Romance – Page 3 – We Are Movie Geeks

EMILY – Review

What if Emily Bronte, the author of “Wuthering Heights” and painfully shy daughter of a parson, secretly had a steamy love affair with her father’s assistant? Could have happened, right?

Well, no, but the highly imaginative historical drama EMILY posits such a hidden romance. EMILY is less a biography than a fantasy of the life the director might have wished the author had, something more possible now than then.

EMILY is the latest in a series of historical dramas that posit a secret love life for a famous unmarried female 19th century author. While such what-if romances might be fun, this one goes pretty far from the factual, in the romance imagined and other acts of rebellious behavior. However, where the film has more depth is in its other aspect, a speculative inner progression from shy, reclusive girl to a woman with artistic and intellectual freedom, that kind of transformation one might imagine for the author of “Wuthering Heights.”

The historical record on the author’s actual life is scant, and even contradictory, and that lack of information opens the door for director/writer Frances O’Connor’s imagined drama tinged with Gothic romance about the author of that classic Gothic romance “Wuthering Heights.” This R-rated drama is pretty steamy stuff, which will likely please romance fans. On the other hand, the film also creates a journey towards artistic and intellectual freedom, although again the steps on that journey are also far more contemporary than anything likely for a parson’s daughter in the Victorian era.

Director/writer Frances O’Connor finds the perfect partner in her goals for this film in Emma Mackey. Mackey portrays Emily Bronte as she evolves from a painfully shy girl, stricken with grief by the death of her mother, to a woman very much her own person, wild and free, and ready to write her famous novel. Deeply mourning her mother, Emily struggles with the strictures of the Victorian world placed on women, and against her own family. She rebels against her disapproving older sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling), and her strict pastor father (Adrian Dunbar). Considered odd by the villagers in their Yorkshire town, Emily finds more support from her sister Anne (Amelia Gething) but especially from her wild, rule-breaking brother Branwell (Fionn Whitehead). Emily’s quest for intellectual and artistic freedom draws her to a visiting pastor, William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).

The drama also features Gemma Jones as Aunt Branwell. The acting is very good throughout, and everything about the film seems polished, although the pacing slows from time to time. Rather than covering the whole of her short life, this story takes place between the time of Emily’s mother’s death to the death of her brother from tuberculosis.

EMILY has all the lush, period details of a prettily mounted costume drama, as it offers a speculative exploration of the author’s inner life with little concern for the actual facts. Some audiences will find that un-mooring from facts thrilling and freeing but viewers should be careful not mistake this for biography.

The film was shot on location in Yorkshire, where the Brontes actually lived, and the splendid photography, and many scenes in the wild, windswept landscape, give the sense of being set within her “Wuthering Heights” itself. EMILY is imaginative fiction but it does sprinkle in some actual facts about the author.

Actress Emma Mackey is tall, dark and gorgeous as Emily Bronte and the perfect choice for the rebellious, misfit, rule-breaker at odds with the Victorian world that writer/director Frances O’Connor had in mind for this drama. Mackey does an impressive job as this rebellious Emily, lighting up the screen in those scenes, but she is less convincing in flashback scenes where the younger Emily is so shy she can hardly speak to strangers and flees her girls boarding school where her extreme shyness makes her the target of bullies.

This Emily is often at odds with her two sisters Charlotte and Anne, although the real Emily was reportedly very close to Charlotte. Emily is also shown as under the thumb of her pastor father, despite her real father’s praise of her as “the very apple of my eye” and teaching her to handle a gun, something he didn’t think her hard-drinking brother was up to.

Of course, if historical accuracy is of no matter to a particular viewer, then this fictional Emily Bronte tale provides steamy romance in a very pretty setting, which including a little bit about the author and her life. This Emily starts out shy but evolves into a bold, rebellious feminist figure, the kind of person who seems more likely to have written “Wuthering Heights.”

EMILY places Emily Bronte in a beautiful, windswept Yorkshire landscape, for a tale that is partly Gothic romance but also a speculative exploration of her artistic and intellectual awakening.

EMILY is visually beautiful, and puts Emily Bronte in the setting for her own novel. Shot on location in Yorkshire, there are many walks across windswept hills, often in the company of her doomed, wild brother Branwell. In this gorgeous, wild landscape, she frees her mind and embraces life without care for social restrictions on women or artists.

Despite its departure from facts or what might be likely in her Victorian world, there is entertainment in EMILY, a well-acted, thrilling fantasy of Emily Bronte with the constrains of her life loosened, with the boldness of her novel “Wuthering Heights” transferred to the author’s life.

EMILY opens Friday, Feb. 24, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and in theaters nationwide.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

BONES AND ALL – Review

(L to R) Taylor Russell as Maren and Mark Rylance as Sully in BONES AND ALL, directed by Luca Guadagnino, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Photo Credit: Yannis Drakoulidis / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures. © 2022 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“My Cannibal Romance” or “The Fine Young Cannibals” might be alternate titles for this film except that it suggests comedy rather than the high-concept horror film that BONES AND ALL really is. Starring Timothee Chalamet and Canadian actress Taylor Russell as a very different kind of star-crossed lovers, BONES AND ALL does two surprising things: combining romance with horror in a very different way and creating a new kind of monster beyond the usual vampires, werewolves and zombies. The characters at the center of this tale are born as cannibals, compelled to eat human flesh the same way vampires are compelled to drink blood. However, despite the image that evokes, BONES AND ALL is surprisingly restrained in what it shows on screen. There are bloody scenes, but the like in a film where the gory is the point. That will probably disappoint the torture porn crowd or those looking for buckets-o-blood violence. There are no Jeffrey Dahmer-like bone-cracking or cooking scenes. Instead, these compulsive cannibals are treated more as people with an unfortunate affliction, something they have no say in. The focus is on people living lonely, isolated lives, people who have a compulsion they would rather not have, but something they unfortunately must do, periodically, in order to live. Their only choice is when, and who. That gives this unusual horror story a completely different tone.

