Movie Review: The Fall Guy (2024)

Genre: Action Comedy  

Director: David Leitch  

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson  

Running Time: 126 minutes  

Synopsis: In Hollywood, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the stunt double for movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). A serious injury knocks his confidence and he leaves the industry, abandoning girlfriend and cinematographer Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) in the process. 18 months later producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) convinces Colt to return to stunt duty for Jody's directorial debut Metalstorm, a sci-fi epic starring Tom and filming in Sydney. Colt arrives on set to find Jody in a vindictive mood, then Tom goes missing and Gail pleads with Colt to find her star.

What Works Well: An adaptation of the 1980s television series starring Lee Majors, The Fall Guy is a love letter to stunt performers specifically and big-screen entertainment more broadly. Stocked full of clever references to other films, the Drew Pearce script is also often hilarious (and features excellent use of unicorns), while stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt find perfect tones of self-deprecating dry humour. The action scenes are a throwback to real stuntwork and physical effects, and the search-for-the-missing-star-while-an-epic-is-filming plot allows director David Leitch to include manic chase and fight scenes in both the film and the Dune-like film-within-a-film.

What Does Not Work As Well: All the elements of the absurd plot and buffoonish villains comfortably reside at preposterous levels, resulting in a loony vibe populated by shallow characters.

Key Quote:

Colt: Getting hit by a car hurts. Being thrown out of a window hurts. Getting set on fire really hurts. But, uh... none of it ever hurt as much as not being with you.

Jody: Where are you?

Colt: Is that from a movie, or did I just make that up? It's pretty good. You can use it, if you want.



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Movie Review: Oppenheimer (2023)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Christopher Nolan  

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh  

Running Time: 180 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1942, theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is recruited by the US Army's General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to lead a team of scientists in developing a nuclear weapon that could end World War Two. Along with their families, the scientists are based at the purpose-built town of Los Alamos in New Mexico. Previously, Oppenheimer's pre-war education allowed him to meet Europe's top physicists. Once established at Berkeley, he mingled with communists including his lover Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), before marrying ex-communist Katherine (Emily Blunt). 

After the war, the US is gripped by anti-communist fever and Oppenheimer is subjected to a secretive interrogation to determine if he should retain his security clearance. In the 1950s, retired Admiral Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), formerly a high-ranking member of the Atomic Energy Commission, is offered a cabinet post in the Eisenhower administration. His previous interactions with Oppenheimer become a pivotal topic at his senate confirmation hearing.

What Works Well: This epic and stylish biography covers Oppenheimer's scientific, personal, and career milestones with bravado. Director and writer Christopher Nolan adapts the book American Prometheus (by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin) into a gorgeous-looking, fast-moving, cross-cutting story of scientific theory and war reality colliding into a victory imperative. Against a backdrop of shifting global alliances, the drama packs the moral dilemmas, self-doubt, state secrets, and personal rivalries inherent in the development of technology capable of annihilating the planet. The three hours of running time fly by, aided by excellent performances from a stellar cast, with Cillian Murphy brilliantly portraying Oppenheimer as an intriguing combination of accessible and arrogant. 

What Does Not Work As Well: At times, the avalanche of names and characters is overwhelming. While the science is respected, the theory and practical challenges of developing the atomic bomb could have been addressed in more depth.

Conclusion: Explosively enriched entertainment.

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Movie Review: Pain Hustlers (2023)

Genre: Business Drama

Director: David Yates

Starring: Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O'Hara, Jay Duplass

Running Time: 123 minutes

Synopsis: In Florida of 2011, single mom Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) is financially struggling to look after herself and her daughter Phoebe. She accepts an offer from executive Pete Brenner (Chris Evans) to join fledgling pharmaceutical firm Zanna. The company's one approved product is Lonafen, a fentanyl-based cancer pain medication developed by owner Dr. Neel (Andy Garcia). Liza's hustle snares the prescription business of Dr. Lydell (Brian D'Arcy James), and soon the big money starts rolling in. Neel's behaviour becomes more eccentric, while Liza and Pete push the limits in incentivizing doctors to prescribe the medication.

What Works Well: Inspired by actual events at Insys Therapeutics chronicled in Evan Hughes' book, this is a glossy inside look at the scuzzy profits-before-people pharmaceutical industry. Adopting some of the jovial tones from The Wolf Of Wall Street, director David Yates crafts a compelling and fast-paced rags-to-riches business story built on the hustle to sell product - in this case a synthetic opioid approved for sale based on dubious studies. Emily Blunt is excellent in personifying the greed version of the American Dream, as Liza builds a team of dropouts - including her mother (Catherine O'Hara) - snaring third-tier doctors happy to take a cut in the form of "appearance fees".

What Does Not Work As Well: It's all fun and games until someone dies, and here the victims are a sketched-in afterthought. Blunt is asked to carry the entire dramatic load, as Dr. Neel quickly devolves into a cartoon character and Chris Evans is unable to find a real person in the lightweight Pete Brenner. The portrayal of Liza's relationship with her mother is scrappy at best.

Conclusion: Sickness and suffering as an opportunity for slick success.



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Movie Review: Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director: John Patrick Shanley

Starring: Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, Christopher Walken, Jon Hamm

Running Time: 102 minutes

Synopsis: In rural Ireland, Anthony (Jamie Dornan) and Rosemary (Emily Blunt) grew up on adjacent farms. Rosemary has been waiting all her life for Anthony to express his love and propose marriage, but he is awkward and hesitant. When Anthony's ailing father Tony (Christopher Walken) hints that US-based cousin Adam (Jon Hamm) may inherit the farm instead of Anthony, Rosemary has to more proactively define her future.

What Works Well: The idyllic beauty of the Irish countryside and the farming way of life saturate a quirky romance, embracing Anthony and Rosemary as a non-traditional would-be couple. Director John Patrick Shanley also wrote the witty script based on his play, and adopts suitably modest pacing as Rosemary is gradually nudged to a place of passionate courage. Secondary characters animate the background and underline the culture-building sense of community and family history.

What Does Not Work As Well: Ireland appears to be stuck in olden times, and while they admirably invest in their roles, both Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan (in their late 30s) may be too old for these characters. The best scenes are also the talkiest, the stage origins unconcealed and the sophisticated banter inconsistent with an environment of earthy genuineness. The final narrative twist is quite bewildering, and the predetermined ending then arrives in a flustered rush.

Conclusion: Beautiful to look at, but the terrain is also uneven.

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Movie Review: The Five-Year Engagement (2012)

A romantic comedy about the compromises needed to bridge diverging aspirations, The Five-Year Engagement features a genial couple but is needlessly over-long.

On New Year's Eve in San Francisco, sous-chef Tom Solomon (Jason Segel) proposes marriage to his girlfriend and aspiring psychology teacher Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt) exactly one year after they met. She accepts, but they delay setting a date. Meanwhile, his best friend Alex (Chris Pratt) and her sister Suzie (Alison Brie) meet at the engagement party and get married quickly after Suzie becomes pregnant on their first night together.

Violet accepts a two-year graduate position in Michigan, which means a major relocation and delays to the wedding plans. She quickly makes friends with her charming professor Winton (Rhys Ifans) and a tight-knit group of fellow graduate students. But Tom cannot find a good position as a chef and settles for preparing artisan sandwiches at a popular hangout. He starts resenting Violet's success, and when she is offered an extended stay at the university, the strain on their relationship reaches crisis levels.

Just because Tom and Violet's engagement stretches for five years is no excuse for the film to feel that long. Director Nicholas Stoller, working from a script he co-wrote with Segel, contrives to stretch proceedings over the two hour mark. For a relatively slight romantic comedy with the entire premise given away in the title, the bloat is galling.

But The Five-Year Engagement is a slick Judd Apatow production, and the quality shines through. Working in the film's favour is sharp humour, smart performances, lively chemistry and a cast deep in comic talent. Thanks to calibrated execution from Segel and Blunt, Tom, and Violet make for a believable couple, invested in caring for each other despite the deep potholes and uncertainties in their relationship.

In support, Chris Pratt and Alison Brie get plenty of screen time and offer some big laughs as the offbeat but perfectly compatible couple building a family at warp speed as Tom and Violet procrastinate for years. And in addition to Rhys Ifans as the potentially seductive Winton, the cast also includes David Paymer, Jacki Weaver, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, and Dakota Johnson.

The laughs come from numerous sources. As the wedding wait drags on, grandparents quietly expire. Violet and her classmates conceive of psychology tests involving donuts, with the results spilling over into her relationship with Tom. And while he waits out Violet's graduate studies in Michigan, Tom reverts to Mountain Man mode, complete with an ill-advised attachment to a crossbow. The Five-Year Engagement does go on forever, but also enjoys pointy edges.

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Movie Review: Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

A quirky dramedy, Sunshine Cleaning delves into the lives of working class America through the story of two sisters struggling to get by, and finds good intentions mixing with bad decisions.

In Albuquerque, single mom Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) works hard as a maid while raising her eight year old son Oskar, and carries on an affair with police detective Mac (Steve Zahn). In high school she was the cheerleading team captain and he was the star quarterback, but Mac chose to marry someone else and Rose's life never recovered. Meanwhile, her younger sister Norah (Emily Blunt) cannot hold a job, and has not yet processed the sudden death of Rose and Norah's mother. Their father Joe (Alan Arkin) is kindly but always in pursuit of the next misguided business venture.

When Rose has to raise money to place Oskar in private school, Mac suggests she gets into the lucrative biohazard cleaning business, mopping up body fluids at scenes of accidents, crimes and suicides. Rose drags Norah into the business she calls Sunshine Cleaning. Gradually they learn the proper procedures with help from supply store owner Winston (Clifton Collins Jr.). Meanwhile Norah finds artefacts left behind by a suicide victim, and goes looking for the woman's daughter Lynn (Mary Lynn Rajskub), a blood bank technician.

Striking the perfect chord between poignant and peculiar, Sunshine Cleaning is a non-judgmental view of lives sidelined on the difficult side of the tracks. Elegantly written by Megan Holley and directed with understated charm by Christine Jeffs, the film avoids emotional high and lows, instead achieving a steady and internally consistent ascent towards messy personal growth.

Holley starts from a place of deep loss for all her characters: Rose lost her high school sweetheart to another woman, Norah never got past the childhood trauma of losing her mother, and Joe lost his wife a long time ago. Winston has lost an arm in suitably unexplained circumstances, and Lynn lost her mother but, as far as Norah can tell, may not even know it.

