Movie Review: Sense And Sensibility (1995)

A romantic drama with hints of humour, Sense And Sensibility adapts Jane Austen's novel with a breezy attitude and polished aesthetic.

It's late in the 18th century in England, and the death of Mr. Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson) leaves his second wife Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones) and her daughters Elinor (Emma Thompson), Marianne (Kate Winslet) and young Margaret on a much reduced income. The two older sisters are close friends but opposites in personality. Elinor is thoughtful, circumspect and getting dangerously close to being designated a spinster. Marianne is passionate, extroverted and believes in true love.

The Dashwoods have to give up their lavish home and most of their servants, and they relocate to the snug cottage of the kindly Mr. and Mrs. Middleton. In the process Elinor meets and starts to fall in "like" with the potentially wealthy but profession-less Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant). However, events conspire against their budding relationship.

Marianne's fortunes start to look up when she meets Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), who may be interested in her, but before he can act she is literally swept off her feet by the dashing John Willoughby (Greg Wise). But with money, class, long-held promises and family expectations at least as important as love, the path to marital happiness for the Dashwood sisters is nothing if not complicated.

First-time script writer Emma Thompson and producer Lindsay Doran wrestled with Austen's prose and simplified the book into cinematic cohesion. With foreign director Ang Lee providing an agile perspective, the trio produced a surprisingly accessible package. While the story remains largely obsessed with women finding husbands and not a single character appears to have a vocation worth mentioning, Sense And Sensibility creates a thriller out of mysteries of the heart.

The multiple and often overlapping possible love matches for Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are surprisingly engaging, and of course not a single relationship comes without layers of complexity. The affable Edward appears to be prevented from fully pursuing Elinor because she is penniless and his mother won't allow it, but a much deeper secret will be revealed to Elinor, shaking the very premise of their bond.

Marianne suffers deeper cuts. Her two suitors could not be more different. Colonel Brandon is calm, collected and almost too easy to overlook as unsuitably serene for her disposition. Willoughby by comparison is a romantic wild heart, and once he enters her life she can see no one else. However, both men have stunning backstories to be revealed at the appropriate time, and only after Marianne's young heart is exposed to the dangers of intense love and her health compromised.

And the warm core of the story is a tender relationship between Elinor and Marianne built on sisterly love, support and respect. With the men frequently absent to build up the mystery around their motivations, Elinor and Marianne harbour the one genuine, constant and palpable bond.

Thompson and Winslet bring the two sisters to life with superlative performances. Thompson internalizes the fortitude expected of an older sister but still shines in the few scenes where Elinor's emotional defences finally break. At just 19 years old and in one of her earliest roles, Winslet finds the unabashed expression of an arts-loving young woman willing to challenge the social conventions of her day.

Director Lee ensures the men do more by staying within themselves, both Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant conveying polite but complex characters with more going on in their lives than first meets the eye. Although most of the drama occurs indoors and through scenes of dialogue, Lee does include plenty of beautiful English scenery, and a few pivotal scenes are staged on stormy moors with Marianne's impulsive passions landing her in physical predicaments and in need of rescue.

Thompson's script measures out the reveals at appropriate intervals to keep the drama simmering, and enough secondary characters populate the margins to provide a base level of caustic humour and social commentary. The labyrinthian love entanglements provide avenues to expose gender, class and economic divides buffeting the pursuit of happiness.

For the Dashwood girls finding a suitable man is almost the easy part. Not immune from being victimized, the sisters will build their true character by deftly navigating around societal expectations, using Sense And Sensibility to expose true intentions.

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Movie Review: Gambit (2012)

An attempted madcap comedy, Gambit musters up a few chuckles but otherwise collapses into a heap of stultifying gags.

Art curator Harry Dean (Colin Firth) is fed up with his boss, the insufferable London-based media tycoon Lord Lionel Shabandar (Alan Rickman). With help from art forger The Major (Tom Courtenay), Harry concocts a plan to "discover" a long lost Monet at the ramshackle Texas home of rancher PJ Puznowski (Cameron Diaz), and have PJ sell it to Lionel for millions.

