The Fighter

One could be right in thinking that there might be nothing new in The Fighter. It’s a true life biographical tale, it’s about boxing and it’s about how an underdog rises to the occasion. Guilty on all counts but dismissing The Fighter as yet another boxing film would be a big mistake. Of course, it’s predictable but like some good films this one’s not about what happened as much as it’s about how it happened.

Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is one of those boxers who are ‘stepping stone’ for others are on their way to challenge the champ of the day. Managed by his mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who has a softer spot for his older brother Dicky (Christian Bale), who also trains him, Mickey’s used as a pawn by everyone around him. Always under the thumb of Dicky who once famously knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard, Mickey is put through hell by Dicky. He even forces Mickey to fight someone who is stronger than him in a match where his original opponent walks out. Micky with the help of new love of life, Charlene(Amy Adams), decides to go his own way. With his mother looking the other way Dicky goes deeper into his cocaine addiction and when an HBO documentary, which Dicky tells people is about his alleged comeback, shows the world the truth about his crack addiction, Mickey knows he has made the right decision. With a new trainer, and a new manager along with his step-father, Mickey becomes hot enough for a title shot. Unknown to his team Mickey wins the last fight before the title shot with a few tips from Dicky. With one shot at glory, Mickey now needs the old crew of Alice and Dicky along with the new team of Charlene and his trainer to help him win the title, but the two don’t see eye-to-eye.

David O. Russell infuses such a sense of manic energy into The Fighter that it no longer remains a mere boxing film. Rather he makes The Fighter a tale about people more troubled than the next one fighting a battle much bigger than boxing. Even with predictable plot-points Russell takes the screenplay to some other level thanks to four great performances that act as the foundation.

Christian Bale, who’d in all probability will notch up an Oscar for his supporting act, for the first time shows that he’s more than a single expression number that he had become. Bale makes Dicky so organic that he doesn’t remain distant even when he’s making life a living hell for his younger brother. Another probable Oscar winner from the cast, Melissa Leo makes Alice one of the rare acts where the line dividing opposing emotions gets blurred. Her bravura performance where Alice balances her two sons and seven daughters is equally chilling and poignant. Amy Adams makes Charlene like the girl you know too well and yet never lets familiarity become an impediment. Mark Wahlberg’s Mickey might not be the most exciting character when compared to the other three but his isn’t an easy role. While the other have author backed lines and moments Wahlberg keeps Mickey up there for most of the film on his own.

Boxing has had a long affair with Hollywood and everyone from Marlon Brando, Paul Newman and Rober De Niro have won glory for portraying boxers and The Fighter joins the fabled list with much ease. The boxing scenes might not be as riveting as the ones in Martin Scorsese’s seminal masterpiece Raging Bull, the drama however is as good as Raging Bull. The gritty camerawork adds to the overall mood of the tough Boston neighborhood that David O. Russell takes us into. Don’t miss this one.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo

Screenplay by: Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson

Directed by: David O. Russell

Image: www.wikipedia.com

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Tanu Weds Manu

‘I love you and what’s that got to do with you…’ seems to be the mantra that drives Tanu Weds Manu and much like a hidden lover you don’t really care or worry about, hidden intentions make this romantic-comedy a half-baked approach.

Manoj Sharma or Manu (R. Madhavan) is the true silent types who no one really notices. He can carry on with his quite and rather lonely existence but being a London settled Indian doctor his parents have lined-up a bevy of girls for him to choose and settle down with. Manu lands up in Delhi and is immediately shunted to Kanpur where he not only meets but instantly falls in love with a passed-out after-downing-a-quarter-Vodka-and-five-sleeping-pills Tanuja Trivedi aka Tanu (Kangna Ranaut). He readily agrees and the families take off to Vaishno Devi to seek Mata’s blessing but Tanu tells her husband to be that she’s in love with some dude called Awasthi and he better back off. Manu’s confides in his man Friday Pappi (Deepak Dobriyal), who can’t understand how Manu could agree to marry someone who was sleeping through the meeting! Manu continues to meet other girls but can’t seem to get Tanu out of his mind and fate smiles on him when he ends up meeting her again at his friend Jassi’s (Eijaz Khan) marriage who is marrying Payal (Swara Bhaskar), Tanu’s closest friend. Much to the disappointment and even embarrassment of everyone right from Pappi, Payal and Jassi Manu doesn’t being chagrined by Tanu making him dance to her tunes. Every now and then Tanu gives Manu some hope of but nothing stops her doing what she pleases. Much to Manu’s shock she asks him to help her run away from home to marry her boyfriend but Manu being Manu convinced both the parents and everyone falls in line for Tanu’s dream wedding. But the compulsive rebel that Tanu is she now craves for something more exciting.

Tanu Weds Manu starts off on a very promising note as it gets its atmosphere so well that you almost feel a party of the great shaadi drama that unfolds. You smile at the family members trying to force fee the daamad to be, you move to the Manu Bahiya Ka Kariye number as if you knew the bhaiya in question, but as it goes along the film ends up falling prey to a very average and, at times, almost pathetic treatment which makes it another run of the mill experience.

