Movie Review: Mulholland Falls (1996)

Genre: Neo Noir Crime Drama  

Director: Lee Tamahori  

Starring: Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, John Malkovich, Treat Williams, Chris Penn, Andrew McCarthy, Michael Madsen, Daniel Baldwin  

Running Time: 107 minutes  

Synopsis: It's the early 1950s in Los Angeles. A tough squad of police detectives led by Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) and consisting of his partners Ellery (Chazz Palminteri), Eddie (Michael Madsen), and Arthur (Chris Penn) play outside the rules to push back against organized crime. When high-class prostitute Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly) is found dead, Max is compromised because he was one of her clients. Seedy cameraman Jimmy (Andrew McCarthy) secretly filmed Allison with her illicit lovers, including General Timms (John Malkovich). Max's dogged investigation leads to a Nevada atomic bomb test site, and a tangle with Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald (Treat Williams).

What Works Well: This character-based mood-focused drama rides on the brute charisma of Nick Nolte as Max Hoover, a detective determined to keep his town clear of mob figures. His world is suddenly upended when his trysts with the alluring Allison are exposed, collapsing his stable relationship with his wife (Melanie Griffith). The Peter Dexter script balances expertly-delivered punctuations of violence with interesting characters brought to life by a dream supporting cast, with Andrew McCarthy's opportunistic photographer a stand out. At the heart of this investigation is a strong bond of male friendship, Max's squad a cacophony of barbs united by an ends-justify-the-means ethos.

What Does Not Work As Well: The period set designs, vehicles, and wardrobes leave the conspiracy behind, the sequence of events leading to Allison's death becoming fuzzier, less interesting, and ultimately illogical with every reveal. The resources available to the antagonists should have ensured that she simply disappeared, rather than dumped in plain sight of a construction project. 

Key Quote:

General Timms (talking to Max Hoover): That's the history of the world, Lieutenant. Some people die before their time so that others can live. It's the cornerstone of civilization. War, religion, democracy. A hundred die so that a thousand may live.

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Movie Review: Unlocked (2017)

Genre: Espionage Thriller  

Director: Michael Apted  

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Douglas, Orlando Bloom, Toni Collette, John Malkovich  

Running Time: 98 minutes  

Synopsis: In London, CIA Agent Alice Racine (Noomi Rapace) is an interrogation specialist traumatized by her inability to prevent a bombing in Paris two years ago. She is called back to active service to interrogate an apprehended courier who holds key information about an impending terrorist attack involving biological weapons. Her assignment quickly spirals into a race against time involving Alice's ex-boss Eric Lasch (Michael Douglas), former soldier Jack Alcott (Orlando Bloom), MI5 Intelligence Chief Emily Knowles (Toni Collette), and CIA Europe Division Chief Bob Hunter (John Malkovich).

What Works Well: This a smart, well-constructed, fast-paced, and twist-filled thriller. Writer Peter O'Brien minimizes over-the-top action scenes in favour of strategic and tactical surprises, rewarding concentration, thoughtfulness, and anticipation. With an emphasis on efficiency, veteran director Michael Apted maintains control over content-rich plot machinations fueled by a trust deficit. Noomi Rapace leads a stellar cast with a combination of grim determination and resourcefulness, while Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich, Toni Collette, and Michael Douglas add quality in smallish roles.

What Does Not Work As Well: With so much going on, it's no surprise that some of the details get frazzled, and important characters are short-changed in a crowded cast list. 

Conclusion: Unlocks refreshingly serious spy schemes.



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Movie Review: Con Air (1997)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: Simon West  

Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Monica Potter  

Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: Former Army Ranger Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) kills a man in self defence and serves eight years in prison. Granted parole and eager to reunite with his wife Tricia (Monica Potter) and their young daughter, Cameron's final journey to freedom is on a US Marshals flight carrying hardened convicts. Career criminal Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich) leads a violent hijacking, assisted by Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones (Ving Rhames). Cameron has to help guard Sally Bishop (Rachel Ticotin) and other transportees stay alive while secretly working with Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack) to end the ordeal.

What Works Well: Embracing a go big or go home ethos, this is a bold, brash, loud, and often very funny commitment to entertainment. The action is peppered by one-liners delivered with deadpan accuracy by Nicolas Cage, while the quality cast ensures animation in every role. Director Simon West delivers an action set-piece about every ten minutes, and rounds Cameron Poe into enough of a heroic family man to ensure a human heart beats inside the carnage. On the other side of the madness divide, John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi contribute memorable villains.

