Movie Review: The Gentlemen (2019)

Genre: Action Comedy  

Director: Guy Ritchie  

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan  

Running Time: 113 minutes  

Synopsis: In England, reporter Fletcher (Hugh Grant) tries to blackmail Raymond (Charlie Hunnam), the second-in-command to crime boss Michael Pearson (Matthew McConaughey). Flashbacks reveal Fletcher's investigations on behalf of his editor Big Dave (Eddie Marsan). Michael rose from humble beginnings to control the illegal marijuana trade in England. Seeking to retire, he negotiates the sale of his empire to fellow gang boss Matthew (Jeremy Strong). Then another gang represented by Dry Eye (Henry Golding) makes an unsolicited offer, followed by a break-in at a secret cultivation facility by the acrobatic gang of Coach (Colin Farrell). As the level of violence increases, Michael has to sort out friend from foe.

What Works Well: This bright and breezy crime comedy buzzes with the energy of a witty and mazy script (by director Guy Ritchie). A multitude of enjoyable twists and turns are packed into less than two hours, the brisk pacing rewarding attention with non-stop enjoyment. All the performances add to the eclectic milieu of bad guys believing they are much brighter than they are, with Hugh Grant particularly memorable as the eloquent newsman well out of his depth but nevertheless taking a wild swing at riches. The short and sharp action scenes arrive at pleasingly regular intervals, and often carry spiky levels of humour. 

What Does Not Work As Well: As usual and expected when Ritchie splashes around in this genre pool, the action is bursting at the seams with a difficult-to-keep-track-of number of characters making noise aplenty, and inconsequential - although always entertaining - side quests.

Key Quote:

Michael Pearson: If you wish to be the king of the jungle, it's not enough to act like a king. You must be the king. And there can be no doubt. Because doubt causes chaos and one's own demise.

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Movie Review: The Banshees Of Inisherin (2022)

Genre: Drama

Director: Martin McDonagh

Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan

Running Time: 114 minutes

Synopsis: The setting is the small island of Inisherin off the Irish coast, in 1923. Pádraic (Colin Farrell), a dairy farmer, is stunned when his longtime drinking buddy Colm (Brenda Gleeson), a fiddler, suddenly ends their friendship. Colm now finds Pádraic incredibly dull and wants to focus on composing music. To fill the gap in his life Colm turns to his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) and the dim Dominic (Barry Keoghan), who is being abused by his father. But Pádraic also persists in pestering Colm, with grim consequences.

What Works Well: The rugged Irish scenery is suitably windswept, and the sense of community isolation on an inconsequential island runs deep. With dashes of subtle humour, writer and director Martin McDonagh toys with themes of loneliness, mental health, and men looking for a purpose. The sudden breakdown of a bond between allies echoes the ongoing Irish Civil War, and although confined within narrow ranges, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleason are dependable.

What Does Not Work As Well: The pacing is ponderous, exposing thin and repetitious narrative content. The escalation in violence is more bizarre than impactful, and predictably, an ultimately silly dispute between two none-too-bright bumpkins can only generate limited momentum. 

Conclusion: The stellar scenery subjugates the slight story.

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Movie Review: The Way Back (2010)

Genre: Survival Drama

Director: Peter Weir

Starring: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, and Colin Farrell

Running Time: 133 minutes

Synopsis: During World War Two, Polish soldier Janusz (Jim Sturgess) is captured by the Soviets and dispatched to a Siberian prison. He meets a mix of political and criminal convicts including grizzled American Mr. Smith (Ed Harris) and scrappy thief Valka (Colin Farrell). Along with other prisoners they escape during a brutal snow storm, heading towards Mongolia. The mysterious Irena (Saoirse Ronan) joins the escapees en route, but the longer-than-expected trek to freedom will be tough to survive.

What Works Well: Inspired by actual events, this is a grim and determined battle for survival, first against the inhumanity of prison conditions, then trudging through an inhospitable natural environment fluctuating from extreme cold to insufferable heat. The long trip on foot is satisfyingly exhausting to watch, and director Peter Weir teases out character traits and the survivors' strengthening bonds. Russell Boyd's cinematography captures nature's dangerous grandeur.

What Doesn't Work As Well: With a limited - and familiar - thematic ambition of the human spirit yearning to live free or die trying, it's difficult to care too much about any of the characters. The less prominent members of the escape party are predictably lined up to expire. Janusz's flashbacks and hallucinations are flimsy, and the running time need not have competed with the actual duration of the journey.

Conclusion: A sturdy but emotionally parched hazard course navigation adventure.



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Movie Review: Thirteen Lives (2022)

A survival and rescue drama, Thirteen Lives recreates the extraordinary international effort to find and save youth footballers trapped in grim circumstances.

The setting is 2018 in northern Thailand. Members of a youth soccer team and their coach visit the Tham Luang cave, consisting of a complex series of tunnels and chambers deep beneath a mountain. An early monsoon causes flooding and traps the boys. After their parents raise the alarm, the local governor arrives and a Navy SEAL team conducts a search but is forced to turn back. To ease the flood levels, a government worker organizes volunteers to start diverting water away from the mountain's sinkholes.

