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Home Cinema
by
Leonard Heldreth
Thrills, mystery and the effects of war
The films this month include a surrealistic thriller set in New Orleans by a famous German director, a Swedish mystery based on an international best-seller and two apolitical but moving examinations of the effects of the Iraq-Afghanistan wars on young soldiers and their families.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
In 1992, Abel Ferrara directed Harvey Keitel in a film with the title Bad Lieutenant. This independent production, coproduced by Edward R. Pressman, received mixed reviews, but Keitel’s portrayal of a corrupt, drug-addicted NYC cop was praised highly as an acting tour de force.
The famous German director, Werner Herzog (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, 1972; Nosferatu the Vampyre, 1979; Fitzcarraldo, 1982; Grizzly Man, 2005; and Encounters at the End of the World, 2007) now has filmed Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans starring Nicholas Cage, which also received mixed although mostly positive reviews.
Herzog and Ferrara deny any connection between the films other than the title and the main character, a corrupt cop; they are not sequels, prequels or remakes. Herzog says he has never seen the Ferrara film, and Ferrara claims Herzog's film is an attempt to capitalize on the reputation of his film.
Unfortunately for Ferrara’s argument, Herzog is a far better known and more highly regarded director than Ferrara. Apparently Pressman, who helped produce both films, was responsible for Herzog’s choice of title. Herzog used an entirely different script, although the credits acknowledge the earlier film.
The best approach is to look at Herzog’s film without considering Ferrara’s film, a task which I found easy to do since I had missed the earlier movie.
Nicolas Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a New Orleans city detective. When Hurricane Katrina hits, despite his cynicism and the advice of his partner, Stevie Pruit (Val Kilmer), he dives off a catwalk to release a prisoner locked in a cell with rapidly rising water and a swimming snake. He saves the prisoner, but injures his back, and a doctor assures him he will be on heavy medication for the rest of his life, even though the act earned him a promotion to lieutenant.
When the prescribed vicodin wears thin, McDonagh supplements the dosage with cocaine and other drugs that he lifts from the police storage room, and, when that source is blocked, he starts shaking down anyone he can in any way he can. Cage walks with a limp and his face looks as if he is in permanent severe pain—so much for good deeds.
McDonagh finds himself investigating a drug massacre in which an immigrant family is believed to have been eliminated because it was trespassing on a local drug lord's territory, and this investigation continues throughout the film. In addition to his drug addiction, McDonagh has a prostitute girlfriend whom he tries to protect (as well as share cocaine with), but that gets him into trouble with the mob.
He owes his bookie $5,000 because he also has a gambling compulsion. He has to take care of his father’s dog so his father, a retired policeman, can go to AA meetings, while his father’s second wife drinks herself slowly into oblivion. Then there is “Big Fate,” the drug lord who suggests he and McDonagh become partners and sell condos.
Oh, yes, then there are the two elderly women in a rest home whom he threatens without realizing who they are. One reviewer compared the film to Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil in that the viewer is less interested in whether the crime is solved than in what happens to the characters.
If all these events and characters sound weird, they are, but they are not the weirdest aspects of the film. They do not top the iguanas only Cage can see, the alligator that is run over while its mate watches from the side of the road (the camera’s point of view), and the drug dealer who has to be shot again because his soul won’t stop breakdancing to music only the detective can hear.
Cage gives his most over-the-top performance ever, and it’s exactly right for the part. He switches from pained focus to drugged hyperactivity in the blink of a low-lidded eye, and if he weren’t so crazy that he keeps everyone around him on edge, he would be in real trouble.
Strangely enough, for all the digressions and loose ends, the plot works, and Herzog brings the entire process to a tidy close while keeping the viewer’s attention, an attention sometimes laced with amazement, especially when a surprise character reappears in the last scene.
This may be the strangest movie of the year, but it’s also definitely worth seeing, especially to see how an original director can breathe new life into the tried-and-true formula of the corrupt cop movie. Top
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
In 2004, Swedish author Stieg Larsson submitted to his publisher the manuscript of the third of what became known as the “Millenium” novels (a fourth was in progress and four more were planned). Shortly after that, at the age of fifty, he died of a massive heart attack under what some thought were mysterious circumstances.
