Film Review - The Monuments Men

Art For Art's Sake

Film: The Monuments Men

Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray

Directed by: George Clooney

Duration: 2 hrs

Rating: * * *

The Monuments Men directed by George Clooney is based on a true story and make no mistake; it is a great story but doesn’t quite translate into film that is in the same league.  Is the world’s greatest art worth risking one’s life to save it? During the World War II when the Nazis were on a rampage, a bunch of good men thought it was well worth it.

The veracity of the details may be disputed, but considering this is a film, (there is also an excellent documentary made in 2006, The Rape of Europa) you are willing to overlook the authenticity of the proceedings. After all, these men did exist and helped save a lot of treasured art.

The Train (1964) starring Burt Lancaster had a similar story where the Resistance had to stop and salvage a train carrying precious art to Germany. While that film was an absolute edge of the seat thriller, the flaw with Monuments Men lies with the script which has a bit of action, buddy bonding and the occasional bout of thrill without really digging deep in to any of them.

‘Why the three stars then?’ you might ask. Well, consider the story –as WWII was coming to end, the Nazis were looting or destroying all sorts of precious art and sculptures. Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Rembrandt, you name it they were all stolen and Hitler had a grand design of making a Fuehrer museum.  

Enter the art historians and curators, led by the American Lt. Frank Stokes (Clooney) who gets on the scene of action in Europe with his men that has an excellent cast of John Goodman, Billy Murray, Matt Damon and Bob Balaban. Jean Dujardin plays a Frenchman who helps them in their endeavors. Together they help retrieve thousands of prized artworks, which were meant to be purged by the Nazis. Cate Blanchett also plays an important role as the curator of a museum who supports the Resistance and keeps a close eye on the movement of the paintings.

While lots of scenes are sugary, the film succeeds in making the point about how important our art and history is. As Clooney says in the film, if a generation is wiped out, a new generation will come up but if our past culture is destroyed, there is no bringing it back.   

The screenplay should have been more terse, most of the time it appears to be skimming the surface as far as the individual stories are concerned. Nevertheless, it serves as a great lesson in history and serves ample food for thought. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 23rd Feb 2014
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Film Review - Darr @ The Mall

                     

Boredom @ The Theatre

Film: Darr @ The Mall
Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Nusrat Bharucha, Arif Zakaria
Directed by: Pavan Kirpalani
Duration: 2 hrs 5 mins
Rating: * 1 / 2

In the good old days, horror films used to be set in haunted houses and mansions but with the changing times, they have moved to places that are more sophisticated. Director Pavan Kirpalani of Ragini MMS fame has set his story in an urban shopping mall this time and barely six months ago, Vikram Bhatt’s Horror Story had a similar premise which took place in a multi storey hotel.

The kind of horror films that are made in Bollywood, you want them to be snappy-establish the scenario quickly, bring in the ‘ghost’, bump off some characters, give a couple of scares, make sure the ghost keeps appearing now and then and finally resolve the situation by showing why he (or she for that matter) is so angry.   

What you don’t want in a horror film is song and dance and chaos as a substitute for tension and drama.

Jimmy Shergill plays a security guard at a shopping mall, there have been nine mysterious deaths there and we are told about the last guard who was charred to death in his car. They must be paying the staff very well invoking jealousy in the ghost. But that was on a lighter note.

On a serious one, strange things keep happening, there are the wise security men who decide to check the security cameras at 1.30 in the morning giving the ghost an ideal opportunity to make his presence felt.

After a party at the mall (read item number) the gates automatically close leaving some of them inside to fend for themselves. Expectedly, the rest of it is more predictable than India’s overseas performance in cricket.   

The film drags its feet for too long and like the characters, you want the ordeal to end soon. Thankfully, there is no religious mumbo-jumbo attached to it, as is usually in such films. 

Unless you are a dire hard fan of this genre, Darr at the whatever is avoidable. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 23rd Feb 2014

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Film Review - Pompeii

Mountain of a Mole Hill 

Film: Pompeii (3D)

Cast: Kit Harrington, Emily Browning

Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson

Duration: 1 hr 30 mins

Rating: * *

You don’t go to a movie with a lot of expectations from the director of the Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil franchise. It helps because Pompeii is one of those run of mill films that involves slaves, kings, Romans, special effects and a natural disaster. The story is lackluster and to add to it, the performances are no great shakes either.

Set around 79 A.D in the city of Pompeii, Milo (Kit Harrington) plays a slave turned gladiator who falls in love with Cassia (Emily Browning) who comes from a noble family.. The evil senator Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) also has his eye on the lady and considering he is close to the Roman emperor he also wields considerable power. Milo meanwhile is looking for an escape route, which doesn’t come easy.

The climax when Mount Vesuvius erupts is the only time you want to stay awake because of some good visual effects. There is chaos all around town as fire and ash destroys the town and Milo also has to rescue his girl who is kept captive. The action scenes will put you back to sleep again and like T-1000 in Terminator 2, Corvus refuses to die and keeps popping up, no matter what.

