John Lee Hancock – Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Mary Poppins is up next, for obvious reasons. Although, I don’t really dig musicals.

Neil Jordan – The End of the Affair (1999)

Genre: Thriller

7/10

Adapted from Graham Greene’s novel, the movie opens with novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) starting to write a book about hatred. It is not revealed who the hatred is directed to. It was said that the book was somewhat autobiographical.

Bendrix is revealed to bump into Henry Miles (Stephen Rea), husband of his ex-mistress Sarah (Julianne Moore) and he discloses his insecurities about her. Bendrix’ flamw is rekindled and he arranges to have her followed.

Chris Gerolmo – Citizen X (1995)

Genre: Biography

6.5/10

A  TV movie made by  HBO, Citizen X is about the Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who over a period of 8 years brutally murdered over 50 people. Based on the Robert Cullen book The Killer Department, one of the interesting elements of the story is the bureaucracy, marked by incompetence that interferes in the investigation and delays justice.

Some of the known faces were Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland and Imelda Staunton (Umbridge from Harry Potter series).

Christian Petzold – Yella (2007)

Language: German

Genre: Thriller

7/10

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

Following an estrangement from her violent husband, this is the story of Yella who decides to leave her hometown for West Germany for better opportunities and to get rid of her ex-husband Ben for good. She agrees to let him drive her to the station, but he instead drives the car off a bridge into a river. We see her somehow surviving and she catches the train. There she meets Philipp, becomes his assistant and is finally happy as she realizes that she is good at her new job and with him. She’s still not entirely at peace, as that incident keeps haunting her – she hears the sound of water, and her husband still seems to be stalking her.

In a chilling climax, where she relives the final moments before the accident, it is revealed that there is a possibility that they never really survived the accident and this was what her life might have been.

Jean-Stéphane Bron – Mon frère se marie (2006)

English Title: My Brother is Getting Married

Language: French

Genre: Comedy

6/10

‘Mon frère se marie’ was screened at a Swiss Film Festival to a delightfully packed auditorium. Centered around a dysfunctional, separated family that has to pretend to be together on the ocassion of their adopted son’s wedding, gives plenty of premise for comedy.

Vinh was adopted when he was 7 by a Swiss couple with slightly older daughter and son. 20 years later, his birth mother in Vietnam is coming to attend his wedding and to finally meet the happy family into which her son was adopted. Having carried on a false correspondence with them and concealing the fact that in reality they are not together at all, an entirely different ballgame is in store for them as they have to pretend their way around this situation.

Some generalizations about Asians and Blacks is slightly off putting, however not offensive.

Niels Mueller – The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)

Having recently watched the disappointing Frost/Nixon, I was interested to watch this as I had assumed this one would also deal with the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation. But, this movie hardly deals with any of those facts and instead focuses entirely on the other side of the story – the people, who were growing  gradually frustrated with the mockery made of the American dream. It’s the story of Sam Bicke, a disillusioned inecure businessman who decides to hijack an airplane to fly into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon.

 

6.5/10.

 

Luis Puenzo – La historia oficial (1985)

La historia oficial aka The Official Story, is a powerful Latin American movie set in Argentina right after the Dirty War during ’75-’80 ended. It centers around a high school upper middle class History teacher Alicia (Norma Aleandro) with an adopted daughter. She’s confronted with various harsh truths when she sets about trying to find her adopted daughter’s real parents.

This is one of the first movies to release about the “stolen babies” case during the War. Apparently, the screenplay for this had already been completed when the ‘junta’ government fell. It deals frankly with issues of repression, torture and the forced disappearances during that time. Alicia, while in conversation with her friend Ana, who had been tortured for having lived with a ‘subversive’ man, stumbles upon the possibility of her own adopted baby being stolen from her real mother. She begins an extensive research and unearths that her husband might have had a major role to play in the political regime.

Brilliant performances and a haunting, depressing story. 7/10

Cary Fukunaga – Jane Eyre (2011)

Despite there being several adaptations of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, this one still manages some new angles. The visual imagery brings to life the book as most of us might have imagined. The premise is simple: a plain governess with a cruel childhood charms her employer who seems to be hiding a dark secret.

One of the newness was in the non-linear storytelling – the movie opens with Jane fleeing from her Thornfield residence, and is told in flashbacks as she ruminates about her past. Mia Wasikowska is cast perfectly as the title character of Jane Eyre. Her plain looks with minimal makeup made her look as realistically close to Jane as would be possible. Her chemistry with Michael Fassbender, as Rochester brings out the age and class differences between their characters. A big actress like Judi Dench playing the housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax, sums up the subtle tone of the film. The only downside was Jamie Bell as St. John Rivers, he seemed slightly miscast as he fails to project the image of a pious Christian missionary.