The books were published and became world-wide best sellers. All three novels—The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish title: Men Who Hate Women), The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest—have been filmed in Sweden using the same cast and director. The first has been released in the United States with subtitles, and the other two are expected to follow.
A friend who likes mysteries said he could not become interested in Dragon Tattoo, and the novel does take a while to get started—longer than the film. In the first of the three converging plotlines used in both, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), a reporter opposing right-wing extremists (as Larsson himself did), is convicted of libel against a prominent industrial tycoon, fined, and sentenced to six months in prison, although he is given three months to put his affairs in order before the prison term begins.
Taking a temporary leave from his position of coeditor and part owner of Millennium magazine, he is at loose ends until offered a job by Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), the eighty-year-old C.E.O. of the Vanger group and a multimillionaire.
The second plot line, and the one that dominates the action, involves Vanger’s hiring of Blomkvist to make one last attempt at solving the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, then sixteen. The police and various others have investigated the disappearance with no success, and Vanger has accumulated many boxes of possible clues over the years.
The old man suspects a member of his own family of murdering the girl, and every year on his birthday, Vanger receives a framed dried flower, which he suspects the murderer sends to him to cause further pain. Blomkvist, unemployed until his prison term starts and needing to pay his fine with the very handsome sum that Vanger offers, takes the job.
The third plot element is Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), the girl of the title. Twenty-four, skinny, pierced, tattooed and dressed in black, she is an unlikely heroine but an extremely effective one. Psychologically damaged by sexual brutality in childhood and adulthood, this young Goth trusts no one, but has a photographic memory, the best computer-hacking skills in Sweden, and a fierce survival instinct.
She also believes in paying back her tormenters, and the first task is to break free of a state-appointed guardian who is abusing her sexually. Earlier in the film, hired by a security firm to investigate Blomkvist for Vanger, she becomes intrigued by the case of Harriet Vanger, and leaves some information on Blumkvist's computer, thus bringing the two of them together. This step triggers the action of the rest of the film in which the plotlines are resolved concerning Lisbeth and the guardian, the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, and the libel conviction of Blomkvist.
The most interesting character, who is probably the critical factor in the success of the works, is Lisbeth Salander, and Noomi Rapace captures her about as well as anyone could. Michael Nyqvist is fine as the reporter, and the supporting parts are all nicely handled.
The photography focuses, appropriately, on the cold, frozen island where the Vanger estate is located. The film includes rape, murder and other crimes against women, and exhibits some quite explicit violence against both sexes.
The film adaptation is as close to the novel as a 150-minute film can be, and only one significant change occurs near the end, a change which actually may improve the plot resolution from my point of view. The film is directed in a low-key manner that does not get in the way of the plot development, although flashbacks and photo-animation are used.
Since foreign-language films have a limited audience in the United States, an English-speaking remake is planned, and David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) seems interested in directing, with possibly Daniel Craig as the investigating reporter. Noomi Rapace, in an English interview on the DVD, said she is not interested in playing the part in an American version—over a year as this character was enough for her.
While the American version may be a good film, it won’t be any better than the current one, and it won’t have Noomie Rapace, so accept the subtitles, and rent the DVD of this year’s best thriller movie. Better yet, read the novel and then see the film; I think you’ll enjoy both. The film is in Swedish with English subtitles. Top
The Messenger
First-time director Oren Moverman, a former Israeli soldier, has created a film about an unusual subject: the people in the Casualty Notification program, i.e., those military men and women who notify the next-of-kin that they have lost a loved one in the war.
Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) has returned from Iraq with physical and psychological wounds as well as citations for heroism. At the beginning of the film, he puts drops in his eyes that run down his face like tears, and he pays regular visits to a rehabilitation center. For the remaining three months of his tour of duty, he is assigned to work with Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) as the messenger who delivers the bad news to families. Much of the film centers on their “messenger” activities and the personal stress they are under, for no one can predict how people will react to the news—shock, disbelief, denial, surprised courtesy, anger at the messenger. A father played by Steve Buscemi screams at them and calls them “cowards” for not being in the war themselves.
