Movie Review: Flight From Ashiya (1964)

Genre: Rescue Adventure  

Director: Michael Anderson  

Starring: Yul Brynner, Richard Widmark, George Chakiris, Shirley Knight  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: A cargo vessel breaks up in rough seas off the coast of Japan, and the US Air Force Rescue Service is dispatched to pluck survivors out of the ocean. The rescuers include Major Sergeant Mike Takashima (Yul Brynner), Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Stevenson (Richard Widmark), and 2nd Lieutenant John Gregg (George Chakiris). Flashbacks reveal stories that shaped the men: Gregg was traumatized by a rescue-gone-wrong in the German mountains; Stevenson found his great love (Shirley Knight) and learned to hate during World War Two in Manila; and in the North Africa campaign, Takashima romantically pursued a Tunisian girl (Danièle Gaubert).

What Works Well: The cast is rich in talent, and the plot's ambition is not in doubt: co-writer Elliott Arnold (adapting his novel) traverses snowy mountains, raging oceans, the North Africa desert, and wartime Manila to cover distinct dramas. The bookend ocean rescue is a straightforward story of heroism, sacrifice, and overcoming psychological barriers, while the flashbacks coalesce around the theme of loss. 

What Does Not Work As Well: With no one story to focus on, the four episodes stumble on hokey improbabilities, and none are sharp enough to stand on their own merits. Sappy romantic interludes dominate for long stretches, and while both Stevenson and Takashima fall madly in love based on momentary infatuations, at least Takashima's lusty pursuit ends in a non-recoverable tragic (and unintended) comedy. The writing is rudimentary, the emotions superficially one-dimensional, and the recruitment propaganda is of the in-your-face variety.

Conclusion: The rescuers need rescuing from dangerous contrivances.



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Movie Review: Sweet Bird Of Youth (1962)

One of Tennessee Williams' less absorbing plays is adapted into a relatively staid film that never quite takes off. The story of a desperate gigolo meeting his past and plotting his future, Sweet Bird Of Youth is filled with distasteful characters who deserve each other and little else.

Handsome Chance Wayne (Paul Newman) returns to his home town of St. Cloud, Florida with aging movie star Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page) in tow. St. Cloud is run by the grizzled and corrupt Tom Finley (Ed Begley), and his almost saintly daughter Heavenly (Shirley Knight) used to be Chance's girlfriend. Chance and Alexandra scandalize the town by taking a room together at the local hotel, but everyone is immediately advising Chance to quickly hustle out of town: his dark past with Heavenly means that Finley does not want him around.

Alexandra believes her career to be over and is dealing with drug and alcohol addictions. She does not quite know what she is doing with Chance or how she ended up in St. Cloud. Chance has never succeeded at anything in life, and he generates income by prostituting himself to wealthy women. He nevertheless still has aspirations to use Alexandra to finally get his big break in Hollywood and win back Heavenly's heart, although she is now engaged to a doctor. Meanwhile, Finley is embroiled in a political battle and has to fend off allegations of corruption, and he just wants to see Chance gone, either voluntarily or by force if necessary.

None of the main characters in Sweet Bird Of Youth have enough redeeming features to evoke anything resembling sympathy. Chance is at the centre of events and on his way to discovering that the sweet benefits of youth are fleeting, but proves himself to be a miserable, self-centred soul, and this after the Richard Brooks script toned down his less attractive features from the original play. Alexandra confirms the worst suspicions about Hollywood has-been divas, as she spirals into the squalor of multiple addictions and yet still believes herself entitled to royal treatment. And Tom Finley gathers up all the corruption and menace of southern politicians ruling through a combination of sleaze and intimidation.

No compelling arcs are provided to prod development of the main characters. Chance needs to uncover the reason why he is suddenly deep in Finley's bad book, a charged revelation but not enough to open new avenues to explore. Through the fog of substance abuse Alexandra receives news about the box office results of her latest movie, an outcome that only amplifies her theatricality. And Finley is the local law of the land starting on the evil side and slithering further into the darkness. Paul Newman, Geraldine Page and Ed Begley are effective in bringing these unsavoury people to life, but are then left stranded. 

