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At the
Movies Epic lives
By JOSEPH CUNNEEN
The highest praise Ive heard
for any recent movie came from one of my sons who discovered J.R.R. Tolkien
when he was 10 years old. He assumed he would be deeply disappointed by The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but is ready to pack up and
move to Middle Earth after seeing how set-makers conjured up artificial towns
and towers.
Peter Jackson and his associates make good use of the gorgeous
scenery of New Zealand; the textual cuts were judicious; and a short exposition
leads those who havent read the The Lord of the Rings trilogy into
the complex plot. Ian McKellen is superb as Gandalf, but one feels indebted to
the whole cast rather than to a group of stars.
The Shire in particular is charming. Hobbit holes become credible
homes for these halflings, suggesting their connection with nature as well as
their love of fun, food and each other. The hobbits play a key role in a
worldwide struggle between good and evil, which they never would have thought
themselves able to carry out. Although the fantasy leads us to elfin magic,
wizardly fireworks and the swordplay of knights and kings, it is the hobbits
with whom we identify.
This is no ordinary quest, though it uses the usual imaginative
props -- the dark ring wraiths are terrifying, the weapons are artfully made to
resemble Tolkiens Anglo-Saxon models, and the ring itself seems to
breathe and whisper, revealing its inner power. What is different is that
Ring is not a search for something, but one that requires a
different virtue: refusing to use brute power to destroy power. At the end
three hobbits, one elf, one dwarf, and one man are left pursuing their promise
to help the hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood ) reach the fire-spouting land of Mordor
to destroy the fatal ring before it delivers all power to the evil Sauron.
For me, the fighting grew boringly repetitive, and there were too
many shots of the destruction of the landscape by the dark wizard Saruman
(Christopher Lee) and the birth of his Orc battalions from the mud. The musical
score is attractive, however, and seldom intrusive, suggesting medieval and
perhaps New Age origins. The role of Arwen (Liv Tyler), the beautiful daughter
of the elf king at Rivendell, is slightly enlarged to include a brief love
scene with the hero Aragon.
Overall, the moviemakers have preserved the interpersonal
strengths and magic of Tolkiens epic as well as its timely message about
power.
I ris, the movie version of John
Bayleys memoirs of the last years of his wife Iris Murdoch, may win an
Academy nomination for Judi Dench as the novelist-philosopher with
Alzheimers disease. Though Dame Judi deserves praise for resisting the
temptation of a showy performance, the movies endless shifting from past
to present leaves no place to convey the very qualities of the mind whose loss
we are intended to mourn. We learn that the young Murdoch (Kate Winslet) was an
independent-minded, attractive siren, not that the mature woman had important
things to say on the meaning of the good.
Jim Broadbent uses up his complete bag of actors tricks as
the fussy, incompetent husband, but we wonder how much resentment
(unintentional?) is mixed into Bayleys description of his marriage to a
dominant partner. The swimming scenes offer some moving moments, but
Iris cheapens its central situation, and ends up as an exploitation
of the real Murdoch.
Russell Crowe would seem the leading
candidate for the Best Actor award for his portrayal of schizophrenic
mathematical genius John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. However, Crowes
disciplined and moving performance in a complex role during which he ages over
several decades fails to disguise the sentimental framework in which
Nashs life is presented -- saved by the love of a patient wife (Jennifer
Connelly) and ending with a gushy 1994 Nobel Prize speech.
The movie departs widely from Sylvia Nasars biography of
Nash, and some have criticized the omission of significant details in his
sexual history. Biographical movies neednt contain factual accuracy, but
A Beautiful Mind doesnt make Nashs intellectual work
even slightly intelligible or explain the Cold War context in which much of his
career was played out. The movie wants to trick us into sharing some of his
delusions, which it shows as already present in graduate school, before he did
his important work in game theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in
Economics more than 40 years later. Harold Kuhn, however, co-editor with Nasar
of The Essential John Nash, says Nash was not delusional till
1959. Audiences will nevertheless be deeply moved by Crowes brilliant
portrayal of this tortured genius and cheer the news that Nash and his wife
were remarried last June.
