CANNES FILM REVIEW: Keren Yedaya’s Jaffa

Posted on May 16, 2009 by admin

Jaffa x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – “Jaffa,” directed by Keren Yedaya, whose 2004 film “Or” won five awards at the Festival de Cannes including the Critics Week Grand Prix and Camera d’Or, is an absorbing and touching family drama set in the Israeli seaside town of the title.

Well-acted, especially by Dana Ivgy (pictured below with Mahmoud Shalaby) in the central role of a young Jewish woman who falls for an Arab mechanic at her father’s garage, the film deals with a familiar set of circumstances in plausible fashion with an undercurrent of the ancient conflict between Arab and Jew.

jaffa2 x325Festival and specialised audiences will respond to the way Yedaya and co-writer Illa Ben Porat set up and develop the universal story and to the performances they have drawn from their players.

Mali (Ivgy) is the taken-for-granted member of the Wolf family, as her father Reuven (Moni Moshonov) and mother Osnat (Ronit Elkabetz) give all their attention to her brother Meir (Roy Assaf).

Lazy, sullen and resentful, Meir is a walking argument keen to disagree with everyone and quick to temper. While Reuven worries about keeping his garage in profit and how is son will possibly learn enough to run the family business, Meir antagonizes everyone, especially the Arabs who work for his father.

The object of most of his aggression is a young Arab named Tawfig (Mahmoud Shalaby), who works hard while Meir shirks and is respectful to both his own father and Reuven.

What nobody knows is that not only are Mali and Tawfig in love and planning to run off to get married, but Mali also is pregnant. Tawfig’s hourlong absence from work to make their travel arrangements sparks a violent reaction from Meir, who is hungover after he was kicked out of the family home and sleeping in the garage. The conflict leads to violence and that sets the course for the subsequent events.

Yedaya does well to establish Mali’s subservient place within the family as she is seen often cleaning up while others go about their business and she is ignored at the dinner table while the parents berate Meir for being irresponsible.

Ivgy gives a fine performance as a young woman who is overjoyed to be in love and expecting but whose life is turned upside down and utter despair beckons.

Shalaby is appealing, Moshonov and Elkabetz (pictured top) turn in typically insightful performances, and Assaf renders the detestable Meir with great magnetism. The cinematography is matter-of-fact until the moving final scene, when it genuinely enhances the drama, but Shushan’s score is a touch too mournful throughout.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Out of Competition; Cast: Dana Ivgy, Moni Moshonov, Mahmoud Shalaby, Ronit Elkabetz, Roy Assaf; Director: Keren Yedaya; Screenwriter: Illa Ben Porat, Keren Yedaya; Director of photography: Pierre Aim; Production designer: Avi Fahima; Music: Shushan; Editor: Assaf Korman; Production companies: Bizibi, Transfax, Rohfilm; Sales: Rezo Films; Not rated; running time, 106 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

 

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’

Posted on May 16, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

CANNES – A treat for romantics and those who take their poetry seriously, Australian director Jane Campion’s gorgeously filmed Festival de Cannes Competition entry “Bright Star” might not be a joy forever but it will do until the next joy comes along.

With much grace and at considerable leisure, 1993 Palme d’Or winner Campion (“The Piano”) tells the story of the brief love affair between the gifted but early dead poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Ben Whishaw plays Keats with impeccable tragedy and Abbie Cornish portrays winningly the beautiful seamstress Fanny, whose passion is constrained only by the rigorous mores of the times.

Cynics need not apply and it’s doubtful that “Bright Star” will be the shining light at many suburban mall movie houses, but festivals will eat it up, art house audiences will swoon and it will have a lucrative life on DVD and Blu-ray, not to mention the BBC and PBS.

The England depicted in the film is the one people are thinking of when they say they wish they were born during the time of the romantic poets. Only one scene in the picture shows the ugly underbelly of poverty in 1880s London, and for the rest it’s all picturesque houses and gorgeous gardens in Hampstead Village.

There, Fanny lives with her widowed mother, Mrs. Brawne (Kerry Fox), and her well-behaved younger siblings Samuel (Thomas Brodie Sangster) and Margaret, known as Toots, (Edie Martin).