Set in the upper South and Midwest of the mid-’80s,Maren (Taylor Russell) is a lonely high school senior living with her dad (Andre Holland), who is “the new girl: who doesn’t fit in at her new high school – again. The father and daughter have moved around a bit but Maren longs for friends, and here she is finally forming some tentative friendships. Yet we get a sense she is hiding something, although it might just be that she is living a trailer park, unlike her new friends.

Her dad sets strict rules for her, including no nights out, but one night she sneaks out anyway, to go hang out at her new friend’s sleep-over. All goes well as first, until it doesn’t. What happens sends daughter and dad on the run.

In her new rundown rental home, she wakes one day to find dad gone, but an envelop of money and a tape and recorder left behind. Dad’s tape answers some questions about why she is different, while leaving others unanswered. Maren decides to seek those answers by finding the family of the mother she never knew.

Already you see the parallels to any young person who is different in some way, where bi-racial (as she is) or from a different country or religion, or born with a “condition” although not likely to be like her particular affliction. On the road, she is surprised to meet others like her, such as Sully (Mark Rylance, in another striking performance), an oddball, colorfully dressed man with a Southern drawl, and later another young person with the same affliction, Lee (Timothee Chalamet).

It’s Timothee Chalamet, so of course, they will fall in love, although it takes awhile. Also in the fine cast are Michael Stuhlberg, Chloe Sevigny, Jessica Harper, Jake Horowitz and David Gordon Green. Director Luca Guadagnino’s impressively varied credits include CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, SUSPIRIA, A BIGGER SPLASH and I AM LOVE. Here, the director shows a firm hand and fills scenes with tension, sadness, yearning, and a sense of the tragic by turns, always making the most of his fine cast.

Like all horror films, realism and the plausible are not priorities. The acting is the film’s standout strength, but the concept deserves credit. as a fresh way to show people who exist on the fringes of society, as these people, as well as a new horror creation. By making these characters into people rather than monsters, the film turns the usual horror film structure on its head. Other than their compulsion and “dietary needs,” and how that forces them to live, they are completely ordinary people, who would rather not do want they must. They are filled with revulsion by encountering an ordinary human turned cannibal, as they do at one point. The young couple try to create something like a normal life for themselves, with starry-eyed dreams of avoiding their need to eat, as they inevitably must.

It makes for an unexpectedly heartbreaking story, and the film is in many way more a tragic romance of star-crossed lovers than a horror film. Timothee Chalamet and Taylor… as the star-crossed lovers, who are what they are without choice, give marvelous performances. The two develop a convincing chemistry, and their shared problem

But the most unforgettable performance is Mark Rylance’s. The already lauded British actor, who some may recall from BRIDGE OF SPIES, is having quite a year – with wide ranging performances. He plays a charming British eccentric, a sparkling comic role, like the delightful PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, and a shy unassuming tailor bullied by gangsters in the twisty mystery thriller THE OUTFIT. Here, Rylance plays Sully, whose smooth Southern accent and mix of menace and loneliness sets us on edge in very scene, and a performance that sears its way into our memory. Whenever he is on screen, we are uneasy, even though what he says is often pitiful. When he pops up unexpectedly, “stalker” is the word that comes to mind.

Any film that makes these kinds of bold choices deserves credit for creativity and courage, even while the film’s subject is inevitably squirm-inducing. There is blood and blood-covered faces, and we know that these folks are doing, but it is less about that, about gory effects, than the complicated characters at the center who were born with this awful curse. That makes for a fresh kind of horror film, one that invites thought about something more that how they did that effect.

BONES AND ALL opens Wednesday, Nov. 23, in select theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

AMSTERDAM – Review

*(L-R): Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington in 20th Century Studios’ AMSTERDAM. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.*

Director/writer David O. Russell’s AMSTERDAM features a dazzling cast in a period mystery/adventure tale in which three friends, bound by a pact made during World War I, embark on a wild adventure set in 1930s New York, to solve a mystery involving murder, a secret organization, and a possible plot against America.

There really was such a plot, which is among the many historical tidbits woven into this adventure tale, that has big doses of humor and romance as well. AMSTERDAM’s story brings to mind the classic Hollywood mystery adventure tales of the 1930s or 1940s, like CASABLANCA, or early Alfred Hitchcock or maybe a spy-thriller starring Humphrey Bogart. Even though this film is not in black and white, in another sense, it kind of is. Not only is a Black man one of the main characters but the story deals with those marginalized in early 20th century America, including Black Americans and the forgotten disabled veterans of the Great War (as WWI was first known), both of which must battle an entrenched power structure of the white, wealthy and well-connected.

But, at the heart of it, AMSTERDAM is really a film about friendship – the kind of deep enduring friendship we all hope to have, a friendship forged between the trio at the center of this tale by the horrors of WWI and idyllic post-war days in Amsterdam. Most of the story takes place in 1930s New York, during the Great Depression, but there is an extended flashback to post-WWI Amsterdam, with the rising prosperity and creative freedom of the 1920s and free from the Jim Crow attitudes back in America. After the war, many real Black Americans stayed behind in Europe to enjoy that freedom.

There are three friends at the center of this tale but mostly the story is told by one of them, Dr. Burt Berendsen, a slightly offbeat character played with wonderful appeal by Christian Bale.

The three met during WWI, although we don’t know that until a flashback a bit into the film. Christian Bale plays Burt Berendsen, a compassionate half-Jewish doctor in New York who tries to help forgotten, disfigured veterans of WWI, some of whom lost a eye as he did or grapple with pain and morphine addiction as he has. Dr. Berendsen works with his closest friend and lawyer, Harold Woodman (John David Washington), a soft-spoken, well-dressed Black graduate of Columbia Law School who is committed to helping the powerless. The two share a commitment to doing good in their work and a pact they made in WWI to always have each others backs, as well as sad romantic histories. Berendsen is separated from the wife he still loves, Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), the daughter of a prominent 5th Avenue doctor Augustus Vandenheuvel (Casey Biggs). Woodman pines for his lost love, the unconventional nurse/artist Valerie (Margot Robbie) who cared for the wounded soldier pair in a French hospital and escaped with them to an idyll in Amsterdam. The now-vanished Valerie was the third member of their friendship loyalty pact.

