Does the Sky Fall? Nothing so Drastic

Film: Skyfall

Cast: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judy Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Berenice Marlohe

Director: Sam Mendes

The French had one fear. Since 50 BC the indomitable Gauls were only afraid of the sky falling on their heads. Nothing else. And, whatever the French fear, the Brits must show they have no apprehensions about. Hence we have the British icon appearing in his newest adventure called Skyfall. When the final reveal of the title comes, you may stare incredulously, but the intent cannot be more obvious!

James Bond is back for his 23rd, or 24th or 25th mission (depending on whether you go by the official list; add Never Say Never Again; and also 1967’s Casino Royale). And, as you would expect in this ever-changing world, the stakes are changed. The surprise, is how personal it has become. Probably the most since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Beginning with a thrilling chase sequence in Turkey (which got the nod after the Indian Railways refused to play ball), Skyfall quickly moves to a more sober tone. The body count rises and this time the good guys are filling up coffins. A temporarily unreachable Bond (Craig) comes back to assist an embattled M (Dench) and MI6. Breathing down their necks is an unknown miscreant carrying a torch for M, and also the new head of the Foreign Intelligence Wing, Mallory (Fiennes).

Heading to Macau, after a meaningless assassination in Shanghai, Bond gets chummy with the beautiful Severine (Marlohe) and uncovers the mysterious baddie Silva (Bardem). The two gadgets given to Bond by the new, ridiculously young Q (Whishaw) show their worth and Silva is captured. End of movie? Not quite. You see, Silva wanted to be captured so that he could deal with his M issues. Bond takes M and the next car (and what a car!) out to Scotland and familiar territory to have his climax with Silva.

The action sequences are quite good. The aforementioned Turkey chase may be similar to the Moroccan chase in Tintin, but then you don’t steal from Spielberg, you 'pay homage'! The screenplay doesn’t make much common sense, but then this is Bond. The music alludes enough to the original theme for non-Beethovens like me. And I quite liked the Adele song. Strangely enough, Roger Deakins’ cinematography is not the most obvious thing you will remember from this movie.

That honour will have to go to the performances. Judi Dench is ruthlessly efficient in a much-extended role. The dignity she summons is a masterclass in emoting. The other veteran, Ralph Fiennes, is stuck with a thankless, clichéd role. But then chances are that we will see him in the future. The young guns Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw actually bring a levity and spontaneity to the movie. Berenice Marlohe probably may be the Bond girl least relevant to her movie and her role is nothing more than a meaningless cameo. Daniel Craig has aged badly and while he passes muster in Skyfall, the future does not seem too bright, six-pack notwithstanding.

Then there is Javier Bardem. What an actor this guy is. Just when you think all the different shades for a villain have already been exhausted, Bardem comes up with a fascinating new interpretation. With a single-take entrance that will be talked about for months, he walks away with the movie. Bringing a subtle restraint to a showboating character, adding a dash of ambivalent sexuality, and that hair! You have a recipe for a disastrous villain. Unless your actor is as talented as Bardem.

Skyfall pays homage to many of the golden Bond traditions, while trying to break new ground. It entertains despite its length. A lot of the decisions, including the new Q and the closeted climax, are all admirable. Sam Mendes has crafted a decent movie, but he has left us wishing for more. Much more. An inexplicable feeling of incompleteness envelopes most frames of this movie. A case in which the sum of the parts is much more than the whole. Skyfall doesn’t complete Bond. It just shows how many more miles there are to go.

PS: In an ideal world when the climactic action of a Bond film shifts to Scotland and there is a role for an elderly father figure who will kick ass, you know who the perfect candidate for that role is. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world.

Incomparable Sridevi, Intimate Movie

Film: English Vinglish
Cast: Sridevi, Adil Hussain, Mehdi Nebbou
Director: Gauri Shinde

They say you have to listen to your wife as she is mostly right. We say that is not true and don’t follow it. But once in a while, we listen to our wives. The results may be disastrous on a mother-in-lawesque level. Or it may give more credibility to the initial statement.

My wife wanted me to go on a family trip to see English Vinglish (EV). I didn’t. But you loved Sridevi, she said. Of course, I did; and I still do. But I never said that about Sridevi’s movies. All my friends who saw the movie said she acted very well. Honey, I could have told that to your friends, without even seeing the movie. However, a bunch of veiled threats, not-so-veiled promises, a sense of thorough boredom and a desire to put in place an offspring who rudely dished my quite-decent apparel made me take that trip. And yes, I was glad I did.

A title like English Vinglish gives away the plot like nobody’s business. Someone who doesn’t know the Queen’s tongue, trying to learn it. Cue jokes over grammar, pronunciations, adjectives, etc. Yet, EV succeeds not with what it dishes out, but where it holds back. And that restraint comes as a great breath of fresh air.

Shashi (Sridevi) is a normal housewife and mother. Her life revolves around her husband Satish (Hussain), her young daughter and son and her mother in law. Once her family chores are done she makes laddos and other sweets (“snacks” as she calls them) and sells them to neighbourhood customers. A perfectly happy life, you could say, but for the small matter that Shashi can barely string together an entire sentence in English. A source of embarrassment to her daughter, patronization for her husband and regret for Shashi herself.

Then comes a phone call that changes everything. Shashi’s elder sister Manu (Sujata Kumar), settled in the US, wants Shashi to go there to help with her daughter’s wedding. A very nervous Shashi boards the plane to Manhattan, a few weeks before the wedding, with her family expected to join her later. There, a run in with those rude Americanos, convinces Shashi she has to join up for a learn-to-Speak-English-in-Four-Weeks course.

Here is where the movie could have become another Mind Your Language clone. It doesn’t. Oh, the stereotypes are there all right. But they don’t feel so. Writer-director Gauri Shinde may have taken them straight off the Handbook of Clichéd Characters, but she invests so much pathos and humanity in them that we empathise with them. We have the Pakistani taxi driver, the Tamilian software engineer, the Mexican maid, the cute Oriental, the silent African and the good-looking Frenchman. Their language woes are many, but you do not want to laugh at them, even if they laugh at themselves. In the company of these slightly troubled souls, especially the poor besotted Frenchman Laurent (Nebbou) Shashi learns a little bit about life and a lot about herself.

This is a filmmaker’s movie all the way. Gauri Shinde has crafted a simple movie that touches the right tone pretty much most of the time. She made a light, accessible film. It is brings forth knowing smiles, rather than full-throated laughs. It points out faults, but is never mean. It tackles a few tricky topics but not at the risk of alienating viewers. It has a message and delivers it without being preachy. At no point does this appear to be a debut film.

The advantage of a largely unknown cast is the chances are they will all be good actors. And they are. Right down to the young child actors. Then there is the incomparable Sridevi. She was the reigning queen of Indian popular cinema until she chose to walk away. Amidst the dancing skills and sex appeal was usually forgotten an extremely gifted artiste, one of the best comediennes this country has seen. Most of her films needed histrionics and flamboyance. Here she shows that she is extremely capable of restraint and years away from the marquee lights have not dimmed that a bit. And for someone at the cusp of 50, she looks fabulous.

EV may have three songs too many, but that shouldn’t detract it from its achievements. After all it does have the best cameo in a Hindi film in ages! It maybe early days yet, by Gauri Shinde’s debut, with its simplicity and sincerity, its search for a little more goodness among essentially decent people harks back to a world created by the incomparable Hrishikesh Mukherjee. For that alone, she deserves all the bouquets she will get. And, of course, she made us fall for Sridevi yet again.

The Knight Doesn't Fall, Nor Does He Soar

Film: The Dark Knight Rises
Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard
Director: Christopher Nolan

Hype and Hope. Two similar-sounding words. Totally unconnected. Except in Hollywood. Hope is the most positive of human emotions, according to comic book heroes and politicians. Hope separates us from the animals, so to speak. Hype, in its worst avatar, brings out the animal in us. One that is ruled by a single overpowering emotion. In this case, greed. Greed that erases the thin line between exaggeration and falsehood, that makes a fine art out of manipulation and coercion, that intends to unnaturally raise our hopes.

