The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)

Genre

Crime | Thriller

Director

J Blakeson

Country

UK

Cast

Martin Compston, Eddie Marsan, Gemma Arterton

Storyline

Two criminals, Vic (Eddie Marsan) and Danny (Martin Compston), kidnap Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton), the daughter of a millionaire. The kidnappers have worked out a meticulous plan: will it work?

Opinion

Months ago I was asked to review this film, and since it was on TV last night I took the chance right away. The reviews were promising and the film started well, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would have.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a quite entertaining crime flick, with lots of attempts at tension, but exaggerates with plot twists.

The idea to set the film entirely in the places of the kidnapping, the choice of focusing on the psyche of the kidnappers and the kidnapped and putting aside the family and the investigation is excellent. Also, the film manages to avoid to fall into the clichéd kidnappings territory: there is no torture; the victim is humiliated though.

What really bothered me were the twists. Usually a plot twist serves as a mean to keep the viewer engaged and interested in what he is seeing. That's what happens in the first part of the film. But in the second part, there are way too many twists, they lose effectiveness, and it looks like the Blakeson didn't know how to fill the time. Also, as the film goes on, the twists are predictable and the level of engagement falls. Not to mention the disappointing ending.

Also there is what I like to call the Clark Kent effect. Everybody knows that Clark Kent takes off his glasses when turning into Superman. And everybody also knows that none of the people he knows does recognize him. The same thing happened here. At some point it transpires that two of the characters knew each other, but how didn't recognize each other from their voices?

Gemma Arterton is more than just a pretty face and she shows it with a great performance. Eddie Marsan is great as always. Martin Compston gets way too much screen time and he is not that good.

Up In the Air (2009)

Genre

Drama | Romance

Director

Jason Reitman

Country

USA

Cast

George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, Melanie Lynskey, Danny McBride, Zach Galifianakis, J. K. Simmons, Sam Elliott, Tamala Jones

Storyline

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) flies around the US firing people. Also, he is an accumulator of frequent flyer miles and has a goal: he wants to get to 10 million miles. When his boss (Jason Bateman) hires Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), she comes up with the idea to fire through videoconferencing in order to save money, threatening Ryan's existence. Determined to prove the girl wrong, Ryan takes her on one of his firing expeditions, and his life will change forever. 

Opinion

After the brilliant Thank You For Smoking and Juno, Jason Reitman tried again and... he stroke back. On the one hand, Up In the Air is a sentimental drama, on the other hand is a brilliant, and bitter contemplation of life.

Canadian director Jason Reitman delights us with another masterpiece, and gives us, for the third time, a clear gaze on reality, venturing in the context of crisis, not only economic, but also relational. His choice of mixing actors and people who have actually lost their jobs made the film more realistic, and the impact those scenes have on the audience is stronger.

The writing is very strong, the storyline is smart and well put together, and a lot of the dialogue is memorable. All of the lead characters are wonderful, we get to know them, we like to watch them doing their thing, and at the end we want to see more, and more.

The soundtrack is spectacular, from the opening "This Land Is Your Land" to the closing "Up In the Air", written specifically for the film by Kevin Renick, a guy who recently had lost his job.

The acting is top-notch. George Clooney gives the performance of his career, even better than Michael Clayton's, if you ask me. I think no other actor could have pulled off the role better than he did. He plays Ryan Bingham with that confidence of him, yet this time that confidence is challenged, and he ends up showing vulnerability. Anna Kendrick is delightful as naive Natalie, Ryan's young colleague. Vera Farmiga gives an outstanding performance as Clooney's love interest. Even other actors who spend a few scenes in the film - Jason Bateman, J. K. Simmons, Zach Galifianakis, and Danny McBride - give very good performances.

Quotes

Ryan Bingham: You know that moment when you look into somebody's eyes and you can feel them staring into your soul and the whole world goes quiet just for a second?

Natalie Keener: Yes.

Ryan Bingham: Right. Well, I don't.

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Genre

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Director

Marc Webb

Country

USA

Cast

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend, Chloë Grace Moretz, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Gregg, Patricia Belcher, Rachel Boston, Minka Kelly, Maile Flanagan, Yvette Nicole Brown, Olivia Bagg, Richard McGonagle

Storyline

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an aspiring architect who currently earns his living as a greeting card writer. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is his boss's beautiful new secretary. As they start knowing each other, Tom discovers that they have plenty in common and he falls for her. There is only one problem: she doesn't believe in true love.

Opinion

If you already have read some of my reviews, you'll probably know I usually dislike romantic comedies for recycling the same idea over and over again, and despite a different storyline and a different title, at the end they are the same thing. And even though some films are made on some nice ideas - take "Knocked Up" or "He's Just Not That Into You" - the result is never as good as hoped. 

