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| Sunday, October 25, 2009 06:38 PM |
| On the Viewer - 18 1/2 Philadelphia Film Festival: Monday, October 19th |
 by Fëanor |
The Men Who Stare at Goats
This movie opens by telling us we wouldn't believe how much of it is true. Then we meet reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), a man made sad, desperate, and slightly suicidal thanks to the recent end of a romantic relationship. His feelings lead him to run off to Iraq where he hopes to make a name for himself by writing a powerful story from the front. Only he can't get permission to get anywhere near the front, and finds himself cooling his heels in a hotel, making up stories of false courageous deeds to tell his ex. Then he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), whom by chance he's heard of before. Cassady is a Jedi warrior - a member of a secret team of psychic warriors trained by the US Army. Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) ran the team, and it was thanks to the actions of trainee Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) that the team was disbanded and Django sent off in disgrace. But now Cassady says he's been reactivated and is on a mission in Iraq. Wilton decides he's found his story and attaches himself to Cassady, following him into the war zone and becoming both his biographer and his Padawan, as it were. But is Cassady the real thing, or just a dangerous kook?
In case you couldn't tell from my synopsis, the film is a comedy, and it's quite funny and entertaining. The acting is excellent across the board, with Clooney, Bridges, and Spacey turning in particularly wonderful performances. I thought it was odd that McGregor was cast as an American, and thus has to keep up a fake American accent throughout the film. He does a pretty good job, and he's good in the movie, but why not use an American actor? Maybe the temptation to cast a former Jedi Knight as a... well, a Jedi Knight was too great. It certainly does add some pleasant postmodern humor to the proceedings.
My main problem, however, is not with McGregor, but with the film's confused tone. Often it makes fun of the psychic soldiers and treats their powers and philosophies as pure BS, but at other times it embraces them with warmth and love and treats their powers and philosophies as full of truth and wisdom. Maybe the point is that the reality is somewhere in between.
Bronson
The fictionalized retelling of the life of Michael Peterson, AKA Charles Bronson, AKA Britain's most dangerous criminal. Bronson is a fascinating man, craving fame, but capable of little but violence and destruction - mostly self-destruction. He gets himself thrown in jail when he's quite young and quickly discovers that in that small pond, he can be a big fish. When he gets taken out of prison and put into an insane asylum, he tries to kill someone just so he can go back to prison. When he's declared sane and allowed back into the outside world, he finds himself most decidedly out of his element. He takes a stab at having a relationship, but it all goes wrong. He tries getting a job, but fighting can only get you so far. Soon enough he's on his way back to prison. Every once in a while he takes someone hostage, but once he's done so, he can't come up with any demands. He doesn't do it because he wants something; he does it because it's another way to cause trouble, to exercise his power, and increase his fame.
The film is undoubtedly well made and well acted, especially by star Tom Hardy. There's an odd but compelling recurring device that features Bronson on a stage, telling his story directly to a well-dressed audience, as if he's putting on a one-man show - which, of course, is how he lives his life. Still, despite the clear skill with which the film is made, it left me a bit cold. Yes, Bronson is an extraordinarily flawed, empty, and destructive human being. But... so what? |
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