THEATRE REVIEW: Pinter’s ‘The Lover’ and ‘The Collection’

Posted on February 27, 2008 by admin

'The Lover' 'The Collection' 2008

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter has long been fascinated by the tension that exists between two men who love the same woman.

It got out of hand in the recent film version of Kenneth Branagh’s “Sleuth,” but it is demonstrated in much subtler ways in “The Lover” and “The Collection,” now revived at London’s Comedy Theatre.

Both written for British television in the early 1960s, the two clever and amusing one-hour tales deal with deception and infidelity viewed with Pinter’s typically cool and distant eye where all is not as it first appears.

Harold Pinter’s “The Lover” and “The Collection” starring Gina McKee and Richard Coyle (pictured) are at London’s Comedy Theatre until May 3.

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THEATRE REVIEW: Spacey, Goldblum in ‘Speed the Plow’

Posted on February 22, 2008 by admin

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By Ray Bennett

LONDON – David Mamet’s 20-year-old play “Speed-the-Plow,” which uses the ruthless setting of a Hollywood studio to explore male chicanery and misogyny, looks fresh and scintillating in Matthew Warchus’ new Old Vic production starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum.

The two actors, with their intense stage presence and movie star grace, are as exciting to watch as a Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe tennis classic. Batting Mamet’s coiled and dangerous words back and forth at high speed, they reveal all the hunger, envy and fear of men trapped in their own ambitions with only their egos and wallets keeping score.

Goldblum plays Bobby Gould, the new head of production who can greenlight one film a year with a budget less than $10 million but who needs clearance from the studio chief for anything beyond that. Along comes old pal Charlie Fox (Spacey) with a killer package involving a script with a tested formula and a surefire star ready to become attached.

Breathless and alternately cocky and desperate, Fox sells Gould the package. Wary of being promoted by opportunists, Gould senses a good thing but takes his time being persuaded. These opening exchanges show Spacey and Goldblum in immediate command of their characters and the pace never flags.

Mamet poisons the well of their self-satisfaction by introducing Karen (Laura Michelle Kelly), a temp manning Gould’s reception desk who confesses she doesn’t actually know what to do. Her boss does, however, and makes a $500 bet with his buddy that she will be in his bed that night.

His plan for seduction involves having the young woman give a “courtesy read” to an improbably earnest novel about the end of mankind. That night, at his home and on his bed, Karen convinces Gould that it would make a splendid movie.

The scene is set for an explosive climax in which Fox excoriates Gould for taking his eye off the ball and letting a duplicitous woman fill his head with the idea of playing the game nobly rather than going for another smash.

Director Warchus stages the encounters with great flair and the electricity of the two male stars is matched by Kelly who injects a sly ambiguity into the role that makes the outcome even more unsettling.

Mamet’s observations about the way men and women manipulate each other and the bile that erupts when sparkling prizes remain just out of reach are now familiar but they retain their bite in the hands of the expert cast. The Old Vic has another hit.

Venue: The Old Vic; Cast:Jeff Goldblum; Kevin Spacey; Laura Michelle Kelly; Playwright: David Mamet; Director: Matthew Warchus; Designer: Rob Howell; Lighting: Paul Pyant.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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THEATRE REVIEW: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

Posted on February 20, 2008 by admin

Earnest 2008

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Decorated with more quotable lines than any play has a right to, Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is given a sprightly revival at London’s Vaudeville Theatre with the women, for once, having the edge.

Penelope Keith and Rebecca Night at the Vaudeville till April 26

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’

Posted on February 15, 2008 by admin

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By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – Anne Boleyn was the one who managed to stay alive married to England’s King Henry VIII for 1000 days but her sister Mary in “The Other Boleyn Girl” would have been his queen if only she’d been better at making babies.

That, of course, was always the problem. The Tudor line’s grip on the throne was invariably threatened by the lack of a son even though it would be daughter Elizabeth who reigned in the nation’s golden age.

In Justin Chadwick’s handsome but glum film, based on the novel by Philippa Gregory, the focus is on Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson) as their father Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) and uncle, the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey) conspire for one of them to win the king’s fancy while their mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) looks on in disgust.

Shot in high-definition and filmed at many historic locations, the film somehow still lacks the splendor of an epic and its urgency to get on with the next plot point leaves much unexplained while context goes out the window. Good performances by the female leads and all the appurtenances and costumes of the time may attract fans of period movies but there’s not enough flash and fire to grab the attention of a wider audience.

Already given screen treatment in a 2003 BBC-TV film, “The Other Boleyn Girl” here gets a bigger budget, big-name stars and a script by Peter Morgan (“The Queen,” “The Last King of Scotland”).