For Rose, Norah and Joe the losses create internal barriers and promote self-defeating actions such as Rose's affair, Norah's could-care-less attitude, and Joe's pursuit of futile middleman deals. The film then charts an enjoyable, unlikely and bumpy path towards self-betterment built on the icky premise of cleaning up splattered blood and dead body fluids. Rarely has a film about mopping up the messes of the past found such an apt metaphor.

The sisters' journey towards confronting their internal demons and emotionally relocating to a better place is far from smooth sailing. Rose has to juggle her burgeoning new business with confronting her continued dependency on Mac caring for an out-of-school Oskar. Without quite knowing why, Norah pursues Lynn in a quest that softly veers into unexpected territory. And while Joe does his best to support his daughters, his wacky business ventures and propensity for overpromising and under-delivering cause mounting frustration.

Sunshine Cleaning enjoys sparkling performances from two of the finest actresses of their generation. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt humanize Rose and Norah and stay true to their flawed origins, grounding the film in the rough and tumble world of every two forward steps being met with at least one misstep. With the right tools every stain can be cleaned or disposed of, but sometimes the mess can be inadvertently made bigger before the cleanup begins.

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Movie Review: Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

A children's musical fairytale, Mary Poppins Returns brings back the whimsical nanny to help the next generation of the Banks family.

In London during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) is struggling to raise his three kids one year after their mother died. Michael is about to lose the family house, as he is unable to repay a loan and the evil bank chairman Wilkins (Colin Firth) is eager to foreclose. Michael and his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) cannot find their father's long-lost bank share certificates that would repay the loan.

With things looking grim, the magical nanny Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) descends on a kite to look after the kids. With the help of jovial lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), she uses her powers to help the children recover from their mother's loss and to imagine what is possible, and she arranges for a chipped Royal Doulton bowl to be fixed by her eccentric cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep). However, Mary's biggest test will be to help the family keep hold of the house.

Essentially a remake of the 1964 original film but set 25 years later, Mary Poppins Returns aims to faithfully recreate the playful London aesthetics, imaginative sets, and amalgamation of live action and animation. Directed by Rob Marshall and written by David Magee, the film adapts the P.L.Travers books with children between 6 and 9 as a primary target audience.

And for those outside of that age group, not much enjoyment is on offer. This is a Disney production with the nauseating saccharine level turned to 11. The characters are shallow, the life lessons elemental and the plot threadbare. The singing and dancing numbers are largely forgettable, and most of them stretch longer than necessary.

Overall the film suffers severe pacing and focus issues. The running length of 130 minutes is a good 30 minutes longer than it needs to be. The entire Royal Doulton sub-plot is a tired excuse for a dull animation excursion, culminating in an excruciatingly awful sequence with Meryl Streep as cousin Topsy.

On the positive side, the set design recreating a foggy and gas lit London is often a visual treat, and Emily Blunt does her best, although her version of Mary occasionally lands just on the wrong side of smug and haughty. Julie Walters appears as a stock grumpy housekeeper, while Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury are trotted out for the contrived finale.

Mary Poppins Returns, but she probably need not have bothered.

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Movie Review: Looper (2012)

A science fiction thriller with a riotous premise, Looper delivers mind bending and intelligent excitement.

In Kansas of the year 2044, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is employed by gangster boss Abe (Jeff Daniels) as an assassin to kill mob targets sent back from 30 years in the future, when time travel is invented but outlawed. Abe's assassins, known as loopers, also include the high-strung Kid Blue (Noah Segan) and the more laid back Seth (Paul Dano) who is among the humans evolved to possess a low level of gimmicky telekinesis. Joe maintains a rocky relationship of sorts with exotic dancer Suzie (Piper Perabo).

The loopers all know that eventually they will kill their future self, live out 30 years in retirement before looping back to their death. When Seth fails to kill his future self, he pays a high price, but Joe learns that a vicious new mob boss known only as the Rainmaker has taken control of the future and is terminating all looper contracts.

When the future old version of Joe (Bruce Willis) loops back he evades death, and both versions of Joe incur Abe's wrath. Old Joe is on a mission to find the young Rainmaker and kill him, a quest that will involve single mother Sara (Emily Blunt), who is living on an isolated farm with her young son Cid.

Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Looper blends in elements from The Terminator 2 with traditional gun-for-hire and destiny-versus-fate narratives. The result is a refreshingly original science fiction time travel action movie, with a focus on characters rather than mechanics. Joe and Old Joe admit to each other that it is best not to try and understand the mental convolutions of co-existing in the same time zone, and Johnson wisely hustles the action along towards a tidy resolution.

With a quite complicated and creative hypothesis, Johnson astutely invests almost the entire first half of the film to build a sturdy foundation. Joe's profession, employers, co-workers, sexual partner, weaponry, and the consequences of botching a job are introduced sequentially to normalize the mobster world of Kansas in the year 2044, before Willis as Old Joe and Blunt as the woman to bring them together make their appearance.

The second half then gallops forth as a smart character-driven action movie, with Johnson reserving a couple of science evolution surprises for maximum impact when needed most. And for all the innovative thinking on display, Looper starts to converge on universal human themes as it hurtles towards its climax. Motherhood, sacrifice and the power of dedicated nurturing rise to the fore.

The Kansas setting gives the film a distinctive flavour. Wide open spaces surrounded by cornfields capable of obscuring everything from vagrants to assassins create unique opportunities, and help to demystify the relatively near future.

The cast is capable, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt adding plenty of quality without getting in the way of the imaginative story. Gordon-Levitt and Willis succeed in mirroring two sides of the same damaged person, while Blunt injects the most nuance with a tough exterior hiding both vulnerability and steely determination. Looper is filled with macho guys twirling futuristic guns, but not surprisingly it's a woman who knows how best to influence the future.

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Movie Review: A Quiet Place (2018)

A monster horror movie, A Quiet Place explores themes of survival and family dynamics under extreme pressure.

In the near future, exceptionally strong and fast alien monsters have ravaged Earth, leaving few survivors. Lee (John Krasinski), his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and three children survive on a remote farm and by rummaging in abandoned towns. They need to remain exceptionally quiet all the time, communicating by sign language as the monsters are known to be blind but have exceptional hearing and are attracted to kill by the faintest sound.

After a tragedy besets the family, Lee and Evelyn do their best to look after their deaf teenage daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and younger son Marcus (Noah Jupe). Lee is eager to teach Marcus survival skills, while Regan is going through a moody phase and a strained relationship with her father, although he is doing his best to develop a hearing aid for her. Meanwhile Evelyn is pregnant, and having to plan on giving birth and protecting a newborn without making a sound.

Directed by Krasinski, A Quiet Place is an exceptionally effective exercise in horror. The natural human condition of screaming when danger beckons is suppressed, and the smart screenplay (by Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and Krasinski) features hardly any dialogue or human-made sounds of any kind. Survival depends on finding ways to exist silently, a challenge that proves remarkably difficult and involves resisting urges that start literally at the moment of birth.

The film reveals the family's daily routine, actions that are otherwise mundane but made vivid by having to be reinvented in silence. Lee and Evelyn share an intimate dance with music that only they can hear. Cooking involves no cutlery or noisy plates. The board game Monopoly is modified to feature no clacking sounds. What would be loud arguments and expressions of emotion are orchestrated in sign language.

And the domesticity is punctuated by short and sharp moments of pure terror. When mistakes are made and sounds emitted, the monsters pounce to kill in a hurry. Krasinski drops these moments into the first half of the film at regular intervals, reminders as to why there are so few humans left on Earth.

The film's underlying theme is the duress that accompanies the responsibilities of parenthood. The monsters represent whatever the danger is that parents need to protect their children from, and A Quiet Place distills the roles of Lee and Evelyn down to elemental guardians in a new kind of wilderness. Despite the external dangers, internal family dynamics are eternal and imperfect. Mistakes are made, blame is subconsciously assigned, unnecessary rules and restrictions are imposed but life must find a way go on. Evelyn negotiating labour in silence and under extreme hardship is a stunning sequence, viscerally encapsulating a mother's anxiety and the miracle of life's persistence.

Thought-provoking and terrifying, A Quiet Place is an alternative view of the end and the beginning cloaked in a shroud of tense silence.

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Movie Review: Your Sister's Sister (2011)

A three-person romantic drama with a glint of humour, Your Sister's Sister goes into the secluded woods to unearth and untangle quirky relationships.

In Seattle, Jack (Mark Duplass) is still depressed one year after the death of his brother Tom. Jack's best friend Iris (Emily Blunt), who was also one of Tom's former girlfriends, encourages him to spend a few days of emotional recuperation alone at her family's isolated cabin.

Jack arrives at the cabin and unexpectedly finds it occupied by Iris' lesbian sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt), who has just ended a seven year relationship. After a night of heavy drinking Jack and Hannah have awkward sex. The next morning things get much more complicated when Iris shows up at the cabin, ready to start expressing her true feelings towards Jack.

An independent production directed by Lynn Shelton and filmed over 12 days for a budget of $125,000, Your Sister's Sister is an enjoyable hike through rocky relationship terrain. The film perhaps fails to reach any emotional heights, but maintains a steady pace of evolution as three adults arrive unexpectedly at the same crossroads.

The film features plenty of improvisation, and the naturalistic interaction between Jack, Iris and Hannah pays off. With limited camera movement Shelton achieves a perfect fly-on-the-wall perspective, providing the three characters freedom to just develop on screen unencumbered by a script trying to be too clever.

The superficial simplicity of the premise cleverly hides a few key hidden agendas. While it's logical to assume from the earliest scenes that Jack pines for Iris, the secrets carried by Iris and Hannah provide juicy onion layers for Shelton to peel away.

Your Sister's Sister convincingly creates real people carrying long-term commitments and relationship investments, allowing them to navigate choppy waters. The film captures the genuine bond of friendship between Iris and Jack, and the even stronger sibling connection between Iris and Hannah. Mark Duplass, the furthest thing from a handsome leading man, adds to the sense of reality, while Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt generate genuine sisterly warmth infused with the expected tensions.

Seductively sparse and simple, Your Sister's Sister does not try to shine bright, but certainly shimmers.

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Movie Review: Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)

A science fiction military action film, Edge Of Tomorrow (also marketed as Live. Die. Repeat.) makes the most out of a gritty time loop battlefield premise.

In the near future, Earth has been invaded by a destructive and seemingly unstoppable alien species known as the Mimics. With Europe largely occupied, a human army is assembled in England to prepare a massive counterattack, emboldened by a new exoskeleton weapons system. General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) presses Public Affairs Officer Major Bill Cage (Tom Cruise) into covering the front line, despite Cage's lack of combat training. Very much against his will, Cage joins J Squad under the command of Master Sergeant Farell (Bill Paxton) as they prepare for the invasion on the next day.

The human army is ambushed on the beaches by massive Mimic forces, and Cage duly dies, but not before spotting the famous Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) in the midst of combat. During the battle Cage is splattered by the blood of a rare alien command species, giving him special powers to loop back in time, and he awakes on the previous day back in the clutches of Farell and J Squad. He repeatedly relives the massacre on the beach, trying to learn from each day's experience to influence the outcome of battle. He finally connects with Vrataski on the day before the invasion, and together they have to figure out a way to destroy the main brain behind the Mimics before Earth is annihilated.

A fusion of Groundhog Day and wicked Aliens-on-Earth engaged in an existential Saving Private Ryan scale battle, Edge Of Tomorrow is an adaptation of the Hiroshi Sakurazaka book All You Need Is Kill. Directed by Doug Liman, the film contains enough human interaction between the charismatic Cage and the jaded Vrataski to infuse the action scenes with meaningful emotion. The combat setting, on the beaches of France and then pushing into the continent, is intended to bring echoes of World War Two to life, the fight against evil this time not so much about ideology but rather human survival.

Edge Of Tomorrow recreates the video game experience of frequent dying, re-spawning and trying again, every attempt intended to improve forward progress by small margins. Death is no longer final, just a momentary frustration that comes with the aggravation of having to replay the familiar in order to venture a few more steps into the new. Ironically, this is the feature stripped out of game-to-movie adaptations, here embraced in a non-adaptation that capitalizes on the value of learning what does not work in order to find what does.

For Vrataski, every day is new. For Cage, it will take a multitude of attempts to save Earth. He cannot succeed without failing, and his frustration and evolution into an efficient killing machine go hand in hand. In depicting this procress, Liman cleverly holds his cards close to his chest: once the premise is set, the film is often intentionally unclear until late in a scene whether events are depicting Cage's first attempt at navigating new terrain, or the umpteenth time.

Less successful are the CGI-dominated action scenes. Most of the Mimics are a swirl of tentacles, and the combat scenes are frantic and fuzzy rather than fearsome.

Tom Cruise is in his element as the roguish public affairs officer dealing with a new and unwelcome reality, Cruise's comfort with the more cerebral elements of action serving the film well. Emily Blunt is intense and bordering on dour, but carries the flag for feminine fighters acquiescing to no one.

Edge Of Tomorrow is a breath of original air, and a breathless exercise in racing against time -- repeatedly.

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Movie Review: The Girl On The Train (2016)

A mystery thriller delving into topics of addiction, abuse, control and mental illness, The Girl On The Train introduces an intriguing premise with plenty of style, but ultimately meanders to a stock conclusion.

Hopelessly addicted to alcohol, Rachel (Emily Blunt) rides the commuter train daily back and forth to Manhattan. On the way she passes the house of her ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux), who is now married to Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). Tom and Anna carried on an affair behind Rachel's back after she and Tom were unable to conceive. Two doors down and also visible from the train is the house were Megan (Haley Bennett) lives with her husband Scott (Luke Evans). Rachel does not know Megan, but from a distance the relationship between Megan and Scott appears idyllic.

What Rachel doesn't know is that Megan has had a miserable life, and is now seeing psychologist Dr. Kamal Abdic (Édgar Ramírez) to try and hold herself together while she works as a nanny for Tom and Anna. With Rachel descending ever deeper into an alcoholic stupor and apparently harassing Tom and Anna, she spots Megan cuddling with a strange man. When Megan suddenly disappears the same day that Rachel blacks out from too much alcohol, Rachel inserts herself into affairs that apparently do not concern her, and she draws the attention of Detective Riley (Alison Janney), who is investigating Megan's disappearance.

An adaptation of the Paula Hawkins novel directed by Tate Taylor, The Girl On The Train has a good set-up but a relatively limp finish. The idea of a self-doubting alcoholic observing her former life from a passing train and delving into a mystery shrouded in illicit affairs is compelling, and potentially Hitchcockian. For the first two thirds of the film Taylor does a fine job creating a fog of doubt about what is going on, with flashbacks and alternative points of view helping to heighten the interconnected complexities in the lives of Rachel, Megan and Anna. The final third surrenders meekly to the most banal of resolutions, ideas running dry and the mystery defaulting to an unconvincing antagonist and questionable motivations.

The premise is built on the differences between outside appearances and inward realities. The glow of light within a house seen from a passing train suggests cozy relationships and warm comforts. But inside the walls all manners of conflict reside, and what Rachel thinks she longs for does not really exist. In its better moments the film thrives on the differences between perceptions, memories and the historical narratives as seen from different perspectives. The damage caused by alcohol, abusive relationships, and depression spike the film with emotional possibilities.

Emily Blunt carries the weight of Rachel's failed life on her shoulders and is at the centre of the all the film's better moments. She receives limited support, with all the other characters and performances limited in scope and definition. Alison Janney suffers the most, the role of Detective Riley seemingly a poorly developed afterthought.

The Girl On The Train rides through several intriguing stops. Unfortunately the film blows a crass whistle instead of properly exploiting its own possibilities.

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Movie Review: Dan In Real Life (2007)

A mild romantic comedy, Dan In Real Life has a cute premise but weak follow-through.

In New Jersey, Dan Burns (Steve Carell) writes a newspaper relationship advice column. A widower, he is overprotective and struggling to raise three daughters on his own as they go through puberty and puppy love issues. In a despondent mood, Dan drives with his daughters to Rhode Island for a long weekend family reunion at the beach front home of his parents (John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest). Also in attendance are Dan's siblings and their families, including his brother Mitch (Dane Cook), a hunky bachelor and fitness trainer.

Dan meets the attractive Marie (Juliette Binoche) at the local bookstore, and they immediately sense an attraction. They chat over coffee and she snaps him out of his moodiness. They part on a promise to meet again although she does tell him that she is just starting a new relationship. Back at the beach house, Dan is shocked to re-encounter Marie, who has arrived at the family reunion as Mitch's new girlfriend. They keep their bookstore encounter a secret. As the weekend progresses Mitch and Marie fawn all over each other as the rest of the family falls in love with the vivacious, worldly and clever Marie, while Dan is pushed to extremes of jealousy and childish behaviour.

Directed by Peter Hedges, Dan In Real Life has a single idea to work with, and doesn't do much with it. The film hinges on Dan and Marie first deeply connecting with each other after a single encounter, and then keeping their sudden attachment a secret from the sprawling family. This is all established within the first 30 minutes, and for the next hour Hedges (who also co-wrote the script) wanders around the beach house looking for opportunities for Dan to act childish.

This not only gets tiresome quickly, but also undermines the film's premise. Dan's pouty behaviour is only rarely funny and generally makes him exceptionally unattractive, and a smart woman like Marie should have recognized his emotionally immaturity and cast him adrift instead of stringing him along. But then Marie's purported intelligence is already undermined by her attachment to the hunky but relatively dull Mitch, further eroding the movie's rationality.

The film attempts to win cheap sentimental points late on by throwing in sappy moments related to Dan's deceased wife and his relationship with his girls, but by then the infatuation triangle between Dan, Marie and Mitch has unravelled beyond salvation.

A talented cast is merely adequate. Carell does show an aptitude for the more subdued side of the comedy spectrum, but too often sleepwalks through the film with a single passive aggressive stance of simmering jealousy. Binoche is perky but borderline annoying. The rest of the family members are almost interchangeable and lack definition. Emily Blunt shows up in a couple of scenes as a bubbly childhood friend of Dan's, and a potential pawn in the spite battles. Amy Ryan has a minor role as Dan's sister-in-law.

Dan In Real Life arrives at the vacation house with good intentions to have a fun time, but is caught at the beach all wet and without a towel.

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Movie Review: Sicario (2015)

A drug trafficking action drama set on the US/ Mexico border, Sicario offers plenty of style and occasional tension, but undermines itself by frustratingly leaving blank key plot and character elements.

In Chandler, Arizona, FBI agents Kate Mercer (Emily Blunt) and Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya) lead an FBI raid on a house owned by drug lord Manuel Díaz. The grisly discovery of dozens of dead bodies hidden in the walls of the house, followed by a large explosion, announce a new phase of brutality in the Mexican drug trade. Kate is nominated by her boss Dave Jennings (Victor Garber) to join the special team of CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), working to identify and stop Diaz's boss.

Kate soon meets the mysterious Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), who appears to have a dark past in the drug trade, and accompanies Matt every step of the way. With Reggie her only trustworthy ally, Kate also realizes that her involvement is intended to provide cover to Matt's barely-legal CIA operations. She joins the CIA team on a tense raid into Mexico to apprehend one of Diaz's associates, which kicks-off a chain reaction of events intended to flush out the head of the drug cartel. With the violence escalating on both sides of the border, Kate begins to question whether the solutions offered by Matt and Alejandro are any better than the problems they are trying to solve.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Sicario (hitman in Spanish) dives into the deep end of the underworld drug war raging along the southern United States border. The film is frequently visually stunning and bursting with muscular action, Villeneuve deploying fluid cameras to capture shady government operatives flaunting the rules of law in two countries, in response to drug lords elevating the levels of brutality and violence to unimaginable decibels of horror.

The story is revealed through Kate's eyes, and her by-the-book FBI training is torn asunder by the CIA running roughshod over anything that resembles due process. Matt, and more mysteriously Alejandro, make up their own rules, provided with cover by faraway faceless politicians eager to gain some measure of control and not worried anymore about the niceties of national laws and jurisdictional boundaries. The film is filled with dead bodies, heavily armed and thick necked Delta Force types who shoot first and never get around to asking questions, and plenty of armoured black SUVs and nifty helicopters lending heft to the battle against drug traffickers. Kate may be worried about the unauthorized imprisonment, torture, shoot-outs and killings, but rarely has a deadly conflict looked like so much fun.

But beyond the adrenaline-packed scenes of burly men pointing big guns at each other, Sicario seems to want to say a lot more. The blurry lines of the CIA's authority to carry out operations on US soil are hinted at, and the briefest outline of a plan to ease the drug violence by controlling but not stopping the industry is sketched in. But the Taylor Sheridan script takes only tentative steps in these directions, and then backs away. Instead of delving, justifying or debating the issues, the film loses energy with plenty of repetitive scenes featuring a frustrated Kate asking the same questions and getting the same non-answers from Matt.

The character development is also lacking. Kate, Matt and Alejandro are three clearly fascinating people who are very much worth knowing. But the film ends and it is disheartening how little is known about them, beyond the here and now. The missing depth adds to a cold emotional core, and beyond Kate's abject horror at the extrajudicial methods callously used by men like Matt and Alejandro, there is little resonance to all the action. Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro are never less than committed, without being able to delve into any personal contexts.

Sicario hints at having important things to say past all the blazing guns and impressive hardware, but actually offers disappointingly little in the way of enduring substance.

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Movie Review: Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (2011)

A romantic comedy-drama, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen offers an unusual premise and an exotic setting, but still does not manage to elevate the central romance beyond the mundane.

In London, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) works for a consulting firm that manages the financial investments of the very wealthy Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked) of Yemen. Harriet reaches out to tweedy government fisheries scientist Dr. Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor) to assist on an unusual project: Muhammed is an avid fisherman and wants to establish a salmon spawning habitat in Yemen, to create employment and help build a local industry. Fred can think of dozens of reasons why this is bad idea that is unlikely to ever work. But the British government in the form of the Prime Minister's Press Secretary Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas) takes an interest in the project, and Fred is arm-twisted into helping to make it happen.

Harriet's soldier boyfriend Robert (Tom Mison) is shipped off to the Afghanistan war, while Fred's long-term marriage to the icy cold Mary (Rachael Stirling) is disintegrating due to an utter absence of passion. Fred and Harriet start to work closely together, while Muhammed's outlook on life helps to awaken Fred's long-dormant spiritual side. With the construction of a salmon habitat in the middle of the Yemeni desert beginning to resemble an unlikely success, Fred and Harriet grow ever closer and a tentative romance blossoms. But there are many surprises to come, including sinister threats against Muhammed's entire project.

A British production directed by Lasse Hallström as an adaptation of the Paul Torday book, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen deserves admiration for creating a relatively original background context. A slick consultant and an introverted scientist combining forces to pursue a magnanimous sheikh's dream of creating a salmon run in the desert of a foreign land is admittedly unique. The script (by Simon Beaufoy) exploits the opportunities embedded in the idea to good comic effect, and brings in bumbling government workers and political interests tripping over each other in search of career preservation and positive political spin. Despite bouncing between London, the Sheikh's Scottish estate and the exotic Yemeni desert locations, Hallström keeps good control of the film's scope, and wraps up in 107 minutes.

The result is a film where the backdrop premise is better than the primary romance, because unfortunately the relationship between Fred and Harriet is extraordinarily bland and fully contrived. The film takes no emotional risks by unceremoniously getting rid of boyfriend Robert and wife Mary early in the proceedings, clearing the decks for the stiff scientist and self-assured consultant to gradually spend more time with each other and fall in love. And this they do most predictably in the middle third, to the point where Hallström, in an effort to inject any sort of drama, has to manufacture tension related to whether or not farmed salmon will know enough about their species to swim upstream.

The scientific parts of the film are glossed over. Once Fred expresses all his misgivings about the project, the film pushes ahead and appears to lose interest in how the engineering challenges are overcome. Plans materialize, heavy equipment shows up in the desert, and infrastructure just gets built at remarkable speed, with nary a comment or discussion about the ingenuity at play. Also poor is a vague and severely underdeveloped subplot related to Sheik Muhammed's enemies. This is a film where faceless and undefined bad guys show up to cause significant harm and havoc, but it is deemed completely unnecessary to explore the cause or origin of their discontent.

Fortunately, the performances come to the rescue of the lame emotions. Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt never set the screen on fire, but do develop a reasonably convincing affable relationship, and the film at least provides a serviceable scenario of co-workers growing increasingly fond of each other. Amr Waked is adequate as the distinguished Arabian sheikh with both material and spiritual wealth. Kristen Scott Thomas has the most fun and introduces the comic relief as the government secretary manufacturing good publicity at every opportunity, and improvising when every good opportunity turns into a disaster.

Neither exquisitely seasoned nor stinking bad, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen lands somewhere between the big one and small fry.

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Movie Review: Arthur Newman (2012)

A middle-age crisis drama, Arthur Newman is the story of a man longing for a fresh start. The film unfolds at a steady clip and offers moments of reflection, but ultimately the narrative circles back on itself in a predictable manner.

In Florida, Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) is a former professional golfer who never lived up to his potential. Divorced, estranged from his teenaged son Kevin (Lucas Hedges), bored with his job and even tired of his new girlfriend Mina (Anne Heche), Wallace fakes his drowning death. He assumes the identity of Arthur Newman and starts driving to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he has lined up a job as a country club golf pro.

Along the way, Wallace meets a troubled young woman who goes by the name of Michaela or "Mike" (Emily Blunt). He saves her life from an overdose, and she joins him on his road trip. Gradually they learn about each other, become friends and then lovers. Back in Florida Kevin and Mina meet, establish a connection and try to understand what happened to the man they both thought they knew. Meanwhile Wallace realizes that while Mike is a lot of fun, she harbours dark secrets of her own, and both will find out that leaving the past behind is more difficult than it seems.

Directed by Dante Ariola, Arthur Newman does not have much new to say, but delivers its message with laudable honesty. The film treads over fairly obvious territory where the complexity of a new start appears more attractive than facing reality, only for the shine of escapism to quickly wear off. The film maintains its balance by keeping Wallace and Michael away from emotional peaks and in the realm of the possible, their version of going wild limited to a game of sexual adventurism involving harmless impersonation and breaking-and-entering.

Despite the mostly downbeat resonance, Ariola maintains balance with a drizzle of humour, and finds most interest in the unusual connection between Wallace's son and girlfriend. What starts as an awkward encounter between Kevin and Mina evolves into a coherent friendship of sorts, as they also go on a journey but of the mind rather than on the road. The film would have benefitted from spending more time with this couple, as Mina is particularly short-changed in the Becky Johnston script.

Colin Firth and Emily Blunt do all that is asked of them, both delivering understated performances conveying plenty of hidden frustration and uncertainty just below the surface. Wallace Avery is a particularly good fit for Firth's persona as a man quietly struggling against the inconvenient weight of past failings. But both Firth and Blunt do occasionally stumble with the Americanization of their English accents, and it is a puzzle as to why two actors so comfortable with their Englishness were asked to portray troubled Americans.

Arthur Newman wraps up in a tidy 101 minutes, enough time for Wallace and Mike to learn that when it comes to running from the past, physical distance is easy, emotional space not so much.

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Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

An inside look at the fashion industry, The Devil Wears Prada combines cutting comedy with career drama and emerges with a winning outfit.

In New York City, Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne Hathaway) joins the staff of Runway magazine as the second assistant to editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Andy has aspirations to be a serious journalist, could not care less about fashion, and dresses accordingly, much to the horror of first assistant Emily (Emily Blunt). Miranda is a living legend of the fashion world, a humourless trend-setting titan who looks after every detail of what goes into the magazine and demands nothing but perfection from her staff.

Andie is a complete misfit in the office, and struggles to keep up with the Miranda's obsessive and often menial demands. But she gets some advice and support from Runway's art director Nigel (Stanley Tucci), and gradually she finds her legs and earns Miranda's grudging respect. But as Andie grows more fond of her career and the world of fashion, her behaviour and interests change, causing a rift with boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier). Things get even more complicated when up-and-coming writer Christian Thompson (Simon Baker) takes a liking to Andie and starts pursuing her romantically. With Miranda as a mentor and the fashion world now a viable career option, Andie has to decide between her old and new values.

Based on the best-selling book by Lauren Weisberger, The Devil Wears Prada is a glitzy, polished romp through the world of high fashion and designer brands. Director David Frankel fully invests in creating a sparkly, glamorous, and luxurious look and feel, turning the film into a glossy fashion magazine in motion, and it works. The film succeeds in capturing all the seductive attributes of an industry that targets women and specializes in creating and selling new "must-haves" every month.

It's a powerful, fully-perfected and finely-honed bubble world, and even level-headed, idealistic Andie is sucked in. The film soars well beyond a satire or comedy by carefully tracing Andie's path from could-not-care-less to an insider in tune with the power politics that decide winners and losers behind the scenes. Andie and Miranda initially inhabit different planets, and the strength of the script (by Aline Brosh McKenna) resides in cleverly stripping away the dissimilarities and finding the core of two women who may have a lot more in common than either of them cares to admit.

The visual highlights include several snappy montage sequences brilliantly edited by Mark Livolsi and set to a stylish soundtrack. In the film's opening sequence the focus is on the effort women routinely go through in preparing to face the workday. Miranda's montage features her patented throw-the-coat-and-bag-at-Andie's-desk move; while Andie's fashion transformation gets its own before/after in-motion treatment. Montages can be more than tiresome; The Devil Wears Prada packs in three and creates the appetite for more. And as if the snazzy Manhattan setting is not enough, the film detours to Paris for a critical week in Andie's education.

Meryl Streep revitalized her career with her epic performance as Miranda Priestly. She lost the Academy Award to Helen Mirren for The Queen, but Streep's performance is arguably the more likely to be remembered down the years. Her understated sense of superiority is a delight to watch, and she makes the simple catch-phrase "that's all..." a signature line signifying the nightmarish abyss between legends and mortals.

Anne Hathaway is perfect if more predictable as Andie, while Emily Blunt is an absolute revelation and frequently a riot as first assistant Emily, a woman fully consumed by the fashion world and her standing within it. And as Nigel, Stanley Tucci portrays the lieutenants of the fashion world, faithfully following the orders of the Mirandas but unlikely to ever get their shot at stardom or status.

Both an expose and a character-rich essay on the unexpected allure of careerism, The Devil Wears Prada is dressed to impress.

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