After some misadventures Harry and The Major secure the cooperation of PJ, but nothing else goes according to Harry's plan. Shabander is difficult to fool, and sets his eyes on PJ as a romantic conquest. The mogul also plots to replace Harry with snooty German curator Martin Zaidenweber (Stanley Tucci) while fending off a gaggle of rival Japanese businessmen.

A rough remake of the 1966 original, Gambit's troubled script was written by the Coen brothers (among others), and they were wise enough to leave it alone. Instead Michael Hoffman takes over directing duties, and he can do little to enliven proceedings. The film looks glossy enough and Firth's dry brand of humour saves some scenes, but the script and situational comedy settings are remarkably dated.

Gambit lives in a world where it is somehow supposed to still be funny that Harry Dean is repeatedly punched in the face; is functionally incapable of moving an office chair; gets his hand stuck in a jar; traps himself in a linen closet; is caught without his pants; and has to make an escape on the outside ledge of a hotel. In the early 1960s these cinematic gags may have been relatively fresh to some audiences in a Pink Panther type of way. Forty years later, Gambit is just oh-so-tired.

At least the London setting justifies the Englishness of Colin Firth and Alan Rickman. Californian Cameron Diaz goes all-in and distractingly over-the-top to portray a Texan, and Stanley Tucci stays firmly in caricature land as a German. The group of suited Japanese businessmen who are easily manipulated by food and drink is stereotyping at its worst.

A lion makes a late appearance as part of a ridiculous artwork security system, but Gambit is more of a meek house cat than wild beast.

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The Movies Of Alan Rickman

All movies starring Alan Rickman and reviewed on the Ace Black Blog are linked below:

Die Hard (1988)

Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991)

Sense And Sensibility (1995)

Love Actually (2003)

Gambit (2012)

The Butler (2013)

Eye In The Sky (2015)

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.
The Index of Movie Stars is here.

Movie Review: Die Hard (1988)

A brash, bold and boisterous action film, Die Hard is an exceptionally enjoyable thrill ride featuring one reluctant hero, one tall building, a gaggle of hostages and a large group of murderous terrorists.

It's Christmas Eve, and New York City police officer John McClane has just landed in Los Angeles to maybe try and patch things up with his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), an executive at the Nakatomi Corporation. John travels to the Nakatomi tower where the company Christmas party is in full swing, and barely avoids an invasion of the building by a group of well-organized and brutal terrorists. Mastermind Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his main henchman Karl (Alex Godunov) along with about a dozen armed men take all the Nakatomi employees, including Holly, as hostages, and set about opening the well-guarded corporate safe.

McClane escapes into the upper reaches of the building and initiates a one-man guerrilla war against the terrorists, picking off a few of them while trying to attract the attention of the enforcement authorities. Eventually LA police Sergeant Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) responds and initiates contact with McClane from outside the building, and a large police force gathers. Hans and his men still have surprises in hand, and the outnumbered and outgunned McClane has to fight a lonely battle just to survive and save his wife.

McClane: Mayday, Mayday, Emergency anyone copy, Channel Nine, terrorists have seized the Nakatomi Building, Century City, I repeat, unknown number of terrorists, six or more armed with automatic weapons on the 30th floor of Nakatomi Plaza.
LAPD Operator: [to other operator] I'll take this.
McClane: Somebody answer me, goddamn it!
LAPD Operator: Attention, whoever you are: This frequency is reserved for emergency calls only.
McClane: No fucking shit, lady! Do I sound like I'm ordering a pizza?!

Directed by John McTiernan, Die Hard turned Bruce Willis into a global action superstar and redefined what a high quality action movie can deliver. With a tight premise, plenty of quotable one-liners, hissing villains, a reluctant hero playing impossible odds, and no shortage of well-executed action scenes, the film unleashes an irresistible torrent of adrenaline.

The personality of John McClane is a huge part of the film's success. A classic fish-out-water hero, McClane's New York pragmatism is already being tested by the unfamiliar fluffy Los Angeles surroundings. His night gets much worse when the terrorists let loose, but McClane's streak of dark sarcasm carries through, his irritation at being forced into action the juice that keeps the evening going.

