Movie Review: Flightplan (2005)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: Robert Schwentke  

Starring: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Greta Scacchi  

Running Time: 98 minutes  

Synopsis: After the sudden death of her husband David, grieving American aviation engineer Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) and her young daughter Julia board a flight carrying David's casket from Berlin to US. Partway through the flight, Kyle wakes up from a nap to find Julia missing. Her frantic search efforts attract the attention of the flight's air marshal Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard), as well as Captain Rich (Sean Bean). No one recalls ever seeing young Julia board the flight, raising doubts about Kyle's mental wellbeing.

What Works Well: Jodie Foster is always worth watching, and she infuses the first half with enough frazzled parental concern to maintain interest. The potential for grief to cloud a mother's grasp on reality offers intriguing psychological possibilities, briefly made more tasty with an incident of racial profiling.

What Does Not Work As Well: Once the plot reveals its secrets, the film succumbs to terminal turbulence courtesy of an exceptionally inane conspiracy, combining pretzel-like Machiavellian convolutions with Boeing-sized plot holes. As the logic-free final act approaches, all attempts at explanations are summarily ejected, leaving the cast struggling in vain against depressurized thrills.

Key Quote:

Captain Rich: I am responsible for the safety of every passenger on this plane...even the delusional ones.

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Movie Review: Dark River (2017)

Genre: Drama

Director: Clio Barnard

Starring: Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley

Running Time: 89 minutes

Synopsis: In rural Yorkshire, England, sheep shearer Alice (Ruth Wilson) learns that her father Richard (Sean Bean) has died. She returns to her family farm after a 15 year absence, triggering flashbacks of the sexual abuse she suffered as a young girl. Now she clashes with her erratic brother Joe (Mark Stanley), who is struggling to operate the rundown farm, while the landowners plot a sale.

What Works Well: A sense of emotional foreboding settles like a thick fog on Alice's present, as flashbacks reveal her nightmare of a past. Ruth Wilson sinks into the role with the subdued anguish of a compromised existence struggling to course-correct towards any kind of better future. The song Acre of Land by PJ Harvey and Harry Escott is hauntingly beautiful.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a slow-paced and sparsely plotted exercise in brooding. Not much happens for long stretches, and director Clio Barnard invests inordinate time capturing muddy northern England aesthetics. The dynamic between Alice and Joe never settles, the supporting characters are perfunctory, and the final act surrenders to clumsiness.

Conclusion: An emotional and experiential slog.



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Movie Review: Don't Say A Word (2001)

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Director: Gary Fleder

Starring: Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy, Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Oliver Platt

Running Time: 113 minutes

Synopsis: In New York City, psychiatrist Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) is introduced to the case of 18-year-old Elisabeth (Brittany Murphy), a troubled, incommunicative, and violent youth. Nathan and his wife Aggie (Famke Janssen) are then shocked by the kidnapping of their eight year old daughter Jessie by gang leader Patrick (Sean Bean), who wants Nathan to extract from Elisabeth a secret she is hiding about the location of a precious gem. Nathan has limited time to gain Elizabeth's trust and save his daughter.

What Works Well: Slick production quality complements Gary Fleder's assured directing, and the action scenes are expertly staged for maximum excitement. Cross-cutting editing enhances the tense moments. Michael Douglas is reliably sturdy, Famke Janssen contributes beyond the traditional spouse role, and Sean Bean makes for an effective villain.

What Does Not Work As Well: The unnecessarily complicated plot is riddled with logic holes and loose threads, limiting enjoyment to a just-go-with-it exercise. The characters are disappointingly flat, the psychiatry sessions never progress beyond the superficial, and Jennifer Esposito struggles to convince as the detective who gets involved in the case. 

Conclusion: The mix of therapy and thrills rarely excels but does provide passable entertainment.



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Movie Review: Silent Hill (2006)

A horror ghost story, Silent Hill toys with a few decent ideas but cannot escape it's video game roots.

Sharon Da Silva (Jodelle Ferland) is the young adopted daughter of married couple Rose (Radha Mitchell) and Christopher (Sean Bean). Sharon sleepwalks, has nightmares about a place called Silent Hill, and draws frightening sketches while in a trance-like state. Rose's research identifies Silent Hill as an abandoned coal mining town in West Virginia, suffering from a long-burning underground fire and now considered a ghost town.

Against Christopher's wishes Rose drives Sharon towards Silent Hill. Along the way she tangles with police officer Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden), then a car crash separates mother from daughter and Sharon disappears into the abandoned town. As she desperately tries to find her daughter Rose starts to encounter monstrous beings and horrifying imagery of violence and death in alternative dimensions, while Christopher teams up with police detective Thomas Gucci (Kim Coates) to try and find his family.

