Movie Review: Here (2024)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Robert Zemeckis  

Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly  

Running Time: 104 minutes  

Synopsis: Multiple stories unfold non-linearly but in one geographic location (likely in Pennsylvania), as seen from a single fixed vantage point. The main story starts with World War Two veteran Al Young (Paul Bettany) and his wife Rose (Kelly Reilly) purchasing a house after the war. Al settles into a career as a dissatisfied vacuum cleaner salesperson. Their eldest son Richard (Tom Hanks) falls in love with Margaret (Robin Wright), who moves into the house. They raise a daughter Vanessa, and Richard gives up his love of art to sell insurance. Others who occupy the same location in different eras include an indigenous couple; the son of Benjamin Franklin; an early aviator in the 1920s; a furniture designer in the early 1940s; and a black family during the Covid pandemic.

What Works Well: A technically audacious drama co-written by director Robert Zemeckis and Eric Roth weaves time through one small patch of geography, simultaneously conveying intimate individual emotions and the transient human experience. The remarkably fast passage of time is an underlying theme, but also the rich experience that can be packed into one living room, spanning from Al to Vanessa in 60 years. Humour, tragedy, conflict, love, and loss pass in front of the camera's steady gaze, Zemeckis deploying on-screen panels, fluid transitions, and AI-enhanced de-aging to effortlessly maintain coherence across centuries. Brisk pacing adds to the fly-on-the-wall joy.

What Does Not Work As Well: By definition the focus is on snippets and vignettes rather than any depth, and the flash-fried storylines surrounding the Young family suffer from comparative neglect.

Key Quote:

Richard (at 18 years old): You know, if you like, you could spend the rest of the night here.

Margaret: I could spend the rest of my life here.



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Movie Review: Margin Call (2011)

A Wall Street drama, Margin Call digs into the triggers of the Great Recession with cold-eyed pragmatism.

In 2008, a New York City investment bank goes through a round of layoffs. On the same day, risk analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) uses data provided by laid-off risk manager Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) to uncover a looming crisis of worthless investment assets about to bankrupt the bank - and the entire industry. Peter alerts his boss Will Emerson (Paul Bettany) and trading floor manager Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), who quickly advise their boss Jared Cohen (Simon Barker) and chief of risk management Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore).

By the middle of the night CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons) is convening meetings to plot out a survival strategy. Jared supports a "first out" plan to dump the toxic assets onto the unsuspecting market the very next morning, financially saving the bank but damaging its reputation and triggering a market crash. Loyal to the bank but perturbed by the immorality of ordering his team to sell soon-to-be worthless assets, Sam is less enthusiastic about the plan.

A fictional account inspired by real events and most closely resembling what may have happened at investment bank Goldman Sachs, Margin Call unfolds like a gripping play. Director and writer J.C. Chandor introduces a few outdoor scenes, but the focus is on 36 critical hours inside the bank's offices, where analysts, managers, and executives suddenly come face to face with an existential worst-case scenario. Through their actions, Chandor teases out some hard truths about capitalism.

With diverse personalities generating impressive dynamics, this is a thriller about the flow of information and the essence of grasping criticality and then acting, including meetings convened at 2am. Sullivan is no less than a rocket scientist (literally), who chose a Wall Street career because the money is better. His manager Will is a realist; his boss Sam is a motivator. Up the ladder at the level of Jared and ultimately Tuld, the whys and details don't matter: only the trends, implications, and necessary next steps.

Chandor avoids the trap of simplistically portraying Wall Street bankers as profit-hungry vultures. Self-deprecation is in evidence, as is recognition of long-term boom and bust cycles. Trading in debt-saddled assets is described as the lubrication keeping the economy afloat and juicing the dream. Will eloquently describes the ethics of economic fairness to young risk analyst Seth (Penn Badgley):

If people want to live like this, with their big cars and these houses that they haven't even paid for, then you are necessary. The only reason they can continue to live like kings is because we've got our fingers on the scale in THEIR favor. And if I were to take my finger off...then the whole world gets really fucking fair, really fucking quickly. And no one wants that, they say they do...but they don't.

