Lynn Shelton’s new film about relationships, both sibling
and romantic, is a very sweet and funny three-hander between the lovely Emily
Blunt, the equally lovely but cynical and kind of spiky Rosemarie DeWitt, and the
endearing emotional mess that is Mark Duplass.
Iris (Blunt) sends her best friend Jack (Duplass) to stay
at her family’s remote cabin after an outburst at a memorial party shows he is
still struggling to come to terms with his brother’s death a year on. The idea is for him to cycle there, spend
some time in solitude away from distractions, think about his life, and come back
a slightly saner man. When he arrives at
the cabin however he finds Iris’s sister Hannah (DeWitt) there for a similar
reason, having just split up from her girlfriend of seven years. Tequila is drunk, lesbianism is temporarily
rescinded, and they sleep together. Iris
shows up the next day, unaware of the drunken shenanigans, she reveals to her
sister that she is secretly in love with Jack, and over the next few days their
entwined relationships get a little knotty.
The strength of this film lies in the first rate
performances from all three actors (aside from the first scene they are the
only people in the film). Blunt and
DeWitt manage to pull off that complicated sisterly relationship, balancing closeness
with a never acknowledged undermining of each other that anyone with siblings
will recognise. The awkwardness between
Duplass and DeWitt is also completely convincing and never feels contrived. All three characters are witty, and endearingly
‘damaged’, but the film manages never to stray into the self-absorption of bad hipster
movie territory.
A great scene comes near the end of the film that subtly
captures the tone of the whole. Jack is
trying to destroy his bike – he throws it to the ground repeatedly but it barely
bends. It’s simultaneously sad and funny
because he’s trying to take his despair out on this bicycle, but his grand
dramatic gesture falls flat. It’s emotionally
moving, about dealing with death, and life, but it’s low-key and funny and somehow
realistic. Not many people have a cabin in
the beautiful wilderness that they can escape to when life gets too difficult,
but everyone has had that moment of frustration when they’ve tried to smash a
wall and all they’ve achieved is a throbbing toe.
Daniel Auteuil, of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources fame, makes his directorial debut in the rather gentle, rather old-fashioned, but really rather sweet The Well-Digger’s Daughter. Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (who you may recognise despite the lack of mermaid tail from Pirates of the Caribbean 4, but don’t hold that against her) is the daughter in question, Patricia, a beautiful 18 year old who was brought up in Paris and has a repressed yearning for the finer things in life. Her father (Auteuil) thinks that he will be able to keep his beloved daughter close if she marries his good-hearted workmate and friend Felipe. She however only has eyes for the rich general store owner’s son Jacques, who is in the Air Force. Faced with the choice between a middle-aged well digger and a dashing pilot with a motorbike it‘s hardly a tough decision.
Alas we are in pre-war France, and after Patricia succumbs to Jacques’ charms he is immediately sent to the front line. Jacques unknowingly leaves Patricia pregnant; her father is appalled that she has lost her honour, Jacques’ parents are appalled that he would get involved with a girl from a poor family, and some mild parent vs. child, honour vs. love drama ensues.
Its mild drama is reminiscent of Downton Abbey and Sunday tea-times, where there’s never really any risk of danger. Its nostalgic charms therefore won’t appeal to everyone. If the idea of a boy falling in love with a girl as he carries her over a river because there is no bridge and she can’t manage to untie her shoelaces just makes you want to throw the couple, or yourself, in a river, then perhaps avoid this one.
If however you’re not averse to a bit of sentimentality then there are some fine sun-drenched performances to enjoy here. Don’t be so grumpy - sugar‘s good for you every once in a while.
If it takes ten thousand hours of practice to make a virtuoso then I’m not sure what that makes Michael Pennington - as stated in the subtitle to his show (and accompanying book) Sweet William he has spent ‘Twenty Thousand Hours with Shakespeare’. If nothing else, it makes him an excellent companion on a whistle stop tour of Shakespeare’s life and works.