Following the tradition of Jab We Met, Tanu Weds Manu has a hero who is reticent to the extent of being mistaken for a piece of furniture and the gal who’s full of beans but unlike Jab We Met, Tanu Weds Manu can’t rise above the basics, which is very sad for the film gets the fabric very well and has many more interesting characters like Pappi, Jassi and Payal in addition to the leads.

The screenplay of Tanu Weds Manu tries hard to make something magical of otherwise done to death filmy situations. In addition to lead characters that end up looking secondary to everyone else around them, the screenplay goes for a toss as the film progresses. Manu pines for lady love and the background is filled with songs about broken dreams, heartache as bitter as the taste of neem but everything seems a little too forced. Tanu on the other hand wavers from one emotion to another in the name of a living it to the hilt character but it’s too much to expect that the two are made for each other in the name of opposites attracting.

The acting in the film is a mixed bag but most of it isn’t bad. Madhavan gets the reserved Manu right on numerous accounts but after a while he seems to be uninterested in his own story; his Manu just doesn’t do anything proactive and at one point when he pets a stray dog as he waits for sun to shine on him, you end up laughing. Tanu could have been Kangana’s ‘Geet’ moment but she falls woefully short; amongst other things it’s almost impossible to fathom what she says at most moments. Deepak Dobriyal and Swara Bhaskar make both Pappi and Payal come alive. Dobriyal has not been give ample opportunities but you give him half a chance and he shows you just how he can take an average character with regular lines and transform the mundane into magical. Bhaskar plays the Bihari Payal with such ease and conviction that you almost mistake for her one; in her scenes with Kangana where she’s drilling sense into Tanu she outshines her more talked about co-star. Even Eijaz Khan, and the two fathers- Rajinder Gupta and KK Raina get their characters well. Jimmy Shergill’s takes a great amount of screen time in the second-half of the film and as always, tries to make most of a handful of scenes he gets.

Unlike most of the romantic comedies Tanu Weds Manu had many elements like a decent storyline by Himanshu Sharma, nice music by Krsna, great characters but most importantly the texture and feel of the whole UP family marriage scene that could have made it much better than what we end up watching. In spite of Kangana Ranaut’s strange shenanigans and an uber reserved Madhavan who might put you to sleep, Tanu Weds Manu is still harmless and even a fun watch at many places.

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Cast: R. Madhavan, Kangana Ranaut, Jimmy Shergill, Eijaz Khan, Swara Bhaskar, Rajinder Gupta and KK Raina

Written by: Himanshu Sharma

Directed by: Anand L. Rai

Image: www.wikipedia.com

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I'm Number Four

You know some films that people warn you about and you still watch them to form your own opinion? This is one of them. Stay away for it’s not worth of forming any opinion.

Based on the book by Pittacus Lore, I’m Number Four is about the fourth of the nine special kids who survived the attack on their planet and made it to earth. Once here they blend amongst the others but ugly monsters who destroyed their planet are searching them and killing them one by one. Number Four, John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) has got to know that the third one is dead and now his warrior guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant) has moved him to Paradise, Ohio, in order to hide him. John falls for the high school cutie Sarah (Dianna Agron) and befriends the school nerd, Sam (Callan McAuliffe) and fights the football captain while dealing with his newly discovered super hero like powers. The monsters find him, kill Henri and wreak havoc in the sleepy town but John decides to stop running and fight the battle. Mystery gal who keeps stalking him turns out to be Number Five (Teresa Palmer) and together they save the day. Once the entire town is destroyed they move on to find the remaining four of the Nine who came in order to prepare for the bigger fight.

There are some films that you sit though no matter how bad, even endure in the hope that there’d be some payoff in the end but I’m Number Four ain’t one of those. You see warriors from another planet fight planet-traveling monsters and yet don’t feel anything. You look at troubled teen from another world, in the literal sense, trying to blend in and become one of us and you feel nothing. You see a cute girl finding her own spot in the sun by clicking photographs on antiquated cameras rather than being the football jock’s arm candy and you feel nothing. You see a young science nerd dealing with bullies and missing his father, who he believes was abducted by aliens and you feel nothing.

Director D.J. Caruso blows up things like any good Hollywood action flick but this one just bores you to death. What’s scary is that there might a couple of sequels in the making. Watch it if you must but be warned even the popcorn tastes bad.

Rating: 1/5

Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Dianna Agron, Callan McAuliffe and Teresa Palmer

Screenplay by: Alfred Gough and Miles Millar based on the novel by Pittacus Lore

Directed by: D.J. Caruso

Image: weseemovies.blogspot.com

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Rabbit Hole

Based on a play by David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole is one of those films where big stars play regular people. They scream, they shout, they cry and they smile like everyone else and before you know they manage to seep into your system and completely engross you.

Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) are pale shadows of what they used to be since the accidental death of their young son, Danny. Becca cuts herself off completely and spends most of her time gardening while Howie almost ritualistically goes along the days. This is their way of dealing with the loss and the twain meet at their weekly therapy group. Becca looses interest in the therapy and starts following around the teenager who was driving the car that killed Danny. Howie, on the other hand, has had enough of Becca’s silence and gets closer to Gabby (Sandra Oh), one of the grieving mothers he meets at therapy. To her surprise Becca finds solace in the company of the person responsible for her loss and doesn’t care about anything else. Soon Howie gets to know about Becca and just doesn’t know how to deal with it

Both Kidman and Eckhart put in an earnest effort in making Becca and Howie extremely believable. Immersing themselves into the characters, especially Kidman, make Rabbit Hole a highly absorbing and very engaging experience. The supporting act in the form of Dianne Wiest who plays Becca’s emotionally domineering mother and Sandra Oh’s Gabby who seems to be the only person orbiting Howie’s tormented mind space add to the film.

Provoked by a huge sense of grief Rabbit Hole is depressing but not beyond a point. Somewhere the film resembles the award winning play it’s based on and that makes it look somewhat manufactured and at places, even theatrical. But a strong element of humor that arises when unexpected makes Rabbit Hole very organic. There is a lot of talk about the strong underlying sense of pain, grief and loss but that never takes over. Losing one’s child and coping with life both Becca and Howie don’t know where the next turn might be but both go on because that’s what people who are left behind do. They go through the motions convincingly portraying the emotions that take you on a roller-coaster of a ride and while you are watching it the pain is very real, very palpable. Yet after the film is over you end up feeling that everything was scripted. Nevertheless, a pretty worthwhile tumble down the rabbit hole.

Rating: 3/5

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest and Sandra Oh

Written by: David Lindsay-Abaire based on his own play

Directed by: John Cameron Mitchell

Image: Wikipedia

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Kachcha Limboo

Sagar Ballary wouldn’t have imaged that the runaway success of Bheja Fry would make it so difficult for him. Ballary’s Kachcha Limboo explores growing pains with a likeable protagonist but nothing works for the film.

13 year-old Shambhu (Taheer Sutarwala) seems to have trouble on every front. He can’t get along with his father (Atul Kulkarni), he has no real friends and everything he does ends up getting him into more trouble. He struggles to make friends but no one seems to look beyond the over weight kid who’s a chipku. The only person on his team is his mother (Sarika) but she too gets occupied with Shambhu’s baby sister. Wading his way through problems at school and home, Shambhu runs away from the world he knows to find his own place in the sun. He meets into Vitthal (Chinmay Kambli), a street smart lil one, who welcomes Shambhu into his world.

Kachcha Limboo gets one thing spot on- it doesn’t treat kids like kids. This is a film where the children don’t look like cardboard cutouts; they are very real. For the longest time Hindi films had no idea how to look at a children’s film and they often ended up looking stupid. Ballary gets his characters and situations right but what’s the point of that when you don’t know your own film.

The film meaninglessly frets on just about everything without sinking its teeth into something called a story! The problem with the film is that you just don’t know what is this all about and with chaotic childhood, puppy love and a million other things this isn’t a film about nothing! Sutarwala makes Shambhu very affable but had Ballary made the same effort with his story Kachcha Limboo would have been worth it.

Rating: 1 ½ out of 5

Cast: Taher Sutarwala, Atul Kulkarni and Sarika

Directed by: Sagar Ballary

Image: www.fridayrelease.com

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7 Khoon Maaf

*Spoiler alert.

Expectations always make it harder and especially if you happen to be Vishal Bhardwaj. Since Maqbool, every Vishal Bhardwaj film has been looked at with great expectations and to be honest the filmmaker hasn’t really disappointed. But nothing lasts forever and perhaps for the first time really Bhardwaj lets you down with 7 Khoon Maaf.

Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra) has been really unlucky in love but while people move on Susanna knows only one way to end a relationship. Susanna marries Major Rodriques (Neil Nitin Mukesh) and hopes that life on her farm with a maid (Usha Uthup) along with two men Friday and Amar (Vivaan Shah), an orphan she practically adopts, would be a bed of roses but life doesn’t end up the way one imagines. Tired of her possessive husband who becomes worse after losing a leg in the line of duty, she along with her bunch of cronies kills him in accidental circumstances. During Edwin’s funeral she notices Jimmy (John Abraham), a singer in the choir, and before she knows it Jimmy becomes husband number two. She helps Jimmy to become a rock star but her beau’s persistent drug problem and roving eye becomes too much to handle. So once Jimmy dies in strange circumstances she moves to Kashmir. She meets the soft hearted poet Wasiullah Khan (Irrfan) and becomes Sultana but bad luck seems to be her constant partner. The shy poet happens to be one big sadistic freak who beings out the ‘Susanna’ in Sultana and you know what happens when Susanna gets going. She reluctantly gives love yet another chance with Nocolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko), a Russian scientist, who lies about his family and children and what follows is a regular day for Susanna at work. Life comes a full cycle and Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor), the investigating officer who suspected foul play with Jimmy’s murder, is now a high ranking official who yet again saves Susanna from the gallows but in the bargain becomes husband number five. He dies of a heart attack while making love to his wife and finally Susanna decides enough is enough. When Amar walks out of her life as she tries to seduce him, Susanna tries to end her life only to be saved by Dr. Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Naseeruddin Shah). Life’s not fair to Susanna as she realizes that the shy doctor is prescribing death and then…you know what ensues. Finally fate shines on her and gives her a second chance but can Susanna change?

