Movie Review: Trial By Jury (1994)

Genre: Legal Drama Thriller  

Director: Heywood Gould  

Starring: Joanne Whalley, Armand Assante, Gabriel Byrne, William Hurt, Ed Lauter, Kathleen Quinlan  

Running Time: 107 minutes  

Synopsis: Notorious crime boss Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante) is facing a trial by jury, with prosecutor Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne) confident of a conviction. Ex-cop-gone-bad Tommy Vesey (William Hurt) is now Pirone's "jury consultant", and targets juror Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) with an intimidation campaign, threatening her son and father unless she sabotages deliberations and achieves a hung jury. But Vesey also starts to care for Valerie, leading to conflicted loyalties and violence.

What Works Well: Wayward plotting is saved by a gloss of production quality and an exceptional cast. Director Heywood Gould sets the context in short sharp strokes, and introduces a large set of characters with admirable efficiency. From courtroom jousting to the various threats unleashed on Valerie's life, the energy is maintained at a high level. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer is at her best when she tangles up the jury deliberations, Armand Assante drips oily villainy, William Hurt finds complexity in a memorably unlikely role, and the likes of Gabriel Byrne and Ed Lauter provide depth.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot gets increasingly more outlandish and ultimately discards any pretense of logic or grounding. The opening sequence demonstrates what Pirone's criminal enterprise is capable of, undermining most of the subsequent pussyfooting to manipulate a jury outcome.

Key Quote:

Rusty Pirone: I'm the guy who falls into a sewer and comes out with his pants pressed.

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Movie Review: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Genre: Science Fiction  

Director: Steven Spielberg  

Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, William Hurt  

Running Time: 146 minutes  

Synopsis: In a future ravaged by climate change, human-like robots are common. At a robotics corporation, Professor Allen Hobby (William Hurt) leads the development of a child-like robot capable of expressing love. The first such model is David (Haley Joel Osment), and he is delivered to couple Monica and Henry (Frances O'Connor and Sam Robards), whose own human child Martin is in a medical coma. But after David and Monica bond, Martin miraculously recovers, leading to jealousy and a tense household. Monica has to make a difficult decision, resulting in a wild adventure for David featuring gigolo robot Joe (Jude Law).

What Works Well: Haley Joel Osment's performance is passable, Jude Law brings quirky energy, and some of the special effects (especially in a future, damaged New York City) are imaginative. Teddy the robot bear is cute, and often the best thing on the screen.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a a depressingly whiney and Frankensteinish mishmash of Pinocchio, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The trite message is that humans are less than perfect and everyone wants to be loved, but the frequent perspective and tonal changes yield hollow emotions. Steven Spielberg (adopting a project nurtured by Stanley Kubrick) lands in a vacuum of faux-profundity too complicated for kids and bizarre plotting too ridiculous for adults. The first act is weak, featuring a supposedly advanced robot unaware it's not supposed to eat nor harm humans. The middle portion is worse, veering into the gloomy territory of seedy gigolos and a dark robot destruction festival. The final, endless act is a catastrophic shambles requiring the abrupt insertion of a narrator in a desperate attempt to salvage comprehension. An underwater episode is followed by a massive time jump and the inexplicable appearance of alien-like beings, all to set-up a climax where...a blue fairy takes over. 

Conclusion: An epic fiasco.



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Movie Review: Too Big To Fail (2011)

Genre: Drama

Director: Curtis Hanson

Starring: William Hurt, Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, James Woods, Cynthia Nixon, Bill Pullman

Running Time: 98 minutes

Synopsis: In 2008, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (William Hurt) and his team are thrust into an unfolding economic crisis when major investment banks start incurring huge losses due to mortgage defaults. A deal is arranged to bail out Bear Stearns, then investors turn on Lehman Brothers, where CEO Dick Fuld (James Woods) is slow to react. Paulson has to assess how far the government can intervene, with insurance giant AIG starting to wobble and international credit drying up.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, Andrew Ross Sorkin's book is adapted into a gripping behind-the-scenes drama, capturing the world's most influential bankers grappling with existential dilemmas as the global economy teeters on the brink of collapse. Director Curtis Hanson maintains compact control with a chiseled running length and clear but brief explanations of the crisis causes and status. A dream cast (also featuring Topher Grace, Kathy Baker, Tony Shalhoub, John Heard, and Edward Asner as Warren Buffet) ensures quality in every role.

