Putting the bones back together

When I saw The Lovely Bones, I knew going in to it that not very many people thought it was the best movie of all time. Coming out of it, I didn’t think it was as bad as people say, so I’m taking a moment to respond to some of the most common criticism being thrown at this movie. These snippets are taken from actual reviews and critics.

"Director Peter Jackson's incoherent and ultimately pointless adaptation of the bestseller is just an intolerable mess from start to finish."

Who, whoa, whoa, wait just a minute. Really? I don’t think the movie is half that bad.

"If you have read the novel, you will be horribly disappointed."

Ok. I haven’t read the book. So I’m looking at the film, not the adaptation. Granted, a lot of the negative feedback is coming from people who read Alice Sebold’s novel.

"It was a story about young girls being raped and murdered yet he (PJ) wanted us to feel happy about it?"

Does heaven make us happy about death? Or does it make us happy about eternal life, where thieves do not break in and steal?

"This unsatisfying movie seems to glorify death and celebrate victimhood."

Again, perhaps we’re celebrating redemption, but no one said we’re celebrating death. From what I saw, the film in no way says, or even hints, that the murder was a good thing. The fact that Susie was victimized is extremely sad. It’s sad that she is no longer with us. But isn’t Susie is in a better place?

"Peter Jackson chose not to incorporate the rape and murder into his film. He does not ignore it occurred but doesn’t film the incident either. By removing this portion of the story from the visual portrayal he in a sense desensitizes the audience". AND… "The tale is too dark for this and the film comes across as almost genteel in its approach. There’s no real sense of impending doom for Susie and no sense at all of the terror she must have felt."

I understand the book includes the murder in detail, but I believe the decision to not show this horrible thing was a good one. Including it would not add to what this story is telling, in my opinion. Besides, seeing the tension leading up to it was quite enough. If you want to see the crime, you’re at the wrong movie. Which leads us to the next criticism.

"I mean, what exactly is this movie? It’s a thriller with no thrills." AND… "This movie is meant to be a thriller, edge of your seat, holding your breathe while something happens. It wasn't."

This movie is not a thriller and isn’t meant to be. It’s just not in that genre. If you are after a thriller, I could see how you could be disappointed. After all, the film is narrated by the innocent voice of a fourteen year old girl. If you come into this looking or a rush, you wont get it.

"With all the wonders of CGI at his disposal, Jackson gives us an afterlife of swirling colors and shifting landscapes, all of which is presented with a slightly surreal vibe that is more bad acid trip than beautiful hereafter". AND... "(the director’s) obsession with CGI not only destroys his own film but the work of the actors who put their trust in him."

For one thing, the CGI’s screentime is not as prominent as many seem to say. It almost seems like people are on a bandwagon with this criticism. It shows up now and then, but not in a way that takes me out of the movie. We have already accepted that Susie is in another world. And the CGI that was there was wonderful! I particularly thought the bit with the boats in the bottles was great.

"I found some of the CGI effects second rate like something I would find in a television commercial: it just did not grab me and was surfeit."

That was this viewer’s take and I can see where he’s coming from. Again, I didn’t have a problem with it. I thought it was fun.

"Her descriptions are at best unnecessary and at worst just stupid. It's some of the worst use of narration…"

I think this movie was as appropriate as any for a narration of this sort. This thing is largely Susie’s story, where she is looking back on what happened. What better way to make it work that to put her sweet voice behind the action?

"The actors looked like they were playing dress up."

This isn’t a common objection, but I’m using it as an opportunity to say that, I loved Saoirse Ronan’s wardrobe. I thought it was one of the best things about her character. It worked well.

(About the villain’s ‘lair’) "The idea that he could do all this construction and not leave in it any clue for the police stretches the imagination." OR… "Where did he put the dirt?"

People are all over this one. Yes, it may stretch the imagination (that’s if you’re trying to figure it out in the first place, which I really wasn’t). Is this supposed to be a true story? Or is it supposed to be an anecdote that we can take for what it's worth. It’s not like this “plot hole” was a grossly overlooked error that ruined the film.

"When a safe is taken to be dumped into the sink-hole dump, why does he park so far away, and who built an antique floor safe that appears to weigh as much as a filing cabinet?"

Ok. Well if we want to talk about what is realistic (even if it is a movie), then I would have to agree with this. :P

(About the character of the grandmother) "Her mannerisms and actions are so bizarre that they never find a place in this film and remain on the outside looking in." AND… "Her insertion causes an abrupt mood shift from the somber and reverential tone."