David O. Russell has delighted audiences with films like AMERICAN HUSTLE and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, films that mix humor with drama or thriller plots, but AMSTERDAM may be his most ambitious yet. Those who saw the trailer for this new film might expect something a little more fast-paced action film than AMSTERDAM actually is (and that 1971 song in that trailer isn’t in this film, although maybe it could have been). AMSTERDAM is more a mystery thriller with a delicious humorous streak and an unexpected underlying warmth. It is funnier and more inspiring than might be expected.

Classic movie fans will notice that AMSTERDAM has strong parallels to the kind of thriller anti-fascist adventure mysteries of the 1930s and early 1940s – the kind with colorful characters, secrets and international plots. The kind of film made during the time period in which most of this film is set, although it starts during WWI, the Great War. You know, the War to End All Wars. And, of course, some of this really happened, as the film tells us at the start.

Actually, there is a surprising amount of real history woven into this fictional story. Saying how much is true might risk spoilers but there really was a fascist plot in the U.S. that was thwarted, and there really was a courageous American general who was part of that. The film’s version of that general is played by Robert De Niro in fine, military ramrod straight, morally-upright style, but the general isn’t the main character. The three main characters, a trio of friends, at the center of this adventure are played by Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington, with supporting roles played by Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldaña, Rami Malek, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Timothy Olyphant, Michael Shannon and Mike Myers. Besides the historical mystery at the center of the plot, AMSTERDAM is full of other true-history tidbits in a story ranging from the Great War through the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s, in a rollicking tale told with humor and humanity.

For those who love movies and mysteries of the ’30s era this film is set in, and even more so if you know those films well, AMSTERDAM has special delights. The immensely charming AMSTERDAM does evoke that kind of feeling of friendships forged in hardship you see in those old movies, but it does so with David O. Russell’s signature sly humor and a bit craziness that is a bit more screwball comedy with moments of Marx Brothers, as well as nods to the present. While it is not as fast-paced as the trailer leads you to expect, it is far funnier and fun, far crazier and surprising, and with more warmth than expected, as well as all those real history references and a wonderful kind of friendship. That latter side is largely thanks to the three leads played so well and with deep feeling by Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie.

This film is a classic Hollywood movie buffs’ delight. There is a fair dose of CASABLANCA in AMSTERDAM, including the city name in its title, but in this case, Amsterdam is more like the idyllic memories of Paris in that classic. In other ways, AMSTERDAM is like the early Hitchcock thriller THE 39 STEPS or any number of mid ’30s or early ’40s thrillers, where the hero has to beat a ticking clock to uncover a plot by “5th columnists,” a term for foreign spies with generally fascist plans. This is classic movie stuff, and the more you know about movies of that period, the more references you will get and enjoy.

Besides the many historical and period movie references, AMSTERDAM is filled with gorgeous period sets and details. AMSTERDAM also has fabulous cinematography by the great Emmanuel Lubezki, who effectively evokes the time period and sets the right emotional tones. There is an impressive bit of special effects fairly early on, thanks to visual effects supervisor Allen Maris, which jump-starts the action.

Set in mid-30s New York, we get a taste of the poor and forgotten (as this is still the Great Depression) but like the movies of that time, we spend more time visiting in the world of the wealthy untouched by those hardships. Berendsen’s wife Beatrice and her parents are part of that well-dressed set living in beautiful houses, But when are heroes’ quest takes them to the estate of millionaire Tom Voze (Rami Malik) and his stylish wife Libby (Anya Taylor-Joy), they really find the lap of luxury. They also find a surprise, one of the tale’s many plot twists.

There are plenty of those twists, humor that is either dark or farcical, and one extended flashback which gives us the essential backstory that makes it all work. The large cast come and go in dizzying fashion, with characters who reappear periodically. Among those are Michael Shannon and Mike Myers who play Henry Norcross and Paul Canterbury, a couple of spies who who are also avid birders, even if they tend to cross ethical lines, who have a penchant for speaking in riddles and metaphors – something scriptwriter/director Russell and star Christian Bale have some fun with. Other memorable turns come from Chris Rock, as attorney Woodman’s assistant, who says out loud the kind of things other Black characters might be thinking, about pervasive racism. Another is Zoe Saldana, who is wonderful as an efficient, down-to-earth autopsy nurse, Irma St. Clair, who sparks long-buried feelings in Berendsen. Matthias Schoenaerts plays a police detective, another veteran, while his clumsy, hot-headed non-veteran partner Detective Hiltz (Alessandro Nivola) rails against mocking by the veterans.

There is so much to enjoy in this entertaining, inspiring, heart-warming, history-themed adventure. AMSTERDAM packs so much in, that it may be too much for some audiences members who may become overwhelmed or even bit confused. History buffs and classic movie fans will most enjoy this big-hearted adventure, but anyone can if they are open to its message of friendship and loyalty. There is a bit of AMERICAN HUSTLE in this film, with its mix of true story facts and a personal story, but this one is bigger and better, and with a more wholesome, inspiring, patriotic and human message, even a freedom-loving, small-d democratic one.

AMSTERDAM opens Friday, Oct. 7, in theaters.

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE – Review

Juliette Binoche and French stars Vincent Lindon and Gregoire Colin deliver top-notch acting in a love triangle drama, in renowned director Claire Denis’s BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE. Previously titled FIRE in English, this well-acted French romantic drama’s French title is AVEC AMOUR ET ACHARNEMENT, which translates as “With Love and Fury,” which would have worked in English as well. Juliette Binoche’s character Sara certainly is playing with fire, when her eye strays to an old flame despite her better judgment, threatening her present loving relationship. Plenty of sparks fly as a result.

