moulin rouge

I introduced the kid to Moulin Rouge and she loved it. She was already a big Ewan McGregor fan (chip off the old block, of course) and was also happy to see Nicole Kidman in a part more appealing than "the mean lady from Paddington." Almost 11 is such an interesting age.

Nicole Kidman singing "Come What May" in the Moulin Rouge finale HD/HQ with lyrics from Storage Space on Vimeo.

johnny depp's mortdecai ...

1. Sure has bugged a lot of people.
2. Didn't do his usual huge box office.
3. Is another one of his "eccentric" characters.
4. Was dumped in the late January movie release graveyard.
5. Isn't all that bad.
6. Was inexplicably given an R rating (in the U.S.)

Which of the above statements most accurately fit the latest film offering from Johnny Depp? How about all of the above. Mortdecai, although far from the greatest movie you'd ever see, is not nearly as awful as critics and Hollywood would like you to believe, either. It's a little film, an amusing comedy, about a quirky, larcenous art dealer and his wife Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the escapades surrounding a valuable painting by Goya (and its more valuable trail that leads to a huge Swiss bank account.)

It's not hard to know why Hollywood is mad at Depp. The film didn't gross over $60 million (its reported cost) — not anywhere near that. But is that burden solely on Depp's shoulders? Why should every movie he make be a blockbuster? Anyone during development who might have read the script or heard even the vaguest description of the film should have known that this wasn't going to be another Pirates.

Charlie's latest acquisition, a moustache that would put Hercule Poirot to shame, only arouses the gag reflex in his wife Johanna

The look of the film, accented in a bright, ruby red throughout, is quite attractive, as are its talented cast, including Ewan McGregor as an MI5 investigator who has been smitten with Johanna and loathed Charlie since their college days; and Paul Bettany as Mortdecai's fiercely loyal, put-upon, and impossibly studly manservant, Jock Strapp. Although the title character is being compared to Peter Sellers and Austin Powers, Depp is clearly riffing on classic British funny man Terry-Thomas, complete with gap-teeth. The movie has the relaxed, goofy vibe of many of those caper comedies that were so popular in the '60s, and the filmmakers may have done better to have set the story in that decade rather than the present day. And what's with the R rating, which certainly didn't help get people into the theater? A little risqué humor, and the two F-words (that could have been reworded) and a PG-13 rating may have helped its box-office potential.

Mortdecai is mainly harmless fun, not the horrible disaster that will end Depp's career. Will it become the franchise that Depp so clearly wanted it to become? Not likely. It was based on Don't Point That Thing At Me, the first of three novels featuring the Charlie Mortdecai character by Kyril Bonfilglioli. But like another excoriated film starring the actor, The Tourist, it really isn't as bad as folks would have you believe. Depp should be able to appear in smaller, quirky films, too. Maybe just scale back the paychecks and the unrealistic expectations.

the glam that fell to earth: velvet goldmine

1998's Velvet Goldmine is more than just an attempt to capture Britain's (and marginally, America's) short-lived obsession with glam rock in the 1970s. It's a true aural-visual experience. There is dialogue, but not much of what the characters say is as affecting as how and what they're wearing while they say it.

Director Todd Haynes (Safe, Far From Heaven) has always had an eye for color, but the David Bowie-inspired Velvet Goldmine is a non-stop assault of jewel-toned and glittery beauty. The original idea for the project was a Bowie biopic, but Bowie didn't like the script and didn't allow any of his music to appear in the film. What may have first seemed a blow ended up being a boon to the project, as Haynes could take aspects of Bowies life and career, like his Ziggy Stardust character, and spin it off in his own direction. He not only had fun with his version of Ziggy, called Maxwell Demon, but also references Citizen Kane, and even channels an alien Oscar Wilde (many of the characters' dialogue is made up of Wilde quotes) to add to the benevolent excess.

Brian Slade, "Rock and Roll is a prostitute, it should be tarted up."

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Brian Slade (courtesy of Fan Pop)

Velvet Goldmine poses the question, a la Kane, of what happened to '70s superstar Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), after he hoaxed his death on stage — and his fans and critics abandoned him after the deception. A British reporter now living in America named Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale) is tasked with the assignment of uncovering the disappearance of Slade. Stuart is at first reluctant, as his own troubled youth and sexuality are closely tied to Slade and glam rock. Scenes from Slade's rise and fall are intercut with interviews between Stuart and Slade's ex-wife Mandy (Toni Colette), and his attempts to contact rock star Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor), who was Slade's collaborator and for a time, lover. While Slade is clearly Bowie-esque, Wild's character has aspects of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and even Kurt Cobain.

