Movie Review: The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

A morose drama, The Sweet Hereafter explores a small town's grief after tragedy through the lens of a lawyer chasing a big case. The portrait of a tight knit community in crisis is stark, but also static.

Lawyer Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm) arrives at a small town in rural Canada, where a recent school bus crash resulted in the death of many kids. The driver Dolores (Gabrielle Rose) lost control on a patch of ice, but Mitchell attempts to convince the grieving parents he will find a way to sue the town, the school board, or the bus manufacturer to secure a big money settlement.

As Mitchell visits the parents, the town's secrets are revealed. Billy Ansel (Bruce Greenwood), the local mechanic, is having an affair with motel owner Risa. He lost his two kids in the crash but resents the lawyer's presence. Teenager Nicole (Sarah Polley), an aspiring singer/songwriter and a victim of sexual abuse, was paralyzed but now finds her father's pursuit of money distasteful. College-educated parents Wanda and Hartley Otto lost their adopted son Bear and are quick to sign up with Mitchell.

Meanwhile, Mitchell himself is a suffering parent. His daughter Zoe (Caerthan Banks) is a drug addict running with the wrong crowd and only phoning him to extract money. On a plane trip Mitchell bumps into Zoe's school friend Allison (Stephanie Morgenstern) and vents his frustrations, while also recalling a harrowing incident from Zoe's childhood.

Written and directed by Atom Egoyan based on the Russell Banks book (inspired by a true 1989 bus tragedy in Texas), The Sweet Hereafter is a quiet journey into the heart of sadness. The snow-covered, isolated terrain contributes a blanket of sorrow, as an outsider pokes away at open wounds to inflame anger and earn himself a lawsuit. 

The revelations of internecine misbehaviour ensure a captivating viewing experience, as does the structure elegantly jumping between three timelines (before and after the crash, and Mitchell's plane trip). But the film stops short of evolving the town's residents into rounded characters, while overplaying a heavy-handed reference to the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

The story is told through the eyes of a dour lawyer seeking a headline case, and although Ian Holm brings the necessary heartache to the role's personal tribulations, Mitchell is a glorified ambulance chaser and in some ways the least interesting character. At no point does he present a viable thesis to translate his talk into a coherent negligence case against a deep-pocketed defendant. The parallels between his sense of loss towards his daughter and the town's trauma is a worthwhile but limited narrative device. 

Elsewhere, Egoyan presents snapshots, then let's them sit like pictures on a mantelpiece. Nicole's victimization by her father and subsequent act of cerebral revenge, the Ottos' unbearable pain, bus driver Dolores' guilt, and Billy Ansel's affair with Risa and disgust at Mitchell, are all snippets of promising stories. They remain just that, Egoyan content with presenting but not expanding. The Sweet Hereafter sympathizes, then leaves its card behind and moves on.

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Movie Review: The Fifth Element (1997)

A science fiction comedy thriller, The Fifth Element is a rollicking if sometimes messy space adventure.

A prelude shows friendly advanced aliens arriving in the Egyptian desert in 1914 and spiriting away for safekeeping four stones from a hidden chamber in the pyramids. The stones, protected by a lineage of priests, are needed along with a mysterious fifth element to ward off a force of evil that attacks Earth every 5,000 years.

In the year 2263, an unstoppable evil in the form of an indestructible energy-sucking dark massive planet is hurtling towards Earth. The allied aliens attempt to provide assistance but are intercepted by the mercenary Mangalores, working on behalf of evil industrialist Zorg (Gary Oldman). Enough organic matter survives from the destroyed alien ship for scientists to recreate the woman-like Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), an agile warrior and potentially humanity's only chance for survival, if only she can communicate in a decipherable language.

Leelo is soon on the run, and stumbles into the flying cab of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a disgruntled ex-special forces member. Korben is eventually tasked with retrieving the stones, which are hidden with an opera singer performing at an elite resort planet. Zorg and the Mangalores are also chasing the stones, while Korben teams up with Leelo (who gradually teaches herself English) and high priest Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) to try and save humanity.