Within a few days, British expert cave divers Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) arrive to help. After a difficult hours-long dive they locate the boys alive in a chamber more than 2.5 kilometres into the cave. But it's impossible for the trapped kids to navigate the dangerous flooded tunnels back to safety. With days ticking by, oxygen levels dropping, and more rain forthcoming, Richard proposed a dangerous solution involving Dr. Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton), an expert Australian cave diver who also happens to be an anaesthetist.

Based on real events that earned international headlines, Thirteen Lives recreates the barely organized chaos of experts coming together for a humanitarian cause. The event's recency and the well-known outcomes rob some tension out of the movie, but this is a nevertheless well-constructed, high-quality production. The William Nicholson screenplay covers the events of June and July 2018 from several angles, with director Ron Howard taking a deep 147 minute breath and wisely using the time to sidestep white saviour clichés.

Plenty of scenes feature only Thai dialogue with subtitles, and prominent local figures include the region's governor, the SEAL team leader, the government worker diverting water away from the caves, the mother of one player, and the team coach. They all play a role in ensuring all efforts are expended in the face of an unprecedented heart-aching drama. Howard also excels in recreating the bustle of the mud-drenched tent city which springs up outside the cave to house parents, the media, rescue workers, and support volunteers.

John Volanthen and Richard Stanton are highlighted from among the expert international cave divers who arrive to help. Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen provide both men the gritty tranquility necessary for a dangerous hobby, but also distinct personalities. Farrell's Volanthen is the optimistic peacemaker, while Mortensen's Stanton is the realist innovator.

Howard spends a lot of time underwater, and Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom conveys the dark, murky, and potentially deadly claustrophobia and disorientation of water-filled twisty passageways barely wide enough for one diver. The exhaustion is palpable, and any climactic euphoria will be both well earned and subdued by extreme fatigue.

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Movie Review: Phone Booth (2002)

A single-setting suspense thriller, Phone Booth is a compact psychological sniper drama, although the one-note premise unsurprisingly bumps up against obvious limitations.

In Manhattan, Stu Sheppard (Colin Farrell) is a cocky and fast-taking publicist, happy to obfuscate his way through life. Married to Kelly (Radha Mitchell), he is also romancing waitress Pam (Katie Holmes) and calls her regularly from a phone booth near Times Square to avoid cell phone records.

But today Stu answers a call at the booth from a mysterious Caller (Kiefer Sutherland), who threatens Stu's life with a sniper rifle. The Caller wants Stu to reveal his infidelity to Kelly, and apologize for all his other transgressions. After the Caller shoots dead a pimp interfering with the call, the police descend on the scene, as do Kelly and Pam. Captain Ed Ramey (Forest Whitaker) has to try and untangle a dangerous situation.

Written by Larry Cohen and directed by Joel Schumacher, Phone Booth was filmed in ten days and in sequence. The film's events take place in real time, Stu's ordeal wrapping up in 81 minutes, and the desired mood of taut efficiency is effectively sustained. Schumacher's agitated camerawork adds to the disorienting sense of suspense caused by an unseen foe.

The basic theme of repentance and owning up to a pattern of nefarious behaviour is compelling, but also dragged out as Cohen struggles to keep Stu in the phone booth. The plot details surrender to illogic, most obviously to keep Kelly and Pam in danger, and some of the dialogue exchanges meander towards superfluous profanity in search of cheap shock value.

But Colin Farrell stands up to the role's rigours and carves a sweaty path from slick to desperate and frantic, literally holding the film in his hand. On the other end of the line Kiefer Sutherland's voice suggests a worthy villain. Unfortunately the script affords him God-like powers until the moments that matter most, and the duel between the two men deserves better motivation than Stu's small-scale sleaze. 

Without withstanding much scrutiny, Phone Booth answers the call.



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Movie Review: Ava (2020)

A routine action thriller, Ava boasts an impressive cast but mostly recycles tired professional assassin sub-genre cliches. 

Highly trained killer Ava (Jessica Chastain) works for a mysterious organisation and eliminates her latest target in France, but not before breaking protocol and conversing with her victim. She returns to Boston and reconnects with her sister Judy (Jess Weixler) and mother Bobbi (Geena Davis), as well as Michael (Common), who used to be Ava's lover but is now with Judy. Eight years prior Ava was an addict and abruptly abandoned Michael and her family when she discovered her father's infidelity. 

Now Ava is displaying signs of stress but her handler Duke (John Malkovich) maintains his trust and sends her on a new mission to Riyadh. Through no fault of her own this assignment ends in chaos, with Ava barely getting out alive. Duke's boss Simon (Colin Farrell) loses faith in Ava, unleashing a wave of violence.

Ava zips between several international destinations and always looks slick, director Tate Taylor never lingering in any one place for too long and often finding interesting camera angles. The above-average cast maintains interest without ever being challenged, Jessica Chastain (who also co-produced) suitably dour and ably supported by John Malkovich and Colin Farrell.

But the film's problems run deep. The Matthew Newton script adds little to the well-worn travails-of-the-assassin canon, and features a tediously high number of samey prolonged physical combat scenes. All are clumsily edited into incoherence and end with Ava just a bit bruised and bloodied despite receiving a barrage of heavy blows. The parade of bone crushing melds into a continuous stunt performer exhibition, the impact dwindling with each brawl.