Mandy, "What is true about music is true about life: that beauty reveals everything because it expresses nothing."

Toni Colette as Mandy Slade

Mr. & Mrs. Glam

The bisexual Slade seems to enchant everyone in his orbit. He seems to have genuine affection for his wife Mandy and lover Curt, but does he love them — can he love anyone? Fame seems to be the only thing that he truly desires or understands. He has as deep an impact on Curt, who truly loves him, as he does his young and naive fan Arthur, who only loves him from afar. As much as Velvet Goldmine may be considered a "gay" love story (and part coming-out film, from Arthur's point of view), what comes across most strongly while viewing the film is its romanticism. A very long kiss between Brian Slade and Curt Wild is heady and romantic, no matter what your orientation. Maybe, for just that moment, Slade is truly in love.

Curt Wild, "The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history."

Hello young lovers: Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) and Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)

Rhys Meyers and McGregor do a lot of their own singing in the film, but they are also ably abetted by  such music luminaries as Thom Yorke, Thurston Moore, Andy Mackay, Ron Asheton, and many others. Classic glam rock hits are reinterpreted for the film, including T. Rex's "20th Century Boy," The Stooges' "T.V. Eye," and Lou Reed's "Satellite Of Love."

When the mystery of Slade's disappearance is finally revealed, it isn't exactly equivalent to a "Rosebud" moment. But I was still sorry to see the end of Velvet Goldmine. There aren't many movies that are so beautiful to watch, from scene to scene, even frame-to-frame. That are so unabashedly sad, and goofy, and exhilarating, and romantic. I'm still thinking about it, days later, and may have to watch it again soon.

woody allen and actors

I have to admit that I stopped keeping up with Woody Allen's films on a regular basis in the mid- '90s. Deconstructing Harry was probably the last one I saw in a movie theater until the recent Midnight in Paris. I have seen a few of his more recent output — Match Point is a definite highlight, a modern morality play similar in theme to his earlier, very dark Crimes and Misdemeanors. Allen seems to be drawn to filming moral dilemmas (as well as repeating himself) as evidenced by two of his British-set films that I caught up with recently — Scoop and Cassandra's Dream. Both films use murder to move along their plots, but Allen isn't worried about the body count — he wants the audience to know how he and his characters feel about the inevitability of death.

Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman in Scoop

Scoop tries to work as an old-school Allen comedy. It features his most recent muse, Scarlett Johansson, as Sondra, a student reporter who starts getting tips from a deceased crack reporter, Joe Strombel (Ian McShane), after volunteering in two-bit magician Sid's (Woody Allen) on-stage show. Strombel, even after death, is wild to break the story of the Tarot Card Killer, and he urges Sondra to follow his leads, which implicate handsome aristocrat Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman). Sondra and Sid both start to see Strombel and team up to investigate Lyman. But Lyman soon charms the pants off of Sondra and she is falling fast. Is she falling in love with a serial killer? Does she even care? Scoop doesn't really work. Johannsen and Jackman have absolutely no chemistry. It's pretty unbelievable that he would be charmed, even moderately interested, in this gawkey, dopey girl. Allen is mildly amusing, and McShane is criminally underused. There is something too serious, too stilted to the pacing. The film and the comedy never take off. Maybe Allen couldn't shake off the mood of his previous film, Match Point.

Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), "I just can't get the vision of you in your swimsuit out of my head."
Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), "Oh I'm glad you liked it! It was marked down!"

Sid Waterman (Woody Allen), "The man is a liar and a murderer, and I say that with all due respect."

Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor in Cassandra's Dream

Allen made the much more interesting Cassandra's Dream right after Scoop, and returned to a more serious-toned investigation of murder. Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play two brothers, Ian and Terry, who are faced with a dilemma. Terry (Farrell) owes a lot of money and is being threatened with harm unless he can come up with it. Enter their Uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), who will be happy to lend them the money and solve all their problems, if they can just do him one little favor — eliminate a pesky business rival. The brothers' different reactions to whether or not to do the crime and the resulting aftershock make up the rest of the movie. Both McGregor and Farrell are great — they seem to switch back and forth between who is the "good" brother and who is the "bad" one, leaving themselves and the audience hopelessly muddled in a gray area. The story itself isn't much; it's how the characters react to the choices (or lack of choices) they face.

