Monthly Archives: February 2005

BEING JULIA sparks the reminiscence of glorious old Hollywood days when larger-than-life characters often portrayed on the screen and be given serious considerations by putting them into, simply, good films. As the time progressed up to date where reality-look-alike has become increasingly boring, we turn ourselves to even greater contrast in those visual-effects driven films, and once in a while, a small film like Being Julia here is released to remind us how acting, a good one, defines the quality of a film in general and to the extent of lifting up the film from its fluffiness.

Take a look of the story. The aging diva Julia Lambert (Annette Bening in her performance of a lifetime) is at the brink of her downfall popularity, not even her husband who is also the theatre manager in which they formed together (played by Jeremy Irons who seems not being able to capture comic timings) could help her finding some excitement to satisfy her own self. Not until she encountered a dashing young American (Shaun Evans) when she embarked on an illicit affair, without her acknowledgement that she was being manipulated by him for his own agenda, i.e. providing a stepping stone for his girlfriend, a new starlet Avice Crichton (Lucy Punch). Or did she really not know?

Once she got to know the games played behind her back, then the real fun of the film begins.

The storyline may recall the similarity found in All About Eve, with a hint of playfulness a la Sunset Boulevard, and who can resist the combination of both? At times funny, nail-biting sharp bantering lines continues to march throughout the film, over-the-top gestures that provide comic elements, they are wrapped harmoniously under the direction of Istvan Szabo who certainly having a good time making this film. It may not be his best as that one is reserved for his glorious Sunshine, but to see the good elements of one enjoyable film are put nicely in such a watchable presentation that never falls out of the sync is an applaudable effort, isn’t it?

Moreover so with a grand presence of Annette Bening in the house.

In the tradition of films (seem to be) catered, crafted, designed and made to one particular actress playing the designated role of their careers, such as how All About Eve means Bette Davis, Sunset Boulevard refers to Gloria Swanson, Sophie’s Choice belongs to Meryl Streep, or recent examples would give Salma Hayek is destined to play Frida, so is Annette Bening who goes further in merely playing as Julia. Seeing this film from the very first minute to the end, we will be seeing Bening embodies and steps into her character so well that we begin to forget the presence of a certain often under-appreciated actress playing the role of her lifetime. Every lines shown in her face belong to Julia’s, so do the mimics, the gestures, the grandeur movements of hers that beyond the word believable. In other words that may seem to be overtly used for some meaningless promotional advertisements of bad films, yet you can rely on me this time, I proudly state that Annette Bening is Being Julia.

What a sweet revenge it is if she wins at the Academy Awards this time, for it means a tribute and a win to Davis, Swanson, and other grand actresses who never won playing roles they know better than anyone else: a diva.

At times, I have to close my eyes, block my ears, to avoid listening to words the characters say, for they are simply too painful to hear. Not that they are bad, but they are meant to evoke your utmost sense in dealing with lies, deception, and betrayal.

CLOSER presents a close look on how one has to deal with complexity in not just a relationship or two, or not even countable as those relationships are intertwined and tangled dizzyingly to one another. Take a look.

Meet Alice, a free-spirited American girl trying a piece of her life in London who, on one clear day, stumbles upon Dan, a struggling novelist who ends up being an obituary writer, who will be falling in love with Anna, a successful photographer at the height of her career, who will be taken by the charm of Larry, a doctor with typical male-chauvinist pig character inside of him, who will be longing for Alice’s presence at times when his life starts crumbling down.

Confused? We only reach the start. The core is much more interesting to see.

Once we peek at their domestic lives, we know that we can expect something different, unlike any other films dealing with similar theme before, for this time around, Mike Nichols has returned to his roots in theatrical/stage-y manner of presenting human interpersonal matters in a frank manner that to some extent shifts towards being blatant, blunt, and brutal, in the tradition of his own Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or Carnal Knowledge, or Wit, or even Angels in America without any advanced visual effects. The shocking effects we can expect are Patrick Marber’s intimidating and manipulative words from his own play. The words are not merely written for the sake of having scenes that flow smoothly from one scene to another, but they are created thoughtfully and crafted through the ways they are uttered convincingly so much so that we will be leaving with questions whether those words are literally real, true or even deceiving?

