Underrated Leading Performances of 2011

Last weekend, I looked at the ten most underrated supporting performances from 2011. I couldn't really just give you that list and run away laughing, now could I? It is time to look at the leading performances that didn't get an adequate amount of attention. Here's my ten picks, ranked...

10. Rachel Weisz in The Whistleblower

It pretty much sounds like an Oscar success story: an ever dependable actress playing the lead in a true story of a woman working against all odds. Alas, The Whistleblower wasn't received that well and hardly anyone saw it. Maybe the film is a little too dependent on Rachel Weisz being dependable, but she gives a wonderful lead performance that the film itself can never live up to. Her performance/character can be summed up by one line that she utters in the film: "I don't want a scandal, I just want to do my job." And what a brilliant job she does.

Without Love There is Nothing.

Film: Perfect Sense
Year: 2011
Director: David Mackenzie
Written by: Kim Fupz Aakeson
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Ewen Bremner, Connie Nielsen, Stephen Dillane, Denis Lawson, Liz Strange, Richard Mack.
Running time: 92 min.
It is to my understanding that this has been released in cinemas this week in America. It shall be released on DVD in NZ on March 22nd by Madman Entertainment.

Just for one moment, imagine this: you can no longer taste anything, feel anything, see anything, smell anything or hear anything. One by one, your sensory perceptions are taken away. How would you react? Would you give up, just as your senses are? Would you learn to live with it? Would you realise all of the things that your senses have made you miss, or miss the senses that let you explore the world? There is a moment in Perfect Sense where lovers Susan (Eva Green) and Michael (Ewan McGregor) are sitting in the bath and take a huge bite out of a bar of soap. Crazy, you say? They can't taste anything, much less smell anything. They can do whatever they like, eat whatever they like. It's an interesting point that the film brings up: if we lost our taste, would that bring out an endless supply of things we could eat? The film is constantly doing that, bringing up all of these interesting points involving how helpful our senses are or how they could be holding us back. Yet, in most cases, the film also fails to capitalize on them, leading to what is quite a middling experience, but interesting all the same.

"I don't want to be just theoretically gay. I want to do something about it."

Film: Beginners
Year: 2010
Writer/Director: Mike Mills
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos, China Shavers, Melissa Tang. 
Running time: 105 min.

One thing I've always wondered about is how 'real' movies can be. Some aim to be as realistic as possible, and then end up being depressive bores. I've always thought that movies are meant to be more exciting than real life, but I do enjoy one of those 'realistic' movies every now and again. Beginners is a perfectly 'real' movie, which shows both the happy things in life and the sad things in life. The story is told through the eyes of Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor), an artist who receives two big announcements from his father Hal (Christopher Plummer): he has terminal cancer, and he is also gay. The film zips back and forth between when Oliver was trying to deal with his father's illness, and after Hal has died, when Oliver meets French actress Anna (Mélanie Laurent). Peppered in between are moments from Oliver's childhood with his mother (played brilliantly by Mary Page Keller) which have seemingly shaped him as a man, and also some superbly edited scenes showing what life is like. While one may suspect that this is a film focusing on the relationship between Oliver and his dying father, it's not. Rather, it's a film examining all of the relationships that Oliver has with everyone.

Due to technical difficulties...

...my review of The Woman in the Window for tonight's instalment to the Classic Movie Marathon will have to be postponed. It's a complicated story, really. The version I have of the movie is a different zone to what we have here in NZ, therefore I can't play it on my laptop. So I brought out my trusty old portable DVD player to watch it on, but it turns out that I can't actually hear the movie on that. My only other option is to watch it in the lounge on the TV, but since my Dad isn't the movie type of person, I'll have to wait until tomorrow when he's at work before I can have the TV all to myself. So the schedule is pushed back a day, mainly coz I'm having a little trouble keeping up with these movies...I'm sadly more happy rewatching movies I've already seen fifty times before coz I just can't think straight.

In place of tonight's review, I'll just give you a photo of Jeremy Renner. Because he is my new nerd obsession at the moment. After all, he's in the new Bourne movie, bitches!

And while we're on the subject of Jeremy...here's a cute pic of he and Jon Hamm...

And on the subject of Jon, here's a pic of he and the beautiful Rebecca Hall...

And for no reason at all, just the fact that I watched the marvellous The Ghost Writer again a couple of nights back, here's an interesting premiere photo of stars Ewan McGregor, Olivia Williams, and Pierce Brosnan. I swear, Olivia Williams' performance in this movie was the best (male or female) performance of 2010. I have absolutely no doubt about that.

Ha, technical difficulties have never turned out to be so good looking.

DVD--The Ghost Writer

or: The Ghost who uncovers things.

One word to sum it up: Intriguing.

If I were to say 'Roman Polanski', people not so up with the film world (and his classics such as Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown) would probably only know one thing about him: that infamous rape scandal. In a way, that thing alone makes The Ghost Writer, his latest film, an even stronger one. You see, during the making of this film, he was put under arrest. He finished editing the film from a Swiss prison and continued making all the artistic decisions while he was under house arrest. And even though Polanski wasn't able to set foot in America due to extradition, he made this film look as American as it possibly could have been. With all these problems, Polanski managed to make a pretty flawless looking film, and perhaps one of the best films from last year.

It's based on Robert Harris' novel 'The Ghost', but it's also been called for the several similarities it has with the story of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. An unremarkable ghost-writer (Ewan McGregor) has landed a contract to shape the memoirs of Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), the former UK Prime Minister. After dominating British politics for years, Lang has retired with his wife (Olivia Williams) to the USA. He lives on an island, in luxurious, isolated premises complete with a security detail and a secretarial staff. Soon, Adam Lang gets embroiled in a major scandal that reveals how far he was ready to go in order to nurture UK's "special relationship" with the USA. But before this controversy has started, before even he has closed the deal with the publisher, the ghost-writer gets unmistakable signs that the draft he is tasked to put into shape mysteriously forms highly sensitive material.

I admit, political thrillers aren't really my cup of tea. When I see those words, it's like someone hit the snooze button in my brain. The Ghost Writer, on the flipside, gave my brain a good rattling. While it could be a bore for someone, I found this movie rich and intense, directed by a guy who knows how to make a good thriller. What makes me mad is the fact that this film was completely ignored come Oscar time. For example, Alexandre Desplat did a far better job with the music in this one, but he got all the acclaim for his work in The King's Speech. His music here contributed to an old-style kind of theme that makes this a suspense nearly in the league of Hitchcock. It's the kind of movie that will keep you guessing until the very end. And the tension just builds and builds. Slowly, but surely. The final shot, to me, is an absolute killer.

Leading the film is Ewan McGregor, who has had a spot in my heart since he was Christian in Moulin Rouge!...and what a great leading man he is. He plays a character simply known as 'The Ghost', but he anchors the film with his likability and vulnerability. And he was a far better choice for the role than Nicolas Cage. Pierce Brosnan made amends for his singing abilities in Mamma Mia! by playing the PM figure Adam Lang just the way a good actor should. Kim Cattrall takes a break from Sex and the City to do what she was born to do: be a good actress. It was strange seeing her in a dramatic role, but she did it well. Even if her American/Irish/Scottish/British accent was a little off the mark. The standout of the movie? Olivia Williams, by miles. Gosh, I loved her in this movie. She was so quietly horrible, and she just stole the show with her characterization and skill. She's the second biggest reason to watch this film after the all-round awesomeness that makes this film a definitive must-see.

THE VERDICT: The Ghost Writer is an excellently made thriller which is both intriguing and intense, with some great performances from it's cast and brilliant direction from Roman Polanski.

What I hoped for:

What I got: