My Review: Labor Day (4/10)

¨I don't think losing my father broke my mother's heart, but rather losing love itself.¨

I admire director Jason Reitman's work (Juno and Up in the Air being my favorites), but I have to admit his screenplay for Labor Day was a mess. I really found it difficult to believe that any of the characters here would behave the way they did, and that took me completely out of the movie. There were some awkward and ridiculous decisions made by each one of the characters during some point of the movie that never allowed me to sit back and enjoy it. The premise is so out there that neither the suspense nor the romance worked. At the end, Reitman tried to save the film by giving it a schmaltzy and sweet ending, but it felt completely out of place. The only thing the film succeeds in is in making me want to go try some of that peach pie they made. Reitman knows how to place and move the camera, every shot was at the right place, but the senseless story hurt the film. Not even talented actors like Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet were able to make their characters believable, and the narration from Tobey Maguire was painful to listen to. Not for one moment was I able to buy into the scenario (a guy escapes from prison, and in order to hide from the police, forces a mother and her son to take him in to their home and then teaches them how to bake a pie and play baseball).  

The screenplay was adapted by Jason Reitman from Joyce Maynard's novel, which I have never read, but if it's anything like the film I plan to stay away from it. The film centers on a 13 year old boy named Henry Wheeler (narrated by Tobey Maguire as an adult, but played by Gattlin Griffith as the teenager) who lives with his depressed mother. Ever since her husband abandoned her, Adele (Kate Winslet) avoids going out and remains secluded indoors as much as possible. Henry spends most of his time with her, although some Sunday's he spends with his father, Gerald (Clark Gregg), and his new family. Henry and Adele's life takes an unexpected turn when one weekend morning they go out shopping and encounter an escaped prisoner. Frank (Josh Brolin) forces Adele and Henry to take him to their home where he can hideout and recover from a wound after escaping from a hospital where the prisoner was being treated for appendicitis. At first Adele and Henry are frightened of course, but Frank treats them well and even ends up doing most of the house work. The events that take place during the Labor Day weekend end up changing all their lives forever.

The film tries to balance the suspense and romance, but due to the premise it never seems believable. For instance their's Frank who has to force this family to take him to their home where he should be hiding out and recovering, but he ends up cleaning the place and teaching Henry how to play baseball in the yard. He also teaches them how to cook pies, of course a necessary plot point in order for the audience to forgive Frank for literally taking the family hostage. It also gives the film an excuse to allow Frank and Adele to fall in love with each other, but that seemed completely implausible considering the situation. I never bought into the story and it all felt forced and awkward. Even the friendship blossoming between Henry and the girl from Chicago that had just arrived felt awkward and every single conversation they had felt like an excuse to build unnecessary suspense. I don't consider myself cynical and I tend to enjoy some romantic dramas, but this was one that never felt authentic and where every situation seemed improbable. Labor Day is an unlikely romance that simply didn't work for me and wasted the talents of Winslet and Brolin. The third act is better than the first two, but it just comes a bit too late and it is founded on a relationship I never believed in the first place.

My Review: Divergent (6/10)

"I don't want to be just one thing. I can't be. I want to be brave, and I want to be selfless, intelligent, and honest and kind. Well, I'm still working on kind."

Let me start off by saying that I had no prior knowledge of Veronica Roth's novel which this film is based on so I can't make any claims on how faithful the adaptation is. Although I will say that 5 minutes into the film I kind of got a feeling that this futuristic dystopian story had some similarities to The Hunger Games which made me wonder if Divergent was not yet another one of Suzanne Collins' novel adaptations. The main reasons why this film was among my most anticipated films for 2014 were director Neil Burger, for his unique work in Limitless and The Illusionist, and Shailene Woodley who has been terrific in just about every film I've seen her in. So I was greatly disappointed when I discovered that Divergent, which had a heavy message aimed towards young adolescents about not being labelled or categorized and discovering who you really were by following your own path in life, was being a bit hypocritical in its approach considering it can easily be categorized as yet another generic and formulaic teen romantic adventure film full of cliches. This was far from Burger's previous films which I found unique, perhaps due to their indie approach. However having said all this, I still found Divergent entertaining enough to mildly recommend it thanks in most part to the Shailene Woodley's lead performance. I'm not Divergent's target audience, but I think adolescents and young teenagers will love this film and their expectation will be fulfilled. They are the only reason why  the planned sequels will get to be made, but the truth of the matter is that this is a much lesser film than The Hunger Games and will easily be forgotten in time.