Juliette Binoche plays Sara, who is in a loving, long-term relationship with Jean (Vincent Lindon), Sara

had left her previous amour Francois (Gregoire Colin) for Jean, his best friend and business partner, and Sara had stuck with Jean even through his 8-year jail term. Early romantic scenes make clear the passionate feeling the couple still share. Yet when Sara unexpectedly sees Francois on the street one day, she is overcome a sudden rush of old feelings and buried longings, even though Francois didn’t even see her. Although she does nothing, the mere mention of the name of her ex, whom neither have seen in the intervening decade, to her current lover seems to electrifying the air, sending a jolt of fear through him, although he says nothing. That level of unspoken yet crackling emotion charges the air, as these two acting greats say more without words than lesser talents could, even before anything more happens. Repressed longing, smoldering jealousy and fear on both sides suffuse scenes as the couple begin playing with fire that may burn them both.

Although Sara had just glimpsed Francois at a distance on a Paris street, it turns out Jean has actually talked to him, something Sara does not yet know. Francois called Jean, out of the blue after ten years, to suggest as they start up a new business together, an agency for young sports prospects. Once a pro rugby star, Jean and Francois had once worked together after an injury ended his career. But that came to an end when Jean went to prison for eight years. We don’t learn the reason but there are hints that it may have been something both Francois and Jean were involved with, although only Jean was caught. As an ex-con, jobs have been scarce, so Jean is in no position to pass up any opportunity but, as a former pro rugby star, Jean is particularly drawn to the chance to get back into the sports world.

When Sara casually mentions that she saw Francois on the street, Jean freezes. Although he says nothing, we can see, even feel, the jolt of electricity that rushes through him when he hears this, and the air is alive with tension and fear. Yet neither Sara nor Jean say anything, and Jean does not mention the call from Francois.

Jean can’t bring himself to pass up Francois’ business offer, although it is clear there is risk for his happy home life. He delays even mentioning it to Sara, who says little about that, realizing the tension Jean is feeling. Jean becomes secretive, trying to avoid situations where the former lovers might meet, fearing what may happen. Sara is determined that nothing will happen, as she feels she made the better choice all those years ago and is sure she loves Jean, yet there is always a fear of the fire they are playing with.

The thrill of this love-triangle drama is watching these powerhouse actors at work in this fraught situation. Carefully observed, multi-layered and nuanced acting is delivered by all three but particularly from the scenes with Binoche and Lindon as the couple in crisis. Gregoire Colin’s Francois is handsome and socially smooth but a rather oily character underneath. We quickly see why Sara chose Jean, yet her attraction is like an addiction she is battling. Both Sara and Jean are hesitant to even touch this heated issue, and continually dance around it. There are telling glances, smoldering feelings, anger or fear revealed through looks, sometimes even contradicting the words they speak. All these half-buried sparks threaten to burst into full flame as this tense romantic drama unfolds.

The unspoken tension between them is complicated by the fact that Jean is so hungry to take the business offer Francois holds out, so much that he is willing to take risks. There is also another problem pressing on Jean, his bi-racial teen son Marcus (Issa Perica), who has been raised by Jean’s mother Nelly (Bulle Ogier) in a small town outside Paris, but who has become difficult for her to handle as he entered his teen years. Periodically she calls Jean to beg for his help, pulling him in another direction.

These gifted actors do an excellent job keeping this pot boiling and Claire Denis, who won the Silver Bear for director at the Berlin Film Festival, and co-writer Christine Angot keep things tense and percolating along. Yet as fabulous as it is to see these actors work and as skilled as the director/writer is gripping an audience, this is still a romantic melodrama, with not larger socially meaningful commentary, despite the subplot about the bi-racial son, Sara’s job as a radio host on a Arab-centric program or scenes illustrating the difficulties of ex-con in finding work. Those topics are touched on, rather than explored at depth, so while worthy, they are but grace notes to the main plot.

This high-wire, electric romantic drama is a treat for audiences who relish fine acting and a gifted director putting those artists through their paces, but offers less for audiences seeking a more significant story or one with deeper meaning.

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE, in French with English subtitles, will be shown July 16 at the Webster Film Series and is now playing in select theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE Theatrical Poster

EIFFEL – Review

*Romain Duris (left) as Gustave Eiffel, in a scene from EIFFEL. Courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment.*

Architect and structural engineer Gustave Eiffel built not only Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower, but designed the interior structure that ensured that our iconic Statue of Liberty would stand up and continue to stand for the long term. These are among the historical tidbits you will learn in EIFFEL, a lush French historical romance/drama built around real events in Eiffel’s life.

EIFFEL is a beautiful period film with polished production values, an attractive cast, and an appealing premise. Since the Eiffel Tower just celebrated its 130 anniversary in December, one might assume EIFFEL is a biopic. It is, partly, but mostly it is a romance set against the backdrop of the building of the Eiffel Tower. The film is loosely based on Eiffel’s true story and centers mostly on the period of Eiffel’s life where he is working on his tower, with flashbacks to twenty years earlier, when as a creative young engineer he met a young woman he now encounters again.

As the film opens, Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris) is at the peak of his career and being honored by the Americans for his completed work on the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French people to America. The success of that project has French leaders thinking they also need a big iconic structure to grace their upcoming World’s Fair, and Eiffel looks like just the man for the job. As he launches this grand project, Eiffel, a widower with a grown daughter and younger children, encounters Adrienne (Emma Mackey), a woman he had been in love with 20 years ago but who is now married to a wealthy man involved in the project.