What Does Not Work As Well: "Over the top" does not begin to describe the flight path of the final 30 minutes. The climax leaves any semblance of reality behind and surrenders to cartoon levels of excess.

Conclusion: The non-stop turbulence is severe, intentional, and wildly enjoyable.



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Movie Review: Bird Box (2018)

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller

Director: Susanne Bier

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich

Running Time: 124 minutes

Synopsis: Malorie (Sandra Bullock) bundles two blindfolded kids into a boat and sets off on a river journey seeking a survivor settlement. Flashbacks to five years prior reveal a pregnant but resentful Malorie being cheered-up by her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson) before a mysterious menace suddenly devastates humanity: anyone who looks at it immediately commits suicide. With the world disintegrating Malorie seeks refuge in a house with army veteran Tom (Trevante Rhodes), crusty Douglas (John Malkovich), and supermarket cashier Charlie, among others. Blindfolds becomes essential for any outdoor excursions, but with supplies running low and the evil entity recruiting allies, staying alive is increasingly difficult.

What Works Well: Fear, uncertainty, and courage mix well in a quality study of normal people caught in the horror of apocalyptic events, creating a good companion piece to A Quiet Place. The threat of self-inflicted death manifests in various forms, the unseen malevolent enemy evolving, the lack of clear explanation adding to the tension and allowing space for discussions about drivers of physical and emotional societal self-destruction. The parallel story lines featuring Malorie's river journey and flashbacks to the start of the crisis provide variety and relief. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time is prolonged and too accommodating of samey character dynamics, while the sappy ending is a let-down amidst the global carnage.

Conclusion: Well worth removing the blindfolds to view the unseen.



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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: Mile 22 (2018)

An action thriller, Mile 22 is a non-stop cacophony of slick urban battle scenes, admittedly impressive sound and fury subjugating substance.

James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) is an operative in the secretive Overwatch group led by James Bishop (John Malkovich), sanctioned by the US government to execute covert counter-espionage missions with deadly force. With the help of agents Alice (Lauren Cohan), Sam (former professional wrestler Ronda Rousey) and Douglas (Carlo Alban), the team takes down a Russian FSB safehouse in the United States, killing all the occupants including an 18 year old.

16 months later, Silva and his team are in Indocarr (modeled on Indonesia) seeking missing shipments of the chemical element cesium, which can be used to create radioactive bombs. Local informant Li Noor (Iko Uwais) provides a locked disk with crucial information, but will only reveal the password in return for asylum in the US. Silva is tasked with driving Noor the 22 miles from the embassy to an airfield, a mission complicated by Indocarr's intelligence chief Axel (Sam Medina) and his army of goons, eager to prevent Noor's defection. Meanwhile, a Russian surveillance team takes to the skies to monitor - and perhaps interfere - in the unfolding events.

It's impossible not to admire Mile 22. Director Peter Berg teams up with star Mark Wahlberg for the fourth time, and in just 94 minutes they deliver a sparkling non-stop action movie built on the foundations of a complex story crackling with energy. Based on an original script from Lea Carpenter, this is unpretentious combat entertainment with a maximum body count, a minimum of CGI, plenty of gore, bullets and martial arts sharing screen time, augmented by a veneer of whizz-bang technology and delivered with commendable proficiency.

But the weaknesses are also apparent, mostly in the form of a structure that settles into a series of video-game level set-pieces, and a dizzying editing job often intercutting manic action at multiple locations into barely cohesive snippets. And while the triumphant final twist is well-earned, it does leave behind plenty of retrospective logic holes, some of which were undoubtedly intended to be filled by sequels.

The action is juiced by providing Wahlberg with a slightly different screen persona to chew on. Instead of his typical heroic guy-next-door, here James Silva has a whirring mind operating too quickly for his mouth, and he snaps a rubberband on his wrist to just marginally stay on the sane side of the line. He berates friends and foes alike for not thinking and acting as quickly as he does, but they tolerate him due to his in-field superiority.

The supporting performances and character definitions are as would be expected, superficial and barely existent respectively. Lauren Cohan suffers the most from an inept attempt to introduce a turbulent long-distance family life.

With a singular focus on expending the most ammunition in the least amount of time, Mile 22 covers the distance.