Not all the elements click. Chandor could have trusted the audience with a better description of the flaws within mortgage backed securities, and he appears unsure what to do with the character of risk manager Eric Dale, whose work uncovers the crisis just as he is being escorted out of the building. Dale becomes the subject of an aimless search adding little to the drama. Demi Moore also suffers with an underwritten role as the humourless Sarah Robertson, unconvincingly stuck somewhere between conspirator and victim.

But overall the ensemble cast members share the screen time and bring their characters to animated life, benefiting from the sharp-edged script. Paul Bettany and Simon Barker leave the best impression, while Jeremy Irons adds a dash of Machiavellian leadership. The dialogue exchanges embrace increasingly cut-throat realities as the long night progresses, some careers boosted, a few lost, others damaged but left standing, at least until the next inevitable crisis.



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Movie Review: Firewall (2006)

A feeble hostage drama, Firewall abandons technothriller ambitions and settles for a bland recycling of tired ideas.

In Seattle, Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) is in charge of network security at Landrock Pacific Bank. His colleagues include fellow security expert Harry Romano (Robert Forster), executive Gary Mitchell (Robert Patrick) and President Arlin Forester (Alan Arkin). With the bank in the middle of merger negotiations, tensions are high.

Master criminal Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) leads a group of armed men who invade Jack's house and hold his wife Beth (Virginia Madsen) and two children hostage. Cox wants Jack to digitally break into the bank's network and transfer $100 million into off-shore accounts. With the help of his assistant Janet (Mary Lynn Rajskub), Jack has to find a way to thwart the criminals and save his family.

A haphazard and immediately forgettable thriller, Firewall finds Harrison Ford trading on his old hits. The well-worn concept of a man forced into action while his family is held hostage is trudged out for yet another go-around. Other than a grand hilltop architectural marvel of a house that suggests Jack and Beth are well-paid indeed, writer Joe Forte and director Richard Loncraine cannot conjure up any new or interesting angles.

The initial intent to focus on the world of digital security is half-hearted and all but abandoned, with no firewall in sight. And after pairing Ford with a 19-years-younger Madsen, the script defaults to an inane climax subjecting the 64 year old to physical altercations that would challenge men half his age. Meanwhile, back at the bank Robert Forster, Alan Arkin and Robert Patrick represent a trio of utterly wasted veteran talent.

But maybe worst of all is the motiveless Cox as a crime boss who has thought of everything except the most important things, while his group of bumbling armed men have all the necessary weaponry and technological toys yet spend the movie watching television and getting outsmarted. Fox's main method of intimidating Jack is to kill his own men. 

With no one expressing any rational plans as the climax approaches, Firewall literally defaults to man chases dog. And only the dog maintains a semblance of dignity.



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Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code (2006)

The most famous book of its era comes to the screen, and The Da Vinci Code is magnetic and muddled in equal measures.

While on a trip to Paris, symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is summoned to the Louvre, where Police Captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) is presiding over the gruesome murder scene of Jacques Saunière. Although he was killed by the assassin Silas (Paul Bettany), before dying Saunière left cryptic clues potentially implicating Langdon. Fache's interrogation is interrupted by detective Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), who claims to be Saunière granddaughter and helps Landon escape the Louvre and set out on a wild hunt to find the real killer.

By sequentially solving Saunière's art-related puzzles, many involving the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Langdon and Neveu conclude that Saunière was a grand master of the Priory of Sion, a secretive organization dedicated to protecting one of the most explosive religious secrets in history. Langdon connects with his old colleague Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen) and starts to piece together a murderous conspiracy involving the someone called the Teacher working with Bishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina) of Opus Dei to either find or destroy the Holy Grail. Neveu's family history increasingly becomes part of the story.

The adaptation of Dan Brown's runaway bestseller was always going to be a challenge, and director Ron Howard nearly buckles under the pressure. Seemingly overawed by the material, Howard delivers a bloated 149 minutes consisting mostly of characters debating undoubtedly compelling and competing versions of religious history, punctuated by a few implausible action scenes. What was exciting on the written page often becomes rather mundane on the screen, as the cerebral puzzles central to Brown's thrill ride only partially translate to a captivating visual experience.