Martin Bourboulon directs this romantic fantasy that is loosely based on some real events in Eiffel’s life, or more accurately, built around them. EIFFEL is more historical romance than biopic. Fans of historical romances will find much to like here, with an attractive couple in lush period settings and costumes, showcased by lovely cinematography, as the story of the couple jumps back and forth in time between their earlier affair and later meeting. It certainly looks beautiful but the story is rather thin and the drama does not do much to really develop depth in the characters, while leans a bit too much on its prettiness. While Duris’ Eiffel shows his age as he goes from young man starting his career to middle-aged man at the height of his field, Emma Mackey is unchanged as she goes from teen living with her her parents in their large country manor house to society wife. Those more interested in history than romance, and hoping to learn more about the man who build the Eiffel Tower will find thinner material here, as Bourboulon puts far more into the romance than the history.

The drama does make some effort to highlight Eiffel’s genius. Structural engineers like Eiffel are the unsung heroes of architecture and public art, the ones whose unseen works ensures those large artistic works, as well as bridges and towers, can stand up to the elements, laying the base (literally) for their endurance and building the hidden infrastructure that supports them. The film does makes some effort to highlight that, as well as Eiffel’s accomplishment in turning what was supposed to be a big sculptural modern symbol for the the Paris World’s Fair but a temporary structure, into a permanent visual symbol of Paris.

The visual beauty of the drama is flawless, and every shot is framed for maximum appeal and the period elements are all lush. However, the film’s structure of moving back and forth in time is a bit clunky at times, with more of the romance story interest in Eiffel’s youth and more of the history interest around the later period as he builds the tower. The actors do a fine job, with Duris as Eiffel having more the work with than Mackey, who often is called on the do little more than look pretty. The drama does delve into Eiffel’s family life a bit, and a nice supporting performance is offered by Armande Boulanger as Eiffel’s supportive but independent daughter Claire but these scenes are too few.

EIFFEL has more to please those who enjoy period romance than history-based drama, although it tries to straddle both, but it is nice to see the man who built the icon symbol of Paris get some cinematic attention.

EIFFEL, in French with English subtitles, opened in theaters on Friday, June 3.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

FIREBIRD – Review

Set in Cold War-era Estonia, then occupied by the Soviet Union, a two young men, a soldier and a pilot, fall in love, a dangerous relationship forbidden by homophobic law, in the English-language romantic thriller/drama FIREBIRD. Appropriately, this moving film is debuting in St. Louis just as Cinema St. Louis’ QFest, its celebration of gay-themed film, kicks off on Friday, April 29.

Sergey (Tom Prior), Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) and Volodja (Jake Thomas Henderson) are an inseparable trio, in military service at the Soviet Air Force base in Estonia, and as the film opens, the three friends have sneaked off to swim on the rocky coast. When a Soviet security patrol catches them, Volodja’s family connections keep them out of trouble but the tension of living in 1977 Soviet-occupied Estonia is made clear. Also made clear in the scene, as the three young people play in the sea, is that beautiful Luisa is infatuated Sergey, while Sergey is far more interested in Volodja.

The opening scene leads us to expect this be a romantic triangle but this fact-based story takes a different turn, with the arrival of a new pilot, Lt. Roman Matvejev (Oleg Zagorodnii). Private Sergey Serebrennikov has just informed his kindly commander Major Zverev (Margus Prangel) that he intends to leave the military, to return home to his family farm to support his widowed mother, but Major Zverev gives him a last assignment, as the driver and assistant to the new lieutenant. Sergey quickly discovers they share an interest in photography, theater, and Tchaikovsky, and the pilot encourages Sergey to pursue his deferred dream of attending acting school in Moscow. The pair really bond over a trip to a performance of The Firebird, where Sergey drives the lieutenant over the border and stays to watch the show from a back row while the lieutenant joins friends up front. The ballet is a revelation to the young Sergey, as is a secret embrace and kiss in a forest near the border where they pause when returning. Well aware what they are doing risky but deeply in love, the tension of their situation increases when an anonymous note is sent to the camp’s KGB officer Colonel Kuznetsov (Nicholas Woodeson). The KGB agent becomes determined to catch and expose the pilot and his unknown lover.

Again, this true story veers from our expectations, as it becomes increasingly complex. But it remains a tense, and ultimately heartbreaking and tragic romance as it unfolds. FIREBIRD is led by a fine performance by Tom Prior as Sergey, well supported by the rest of the cast and director Peeter Rebane’s nuanced direction. Prior and Rebane co-produced the film and co-wrote the script from the story by Sergey Fetisov.

FIREBIRD starts out feeling more like a basic gay romance with the added tension of the time period and place, but quickly deepens to something more, exploring other choices in life and the price others might pay for our choices, in addition to its political commentary on the fall-out of homophobic policies on individual lives. Peeter Rebane directs this complicated tale with sensitivity but a firm hand. There is a recurring use of water and swimming, with its symbolism of birth, rebirth, and the natural world, but the water also provides some romantic scenes with bare bodies and an extra frisson of excitement, without being particularly explicit, therefore making them more romantic than erotic. The acting is fine throughout, although the focus is very much on Tom Prior’s Sergey, but Diana Pozharskaya is a standout as well as Oleg Zagorodnii. The toxic influence of secrets runs through this tale.

FIREBIRD opens Friday, April 29, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema, the Chase Park Plaza Cinemas 5, and other theaters nationwide.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE LOST CITY (2022) – Review

Hey film fans, since traveling is still a bit iffy (some health issues) and pricey (oy, the pump costs) how about a cinematic getaway to a faraway exotic island? Not tempting enough? Well, how about hanging out with a trio of your favorite movie stars (and I do mean stars…real “A-listers”)? Indeed this marks the big-screen return of a favorite leading lady who has been absent for four long years. And she shares scenes with not one, but two Hollywood “hunks”. Yes, romance, comedy (with a touch of satire), and a bit of danger are on the itinerary when you grab a (theatre) ticket and the multiplex whisks you away to THE LOST CITY.

