The Piano

A few days ago I had the pleasure of watching Jane Campion's The Piano in class. It's not the kind of movie that I normally watch, being more of the action frame-of-mind, but I very much enjoyed watching this gem of a film. Ada McGrath(Holly Hunter) is a mute woman in 1850s Britain who is sent off to savage New Zealand along with her daughter Flora(Anna Paquin), as a mail-order bride to a land-owner there, Stewart played by Sam Neill. Once there, her new husband, in a bid to increase his land holdings, trades Ada's most prized possession, her piano, to his neighbor, Baines(Harvey Keitel). Ada is naturally upset, but when visiting Baines in order to give him lessons on how to play his new piano, he makes her an offer: sexual favors for the return of her piano.
The Piano is a success on many different levels. Jane Campion, the writer and director of the film, crafted one of the rare films that works as both an accessible story, as well as a layered, meaningful work of art and literature. Watching the film once will be entertaining merely for the well written story, but watch it again and you will see the layers that it has. Jane Campion began her college life with art school. Once there, she realized that she was trying to tell stories with her artwork and that film school would be a better fit for her. With that background in the arts, Campion has a special way of placing the scene in front of the camera(what film students call mise-en-scene) that creates an artistic image to be interpreted by the viewer. The film is a joy to watch because the placement of the scene and of the camera has meaning and beauty all of its own. The story that Campion wrote also is many-layered, portraying gender issues of the nineteenth century, family relationships, and exchanges of power. Many of Campion's films include a tactile quality to them, emphasizing the sense of touch and what it means. Some of the most powerful emotions in The Piano are conveyed by the feel of a piano key.
The writing and direction were not the only good qualities of this film. The acting done by Holly Hunter as the mute Ada is some of the best I have ever seen. Jane Campion, when she made this film, wanted her heroine to have a piercing gaze that seemed to reach down into one's soul. I don't know how Holly Hunter managed to pull that one off, but she did. Though her character is mute, she portrays more emotion in the performance without a single word than ninety percent of actors more well known. Holly Hunter really carries this film with her perfect emotionality. Harvey Keitel also does an above-average job as the at-first lecherous, later not so much Baines.
Overall, The Piano is a film that I would give both of my thumbs-up to, as well as a recommendation to anyone I know.

-J

Becket

Becket is something of a lost classic. Nominated for 12 academy awards, including best picture, best director, best supporting actor and two best actor nominations. Sadly, the film only won one of these awards, that being the award for best screenplay based on another medium. All of the others were snapped up by the vastly inferior My Fair Lady. The story centers around the lives of two men, Thomas of Becket and King Henry II of England played by Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. The two are best friends, until Henry names Becket as his new archbishop of Canterbury. After this, the relationship between the to men quickly goes downhill, until Henry II hates Becket and wishes him dead.
The story is well-thought out and well-paced. Even though the film lasts over two-and-a-half hours, none of it was fat that could have been cut off. My interest rarely dropped, even though the movie has very little action and is moved along mainly by dialogue. What held my interest was the acting of two of the greatest actors of their time, O'Toole and Burton. The two play their parts perfectly, Burton as Becket, calm and collected to the end, O'Toole as Henry, slowly going mad with jealousy as his friend puts God before others. It's the perfect coupling, with the two actors duelling both in the story and in their acting. I have to say that O'Toole won the acting duel. I could not imagine any other actor that could have played his part quite the way he did, portraying Henry's conflicting emotions: love for his friend, and hatred for what he sees as his betrayal. In my favorite scene, Henry drinks with four of his nobles. In one scene, within the space of a few seconds, Henry shows his anger and his sorrow without seeming either schizophrenic or crazy. Eventually, Henry tells his men, "Let us drink, gentlemen. Let us drink, till we roll under the table in vomit and oblivion." Then he will not have to worry about his conflicting emotions.
The writing is excellent, the direction is excellent, the acting is excellent, but what really sold me was Peter O'Toole's perfect portrayal of a conflicted man.

Cinderella Man

Cinderella Man is a true story of James J. Braddock, former heavyweight boxing champion. Braddock is a down and out boxer in the depression, desperate for any means back in the ring to keep his family off the streets. The movie is a success in that it is everything it was made to be. Director Ron Howard is a very capable director, having made several wonderful films, including A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, and Willow. He's also made a few duds, likehis live-action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and 2006's overrated The Da Vinci Code. Depending on how you look at Cinderella Man, it could be placed into either category.
In the pros corner, Cliff Hollingsworth's script hits all the right notes, tugging at the heartstrings at every opportunity. The film was made to be an oscar-winner and it shows. Sporting an inspiring story in a historical setting and overall good acting, Cinderella Man is a contender. Russel Crowe turns in an excellent performance as always, and Paul Giamatti is an good foil to Crowe. Both actors are always above average in every film they act in. Renee Zellweger is adequate in her large in theory, but small in impact role. As too often happens with Zellweger, she is given an atrocious accent, but she does an okay job of working with it. The cinematography is good enough, no complaints there, and the music was unobtrusive and stereotypical.
In the opposite corner is the movie's downfall, it's overbearing and hypocritical sentimentality. Throughout, the scripting feels manipulating and forced. When the action goes into slo-mo and the music rises in tone and volume, you know you're being played. This can be a good thing sometimes, many films succeed in playing upon your emotions and making a great moive, in Cinderella Man however, such an emphasis is put upon the emotions that the story just becomes one-dimensional and pointless. Braddock is turned into such a bleach-clean human being that you can't help but root for such a pure character. The villain, Max Baer, in the movie is the epitome of evil, heartlessly killing two opponents in the ring, while in real life, Baer was a good man who only killed one man accidentally and was sorrowful for the rest of his life, sending a part of each purse that he won to the man's family.
That said, I did enjoy the movie the first time that I saw it. It was only after another viewing that I started to dislike it. It's an adequate enough film, one-dimensional, but inspiring, just don't expect it to be something you want to see over and over again.
-J

Defiance

When I saw the trailer for Defiance, long before the movie released, I thought that it looked like a light on action, heavy on sentiment movie. I also knew that I wanted to see it. Both were results of watching a well-cut trailer that really didn't give any indication of what the movie would actually be like. So I started the film having a very different idea of what it was actually going to be like. Even with that, I still liked the movie a lot. Those who have seen Director Edward Zick's other work, The Last Samurai will know what to expect here. Specifically, a movie that tries it's damnedest to be a historical epic, with sweeping storylines that have just enough fact behind them to be believable and selfless characters that didn't quite change history, but made a difference in their own way. As much as either movie tries to be epic, they both fall just a little bit short. The Last Samurai comes across as being preachy and emotionally manipulative, and Defiance just doesn't have the kind of spark to be totally memorable. That said, I will admit that I liked both Defiance and The Last Samurai and I thought they both deserved better critical reception than they received. Defiance tells the story of the Bielske brothers who, in 1940s Poland, led a band of Polish jews in resistance to their nation's Nazi occupiers. The true story has not often been told and will most likely be unfamiliar to almost anyone watching, even though the story is inspiring and, I think, deserving of a retelling. Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber's acting performances are adequate. The only fault in this film is the script's lack of any real life. I watched the movie and yet never really sympathized with, or even really cared that much about the characters. I would call Defiance a good, but not great, war drama.

-J