Movie Review: Minamata (2020)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Andrew Levitas  

Starring: Johnny Depp, Minami, Bill Nighy  

Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: It's 1971, and the reputation of celebrated World War Two photojournalist W. Eugene Smith (Johnny Depp) is fading. In New York City, he is approached by Japanese activist Aileen Mioko (Minami), who implores him to help bring attention to industrial pollution impacting the Japanese coastal community of Minamata. Gene convinces Life magazine editor Robert Hayes (Bill Nighy) to back the story, and sets off to Japan with Aileen to investigate. He uncovers a wrenching human tragedy caused by mercury poisoning and arrogant corporate corruption.

What Works Well: An individual quest for the truth combines with a dark tale of industrial pollution to confirm the power of stark images. Johnny Depp finds a career highlight as the hard drinking, almost down-and-out photojournalist with a glorious past, no present, but perhaps one more meaningful assignment. The mercury poisoning victims and their families, mostly villagers living in the shadow of an imposing chemical factory and battling both physical and emotional trauma, are treated with remarkable dignity.

What Does Not Work As Well: While Smith's photographs help publicize the tragedy, the dogged local activists who organize daily protests and demand investigations, negotiation, and compensation are also heroic. They are present in this telling of the story, but not as prominent as the cynical and perpetually inebriated American in a foreign land.

Key Quote:

Aileen (to Gene): The people need help. We need global attention. We need you.

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Movie Review: Chocolat (2000)

A tender drama with sprinkles of humour and romance, Chocolat is a playful story about the winds of change.

The setting is 1959 in rural France. Life in the small riverfront village of Lansquenet centres around the church, and the mayor Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina) ensures long-held traditions are respected. Free-spirited expert chocolatier Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) and her young daughter Anouk drift into town. Vianne rents vacant premises in the town square from the crusty Armande (Judi Dench) and dares to open her chocolate shop in the middle of Lent. 

The Comte is not impressed by the unmarried mother causing a stir in his community, but Vianne sets out to win hearts through her chocolate creations, and befriends Armande, who is on bad terms with her daughter Caroline (Carrie-Anne Moss). Vianne also helps Josephine (Lena Olin), who is stuck in an abusive marriage. The arrival of a band of river gypsies led by Roux (Johnny Depp) further disrupts the town, and Reynaud increases his efforts to drive those he deems undesirable out of town.

An adaptation of the Joanne Harris book, Chocolat is a whimsical experience. Director Lasse Hallström and writer Robert Nelson Jacobs craft a fairly predictable but still enjoyable light-hearted drama with a fairy-tale ethos. Aided by winning performances and an isolated but still vibrant locale, Vianne's adventures carry transformational themes into intimate encounters.

While never overbearing, serious issues infuse the drama with substance, with a focus on women at life's various stages. The elderly Armande is clinging to vivacious ideals despite a serious health crisis, while Josephine is the community's prospective outcast, a woman veering towards irrationality due to abuse. Both stories use poignancy to affirm a woman's right to break loose of expectations, especially when suffering.

More broadly, Vianne representing secular modernity clashing with religious traditions. She shuns local conventions, and later Roux joins her as a free spirit equally dismissive of the old ways. Although Vianne makes no attempt to bridge the divide, Hallström unquestionably - and rather simplistically - aligns his sympathies with the winds of renewal, and portrays the Compte as an antagonistic relic.

But delving deeper, Vianne's chocolate recipes and backstory are derived from ancient Mayan traditions, and so also carry the weight of history, but from a different culture and another corner of the world. Chocolat becomes an intriguing contrast between two keys to the heart, both mystical, but at least superficially incompatible.

In addition to the central stories featuring Armande and Josephine, Vianne's chocolates help one couple regain a sexual spark, and encourage one man (and his dog) to pursue a romance with a widow (Leslie Caron), both side-stories adding moments of levity. The performances merge with the impish mood, Juliette Binoche setting the tone for the women-dominated cast by knowingly investing in confections as gateways to the soul. Chocolat tilts to the sweet side, but is nevertheless irresistible.



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Movie Review: Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003)

A pirate adventure yarn, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl is overstuffed and overlong.

