Woman in Gold (4/10): A dull take on an interesting subject matter.

“If life is a race, you beat me to the finish. But if life is a boxing match, I'm the last one standing.”

Based on true events, Woman in Gold is one of those films that ended up being far less interesting than the actual story it was trying to tell. If The Monuments Men failed to appeal to a wide audience I wonder what the producers of this film were thinking. It too centers on stolen artwork during the Second World War, but it takes us through the litigation process that Maria Altmann went through to try to regain what rightfully belonged to her family. At least The Monuments Men focused on a group of men trying to save famous artwork from being destroyed with a touch of comedy, but Woman in Gold is more of a dragged out drama with forced sentimentality. The general premise might be similar to that film, but in a way it also can be compared to Philomena considering the lead characters are played by an unlikely duo. In The Woman in Gold the pairing is between Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds is Randy Schoenberg, a young attorney who gets involved with a case that Maria Altmann (Mirren) presents him with. She’s a Jewish refugee with a wealthy Austrian background. When the Nazis occupied Austria she had to watch how all these valuable art pieces were taken away from her family by these soldiers. Among them was one of Gustav Klimt’s famous paintings, a portrait of her aunt known as Woman in Gold. Now almost have a century later she asks Randy to represent her and help her get the painting back which is held at an Austrian Museum. When Randy discovers the painting is worth more than one hundred million dollars, he doesn’t hesitate to help her and so their unlikely relationship takes off as does their difficult task. 

The chemistry between Reynolds and Mirren is solid, but I wouldn’t say it comes close to being as charming as Coogan and Dench were in Philomena. The pacing in this film was tedious and I found most of the dramatic moments manipulative and overly sentimental. As good as an actress Mirren is, she wasn’t given strong material to work with. She makes some witty and sassy remarks during a couple of confrontation scenes with some of the Austrian diplomats, but that is about it. Reynolds gets the look and the style of the 90’s spot on, but there wasn’t much to his character. I felt like this film worked basically as a timeline where we are introduced to important events, but we never really got to know these characters or how they related with one another. Fortunately the timeline wasn’t told in chronological order, we get several flashbacks to when Maria was a child and to when she was a young woman fleeing from the Nazi officials, so at least we get some parallel action scenes. I’d say that those flashbacks were the most entertaining part of the movie. Tatiana Maslany played the young Maria Altmann and she delivers the best performance in the film. There is a great scene where she and her husband are fleeing from the officials, but that was one of the only few scenes where I felt engaged with the film. The story is a fascinating one, but one that I would’ve been better off reading about considering the film only seemed interested in telling the story rather than letting us get to know the characters. 

Despite having a talented supporting cast, the screenplay by Alexi Kaye Campbell fails to give these characters any life. Take Katie Holmes for instance, who plays Randy’s wife. She is given nothing to do except play the role of the wife without any dimension whatsoever to her character. The film fails to explore these dynamics between the characters because it’s only interested in presenting the facts. Daniel Bruhl is also underused as he only seems to be in the film to remind Randy and Maria what a difficult task they are going to have despite the help he provides for them. The same can be said about the rest of the supporting cast including Max Irons, Charles Dance, and Jonathan Pryce. The film tries so hard to be about something important (mostly about being able to reconcile with the past) but Simon Curtis’s film is unfortunately so dull that it fails to do so. It doesn’t bring anything new to the familiar David versus Goliath tale and despite taking so much time to remind us what a difficult task this is going to be, the resolution seemed way too simple at the end. There are far better films that tackle the subject matter in a less manipulative way.      

My Review: The Giver (2/10)

“Our community was built on rules. Differences weren’t allowed.”