Loosely based on Ruskin Bond’s short story, this should have been familiar turf for Bhardwaj as he’s very comfortable with adaptations but 7 Khoon Maaf ends up being highly disjointed. Right from the moment it takes off the blocks, the film’s ponderous as if it’s prepping you for some interesting juncture but sadly that point never comes. Bhardwaj compels you to keep looking at the drama that unfolds on the screen with baited breath hoping for some sort of an aha moment but there’s no real payoff. The somber mood that he creates helps generate the viewer’s interest levels but with each murder you just stop caring.

The interesting thing about 7 Khoon Maaf is how Matthew Robbins’ screenplay tries to root such a fantastical tale in reality. The production design, the costumes and a whole lot of detailing makes 7 Khoon Maaf visually a very convincing exercise. Also the manner in which the passage of time is shown- Edwin being decorated for his bravado during Operation Blue Star, Jimmy’s dealer tells him that just as the world has moved on from the Berlin Wall and VP Singh government he should move on to bigger drugs and Nicolai being around her at the time India becomes a nuclear state, etc.- is nice touch to show the 45 year period in Susanna’s life.

One wouldn’t think that with someone like Priyanka Chopra killing seven husbands that include the likes of Irrfan and Naseeruddin Shah, a film could be boring but that’s what a major portion of 7 Khoon Maaf ends up being. Chopra sinks her teeth very well into the character and systematically checks the boxes with skills that one would expect of such a chameleon but it’s the script that lets her down. Irrfan with his poet is the only surprise in the lot and as one’s not expecting Wasiullah to be a sadist the segment is by far the best. Naseeruddin Shah for some strange reason plays Tarafdar as Amitabh Bachchan would; Annu Kapoor gets the laughs and might just get a second lease of life much like Pankaj Kapur post Maqbool; Neil Nitin Mukesh gets to play a much older character and is quite interesting while John Abraham is well…just plain old John. But the weakest link of 7 Khoon Maaf is Vivaan Shah, who is highly unconvincing and really bad as Arun. The only one who perhaps understood Susanna to some extent, Arun is as important as the lady but Shah’s boyish looks and flat voice is a mood kill.

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah and Vivaan Shah

Written by: Screenplay: Matthew Robbins based on Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond

Directed by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Image: www.wikipedia.com

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Patiala House

Rumored to be inspired by the trials of Monty Panesar, the first Sikh to make it to the English cricket team, Patiala House finally gives you an Akshay Kumar film where you won’t be waiting for it to get over.

Parghat Singh Kahlon or Gattu (Akshay Kumar) is a promising fast bowler who gets a call to play for his country and what could be more prestigious for an Indian than to don white fennels? But his father Gurtej Kahlon (Rishi Kapoor) denies him the chance for Gattu’s country happens to be England. Gurtej becomes a different man the day his family members are killed in a racial attack and vehemently fights the whites one every instance. Gurtej might be living in England but for all practical purposes he still considers himself an Indian and won’t let his British citizen of a son play for the ‘enemy. From the moment Gattu gives in everyone in Gurtej’s extended family, is expected to do what the patriarch deems fit. Seventeen years later Gattu gets a second shot when a desperate English cricket board looks up to him to transform England’s sagging fortunes on the field. Once again Gattu refuses but thanks to lady love Simran (Anushka Sharma) and the inmates of Patiala House, who see this as an opportunity to break away from disciplinarian Gurtej, Gattu for the first time decides to live his life.

Patiala House is one of the best things that could have happened to Akshay Kumar in years. With this film he manages to remind you that there is a little more to him than the inanity he had been indulging in for sometime now. Kumar has the ability to play the smooth operator and the poker faced loser with equal ease and this is a film where he seems to be having great fun as an actor. There are many things in Patiala House that seem far fetched- Simran and the bunch managing to keep the identity of Kaali, the pseudonym for Gattu as his dons the English colors but still the film ends up working on some level. One of the things conspicuously missing from the drama is the simple fact that no one questions Gurtej’s apparent hypocrisy. He has no qualms availing all facilities in England but when it comes to his English citizen son playing for England than he changes ‘his’ country in the blink of an eye. Nikhil Advani and Anvita Dutt Guptan’s screenplay had a few places where such a conflict could have made it more interesting than the basic fare it happily chooses to be.