In a prologue, young Elizabeth Swann is on a cross-ocean journey to Port Royal when the ship she is on helps rescue young William Turner from a skirmish involving the legendary pirate ship Black Pearl. With William unconscious, Elizabeth takes a rare medallion from around his neck. Years later, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) is being wooed by Commodore James Norrington (Jack Davenport), but her true love may be the grown-up Turner (Orlando Bloom). Meanwhile, Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), a free-spirited maverick, washes up without a crew or a ship, looking to seize a new vessel.

Suddenly Port Royal comes under attack from the Black Pearl, commanded by Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and intent on recovering the lost medallion in order to break a curse of undeath. In the ensuing battle, Sparrow duels with Turner, who is now an expert blacksmith and sword maker. Elizabeth is captured by Barbossa, and when Sparrow learns of Turner's identity and lineage, the two men team up to try and mount a dangerous rescue operation.

Noisy, silly and interminable at 142 minutes, The Black Pearl showcases a laid back Johnny Depp modernizing the pirate persona with a large dose of chill irony. Jack Sparrow's detached mannerisms offer a bare minimum of interest as the rest of the movie slowly sinks under the weight of excess. Directed by Gore Verbinski, Black Pearl was inspired by Disney's theme park ride, and the lack of any cohesive plot elements beyond the most mundane ideas is achingly evident. This is a film all about visuals and attitude, the plot a muddled and distant afterthought.

Black Pearl descends into endless CGI-generated sword fights and other mindless escapades involving hordes of animated skeletons and faceless extras, with the characters bouncing between ship and shore action in pursuit of the next boring set-piece. Elizabeth, Jack and Turner take turns being held captive and then rescued all to serve the next tiresome confrontation between computer-generated figurines. An ancient curse, a medallion treasure and the undead in the moonlight may captivate the eight to twelve year old set, but even they will tire of sitting through two hours and twenty minutes of repetitive flimsiness.

Sparrow is an intriguing character and Depp deserves credit for inventing a new pirate prototype, but too often Sparrow is a sidelined observer in his own movie. He intervenes with a smart move every half hour or so, but overall plenty of blurry mayhem passes him by. Verbinski at least ensures that Black Pearl is often atmospheric and good to look at. But this is clever packaging without content, a cynical asset monetization exercise devoid of soul.

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Movie Review: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

A dark fantasy drama with a mean streak of humour, Edward Scissorhands is a fiercely original treatment of the comfortably familiar fitting-in theme.

The film is set in a suburban subdivision located at the base of a mountain, with a Gothic mansion on top looming over the quaint houses. On a snowy night, an old lady tucks her granddaughter in and recounts a story that happened years ago, triggering a film-long flashback. Avon lady Peg (Dianne Wiest), a subdivision resident, is having a bad day, and with nothing to lose decides to head up to the mansion to try and make a sale. Inside she finds the place empty except for a frightened young man called Edward (Johnny Depp), with large scissors for hands. Edward was created by The Inventor (Vincent Price), who died before he could complete Edward and provide him with proper hands. Peg feels sorry for Edward and takes him home. Peg's husband Bill (Alan Arkin) and son Kevin are initially stunned but accept Edward as a new member of the family.

Edward is scared and his massive scissor hands cause plenty of accidents, but with Peg's help he slowly starts to adapt to suburban life. The gossipy neighbours, including the over-sexed Joyce (Kathy Baker), are fascinated, and Edward becomes a local celebrity when he demonstrates artistic talent for sculptural hedges, trimming the fur of pet dogs, and providing the women with stylish hair cuts. When Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder) returns from a camping trip, she is initially horrified to find Edward in her room, but gradually Kim and Edward develop feelings for each other, which is bad news for Kim's aggressive boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall).

Directed and co-produced by Tim Burton and written by Caroline Thompson, Edward Scissorhands is a dark masterpiece. With brisk pacing Burton unleashes his irresistible fantasy on a comically idealized suburban world stuck in an undefined hybrid of the 1950s and 1970s, with every house sporting a bright monochrome paint job. The mansion on the hill, of course, stands in stark contrast, the brooding outsider bathed in black, dark blues and darker greys.