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Movie Review: Changeling (2008)

A missing child crime drama, Changeling recreates an enthralling true mystery, and exposes chapters of deep-seated corruption and horrid treatment of women deemed inconvenient.

Los Angeles, 1928. Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) is a single mom working as a telephone exchange supervisor and raising her nine year old son Walter. Christine returns home one day to find Walter missing. Despite pressure from anti-corruption campaigner Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), it's five months before Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) of the Los Angeles Police Department's Juvenile Division reunites Christine with a child found abandoned in rural Illinois. 

She immediately realizes the boy is not Walter, but is pressured into caring for him under the pretense that five months is a long time and the boy would have changed. Christine keeps the pressure on Jones to find her real son, and eventually goes to the press. The police retaliate by labeling her unstable and dumping her into a psychiatric ward. But when Detective Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) stumbles upon a heinous multiple child murder scene on the outskirts of the city, Reverend Briegleb and famed lawyer Sammy "S.S." Hahn (Geoff Pierson) team up to support Christine's quest for the truth.

Meticulously researched and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Changeling draws upon historical archives to bring to life an astonishing but true story. Director Clint Eastwood, assisted by a star turn from Angelina Jolie, delivers a devastating film, starting with a tight focus on a single mom and her child, gradually expanding to cover the atrocious mistreatment of women, a police department riddled with mismanagement and incompetence, and finally one of the worst mass-murder cases in California's history.

Righteous rage and individual courage are the two interwoven themes permeating through Changeling. At every turn, Eastwood highlights a system designed by men to sweep women's concerns aside. Detective Jones and Doctor Jonathan Steele (Denis O'Hare) at the psychiatric facility manipulate Christine's words and actions to portray her as unfit, uncaring and erratic. With no oversight she is subjected to the horrors of an asylum where women who challenge authority are sent to rot.

But having lost her child Christine has nothing left to lose and therefore will not be silenced. She eventually finds allies in Reverend Briegleb and lawyer Hahn, while the dogged work of detective Ybarra is a spark of hope for the future of policing. Changeling then enters the world of child victimization at an abominable scale through the crimes of Gordon Stewart Northcott (James Butler Harner), and Christine finds herself at the centre of two extraordinary proceedings.

Eastwood recreates a between-the-wars Depression-era Los Angeles with loving care, the set designs, costumes and cars capturing a fragile society on the edge between emerging modernity and economic ruin. The city has undoubted energy and potential, but is also slipping into the grip of greedy men hiding behind respectable suits and uniforms, eager to consume a growing share of an expanding pie.

Into a grim male-dominated world, Changeling shines a thin ray of positive light towards the future, society's genuine advancement only achieved when women are treated as equals, or better.



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Movie Review: Being John Malkovich (1999)

A fiercely original drama and comedy, Being John Malkovich explores issues of fulfillment, control and sexual adventurism through a bizarre and unforgettable premise.

In New York City, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is an unemployed puppeteer, married to pet-lover Lotte (Cameron Diaz). He reluctantly accepts a menial filing job at LesterCorp, located on the low-ceilinged floor 7.5 of a highrise. His boss is the elderly but sex-obsessed Dr. Lester (Orson Bean). Craig falls in love at first sight with co-worker Maxine (Catherine Keener), who remains mostly cold and aloof.

Behind a filing cabinet, Craig uncovers a secret passage leading into the brain of actor John Malkovich (playing himself). The experience of being in someone else's head is physically and emotionally exhilarating. After Lotte has her turn in Malkovich's brain she starts to question her sexuality and also falls in love with Maxine, who reciprocates, inflaming Craig's jealousy. Maxine and Craig launch a business selling 15 minute incursions into Malkovich for $200, while Maxine starts dating the actor, timing sexual encounters for when Lotte is inside his head.

From the creative imagination of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich offers an absurdist, unhinged story. With an abundance of fresh ideas and unexpected twists at every junction, the film creates its own unique path towards upturning expectations. The film captivates by never settling for anything remotely predictable, and even late into the third act, the novel perspectives keep coming.

Kaufman plays with the intersecting concepts of being in charge and achieving personal gratification. Craig is a failure at being a puppeteer, his elaborate compositions too psychologically anguished for a broad audience. But inside Malkovich he can leverage celebrity status to fulfill an artiste dream, both by finally exerting ultimate control and transforming an actor into a puppeteer. Meanwhile Lotte finds an avenue to explore an alternative sexuality, while Maxine is game for anything that heightens her already elevated kinkiness.