An adaptation of a 1999 survival horror game, Silent Hill is too repetitive and CGI dependent. Long stretches are consumed by Rose exploring spooky hallways and rooms within intimidating buildings, only to be attacked by a succession of pixel-created monsters. Given that Rose's death or incapacitation would mean the early end of the film, the lack of any real threat defangs the film's horror elements.

Director Christophe Gans compensates to some extent with reasonably impressive visuals and set designs, and if Silent Hill fails to deliver meaningful scares, it is at least good to look at. The abandoned town with fire burning underneath and ashes falling continuously from the sky is a spooky achievement.

Elsewhere distraught dad Christopher's parallel quest to try and find his wife and daughter is utterly useless, and it was an afterthought awkwardly added to the script to bolster the male content. Back in town, Rose gradually uncovers a mystery involving a bullied child, witch hunters, religious fanatics and a demon, with Deborah Kara Unger and Alice Krige joining the fun to try and explain a muddled narrative.

If there is a theme, it relates to fundamentalists creating their own hell as a happy place to justify their own existence. Radha Mitchell does the best she can within the confines of the material, and finally breaks out into kick-ass motherhood mode to end the nonsense.

Silent Hill is not entirely without merit, but this town needed more plots and fewer wandering corpses.

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Movie Review: Equilibrium (2002)

A dystopian post-apocalyptic thriller, Equilibrium borrows from familiar sources but delivers a polished dose of futuristic action.

After a third and devastating world war, humanity rebuilds as Libria, a totalitarian city-state governed by the Tetragrammaton Council and led by Father, who is only seen on giant video screens. Emotions are pinpointed as the source of wars and are strictly outlawed. Citizens self-inject the chemical Prozium II at regular intervals every day to suppress all feelings. "Sense Offenders" are hunted down by paramilitary forces augmented by trained assassins known as Clerics, and either killed on sight or captured then incinerated. Resistance fighters cluster in the destroyed Nether areas outside the city's boundaries.

John Preston (Christian Bale) is the most ruthless and respected Cleric, and eliminates his partner Errol Partridge (Sean Bean) when the latter is found reading books and nurturing feelings. Preston then arrests Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson), one of the resistance leaders, and her appeals to his humanity resonate. He allows himself to skip one dose of Prozium II and starts experiencing emotions, but has to hide his secret from his new partner Andrew Brandt (Taye Diggs) as he considers his next move.

The dichotomies of love and hate, desire and repulsion, ecstasy and agony are at the core of the human condition. Equilibrium posits a provocative solution to violence, one in which the extremes at both ends are truncated by virulent authoritarianism, the loss of elation presented as a worthwhile sacrifice to eliminate warfare.

While the gloss of originality is evident, Equilibrium leans heavily on many elements made famous by George Orwell, John Woo and The Wachowskis. The film's foundation is an amalgam of concepts introduced by 1984 and the stylistic gunfights popularized by Hong Kong action movies and The Matrix. 

The premise of a dictatorial government attempting to exert complete control over citizens' thoughts operating out of domineering monolithic government buildings and with a mythical leader incessantly spouting mind control rhetoric is straight out of Winston Smith's reality. And the Clerics' acrobatic gun kata fighting techniques are an evolution (complete with the introduction of pseudo-scientific principles) of the hyper-stylized one-against-many exquisitely choreographed close quarter gun battles conceived by Woo.

Director and writer Kurt Wimmer is left with the challenge of assembling recognizable pieces into a fresh whole, and despite the preponderance of plot holes, he excels. Equilibrium has the sleek, icy cold and grey look of a world stripped of individuality, artistry, colour, or any other triggers of human warmth. Thanks to a subtle Christian Bale performance, the story makes the most out of the star government killer developing a conscience. With editing just on the correct side of rational, the balletic action scenes pop up at the right moments, inject the appropriate dose of energy, and never dominate the narrative.

In its contemporary context the film also takes well placed shots at an over-medicated and over-prescribed culture. Libria only functions because the citizenry acquiesces to self-administering mind-altering medication, a state of self-inflicted zombiefication less inspired by fiction than reality. When Equilibrium oscillates in the narrow range between apathetic and aloof, it's time for an old fashioned blood bath to warm things up.

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Movie Review: National Treasure (2004)

A modern-day treasure-hunt adventure, National Treasure offers slick escapism in a glossy production package.