Away from the action, and in a rare case of too much character depth, Ava is surrounded by a daytime soap opera family. Geena Davis is a welcome screen presence, but mom Bobbi is both a drama queen and a heart attack victim. Sister Judy is a highly strung musician quick to erupt into tirades, and Michael is moving from one sister to the next without leaving his gambling addiction behind. Dad was a philanderer and Ava herself is a recovering alcoholic, rounding off an all-in dysfunctional family. 

The domestic scenes exist in a separate, almost dumbfounding movie, and the attempt to bring Ava's two worlds together at a gambling den showdown exposes the script's fundamental brittleness.

Ava looks cool, but gets iced by mediocrity.



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Movie Review: The Lobster (2015)

A dystopian satire and dark comedy, The Lobster pokes fun at the rules and social norms of dating and mating in an imaginative story of loneliness, loss and love.

In the near future, society shuns single people. Those without partners willingly check-in to a tightly controlled resort where they have 45 days to mingle and fall in love with a mate. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing.

Introverted David (Colin Farrell) is newly single and enters a resort where every detail is supervised by a Manager (Olivia Colman). He befriends John (Ben Whishaw), who limps, and Robert (John C. Reilly), who lisps. Common traits are a prerequisite to finding love, and so John bruises his nose to connect with a woman (Jessica Barden) who suffers from chronic nose bleeds. With his days running out David is almost resigned to being transformed into a lobster, but fakes heartlessness to forge a relationship with a merciless woman (Angeliki Papoulia).

Meanwhile the resort guests are regularly sent on hunting expeditions to tranquilize and capture "loners" who pursue a single lifestyle of forest foraging. The loner Leader (Léa Seydoux) forbids romance, but when David experiences the loner life he meets and quickly falls in love with a short-sighted woman (Rachel Weisz).

With a unique visual style and distinctively reserved and halting dialogue, director and co-writer Yorgos Lanthimos mercilessly exposes the couplehood obsession fueled by superficial tools. In the twisted world of The Lobster twosomes are venerated but finding a soulmate is a matter of manufacturing superficial commonalities, with omnipresent overseers evaluating compatibility and intervening at will.

And the ironic futility of overreaching social orders is further exposed with the loners eschewing societal rules but outlawing love by decree. David cannot win. He struggles to find a mate at the resort, then again falls afoul of expectations by stumbling into a love among the loners.

The first half of the film is stronger as Lanthimos embarks on a sly journey of discovery, peeling away the layers of his bizarre world. The ridiculous premise re-imagines the societal fascination with the love life of others, pushing towards an organized extreme in a technology-free future. Here mall cops stop shoppers to demand partner confirmation, and back at the resort, hopelessly amateurish nightly skits compare the dangers of being alone (choking to death; getting raped) to the benefits of being a couple (the Heimlich maneuver; a discouraged rapist).

The second half is more traditional in exploring the illicit love between David and the short-sighted woman, and the film almost visibly runs out of steam, most of the good ideas exhausted early. But far from getting encrusted, The Lobster is a memorable sharp jab at a judgmental culture.

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Movie Review: The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017)

A surreal drama with psychological suspense and hints of horror and tragedy, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is a quietly sinister exploration of guilt and perverted justice.

Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a renowned heart surgeon, married to ophthalmologist Anna (Nicole Kidman). They have two kids, 14 year old Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and the younger Bob (Sunny Suljic). Steven also spends time with 16 year old Martin (Barry Keoghan), a slightly awkward adolescent. Martin's father had previously died on Steven's operating table, and the surgeon carries an unspoken sense of responsibility towards the boy and his mother (Alicia Silverstone).

Steven invites Martin to his house for dinner and to meet Anna, Kim and Bob, and the evening goes well, both Kim and Bob entranced by their new visitor. Martin reciprocates, but Steven's evening with Marin and his mother (Alicia Silverstone) does not go as well. Soon after the visits, young Bob starts to experience inexplicable health problems, and life for the Murphy family takes an unexpectedly dark turn.

Inspired by Greek tragedies but transposed to a modern context, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is written and directed with contorted glee by Yorgos Lanthimos. The film unfolds at a carefully calibrated pace, Lanthimos investing the entire first hour in character and background introductions before starting to turn the dial towards malevolent settings.

And even once the trajectory is locked towards Steven and his family confronting unimaginable outcomes, Lanthimos refuses to surrender to any genre cliches. Other than eerie music, the mood remains cold, the camera placement and dialogue exchanges precise and oddly clipped. Here bad things and horrible decisions are devoid of shock and turbulence. The awful ailments confronting the Murphys arrive quietly and sit down with the family, dramatically shaking every vestige of normalcy through mere presence.

With emotionally draining quiet pleas for forbearance creeping to the narrative forefront, the seemingly supernatural trauma serves to create an unsettling mood throughout the film's second half. Although Lanthimos has trouble nailing the ending, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer lingers in its portrayal of guilt and karma as overpowering metaphysical realities.