Co-written and directed by Luc Besson, The Fifth Element is an original, highly imaginative and enjoyably campy sci-fi romp. Although the plot often makes little sense and some aspects (including most of Chris Tucker's contribution as a celebrity DJ) offer more noise than quality, the film generates enough loony energy to ride over the bumpier bits. Besson creates a fast-paced fantastical and colourful future filled with flying cars, space travel, floating cities and alien species, but with the same mostly dumb and narcissistic humans in the middle of it all.

The comedy and action are well balanced. Korben's sardonic resignation is a perfect fit for Bruce Willis' persona, while the lithe Leeloo emerges as the best thing about the film. Jovovich finds a deft comic touch as the super-smart but communication-challenged humanoid created to save Earth but nevertheless befuddled by all that is going on around her until she finally teams up with Korben. Together they not only make for an effective off-kilter buddy duo but also give The Fifth Element a beating heart amidst all the lunacy.

And Besson makes sure to also infuse plenty of action into the latter half of his adventure. When Korben tangles with Mangalores the big guns open up, and The Fifth Element becomes a surprisingly potent action thriller, but with tongue always firmly in cheek.

Wild and wacky, The Fifth Element wows.

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Movie Review: Lord Of War (2005)

An exposé drama about the international arms trade, Lord Of War is a highly enjoyable romp through the business of selling the tools of death.

The son of Ukrainian refugees, Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) grew up in a rough Brooklyn neighbourhood and learned from personal experience the value of guns. In the early 1980s Yuri starts his own business as a gun dealer, before teaming up with his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) and quickly expanding into the international trade. Yuri becomes an expert in finding loopholes to break arms embargos, and particularly skilled in locating and reselling abandoned weapons caches around the world. His initial attempts to partner with Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), the world's most renowned weapons dealer, are rebuffed.

Staying one step ahead of dogged and incorruptible Interpol agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), Yuri sells weapons in all the world's hotspots including Liberia where dictator André Baptiste Sr. (Eamonn Walker) becomes a favoured client. Yuri also wins the love of glamorous fashion model Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan) but Vitaly falls victim to a drug addiction. The fall of the Soviet Union results in a flood of new product on the market, and Yuri uses old family connections in Ukraine to expand his business and join the ranks of elite weapons traders. Weisz now needs Yuri's help, and Valentine remains in hot pursuit.

Written and directed by Andrew Niccol and co-produced by Cage, Lord Of War is an irreverent but sharp-eyed take on the world of independent gun smuggling inspired by real world characters such as Sarkis Soghanalian, Oleg Orlov and Viktor Bout. Touching down in the rubble of some of the world's worst conflict zones, the film pokes away at the double standards of an international system that places sanctions and admonishes dictators while ensuring men like Yuri carry on with the business of supplying rifles for child soldiers.

Although the story is undoubtedly episodic and over-narrated, Niccol finds a groove in the adventures of an antihero who uses every excuse in the book to justify his profession, and has every trick at his disposal to skate past international laws. The film moves briskly and with plenty of panache, Niccol finding memorable set-pieces in places as diverse as the rubble of war-torn Beirut, on the high seas off the shores of South America, in a derelict Monrovia hotel, in Ukrainian warehouses crammed with weaponry, and most effectively on a dusty road in Africa. A forced cargo plane landing results in a real-time lesson in third world armament distribution efficiency and recycling economics.

Meanwhile back home Yuri builds a life of wealth and comfort for his family. Ava and his parents turn a blind eye to the source of all the money until the glare of the obvious becomes impossible to ignore. But just as Vitaly is addicted to cocaine, Yuri is addicted to the thrill of the weapons deal, and with no shortage to the number of buyers, sellers and dirty wars, his services are always in demand. Nicolas Cage delivers a pragmatically laid back central performance built on an advanced intellect thriving in a despicable profession, his dead eyes concealing layers of self-delusion.