Or do we begin to choose to accept the reality as the way we want to perceive it as is?

The way this film is presented without any clear conscience on timeframe actually enables us as the audience to choose the angle we wish to see and interpret the story, be it seen as a harsh, funny, witty or even dramatic rendition of human relationships, in any form. And the tendency to confront ourselves with words instead of action does actually happen in our lives, as we think that we can hide under the comfort zone of manipulations and lies, yet these two will actually trap us down deeper to the holes of continuous, endless fakes of reality.

Such a heavyweight theme, don’t you think? Yet, the way these sexual matters are told instead of meaninglessly shown would not giving you hard times or painful sitting through throughout the entire duration, and I can’t help questioning whether this is Nichol’s reason on the choice of the cast. Let’s see.

Julia Roberts in her furthest departure from usual roles she has played so far, provides a certain confidence in her uptight character of Anna, yet being bombarded with the regretful fact that the role was meant to be played by the always-reliable Cate Blanchett has hindered me from giving an objective view of Julia’s turnout here. I rest my case here. All I can come up with is how I do enjoy seeing Julia here, although the execution can be triggered to a higher level.

The same case happens to Jude Law, somehow is still unable to shake-off his own persona in playing the role of Dan that actually require the actor to bear his skin through his gentleness and sweet, tender gestures suggesting playful characters. Yet, Law only manages to barely reach the surface of the character as we can still see Law carrying himself here, somehow it’s hard for me to differentiate his Dan and his Alfie in another film of the same name.

That leaves us with two actors who, surprisingly, manage to hold their own screen presence in this film strongly and superbly: Clive Owen and Natalie Portman.

Playing a tart with deceiving heart that longing for truthfulness in other human beings she encounters in her life, Portman injects a strong dose of child-like feminine characterization to her Alice, suggesting that she can be fragile yet approachable at the same time; her journey in finding herself being loved faithfully by men surrounding her would mean sacrifice that she has to endure and that makes her strong, manipulative and decisive.

Clearly this is the most mature role Portman has ever played to date, and seeing her carrying her role with vivid understanding of a woman being victimized by her surroundings leave me feeling thrilled, as every minute of her screen time would be filled with surprises clearly shown in her facial expression, and it really is hard to believe that it’s been a decade since she made an outburst entrance in Leon The Professional.

Finally, if one has to single out one performance that stands out and apart from the rest, the noble honor belongs to Clive Owen, at last playing a role that deserves our attention and suitably match his charisma, his charm and his towering presence as a character actor. We can’t help seeing his character, Larry, here as a beast and as I wrote earlier, a typical male-chauvinist pig, and we get to the part of dismissing this character further as Owen plays the character in a menacing way, plainly honest in revealing his own truest fear and insecurity over his holdups. The rising of sensitive, new age guy has been clearly defied by Owen who gives macho-ism in his character here, and being Larry enables Owen to showcase his amazing range of acting skills that would be enviable to character-actors wannabe out there. Studious character that is played without being over-acted, Larry belongs to that rarity of characters who can be both loved and loathed at the same time, and Owen does his Larry convincingly that we begin to wonder on how this man, this particular character has been living around us all this time.

Being a human being with all the failures, the risings and the longing for boredom and steadiness in relationships, I can’t help myself reeling over this film. Never before sex, lies, truth and deceits are given an intellectual treatment with smart and witty lines peppered here and there, capturing not only your eyes but also your mind, captivating your senses to begin questioning:

What is truth?

CLOSER is all about the most sexually and sensually brutal film ever.

Finding Neverland tells the story of how Peter Pan was made. Or sort of.