Peg and her neighbours go about their business of pursuing the American dream, the women left at home during the day to gossip and cause mischief while the men drive to work in the morning and come back in the evening with army-like discipline. Edward is dropped into this immaculately manicured world, and his dream is just to be part of the human family. Not too tall and definitely not superficially handsome, Edward is pasty but enigmatic. Remarkably, he is generally accepted as is, and only the complications caused by affairs of the heart cause him grief.

The central themes of belonging, finding a home, and stumbling upon love run through the film. Once Kim makes her appearance the candle of romance flickers to life, but the darkness also seeps in, with Edward causing unintended grief by wanting to love and be loved. The film suggests that the ability to care and love is fundamentally human, and a non-human invention such as Edward can live alongside humans but will struggle to share in the true fulfillment brought upon by mutual passion.

Burton makes use of plenty of clever point-of-view shots, particularly from Edward's perspective, to highlight the experience of the newcomer with an incomplete skill set. Whether it's Peg being excessively nice with her make-up kit or Edward trying to capture any vegetable to eat at dinner, Burton frequently invites the viewer to live in Edward's shoes, dramatically enhancing the film's impact even in the smallest moments daily life.

Johnny Depp launched his career with his portrayal of Edward. It's an unforgettable performance centred on almost silent pathos. Depp's understated expressions convey sadness, fear, panic, bewilderment, anger and sometimes happiness, and later on he captures what it means to find wistful infatuation and a potential first romance. Wiest represents middle America's capacity to display a big and welcoming heart, while Ryder does well in a quick transition from callous to caring. Kathy Baker plays neighbour Joyce for broad laughs, as intended.

Edward Scissorhands delivers on all its multi-genre promises, mixing drama, humour, fantasy and romance with an emotionally satisfying cutting edge.

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Movie Review: A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

A small horror film that spawned a long running franchise, A Nightmare On Elm Street introduces a memorable villain and juices up the spooky thrills with a blast of gory special effects. The movie offers little that is genuinely new, but the packaging and context are fresh enough to make an impression.

Nancy, Glen, Tina and Rod are four teen aged friends living on a quiet suburban street. They gradually realize that they are suffering from the same nightmare, where a murderous man with burned skin and steel finger extensions, later revealed to be Freddy Kruger (Robert Englund), attempts to murder them. Nancy (Heather Lagenkamp) gets the uneasy sense that if Freddy succeeds in killing them in the nightmare, they also die in real life. After Tina (Amanda Wyss) and Rod (Nick Corri) have sex, Tina falls asleep and becomes Freddy's first victim, slashed to death in a bloodbath. The innocent Rod is held as the main suspect in Tina's murder.

Nancy and Glen (Johnny Depp), her tentative boyfriend and neighbour, realize that they have to stay awake in order to stay alive, and they start taking stimulants to avoid sleeping. In his prison cell Rod does fall asleep and is hanged by Freddy. Nancy's father Don (John Saxon) is the local police lieutenant and does not believe her theory about nightmares causing death, but her alcoholic mother Marge (Ronee Blakley) eventually reveals a dark secret from the past involving Freddy. Nancy and Glen then try to set up a final showdown to end the nightmares.

Following on from Halloween (1978) and Friday The 13th (1980), A Nightmare On Elm Street was the third cheap-to-make slasher movie that resulted in numerous sequels. Costing $1.8 million and earning back more than $26 million, A Nightmare On Elm Street helped establish New Line Cinema as a production studio and provided director Wes Craven with his first significant mainstream hit.

It likely does not need to said that the acting is stiff and just one level above an amateur high school production, the dialogue (also by Craven) is juvenile and contrived, and the characters are stereotypically boring and many exist primarily for the purpose of being dispatched by Freddy.

All this is a given, yet A Nightmare On Elm Street endears itself by playfully having fun with the theme of nightmares disrupting real life, the past intruding onto the present, the sins of the parents haunting their children, and teens learning that fears can be confronted. The admittedly thin and ultimately inexplicable psychological context nevertheless adds a welcome shine to what would otherwise be a rehashing of any Halloween or Friday The 13th flick.

