Everest (6/10) The Magnificent mountain imposes over the characters.

“Human beings simply aren't built to function at the cruising altitudes of a seven-forty-seven.”

Based on the true events that took place in Mount Everest on May 1996 during a climbing expedition to reach the summit of the mountain, this disaster movie directed by Baltasar Kormakur stands out for its fantastic and impressive visuals. However what it has in its visual department, it lacks in character development. The only strong character here is Jason Clarke’s Rob Hall who is the heart and soul of a story that is a bit overpopulated with characters who don’t get enough screen time for us to really identify with them. The narrative could’ve worked better with fewer characters, but the magnificent mountain does end up taking center stage and the visual style makes up for all its flaws. Some patience is required as we are introduced to each character at the beginning of the film, but once the preparation for the climbing begins its hard not to fall in love with all the beauty surrounding them and the passion these climbers had for reaching the summit. Kormakur does manage to establish the harsh conditions these men would have to endure to reach the top while they acclimatize to the region, which makes the approaching menacing storm during the second half of the film even more dreadful. Including so many characters and trying to remain true as possible to the real life events may have hurt the narrative arc of the film, but the scenery more than makes up for it.

By 1996 the climbing expeditions to reach the peak of Mount Everest had become a sought out tourist attraction. The nearly impossible task wasn’t only achieved by professional climbers, but now amateurs could achieve their dream by paying for the service of well trained expedition companies that facilitated the acclimatizing process. One company is being led by experienced climber, Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) who is preparing his new crew for the upcoming adventure. He leaves his pregnant wife, Jan (Keira Knightley) at home and heads off to Nepal to meet the team. This year the clients are Doug (John Hawkes), a returning customer who hadn’t been able to reach the summit the previous year, Yasuko (Naoko Mori) who has climbed 6 of the 7 highest peaks of the planet and is hoping to complete her adventure, Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) who is so immersed in the experience that he’s forgotten to call his wife, Peach (Robin Wright) for their anniversary, among many others. Rob is worried about the growing amount of expeditions that are heading to the summit around the same time so he asks other experienced leaders like Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) to team up with his people. Other employees working at the mountain include Helen (Emily Watson) who is in charge of communications from the base camp and Guy Cotter (Sam Worthington) another experienced crew member who is a friend of Rob’s. As hard as they were working to give their clients a memorable experience, there was nothing they could do to anticipate the storm that was heading their way. 

Kormakur had previously directed two very different action flicks starring Mark Wahlberg (Contraband and 2 Guns), but this is more of an epic disaster film with some tense moments of human drama. The cast is brilliant, but as I mentioned before there isn’t enough time to get to know them all. Jason Clarke is the actor who is given more depth and he is allowed to flesh his character, but the rest are simply there as recognizable names: Worthington, Gyllenhaal, Knightley, Hawkes, and Watson don’t have much moments to shine which is a shame because they are talented actors. Perhaps the only other actor we truly get to know beside Clarke is Josh Brolin who gets some more screen time as well. But despite all the big names, the truly breathtaking character here is the Mountain which imposes an immense threat for everyone, even for the professionals who think they are part of it. I was a bit underwhelmed with the movie because I wanted to care more for these characters, but I did enjoy the breathtaking visuals and the marvelous landscape.    

Little Boy (4/10): Little Inspiration and originality

"Do you believe you can do this?”

Little Boy is a family friendly faith-based film, and that usually means it’s going to be overly sentimental and manipulative, which proved to be the case once again here. These films aim so hard at being inspirational, that they end up accomplishing the opposite. Alejandro Monteverde’s film is completely generic and it follows the same beats other movies in this genre tend to hit. From the overbearing narrative which spells out everything that you are about to see and allows you to see the twists coming a mile away, to the cute child actor performance who is impossible not to sympathize with, and the overly heavy handed preachy message that is repeated throughout the movie. Non-demanding audiences who simply want to have a good time with their families will enjoy this because it looks nice, but there is no substance to it and the formula is repeated once again. I didn’t feel uplifted or inspired by its message because it lacked originality. The film forces you to feel a certain way about each character instead of allowing you to make up your own mind about them. It’s a shame because the cinematography was solid and there were some great actors involved, but the producers played it safe and gave us a generic film which will easily be forgotten. If you want to inspire and move your audience, then actually try being inventive and taking risks instead of centering on an overly melodramatic premise.  

