May Film reviews

This month’s Film Reviews feature the long awaited sequels Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, as well as Goodbye Bafana, 28 Weeks, Zodiac, Tiger’s Tail, Black Snake Moan and Jindabyne.

Spider-Man 3
Releases 4 May

Where the first Spider-Man film was an impressive superhero blockbuster, Spider-Man 2 managed to please fans even more, both expanding and improving on the original, largely thanks to the greater freedom afforded to the series’ mastermind, cult Evil Dead director Sam Raimi. As such, the expectations – and fears – are even higher this time around.

For the comic geeks among us, the potential for this to be another X-Men 3 is even more apparent. In that second sequel to a Marvel Comics franchise the story revolved around one of the biggest storylines in the comics’ decades-long history – the conversion of one of the main heroes into an evil villain through the agency of a powerful extra-terrestrial influence. And now, as all fans will know, the Spider-Man series is entering the same territory with the appearance of one of the comic’s main villains – the alien entity known as Venom, which manages to seize control of Spider-Man in an attempt to wreak havoc on Earth.

Fans of the Spider-Man films, of course, will be aware by now that the filmmakers are not interested in mere spectacle, but also in the psychology of heroism. Spider-Man’s alter-ego, Peter Parker, has been struggling to juggle his two lives throughout the last two movies, and this third is no different. Indeed, the presence of Venom, and the shift to the black Spider-Man outfit, begins as more a physical manifestation of the agile superhero’s internal tensions than a traditional supervillain. Add to that the romantic tensions – here taken up a notch by the introduction of an alternate love interest to Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane in the shape of Bryce Dallas Howard’s glamorous Gwen Stacy – and the action takes almost second place to the character-based drama.

The end result is a gloriously satisfying third film in the franchise – one that could make a nice conclusion, should they decide to end it here.

Goodbye Bafana
Releases 11 May

For the last decade and more, it has seemed as if everyone loves Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner-turned-president and saviour of South Africa. The most extreme example of this is undoubtedly the case of James Gregory, Mandela’s prison guard for much of his time in jail.

In 1995, as Mandela sat as president, this former guard released a book to cash in on his former charge’s newfound success, in which he claimed that Mandela’s sheer decency and humanity had managed to convert him from a fundamentalist racist to a genuine admirer and personal friend of the erstwhile convict. It was a controversial claim, with many of Mandela’s actual friends claiming instead that Gregory was a spy for the Apartheid regime who had stolen and censored many of Mandela’s letters while he was in prison, but nonetheless it is Gregory’s book, rather than Mandela’s own bestselling autobiography, upon which this film is loosely based.

With former 24 star Dennis Haysbert – better known to fans of the series as President Palmer – as Mandela and Joseph Fiennes as Gregory, you might think that such a big subject is being done an injustice with such a small-scale film. Although they both do fantastic, sympathetic and believable jobs here, neither Haysbert or Fiennes are, after all, massive names – and surely Morgan Freeman is everyone’s first choice to play Mandela in a big screen version of his life?

But nonetheless, Goodbye Bafana manages to uncover something deeply human at the heart of the Apartheid regime. The friendship at the heart of this film may not have been there in reality, but that doesn’t matter in the slightest, because the whole point about Mandela is hope and belief in the decency of our fellow men.

This account of his friendship with one of his guards, while most likely fictional, does at least get that hope across – and again lauds Mandela as one of the most admirable human beings of the last century. It’s a deliberately worthy film, but a highly engaging one – and with such a character at its heart how could it be anything else?

28 Weeks Later
Releases 11 May

When former Shallow Grave and Trainspotting director Danny Boyle brought out post-apocalyptic zombie flick 28 Days Later back in 2002, no one was really expecting much. Within a few months, however, 28 Days Later had become one of those rare sleeper hits – gradually building momentum, especially following its US release, until it gained the status of a cult classic. It may have been more than a decade too late to really work as the Thatcherite satire it was evidently meant to be, but it was stylish and thoughtful enough as an intelligent horror film to work even without the politics that underlay it.