Despite plenty of stock "gotcha" jumping-from-the-shadows horror staples, Craven also loads A Nightmare On Elm Street with a heavy dose of style and entertaining special effects, including a killing on the ceiling, a hanging rope coming to life, a bottomless bathtub, and a gooey staircase. The bells and whistles enhance the nightmarish qualities of the film and add to the is-it-real-or-is-it-a-dream tension.

Johnny Depp made his inauspicious debut in A Nightmare On Elm Street, and in a bland performance he mostly tries not to fall asleep, fails every time, and ultimately pays the ultimate price, triggering a gushing  eruption of blood that is more about surreal wonderment than horror. John Saxon does his reputation no favours by displaying the emotions and intelligence of a plank. Heather Lagenkamp as the teenager suffering the most at the hands of Freddy is merely adequate, and despite the film's success her career quickly sank into the abyss of intermittent guest appearances on nondescript television shows.

Robert Englund gave Freddy enough of a personality to create a lasting imprint on the horror genre, Freddy a combination of a twisted nightmare character and contorted cartoonish fun. Englund made a career out of reprising the role in the many sequels, as Freddy became the mainstay and focal point of the series.

Ironically, Craven wanted a tidier ending that closed the door on sequels. But in a triumph of crass commercialism over schlock art, New Line insisted on a twist ending that launched Freddy into immortal sequel heaven. A Nightmare On Elm Street is one small and rather clever slasher film, the series is one giant leap backwards into endless repetition.

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Movie Review: What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

A drama offering hope amidst despair, What's Eating Gilbert Grape benefits from an outstanding Leonardo DiCaprio performance, and a story that never gives up looking for silver linings.

In the small rural town of Endora, Iowa, Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is a young man struggling to maintain some semblance of sanity in a challenging household. Ever since his dad disappeared (and maybe committed suicide), Gilbert's mom Bonnie (Darlene Cates) has collapsed into morbid obesity, and has not left the creaky house in seven years.

Gilbert is one of the few people who can manage the erratic behaviour of his severely mentally retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio), who is about to turn 18 and living on borrowed time according to all the doctors. Of his two sisters, the older Amy (Laura Harrington) does her best to help run the house, but the younger Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhardt) is a self-obsessed young teen, with an uncanny ability to make every bad family situation worse.

As an escape valve Gilbert is carrying on an affair with Betty (Mary Steenburgen), a frustrated older woman married to an insurance agent. He also has a couple of friends, including Tucker (John C. Reilly), who dreams of opening a burger franchise, and Bobby, the town mortician. But the arrival of Becky (Juliette Lewis) in Endora ignites Gilbert's attention, and he starts spending more time with her and viewing his family in a different light.

In his breakthrough role at 18 years old, DiCaprio delivers an astonishing performance as Arnie Grape. Portraying damaged four year old behaviour in the body of an adolescent, DiCaprio moves with ticks, quirks, and unconstrained physical abandonment. He is also prone to frequent outbursts, endless loud repetition of the most childish of phrases, and the most convincing temper tantrums. Yet there is a heart deep within the retarded child, and it emerges in flashes, most often near the calming influence of Becky and away from the chaotic Grape household.

Johnny Depp's portrayal of Gilbert is equally perfect, for different reasons. Depp's eyes tell the tale of a young man barely holding his family together, and burying deep within himself the sorrow and anger at the loss of his father and embarrassment with his ballooning mother. It's an enforced transformation to premature adulthood for Gilbert, and a demonstration by Depp that he is capable of complex, layered roles.

Becky is almost too perfect, the young woman proving to be an ideal antidote to all of Gilbert's problems, patient, understanding, loving and accepting of all the extreme eccentricities surrounding the Grape household. Becky is nothing but a good influence, a positive force in the movie but also a role that Juliette Lewis can do relatively little with.

Director Lasse Hallstrom, working from Peter Hedges' adaptation of his own novel, makes excellent use of the rural location to maintain a quiet and dignified environment despite the chaos surrounding Gilbert. Hallstrom deftly works the film towards the modest conclusion that the Grapes are no different than any other family, individuals dealing as best as they can with a set of challenges. There are several parts of the Grape household that are on their last legs, but perhaps not the obvious ones. By the end Gilbert does well to make peace where he needs to and arranges an appropriate joint farewell to the family members who need to move on.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is moving without being emotional, grounded without being overly dramatic, and serious without ever losing touch with the hope for a better tomorrow that beats solidly within every character. Nothing and everything is eating Gilbert Grape: he is getting on with life and doing a fine job.