It’s not an easy feat to make Meryl Streep look bad in a film, but The Giver manages to do so with this simplistic and dull film. Based on the best selling novel written by Lois Lowry, this adaptation is yet another film geared towards a young audience centering on a dystopian society. The plot centers on a community where everything is apparently perfect because since no one actually feels anything there is no pain. Everyone has a specific role in society and must do as they are told. The similarities with Divergent came up more than once while I was watching this and unfortunately The Giver makes Divergent seem like a masterpiece. I have never read the novel, but I doubt it is close to being anything like this film because it is very bland and predictable. For a film that is attacking sameness it really doesn’t do anything to try to stand out from other films in the YA department. The social critique seemed like it was written by a young teenager who was spelling out everything for the audience, and there really isn’t anything deep or thought-provoking about it either. These themes have been explored in the past in much better films. Perhaps I’m just tired of the teen dystopia genre, but this easily wins my vote for one of the worst films of the year. The only good thing I can say about this film directed by Phillip Noyce is that the cinematography is gorgeous so at least the movie looks good, but there really isn’t much going on story wise. There really isn’t much more I want to say about this film because I felt it was a complete waste of time, but I’m surprised it has worked for so many people. 

Despite how much I like Merly Streep and Jeff Bridges I didn’t really enjoy their performances here. Alexander Skarsgard and Katie Holmes may not be considered amongst the best actors out there, but I usually enjoy their performances. It wasn’t the case in this film either and I don’t think they added anything to the film. Some actors can elevate the material at times, but there wasn’t anyone who could’ve done it here. Brenton Thwaites plays the lead character in this film and he doesn’t do a bad job. Odeya Rush and Cameron Monaghan’s characters aren’t really developed, but I guess it is sort of the point considering they live in a society where there is no feeling and everyone is expected to act in the same way. I never really got engaged with the film or the themes it was trying to explore.

My Review: Jack and Jill (2/10)

¨His twin sister is coming for the holidays…and it ain`t pretty.¨

Adam Sandler stars in yet another disastrous comedy this year, this time playing two characters: a male and female version of himself. This is just one of those movies Sandler could make with his eyes closed. It requires no dedication from him whatsoever and I don’t blame him. Why try to change what you do when it is having results? It doesn’t matter that the critics don’t enjoy his films because the audience seems to keep on coming back for more. I find most of his films pretty much alike and haven’t enjoyed one of them in a long time, but it doesn’t matter because Sandler fans will continue to support his movies and fill theater seats. One thing is for sure, Sandler has a lot of fun at work. He probably has a blast making these easy movies which don’t have anything memorable about them, but sometimes are enough for a few laughs. I think I enjoyed Just go With It a little more than this movie, but I really had a hard time deciding which film was worse. Director Dennis Dugan has worked many times with Sandler in the past beginning with Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, and ending with Grown Ups and Just Go With It. They seem to be making the same films over and over again and repeating the same jokes, but Sandler has his fan base and he stays true to them. I enjoyed his earlier films, but have stopped doing so in recent years. The jokes have gotten old and there are many other better comedies coming out these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if this film actually wins every Razzie Award it`s been nominated for, including Worst Picture.

Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler) is a successful commercial producer who has a happy life alongside his wife, Erin (Katie Holmes), and two children, Sofia (Elodie Tougne) and Gary (Rohan Chand). They are expecting Jack`s twin sister, Jill (Adam Sandler), annual visit for Thanksgiving. Jack doesn’t get along with Jill very much although she thinks the best of him and misses the old days when they spent all day together. The truth is Jill is very loud and obnoxious and Jack enjoys his normal and quiet family life. What should have been only a weekend visit ends up being a long one since Jill feels lonely after her mother has passed away. She ends up staying and things get out of hand at times. In the meantime, Jack needs to sign Al Pacino (played by himself) for a commercial and so decides to try to convince him to accept the offer. Pacino ends up falling in love with Jill, but she wants nothing to do with him. Jack tries to use her in order to convince him to do the commercial but things begin to get out of hand. The film doesn’t really have much of a plot as we have to sit down and see a Sandler double feature but that is pretty much all I can say about the plot synopsis.