The Akiva Goldsman script tries hard but is only successful in patches. He stubbornly refuses to shed any of the book's complexities. Every character and every twist and turn contained within almost 500 pages are crammed into the film, and the result is almost incomprehensible to anyone who has not read the book (admittedly, that's a small number). Despite the long running length, the film struggles for balance: most of the talk is about history, but when it comes to explaining the here-and-now conspiracy, Goldsman and Howard leave behind scattered fragments of a difficult to follow plot.

And yet The Da Vinci Code survives despite itself. There is enormous power in Brown's imaginative story, and the underlying strength of the material holds the drama together. Extrapolating the implications of the purported mission of the Priory of Sion and the supposed clues hidden in Da Vinci's Last Supper is a mind bending experience, and with help from an excellent Ian McKellen performance, Howard handles these scenes well. Paul Bettany is the other stand-out performer, providing the killer Silas with an intriguing mix of tortured pathos and grim determination.

Simultaneously astute and awry, The Da Vinci Code is a puzzle of partially perfected promise.

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Movie Review: Wimbledon (2004)

A romantic comedy set during the esteemed tennis tournament, Wimbledon is harmless enough but also so incredibly light in terms of content that it threatens to blow away well before the 98 minutes are up.

Peter Colt (Paul Bettany) is an English veteran tennis player on the pro circuit, once ranked eleventh in the world but now considered well past his prime. The Wimbledon tournament is about to begin and Colt receives a wild card entry, consistent with his status as a rank outsider. He accepts a new job as a tennis pro at a country club, and intends to announce his retirement as soon as he is eliminated.

At the start of the two-week tournament Peter meets rising American star Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst), embarking on her first Wimbledon but already considered among the favourites. Peter and Lizzie start a friendship that develops into a romance. Lizzie's father Dennis (Sam Neill) considers the relationship a distraction that will hinder his daughter's progress, and he tries to stop the couple from seeing each other. But rejuvenated by love, Peter goes on an unlikely winning streak, and his further progress in the tournament is dependent on being able to continue the affair with Lizzie.

Wimbledon is a good looking film with attractive leads and a toney setting. But it's also a film where precious little actually happens. Peter and Lizzie meet, fall in love, encounter some routine complications, play a lot of tennis, and that's about it. An extraordinary amount of time is actually consumed showing tennis games being played, and the final climactic match extends for a good 20 minutes of screen time, betraying the lack of narrative momentum.

Director Richard Loncraine works the lightweight script as best as he can, but cannot conjure up much subject matter. The perfunctory threats to the relationship come in the shape of the rather harmless Dennis. A younger, more aggressive McEnroesque American tennis player and potential romance rival (Austin Nichols) is portrayed in such broad strokes that he never registers. The assortment of friends who are supposed to enliven rom-coms are reduced to Peter's boring training partner and a corny agent (Jon Favreau), both of whom are utterly forgettable. The attempts at comedy and wit are more miss than hit.

Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst are likeable enough, and what pleasure there is in the film is derived from two actors who are both better than the material, although neither convince as pro tennis players in the on-court action scenes. Bettany gives Peter some depth, and the premise of a fading star lucking into one last run to glory while battling his inner demons emerges as the most engaging part of the film. That this has almost nothing to do with the bland romance is a suitable summary of the film's deficiencies.

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Movie Review: Legion (2010)

As an exercise in utmost silliness, Legion is a goofy success.

God is once again fed-up with humanity, and in the divine version of hitting the alt-ctrl-del combo, rather than a flood he unleashes hordes of zombiefied angels to wipe the slate clean.  Disobeying God's orders to obliterate all-things human, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) still believes that human beings as a species are worth saving. He swoops down to earth, cuts off his wings, steals an arsenal's worth of heavy weapons, and races to the grimy, middle-of-nowhere Paradise Falls diner in the Mojave Desert.