The movie focuses more on the intricacies of the relationship between Jane and Rochester, and the initial scenes of Jane’s painful childhood in the rigid school are merely glossed over. The best aspect was undoubtedly the feast for the eyes by the breathtaking landscapes. 6.5/10

David Cronenberg – Scanners (1981)

‘Scanners’  are people with telepathic powers, that can be used to their advantage to control people around them. Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside), is the most powerful of all scanners, who has been building an army of scanners to attain world domination. Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) finds a scanner that Revok hasn’t – Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) and sends him to find Revok an destroy the underground movement. On this expedition, Vale meets Kim Obrust (Jennifer O’Neill), one of the ‘good’ scanners, who is opposed to Revok’s vicious plans. Together, they ultimately reach Revok, and in a final confrontation, it is decided which ‘side’ wins.

This one’s a pure good vs evil story, with very little to talk about performances. Stephen Lack’s acting is wooden, and there isn’t much scope for Jennifer O’Neill’s character to develop. Michael Ironside, however is chilling as Darryl Revok, and reminds you of a young Jack Nicholson. The highest point of this movie is the head explosion scene, where the effects feel pretty real. 4/10

David Cronenberg – Spider (2002)

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

‘Spider’ is a vicarious peek into the mind of a mentally ill Dennis Clegg, played by Ralph Fiennes. Nicknamed Spider by his mother (Miranda Richardson), Dennis has a long-standing history of schizophrenia. Recently released from a mental institution, his new abode is a halfway house in London, where he desperately attempts to recreate the delusional account of his past, and transports us to that realm in his mind.

Based on the novel by Patrick McGrath, this movie opens with the shot of a train pulling into a station, possibly a homage to the Lumiere brothers’ short in 1895. Cronenberg uses the premise of a train station expertly to his advantage with a striking contrast between the hustle-bustle of the quickly departing passengers, against Spider’s sluggish disposition as he climbs down the train, his depiction of a madman spot on – constantly muttering under his breath. His slow shuffle finally takes us to the halfway house he is to live in, and we meet the brusque housekeeper, Mrs. Wilkinson played by Lynn Redgrave. As he roams the derelict neighborhood, he is reminded of his childhood days, and he gradually starts to relive key moments leading to one fateful event. He desperately tries recording every detail in his journal, furiously scribbling in a language illegible to people around him.

Apart from Ralph Fiennes’ haunting depiction of Spider with almost no dialogue, there are quite a few remarkable performances. Miranda Richardson plays both his mother, and his father’s mistress with such divergence that it is difficult to detect that it is the same actress, unless you have already checked the credits. While his mother, Mrs. Clegg is saintly and is attentive to her child; Yvonne, his father’s mistress is vulgar and insensitive. Gabriel Byrne, as his authoritarian father, is equally convincing in both the extremities of his character.

The symbolic aspect of the movie presents Cronenberg at his best, evading body horror in his earlier works, and moving on to explore the horrors of the mind. He creates a Kafka-esque universe where it all begins as well as ends in Spider’s mind. There were numerous hints towards a possible Oedipal Complex that Spider was suffering from, wherein seeing his mother being groped by his father in the garden, or watching her try out a negligee for his father, triggered a switch in his mind to start ‘seeing’ his mother as Yvonne. Gradually, through his eyes, we see Yvonne taking over – his father, the household, the role of his mother, starting with the ‘murder’ of Mrs. Clegg. At this point, adult Spider’s grip on reality is further slackened and he is tormented by visions of Yvonne, in place of Mrs. Wilkinson too. Eventually, he resolves to murder her in her sleep, much the same as he had done years ago with his mother, who he saw as Yvonne. The triple roles of his mother/Yvonne/Mrs. Wilkinson, are an affirmation to his obsession with his mother. The elements of perverseness, a trademark of Cronenberg’s works, is present in the voyeurism that is heightened with an adult Spider watching from the corner, events unfolding in his mind, compelling us to watch helplessly along with him.

‘Spider’ is grim and fascinating, but it does not boast of an incredibly unpredictable climax. Nonetheless, it drives you to try and piece together the events, like in the movie Spider would pore over his jigsaw puzzle. 7.5/10