What Does Not Work As Well: A parade of middle-aged (mostly) white men conversing in meetings and phone calls is the limit of this drama, and beyond the most key characters, keeping track of the blizzard of individual and corporate names is next to impossible.

Conclusion: Bankers rescuing bankers can generate surprising cinematic tension.



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Movie Review: Gorky Park (1983)

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Director: Michael Apted

Starring: William hurt, Lee Marvin, Brian Dennehy, Joanna Pacula, Ian Bannen, Ian McDiarmid

Running Time: 123 minutes

Synopsis: Three murdered bodies are found in Moscow's Gorky Park. Police officer Arkady Renko (William Hurt) investigates and establishes connections between the victims and influential American businessman Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin). Meanwhile movie set worker Irina (Joanna Pacula), who is Osborne's friend and desperate to escape the USSR, is hiding secrets. Renko also tangles with New York City Detective William Kirwill (Brian Dennehy), the brother of one of the victims. 

What Works Well: The adaptation of the novel by Martin Cruz Smith enjoys high quality production values and creates a grey mood of mistrust, born from a marriage of communism and the bitter cold. Enough personal motivations in pursuit of greed and freedom ensure a base level of engagement, punctuated by short and sharp bursts of action and violence.

What Does Not Work As Well: Dennis Potter's script is overstuffed and uncoordinated, many major events taking place off-screen and crucial new revelations carelessly dropped into conversations. The plot details (something to do with smuggling sables) are more bizarre than effective, with neither the crimes nor the romance registering emotionally. William Hurt's deliberate performance slow-dances with blatant mis-casting, while Lee Marvin does only marginally better by gliding on a current of disinterest.

Conclusion: The frigid exteriors match the cold execution.



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Movie Review: The Last Full Measure (2019)

A biographical drama retroactively examining battlefield heroics, The Last Full Measure is earnest but veers towards persistent reverence.

In 1999, Vietnam War veteran Tom Tulley (William Hurt) advocates for reopening the case of Air Force Pararescueman William H. Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine) to determine if he posthumously deserves the Medal of Honor. Ambitious Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan) is tasked with conducting the necessary research.

In April of 1966, a US Army platoon is caught in a Vietnam jungle ambush and suffers heavy casualties. Pitsenbarger rappels onto the battlefield from the safety of his helicopter to help evacuate the wounded. He saves many lives before succumbing to enemy fire, but is then awarded the Air Force Cross rather than the coveted Medal of Honor. 

Scott is initially uninterested in the entire file, but is soon drawn into the case as he tracks down survivors and hears the stories of the men involved in the fateful battle, including Billy Takoda (Samuel L. Jackson), Ray Mott (Ed Harris), and Jimmy Burr (Peter Fonda). Pitsenbarger's parents Frank and Alice (Christopher Plummer and Diane Ladd) support Scott's investigation, with Frank's ill health adding a sense of urgency.

Written and directed by Todd Robinson, The Last Full Measure is inspired by real events. The film sets out to salute the heroes of a war gone bad, and achieves this objective with ardent respect. The screenplay carries a nervous yearning for a final polish, but the production values are slick, and the tone is serious, inquisitive, and always searching for the positive instinct within the human spirit. 

As bureaucrat Scott delves into the case, frequent flashbacks from multiple perspectives recreate the ambush at the centre of Pitsenbarger's story. The combat scenes are suitably chaotic, the on-the-ground soldiers trapped by intense enemy fire and gripped by confusion and fear. Into this arena drops Pitsenbarger to help save the wounded, and The Last Full Measure never holds back on representing the medal winner as a mythical saviour. Soaring emotive music augments the square-jawed fearless warrior image, actor Jeremy Irvine encouraged to rise above the mayhem of mere mortals.

The surrounding modern day men-of-war stories enhance the drama. Scott's investigation reopens old wounds, rekindling memories of battlefield mistakes that still haunt surviving soldiers tortured by the belief they should have done better. Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, and Peter Fonda embody veterans living with waking nightmares populated by death, gore, and disillusion. In an elegant gesture, John Savage appears as a sage and healing presence in the post-war Vietnam jungle, 41 years after his seminal ordeal in The Deer Hunter. 