Mesmerized by stories he heard as a child from from his grandfather (Christopher Plummer), Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) has dedicated his life to finding the fabled treasure of the Knights Templar, despite the cynicism of his father Patrick (Jon Voight). The treasure may now be in the United States shrouded in the mythology of the founding fathers and the secretive Masons. To track down a key clue Ben and his friend Riley (Justin Bartha) obtain funding from the shady Ian Howe (Sean Bean) and uncover the wreck of the ancient ship Charlotte under the North Pole ice.

On board they find clues pointing to an invisible treasure map on the back of the original Declaration of Independence. Ben and Ian disagree on how to proceed, causing a major falling out. Ben connects with Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) of the National Archives, but cannot convince anyone that the Declaration is at risk. Ben and Ian concoct separate plans to steal the highly protected document, setting off a massive chase and the attention of FBI Agent Peter Sadusky (Harvey Keitel).

An unlikely collaboration between family-friendly Disney Studios and action-loving producer Jerry Bruckheimer, National Treasure is a respectable urban take-off on Indiana Jones-style adventurism. Directed and co-produced by Jon Turteltaub, the film carries the singular objective of providing treasure-hunt style thrills. Logic, physics and common sense mostly stay out of the way, yielding to fun, a well-executed dual heist sequence, energetic chases and descents into impressive cavernous spaces.

Arriving at the perfect time about 18 month after the release of the sensational bestseller The Da Vinci Code, National Treasure borrows many of Dan Brown's better points. The pacing is fast enough to glide over the inherent absurdities, the clues often hide in plain sight and within historically famous artifacts, Ben is an extraordinary on-the-fly puzzle solver, a smart and capable woman joins the chase, and as the end draws near the dangers and close calls amplify. With a strained father-son relationship coming into play between Ben and Patrick, the film also colours in a decent background for its reluctant hero.

Although he lands on the side of marginally colourless, Nicolas Cage maintains control and brings Ben to life as a man fully aware that his life may have been frittered away chasing a myth. Cage is surrounded by a good cast, Sean Bean in particular heartily sinking his teeth into another villainous role.

Lighthearted yet genuine in its intentions, National Treasure never threatens to astound but does follow the right map.

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Movie Review: Mirror Mirror (2012)

A fantasy drama comedy aimed at a family audience, Mirror Mirror enjoys a unique, over-the-top fairy tale aesthetic and an enchanting Julia Roberts performance.

Snow White (Lily Collins) is the beautiful daughter of the kindly King (Sean Bean), a popular and benevolent leader. Unfortunately he disappears while riding through the forest, and his devious wife Queen Clementianna (Julia Roberts), who is also the narrator, takes over as ruler of the land. A vain woman obsessed with her beauty, Clementianna confines Snow White to one room and a darkness descends onto the land.

Prince Andrew Alcott (Armie Hammer) of Valencia tangles with the seven dwarves while riding through the forest and is rescued by Snow White, who is on an unsanctioned trip outside the palace. Clementianna sets her eyes on the handsome prince as marriage material, and arranges for her assistant Brighton (Nathan Lane) to kill Snow White. But Brighton does not have the heart to do so, Snow White takes refuge with the dwarves, and starts to plot her return to power.

Directed by Tarsem Singh, Mirror Mirror is an irreverent take on the Brothers Grimm Snow White story. Tangentially side-swiping the legend from the perspective of the evil Queen, here the dwarves are dirtier and edgier, they fight on stilts and teach Snow White battle tactics, and a power-hungry and lustful love triangle features mother-in-law and daughter.

While the plot does tilt more towards adult themes than children's fare, Singh entertains younger eyes with outlandish sets and ridiculous costumes. Despite a limited number of locations and what appears to be a confined and theatrical milieu, Mirror Mirror pops with colour, oversized hats, and inventive set design. The basics of the story may be well known, but the presentation is highly imaginative.

As the eyes absorb all the fantastical aesthetics, Roberts entertains the ear with snarky narration. Her take on the Queen is unapologetically manipulative, a satirical extrapolation of a culture obsessed with looks, fame, power and little else. By design, this is mostly the Queen's story, but Snow White is provided with some feminist steel in the second half of the film, choosing a warrior's costume, standing up to her rights, and going toe to toe in forest fights as she battles to win back her land and claim her man. Lily Collins does well in the role, infusing it with quiet confidence.

Mirror Mirror is a reimagining of a popular fairy tale; all the elements are familiar, but the warped reflection is reasonably enjoyable in its weirdness.

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