The plot, what there is, follows two threads in addition to the soldiers carrying out their duties. The obvious one is the growing relationship between Montgomery and Stone. Stone is a recovering alcoholic who is leaning way over the edge of the wagon. He resents the fact that although he was in Desert Storm, he saw virtually no action, and complains no one shot at him. He is impressed by, and perhaps resents, the younger Montgomery’s demonstrated behavior under fire and his medals.
As several recent war films have emphasized, the dividing line here is between those who have been directly under fire and those, both civilian and military, who have not.
Gradually, these two men learn to accept each others’ problems and to value what each brings to his common job. In the last scene, as the two sit alone in a room drinking a beer, Montgomery explains how he sees his “heroism” and what he cannot forget about the events that he experienced.
The second plot thread is more contrived, but carefully and delicately handled. The two messengers deliver their official announcement to the newly-widowed Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton), who thanks them courteously for coming in person to tell her of her husband's death. Montgomery later finds himself thinking about her and does what is absolutely forbidden—he goes back to see her. He knows it’s wrong, she knows it’s wrong and both are too civilized to go further than to be temporary friends.
Each, however, acknowledges an attraction, and he helps her and her son pack to move to another part of the country. She agrees that after some time passes, she will send him her address and they will see what happens.
The acting is excellent, with Ben Foster outstanding as a tough but vulnerable young soldier; he carefully balances conflicting emotions and projects them without chewing up the scenery. Harrelson creates a sympathetic and yet sometimes prickly character whose desire to live by the book conceals an immaturity and a wild side he cannot control. Harrelson was nominated for an Academy Award for Supporting Actor. Samantha Morton, always a fine actress, creates a solid and sympathetic character, feeling her way through a difficult and unexpected situation. The film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Like The Hurt Locker, this film and Brothers (in the following review) take no political positions on the wars they portray; they are concerned with the soldiers and the effects of war—any war-on those individuals and their families. A short documentary on the DVD contains interviews with the actual soldiers who have served in the Casualty Notification program and the situations they have encountered as they carry out their duties. Top
Brothers
Brothers almost could be said to pick up where The Messenger leaves off. This film, a remake of Brodre, a 2004 Danish film, is directed nicely by veteran Irish-born director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In America, In the Name of the Father, The Boxer). Like all of his films, it focuses on the family and the tensions external political situations place on family relationships and loyalty. It also takes up another of his favorite themes—how can you forgive yourself after committing a terrible crime?
Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is the model brother, the soldier who is a good husband, a good father and a good leader of his troops. As the movie opens, he is preparing to return to Afghanistan. Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the opposite-unattached, unmotivated, lacking in focus or direction.
As the film opens, he is being released from prison. Their father, Hank Cahill (Sam Shepard), is a retired military officer who praises Sam and constantly criticizes Tommy; he also has an unacknowledged drinking problem. Natalie Portman plays Grace, Sam's wife, in a part that seems underdeveloped.
In a virtual repeat of a scene from The Messenger, Grace is informed Sam’s helicopter has been shot down and he has been killed, although the body has not been recovered. After the funeral, Tommy tries to help her and her two daughters cope with their loss, and although the brother and widow gradually acknowledge they are attracted to each other, nothing happens.
Then Grace receives a phone call that Sam was not killed, and the rest of the film describes the effects of his return and the way the two brothers, Grace, and her two daughters come to terms with what has happened to them and to Sam in Afghanistan.
The acting is solid, if unexceptional, although Maguire sometimes seems too wide-eyed and innocent for his part while Shepard, who can be a fine actor, does little to keep his character from being a stereotype. On the other hand, the daughters (Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare) are extraordinarily fine in their parts.
Overall, Brothers is an uneven but interesting take on an unusual situation, one that is as timely today in America as it was in 2004 in Denmark. Top
—Leonard G. Heldreth
Editor’s Note: Films are available on DVD or VHS from local stores. Reviews of earlier films can be found at www.mmnow.com
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