In Difficult Times, Life Can Be Lifted by a Song

Kristin Scott Thomas in "Military Wives"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

*With movie theaters closed at the moment, some of the reviews that I’ll be writing will be for 2020 movies that I either missed near the beginning of the year, or 2020 movies that were scheduled to be released this year, but have since been sent to streaming and on-demand services.

Peter Cattaneo is a director who has a niche with stories involving the performing arts.  While this was done so to a lesser extent with 2001’s “Lucky Break” and 2008’s “The Rocker,” he still has the early success of his acclaimed 1997 comedy, “The Full Monty.”  Having not directed a movie for over a decade, Cattaneo returns to the crowd-pleasing roots that helped make “The Full Monty” a success, bringing us his latest film, “Military Wives.”  While this movie goes for the easy heart-tugging approach, it does so in a way that still makes this film a moving experience.

On a military base in England, a group of women go about their day-to-day lives while their spouses are deployed to the Middle East.  Thinking that the women should bond more, Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Lisa (Sharon Horgan) decide to start a choir.  When their talents are soon discovered, they are asked to perform at the Royal Albert Hall for its Festival of Remembrance. 

Thomas and Horgan make for a wonderful pair of actresses whose characters’ personalities disagree with each other, offering some fun humor throughout as they learn to work together.  However, what draws you into their growing friendship is their emotional connection towards what it’s like to not only be military spouses, but to also be parents in a military family.  We see how this impacts their daily lives as they try to help the other women on the base keep their minds off the constant worry of their spouses being in danger, and the bond that Thomas and Horgan create help to emphasize the characters’ need for a common goal amongst people who are going through the same kind of emotional pain.

The entire ensemble of the choir offers terrific chemistry, but two of the standouts are Gaby French as Jess, a timid yet gifted singer who soon becomes the choir’s soloist, and Amy James-Kelly as Sarah, the newest resident on the base.  However, all who are involved do well in exhibiting the nerve-racking wait for any bad news, while also showing how much a stress relief, such as the choir, can help them ease their situation.

While the screenplay by Rachel Tunnard and Rosanne Flynn pretty much plays out how you would expect, there’s still a poignant angle at which to explore stories about the military as it focuses on the loved ones who are waiting at home and what they do to cope.  Despite there being many characters, we’re given some scenes here and there where we have an opportunity to learn about many of the women on the base and what they’re experiencing.  While a lot of the dialogue is understandably upfront about the hardships in which the women find themselves, it still refrains from going into emotional manipulation, and there are also bits of dialogue that are rather understated when focusing on the spouses’ plight that manage to have a lasting dramatic effect.

Cattaneo’s direction is rather by-the-numbers and what you would expect from a straightforward movie like this, but the old-fashioned approach still helps make this the crowd-pleaser that brings out heartfelt and witty performances and allows us to feel the anxiety and sacrifice that the soldiers and their spouses make during wartime.

Despite the standard direction, Cattaneo delivers when it comes to the end sequence at the Royal Albert, where the choir performs an original song, “Home Thoughts from Abroad,” that they write from their experiences as spouses of soldiers.  What they give is an uplifting and emotional performance that is bound to get you misty eyed and solidifies the relationships that the women have built amongst each other over the course of the film.  What helps make this scene so powerful is that you don’t hear the song until this sequence, which puts you in the place of the choir’s audience as they’re absorbed by the poignancy of the song. 

As a thank-you note to the armed forces and their spouses, “Military Wives” is a movie that, like the choir in the story, deserves your cheers and applause.

Grade: B+

For a Troubled Man, His Life Becomes All About His Style

Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel in "Deerskin"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

*Although I've been catching up on some classic movies over the last few weeks ever since the movie theaters temporarily closed, I'm going to take a break from them every so often to dive into the indie films that have been made available in the Jacob Burns Film Center's virtual screening room.

I ventured into writer-director Quentin Dupieux’s horror comedy, “Deerskin,” with just a minimal amount of insight into what it was about.  I wasn’t even too aware of what the genre would be.  What a memorable viewing experience it was when the movie shifted gears into a whole different beast than what I was expecting.  It’s a movie that revels in its weirdness and boldness, and it demands your attention.

Georges (Jean Dujardin) leaves his old life and starts a new one.  He begins by purchasing a deerskin jacket, with which he soon becomes obsessed, and then decides to stay in a hotel in the countryside.  After meeting a bartender, Denise (Adèle Haenel), he lies to her and says that he’s a filmmaker.  His newfound artistic outlet and infatuation with his jacket will soon intertwine into something much more sinister.

