Movie Review: Tempest (1982)

A midlife crisis drama, Tempest explores a painful transition from the vigour of youth to the wisdom of experience. The film enjoys a stellar cast and some excellent highlights, but is also both overlong and emotionally truncated.

New York architect Phillip Dimitrius (John Cassavetes) is experiencing a severe middle age crisis. His work designing casinos for his boss Alonzo (Vittorio Gassman), a semi-respectable mobster, is now a boring chore, and Phillip has lost interest in his wife Antonia (Gena Rowlands), a retired actress attempting a comeback. He also finds his teenaged daughter Miranda (Molly Ringwald) irritating.

When he stumbles upon Antonia seeking intimacy outside their marriage, Phillip packs up his life and heads to Greece with Miranda, desperate to rediscover his passion. In Athens they meet nightclub singer Aretha (Susan Sarandon), and she quickly becomes Phillip's lover. In search of a rustic lifestyle Philip, Aretha and Miranda relocate to a rugged and isolated island, where the only other resident is goat farmer Kalibanos (Raul Julia).

Inspired by Shakespeare's play, Tempest is directed, co-written and co-produced by Paul Mazursky. At a meandering 142 minutes, the signs of bloat are obvious, particularly when the third act loses all focus and falls well short of capping the preceding profundity.

Philip's story is presented in two timelines. On the Greek island, he desperately tries to reinvent himself as a happy recluse, satisfied without all of modernity's luxuries. Aretha and Miranda are less impressed and quite tired of the isolation. In  multiple flashbacks, Philip circulates among New York's elites, living in an elegant condominium of his own design, married to Antonia and working for Alonzo. He has all the ingredients for happiness but is imprisoned by the eternal is-this-all-there-is question.

Mazursky plays lightly on many themes. Phillip's tortured state of mind is represented by electric storms, conjured up as bookends to his crisis. His attempt at island celibacy, leaving Aretha quite hot and bothered, is the product of a disoriented psyche still partially loyal to Antonia. Philip's inability to come to terms with Miranda blooming into a young adult is a further demonstration of his creeping shortcomings. And joyous singing interludes punctuate the drama, often helping to boost spirits threatened by the eccentricities of a futile battle with the advancing years.

With Raul Julia unconstrained, Kalibanos' buffoonish pursuit of Miranda occupies too much screen time, although his lecherous quest affords Molly Ringwald plenty of scene-stealing opportunities. The rest of the cast members find depth within their characters, Cassavetes allowing the weight of unmet expectations to etch his face, Rowlands matching him as a resilient wife who will find alternatives to an inattentive, distracted and self-obsessed husband.

Phillip's old and new lives are on an inevitable collision course, but whilst the Tempest build-up is spasmodically turbulent, the resolution is simplistically tepid. 



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Movie Review: Rosemary's Baby (1968)

A suspense drama with horror elements, Rosemary's Baby tracks a young mother as she experiences the pregnancy from hell.

In New York City, married couple Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse (Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) move into an apartment at the Bramford building. Guy is a struggling actor yet to land his first big break. Their friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) warns them the Bramford has a history of bizarre crimes and deaths. Rosemary and Guy meet their new neighbours, elderly couple Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer). Minnie is exceptionally nosey; Roman is a well-traveled smooth talker and entrances Guy with tall stories.

Guy finally lands a leading role after another actor suffers a sudden tragedy, and he soon suggests to Rosemary they have a baby. After eating a strange-tasting desert prepared by Minnie, Rosemary experiences a nightmare where she is raped by the devil. She does get pregnant, and Minnie refers her to the renowned Doctor Abraham Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy). But the early weeks are an agony of pain and weight loss, and with Guy acting strangely and Minnie providing a daily mysterious herbal drink, Rosemary starts to suspect something is very wrong.

A groundbreaking cinematic journey into the world of witchcraft, satan worshipping, and horror hiding in plain sight, Rosemary's Baby is an exercise in mounting anxiety. The Ira Levin book is adapted and directed by Roman Polanski, in his Hollywood debut, as an artistic tableau of doubt, betrayal, and helplessness, evil seeping into Rosemary's life and consuming all that was good.

Without resorting to any cheap tricks or jump scares, Polanski builds a mood of creepiness and dread. This brand of evil does not announce itself, instead infiltrating with a confident smile and facade of dotty helpfulness. The back-to-back apartments provide just a thin wall between the Woodhouse and Castevet couples, and from the permeability of sounds to Minnie's frequent obtrusive appearances at Rosemary's front door, the assault is a study in subjugation through stealth.