Less effective is a bit of villainy in the form of Scott's boss Carlton Stanton (Bradley Whitford), who pulls on levers of careerism to protect his bosses as the investigation reveals military missteps.

Steering away from wit, cynicism, or broader questions about war, The Last Full Measure succeeds in saluting valour within sacrifice.



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Movie Review: The Doctor (1991)

A medical drama, The Doctor is one surgeon's awakening to the patient experience. The film carries earnest intentions, but suffers from limited narrative scope.

In San Francisco, Dr. Jack McKee (William Hurt) is a successful heart surgeon at a private hospital. Arrogant, flippant, and quick to deploy a wicked sense of humour, Jack operates with his business partner Dr. Kaplan (Mandy Patinkin). His marriage to Anne (Christine Lahti) is cold, since they barely see each other because of his hectic schedule.

Jack suffers from an increasingly irritating throat tickle that is finally diagnosed as a cancerous growth on his vocal chords. Under the care of Dr. Leslie Abbott (Wendy Crewson), Jack starts radiation therapy, and is exposed to the medical system from the patient's perspective. Now feeling vulnerable, his arrogant attitude gets him nowhere. He meets brain cancer patient June (Elizabeth Perkins), and his relationship with Anne suffers further. 

Based on the autobiography of Dr. Edward Rosenbaum, The Doctor re-teams star William Hurt with director Randa Haines after the success of 1986's Children Of A Lesser God. The script by Robert Caswell is well-intentioned and Hurt brings the central character to life with reasonable depth, but the straightforward message reaches an evident resolution then stalls.

The first act introduces Jack's glib approach to a successful career, his egotism developed from hours spent inside human bodies, the gift of life in his hands. The second chapter exposes him to the bureaucracy, waiting rooms, indignity, and frustrations experienced by every patient with a serious affliction. For the first time Jack is at the mercy of others inside his own hospital, and his attitude transforms.

Having held the scalpel then been subjected to it, The Doctor unfortunately has few places to go and plenty of time to kill. The film meanders through the final act with nothing really new to say, and stumbles towards a flat resolution. The poorly handled sub-plots don't help. Haines never grabs hold of the dynamic between Jack and Anne, resulting in a tactless emotional showdown. A lawsuit hovering over Jack and his partner Dr. Kaplan remains at the uselessly abstract level. The representation of Dr. Abbott is also wayward. Never less than capable and professional, she somehow ends up on Jack's bad side. 

Brain cancer patient Anne fares better and gains traction as a portal to a more organic and free-spirited perspective on life. Her scenes add poignancy, although mostly from Jack's perspective. John Seale's crisp and sleek cinematography is a positive, infusing the well-financed private medical system with a pristine look matching Jack's early scenes of invulnerable confidence. 

The Doctor always means well, but offers only an obvious diagnosis.

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Movie Review: Robin Hood (2010)

A medieval drama and romance, Robin Hood creates an epic backstory for the legendary outlaw.

The year is 1199, and Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is an archer in the army of Richard The Lionheart (Danny Huston), as England's King fights his way back home from the crusades. But Richard is felled by an arrow at a battle in France, and his weakling brother Prince John (Oscar Isaac) ascends to the throne. Robin impersonates the dead knight Sir Robert Loxley and along with a small group of men they make it back to England.

Meanwhile John is being undermined by his double-crossing friend Godfrey (Mark Strong), who is really working for France's King Philip to weaken England and enable an invasion. In Nottingham Robin meets and falls in love with Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett), while her father, the elderly and blind Walter (Max von Sydow), helps Robin understand his lineage. 

John's extreme taxation policies and Godfrey's raids on fellow Englishmen push the country towards civil war and serve Philip's agenda. Robin teams up with Lionheart loyalist William Marshal (William Hurt) to try and avert disaster.

Running a luxurious 140 minutes with content to match, Robin Hood is an engrossing drama, mixing historical factoids with plenty of rambunctious fiction. Director Ridley Scott re-teams with his Gladiator star Russell Crowe, and although the results are not quite as spectacular, this is still a finely crafted tale of swords, bows, and arrows, rich with story lines, court intrigue, memorable characters and no shortage of large-scale bone-crunching battles.

