AUGUST 2010 (II): ‘Mother’ [6/10] and ‘The Illusionist’ [7/10]‘

Published on: September 7th, 2010

 

.Mother. : [6/10] : Madeo : (South) Korea 2009 : BONG Joon-ho : 124m : {15/28}.
   Whodunnit in which a middle-aged mother turns unlikely detective after her learning-disabled twentysomething son is accused of murdering a schoolgirl. Told with much of the jet-black Korean gallows humour that characterised Bong’s international successes Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006), but here such darkly comic touches feel even more incongruous in what’s otherwise a slow, somewhat deliberate and sombre affair that builds (very) steadily – via a series of coincidences and contrivances – to a twist which most viewers may well guess long before the big reveal. 
   Having seemingly taken too much notice of his earlier pictures’ enthusiastic reviews, Bong deploys self-consciously “stylish” direction (full of over-significant close-ups and moments of tricksy travelling camera-work) that occasionally deflect attention from the main trump card, namely solid performances: in what’s nominally a relatively minor role, Gu Jin is by some way the MVP as the accused’s manipulative, morally dubious mate.
     7.9.10
     [seen at The Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, 26th August (£6.50).]

.The Illusionist. : [7/10] : L’illusionniste : France/UK 2010 : Sylvain CHOMET : 80m : {20/28}.
     Based on an old, unfilmed – and reportedly semi-autobiographical – script by Jacques Tati, this adult-oriented (but by no means adults-only) animation, about a clapped-out musical-hall conjurer who travels from Paris to London and thence to Scotland in search of work, is a tribute to Tati, to 1950s Edinburgh, to the spirit of old-school entertainers (facing oblivion thanks to TV and pop music), to the power of imagination and magic, and much else besides.
   Indeed, director Chomet gets so carried away with his multiple hommaging and tribute-ing that he overlooks the slenderness of the story – which concerns the illusionist’s somewhat unclear relationship with a waif-like Highlands hotel maid who only speaks Gaelic. Is their relationship fatherly-daughterly? Entirely platonic? Is he an old man making a fool of himself with a sweet-natured but naively demanding young woman? Distracting issues, then, but insufficiently irksome to distrupt the flow of a largely wordless affair overflowing with invention and wit - it means to move us, and it does.  But there are laughs aplenty – many of them involving the illusionist’s silent, implacably bolshy rabbit.
     7.9.10
     [seen at The Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, 26th August (complimentary ticket -- with thanks to Chris Scott and Johnny Tull).]

Neil Young