The Awakening

I love the way I came to see The Awakening. I was probably going to see it anyway, but I put out a tweet which said My Week With Marilyn, Dream House or The Awakening, and wouldn't you know it, the director Nick Murphy tweeted me back and said guess which film I'd recommend. I thought well you can't get better than that, not only someone with a personal interest, but someone who takes time out of what must be a very busy schedule to interact with me (don't care about anyone else, it is all about ME).

Sat down in my usual seat in the multiplex - there are nine screens at my local world of cine and I have a specific seat that I like to sit in all of them - always in the back row. I also love when a movie doesn't attract children and more specifically teens. Whilst there is nothing wrong with a teen at a film, a gaggle of them always ensures stupidity like kicking the back of my chair.

I settled into The Awakening because that is what you do with a good period piece. You revel in the sumptuousness of another time and allow yourself to be transported. The cinematography is stunningly beautiful - it feels velvets, tweeds and oppression - of both mind and spirit. Maybe not oppression so much as a defeated spirit needing recovery time after WWI and the pandemic of the Spanish Flu. Everyone has lost at least one someone.

Rebecca Hall is Florence Cathcart who busts bogus charlatan ghost providers. Dominic West is a Latin teacher at a boys' boarding school who needs Florence's help because it appears that a boy has been scared to death by a recurring ghost at the school. Florence meets Maud the housekeeper and the boys who all appear suitably terrified.

Florence gets to diligently setting up her wonderful equipment - trip wires, cameras with magnesium flashes, etc. One boy, Tom, constantly seeks her out and they form a relationship of sorts. All sorts of weird things happen as you would expect - the most chilling an imaginative dollhouse scene which scared the bejesus out of me. One scene is shown over from different angles, each scarier than the last until we hurtle towards the conclusion.

What I did like about this cinematic directorial debut by Mr Murphy was the score (lush), sense of horror, it didn't collapse 2/3 way through the way most horror/terror movies do - you know ratchet up the tension to where you just can't take it anymore then descends into stupid chaos as if those involved did not have the courage of their convictions to just see it through or they decided ok enough of this psychological stuff, let's bring on the special effects. The audience is treated like adults - always a plus with me.

What I didn't like - the romance - such as it was because when that happened I thought all this shit is going down in the house and you have time for a bit of hanky panky - REALLY? Maybe that's the way it is with adults or maybe it's just characters in the movies. This is the time I would normally mentally leave the picture and think oh well valiant try, better luck next time. But I just let that go, mainly because it was so brief anyway. I am sure that part of the reason for it was a joint overcoming of years of pent up grief, and sometimes sex just relieves the tension.

I admit to getting a bit confused by the whole ending - for me it's a case of I know one person didn't survive, but was that the only one and a couple of other things, but as I tweeted Mr Murphy and said when it comes to Sky, I will figure it out because for me it needs a second viewing.

I also liked that I didn't figure the whole plot out in the first act. This is sadly becoming a recurring theme when I go to the cinema and must admit that it dulls my enjoyment of most films. But I have also pointed out many a time that maybe it's because I see far too many films, and I don't have the wonder of someone who goes to the cinema four times a year or so.

Rebecca Hall is never any less than good, and in this she has a fragile strength. She is fine as long as she can "science" away the ghosts, but as soon as this fails her, she starts to unravel. I liked her in Vicky Christina Barcelona far more than I should have.

Dominic West is actually a very good actor. I say that because you see him in The Wire and he is excellent, but you can't picture him in anything else because McNulty is a classic character, until you see him in something else and he's really good. Imelda Staunton is creepy as Maud just as she was as Dolores Umbridge in the HP films. Isaac Hempstead Wright (I love my Bran Stark - Game of Thrones - the best series ever) as Tom has that haunted look that you get with children in ghost stories. He is also gorgeous looking. The kids in ghost films are either hauntingly beautiful or interesting looking (ugly).