It revolves around the life of J.M. Barrie at his utmost lack of creativity when everything he creates seems dull or being blasted out by both critics and audience. His marriage does not even help to inspire him, until one day when performs his ‘ritual’, i.e. walking his dog to a park, he stumbles into a woman and her four children who are not like any other uptight families of early 20th century in London, they freely express themselves despite the ailing health of the mother. Yet, the adventure that Barrie and this family share together prove to be an oasis in the desert for Barrie, so much so that he decides to create the magical works of Peter Pan, and his own relieving presence in the family gradually ascends into being a father-like figure of those four children.

What a straight-forward narrative drama, you may think. A typical family drama that only suits for lazy Sunday watching pleasure of made-for-television movie, you may presume.

Whereas this movie may fall deeply to the stated categories above, the fact that it soars high above any other currently released film prove that to make a good-feel film, it takes putting a lot of efforts in how much you rely yourself on the story and how much you inject your own emotional thoughts and beliefs to the whole process of filmmaking. As making comparison should not be allowed in reviewing a work of creative process, I can’t help scratching my head to notice that this beautiful piece of imaginative tale told in imaginary narrative is made under the direction of one man responsible for the grim and bleak of Monster’s Ball, i.e. Marc Forster himself.

Unlike Wes Craven that once gone too far outselling his soul when he made Music of the Heart, this time Marc succeeds in dwelling himself as a man with a lot of pure hearts and innocent views on the magical world of fairy tale, so much so the extent that the whimsical theme in this film can be smoothly translated into visually breathtaking images that at times can be both real and dreamy.

You will agree with the statement above once you get to the scene when Kate Winslet’s character at her worst health-condition is taken to her small garden that transcends into a journey of her lifetime. Or just wait until the very last scene when all you can think of is the gradual process of questioning your own eyes: What was it that I just saw for the past 100 minutes or so? Is this a true story? Is this a true fairy tale?

Who knows? I don’t and I doubt you will do. How can we spare a time to think of that when you are fully transported to a dreamland like this? Where you can indulge your senses to Jan A.P. Kaczmarek’s beautifully composed score that marks one of the rare cinematic moments in which music scores do enhance and heightened emotional values in watching a film. Where Johnny Depp gives an understated performance as JM Barrie that, despite being overtly praised recently, is a fine example of acting skills resulted from psychological approach that instead of merely being the character, Depp chose to be interpreting the character in the most logical sense suitable to the story. Thoughtful without necessarily falling into pretentious seriousness, seeing Depp as Barrie gives a sense of approachability value that audience can directly relate themselves to him.

Yet, in terms of acting-class performance, I would give my high credits to Kate Winslet, Freddie Highmore and Julie Christie. Reliable in making her characters she played on the screens distinctive enough to stand apart from the rest of the cast, this time Winslet is given a role of Sofia, a mother-of-four who holds up on her own, a character that may seem to be destined as an embedded supporting character, yet Winslet injects a strong dose of wits and confidence that makes Sofia a strong one and essential enough in determining the plotline, as her character slowly embodies the whole mood of the story. In the same understated kind of performance as what Depp gives to the film, so is Winslet’s turn with more subdued execution due to the nature of the character’s own destiny.

Whoever is Freddie Highmore? I can’t give you any satisfying answer as IMDB or whatever movie resource would provide you with one, yet what I can say about this boy wizard is that he does not only steal the scenes wherever he is in, but he completely hijacks them with his bravura performance as Peter, the rebellious among Winslet’s boys here, in such an applaudable turn that we would not be able to catch a glimpse of fact that he has to stand on his own along heavyweights like Depp, Winslet and of course, the evergreen beauty of Julie Christie.

Christie, who deals with her past-stardom era by making turns in numerous smaller roles, again proves us that she is way beyond the word ‘capable’ in giving a certain height and credibility to whatever roles assigned to her. As a mother of Sofia who never approves and gives a chance for Sofia to live on her own, the role of this kind may be played with nothing but merely smirk or usual highbrows, but this time, Christie imbues a certain determination that in the end, we sympathize with her character instead of dishing out hers.

Watching Finding Neverland is indeed finding our own self in the world of bewilderment and fantasy because if you believe in awaking your childhood sense, you will say: I do! I do!