Things are looking steamy and a touch scary for the duo at the heart of the story when the Paramount logo fades away. Oops, it’s all in the head of popular romance novelist Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) as she battles writer’s block in the comfort of her cozy home. Perhaps she’s a tad too comfortable as she’s become somewhat reclusive since the passing of her hubby. And when that newest work, “The Lost City of D”, is finished she finds that her popularity may be waning…a bit. That’s why her BFF and publicist Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) convinces her to kick off her promotional tour for the book with a personal appearance at a big romance novel convention. And to Loretta’s annoyance, she must share the stage (at a fan Q & A) with the cover model for her paperbacks, the gorgeous but dim Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum), who is reprising his “role” as the ongoing series hero “Dash” McMahon. After the disastrous event, things go from bad to worse as Loretta is spirited away by a couple of burly goons as Alan watches helplessly. Said thugs transport Loretta to their boss, eccentric media millionaire Abigail (yup) Fairfax (Danielle Radcliff) who believes that she can help him locate the actual “crown of fire” in Calloman’s Tomb on a remote Atlantic island. Since the tomb may be destroyed by a nearby active volcano, he ignores her pleas to be released and chloroforms her, and the group jets off to that exotic locale. Ah, but team Sage is on the case. Alan contacts an ex-military man he met at a meditation seminar, Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt), and flies away to join him for her rescue. But can the two of them save Loretta from Fairfax’s legion of henchmen while they’re outrunning lava?

So, Ms. B hasn’t graced the big screen since 2018’s OCEAN’S EIGHT? And grace is the right word since she glides through this frothy romp with the assured stride of the gifted icons of the golden age. Her lengthy film career is certainly no fluke, as she brings all of her arsenal (comedy, tragedy, action, romance) to the role of the often awkward writer. Loretta uses her solitude as a protective “bubble” to ward off anything or anyone that may add to her festering sorrow. When she begrudgingly re-enters “the world” Bullock exercises her crackling comic timing as Loretta uses her snark as rapidly-fired needle “pinpricks”. Coupled with her physical comedy skills, and abetted with her gaudy “sparkly” sequined pantsuit, she’s an almost “alien” outcast in the jungle. But Bullock shows us the change in Sage as the central mystery resonates with her which prompts her to take a chance on someone again. And that’s the surprising Tatum as Alan, who begins as a pretty boy cartoon, the vain vapid gorgeous dimwit (do they still say “him-bo”) strutting about with flowing fake blond locks and “puffy shirts open to the navel. He reminds us of his great comedy “chops’ we enjoyed so much in 21 JUMP STREET, its sequel, and the recent DOG (probably still playing nearby), but he also displays a real vulnerability as Alan acts on his feelings for his “book boss lady”, aching to be the hero she’s fashioned around him. But he’s really not “that guy” as he also has a flair for the slapstick as “action Alan” becomes a klutzy whirlwind of limbs. Which is a great contrast to the “uber-cool alpha-dog” that is Pitt’s Trainer who’s the “real deal” and almost effortlessly uses Alan’s missed kicks and swings to his advantage while trying to temper his remarks (“Alan, that’s a good effort, but you should’ve stayed in the car”).

As for the support team to the “titanic trio”, a good mix of comic actors has been gathered. Well, the villain may be best known for a heroic magical hero icon, Radcliffe seems to be having lots of fun shattering his image as the nefarious Fairfax the “poster child” for the angry sibling, a scheming brat who wants what he deserves right this second (think Veruca Salt with lots of backup and firepower). Heading the “good guy” sidekicks is Randolph (so great as Lady Reed in DOLEMITE IS MY NAME) as the tightly wound, stressed but still in control Beth, whose business ambitions take a backseat to her affection for her “superstar scribe”. Plus she’s a great “reactor tempering her frustration at dealing with a couple of “oddballs”, namely Patti Harrison as the “always on her cellphone” social media consultant (she can’t speak without uttering several “hashtags”) and Oscar Nunez (from TV’s “The Office”) as goofy cargo plane pilot Oscar who thinks that he can charm her into his cockpit (wink wink). And SNL gem Bowen Yang has a nice bit as the book conference’s overly caffeinated host of the Q & A debacle.

The directors calling the shots in this comedy caper are a fairly new team, the Nee (not the Knights who say) brothers Adam and Aaron, their third feature after THE LAST ROMANTIC and BAND OF ROBBERS (a SLIFF flick). And they do a terrific job balancing the character comedy with the more slapstick sequences along with the frantic action set pieces and the often nail-biting escapes and scrapes. And though a lot of its basic premise owes much to 1984’s ROMANCING THE STONE (a nice homage is the event’s banner that proclaims “Romancing the Book”), the screenplay by the Nees with Oren Uziel and Dana Fox from a Seth Gordon story has plenty of sharp satirical stabs at those “bodice-ripper” books and their over-heated fanbase in addition to the spirited interplay between Loretta and Alan. Unfortunately, the film does succumb to the dreaded comedy film “lull” a bit past the one-hour mark as the duo connects on the dance floor (it needs a big trim from the editors). And the big finale feels a tad rushed with everything quickly “lining up in place”. But these are somewhat minor quibbles against the breath-taking Dominican Republic location work and the inspired pairing of Bullock and Tatum, briefly aided by a winking Pitt. So if you’re really needing a bit of swooning star escapism find your way (no tattered old maps needed) to THE LOST CITY.

3.5 Out of 4

THE LOST CITY opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, March 25, 2022

COMPARTMENT NO. 6 – Review

*Seidi Haarla as Laura in the Finnish drama COMPARTMENT NO. 6. Photo credit Sami Kuokkanen/Aamu Film Company. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics*

Two strangers on a train, a young Finnish woman (Seidi Haarla) and a rough Russian miner (Yuriy Borisov), share a compartment on a two-day trip north from Moscow to the Arctic coast, in the surprising COMPARTMENT NO. 6. The trip is more than a physical journey, and this strangers on a train Finnish drama has won multiple well-deserved accolades since its release and is a leading contender for the Best International Film Oscar.

