Sometimes stuff happens in life that jolts us out of our comfort zone. It removes us from our daily routines and leaves us lagging in the pace of our own life. It can affect our relationships with others and can make our otherwise familiar environment seem alien. This is precisely what happens to Doug and Lois Riley when their 15 year old daughter dies in a car crash. The couple’s 30 year marriage suffers. Lois is on medication and is psychologically housebound. Doug sleeps with a local waitress but later she dies. Whilst on a work conference in New Orleans and unable to relate his latest grief to anyone, he befriends a young teenage stripper. Feeling the spark of paternal instinct reigniting his soul, he (and later his wife) take the young lady under their wing.
It is a very unlikely scenario and in any other situation it would seem far fetched and slightly surreal that the characters would find themselves in this situation and these environments. However, it’s more symbolic of everything I mentioned earlier about the experience of trauma and one’s journey through it. At one point Doug reflects “I feel like I’ve landed on Mars” and that about sums it up for all the characters. I most enjoyed Lois and Doug having what was probably the frankest conversation they’ve ever had about their marriage at nighttime surrounded by the slum dwellings. Even for Mallory, the stripper, the Rileys intervention into her life has a profound effect. Their mature and slightly philosophical handling of the bad luck life has dealt them is something she eventually takes to her own heart, even inspiring her to initiate the Rileys to face some skeletons of their own.
When asked what he wanted people to take away from this film, director Jake Scott said “Hope”. Tick box. Michael Frayn once gave one of his characters, Brian Stimpson, one of my favourite ever lines. “It’s not the despair…I can handle the despair… it’s the hope!” Indeed hope cannot be reached without despair. What Scott does well in this movie is to ensure the despair doesn’t become too indulgent. James Gandolfini’s suppressed emotions are spot on – I should know, I’m British! His performance would get my vote for Best Actor whatever the shape of the trophy! Kristen Stewart avoids cliches a character like hers could have easily become, crafting a more layered dynamic performance and an understated chemistry in her relationship with the Rileys, which pleased me. Melissa Leo’s Lois Riley had many incarnations – the shell of a devastated woman racked with self-guilt, the perfect American mother and a young woman trapped in a middle aged womans body. And once, just once, whilst telling Mallory for the first time of the death of her daughter – a brief glint in her eyes of who she used to be. Superb stuff.
To simply call this picture a “feel good” film would be to dismiss many of its finer qualities. It could have easily been corny, over-indulgent, sentimental pap. But writer Ken Hixon and director Jake Scott have produced something beautifully genuine, simple yet complex, poignant yet aspiring. And, if anything else, it is worth watching just for Gandolfini’s performance.
“Welcome to the Rileys” is released in UK cinemas on 18th November 2011
[rating=5]
Rated at number 4 on the 
In a time when most horror is sensationalised to the point of saturation, this film serves a reminder of how the basics can be just as good or even, if left in the right hands, better. I noted that at some key moments of suspense, no music or extra sound effects were used. Just good old fashioned silence. I didn’t need anymore. Similarly the acting from the leads was never OTT. In fact, I found it frustrating having to read the subtitles at the expense of watching some great performances. But that’s not the film’s fault.
Kurt Russell stars in John Carpenters’ remake of the 1951 classic, though it is actually more widely recognised as an alternative adaptation of JW Campbell Jnr’s “Who goes there?“. This version is set in US laboratory in the Antarctic (not the North Pole) and is home to a team of researchers who are victims of an alien predator who can hide inside them. One by one each member of the team is either picked off by the alien or by one of his paranoid colleagues. The result is pretty much carnage.
The mystery and suspense as the story unfolds is, as always, masterfully handled by Carpenter. Unlike his other films the music is not done by him but by Ennio Morricone. Can’t say I remembered the music much, but is that a bad thing? I couldn’t hum the tunes from The Shining either. And unlike another, more recent Carpenter film Ghosts of Mars which I had the misfortune to watch recently, all location shots are done in the genuine, conventional manner rather than using SFX or models which, as in the aforementioned film, can ruin it! Impressive cinematographie from Carpenter regular Dean Cudney(Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York.)
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Tragedy comes to one part of suburban Tokyo (if there is such a thing) when a group of teenage friends die in mysterious circumstances on the same day. One of the victims aunties’ investigates and discovers that, in accordance to a popular urban myth, they had all watched the same video tape then received a silent telephone call – then exactly one week later they’d died. When she watches the tape and, surprise surprise, gets a silent phone call she realises that she has only a week left to live and must unravel the mystery of this curse. Her journey, with the help of her ex-husband, starts with explaining the mysterious images she witnesses on the video tape.
The film was originally Japanese released in 1998 (as just “Ring”). It was later remade by the Americans in 2002 (as “The Ring”) I’ve not seen the latter and was recommended to watch the original which I found to be quite a tame affair. I imagine the storyline may have aged slightly. The videotape would now be an mp4 viral on the internet. Or else the grainy images within the cursed tape would be restored, colour added, motion stabilised and any apocalyptic devil shots could be photoshopped and airbrushed to make them look lovely! (I am joking btw just in case any Hollywood producers are reading this) So whilst it maybe considered a classic horror, other classics have aged slightly better. The video theme makes the story rather antiquated and less personal.
