Review: Blackhat

When you think of director Michael Mann, you think of gritty films with raw grainy visuals that not only ooze machismo and bravado, but also pay a healthy amount of respect for each film’s respective cityscapes.   Heat, The Insider, Ali, Collateral, Miami Vice – each boasts Mann’s signature film making style, and - with the exception to Miami Vice - each of these films is quite good.  From cops-and-robbers, to tobacco industry whistle blowers, to the Heavyweight Champion of the World, Mann sandpapers that glossy Hollywood sheen off the silver screen to welcome the viewer into a world that feels like it could exist right outside the cinema doors.

Thus, the prospects of teaming Michael Mann with Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Rush) and Viola Davis (The Help, Suicide Squad) seemed to promise a worthy new addition to his mostly impressive resume.  But like so many no brainer pairings and can’t miss prospective projects, Blackhat falls incredibly short of those expectations.  It’s always easy to point to any one or two specific reasons as to why a film fails (as I am going to do shortly), but ultimately, I think the problems that plague this film are more the result of an extensive series of choices and missteps - resulting in a film that can best be described as one that feels like an amateurish attempt to make a cheap knock-off of a Michael Mann movie.
  

Piece one of the blame pie has to go to the writing.  I am always quick to say that writers are underrated and are the backbone of any great movie.  Thus, when things go awry, I have to place culpability upon the screenwriter.   Morgan Davis Foehl’s script feels like he spent a weekend binge watching a bunch of espionage/action movies and then picked out his favorite elements and mashed them into one script.  The result is a narrative that is an unsightly amalgamation of mismatched parts – a la Frankenstein.  Computer hacking, gunfights, explosive devices, stock market manipulation – it’s all in there, but sadly the one key ingredient to this jambalaya of plot mechanisms is missing – namely cohesion.

The second biggest problem with this movie is the casting.  Chris Hemsworth is a good actor with more range than one would initially think after watching Thor, but Blackhat requires the actor to play a role he simply does not fit into – that of a tech junky world-class hacker.  Because Hemsworth very much has the look of the Norse God he plays in the Marvel cinematic universe, it is an incredible stretch to sell him to the public as this mad genius of a hacker who does most of his work with fingers on keyboards.  That his character is also able to take on militant global terrorist with guns and fists alike in the second and third act serves as the crippling blow to the credibility of his performance and the plot of the film.  It’s the proverbial moment when you realize that this movie is nothing more than a creative team throwing everything against a wall and seeing what sticks.  And just to be clear, what sticks in this film, absolutely stinks.

What do I say about the performance of Viola Davis, Wei Tang (as love interest Chen Lien), or anyone else in the movie?  Two words – who cares.  No one in this film really matters.  Any danger they encounter, any turmoil they experience, any pain that they feels, it all feels so inconsequential.  Not a single performance is compelling enough to make the viewer feel empathy, sympathy or any other “-athy” towards anyone in the movie.  And that’s catastrophically problematic when you are in the business of storytelling.

These problems along with so many other smaller ones add up to a film that will go into the vault of forgotten movies only to be resurrected as a 5 second clip buried in a montage of other movie clips should Mann’s or Hemsworth’s respective careers ever get the lifetime achievement treatment.  So do yourself a favor and take a pass on this one - No OnDemand, no Netflix, no Red Box, no iTunes, no nothing.  There are so many mediocre action movies in the marketplace that are at the very least moderately entertaining, that this movie should never have to make its way onto your screen of choice.

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Review: Prisoners

To say that Prisoners is a set in a cold dour place where hope goes to die would seem an understatement.  From gray skies to weathered buildings to the malaise of mid-life domesticity, the world the film depicts is outwardly bland but inwardly reeks of silent oppression.  The film then poses the question of what happens when tragedy strikes; that silent oppression boils over; and those internalized feelings of desperation become externalized?  So you could say that a Sunday stroll in the park, this movie is not.  But just because Prisoners may not be fun, doesn’t necessarily mean it is terrible.

The film finds the Dover family spending Thanksgiving with the Birch family at their home.  During the course of the festivities, the youngest of each family – Anna Dover and Joy Birch – go missing.  Initially they are presumed to have gone for a walk in the neighborhood, but when a search proves futile, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is called in to investigate the case.  With many leads in play, Gyllenhaal’s Loki launches a search that takes the investigation deep into the town’s past and uncovers some dark secrets.

You could look at this synopsis and assume it’s your typical small town narrative featuring a cop who works the suspects through a number of plot twists until the criminal mastermind is revealed in the third act.  On some level, this would be true, but that would not do director Denis Villeneuve and writer Aaron Guzikowski’s film justice.  There are religious undertones that delve into the nature of relationships between father and child as well as wife and husband.  Sure, the film features physically gruesome acts and moments of thrilling tension to keep the audience on the edge of their respective seats, but this film is ultimately an intense character sketch.

A lot of what works about this film begins and ends with Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover.  One of the most recognizable stars in the world, he disappears into this role in impressive fashion channeling the requisite raw emotion and intensity.  He has the unique challenge of making the audience empathize with his character even during those moments where his actions might make it difficult to do so, but his commitment to the role allows him to pull it off.  His work in this film won’t garner the praise and recognition of some of his higher profile roles, but it is every bit as good. 