I don’t see how anyone could actually enjoy this film, but I`m guessing most Sandler fans will like this considering they get to see two Sandler characters. The highlight of the films might be the special cameo appearances as we get to see Shaq, David Spade, Norm MacDonald, Dana Carvey, Regis Philbin, Dan Patrick, Drew Carey, John McEnroe, and Johnny Depp among many others. I don’t know how Sandler gets all these people to show up in his movies but somehow he manages too. This may be Al Pacino`s worst role to date, I guess he just wanted to try something new, but he looked absolutely ridiculous in this film. Katie Holmes was alright, she didn’t have to do much, and her character wasn’t funny so she just played a safe role. Eugenio Derbez was the best thing about the movie. His character, Felipe the gardener, was by far the funniest thing about Jack and Jill. There is not much more I can say about this, It is really a lazy comedy, but I can see how all these actors might have had such a fun time playing together and making easy money. I was tempted to stop watching this movie right after it started, but I decided to suck it up and stay to the end. My favorite scene was when Jill was working out in the cruise with the two beefed up men and making them look bad. I really laughed hard at that scene, probably because I was just too bored with the rest of this terrible movie.

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My Review: Don`t Be Afraid of the Dark (4/10)

¨We want you! ¨

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is the latest scary movie to once again fall short in what I consider a dying genre. Horror movies nowadays suffer from very poor scripts, the stories are really predictable because we`ve seen so many horror films, and they all rely heavily on special effects. Very few horror films actually manage to scare audiences, and most simply try to shock. At least this film isn`t gory, but there aren`t any scares either. The main problem I had with this movie were the villains: small Gremlin looking fairies. They just weren’t scary at all; they never seemed to present a threat. They are more funny looking than anything else. What really disappointed me the most about this movie however was the script because I was expecting more from Guillermo del Toro (Laberinto del Fauno and Hellboy). The story was actually weak and by the time the mystery about what was in the house disappeared so did my expectations. The mystery only lasts about 20 minutes and then we have to sit through 70 minutes of pointless storytelling. This was Troy Nixey`s directorial debut and in my opinion he failed big time. This film was actually based on a 1973 made for television movie of the same title which was directed by John Newland. It`s really hard nowadays to find an interesting horror flick that won’t disappoint. We don’t need to be warned about fearing the dark as long as these movies keep on failing to scare its audiences.

The movie opens with a strange murder that takes place in the large basement of a house. A famous painter named Blackwood (Garry McDonald) calls his housemaid (Edwina Ritchard) to come down to the basement where he patiently waits for her and kills her. He asks her to forgive him, but he has to do it in order to get his missing boy back. Some creatures that live under a fireplace seem to demand teeth in exchange for the boy`s life so Blackwood takes her teeth and offers them to the creatures, but instead of getting the boy back he is pulled down the fireplace and disappears. Many decades later a couple, Alex (Guy Pearce) and Kim (Katie Holmes), decides to buy the old house and restore it. While working on the house Alex`s ex wife sends his estranged daughter, Sally (Bailee Madison), to live with them. Sally isn’t happy about ¨being sold¨ by her mother and she isn`t very fond about Kim either. Sally is a very lonely and depressed girl, but she begins hearing voices in the house. One day while she is walking around the backyard she discovers a basement and Alex decides to open the sealed up room. Once they unlock the basement, some small creatures begin to haunt Sally in the darkness. Of course no one believes Sally since she has been so affected by trying to adapt to her new home. Since no one is willing to help her, she decides she will have to face her fear alone.

The story actually seemed kind of interesting at first, but as I said, once the mystery was over in the opening minutes of the film so was my interest. The story just goes downhill from there on with very little thing making sense. I was even disappointed with the ending of the film (in my opinion it didn’t make sense at all, but I can`t give anything away). It was good to see Katie Holmes back in a lead role and she did what she could with a weak script. Guy Pierce is a good actor, but this won`t be one he will be remembered for. As for Bailee Madison she is one of my favorite child actors. She is so adorable on screen, but this role simply wasn’t for her. She is much better in comedic roles, than in scary movies. The role of a depressive and sad kid wasn`t for her. I liked her much better in Just Go With It (a terrible movie starring Adam Sandler, but she was the best thing about it) and Brothers (a drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman). I actually decided to watch this film because I wanted to see what she could do in a horror movie (besides the fact that I wanted to see Katie Holmes back in action). Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark fails in so many levels and I was really disappointed. I really hope a good scary movie comes out before the year ends. I think the last horror movie I enjoyed was Paranormal Activity (and it`s been two years already).

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