"Knight and Day" is at its best when reveling in its loopy, purposefully unbelievable, action sequences. In a summer when even whimsical characters like "Robin Hood" take themselves seriously, it is nice to see a fun action movie.
Part of what makes the movie so fun is Tom Cruise's performance as Roy Miller, a rogue spy with a few mental problems. The unpredictable, zany nature of the character allows Cruise to have fun with his performance, instead of drenching it with his usually overbearing theatrics (see "A Few Good Men" among others).
Unfortunately, Cameron Diaz, who plays June a woman who gets tangled up in Roy's plan, is not given much to work with. Diaz survives by playing ditsy for the film's first hour, but by that point, one realizes that her character is not all that interesting. And when Cruise's character disappears for a good twenty minutes, the film definitely loses its momentum.
Also wasted are Viola Davis, Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard. If director James Mangold was going to assemble such great talent, he should have given them better material.
Clunky dialogue ruins all of the film's attempts at drama or romance. Again, the film works best during its kooky action set pieces.
While the film has a great creative premise, it unfortunately falls into cliched territory by the film's last act. One wishes screenwriter Patrick O'Neill would have re-written the film's weak ending.
In “An Education,” a light drama directed by Lone Scherfig, Jenny (Carrey Mulligan), a young woman hoping to attend Oxford University, falls in love with David (Peter Sarsgaard), a rich gentleman, and starts to question her academic aspirations.
The film features several great performances. Carrey Mulligan is fantastic as Jenny. She captures the character’s desire for independence with great expressive detail. From her infectious smiles to her emotional sobs, Mulligan nails nearly every emotion. Alfred Molina also delights as Jenny’s overbearing father. Molina’s performance is broadly comic and over-the-top, but in a good way. His explosions of wit and anger feel natural for a father who sincerely wants the best for his daughter.
While the performances are uniformly excellent, the film’s narrative runs snags at several instances. Many of the characters, with the exception of Jenny and her father, feel either undeveloped or clichéd. For example, the character of David, Jenny’s older lover, feels underwritten. Why is he seducing a girl nearly half his age? The script fails to gives us any insight into his motives. And although Rosamund Pike is a hoot as Helen, a rather ditzy friend of David’s, her character feels a tad one-dimensional.
What the script, written by Nick Hornby, lacks in characterization, it makes up for in theme. The film deals with the complex balance between personal pleasure and accomplishment in a way that is neither stuffy nor simplistic. Unfortunately, the script’s narrative snags prevent these themes from ever fully resonating. While the first two acts feel refreshingly light, with a few key dramatic moments sprinkled throughout, the film’s last act becomes far too heavy-handed. All of a sudden, the film deteriorates into a bunch of speeches and “profound” one-liners, and the film starts to feel artificial.
While the film’s conclusion feels artificial, the production design does not. “An Education” vibrantly recreates the culture of the 60s in both London and Paris, without drawing too much attention away from the narrative. The result is an extremely polished art design.
To conclude, “An Education” succeeds due to a few magnificent performances, but lacks a powerful, coherent script to support its weighty themes.
As the film year reaches its midpoint, you may be wondering, well, what's left?
Well, my friends, there are many things to look forward to. And we will explore some of the most anticipated (at least in this blogger's eyes) films of the rest of the year in this two-part series. So, let's dive in!
Let's start with the big banana - the film everyone has been anticipating, the film that will shatter the earth and cure all diseases. Well, maybe not that last one. James Cameron's "Avatar" has been in production forever. There's been so much hype surrounding Cameron's supposedly ground-breaking new motion capture technology used in the film, yet we have not even seen a simple trailer, and the movie comes out in December! The average person who does not follow internet movie hype has probably never even heard of it. And the movie's budget is supposedly around $300 million + ! Things just don't seem to add up. How will the movie live up to its hype? How will it ever make its money back? What the heck is it even about? Well, I think we have an answer to that last question- albeit a vague one. "Avatar" follows a man named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he explores a new world called Pandora. But in order to get into this new world, he has to make a duplicate of himself called an "avatar" which will disguise him from the Na'vi race (see left picture) on Pandora's planet. Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldana are also set to star. I can't wait, but, let's just say, I am a little more skeptical than most film buffs. "Avatar" opens wide December 18th, 2009.
Next up is Spike Jonzes's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book "Where the Wild Things Are." You can hear me rave about the trailer here. There really isn't much more to say. The film looks beautiful, emotional, and creative. Hopefully, it will entertain children and adults alike, and do gangbusters at the box office (wishful thinking). I also hope that it is as good as the trailer makes it out to be. I fear that the movie studio may try to tinker with it and tarnsish Jonze's vision. Sigh. Sometimes, you just got to let the director do his thing. And usually great things happen (EXAMPLE). Here's hoping that great things will happen when "Where the Wild Things Are" opens on October 16th, 2009.
When I first heard about Lone Sherfig's "An Education," I thought the film was going to be typical, shlocky Oscar bait. However, once the trailer (embedded below) appeared, my mind changed in an instant. The film, unlike many award hogging character dramas, does not seem to be drenched in its own self-importance. Rather, the film seems light, funny, and powerful without feeling pretentious or heavy-handed. "An Education" follows Jenny (Carrey Mulligan), a young girl about to set off to college in the 1960s, as she engages in a relationship with an older man (Peter Sarsgaard) much to the dismay of her overbearing father (Alfred Molina). And, as the trailer suggests, Jenny soon learns that "sometimes an education isn't by the book." Well, let's hope this film is one "for the books" when it arrives in theaters on October 9th, 2009.
Well, that's all for part one of this series. Expect part two to be up sometime next week.
Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments below!