The Brian Helgeland screenplay steers well clear of the frivolity, simplistic heroics and light-heartedness associated with previous cinematic Robin Hood versions. This is a mud-splattered and grim outing, levity limited to a couple of brief dialogue exchanges, the merry men pushed well into the background. In search of a wider audience Scott avoids blood and gore visuals, but this adventure would have benefited from more realistic representations of the era's brutality.

Crowe's dour Robin suits the England-in-crisis surroundings. Untethered from any clan, he is haunted by a lost father and too many battles on the way to and from Jerusalem. The supporting cast is brimming with talent, von Sydow, Isaac, Hurt and Strong joined by Matthew Macfadyen as the Sheriff of Nottingham (here a relatively minor character), Léa Seydoux as Isabella (Prince John's ambitious lover) and Eileen Atkins as Eleanor of Aquitaine (his concerned mother).

The narrative weakness resides in Robin's relatively limited influence on events around him. For the most part he is on the edge of the major plot points, first with Richard the Lionheart's army then back in England where John, Godfrey and Marshal are driving the agenda. Even in the quieter moments at the Loxley estate, Robin's surroundings and fate are defined by Walter's wisdom and Marion gradually learning to love him.

Robin's personality does emerge on a few occasions, speaking truth to power (and paying for it) when invited to do so by Lionheart, recognizing the opportunity to impersonate a knight as a ticket home, and then helping Marion's fledgling estate avert starvation by plotting his first steal-from-the-rich escapade. 

Now provided with a pre-banditry history of hostility and hurt, Robin Hood emerges as a more hardened legend.



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Movie Review: Into The Wild (2007)

A survival drama, Into The Wild is one young man's journey of self-discovery, existential peril emerging as the price of absolute freedom.

23-year-old Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch) hitchhikes into Alaska, then sets off into the wilderness on foot with minimal supplies, determined to live free and survive off the land. After crossing a river he stumbles upon an abandoned old bus and makes it his base. In various flashbacks, his story is revealed.

Chris is from an upper middle class Virginia family and a graduate of prestigious Emory College. His excellent academic record qualifies him to enter law school. But tension is high between him and his parents Walt and Billie (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden), who are cold, materialistic, argumentative, and secretive. In contrast Chris and his sister Carine (Jena Malone) are close.

After graduating Chris donates his remaining college fund to charity, destroys his identification cards, and embarks on a cross-country trip, cutting off contact with his family. He assumes the name Alex Supertramp and sets Alaska as a target. Along the way he meets an aging hippie couple (Catherine Keener and Brian H. Dierker), a combine operator (Vince Vaughn), a young couple from Denmark, a budding folk musician (Kristen Stewart), and a lonely old man (Hal Holbrook). His journey includes a Mexican detour before he makes it to Alaska, where survival will be both exhilarating and difficult.

Based on a true story as documented in the book by Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild recreates an audacious escape from imposed social structures. Writer and director Sean Penn goes big to represent an ambitious vision unconstrained by rules, with grand landscapes filling the screen, nature an often imposing presence dwarfing humans. A running time of 148 minutes underlines the operatic themes of Chris' quest for freedom.

The scale does threaten to overwhelm the content. Stripping away the romanticism and literary quotes, this is also the small story of one young man abandoning his privilege, imposing despair on his family, and chasing an ill-advised definition of freedom in a naive and anti-social interpretation of happiness. Various levels of mystique can be layered upon the cross-country journey, but the uneasy sense that Chris was a troubled young man prevails.

Emile Hirsch's portrayal of a determined traveler combines intensity with swagger, while Hal Holbrook adds lonely poignancy. The individual chapters and various en route encounters break down the journey into manageable morsels, but the collective is stronger than the individual. Despite some attempts to inject profundity, precious little is genuinely memorable or meaningful in Chris' interactions with assorted hippies, tourists, geezers and lost souls.

Carine's narration and childhood flashbacks reveal the home environment despised by Chris. Walt and Billie are professionals providing every opportunity for their children, although their marriage is always one argument away from rupturing. A family revelation could have been perceived as a sordid scandal by a son in his formative years. Frequent family meetings are the worst atrocity imposed upon Chris and Carine, and by most measures the McCandless household as portrayed is typically troubled but far from a hellhole.

