Immortals

Immortals - Dir. Tarsem Singh (2011)

"Today, we are offered something we would never have. Today, we fight for honor!"

Tarsem Singh's films may be a narrative mess, but they pack a visual wallop. Singh melds his unique style to the legends of Greek mythology for Immortals. He cites influences as varied as Caravaggio and Baz Luhrmann though most movie-goers will see it as 300 meets Clash of the Titans.

The evil King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) seeks vengeance against the gods for ignoring his prayers and allowing his family to die. His armies lay waste to all of Greece in search of the Epirus Bow, a weapon of mass destruction that has the power to free the Titans imprisoned under Mount Tartarus. The only mortal who can stop them is Theseus (Henry Cavill), the son of a peasant woman murdered by King Hyperion. Theseus escapes and finds allies with fellow slave Stavros (Stephen Dorff) and the virgin oracle Phaedra (Freida Pinto).

Immortals is a feast for the eyes if you find its brown, earthy tones to be appetizing. There's a definite Zack Snyder feel with action sequences punctuated by slow motion. At times, the film is grimy and grisly, particularly a fight scene between Theseus and the Minotaur (played by former pro wrestler Robert Maillet aka Kurrgan), re-imagined as a massive soldier wearing a helmet shaped like a bull's head. At other times, it's downright garish, particularly when it comes to the realm of the gods. Working under the assumption that omnipotent beings wouldn't want to look like old bearded guys, the Greek pantheon are portrayed as vain Calvin Klein models. Each one is dressed as a golden gladiator on their way to the discotheque. Casting towards youth means you lack the gravitas possessed by veteran actors such as Sir Laurence Olivier or Liam Neeson. Luke Evans (who appeared briefly in Clash as Apollo) is solid as Zeus, but the others (Isabel Lucas as Athena, Kellan Lutz as Poseidon) don't do much, except stand around and look pretty.

Zeus has decreed the gods shall not directly intervene with the affairs of the mortals. In the end, that's exactly what they do, providing a deus ex machina for the climactic battle against the Titans. The Titans themselves hardly live up to the moniker. They're more like zombies with really ashy skin and finned helmets.

This is Henry Cavill's first leading role in a major blockbuster. He has the good looks and the size to be an action hero, but we may have to wait until Man of Steel to get a better feel for his skills as a thespian. Mickey Rourke makes the one-dimensional villain entertaining simply by being Mickey Rourke. Of all the characters, Hyperion has the most ludicrous costume, horned headgear as if he were the kid from Where the Wild Things Are fully grown and in a permanent roid rage.

Immortals should only be enjoyed as a campy throwback to the sword and sandals pictures that dotted the B-movie landscape of 1960's Italy.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Miral

Miral - Dir. Julian Schnabel (2011)

Miral courted controversy before it was even released. A Jewish filmmaker telling a story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the Palestinian point of view was bound to be a hot button topic. The film faced protests from Jewish groups during its world premiere at the United Nations' General Assembly Hall. Director Julian Schnabel sent the script to the Israeli Defense Force in order to gain permission to use certain locations. Their response was that helping Schnabel make Miral would be the equivalent of helping Hitler make a movie out of Mein Kampf.

Schnabel began his career as a painter in the New York art scene before making his directorial debut with 1996's Basquiat, based on the life of one of Schnabel's contemporaries, the graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Schnabel's last film was 2007's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a masterful and poetic picture based on the memoirs of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a journalist who becomes paralyzed and only able to communicate with his left eye. It is a disappointment that Schnabel's follow-up is such a muddled and didactic affair.

Miral is adapted from the semi-autobiographical novel by Rula Jebreal, a journalist of Italian and Palestinian descent who was also Schnabel's girlfriend at the time. The film opens in 1948 in Jerusalem with the founding of the Dar El Tifl orphanage by Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass), who opened a shelter for children orphaned by the conflict between Arab and Israeli forces. Husseini accepts donations from philanthropists, but none from any governments for fear of being beholden to them. From there, we meet Nadia (Yasmine Al Massri), a tortured woman who escaped from an abusive home at a young age and has tried to drown her sorrows with alcohol. She is thrown into prison after assaulting a woman on the bus. Her cellmate, Fatima (Ruba Blal) is a former nurse who was arrested for planting a bomb in a crowded theater. In a stylized sequence, Fatima slips the explosives under her seat as the audience remains riveted to a rape scene from Roman Polanski's Repulsion.

