| Tribune catchup : 'Easy Virtue' and 'W.' (from the 3rd Nov. edition) |
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Easy Virtue UK 2008 Starring : Jessica Biel, Kristin Scott Thomas Director : Stephan Elliott ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ W. USA 2008 Starring : Josh Brolin, James Cromwell Director : Oliver Stone ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ IT takes some nerve to remake Hitchcock - even if the Hitchcock movie in question is an eighty-year old silent which many of the master's admirers may not even have heard about. Likewise, the original play upon which both versions of Easy Virtue are based isn't one of the better-known works by Noel Coward - and is seldom revived these days. The new film, which takes a slightly different approach to the material than the courtroom-oriented 1928 picture, is a breezy culture-clash comedy which chronicles how the Whittakers - a very British family of impoverished aristocrats - cope with the sudden arrival in their midst of an American heiress, the decidedly "modern" Larita (Biel). Fresh from motor racing in Monte Carlo, divorcee Larita is the latest girlfriend of the family's eldest son John (Ben Barnes) - and her combination of brash self-confidence and stunning glamour finds little favour with John's ice-queen mother (Scott Thomas). Fresh from her terrific turn in the gritty French domestic drama I've Loved You So Long, Scott Thomas continues her welcome return to the limelight with a delightfully nasty turn as the unyieldingly controlling matriarch - Coward would surely have approved. And her scenes with Biel, who reveals herself as a talented comedienne here (as well as a suitably dazzling fashion-plate), provide the film with its most effective sequences - every word and gesture contributing to the war of wills over John's future plans. The lad himself is something of a secondary player himself, rising star Barnes getting rather less to work with than in his last release, scrappy urban low-budgeter Bigga Than Ben. Easy Virtue is, by contrast, a well-appointed British country-house period-picture, latest example of an overfamiliar genre which (vide Brideshead Revisited, etc) unfortunately shows little sign of going out of fashion at present. While fitfully amusing, this example is [one nice final twist notwithstanding] seldom really sufficiently stylish, bold, distinctive or original to lift it above the general run of such fare, and will do little to rescue Australian writer-director Elliott - still best known for 1994's Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - from one-hit-wonder status. ON paper, Oliver Stone seems a sensible choice to direct W. - the first ever fictional biopic of an American president to make it to cinemas while said president was still in office. And on paper, the remarkable life and career of George W-for-Walker Bush would appear a ripe subject for such a treatment - perhaps a cheeky satire in the vein of Robert Altman's more political romps. Perhaps the result might have been able to combine the corridors-of-power speculation of The Queen with the DC-inspired shenanigans of Burn After Reading? As it is, W. - while not exactly a bad film as such - must count as a significant missed opportunity, and a disappointment. The structure of Stanley Weiser's screenplay is perhaps the most fundamental problem, hopping around between the "present" (i.e. the 43rd President's time in office) and the past as it chronicles his battles with his never-quite-satisfied dad, President Bush the first (James Cromwell), with the bottle, and with his own all-too-evident limitations. There's no sense of accumulation here: this happened, that happened, and somehow Dubya ended up in the White House: a more malign rehash of Being There. Likewise, we never really get much of a sense of what makes Bush tick, of his inner life. Perhaps there's no "there" there. But there are ways to convey this in cinematic form without ending up with the genial blank which is quite effectively incarnated by Josh Brolin (continuing his belated rise to the top tables - watch out for him in Gus Van Sant's upcoming Milk.) Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) are likewise let off the hook somewhat, shadowy Machiavels who never quite come into full focus. Perhaps Stone - whose last picture, World Trade Center, likewise failed to do justice to its subject-matter - is simply over the hill these days. Perhaps he ended up feeling some "sympathy for the devil" and so defanged what could and should have been a delicious skewering of a notably vast target. Perhaps such a life demands a more extravagantly extreme treatment - more of a Ralph Steadman phantasmagoria than this middle-of-the-road, mainstream-oriented portrait. Neil Young 28th October, 2008 written for the 3rd November issue of Tribune magazine this page online 20th November  EASY VIRTUE : [5/10] : UK 2008 : Stephan ELLIOTT : 97m (BBFC) : seen 4th October 2008, Vue Leicester (press show - CinemaDays event) W. : [5/10] : USA (US/UK/Ger/Australia/HK [China]) 2008 : Oliver STONE : 129m (BBFC) : seen 17th October 2008, Magnus Barfot cinema, Bergen, Norway (Bergen International Film Festival) public screening (complimentary ticket) [original review] |
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