Their place in society takes them to social events and balls where Fanny’s dance-card is always filled although the glamorous Keats prefers not to dance. She has made a name, and money, for herself as a skilled maker of most fashionable garments, although the best friend of the coveted Keats, a burly writer named Brown (Paul Schneider), dismisses her as “the very well-stitched Miss Brawne.”

Fastidious and proud, Fanny feuds with Brown, who is over-protective of his genius friend, but she sends Toots to buy a copy of the poet’s latest collection, as the child says, “to see if he’s an idiot or not.”

Persuaded that Keats is far from an idiot, she commences a romance that takes place within all the formal manners of the day so that intimacy relies on kissed love letters and briefly touched hands. When Keats’ brother Tom dies of consumption, things do not auger well and while the love affair between the poet and the seamstress grows, his fate has already been written.

The English Whishaw, who was a sensation as Hamlet in Trevor Nunn’s Old Vic stage production in 2004, played the similarly doomed Sebastian Flyte in “Brideshead Revisited” last year but he makes his Keats singularly memorable. Cornish has the acting skill to match her striking beauty and she makes the small loving gestures that the British might call soppy both real and touching. Among the pleasures of the film is listening to them both declaim Keats’ poetry.

The entire cast is good, with Schneider, who was among the exceptional ensemble in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, and Fox especially strong. Cinematographer Greig Fraser captures beautifully Janet Patterson’s sumptuous production and costume designs, and the lovely gardens and countryside. Mark Bradshaw’s elegant score is pleasingly delicate.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, In Competition; Cast: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox; Director, screenwriter: Jane Campion; Director of photography: Greig Fraser; Production and costume designer: Janet Patterson; Music: Mark Bradshaw; Editor: Alexandre de Franceschi; Producers: Jan Chapman, Caroline Hewitt; Executive producers: Francois Ivernal, Cameron McCracken, Christine Langan, David M. Thompson; Production: Pathé Productions, BBC Films, Screen Australia, New South Wales Film & TV Office, UKFC, Hopscotch International; Sales: Pathé Distribution; Not rated; running time, 120 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Andrea Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’

Posted on May 14, 2009 by admin

katiejarviscliffBy Ray Bennett

CANNES — Following her Festival de Cannes Jury Prize-winning debut feature “Red Road” in 2006, British director Andrea Arnold creates another vivid portrait of a woman in Competition entry “Fish Tank,” in which newcomer Katie Jarvis (pictured) gives a star-making performance as a disaffected teenager.

Co-starring Michael Fassbender (“Hunger”) and Kierston Wareing (“It’s a Free World”), it’s a vivid depiction of a single mom (Wareing) and her two daughters who live in a grim council flat on a decaying housing estate on the outskirts of London.

Destined for festival acclaim, the film will attract audiences drawn by Arnold’s gift for unblinking observation and some wonderfully naturalistic acting, particularly by Jarvis, who is onscreen throughout.

She plays Mia, a foul-mouthed, aggressively violent and desperately yearning 15-year-old with a slovenly mother, noisy kid sister (Rebecca Griffith) and dreams of becoming a dancer.

Arnold presents the claustrophobic urban wasteland where they live as a breeding ground for anger and despair.

The arrival of mother’s new boyfriend, Connor (Fassbender), brings some hope due to his charming confidence and caring manner.

Mother cleans up the house and Connor takes the kids on outings and encourages Mia in her dancing. The director subtly foreshadows the events that follow and while they comes as little surprise, they play out in credible fashion.

Only one episode of revenge late in the second half stretches plausibility but it does not detract from the film’s impressive power. Arnold creates searing scenes that stick in the mind. Her “Red Road” cinematographer Robbie Ryan makes skilful use of handheld cameras while production designer Helen Scott and editor Nicolas Chaudeurge contribute sterling work.

Besides the dancing element, the director weaves in a thread that involves Mia’s compassion for an aging horse and captures the tiny moments of affection that provide the glue that just about keeps deprived families sane.

Fassbender and Wareing give honest and open performances as the conflicted adults and young Griffiths, another first-timer, is memorably sharp as the kid sister. The film belongs to Jarvis, however,and she makes the most of it with expressive features that convey Mia’s mixed-up emotions from raging temper to sweet vulnerability. She will go far.

