Tag: Stephen Frears

CIFF Review: Philomena

“Philomena” is based on a great true story, but it makes a mess of its main characters and its storytelling method.

Philomena

“Philomena” screened as a part of the Chicago International Film Festival. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened.

What makes a great story? Most people think it’s just a good plot; juicy twists and surprises are all it takes. “Philomena” and the real life story behind Martin Sixsmith’s book is filled with teen pregnancies, evil nuns, gay Republicans, death, reunion, comedy and religion; it’s got it all.

But Stephen Frears’s film muddles the characters, the ideas and the storytelling style that would help make it great. It’s a mess of tones and loosely fleshed out philosophies on faith and forgiveness that keeps “Philomena” from working as either a detective thriller or as a journalistic investigation.

Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) was a BBC News broadcaster forced out of a job after a scandalous quote about burying the news was wrongly attributed to him. Looking for work, he decides to take a human interest piece centered on the elderly Philomena Lee (Judi Dench).

Lee spent her teenage years living in a convent, and after accidentally becoming impregnated, the nuns made her atone for her sins by giving away her son to an American family when he was just a toddler, forbidding her to search for her son or reveal she even had one.

Sixsmith isn’t so much moved by her story or by Lee as he is intrigued that it’ll make for juicy copy. He takes Lee to Washington D.C. to search for her son, only to dig up a conspiracy surrounding how little they can discover. Continue reading “CIFF Review: Philomena”

CIFF Review: Lay the Favorite

I still don’t know what the title “Lay the Favorite” means. It’s a term used by bookies and gamblers to bet against the odds, but it doesn’t make any sense. It’s empty fast-talking, it’s not memorable and it’s not funny. I keep thinking the movie is called “Pay it Forward” or something because everything about this movie is generic, forgettable and tepid.

It’s a disappointing, personality-less comedy from the otherwise interesting Stephen Frears and this dynamic cast. Rebecca Hall, who is usually womanly and relatable, here plays Beth, an air-headed stripper from Tallahassee with ambitions to be a cocktail waitress in Vegas. Her talents include twirling her hair, being chipper and wide-eyed and wearing Daisy Dukes, but in an instant she lands a folksy and wise best friend with a Southern accent and a job at Dink Inc.

The company is called Dink Inc. because Dink sounds like dick and it allows the movie to repeatedly say Dink Inc. The owner of Dink Inc. is of course Dink (Bruce Willis), a professional gambler who briefly explains the ropes to Beth and offers her $20 an hour.

The movie is about always being trustworthy in an untrustworthy business, and so she is. Willis acts sunny around her and she falls in love with him as a father figure, but she’s fired when Dink’s wife Tulip (Catherine Zeta-Jones) gets jealous.

Beth goes to New York with a boy toy (Joshua Jackson) she met hours earlier, makes it big with another bookie (Vince Vaughn), gets into some trouble and later lives happily ever after.

It’s a movie without stakes, which is bad for a movie about gambling. There’s no chemistry, nothing interesting about these characters, no reason to care for them and nothing funny about their dialogue. The Vegas gamblers all have this dopey mobster mentality and thick accent, as if talking fast and tough makes it so.

“Lay the Favorite” is an empty, lightweight film that could’ve come from anyone. What makes me so disappointed by it was that it was the secret screening at the Chicago International Film Festival. Anticipating “Lincoln,” “Life of Pi,” “Les Miserables” or even just “Skyfall,” I can’t even express how much of a let down this was.

2 stars

Rapid Response: Dangerous Liaisons

“Dangerous Liaisons” knows just how ridiculously soapy, ridiculous and steamy it is, and Stephen Frears’ movie works better than the play.

What’s great about “Dangerous Liaisons” is that it knows just how soapy and ridiculous this all is. It’s set in stuffy, aristocratic France, but everything about this story is sex, love and revenge all the time. It’s absurd, but here, it works.

I saw an adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s play of the same name (he’s also the screenwriter) and think it’s a lot better as a film. The play is all talk and gossip. It’s bogged down under names and archaic language. The elaborate web of steamy fucking becomes impossible to follow in that setting. Here however, Frears’s cross cutting does the story wonders. He jumps from bed to bed, drawing room to drawing room and keeps the many liaisons, dangerous or not, in check. Continue reading “Rapid Response: Dangerous Liaisons”