Movie Review: The Mother (2023)

Genre: Action  

Director: Niki Caro  

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, Gael Garcia Bernal  

Running Time: 118 minutes  

Synopsis: FBI informant and ex-US Army sniper "Mother" (Jennifer Lopez) is pregnant and pursued by the rival gangs of her former associates Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) and Alvarez (Gael Garcia Bernal). After giving birth she surrenders her newborn daughter Zoe and disappears into the Alaska wilderness, with FBI Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) her only contact. Twelve years later Cruise sends a message that Zoe (Lucy Paez) is in danger, forcing Mother to come out of hiding to try and protect her daughter.

What Works Well: The action scenes are varied and well staged, and the energy level never dips across the two hours. The filming locations (British Columbia standing-in for Alaska, the Canary Islands representing Havana) are quite attractive.

What Does Not Work As Well: Mother's backstory, as revealed in flashback fragments, is abbreviated towards irrelevance, abandoning bad guys Lovell and Alvarez into bloodthirsty faceless villains territory. The plot features heavily-armed marauding gangs repeatedly showing up and running riot as they please, while Jennifer Lopez goes through the movie with a singular annoyed non-expression. The attempts to forge a mother-daughter bond are soiled by all the blood-letting.

Conclusion: Basic mindless action, competently delivered but indiscernible from countless similar efforts.



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Movie Review: Shakespeare In Love (1998)

A flighty fantasy about Shakespeare falling in love and getting a boost of inspiration to write Romeo And Juliet, Shakespeare In Love is a witty Elizabethan romantic comedy somewhat overburdened with riff raff.

In sixteenth century London, celebrated playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is suffering from writer's block while trying to finish a new comedy to be called Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. The wealthy Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) admires Shakespeare's work and disguises herself as "Thomas Kent" to audition and win a role in the play. Shakespeare eventually discovers that Kent is Viola, and they start a passionate private affair, despite Viola being readied to marry the financially broke but nevertheless insufferable Lord Wessex (Colin Firth).

His impossible love for Viola unleashes all of Shakespeare's emotions, and he writes the play at an amazing pace, transforming it from a comedy to the aching doomed romance of Romeo And Juliet. In public Viola maintains the persona of Thomas Kent as the play gets ready for the grand opening. But the lovers' secret is about to be revealed, and it will take the intervention of Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench) to sort out the tangled web of romance, deception, and the outrage of a woman playing a woman's role on the London stage.

Shakespeare In Love is saddled with plenty of peripheral characters contributing a cacophony of noise and colour. While they do add depth, they also add quite a volume of clutter, over-complicating a simple love story and creating no shortage of distractions.

Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) is the struggling owner of The Rose theatre, Richard Burbage (Martin Clunes) is his rival and owner of The Curtain theatre, Ned Alleyn (Ben Affleck) is a smug actor, Hugh Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson) is a financier turned wannabe actor, and Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe (Rupert Everett) is the other celebrity London playwright. They all get prominent but ultimately inconsequential roles, and are joined by the Queen's officials, an army of theatre actors, and a healthy selection of upper society at the estate of Viola's parents, all milling in and out of every other scene, dressed in expansive costumes and sucking focus and energy away from the central story and bloating the film to over two hours.

Director John Madden does much better when he zooms in on Shakespeare and Viola, and teases out a tender love story between the romantic playwright and the poetry-loving young woman from a well-to-do family. Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow find an immediate chemistry, and the temperature only rises as they start a steamy affair despite Viola's impending marriage to Lord Wessex. The script, by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, has fun with plenty of side references to many of Shakespeare's plays, but the core focus is on the power of deep love to unlock passionate inspiration, and this is where the film excels. Viola becomes Shakespeare's muse, in a celebration of romance unleashing genius.

Fiennes is filled with the coiled energy of an artist on the cusp of brilliance, waiting for the spark to light his fire. Paltrow won the Best Actress Academy Award for combining rebellion against societal norms with a spirited intensity to pursue the love of a poet. Colin Firth and Ben Affleck deliver relatively cold supporting performances, Firth unable to break out of the confines of a small man demanding an obedient wife, while Affleck just stands around unconvincingly in an attempt to increase interest among American audiences.

Madden successfully creates a bustling London of the 1500s, and does not shy away from external scenes. The streets are populated with throngs of residents going about their business, London an animated mess of normal people occupied by life.  Only Queen Elizabeth's plundering presence disrupts the working class surroundings, Judi Dench winning the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for a couple of scenes worth of ham.

Shakespeare In Love won the Best Film Academy Award for 1998, surprisingly selected ahead of Saving Private Ryan. It remains one of the Academy's most embarrassing moments, a ridiculous victory for crass Award campaigning at the expense of true cinematic greatness. But while Shakespeare In Love may not have been the best film of its year, it is a classy and enjoyably witty romantic fable.

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Movie Review: Elizabeth (1998)

Political intrigue in 16th century England, Elizabeth explores the power struggles and romantic complications besetting the early reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The myriad of characters circling the throne create an often confusing narrative, but the film thrives on a steady current of naked ambition.

After the death of King Henry VIII, England is weak and divided along sectarian lines. The ailing Catholic Queen Mary (Kathy Burke) cannot produce an heir, and her advisors, including the power-hungry Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Eccleston), urge her to imprison and kill her half-sister Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), a Protestant, before she can ascend to the throne. But Mary does expire, and Elizabeth becomes Queen despite having little support within the royal inner circle. Elizabeth's lover is Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes), but Court advisor William Cecil (Richard Attenborough) insists that she must marry into European royalty.

