New films reviewed by Graham Young and Roz Laws.
The Hurt Locker *****
Cert 15, 124 mins
This white-knuckle film about a US Army bomb disposal unit in Baghdad is the most prescient release of the year.
In a month when the number of fatally injured British servicemen and women has passed 200 in Afghanistan alone – mainly due to explosions – the extraordinary work of bomb disabling experts holds an iron grip from start to finish.
Given the dangers inherent with every mistake, why do they do it?
Working from writer Mark Boat’s research in Iraq, the answer seems to be an adrenaline rush that’s seriously addictive.
Though by definition explosive, The Hurt Locker is not an action film in the Die Hard mold.
But its female director, Kathryn Bigelow, certainly has balls.
When a cool brain, steady hand and a pair of pliers is the only defence against potential damage which can extend for 300 metres, there’s no need for her to invent freeway car chases to stretch your nerve endings to their limit.
Once married to James Cameron (Terminator 2), this is Bigelow’s best film since Point Break in 1991 from the moment it challenges the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan (1998) for unforgettable, instant impact.
“Fear has a bad reputation, but I think that’s ill-deserved,” says Bigelow. “Fear is clarifying. It forces you to put important things first and discount the trivial.”
Though Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes are its headline stars, The Hurt Locker works best by having relatively unknown actors – Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty – on the frontline.
Thanks to the skills of Manchester-born United 93 cinematographer Barry Ackroyd working in the face of 54 degree temperatures, Jordan is a convincing replacement for Baghdad.
The scene illustrating how hard it can be to choose which breakfast cereal to buy in today’s consumer-driven, western “civilisation” is one of the year’s most memorable.
Juxtaposed with the sheer bravery needed to keep making the right decisions all of the time on the battlefield, it will highlight the ridiculousness of your own dilemma after leaving the cinema shell-shocked – whether or not to calm yourself down with a drink on the way home.
Mesrine: Public Enemy No.1 ****
Cert 15, 113 mins
It has been quite a summer for subtitled movies, from Coco Before Chanel and Inglourious Basterds to Sin Nombre and today’s Broken Embraces. Add Mesrine: Killer Instinct and its equally long part two, Public Enemy No 1, and you’ll have done more holiday reading than a book publisher’s proofing assistant.
Not that Mesrine is handicapped in any way by the controlled flow of words.
Like its introductory half, this is a brilliantly-made biopic of a French gangster who always seemed to be able to keep one step ahead of the authorities when it mattered.
Anyone who saw Killer Instinct will know what’s coming at the climax here in 1979, but it’s no less gripping.
Vincent Cassel, who gained more than three stone to help span two decades of storyline, again mixes malevolence with a cheekiness not seen since the late Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning “Why so serious?” role in last year’s Batman movie, The Dark Knight.
But few viewers at Cineworld Broad Street will argue that Mesrine didn’t get his just desserts.
Funny People ***
Cert 15, 145 mins
Prolific writer/director/producer Judd Apatow has been involved in more than ten films since he shot to fame in 2005 with The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
They are a curious blend of lewd dialogue and sentimentality.
As he says himself: “I like movies that are uplifting and I like filth.”
He also likes casting friends and family, such as Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and his wife, Leslie Mann. He’s even shameless enough to put his two, admittedly cute, daughters in Funny People.
Now Apatow has got round to working with another friend – Adam Sandler.
The two shared a flat together when they were both struggling stand-up comics at LA comedy club Improv, where several scenes in Funny People are set.
It’s the most autobiographical of Apatow’s work, with Sandler playing George Simmons, a comedian turned film star who discovers he is probably dying from a rare form of leukaemia.
He tells no one apart from novice stand-up Ira (Seth Rogen), who he barely knows but pays to write him jokes and then be his assistant.
Ira encourages him to meet up with his lost love Laura (Leslie Mann), now married to macho Australian Eric Bana.
One of the main problems with Funny People is that, at two-and-a-half hours, it’s far too long and rambling. Apatow doesn’t know how to edit himself.
And for all his attempts to produce a more grown-up film, he still has to liberally sprinkle his far-from-hilarious script with dozens of jokes about the size of genitals.
Funny People is not funny enough to satisfy the fans who expect an out-and-out comedy, but it’s still too crude to appeal to those who might appreciate a more serious approach.
Broken Embraces ***
Cert 15, 127 mins
This is the fourth outing for Spanish film-maker Pedro Almodovar and his muse Penelope Cruz, but not an entirely successful one.
Mateo (Lluis Homar) is a former film director who lost his sight in a car crash and now writes screenplays and seduces women who help him across the road.
When he hears of the death of financier Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez), we’re transported back to the 1990s when Martel bankrolled Mateo’s final movie, on condition his mistress Lena (Cruz) was given the lead. Of course, Lena and Mateo embark on an affair.
Broken Embraces contains some striking images, with plenty of quirky close-ups and the unusual scenery on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, but the plot is slow and rather dull. Be prepared to concentrate on subtitles.
Beautiful Cruz has such a screen presence that she’s always watchable, but she alone cannot save a film I found hard to enjoy.