Now, five years on, so strong is 28 Days Later’s reputation that it has managed to spawn a sequel. Boyle may have been replaced by little-known Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo – nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film back in 1997 – but he has kept his hand in as Executive Producer along with the first film’s writer Alex Garland, and has remained actively involved throughout the project’s production. There’s also a part for repeated Boyle collaborator Robert Carlyle – an actor once on the brink of a major Hollywood career, now rarely seen on the big screen – adding to the sense of continuity.

However, none of the major characters from the first film have returned for this second outing, yet it most definitely takes place within the same film universe, with many of the same themes and concerns coming out. This is no reinvention, but a faithful continuation and continued exploration of the concept from a new angle.

As the title implies, the action takes place seven months – 28 weeks – after that of the first film. London, all but destroyed by a deadly virus in the first film, has been placed under quarantine by the US military, brought in to restore order. But, just as they declare that the virus has been vanquished and that reconstruction of the all but annihilated United Kingdom can begin, the virus and violence breaks out once more.

Whether 28 Weeks Later will live up to the original’s ability to meld a dystopian vision of the near future with both action and a political message is likely to be a matter of opinion.
What is certain is that this is trying to be a lot more than your average sci-fi horror, and gets very close to succeeding. It’s certainly got a lot more to offer than your average American horror movie – not least in the ambiguity that it may not really be a horror film at all, but something far more meaningful.

Zodiac
Releases 18 May

Former music video director David Fincher’s first big Hollywood flick was the decidedly unpleasant Alien 3. Now, however, it looks like he’s back with a vengeance, returning to the old ground of Se7en and, for the first time in his feature film career, seeming not to be trying anything new or radical. How does Zodiac hold up?

Well, the one ongoing theme in Fincher’s movies to date has been the nature of human psychology, and how we deal with situations that we can’t quite comprehend. Based as it is on the true story of the hunt for the “zodiac killer”, a serial killer who murdered at least five random victims in 1960s San Francisco, leaving cryptic clues that have yet to be deciphered, this is firmly back in Se7en’s world of twisted genius psycho playing with the press and police who are trying to hunt him down.

The end result, though not quite up to the levels of Se7en or Fight Club, is certainly a nice little thriller, with a strong cast that includes the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr, both currently doing some of their best work. It’s a highly absorbing mystery, and played to near perfection – showing just what we’ve been missing during Fincher’s hiatus. Now that he seems to be back making movies, fans of quality and originality in cinema should all breathe a sigh of relief.

The Tiger’s Tail
Releases 18 May

John Boorman is one of the most enigmatic of all British directors and, with recent Boorman favourite Brendan Gleeson in the lead – this is their fourth film together – you should know to expect some top-notch acting, at the very least. This is slightly damaged by the unfortunate choice of having Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall as his wife, with a highly unconvincing Irish accent, but that poor bit of casting is happily offset by the presence of the always reliable Ciaran Hinds in support.

The aim of The Tiger’s Tail, which Boorman also wrote, seems to be to provide an allegory of modern Ireland – the new-found economic success clashing with the older sense of the nation’s place in the world. This is most evident in the central plot device – Gleeson’s wealthy property developer, teetering on the brink of his business and marriage collapsing, seemingly being stalked by a murderous doppelganger of himself. Ireland is uncertain of what its new position as a Celtic “economic tiger” is, and Gleeson’s sensitively played character is the personification of this confusion.

The allegory may be a touch too trite, but the powerful central performance ensures that Boorman has added a decent, if not particularly remarkable, movie to his long back catalogue. Most importantly, it seems to have convinced the money men to give him the budget for a genuinely big movie for his next outing – ancient Roman biopic Memoirs of Hadrian. Could be fun.

Black Snake Moan
Releases 18 May

It’s a well known rule of the movies that it’s damned tough being a former child star. Christina Ricci is one of those rare female child stars who have managed to make the transition to a grown-up acting career with relatively few setbacks. So, having gone from weird little kid to strangely attractive teenager, Ricci also made the move from big budget Hollywood to quirky indie flicks, and ended up in some of the best cult films of the mid to late 1990s, from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Buffalo 66 to The Ice Storm and Sleepy Hollow.

