The Rum Diary

First Hit:  This film started strong and fully engaged me, but started falling apart in the middle and by the end it was definitely time to go.

My guess is that this film was a way to honor Hunter S. Thompson who wrote the novel from which the screenplay is based. I did wonder if this story and film were a way to reflect Thompson’s real or imagined escapades.

Having read most of Thompson’s stories and stories about Thompson; Johnny Depp played Kemp (story’s main character) much like Thompson (his real life friend) himself. 

The film traces Kemp arriving in Puerto Rico to take a job at the local paper. He’s looking for a place to land and to find a career. The paper is being run by Lotterman (played by Richard Jenkins), a crusty old guy with a bad toupee who is halfway attempting to save the paper. Kemp learns early that he’s the only semi-sane reporter on staff as the other prime reporter Moburg (played by Giovanni Ribisi) is perpetually high on something but mostly rum.

Kemp gets courted to write positive words about a team of people, led by Sanderson (played by Aaron Eckhart), who are attempting to build hotels on an island owned by the US Government. Sanderson, has a girlfriend named Chenault (played by Amber Heard) whom Kemp falls in love with.

The longer the film goes the more it meanders. Half way through the film, I was left wondering what the point would be in the end. At the end, I didn’t care what the point was.

Depp did a good impression of Thompson for about ¾ of the film but lost the film lost it point the longer it went. Jenkins was good as the old newspaper guy who didn’t care much. Ribisi was very good as the perpetually high reporter who never went to work. Eckhart was strong as the sleazy guy who thinks he can get anyone to do what he wants. Heard was sweet and sultry as “the girl”. Bruce Robinson wrote this meandering screenplay and directed it the same way.

Overall: I had high hopes for this film and they faded by the middle of its 2 hour presentation.

Love Crime (Crime d'amour)

First Hit:  Occasionally brilliant, other times confusing and in the end adequately done.

Powerful business women, deceit, and the climb to the top were the subjects of this film.

Christine (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) is a senior executive in Paris looking for a way to move up the corporate ladder and into New York, the home offices of the company she works for. Her beautiful smart assistant Isabelle (played by Ludivine Sagnier) works long and hard to make her boss look great.

Isabelle also loves Christine and at times you think the reverse is true as well. They both sleep with men but are not married. When Christine takes credit for Isabelle’s work, Isabelle is hurt and as their relationship becomes strained, it becomes an office war.

Although the story and intent feels clear, the script, direction and acting, especially on Thomas’ part, is uneven. At times intense and other times her acting came with a lack of energy.

The script called for American business men coming to meet with them, but quite frankly, the meetings had no substance and everything seemed miscast in those moments. Isabelle sets the mood for the last half of the film as she becomes vengeful.

There is a reference to some past unstableness, but it isn’t explored and this makes her devious plan to get back at Christine questionable.

Thomas is not at her best in this role. I liked the hardness of her character, but felt the part meandered. Sagnier carried a lot of energy in her role with expressions and a wavering mental stability, but where did this come from? There was little mining and character development but this wasn’t her fault. This was the issue of the writers Alain Corneau and Nathalie Carter who created a script which had holes in it. What business were they in? What were the skills required? I wanted some depth to the business and the characters. Alain Corneau directed this and he needed to create a film with more depth. It seemed more aimed and the con.

Overall:  Not much of a film when it is seen from its whole.

Super 8

First Hit: Superb acting by the young characters added to an effective story line but some trimming would have made the whole thing work even better.

While watching a film there is one behavior which tells me I’m seeing more than needed, and that behavior is that I look away from the screen to look at other audience members. Such was the case in this film.

There were elongated scenes which needed to be clipped. One such scene was when the kids run through town to find the subterranean chamber where the alien is holed up. The military guns firing uncontrolled everywhere was totally unneeded. We already knew the dangerousness of their task.

Another such scene, and the worst in the film, was the train crash. In their attempt to make it gloriously big and realistic, they made it too big and gloriously unrealistic. Trains do not crash like this one did – ever. The proof lies in wondering how did the driver of the truck that ran into the train head-on survive? No way does that happen with all the blustery crashing and explosions after the initial impact. 

Outside of this flawed scene and a couple over long scenes, this was a wonderful film. What made it work where the young kids. Charles (played by Riley Griffiths) is obsessed in creating a zombie film for a competition against older teenagers.

His best friend Joe (played by Joel Courtney) is the make-up artist, sound man and co-producer. Joe is gratefully surprised that Charles gets Alice (played by Elle Fanning) to play the femme fatale lover of Martin (played by Gabriel Basso) who has decided to leave her to fight the zombies.

Cary (played by Ryan Lee) is crew and special effects man when they need something blown up because he is a pyromaniac of sorts. While shooting a scene at their small town railway station a military train goes by and crashes because their biology teacher Overmyer (played by Richard T. Jones) tries to ram the train with his pickup truck. This crash and the escaping of an alien is captured on their Super 8 film.

The story centers around the kids, their zombie film, and their ability to carry on the truth of the alien’s wishes.