Bruce Willis brings McClane to life and finds his perfect career role. 33 years old with a prematurely thinning hair line, Willis brings credible world weariness to McClane, but makes the most impact at the personal level: Die Hard rises above typical action fare mainly due to McClane's desire for a reconciliation with wife Holly, and later thanks to the bond created over the radio between McClane and beat cop Al Powell. For all the flying bullets, shattered glass and huge explosions, Willis comes through at the personal level, creating a hero with heart, just as believable trading gunfire as he is at longing for human warmth.

Every good hero requires worthwhile villains, and McClane gets two. Decked out in expensive European threads, Hans Gruber is a distinguished killer, never hesitating to spill blood but insisting that he looks good doing it. Karl is more volatile, and runs on a short fuse once his brother becomes one of McClane's early victims. Alan Rickman and Alex Godunov deserve a lot of credit for creating a pair of hate-worthy bad guys.

The film has other troublemakers, first in the form of Deputy Police Chief Dwayne Robinson (Paul Gleason), and later two FBI agents (Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush).  Their hamfisted attempts to take charge and resolve the crisis only make matters worse for McClane, who learns the hard way that sometime the cavalry is more trouble than its worth.

Deputy Chief Dwayne Robinson: I got a hundred people down here and they're all covered in glass!
John McClane: Glass? Who gives a shit about glass? Who the fuck is this?
Deputy Chief Dwayne Robinson: This is Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, and I am in charge here.
John McClane: Oh you're in charge? Well I got some bad news for you Dwayne, from up here it doesn't look like you're in charge of jack shit.
Deputy Chief Dwayne Robinson: You listen to me you little asshole-
John McClane: Asshole? I'm not the one who just got butt-fucked on national TV, Dwayne! Now, you listen to me, jerk-off, if you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem. Quit being a part of the fuckin' problem and put the other guy back on!

But ultimately Die Hard is all about the action, and the film delivers in spades. Using the building as an excellent platform McTiernan stages the action in elevator and ventilation shafts, stairwells and half-completed floors, all transformed into intriguing settings for an escalating battle between one resourceful  man and a small army of terrorists. Handguns, automatic rifles, anti-tank missiles and C4 explosives are all put to good use, as the Nakatomi plaza building takes a fearsome pounding. The climax involves a fire hose and the roof, and it remains an all-time epic action movie highlight.

Die Hard holds nothing back: this is a whopper of an action film, a perfect dose of inescapable escapism.

McClane: Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!

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Movie Review: Eye In The Sky (2015)

A taut military drama that delves into the moral grey zone of drone strikes, Eye In The Sky is a riveting spectacle. The realities of modern warfare are captured through the eyes of those with the power of life and death over suspects and innocents alike.

From her base in England, Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) remotely commands Kenyan special forces in a mission to capture Nairobi-based high-level terrorists, including radicalized British and American citizens. In a wood-paneled meeting room, Katherine's superior Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) monitors the mission in the company of government officials. In the desert outside Las Vegas, American drone pilot 2nd Lieutenant Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) assisted by Airman First Class Carrie Gershon (Phoebe Fox) provide "eye in the sky" support capabilities for the mission. Back on the ground in Nairobi, a Kenyan undercover team including Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi) is closest to the action.

Events on the ground move quickly, and Katherine uncovers a safe house and a terrorist cell actively preparing to deploy two suicide bombers. She makes the decision to switch the mission from "capture" to "kill" with a drone missile strike. But she requires approval for the lethal attack from Benson and the cadre of politicians, prompting a round of hand-wringing about legalities and rules of engagement by British and American politicians across the globe. In the meantime civilians are in the vicinity of the safe house, in particular one young girl who sells bread just outside the house's perimeter wall. Destroying the house may save lives but will also likely mean civilian casualties, and Katherine, Benson, elected officials and the drone pilots are faced with a stark choice.

Directed by Gavin Hood and written by Guy Hibbert, Eye In The Sky is an efficient 102 minutes of gripping war drama. The decision to launch or not to launch a deadly missile strike to thwart a pending double suicide bombing is turned into an agonizing, prolonged and international quest to define what constitutes justifiable murder. A companion piece to Good Kill with elements borrowed from the classic Fail-Safe, Eye In The Sky is all about the dilemma of death: who dies, who lives, the value of an individual life in the cross-hairs, and the trade-off in knowingly hurting an innocent few for the sake of the innocent many.