Lord Of War is a gut punch to the concept of a world at peace. As the guardians of morality profit from war, killing is Yuri's business, and business is good.

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Movie Review: Alien (1979)

A suspense and gore horror movie set in deepest space, Alien is genre-melding classic that redefined the limits of science fiction, launched the career of Sigourney Weaver, and hatched a long-running franchise.

The commercial freighter Nostromo is heading back to Earth on a months-long journey, carrying 20 million tons of ore mined on distant planets. The crew of seven consists of Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm), Warrant Officer Ripley (Weaver), Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Chief Engineer Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Engineering Technician Brett (Harry Dean Stanton). They are supposed to sleep through most of the journey, but halfway to Earth they are unexpectedly awakened by Mother, the on-board master computer, when Nostromo receives what appears to be a distress signal from a nearby planet.

Dallas, Kane and Lambert descend to the surface of the mysterious planet and discover the remains of a mammoth alien space ship, and deep within it large organic pods harbouring a form of alien life. When Kane gets too close to one of the pods, a small slimy alien being jumps out and attaches itself to his face, crashing through his helmet. Although Ripley insists that the immobilized Kane should be quarantined, Ash ignores her and allows him back on board with the alien still attached. Although Kane appears to make a remarkable recovery, the horror is just beginning, and the Nostromo is soon infected with an ugly, highly intelligent, fast moving, viciously lethal, rapidly growing alien, intent on killing off the crew.

Director Ridley Scott creates an unglamourous, utilitarian environment on board the Nostromo, dominated by endless dank corridors, large industrial equipment, finicky strobe lights, grease stains, oozing leaks, and endless places to hide. Awash in dark murky colours, space exploration is no longer an exciting adventure with lightsabers, laser guns and wars between the planets; it's just mundane soul-destroying blue collar work, and the crew are essentially long distance truck drivers doing their job, bickering, complaining about work conditions and arguing about their pay and bonus.

Within this routine Scott drops in an intruder species that has evolved to survive and kill with maximum efficiency, and Alien draws enormous strength from the lack of symmetry in the ensuing conflict. The crew are beset by infighting and lack of mutual respect, and are definitely not equipped to defend themselves. The alien is nimble, brutal, and soon, very large. It's not a fair fight, there is no help on the way, and nowhere to escape. The suspense is immediate, and Scott makes the most of it. As Dallas orders his team to fan out and hunt down the alien within the grim bowels of the ship, it is painfully apparent that the hunters are the prey, and they know it.

While Alien is dominated by long periods of building suspense, it is punctuated by short, sharp, often gory punctuation marks, Scott sprinkling into his movie several highly effective and memorable scenes of horror that are forever embedded into the cultural landscape. The alien latching itself onto Kane's head is just the beginning. There is a creature birth, a pesky cat, a robot meltdown, and a final confrontation where horror and suspense come together at close quarters, human and alien facing off both knowing that only one can survive.

Scott enhances the impact of the film by quickly establishing a distinct character for every crew member, the opening 45 minutes both setting the context and defining the essential traits of the seven-person team. Dallas is decisive but mostly concerned about steering the ship back to Earth. Kane is thoughtful, Ash scientifically inquisitive and not beyond breaching protocol to satisfy his curiosity. Lambert is a follower while Ripley understands the importance of respecting well-established regulations and not afraid of standing up for what she believes is right. Parker and Brett are resourceful around the ship's mechanical components, but see themselves as separate and a class below the other five. When confronted by a determined common enemy, the individuality of the crew members heightens the sense of dread.

Sigourney Weaver's Ripley starts on the periphery and gradually moves to the centre of the movie, and by the end Ripley emerges as the unlikely crew leader, willing to sacrifice the mission to ensure some measure of survival. She would return in future episodes to confront her demons, as of course would many aliens. Alien is an irresistible start to a conflict between the species, the Nostromo a ship that stumbled onto humanity's most formidable enemy.

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