On Chesil Beach

First Hit: Saoirse Ronan shows, once again, why she’s one of the top actors acting today.

When an actor can share a wide range of deeply felt feelings and emotions without saying a single word to draw the audience into each scene, pay attention.

This story is about two people, who've just married, attempting to sexually consummate their marriage. The film uses flashbacks to show their family history, issues, and the pressures they faced growing up and how it's affecting this new life together.

Ronan as Florence Ponting is a young lady with prodigious musical talents is being raised by her overbearing mother Violet (Emily Watson) and a pushy bullying father Geoffrey (Samuel West). Their opinions and control over Florence and her sister, Ruth's (Bebe Cave) lives is a key and important component of the film.

Then there is Edward Mayhew (Billy Howle), he’s living with a mother Marjorie (Anne-Marie Duff) who got hit by a moving train’s door and suffers mental issues. She can be found naked talking to birds in the backyard. His father Lionel (Adrian Scarborough) is long suffering taking care of his wife, the home, work and two daughters along with Edward. Their house is chaos and when he receives a letter stating that he’s #1 in the history tests he took, no one in his family cares.

Searching to find someone he can tell and who cares, he runs into Florence and it is love at first site.

The romance is wonderful yet void of much deep intimacy. They marry and when it comes to consummating the marriage through intimacy, they struggle.

The scenes during and after their sexual attempt are very strong and the amount and range of emotion shown by both actors was excellent.

The film takes the actors forward, some 40 years into the future and it is sweet to see how the film ends.

Ronan is phenomenal. As I’ve indicated in previous reviews, she’s the very best young actress around. She selects roles that are deep and complex and gives each character body and soul. Howle is very good here. He does a great job of portraying men’s insecurities and complexities. Watson is sternly great. West is strong as the intense demanding father. Cave is great. Duff is amazing as the mentally challenged mother. Scarborough is solidly good as Edwards’ father. Ian McEwan wrote a very strong screenplay. Dominic Cooke did a wonderful job of piecing this story together and getting excellent performances from his cast.

Overall: I loved the complexity of this film and how it addressed a difficult subject.

Everest (3-D)

First Hit:  Having read Krakauer’s book, the film was generally weak and disappointing.

I do not read many books that are tuned into films and I had read this book when it first came out.

Because it was some time ago, I hoped to just view the film without the prejudice of the book in the back of my mind. However, there was little or no back story as to why Scott Fisher (Jake Gyllenhaal) was the way he was. In fact the backstories were minimal and the attempt to build them during an evening when Krakauer (played by Michael Kelly) asked “Why” the climbers were climbing Everest fell far short of providing the needed information.

The audience needs to know why the characters are doing what they are doing - it is the primary set-up job of the director and scriptwriters. The gist of this story has too many people climbing Everest as part of their bucket list. With so many untrained and unskilled people trying to climb Everest we know something is going to happen.

Having been to Lukla, Namche Bazar, Tengboche and Kala Pattar, I’ve seen Everest reasonably close. I’ve seen hikers/climbers tossed onto the backs of Yaks to bring them expediently down the mountain because of altitude sickness. There just doesn’t seem to be enough respect for the mountain.

Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) had developed a company that took less experienced people up to the top of Everest. One of his rivals was Fisher. They are different in their attitude towards the mountain and they team up to try to get both their parties up and down the mountain safely. I heard this from the first time I hiked in to Lukla, “Everest makes its own weather”.

Having flown over the Everest from Gonggar airport in Lhasa, Tibet, seeing the way the wind whips across the top and the ridges the statement seemed so true. In this story a weather front comes in and seals the fate of many climbers who didn’t put their safety over the goal. There are great shots of Khumbu Icefall and the treacherous ladder bridges.

One of the best stories out of the book and one of the main stories in the film is of the rich arrogant Texan Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) who ends up surviving the trek but ends up with a severe case of frostbite. The other sub-story is of the wives and supporting women of the men (and one woman) climbing the mountain.

The worst part of the film for me is seeing (and it is true) how much garbage and oxygen bottles are left on the mountain (from Base Camp on up) - lack of respect for nature.

Clarke was OK as Rob Hall. I didn’t believed his character but that could have been the direction. Gyllenhaal was OK, but with a lack of a backstory I just kept wondering why he acted the way he did. Kelly as Krakauer seemed like a very minor character, however his book raised the awareness of Everest and these climbers. Brolin was very good as the abrasive ego centric Texan. Emily Watson as Helen Wilton was strong as base camp manager. Keira Knightly was very strong as Hall's pregnant wife waiting for him to return for the birth of his daughter. William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy wrote a weak script that really developed only 2 characters (Hall and Weathers). Baltasar Kormakur directed the film and given the intensity of the event and the decisions that were made, I was very disappointed in the result.

Overall:  This film did not deliver a very intense story.

Testament of Youth

First Hit:  This beautifully acted film, especially Alicia Vikander, is a powerful story of how WWI affected a woman, family, friends and a country.

It isn’t often that I’m transfixed by an actor in a role, however Vikander as Vera Brittain, did just this. As Vera, a young woman who wants to be a writer and go to Oxford, she is independent, willful and driven. She spurns her brother Edward’s (Taron Egerton) friend Victor (Colin Morgan) as a suitor for her hand because she doesn’t have any intention of getting married.