The only good thing about Pompeii is that there won’t be a sequel.  Unless of course if they make films on the subsequent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 23rd Feb 2014

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Film Review - Fandry

Shaken And Stirred

Film: Fandry (Marathi with English subtitles)

Cast: Somnath Awghade, Kishore Kadam

Directed by: Nagraj Popatrao Manjule

Duration: 1 hr 43 mins

Rating: * * * *

It is not very often that when you come out of the theater your mind and heart is racing with so many emotions. Anger, exhilaration, joy, sadness, not necessarily in that order, you feel it all at the same time. Most films nowadays hardly evoke even one those sentiments.

I felt anger because that is what the main protagonist went through, I was exhilarated because of the craft shown by the director, I felt joy because films like these are getting made and the sadness came from the fact that the brutal reality shown in it is true and still exists in the country.

Set in a village in Maharashtra, Jabuwant aka Jabya (Somnath Awghade) a young boy hails from the lower caste and is in love with a girl from his school who happens to be from the upper caste. Given his dark complexion, he even applies that tinge of talcum powder to look fair. The discrimination and taunts that he faces everyday keep reminding him of who he is and where he stands. His father (Kishore Kadam, terrific as usual) does small time jobs in the village, mostly those that no one else will, like catching pigs (Fandry means pig) that cause upheaval there.

Jabya’s sympathizer is the local villager (played by the director) who asks him to burn a black sparrow and sprinkle its ashes to bring good fortune. The young boy’s quest for the elusive sparrow is very effectively used as device to rein in the change.

The last 20 odd minutes where the family chases the pigs will knock your socks off. There is irony (people using Facebook to update the proceedings), dark humor and exceptionally brilliant scenes. I can’t think of a film in recent times whose climax weighed in so heavily on the overall impact of the film.

Manjule depicts the facts as they are – there is no sugar coating or any preachy social commentary. The music score by Alokananda Dasgupta (daughter of the acclaimed film maker Buddhadeb Dasgupta, she also composed the music for Shaala) is evocative. On the acting front, Somnath Awghade is convincing, especially in those parts where it matters the most and Kishore Kadam plays his part to perfection. 

Do yourself a favor and watch Fandry. At the end of it if you don’t feel emotions stirred in you, go and see a doctor immediately.    

Published in The Navhind Times on 16th Feb 2014

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Film Review - Her

Relationship Manager 

Film: Her

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams

Directed by: Spike Jonze

Duration: 2 hrs

Rating: * * * *

For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. 

Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination.

We learned to talk and we learned to listen – Stephen Hawking

However ludicrous it may sound, imagine falling in love with a computer operating system who talks and reacts just like a human being. Relationships between man and machine or inanimate objects have been explored before but not to this degree. You can trust director Spike Jonze to deliver something extraordinary. 

Can machines become a substitute for humans even when it comes to love affection and relationships? After all, love makes us feel good about ourselves and who we are, perhaps it doesn’t matter whether it is a person at the other end or, just a voice that acts like one.

Set in an unspecified but not so distant future we have Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) who writes letters as a profession.  All he has to do is sit dictate and voila- the computer will produce a hand written letter. His skill of course lies in dictating the right words and feelings.

Theodore himself is a rather lonely man who is in the process of separating from his wife (Rooney Mara). His only friends are his neighbors in the building, Amy (Amy Adams) and her partner Charles.  Life changes when he installs a new operating system who can talk (voice of Scarlett Johansson) and interact with him.  Apart from being a ‘personal assistant’, Samantha as she christens herself, can talk about everything under the sun, including her feelings. Considering that his interaction with the female species has had limited success, he falls in love with Samantha. Moreover, the feeling is mutual.

As it happens in the first phase of any relationship, they both help each other grow, although his contribution is more on that count.  At least, that is what she acknowledges. Even though Samantha is just a voice and doesn’t exist in flesh and blood, everything else about her is as real as it can get. At one stage, she even comes up with idea of using a ‘substitute’ as a go-between.

Jonze narrates it in a remarkable way – when Theodore goes out on a blind date and after a bit of necking when he refutes her advances, she says “You’re one creepy dude.”

But the story is set in a time when Theodore is not the only one in a relationship with an O/S, there are many others. And as it happens with relationships there is the burden of expectation and other notions including elements of jealousy. Jonze doesn’t pass judgment on his characters either, there is no right or wrong. That is how all relationships work, that is the nature of mankind – happy endings are largely restricted to fairy tales.

The music score, the cinematography the production design and even the retro costume (he wears red and yellow shirts and unconventional trousers, and they look good) add to the mood. Scarlett Johansson as the voice of Samantha has done an incredible job- she makes her character real. Joaquin Phoenix lends so much credibility; he has got all his emotions and mannerisms in the absolute right measure. 

It will be wonderful to have this film as an audio to listen to over and over again. But while it is showing at a theatre near you, do go and watch it. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 16th Feb 2014

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