But it's not all serious. As a package Being John Malkovich floats on bubbles of comical superfluity and carries an irreverent charm with just-because humour. Lotte's pet animals mainly serve to clutter Craig's life, and the monkey Elijah is suffering from his own psychological issues (complete with a flashback). The 7.5 floor with its elevator challenge and low ceiling is delightfully irrelevant. The LesterCorp staff members, including receptionist Floris (Mary Kay Place), have issues with basic language comprehension, and Dr. Lester has a succession of tangential yet crucial interventions in Craig's misadventures.

The four principal cast members have rarely been better. John Cusack fully commits to a greasy, tortured but talented artist aesthetic. Catherine Keener finds one of her career-best roles as a woman running mental laps around everyone else while seeking the next thrill. Cameron Diaz is almost unrecognizable, stripping away any hint of glamour to coddle her pets and unleash sexual excitement from unexpected experiences. And finally Malkovich himself pulls off the unique task of being himself and not himself, present as his own body but not necessarily in control.

Looking through the eyes of another as the best exploration of self, Being John Malkovich is a singular bolt of lightning.

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Movie Review: Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

A costume drama set in the haughty world of the ridiculously wealthy, Dangerous Liaisons is a visually gorgeous story of immoral activity fueling gender wars among the idle rich.

It's pre-revolution Paris in the late 1700s, and Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Glenn Close) is a rich and conniving widow who gets her pleasure by manipulating others. She attempts to convince notorious seducer Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) to sleep with her young and innocent niece Cécile de Volanges (Uma Thurman), a covenant-educated virgin, as revenge against Isabelle's former lover Bastide, who abandoned Isabelle and is now set to marry Cécile.

Vicomte refuses, as he is focused on enhancing his reputation by seducing Madame Marie de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer), a married woman with morals beyond reproach. Isabelle is impressed with the bravado of his quest, and promises to sleep with Vicomte if he succeeds in corrupting Marie and provides a written letter as proof. But Vicomte's pursuit of Marie is compromised by the gossipy Madame de Volanges (Swoosie Kurtz), Isabelle's cousin and Cécile's mother. As revenge, a furious Vicomte agrees to deflower Cécile and redoubles his efforts to have Marie fall in love with him.

As an incendiary exposé to support peasant revolutions, Dangerous Liaisons serves its purpose. The adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play, based on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos book, is singularly obsessed with vindictive and lustful elites, idle and libidinous women and men with no better purpose than to plot sexcapades. Hampton's script is brought to life by director Stephen Frears in a lavish production, and the stellar cast shines amidst ostentatious costumes, cleavage and castles.

While none of the principal characters are remotely likeable, the dialogue exchanges between Isabelle and Vicomte reveal two sides of one coin, a female and male version of the same surreptitious behaviour trading in sex and deploying bribery, blackmail and subterfuge as needed. Vicomte can flaunt his reputation and indeed publicly work to enhance it, while by nature of women's social stature Isabelle is more discreet. She works by influencing others and nudging them towards ruin. At her most vulnerable moment Cécile turns to Isabelle for advice, and the aunt encourages her niece to embrace rape as a learning experience and seek multiple lovers.

Despite the seemingly frivolous attitude towards seduction, the film steers towards unexpected love intruding on intrigue. Vicomte can only break through Marie's barriers by falling in love with her, a condition he labels temporary, but Isabelle knows better. And Isabelle herself is sideswiped by intense jealousy, her facade penetrated upon learning another woman can emotionally preoccupy her man. The outcomes are well deserved, as Frears revels in moving his two protagonists towards emotional troughs of their own making.

Glenn Close occupies the centre of chicanery with an impressive performance, her sly smiles, pregnant pauses and sideways glances riding the line between outward social respectability and continuous conspiring. She is matched by John Malkovich riding through the field of conquests on nothing but unshakeable confidence in his seductive powers.

Although the scenes of verbal sparring between Marie and Vicomte are unconvincing and repetitive, Michelle Pfeiffer is surprisingly affecting as prey, while Uma Thurman is a doe eyed victim. In addition to Kurtz, Keanu Reeves as a naive artist caught up in the sex plots and Mildred Natwick as Vicomte's aunt round out the cast.

Dangerous Liaisons is an irresistible study of virtue making way for subversion, with predictably calamitous consequences.

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Movie Review: The Killing Fields (1984)

A historical drama, The Killing Fields delves into the horror of war and subsequent genocide in 1970s Cambodia.