Venue: Festival de Cannes; In Competition; UK distributor: Artificial Eye;   Cast: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffith, Harry Treadaway; Director, screenwriter: Andrea Arnold; EDirector of photography: Robbie Ryan; Production designer: Helen Scott; Costume designer: Jane Petrie; Editor: Nicolas Chaudeurge; Producers: Kees Kassander, Nick Laws; xecutive producers: Paul Trijbits, Christine Langan, David M.Thompson; Production: Kasander, BBC Films, UKFC, Limelight;Sales: Contentfilm International; Not rated; running time,124 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES: Pixar’s animated ‘Up’ and away in 3D

Posted on May 14, 2009 by admin

up x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Pixar’s 10th movie, “Up” opened the Festival de Cannes on Wednesday and it should prove as popular at the box office as all their other creations. Walt Disney releases ‘Up’ in the US on May 29 but the UK must wait until Oct. 16

The colourful tale of an old man who fulfils a promise to his beloved late wife by going to visit a geological paradise in South America is shot in 3D. It works fine but the picture would probably be just as entertaining without it.

Ed Asner voices the old man, who resembles the older Spencer Tracy, while Christopher Plummer gives voice to the villain of the piece, a mad explorer who resembles latter-day Kirk Douglas. There’s also a kid who looks a bit like the Japanese bloke on “Heroes” and some wonderful creatures including a large bird the kid names Kevin, not knowing it’s female, and a devotedly loyal dog named Dug.

Savvy and sharp, the script doesn’t miss a trick and Michael Giacchino contributes a remarkably spry and appealing musical score to match the clever animation.

It’s very funny all the way through as we see the loving life of the childless couple whose dreams of a fantasy trip are always thwarted by events before the adventure begins. Once the old man, a balloon salesmen, strikes on a plan to take his house to the skies, it’s up, up and away.

Among the clever ideas is one in which a pack of dogs punish Dug by making him “Enter the Cone of Shame”, wearing one of those devices intended to keep pooches from hurting themselves but succeed only in making them look pathetic. The phrase will enter the language on playgrounds and in workplaces everywhere.

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Colin Firth on ‘A Summer in Genoa’ and spandex tights

Posted on May 11, 2009 by admin

genova x650By Ray Bennett

LONDON – It was a demonstration of Colin Firth’s considerable acting range when he donned Spandex tights and cavorted about to Abba tunes at Pinewood Studios for the monster hit “Mamma Mia!”. An even greater testament to the British actor’s professionalism, however, was that at the time he had to dash back and forth to Italy to play a bereaved father in Michael Winterbottom’s sombre drama “A Summer in Genoa”.

“Mamma Mia!” went to No. 1 with a bullet upon its release both in theatres and on disc, but “Genova”, which was in theatres in March and is due soon on disc from Metrodome Distribution, took a lot more nurturing.

Firth plays the father of two daughters, played by Willa Holland (“The O.C.”) and Perla Haney-Jardine (“Spider-Man 3”), who are still mourning the death of their mother when he takes them on a year’s teaching contract in the Italian city. The film made the rounds of film festivals from Toronto to San Sebastian and Warsaw to Hong Kong before its release.

It also got a splash at last year’s London International Film Festival and even though “Mamma Mia!” got all the attention, Firth thought enough of the picture to promote it with enthusiasm including a screening and Q&A at London’s Curzon Soho.

genova2 x650

Firth’s working relationship with British director Winterbottom, whose wide range of films include “24 Hour Party People”, “A Mighty Heart” and the upcoming documentary “The Shock Doctrine”, goes back to “Welcome to Sarajevo” more than 10 years ago.

Firth says, “I found him personally extremely engaging and also his films were so outstanding and outside the kind of stuff I’m associated with. His work is so diverse.”

Despite that, he did not sign on for that film: “I didn’t find the script that interesting but I found the film to be brilliant, and that’s a very, very unusual thing. All the years of experience that I have tell me that the script determines most of it. Not that ‘Sarajevo’ was a bad script, just that it didn’t engage me, but the film did. Michael took a script that I hadn’t seen in it what he obviously had, and from then on I was sort of hooked by his work and so I responded to ‘Genova’ before I even read it.”

