The Woman in the Fifth (La femme du Veme)

First Hit:  Confusing and not quite engaging enough to recommend.

This is an odd little film because Tom (played by Ethan Hawke) appears to be perfectly fine as he finds the location of his daughter Chloe (played by Julie Papillon) who is living in Paris with her mom Nathalie (played by Delphine Chuillot).

We quickly learn that there is a restraining order for him to stay away from them both. The police are called and he leaves, gets robbed of all his belongings and finds himself begging for a place to sleep. He gets a job sitting all night letting people into a bunker like building.

As the film rolls along we note that something isn’t right. He meets an older woman Margit (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) who invites him to visit her twice a week at a precise time at her home in the 5th Arrondissement for wild sex.

There is also the romantic pull of a beautiful polish barmaid Ania (played by Joanna Kulig) in the sleazy building he is living in. She wants to have a relationship with him and eventually they connect. But people start dying, Margit doesn’t really exist and the line between reality and fantasy is blurred.

Unfortunately, the way this film unfolds there is really no guiding path on which the audience can relate. In the end, the film is confused and unsatisfying.

Hawke is at times intense, lost, and mediocre in this part. Papillon is cute as the daughter. Chuillot is beautiful and strong in her brief screen moments. Thomas is OK as the illusive seductress. Kulig was the best part of this film. Douglas Kennedy’s book was converted in an unfulfilling way by Pawel Pawlikowski who also directed this unfocussed film.

Overall: Started off well but got lost early and fizzled out altogether.

The Raven

First Hit:  At times tedious and slow, other times engaged and watchable.

This film had some possibilities but I’d be hard pressed to understand why it didn’t work when looked at as a whole film.

This story is basically about someone who decides to make real the stories of Edgar Allan Poe (played by John Cusack) as a way to get Poe to kill himself. This person determines that the way to do this is to hold Poe’s girlfriend Emily (played by Alice Eve) hostage.

Emily’s father Captain Hamilton (played by Brendan Gleeson) dislikes Poe because Poe is usually drunk and has little inspiration to write more great stories. He’s against Poe but there is little story line to give this some credence.

I didn’t see the chemistry or connection between Poe and Emily. Detective Fields (played by Luke Evans) is the guy investigating the crimes modeled after Poe’s stories but he allows Captain Hamilton to push him around too much. As this point the movie meanders, but it was nice to see aspects of Poe’s tales shown on the screen.

Cusack is intelligent enough to carry off being Poe. Eve was OK but I never saw much of a real connection with Poe to make it work that they would die for each other. Gleeson is righteously arrogant enough to carry off his role as protective father. Evans is good as the detective but there is little to validate his credentials as head detective. Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare wrote the script which meandered at the beginning and tightened up in the end. James McTeigue directed this film. At times it seemed under control and with clear direction while at other times I was fully disengaged as I waited for the next relevant scene.

Overall:  Despite Cusack’s intelligent portrayal of Poe, this film didn’t have enough to make it very good.

Safe House

First Hit:  A lot of shooting, confusing story, and Denzel has some nice lines to say.

The story is somewhat confusing because we never deeply understand why Tobin Frost (played by Denzel Washington) decides to become a rogue agent.

Once a premier CIA agent, he splits from the agency and starts trading in top secrets and information to other people and agencies throughout the world. There is a moment where he tries to share his angst for killing innocent people but it falls flat.

The film starts with Frost picking up and getting ready to sell some files about MI6 and CIA agents. A group tries to kill him after he picks up the electronic files encased in a small capsule so, for safety, he runs to the U.S. embassy and turns himself in.

He’s taken to a “Safe House” run by Matt Weston (played by Ryan Reynolds). Weston is bored with his job because no one stays at his house. He lies to his live-in girlfriend Ana (played by Nora Arnezeder) that he does different work. He makes up excuses to not be available to her when Frost is taken his “Safe House” for interrogation.

However, Matt does love Ana which is one part of the story that works. While being interrogated, the “Safe House” is raided by the same guys who were trying to kill Frost earlier, so Weston grabs Frost and escapes through a secret hall out of the house.

Stealing a car he calls the CIA and gets instructions about what to do next. Frost, who likes to get into people's heads, asks Matt how the assassins knew he was in the “Safe House”? It took Weston most of the film to figure it out, while most of the film audience knew who sold him out much earlier.