I have to agree with this as well. It seemed out of place. It was probably put there for a moment of comic relief (which I don’t think was really needed). The background song certainly didn’t help with continuity either.

"The Lovely Bones has so much that could go right with it that it's most disappointing how wrong it goes."

The Lovely Bones is not a flawless movie. But I think it was a good effort. Personally, I might have put more emphasis on Susie’s ‘interaction’ throughout the investigation process. Like a “Reservation Road” with the victim looking on at the proceedings and trying to “weigh her demand for vengeance toward her creepy killer against a loving desire for her immediate family to heal from this horrible tragedy.” Couldn’t have put it better myself :).

A Beautiful Mind

Based on the biography by Sylvia Nasar

Writer: Akiva Goldsman
Director: Ron Howard
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins
Composer: James Horner
Editor: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Lead Actor: Russell Crowe
Year: 2001

A Beautiful mind is a true story (as true as an embellished adaptation can be anyway) about a brilliant man, John Nash, who literally lost his mind. He was a proud man whose sharp intellect began to play tricks on him, causing him to descend into a dark and frantic madness that showed its distress in his health and his relationships. Yet on the bright side, there was apparently some significant discoveries made by this same mind. The illness was a devastating trial for the man, yet his survival and ultimate overcoming is touching. The way in which he was able to rise above his mind games is largely influenced by his wife’s sticking through it with him. Which, judging by the rollercoaster ride of John’s schizophrenia, it wasn’t fun for anyone to be caught in the middle of it.

The beginning of the film shows John Nash’s first days at Princeton University. The images in these parts have a bit of a retro feel and color to them. The palette is golden toned and slightly washed out. This scheme gives things a rather pre-story (or early story) and historical feel. It is here where the principle characters among John’s colleagues are introduced.

In the first half of the movie, Nash is portrayed with some rather silly quirks in relating to the opposite sex. That bit of character was rather unnecessary and crude. Although even before his illness, he did have difficulty relating to people in general. He considered himself having more originality and brains. He himself admitted to not liking people. He desperately sought his own status and a way to distinguish himself, which could very well have been a factor in causing him to slip into his imagined world. Maybe if he was having trouble making it work in real life, his hallucinations could help. Of course they didn’t help, and only made him more insecure and fearful.

It is an epic performance of Russell Crowe. Going from 20 to nearly 70 and merging in and out of schizophrenic behavior, there were a lot of postures he had to portray. He was really a complex character: proud, closed, determined, insecure. He eventually became torn between two lives: one imagined and one real.

Jennifer Connelly, who played Alicia Nash, carried herself a little confident for my taste, but she is certainly beautiful, and was able to portray emotion quite vividly. The sequence with her and John in the hospital is one of her best moments in the movie, in my opinion. She listens as her husband unloads on her his hallucinations that he believes are real. She confronts him with the truth and breaks down in a mix of realization, pity, and helplessness.

There is a cinematography procedure used in a few shots that is interesting. John Nash, with his “beautiful mind”, was often at work figuring out stuff. At times during these thinking sessions, the camera would circle his head, and at least once it would go around a few rotations. This gave a 360 degree view of his mind, if you will.

James Horner’s score is really wonderful. Bright and then brooding, deep and ethereal, it spoke through the ins and outs of John’s life. The use of Charlotte Church’s voice is lively and ingenious. Her voice acted as one of the instruments and was used as a bit of a thematic cue in and of itself. One interesting direction in the scoring was during the night chase sequence. The music is slow and heavy and rather vague. It is an eerie mix with the squealing of tires and gunshots.

A Beautiful Mind tells the story of a free thinking man named John Nash who became enslaved to his mind. He then had to learn to cope with and conquer his illness. The film shares the title of a biography about the now 81 year old man. The film version of the story took plenty of creative license and has some significant alterations to the true story. I think part of what the storytellers wanted to do with this film is give people an opportunity to see through the eyes of a schizophrenic, and thus understand them better. He ultimately learned to ignore his ‘ghosts’, the illusions, giving them no chance to bring him back down that slippery slope from which he climbed.

I also believe the strength love has to mend is shown in John and Alicia’s story. It’s this love that took a man who “was born with two helpings of brain but only half a helping of heart” and taught him that there’s more to life than the intellect. At the end of the movie, as John Nash gives his speech at the Nobel Prize Ceremony (where, by the way, Russell Crowe’s old age makeup job is stunning), he attributes his success and the importance of his life, to the love he shared with his wife.

In the beginning...

If I were there the day man was created, it may have looked something like this.