Still, Firth found Winterbottom’s methods of working quite different from what he was used to: “When he talks to you, he doesn’t really expound or theorise. He creates these extraordinary things with all these visions going on but he doesn’t give much away, there’s no airy-fairy poetry about it.”

In the film, the busy and imposing city of Genova is very much a character as the father and his daughters seek to recover from their loss and there are scenes where the lost loved one is seen in visions. “I said, ‘Isn’t this “Don’t Look Now”?’” Firth says, and adds that Winterbottom did not take exception to his reference to the famous Nicolas Roeg film.

Firth says: “He didn’t mind because his idea was clearly much more personal. It starts with Genova and it very much ends with Genova. Genova isn’t just the starting point that fades into the background. That city is as much a character in the film as anybody.”

The director’s guerrilla shooting style was also different, especially compared to the big-budget luxuries of the Abba film. For “Genova”, he shot entirely on location with a tiny DV camera and no lights, no extras and no security. That held true for scenes on an airplane, in the family’s claustrophobic apartment, and on the packed beach at Camogli, Genova’s nearby seaside resort.

Firth says, “We were on that crowded beach and I can’t tell you how much of a nightmare I found that to be. I find it a nightmare to be on a crowded beach anywhere, especially in Italy, even when there aren’t cameras around. Horrible!”

He says, though, that he accepted the challenge of going from a big set to no set at all as being part of an actor’s job definition: “I thought of those people in weekly rep in the old days when you weren’t quite sure if it was ‘Othello’ tonight or ‘Hamlet, and they do the whole role. It was completely absurd. There are scenes in ‘Genova’ where I had to act in that intimate environment with a small family while I was still aching from spandex.”

This story appeared in Cue Entertainment.

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MUSIC REVIEW: ‘Filmharmonic’ at the Royal Albert Hall

Posted on May 10, 2009 by admin

filmharmonic x650By Ray Bennett

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual Filmharmonic concert at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night kept a large crowd of film music enthusiasts entertained with scores by top composers including John Williams, Maurice Jarre, John Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer.

David Arnold was on hand to direct the orchestra playing his themes from “The Stepford Wives,” “Quantum of Solace” and “Casino Royale”, and Debbie Wiseman took the baton for suites from “Tom & Viv” and “Lesbian Vampire Killers.”

Paul Bateman conducted the rest of a two-hour show with presenter Tommy Pearson providing useful context and witty banter between sets. Pearson also introduced the two guest composers who looked very pleased to be there.

Arnold drew a huge laugh when he mentioned that in “Stepford Wives” Nicole Kidman was remade as a robot “as if you’d notice”. The regular James Bond film composer paid tribute to his mentor Barry, the 007 original, and his music showed how skilfully he is filling the master’s shoes.

The Royal Philharmonic will present a concert titled “The Music of Bond” at the Royal Albert Hall on Nov. 13 with conductor Carl Davis and presenter Honor Blackman, who played Pussy Galore in “Goldfinger.”

Wiseman’s selections on Saturday night demonstrated her range and prompted a shake of the head that such a fine score was wasted on rubbish like “Vampire Killers.”

Other highlights of the concert were Ron Goodwin’s lively main title theme from “Where Eagles Dare,” Barry’s lovely Oscar-winning main theme from “Out of Africa,” and Jarre’s evocative “Building the Barn” cue from “Witness.”

There were also excellent arrangements by Mike Townsend of Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” and four main themes from American television shows of the 1980s: “Dynasty” and “Cagney and Lacey” by Bill Conti, “L.A. Law” by Mike Post, and “Dallas” by Jerrold Immel.

Listening to those catchy tunes took me back to many days spent on the sets of each of those shows when I was reporting for TV Guide Canada. Good times they were: Lunch with Joan Collins at the 20th Century Fox commissary and at La Scala in Beverly Hills with Linda Evans, who used numerology to predict my fortune.

Drinking with Linda Gray in a bar near the old MGM studios in Culver City. Sharon Gless sending her P.A. out for beer in her little house near the freeway in Van Nuys. Gless poured a beer with lots of foam and looked at me. She said, “You don’t mind a little head, do you?”

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THEATRE REVIEW: McKellen and Stewart in ‘Waiting for Godot’

Posted on May 7, 2009 by admin

Ian McKellen (Estragon) and Patrick Stewart (Vladimir) in 'Waiting for Godot', photo by Sasha Gusov x600

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – So much portentous meaning has been read into Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” that it’s pleasure to be reminded by Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart what an entertaining show it is.

