My Review: The Two Faces of January (5/10)

“I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

The Two Faces of January opens with a striking beautiful photography that captures our attention immediately. From the very first scene where we meet the main characters while they are touring at the Parthenon in Greece we are drawn by the visuals, and we soon find out that it plays a huge contrast to the underlying darkness of the lead characters. This is a very stylized and gorgeous to look at film, but the characters are hiding several dark secrets under their exterior cool looks. This is a period piece that gets all the technical aspects of the film right, but the narrative lacks suspense. As complex as these characters may seem, there is very little that attracts us to them. Despite the fantastic interplay and chemistry between Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Issac, the narrative does little to raise our sympathy for these characters. If the screenplay could have been more engaging this could have been a fantastic film because it is aesthetically gorgeous. There are several twists and reveals along the way that are dark and mark a huge contrast to the breathtaking background. Unfortunately, The Two Faces of January is one of those films where the style seems to be more relevant than the story. 

This is Hossein Amini’s directorial debut, but considering he wrote the screenplay for one of my favorite recent films (Drive), I had high expectations for this film. I’m also a huge fan of Mortensen and Isaac’s work so I expected to have a great time, but despite their solid performances I never cared for the characters nor the suspense the film was trying to raise. As a thriller it never really works, but the cinematography makes up for most of the film’s flaws. I also enjoyed the costume design, because it was very stylized and it set the right mood giving it an authentic retro vibe. The score however did feel a bit manipulative and forceful at times. As much as it was pleasurable to look at this film I couldn’t help but feel there was something missing. A thriller without suspense doesn’t really work for me and that was my main issue with this film. There is also an underlying father and son relationship that the film sort of wants to explore, but never really does go beyond dealing with the beginning admirations and ultimate disappointments.

My Review: The Road (8/10)

"I told the boy when you dream about bad things happening, it means you're still fighting and you're still alive."

When trying to come up with one adjective to describe The Road there is no better word than gritty. The Road isn't your usual entertaining post-apocalyptic film, it is much darker and realistic. It's not an easy watch because the tone of the film is very depressing. There are some moments of hope where the main characters find some peace, but it is only temporary as their desperation begins creeping in once they are confronted with their reality. It's a film that will haunt you, but I can't think of another post-apocalyptic film that feels so real and authentic. There are still some survivors left in the midst of all the devastation, but their humanity is gone. Even the main character has lost most of his humanity and capacity for compassion; it's only through his boy that he continues to fight and the few acts of mercy he shows are because of the boy. The two lead performances are what ultimately hold this film together, but the cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe also helped set the tone for this dark and gritty film. The grey and empty landscapes are gorgeously shot. Director, John Hillcoat (Lawless), has made a depressive but authentic futuristic film, and his greatest achievement was staying true to Cormac McCarthy's novel. 

This is the third film adapted from McCarthy's novels that I've had the privilege to experience and despite the fact that they've been directed by different people I've still enjoyed all of them. They all seem to have a gritty tone. In this film we follow a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they walk across the desolated America heading to a warmer climate in the south. Along the way they face hunger, cold weather, and a few surviving lawless cannibals. Humanity has lost all hope and the few survivors have abandoned their morals in order to survive. The father constantly reminds his son that they are the good guys and that he must learn how to survive in this desolated land. We get some flashbacks of the father's past as he recalls brighter days with his wife (Charlize Theron), and in these flashbacks we also learn what happened to her. Some of the encounters the father and son experience along the way will challenge their spirits and there only goal is to survive another day.

The gritty tone of this film slowly sucks you in emotionally and engages you. You feel the cold and hunger these characters are experiencing and ultimately you find yourself submersed in their desolated world. Viggo Mortensen is a force to reckon with, he gives yet another terrific performance, and he carries this film. McPhee also delivers a strong performance playing the young and scared son who can't quite understand the lack of humanity. His father constantly reminds him that they must keep the fire within burning. Their relationship is the true core of this film and the film succeeds thanks to their believable performances. Despite the slow pacing, the film is well crafted and it manages to hold your attention.  It's not an easy watch and it's not a film you will want to visit again, but it is a well crafted film.

My Review: A Dangerous Method (5/10)

¨Experiences like this, however painful, unnecessary and inevitable, without them, how can we know life? ¨

David Cronenberg`s A Dangerous Method was one of my most anticipated films of 2011 for several reasons: First of all I loved Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen`s first two collaborations together in A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. Those two films were among my favorite when they were released. Mortensen has always worked really well with Cronenberg and I had high expectations for his role as Sigmund Freud in this film. Add Micheal Fassbender, who has turned everything he touches into gold this year; to the mix and you have yourself one of the most anticipated films of the year. I was really looking forward to what these three men could do together alongside the beautiful Keira Knightley. I`m not familiar with psychoanalysis, but I do tend to enjoy the subject matter somewhat so I was really looking forward to this movie. Perhaps those high expectations were my downfall because this was a completely different movie from the previous two that Cronenberg had directed. This was more focused on the dialogue and relationship between the characters. This isn’t an action film with shocking scenes; it is more of a reflective film that analyzes the relationship between Freud, Jung, and Spielrein. I just felt the pace of the movie was too slow and that there wasn’t enough time between the transitions to further develop each character and their relationship together. I felt like I had seen an incomplete film, or that several scenes were missing. The film focuses more on the relationship between Jung and his Russian patient Spielrein, and not so much on Freud, so that was something else I wish would`ve been different.

The film is based on John Kerr`s book of the same name, and from Hampton`s play ¨The Talking Cure.¨ Hampton himself adapted the screenplay for this movie. The story takes place during the early 1900`s in Europe. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) is a psychiatrist and firm believer in Freud`s recent theories. When a young Russian patient named Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) is sent to him at his office in Switzerland, he finds the opportunity to apply Freud`s methods on her. Jung has amazing results and ends up helping Spielrein and bringing her back to normal society life. Spielrein suffered from some sort of dementia, but thanks to Jung she is able to return to her medical studies. Despite her rehabilitation, Jung continues to treat her, and he writes to Freud (Viggo Mortensen) telling him about his amazing results. Jung is invited to Vienna by Freud and together they have an interesting thirteen hour conversation about their discoveries and theories. They begin an interesting friendship and write to each other over the years about their new findings. They do have their discrepancies in some areas since Freud only is willing to point out the problem, but Jung wants to go further and try to help the patients recover and not just single out their problems. The movie also focuses on Jung`s relationship with Spielrein as she becomes his lover presenting him with an internal conflict since she is his patient, and there is also the fact that he is married to Emma (Sarah Gadon).

The main problem I had with this movie was the pacing the film had. Despite being only 100 minutes long, the movie does feel much longer and it seems to be missing something. I felt like I was seeing an incomplete picture. After a while the dialogues and conversations got boring, despite the fact that the performances were all incredible. Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen are both terrific actors and they shone in the scenes in which they were together, but the problem was that they didn’t share too much screen time together. They spent most of the time corresponding through letters. The main protagonists were Fassbender and Knightley and unfortunately her character wasn’t very fascinating. She did give a good performance, but I just felt at first her dementia was really distracting and exaggerated. It was weird to see her rehabilitated so quickly. I wanted to see more of Viggo Mortensen and less of the others. Vincent Cassel had a small but great supporting role and it was he who mostly influenced Jung into wanting to have an affair with his patient. My expectations were set way to high for this movie and by the end I was disappointed. I hope Mortensen and Cronenberg return to their previous work and continue to collaborate together in a similar project. One that will be more climactic than this film which at moments felt like nothing really interesting was happening.

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