Nicole Kidman and a bearded Colin Farrell buy into Lanthimos' surreptitious tendencies with icy performances, two polite professionals lacking the time to express passion and only alive to the spectre creeping into their family once it takes root. The film hinges on finding a human representation of self-righteous calamity, and Barry Keoghan obliges with a suitably creepy and ominously awkward performance.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer may fend off other physical afflictions, but at an unimaginable emotional cost.

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Movie Review: Crazy Heart (2009)

A drama and romance set in the country music world, Crazy Heart is a sincere story about second chances at love and life.

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a 57 year old washed up and broke alcoholic country music singer reduced to touring on his own in his beat-up truck and playing at bowling alleys. At a bar gig in Santa Fe he meets Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a single mom to four year old Buddy. She is an aspiring music reporter and interviews Bad before and after his show. A cautious romance develops between them.

The next stop is Phoenix, where Bad accepts the humiliation of opening for country music star Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), who was mentored by Bad early in his career. Despite some tension between the two men Tommy encourages Bad to get back to writing as a way to earn royalties. After a mishap on the road the relationship between Bad and Jean deepens, but his excessive drinking will cause a rift.

A film that drinks deeply from the sorrows and regrets of a derailed life, Crazy Heart is a human profile about still finding hope amidst the carnage. With a monumental Jeff Bridges performance, director and writer Scott Cooper, adapting the Thomas Cobb book, jumps into Blake's pick-up truck and crafts a tender story of broken dreams and an unlikely chance at new love.

At the film's outset Blake is reduced to the loneliness level of human existence. No backing band, a lost family, hardly any friends, and just a smattering of remaining fans, he is the living embodiment of a mostly forgotten has-been, spending his days in derelict motel rooms watching porn. Even drowning his miseries is a challenge, as he cannot afford to buy alcohol and is reduced to the charity of store owners to hand him a free bottle.

From this beginning Crazy Heart charts a course towards something resembling a revival. The intervention of others is crucial. Blake's manager insists he opens for Tommy, who in return demonstrates kindness to his mentor and hints at a potential path to recovery. In the meantime Blake forges an unexpected connection with Jean and her son Buddy, stirring within him a renewed yearning for a more complete life.

The film includes plenty of country music, with soundtrack contributions from T Bone Burnett, Stephen Bruton, and Ryan Bingham. Adding to the film's authenticity Bridges and Farrell perform their in-concert songs, and the music never gets in the way of the narrative. Robert Duvall has a small role as a bartender and longtime friend.

With an aesthetic dominated by the wide open skies of mostly rural America, Cooper and Bridges manage a remarkable feat: Bad Blake, despite all his faults, is a human being worth knowing and caring about. Beneath all the flabby grime is a sensitive songwriter and a man who can be rescued. All it takes is a  Crazy Heart to point the way.

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Movie Review: Vice (2018)

A biography of former US Vice President Dick Cheney, Vice is too glib for its own good and ultimately an inelegant hack job.

A prologue shows Cheney (Christian Bale) hustled into a White House safe room during the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks and issuing an order to shoot down any threatening aircraft. The film then starts with Cheney as a blue collar worker in Wyoming circa 1963, more interested in getting drunk and starting fights than supporting his wife Lynne (Amy Adams). She issues an ultimatum, he shapes up, and by 1969 is a White House intern assigned to Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell).

A savvy politician and advisor to President Nixon, Rumsfeld teaches Cheney the ropes. By the 1980s Cheney himself is elected to Congress as a Wyoming representative and in the Reagan and Bush Senior eras establishes his power base as an influential Republican politician. Lynne and Dick are supportive when their daughter Mary announces she is gay. He retires from public life and becomes CEO of Halliburton, living a wealthy and comfortable life. Until George W. Bush calls, asking Cheney to be his running mate in the 2000 presidential election.

Director Adam McKay hit the bull's eye with 2015's The Big Short, skewering the 2008 financial crisis with a brash and irreverent style. But while The Big Short was based on an excellent book, McKay himself wrote Vice, and his more outlandish tendencies are unconstrained, stepping out of bounds early and often.

"We tried our f***cking best", proclaims the bro-level opening credit in reference to the difficulty portraying Cheney's secretive life, and faux-credits start to roll with a musical flourish halfway through the film, as the Cheneys enjoy their idyllic life before the vice presidency comes calling. Dick and Lynne are portrayed exchanging Shakespearean prose as he mulls over the possibility of accepting Bush's offer. By the end of the film, everything from the inner city opioid crisis to global warming, passing through the international refugee crisis, has been laid at Cheney's feet.

More troublesome is McKay's inability to bring anything new to understanding his subject. Even for those just vaguely familiar with Cheney's reputation as a shady right-wing politician will learn precious little from Vice. His transformation from blue collar bumpkin to White House intern happens off-screen, as does his ascendancy to Halliburton's top ladder. Whatever events shaped his thinking and policies, dark as they are, are left unattended.

Instead McKay's introduces an undefined narrator, and then dallies for many minutes on irrelevant heart surgery and fishing details (Cheney hooks and reels in his political targets, presented in colour-by-numbers with monosyllabic instructions for the slower members of the audience).

The better moments include the two scenes of interaction with Bush, as Cheney senses his opportunity to move close to the nexus of power, and a menacing Christian Bale performance, making use of a jaw dropping physical transformation and Darth Vader as inspiration. Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell are largely wasted and reduced to sideshows, both slowly disappearing from relevance.