The two “X-Men” adversaries are sublime stage actors and they are simply wonderful in Sean Mathias’ new production of “Godot” at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, where their Hollywood star power has helped bring in a record box office advance of £2.4 million.

McKellen is Estragon, or Gogo, and Stewart is Vladimir, or Didi, in the tale of two aged ragamuffins who fill their idle days with conversation that ranges from oblique philosophy to music hall banter.

The play’s puzzles and profundity do not require the pigeonholes of religion, homosexuality or existential despair to which it has been consigned since it was first performed in English in 1955. Beckett wrote it in French, doing his own translation for the play that debuted in New York in 1956.

Ian-McKellen-Estragon-Ronald-Pickup-Lucky-Patrick-Stewart-Vladimir-and-Simon-Callow-Pozzo-photo-by-Sasha-Gusov

The two principles spend their time in a wasteland of rubble beside a crumbling brick wall and a dying willow tree waiting for the arrival of a savior who never comes named Godot, which they pronounce “God-o” with the emphasis on the first syllable.

Beckett said he did not mean Godot to represent God but it smacks of his typical sense of mischief that he would use that name. He states clearly the characters’ central dilemma: “What are we doing here? That is the question.”

The pessimistic Gogo concludes there is “Nothing to be done” while the slightly more sanguine Didi believes that answers will come along if they just “wait for Godot.”

McKellen plays Gogo as a doleful English northerner who laments that “We all are born mad, some remain so,” while Stewart gives the ailing Didi a jaunty optimism: “Habit is a great deadener.”

Together they make a terrific double act in the manner of Laurel & Hardy, as Beckett intended. Simon Callow is a colorful Pozzo, the pitiless entrepreneur who keeps his slave Lucky (Ronald Pickup) at the end of a rope.

The cast makes the most of the play’s wide-ranging musings on the fate of mankind and while Beckett offers plenty of fuel for the imagination, it’s also true that thanks to the splendid performers the audience leaves with a smile.

Venue: Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, runs through July 28; Cast: Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Simon Callow, Ronald Pickup, Tom Barker; Playwright: Samuel Beckett; Director: Sean Mathias; Set designer: Stephen Brimson Lewis; Lighting designer: Paul Pyant; Sound designer: Paul Groothius

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Photo by Sasha Gusov

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Films about newspapers, like newspapers, are a dying breed

Posted on April 26, 2009 by admin

state of play x650

By Ray Bennett

Watching the final edition of The Los Angeles Herald Examiner roll off the presses in November 1989 remains one of the most haunting memories of my life and it’s a tragedy that more papers are going bust. The news about newspapers these days is so dire that the appearance of two movies featuring reporters is as surprising as it is welcome. There aren’t likely to be many more.

Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams (above) play reporters in “State of Play”, now on release, and Robert Downey Jr. is another in “The Soloist”, which just opened in the United States and will reach the United Kingdom from Universal on Sept. 11. I haven’t seen “The Soloist” yet, but David Denby, who is not a critic I generally turn to, has a very good piece on the two of them in The New Yorker.

UK critics like “State of Play’ more than their US counterparts, which is odd because it doesn’t come close to the 2003 BBC miniseries starring John Simm, David Morrissey, Kelly Macdonald, Bill Nighy and Polly Walker. There is much to like about Kevin Macdonald’s film version, especially the production design, and supporting performances by Jason Bateman and Jeff Daniels. But it shirks the opportunity to pursue bigger ideas than the messy affairs of one politician (Ben Affleck).

parallax_view x650It also fails to create the sustained tension of Alan J. Pakula’s two great newspaper thrillers, “The Parallax View” starring Warren Beatty and Hume Cronyn (above) in 1974 and “All the President’s Men” starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in 1976.

Movies about newspapermen have been numerous over the decades, but not many of them are very good although it’s easy to forget that Clark Gable is a reporter in “It Happened One Night” (1934) and so are Jimmy Stewart in “The Philadelphia Story” (1940) and Barbara Stanwyck in “Meet John Doe” (1941).

