersweet portrait of the love and innocence of a child caught between dueling parents. 

The relationship between Maisie and Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgård), her mother's partner, is the most beautiful part of this film. He anchors the story by giving her selfless kindness and respite from her life at home. Aprile and Skarsgård's scenes are the most endearing to watch and elevated this from a good movie to a great one. Their relationship highlights all of the things wrong with Maisie's childhood and make you pine for something to change for her. Though the story and Maisie's journey are difficult subject matter there are never moments where you feel that you need to look away or cringe, but rather the story is told in a beautiful way through Maisie's naive eyes. This gives it an air of melancholia and a shift of focus for the viewer. It leaves the viewer wanting to protect the child and revel in her joys rather than outright judging the parents.

Review: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

★★★★☆
Director: David O. Russell
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro

Silver Linings Playbook is the consequences of the bond formed between two misfits. Pat (Bradley Cooper) is discharged with the aid of his mother from a mental health institution, albeit against medical advice. After losing his home, his teaching job and his wife, Pat is forced to live with his parents as he tries to prove to his wife that he has become the man she wanted him to be. This has to be done from afar and with the aid of friends because of a very strict restraining order she holds against Pat. When he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), an equally odd soul, she agrees to be a go between and Pat finds his way to communicate with his estranged wife. Along the way Pat and Tiffany form a special bond that cannot be ignored. 

For me this film is made special by the performance Bradley Cooper gives. His approach to a quirky character, who has no filter when he speaks and is socially awkward, is effortless. Pat is a character who is looking for happiness, but doesn't quite understand how to overcome his problems. This inner turmoil is the reason his bond with Tiffany is so compelling. I didn't feel any genuine affection or sympathies for Tiffany, but to some extent I don't think you are meant to. She is a bittersweet character that is difficult to fully appreciate, but makes Cooper's character shine. 

Robert De Niro plays Cooper's obsessive compulsive father, Pat Senior. His OCD is displayed in the form of his superstitions whilst running his illegal bookkeeping business. The relationship between Pat Senior and Junior is endearing to watch. It has such a beautifully real quality to it and reinforces the plots central idea - everybody has their demons, but not everyone knows how to  live with them. 

It is a success because it has a set of very real characters that are learning how to get by with what they have. With an endearing quality that gives it heart, but still full of banter, it is a great watch.

Review: About Time (2013)

★★★★☆
Director: Richard Curtis
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy    

About Time is the story of Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) and his attempts to find love and understand the way he can use his gift of Time Travel to aid this. On Tim’s 21st birthday, his dad (Bill Nighy) reveals a family secret to his son: all the men in his family can time travel. After verifying this seemingly ludicrous information, Tim is asked what he wants to achieve with this ability. Quite a profound question by all means. Tim answers in an equally profound way: he wants to find love. This is by all accounts a very Richard Curtis movie. As I sat there and the end credits started rolling, I realised I felt every emotion possible during the picture and even though I was still in tears, I was completely uplifted. This is film focuses on relationships in all forms, even though it is predominantly a love story.  

The main subplot focuses on Tim and his dad and is just as beautiful and uplifting as the main plotline. All of the relationships in this film feel like they are filtered with rose tinted glasses, but they work within the world the story allows. My only qualm with this film is related to the time travel aspect. Going into this film I was prepared to be let down by the tiny loopholes that all time travel movies have been victim to. It didn’t succumb to the usual time paradoxes, which was an incredible relief. It battled the usual loopholes by only allowing the time traveller to travel to past events that he was actually a part of. The only real hurdle was failed right at the end of the movie.  A technicality that was outlined during the movie was breached for an emotional ending. The movie was so enjoyable though that I barely realised until after the movie. So for all the good, plus the tiny bit of bad I would give this movie a 4 out of 5.

James Stewart: My Top 5

James Stewart has always been the quintessential all-American actor. With an easy charm and a voice so distinct that it is often recognised with the first syllable he speaks it was no wonder that he became the legend we know him to be today. He has had many phases in his career and each one has its own way of drawing you in. I will be going through my top 5 James Stewart movies. Each of the movies below are amazing in their own right and it has been incredibly difficult to rank them, but here goes:

5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Director: John Ford
Starring: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles

This is a great story about the beauty of idealism, but its ultimate lack of use when facing a society that has been twisted into believing that those ideals can never be reached. Throughout the movie we have the juxtaposition of a gun toting Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) who believes he is a realist and a knowledge wielding Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart). The film plays with the resolve of Stoddard against a town that is ruled by violence and no real law. He questions himself constantly as to whether he should succumb to the life owning a gun entails or whether he should stick by his belief that knowledge and education is all that we need to reform society. It is a great story because it feels like it is still relevant today. We are often made aware of the violence in society and the links to a failure in education, but we are never really made to look at the people who advocate the violence any further than that. Wayne and Stewart are on top form in this and play their roles impeccably. The journey Stewart's character goes on is remarkably and realistically portrayed and keeps you engaged throughout.

4. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

No list of the best James Stewart movies is complete without this classic somewhere on the list. For those of you who do not congregate around a TV on Christmas the movie follows the life of George Bailey (Stewart) as he sacrifices everything for the people around him. When eventually things go from bad to worse for George, he decides there is no solution besides ending his life. He is then shown what the world around him would be like if he had never been born and it isn't pretty. Even if you are hardened to the lovely message that the film portrays, there is no doubt that Stewart gives an amazing and endearing performance as the man who gives up his own dreams and aspirations to do the right thing. Something perhaps all of us want to be like, but might not be able to do. In the wrong hands this character could come off as a bit of a goody two shoes, but Stewart makes George Bailey the believable and likeable friend to his community that makes this film what it is known as today: a classic with great heart.

3. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Director: George Cukor
Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Clarke Gable

This is the charming tale of divorcee Tracy Lord (Hepburn) getting ready to go down the aisle again with George Kittrege (Gable). Trouble ensues when her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) is coerced into taking a couple of undercover reporters, including Stewart, to the wedding so they can get the scoop. Love, laughter and witty banter follows in what feels like an homage to A Midsummer Night's Dream. A greatly competent cast make this movie incredibly endearing and full of laughter. The real stars of this are Grant, Hepburn and Stewart. Hepburn's Tracy Lord is a character full of gumption and matches her male leads with a great tenacity. The way they play off of one another is what draws you in and they are all on top form in this great watch.

2. Rope (1948)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Dick Hogan, John Dall, Farley Granger, James Stewart

In true Hitchcock style this is a dark and sinister tale of the human mind. The premise of the film is quite simple: How do you commit the perfect murder? Our murderers come to us in the form of Brandon Shaw (Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Granger) and the victim is a former classmate (Hogan). The motivation behind their action is not only committing the perfect murder, but also proving that in doing so they are of a superior class due to their intellect. After committing the murder, they hide the body in the apartment and they hold a dinner party which is attended by the victim's father, aunt, fiancee, close friend and former housemaster (Rupert Cadell played by Stewart). Brandon and Phillip feel that it is the only way to keep suspicion of their actions at bay. Cadell is a highly astute individual, who feels his suspicions rising as the movie goes on. The audience is constantly kept on tenterhooks, as is characteristic of Hitchcock, and screaming for the evidence to be found and justice to be served. A great exercise in the power of an idea. 

1. Rear Window (1954)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter

Rear Window is a great piece of cinema. The entire movie focuses on L.B. 'Jeff' Jefferies (Stewart) a journalistic photographer who is confined to a wheelchair as he waits for his plastered leg to heal. Boredom ensues and he begins to use his camera to spy on his neighbours. Eventually Jeff spots something suspicious about one of his neighbours and becomes convinced that a crime has been committed. For some neighbours more than others we, as the audience, feel a great sense of an invasion of privacy, but soon we build a relationship with them that compels us to ignore Jeff's wrong doing. The characters that we see through the lens are just as interesting and intricate as our main characters. This is a great credit to the story, because it allows us to feel exactly what Jeff feels, so when he doubts the suspicious neighbour, we too doubt him. We feel just as much a part of the hunt for truth as Jeff. 

Review: Little White Lies (2011)

★★★☆☆
Director: Guillaume Canet
Starring: François Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Benoît Magimel, Gilles Lellouche, Jean Dujardin

A group of friends' annual holiday is threatened when one of them, Ludo (Dujardin), is involved in an accident that leaves him hospitalized. Battling with the pros and cons of whether they can leave Ludo in his current state, they ultimately decide that they can leave him. They convince themselves that they won't really be very far and there isn't much they can do by Ludo's bedside. As the film progresses we learn of their personal grief and secrets that threaten to drive a wedge between them.

The film is an interesting take on what could happen to friendships if they are tested or stretched too far. Little White Lies starts off as quite slowly. After the initial shock of the accident of course. It tries to establish each of the main characters and their relationship to one another. This proves to be problematic as there are quite a few characters that have a lot of depth and to cover the depth of each one would probably take a lot longer than the running time (which is an already substantial 2 hours 34 minutes).  Some relationships seem like they are simply given in bullet points and feel too rushed. The balance between depth and what is relevant seems like it isn't addressed properly. 

Once the plot thickens, however, it is a lot more enjoyable. The characters have an extremely endearing quality about them, especially when we explore their relationships with one another. It feels like a group of fallible people that are prone to the kind of mistakes we are all capable of making. It seems as though they may be afraid that their secrets could change everything and that firmly grounds the story. Something secrets tend to do to friendships is change the status quo. Why? Usually it is one of three reasons: either it's such an awful secret that you are considered different to who you were thought to be, or because the friend feels betrayed that you thought them untrustworthy, or you reveal an undeniable love for your friend that makes it difficult to ever be the same again. The second half of the film feels poetic and sweet and has that beautiful french joie de vivre feeling about days gone by as the secrets unfold because they have this very real approach to relationships.  

For me this film deserves three stars simply because it takes too long to get into. It is perfectly understandable that to make this story come to life we need to know who we are watching, but it isn't done well enough. The saving grace of this movie is the casting. The story is a very intriguing study of the human condition, but the cast really bring it to life and have a real chemistry. I would class it as one of those laid back lazy afternoon movies, but definitely worth a watch!