Ian and Terry's Father (John Benfield), "Like the poet said: 'The only ship certain to come in has black sails.'"

Ian (Ewan McGregor), "He was right about one thing. Once you cross the line, there's no going back."

Supporting players in Cassandra's Dream include a lot of familiar, talented faces: John Benfield, Hayley Atwell, Sally Hawkins, and Jim Carter. Blink and you might miss some of them. Allen definitely likes the ensemble theater approach.

Watching these two films made me think about Woody Allen and actors. He likes to populate his films with the most talented and current actors around, but they frequently operate as position holders in his filmic chess games. Maybe he has never really been overly interested in them. The exceptions come when the actor has such a strong personality or film identity that they are able to transcend or avoid Allen-itis. Some examples of successful avoiders and victims of Allen-itis:

Midnight in Paris — Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard are appealing people and we connect to their acting personas. Rachel McAdams fares not as well, playing a classic Allen demanding girlfriend, her character and dialogue is caught in the Allen-itis loop.

Marion Cotillard and Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris

Celebrity — A complete mess. Watching (and listening to) Kenneth Branagh try to sound like Woody Allen is a painful experience.

Everyone Says I Love You — although almost all of the actors suffer from Allen-itis in this film, although it somehow manages to be less obnoxious because of the music (numbers performed by Edward Norton and Goldie Hawn especially) and light tone. Tim Roth's brilliant portrayal of an ex-con who temporarily sweeps Drew Barrymore off her feet transcends Allen-itis and the rest of the movie.

Husbands and Wives — one of Woody's best, thanks to Judy Davis, who is able to brilliantly channel Allen's need for a neurotic character into her own special, specific rhythms. Davis has worked with Woody many times (To Rome with Love, Celebrity, Deconstructing Harry, Husbands and Wives, Alice).

His movies with Mia Farrow — The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose, Hannah and Her Sisters, etc. Farrow is such a wonderful, human actress that even when he had her try to approximate his patter she was able to transcend Allen-itis, especially charmingly in The Purple Rose of Cairo.

His movies with Diane Keaton — Annie Hall, Sleeper, Manhattan, etc. Keaton has such a distinct personality that it is likely that she helped shape Allen's oeuvre in the '70s more than vice-versa. In fact maybe Allen-itis is really and truly Keaton-itis ...

"I never work with actors, I just hire them. It's the truth. You know, I hire terrific people. Who have I worked with over the years: Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Judy Davis, Helen Hunt, Tracey Ullman, Goldie Hawn, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh. I mean I've worked with these wonderful people who were great before I knew them. They come in, they're great. They do their part great. I don't speak to them much. I have very little to say to them. And they go. And everybody thinks that I'm handling the actors. But I'm not. I'm saying, you know "Change the script. Do what you want. Wear want you want. Walk where you want". You know, and they're saying "Oh, thank you." — An interview with Woody Allen by Lucy Cooper 

"I never try to talk to them. There's no point. You have Anthony Hopkins. What am I going to say to him? I hire them to get out of their way. They've made great movie before me, they'll make great movies after me, and I just don't want to mess them up." — Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing By Bethany Rooney, Mary Lou Belli

“Woody doesn’t direct at all,” he told The Orange County Register. “Seriously, he says that all the time. He doesn’t know how to direct. He says he hires you to do your job, and then he fires you if you can’t. On Purple Rose of Cairo, he started with Michael Keaton, who worked for three weeks, and then he let him go. He couldn’t use any of it. Then Eric Roberts came in, and worked for 10 days, and then Woody let him go, too. A third actor came in, but I can’t remember who that was. And, finally, he got Jeff Daniels.”
“I had a different brother in Crimes and Misdemeanors for the first three days. Woody knows what he wants, but he doesn’t direct. He lets you completely on your own. He doesn’t want to talk about the movie. He’ll talk about the Knicks, about hockey, about anything. If the circus is in town, he’ll tell you how much he hates clowns. Anything to not talk about directing.” — Martin Landau on Working with Woody Allen and the Trouble with Writers: “They have all the characters speaking the same way” DailyActor

Maybe he doth protest too much? A Woody Allen movie is fun for the film buff, as one is sure to see some great and popular actors. Allen always works with top talent. He's an artist who knows what he wants. Like all artists, not every work is a masterpiece, but when he gets it right, he gets it very right, as evidenced by more recent films in his oeuvre, Midnight in Paris, Match Point and Cassandra's Dream. For a man who knocks out one film a year, it's pretty hard to argue with his method with actors.