Many westerns feature small-town newspaper editors including John Ford’s splendid “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, with its great lesson about fame:
“You’re not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?
“No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
Edmond O’Brien (below) plays the inebriated editor who is shocked to find the saloon bar is shut down during a trial: “Bar’s closed? No exceptions for the working press? Why, that’s carrying democracy much too far!”

liberty valance x650The greatest film about the power of the press, of course, is Orson Welles’ brilliant “Citizen Kane”, and there’s also Billy Wilder’s acidulous “Ace in the Hole” (1951) with Kirk Douglas, and Henry Hathaway’s dramatic “Call Northside 777” (1948) with James Stewart, both good films about reporters.

Ron Howard’s “The Paper” (1994), with Michael Keaton and Glenn Close as rival editors, is entertaining without being especially insightful. Mary McGuckian’s “Rag Tale” (2005) is diabolical and seemingly shot, as I said when it came out, on David Letterman’s monkey cam.

“The Front Page” was made four times, first efficiently by Lewis Milestone in 1931 with Adolphe Menjou as Walter Burns and Pat O’Brien as Hildy Johnson; sublimely as “His Girl Friday” by Howard Hawks in 1940, with Cary Grant as Burns and Rosalind Russell as Hildy; nostalgically by Billy Wilder in 1974, with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, and embarrassingly by Ted Kotcheff as “Switching Channels” (1988), with Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, although the characters’ names are changed.

Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht, ex-newspapermen who went on to write screenplays, wrote “The Front Page” for the stage. Hecht was by far the more successful, working on innumerable films, often uncredited. He won the first Academy Award for an original screenplay for “Underworld”, directed in 1927 by Josef von Sternberg, and also notable for some great character names: Bull Weed, Feathers McCoy, and Rolls Royce Wensel.

Gaily Gaily x650Hecht’s memoirs about working in newspapers in Chicago at the start of the 20th century helped form my education as a young reporter, and Norman Jewison’s big, colourful and silly version of one of them, titled “Gaily, Gaily” (above), remains one of my two favourites about newspapers. Beau Bridges plays the young Hecht going off to seek his fortune in print and Brian Keith gives an unforgettable (to me) performance as a bibulous and cynical hack.

The other newspaper film I’m most fond of is titled “Deadline U.S.A.” (below, 1952), written and directed by Richard Brooks, another ex-reporter, with first-class black-and-white cinematography by Milton Krasner, a six-time Oscar nominee who won for “Three Coins in the Fountain” in 1957.

Humphrey Bogart is great in the film as a battling editor fighting to run a big story about political corruption while trying to keep his failing newspaper from going bust. Some stories never go out of date.

Deadline USA x650

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THEATRE REVIEW: Tim Firth’s ‘Calendar Girls’

Posted on April 22, 2009 by admin

calendar girls x650By Ray Bennett

LONDON – It’s not a musical, but screenwriter Tim Firth’s stage version of his script for the hit 2003 Nigel Cole film “Calendar Girls” takes aim squarely at the audience that flocked to see “Mamma Mia!” and hits its mark.

Sharing the same canny, if unsophisticated, mix of inoffensive titillation and sentimentality as the original, the play tells the real-life tale of a group of middle-aged English women who strip down for a charity calendar and become instantly famous.

The movie boasted such top-line screen talent as Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, and the theatrical production at London’s Noel Coward Theatre features big names from U.K. stage and television including Patricia Hodge, Lynda Bellingham and Sian Phillips.

Fashioned by Firth and director Hamish McColl as a two-hour crowd-pleaser, the play follows the film in establishing the contented but dull lives of the women of a village in Yorkshire.

After Chris (Hodge) loses her husband to leukemia, mischievous pal Annie (Bellingham) suggests their group of members of the Women’s Institute should make a daring calendar in order to raise money for the local hospice.

The funniest sequence in the play is a very clever piece showing the women doing various homely tasks in the nude and being snapped by a bashful photographer (Carl Prekopp).

Keeping the action at home in the village, the play doesn’t bother with the film’s excursion to Hollywood, and the result is a well-packaged tale with plenty of down-home laughs and a nod to the serious point of making the calendar.