The diner's scruffy owner is Dennis Quaid, and the typical assortment of lost tourists and significantly more lost souls have stumbled into his booths.  The local waitress (Adrianne Palicki) is very pregnant, the father of the unborn child is unknown (hmm...), and apparently this baby, if allowed to live, will be the savior of humanity. Naturally, the diner is soon the focus of attacks by the killer-angel-zombies, and Michael enlists the assorted characters stranded at Paradise Falls to fight them off, generally by mowing them down with heavy machine guns from the rooftop.

Realizing that he needs more firepower on his side, God sends the archangel Gabriel (Kevin Durand) to overcome the resistance of Michael and his ragtag team, leading to a final confrontation between the angels, but also allowing man to symbolically rediscover his role and perhaps earn another chance at living.

If it all sounds on the far side of ridiculous, it is, and it's also reasonably exciting.  Borrowing heavily from sources such as Terminator and Tremors, director Scott Stewart, working with screenwriter Peter Schink, makes the right call in playing Legion mostly straight. Although some of the angel-demons are scary-funny, in general Legion avoids irony, sarcastic winks at the audience, and the stream of witty comments and hip  attitudes that could have plagued the film. We are simply plonked into an imaginative supernatural and apocalyptic alternate reality that happens to be unfolding in the desert, and Legion pretends to be nothing more. It isn't, and the stripped-down, straightforward approach works.






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Movie Review: A Beautiful Mind (2001)

A celebration of both the mind and the heart, A Beautiful Mind is based on the true story of Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash. It is a towering achievement that affirms the amazing power of shining intellect when supported by brilliant love.

Nash (Russell Crowe) arrives at Princeton University just after the end of the Second World War as a graduate student in mathematics, already recognized for his prodigious talent and social ineptness. He ignores his classes and all traditional learning methods to focus on finding a new breakthrough theory that would catapult him to prominence. His best friend is his room-mate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany), a free spirit more interested in beer and pizza than learning.

Nash appears to be on the road to nowhere at Princeton until he finally develops the theory of governing dynamics, a significant enhancement to mathematical economics. He indeed emerges as the best in his class, and gets his pick of distinguished careers.

Nash gets established as a senior mathematics professor working out of a military-associated lab at MIT. Alicia (Jennifer Connelly), one of his students, takes all the initiative to break through Nash's social incompetence, and they eventually get married.

As part of his work Nash is occasionally called to the Pentagon to help break codes related to national security. He meets William Parcher (Ed Harris), a tough, no-nonsense government agent, who becomes a dominant presence. Nash is soon consumed by complex code-breaking work assigned by Parcher, and is drawn into what appears to be a dangerous international conspiracy, with Russian agents after him. He shuts out Alicia and his behaviour goes from eccentric to dangerously erratic.

However, Nash is suffering an illness and will need radical medical intervention under the supervision of psychiatrist Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer). Over many years of struggle with the disease, Alicia's love, selfless dedication, and bravery are central to Nash's survival, and his road to any potential rehabilitation will be long and unsteady.

A Beautiful Mind is majestically constructed by director Ron Howard and his stellar cast. Howard manages to penetrate into Nash's mind, taking the audience on a wonderful journey that reveals the thin line between genius and madness.

Russell Crowe gives one of the all-time greatest acting performances in the history of the movies. He embodies Nash from the young adult at Princeton to the distinguished but wounded scholar receiving the Nobel Prize, and despite plenty of temptations, never succumbs to over-the-top histrionics that could so easily accompany a role centred on mental illness.  

Jennifer Connelly delivers the role of her career as Alicia. The second half of the movie belongs to her, as she transitions from an almost incidental part of Nash's life to become the only person that can rescue him. Connelly needs to convince us - and Nash - that her love is at least as important as his intellect, and she succeeds magnificently. Thanks to Connelly, A Beautiful Mind becomes a stunning example of the true meaning of marriage.

A supporting cast deep in talent provides a rich texture to the film. Ed Harris gives the tough-as-nails Parcher a real menace, a counterpoint to Paul Bettany's always available sympathetic ear. Christopher Plummer and Judd Hirsch ensure that even relatively minor roles are memorably delivered.

A Beautiful Mind is a rare achievement, an emotional tour de force that finds its impact by remaining under-stated, controlled, and in touch with the true inner humanity of its characters.

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