Nick Murphy knows I'll be watching his career from here on out, and I'll bet he's terrified - no really!

One and a half thumbs up for me.

Melancholia

The lastest Lars von Trier movie. Must admit LvT does nothing for me. I've not seen many of his films and the ones I have seen, I have never mad

e it all the way through. I thought Melancholia was going to be a chore or penance in the way The Tree of Life was. How wrong I was.

You have to relax into the pace which is very luxuriously moderated, like there is all the time in the world. Ironic really. Melancholia takes place in the five days before the end of the world. We are at Kirsten Dunst's (Justine) and Alexander Skarsgaard's (Michael) wedding reception when Kirsten notices a red star in the sky and asks her brother in law (Kiefer Sutherland) about it. He tells them that the star is doing a flyby, so will be in the Earth's orbit for a few days, then go on it's merry way.

To give you an idea of the pace, the wedding takes up the first 45 minutes of the movie. During this time, the characters are established. Kirsten seems a little "off" or "sideways" to put it

mildly. It transpires that she suffers from melancholia - a non specific form of depression

which she tries to describe to various family members, but the film evokes Kirsten's feelings very well. In the beginning it seems as if Kirsten is just an ungrateful, selfish, vain cow. John Hurt is Kirsten's eccentric father and Charlotte Rampling is the aggressive, self-centred mother - amazing that she hasn't completely lost her mind. Charlotte Gainsbourg is Justine's sister Claire who holds everything together in her family. She takes care of everyone in a very measured performance.

As we move away from the party, the red star Melancholia becomes an obsession. Unlike most disaster movies, this is psychological in nature so it centres only on Justine, Claire, Kiefer and their child. It becomes more and more claustrophobic as the tension grows and Melancholia comes nearer. After day 2, the power goes out, so there is no contact with the outside world and Kiefer doesn't want to worry Claire, so tells her that the planet will reach a peak then recede away from Earth. When Claire realises that this is not the case, she becomes survivalist seeking out other people, but by then it is too late and Justine doesn't help as

she thinks this is just fate.

The film is beautifully shot and crystal clear. All the performances are excellent, but Kirsten and Charlotte G stand out. Melancholia is 2 hours and 10 minutes which is just about right - any longer and I think we would have all started to feel suicidal as the mood infects the audience as well. It draws us all in and in the end, we want Melancholia to hit, so that we can have some release.

Super 8

Saw this with my 13 year old son.

It sort of worked for me and it didn't work for him at all. He thought it was boring.

Set in late 70s, certainly after StarWars, it was clearly JJ Abrams' homage to Steven Spielberg's ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind plus others like the Goonies.

Very nostalgic, and if I didn't know it was a JJ Abrams movie, I would have thought it was directed by rather than produced by Steven.

A group of friends is making a movie over the summer, and are out filming one night when they see a train wreck which is swiftly followed by the army taking over the site and their town. It becomes very apparent that there is something very sinister out there that the army want to contain. This has been captured on the film.

There are some funny lines like "can I have my film developed in 24 hours" "no one can do that, the best I can do is three days on a rush". "What are you listening to?" "It's a walkman, you can listen to your cassettes." "People wandering around with personal stereos, it's the thin end of the wedge, you mark my words".

The teens in the screen looked at some of the things and said what is that, and you realise how far we have come in terms of technology.

If I had seen Super 8 in 1978, I would have thought it was amazing. Children these days are so blase about special effects. If it isn't fast and very pacy, they get bored. That doesn't bode well for movies in the future.

Elle Fanning literally burned up the screen when she was on it. She was amazing. Definitely one to watch!

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America has a very retro feel, not old fashioned, just retro. It evokes 1940s wartime really well. I loved the dirigibles in the London skies and the slightly muted colours and the deliciously demonic evil Red Skull who is too evil even for the Nazis.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is unfit for duty for the Army. He desperately wants to fight for his country. Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) sees something more in him and Steve becomes a guinea pig in Project Rebirth which enables Steve to use his maximum human potential. It basically means that the good in you is magnified and the inverse is equally true.

