3 Movies and a Review

A tale of three movies: one hyped, one under the radar and one surprise package. Let's review them in the order in which I saw them.

Under the radar: Crash, an L.A. tale of intersecting destinies, racial tensions, bad guys who aren't all bad and good guys with human failings. I saw this many months ago and while I no longer recall the details, I remember walking out of the theater with a spring in my step and my head churning with thoughts and emotions - exactly what a good movie should evoke. I remember outstanding performances from Matt Dillon and Don Cheadle and a surprisingly minuscule role for Sandra Bullock, whose talents and unconventional beauty seemed wasted in an otherwise strong movie.

5 stars, 2 thumbs up and a pending DVD purchase.

Surprise package: Munich, Steven Spielberg's tale of revenge and futility. I saw this about 3 weeks ago (around the time of my last blog). Apart from Spielberg, the only other names to reckon with in the movie are Eric Bana and Daniel Craig, neither of whom are yet A-list box office stars, and the always remarkable Geoffrey Rush (fabulous in The Tailor of Panama with Pierce Brosnan). The movie narrates the efforts of a secret Israeli hit squad to assassinate 11 Palestinian terrorists or supporters in revenge for the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Surprise package because this movie doesn't seem to have taken over the box office and the media the way Spielberg movies usually do. It deserves to, however.

At 3 hours this is not your edge-of-the-seat swift-paced thriller, but it has no shortage of exciting moments and nail-biting moments of tension. What it also has is a narrative that is intelligent, passionate and clear-sighted: there are no solutions here, no black and white heroes and villains; the Israelis aren't exactly super-efficient, cold-blooded killers flawlessly executing a master plan and the Palestinians aren't stupid blood-thirsty ogres. The movie neatly sidesteps all the cliches that might have littered the path of a lesser director.

There is a gently despondent air to the film, a miasma of regret at the ultimate futility of eye-for-an-eye politics and what, in the end, are immature responses to huge problems, usually of our own making. But the movie also acknowledges that this is who we are, this is what we do and even if it makes no sense, we often cannot help that we do it.

Ironies abound: a grandmotherly Golda Meir approving the revenge project and making tea for her chosen project leader while she sends him off on a quest that will destroy his soul; a mission that officially will never exist, yet that seeks to create a legend; Geoffrey Rush's self-effacing bureaucratic George Smiley persona calmly discussing the parameters of the mission while munching through a box of the Turkish sweet, baklava; the Israeli intelligence's insistence that the team produce bills if they want reimbursement of funds; the bumbling bomb-maker in the squad whose expertise is actually bomb disposal not bombing; the perfect family portrait of one of the intended victims, but that doesn't prevent him from being blown to bits; the amateur intelligence-gathering from the mercenary French underworld that lays the team open to being double-crossed and betrayed; the success of the mission that carries with it the seeds of its own failure.

A solid movie that stays with you a long, long time. 5 stars, a thumbs up and a potential DVD purchase.

Hyped: Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee's tale of gay love in the mountains. In a word, B-o-ring. This movie has been hyped beyond belief and certainly beyond its slim capabilities. The buzz about this movie is the gay romance between two cowboys who discover deep love during a night of passion high in the mountains; a deep love that allegedly spans the next two decades while both of them get married, have children and lead otherwise heterosexual lives. I have a number of objections to this.

In the first place, they are not cowboys, they are sheep herders whose remit is to guard over a flock of sheep during the summer grazing months. The only cow who shows up in the movie has a 2-second cameo while hay is being dumped in her paddock. You can't be a cowboy without cows. Sheep somehow just don't cut it.

Secondly, the movie abounds in cars, pickup trucks and similar wheeled menaces. In the cowboy movies that I grew up watching, the only wheeled contrivances were the wagons that were circled at night to protect against marauding Indians (sorry, native Americans) and the stagecoaches that were robbed by bandits with bandanas around their faces. Something wrong, therefore, with the period of the movie.

Next, and this is critical: there is absolutely no chemistry between the leading pair. There is nothing in the story that explains why these two fall in love with each other so desperately. You might argue that love is blind and in the real world there is no reason why people fall in love with each other, but that is flimflammery. There are always reasons for love: they may not be logical reasons, but they are reasons none the less. And we're not talking about real life anyway, we're talking about the movies, which have a responsibility to tell a story and to involve the audience in that story. Watch African Queen and see the inexplicable attraction between Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. Watch Casablanca and catch the smouldering sparks between Humphrey Bogart (again!) and Ingrid Bergman. Watch any Meg Ryan movie. Heck, even catch the normally wooden Tom Cruise with his delectable spouse (at the time, in real life too), Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut and you will see what I'm talking about when I say chemistry. Sorry, Jack and Ennis ain't got it.

Since I will now be accused of being homophobic, let me point to another gay themed movie that I consider a genuine classic: Midnight Cowboy. Enough said.

Finally, what was the story line of this unfortunate movie? Boy meets boy; they share a night of passion on a mountain top (passion, incidentally, that looks more like a bar-room brawl than gentle love - I somehow can't quite see Elton John and his beau behaving like that); they share some more days of bonding; they go their separate ways; they meet babes (Michelle Williams, by the way, is cute as a button!); they have babies; they keep meeting up over the years to rekindle their passion; one dies, the other doesn't. That's a story? Give me Hans Christan Andersen anyday.

My faith in the Oscars has been renewed after the resounding rejection of this movie at the awards. I do wonder though why Ang Lee got Best Director for this.

2 stars (for the wonderful locales), both thumbs down and I wouldn't keep this DVD if you paid me.