It's 1973, and New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) is covering the American secret war in Cambodia. He is ably assisted by local journalist and all-round fixer Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor). They are joined by laid back photographer Al Rockoff (John Malkovich) and British journalist Jon Swain (Julian Sands). A civil war is also tearing Cambodia apart, and by 1975 the communist Khmer Rouge revolutionary forces gain the upper hand against the government.

The Americans evacuate from the capital Phnom Penh, and Sydney arranges for Pran's family to leave. But Pran stays behind with the foreign reporters, and helps release them from captivity when crazed Khmer Rouge militiamen overrun the capital. Later all remaining foreigners take refuge in the French embassy and are eventually evacuated, but Pran as a local is forced to stay behind. Shipped to the countryside as a labourer, he has to pretend to be an uneducated taxi driver to try and survive a horrific genocide perpetrated by the new regime.

Based on real events, The Killing Fields uncovers the atrocities of war through the story of a deep friendship between two reporters. Directed by Roland Joffé and produced by David Puttnam, the film creates an overwhelming sense of despair at warmongers' insatiable ability to cause inhumane suffering at a massive scale.

With minimal dialogue, unblinking camerawork and no shortage of gore, Joffé recreates a country descending into hell, first with the help of foreign intervention and then through a particularly virulent form of communism that literally aimed to set the country back to year zero. But The Killing Fields adds to its impressive impact by also spending time on the restless pauses between events, the hours and days of waiting for something to happen as boredom and agitation dominate the psyche.

Plenty of dialogue is in the local Khmer language or French, and Joffé provides no subtitles, heightening the sense of realism for journalists trying to piece together the story in a foreign land. The hazards of the profession are well represented, but the film is mostly concerned with the suffering of the locals: foreigners like Schanberg have evacuation avenues open to them, and can flee despite the overwhelming guilt packed into their luggage. The locals have to endure whatever twisted notions of rebuilding the victors choose to impose.

And in the film's harrowing second half the focus switches firmly to Dith Pran's remarkable ordeal of survival, the country now run by madmen and children carrying rifles. Dith witnesses the killings, barely survives several brushes with death, and traverses a countryside littered with mass open graveyards. And as the abominations unfolded and around 1.7 million people were slaughtered, the world could not be bothered to care, eager to forget the doomed military misadventures in southeast Asia.

In his first acting performance, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, himself a survivor of the Cambodian killing fields, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (although Pran is very much the lead character in the film). Ngor bring a level of exceptional authentic humanity to the role, whether never giving up on talking his way to survival or silently observing the carnage unfold while plotting his next escape.

The Killing Fields portrays the disheartening reality of brutal military conflicts, and the rousing exhilaration of friendships enduring over the years and across oceans.

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Movie Review: In The Line Of Fire (1993)

A thriller set in the world of Secret Service agents protecting the President, In The Line Of Fire mixes good action with plenty of character depth and cerebral touches.

In Washington DC, Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is an aging Secret Service agent, still traumatized by his inability to prevent the Kennedy assassination. Frank investigates evidence at a nondescript apartment suggesting a potential assassin on the loose, and starts to receive taunting phone calls from a man calling himself Booth (John Malkovich), who openly admits to planning a kill the current President. Secret Service Director Sam Campagna (John Mahoney) places Frank back on the security detail surrounding the President, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign.

Frank works with his partner Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott) and fellow agent Lilly Raines (Rene Russo) to keep the President safe and try to uncover Booth's true identity. But Frank's age and emotional demons get in the way and White House staff get tired of his temper and over-eager actions. Despite setbacks Frank doggedly pursues the shadowy Booth, who has a dark background of his own.

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, In The Line Of Fire is a well-paced cat and mouse game between two damaged opponents, with bursts of action matched by thoughtful interludes designed to flesh out Frank's past and present emotional condition. The film succeeds due to its significant investment in Frank as a flawed warrior, the last Secret Service agent from the day Kennedy was killed still on active duty.

Booth pushes Frank's buttons, and the film derives as much enjoyment from their psychologically riveting phone conversations as from their kinetic on-the-ground chase scenes. The phone calls are a chess game of taunt and counter-taunt, filled with clues, traps and cryptic signposts, the killer-to-be enjoying the game only so long as it is close. And when it's time to turn up the heat Peterson knows how to deliver breathless action, with one rooftop chase landing at an excellent climax, hunter and hunted in a most ironic clutch.