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The Movies of Johnny Depp

All movies starring Johnny Depp and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Platoon (1986)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

Donnie Brasco (1997)

Chocolat (2000)

Blow (2001)

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003)

Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003)

Public Enemies (2009)

The Tourist (2010)

Murder On The Orient Express (2017)

Minamata (2020)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Donnie Brasco (1997)

Based on the true story of legendary mob infiltrator Joseph Pistone, Donnie Brasco is a gritty journey into the belly of the Mafia. Al Pacino and Johnny Depp are captivating as the entrails of an organization at war with itself are revealed in bloody detail.

Posing as a shady jewel trader in the grimy New York City of the 1970s, FBI agent Pistone, operating under the alias Donnie Brasco (Depp), attracts the attention of Ben "Lefty" Ruggiero (Pacino). A low level but respected hit-man in the crew commanded by Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano (Michael Madsen), Lefty has always been passed over for promotions within the mob's hierarchy. With his own son a drug addicted failure, Lefty takes Donnie under his wing, introducing him to the family as a trusted associate.

Donnie gains the confidence of the various mob operatives in Sonny Black's crew, including Nicky Santora (Bruno Kirby). But as Pistone burrows deeper into the Mafia, his personal life begins to feel the strain, with his wife Maggie (Anne Heche) effectively leading the life of a widow, never knowing where her husband is.  Meanwhile, Sonny Black gives Donnie increasing responsibilities, including running a club in Miami, and Lefty realizes with growing resentment that his protege has surpassed him in influence. When an internal mob war erupts, Donnie finds himself at the hot end of the hostilities, and his FBI handlers have to find a way to pull him out before he kills or gets killed.

The script by Paul Attanasio, adapting Pistone's book, takes some artistic liberties, but in general Donnie Brasco recaptures the grim reality of the FBI's most successful mob infiltration. The six years that Pistone spent undercover resulted in over 100 convictions, and the film provides an immersive lesson on life within a criminal enterprise. While some drag creeps into the second half of the story, with a vaguely unsatisfying  highlight reel composition taking hold, the raw power of the events and the central performances help pull the movie through.

The New York City of the 1970s is always fertile ground for rampant criminality wedded to resignation, and director Mike Newell ensures that the clothes, cars, locales and dialogue do nothing to alleviate the overbearing sense of crime as routine business. "Fogettaboutit" is the most common phrase exchanged within Lefty's circles, and as Donnie explains in one humorous scene, it can mean anything, depending on the exact pronunciation.

Al Pacino and Johnny Depp both deliver hypnotic performances. Pacino's Lefty is a man looking in the rear view mirror at what might have been, holding on to a bit of pride but fully aware that his chance at glory, if he ever had one, has long since passed. With an economy of movement but a defiant face ready to switch from aggressive to aggrieved in an instant, Pacino effortlessly succeeds in making a multiple killer sympathetic.

Depp matches Pacino, as Donnie walks a tightrope between outwardly respecting Lefty while he comprehensively betrays him. Depp exudes a cool confidence mixed with just enough of a propensity for violence for Donnie to gain the confidence of Lefty and then Sonny Black, as he worms his way into the mob's business and ever deeper into an alternate reality. Depp's achievement is a masterful portrayal of a man whose mind is always racing ahead of the events surrounding him, since he is only ever one mistake away from death.

Donnie Brasco is a worthy addition to the long list of mob crime dramas, with the added shine of real people and events serving as the basis for a gripping narrative. Fogettaboutit? Not likely.

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Movie Review: Platoon (1986)

An intense front-line view of a most muddled conflict, Platoon is a close-up examination of the human damage caused by war, and also one of the best war movies ever made. Director Oliver Stone wrote the story based on his personal experiences in Vietnam, and his narrative is unblinking in its portrayal of all that is wrong with war, from politicians sacrificing the lower classes to the resultant irreparable emotional devastation of those who do the killing.

Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a college student who has willingly enlisted in the army, and he arrives for combat duty in Vietnam of 1967. Oppressive heat, low morale, disgruntled troops, ineffective jungle patrols and clueless commanders are just some of the challenges that he immediately faces, and this is before any enemy encounters.

Chris learns that two fearless sergeants are the de facto leaders of his Bravo Company: Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe) stands up for his men and encourages a loose attitude and plenty of camaraderie. Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger) is all intensity, having long since adopted a kill'em all individualistic attitude. The men of Bravo Company are divided, with some supporting Elias and others idolizing Barnes. Elias and Barnes are on an inevitable collision course, and after Barnes loses all discipline during a raid on a Vietnamese village, they become mortal enemies.

Chris witnesses the intensifying conflict between the men and survives skirmishes of ever increasing ferocity with the North Vietnamese Army, culminating in a massive gory and desperate battle, during which Chris has to apply all that he has learned from both Elias and Barnes just to try and live for another day.

Stone enriches Platoon by not glossing over the little details that dominate a soldier's experience: the insatiable bugs feeding on human flesh; the endless marching in the impenetrable jungle; digging trenches in the energy-sapping heat; the devastating fatigue causing soldiers to fall asleep at critical moments; and the endless, tense waiting for encounters with the enemy.

And when these enemy encounters do occur, Stone, cinematographer Robert Richardson, and editor Claire Simpson emphasize the overwhelming chaos and confusion. Platoon's battle scenes play out in limited light, the enemy mostly seen as shadows, tactics and strategies utterly lost in the anarchy of the battlefield.

The central theme of Platoon is the contrast in the education of Chris at the hands of Elias and Barnes. Both are exceptional warriors, but while Elias has retained his humanity and is still killing for a greater purpose, Barnes has adopted killing for the sake of killing and no longer cares to delve into the subtleties of when should the killing be justified.

Both men have their followers, and Platoon poses the question as to which form of soldier is needed to win a war. At the personal level, Stone ends the film with Chris standing at the most important fork in his life, having absorbed and internalized characteristics from both Elias and Barnes. Whether he becomes more like Elias or more like Barnes will determine which part of Chris will die, and when.

Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe lead the testosterone drenched cast, both diving into their roles as jungle combatants with stone-faced relish. Charlie Sheen, with a successful future career still in his hands should he choose not to snort it, finds the balance between the bewilderment of the new recruit thrown into battle and the grim determination of a smart soldier willing to learn and survive. A large supporting cast of at-the-time relative unknowns includes the likes of Forest Whitaker, Johnny Depp and Kevin Dillon.

Platoon condemns war by staring at its horror, a reminder that while the dead represent the tragedy, the survivors and those who do the killing are plunged into the same universe of infernal misery.

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Movie Review: The Tourist (2010)

An extraordinarily muddled film that manages to spectacularly fail at everything: whether its romance, action or attempts at comedy, The Tourist hits the bulls eye of awfulness. Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp try to pretend to be strangers getting hopelessly attracted to each other in a foreign land; that they somehow manage to come across more as siblings than lovers pretty much sums up the hapless effort of director and co-writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

In a plot that leaves all the interesting details to the imagination, all we know is that Elise (Jolie) is aching to get back in touch with her former lover, the elusive Alexander Pearce, who is very rich, in hiding and wanted for evading millions in taxes. Elise is in Paris being closely watched by the French police, who are acting on behalf of Scotland Yard, but whose plans at unobtrusive surveillance must have been put together by Inspector Clouseau.

Elise gets a message from Pearce to get on a train and choose a stranger to unwittingly play the role of the surgery-altered Pearce to throw the police of the real trail. Elise follows instructions and cleverly selects the bewildered Frank (Depp), a tourist, to be her patsy. The police don't fall for the ruse, but ruthless gangster Reginald Shaw does. It turns out that Pearce has stolen a whole lot of money from Shaw, and the ganglord wants it back.

Elise and Frank arrive in Venice, and Frank is in a heap of trouble: Shaw's henchmen are after him, and it's up to Elise to save him. As Elise tries to connect with the real Pearce, she and Frank are attracted to each other, although any reasons for this attraction to emerge are kept well hidden. Frank tries to stay alive, Shaw tries to retrieve his money, and the authorities, naturally, try to make sure that everyone pays taxes owed.