Into The Wild is left with impressive grandeur overwhelming foundational issues. The journey is scenic, the survival ordeal harrowing, the ending fateful, but the origins are underdeveloped.



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Movie Review: Race (2016)

A biography of sprinter Jesse Owens, Race recreates events before and during the 1936 Olympics as one remarkable man stares down hatred and enters the athletic history books.

It's 1935, and promising black sprinter Jesse Owens (Stephan James) is the first member of his Cleveland-based family to head to college. He leaves girlfriend Ruth (Shanice Banton) and a young daughter behind and heads to Ohio State University in Columbus, where track and field coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis) immediately spots his potential. Snyder fine-tunes Owens' technique, and despite rampant verbal racial abuse Jesse is soon winning track meets across the country and setting new records.

The 1936 Olympics in Berlin beckon, but Germany is in the grip of Nazi rule and propaganda Minister Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat) with help from filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten) wants to use the games to showcase the party's anti-Semitic and racist ideology. Members of the American Olympic committee, including Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) and Jeremiah Mahoney (William Hurt), debate a boycott. And as the most famous black athlete in the country, Owens comes under specific pressure to withdraw as a political statement.

A mixture of biography and social history, Race is competent on both fronts. Jesse Owens' record-breaking achievements on the track at the Berlin Olympics are legendary, and so carry little dramatic tension. Director Stephen Hopkins and writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse therefore wisely expand the film's scope to capture the broader context of the Nazis setting the stage for the games as a demonstration of white supremacy, highlighting Owens' achievements in both winning on the track and delivering a powerful anti-prejudicial message.

The dilemma confronted by American Olympic officials, torn between punishing their athletes or taking a principled stand against twisted institutionalized hatred, becomes an intriguing subplot. The debate on whether to exert influence through engagement or isolation resonates across generations, and here includes Nazi tactics of minimal appeasement combined with business enticement also serving a useful entrapment purpose.

As for Owens' personal story, Race is a straightforward biography. Jesse's inspirational love for Ruth, reconfirmed after an ill-considered liaison, and the strong bond he forges with coach Snyder are the two pillars of his success. The racist taunts he endures at the University and at every track across the United States serve as a reminder of progress required at home not precluding the imperative to stand up to tyranny abroad.

Stephan James brings Owens to life with determined dignity, and Jason Sudeikis delivers a vivacious performance as Snyder, the coach finally finding a way to experience the glory he missed in his days as an athlete.

Hopkins finds a late moment of poignancy with German athlete Carl Long conjuring an unlikely bond with Owens when it matters most, a reminder of the difference between the German people and their rulers. But overall Race runs the distance with proficiency rather than excellence, the cinematic interpretation of an intrinsically inspiring story more middle of the pack than frontrunner.

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Movie Review: The Miracle Season (2018)

A sports drama based on a true story, The Miracle Season is overloaded with honest intentions and weighed down with almost unbearable predictability.

In Iowa City, the West High School girls' volleyball team are the defending state champions, coached by the dour but respected Kathy "Bres" Bresnahan (Helen Hunt). The energetic, vivacious  and well-loved Caroline "Line" Found (Danika Yarosh) is their spark plug, setter and captain. Kelley Fliehler (Erin Moriarty) is Line's best friend and an average member of the team.

Line remains upbeat despite a season-opening loss to their rivals from City High, but tragedy strikes and Line is killed in a moped accident. Line's father Dr. Ernie Found (William Hurt) suffers a double blow when his wife Ellyn also dies after a long illness. The school community is devastated and the volleyball team members cannot even bring themselves to practice. Bres has to find a way to rally the team, and Kelley will need to find inner strength to step out from the shadow of her departed friend.

There is no doubt that the story of a team's triumph emerging from the tragedy of their star's death is inspirational. And The Miracle Season does many things right, with director Sean McNamara conjuring up plenty of poignant and tear-inducing moments. The opening 20 minutes in particular effectively establish Caroline's infectious personality, a petite girl bursting with an irresistible love for life and capable of filling the entire school building and then some with her confident and playful attitude.

And the film's positive, wholesome and healthy message for girls, almost all of whom behave impeccably towards each other throughout, is to be lauded.