The Village

Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cinematographer: Roger Deakins
Editor: Christopher Tellefsen
Composer: James Newton Howard
Lead Actor: Bryce Dallas Howard
Year: 2006

This film has an interesting and unique setting and message, a part of which may be yet for me to grasp. We have a group of people who have chosen to live separated lives from the evil “towns”. They have created for themselves a make-shift setting where nothing tragic is supposed to happen. The threat of horrific creatures dwelling in the surrounding woods scares the young people into staying within the confines of their community.

We don’t bother the creatures, they won’t bother us. This is the understanding. But the sad part is, there was a violation. What they thought was their safety had become their harm when this fragile community’s law was broken. Their last resort for recompense is to cross the border of the forest. Will the innocent intentions of a blind girl restore the peace this village lives for?

The settings are among the strongest elements of this story and film. Apparently set in the 1800, things were not as ‘developed’ in “The Village”. Which was intentional; they are living simply on purpose. The costumes were very well done. The actual village was constructed specifically for the film. It all gives a sense of a set-apart community.

One wonderful thing about this film is the music. I had been listening to James Newton Howard’s score for a half year prior to watching the film (I already had about 120 plays on the OST). The music is a masterpiece in and of itself. So full of feeling and character. A solo violin, played by Hilary Hahn, is the prominent voice of the score.

Lengthy edits are done a lot in this film. The camera rolls and the actors do their thing and keep doing their thing for, as in one case, nearly 3 minutes! That’s a long time when we’re talking about dialog and performance. The very last scene is over 2 and a half minutes long with 10 characters to coordinate (and several background characters). From an acting standpoint, there are a few things to be said.

The way the film is put together with the long cuts, presents a challenge to the actors. They need to be able to hold up to the length of the shot. Adrian Brody played a rather schizophrenic character which was pulled off quite well (and rather comical at times). Joaquin Phoenix was brilliant…enough said. The only one I had a small issue with at times was William Hurt (who played the lead’s father). I thought his performance was a little stiff and theater-ish at times.

Bryce Dallas Howard, the main character in The Village, did some fine work for her part. She plays a sober yet playful young lady with a lot of heart. Her character is as innocent as she is blind. She, along with Phoenix, pulled off what is perhaps the best romantic moment I have seen in a film. The 68 second take, is personal, simple, nuanced, and heartfelt. It is for this film only that she is a favorite actress. Until just recently I didn't know she was the daughter of the successful and skilled director Ron Howard. Is James Newton Howard in the family too? I think not. Not enough red in his hair for one thing.

The Village is an interesting story and a well made film. I would classify it as more of a drama than a thriller or horror, although it does have its scary moments. It’s really unlike any picture I’ve seen.

What Are You Asking Me? - Jame...

Best albums of the decade

As promised, here we have something between the reviews! With the closure of 09, here's a music round-up.

2009
Found Songs – Ólafur Arnalds

I’m very glad I found these songs! That’s an almost childish thing to say about this little collection of songs. The music strikes such a deep cord with me I may even put this at best album of the decade. I wish I could also include Arnalds’ previous album, “Variations of Static”. Music on earth just simply doesn’t get much better than this. I better stop here before I say something that’s not true. ;)

2008
Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter – Jon Foreman

With these four 6 song EPs, Foreman has created a unique yet approachable style in his solo work. It is one of the most consistently good collection of songs (with the 25 tracks, there may be only 2 I skip over). The songs are testament to this guys songwriting experience.

2007
Cannons – Phil Wickham

There is something very inspired about this album that I think sets it apart from a lot of CCM. There may be one song on the entire album that I have rated less than 4 stars. Wickham’s voice carries each one and channels his heart and passion with each breath. It doesn’t get old.

2006

Vittorio - Vittorio Grigolo

Here we have a mighty strong debut album from this young Italian tenor. From the epic “In the Hands of Love” to the catchy “Magia De Amor” is a diverse collection of songs, all presented with the trained and heartfelt voice that may give this guy a name.

2005
Plans – Death Cab For Cutie

This may be as mainstream as I’ll get here. Sometimes there’s a reason a band is popular. This is just…great. With this offering, the maturing band has become more confident and comfortable with their sound. A sound that I happen to connect with.

2004
Between the Fence and the Universe – Kevin Max

This is an interesting one to award, and even seems a little strange to me. I really haven’t heard anything like it though. The blending of the upbeat music with Kevin’s refined vocals is a listening pleasure.

2003
O – Damien Rice

With a rather down-and-depressed-artist view of the world, this Irish singer/songwriter has a level of soul that few artists are able to make find the way up their throats and to their lips. It seems through his style, he’s not as concerned about being popular. Which makes it that much more meaningful.

