The Artist (2012)

 Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl7vP3ndik0

Dir: Michel Hazanavicius

Starring: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman

                The most talked about film since The King’s Speech finally arrives dripping with plaudits, nominations and awards. So is it everything that it’s supposed to be? Not quite.

                George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a big name actor in the silent film industry. Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) is a nobody hoping to become a star of silent movies. With the advent of sound, Peppy’s career takes off and George refuses to change with the times and his popularity plummets but a romance develops between them.

                The film is a love letter to the era of the silent film. It is certainly something different and lovely in a time where big action blockbusters make the most money of any film of the year and are held by the studios as their hottest properties. Hopefully it can open up the world of silent films to a new audience, bringing back the black and white classics of people such as Charlie Chaplin. Having the film silent and in black and white works and it’s certainly to be celebrated that Hazanavicius has managed to create a 100 minute film in this style which never seems to drag or to feel laboured. However, when the film ended, I didn’t feel like I’d just sat in the cinema and watched a film, it could have just been something on television.

                The acting is fine, everybody including the dog do perfectly well in their roles. I wouldn’t go as far as saying the performances are exemplary, the performances are all exaggerated as silent movie performances had to be, but this means they don’t stand up to other nuanced and better performances of recent times. Even the highly talked about dog is just a good performing dog and nothing more. The forming relationship between Peppy and George is effective and it’s lovely to see how the relationship develops. A shot of them passing on a stairway is well staged even if it is a little too obviously a staged image for their differing careers.

                It is a lovely and charming film and something different and original which is getting to be more of a rarity now.  It is certainly worth a watch but it is not the masterpiece that it’s been made out to be and I’m not particularly bothered about seeing it again.

4 out of 5 Buttons

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHBHMtl9YWw&ob=av3e

Dir: Guy Ritchie

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Jared Harris

                Moving still further away from his Cockney gangster movie origins, Guy Ritchie brings us the sequel to the successful Sherlock Holmes.

                Detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) is on the case of his famous adversary Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). His friend and detecting partner John Watson (Jude Law) arrives back for his bachelor party which leads to them meeting a mysterious gypsy (Noomie Rapace) and going in chase of Moriarty.

                The first Sherlock Holmes was a fun if flawed, action packed and crowd pleasing version of the classic Arthur Conan Doyle characters. I was hopeful that this sequel could match and improve on the original as a good sequel should. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite get there.

                The relationship between Holmes and Watson is still great, both actors seeming to have a great fondness for each other and a lot of fun. This time their relationship has a bit more Bromance to it, with Holmes still casting off Watson’s wife so that they can be alone together. Holmes wants Watson to be happy with his fiancée but he will miss his old companion. The film is still fun, the usual slew of wide reaching jokes and action bound to please many. Guy Ritchie still uses interesting visual techniques and shots, with fights playing out in Holmes’ head before then actually happening and a wonderful chase in a forest which manages to be visually exciting and interesting and a great set piece that makes you wish the rest of the film could have been as good.

                There just seems to be something missing. We come into the mystery when it’s already been tracked for several months and since we know who the villain is it’s not much of a mystery at all. Noomie Rapace’s gypsy, Madam Simza Heron, is disappointingly underused. She mostly just ends up leading our duo around and avoiding a lot of the action.

                The film is not a complete failure. There’s a lot to have fun with in it and it’s a nice distracting Friday night movie but you won’t be remembering too much of it in a couple of months time.

                A fun but flawed film which doesn’t surpass its predecessor. Hopefully the third instalment can break out to be the best of the lot.  

3 out of 5 Buttons

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVLvMg62RPA

Dir: David Fincher

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer

 

Whenever an English language remake of an already good foreign film is announced it is met with numerous cries of ‘Why?’ This version of the popular novel of the same name was met with the same reception. Coming only a couple of years after the original, a film which was almost universally well received, it seemed like another pointless cash in for people who can’t be bothered to read subtitles. However, this one comes with one of the greatest living directors and an A list star and a script which has been formulated from the book, not just the previous film. This isn’t a remake from a young new director; it’s a new version of the book.

                Recently discredited magazine writer Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is asked by aging businessman Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the disappearance of his niece. Meanwhile, punk hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) is hired to investigate Blomkvist and seeks revenge against her new probation worker. Eventually Blomkvist recruits Salander to help him in his investigations.

                The film is beautifully shot, with claustrophobic colours whether they are the stark white landscape of the outside world or the dull yellows which take over the inside locations. Fincher has created another great film to add to his already brilliant oeuvre. The great cast all play strongly; with Daniel Craig managing to get away from his well known Bond persona, most obviously in a scene where he moans about a bullet graze on his head. Rooney Mara, here so different from her preppy look in Fincher classic The Social Network, plays Salander well, looking vulnerable but depicting the strong and damaged character that Lisbeth is. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross create another great score, even if it isn’t as good as The Social Network’s, and their version of The Immigrant Song sung by Karen O makes both the trailer and the opening credits brilliant.

                Fincher makes the right choice in keeping the film set in Sweden, moving it to American would have been a huge mistake as the Swedish landscape lends a cold oppressive atmosphere to the film. However, the cast put on Swedish accents while Craig speaks with an American one. Though not a major problem and certainly not one which will take you out of the film, it can be a little jarring at first. The film is strong in its own right and is certainly as good as the original. Changes to the last half hour also help it to stand on its own.

                The problem is not with the film. The problem is that it has come so quickly after the original. Though the script was written from the book it still means that the films hit the same major plot points. While still enjoying the Fincher version, throughout I was always trying to think how the original did it.

                A good film in its own right and just as good as the original, I just would have enjoyed it more had I seen it before the Swedish version.

4 out of 5 Buttons