February Films

More terrific film reviews for February releases.

DREAMGIRLS: Releases 2 February
The worry after having a succession of films based on a similar premise – aspiring musician tries to beat the odds and gain success – is that audiences have become bored by the storylines that back up the music. Here, however, there is something a touch different, splicing the real and the fictional to create a film that is truly special.

NOTES ON A SCANDAL: Releases 2 February
This tale of friendship and its betrayal, of the breaking of social norms and society’s reaction to such transgressions, is brought to life superbly by Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. But where a standard Hollywood film would make such reactions physical, here the power all comes from the psychological impact.

As an acting tour de force, this is hard to beat. The two leads are perfect for their roles, with superb support from the likes of Bill Nighy as Blanchett’s older, rather vulnerable husband. It may, as with so much of Eyre’s film work, feel better suited to the stage than the screen, but that is a minor quibble with such a genuinely engaging character drama of the like not often produced by the British film industry these days. And for such a relatively minor film, the fact that both actresses have managed to gain numerous award nominations is a testament to their ability to suck the audience in to what is, at its root, a relatively simple story of misplaced affection.

HANNIBAL RISING: Releases 9 February
Judging by past successes, it’s little wonder that Hollywood was rather keen for Thomas Harris to produce another novel based on Dr Hannibal Lecter. As seems to be all the rage these days, this is a prequel to the earlier films, filling in some of that mysterious backstory and setting out to explain – at least in part – why a man so intellectually gifted as Lecter could possibly end up on his decidedly unpleasant path.

Many will doubtless be worried whether the 22-year-old Gaspard Ulliel, has the subtlety or charm to pull it off. But, much as Lecter himself might say after polishing off the last remains of his latest victim, it’s really all a matter of taste.

So, ignoring the lead, the real question is, is the plot any good, and are the murders sufficiently gruesome and unsettling? For the latter, again it will depend entirely on your point of view. The thing about the Lecter films was never really the unpleasantness of what’s seen onscreen – indeed, one of the weakest parts of Ridley Scott’s Hannibal was when Lecter’s actions were made explicit, as with the notorious brain-eating scene. Instead, it was the psychological horror, the dread, and the confusion about the highly intelligent killer’s motivations.

CHARLOTTE’S WEB: Releases 9 February
After the success of the Babe movies, it is rather surprising that it has taken so long to give the full cinematic treatment to the other children’s classic of animal friendship that is Charlotte’s Web – supposedly the best selling children’s paperback of all time, according to trade journal Publishers Weekly.

The only worry, as with any adaptation of a much-loved book, is whether the filmmakers will be able to do justice to the original without ruining so many fond memories. However, when you see a cast list topped by Julia Roberts and including the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Robert Redford, not to mention John Cleese, Steve Buscemi and Kathy Bates, you know that there’s something interesting going on. Nonetheless, without a well-considered screenplay and competent direction, even such an impressive cast may not be enough. Thankfully, both screenplay and director Gary Winick do the job perfectly, making this a very welcome new version of this charming tale of a pig trying to escape his butcher shop destiny.

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP: Releases 16 February
Despite having first aired just over a year ago at the Berlin Film Festival of February 2006, and despite having been directed by one of the big up-and-coming directors of recent years, only now does this quirky movie finally get a British cinema release, several months after it was first supposed to hit our screens.

The usual reason for this is that a film is either felt to be not very good, or that it is in a foreign language. Judging by the critical praise that has been heaped upon this intelligent romantic fantasy, it’s certainly not the former. As for the latter, well, the director may be French, and it may be set in Paris – but the majority of the film is in English, even if there are occasional lapses into French and Spanish.

But if a film is a bit different, as this most certainly is, it can have major difficulties in convincing the powers that be that us mere cinema-goers are not too stupid to understand it.

Yes, audiences will be confused, but that is the whole point. Films exist in part to allow us to experience other people’s lives and aspirations, and this exploration of one man’s subconscious is a glorious realisation of that movie world ability to get inside another person’s head. Yes, this is complex. No, it is not your typical film. But that is no reason to delay its release, and every reason to head off to the cinema to see it straight away, while you have the chance.

HOT FUZZ: Releases 16 February
For fans of the top-notch, in-joke laden sitcom Spaced, which ran for just two seasons and a total of 14 episodes back in 1999-2001, the last couple of years have been a blessed relief. Much like with the classic sitcom Fawlty Towers, of which only 13 episodes were ever made, or the more recent The Office or Father Ted, the lack of subsequent series has merely secured Spaced a coveted spot in the memory as one of those rare TV shows that never started to go downhill.

So why have the last couple of years been such a relief? Four words: Shaun of the Dead. The massive success of that zombie comedy has ensured that the spirit of Spaced, even if not the show itself, is going to continue.

The result of Shaun’s success is Hot Fuzz, a thematic sequel to Shaun of the Dead in the same way that Shaun was a thematic sequel to Spaced. The actors, writers and director remain much the same – with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as mismatched buddies here just as they were in Spaced and Shaun (as well as, apparently, real life) – but the setting, characters and set-up have shifted once again.

Here, the slackers are no longer in their twenties, the action may have moved to the rural West Country, and they may have become policemen, but the basic feel is the same.
With cameos from some of the best and brightest of British comedy as well as a consistently entertaining plot, this is an ideal follow-up to Shaun of the Dead, even if there aren’t any zombies this time.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD: Releases 23 February
Last year we had the complexity of the interwoven storylines of the excellent Syriana, exposing the (hopefully) fictional actions of the CIA in the present-day Middle East, and co-starring Matt Damon. This year we get The Good Shepherd, exposing instead the (hopefully) fictional origins of the Central intelligence Agency at the dawn of the Cold War, and co-starring, erm, Matt Damon. If they didn’t have a file on him before, they surely do now.

The real joy with this film, however, is not its wonderful realisation of its late 1940s/early 1950s setting, nor its intelligent examination of the paranoia of the politics of the time. Instead it is in seeing Robert De Niro in a long overdue return to directorial form. Having been able to watch Scorsese work on no less than eight films, De Niro has evidently learned much.

For the rest, the chaos and conspiracies behind the CIA’s early days are such that, to reveal anything of the plot, is to reveal too much. Suffice to say that all involved – from Matt Damon through to Angelina Jolie as his long-suffering wife, Alec Baldwin through Michael Gambon, and even De Niro’s old buddy Joe Pesci, in his first film role for eight years – do precisely as good a job as you’d expect from people with an actor as talented as De Niro to direct them. The end result must surely stand a good chance of being regarded as one of the films of the year.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA: Releases 23 February
The second of Clint Eastwood’s two films about the Battle of Iwo Jima, following December’s release of Flags of Our Fathers, may well be in Japanese and filmed from a Japanese perspective, but is decidedly the better movie. Even were this not such a well-crafted and intelligent exploration of warfare – with multiple awards and nominations under its belt – Letters From Iwo Jima would be a fascinating film if only for being a rare movie about the Second World War telling the Japanese side of the story.

Following VJ day, the new constitution imposed and swiftly adopted by Japan has long been so avowedly pacifist that any exploration of the war has been almost entirely off-limits. The Battle of Iwo Jima itself, a horrendously violent encounter on a remote Japanese island, which helped to turn the course of the war, is barely taught in Japanese schools.

With Clint Eastwood at the helm – now in his late seventies and firmly established as one of America’s greatest living directors as well as one of the all-time icons of cinema – it has finally become possible once more to present a sympathetic version of Japan at war. It is this underlying emotional complexity that really marks this out as something special.

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