Once Booth's identity is revealed another layer of scar tissue is added, the boomerang of government actions coming home to roost. Although the killer is a chilling menace throughout thanks to John Malkovich's blood curdling performance and some terrific disguises, the Jeff Maguire script could have invested more time to delve into his damaged psyche. And the romance elements between Frank and Lilly are stuttering at best, the 24 year age difference between Eastwood and Russo not helping.

Eastwood is much better away from any notions of love. In The Line Of Fire allows him to do what he does best: spit bullets as the angry lone wolf working within the system, fighting to save the incompetents from themselves, able to match wits with a maniac because he is unafraid to unleash his own inner fiend.

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Movie Review: Places In The Heart (1984)

A feel good drama, Places In The Heart celebrates the human spirit through the simple story of a widow determined to thrive.

Rural Texas in 1935, the depth of the Great Depression. Edna Spalding (Sally Field) is suddenly widowed when her police officer husband is accidentally shot and killed by a drunk, leaving her to care for their large farm and two young children. Edna receives moral support from her sister Margaret (Lindsay Crouse), who does not know that her husband Wayne (Ed Harris) is carrying on a passionate affair with married local woman Viola (Amy Madigan).

Threatened with foreclosure by banker Mr. Denby (Lane Smith), Edna accepts help from drifter Moses (Danny Glover), a black man who claims that he can create a revenue-generating cotton plantation on her farm. Edna also takes in the blind Mr. Will (John Malkovich) as a boarder to raise some money. Despite the price of cotton plummeting, enormous pressure to sell the farm, rampant community racism against Moses, and nature's fury, Edna pushes ahead, determined to not give up on her land or her family.

Directed and written by Robert Benton, Places In The Heart is a slice of rural life, where the struggle for economic survival shatters class, race, and gender divides. The film may be a hopelessly optimistic parable in its portrayal of a woman in the 1930s staring down the depression, the bankers, the racists, physical disabilities and mother nature to turn her life around, but there is no denying the uplifting and well-intentioned energy coursing through Edna's story.

With beautiful period sets and Néstor Almendros cinematography glorifying the landscape, the film plays with themes of trust and betrayal. Once her husband is killed Edna is forced to trust first Moses, a drifter and thief, and then Mr. Will, a blind man much more likely to be a hindrance than a help. They will need to prove their worth, and the film revels in contrasting Moses and Will's contributions to Edna's life with the individuals who should be her more natural allies: healthy white men in the form of the banker Mr. Denby and the cotton merchant W.E. Simmons (Jay Patterson).

Benton's script includes a substantial subplot involving the illicit affair between Wayne and Viola, at the expense of Edna's sister Margaret. The story of a marriage under tremendous stress adds to the texture of the community and the themes of trust and betrayal, and Viola's fury at Wayne's continued affection for his wife contributes an uncommon cutting edge. But Edna's story of endurance never fully meshes with the turmoil in her sister's life, and the two plots occasionally trip over each other.

Sally Field won her second Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Edna, and its a solid enough performance, more robust than spectacular. Field reaches an early highlight when Edna is forced to confront punishing her young son, a distasteful duty previously performed by her husband. Field captures the horror of a mother coming to terms with what it means to physically abuse a child, ticking off one more thing that will now change in her family's life.

Wisely, Benton is capable of removing the rose coloured glasses when needed. While Edna's journey carries an eternally positive trajectory, the film avoids the temptation to neatly tie up all the loose ends. There are troubles aplenty scattered in the unforgiving southern landscape, and the only certainty is continued interaction between what is sincerely labelled good and evil. Places In The Heart ends with a beautifully mystical moment, an unlikely gathering where human judgement is deferred in favour of a greater communion.

Breathing deeply from the complexities and mysteries of life, Places In The Heart emits a warm, soft glow.

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The Movies Of John Malkovich

All movies starring John Malkovich and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Places In The Heart (1984)

The Killing Fields (1984)

Empire Of The Sun (1987)

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

In The Line of Fire (1993)

Mulholland Falls (1996)

Con Air (1997)

Rounders (1998)

Being John Malkovich (1999, as himself)

Adaptation (2002, uncredited, as himself)

Johnny English (2003)

Burn After Reading (2008)

Changeling (2008)

RED (2010)

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Unlocked (2017)

Mile 22 (2018)

Bird Box (2018)

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

Ava (2020)

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The Movie Star Index is here.