Vice takes aim at an easy target, but misses with a combination of insolence and arrogance.

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Movie Review: Widows (2018)

A crime-and-corruption thriller, Widows offers a character-rich and intricate story mixing heist thrills with political connivance.

In Chicago, Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his gang are ambushed and annihilated after a botched heist to steal $2 million in cash from mobster and wannabe politician Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry). The money went up in flames, and Harry's widow Veronica (Viola Davis) is immediately under pressure from Jamal and his vicious brother Jatemme (Daniel Kaluuya) to pay back their losses.

Jamal is competing with Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) for a city council seat left open by the resignation of Jack's father Tom (Robert Duvall). In a city rife with corruption the Mulligans have always held power. Now the Mannings want in, while Jack is much less interested than his father in the machinations of local politics. Meanwhile Veronica is desperate to raise money to pay back Jamal, and recruits the widows of Harry's gang, including Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), to attempt a $5 million heist using detailed plans Harry left behind.

Directed by Steve McQueen who also co-wrote the script with Gillian Flynn, Widows is an engrossing, multi-layered story overflowing with subtext. Featuring overlapping plots, the action sequences are short, sharp and sudden, injecting large boosts of energy at crucial junctures, then making way for the many compelling characters to take over and develop.

The film tackles several weighty themes.Women emerging from the shadows of their husbands is the thread carried by Veronica, Linda and Alice, and all three have powerful growth arcs triggered by the near-total loss they each suffer at the outset. The three women have plenty to prove, first and foremost to themselves. Veronica was enjoying a comfortable life in a cushy and expensive apartment. Linda unknowingly allowed her man to run her small business into the ground. Alice was accepting of a relationship filled with abuse.

Now they have to snap out of passivity and rely on their own guile to extricate themselves out of a jam created by their men. All three will find resilience and resourcefulness, often at unexpected times and places.

The intersection of corruption, racial tension, and politics is the second major motif weaving through the film. This is the domain of men seeking to preserve power in the case of the father and son Mulligan duo, or to wrest control, as pursued by the brothers Manning. Whether white privilege hanging on or black influence rising, none of the characters even pretend to work for the good of the citizenry. The superficial community speeches are a thin cloak to hide naked grabs for money and influence.

Jack Mulligan pursuing political office while barely disguising his disgust is another interesting angle explored by Widows. Here the sins of the old-school father are imposed on a slick son not nearly as comfortable with the games politicians play in public, but more than happy to partake in backroom deal making.

Grief emerges slowly as an initially invisible but ultimately hugely influential emotion propelling the narrative. Veronica and Harry are suffering through the consequences of a family devastation brought forth by their racially mixed household, and the fog of loss profoundly haunts their marriage.

Veronica's plight will collide almost head-on with the election campaign, as McQueen and Flynn introduce more than one clever twist to enrich the film's texture. By the time the women have grabbed hold of their destiny they will unknowingly but violently shake the ground below the men, and for all the careful plotting by both criminals in masks and criminals in suits, the film climaxes with a succession of unplanned real and metaphorical power shifts.

The astounding cast is in top form. Viola Davis and Colin Farrell lead the way with composed performances, ably assisted by some quietly astute and nuanced work from Elizabeth Debicki and Daniel Kaluuya's startling venom.

Widows is a masterful achievement, an intelligent film where visible and invisible crimes abound, as do the opportunities to grab and define new destinies.

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Movie Review: Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

A character study, Roman J. Israel, Esq. creates a provocative protagonist and explores the conflict between idealism and pragmatism, but with limited success.

In Los Angeles, Roman (Denzel Washington) has worked hard for 35 years and for minimal pay as a researcher for the fledgling two-person law firm of legendary civil rights activist and teacher William Jackson. Roman is a savant, well versed in the law, but socially awkward and lacking in polish and empathy. When Jackson is permanently incapacitated by a heart attack, his estate brings in slick lawyer George Pierce (Colin Farrell) to wrap up the remaining cases and close down the firm.

Roman tries to find work with civil rights activist Maya Alston (Carmen Ejogo), and although she is sympathetic her organization consists of volunteers. To survive Roman has no choice but to join George's firm, where he is put to work representing underprivileged clients. Roman fumbles the plea bargain of an accused in a botched convenience store robbery turned murder. Growing disillusioned with his life, he decides to reorient and embrace the materialistic world.

Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, Roman J. Israel, Esq is a focussed character study, capturing a late-career shock to the system. The film offers an astounding Denzel Washington performance, playing a ruffled, out of time and out of place man, so intensely absorbed by his ideals he has not noticed the changing world outside his office.

In an echo of Being There, Israel is forced in to the big wide world by the death of his mentor, and discovers a society where his tenacious courtroom skills land him in immediate trouble, lawyers rake in fortunes, and supporters of the cause are volunteers paid nothing. Not to mention that both his wardrobe and hairdo, stuck in the early 1970s, are in desperate need of a makeover.