Love, sex, jealousy, control and revenge are the order of the day in John Langridge’s new movie “Four”. The movie sells itself with the tagline “There is no such thing as a simple plan“. Once you’ve watched it, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there is no such thing as a simple storyline. It starts with a straightforward, slightly Brit-gangster premise. Man hires detective to kidnap and rough up his wife’s lover, putting the fear of god into him. Thanks to some cleverly balanced humour from writer Paul Chronnell, including an amusing section where torture gives way to a slightly incongruous discussion on film analogies, we realise that there is a hapless element in our perpetrators plans and it soon becomes clear that they are vulnerable victims of their own desire to control.
Sean Pertwee is a national asset and blossoms in drama such as this. His character (Detective), whilst candidly mischievous is also the right blend of enigmatic and menacing. His distinctive voice and presence on screen is masterly as it is compelling. Martin Compston (Lover) transforms excellently between two opposite sizes of his character, a helpless then indignant victim. Hell hath no fury like Kierston Wareing’s “Wife”. But Craig Conway’s performance as the Husband will be the most memorable. Confused, castrated and blinkered; the decrepit remains of the factory that surrounds him is a fitting metaphor to his circumstances both at the start and at the end of the movie.
Depression is a bit like sex. Ok, stay with me. It’s something we know is there, but few of us rarely want to discuss it openly, let alone admit we require help with it. It is the elephant in the room, that thing that we know Uncle so and so suffered with – still he’s in a better place now. It can bubble up feelings of frustration for the bystander who wishes those affected would just snap out of it. “Probably just a phase. After all, we all get down from time to time.” One can become very frustrated trying to understand something that isn’t tangible. Those whom I know have experienced sever bouts of it (and I’m talking years, if not a lifetime!) often seem stuck and sometimes frustrated when trying to accurately describe it.
Most cold war spy films have ubiquitous elements about them. There is a drained lack of colour in establishing shots. Everyone chain-smokes and the amount of alcohol consumed makes one wonder how any spy managed to stay focused let alone alert! A good spy must have a house with squeaky wooden floorboards and there must be the sound of an old scratched gramophone record nearby playing a love song from years back which, once complete, just revolves with the sound of a needle click amplified louder than the song itself. Verbal communication is in riddles, nursery rhymes, cliches and code, whilst making love is impersonal and only happens when a snipper is watching.
Some themes were slightly overused mind. Endless shots of rooms from the outside of the window looking in. Lots of references in the script to being “grown-up” got a little tiresome. And volume throughout the film is considerably sparse. I know many thriller films like absolute silence before a startling moment, but whilst it lent the film great suspense to begin with, it later lent it a sense of anticlimax.
Since cinemas earliest day, the world of movie franchise has been responsible for classics from James Bond to Carry On, Star Wars to Jurassic Park, Pirates to Shrek, Potter to Rings. Thanks to my FilmFridays co-founder, I have dabbled in the slightly more commerical franchises including all 7 Saw films (in the space of a fortnight) and the Final Destination series. In what looks like the final destination of the Final Destination films, number 5 has hit the cinema screens this summer. The premise (as with all the films) is that some teenagers, thanks to a completely unexplained premonition, manage to cheat death escaping an horrific accident that fate had determined would kill them. Eventually the escapees meet with horrible accidents until those remaining realise they too are destined to die. Yes fate is a fickle mistress and given the right opportunity she’ll kill you too. It’s a tried and tested formula, as is the way with franchise movies. So it should work again, right?
Not really. The film starts promisingly with a great scene involving a collapsing suspension bridge (this isn’t a spoiler, it’s splattered all over the trailer, if you’ll pardon the expression) The scene in the gymnasium is also brilliantly paced and full of suspense. But then something happens. Maybe the budget had been blown by this point. The film suddenly becomes very ordinary and unoriginal. Film is receiving greater competition than ever before from TV. To survive it cannot rely purely on Digital 8000 or 3d.(In fact we opted to see the film in 2d anyhow having failed to be seduced by that medium) To remain with the upperhand movies must be raising the stakes in all apsects of production rather than just the gimmicky ones. Originality should start at the movies. This film failed to do that.
, with a few Lucas touch-ups, including a now infamous scream from Darth Vader of “Noooooo”! as her saves his son from the Emperor in Episode 6. The alterations brought a similar reaction from outraged fans. Even the Twittersphere noted a disturbance in the Force “as if millions of
It was originally met with mixed reviews and was not a commercial success. This does not surprise me. Few films that long (2hrs50m) rarely are. It appears to have enjoyed a fashionable reprise of late, but I shan’t be jumping on the bandwagon myself. The film plods rather like the coarse version of Handel’s “Sarabande” that features heavily like some Clockwork Orange signature tune. Having not read the original Thackeray novel, I cannot compare whether the story being told is well serving to it. Despite a narration of the story from Michael Horden (which sometimes made you feel like you were watching Paddington Bear), the film’s telling of it leaves one feeling a little detached from its characters. By the end I cared very little for any of them.
The Shining.