There are lots of chases, some good like the initial car chase and some not so good, like one of the rooftop chases (too long). The CIA heads who are assisting Weston were his boss David Barlow (played by Brendan Gleeson), Catherine Linklater (played by Vera Farmiga), and their boss Harlan Whitford (played by Sam Shepard).

Washington is OK in this role but hampered by the script and direction. The story didn’t let him expand and create a deeper more interesting character. Reynolds was better as the restless “Safe House” keeper. His character was expanded by his love for Ana and some real questions about his job choice. Arnezeder was OK in this limited role. Gleeson was too transparent and his real role slipped out too early. Farmiga was out of her element and didn’t come off as a real, let alone strong CIA team leader. Shepard was strong in his role. David Guggenheim wrote a poorly constructed script with little depth. It stayed on the surface and there was little character development. Daniel Espinosa directed this with little regard for depth but very long on shooting and killing action.

Overall:  This film had a lot of violence which took away from what could have been something thrilling.

The OSCARS and Other Notes

It is that time of season again and although this year wasn't an especially great year for films, a couple of interesting and outstanding "out of the box films" caught my eye: "The Artist", The Tree of Life" and "Melancholia".

On the other side of the coin, I'm grateful that the Harry Potter series has ended as they became painful to watch. And the Sherlock Holmes film was also very bad.

Some performances I would have like to have been honored but weren't would include: Michael Fassbender in "Shame", Kirsten Dunst in "Melancholia", Charlize Theron in "Young Adult", Carey Mulligan  in "Shame" (cannot give enough credit for her singing "New York, New York" as though she was standing on the edge of a cliff ready to fall at any moment), Christoph Waltz in "Carnage", and Albert Brooks in "Drive". 

Given the selected honorees by the academy, here are my picks for some of the categories:

• Best Picture: "The Artist"

• Actor in a Leading Role: Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer in "The Beginners"

• Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

• Cinematography: "The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki

• Directing: Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"

• Film Editing: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

• Adapted Screenplay: "The Descendants" Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

• Original Screenplay: "Margin Call" J.C. Chandor

To all of you: Thank you for coming to my site and reading my reviews. The number of views has grown tremendously over this past year. There are now over 550 reviewed films and it is fun for me to post and read your comments.

May this new year bring on better films with new ideas tested and old ones enhanced. I know I'll be there in the 5th or 6th row center ready to suspend belief into someone else's story.

May you

Be Well...

Michael

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

First Hit:  Being skeptical of a remake so soon after the original was assuaged by excellent execution.

Guy Richie might take a lot of lessons from David Fincher. Fincher took the challenge of creating a remake of a less than moderately successful film which had a huge book following within a couple years of the original, and make it really work.

I had anxiety that Noomi Rapace’s version of Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish version would forever taint my being able to enjoy seeing anyone else in this role, but Rooney Mara did an outstanding job. Not necessarily better, slightly different and very effective.

The story was essentially the same, I got through the language issue (Daniel Craig made no attempt to be from Sweden) early on and within 15 minutes I did not notice it.

The scenery was exquisitely shot and provided the audience wonderful framing for the cold hearted story which is told. Craig as Mikael Blomkvist was clearly a strong force in the film and was a different take than the original.

In this version Blomkvist was a stronger more powerful energy. Even though this film was 2 hours and 38 minutes long there was not one wasted frame. Every moment was clearly scripted and directed.

Rooney Mara was outstanding as Lisbeth and her intensity, physicality and intelligence showed through this film like a beacon of light. Craig was superb as Blomkvist. His intensity and intelligence matched Mara’s and therefore they fit well together. Christopher Plummer was perfect as Henrick Vanger. Stellan Skarsgard was sublime as Martin Vanger, the man who hated women and loved control through power over people. Robin Wright as Erika Berger, Blomkvist’s part time lover, friend and business associate was very good in a subtle, yet critical, part. Steven Zaillian did an excellent job of creating the script from Stieg Larsson’s novel. Fincher fired on all cylinders and made this film his. The moment the initial credits rolled, with an old, but updated, Led Zeppelin song in the background, the audience knew they were in for something interesting.

Overall:  This was a very good and successfully developed remake – Kudos to all.