Film Review: Fracture

Plot: When a meticulous structural engineer, Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) is found innocent of the attempted murder of his wife, Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), the young district attorney who is prosecuting him becomes a crusader for justice. In a tense duel of intellect and strategy, Crawford and Beachum both learn that a “fracture” can be found in every ostensibly perfect facade.

I was really looking forward to see this film because I love both Hopkins and Gosling. I was hoping that after having seen a lacklustre film in Next earlier in the evening, that Fracture would have made my evening, well sadly, it didnt.

This movie was a real letdown. It may boast of Anthony Hopkins nonetheless, but his performance in this movie was not much of a stretch, and same thing can be said for Ryan Gosling whose young boyish looks didnt make me believe one bit that he was this hotshot district attorney. I alos found quite annoying was the unnecessary inclusion of Rosamund Pike’s character, I thought it was a waste of space. The jokes delivered by Sir Hopkins is a big hit to the audience (“you dont mind me calling you Willy?”, “my D**k is good – oh, I hired a private investigator and I call him D**k”), but it also got to the point where this cat-and-mouse chase got too predictable, boring and familiar.

I suppose I expected so much more from what I believe was going to be a taut thriller when it really wasn’t.

Fracture: 2/5

Film Review: Next

Plot: Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) has a secret which is a gift and a curse which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling “winnings.” But when a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles, government agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) must use all her wiles to capture Cris and convince him to help her stop the cataclysm.

Very predictable, and monotonous performances by the actors throughout – is it just me but Cage always looked hammered in his recent outings, and basically nothing really new to see here. I mean to have the Russians again play the role as terrorists to wipe out the whole of Los Angeles is just so outdated. Seriously, what were they thinking?

Next movie please. (Pun intended)

Next: 1/5

Film Review: Das Leben der Anderen aka The Lives of Others

Plot: “The Lives of Others” goes to the very heart of recent German history, this time tackling the East German secret police, the dreaded Stasi. Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe – brilliant) hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch – hot & fantastic) and his girlfriend, celebrated theatre actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). After months of surveillance, Gerd’s immersion in the lives of others opens him to a completely new way of life.

This is one of my most anticipated films for 2007 and it didn’t disappoint. But what it has done inadvertently was it raised the bar of my moviegoing experience to such an extremely high level that the rest of the films coming out after this one might not be able to live up to.

I will not go into so much about the plot or the technical details but will tell you now that the film’s director, whose name is quite a handful to say, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck will surely go places. If you might know, this film already won the Best Foreign Language film in the last Academy Awards. The performances from the actors, particularly Ulrich Muhe and Sebastian Koch were top notch.

This film will stay with you long after you’ve left the cinema. You will find yourself calling up your friends and tell them to go and watch it. If you suddenly feel you’re choked with emotions and will give way to tears, let it happen, as my eyes burned towards the end of the film. I have never left the cinema with so much satisfaction in a very long time. And it has one of the best endings I have seen in years.

Das Leber der Anderen aka The Lives of Others: 5/5

Film Review: Blades of Glory

Plot: Will Ferrell as Chazz Michael Michaels and Jon Heder as Jimmy MacElroy play two disgraced Olympic ice skaters who were banned from the sport because of fighting at an awards ceremony but have found a way to sneak back into the competition by competing in the pairs category.

I’ll make this quick and easy. This film is very funny. I was surprised that even if I went to see it quite reluctantly, I came out smiling and really glad that I saw it anyway. So if you want to just laugh it off and want to watch something that will do good to your heart then I recommend this film. It’s a real hoot!

Imagine 2 men figure skating to the tune of Queen’s Flash Gordon.

Blades of Glory: 3/5

Film Review: The Namesake

Plot: The story of the Ganguli family whose move from Calcutta to New York evokes a lifelong balancing act to meld to a new world without forgetting the old. Though parents Ashoke and Ashima (Irrfan Khan, Tabu) long for the family and culture that enveloped them in India, they take great pride in the opportunities their sacrifices have afforded their children.

I had not planned to watch a movie at all this week so I can start working on my college coursework but if you know me, you know I will be procrastinating. So I was in the middle of having a nap when my friend Sue decides on a spur of the moment to go out and just watch any film. We opted for The Namesake at the Cineworld in Wood Green as she is not sure how to get to Canary Wharf driving as we’re so used to taking the 277 bus to get there. After fellow filmstalker Ram gave it a glowing review on his site I was already looking forward to see it. So how did my first experience of watching an Indian film go?

The Namesake was beautiful and I really enjoyed every minute of it. I have seen Nair’s previous work in Vanity Fair and really liked her use of opulent sets, vibrant colours and images to tell a story, here she uses the same style but toned down and it worked quite well. I was instantly drawn to Ashoke and Ashima and their struggles living in a foreign country, I can relate to this easily having left home and having to adopt the British way of life. The only difference is that they have each other when I only had myself, now my life is another movie altogether. I just had to say this, I’m not even sure if it was in the novel, and I am referring to the scene were Gogol was listening to Pearl Jam as Once played loudly in his basement room as his father gave him his graduation gift.

The acting ensemble in this film was great and the film is truly powerful in its message that the greatest journeys are the ones that bring you home. We may try to live out of the shadow of who we are and where we came from but it’s accepting this realities that ultimately sets us free.

The Namesake: 4/5