Heavenly, with that none too subtle name, is meant to be the one source of light and pure goodness in Sweet Bird Of Youth. Although Shirley Knight does her best, the role is paper thin and the character unconvincing. For all her goodness Heavenly is inexplicably willing to overlook and forgive a large accumulation of momentously sordid faults.

Richard Brooks also directed Newman in the adaptation of Williams' more flammable Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and at least does succeed in breaking Sweet Bird Of Youth out of its stage confines. The film makes good use of several locations, although a large amount of time is spent in the hotel room.

Conniving and morally bankrupt characters plotting against each other are always enticing to a degree. They are, however, always more compelling when they seek or at least accidentally stumble onto a path out of their moral morass. Sweet Bird Of Youth just flaps past that opportunity.

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Movie Review: As Good As It Gets (1997)

A story of romance between two people on the edge, As Good As It Gets is a thoughtful look at what it takes to uncover the warmth beneath complex, harried and damaged souls. Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt shine as agitated New Yorkers wrapped up in their lives, not looking for love but finding it flickering under the unlikeliest of circumstances.

Melvin Udall (Nicholson) is a New York-based writer. He is also intolerably obsessive-compulsive, racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic. Melvin lives in an apartment building, where his neighbour is gay artist Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear), who has a black marketing agent Frank Sachs (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). Simon and Frank take the brunt of Melvin's insufferable behaviour, as does Simon's dog Verdell.

Melvin's fanatical routine includes eating breakfast daily as the same restaurant, sitting at the same table, and getting served by the same waitress, Carol Connelly (Hunt). A poor single mom of a sickly child, Carol in the only person who can tolerate Melvin, and in turn, he recognizes that he is dependant on her. When Carol starts skipping work to look after her son Spencer (Jesse James), Melvin arranges to pay for high quality medical care to stabilize Spencer's condition, so that Carol can return to work and serve him breakfast.

Simon is brutally mugged, and Frank insists that Melvin take care of Verdell, but Melvin's growing fondness for Carol prompts him to start taking his medication to improve his social skills, and he starts to cope better around people (and dogs). Melvin's relationship with Carol evolves slowly, with his deeply ingrained suspicion of people clumsily colliding with her desperate need for intimacy. Eventually Melvin, the battered Simon and Carol head out on a road trip to visit Simon's parents, and both Melvin and Carol need to confront their true emotions towards themselves and each other.

Under the direction of James L. Brooks, As Good As It Gets shines as a study of two desperately lost souls whose destinies collide over bacon and eggs, with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt both receiving best acting Academy Awards. Nicholson pulls out one of his most memorable performances to bring Melvin to life, a man deeply aware of his failings but standing just short of being able to address them, until he sees first in Verdell and then in Carol a reason to risk radical change. Nicholson makes impressive use of pauses, his eyes beaming with what he needs to say in order to join humanity's norms, but his mouth only able to spout the poison that creates a lonely vacuum around him.

Hunt is impressively equal to Nicholson, and rises to the challenge posed by the script (co-written by Mark Andrus and Brooks): it would have been too easy for Carol to be all-good opposite Melvin's radical offensiveness. Instead, Carol has deep-rooted issues of her own, and her desperation for companionship and a true partner in life allows her as many opportunities as Melvin to take painful missteps in their stuttering relationship.

Greg Kinnear and Cuba Gooding, Jr. add memorably chaotic New York life to Melvin's surroundings, while Shirley Knight as Carol's mom is instrumental in steering her daughter towards some painful but necessary decisions.

As Good As It Gets suffers from some bloating at close to 140 minutes for a romance, and Brooks could have benefited from sharper decisions in the editing room. Some realism is also sacrificed with the speed of Melvin's transition from reclusive and repugnant to half-way cuddlesome. But whenever either Nicholson or Hunt are on-screen the momentum is maintained, and As Good As It Gets proves to be plenty good enough.

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