Before this movie, I had only seen Dujardin in “The Artist” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”  He has mostly acted in French cinema throughout his two-decade career, but his work in this movie further proves that he deserves a wider recognition amongst filmgoers from all over, delivering a performance that’s as chilling as it is comical.  He’s a character that makes you cringe a bit because of how uncomfortable he can make certain interactions, but also have you shiver as Georges begins tapping into his darker impulses as his puzzling obsession with his jacket begins to take a stronger hold on him.

Dupieux’s screenplay sets up a mysterious premise that has just enough weirdness going on without throwing everything to you at once, but then draws you in further as the ominousness increases.  When it gets to the point where the story makes its menacing intentions known, you’ll find yourself jerk forward in surprise and then recoil in shock as you begin your descent into the film’s more alarming territory.  In the middle of this narrative is an unsettling character study that always has you asking questions about Georges, and the things that he does and why he does them has you pondering the meaning of the movie.  A character as troubled as Georges isn’t one who should be figured out so easily, and the narrative doesn’t offer any easy answers.

Dupieux creates such an intriguing character, that as good as the movie is, it’s a shame that it’s only 77 minutes because you end up wishing that you could spend more time Georges to see what else is going through his mind.  Yes, the mystery behind him is what makes the story so interesting, and I’m not suggesting that Dupieux try to disclose what his character is all about, but to have the movie a little longer so a few more layers could be added to the mystery of who Georges is would have worked to terrific effect with such a unique character.

As a director, Dupieux handles the tonal shifts between offbeat comedy and offbeat horror without flaw, eventually mixing the two and creating a story that will have you going between chuckling and gasping as you witness the audaciousness of Dupieux’s startling vision.  Despite the short runtime, this is a movie that still offers enough in terms of giving you something that feels different, and Dupieux succeeds in absorbing you in the off-kilter nature of the film, making “Deerskin” a movie that will get under yours.

Grade: A-

When Faced with an Illness, a Couple Tries to Maintain Their Bond

Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville in "Ordinary Love"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

*With movie theaters closed at the moment, some of the reviews that I’ll be writing will be for 2020 movies that I either missed near the beginning of the year, or 2020 movies that were scheduled to be released this year, but have since been sent to streaming and on-demand services. 

There are many areas to explore when it comes to love stories.  Whether we see them right from the beginnings of the relationships, or just a snapshot of the lives that the two partners share, there’s a wealth of honest emotion to witness as these narrative play out.  The latest example of this is given to us with Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s romantic drama, “Ordinary Love,” a soul-stirring testament to how the devotion between two people is needed when faced with any challenge.

Joan (Lesley Manville) and Tom (Liam Neeson) are a married couple that shares a peaceful life.  When Joan finds out that she has breast cancer, this diagnosis will make her and Tom reevaluate their relationship as they face the prospect of only having a little more time together.

Manville and Neeson provide a heartfelt portrait of a wife and husband that has you feel the many years of love that they have shared, which secures your emotional investment in their tribulation.  You see their characters express the sense of doubt that they have in coming out of this all right, but they also show the strength in taking this chapter of their lives in stride and hoping for the best, and you remain confident that their commitment to each other will carry them through this diagnosis.  The two leads show a superb spirit in their performances as their characters do what they can to make it through this hardship, and whether they have civil conversations or fights with each other, they display an intense believability in their roles that makes the movie as effective as it is.

There’s also a terrific supporting performance from David Wilmot, who portrays a fellow cancer patient who sparks a friendship with Joan.  His work in the film is a rich example of someone who might be facing the end of his life and sees how important it is to have someone to whom you can talk during such an uncertain time.  There’s a lot of power behind his character’s soft-spoken persona, and the scenes that he shares with Manville dives into the deep camaraderie that can be witnessed between two people who know how the other is feeling when faced with the same ordeal.

The screenplay by Owen McCafferty may be a little thin with its story, but it manages to craft a genuine view of a marriage that’s tested by unexpected hurdles.  Each scene builds upon the last in terms of Joan and Tom’s relationship, so even though we’re only seeing a short period of their marriage, it’s enough to give us an idea of how their marital bond was before the events of the movie.  Between Joan and Tom shopping for groceries, going out to eat, or going out on a run, McCafferty provides his characters with plenty of scenes in which they try to maintain some normalcy in their lives as they face the challenge at hand, and these scenes offer just as much emotional resonance as everything else in the film.