The missile targets include British and American citizens who have joined the jihadists, and the collateral damage is likely to include Kenyan children; and yet destroying the safe house may prevent a terrorist atrocity. There are no easy answers, and while military commanders like Powell and Benson are quick to demand a decision and apply pressure for decisive military action to be approved, it is the civilian lawyers, politicians and their advisors who will have to make and defend the call, after digesting imperfect information and even less perfect forecasts of bomb damage impacts.

In pushing his points about the cold calculus of a hot war, Hibbert's script does carry some emotions a few notches too far. A couple of the politicians are sacrificed on the altar of buffoonery, while the mood within the drone pilot compound borders on incredulously unprofessional. Meanwhile Katherine Powell does all she can to sway decisions in her favour, and seeks to bend information to create assessments for politicians to swallow.

Helen Mirren is at her perfect best, portraying a soldier parking all humanity aside in a relentless pursuit of her targets. Alan Rickman as Lieutenant General Benson provides potent support in one of his final performances, Benson's higher rank inhabiting the more surreal world of politicians and necessitating a more circumspect approach to prodding for a decision.

Hood achieves contrasting aesthetics, from the chaos of the enemy-controlled neighbourhood in Nairobi where the safe house is uncovered to Powell's war room and Watts' drone command unit, both mostly lit by the glare of computer screens. Meanwhile Benson's surroundings exude government blandness while British and American politicians gallivant across the world selling weapons and making friends with one-party states.

Eye In The Sky plays out in the modern theatre of war, where bombs are controlled from thousands of miles away and missions are tracked in real time in three countries at once. For all the high-tech gadgets, spyware and miniature cameras, it is still innocent civilians who will take the brunt of any explosion, no matter whose finger is on the trigger.

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Movie Review: Love Actually (2003)

Featuring nine loosely-connected vignettes about love as London counts down to Christmas, Love Actually achieves its modest objectives by risking a variety of outcomes and allocating almost enough time for each story to breathe and develop.

With five weeks to go until Christmas, several tales of love and romance unfold concurrently:

• Aging and washed-up rock star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) attempts an unlikely comeback by re-recording one of his old songs and promoting it as the Christmas hit of the season. Much to the horror of his long-suffering manager Joe (Gregor Fisher), Billy embarks on a crass, foul-mouthed marketing campaign which remarkably starts to work.

• The newly elected British Prime Minister (Hugh Grant), an eligible bachelor, moves into 10 Downing Street and is immediately attracted to Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), a junior staff member.

• Karen (Emma Thompson) is the Prime Minister's sister. She is married to Harry (Alan Rickman), but the passion has seeped out of their relationship. At Harry's office, Mia (Heike Makatsch) sets her eyes on sexually devouring Harry. 

• Also at Harry's office, the dowdy Sarah (Laura Linney) has a deep crush on co-worker Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), but she cannot find the courage to act upon it. Sarah's life seems to be controlled by her cell phone, as she frequently receives calls from someone who desperately needs her.

• Writer Jamie (Colin Firth) discovers his girlfriend sleeping with his bother. He resets his life in the country and meets Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz). They have a huge language barrier between them, but nevertheless grow close.

• Jamie's friend Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) marries his long-term girlfriend Juliet (Keira Knightley). Peter's best friend Mark (Andrew Lincoln) harbours a deep, silent crush on Juliet.

• Karen's friend Daniel (Liam Neeson) is recently widowed. His young stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) is experiencing his first schoolboy crush, falling under the spell of flashy American classmate Joanna (Olivia Olson).

• John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) are movie set body doubles who meet while simulating hot sex scenes. Although both are comfortable fully naked, both are also painfully shy in their private lives.

• After repeatedly striking out while trying to chat up women, Colin (Kris Marshall) decides that he needs to head off to the United States, where he is convinced there would be plenty of stunning girls waiting to fall into bed with him, mainly due to his British accent.

Directed and written by Richard Curtis, who had previously found success as the writer and producer of Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary (all with Hugh Grant), Love Actually is simply sweet. With an ambitious running time of 136 minutes, the film hops between the various stories with admirably agility, never lingering for too long and returning to every sketch just in time to catch up with the latest developments. Curtis' main achievement resides in creating about 25 characters who are all memorable in their own way, despite not spending much more than 15 minutes on each of the romances.