Patiala House has a host of characters that can’t be differentiated from each other and they all end up looking the same. Advani and Guptan make no effort to add something new to the supporting cast and after a while you really don’t care who’s who or doing what. Akshay Kumar underplays Gattu almost to the level of boredom and that’s something which makes him look better than his recent films. Anushka Sharma yet again plays the Punjabi kudi and Dimple Kapadia gets rewarded for her endearing presence with a big rona-dhona talkie scene in the end.

The thing that really shines in Patiala House is Rish Kapoor’s Gurtej Singh Kahlon. One of the most successful leading men of Hindi cinema, Kapoor is perhaps the only one who managed to hold his own for two decades alongside a juggernaut called Amitabh Bachchan. Much like Bachchan, Kapoor found it extremely difficult to make the transition from a leading man to a supporting actor but while Bachchan took embarrassingly long with abysmal efforts like Laal Badshah, Kapoor’s transition has been better. With Hum Tum, Namastey London, Love Aaj Kal and now Patiala House we finally have an option for Amitabh Bachchan!

Rating: 3/5

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Dimple Kapadia and Tinnu Anand

Written by: Nikhil Advani and Anvita Dutt Guptan

Directed by: Nikhil Advani

Image: www.wikipedia.com

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No Strings Attached

No matter how you like No Strings Attached, the latest rom-com on the block, it seems like Hollywood's really tried all combinations of the genre. Yet another of those assembly line films that studios have to regularly dish out, the only thing that separates this one from the rest is the inversion of the genre and that's not talking much.

Emma (Natalie Portman) is an emotional wreck who calls her father's funeral one of those stupid things. Adam (Ashton Kutcher) is a guy who seems to be forever feeling sad with something or the other in his life. The two have been orbiting each other's space since childhood but eventually end up sleeping together the morning after Adam makes as ass of himself in front of Emma's roomies. Adam's father (Kevin Kline), a has been actor with one great line to his credit, is now dating his nymphet of an ex-girlfriend and Emma, a doctor in the making is doing her residency, they decide that being friends with benefits is the only future possible between them. Adam has a loser friend who keeps giving him wrong advice, Emma's best friend can't understand why she can't 'date' Adam who seems like a perfectly find catch as opposed to hers who steal her credit cards and then there's Emma's clean-cut good looking fellow resident doctor colleague who mocks Adam at every step. Soon cracks start appearing in the strict code of conduct that Emma and Adam agreed upon but unlike the usual it's Adam who falls for Emma.

No Strings Attached is about two people who could be anyone and the man behaving like a woman and the woman being like a tough man is the only deviation from the regular. Does that work? Not really. For starters there isn't any real reason for Emma to be the relationship-phobe that she is and even though one can be the way they are for no real reason she wears her no non-sense attitude like an id tag. You see reservations on her face long before even Adam remotely suggests something and Adam plays the troubled teenager who just refuses to grow up. This is just one of the things that make it difficult to find an emotional core, something that can work wonders for a rom-com or why else does every rom-com remind you of When Harry Met Sally!

Like a hundred of such films the moment the lead pair has sex one of the has to feel more than lust and here it’s Adam who feels the love long before he even gets out of the room. Emma doesn’t look beyond the half hour she’s with Adam for she slogs 80 hours a week and just needs someone who can respond to her text message to home deliver passion. Adam has a lost pup look right from the time you see him and that’s that. The film has one-liners you don’t really laugh at, the supporting cast as regular as a bottle manufacturing plant so they don’t really try to pitch in beyond the expected and the lead look their part. Close on the heels of Black Swan Portman does a 180 degree turn with her pretty cold, career woman who doesn’t- have-time-for-falling-in-love-and-then-collecting-the-pieces-post-break-up number but looks angry for some reason. And Kutcher is, well…just himself only quieter.

Depending on how you look at things the premise of No Strings Attached works on extremes- either you will love it or it just won't make any sense. The film looks and feels more verbal than most in the genre but that could be because of the fact that it's directed by someone who is 65 years old. Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters, Twins and Six Days, Seven Nights) tries to make No Strings Attached cerebrally different from the rest but it ends up being flat and even senseless in places. One of the biggest 'Hollywood' directors of the 1980's, Reitman tries to go European and at many places keeps the proceedings poker straight to convey a sense of realism like the scene where Adam and Emma get it on for the first time. He builds the scene up to the point where you are expecting the two to get naked and get going and when after much probing they get around it he just doesn't cut away till they are almost done. You are made to see their rather blank and perhaps even embarrassed faces for eternity and you are made to feel the gyrations that are happening off screen, of course, and you are expected to feel the passion if not the love. Chances are you won’t.

Rating: 2/5

Cast: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline

Written by: Elizabeth Meriwether

Directed by: Ivan Reitman

Image: hollywood.com

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The Rite

*This review contains spoilers

Think exorcism and you just can’t look beyond William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. To imagine any other film that will come remotely close to the classic is an uphill task but having said that Mikael Håfström’s The Rite does manage to stand a little bit of ground as far as films on exorcism go.

Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue) can either run the family business by becoming an undertaker or he can become a priest for those are the only two options available to a Kovak. He joins the seminary and shows great promise but gives up just before his final vows for he loses his faith. In order to help him overcome his doubts Father Matthew (Toby Jones) sends him to the Vatican to undertake an exorcist training program. A man of science Michael has great problems in accepting the church’s methods but agrees to meet up with Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins) when his professor sees him struggling in class. Lucas is an unorthodoxly orthodox and much like Michael had a phase where he didn’t believe. Michael observes Lucas as he deals with his possessed patients and soon becomes a pawn in the hands of the devil who talks to him through Lucas’ patients. While in the Vatican Michael’s father, Istvan (Rutger Hauer) dies and he has to overcome the demons of not only his past but also help save Lucas from going over to the other side.

Based on true events The Rite is neatly divided into two parts one where it questions traditionalism and rationality and the other where it becomes a nuts and bolts exorcism film where faith will ultimately triumph. Directed by Swede Mikael Håfström, The Rite is blessed with a wonderful atmosphere thanks to cinematographer Ben Davis, that transports you right into the heart of the fight between good and evil but sadly with each step forward the film plummets. Written by Michael Petroni The Rite takes a long look at faith and tests that one has to undergo in order to preserve it or even discover it but after by the end the entire thing looks highly orchestrated.

To its credit The Rite tries to be more than a horror film that it might be though of. There is a substantial amount of talk that helps it rise above many films post The Exorcist that have the eternal fight for faith. Anthony Hopkins brings a certain degree of panache to Father Lucas and does his level best to avoid the trappings of such a character. He, nevertheless, plays Lucas like a cool old hand who has seen it all and knows everything will eventually fall into its right order. The thing with Hopkins is that he knows he’s a star and so even if he tries to act it looks like he is ‘playing’ a character. But there are places in the film where he shows traces of yesteryears when he managed to convince you of the character he played and not himself. This is best seen where his Lucas is losing it and slaps a young girl when she asks the priest to bless her doll. Toby Jones as Kovak’s senior is fun and as usual it’s great to see Rutger Hauer in any form or role. Colin O'Donoghue brings enough Yang to counter Hopkin’s Ying and there’s a decent camaraderie between the two but the last twenty odd minutes of the film fails in almost all departments.

Could the film have been any different? Yes and no. Towards the end as Lucas becomes the Devil’s latest victim and it’s up to Kovak, the non-believer, to save his mentor’s soul everything becomes highly predictable. The climax is as straight as any film on exorcism but that’s not the thing that will trouble you the most. The biggest problem with The Rite is that it ends up looking like a highly contrived endeavor to make Kovak believe in god. For all it’s eerie mood in the beginning The Rite finishes up being a highly unbelievable exercise where the good and the evil and just about everyone will conspire to go to unimaginable lengths in order to help Kovak find his faith.

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Toby Jones, Rutger Hauer

Written by: Michael Petroni (suggested by the book by Matt Bagli)

Directed by: Mikael Håfström

Image: www.smartcine.com

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The Mechanic

Remaking a cult classic is definitely the easiest way to make a film and sometimes it works but mostly such an exercise usually results in a senseless mishmash that’s best avoided. Even though it has all the elements that make an action film The Mechanic simply remains a senseless effort to connect the dots.

Arthur Bishop (Jasaon Statham) is an elite assassin who is probably the best in the trade. Destined to wine, dine and die alone, Bishop operates alone, always looks over his shoulder and follows a ritualistic code. Bishop’s top boss asks him to kill his only friend and handler for ages, Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland), who seems to be playing double team. Thinking better him that anyone else, Bishop in a bold act of righteousness painlessly eliminates McKenna. Guilt drives him to take McKenna’s estranged son Steve (Ben Foster) under his wings and channelize his anger in a more positive manner. Steve, of course, is rougher than sandpaper and no amount of cajoling can ever slave the beast in him. Needless to say Ben has no idea that Bishop’s the man who killed his dad. A job goes horribly wrong and Bishop comes face to face with a man he last saw dead in a photo that convinced him about McKenna’s deceit. Now the hunk of a killer with a soft heart, how else can you explain his habitual visits to the same prostitute, decides to set things right and along with able sidekick goes on a rampage to get Dean (Tony Goldwyn), the man who deceived him into killing Harry. While Bishop’s hopping mad at Dean, Steve gets to know about his father death but with bullets flying left, right and centre the real question is who out of the two- Bishop or McKenna Jr.- will manage get their vengeance?

Simon West, the man behind action flicks like Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, seemed to be the right choice to helm the new avatar of The Mechanic but while there’s nothing that really doesn’t play according to the book something about the remake just doesn’t work. West has excellent old fashioned action set pieces, pretty decent star presence and enough pyrotechnics to light up half the world but even with all the ingredients The Mechanic doesn’t rise about the basic.