In addition to the satanic threat, Rosemary's Baby provides overlapping commentary on the fragility of marriage, the duplicity of friendship, the lure of career success, and the hazards of blind trust in doctors. The multiple deceptions encircle Rosemary in a conspiracy exposing the human condition at its worst.

Mia Farrow's outstanding performance is central to the film's success as the drama unfolds from Rosemary's perspective. Farrow displays frailty, trust, friendliness, instinctiveness, and then doubt, projecting every expectant woman's complicated emotional journey towards the complexities of motherhood. Ruth Gordon is equally unforgettable as the neighbour Minnie, smothering Rosemary with difficult to resist oleaginous friendliness. Dark, vulnerable and physically uncomfortable, John Cassavetes personifies the exploitable weak spot.

Rosemary's Baby is the dream of consummation and rebirth turning to a nightmare, the dark sides of ambition and sacrifice pursuing the ultimate triumph.



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Movie Review: The Killers (1964)

A taut noir thriller, The Killers is a crisp, violent mystery. The story of two hitmen seeking the background story of their latest victim is a captivating journey through doomed romance, greed and betrayal.

Professional killers Charlie (Lee Marvin) and Lee (Clu Gulager) stride into a school for the blind and shoot dead instructor Johnny North (John Cassavetes), who doesn't even try to avoid them. Charlie is intrigued by Johnny's behaviour, and although he knows better than to ask questions about his targets, he initiates a quest to find out more, fuelled by rumours that Johnny was involved in a heist of $1 million.

Charlie: It's not only the money. Maybe we get that and maybe we don't. But I gotta find out what makes a man decide not to run... why, all of a sudden, he'd rather die.

Charlie and Lee travel to Miami, where they meet Johnny's former partner, a car mechanic named Earl (Claude Akins). In a flashback he reveals that Johnny was a promising race car driver whose career was derailed when he fell madly in love with the ravishing Sheila Farr (Angie Dickinson), a rich girl looking for a distraction. Sheila's sugar daddy is the shadowy and very rich businessman Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan). Charlie and Lee next travel to New Orleans to meet Browning's associate Mickey Farmer (Norman Fell), who is now running a gym. In another flashback he recounts a subsequent tale about the carefully planned theft of a mail truck, which reignited the passion between Sheila and Johnny, much to Browning's chagrin.

Charlie: Whoever laid this contract wasn't worried about the million dollars, and the only people that don't worry about a million dollars are the people that have a million dollars.

Directed by Don Siegel as a loose adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway short story, The Killers started life as a made-for-television production. Due to uncompromising levels of violence, it turned into a cinematic release, and a terrific modern film noir. Helped enormously by an in-your-face attitude oozing icy coolness generated by the slick personalities of Charlie (unflappable) and Lee (playful), the film sprints through its 93 minutes of running time, not wasting a moment as the story of lust, crime and double cross unfolds simultaneously in the past and the present.

The Gene L. Coon script lines up most of the classic noir elements and executes perfectly. The film opens with a quick murder, Sheila is a perfect femme fatale capable of making any man bend to her will, Johnny is the ideal sap filled with passion but insufficient control, and Browning represents the shadowy power broker hiding behind a facade of respectability. Siegel adds plenty of oblique angles to complement the edgy action and witty dialogue.

A large part of the film centres on Johnny as an ace car driver, and the on-track and off-road action adds to the manic pace of the film. Siegel pushes rear-projection technology to its limit, and if the film has a weakness it resides in an ambition to capture exciting in-vehicle angles not matched by the available budget.

Siegel assembled what turned into a terrific cast. Lee Marvin finally received his first top billing as Charlie the thoughtful hitman, and he makes a lasting impression as the silver haired cerebral man of action. Clu Gulager almost steals every scene he's in as the younger sidekick Lee, both his dialogue and antics hinting at hyperactivity channeled in lethal directions. Angie Dickinson is a perfect fit as the femme fatale capable of breaking hearts and manipulating minds to further whatever agenda pleases her. And John Cassavetes pushes the intensity needle to its limit, as a racing driver with a wrecked career and a wounded heart.

The supporting cast is deep and effective. Ronald Reagan (in his last film role) gets to play his first villain, and proves to be a surprisingly effective bad guy. Claude Akins and Norman Fell get bigger than usual roles and deliver better than usual performances.

Browning: I approve of larceny; homicide is against my principles.

The Killers will not be satisfied until they get to the bottom of the story: why did Johnny North accept his death so meekly, and what happened to the missing million dollars. The road to all the answers is fast, frantic and littered with victims.

Charlie, to Sheila: Lady, I don't have the time.

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