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ewan mcgregor and jack the giant slayer

Ewan McGregor is not the star of Jack the Giant Slayer, but he is what I remember most about the movie. It was actually kind of a schizophrenic viewing experience. The live action, with the charming McGregor, the always fun-to-watch Ian McShane as the king, the dastardly evil king's advisor Roderick, played by Stanley Tucci, and Jack, played by the all-grown-up and handsome Nicholas Hoult (can you believe this is the same kid from About A Boy?), are undeniably the best parts of the movie.

The CGI giants that Jack and his pals are up against, however, are unremittingly ugly, unpleasant, and un-involving to watch. So much hard work for such a poor return. I would have much preferred to see Bill Nighy, who plays the main giant, General Fallon, as himself, blown up with the aid of computers to a giant size, than what we were given — his horribly animated counterpart. It's hard to believe that director Bryan Singer, who has ably balanced live action and special effects/animation in the three previous X-Men movies (X-Men, X2, X-Men First Class) would let such miserable-looking giants get past the drawing board stage.

Fee, fi, fo, fum — Yuk, yukky, yukkier, and yukkiest

But back to Ewan McGregor. As the king's top knight, Elmont, McGregor has a blast, whether twirling his waxed moustache or being captured and rolled up in a giant's pastry. As I watched him in Jack the Giant Slayer I realized that McGregor truly has the best shit-eating grin in movies. His larger-than-life enthusiasm, which he carries from role to role, is just infectious.

I'm no fan of the more recent Star Wars flicks, but McGregor's young Obi Wan Kenobi was easily the least embarrassing performance of the trilogy. I prefer watching McGregor in the more enjoyable, but incredibly cheesy science-fiction flick The Island, where he and Scarlett Johansson discover that their perfect world may not really be that wonderful after all — they are clones whose owners want them to exist solely for use as "spare parts." Whether playing a junkie in Trainspotting or a smarmy suitor in Emma, McGregor is always irresistible. His 500-watt smile and winning performance in Moulin Rouge, whether he is speaking or singing, steals the movie away from his co-star Nicole Kidman. All of the other actors, sets and trappings in the over-the-top production just can't compare.

I dare you to name an actor with a better smile

McGregor can dial down his grin when necessary. In Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream he plays Colin Farrell's smarter (?) brother, trying desperately to change his circumstances for the better, even if the way out of his current situation includes murder. In Roman Polanski's excellent Ghost Writer he is a more diffident sort — quiet, lurking around the edges of the movie until he realizes that the book he is ghost writing may not only put him in the spotlight, but in actual danger.

One of Hollywood's most hardworking actors, McGregor is in many movies that are worth checking out: The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Beginners, Miss Potter, Big Fish, Young Adam, Down with Love, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine. Is his latest, Jack the Giant Slayer, worth checking out? If you can focus on the actors and are not too put off by the video-game-reject-looking giants, it can be a fun diversion. And Ewan McGregor's grin helps a lot.

Smiles all around — Ewan McGregor, Eleanor Tomlinson, and Nicholas Hoult bid adieu to some pesky giants

roman polanski's ghosts

Article first published as Movie Review: The Ghost Writer on Blogcritics.



I was about a half hour into watching The Ghost Writer before I realized/remembered that it was directed by Roman Polanski. There was something in the way Ewan McGregor was framed on the screen, with the landscape behind him that told me. Something about how Eli Wallach slowly walked out of a doorway that had just that hint of Rosemary's Baby. The way Olivia Williams looked at Pierce Brosnan that brought back Frantic. The wondering exactly who might be Kim Cattrall's never-seen but often referred-to husband that suggested Chinatown.

We never learn McGregor's character's name. He is truly a ghost as he travels in the background of the world of British ex-Prime Minister Adam Lang, played by Brosnan, who may have his best role and performance here. The Ghost has been hired to "fix" Lang's memoirs, which he finds to be singularly unimpressive, " ... the cure for insomnia," but he is quickly drawn into the strange, sealed-off world that Lang and his coterie of bodyguards, employees, friends, and family inhabits. The Ghost becomes interested in them and their secrecy, and promises that he can deliver the goods, " ... all the words are there, they're just in the wrong order." Sitting in a hotel bar watching Lang on television making an official and hopefully career and image-saving statement using words he, the Ghost, has crafted, underlines how quickly integrated into Lang's life he has become, yet also how invisible.