The story take place during the Second World War in a beautiful California town. It is narrated by the protagonist who recalls his life during that troublesome period as an 8 year old boy who due to his short height had to deal with the bullying and teasing from other kids his age. Pepper Flynt (Jakob Salvati), who the people in town call Little Boy, has a solid relationship with his father, James (Michael Rapaport). He can ignore all the bullying when he is surrounded by his father’s love and devotion. His mother Emma (Emily Watson) and his older brother London (David Henrie) are all fond of him, but he adores his father above all. Things take a sharp turn for Pepper when James is sent to War and he is left on his own waiting for his father’s return. He is touched by a sermon given by Fr. Oliver (Tom Wilkinson) about the power of faith and how someone with faith the size of a small mustard seed can move a mountain. He and his dad were fans of a comic magician named Ben Eagle (Ben Chaplin) and when he comes to town during a performance, Pepper is invited on the stage as a volunteer and performs a magic trick which convinces him he too has special powers. Confused by this event and Oliver’s message, he puts his faith on his father’s return. Oliver gives him a list of things he must do (feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked, and so on) if he wants his faith to work. At the end of the list Oliver adds one last thing: befriend a Japanese. This because after the Pearl Harbor incident everyone in town was verbally assaulting a Japanese immigrant named Hashimoto (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), including Pepper who was relieved to see some of the bullying heading another direction. The film then centers on this odd pairing between the two and after a series of coincidences and random events Pepper begins to truly believe he has the necessary faith to bring his father back home. But has Oliver gone too far by making him such a promise and giving Pepper so much hope? If the film would’ve cared to explore that question in more depth, we could’ve had something interesting, but instead it settles for the easy way out.  

Despite all the familiar themes this inspirational film tackles, I did have a major problem with its message. The way it handles faith and compares it to something like magic is troublesome. This film tries to do what most religions do, which is tell us that faith has to do with how well we perform. In other words, you need to do a certain thing or follow certain rules if you want faith to work. Which is basically saying that it is all about you and how you perform. I don’t agree at all with that view about faith and find it extremely problematic considering the film is geared towards a faith-based audience. However, I never judge a film for its message so that is not why I’m criticizing the movie. Its fault relies on its generic style and melodramatic storytelling. Talented actors such as Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson are given nothing to do, and even Kevin James is inexplicably in this film playing a role that could have easily been cut out of the film. Jakob Salvati as the lead delivers in charm and sweetness, but we are forced to sympathize with him and that didn’t allow me to enjoy his performance. Little Boy is overly sentimental and that is its greatest fault, but I guess that is what one would expect from family friendly films like this that try too hard to inspire its audience.       

The Theory of Everything (6/10): A conventional biopic that tries to cover too much

“Your glasses are always dirty.”

I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything as I found the love story a bit bland and the biopic in general very conventional and safe. It is well produced and banks on a strong lead performance from Eddie Redmayne, but there is not really much else to the story. Marsh focuses on Hawking’s relationship with his wife and the battle they faced together with his illness, but there is not much more to it and by the end I didn’t feel I had learned anything new about this brilliant man. Marsh has made some interesting documentaries in the past (Project Nim and the far superior Man on Wire), and in a way this film seemed liked one covering one fact after another, but it lacked personality. I never believed the romance at the beginning of the movie; it was all rushed. The film’s greatest flaw is that it tries to cover too long a period in Hawking’s life. It goes from one memorable event in his life to the next without digging under the surface of who this brilliant man really was. I never felt connected with these characters despite their inspirational story. I wasn’t moved by scenes or events in Hawking’s life that should’ve moved me and I think it’s because Marsh was focused on trying to cover all the important moments in his life. The greatest thing about this film is Redmayne’s strong performance who deserves the recognition he has received, but I don’t think there is anything else to it.