All of which makes most of the rest of the film an unfortunate disappointment. With the outcome confirmed in the title, once Line leaves the movie the predictable decline and rebirth of the volleyball team's fortunes unfolds with utmost predictability. To overcome the strictly linear narrative The Miracle Season sorely needed more character depth to latch onto, but it is Line's spirit that remains the one dominant presence. Coach Bres, new captain Kelley and Line' father Dr. Ernie are never more than sketched in as people, while Kelley's teammates are particularly shortchanged, remaining largely interchangeable and never emerging from the background.

The on-court volleyball action is decent but also repetitive, occupying screen time that may have been better invested in characters. The Miracle Season carries worthwhile messages of self-belief, perseverance in the face of devastating doubt, and a community coming together to rise above, but as a cinematic experience, it lacks the smash.

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Movie Review: Vantage Point (2008)

A clever action thriller, Vantage Point rises above the routine thanks to a patient structure that reveals the twisty plot from the viewpoints of several key characters.

A diplomatic anti-terrorism summit is being held in the small town of Salamanca, Spain. Early in the public ceremony witnessed by large crowds and covered by the international media, United States President Harry Ashton (William Hurt) is shot twice by an unseen assassin; then two explosions rock the city, causing mass casualties and panic, and killing opinionated reporter Angie Jones (Zoe Saladana).

The events are presented from the perspective of multiple witnesses, including television producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), secret service agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), local police detective Enrique (Eduardo Noriega) and American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker). Gradually the threads of the conspiracy are revealed, and Barnes stumbles onto a much more complex plot involving layers of decoys, distractions and subterfuge.

Directed by Pete Travis, Vantage Point maintains a high level of energy thanks to slick production values, an intriguing mystery, and a puzzle-like structure. Although the rewinds and repetitions begin to become a bit tiresome about halfway through, there is enough juice in the story to maintain strong momentum.

The film's hook resides in the convoluted plot that is only gradually teased out of the multiple perspectives. Each retelling of the events at the public square pushes a bit deeper into the background and consequence, and it becomes apparent nothing is what it seems to be, no matter how many people witnessed the murderous atrocities. There are layers of deception and counter-deception at play, a chess game unfolding on the public stage but planned in the conspiratorial shadows.

The plot spends as little time as possible on politics and motives, and focuses instead on thrills and spills. An attack on a hotel is a smooth demonstration of one against many, while a long urban car chase recreates Bourne-style intensity but with less manic editing. Meanwhile the large explosion in the square is viewed from multiple angles but never loses its jarring impact. And the film finds a frantic yet tidy conclusion, all the vantage points coming together at the same time and place.

The ensemble cast shares the chapters, and gradually Dennis Quaid moves into centre stage. His character Thomas Barnes is provided with a brief background as a secret service agent still healing from the emotional scars of having taken a bullet to save the President's life during a previous assassination attempt. Given the fragmented scheme unfolding around him, Quaid does well to inject some character intensity into his scenes. Barnes' partner Agent Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) and initially peripheral characters Veronica (Ayelet Zurer), Sam (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Javier (Édgar Ramírez) gain in prominence as more is revealed about the plot.

Vantage Point defines its ambition and stays within it, delivering a controlled multi-angled barrage of thrills.

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Movie Review: Mr. Brooks (2007)

An intriguing psychological crime thriller, Mr. Brooks has layered depth but also too much plot and some questionable character behaviours.

In Portland, Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a seemingly respectable businessman, married to Emma (Marg Helgenberger) and with a daughter Jane (Danielle Panabaker) in college. But Brooks is actually a methodical serial murderer known as the thumbprint killer. His evil alter ego Marshall (William Hurt) has just reappeared, egging Brooks to resume the killings. Brooks yields and goes ahead with the double murder of a young couple, but their neighbour Graves Baffert (Dane Cook) captures photographs of the crime in progress. Baffert adopts the name Mr. Smith and blackmails Brooks into accepting him as a protégé.

Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore) is tough as nails, independently wealthy, dealing with a nasty divorce and intent on investigating Brooks' latest crime scene all while evading a violent recently released criminal bent on revenge. As Tracy closes in on Brooks, Mr. Smith demands to be involved in the next killing, while Brooks' daughter Jane starts to reveal shocking secrets of her own.