The film is not as tight as it should be. The 122 minutes of running time are flabby for what is essentially a single-person zoom-in. And surprisingly, despite the length, somewhere in the muddled editing process Gilroy botches a key inflection point in Israel's journey, his betrayal of lawyer-client confidentiality privileges skipping at least one critical detail that needed to be on-screen.

But overall the film offers enough scope to maintain interest. The temptation of leaving behind the purity of the civil rights fight plays out in Roman's stooped and uncertain walk, his tired eyes and his cluttered and depressing apartment. Exposed to the world of riches represented by George's expensive suits and the possibility of moving into a shiny downtown suite, even an awkward legal savant will want to test the waters of a superficially better life. The subsequent moral quandary is treated in an appropriately low key, although the resolution is too tidy on a couple of fronts.

Roman J. Israel, Esq attempts to jolt ahead to catch up with the times, making for a sympathetic but bumpy ride.

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Movie Review: Miami Vice (2006)

A big-screen adaptation of the 1980s television hit series, Miami Vice is slow, moody, overcomplicated and disjointed.

In Miami, undercover police detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Rico Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) interrupt an investigation of human traffickers when their former informant Alonzo (John Hawkes) tangles with brutal white supremacist drugs and weapons distributors and two undercover FBI agents end up dead. With his security operation compromised, the FBI's John Fujima (Ciarán Hinds) recruits Sonny and Rico to infiltrate the Colombian drug cartels and uncover the Miami distribution network.

The cops create a high speed air and sea transportation business as their cover to sell services to the illegal narcotics industry. In Haiti they connect with middleman smuggler José Yero (John Ortiz) and his mysterious partner Isabella (Gong Li) and are soon transporting drugs into the US. Yero never fully trusts Cockett, who quickly instigates a steamy romance with Isabella, the go-between with reclusive drug cartel kingpin Montoya (Luis Tosar). When the Aryan Brotherhood goons kidnap Rico's girlfriend Trudy (Naomie Harris) to gain leverage, a violent showdown looms.

Directed and written by Michael Mann, Miami Vice is a pretentious mess. A kaleidoscope of vivid colours, silhouettes, cool threads, fast cars and pretty scenery cannot hide the total absence of chemistry between Sonny and Rico, who come across as strangers to each others rather than partners. Worse still is a plot that drowns in convulsions of its own makings and takes forever to gain traction, with no character depth on either side of the law.

Just when Mann appears to be gaining a handle on the material he loses all momentum with a distracting, laborious and unconvincing romance between Crockett and Isabella, who share even less chemistry than Crockett and Tubbs. The romance is so poorly conceived it's never even clear whether the lovers are playing each other or genuinely in love, and the lack of clarity is far from intentional.

And it all ends in a shootout that negates the endless two hours that went before it. Miami Vice sets up a complex police investigation supposedly to gain evidence to arrest and convict, but ends in a free-for-all bloodbath. While the climax is admittedly well executed, if it was going to be ok to shoot up the joint, then creating painstaking undercover work was a waste of everybody's time.

Miami Vice commits a cardinal sin: converting a fun and sleek concept into an outright bore.

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Movie Review: Dead Man Down (2013)

A revenge crime thriller, Dead Man Down benefits from a focus on characters and a suitably grim mood.

In New York City, Victor (Colin Farrell) and his partner Darcy (Dominic Cooper) are violent gang members, part of the crew run by crime boss Alphonse (Terrence Howard). However, while pretending to be a loyal foot soldier, Victor is also on a secret and personal revenge mission, seeking retribution against Alphonse for the murder of his wife and child two years earlier.

Victor meets his neighbour Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), who lives with her mother (Isabelle Huppert). Beatrice was the victim of an accident caused by a drunk driver that left her with permanent facial scars. Having witnessed Victor commit a murder in his apartment, she demands that he kill the drunk driver, who got away with a light sentence. With Darcy investigating who is behind the threats against Alphonse, Victor has to quickly advance his complex retribution and satisfy Beatrice before his cover is blown.

Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, Dead Man Down is better than it needed to be. Oplev restricts the action set pieces to just a few punchy moments at the start, middle, and end, and keeps them short if a bit muddled in execution. Plenty of room is therefore created for a complex double revenge plot to unfurl from the middle outwards, and the characters of Victor and Beatrice occupy centre stage.

The story of Victor plotting an elaborate payback contains a compelling backstory and a patient build-up, while Beatrice is an intriguing woman, scarred physically but more deeply damaged emotionally. The two combine to create an unusually provocative duo with overlapping objectives. When the inevitable relationship evolves between them, their rage is also cast in a new light.

None of which is to say that Dead Man Down doesn't contain glaring faults. Gangster stereotypes and narrative shortcuts litter the screen, plot holes waltz through the film, and New York City is somehow suddenly devoid of law enforcement. Early in the story a gangland massacre takes place, with an exchange of gunfire worthy of a war zone, and yet none of the perpetrators are ever remotely bothered by any sort of investigation.

Oplev skips past the shortcomings with an appealing dark aesthetic, many of the scenes taking place at dusk or later, with dark blues and artificial lighting complementing the underworld milieu. And the quality of the cast also helps to ride out the weaker moments. Colin Farrell's generally expressionless persona is well suited to the secretive and scheming Victor, while Noomi Rapace matches Farrell with her sense of determined despondency. Isabelle Huppert as Beatrice's mostly deaf mother adds depth to Beatrice's domesticity. Veterans Armand Assante and F. Murray Abraham have small supporting roles.