A show such as this could have been very dry - an hour and a half lecture repeating for the thousandth time that we know surprisingly little about the facts of Shakespeare’s actual life, punctuated with the occasional ‘to be or not to be’ and rounded with a sleep. Instead, Pennington gives us hisown personal experience of Shakespeare. How he first encountered him on a family outing to see Macbeth when he was a young boy, then linking into Shakespeare’s portrayal of children. How he believes that Shakespeare joined a travelling theatre company in those lost years between Stratford and London, then linking into his own experience of being in a touring Shakespeare company and the difficulty of transporting stage weapons in Hong Kong (a universal problem, surely).
Pennington’s passion is clear throughout the show, especially when he discusses Shakespeare’s language. As we the audience love to have Shakespeare’s words in our ears, Pennington the actor clearly loves to feel the words on his tongue, deftly launching into a number of lesser-known speeches from a variety of the plays and sonnets, becoming a young boy, an old man, a spurned lover, all the while managing not to come across as an arrogant luvvie showing off his range.
Near the end of his talk Pennington describes Shakespeare as a master ventriloquist who created a multitude of voices. Continuing with that metaphor, and not sounding like it but intended entirely as a compliment, Pennington is a master dummy.
In the days before Stephen Fry was a national treasure and generally beloved know-it-all, when he was still a student at Cambridge, he wrote the comedy two-hander Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys. And, as you would perhaps expect from a play written by a young male student, sex is never far from the forefront.
The Burton Taylor studio is transformed into a classroom (well, there are some benches on the stage for the brave) as the audience become the students of Dominic Clarke, ably played by Barnabas Iley-Williamson, a Latin master with a passion for his subject, for youth, and for one of his 13 year old pupils, Cartwright. His relationship with the boy is found out by the pipe-smoking Herbert Brookshaw, played by Louis Fletcher, who promises to keep his secret in return for a bit of late night whipping from Clarke and some activities with peanut butter that one can only assume wouldn’t involve toast.With that kind of subject matter it’s not that surprising that this play doesn’t get laid on very often.
There is a difficult balance to be held between simply getting laughs out of the shock of the controversial and getting laughs because of the witty writing. The steady stream of sexual innuendo was very funny, and the interaction between Mr Clarke and his imaginary students was entertaining, but I suspect that there may have been quite a few Latin sex jokes that went over my head. Either that or the rest of the audience were far more worldly than me.
Come the climax, I have to admit that I was left a little unsatisfied. I think maybe I just didn’t get the full thrust of the play. There’s no need for performance anxiety though. I’m sure it’s great, if you like that sort of thing.
What do you do when the story's finished but there's more to say? Wait an appropriate amount of time then make a sequel! And if the thing you have to say happens to actually be incredibly similar to what you said in the first place, but with louder bangs, then all the better, right?
There are of course many good sequels that aren't just cynical ploys to make more money with no regard for Art (capital A Art, not just drawing and stuff). Where would we be without The Godfather 2? The Back to the Futures? The Toy Stories? This blog post? Maybe there is Art in the following list. Or quality at least. Maybe. Fast and Furious 5 ended up being one of Time Magazine's top films of 2011, after all, and who would have expected that this time last year?
Nicholas Cage returns as the excellently named Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider 2. He's a sort of flamey skeleton biker. The first film had quite poor reviews, and and it's up against a lot of comic book superhero competition in 2012, as discussed in the last blog post. But the trailer has lots of loud bangs, and that is what we the viewing public like, isn't it?
2. StreetDance 2 - March
StreetDance 3D was the first film in this franchise. Who knows what will happen if they make another sequel. StreetDance 33D? StreetDance 3D2, featuring a breakdancing C3PO?
The first instalment was not exactly critically acclaimed. But this one has Rosamund Pike looking utterly beautiful and waving a sword about, so must be better.
4. Scary Movie 5 - April (probably. UK not yet confirmed)
Yes, this franchise is still going. Now that is scary.
It's got roman numerals or the cubed symbol instead of the number 3. It's got Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords. It's got something good to live up to with the original Men in Black. It's got potential. Men in Black II seems to have been wiped from my memory with the little MIB stick thing, which is possibly a good thing.
