Vanilla Sky - film review

Cameron Crowe's 2001 film Vanilla Sky boasts an impressive cast, led by Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz. For good measure, Timothy Spall is cast as a British lawyer; I've recently watched Spall making a superb job of the title role in Mike Leigh's interesting, if possibly over-long film about my favourite artist, Turner: he really is a fine actor.

This film is hard to classify: some describe it as a psychological thriller, but it also veers into sci-fi territory as the plot thickens. It certainly has a touch of originality about it, and that's always welcome. Cruise plays David Aames, a fabulously wealthy young publisher, who has inherited control of a vast business empire, but is menaced by a group of seven grumpy old board members. Cruise is involved with Diaz, who is much more serious about their relationship than he is, and soon he takes a shine to his best friend's new girl (Cruz). Intercut with these sequences are later scenes which reveal that Cruise has been disfigured in an accident, and stands accused of murder. What on earth happened to turn his world upside down?

I found this premise intriguing, but although there were quite a few plot twists, (and several rather creepy moments) I became rather frustrated by the sluggish narrative pace. If Turner was arguably over-long, then I don''t think there's much doubt in this case - Vanilla Sky, it seems to me, would be much more gripping if cut by at least half an hour. Probably three-quarters of an hour. There's a portentousness about the script, it seems to me, which isn't entirely justified, much though I admire ambitious writing. Overall, I felt that the "psychology" was not as sophisticated as the film-makers seemed to believe; nor was the story as consistently thrilling as I'd hoped.

But that can happen when you dare to do something different. Perhaps the excellence of the cast gave me unreasonably high expectations. Despite my reservations, Vanilla Sky is well-made, and well worth watching, not least for a very good soundtrack featuring Nancy Wilson, Paul McCartney,the Beach Boys et al.

Leon - film review

Not only do I have a regrettably mountainous to-be-read pile of books, I'm afraid I've also failed to catch up on plenty of films - not to mention box sets. So I'm making an effort to catch up, and as part of this (perhaps ultimately doomed) project, I recently watched Leon, a film also known as The Professional. It dates from 1994, and you can get an idea of how long I've been meaning to get round to watch it when I tell you that I acquired my copy not as a DVD but as a VHS cassette: eeeek! De-clutteriing is definitely called for...

Anyway, I must say how much I enjoyed the film. The other day I also found an old video of Mission Impossible, starring Tom Cruise, and found it very disappointing - Leon more than made up for it. It's set in the US, but directed by France's :Luc Besson. and it marked the film debut of Natalie Portman. She gives a brilliant performance. A good many child actors, of course, never make it in the long run, but she is a dazzling exception.

Leon, played by Jean Reno, is a naive, poorly educated immigrant who has been exploited by a gangster called Tony, who uses his services as a hitman, but cons him financially. Leon lives in a rather miserable apartment, but he is a very, very efficient hitman. He befriends a 12 year old neighbour called Matilda, whose father is involved in a drugs scam. When her father and the rest of her family are murdered by a sinister group of thugs led by a psychotic played by Gary Oldman, she hides out in Leon's flat.

Soon, the pair become close. I suppose that, twenty-one years later, this relationship between a grown man and a young girl might be presented in a different way, but the screenplay, although violent, does have several poignant moments. Reno is very good - so too is Oldman - but it's Portman who steals the show. A gripping story, and I'm glad I finally caught up with it.

Jack Reacher - movie review

Jack Reacher is the film version of Lee Child's best-seller One Shot. There's been a lot of debate about whether Tom Cruise is appropriately cast as the much taller Reacher, but for me, this is not a key issue. What really matters is whether Cruise captures the essence of the character. I'd say that he's not perfect, but pretty good, and certainly good enough. And the decision to cast Robert Duvall and the menacing Werner Herzog in smaller but important roles was quite inspired - and I bet it was a real thrill for Lee Child to see these two appearing in the first film of his work.

The story begins with a sniper firing six times and killing five people. The overwhelmingly likely suspect is rounded up and soon reduced to a coma. His lawyer, Rosamund Pike (whose professional dress code is rather different from that of all the other female lawyers I know) is thrown into conflict with the D.A., who just happens to be her dad. The suspect, for mysterious reasons, scrawls a message, "Get Jack Reacher". And as if by magic, Reacher appears.

I was baffled by the scene in which Pike questions Cruise and tells him that the conversation is legally privileged. Given that he is not her client, this can only be right if American law is significantly different from English law. Well, I can only presume that it is, but this did jar with me. On the whole, however, the film sprints along in the style we associate with Bond and Bourne, and it makes for good light entertainment.

Lee Child takes the craft of the thriller seriously, which helps to explain his massive success. I've read and enjoyed a number of Lee Child books, but not One Shot. One of the others borrowed a famous plot device from Agatha Christie, and the same trick is pulled here. The excellent director, Christopher McQuarrie, does not go into much detail about the motive for the crime, and we don't have much backstory about Herzog's character. This is a real pity - I suppose McQuarrie felt these elements needed to be cut to maintain pace. So overall, not a masterpiece, but good fun. And despite the casting of Cruise, I'm sure the film will make even more people want to read Lee Child's bestsellers. They will, I think, find them even more entertaining than this lively and action-packed movie.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie is a 2008 thriller based on a true story – the last of fifteen known attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler. It boasts a superb cast and is thoroughly watchable. I didn’t know the details of the story, and was fascinated to learn how close the conspirators came to success with their daring and courageous plan.

The leading character is Colonel von Stauffenberg, played by Tom Cruise. Hostile to Hitler, and the barbaric ways of the Nazis, he is badly injured while serving in North Africa. He returns to Germany to join a conspiracy to bring the tyrannical rule of the dictator to an end. The plotters are played by a galaxy of stars, including Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp and Bill Nighy, while Tom Wilkinson’s character equivocates, trying to figure out which side it’s safest to be on.

You know how it is all going to end, but – as with The Day of the Jackal – the journey towards the final conclusion is made engrossing by the story-teller’s art. As with Frederick Forsyth’s first and best novel, the description of the way events unfold is done with great skill and the characterisation, although economical, is effective.

The director is Bryan Singer, and the writer Christopher McQuarrie (with Nathan Alexander) and the same partnership was responsible for that brilliant and ingenious crime thriller The Usual Suspects. Valkyrie is not as memorable as the earlier film, but is nevertheless interesting as well as entertaining.