Todd Field received deservedly
enthusiastic reviews for his first work as director of In the Bedroom,
an adaptation of Andre Dubus short story Killings. Those
whose eardrums suffer during action movies will be grateful for one that makes
use of silence while Ruth and Matt Fowler (Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson)
grieve for their murdered son Frank (Nick Stahl). Spacek is a strong Oscar
contender, and Wilkinson is even more impressive, trying to comfort an
unforgiving wife. Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei) is outstanding as the
not-yet-divorced, somewhat older woman with whom Frank has been having an
affair.
Killings seemed largely a technical exercise for
Dubus, not one of his best stories. Field fills out his movie by inventing
material for the first two-thirds of it and retains a highly improbable
conclusion. The films deliberate pace deserves praise, but when empty
time is filled with repetitious shots of Ruth watching TV and directing the
high school choir, its easy to grow restless. Ruth wants Frank to go back
to architectural school, and resents Natalie because she is lower class, has
two small children and an estranged husband, Richard Strout (William Mapother),
a privileged, former high school athlete. Matt privately shares Ruths
worries but is pleased that his son is loved by an attractive young woman.
After the murder, the killer is let out on bail, and in a small
town its hard not to run into him. Matt is outraged that Strout will
probably get a mild sentence for manslaughter, but takes some comfort in poker
games with his friends. In the Bedroom explodes when long-repressed
recriminations between husband and wife are finally aired. Though Fields
final shots of the town at dawn bring no peace, In the Bedroom
respects its audience and makes us look forward to its directors future
work.
Gosford Park, Robert
Altmans new movie, is part Agatha Christie and part
Upstairs-Downstairs, entertainingly satiric fun with an all-star
English cast including Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Alan Bates, Kristin Scott
Thomas, Emily Watson and Jeremy Northam. It all happens during a 1932 weekend
of pheasant hunting at the country estate of Sir William McCordle (Michael
Gambon), and though the whodunnit aspects of the story are weak -- its chief
detective is terminally ineffective -- the complex relations among guests and
servants, and between the classes, are lightning-fast and witty. Id need
to see it at least once more to be sure of all that goes on, since
Altmans camera moves so quickly from one room to another that one
doesnt always know whos speaking (often whispering) or what
theyre saying. Insights into class structure are consistently sharp and
often funny, however, not least during the murder, which occurs while Northam
is singing romantic ballads to a widely varied set of reactions from the
guests.
Kandahar, the new film from
Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, couldnt be more topical. Less lyrical
than his superb Gabbeh, it is an episodic, semi-fictional evocation
of pre-invasion Afghanistan, shot on the Iranian border. Overwhelming glimpses
of human degradation and ecological devastation are loosely tied together with
the story of Nafas (Nelofer Pazira), who sets out for her native Kandahar in
search of a sister who is threatening to commit suicide.
Nafas diary entries of her experiences give unity to
otherwise scattered incidents. Opening shots set the tone: torsos attached to
wooden and plastic legs are dropped by parachute in the midst of ramshackle
desert huts. On the ground is a Red Cross center that offers help for the many
men, their legs blown off by land mines, who are competing desperately for
replacements.
As Nafas begs and buys her way closer to her sisters
village, we get revealing glimpses of everyday life, especially of the women
and children. Looking for a guide, she finds a man who will take her along with
his other wives, provided she wears the burka. Young boys are trained to recite
the Quran at breakneck speed, without any understanding. Asked about
Kalashnikovs, they are better informed: They are to be used to kill the
infidels who threaten their religion. A boy who gets away from the school
becomes Nafas guide and is soon a hardened hustler. Nafas also encounters
an idealistic African-American doctor who treats an Afghan woman without being
able to see or touch her. In the films most moving scene, a large group
of women wearing burkas march together across the sands, singing and ready for
celebration, as they accompany one of their number who is about to be
married.
Nelofer Pazira, who plays Nafas, is an exiled 28-year-old Canadian
journalist who tried to go back to Afghanistan to rescue an old friend. When
the Taliban made it impossible to enter the country, she contacted Makhmalbaf,
who asked her to collaborate on the movie. Kandahar is not a fully
rounded movie, but takes on extra power when one of Nafasdiary entries
addresses Afghanistan directly: One day the world will see your trouble
and come to your aid. Pazira, however, is unsure about what is happening
now: Bombing introduces another set of extremists. We will come to regret
this 10 years later.
Joseph Cunneen is NCRs regular movie
reviewer.
National Catholic Reporter, January 25,
2002
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