The Orphanage

I was channel surfing Italian TV in Milan. My first hit was a typical RAI variety

  program featuring Amazonian women showing more leg than talent and some old guy with bad dye job hosting. My next hit was a news format with six intense journalists seriously discussing the history of Dragon Boat Racing (what the …..). Fortunately I found a foreign language (English among others) channel. The feature movie was “The Orphanage” which I never heard of. It was in Spanish without subtitles. What caught my attention was Guillermo Del Toro’s name. He was not the director but the producer. Del Toro is a great director and writer. His credits include Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devils Back Bone and the Hell Boy series. I decided to watch the film. It was 11pm and past my bedtime but what the hell let’s get wild.

Even without subtitles the movie was intriguing. The acting was so good you had a basic idea of what was going on. A family took over an abandoned orphanage and were living there. There was a mother a father and their beloved son Simón. Flashbacks showed the original orphanage with the orphans happy and running around in play.  Later you find out something terrible happened to the orphans. In the present Simón befriends one of the orphan ghosts. Simon has a bad fight with his mother and runs away and disappears. The rest of the movie focuses on the parent’s efforts, especially the mother’s, to find Simón.

Basically this is a ghost story. The atmosphere of the movie is more sad than gloomy. The ghosts are not the main focus rather it is the parents efforts to find their son and their crushing heart breaks. Even in disappear some parts are touching and tender. This film definitely has a Hitchcockian feel. It has consistent style but when it wants to scare you it does so effectively. In one scene the mother is pushed into the bathroom by a ghost and tumbles into the tub ripping a shower curtain as she falls; sound familiar?

After the movie, which ended at 1am, I looked it up on Wikipedia.  What I found out made the movie even more interesting. I am ordering the movie on Netflix with subtitles. This was a gem of a find which I highly recommend it. Maybe I will stay up past 1am more often.

A Most Wanted Man

When the movie ended I suspected it could be based on a John le Carre novel; it was. For me reading a le Carre novel is like jogging in wet cement. It is ponderous and has little forward motion.  This movie follows suite. It is a spy movie but not one shot is fired, never mind gratuitous sex. The heart of the plot is a mysterious and very dirty refugee from the East comes to Hamburg to claim an inheritance. American and German secret services seek to claim him and the money.

The movie went on for two hours but felt longer. There were more business meetings than car chases. Not to give too much away, the apex of the movie was signing a critical legal document; very un-Bondish. If this sound base, I plead guilty.

What this movie will be remembered for is not its scintillating plot but rather as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last film (far as we know). He looked terrible, overweigh (more than usual), puffy and tired. His incessant cigarette smoking was real. He played the role as the German agent Gunther in his trademark languid manner. His drawl was not quite like Capote’s, but still unhurried with a soft spoken mumble.  His skills as a great actor was evident and he fully inhabits his character, but this is not the best vehicle for his final journey

.

There other fine actors in this movie. Rachel McAdams plays an idealist lawyer aiding the refugee from the East. She is very sweet and earnest. Her legal skills are sharp, and yes there are more meetings.   At one point she and the refugee tumble into each other’s arms but alas no lip lock.

William Defoe is the slimy bank president. Defoe has a wonderful demonic face which portends evil, but here his dark side is relegated to being a German bureaucrat. He played a vampire once before.

The last notable star is Robin Wright (Buttercup from “The Prince Bride” and Mrs. Frank Underwood from the “House of Card”). She plays the CIA officer liaising with the German investigation team.  There is nothing soft or warm about her; she can chill a bottle of wine by just holding it. Her performance in the film is limited but important.  Detached heatless women seem to be a natural for her, hopefully only in films.

I apologize for being so catty. With all the ballyhoo about the film I expected more or a least a pace faster than a tortoise’s.

Get On Up

For a movie with fancy choreography, there are some missteps. However, Chadwick Boseman was fabulous. To go from the stoic and reserved Jackie Robinson role to the extroverted James Brown is the ultimate definition acting range. Boseman’s embodiment of Brown was so complete his mimicked speech pattern made it difficult to understand him. His role is more than just an impression but is rather very challenging and encompasses the spectrum of Brown’s life from the back woods shack of his birth to the private jet of the Godfather of Soul. The hardest working man in show business had a very hard life and as a result was not the nicest person. James Brown constantly uses the first person to describe himself. In this a way he reaffirms his success and keeps the ghosts of his past at bay. James Brown was a force of nature and his signature showmanship defined him.

The movie benefited from other great actors. Viola Davies plays his mother and even in her brief appearance gives a touching and forceful performance. The movie would have been stronger with her character longer on screen. She is very influential in the development of Brown. Octavia Spencer played a warm comforting auntie type. She is a proxy mother, but she too is relegated to a brief appearance. Dan Aykroyd is a national treasure. He has the acting range of a pimple, but you gotta love him. Nelsan Ellis plays James Brown’s wingman, Bobbie Bryd. This is a classic love hate relationship engendering pity, arrogance and resolution. Ellis was perfect for the role.

The dancing is signature James Brown. I hope Boseman already has children, since those splits are lethal. Boseman lip syncs the songs but he does it with such bravado, sweat pours down his grimacing face. Boseman’s make up is dead on.

The movie has some problems; flash backs and asides. Flash backs are valuable if used sparingly. In this movie the flash backs give you motion sickness and are very distracting. They bounce back and forth in a non-liner manner. Asides are annoying. If the actor has to tell the audience what is going on followed with a big wink, something is lacking. If the script is written correctly the audience gets it. Another sore point is the use labels in the movie.  They looked like exit signs on a highway and were silly for a drama.

This movie is imperfect. Boseman’s chameleon performance of James Brown deserves at least an Oscar nomination. All round there are wonderful acting gems, but sometimes the settings are not quite good. Go see it, but bring Dramamine.