Hodge and Bellingham make fine leads, and Phillips is given some razor-sharp lines as a flinty senior whose sense of humor is much broader than it first appears. Elaine C. Smith is great fun as a tattooed Scottish piano player, Gaynor Faye (from TV’s “The Chase”) is suitably glamorous as the buxom woman whose photo is going to need “considerably bigger buns,” and Julia Hills is convincing as a vulnerable wife married to a bully. Brigit Forsyth plays the WI group’s snobbish leader as counterpoint to the others with terrific comic timing.

The play lands in London following a national tour, so the ensemble meshes together very well, making the most of designer Robert Jones’ clever sets and Emma Williams’ inventive costume designs, which draw on the film’s use of sunflowers and manage to maintain the modesty of a gallant cast.

Venue: Noel Coward Theatre, London, runs through Sept. 19; Cast: Patricia Hodge, Lynda Bellingham, Sian Phillips, Elaine C. Smith, Gaynor Faye, Julia Hills, Brigit Forsyth; Playwright: Tim Firth; Director: Hamish McColl; Set designer: Robert Jones; Costume designer: Emma Williams; Lighting designer: Malcolm Rippeth; Sound designer: John Leonard; Music: Steve Parry.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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FILM REVIEW: J.J. Abrams’s ‘Star Trek’ reboot

Posted on April 21, 2009 by admin

Star Trek (2008) Directed by: J.J. AbramsBy Ray Bennett

LONDON – To put a much-loved but over-the-hill vehicle back in shape takes more than a new battery and a lick of paint. It demands a full-bore refit, and that’s exactly what J.J. Abrams has given “Star Trek.”

Paced at warp speed with spectacular action sequences rendered brilliantly and with a cast so expert that all the familiar characters are instantly identifiable, the film gives Paramount Pictures a new lease of life on its franchise.

Fans of the “Star Trek” saga will be delighted to see Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and all the others in the early part of their lives as the Starship Enterprise takes its maiden voyage. The film is so much fun, however, that it will draw in moviegoers just looking for a sensational ride. The boxoffice should beam up enormous returns.

Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman keep the plot simple but hit all the right notes and some phrases that will bring a smile of recognition. Industrial Light + Magic once again raises the bar on special effects, and Daniel Mindel’s cinematography and Scott Chambliss’ production design are top-notch.

In a breathtaking precredit sequence, James T. Kirk is shown as he is born while his Starship captain father (Chris Hemsworth) goes to his death in a blaze of glory. The film sketches the different childhoods of Kirk and his future partner Spock, then moves quickly to their time at the Starfleet Academy before they are ordered to go on a rescue mission to the planet Vulcan.

Their leader, Capt. Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), ends up being taken prisoner by a Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana), who is bent on destroying all the planets in the federation including Earth. The remainder of the film shows Kirk and Spock out to rescue Pike and save the world.

quinto nimoy x325One of the great charms of the film is that anyone who knows anything about the original “Star Trek” crew will be right at home with the new cast. Pine has Kirk’s good looks and brash confidence. Quinto (from NBC’s “Heroes”) is an uncanny Spock and holds his own even when confronted by the original in the form of Leonard Nimoy (pictured left).

Urban as Dr. McCoy, John Cho as Sulu and Anton Yelchin as Chekov all get moments to shine, while, as the glamorous Uhura, Zoe Saldana has fun in discovering an unlikely romantic partner. Simon Pegg shows up as engineer Scotty about 80 minutes into the picture but makes the most of his limited time.

Bana is almost unrecognizable as the villain Nero, but he makes the role suitably scary. The ever-stately Nimoy has much more to do than a mere cameo although you’ll miss Winona Ryder if you blink.

One slight disappointment is the score by Abrams regular Michael Giacchino, which though given prominence in the sound mix is derivative and includes Alexander Courage’s original theme only at the end.

Opens: May 8 (Paramount Poctures); Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Anton Yelchin, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Eric Bana, Clifton Collins Jr., Winona Ryder, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood; Director, producer: J.J. Abrams; Writers: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci; Director of Photography: Daniel Mindel; Production Designer: Scott Chambliss; Music: Michael Giacchino; Editors: Mary Jo Markey, Maryann Brandon; Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan; Producer: Damon Lindelof; Executive Producers: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci; Bryan Burk, Jeffrey Chernov; Production: Bad Robot, Mavrocine; Rate PG-13; Running time, 127 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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