The Dark Knight Rises, more than any other film in recent years, reached Everest proportions in hope and hype. The hope that our unbridled expectations about a film would actually be met and overcome. The hype that this was what you were hoping for; now go get it. Finally the movie is out.

It has been eight years since District Attorney Harvey Dent died. His legacy lies with a rejuvenated Gotham Police Department that went after the mob and won. His memory lies with the people who have forgotten there was a Batman (Bale). His shame lies with Commissioner Jim Gordon (Oldman) who has to lie for a larger cause and live with the lie.

Into this calm arrives Bane (Hardy), a masked mercenary with an unclear agenda, but a very evident violent streak. In a series of well-executed moves he brings a city to its knees and leaves a nation helpless. The only ones ready to cross his path are Gordon, rookie cop John Blake (Gordon-Lewitt), and the sexiest cat burglar ever, Selina Kyle (Hathaway). They are not enough. Gotham needs its knight. Will he rise again? Dare we hope?

Influenced by at least three well-read Batman tomes - the best-ever The Dark Knight Returns, the badly-dated Knightfall saga and the criminally underrated No Man's Land - TDKR has added elements in terms of back-story and interpretations. There are nods to classic Bat-trivia, but always as a plot device, not as a pop culture reference. The plot is convoluted, for sure. There is a thin line between respecting the intelligence of the audience and losing their interest altogether. The plotline never walks that line, preferring instead to go one way or the other.

The canvas is wide and the scope is enormous. The soaring score never lets up in tempo. Vulgarity is eschewed, but subtlety is not embraced either. The aim is to go big and at times CGI is necessary. Unfortunately, the huge set pieces amplify its limitations. At the same time there are a lot of hand-to-hand combat that immerses the audience in the middle of the action. The fighting is well choreographed; at times, a little too well.

The performances are adequate without being extra-ordinary. Christian Bale seems to be more weary than world-weary. Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman have precious little to do. Marion Cotillard has a thankless role, while Anne Hathaway gets away with a lot of the best wisecracks. Joseph Gordon-Lewitt has a very meaty and important role. He represents the audience among the heavy-hitters on the screen. To his credit, JGL plays it really straight without a hint of hamming or quirkiness.

The performance most anticipated is Tom Hardy's. He deflects all Heath Ledger comparisons by not showboating. Enough has been said about his voice after the trailers came out. Now is the time to talk about his tone. Hardy actually conveys mischief, rather than mayhem, through his voice despite playing a character as imposing as Bane. A very nice touch in a very solid performance.

Christopher Nolan is known for his hard cuts that convey a sense of urgency. Here, the effect is to make the scenes lack cohesion. As much to do with the editing, this has also to do with the screenplay's shortcomings. For a Nolan film, this is a sub-par screenplay. A contrived effort. Nolan the director also has a few missteps. If you spend the whole of the first half setting up for a grand finale, either you should have a second act that blows your mind or the first half should be interesting enough that you do not think there isn't enough action happening. TDKR has neither. Though there are many sequences that evoke admiration and amazement, there are none that inspire awe. In one word, TDKR is not exhilarating.

The biggest enemy of TDKR is its predecessor. The Dark Knight is unfairly mentioned only in terms of Heath Ledger's mesmerising performance or his tragic demise. What tends to get overlooked is that The Dark Knight was lightning in a bottle. Even if you take Ledger out of the equation you would still get a rollicking entertainer in which screenplay, spectacle, performance and technology came together in near-perfect harmony. A movie that could be described only in superlatives. Once you have a follow-up to that, you are in trouble. Hope rises, so does hype. Both unbridled.