Morgan already had a go at this particular monarch for Granada Television in 2003 with “Henry VIII” starring Ray Winstone and he’s back presumably attracted by the opportunity to write for two dynamic actresses who play competing sisters.

His script lacks punch, however. Portman and Johansson are more than equal to the demands but with a tougher-minded script they might have soared. Portman comes to grips with the sharpest lines but she could have been given so much more. Johansson’s character grows the most in the film and once again the star dazzles with her versatility.

Eric Bana as the king offers little help. Such is his lack of screen presence that the Australian film star virtually disappears whenever Portman, Johansson or Scott Thomas makes an appearance.

History is smoothed out for the story – Mary was actually aged 12 when she married her first husband, who was 24 – and some key figures are omitted including Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas More.

The Duke of Norfolk becomes the main villain of the piece, determined ruthlessly to place one or other of his brother-in-law’s pretty daughters into the king’s bed in order to enrich the family. Scott Thomas’s mother registers her disdain for the proceedings more with her powerful gaze than any pungency in the lines of dialogue. Ana Torrent makes a strong impression too as the dismayed and discarded Queen Katharine of Aragon.

Although the various homes and castles are lovely to see, the story feels rushed, a feeling made worse as the director cuts every couple of scenes to somebody on horseback riding furiously through woods or water. Like the film, it’s not always clear why.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival, Out of Competition; Cast: Natalie Portman; Scarlett Johansson; Eric Bana; David Morrissey; Kristin Scott Thomas; Mark Rylance; Jim Sturgess; Ana Torrent; Eddie Redmayne; Benedict Cumberbatch; Oliver Coleman; Juno Temple; Director Justin Chadwick; Writer: Peter Morgan; Director of photography: Kieran McGuigan; Production designer: John-Paul Kelly; Music: Paul Cantelon; Costume designer: Sandy Powell; Co-producer: Mark Cooper; Editors: Paul Knight, Carol Littleton; Producer: Alison Owen; Executive producers: Scott Rudin, David M. Thompson; Production: Focus Features, Columbia Pictures, BBC Films, Ruby Films, Scott Rudin Productions, Relativity Media; No MPAA rating; running time 115 mins.

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Madonna’s ‘Filth and Wisdom’

Posted on February 13, 2008 by admin

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By Ray Bennett

BERLIN — The message in pop star Madonna’s first outing as feature film director, “Filth and Wisdom,” is that all of us can find peace of mind and happiness if we just get in touch with our inner slut.

Ragged, uneven, and potholed with some dire dialogue and performances, the film’s cockeyed optimism and likeable leads conspire to bring a smile by the time it’s done. Barely feature length at 81 minutes, it will likely appeal to Madonna’s fans for its echoes of various threads of her own life story and the grunge style of “Desperately Seeking Susan.” To many, however, it will remain an oddity.

Focusing on three mismatched London flat-mates who accept dire jobs while waiting for their dreams to come true, the picture is a curious mix of TV sitcom, madcap raunchiness and rowdy gypsy music.

The male of the trio, a heavily accented Ukrainian would-be pop singer named A.K. (Eugene Hutz), sets the mood speaking directly to the camera and espousing the general theme that the path to enlightenment is via the gutter.

A.K. spends a lot of time in the bathtub, dressed or not, water or not, drinking brandy, smoking and pondering life’s vicissitudes. He earns ready money by getting into various costumes and beating up paying customers who get their jollies that way. He also runs errands for a blind poet (Richard E. Grant) who lives downstairs.

A.K. has a crush on flat-mate Holly (Holly Weston), a beautiful ballerina who, being flat broke, resorts to stripping and pole-dancing at a local club, while equally lovely Juliette (Vicky Mclure) is putting in time at a drugstore while dreaming of going to Africa to help the starving children there.

There are scenes involving A.K.’s clientele, Holly’s fellow strippers and Juliette’s lustful pharmacist boss and occasionally the two young women join in A.K.’s paid-for role-playing. Some sequences are jarring in their sudden shifts of tone and a few simply fall flat. The further down the cast, the less Madonna, who co-scripted, demonstrates a firm grip as director.

