Movie Reviews: Recent Viewing Round-up

by Tim Van Schmidt

***** Excellent
**** Good
*** Average
** Poor
* Not Recommended

The Conspirator ****

There's an awkwardness that runs throughout this movie. That awkwardness is born from the fact that this is a story from another time and the people caught up in the events are not modern human beings. They are 19th Century human beings who think, talk and act just a little bit differently than people nearly 150 years later.

This is part of the fine craftwork involved in "The Conspirator"- to transport the viewer to another time and place and believe it. This movie accomplishes that with costuming, lots of fuzzy beards and dialogue that expresses not only a different feel for language- kind of stiff and more formal- but also reasoning.

It's all about the trial of Mary Surratt, a dour, serious woman who runs a boarding house used as a meeting place by conspirators just before the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It also happens that her son is also wanted as one of the conspirators and at the time of her trial, he remained at large. The question before a military court was whether Surratt really was a conspirator or not.

This is where the difference in era starts to become clear. In the emotional wake of Lincoln's murder, a deep and violent hatred colors everything about the trial. The young man who rises to the task of defending Surratt even has his own doubts. There's a bloodlust in the air for retribution after the loss of a President and the suffering that the Civil War had exacted. Lincoln's assassination is a particularly bitter insult to the Union as the war came to an end. The conspirators, destined to be hanged, become a huge target for all of that hatred.

So, despite the formal language of the 1860s, and the veneer of a civilized culture, the people of the Civil War era still had plenty of primitive urges running the show. Those urges, according to "The Conspirator," pushed Surratt all the way to the gallows.

Directed by Robert Redford...2010...122 min...featuring Robin Wright (as Mary Surratt), James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Huston, John Cullum.

Melancholia ***

A young woman cannot shake an uncontrollable sadness as her wedding party proceeds around her. It's due in part to a rebellious nature that hates all the ritual involved- and to the fact that a rogue planet is heading toward Earth on a crash collision course.

The first half of the movie is very human indeed- painfully so- as the bride's elusiveness and just bad attitude makes the wedding reception festivities torturous.

But then the planet- Melancholia- comes closer into view. The closer it gets, the more unhinged the characters get and the less they can do but wait for the celestial event to be upon them. At first it looks like a near miss, but you really can't expect that to be the end result of so much doom saying. The final sequences are awesome.

I found a close association between this movie and "Another Earth." In both movies, the appearance of a new nearby planet causes stress to young women already suffering from major problems. But in "Another Earth," the planet ends up representing a desperate kind of hope. In "Melancholia," the planet is a sign that there is no hope.

The disturbingly deep sadness displayed in "Melancholia" also brings to mind another recent movie- "Martha Marcy May Marlene." A strong thread through "Melancholia" is the relationship between the super sad bride and her very supportive sister. This is also the case in "Martha." The young woman who has escaped from a cult group finds refuge with her older sister, also putting her through Hell despite a deep bond.

Directed by Lars von Trier...2011...136 min...featuring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgard

The Passion of the Christ ***

This movie is hard to judge initially because the story is so obviously important. No matter what you believe about religion and spirit, the events depicted in "The Passion of the Christ" have mightily affected the history of the world- and will for centuries to come.

The focus here, however, is not necessarily on the ideas that were ripping apart the religious structures of the time. Instead, the focus is on the constant torture of Jesus before his death. From the moment he is arrested to the moment he finally expires, Jesus is beaten, kicked, whipped, scourged, pushed and generally knocked around every step of the way. That makes this movie a horrible, bloody mess.

I can believe that viewers are meant to be repulsed by the events that unfold and once things get going following Judas' betrayal of Jesus, this movie certainly accomplishes that. Viewing this movie produces a dull kind of nausea and is a severe beating to the psyche.

Can I ask this question? Is it possible that the martyrdom of Jesus has been over exaggerated in this production? This is not to question the suffering that Jesus experienced, but it's hard to imagine any person being able to survive all of the abuse depicted in this movie without actually dying or at least being unconscious from the pure, terrible shock.

One particular sequence was telling. As Jesus is being scourged by leering, laughing torturers, his mother Mary departs the scene. The camera follows her, but the sound of the torture remains prominent. The whippings, according to the soundtrack, are coming fast and furious. I question whether a man would still have any skin left on his body with so many blows from the flesh-peeling whips.

That goes for all the blows that are dealt to Jesus in every scene. Jam the crown of thorns onto his head, make him carry this heavy cross and on and on, it just gets worse and worse. Can a man really bleed so much, have so much skin raked from his body and still live? The historical events tell what happened, but the incredible battery going on here just doesn't seem possible in reality. That suggests a lot of this movie exists for shock value.

Directed by Mel Gibson...2004...127 min...featuring Jim Caviezel (as Jesus), Monica Bellucci (as Magdalen), Maia Morgenstern (as Mary), Francesco De Vito (as Peter), Luca Lionello (as Judas), Hristo Shopov (as Pilate), Claudia Gerini, Mattia Sbragia

Moneyball ***

Forget whose name is biggest on the marquee here- Brad Pitt- this movie belongs to actor Jonah Hill. "Moneyball" tells the story of Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, played by Pitt. But like Pitt in the movie and Beane in real life, the man in charge must let some fresh blood in the door and both Hill and his character in the movie are exactly that.

Hill plays a numbers savvy cubicle dweller who is obsessed with baseball statistics and what they reveal about a player. The irony here is that by reducing players to numbers- like their on-base percentages- he finds the truth worth of players disregarded for unusual style or more ridiculous reasons. Their stigmas make them a bargain in the baseball world despite encouraging numbers.

This is all news to Beane and his fellow baseball veteran buddies, and that's what makes his move to try out the new computer supported system of evaluating players bold. But the truly bold one here is the young man willing to use new technology to venture into unknown territories- even if it is just about winning games with a limited budget. Hill plays the part with some humility mixed with a growing confidence that he's really got something unique going on.

A treat here is some actual footage of the A's on their successful run to the championship, mixed with the dramatization.

Directed by Bennett Miller...2011...133 min...featuring Brad Pitt (as Billy Beane), Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Stephen Bishop

Contagion ***

Here's one of those Doomsday scenarios that could happen. That is, a super-bug develops that not only disables and kills, but spreads easily around the world. The real heroes then become scientists working on a cure under the stress of knowing that each hour their work remains unsuccessful, the number of disease victims multiply.

But heroism can't fix what's wrong with people in general and a horrible scene like this brings out the worst in some, making everything just that much more dangerous. That goes from hoodlums robbing and murdering citizens in a lawless atmosphere to government officials snatching up rare vaccines for themselves and their families. Everybody else just does what they can to survive.

But it's clear that "Contagion" wants to believe in the power of some dedicated people- like a health organization official who ends up caring directly for sick people or a relentless blogger helping to expose government subterfuge- who will step up and keep swinging as long as they have any strength left in their bodies.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh...2011...106 min...featuring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, John Hawkes, Elliot Gould, Bryan Cranston.

Cashback **

Oh, boo hoo. A young art student breaks up with his girlfriend and can't sleep at night, so he takes a job at a supermarket. There he amuses himself by "stopping time," undressing female customers while "frozen" in order to draw them. That is, until a check out girl catches his eye and he obsesses about her. The oddball set of characters populating this snoozer and some surrealistic sequences can't make up for the adolescent nature of the premise or the result.

Directed by Sean Ellis...2006...102 min...featuring Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Michelle Ryan, Shaun Evans, Stuart Goodwin