The film is set in Russia not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and although it is primarily drama, it has elements of humor and romance too. It actually starts, not on a train but at a party, in a spacious Moscow apartment, where a glittering mix of intellectuals and artsy types have gathered in bohemian hipness, led by charismatic hostess Irina (Dinara Drukarova), an academic at the Moscow university where Finnish student Laura (Seidi Haarla) is studying anthropology. Irina is also Laura’s lover, and the pair were supposed to embark on a trip to the Arctic together the next day, to see some ancient petroglyphs that Irina had been gushing about to Laura. At the last minute, something comes up and Irina can’t go, but she insists that Laura still go, alone.

COMPARTMENT NO. 6 is directed by Juho Kuosmanen, whose previous film THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MAKI blended drama, self-discovery, humor and romance is a decidedly unique but deeply human way. Some of those same elements are here as well, taking this new film to a deeper, more profound level than we at first expect.

The two-day train trip is more than a physical journey, but a kind of journey of self-discovery for the characters. Without Irina, Laura feels untethered from her life in Moscow and is forced to reflect on her life’s direction and choices, who she is and what she wants. But those contemplations are interrupted by the obnoxious person assigned to the same compartment, a talkative young miner who is also traveling to the Arctic coast for work.

Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov) is rude and crude, and starts off with asking Laura if she is a prostitute. Clueless about her revulsion and unapologetic, he proceeds to hit on her while calling her Estonian instead of Finnish. Laura rebuffs him sharply, and with confident style, but she still retreats to the dining car for the rest of the day. When she asks the woman in charge of the train compartments to move her to another berth, the conductor refuses, claiming there is no room and cooling saying, with perfect Soviet bureaucratic indifference, “what did you expect.” Well, not that.

Laura is sharp-witted and able to stand up for herself but it hardly makes for pleasant traveling. She is relieved when a woman with a baby is also assigned to the compartment and later a young Finnish musician but neither stay long. Meanwhile, Ljoha keeps up his attempts to win over Laura, efforts that begin to hint at something more beneath the crude surface.

Over the course of the journey, both actors peel away layers of their characters. Although the whole story takes place on this journey, we are not always on the train and Laura has a surprising number of adventures and revelations along the way.

During the course of the trip, it becomes clear that Irina was more sending Laura away than it had seemed at first to the Finnish student, and Laura has to process that fact. Laura is completely enamored of Irina’s sparkling intellectual life, a life she really wants to possess. She wants to be Irina as much or more than she wants her as a lover.

The writing and acting are superb, with plentiful twists and nice performances by Seidi Haarla and Yuriy Borisov, as their characters travel on their differing internal journeys and shared train-bound one. Creative photography by Jani-Petteri Passi, who also shot the fine multi-part HBO historical drama “Chernobyl” as well as the director’s previous film, brings a touch of mystery and the magical to the train trip, and provides support for the strong script and performances. The trip finds the travelers in an unexpected place in life when they arrive at their Arctic destination, and the film wrapped up in a poignant yet satisfying place for audiences.

COMPARTMENT NO. 6, in Russian and Finnish with English subtitles, opens Friday, March 18, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

CYRANO – Review

Haley Bennett stars as Roxanne and Peter Dinklage as Cyrano in Joe Wright’s CYRANO, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Photo credit: Peter Mountain © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Peter Dinklage playing Cyrano in a new film adaptation of the beloved story sounded like an excellent idea. Being directed by Joe Wright, who handled costume dramas such as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE so well, made the prospect sound even better. But a few minutes into the new CYRANO, it became clear it had a big problem: it’s a musical.

And not a very good musical at that. While there are those who are happy see everything adapted into a musical, this reviewer is firmly in the opposite camp. Not everything should be a musical, and the new CYRANO is exhibit one in that case.

Still, Peter Dinklage gives a moving, stellar performance as Cyrano de Bergerac in a musical adaptation that is less than stellar. There have been numerous stage and film versions of Edmond Rostand’s play, including Steve Martin’s 1987 contemporary, comic one ROXANNE, and a glorious French one, 1990’s CYRANO DE BERGERAC, starring Gerard Depardieu in his prime. Dinklage has the goods to top that famous performance, and actually does, if one is not too distracted by the mediocre musical numbers.

Personally, I love Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” and generally I am a sucker for all its various adaptations. I have nothing but pure admiration for the remarkably talented Peter Dinklage and I am also a fan of Joe Wright’s movies generally. But this musical CYRANO is an awkward thing, where the weak musical numbers interrupt the dramatic flow of the adventurous, tragic, romantic tale. Every time the drama builds up to a spell-binding, heart-wrenching arc with well-acted scenes, that spell is broken by a song.

The familiar play is full of romance, swordplay, wordplay, wit, and tragedy. Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) is an aristocrat serving as a soldier, a bold personality and multi-talented man known for his skills as a poet and duelist, as well as his intellect, taste and style. But Cyrano’s confidence undermined by his appearance, which makes him feel no woman could love him. References to his appearance often prompt duels.

Nonetheless, Cyrano is secretly in love with the beautiful, intellectual Roxanne (Haley Bennett), his distant cousin and childhood friend. Roxanne is skillfully avoiding the Count de Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn) who relentlessly pursues her with the intent to make her his mistress. Meanwhile, Roxanne has fallen for a handsome young soldier, Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), whom she has only seen from afar, and she seeks Cyrano’s help. Cyrano and Christian become a team to woo the beautiful Roxanne, with Christian’s good-looks and Cyrano’s beautiful words.

There are things that this Cyrano does get right. It was a brilliant idea to cast the gifted Peter Dinklage in the role of tragic Cyrano. Usually it is Cyrano’s large nose that causes his problems and every version seems to use an actor with a false nose. But here it is height, a surprisingly easy transition, and Dinklage does it marvelously well, squeezing all the brilliance from the sparkling dialog and thrilling us with its mix of brash and tragic. Only a few changes to the dialog were needed and there are few direct references to height, as they are unnecessary.