“Filth and Wisdom” is unexpectedly sentimental too, but the three leads are sufficiently engaging that while chaotic and more than a bit silly, the film in the end conjures up a surprising amount of goodwill.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival; Cast: Eugene Hutz; Holly Weston; Vicky Mclure; Richard E. Grant; Inder Manocha; Elliot Levey; Clare Wilkie; Stephen Graham; Hannah Walters; Shobu Kapoor; Director: Madonna; Writers: Madonna, Dan Cadan; Producer: Nicola Doring; Executive producer: Madonna; Director of photography: Tim Maurice Jones; Production designer: Gideon Ponte; Costumes: B; Editor: Russell Icke; Production: Semtex Film; No MPAA rating; running time 81 mins.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Mike Leigh’s ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’

Posted on February 13, 2008 by admin

happygoluckycliff

By Ray Bennett

BERLIN — No one expects confection from British sobersides Mike Leigh and so his light-as-air new film “Happy-Go-Lucky” is as surprising as it is delicious with an indelible performance by new star Sally Hawkins (pictured).

As breezy as the title suggests, the film is about as far as can be imagined from such bleak Leigh classics as “Vera Drake” and “Naked.” Spun from the cheerful life of its central character, a smart, confident and goofball primary school teacher named Poppy (Hawkins), the film shares her optimism without being at all syrupy or sentimental.

Hawkins, who starred to great effect in a recent British television remake of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” is a marvel with her urchin looks and irresistible smile. She makes Poppy unforgettable.

Handsomely designed and shown on a widescreen filled with vivid colors, “Happy-Go-Lucky” has a serious point to make but measures its messages like calories to ensure a tasty and digestible treat. Once past the shock of it being a Mike Leigh picture, audiences everywhere will flock to enjoy a certified good time.

The film begins with Poppy bicycling carefree through the streets of London and discovering a new bookstore, in which she idles to enjoy the quiet and flirt with the dour chap at the till. Leigh places an enormous weight on Hawkins in the scene because if she weren’t instantly captivating then the movie might sink before it got started. But the young actress delivers.

There is no plot to speak of. It’s just a snapshot of a creative and caring young teacher at work being watchful of her flock, at home with her friends and family, and at play with the world.

Poppy joins a colleague in a Flemenco dancing class and Leigh provides a couple of hilarious sequences featuring an excellent comic performance by Karina Fernandez as the instructor.

A pain in the back takes the teacher to physiotherapy and she maintains her high spirits even when confronting an episode of bullying at school. Meanwhile, she has started driving lessons, getting them cheap from an extremely uptight individual named Scott (Eddie Manson).

Most people would hear the intimations of his racism, paranoia and anger and go for lessons elsewhere, but Poppy has been established as a plucky and compassionate woman so it’s not hard to believe she would stick with him.

A social worker brought in to help deal with an angry little boy in her class turns out to be a nice guy but seeing Poppy with the man pushes the driving instructor over the edge. None of this is made melodramatic, however, and there’s a sweet scene in which Poppy steps into a patch of urban wasteland and has a gentle encounter with a bewildered homeless man.

Leigh’s fine touch with actors is well established and he draws wonderful performances from top to bottom with Alexis Zegerman as Poppy’s flat-mate and Marsan as the wound-up Scott especially good.

Gary Yershon’s music, which is not jolly but playful in the best way, adds to the pleasing mood of a lovable film that ends like the best confections leaving an immediate wish for more of the same, please.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival. Competion; Cast: Sally Hawkins; Alexis Zegerman; Andrea Riseborough; Sinead Matthews; Kate O’Flynn; Sarah Niles; Eddie Marsan; Joseph Kloska; Sylvestra Le Touzel; Karina Fernandez; Director: Mike Leigh; Writer: Mike Leigh; Producer: Simon Channing Williams; Director of photography: Dick Pope; Production designer: Mark Tildesley; Music: Gary Yershon; Costume designer: David Crossman; Editor: Jim Clark. Production: Thin Man Films, Summit Entertainment; No MPAA rating; running time 118 mins.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Jose Padilha’s ‘The Elite Squad’

Posted on February 12, 2008 by admin

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By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – In Jose Padilha’s crude and violent film “The Elite Squad,” the pope is visiting Rio de Janeiro and he needs a good night’s sleep so the local police commander sends his crack troops into the closest slum to kill everybody.

Well, not everybody, but all the drug-dealing scum his specially trained officers can find and by any means possible, preferably a high-powered rifle. It means there will be blood and lots of it, all captured by a dizzying hand-held camera racing through some of the worst cases of urban blight on the planet.

Poorly structured and at times incoherent, what box office appeal the film has will rely on its sheer pace and the amount of torture and killing that goes on, so it should do fine.

The basic assumption of the script by Padilha and Rodrigo is that everyone in Rio is corrupt and especially the authorities. Policemen accept bribes for whatever pays the most: do their jobs or turn a blind eye. They even steal the engines from their own squad cars, sell them and put a piece of junk under the hood instead.

Capt. Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is a cop with integrity but it’s driving him crazy as he risks his life daily battling bad guys in and out of uniform. Plus he has a pregnant wife at home who wishes he would quit.