Directed by Bruce A. Evans, Mr. Brooks delves into the mind of a killer battling against his own demons. The interaction between good and evil within one damaged intellect is cleverly personified by the ominously laid back presence of Marshall, a character only seen and heard by Brooks but instrumental to his being. The film is taut and dark despite suffering from sprawl.

Mr. Brooks packs in enough plot for about three movies. Tracy's divorce sub-plot and her stalking by a maniacal murderer provide plenty of distractions, while over at the Brooks household, daughter Jane comes up with some really big surprises every time she appears on screen. It's a potpourri of evil intentions, all justified and at least loosely connected to the central emotional themes. Evans maintains decent control and Mr. Brooks can never be accused of standing still or shortchanging the main characters.

But the film's core drama is the tension in Brooks' head as personified by Marshall, and the scenes between Costner and Hurt are a class above everything else going on in the film. The many side-quests are much more routine and start to get in the way. And unfortunately, the character of Mr. Smith is by far the weakest thing going on in Mr. Brooks. Despite the incriminating photographs, Mr. Smith's desire to participate in murder is less than convincing and he never comes close to being a match for the Brooks / Marshall combo. They always appear to be a couple of laps ahead of the hapless amateur photographer, depriving the film of tension.

Occasionally Mr. Brooks slips into unnecessarily gory violence, creating disharmony with the more welcome emphasis on psychological turmoil Brooks and Tracy are suffering through.

Kevin Costner and William Hurt are a joy to watch together, the two veterans smoothly playing off each other in the tight confines of the psyche. Demi Moore stays within herself and is all grim determination, while Dane Cook simply cannot keep up with the talent around him.

Mr. Brooks is a mind trip to the land of mental disturbia, cluttered by plenty of more conventional diversions.

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Movie Review: Winter's Tale (2014)

A century-spanning fantasy romantic drama, Winter's Tale combines a love story with an eternal battle between good and evil, with plenty of supernatural elements thrown in. Attempting to be profound, the film is a hopeless mess.

In New York of 1916, Peter Lake (Colin Farrell), having survived been set adrift in a small boat by his parents in 1895 after they were rejected as immigrants, attempts to escape a street gang led by the demon Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). A white horse that can fly helps Peter's getaway, and eventually leads him to the door of the sickly Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay), her rich father Isaac (William Hurt), and younger sister Willa.

Peter and Beverly fall in love, while Pearly pleads with his boss Lucifer (Will Smith) for permission to put a stop to their magical romance. Peter stays one step ahead of Pearly, but the relationship with Beverly suffers, and Peter lands in New York of 2014, where his story will continue.

Based on a book by Mark Helprin adapted and directed by Akiva Goldsman, Winter's Tale may have worked well on the written page, but is an unmitigated disaster on the screen. The film's ambition far exceeds its cinematic abilities, and comes across as fairy tale for children being repackaged as a serious romantic drama for adults, and falling into a vacuum of confused and morose nothingness.

The story demands natural acceptance of flying white horses, demons on the loose but with turf restrictions, Lucifer holding court in New York City, and plenty of romanticized bumf about miracles, destiny and people turning into literal stars. The material may have had a chance to succeed with a whimsical light touch, but Goldsman goes the ultra serious route, delivering a grim, dour and boring two hours.

Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Will Smith generally embarrass themselves in roles where anything goes since there are no familiar rules in this world. Farrell's character exists as a baby in 1895 and is still going strong in 2014, but never expresses any emotion other than grim displeasure. Crowe as a demon seems obsessed with Peter but Goldsman does not pause to explain why a petty thief is such a danger to a demon. Smith sits back and reflects on a sidetracked career, the devil reduced to dealing with the machinations of a fledgling romance between a burglar and a frail woman.

Jessica Brown Findlay portrays the tragically sick but otherwise perfect vision of a woman who fulfills every superficial man's dream of beauty and tenderness with no depth of character necessary. Meanwhile, Jennifer Connelly and Eve Marie Saint appear in the latter 2014 chapter, and seem genuinely confused about their roles in the story.

Buckling under its own weight of needless solemnity, Winter's Tale is better left untold.

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Movie Review: Syriana (2005)

An intellectual tour-de-force delving into the morass of Middle East geo-politics, Syriana launches a thrilling multi-pronged probe of its subject, and emerges with a realistic portrait of a depressing impasse.