The final twist in The Tourist is predictable enough to be spotted from a mile away, but this does not make it any less ridiculous, serving as definitive confirmation of the film's abject bankruptcy in the wit, logic and wisdom departments.

The screen romance between Elise and Frank never comes close to igniting, suffocated as it is by an implausible plot layering on the foul-smelling cheese picked off the cutting room floor of other movies. The action sequences consist of an impressive array of exclusively borrowed items, and if the movie did contain elements of comedy, as apparently the film-makers intended, then these must have sunk to the bottom of the canals in Venice because they never made it to the screen.

The only thing The Tourist has going for it is hair, and lots of it. Jolie brings two things to the movie: a self-satisfied smile perpetual enough to shoot off the irritating scale, and lush hair that is coiffed just so for every shot. Depp disposes with the smile and replaces it with an expression of eternal bemusement bordering on stupidity, but he also attacks the movie with a shaggy hair look that would smack of desperation if it didn't bring back bad memories of the early 1990s when all heavy metal band members cut their long hair, but kept it straggly enough to assure their fans that they are rebels.

And then there is Venice. The film would work well as tourism propaganda for the City of Bridges if only the actors wouldn't keep getting in the way.

The Tourist is a stranger in a strange land, aimless, lost, without a map, and going nowhere useful.

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Movie Review: Blow (2001)

Based on a true story, Blow recounts the life of George Jung, an American who finagled his way into the burgeoning cocaine importing industry at the height of the Medellin Cartel's infamy. Despite what he may have thought, Jung himself was a small-scale player in a global business, and he was relatively quickly shuffled out of the deck of drug kingpins, landing repeatedly in jail. Blow relies on style and flair to make up for the limited talents of its central character, and Johnny Depp emits irresistible star magnetism.

George Jung (Depp) was born and raised in a working class Massachusetts family, and he has a strong attachment to his dad Fred (Ray Liotta). Fred's strong work ethic does not compensate for the lack of good business skills, and the family ends up bankrupt. In the mid 1960s George moves to California and vows to never be poor or want for anything. He establishes himself as the local beach marijuana supplier for local distributor Derek (Paul Reubens), and quickly graduates to supplying weed to New England campuses, transporting it from California in the unscrutinized luggage of airline stewardesses, including Barbara (Franka Potente), whom he married.

But the law is onto George, and he soon lands in prison, and Barbara succumbs to cancer. George meets Diego behind bars, who convinces him to graduate to cocaine trafficking. Upon his release George travels to Colombia where Diego arranges a meeting with Pablo Escobar, the brutal leader of the Medellin Cartel, emerging as the most powerful drug syndicate in the world. George becomes an importer funnelling Escobar's drugs into the hands of Derek for distribution in the US. But his downfall is already in the works.

Despite a central character who is more a go-between than an instigator, Blow is never less than interesting thanks to Depp's icy but engagingly charismatic performance, and solid support work from the rest of the cast.

Director Ted Demme, working from a script by Nick Cassavetes and David McKenna, amps up the flash factor but also keeps an eye on the human drama by maintaining a running interest in the evolving relationship between George and his father Fred. The massive wealth that George accumulates from the drug trade appears at first to be the son exceeding the father's achievements, only to become a harsh lesson emphasizing the values that Fred tried to impart to his son at an early age, values that George contrived to understand way too late in life.

The film is lacking even a passing reference to the victims of drug addiction who are the end users of George's cocaine business. Blow treats illegal drugs as any other commodity except with a more complex supply chain. If George ever gave a second thought to the misery that he was helping to create in the world, Blow isn't interested to know.

In one of life's many ironies, Demme died in 2002 at age 38, less than a year after Blow was released, of a heart-attack likely aggravated by the cocaine found in his system.

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Movie Review: Public Enemies (2009)

A potent mix of elements from Bonnie And Clyde (1967) and The Untouchables (1987), Public Enemies never quite reaches the same heights as classic crime movie dramas, but is nevertheless an often compelling yarn about charismatic bad guys, their dames, and the g-men out to get them.

