The Weight of Elephants

 

The Weight of Elephants 2013

• Director: Daniel Borgman
• Based on book by Sonya Hartnett
• Cast: Demos Murphy, Angelina Cottrell, Catherine Wilkin, Matthew Sunderland, Hannah Jones
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matthew Sunderland – The Nightingale
• Why? The title.
• Seen:  7 March 2023      

       Young Adrian (Murphy) lives with his no-nonsense gran (Wilkin) and kind but mentally ill uncle ((Sunderland). He’s lonely, bullied, and worried about three children who have gone missing. A kind of friendship is formed with the two little girls who move in next door but the burdens of the adults weight heavily on the children.

       It’s well-done and the acting is good, especially by the children, but it’s too depressing to really like.

 3* of 5

 

 

Case 39

 

Case 39 (2009)

• Director: Christian Alvart
• Based on book: no.
• Cast: Reneé Zellweger, Ian McShane, Jodelle Ferland, Bradley Cooper, Callum Keith Rennie, Adrian Lester, Kerry O’Malley, Cynthia Stevenson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Reneé Zellweger – Judy, Cold Mountain, Down with Love, Chicago, White Oleander, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Nurse Betty, Reality Bites
• Ian McShane –Game of Thrones, John Wick, Jack the Giant Slayer, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Pillars of the Earth
• Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born, Joy, American Hustle, Silver Lining Playbook, The Words, He’s Just Not that into You
• Callum Keith Rennie – Snow Cake, The Butterfly Effect, eXistenZ
• Adrian Lester – Mary Queen of Scots, Euphoria, London Spy, Hustle, Merlin, Bonekickers, Doomsday, Being Human, As You Like It, Day After Tomorrow, Hamlet, Born Romantic, Love’s Labour’s Lost
• Cynthia Stevenson – Private Practice, Dead Like Me, Six Feet Under, Happiness
• Why? The cast.
• Seen:  6 March 2016      

       Overworked child services worker Emily (Zellweger) has 38 active cases when her boss Wayne (Lester) lays case 39 on her desk. A little girl, Lily (Ferland), is in danger from her parents and Emily saves her life. Things get complicated when Lily wants to move in with Emily.

       Oh. It’s a scary movie with satanic evil.

       Never mind that I don’t believe in evil demons. I could accept them if the film was good.

       Sadly, it’s not. What a waste of a strong cast on a bad story. 

2* of 5

 

 

Life of Pi updated March 2023

 

Life of Pi 2012

Updated March 2023

• Director: Ang Lee
• Seen by this director: Taking Woodstock, Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility
• Based on book by Yann Martel
• Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor/actress in:
• Irrfan Khan – Slumdog Millionaire, The Amazing Spiderman, Darjeeling Limited, The Namesake
• Tabu – The Namesake
• Rafe Spall – The World’s End, Prometheus, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, A Good Year
• Gérard Depardieu – La Vie en Rose, Paris je t’aime, Boudu, Hamlet, Jean de Florette
• Why: the book
• Seen: January 6, 2013, at the movie theater with Hal, B-I and ÖB. Now 4 March 2023. 

Oh what a film!  What an achievement! When one of the best novels ever written becomes one of the best movies ever made – well. Once in a while the universe slips into a moment of harmony.

Who could have believed it – a novel that was impossible to film. A shipwrecked boy in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.

No, they don’t become friends. This is not a kid’s-pet-of-the-week movie. It’s an existential action drama about life and nature. And it’s incredibly exciting and beautiful. Overwhelming ocean storms, glorious skies, explosively surging whales. And, of course, a snarling clawing tiger.

One asks oneself how they do all that. Or not.  It’s easy enough to just accept the wonder of it.

Read the book. Then see the movie. Hindu-Christian-Muslim Pi promised his story would make his listener believe in god. It didn’t. It went one better. It made me believe, in case I didn’t already, in the impossible artistic achievements of us humans. 

10* of 10. 