Working opposite Jackman is Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki.  I have to be honest and say that it was not his best work.  It was not even his best portrayal of a police officer.  That distinction would have to go to his work in End of Watch.  In this film, he is wildly uneven and inconsistent, making it difficult to wrap your head around the character.  Some of these issues have to be script related as the Detective Loki at times acts and reacts in a way contrary to what we’ve been told about the character, but then Gyllenhaal does nothing to help.  By failing to embrace the role with vigor and to make the character his own, he fails to smooth out some of those wrinkles.

Then there is Terrence Howard as Franklin Birch.  Depending on whom you believe, Howard was bounced from Iron Man 2 for either his inability to act or to the size of his contract for the sequel.  After seeing him in this film, I am convinced that it was the latter.  His performance is an epic fail from start to finish punctuated by a couple of instances where his acting during grave moments actually elicited laughter from the viewing audience.  And believe me when I tell you that this is exactly the wrong kind of movie for an actor to be unintentionally funny.

Two members of the cast who faired better are Viola Davis and Paul Dano.  Davis (as Nancy Birch) is strong yet vulnerable as a grief stricken mother and she channels all the emotions as an actor that Terrence Howard cannot.  Dano also turns in good work as Alex Jones, a young man suspected of kidnapping the two girls.  It’s not easy to be simplistic, detached, undeveloped yet menacing all at the same time, but he does so despite the paucity of spoken lines.

As for the rest of the cast, Melissa Leo is satisfactory playing Holly Jones (kin to Alex Jones) but gets props for the physical transformation she undergoes to play a much older woman.  Maria Bello is also satisfactory as she plays the grieving mother by the book, just hitting the right notes at the right time – nothing more and nothing less.  And the younger members of the cast, they collectively do just enough not to stand out but then not much else is truly asked of them.

When you pull all these pieces together, it is clear that Prisoners is at the least a decent film from a technical aspect; tension and drama from a character-driven script, strong acting from the lead, and a few gems from the supporting cast to add depth and greater weight to the stakes embedded in the narrative.  Still, I don’t think this is a movie for everyone.  I am always the first to say that at the very least, a movie should be fun and entertaining and this one is definitely not the former.  Instead it’s trying to pull you into this place where it is cold, dark, and conflicted.  So if this sounds like your cup of tea, I would encourage you to give this one a look on DVD after its theatrical run.  For everyone else, catch it on cable somewhere down the line or take pass altogether.  It probably won’t make any of your top ten lists, but it won’t compel you to swear off movies forever.

Standout Performance:  Hugh Jackman.  A gifted triple threat performer who truly embraces all that this role requires.

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Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I have never really been a fan of movies set against the backdrop of 9/11.  Well, I guess it is not so much that I am not a fan, but more that I have chosen to avoid such movies (i.e. United 93, World Trade Center, Reign Over Me).  I know people who were lost in the tragedy and that is most definitely a contributing factor to my reluctance.  However, I think the driving force behind my reasoning is that while I love movies, I don’t take them too seriously.  I don’t look to movies to learn about the world or to be educated – not even documentaries because the finished product is always the filmmaker’s take on a given subject matter – especially in this day and age when subjective reporting is a lost art.  But I digress.  For me, movies are about escapism and as a member of my own generation, nothing about 9/11 can ever offer a temporary escape.

So for the first half hour I did not particularly care for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and though that feeling never completely went away, I did become interested in seeing the protagonist Oskar Schell – played by Thomas Horn – find some closure to the task at hand and to an immensely painful chapter in his life.  The plot centers on this task of finding a key left behind by Oskar’s father played by Tom Hanks, who passed away in the 9/11 tragedy.  Discovering the mystery behind the innocuous key becomes a journey of emotional turmoil and learning for a young boy struggling with the question, “why?”

What worked best for me was the presence of Tom Hanks’ Schell even when he was just a voice on an answering machine or not even onscreen at all.  I am not a huge Hanks fan – I actually think that in his prime he was greatly overrated – but he does great work and in limited screen time makes his presence felt throughout the film.  He and veteran actor Max von Sydow – as the Renter – stretch their acting chops and offset the over-the-top histrionics of Thomas Horn.

What didn’t work for me was the execution of the plot.  His journey to encounter everyone in the five boroughs named Black is overwrought and the direction by Stephen Daldry falls into the trap of indulging the excess.  There are too many moving pieces, too many hidden lessons, and too many secrets that ultimately fail to deliver with the big reveal.  And while Sandra Bullock, Jeffrey Wright, and Viola Davis are all accomplished veteran actors, they fail to rescue the movie from the morass of neurotic emo-sentimentality that poor writing depicts as the cure to post 9/11 blues.

There are things that occur in this movie that make it worthwhile, but it is in no way a great product as some have dubbed it.  It’s a mid-queue Netflix rental at best that you should not watch when you are having a particularly good day, because no matter the outcome of the movie, the subject matter will leave you in a somber state. 

Standout Performance:  Tom Hanks.  It is probably his best performance in years.

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