I’m still surprised that Anthony McCarten’s adapted screenplay was nominated for the Academy Awards, because I found everything about it very conventional. The screenplay was adapted from Jane Hawking’s autobiographical book, so the film focuses more on their relationship than on Stephen’s accomplishments (although we still get a scene where he receives a standing ovation from his scholars). We are told the story through Jane’s point of view and despite loving this man very much she gets weary of him through the years since he doesn’t accept help from anyone else. Some of my personal conclusions from this film are that his family isn’t portrayed too well (they don’t seem to do anything to help Stephen through his illness) and Stephen himself never seems to be grateful for what Jane is doing for him. Perhaps two reasons why the marriage didn’t work out in the end.

If there is one reason why I would recommend this film to anyone it’s for Eddie Redmayne’s performance alone. It is impressive how well he manages to portray Stephen’s mannerisms, his facial expressions, and his movements. It is a physically demanding performance and Redmayne actually makes you believe he is battling through ALS. It may not be my favorite performance of the year (probably because I wanted to like this character more and get to know who he really was), but it is an incredible one nonetheless. Redmayne will forever be remembered for his role here. Felicity Jones has also received a lot of praise for her performance as Jane. It isn’t nearly as showy as Redmayne’s performance was, but she delivers a strong role. She is a talented actress, but I think she has been better in other films and is being a bit overhyped for her performance here. The rest of the cast only appear as characters in a series of events with very little personality so there wasn’t much Harry Lloyd, David Thewlis, Emily Watson, or Simon McBurney could bring to the film. Redmayne overpowers everyone here and this becomes his movie. He is the only reason why I am recommending this movie which to be honest I found quite boring otherwise. 

My Review: The Book Thief (6/10)

"When life robs you, sometimes you have to rob it back."

Directed by Brian Percival (who is better known for his work in the TV series, Downtown Abbey), The Book Thief, is a film that has divided audiences. Many people seemed to have hated it for being yet another sentimental and tacky melodrama about Nazi Germany, while others found it sweet, inspiring, and touching. I'm not on either side of the spectrum since I didn't hate it, but I didn't think there was anything remarkable about it either. Based on Markus Zusak's novel of the same name and adapted by Michael Petroni there was some strong material to work with but I found the filmmaking lazy at times. First of all I thought we could've done without that terrible narration from Death; every time he spoke it just completely took me out of the film. The other main issue I had with this film is that while everyone is speaking English in Germany, you have the Nazi's speaking in German which made absolutely no sense. Does speaking German make you a Nazi? I thought it just tried to demonize the language. They should have just stuck with one language. Despite these issues I had with the film, I still found it engaging and moving at times. I found it impossible to resist Sophie Nelisse's charm in this film. She is just so sweet and adorable, I enjoyed her performance. Geoffrey Rush gives yet another masterful performance and I'd recommend this movie based on these two performances alone. Rush's character here is very sweet and human, opposed to some of the other roles we've seen him in. Overall I thought this was an enjoyable film despite all the schmaltz and lazy filmmaking moments. 

The film opens with a narration from Death (voiced by Roger Allam) telling us all how we can't escape from meeting him and how wars seem to accelerate this process. He then introduces us to Liesel (Sophie Nelisse), a sweet 9 year old girl who is sent to live with a foster family in a German working class neighborhood. She arrives during the Second World War experiencing many horrors first hand. She's introduced to her foster parents: Hans (Geoffrey Rush), a sweet and loving man, and Rosa (Emily Watson) a stern and hard working lady. A friendly boy named Rudy (Nico Liersch) welcomes Liesel to the neighborhood and plays a key role in her adaptation. Despite missing her mother she bonds with Hans who teaches her how to read and write. Liesel quickly falls in love with books and she begins collecting some when she has a chance. When Hans and Rosa bring in a Jewish refugee to hide out in their home, Liesel bonds with him and spends even more time reading stories to him, but as the war continues the risks involved for hiding refugees grows, and Death is lurking around the corner collecting its victims.

