John's Talk

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Because this is produced by Judd Apatow, and I loved Knocked Up, and Superbad wasn't super bad, I thought it might be worth seeing. I couldn't have been more wrong. The writing is bad, the acting is bad, and to top it off, they decided to install a first-time director (Nicholas Stoller) at the helm. Children, can you say 'recipe for disaster'? I thought you could. I'd be willing to live with all of the above if there were at least some good laughs along the way, but other than a few slightly humourous lines, this is just not very funny. I think we can all agree that's the kiss of death for a comedy. Whoever told Jason Segel he could write a comedy script should be forced to watch this over and over again for the rest of his life, or at least until he sees the error of his ways. And why, oh why would a first-time screenwriter write not one, but TWO scenes in which his character is shown stark bloody NAKED? There is absolutely no reasonable explanation why there had to be full-frontal nudity in those scenes. I know my double standard is showing, and if it was Kristin Bell or Mila Kunis in the altogether, I probably wouldn't be complaining, but I'd be curious to hear how many females over the age of 18 actually got any thrills out of seeing that. I'm guessing not very many. I liked Jason Segal as one of Seth Rogen's stoner buddies in Knocked Up, but if this mess is any indication, he doesn't have what it takes to play the lead in a romantic comedy. Bell and Kunis come across as nothing more than eye candy, and have no depth to their characters. Jonah Hill looks lost as Matthew the Waiter, Paul Rudd's character Chuck, the surfer dude, feels like he just dropped in from a '70s Disney movie, and Bill Hader was annoying as the idiot cop in Superbad, and he's almost as annoying here. From what I've seen of him, the guy just can't act. He must be close buddies with Apatow or something. British comedian Russell Brand as the rock star Aldous Snow is the only halfway interesting character in the film, and he's only marginally better than everyone else. Hill and Rudd were very good in Knocked Up, so we know they can act, and we know they can be very funny given the right material. This just ain't it!

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

From director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls) comes this film that tells the amazing true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor of Elle magazine, who at the age of 43 suffered a near-fatal stroke that left him almost completely paralyzed. After awakening from a three-week long coma, he is infromed by his doctors that he is suffering from 'locked in syndrome', which means his brain is functioning, he can hear and see, but he can't speak or move. The only part of his body that he's able to move is his left eye. He is introduced to a speech therapist named Henriette (Marie-Josee Croze), who plans to teach him how to communicate via a painstaking system that uses a special 'frequent use' alphabet which she continually recites until he stops her by blinking when she reaches a letter he wants to use to form a word. You might think that this would become very monotonous after a while, but it actually becomes like an almost soothing mantra as it's continually used throughout the film. I think that may have something to do with the beautiful voices that are reciting it. Once Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) overcomes his depression and his frustration with learning a new method of communication, he decides to use the new system to dictate his memoirs, letter by letter, blink by blink. The book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, is actually completed in this way, an absolutely monumental achievement. The film brilliantly uses voice-over and flashbacks to flesh out Bauby's character. We are able to see him as he was before the stroke, interacting with his co-workers and family, including his former partner Celine (Emanuelle Seigner), their three young children, and his father (Max von Sydow). We are even privy to his thoughts, imagination and fantasies. In his mind, he comes to the conclusion that "Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory." And these are the things which sustain him, as he uses them to travel the world, revisit old friends, and have affairs with fantasy lovers, all within the confines of his mind. In my mind, this is one of the best films of 2007, and yet it didn't even receive an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. Shame on the Academy, but we're used to such lunacy by now. Julian Schnabel was justly nominated for his outstanding work, as was cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Minority Report, War of the Worlds), who fills the screen with beautiful images which allow us to see inside the mind of the paralyzed man. The acting is uniformly superb, but special mention has to go to Mathieu Amalric, who somehow manages to give a great performance while moving only his left eye, and Max von Sydow in the small supporting role as Bauby's father. The scene where he phones his son at the hospital is quietly devastating in it's emotional power, as is the film in general. I have a tendency to be very stingy with 5-star ratings, but this film might actually deserve one. Julian Schnabel, who is a painter of note himself, has created a cinematic masterpiece.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

At age 83, director Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon) proves he can still deliver the goods with this film that is very close to perfect. Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman star as brothers Hank and Andy Hanson, who both find themselves in desperate need of money. Hank (Hawke) is 3 months behind in his child support payments, and is being hounded at every opportunity by his ex-wife Martha (Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone). Andy (Hoffman) has been embezzling funds from his employer to support himself and his wife Gina (Marisa Tomei) in a style they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. His company is about to be audited by the IRS, and he needs cash to cover the missing funds. Andy comes up with a plan to rob a mom & pop jewelry store with which the brothers are intimately familiar. No one will get hurt, and the owners are insured, so it appears to be the perfect victimless crime and the solution to all their problems. Of course, things don't go according to plan. In fact, they go disastrously wrong, and in the aftermath the brothers are left trying to hold themselves together and keep the situation under control as their lives slowly start to unravel. Eventually, long-buried family resentments that have been simmering for years boil over, causing devastation for everyone involved. In the experienced hands of Lumet, every scene is skillfully set up and shot, and the actors deliver brilliant performances all across the board. Philip Seymour Hoffman leads the way in a powerhouse turn as Andy, but Hawke and Tomei also give blistering performances, and all three characters are heart-wrenchingly real and true. Even the old pro Albert Finney seems revitalized, and is perfect as Hank and Andy's father. I find it hard to believe that this fine film was ignored at Oscar time while merely good ones like Michael Clayton and Juno were honoured with Best Picture nominations. There's nothing we can do about that, but what you can do is see this great film, and experience movie-making at it's very finest.