Lincoln
* * * *
Cert 12A, 150 mins
For the third time in less than two years, Hollywood presents a film about its 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.

And, for director Steven Spielberg and his equally-brilliant leading man Daniel Day-Lewis, the picture’s 12 Oscar nominations suggests they’ve got it right.

Robert Redford’s The Conspirator was a dull account of an assassination trial and Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was simply a joke.

As well as best picture and best actor, Lincoln’s other nods include cinematography, score and adapted screenplay.

Sally Field, as wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and Tommy Lee Jones (Thaddeus Stevens) have also both been nominated in supporting roles, ahead of other strong performances from the likes of David Strathairn (William Seward), Hal Holbrook (Preston Blair), John Hawkes (Robert Latham) and Jackie Earle Haley (Alexander Stevens).

The collective result of their labours is an expertly-crafted, handsome film with an intellectual script.

The story begins in January 1865, when Lincoln unknowingly has just four months left to live.

He has been re-elected for a second term, but the American Civil War is into its damaging fourth year – and the president wants the slavery issue to be sorted out for good.

Others are sceptical because an earlier bid failed 10 months ago, but Lincoln is nothing if not persistent. If he can keep chipping away and convert a few people one by one, then he might just unite the country.

Apart from the odd battle scene and occasional musical motif that can only be from John Williams, you’d hardly guess this was a Spielberg film.

If you didn’t know the magnificent Daniel Day-Lewis was his star of choice, you probably wouldn’t recognise his frail physique either (still less James Spader as W. N. Bilbo).

Much of the picture is set indoors, with dark atmospheres and a colour-bleached, sepia-toned look to match.

In the corridors of power, Lincoln has his work cut out dealing with friends, foes and wife alike.

At one point we learn how he seems to have aged 10 years in one year.

Perhaps President Obama, inaugurated for a second term this week, will understand such pressures given that he hopes to conclude the war in Afghanistan while trying to kickstart the home economy on top of hurricanes, massacres, public health issues and being a husband and father at the same time.

Lincoln reminds you how little has actually changed in one-and-a-half centuries – presidents still have to worry about the war dead while trying to create a better life for the fractured living.

Lincoln’s fate at the age of 54 on April 15, 1865, makes you wonder why anybody has wanted the job since.

As for Spielberg, this is a much better film than Amistad (1997), a court-room drama following an 1839 mutiny on board a slave ship.

Learned historians will decide if Lincoln is a decent statement of record, but, as a movie, it doesn’t have the horrific resonance of Schindler’s List, the remarkable battle scenes of Saving Private Ryan or the family-friendly nature of War Horse, last January’s introduction to the First World War.

Lincoln is presented as a much more subtle, all-American story, but in a way that only serves to illustrate how shallow modern US history is.

In Britain, moves against slavery began in 1772, some 37 years before Lincoln was even born.   GY


Zero Dark Thirty
* * * *
Cert 15, 157 mins
Three years ago, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, her gritty film about an army bomb squad unit.

Now she’s back with another movie about the war against terror which has five Oscar nominations. While it’s certainly good, it’s not a really great film, and I doubt she’ll be repeating her previous success.

While The Hurt Locker was packed full of tension, Zero Dark Thirty has the major problem that we know how it’s going to end, with the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

There are gripping moments, but for me they were too few and far between with no real surprises.

All the action is packed into the trailer, which suggests it’s far more exciting than it is, and it takes too long to get to the point.

The mostly true story begins two years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the hunt for the man responsible, Osama Bin Laden, is at its height.

Jessica Chastain plays Maya, a CIA agent involved in interrogating suspects.

“Don’t you think she’s a little young for the hard stuff?” asks one colleague, only to be told “Washington says she’s a killer”.

Indeed, she’s not afraid of getting her hands dirty, helping to waterboard terrorists in Pakistan to get information out of them.

The story jumps about in terms of location and time – years pass by as Maya doggedly continues her search for clues. Bin Laden may have been the world’s most wanted man, but at times the film makes out Maya is really the only one looking for him.

The first half of the film is full of people talking spy gobbledegook – I defy anyone to completely follow and understand the dialogue with all its foreign names and acronyms. I didn’t even understand what the title meant – it’s military slang for night-time – until I read up on it, as there’s no explanation in the film.

Still, it’s stylishly filmed and carried by a strong cast. There’s a late, brief but effective appearance by James Gandolfini as the director of the CIA, plus quite a few British actors playing Americans – Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Daniel Lapaine and Stephen Dillane and even, incongruously, John Barrowman.

Chastain’s performance is good but not, I think, Oscar-winning. She might have tried to look a little older towards the end, as the film spans a decade.

Zero Dark Thirty is certainly worth watching, but be prepared for its flaws – and Bigelow should be prepared to leave the Oscar ceremony empty-handed.   RL


The Last Stand
* * *
Cert 15, 157 mins
One film without any Oscar nominations – not that it would expect any, being unashamedly a popcorn actioner – sees Arnold Schwarzenegger back as a leading man after a decade away playing politics.

Now 65, he’s still the action hero, albeit a wrinkled and weathered one.

His acting skills seem rusty, but then they were hardly great in the first place. At one point he shows absolutely no emotion at the tragic death of a colleague. No wonder his biggest role was playing a cyborg.

He plays Ray Owens, a former LA narcotics cop who has moved to a small town in Arizona to almost retire. He’s a conscientious sheriff but there’s hardly much crime about.

That is, until cartel boss Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) stages a daring escape in Las Vegas during his transfer to prison. Taking an FBI agent hostage, he zooms away in a souped-up Corvette that can do 200 mph.

“We got a psychopath in a Batmobile. How am I supposed to stop that?” asks FBI boss John Bannister (Forest Whitaker).

You don’t. You wait for Cortez to race for the border and hit Ray’s town, and he’ll stop him, along with his deputies. Roped in for the fight are Sarah (Jaimie Alexander), Mike (Luiz Guzman), Lewis (Johnny Knoxville) and Frank (Rodrigo Santoro).

Most of them are fairly inept and provide comic relief, especially Lewis who has an arsenal of old weapons like a Second World War machine gun.

Many things are blown up, in some style. There’s a spectacular death involving a flare gun which is more funny than graphic.

There are some amusing lines, although the dialogue isn’t exactly sparkling. Ray says silly things like “My honour is not for sale” and characters can be shot, blown up, stabbed and thrown from a fast-moving car without incurring any serious injury.

While the action is often far-fetched, it’s also original, like a car chase in a cornfield.

There’s a lot wrong with The Last Stand, but it’s actually – whisper it – more entertaining than Lincoln, if you’re after a night at the cinema where you don’t need to engage your brain.  RL