He’s trying hard to accommodate her wish but he needs to find a replacement to take over command of the elite squad. Since everyone else has been compromised he settles on two rookies who have been best friends since childhood, the brave but hair-triggered Neto (Ciao Junqueira) and the cautious but shrewd Matias (Andre Ramiro).

For some reason their work involves getting second jobs so that Neto works at the police auto shop while Matias goes to law school. Neto’s commitment leads him to devise a way of intercepting payoffs drug dealers make to the local commander and using the money to supply the squad cars with desperately needed new parts.

Matias hides the fact that he’s a cop from the other students including pretty Maria (Fernando Machado) and takes no action when they fire up joints.

Both situations lead to dangerous complications although the story is told in a confusing mix of time-shifting flashbacks and at the end there’s still no sign of the pope.

Before they can join the elite squad, however, Neto and Matias have to make it through an odd sort of training camp that involves ritual humiliation. Then, they’re handed high-powered rifles and sent into the slums to kill everybody.

Well, not everybody.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival, In Competition; Cast: Wagner Moura; Andre Ramiro; Ciao Junqueira; Milhem Cortaz; Fernando Machado; Maria Ribeiro; Paulo Vilela; Fernando de Freitas; Andre Mauro; Fabio Lago; Producers: Marcos Prado, Jose Padilha; Director: Jose Padilha; Writers: Jose Padilha, Rodrigo Pimentel, Braulio Mantovani; Director of cinematography: Lula Carvalho; Production designer: Tule Peake; Music: Pedro Bromfman; Co-producers: Eliana Soarez, James D’Arcy; Costume designer: Claudia Kopke; Editor: Daniel Rezende. Executive producers: Maria Clara Ferreira, Bia Castro, Genna Terranova, Eduardo Constantini; The Weinstein Co.; No MPAA rating; running time 118 mins.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘Heavy Metal in Baghdad’

Posted on February 12, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – The fate of four would-be head-bangers in the crazy world of Iraq may not add up to a hill of beans but it’s fodder for an engaging documentary by Canadian filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi titled “Heavy Metal in Baghdad.”

It should play well at festivals and become a collectors’ item on DVD.

'Heavy Metal in Baghdad' 2008Tipped off by a magazine article about a band called Acrassicauda (black scorpion) attempting to play heavy metal concerts in the war-torn capital, Moretti and Alvi tracked them down and helped stage a ragged concert before a small group of dedicated fans.

All hell broke loose after that and they lost touch but the film shows their attempts a year later to track down the four young men who want to be like their heroes in Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot.

What the band lacks in musical talent it more than makes up for in enthusiasm although the film wisely keeps their playing to a minimum. Moretti handles the camera while Alvi asks the questions onscreen and it probably helps that his manner is jaunty as the places they visit in shell-shocked Baghdad are very scary.

The city’s terrifying lack of security and the awful existence that Iraqis of all creeds are suffering become abundantly clear even after the foursome make their way to Damascus in Syria.

Their thoughts and observations about life in Iraq today are expressed in near-perfect American accents with endearing obscenities and mistakes in syntax. They seem much closer to the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll than the Rolling Stones in Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light.”

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Penelope Cruz in ‘Elegy’

Posted on February 11, 2008 by admin

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By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – With some fine naturalistic acting, Penelope Cruz just about saves Isabel Coixet’s gloomy drama “Elegy” from drowning in the drippy male fantasies of author Philip Roth, on whose short novel the film is based.

Cruz plays a dignified and sheltered student from Cuba named Consuela whose vulnerability is exploited by literary professor David Kepesh, played by Ben Kingsley, in order to get her into bed. Common to Roth’s fictional delusions, the clever and wildly attractive young woman falls for relentless flattery and what the ageing roué believes is sparkling banter with a virile bedroom manner.

Coixet takes the love affair at face value, larding it with plenty of Bach and Vivaldi to give it depth, but as revealed by Roth’s original title, “The Dying Animal,” it is all about him.

Cruz’s performance deserves to be seen widely and it should place her again in line for prizes but the story’s pretensions and downbeat mood will not endear the film to audiences.

Kingsley does not help, either, with a performance that is mannered and stagy, especially when paired with the apparently effortless grace of his costar. Miscast in a role that requires a great deal of charm to make the character something more than a randy old goat, Kingsley sometimes appears to forget there is another person in the scene.

Screenwriter Nicholas Meyer is unable to raise Roth’s story, which is narrated by the professor, beyond the author’s typically risible worldview. “When you make love to a woman you get revenge for all the things that defeated you in life,” Kepesh gloats. “Can you find anybody that enchanting without sex? Nobody,” he salivates.