Vanessa Taylor and Evan Daugherty adapted the screenplay from Roth's novel setting the story in a futuristic dystopian Chicago where people live confined inside wired walls. They are also divided into five factions based on their virtues. Their is Abnegation who represent the selfless, Dauntless the brave, Erudite the intelligent, Candor the honest, and Amity the peaceful. The Abnegation faction are the ones in charge of governing the city considering they are selfless and always put others first. They are merciful people. Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) and her brother, Caleb (Ansel Elgort) have been raised by their parents, Andrew (Tony Goldwyn) and Natalie (Ashely Judd), in this faction, but when they turn 16 they are free to choose the faction they feel they belong with. Before they decide they must take a test which basically tells them what faction they really belong to, but they are free to decide on their own. Everyone always fits into one faction, but if you make a wrong choice you could end up factionless (homeless). When Tris takes the test she discovers she's one of the few people who is divergent (meaning she has basically all the virtues from every faction), but she must keep it to herself because these people don't fit in to this dystopian society where being different is viewed as something dangerous. When the day comes for Tris and Caleb to make their decision she ends up choosing Dauntless, who are basically in charge of the security and enforcing order in the city. Knowing that faction comes before family she must bid them farewell, and her training with Dauntless begins. At first she doesn't fit in due to the extreme physical and intense psychological tests that their instructors, Four (Theo James) and Eric (Jai Courtney), make them go through. If she doesn't pass the initiation program she will be sent with the factionless, but at the same time if they discover she is divergent, she could be killed so the adventure begins (and of course the romance as well).

I enjoyed the performance from the young actors in this film and I think Woodley had great chemistry with James. A lot of people had issues with his performance, but I thought he was very believable and pulled it off well. The cast elevate this film and make the film's extended running time worth the while. There are some beautiful scenes that work really well in Divergent, I loved the cinematography and the dream sequences were probably the highlight of the film. There was also a scene where Tris went down a canopy line through the destroyed buildings that looked pretty cool. The story is formulaic and has its flaws. It felt melodramatic towards the end and tries too hard to leave audiences hooked for the sequel. The first part of the film suffers for taking to long to set things up and introducing each character, but once we are with Tris in Dauntless as she goes through the initiation process the film picks up. The film also fails to engage the audience as to why the divergent are so dangerous to their society, but it all seems to rely on the message the film is trying to give to young teenagers. It is a metaphor playing on the fear of adolescents of finding their place in society and discovering who they really are. It wasn't the film I was hoping for, but I am feeling merciful today so I will give it a passing grade.

My Review: Carnage (6/10)

¨A new comedy of no manners.¨

Roman Polanski is a great director, there is no denying his trajectory (Rosemary`s Baby, Chinatown, The Pianist), and his latest film, The Ghost Writer, was amongst my favorite movies of last year, but Carnage was a bit of a disappointment for me. Perhaps I was expecting more going into this movie considering Polanski was directing it and knowing it had a spectacular cast: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz. Carnage was nowhere near as good as I thought it would be, but it still isn`t a bad movie. It has some witty dialogues, several funny scenes, and of course great performances. There is nothing wrong with the cast; they all did a great job with their characters and Jodie Foster should receive an Oscar nomination for her role; the problem I had was mainly with the story. It takes place entirely in an apartment building and the conversations made me feel so awkward and unsteady that I couldn`t wait for the couple to leave the room. They seem to continue going on in circles criticizing one another, while slowly escalating their tones. Of course there are several really funny moments and John C. Reilly steals most laughs, but the film just felt too simplistic. Another problem I had with it was the length; it lasts less than 80 minutes. I suspect Carnage worked much better in the theater since it was based on the play written by Yasmina Reza (The God of Carnage), but it just didn’t translate really well in the big screen. Reza and Polanski both worked in the adaptation of the script. Carnage is a funny, simple movie, but not very memorable.

The premise of the movie is pretty simple. We have two couples that decide to meet at their New York apartment after their kids had a big fight and one of them lost two teeth in the process. On the one hand we have Penelope (Jodie Foster) and Michael (John C. Reilly) Longstreet who`s child (Ethan) was the victim, and on the other we have Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Alan Cowan (Christoph Waltz) who`s child (Zachary) was responsible for beating the other with a stick. At first they decide to meet cordially and try to solve the issue in a friendly matter, but the tone begins to escalate after Penelope asks the Cowan`s if they could bring Zachary over to apologize for the incident. Nancy says she could bring her son over, but Alan has no intention of coming back since he sees the entire issue pointless. All he cares for is getting back to work and that is why he is constantly on the phone. Penelope on the other hand wants to solve the issue peacefully, but she is more of an idealist than a realist. The entire conversation begins to heat up and after a couple of drinks the violent words begin to cross from one point of the room to the other. The entire movie takes place inside this apartment, although in the beginning we get to see the incident between the kids in the park from afar.