The film tackles several interlinked sub-stories. Weary CIA Agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) tangles with arms dealers in Tehran, and in the process loses control of a sophisticated anti-tank missile. His next assignment is to travel to Beirut and assassinate Prince Nassir (Alexander Siddig), the progressive heir to an oil-rich Arab country. Once in Beirut, Barnes crosses paths with the militant group Hezbollah, particularly the brutal Mussawi (Mark Strong).

Big oil companies in the US want Nassir out of the way because he threatens to upset the status quo. Idealistic energy consultant Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) overcomes the tragic loss of his young son to become Nassir's trusted advisor, and together they plan Nassir's modernization of his country.

A large merger of oil companies Connex and Killen is unfolding in the United States. The consolidated company will control vast oil and gas reserves in the Middle East and Asia, and is most interested in stability. Attorney Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is hired to investigate the proposed merger, which appears to be a fait accompli. Bennet's boss is political power broker Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer), working behind the scenes to ensure that the more compliant Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha) ascends to the throne instead of Nassir.

The merger of Connex and Killen results in mass layoffs in the oil fields of the Middle East. One of the casualties is Pakistani migrant worker Wasim (Mazhar Munir) and once unemployed he drifts under the Islamist influence of charismatic recruiter Muhammad Sheikh Agiza (Amr Waked). Wasim is radicalized and prepared for a terrorist suicide mission, using the anti-tank missile seized in Tehran.

Delving into the world of Middle East politics is a daunting task, and Syriana succeeds with aplomb. The fast paced episodic structure preferred by director Stephen Gaghan (adapting the book See No Evil by Robert Baer) is a perfect fit with the fragmented yet labyrinthine relationships that define the region. And other than ignoring the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Gaghan expertly assembles the pieces of the puzzle and tightly packs the 128 minutes of running time with multiple stories of ever increasing tension.

While Syriana's structure works in its favour, it also allows Gaghan to get away with some short-hand. The various stories hold enormous impact thanks to the short sharp jabs style of delivery, but this also leaves plenty that is unsaid and unexplained. The need to fill in the blanks serves the film's intellectual credentials but also gives it a free pass to gloss over what could have been interesting details.

There are few happy emotions in Syriana. The film mimics the Middle East's pathetic entrapment into a cycle of pessimism driven by greed and the crushing imperatives of oil, which flows along with espionage, arms trading, corruption, corporotocracy, torture, extremes of wealth and poverty, militant Islam and terrorism. The polluted streams of evil feed off each other and accelerate the downward spiral of violence and subjugation, sucking entire societies into the vortex. Progressive voices are trampled because the system is dependent on maintaining the existing structure among the entrenched power brokers, and change represents an unacceptable risk to the production of oil and profits.

The ensemble cast members are all appropriately dour or conniving. Clooney won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Bob Barnes (effectively Baer's character), a disillusioned agent who has seen too many battles and too many betrayals in the back alleys of the Middle East, but knows of no other life. Christopher Plummer is at his oily best as a literal backroom kingmaker. Matt Damon and Akbar Kurtha represent the earnest but naive attitude of optimism that occasionally sprouts in the region, and their characters predictably hurtle towards the impenetrable brick wall of international rules set by others. Also in the cast are Chris Cooper as a Killen executive, Amanda Peet as Bryan Woodman's wife, and William Hurt as one of Barnes' few trusted allies at the CIA.

By the time Gaghan wraps up his stories, all his key characters have been profoundly impacted, and of course absolutely no meaningful positive change has been achieved. In the Middle East potential saviours are swallowed by the desert, drowned in oil, and quickly forgotten as the tide of oil-fuelled violence marches on abated.

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The Movies Of William Hurt

All movies starring William Hurt and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Body Heat (1981)

The Big Chill (1983)

Gorky Park (1983)

Broadcast News (1987)

The Doctor (1991)

Trial By Jury (1994)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Changing Lanes (2002)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Syriana (2005)

The Good Shepherd (2006)

Mr. Brooks (2007)

Into The Wild (2007)

Vantage Point (2008)

Robin Hood (2010)

Too Big To Fail (2011)

Winter's Tale (2014)

Race (2016)

The Miracle Season (2018)

The Last Full Measure (2019)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.