Catching lightning once requires a lot of skill and even more luck. Catching it again is all about luck. Neither the highly skilled Nolan, nor the millions with fervent, pagan hopes, nor the hype-masters are so lucky. TDKR is a solid entertainer that caps a trilogy that is among modern greats. The Dark Knight, it ain't.

The Weekend Heist

The best-laid plans often go awry. In a big way. I have been wanting, amongst other things, to set up a review series of Woody Allen’s movies, of Sci-fi classics, of Pixar movies, etc. I am still wanting to. Last week, however, I read a SlashFilm article about movies of a particular sub-genre that most people might not have seen and decided to try and get a few of them to watch. One thing led to another. And before I knew it I had a bunch with me. From Saturday night to Monday morning I started watching these whenever I could spare a minute. Before I knew it I am ready to write a piece on a set of movies that I started watching without any scoping out, planning, or order of execution. Ironically, all the movies dealt with those precise qualities – The Heist Movies.

A lot of the famous ones are not here, as I had already seen them before. No movie with a character called Danny Ocean or Ethan Hunt is here. Instead, I give you a ragtag bunch. Some good, some okay, some bloody marvelous. I begin, in no particular order.

Rififi

The godfather of heist movies. The standard that heist movies are judged against. A deceptively simple yarn about a con, who got out early for good behaviour, being convinced by friends to go on another job. The jewel heist is meticulously planned and executed, but things start going terribly wrong afterwards. Man can propose all he wants, but until he takes over the disposing part, he still leaves a backdoor open.

No article about Rififi can be complete without a mention of director Jules Dassin and the amazing safe-cracking sequence. Dassin was one of the many talents blacklisted during the McCarthy era by being accused of communist links. He was forced to leave the country and live in exile in Europe. Rififi was his major work in France. The safe-cracking sequence lasts for 28 minutes (according to the Net) and has no background music, barely any dialogue save for some grunts and the sound of drilling. It is an incredibly efficient heist as opposed to a flashy one. No wonder it was reportedly banned in some countries!

The simplicity of the process is what doesn’t make the movie seem dated. But do not discount the incredibly efficient direction. 30 minutes of a dialogue-less break can easily be the most boring half an hour in lesser hands. Here it is a taut, suspenseful sequence that never feels even a minute too long. If you are not a subtitle-phobic, if you do not get a fit watching a black and white movie, if you trust your own intelligence, then watch Rififi.

Topkapi

Jules Dassin is back with another caper, albeit one in a far lighter vein. His wife, the Greek actress Melina Mercouri, headlines an incredibly international cast that includes the German Maximilian Schell, the British Robert Morley, and the man of the world Peter Ustinov! It involves a bunch of extremely efficient thieves planning to steal a valuable dagger from the Topkapi museum in Istanbul. They hire a small-time conman Arthur Simpson (Ustinov) to take their arms across without his knowledge, expecting that if the Customs caught him, they would be in the clear. The Customs officials do catch him, but they assume the arms are for revolution against the government and force Simpson to act as their double agent.

Yes, the plot is as hilarious as it sounds, but not for a minute does it move away from its comedic roots. Actually, it does. During the heist scene. But instead of the authentic tone of Rififi, the sequence here is flashy and well-orchestrated. And Mission Impossible fans would do well to know where the hanging by a wire sequence really came from. While the colour in the movie has aged, the fun hasn’t. Ustinov even got an Oscar for having fun!

The Spanish Prisoner

I have no idea how I never heard of this movie before. Playwright/director is very famous for his plays and films with copious dialogue that never feel boring. This film takes its name from a 19th-century confidence trick. Campbell Scott (Spidey’s father in the new movie) is a young man who has invented a new “process”. His company takes him to a Caribbean island where he has to convince the stock-holders to invest in his process. While there, he accidentally meets with a rich businessman portrayed by Steve Martin, and an FBI agent played by the non-plastic Desperate Housewife, Felicity Huffman.