A reasonably potent mix of action and layered plot, Dead Man Down enjoys more ups than downs.

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Movie Review: The Beguiled (2017)

A Civil War psychological drama, The Beguiled is a more lyrical remake of Don Siegel's 1971 classic. Director Sofia Coppola softens some of the edges but maintains a keen focus on the theme of emotional and physical survival.

Rural Virginia, in the fourth year of the American Civil War. While out collecting mushrooms, 12 year old Amy (Oona Laurence) stumbles onto badly wounded Union soldier Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell) and helps him back to the school for girls run by Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) and teacher Edwina (Kirsten Dunst). With the war raging, only a few students have remained at the school, including the eldest Alicia (Elle Fanning), who is bored of all the repetitive lessons.

Martha agrees to temporarily shelter McBurney and tends to his leg wound, but fully intends to hand him over to Confederate troops as soon as he recovers. The soldier's presence at the school disrupts the status quo, and he quickly appreciates that he has limited time to influence the women and avoid a prisoner's fate. McBurney uses a combination of flattery, gratitude and seduction to turn the women to his side, but also ignites jealousies and conflict.

Director Coppola also wrote and co-produced the film, and The Beguiled overflows with her hallmark soft veneer of natural beauty, gentle light and flowing aesthetics hiding simmering tension. The physical setting is a wooded corner of Virginia at the interface between battlefields - heard but not seen - and an old fashioned school clinging to the vestiges of a disappearing way of life. But the real location of the film lies in the hearts and minds of seven women, suddenly awakened by a manly presence. Coppola aims her attention at the women's emotional state, and McBurney probing for openings to chart a path to freedom through charm, flattery and deception.

Coppola spreads the 94 minutes of running time across four of the women. Miss Martha is the pragmatic leader, the woman responsible for the girls and the facility. Yet a man is a man, and despite her cold and calculating demeanour she is not beyond appreciating what McBurney may offer. Teacher Edwina is older than the other girls, caught in a nowheresville life with relatively plain looks. It does not take McBurney long to identify her as the weakest link.

Alicia is blossoming into a woman, her sexual awakening kicked into overdrive by the soldier's presence. And finally young Amy can lay claim to having found McBurney, and is just old enough to harbour a crush that he can exploit.

Despite the short length the film does drag in the middle act before picking up again as the climax approaches with an eruption of colliding aspirations fueled by alcohol. Compared to the original Coppola strips out some of the characters and more radical incidents from the narrative, leaving the mostly calm interplay between the central characters to carry the entire load of the film, and at times the energy dips to saggy levels.

But the performances are uniformly good, with Kirsten Dunst the most quietly expressive, her searching, desperate eyes betraying a heart all too ready to believe in empty promises. Colin Farrell brings to the role more charm and less obvious dominance compared to Clint Eastwood.

The Beguiled is a meditation on the damage unleashed when war seeps inside the walls of civility. The big guns rage outside, but they are no match for the turmoil within.

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Movie Review: Seven Psychopaths (2012)

A dark comedy, Seven Psychopaths contains fragments of good ideas but quickly dissolves into an uncoordinated mishmash.

In Los Angeles Marty (Colin Farrell) is a struggling and hard drinking writer with a vague idea for a screenplay about seven psychopaths. His lively best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) tries to help by pitching wild story ideas and placing newspaper ads inviting psychopaths to step forwards and tell their story. On the side Billy operates a pet abduction business with his partner in crime Hans (Christopher Walken).

Billy and Hans choose the wrong victim when they abduct Bonny, a dog belonging to violent gang boss Charlie (Woody Harrelson). This sets off a chain of events placing Hans' hospitalized wife Myra in grave danger, and forces Billy to reveal his true nature as a showdown in the desert looms.

An attempt to combine the irreverence of In Bruges with a Pulp Fiction inspired tone, Seven Psychopaths is as patchy and unsatisfying as Marty's perpetually unfinished screenplay. Directed and written by Martin McDonagh (who also directed In Bruges starring Farrell), the film is incohesive, featuring various sketches that sometimes stand up nicely on their own but never gel into a meaningful whole.

Sub-stories include a Quaker who avenges his daughter's murder; hitmen who are themselves terminated while awaiting their victim; a man named Zachariah Rigby (Tom Waits) with a colourful history of murdering serial killers; and a Vietnamese priest in a motel room with a prostitute but with killing on his mind. These stories may or may not be related to anything going on in Marty's real life, but they come across as McDonagh collecting partial screenplay concepts, throwing them at the wall and hoping something sticks.

With no shortage of style, violence, profanity, blood and gore, Seven Psychopaths ends with a thematically muddled climax, angry psychopaths on the loose firing guns in all directions but still not hitting the narrative target.

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Movie Review: Winter's Tale (2014)

A century-spanning fantasy romantic drama, Winter's Tale combines a love story with an eternal battle between good and evil, with plenty of supernatural elements thrown in. Attempting to be profound, the film is a hopeless mess.