Carnage is a movie that points out human behavior. While we`re kids we seem to have no trouble at expressing our feelings and emotions. Kids fight all the time. When we grow up and become adults it seems like we leave those child ways behind; or at least we try to contain our emotions and we put on our masks to act like everything is fine. That is the case with both couples in the movie. They meet in order to solve a conflict that began with their kids, but they blow it way out of proportions after their own masks become falling off. Adults can be violent as well, perhaps they won`t grab a stick and hit someone in the face, but they do curse at each other and begin a verbal war. Carnage is a verbal war that begins cordial and ends with violent outbursts and infantile behavior. We try to act like adults, but when we reach our boiling point we end up acting worse than the kids. Perhaps the only character that never wears a mask in Carnage is Alan who always shows his disinterest in the entire situation. At times I felt the same way he did towards the movie, but I did enjoy the witty dialogue at others. All these characters were really unlikeable people and as the minutes went by they just got worse. The performances were really great despite the fact that we could care less for the characters. Carnage isn’t a bad movie, it`s funny, but it won`t rank among Polanski`s best work. If you’re a fan of him or any of these actors than you might want to check this movie out.

  

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My Review: Contagion (8/10)

¨It`s figuring us out faster than we`re figuring it out.¨

The first thing I wanted to do after the movie was over was to wash my hands and get disinfected. Contagion is a great thriller about an epidemic that is spreading around the world and taking millions of lives while at the same time spreading panic and fear everywhere. The film is a great case study on human behavior and it felt very authentic (especially after the Swine-flu scare that spread over the globe a couple of years ago). Some may complain due to the pace of the film or the multiple stories that are going on that don`t let you focus on any of the characters, but I really enjoyed it and thought Steven Soderbergh made the right decision by focusing on the virus and letting it be the true central character as we see it spread throughout different parts of the world and affect almost everyone in the same way. The virus and the fear combined together produced sufficient thrills for me despite the slow pace of the film, and I really enjoyed the script from Scott Z. Burns who had previously collaborated with Soderbergh and Matt Damon in the 2009 comedy The Informant. It`s very difficult to typecast director Soderbergh since he makes a wide variety of films and it`s almost impossible to compare his works due to the variety of his projects, but I would have to say Contagion is the most similar to his Oscar winning film Traffic due to all the multilayered plots that were going on. In Traffic the main character was the drugs, while in Contagion it`s the virus. Out of Sight remains my favorite Soderbergh film however.

The movie begins with Day 2 of the virus where we see a sick woman named Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is travelling from Chicago to Minneapolis. She had been on a business trip to Hong Kong but spent a few hours in Chicago. Once she arrives home, her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) finds her really ill and decides to take her to the hospital after she suffers a convulsion. Apparently some guy in Hong Kong died from similar symptoms, and so did someone in London, Japan, and Chicago. The virus seemed to have started somewhere in Hong Kong, but it is spreading all over the world. Some doctors in the U.S. Center for Disease Control decide to investigate what could have caused the deaths. Dr. Ellis Cheever (Lawrence Fishburne) is in charge of the investigation, and he sends Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to Minneapolis in order to try to pick up as much information as she can and see how Beth`s death could be related to the one in Chicago and across the globe. Erin has an interview with Mitch who seems to be immune, but he won`t take chances with his daughter Jory (Anna Jacoby-Heron) and overprotects her. Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle), who also works for the Center, is in charge of trying to find a vaccine or a cure. Meanwhile the World Health Organization decides to send one of their own to Hong Kong to try to point out where the virus could have begun. Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) arrives to the populated city and begins her investigation with the help of a local named Sun Feng (Chin Han). Everyone is working against the clock as the virus continues to spread over the world at an alarming rate, and conspiracy theory-blog writer Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) doesn’t help control the chaos as he complains about the government working alongside pharmaceutical companies to make a profit.

There are so many different stories going on that it can be hard to track what is going on if you aren´t paying attention. Everything happens so fast, and the urgency has to do with how quick the virus begins to act and kill people. Many characters or stories get sidelined at times, but that is ok because the main character is the virus itself and it is everywhere. Soderbergh makes sure we get this point across by filming a lot of close up shots of people shaking hands or touching objects that someone else later picks up. The threat is eminent and everywhere. In a way Contagion is a disaster movie, but it is different from most films which usually tend to take an all-action approach or that focus on a few characters. In Contagion there are so many characters and stories going on that some don`t even get a resolution, but it is ok because we find a resolution to the main character: the virus. I know some might find this difficult to deal with and would have wished for the story to have focused on one character, but that isn`t the way Soderbergh works. The only downside to this is that some great actors such as John Hawkes, Marion Cotillard, Elliott Gould, and Bryan Cranston don`t get enough screen time and their talents seem underused. It really doesn’t matter because Contagion is a smart and entertaining thriller well worth a watch. 

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