In addition to Norfolk, many forces plot to take advantage of the young and inexperienced new Queen. Mary Queen of Scot and her mother Mary of Guise (Fanny Ardant), with the aid of the French, plan to move against England. The Spanish and the French envoys pressure Elizabeth into marrying into their royal families, with Henry Duc d'Anjou (Vincent Cassel) a particularly obnoxious suitor. Pope Pius V (John Gielgud) wants to end Elizabeth's reign once and for all, and sends agent provocateur John Ballard (Daniel Craig) to instigate a betrayal. Only the quietly mysterious Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), an almost self-appointed advisor to Elizabeth, appears to be actively working to protect her interests.

An old fashioned costume drama, Elizabeth suffers from an overload of characters prancing around the palaces of Europe in full regal dress, conspiring to further their interests. The script by Michael Hirst condenses too much history and packs so many people into the story that the lid cannot snugly fit, and fatigue-by-too-much-plot threatens to overtake the film. The overcrowding comes at the cost of depth, and apart from Elizabeth all of the characters remain hastily drawn sketches with singular intentions, with barely a mention of motive or background.

But the film does succeed as a visual and artistic achievement. Director Shekhar Kapur creates a bustling environment of activity surrounding the royal palaces. There is never a dull moment and never an unoccupied corner, every well-dressed character accompanied by a large entourage of minions, and every palace affording the latest in 16th century amenities as lavish dance and music parties provide temporary distractions from the numerous conspiracies. And when the power brokers of Europe are not busy plotting murders, overthrows and power grabs in their extravagant costumes, they shed their clothes and jump into bed to enjoy physical pleasures, Elizabeth juxtaposing lust for power with uncontrollable carnal desire.

Cate Blanchett rose to international prominence with her turn as Elizabeth, the Australian actress earning a nomination for a Best Actress Academy Award. Blanchett grows with her character, Elizabeth evolving from a friendly and naive girl to a woman with sharp elbows and the fortitude to see off her enemies while dedicating herself to her country. Her performance is filled with understated emotion, Blanchett never surrendering to melodrama, but focusing on the gradually growing strength of personal conviction that every monarch needs to survive.

The supporting actors are swamped by their own numbers, and the impressive cast stands aside as the history of overlapping plots comes rushing through. Rush, Fiennes, Attenborough and Gielgud wave at their characters through shorthand, grim and conspiratorial expressions used as substitutes for serious acting.

Briskly paced and spaciously photographed despite the mostly interior settings, Elizabeth ends with an imaginative blood-letting reminiscent of The Godfather, the Queen keeping the loyal to one side and separating her betrayers from their souls in a cleansing that sets the stage for her golden era. The raining blood before she reigns for good, so to speak.

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Movie Review: Enemy At The Gates (2001)

Major Wold War Two films that focus on the Eastern Front are few and far between. Enemy At The Gates is a powerful and captivating look into the hell that was the battle of Stalingrad, as told through the story of real-life Soviet hero Vassili Zaitsev.

It's late in 1942, and the all-conquering German invaders have arrived at the gate of Stalingrad.  The under-powered Soviet army makes a stand to hold the city at all costs, resulting in a meat-grinder of a pitched battle that would last for months. Thrown into the battle on the Soviet side is green recruit Zaitsev (Jude Law), an uneducated shepherd from the Ural mountains. Although he barely survives his first chaotic battle, Zaitsev soon proves himself an ace sniper. With the Soviets desperate for heroes to inspire their troops, propaganda officer Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) convinces the army commander Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) to build Zaitsev up as a heroic figure and an inspiration for the defenders of the City.

Danilov befriends Zaitsev and sets the propaganda machine in motion. With Zaitsev's reputation spreading, and the number of his German victims growing, the Germans bring in an ace sniper of their own, Erwin Konig (Ed Harris), to eliminate Zaitsev. Meanwhile, both Danilov and Zaitsev are falling in love with Tania (Rachel Weisz), a citizen-turned soldier, while Sacha, a young Soviet boy, begins to fulfill a dangerous double-agent role, apparently helping Konig to find Zaitsev while really feeding intelligence to Danilov.

With the battle of Stalingrad at a bloody stalemate, Tania creates tension between Danilov and Zaitsev, who is also playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with Konig in the ruins of a destroyed city.

Enemy At The Gates is a grand, satisfying, and unflinching war film.  An American / European co-production, it's the story of one of the most pivotal battles of the war, as the German machine was finally brought to its knees, its eastern expansion halted once and for all. After Stalingrad, the German retreat would begin, ending with the Soviet army in Berlin.  The script, by director Jean-Jacques Annaud and Alain Godard, based on the William Craig book, does distill the battle to the struggle between individuals, an effective technique but perhaps in this case resulting in a focus that is too narrow.

The second half of the film does get obsessed with personal conflicts at the expense of the overall battle. The love triangle becomes a relatively unwelcome diversion, and the duel between the two snipers takes over as an overwhelming metaphor for the larger war. The strength of the cast allows the film to survive despite the human drama taking centre stage, but a bit more context and bit less tiresome self-centred soul-searching would have helped.

Enemy At The Gates looks spectacular, capturing the utter agony of war. The recreation of a city reduced to rubble but still being contested by two massive armies is breathtaking. Cinematographer Robert Fraisse lyrically films a dead city reduced to its most elemental structures of crushed concrete, twisted steel, destroyed buildings, and dust, and fills it with the gruesome sight of equally crushed, twisted, and destroyed bodies turning to dust -- everywhere. It is one of the most clear-eyed views of gory warfare put on the screen, and Annaud ensures that the cameras continue to stare as bullets hit humans and open wounds belch out still-pumping blood.  The human enemy may be at the gates, but the real enemy of humanity is war itself.

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