I didn't expect much from the film - mostly because of the title - and I thought it was going to be just another clichéd romantic comedy, but god if I was wrong. (500) Days of Summer is charming, sweet, smooth, original, and unpredictable, it is a different take on falling in love, it manages to engage you with a love story you already know can't end in a good way, and, for once, the relationship it's shown from the man's point of view. Hope you don't get mad if I define it a modern version of Woody Allen's "Annie Hall".

The narrator warns us upfront, saying this is not a love story. But I guess it's because we are so preconditioned by Hollywood that throughout the whole film I thought, "That's not true. This is a love story". Only at the end I realized the narrator was pretty accurate.

Director Marc Webb put the story into a blender and the result is a great non-linear story, that manages to make you feel happy, and warmed up for a moment, and sad and feel empathy for the guy in just a few minutes. We also get a funny musical number in the park, and some great music.

Now the acting: this film got two great performances. On one hand we have Joseph Gordon-Levitt, marvellous as Tom, and capable to project humanity in an unbelievable way. On the other hand we have Zooey Deschanel. She delivers one of her best performances to date. She'll make you love her, and then she'll break your heart, but you'll just want to love her more. The chemistry between Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel is wonderful.

Quotes

Tom: I love how she makes me feel, like anything's possible, or like life is worth it.

Narrator: Most days of the year are unremarkable. They begin and they end with no lasting memory made in between. Most days have no impact on the course of a life.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Genre

Adventure | Drama | War

Director

Quentin Tarantino

Country

United States | Germany

Cast

Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, Mélanie Laurent, August Diehl, Julie Dreyfus, Sylvester Groth, Jacky Ido, Denis Ménochet, Mike Myers, Rod Taylor, Martin Wuttke, Gedeon Burkhard, B.J. Novak, Omar Doom, Léa Seydoux, Richard Sammel, Alexander Fehling, Christian Berkel, Söhke Möhring, Samm Levine, Paul Rust, Michael Bacall, Rainer Bock, Bo Svenson, Enzo G. Castellari, Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Keitel

Plot

In Nazi-occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.

Opinion

The tagline says it all: you haven't seen war until you've seen it through the eyes of Quentin Tarantino. Inglourious Basterds is a brilliant, brave, exuberant, comic, dark, violent and glorious film.

Quentin Tarantino's pleasure to tell stories leads him to rewrite history, by telling the - fictional - assassination of Adolf Hitler, set in the only possible venue: a cinema.

The dialogue, the continuous tension, and the use of several languages - English, German, French and German -, on which irony is mostly based, make of this film a jewel of cinema. Also, the film is smooth and there is no heaviness resulting from its long running time.

The Spaghetti-Western score is magnificent, and the opening scene's song, The Verdict (Dopo la condanna), written by Ennio Morricone, is absolutely stunning.

The acting is pretty much great. Christoph Waltz is spectacular: he built a deep, detailed and realistic character, the kind of Nazi everyone would be afraid of. Brad Pitt's performance is not very good, and his Italian is pretty painful to be heard. August Diehl well plays the other sadistic German, very important in the final plot twist. Michael Fassbender is great as Lieutenant Archie Hicox, he has the chance to show off his almost perfect German, and he gets extra points for delivering the line, "There's a special rung in hell for people who waste good Scotch". 

Quotes

Lt. Aldo Raine: You probably heard we ain't in the prisoner-takin' business; we in the killin' Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin'.

Bridget von Hammersmark: I know this is a silly question before I ask it, but can you Americans speak any other language besides English?

Rating

9.0/10

Everybody's Fine (2009)

Genre

Drama

Director

Kirk Jones

Country

United States

Cast
Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Lucian Maisel, Damian Young, James Frain, Melissa Leo, Katherine Moennig, Brendan Sexton III, James Murtaugh, Austin Lysy, Chandler Frantz, Lily Mo Sheen, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Mackenzie Milone, E.J. Carroll, Lou Carbonneau, Lynn Cohen, Ben Schwartz, Debargo Sanyal, Allie Woods Jr., Sonja Stuart, Mimi Lieber, Ethan Munsch, Harrison Munsch, Mattie Hawkinson

Plot
Frank Goode (Robert De Niro), a widowed retiree, is getting ready for his children David (Austin Lysy), Amy (Kate Beckinsale), Robert (Sam Rockwell) and Rosie (Drew Barrymore) to come visit him. One by one, each of his sons call to cancel on him at the last minute. Feeling down by the rejections, Frank decides to head out on a cross-country trip, visiting each of his kids, despite warning against travel from his doctor: he is chronically ill with cardiac and respiratory problems. He will ask to each of his kids, or at least he will try to, the same question "Are you happy?".

Opinion
A masterpiece! Robert De Niro is perfect in transforming a film from "normal" to "unique". The direction isn't brilliant but the story (remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian film Stanno tutti bene) and the continuous parallelism with power lines make the film special.

Quotes
If you would ask me I would have to say in all honesty, Everybody's fine. Everybody's fine.

Rating
8.7/10