What then follows is good guys fighting bad guys and a very interesting ending. You get all the usual suspects, and the continuity is great. I love the way Samuel L Jackson keeps turning up in cameos, cannot wait until The Avengers next year.

It was a very authentic adaptation, but it didn't emotionally engage me at all. I'm not a Captain America fan, but my 13 year old son seemed to like it well enough (his favourite is still Thor).

Please stay until after the end credits as you get another teaser for The Avengers featuring Nick Fury, Thor, Howard Stark, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Tree Of Life

I have tried to write the review for Tree Of Life for a couple of weeks now. Well actually.....no I really haven’t, I tried for a couple of days, then gave up, now I’m coming back to it.

When the film was over, the first words out of my mouth were "Oh Thank God!" just a little too loudly!

I've now read a bit more about Terrence Malick and it seems that this was autobiographical or at least semi, in which case, he is trying to make sense of his youngest brother's death. TM had an overbearing father who sent his youngest son to Spain to study gutar with Segovia, who apparently was a legendary cruel taskmaster. TM's brother broke both his own hands and his father asked TM to go over to Spain to help youngest brother and TM refused. TM's father went over and returned with his youngest brother's body. Therefore TM wasn't there when his brother needed him most.

The first hour especially and indeed the entire film was visually stunning. It was like a perfect mood board to set up the story, but the film then just stalled. Just like that.

Didn't really matter whether story was linear or non, there really wasn't much being told here only implied. Give the audience its due, we tried, REALLY HARD to stick with it, and no one walked out which I know has happened in other screenings.

I quite accept we are all part of (a) tree(s) of life, and our place on that tree draws together the interdependence through the tree down to the roots and searching for a meaning of what happens to us through memories can be incredibly painful/daunting. The meaning of life might that in God’s grand plan, nothing matters much or one ripple creates a butterfly effect. You're here, then you're not, your people mourn, reflect, reminisce, get on with it or don’t.

But really, Terence Malick is well educated who makes lovely films and should have been able to finish off The Tree Of Life without having the audience scratch its collective bemused head and be pleased the 'ordeal' was over.

A woman in my screening asked me if I understood the meaning, and I just shrugged my shoulders, shook my head and thought here is another 2 1/2 hours of my life I will never get back. And that sucks!

Or maybe I’m just completely missing the point which is quite possible. In that case, nevermind!

Wild Target

Didn't get to see Letters to Juliet. I went instead to see the above.

It was a charming movie. I thought it was charming Saturday morning movie with Emily Blount, Bill Nighy and a very grown up looking Rupert Grint. Rupert Everett was also in it looking very grown up.

Story: Bill Nighy is a very accomplished assassin (his father gave him a Baretta for his seventh birthday). Emily Blount orchestrates art fraud against Rupert Everett, and he doesn't like it one bit. He hires Bill Nighy to kill Emily which he tries, then doesn't do. Rupert Grint gets caught up in this and even Rab C. Nesbitt turns up.

This is another film that makes London look absolutely stunning as it races around the city.

Bill Nighy's mother steals the show completely!

Shrek Forever After

I went to see it this morning in preview. I thought it was very good.

Shrek has a happy life and doesn't appreciate it. He then make a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to have a day where things were the way they used to be. Shrek's part of the bargain is that he has to give Rumpelstiltskin a day back from his childhood. Shrek says take whichever day you like...Rump takes the date of his birth, so if Shrek doesn't make Fiona fall in love with him by sunrise, he will cease to exist.

All the favourite characters back - Donkey, Puss (in need of WLR) without his boots, the Gingerbread Man, the Dragon (Donkey's Mrs.), Pinocchio, The Big Bad Wolf, The Three Little Pigs, etc. The use of music is great again. The kids will love it

It was in 3D, and again it didn't really make a difference to me.

Bring on Eclipse in previews next weekend, at least it isn't in 3D.