Now, at long last, she’s got a part she can really sink her teeth into, and one that is, once again, taking her former child star status and ripping its memory to shreds. How many other child stars could you imagine being introduced in a movie dressed only in a pair of skimpy pants and a crop top, covered in blood and bruises, and then go on to produce one of the most nuanced portrayals of a psychologically scarred and highly vulnerable sexual predator ever seen on screen?

The central theme of how early abuse can lead to increasingly poor decisions in later life is one with which many child stars can doubtless identify, yet Ricci’s cunning is that, unlike many fellow former kiddie actors, she has channelled the leftover angst into a complicated on-screen performance, rather than letting her own life slip into disaster. With fine support from co-star Samuel L Jackson, firmly making the move into older man territory after a few years of playing middle-aged, this is a tip-top character study.

Fully conscious that in making Ricci’s sexually abused young nymphomaniac quite so sultry and attractive, the audience is made to feel uncomfortable for fancying such a psychologically damaged woman, the film skates close to the ice. But the end result is a far more intelligent and thoughtful movie than the deliberately exploitation-style packaging might have you believe. In the process, Ricci has turned in one of her best acting jobs to date – it’s a good thing she hasn’t decided to quit just yet.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Releases 25 May

Where the first Pirates movie was an unexpected delight – a romping, swash-buckling family comedy horror with one of the most loveable and quirky central characters in years in the shape of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow – the sequel could hardly be anything other than a slight disappointment.

Still, Dead Man’s Chest was certainly good fun – indeed, it’s only major problem was that it didn’t feel quite finished. That, of course, was because Pirates 2 and 3 were filmed back-to-back, and are effectively two halves of one big movie – which At World’s End promises to wrap up nicely.

So we last saw our heroes with the object of their latest quest stolen by Commander Norrington, Captain Jack about to be eaten alive by a sea monster and the old villain of the first film, Captain Barbossa, returning out of the blue, seemingly just in time to lead a rescue mission to save Jack at the very ends of the Earth. All nicely silly stuff, in other words – and somewhat reminiscent of the ending of The Empire Strikes Back, here with Jack Sparrow in the Han Solo role.

Now it’s time for the conclusion – and you can be certain it’s going to be nicely spectacular, with just enough unanswered questions to allow room for another movie, should audiences still be willing (which they will) and the stars still be prepared to head off to the tropics for a few more months of silliness. In other words, we probably haven’t seen the last of Captain Jack just yet…

Jindabyne
Releases 25 May

At the heart of the film lies Gabriel Byrne, a husband and fishing enthusiast who for some reason has an Irish accent – probably because Dublin-born Byrne can’t do Australian, but also so that, in this typically menacing small town in the vast Australian wilderness, he stands out from the true locals just that little bit more.

For his wife we have the always worth watching Laura Linney, who gradually comes to doubt everything she ever thought about her dear hubby, thanks to his strange actions while off on a fishing trip to somewhere even more remote with a group of his friends. Then there’s the body of a dead girl, the legend of the lost town under the lake and a crazed old man of precisely the kind you’d dread bumping into were you ever to find yourself lost in the Outback.

As more pieces are added to the puzzle, it seems as if the picture is becoming ever less clear. Questions are piled on top of questions, mysteries on top of mysteries, until the tension and meandering suspense becomes almost unbearable. What was Byrne doing? What was he thinking? How does the sunken town fit in to it all, or is that just a red herring?

Though Hollywood does, at long last, seem to be trying to produce a few more films that make you think again, after a decade or more of mere gaudy special effects showcases, it is still a rare treat to find one that forces you to use your brain. And although the director evidently wanted the hostility of Australians to outsiders to be the central theme – be it the more obvious racism towards the aboriginals, following the discovery of the body of one of their own in the lake, or the more casual disliking for the townsfolk towards the Irishman and his American wife – what is achieved brilliantly is a subtle and sympathetic exploration of the slow collapse of a marriage.

Jindabyne is certainly not a fun movie, but it is both beautifully shot and, despite its leisurely pace, deeply engaging. Well worth the money if you want an escape from the blockbuster season.