The Ghost Writer is based on a novel by Robert Harris, who used Tony Blair and his relationship with the U.S. during the war with Iraq as the basis for the character of Lang and much of the plot machinations. The movie could be read simply on that level, as a political thriller with contemporary parallels, but the viewer would miss so much more. The Ghost Writer is a subtle movie. Its surfaces are not exactly sleek, but they are practically monochromatic, hiding the deeper, more intense colors that must be roiling beneath the surface grays. It has standard mystery, suspense, and thriller elements, but it is much more than its on-the-surface political plot. The movie is about the inevitability that our connections with certain people, certain times, certain projects, have on our ultimate fate. It is also a bit of a horror movie — a sense of dread that permeates almost every scene. It's one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. And one of the best-looking.

Polanski presents a series of ghost and shadow figures: Lang's original ghostwriter, who is found dead— washed up on a nearby beach, his successor who seems fated to follow the clues the first ghost has left behind, the prime minister's wife who is the real power behind the throne, a college professor and old classmate of Lang's who seems inexplicably sinister. Harris, who cowrote the script with Polanski, has stated in an interview that Blair had ostensibly been a ghostwriter to President Bush when giving public reasons for invading Iraq. There are shadows within shadows.

There is a scene in the middle of the film, when Lang, surrounded by advisors, learns that he has been accused of war crimes and can no longer go home to London or any country that is part of the International Criminal Court. Frustrated, he asks, "Where can I go?" and is informed that he can remain in the U.S., or travel to China, India, and maybe a few places in Africa — all countries who are not members of the Court or its jurisdiction. Polanski is definitely pointing to his own situation, but the self-reference, which could have been maudlin, isn't. It is a grim fact of both Polanski's and Brosnan's character's existence that they have been living like quasi-prisoners for years. As beautiful as the beachfront island estate is where Lang resides, it is also a bunker.

In 1977 Polanski pled guilty to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, Samantha Geimer, who was 13 years old at the time. Polanski admitted to having sex with the girl, and did 42 days in prison for the crime, but fled the U.S. before final sentencing, as he was convinced the judge in the case would not give him a fair hearing. He has lived as a fugitive ever since, initially fleeing to France, where he became a citizen, and was protected from extradition to the U.S. Geimer has long since moved on from the original crime and just wants the courts and the media to leave her family and even Polanski free to lead their lives, as she feels they have both been misused by the legal system.

Polanski also has a house in Switzerland, and was able to come and go until September 2009, when the U.S. insisted he be put under house-arrest awaiting extradition. Many in the film industry, including Woody Allen, Wong Kar Waï, Patrice Leconte, David Lynch, Michael Mann, Tilda Swinton, Wim Wenders, and Tom Twyker signed a petition protesting the director's arrest. The U.S.'s extradition request was ultimately rejected by the Swiss and Polanski is once again "free."

As reported in the New York Times, the director had to be a bit of a ghost himself while making The Ghost Writer, " ... Mr. Polanski occasionally avoided the set, directing through a remote communications setup ... " Polanski's paranoia trickled into the character of the Ghost, who starts to look over his shoulder at the slightest sound, convinced that someone is after him for what he may know, even though he is still not sure what that could be. The Ghost meets with a former colleague of Lang who tries to alleviate his fears of Lang, "He can't drown two ghost writers, for god's sake. You're not kittens!"

It's hard for many to divorce the artist from their art, the person from the work. An artist puts themselves into their work, as is on evidence in The Ghost Writer. But the film is not the man. Polanski has done time for his crime. He has admitted that what he has done was wrong. The desire to continue to punish him seems strange, but like the Ghost, somehow inevitable for this director who has been chasing ghosts all his life — at the age of 10 he escaped the Kraków Ghetto in 1943 posing as a Roman Catholic named Romek Wilk, and he has had to live with the guilt that he was out of town when his beloved wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family in 1969.

All of the events in an artist's life can be seen as ghosts and shadows in their work. Polanski may have stronger shadows than most. But he also makes stronger movies. The Ghost Writer is a wonderful, paranoid, hopeless and intriguing film.