Update 4 March 2023. Well, it seems I liked the film the first time. Of course, on the big screen it was overwhelming. It was overwhelming enough on the TV screen. Maybe I won’t go so far as 10* of 10 this time, but I’m very happy to give it 5* of 5.

 

 

Belfast

 

Belfast 2021

• Director: Kenneth Branagh
• Seen by this director: All Is True, Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express, Cinderella, Thor, Sleuth, The Magic Flute, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, In the Bleak Midwinter, Frankenstein, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, Dead Again, Henry V 
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Caitríoni Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Morgan
• Jamie Dornan – The Fall
• Judie Dench – All Is True, Murder on the Orient Express, Victoria & Abdul, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Hollow Crown, Bond etc, Hotel Marigold 1&2, Philomena, Vicious, My Week with Marilyn, Jane Eyre, Cranford, Nine, Notes on a Scandal, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies in Lavender, The Shipping News, Chocolat, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown, Hamlet, Henry V, A Handful of Dust, 84 Charing Cross Road, A Room with a View, Macbeth
• Ciarán Hinds – First Man, The Woman in Black, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter, Life During Wartime, Margot at the Wedding, Hallam Foe, Amazing Grace, Calendar Girls, Titanic Town, Jane Eyre, Ivanhoe, Cold Lazarus, A Mother’s Son, Mary Reilly, Circle of Friends
• Colin Morgan – Humans, The Fall, The Living and the Dead, The Laughing King, Legend, Testament of Youth, The Tempest, Quirke, Merlin, Parked, The Island, Doctor Who
• Why bought: Branagh
• Seen: 24 March 2023. 

Belfast 1969. Young Buddy (Hill) is growing up in a Protestant family - Mum (Balfie), Dad (Dornan), brother (McAskie), grandmother (Dench) and grandfather (Hinds) - where there are still Catholic families. The kids all play together but adult men riot violently to get rid of them. Soldiers, barbed wire, music and dancing, firebombs, football, arguments, discussions, threats, roadblocks - all in the street. Buddy is confused but life goes on. A fanatical neighbour (Morgan) threatens them, and Buddy takes refuge in the cinema and theatre.

      It’s more or less Branagh’s autobiography and is no doubt the best non-Shakespeare film he’s made.

 4 ½ * of 5

 

 

 

Burning

 

Burning 2018

• Director: Lee Chang-Dong
• Seen by this director: Phantom of the Opera, Veronica Guerin, Flawless, The Client, The Lost Boys
• Based on the story by Haruki Murakami
• Cast: Yoo Ah-In, Jeon Jong-seo, Steven Yeun
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Rave reviews
• Seen: 23 February 2023.      

       Oh, based on a short story by Murakami, one of my favourite authors. That’s a bonus.

       Or not. I just remembered that I usually don’t like short stories, not even Murakami’s. Almost an hour into the film I have no idea what it’s about.

       Two young men and a young woman in South Korea. I think we’re supposed to suspect that one of the men killed the woman. Some reviewers think it’s a profound statement on class society but if so, it’s too deep for me.

       There’s a nice cat though (it is, after all, Murakami), so 1* for that and another one just because. 

2* of 5

 

A Time to Kill

 