In New York of 1916, Peter Lake (Colin Farrell), having survived been set adrift in a small boat by his parents in 1895 after they were rejected as immigrants, attempts to escape a street gang led by the demon Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). A white horse that can fly helps Peter's getaway, and eventually leads him to the door of the sickly Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay), her rich father Isaac (William Hurt), and younger sister Willa.

Peter and Beverly fall in love, while Pearly pleads with his boss Lucifer (Will Smith) for permission to put a stop to their magical romance. Peter stays one step ahead of Pearly, but the relationship with Beverly suffers, and Peter lands in New York of 2014, where his story will continue.

Based on a book by Mark Helprin adapted and directed by Akiva Goldsman, Winter's Tale may have worked well on the written page, but is an unmitigated disaster on the screen. The film's ambition far exceeds its cinematic abilities, and comes across as fairy tale for children being repackaged as a serious romantic drama for adults, and falling into a vacuum of confused and morose nothingness.

The story demands natural acceptance of flying white horses, demons on the loose but with turf restrictions, Lucifer holding court in New York City, and plenty of romanticized bumf about miracles, destiny and people turning into literal stars. The material may have had a chance to succeed with a whimsical light touch, but Goldsman goes the ultra serious route, delivering a grim, dour and boring two hours.

Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Will Smith generally embarrass themselves in roles where anything goes since there are no familiar rules in this world. Farrell's character exists as a baby in 1895 and is still going strong in 2014, but never expresses any emotion other than grim displeasure. Crowe as a demon seems obsessed with Peter but Goldsman does not pause to explain why a petty thief is such a danger to a demon. Smith sits back and reflects on a sidetracked career, the devil reduced to dealing with the machinations of a fledgling romance between a burglar and a frail woman.

Jessica Brown Findlay portrays the tragically sick but otherwise perfect vision of a woman who fulfills every superficial man's dream of beauty and tenderness with no depth of character necessary. Meanwhile, Jennifer Connelly and Eve Marie Saint appear in the latter 2014 chapter, and seem genuinely confused about their roles in the story.

Buckling under its own weight of needless solemnity, Winter's Tale is better left untold.

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Movie Review: In Bruges (2008)

An ingenuous character study, In Bruges follows two hit men as they hide out in the sleepy Belgian city awaiting their next orders. What follows is a delightfully unpredictable study of the human condition.

Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are two Irish hit men ordered to lay low in Bruges by their excitable foul-mouthed boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes). With the Christmas tourist season at its peak, the two are forced to share a room at a small hotel operated by the pregnant Marie (Thekla Reuten). Ray is young, restless, and tortured by a recent mission-gone-bad. Ken is older, wiser, calmer, and more experienced. Ray is immediately bored in Bruges, completely oblivious to the city's charming culture and sense of history. Ken is entranced, and keen to take in all that Bruges has to offer.

Ray finds ways to get himself into trouble. He meets Chloë (Clémence Poésy), who may be a drug dealer pretending to be a film crew assistant. She may also be a specialist in seducing and mugging tourists, along with her skinhead ex-boyfriend Eirik (Jérémie Renier). Ray also meets Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), a drug-addicted, prostitute-chasing dwarf actor filming a surreal homage to Don't Look Now. When Harry finally makes contact with Ken to issue his next set of orders, a volatile situation ignites.

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, In Bruges is a cerebral gem. Unfolding in layers to reveal secrets, agonies and deeply-respected codes of honour, the film marches to its own tune, taking every unexpected turn, avoiding the routine in favour of the quirky, and working its way to original territory where death is a punishment, an escape and a sacrifice. The film is a low-key exploration of two men at opposite ends of their careers, approaching the next chapter with a recent crisis in the rear view mirror and a lot worse to come.

Ray and Ken are compelling enough, but McDonagh first adds the city of Bruges itself as a stellar co-star, and then Harry makes a personal appearance in the final third to pour fuel on an already simmering fire. Bruges is a captivating locale, and used as a device to underline the contrast between the two assassins. Ray is traumatized well beyond caring which city he is in, while Ken relishes the opportunity to take time off and immerse himself in the culture. The men continuously clash over their daily agenda, with a delicious irony to be revealed only when Harry's reasoning behind the choice of city is revealed.

Colin Farrell has rarely been better. He presents Ray as a man undergoing a quiet catastrophe, looking for ways to distract himself that don't involve boring sight seeing. Brendan Gleeson is also at his best in one of his most prominent roles, Ken a quiet, loyal soldier who will always do what is necessary until confronted with a sublime situation where the act of killing simply can't win.

The supporting characters further enrich the film. Hotel owner Marie, seductress Chloë, her violent boyfriend Eirik, the American dwarf actor Jimmy, plus illegal gun dealer Yuri (Eric Godon) all initially appear to be incidental to Ray and Ken's break from the job of killing. Once Harry wades into the sleepy city everyone who has come into contact with the hit men will have a role to play in defining their future.

The life of assassins is not for the faint of heart or the error prone, but that does not mean it can't be frequently funny. The laughs are sharp, the set-pieces often hilarious, and on many occasions quite politically incorrect. In Bruges, death holds hands with dark humour and together they saunter down alleyways steeped in history, filled with echoes of plans gone horribly wrong.

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