Rewind--Lions for Lambs

or: Just like going to college...

One word to sum it up: Tiring.

You know how when you are kinda obsessed with a certain actor and you feel obliged to watch a lot of their films? Well, yeah, my current obsession is Andrew Garfield, and there aren’t too many films out there with him in them...yet. But given the fact that Lions for Lambs was right there at my disposal, which happens to feature Andrew Garfield in one of his early American roles, of course I had to add it to my list of Andrew movies. Even though I had to be lectured for 87 minutes in order to do that.

Lions for Lambs begins after two determined students at a West Coast University, Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Pena), follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor, Dr. Malley (Robert Redford), and attempt to do something important with their lives. But when the two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan, Malley is both moved and distraught. Now, as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field, they become the string that binds together two disparate stories on opposite sides of America. In California, an anguished Dr. Malley attempts to reach a privileged but disaffected student (Andrew Garfield) who is the very opposite of Arian and Ernest. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. the charismatic Presidential hopeful, Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist (Meryl Streep) that may affect Arian and Ernest's fates.

I knew Lions for Lambs wasn’t going to be interesting from the very start, since it deals with the Iraq war...something which is overused in the film industry to an often dry and thoughtless extent. Lions for Lambs is no exception to that rule. It's an overly contrived set of stories which seem barely even connected right, and overall can't elevate from being like every other war movie: boring. It's the same every time when Hollywood tries to attack the government over something they aren't particularly proud of. Unfortunately, such elements can't be made into a piece of pop culture. Lions for Lambs tries to paint a bad picture of everyone involved, which contributes to some off-the-mark characterization through it's series of lectures. It too rarely feels like a film, and I kinda felt like I was being lectured by Robert Redford just the way that Todd did. Maybe this is a good film to show at college when talking about the subject this movie tries to tackle?

You usually can't go wrong with Meryl Streep, but her performance is a little bit bland, until the end when it turns a little desperate. Tom Cruise is, you know, Tom Cruise, except this time he is being all powerful and executive. Robert Redford takes on both the lead role and the direction duties, and does those both adequately well. Andrew Garfield, in his film debut (he also made his BAFTA winning TV-film Boy A in the same year), shows us some early signs of what he is truly made of. He's such an honest actor who deserves any accolades coming for him. I wouldn't exactly call him scene stealing in this movie, but I would say that he is possibly one of the better parts of it.


THE VERDICT: A dull stab at the US Government that feels like a series of lectures...and no film should be a series of lectures.

4/10

The Edge of Love

This is a classic example of how bad I was at watching/rating movies last year. When I first watched The Edge of Love I rated it 8/10. I must have been sleeping and dreaming of a movie that actually happened to be Atonement or something. So then I get the movie out again, just because Cillian Murphy is in it, and I suddenly realize: this movie is crap. Absolutely crap.

In the depths of World War II, we are introduced to two feisty and free-spirited women: singer Vera (Keira Knightley) and reluctant housewife and mother Caitlin (Sienna Miller). These two women are connected not only by friendship but by the poet, Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys) who loves them both, though he is married to Caitlin, and Vera is married to a loyal but violent William Killick (Cillian Murphy). The War tears them apart, and they must find a way of picking up the pieces and try to return to the way things were.So we all know that Keira Knightley has starred in a lot of period films, and this film seems below par compared with the rest of them. She does, however, turn out a good performance, as do most of the rest of the cast. However, the good performances, even though they try their best, just can't cover up the truck loads of flaws this film drags along.

I know that this is some sort of biopic, so most of what happened was based on a true story, but this story was filled with plot holes and to be honest, I didn't like any of the characters. Vera was a whiny self-pitying loser who kept turning down the opportunity to get in with Cillian Murphy (okay, so I wouldn't do that, and that isn't exactly Cillian in the movie...but I hate her for it anyway). Caitlin is just downright annoying because she just doesn't care for the world enough but all of sudden turns over a new leaf and somehow realizes that life is more than she wanted it to be. Dylan was just a smoking and talentless bum for most of the movie that fit right into the stereotype of 'drunken writer'. As for William, I wouldn't have liked him is he wasn't Cillian Murphy, but he was extremely lovely if not a little stalkerish in the start, then in the second half of the film he was violent and reminded me of a confused little kid.

The characters let the film down big time, and I blame that on the extremely weak script which never quite depicts the brutality of War like a real War movie should. It's pretty much a cheap rehash of Atonement, but it just isn't as good. However, I could be quite interested in the real story of the Thomas' and the Killick's, because I believe their story is possibly more interesting than the way this film makes it out to be.

Film is letdown by characters, characters letdown by scriptwork. The film is lifted though by some solid performances.

4/10

Cold Mountain

I had borrowed Cold Mountain from a friend way back in April, and now, close to the end of August, I have finally gotten around to watching it. Yes, I know I may just be the slackest person ever. Oh, and I should probably tell you that I didn't watch it just because Cillian Murphy is in it for two minutes. I watched it because it basically looked like an R16 version of Gone with the Wind. And no, I don't mean that in a bad way.
We follow the story of a wounded Confederate soldier named Inman (Jude Law) who struggles on a perilous journey to get back home to Cold Mountain in North Carolina, as well as to Ada (Nicole Kidman), the woman he left behind before going off to fight in the American Civil War. Along the way, he meets a long line of interesting and colorful characters, while back at home, Ada is learning the ropes of managing her dead father's farm with Ruby (Renee Zellweger), a scrappy drifter who assists and teaches Ada along the way.

People always go on about how Cold Mountain was made just as an Oscar movie. That could be true, as it reeks of Oscar, but who says that is a bad thing? The film deserved Oscars. The performances from all of the ensemble cast, but especially Zellweger, were all pitch perfect and somewhat true to the time period as opposed to the modern take many stars try to bring to stories like this. It's one of the most classically done period pieces that would still appeal to the modern audience. A lot of period films that have come out in the past ten years have either succeeded in capturing the period but not the audience, or capturing the audience but not the time period. Cold Mountain so wonderfully does this, with it's brutality and also an interesting love story.

Amazingly, this is the first love story which I have enjoyed in a while. Forget that new comedy Going the Distance, Ada and Inman show you how the long distance relationship is done. Their relationship was so interesting that I was shocked to tears in the end...not something that a romance does easily for me. This movie is just so beautiful through and through, and does well to capture the hardships and horror cause by the Civil War. I do like to think of this as the film Gone with the Wind would have been if it had been made in more recent times.

A beautifully made and acted film, a classic romance that will sweep you away yet shock you to the core.

10/10