Nadia marries Fatima's brother, Jamal (Alexander Siddig), and the two have a daughter named Miral. However, Nadia still carries the emotional scars of a troubled childhood and when tragedy strikes Jamal enrolls a 7-year old Miral in Husseini's institution. Jumping ahead to 1988, a 17-year old Miral (Freida Pinto) is awakened to the violence in the West Bank. Husseini warns students to not get involved lest they endanger everyone at the orphanage. But, Miral falls for the charismatic Hani (Omar Metwally), an activist in the PLO with an eye for an eye mentality.

Schnabel manages to tell the story of Miral in such a disjointed fashion that it drains away any power it might have held. It appears he could not decide whether to tell an intimate character study or a sweeping historic tale. The title character doesn't even appear until 45 minutes into the film. Other characters are introduced and dropped without warning or context. Willem Dafoe appears briefly as an American military officer who fancies Husseini, but that subplot never goes anywhere. Vanessa Redgrave also makes a cameo appearance as wealthy humanitarian Bertha Spafford. Not surprising considering the controversy surrounding her acceptance speech at the 1978 Oscars.

Despite the fractured storytelling, Miral does feature a strong performance from Freida Pinto as the title character. Though of Indian descent, Pinto was picked for her acting chops and her resemblance to Jebreal. But, the best performance in the film belongs to Alexander Siddig, who is probably best known for playing Dr. Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Siddig lends the movie a true sense of gravitas as Miral's father.

Miral had all the right ingredients to create a powerful film. It has a strong cast, a topical story, and a filmmaker with a unique vision. However, the pieces just don't fall into place resulting in a disjointed and dull experience.

Rating: ** (*****)

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - Dir. Woody Allen (2010)

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." - William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

Woody Allen's latest picture opens with a reworking of that same Shakespearean quote. Knowing Allen, the irony was most definitely not lost on him. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is full of sound and fury, but ultimately amounts to nothing.

Tall Dark Stranger features an ensemble of A-list actors who likely signed on so they can finally say they starred in a Woody Allen movie. The glue that holds the cast together is Gemma Jones as Helena, who has just suffered a devastating divorce from her long-time husband, Alfie (Anthony Hopkins). In her despair, Helena seeks guidance from a dime store fortune teller named Cristal (Pauline Collins). Helena's daughter, Sally (Naomi Watts), knows Cristal is an obvious fraud, but any comfort mother finds is good enough. Alfie, meanwhile, has fallen for a ditzy blond named Charmaine (Lucy Punch), who is a third of his age and works as a call girl.

Sally's marriage is also on the rocks. Her husband and Allen analogue, Roy (Josh Brolin), had a hit novel and struggles to write a follow up. He is forced to work as a limo driver to pay bills. Roy finds his spirits lifted by the beautiful Dia (Freida Pinto), who lives in an adjacent apartment building. Sally gets a new job as the assistant to a successful art dealer played by Antonio Banderas. Of course, she is smitten by him because he's Antonio freakin' Banderas. Allen's screenplay bobs and weaves through the multiple relationships as fickle lovers make their ultimate decisions about who to be with. Eventually, nearly everyone is miserable with their choices in life. Then, just when you think the movie is about to really get going, it abruptly ends as if Allen finally fizzled out and decided to just go home.

Though it's a drama with light comic overtones, Tall Dark Stranger is all about pessimism. However, Allen never reaches the farcical levels of fatalism that the Coen Brothers achieved in A Serious Man. All Allen manages to achieve is a middling sense of cynicism. Gone are the films full of wit and insightful observations about love and life. This is a film that seems cobbled together from a recycling bin left overflowing by refuse from the cutting room floor. These are stock characters wandering about in a London rendered completely indistinct by a director seemingly content to coast on his reputation.

At 75, Allen continues to plug away with a new film released each year. Perhaps, his prolific body of work is its own worst enemy. Anything new of Allen's will immediately be compared to classics such as Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters. Alas, his recent movies will always fall short. Aside from Match Point, none of his new stuff has been particularly spellbinding. Even passable fare like Vicky Christina Barcelona couldn't live up to the expectations that come from the name Woody Allen. If it had been directed by someone else, it might have been more highly regarded. No such arguments will occur with You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, it would have been bad no matter who was behind the camera.

Rating: * ½ (*****)