Further, CYRANO is a visually beautiful production, shot in Italy. The staging, the sets and costumes are all wonderfully lavish and brilliantly colorful. The theater scene that introduces Cyrano, where he chases a bad but popular actor off the stage, is wonderfully comic and brash. The scene where Cyrano and Roxanne meet in the bakery alone, and she tells him she is, is unmatched in its heartbreaking power.

As expected, the gifted Peter Dinklage is excellent with the dramatics, turning the words over with startling power and nuance, He even does well with the singing, with a nice baritone voice. Ben Mendelsohn delivers a striking turn as the sinister de Guiche and Kelvin Harrison Jr. does well as handsome, tongue-tied Christian. Haley Bennett gives a more unusual performance as Roxanne, playing her as a bouncy, girlish free spirit more than the lovely, discerning intellectual she usually is.

Despite Dinklage’s strong performance, it never feels right or comfortable to have this dramatic romantic tragedy periodically interrupted with what are generally silly songs, backed by rather eccentric, if athletically impressive, dancing (fortunately the leads, including Dinklage, are not called on to dance as well).

Most of the songs are forgettable, but there is one exception. It is the song that the soldiers sing as they are being sent off to war, while they write letters to their loved ones in case they do not make it home, which is deeply moving and melodic.

Yet, it is a great role indeed for Dinklage, a brilliant re-imaging, and if this had been a different kind of production, it would have ranked up there with the great French production with Gerard Depardieu in his prime. Dinklage’s performance does exceed that high bar but the production it is in is a distraction. Alas, it is not just the songs that are stumbling blocks but other unevenness in the production. Haley Bennett’s odd choice to play Roxanne as a bouncing, romantic comedy figure rather than a clever, intelligent woman, as Roxanne is usually played, seems to undermine the play’s premise. That Roxanne is a worthy match for the brilliant Cyrano. This Roxanne, while beautiful, seems less a sparkling wit and less perfect for Cyrano.

Bottom line, Peter Dinklage is brilliant in this role, one that is near perfect for him, and his performance makes the film soar in those moments when he dominates the screen. But that soaring emotion, the overall heart of the film, and its dramatic arc are repeatedly deflated by the grafted-on musical numbers. It is really a shame, and those who can get past the distraction of those interruptions, will enjoy this visually beautiful, romantic retelling of the beloved Cyrano de Bergerac with the marvelous Peter Dinklage.

CYRANO opens Friday, Feb. 25, at multiple theaters.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN – Review

*Dana Canedy (Chante Adams) and Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan) in Columbia Pictures’ JOURNAL FOR JORDAN.*

Denzel Washington directs this true-story based drama about love and loss, starring Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams as a mismatched couple who meet and fall in love. Career military man Charles and Dana Canedy, an editor at the New York Times, who meet and unexpectedly fall in love, and the journal of fatherly advice the soldier leaves behind for his son. The film opens with a single mother, Dana Canedy (Chanté Adams), in New York struggling to balance her high-pressure career and the responsibilities of caring for her toddler son Jordan while grappling with grief. Over the course of the two-track film, we see Jordan grow up along side flashbacks to his parents’ romance.

The film is based on Dana Canedy’s non-fiction book “A Journal for Jordan” on love and loss, and which was an expansion of her 2007 article. At first, director Denzel Washington focuses on Dana’s hectic life, alternating with a romantic, slightly comic portrait of the their romance. Later on, the director leans into the tragedy, family themes and patriotic ones of the story.

When they first meet at a birthday barbecue, Sgt. Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan), a career soldier, and Dana Canedy (Chanté Adams), a New York Times editor, couldn’t seem more mismatched. The birthday barbecue is for her father, a drill sergeant with whom Dana, a sophisticated New Corker, has a testy relationship. The news that yet another of her drill Sergeant dad’s young soldiers is going to be there induces some eye-rolling on Dana’s part. Yet when she actually meets handsome Charles Monroe King, sparks fly. The two start an on-and-off long distance relationship, despite her New York sophistication and his penchant for corny dad jokes, that deepens over time, as Charles achieves his ambition to be a career drill sergeant and Dana’s journalism career soars.

Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams have a nice chemistry together, and her more outgoing, big-city character makes an appealing contrast to his ramrod straight, country boy sincerity. When a driver at a traffic signal fails to respond quickly when the light changes, Adams’ Dana reaches over and leans on the horn. By contrast, polite rule-follower Charles instructs her on the proper way to keep hands on the steering wheel at all times. While Dana is happy to drowse in bed in the morning, Charles bounces out of bed and starts doing push-ups on the floor. Michael B. Jordan fans will appreciate the many times the actor appears without his shirt, showing off his fine physique. Since a lot of the story seems to take place in Dana’s apartment, there are ample opportunities.

At first there is a romantic comedy vibe to the film. But just as the couple prepares to welcome their son Jordan and to wed, 9/11 happens. When Sgt. King is deployed to Iraq, Dana sends Charles off with a journal, and instructions to write in it every day he is gone, as a record of advice to his son.

That is, of course, the journal in the title, although Dana waits until Jordan is older to share it with him. The romance thread’s earlier romantic comedy bent yields to a more serious tone, as they anticipate the birth of their child and get engaged, and then tensely dramatic as the events of 9/11 unfold. The story of the romance unfolds along side scenes of Jordan growing up, hitting familiar milestones, but also painting a portrait of a woman working through grief. The two thread come together in a moment of grief, family and sense of duty at the end.

However, not every great, moving true story makes a great movie. The translating of this story to the screen loses some of the poetry of Canedy’s writing and the sentiment is heavy in this three-hankie tragic drama. Director Denzel Washington leans into the sentimental, although the romance has some nice comic turns early on, but the sentiment gets more ponderous as the story goes on. Fans of romantic weepers may be the best audience for this sentimental film, while others might find it too Hallmark Channel for their taste.

A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN opens Saturday, Dec. 25, in theaters.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: