Movie Review: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Genre: Teen Comedy  

Director: Gil Junger  

Starring: Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Allison Janney  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: Anti-social Kat (Julia Stiles) and her younger flirty sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) attend the same Seattle-area high school. Their over-protective father (Larry Miller) stipulates that Bianca can only see boys if Kat is also dating. Classmate Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his rival Joey (Andrew Keegan), a self-absorbed but rich teen model, are both desperate to get close to Bianca. They decide to pay bad-boy Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) for the trouble of trying to get Kat interested in dating.

What Works Well: This busy reimaging of Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew does not lack in ambition: multiple well-drawn characters energetically compete for space and time in pursuit of romance, high-school style. Most of the humour is sharp, Heath Ledger finds a highlight commandeering the public address system at the school's stadium, while Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are other future stars shining in early roles. The conceited Joey strikes impressive poses in pursuit of oily villainy, and the energetic soundtrack features an eclectic rock mix.

What Does Not Work As Well: The obstacles placed in the path of Kat and Bianca's happiness by their father are contrived mechanisms to activate the plot. Director Gil Junger has trouble finding and maintaining cohesive focus: Cameron is introduced as the initial protagonist, but is eventually sidelined in favour of Patrick, who is late to join the proceedings. Cliques are introduced for no useful purpose, while Allison Janney as the dismissive guidance counselor fades away completely.   

Key Quote:

Patrick (to Cameron): See, first of all, Joey is not half the man you are. Secondly, don't let anyone, ever, make you feel like you don't deserve what you want. Go for it!



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Movie Review: Brokeback Mountain (2005)

A lifelong love story between two cowboys, Brokeback Mountain breaks new ground as a mainstream, high quality production sensitively portraying a same-sex affair. Director Ang Lee sets the societally impossible relationship against a magnificent backdrop of rugged, big country western scenery.

Wyoming, 1963. Drifting cowboys Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are hired by gruff businessman Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to herd his sheep for the summer in the valleys around the stunning peaks of Brokeback Mountain. Ennis is an orphan, a self-sufficient introvert and a man of few words. Jack is the son of a middling rodeo performer, and is more open and emotive. As the long days of summer drag on, Jack initiates physical intimacy between the two men. Although initially reluctant, Ennis eventually responds, and the men engage in a sexual relationship and develop a strong bond of love.

At the end of summer the men reluctantly go their own ways. Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams) and starts a family. His life is a constant struggle against poverty. Jack tries his hand on the rodeo circuit, and in Texas he meets and then marries Lureen (Anne Hathaway), the daughter of a rich farm equipment magnate. After years apart, Jack reinitiates contact with Ennis, and the two men reignite their affair on semi-regular camping trips, always keeping their affair a secret. But while Jack longs for a more committed and long-term relationship, Ennis cannot come to terms with the idea of an isolated life dedicated to Jack.

Spanning 20 years, Brokeback Mountain is a grand romance. An adaptation of the Annie Proulx novel, the film masterfully captures the aching, persistent agony of a love that can never be public, and the deep-seated conflict of carrying an illicit affair over two decades while pretending to function in a relatively loveless marriage. Lee adopts a slow, deliberate pace, allowing the love between the two men to gradually flourish in the isolated terrain, and then exploring the long lasting impact of a physical and emotional connection that will not die.

Sex between the two men is depicted in frank terms as mountainside passion erupts between Ennis and Jack. There are also honest sexual scenes between the men and their wives, although as the film unfolds Lee makes it clear that the pure joy of love only exists between the two men.

The script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana seeks the moments of drama in real human terms. The film builds slow-burning conflict through a lack of symmetry in the relationship. Jack needs Ennis more than Ennis needs anyone, and as the years progress, the lack of full reciprocity generates building tension. Jack cannot see why the two men cannot establish a life together at an isolated cabin, away from any questioning eyes. Ennis, always emotionally reserved, cannot come to terms with a domestic and isolated life surrendered to any one endeavour.

On the family front, the challenges are also unequal. Alma cares deeply about Ennis and their children, and immediately senses his drift when Jack reemerges in their lives. Lureen is a businesswoman, her father's daughter, her marriage a box that needed to be ticked, and barely notices Jack's physical or emotional presence or absence.

Beautiful as it is, at 134 minutes the film does start to sag, with a few too many shots of valleys, mountains and thousands of sheep. The later scenes between the two men, now adults carrying the luggage of middle age, struggle to add much that is new. Lee reclaims some momentum in the final 30 minutes when the inevitable separation becomes more permanent, and love's true impact is captured in a moving visit to Jack's childhood home.

The performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are filled with subtleties, and the actors fearlessly dive into the often taboo territory of men displaying unconstrained physical lust towards each other. They only stumble slightly during the more theatrical moments of altercation, the arguments and physical scuffles often appearing marginally forced.

Brokeback Mountain is a challenging and ultimately rewarding film, a heartfelt ode to the power of love as it withstands erosive forces to stand tall and dominate life's landscape.

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Movie Review: Monster's Ball (2001)

A somber drama, Monster's Ball is the story of two damaged people connecting under a dark cloud of grief. The film resonates with the raw power of human emotions reaching for the warmth of companionship to overcome unspeakable anguish.

In Georgia, Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) and his son Sonny (Heath Ledger) are both prison guards at the local penitentiary. They live with Hank's father Buck (Peter Boyle), a loudmouthed racist and himself a retired prison guard. Hank is a widower and has inherited his dad's racist tendencies.

Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs) is a black death row prisoner about to be executed, with Hank and Sonny charged with overseeing his capital punishment by electric chair. Lawrence leaves behind his wife Leticia (Halle Berry) and obese son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun). Sonny does not handle the execution well, unleashing Hank's wrath. Meanwhile, Leticia is penniless, and about to lose her house, her car and her job. Tragedies strike both Hank and Leticia, and a chance encounter brings them together for an unlikely relationship.

A compact two character study, Monster's Ball delves into the soul-shaking impact of loss on the psyche. Directed by Marc Forster with a measured pace and an eye for detail, the film refuses to take any easy short cuts. Neither Hank nor Leticia are necessarily likeable characters, and the calamities that befall them are shocking. Both of them rightfully hold themselves at least partially responsible for their losses, and the film distinguishes itself by staring at gaping, self-inflicted emotional wounds.

The film invests heavily in both characters to set the individual contexts. Hank and Leticia start their relationship approximately halfway through the film, and by then, both have been rounded into genuine people, products of their environment and their choices. The parallels between their independent lives are compelling. Hank abuses Sonny because he believes him to be weak; Letitia berates Tyrell for being overweight. Hank is already a widower; Leticia becomes one, with Hank an active participant in Lawrence's state-sanctioned demise. And as much as fate has a hand in the losses that they will experience, the spectre of personal responsibility hovers over both.

When they finally meet and engage, Foster charts a relationship course that is at once fragile and intense. The fierce intimacy between Hank and Leticia is more about physical release than mutual tenderness. They tentatively get to know each other while already relying on the relationship, Hank shocking himself by starting to care about a black person while discharging himself from the vestiges of his old life. Meanwhile, Leticia wonders if his financial, physical and moral support will actually help heal her anguish and guilt.

The film is fully dependent on the two central performances, and both Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry deliver. Thornton stays well within himself, portraying Hank as a man's man, his father's son, more influenced by the despicable attitudes of the old man than he cares to show or acknowledge. Berry became the first black woman to win the Best Actress Academy Award. She keeps Leticia real, human and impressively pragmatic.

The film ends with Leticia facing yet another unwanted surprise, and another potentially life-altering decision point. Again Monster's Ball quietly chooses the more difficult road, Leticia representing real people forced to make wrenching trade-offs just to be able to shake hands with life.

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Movie Review: The Patriot (2000)

After fighting the English on behalf of Scotland in Braveheart, Mel Gibson moves forward a few centuries and re-engages the same enemy. In The Patriot he battles on behalf of a free America in the War of Independence. The era may be different, but the story is the same: an initially reluctant man is drawn into the middle of a violent conflict to serve the cause of freedom, and helps to define the course of history.

It's 1776, and the American Revolution is boiling. Benjamin Martin (Gibson) is a plantation owner in South Carolina, initially reluctant to join the cause for the sake of staying with his young family. His boys are more eager to fight, and his eldest son Gabriel (Heath Ledger) joins the revolution despite his father's protestations. When Gabriel is injured and younger son Thomas is killed in cold blood by the brutal English Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) of the Green Dragoons, who burns the Martin household for good measure, Benjamin joins the fight.

A seasoned warrior and veteran of the French and Indian War, Martin joins forces with Gabriel and they organize a militia including the French soldier Jean Villeneuve (Tcheky Karyo) and Reverend Oliver (Rene Auberjonois). While Martin's friend Colonel Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper) commands the more conventional Continental Army, Martin and his men adopt effective hit-and-run, guerrilla-style ambush tactics against the English, targeting officers and disrupting supply lines. Martin ears the nickname "the Ghost" for striking and disappearing without a trace. As his reputation grows, Tavington and Lord Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson), the General in charge of the British Army, decide to target the families of Martin's militia members to flush him out of hiding.

Although several characters are inspired by real historical figures, with Benjamin Martin a composite of American revolutionaries including Francis Marion and Colonel Tavington drawing on Banastre Tarleton, The Patriot does not pretend to be based on true events. The War of Independence featured no fewer atrocities than any other war, but The Patriot does push the limits of credibility with some excessive brutalities by Tavington, including a difficult-to-watch massacre of unarmed civilian accused of assisting the revolutionaries.

Mel Gibson delivers his charismatic, reluctant hero persona with smooth ease and the well-practised polish, a man pushed into action, carrying both a violent history and a dangerous skill set. The combination with Ledger is a classic older and wiser man / younger and more attractive guy pairing designed to appeal to a wide demographic, and it works well. Ledger's Gabriel is as idealistic as he is handsome, in many ways a younger Gibson, Gabriel carving his way through the carnage of a brutal war the way Gibson navigated the post-apocalyptic future of the Mad Max movies.

Jason Isaac as Colonel Tavington and Tom Wilkinson as Lord Cornwallis are both hungry for the spoils of war, but for the most part represent diametric opposites of the war rules spectrum. Cornwallis is old-fashioned and more likely to demand that battles follow the rules of chivalry. The detestable Tavington makes for quite the villain, Isaac conveying his icy enjoyment of killing and elevating him to an enemy worthy of Benjamin Martin's most virulent wrath.

Roland Emmerich directs with an eye on balancing characters with action for the duration of nearly three hours, and he succeeds in alternating scenes of meaningful human interaction with many interludes of intense, gory action. The Patriot allows both Benjamin and Gabriel to discover romance and find love with worthy women (Joely Richardson and Lisa Brenner respectively), and a large cast of supporting characters are allowed the space to make their mark between the deadly musket fire and flying limbs of the battlefields.

The Patriot is an old fashioned, grand spectacle of war for a cause. It makes up for some lack of originality with star power and an unflinching presentation of battle carnage.

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