The film is loud, the action’s pretty visceral and how wrong can you go with Jason Statham in an action film. No one plays the brooding killer better than Statham but here he looks like an Englishman who seems to have lost his way and is desperately looking for directions. His Bishop is clean-cut and sophisticated just like every aberration of a killer seen in Hollywood films; he plays records, lounges on an a classic Eames chair as he ponders about life and restores a vintage car piece by piece when he’s not killing people. The original had Charles Bronson and that was that. But Statham isn’t Bronson and moreover he doesn’t look sad or pleased as the trigger happy Bishop and so one never really feels the pain when he ends McKenna’s life or presents his special lady friend a pup! Foster is as nippy as a hand grenade pin but is also as predictable as the menu at your favorite fast-food joint.

It just doesn’t make any sense to remake a cult classic like The Mechanic and while this isn’t one of Charles Bronson’s most beloved films, the original had the very campy feeling which this one clearly lacks. This is a balls-to-the-wall kind of action film and one doesn’t expect to see things like character development here but a little bit of ambiguity would have helped. Sample this- the modern day guru/god man that team Bishop-McKenna Jr. are hired to kill is a bad guy and so he wastes no time in delivering the perfunctory bad man glint in his eyes when he generally looks at a young woman who comes to get his autograph! With hardly a plot to hoot and acting that won’t find it’s way out of a paper bag, The Mechanic does have one fantastic line that almost makes it worthwhile and it goes something like, "I'm gonna put a price on your head so big, when you look in the mirror your reflection's gonna want to shoot you in the face.” The Mechanic won’t be remembered this time next year but if you have a strong gut then it’s the one for you this weekend.

Rating: 2/5

Cast: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Tony Goldwyn and Donald Sutherland

Screenplay by: Richard Wenk and Lewis John Carlino (based on a story by Lewis John Carlino)

Directed by: Simon West

Image: www.flicksandbits.com

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Biutiful

Have you ever wondered about a character long after the film is over? Biutiful is one such film where the character goes beyond the realm of the film and lingers on for a long, long time. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful is a film where Javier Bardem doesn’t play a character, rather he becomes Uxbal and takes you on a journey that you thought cinema had become incapable of.

Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is a hustler who has spent his entire life looking over his shoulders to stay above the water but is not bereft of principles. The middle man between illegal immigrants and profit mongering sweat shop owners, Uxbal has his hands full between managing business, taking care of cops and brining up two children in the absence of an estranged bipolar wife besides being a medium who converses with people stuck in afterlife. Uxbal learns that he is dying of cancer and decides to set things right for his children. He gets his wife back in spite of his reservations and even though the family is happy to be back together, his wife’s mood swings make his change his mind. With time slipping away Uxbal starts feeling the heat of death around the corner and just when he starts getting a grip on his plans….things go horribly wrong.

Iñárritu’s films are so deeply rooted in reality that you become a part of the proceedings instead of being a voyeur and Biutiful is no exception. Before you know it, a path leads to the grim reality of the streets that Uxbal walks on and you can’t escape the sorrow. But this is a world that we have seen far too many times in Iñárritu’s films. With Amores perros, 21 Grams and Babel behind us one can’t be blamed for almost giving up on Biutiful midway but it’s Javier Bardem’s towering performance that just doesn’t allow you to look away.

Many actors become characters but with Uxbal Javier Bardem just doesn’t create a character, he essentially embodies the persona to such an extent that you can’t really say who’s playing whom. Bardem is one of the foremost actors in the world today and rightfully so for never have you seen a life disintegrating right in front of your eyes as painfully as Bardem does with Uxbal. This isn’t an easy film to watch simply because Bardem gives everything that he has and plays it so naturally that you cringe at Uxbal’s pain and pity his predicament.

Like all Iñárritu films Biutiful too has parallel stories but this time around he concentrates more on one character rather than three that has become a motif in his films. The writing is a little drab and even though there are a multitude of characters Iñárritu keeps them at a distance choosing to concentrate solely on Uxbal. Who knows what the 138 minutes long Biutiful might have become had Iñárritu’s regular writer Guillermo Arriaga not been missing from the party. This slight departure notwithstanding Biutiful is essentially the same bleak film that Iñárritu has now become famous for. Is it because of the same team that Iñárritu collaborates with- cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and composer Gustavo Sanataolla- that his work has started looking dangerously similar? Or could it be that the three parallel stories converging has become his open secret much like an M. Night Shyamalan twist ending?

Biutiful is very much an Inarritu film replete with the same strong undercurrent and the signature Prieto camerawork and the familiar but haunting Sanataolla background score. This is a film that works more because of a character and the magic that is Javier Bardem’s acting more than anything else.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Cast: Javier Bardem

Written by: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bo and Nicolás Giacobone

Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Image: thehollywoodnews.com

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Yeh Saali Zindagi

Besides being a well made film Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi suddenly attached a great deal of seriousness to ‘A Sudhir Mishra Film’ but the subsequent follow ups have been a different story. Mishra’s latest Yeh Saali Zindagi is one confused hack job that makes you wonder if half a decade ago Mishra’s seminal offering was one of those once in a lifetime things.

Between a million characters and locations that constitute Yeh Saali Zindagi, the film is about desperate people in desperate times or something like that. Arun (Irrfan) likes Priti (Chitrangda Singh) enough to fall in love with her but she falls for Shyam (Vipul Gupta), a brat whose rich industrialist father (Naseer Abdullah) is broke and wants him to get over the nightclub singer and marry politician Verma’s daughter, who doesn’t give a damn about her fiancé. Verma’s former henchman Bade (Yashpal Sharma) is locked up in Tihar jail and waits for his step-brother Chote (Prashant Narayan), based out of Georgia, to get him out but Chote instructs inspector Satbeer (Sushant Singh) to make life hell for his half-brother. Meanwhile Kuldeep (Arunoday Singh), Bade’s sidekick, gets out of jail and wants to go clean or his firecracker of a wife Shanti (Aditi Rao Hydari) will leave him. Out of money and luck Satbeer gets Kuldeep a job on Chote’s behalf- kidnap Shyam and his fiancé but as Shyam’s getting it on with Priti, the two lovebirds end up in Kuldeep’s custody. Minister Verma will obviously not pay for Shyam who’s cheating on his daughter so enter large hearted lover Arun, a conduit for corrupt politicians and businessmen, who against his better judgment ends up connecting all the players in order to help Priti.

Don’t worry if you find the plot confusing for it really is confusing but what makes it worse is the wannabe hackneyed stylish treatment that Mishra meats out. Mishra’s over-zealous acolytes will be sharpening their pitchforks to go all out but truth be told Yeh Saali Zindagi tries so hard to be something that can be best described as Guy-Snatch-Ritchie-meets-every-Quentin-Tarantino-film-ever-made. Blessed with a raucous background score that only makes way for loud songs with words that celebrate irony of life till kingdom come, Yeh Saali Zindagi ends up being a muddle of just about everything under the sun.

Mishra’s story starts off with some amount of promise but his hyperkinetic screenplay just doesn’t fall into place. Every character irrespective of their part in the film is introduced like the next big thing and multiple narrators try to make everyone and everything look important but to no real effect. They talk the same, they walk the same and even act the same so much so that Arun and Kuldeep, the two ends of this rather long stick, end up looking as pedestrian as everyone else in spite of the fact that Mishra’s screenplay takes great efforts to highlight the two. While Irrfan makes Arun come alive with his sheer magnetism even in the most inconsequential of moments as if his life depends on it, Arunoday Singh falls flat. He is stiff and looks like a part that doesn’t belong to puzzle but it forced to fit the jigsaw. He is supposed to be a typical purani dilli ka banda but plays Kuldeep as chic as possible and his bad dubbing skills don’t really help. With each subsequent film Chitrangda Singh looks ordinary and once you survive her here, you’d wonder why so much was said about her being the next Smita Patil….and what can you say about Aditi Rao Hydari? Thanks to the zillion lip locks she and her co-star indulged in for the sake of authenticity she looks subjugated and shockingly asks the same questions every time she comes face to face with her husband. She plays a tormented wife who’s angry at her man, keeps calling him kutaa and sports the same sullen expression throughout the course of the film irrespective of the situation. Sushant Singh’s Satbeer is fun in parts but that’s just about it.

What’s the deal with the recent crop of Hindi films that die trying to be edgy and Tarantinoesque? These are films that have the actors thinking in English but talking in Hindi, everyone’s a dude here for they don’t walk they strut, everyone looks out for the bigger better deal and in the end once everyone has their money shot it’s the hero who walks into the sunset. Yeh Saali Zindagi comes across as traveling repertoire of bad actors who seem to be stuck at the immigration counter and weren’t given enough time to prep!

Sudhir Mishra loves the idea of irony and doesn’t let go of any opportunity to display his love for it. His screenplay gives importance to every nuance and each character as they talk about that thing called irony but instead of keeping this idea in control he goes overboard in the bid to impress upon us how irony plays a greater role than imagined in the matters of love and life. Yeh Saali Zindagi had a spark of energy that could have been better handled but with an inconsistent screenplay and erratic editing that jumps from suddenly jumps from present to past to educate us about some past action that helped shape the character, the ride’s really bumpy. Beside Irrfan the other thing that makes somewhat of an impression is Sachin Krishnan’s cinematography that infuses some vigor in the film but on the whole Yeh Saali Zindagi isn’t as exciting as it wants you to believe it is.

Rating: 1 ½ out of 5

Cast: Irrfan, Arunoday Singh, Chitrangda Singh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sushant Singh, Yashpal Sharma, Prashant Narayanan and Vipul Gupta

Written by: Sudhir Mishra, (Dialogues- Sudhir Mishra and Manu Rishi)

Directed by: Sudhir Mishra

Image: www.showbizarre.com

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