The Book Thief is a film that seems to be aimed towards a young target audience since it portrays the war from the perspective of a young girl. It has its interesting moments, but it also is very melodramatic and manipulative at times while clearly aiming for the heart. The message is pretty much straightforward and simplistic; books are good, wars are bad. Despite hitting those wrong notes at times, I still enjoyed this film and found Rush and Nelisse's performance extremely charming. This film could have been made much better because it's based on strong material, but I was disappointed with the end result.

My Review: War Horse (6/10)

¨Separated by war. Tested by battle. Bound by friendship. ¨

War Horse might be about a miraculous and beautiful horse, but the movie has nothing miraculous about it. It`s a well filmed movie, but the story and the performances are very melodramatic at times. The scenery is gorgeous, but the pacing is slow for a two and a half hour long movie. The Academy seemed to like this Steven Spielberg film more than I did since it received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but despite the excellent performance from the horse (or should I say horses?) this won`t be among my favorite films of the year. Of course it has the typical Spielberg narrative that has made him such a loveable director, but I felt it was way too melodramatic at times. War Horse is based on the novel written by Michael Morpurgo, while the screenplay was adapted by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Bridget Jones`s Diary, and Love Actually). The main protagonist of the story is this beautiful horse (played in the most part by the same horse from Seabiscuit), but the rest of the cast in this film are far from memorable. The War scenes really didn’t impact me at all in the way that Spielberg did in Saving Private Ryan, but I guess he couldn’t go that far if he wanted to make a family film. It does have some strong scenes however that might be difficult to watch (like when the horse gets caught up in the barb wires). War Horse is a good movie, but far from memorable and one I wouldn’t enjoy watching again.

The story takes place during 1914 in a small English town named Devon where a young teen named Albert (Jeremy Irvine) is seen watching the birth of a foal. That foal grows up to be a beautiful strong horse and is taken to an auction to be sold. Devon`s father, a farmer named Ted (Peter Mullan) is mesmerized by the animal and decides to buy it despite it not being a plough horse, but a thoroughbred. Devon is happy about his father’s decision, although his mother, Rose (Emily Watson) is upset because Ted has spent more money than they can afford on an animal that won`t help them in the far. To make matters worse, their landlord (David Thewlis) wants his rent money and demands after the harvest season or else he will take the land away from them. Devon tells his parents not to worry, that he will train the horse and teach it how to plough. Together Devon and the horse, which he names Joey, accomplish the impossible and plough the land in time for the harvest. However, a heavy rain ruins the harvest and everything is lost for Ted and his family. In order to pay the rent he is forced to sell the horse to a soldier, Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) since the country is at the brisk of war against Germany. That is how Joey begins his transition from one owner to the next, and from one band to another, after the English are defeated in a battle and the horse is taken by the Germans. Whoever his owner may be they will soon find out that he is no ordinary horse.

The cast is perhaps one of the weakest links about this movie. I didn’t find the performances very memorable and the drama seemed really forced at times. The best actor by far was the horse. Since the horse switches from one owner to another, there are several characters and different stories and some work better than others. The movie begins very slow, but once the war begins the story picks up at times. The final thirty minutes are really intense and do lift the movie, but it`s too bad it takes so long to pick up. The beginning is really slow and melodramatic and I feared the worst for this film, but thankfully it does get much better and the ending saves the movie. Even the performance from Jeremy Irvine seems to pick up in the second half (I really hated it in the first part). Tom Hiddleston`s role wasn’t very attractive either, I didn’t enjoy his performance, it seemed too forced. My favorite character in this movie was Emilie, a young girl that lived alone with her grandfather who finds the horse in a windmill. She was played by Celine Buckens and her role was hilarious. She has some funny lines, but as most characters she isn’t in this movie for too long. The barbwire scene was also pretty memorable and I loved the way the scene was resolved in such a comedic matter. If only War could be avoided in the same way. In conclusion we learn a lot from this miraculous horse and how animals too suffer in middle of men`s wars and differences. Too bad the pacing and the narrative was a little off, but the film is still worth a watch.

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