Kepesh has a mistress (Patricia Clarkson) closer to his own age who visits his bed every three weeks and a fellow intellectual (Dennis Hopper) with whom he shares tomcatting tales. There’s also a doctor son (Peter Sarsgaard) that he can’t stand and seldom sees.

“She knows that she’s beautiful, but she’s not yet sure what to do with her beauty,” Kepesh says early on in the certain belief that he’s exactly what she needs. Cruz obliges the director and cinematographer Jean-Claude Larrieu by undressing frequently — Coixet poses her on a couch naked apart from stiletto shoes — but the sequences lack the sizzle that Pedro Almodovar would have given them. Not that he would have come within a mile of this story.

Cruz breathes life into every scene she’s in but she cannot overcome the lack of chemistry with Kingsley to show what Consuela sees in him. When their story takes an inevitable sad turn, the script requires that she ask her lover to validate her beauty and only the actress’ sublime skill prompts tears rather than inappropriate laughter.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival In Competition; Cast: Penelope Cruz; Ben Kingsley; Dennis Hopper; Patricia Clarkson; Peter Sarsgaard; Deborah Harry; Director: Isabel Coixet; Writer; Nicholas Meyer; Producers: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Kucchesi, Andre Lamal; Director of Photography: Jean-Claude Larrieu; Production designer: Claude Pare; Costume designer: Katia Stano; Editor: Amy Duddleston; Production: Lakeshire Entertainment; No MPAA rating, running time 108 mins.

A version of this review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘Lemon Tree’ by Eran Riklis

Posted on February 9, 2008 by admin

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By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – Taking its cue from the old song, the fruit of Eran Riklis’ wise and poignant film “Lemon Tree” is as unpalatable as the age-old and relentless friction between Israel and the West Bank.

It’s a simple tale of a Palestinian woman who refuses to allow her lemon grove to be destroyed by the Israeli military, which claims that it might harbor terrorists. Its universal story of a stubborn individual who resists powerful forces and the two lonely women who connect as a result will resonate with grown-up audiences everywhere.

Hiam Abbass (pictured), who appeared in Riklis’ 2004 picture “The Syrian Bride,” stars as Salma Zidane, the sorrowful owner of a small lemon grove full of trees planted by her late father. Her husband died 10 years earlier and her children have grown and moved out.

Riklis and co-writer Suha Arraf take time to establish Salma’s relationship to the lemon trees as she tends them lovingly, sleeps in the shade of their branches, hears the fruit fall one by one, jars pickled lemons and makes very tasty lemonade.

Trouble comes along fast, however, when Israel’s new defense minister Israel Navon (Doron Tavory), who makes political capital with bold statements about defending his nation from terrorists, moves into a house on the West Bank border right next to Salma’s lemon grove.

Barbed wire fences are swiftly erected along with a watchtower manned with machine-guns. Deciding that’s not enough, the Secret Service declares the lemon grove to be an immediate and deadly threat and orders the trees to be hacked down.

Determined to protect her family heritage, not to mention only source of income, Salma seeks the help of a lawyer, Ziad Doud (Ali Suliman), from a nearby refugee camp, to represent her and their case goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

As someone says in the film, happy endings are only for Hollywood movies and Riklis sustains a kind but unsentimental tone as the story develops several threads. Among these are a slow-burning love interest between the widow and her counsel, and the revelation that all is not well in the defense minister’s household.

His wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael) misses their grown children as well as her frequently absent husband. As her loneliness grows, she begins to identify with the plight of her neighbor even though they remain virtual strangers.

The cast is uniformly fine but Abass and Lipaz-Michael shine as two women who bond in the fear that the best of their lives is over and neither of them is happy with what the future holds. It’s not a gloomy film but in his parable of the tiny differences than can separate nations, Riklis suggests there’s no great reason for optimism.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival, Panorama; Cast: Hiam Abbas; Ali Suliman; Rona Lipaz-Michael; Doron Tavory; Tarik Copty; Amos Lavie; Amnon Wolf; Smadar Yaaron; Ayelet Robinson; Danny Leshman; Director: Eran Riklis; Writers: Suha Arraf, Eran Riklis; Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann; Production designer: Miguel Merkin; Music: Habib Shehadeh Hanna; Co-producer: Ira Riklis; Costume designer: Rona Doron; Editor: Tova Ascher; Producers: Bettina Brokemper, Antoine de Clermont-Tonnierre, Michael Eckelt, Eran Riklis; Executive producers: Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, David Silber; Production: Eran Riklis Productions; No MPAA rating; running time 106 mins.

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