However, when Victor and Edward’s mutual friend Roland (Kit Harrington) comes into the scene, things change, she is emotionally moved. Yet, despite her budding feelings, her primary focus is her career and she does find a way to get into Oxford. Soon after, her brother, Victor, and Roland are drawn into the war so she decides that she must do her part and becomes a nurse’s volunteer.

Through this experience she sees and experiences the travesty of war on human lives. The scenes, the pacing of the film, and the eloquence by which this story is told was deeply felt, moving, and sincerely touching.

Vikander was first rate and amazing. She was excellent in Ex Machina and again here. This actress is someone who will continue to grow and amaze on the screen. Egerton is wonderful and endearing as Vera’s brother. Harrington is strong as the shell-shocked lover. Morgan is endearing and wonderful as the heartbroken friend. Dominic West and Emily Watson were perfect as Vera’s parents. Juliette Towhidi wrote a wonderful screen play based on Vera’s own book of the same title. James Kent did an outstanding job in directing by showing the depths of WWI on a personal, family, friends, and country level.

Overall:  I was deeply moved by the film and this stemmed from Vikander’s performance.

The Book Thief

  First Hit:  Extremely well-acted film about the effects of Nazi Germany in small neighborhood.

I cannot remember when a film about WWII Nazi Germany shows Germans being unhappy about and not fully behind their Fuhrer. This dislike isn’t pronounced at first but it builds as neighbors are being removed from their home and businesses.

In this story Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) is abandoned by her mom shortly after her brother dies. The grave digger drops a book and she picks it up and holds it as a treasure. Her adoptive parents Hans (Geoffery Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson) are somewhat hardened by their life. His sign painting business is non-existent she brings in laundry to make ends meet. Rosa is gruff but there are moments when her heart just soars and Hans, on the other hand, is a warm hearted man whose strength is compassion.

Liesel is picked on by other kids in the school because she cannot read. However she finds ways to obtain books, read them and write words on the wall that she is learning. Rudy (Nico Liersch), the neighbor boy, likes and befriends her. Rosa, Hans and Liesel hide Max (Ben Schnetzer) a Jewish man trying to keep from being killed by the Germans.

The story revolves around how this neighborhood is effected by the war the Nazi’s are aimed at waging against the world. In the end, her reading and the diary Max insisted she keep turned her into an author. However, it is death, the narrator of this film, that pulls it all together with his voice over.

Nelisse is phenomenal as the young abandoned girl who learned to love and trust. Rush is sublime as the kind man who can see the beauty in most things and openly shares his love towards Liesel. Watson is amazing and clearly perfect for the role as hardened, yet heartfelt wife. Liersch was great as Rudy, the neighbor boy who loved Liesel from the moment he saw her. Schnetzer was really good as Max. Roger Allam was perfect as death’s voice and film narrator. Michael Petroni wrote a very strong script. Brian Percival directed these actors with amazing aplomb.

Overall:  This film is a wonderful view of German life during WWII.

War Horse

First Hit:  Graphic pictures good and bad but this film was too manicured to suspend belief.

If you are old enough to recall “Duel” (1971 and his first feature) you saw Steven Spielberg not worrying so much about how manicured the scenes were, but his real concerned was about creating tension and drama and making sure the audience could feel what was going on.

War Horse is so far away from this ability that it hurts. Every picture in this film is pretty. Even “No Man’s Land” is a great visual. One scene where the horse gallops quickly through the trenches was overly done with effects and it was obvious.

On the plus side, I thought some of these pictures and scenes were elegant. But when I’m sitting in the theater thinking about the scene or picture and wondering how long it took to shoot a particular scene, I’m not engaged with the story or enjoying the picture.

It is like when entrepreneurs become too successful, they lose their edge at creating products. Or a fighter who becomes great because he’s hungry and once he wins and sits at the table and over feeds himself he can't fight any longer.

Here it is the edge of driving towards creating drama and suspense and caring less about the perfect picture. The most nonsensical scene was when the horse escapes from his German guard and traps himself in an area blocked on three sides with berms. A tank (for no reason at all) turns right, follows the horse into this enclosed area and we are given the thought by Spielberg, that this tank is going to shoot the horse.

Nowhere would this be a real or realistic event. The made up pretty picture scene I disliked most was the ending scene where there was the overly yellow-orange sky with the silhouettes of the family smacked in the middle of this overly colored sky.

Jeremy Irvine plays Albert Joey’s (War Horse) owner. Unfortunately this guy was pretty much a bust and I’m not sure why he was cast as Albert. He felt goofy, unreal and with little grit that would be part of of his working stock life. Peter Mullan, as Albert’s father Ted, was much better than Irvine and one could feel his hidden anguish. Emily Watson, as Albert’s mother Rose, was the best actor in the film. She made each scene she was in worth watching. David Thewlis as Lyons the landowner was overdone. Lee Hall and Richard Curtis wrote the screenplay which was better than the actual film. Spielberg was not at his best hungry self. This film felt bloated and setup from the beginning to elicit specific emotions and it was way too obvious.

Overall:  Watch this at home on a big screen if you must see horses suffer and conquer.