| STARS, IN THEIR EYES : Stardust; Razzle Dazzle; Rendition : [for Tribune] |
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| Sunday, 14 October 2007 | |
 Stardust [6/10] UK/USA 2007 Starring : Charlie Cox, Claire Danes Director : Matthew Vaughn ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Razzle Dazzle : A Journey Into Dance [5/10] Australia 2007 Starring : Ben Miller, Kerry Armstrong Director : Darren Ashton ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rendition [5/10] USA/SA 2007 Starring : Jake Gyllenhaal, Omar Metwally Director : Gavin Hood ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ the above films are released in the UK on Friday, 19th October ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BASED on Neil Gaiman's well-regarded 1998 fantasy-novel of the same title, energetic would-be crowdpleaser Stardust never quite achieves the imaginative flights-of-fancy attained by the only previous big-screen Gaiman adaptation, 2004's inexplicably-underrated MirrorMask - despite its reported $65m budget dwarfing the latter's relatively-paltry $4m. But while it's been one of this summer's most notable box-office disasters across the pond, Vaughn's celebrity-packed, 128-minute extravaganza isn't without charm, invention and wit - and it's a step up from his previous directorial effort, 2004's inexplicably-overrated Layer Cake. That film prowled the kind of geezer-gangster turf familiar from Vaughn's previous incarnation as Guy Ritchie's producer-cum-best-mate - but Stardust represents, mercifully, a considerable change of gear. It's set in a parallel version of the 19th century, in an England which abuts the mystical land of Stormhold. Dividing the two domains is an ancient stone wall - to be traversed by only the most foolhardy or determined of voyagers. These include our dashing young hero, Tristan (Cox), who impulsively embarks on a romantic mission to bring a shooting star back to his village and thus win the hand of his beloved Victoria (Sienna Miller). Accessing Stormhold proves surprisingly easy - but there are endless surprises, dangers and delights in store on the other side of the wall... Gaiman and Vaughan - working with first-time scriptwriter Jane Goldman (better known as Mrs Jonathan Ross) - blithely borrow from all manner of cinematic antecedents, cobbling together aspects of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Narnia and Time Bandits (among many others), and then giving the results the kind of post-modern spin that's become, post-Shrek, a near-inevitable feature of the fantasy/fairytale genre. It doesn't all come off by any means, and the pacing could certainly have been tightened up with another rewrite and/or edit or two. But newcomer Cox makes for an engagingly fresh-faced lead, and he gets lively support from a starry supporting cast which includes - alongside a plethora of scenestealing Brits - Michelle Pfeiffer (hamming it up as a villainous witch) and Robert De Niro, great value in his (all-too-fleeting) appearances as a camp, cross-dressing pirate captain. IN 1966, Australia changed its currency from the Pound to the Dollar - a shift which arguably symbolised a more general realignment of national focus: away from the Pom-infested "motherland", and towards the continent-nation's Pacific Rim neighbours - most particularly, the United States. Forty years on, what could be called the "Americanisation" of Australian culture has proceeded apace - a ripe subject for a scathingly-satirical movie, or two. In the meantime, we'll have to make do with Razzle Dazzle : A Journey Into Dance, which lampoons the gaudy phenomenon of "troupe spectaculars" - organised competitions between teams of extravagantly-costumed, rigorously-choreographed dance-school pupils. The focus here is on two rival Sydney troupes : the reigning champions, led by immaculately-presemnted, old-school martinet Miss Elizabeth (Jane Hall), and underdog challengers 'the Jazzketeers' supervised by maverick, politically-conscious British expat Mr Jonathan (Ben Miller). Among Mr Jonathan's charges we find the precocious Tenille (Shayni Notelovitz), whose pushily proud parent Justine (Kerry Armstrong) rapidly emerges as the mother of all "stage mothers". But Mr Jonathan has other problems to surmount if he's to snatch Miss Elizabeth's crown at the rapidly-looming grand finale... Razzle Dazzle is the latest addition to the "mockumentary" sub-genre which dates all the way back to Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (1984). That film's co-star and co-writer Christopher Guest has, of course, since made the form his own with the likes of A Mighty Wind and Best In Show, while on the small screen Ricky Gervais took it to another level with The Office. This kind of thing is considerably harder than it looks, however, and while Razzle Dazzle does occasionally find its stride (usually thanks to Miller's expert timing) it raises smiles and the occasional chuckle rather than proper belly-laughs. A rather limp assault on a rather big, easy target - one hit with rather greater accuracy by last year's surprise smash Little Miss Sunshine - it'll likely find its ideal home on DVD or TV rather than in the unforgivingly competitive world of the cinema-screen. ON one level, Rendition is a cause for celebration. In the current American political climate, it's heartening that Hollywood can produce a big-budget production on such a sensitive, deserving and topical subject: the notorious procedure known as 'extraordinary rendition' in which an individual is forcibly transferred from one state to another, whereby said person can be subjected to treatment (say, torture) which is legal in the latter state (say, Egypt, Uzbekistan, or Jordan) but illegal in the former (say, the USA). The "rendered" subject here is Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Metwally): Egyptian passport-holder, longtime Chicago resident, happily married to (heavily-pregnant) US-citizen Isabella (Reese Witherspoon). After a terrorist atrocity in an unspecified corner of "north Africa", Anwar - travelling back from a conference in South Africa - is spirited off to a facility where he's questioned about some inculpatory calls on his mobile-phone. Observing the brutal "interrogation" is official American observer Doug Freeman (Gyllenhaal), who becomes concerned about the methods being deployed. Back home, an increasingly-desperate Isabella asks her well-connected ex Alan (Peter Sarsgaard) to discover what's going on. The trail leads to CIA bigwig Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep), enthusiastic participant in the "war on terror"... It's easy to see what attracted such high-calibre names - Witherspoon, co-star Alan Arkin and director Hood (Tsotsi) all fresh from Oscar wins - to this project. And it's therefore even more disappointing when what results should be a competently-handled but grindingly overlong and fundamentally lukewarm treatment of such a hot-button issue - a cross between Breach and The Kingdom, though the comparisons aren't to Rendition's advantage. Apart from one scene where Streep and Sarsgaard coruscatingly spar, the script seldom gives the thespian talent much to chew on. Indeed, it's rather more concerned with the set-up and execution of a gimmicky, twisty structural conceit than with exploring the complexities and implications of rendition itself. Currently doing the film-festival rounds is British director Jim Threapleton's Extraordinary Rendition - which reaches a similarly middling level of distinction at roughly two-thirds the length and a tiny fraction of the budget. Neil Young written for the next issue of Tribune magazine  STARDUST : [6/10] : UK (UK/US) 07 : Matthew VAUGHN : 128 mins (BBFC) seen at Vue cinema, Leicester : 4th Oct : press show (Cinemadays event) RAZZLE DAZZLE - A JOURNEY INTO DANCE : [5/10] : Australia 07 : Darren ASHTON : 91 mins (BBFC) seen at Vue cinema, Leicester : 5th Oct : press show (Cinemadays event) RENDITION : [5/10] : US (US/SA) 07 : Gavin HOOD : 122 mins (BBFC) seen at Vue cinema, Leicester : 5th Oct : press show (Cinemadays event) |
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