Barros D’Sa and Leyburn provide the film with the solemn atmosphere for which the story calls, while also having the love between Joan and Tom radiate underneath and show glimmers of optimism, giving you hope that everything might turn out all right.  This is a love story through and through, and their direction doesn’t require visual flourishes because all it takes for a narrative like this is simple cameras movements and framing (provided by cinematographer Piers McGrail) that capture the tender feeling that the characters and screenplay emanate.

While “Ordinary Love” shows how some relationships have to face challenges that are different from other relationships, it also emphasizes that all relationships have to face something life-changing at some point, and that’s about as honest, and ordinary, as it gets.

Grade: A-

In a Boarding School, a Mysterious Student’s Secret Brings Potential Consequences

Louise Labeque (left) and Wislanda Louimat in "Zombi Child"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

*Although I've been catching up on some classic movies over the last few weeks ever since the movie theaters temporarily closed, I'm going to take a break from them every so often to dive into the indie films that have been made available in the Jacob Burns Film Center's virtual screening room.

The opening scene to writer-director Bertrand Bonello’s drama, “Zombi Child,” is one that brings us into a story that promises to be unsettling and unpredictable at every turn.  Through an act of voodooism, we go from a man’s final moments to his funeral to his entrance into a supernatural existence, and we’re left wondering the deeper implications that this will have on the rest of the movie.  It’s through this beginning that we’re introduced to the concept of a zombie from a fresh angle, and it’s fascinating to witness.

At a boarding school in France, Fanny (Louise Labeque) and her friends Salomé (Adilé David), Romy (Ninon François), and Adèle (Mathilde Riu) connect with a student, Mélissa (Wislanda Louimat), who moved to France after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.  Soon, Fanny will find out that Mélissa’s family practices voodoo and intends to use the rituals for her own gain.

Labeque, Louimat, David, François, and Riu all create a bond that displays their sisterly connection, while also emitting the tension that begins to come out once Mélissa’s secret is revealed.  However, the true power comes from what we see between Labeque and Louimat.  Their performances are what bring us into the story’s dynamic of one character trying to understand something that the other doesn’t believe that the other person can handle.  They never get into heated arguments over their disagreements, but we still feel the uncertainty that mounts between them as they get closer to Fanny possibly making a destructive decision whose actions could cause irreversible repercussions.  The calmness that both of them exhibit does well in having us trying to decipher what they’re pondering as their friendship continues on its unpredictable path towards something neither one of them would ever think could happen.

Bonello’s screenplay constructs a narrative that goes back and forth between Haiti in 1962 and France in the present, with both timelines being equally engaging.  The sequences in Haiti show the haunting spiritual journey of a man who’s brought back from the dead, and these events have us aching to find out how they will tie in with the France timeline.  Meanwhile, the scenes in France offer us a detailed and carefully built view into the lives of the students at the boarding school.  While the events of that timeline might seem low stakes at first, this is a way for us to see the everyday lives of Fanny, her three best friends, and Mélissa before the latter falls into Fanny’s group, having us wonder what the tipping point will be for Fanny’s inquisitiveness into voodoo and how she will use it for her goals.

The transitions between the two timelines heightens the sense of family history being passed down across generations, showing how the actions of one generation can lead to the actions that are taken by future generations, while also displaying how our culture and traditions can shape us into who we become.  And, as the movie goes on, the transitions between the two time periods help increase the tension as we get closer to seeing how these two plots will coalesce and conclude, strengthening the aspect of what happens when the past catches up with you.

The story within the present-day timeline focuses a lot on the troubles that Fanny and Mélissa are experiencing, and as the movie goes on, the narrative soon takes on an unexpected and darkly comical view into first-world problems versus third-world problems, but I won’t go too deep into it, for fear of spoilers.  All I’ll say is it all adds an angle to these characters that I wasn’t anticipating, and it makes their arcs richer.

Bonello melds coming-of-age drama into a low-key sense of dread throughout the film that keeps you hooked into the mystery of the film’s opening and how it bleeds little by little into the events that unfold at the school.  Bonello provides the story with a seamless blend of the natural and the supernatural that unsettles you for the duration of the movie, and it’s the slow progression of the supernatural within the present-day timeline that makes the last 15 minutes of the movie so effective because of how much time you spend with the characters and learning about them.  With Bonello’s approach to his story, he makes “Zombi Child” a new, bold reawakening of the zombie myth.

Grade: A