Griffiths is extraordinary in his ability to portray a young filmmaker with vision (Orson Welles Jr.), sensitivity, and honest enough to tell his best friend about why he was upset at Joe’s and Alice’s relationship. Courtney is wonderful at being strong and sensitive to everyone around him while mourning his mother’s recent death. Fanning was genuinely amazing at her ability to be strong and cautiously vulnerable all at the same time. Like her sister, this Fanning can act. Basso was good as the lead character of the film while fighting through his own fears. Lee was funny and fully out there as his character needed to be. I just knew he wanted to blow something up. The adults were also good in their roles, but this is a film about kids and their amazing abilities. J.J. Abrams wrote the screenplay and overall it was great. It was long in sections that didn’t need to be long thereby over making his point. As a director, he has a great touch with these young actors and is to be commended for these efforts even though he let himself get carried away with  big explosions and extended scenes.

Overall: A very enjoyable and extraordinarily well-acted film even after wading through the lengthy scenes.

Limitless

First Hit: The concept is very interesting and the execution was a little uneven.

The opening camera sequence is one long camera moving shot which travels down streets, through cars through signs, walls and finally into a brain where we see a rendition of a brain cell firing.

This opening sequence provides a great foundation as to the speed and vision in which this film is going to move. Eddie Morra (played by Bradley Cooper) is attempting to be a writer, has some great ideas, has an advance, but cannot get anything on to paper.

He’s depressed, looks almost homeless in appearance, and in an opening scene his girlfriend Lindy (played by Abbie Cornish) is dumping him because the relationship is no longer working. He runs into his former drug dealing brother in-law Vernon (played by Johnny Whitworth) who turns him on to a pill. He says this pill will allow him to use 100% of his brain instead of the 10% we normally use.

In a fit of depression and hopelessness he takes the pill. In a matter of 30 minutes he starts being everything he can be. Writes most of his book, cleans his house, and gets his act together. The next day he feels the way he felt before he took the pill so he seeks out Vernon for more pills. Vernon sends him on an errand and when Eddie returns Vernon is dead and his apartment is trashed out because someone was looking for something, the pills.

Eddie figures out where the pills are and takes them. He begins taking them regularly and becomes an innovative investor. He ends up getting the attention of a powerful investor named Carl Van Loon (played by Robert De Niro). 

Van Loon has him assist in creating a takeover deal of a financial rival who, as we discover, is also using the pills but has run out. The pills have a side-effect which includes physical debilitation, reverting to a prior limited way of thinking, and death.

Cooper is very good as Morra. He has the ability to come off as very intelligent as well as grounded at the same time. Cornish has a limited role but is solid as Eddie’s girlfriend. De Niro is pretty good as the high level financier who gives Eddie a chance for success. Leslie Dixon wrote the screen play and although it was overdone at times, it worked in the end. Neil Burger directed this film with some effective shots however, at times it felt a little lost and could have been tightened up.

Overall: Conceptually this was a very good film and in execution it was good but not great.

The Ghost Writer

First Hit: A very good timely film with wonderfully constructed scenes.

Ewan McGregor plays "The Ghost"; the ghost writer who is selected to pick up where a recently deceased ghost writer left off.

The opening scene shows him interviewing for the job and it perfectly sets the tone for his skills and proclivities. The Ghost is brash, likes to drink, prone to pointed quips and intelligent. The project he is interviewing for is to complete the autobiography of Britain’s recent Prime Minister Adam Lang (played by Pierce Brosnan).

The manuscript is under lock and key and stored in a safe at a beach house Lang occupies while he is in the US. The beach house is modern, highly secured, has cement walls with modern art, and gas and rock fireplaces giving it the feel of a high priced bunker.

This setting prescribes that there is reason to worry about the contents of the manuscript. But after his first read of the manuscript The Ghost wonders what all the fuss is about. In fact he rolls his eyes after the first read of the manuscript.

Amelia, Lang's assistant, (played by Kim Cattrall) is the primary keeper of the key to the manuscript’s safe and is also a competitor for Lang’s romantic attention. Lang's wife Ruth (played by Olivia Williams) is a highly intelligent and Lang counts on her opinion for most of his decisions. 

As The Ghost starts work on his assignment, the World Court in The Hague starts investigative proceedings into war crimes against Lang and possibly his US White House counterpart (film suggests it George W. Bush). This complicates his work and slowly but surely he begins to become investigative about the death of his predecessor and the reason why Lang's information doesn't add up.

One of the things I liked about this film was that The Ghost doesn’t know all the answers ahead of time and there is a slow awakening towards the reasons why the previous Ghost died in addition to the how and why Lang got into politics.

McGregor is very strong in this role as The Ghost. He clearly isn’t an investigative reporter, but slowly he gets caught up in putting the pieces together and does a good job of portraying this inquisitive growth. Brosnan is very good as the smart but slightly out of touch former Prime Minister who has been manipulated and doesn’t know it. Williams and Cattrall were also very good as protagonists towards each other and supporters of Lang. Polanski clearly had a vision for this film and didn’t attempt to create suspense and drama with camera movement. He created it with simple well choreographed long shots which embedded the film with thoughtful forbearance.

Overall: Well executed and timely film about the political climate. However, I was distracted throughout the film by wondering if the film was really being shot in the US (Cape Cod area) with Polanski’s current legal trouble and noted during the credits, it was shot elsewhere.