A Time to Kill 1996

• Director: Joel Schumacher
• Seen by this director: Phantom of the Opera, Veronica Guerin, Flawless, The Client, The Lost Boys
• Based on the book by John Grisham
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Charles S Dutton, Brenda Frisker, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Patrick McGoohan, Ashley Judd, Tonea Stewart
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matthew McConaughey – The Gentlemen, The Dark Tower, Interstellar, The Wolf of Wall Street, EDtv, Amistad, The Lincoln Lawyer
• Samuel L Jackson – The 51^st State, Glass, The Hateful Eight, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Django Unchained, Jumper, 1408, Star Wars, Kill Bill, Changing Lanes, The Red Violin, Jackie Brown, The Long Kiss Goodnight, True Romance, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Sea of Love, Do the Right Thing
• Sandra Bullock – Gravity, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Crash, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Miss Congeniality 1&2, 28 Days, Practical Magic, Two Weeks Notice, While You Were Sleeping, Speed
• Kevin Spacey – The Men Who Stare at Goats, Superman Returns, The Life of David Gale, The United States of Leland, The Shipping News, Pay It Forward, American Beauty, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Usual Suspects, Glengarry Glenn Ross. Working Girl
• Oliver Platt - Ginger & Rosa, 2012, Frost/Nixon, Casanova, Postcards from the Edge, Working Girl
• Charles S Dutton – American Violet, Honeydripper, Secret Window, Alien 3
• Brenda Fricker – Tara Road, Milk, Inside I’m Dancing, Veronica Guerin, My Left Foot
• Donald Sutherland – Ad Astra, The Hunger Games 1-4, The Eagle, The Pillars of the Earth, Cold Mountain, A Dry White Season, Klute, Johnny Got His Gun, M*A*S*H, Ordinary People
• Kiefer Sutherland – Melancholia, Dark City, The Lost Boys, Stand by Me
• Tonea Stewart – Mississippi Is Burning
• Ashley Judd – Frida, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Double Jeopardy, Heat, Smoke
• Why? Worth seeing again.
• Seen: Once before. Now 21 February 2023.      

       Deep South, USA. Two young drunken white racists rape and nearly murder a little black girl. She survives and there are witnesses. The two rapists are arrested. The girl’s father Carl Lee (Jackson), knowing from similar cases that they will go free, kills them. Young, struggling, white lawyer Jake (McConaughy) defends him in the murder trial. The power-hungry and unethical DA (Spacey) is out for the death penalty. Jake gets unexpected help from an eager law student Ellen (Bullock).

       For a film about racism, the KKK, the complexity of justice, it mostly offers white voices, although Carl Lee actually points this out to Jake towards the end, lifting the film. The sexual tension between Jake and Ellen is an unnecessary Hollywood-type distraction and lowers it.

       Otherwise, it’s a decent film, well-structured for excitement with strong performances, especially by Jackson and McConaughy. The ending is strong and lifts it up again. 

4 * of 5

The Lincoln Lawyer

 

The Lincoln Lawyer 2011

• Director: Brad Furman
• Based on the book by Michael Connelly
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, William H Macy, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, Michael Peña, Bob Gunton, Frances Fisher, Bryan Cranston, Laurence Mason
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matthew McConaughey – The Gentlemen, The Dark Tower, Interstellar, The Wolf of Wall Street, EDtv, Amistad, A Time to Kill
• Marisa Tomei – Crazy Stupid Love, The Wrestler, Alfie, Chaplin, My Cousin Vinnie
• William H Macy – Room, Cake, Sea Biscuit, Happy Texas, Pleasantville, Fargo
• Ryan Phillippe – Igby Goes Down, Gosford Park
• John Leguizamo – Cymbeline, The Miracle at Santa Ana, The Happening, Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Julia, Carlito’s Way
• Michael Peña -The Martian, Ant-Man, Babel, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The United States of Leland, Roswell
• Frances Fisher – this and that
• Bob Gunton – this and that
• Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad, Total Recall, Contagion, Drive, Little Miss Sunshine
• Laurence Mason – Public Enemies, The Crow, True Romance
• Why? Possibly worth seeing again.
• Seen: Once before, but I don’t remember it. Now 20 February 2023.      

       Mick Haller (McConaughey) is a smart-ass defence lawyer who works out of his Lincoln (a car, in case you, like me, are not up on cars), who works only for money, the more the better. He takes on a super-rich client accused of violence and sexual assault.  He soon realises the guy is guilty.

       As a story it’s only so-so. Tomei and Macy lift the film, but their roles are trite. A twist or two holds the interest but it’s not really my kind of film. 

2 ½ * of 5