2002
Me Died Blue – Steven Delopoulos

Cutting a little slack here because this is actually 03. But here’s a guy who can play the guitar. He has a way with words too. Doesn’t always make sense, but interesting all the same.

2001
Miracles – Paul Cardall

One of the wonderful voices in romantic piano, Paul Cardall gives us a quiet and pleasing work in Miracles. It’s hard not to imagine there were some deep things happening in this artist’s heart as the album was being written.

2000
Ten Thousand Days – Bebo Norman

The fresh, sophomore Bebo is some of the best Bebo. It’s a lovely, heartfelt collection of folk flavored songs. (A little more slack here as this is Sept 99).

The Mission

Writer: Robert Bolt
Director: Roland Joffé
Director of Photography: Chris Menges
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Editor: Jim Clark
Lead Actor: Jeremy Irons, Robert De Niro
Year: 1986

Jeremy Irons played Father Gabriel, a Spanish Jesuit who went to a tribe of Indians to start a mission. As this man is working to bring this tribal people hope, another man is working as a mercenary among these people. This man’s name is Mendoza. After killing his brother out of jealousy, he slumps into a state of remorse. Soon Father Gabriel comes, and convinces him to practice some penance and seek forgiveness.

We then see Mendoza climbing a sheer rock with a heavy sack filled with his items of war, and soon find out that this is his penance. He is making the difficult trek to Father Gabriel’s mission. He struggles immensely under his load, fighting up the hill under the burden of his treacherous life. When he reaches the top the natives cut the burden loose and let it drop into the river, thus ending his penance. In a touching scene, he weeps at his new freedom and is embraced by Gabriel.

Mendoza becomes a Jesuit himself and lives among the people with Father Gabriel. Things seem to be going in a good direction, until conflict comes when a political agenda threatens to displace the natives. Tricky issues are raised as people wrestle with how to best redeem the situation. As pressure mounts the natives end up getting the bad end of the deal. They are asked to leave. Instead of leaving, the Indians take up their weapons. They are led by none other than Mendoza, who forsakes his vows and steps back into the violence that had already left him hurting.

The tribe’s primitive weapons were ultimately no match to their enemy’s gunpowder. There was a massacre. The enemies did not discriminate between those who resisted and those you didn’t. There was a group, led by Father Gabriel, who were shot down as they peacefully advanced singing.

The Mission was made in 1986 and there are a few things that do date it. This is mostly evident in the action sequences, which lack drive. At 13 minutes, the final raid could have been condensed to nearly half that time. Granted, the filmmakers had to work with less than controlled locations and a cast that was half made up of people who had never heard of a movie. Still, things could have been spruced up in the cutting room.

One great technical feature of The Mission is the cinematography by Chris Menges, who won an Oscar for his work on the film. Yes, the locations weren’t controlled, but that made them real. Among the most spectacular scenes were the wonderful shots of the Iguazu Falls, which is an important location in the film.

I’m not a big fan of the older style and sound of film music and that goes for The Mission’s score as well. The man behind the music is Ennio Morricone, one of the most influential composers with nearly 500 titles to his name. Much of the music in The Mission is almost trying to be sound effects. It’s sparse, abrupt, and rather tense. There are some select cues that warrant getting the soundtrack though, including “On Earth as it is in Heaven” and “Gabriel’s Oboe”. Those are gorgeous. One great moment in the film, which was enhanced by the music is when Rodriguez is being informed by Carlotta that she loves his brother over him. A plucked guitar that quickens its tempo is juxtaposed with Rodriguez’s docile face and tells the viewer precisely what is going on in the man’s heart.

The Mission is a true story that took place over three hundred years ago. This mission was built among the Guarani Indians who resided in the remote mountains of Brazil. The film places value on life while it looks at the contrast between the way of love and the way of the sword. It also upholds life by showing two worlds that both believe that the other is up to no good, come together. The end is a testament to the violation of such a recognition.

Gabriel's Oboe - Ennio Morrico...

Welcome to the dim space

Welcome to my blog! Here you will find a new film reviewed every week on Fridays. I will also occasionally post other media related stuff in between the reviews. Please note that I will not be reviewing yesterday’s box office hit very often…we’ll mostly be looking at DVDs.

I’m a filmmaker / film critic. I review films with the story and the craft in mind. I also write from a Christian worldview. As far as personal taste, I will usually take story and theme over action. I like a film to take its time to develop characters and plot.

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