Not the best animated films by any means, but you have to have a heart of stone not to be charmed by the trailer for the fourth Ice Age.
7. G.I. Joe: Retaliation - August
It's got Dwayne 'No Longer The Rock' Johnson in it. That man makes a good action movie.
8. Step Up 4 - August
I wonder at what point they start stepping down.
9. The Expendables 2 - August
Apparently the script was too sweary for Chuck Norris so he's demanded it be toned down in order for it to get a PG13 rating in the US (so probably a 12A in the UK). Good old fashioned violent fun for all the family. Why not take your granny along, as she won't be offended by the language now.
10. Resident Evil: Retribution - September
Resident Evil 6. It seems no one ever gets bored of girls and guns.
11. Taken 2 - October
To be involved in one kidnap, Mr Neeson, may be regarded as a misfortune. To be involved in two looks like carelessness.
I'll have to add an extra one since there are so many. A sequel to the sequels, if you will. OR, the thing that makes this Twelve for 2012: The Sequel have a louder bang, in that there are 13 things in my list rather than 12. It's bigger, and therefore better.
13. Nativity 2: The Second Coming - December
The first Nativity film, with Martin Freeman, did not belong in the cinema. As a Christmas special on TV it was quite charming (my mum thought it was hilarious), but I would really have resented paying to see it. Is this what David Cameron has in mind when he talks about expanding the British film industry?
I just can't decide what I'm most excited about. Well no, obviously I'm most excited about the extra bank holiday. But the Mesoamerican calendar thing runs a fairly close second.
But as well as featuring enormous sports days with a distinct lack of the egg and spoon race and the possible end of the world, 2012 also promises to be a year of big films. Here's a look at twelve general trends and much hyped films to come in 2012. (you can listen to this while you read if you like, to temper the enthusiasm).
1. The Avengers - April
A load of superheroes who have films already get together and fight a supervillain. Super!
Emotional Michael Caine! Tom Hardy as a muzzled, sheepskin coat wearing terrorist! If the trailer's anything to go by this is going to be just as spectacular as The Dark Knight.
2012 appears to be the year of the superhero (though saying that, every year recently has appeared to be the year of the superhero). It is ten years (argh) since Tobey Maguire first donned the red and blue lycra suit, and now it is the marvellous Andrew Garfield's turn. According to the poster this is 'The Untold Story', and I for one am looking forward to hearing it.
4. The year of the reboot
As well as reboots of characters a la Spidey, 2012 also brings us reboots of universes. Why give up on a good franchise just because the story's finished? June brings us the highly anticipated Prometheus as Ridley Scott revisits the Alien universe, and August brings The Bourne Legacy. Without Bourne, because Matt Damon is gone. But still called Bourne. Though the new CIA man is called Aaron Cross. I am reserving judgement until I find out whether or not he can kill a baddy with the contents of a pencil case (not including a compass, as they are quite stabby anyway so that would be cheating).
5. The year of the weird remake
#1: Ray Winstone and Plan B take the John Thaw and Dennis Waterman roles in the film version of 70s cop show The Sweeney in September. If it's a success maybe we can expect Professor Green in Bergerac: The Movie in 2013.
#2: Colin Farrell steps into Schwarzenegger's huge shoes in the remake of Total Recall in August. Well they do look remarkably similar...
6. The year of reunion Anna Karenina reunites Keira Knightley and director Joe Wright from Atonement and Pride & Prejudice, Dark Shadows reunites Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton from Sweeney Todd amongst other things, and the one you've all been waiting for, American Reunion, reuniting all (or so it looks from the trailer) the people from the original American Pie, and not the 237 horrible sequels.
9. The year of fairy tales
Kristen Stewart is armour-clad action Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman, Julia Roberts is strange-accented Evil Queen in fluffy looking Mirror Mirror, and Nicholas Hoult is Jack in Bryan Singer's quite hilariously dramatic looking Jack The Giant Killer.