Public Enemies is based on the true story of notorious criminal John Dillinger, who was designated public enemy number one in the 1930s for a string of daring Depression-era bank robberies and prison escapes. A media darling and something of a folk hero for treating customers with respect as he held up the bank managers, Dillinger (Johnny Depp) falls in love with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) without slowing down his often violent crime spree.

Under the growing influence of a young J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), an FBI task force led by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) is created to track down Dillinger and his associates. Dillinger repeatedly embarrasses the police and the FBI by slipping through their fingers before he is eventually betrayed, cornered and killed outside a Chicago movie theatre.

Director Michael Mann puts the hefty 140 minutes of running time to good use and finds a reasonably satisfying balance between intense action sequences, including prison escapes, bank robberies, and hideaway shoot-outs, and the development of the three main characters. Depp succeeds in giving Dillinger some soul, Bale provides Purvis with grim determination, and Cotillard captures the wide-eyed attraction of women who have nothing to criminals who offer a life of unimaginable adventure.

Public Enemies would have benefited from a purposeful trimming of the supporting cast. The film occasionally stumbles when numerous secondary characters get in the way. Many Dillinger associates clutter the screen and are given little time to breathe (often literally). Criminals Baby Face Nelson, Tommy Carroll, Red Hamilton, Pretty Boy Floyd, Ed Shouse, Pete Pierpont, Charles Makley and Alvin Karpis are just some of the fellow gangsters who make an appearance in the character-heavy script (co-written by Mann), but they do little except snarl and fire their weapons. On the other side of the law, another half dozen agents form Bale's posse, and they generally just appear earnest and follow instructions.

The cinematography, costume design and set design succeed in bringing to life a vibrant 1930s setting grand enough to absorb the unfolding larger than life drama, but with more emphasis on glitz and glamour than depression.

Public Enemies has epic ambitions, and while the human focus is spread too thin and works only when attention is maintained on the main characters, the action-oriented scenes live up to expectations, exuberantly spraying thrills from the barrels of smoking Tommy guns.

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Movie Review: Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003)

Robert Rodriguez concludes his El Mariachi trilogy, but bloat creeps in and the fun factor suffers at the hands of too many characters vying for space in a convoluted plot. Rodriguez is unable to follow in the footsteps of Sergio Leone's "dollars trilogy" and make the jump from enjoyable camp to delicious epic. Once Upon A Time In Mexico aims for grand elements, but never comes close to scaling the necessary heights.

El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) is recruited by CIA Agent Sands (Johnny Depp) to assassinate the vicious General Marquez, who is conspiring with drug lord Barillo (Willem Dafoe) to overthrow the Mexican President. El Mariachi is eager to gain revenge on Marquez, who brutally killed his wife Carolina (Salma Hayek, seen only in flashback) and young daughter. Rattling around the thick edges of the plot are Billy Chambers (Mickey Rourke), who hangs around Barillo's compound; anti-narcotics agent Ajedrez (Eva Lopez); former FBI Agent Ramirez (Ruben Blades), and local thug leader Cucuy (Danny Trejo). Several of these characters will switch allegiances as the plot against the president progresses. And that is not all: Cheech Marin in the local informant helping Sands; the President has a double-crossing advisor; Barillo is planning face-changing plastic surgery; and El Mariachi once again calls on two heavily armed friends, Lorenzo and Fideo, who show up to join the action.

It is a rare for a movie to suffer from being too short, but Once Upon A Time In Mexico, at just over 100 minutes, simply isn't hefty enough to carry everything that is trying to happen within it. Characters are introduced in a hurry or hardly at all, events seem rushed, motivations are barely sketched in, and with so many characters vying to tell their tale, the action sequences now actually get in the way.

Johnny Depp manages to stand out as the conniving Agent Sands, but only by going so far over the top, and having his character meet such a gruesome destiny, that he forcefully etches himself into the memory. Banderas seems disengaged, and most of the other actors have too little screen time to make a lasting impression.

Once Upon A Time In Mexico offers a few moments of enjoyment, but the underground feel and wild abandonment of the earlier El Mariachi movies is gone, replaced by plot congestion caused by character cramming.

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