The Spanish Prisoner has so many twists and turns that Wild Things may seem mild. But they never seem contrived. I will tell you nothing further about this movie’s plot, but highly recommend for you to find it out. Some of the twists are obvious, some you will slowly figure out and some stun you. As is usual in a Mamet film, the performances steal the show, prime being Mamet’s wife Rebecca Pidgeon. Though it is hard to accept Martin in a role that doesn’t call for him to crack even one joke. The real heist is how frighteningly plausible Mamet makes this elaborate scam seem.

Heist

Compared to the earlier movie, Heist has nothing special to distinguish it as a David Mamet special. Of course it stars the beautiful Rebecca Pidgeon as an unlikely wife to a well-past-middle-age conman Gene Hackman. This is a straight-forward heist movie as opposed to a scam. Hackman is forced to take one last job (aren’t they all!) – The Swiss Job. The money man Danny Devito wants to ensure he is not cheated and insists that his nephew Sam Rockwell tags along. The heist comes across quite easily. Nothing afterwards does.

Heist is a satisfying film for those who like the genre. Not much for those who don’t. Unlike The Spanish Prisoner, the twists here appear a bit too forced. The pros strut out their stuff. And Rockwell is excellent, despite a stupid moustache. The only good thing here is Hackman never comes across as a ‘good’ conman, as is the case in most of these movies. He is just as bad. But better at his job!

Point Break

This is one movie that has been alternately defined as a buddy movie, a gay flick, an action thriller, a philosophical tome, a sex-n-drugs extravaganza. The list goes on. I would add where-do-they-get-these-character-names movie to it. Keanu Reeves is Johnny Utah, a rookie FBI agent who joins hands with Pappas (Gary Busey) to catch a bunch of bank robbers called the Ex-Presidents, because of the masks of former presidents (two Republicans and two Democrats!) they use in their heists. They come across this wild conclusion that the robbers were surfers and Utah goes undercover to catch free spirit Bodhi (Swayze) and his team. He falls for Bodhi’s former squeeze Tyler (relax, it is a chick) and his “set-yourself-free” mumbo jumbo.

Point Break is one of those cult hits that mean different things to different people. Kathryn Bigelow set out to show she is as good as the dudes in making an action film. And she succeeds. The way she showcases Swayze in slow motion kind of hints in your face that she had the hots for him. But then it is Patrick Swayze. He could make guys root for him in a dancing movie. Big, blonde surfing dude with a hippie philosophy. No-brainer. Keanu Reeves does that one thing he is capable of doing in movies. And he does that quite earnestly here, I must add. For me the best part was the concept of the ex-presidents. Period.

The Lavender Hill Mob

I like a lot of black and white films. Call me old. I prefer to call myself lucky. The Lavender Hill Mob is an absolute blast. The peerless Alec Guinness stars as Mr Holland a low bank clerk, whose only redeeming quality is his honesty. For 20 years he had been the bank’s representative for the transfer of gold bullion. The gold attracted him, but he was smart enough to know he hadn’t the means to steal it or get it out of the country. All that changed once he met Pendlebury, a souvenir-maker. The two join forces and commit the daring robbery. Do they live to enjoy the loot?

 

The Lavender Hill Mob is from the times when movies had a lot of heart. Mr Holland never comes across as a villain, but nor does his heist gets any sympathy. Human emotions like greed, frailty, foresight, innovation, stupidity and the incredible ability of kids to cause problems all come up to the fore. Do not think that old movies are boring or lack production values. This is edge-of-the-seat excitement that even Michael Bay cannot provide, giant robots notwithstanding.

For me the biggest thrill happened when a very minor character walked across the screen for a minute and said two lines. This movie was made way before cameos became the in thing. When this very famous actress comes and goes never to come on screen again, you realize that this is one of her first roles and that is all there is to it. These are the smaller delights that come from watching movies! And is worth every… whatever you measure it with.

Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Having Lotsa Fun

Film: The Avengers
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson
Director: Joss Whedon

Fun. A three-letter word that is overused and misinterpreted most of the time. Fun is a deeply personal experience. What is fun for one maybe quite unfunny for another. Many are the undertakings that endeavour to provide fun, but few succeed. Comic books began with just that one intention. So did movies. Comic book movies? I am not so sure. Having said that, I must confess that I saw The Avengers and I had a lot of fun.

Comic books have gone dark. They deal more with angst and despair than with super heroics. Comic book movies have also followed suit. Once in a while comes a comic book movie that wears its heart on its spandex sleeve; that takes pride, and not shame, in declaring it is out to provide fun. The Avengers is one.

The Avengers as a group is a bad idea. You pair a billionaire industrialist with a drinking problem, a steroid-enhanced WW 2 soldier who was frozen for 70 years, a brilliant scientist with a small Jekyll and Hyde problem, an incredible marksman with an akshayapatra for a quiver, a hot Russian spy and a god from another realm. It worked in comics because comics require great suspension of disbelief. The movie invites us to disbelieve in the concept. It feeds on the incompatibility and by making it a plot device slowly makes the idea seem a little less incredulous than it sounds. It makes the teaming up seem like real fun.

Within 15 minutes, Loki (Hiddleston), the Asgardian God of Mischief, enters the fortress of SHIELD, a secret government agency, through a portal created by the Tesseract, a cosmic cube possessing unlimited power. Loki enslaves Hawkeye (Renner), steals the Tesseract and leaves the scene. SHIELD boss Nick Fury (Jackson) calls in his emergency response team consisting of Iron Man (Downey Jr.), Captain America (Evans), Black Widow (Johansson) and Bruce Banner aka Hulk (Ruffalo). Loki's brother Thor (Hemsworth) joins in. The remainder of the first half is all about the sparks that fly when the motley crew gets together. After the break, all hell breaks loose. And how!

When Marvel handed over the reins of Avengers to Joss Whedon, nerds and geeks rejoiced. But sensible people scratched their heads. Whedon had directed only one film. The inexperience shows, I am sorry to say. The forgettable intros to the heroes look like they were outsourced to Brett Ratner. The handheld camera work, while thankfully minimal, is too shaky for us to register anything. But Whedon seems to have learnt on the job. He gets more assured as the movie goes on. What was brilliant about hiring Whedon the director was that the studio got Whedon the writer for free. Among his several writing credits include a much-lauded run on X-Men comics. He knows his comics and he is funny as hell. Humour is the thread that holds the movie together. The verbal banter serves as an excellent foreplay to a very satisfying climax.

In the comics, Captain America is the undisputed leader of the Avengers. But even Whedon cannot convince us that Chris Evans can do the job, so he doesn’t try. The Cap is the most underwritten of the major characters and Evans clearly looks lost. The other Chris, Hemsworth, carries on from where he left off in Thor. Contrary to many fears, The Avengers does not become Iron Man 3. Robert Downey Jr relishes the chance to play in a group and he is far better than in Iron Man 2. Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner have their moments, but only make up the numbers at other times. Samuel L Jackson finally has a meaty role and he tears up the scenery. Even the affable Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson has a pivotal performance.

The surprise packet is Mark Ruffalo. An oddball choice, he is as funny as Downey and relishes the break from rom-coms and indies. His Hulk is the best yet on the big screen. And the funniest. Yes, you read it right. A hilarious Hulk! He is helped by being the most lovingly developed character in the movie.

What makes The Avengers good fun, but not great fun is Loki. Thor's bro may be a big shot in the comics, but he didn’t convince me in Thor. Neither does he here. Tom Hiddleston tries his best but never comes across as a menacing villain who needed so many heroes to take him down.

But that alone should not take away from The Avengers. Despite its long run length, it never feels like it is trying too hard to keep our attention. It does not need to. A day afterwards, it does not leave any bitter aftertaste, nor does it recall any brilliant memories, except for some witty lines. But while it lasted, it was a rollicking good ride. It gave me fun in dollops. But I can't guarantee it will do the same for you. After all, fun is personal!