As can be expected, not all the stories fully hit their targets. Body doubles John and Judy are perhaps the most short-changed in terms of narrative development, while wannabe womanizer Colin's escapades are played purely for laughs. The progression and resolution of Mark's crush on best-friend's-wife Juliet misses the mark completely. Sam's grade school crush on Joanna is overextended, and falls victim to a sugar overdose. 

Better and more engaging, the language-challenged affair between struggling writer Jamie and housekeeper Aurélia emerges as the most romantic story, while the Karen/Harry/Mia triangle is a serious peek at a marriage drifting sideways and falling victim to middle aged ennui. Grant brings the best aspects of his arrogant self-doubter persona to the Prime Minister's office, and gets to deliver a punchy speech to the American President (Billy Bob Thornton) that has become legendary in British political circles.

Curtis demonstrates courage to find endings that are a mixed bag of happy, sad and unresolved, and extends the definition of love to some unexpected places, particularly with singer Billy Mack and office worker Sarah. Love Actually is about the connections formed by the human spirit, and sometimes the sparks are brightest in the most unlikely places.

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Movie Review: Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991)

Another retelling of the legend, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves rides the charisma of star Kevin Costner but is an otherwise overlong and unnecessary rehash of a familiar story.

Robin Of Locksley (Costner) is part of King Richard The Lionheart's latest Crusade. Things are not going well and Robin is imprisoned in Jerusalem. He makes his escape along with a Moor named Azeem (Morgan Freeman). As Robin sails back to England, the evil Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) assisted by his cousin Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott) and the evil witch Mortianna (Geraldine McEwan) takes advantage of the vacuum created by the King's absence to make a grab for power. Robin's father Lord Locksley (Brian Blessed) refuses to join the Sheriff and is killed.

Robin and Azeem arrive in England to find the Locksley estate destroyed. Robin connects with his childhood friend Marian Dubois (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a cousin of the King, but she is playing a cagey game of staying on good terms with the Sheriff to protect her estate. The Sheriff identifies Robin as a threat to his plans, prompting Robin and Azeem to escape into Sherwood Forest where they join forces with a band of farmers and misfits hiding from the Sheriff's brutality and high taxes. Robin organizes the group, which includes Little John (Nick Brimble), Will Scarlet (Christian Slater) and eventually Friar Tuck (Mike McShane), into a band of thieves, and they start to gather wealth by hijacking gold shipments while Robin plots a course to stop the Sheriff and avenge his father.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is an amiable enough romp through the legend. The film ticks all the boxes from action to romance, but cannot avoid a sense of paint by numbers, an assembly of elements lacking a soul. The settings are grand, the early scenes in Jerusalem are welcome, and when the swords clash and the arrows fly, the battles scenes achieve the requisite level of excitement and drama.

But the film carries an uneven tone, sometimes dipping into slapstick, occasionally trying for commentary about social justice, dabbling with tension among the ranks of the thieves, sprinkling some supernatural dust, deploying the requisite swashbuckling, playing with the theme of avenge thy father, and injecting romance here and there. It sometimes works in individual patches, but Reynolds is never able to create a unifying theme, and the severely bloated running time of 155 minutes does not help.

Star Kevin Costner coasts through the film with a "look how handsome I am!" posture, not really even trying to do much more than wow the camera with star power. Morgan Freeman is much better, and appears to be the only member of the cast with the necessary solemnity matched with wit to rise above the silliness. The bad guys lack venom and undermine the more dramatic aspects of the movie. Alan Rickman is mostly goofy as the Sheriff, and Michael Wincott is wasted as a less than fearsome Guy of Gisborne. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio tries hard but is never quite able to generate the required passion.

The film bursts into life in the final 30 minutes and offers a rollicking climax, the people rising up to bring down the Sheriff and his cronies as Robin claims his love and saves the day. The pivotal sword battle between Robin and the Sheriff raises an enjoyable bit of sweat. But when the dust settles and Sean Connery strides in for his cameo and Bryan Adams sings his smash hit "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", it becomes apparent that Connery in two minutes is better than Costner in two hours, the song is better than the romance, and this version of Robin Hood recycles that which need not be recycled.

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