EVEREST Review

Like it's titular mountain, Everest the film is a vast beast of an adventure. More than anything, director Baltasar Kormákur (Contraband, 2 Guns) gives the film a strong foundation on which to stand and a sense of adventure going forward that is more than enough to make up for what can sometimes feel like a slim narrative. That is, of course, until the film reaches it's last half hour in which it feels like it has to rush to resolve every plot strand it has set up for it's large ensemble cast. That said, the film is more than a solid venture into one of the most dangerous places on earth that people dare to go which brings us to the real heart of the film. Without the crux of why each of these individuals wanted or were willing to risk their lives for a reward that, for some, could be viewed as senseless is what provides the anchor of the audiences investment. There are plenty of ways in which Kormákur could have chosen to approach this set-up that was primed perfectly for little more than a tense, action spectacle, but at it's heart this is a human story. And so, the fact Kormákur and writers William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy have essentially made both a rousing testament to the human spirit and a devastatingly brutal film that delivers the man versus nature psychology to an unflinching degree is admirable. In many ways, Everest doesn't purport to be anything more than a straightforward documentation of this true story that occurred in 1996 when a team of thrill-seekers attempted to scale Mt. Everest, but it can't help but to be about more given the grand themes that life naturally brings down upon us when we're stranded in desperate situations and have nothing else to turn to but our thoughts and memories. Kormákur largely tackles the positive aspects of this kind of adventure and way of thinking in the first half of the film before everything goes south and the darker side of these risks are exposed.

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Review

After seeing The Imitation Game earlier this week and how it concerned itself with addressing the life of a genius while centering around a pivotal narrative in his life I more or less expected the same from The Theory of Everything where instead of the subject being a mathematician they are a theoretical physicist. While my main complaint concerning the biopic is that most follow a typical template The Theory of Everything does so with seemingly no ambition to be anything more. This was unanimously my complaint with the story of Alan Turing while working to its advantage because the story it chooses to document is infinitely compelling. With the tale of Stephen Hawking though, the story is simply him. This is a documentation of his life events, but there is no driving force or specific goal behind it that desperately needs to be accomplished. A set objective isn't always necessary and great, intriguing films can certainly be made without the need of some overarching intent driving the narrative, but here it felt as if that certain something was missing. That said, director James Marsh who is mainly known for his documentaries, has crafted a movie that is more memorable for its performances and smaller moments than anything else. As far as what the film is actually missing to make up for its somewhat lackadaisical approach to plot is hard to say. It has the two young stars at the head aging unconvincingly, it centers around a man who had to overcome great odds in his life and accomplished a great many things despite those odds set against him, but it also never challenges the audience to feel his struggles. I imagine the majority of the American public would recognize Hawking's name if not for the reasons he is well-known and so one has to wonder why this story was worth telling if the real life Hawking received credit where credit was due. As the film progresses though I began to understand why Marsh kept things as simple as he possibly could; this isn't a story about a specific thing Hawking accomplished, but the pure miracle that he kept accomplishing things at all after being diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 1963.  I understand the approach and the finished product is a fine enough summation of what has been a rather extraordinary life, but that doesn't excuse the fact it still feels like something crucial is missing that might have made the difference in a good film and an exceptional one.    

First Trailer for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

In what will surely be hoping to become a serious Oscar contender this fall, Eddie Redmayne of Les Miserables portrays Stephen Hawking in the doctors formative years where he meets and falls in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde (Felecity Jones). Hailed as the extraordinary true story of one of the world’s greatest living minds this biopic certainly has a certain level of intrigue to it. The other factors that allow me to find this more interesting than the rather vanilla trailer suggests is the fact it is directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire). Marsh is not a director that has necessarily allowed himself to be restrained to one category or genre, but instead actually floats between making narrative features and documentaries. I can only imagine with this kind of history and pool of knowledge to pull from the filmmaker will find an interesting way to tell a good story while also successfully capturing the essence of his subjects and what makes them as much as the events worth paying attention to. Most people know Hawking received the earth-shattering diagnosis of motor neuron disease at age 21 which here seems to function as the reason audiences will need to get behind these characters and root for Hawking and his wife to defy impossible odds while breaking new ground in medicine and science. The films screenplay by Anthony McCarten is based on the memoir "Travelling to Infinity" written by Hawking's wife Jane and so there should be a certain level of insight here on the more personal parts of Hawking's life that could prove to deliver on those Oscar hopes. The Theory of Everything also stars David Thewlis, Emily Watson and will have its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival next month while opening in theaters on November 7th.

THE BOOK THIEF Review

Not being familiar with the Markus Zusak novel from which this film was adapted I had no real knowledge of what I was getting into with The Book Thief. I'd avoided the trailer for the most part after hearing it was a horrible representation of the actual film and that it contained more than cheesy voiceover that made it feel like a trailer put together in the early 90's, but walking out of the film I still wasn't sure what to make of what I'd just witnessed. There is nothing that struck me in a way where I knew I would be thinking about the film for days afterward, but it became extremely clear over the course of the film that lead actress Sophie Nélisse was a true talent to watch and that if there was anything about this little film that might prove to be its mainstay it would be that it introduced the world to a great young actress that could very well go on to become exceptional. That isn't to say there is nothing else about the film that isn't interesting or worth talking about because in all actuality The Book Thief is a very solid picture, a kind of movie we don't get to see all that often these days because lines have been drawn in the sand that have categorized audiences to a point that telling the story of war, and specifically World War II Germany, from the perspective of a child would no doubt be looked at as something that doesn't fit squarely into any pre-determined demographic. Director Brian Percival (Downton Abbey) is lucky to have Zusak's 2006 book as a point of interest though as it has garnered interest in his vision of bringing the story of Liesel to the big screen and though it may not leave a huge cultural impact it is with ease that I say we are more fortunate than not having been given the opportunity to meet her. Nélisse's Liesel is our surrogate into late 1930's Germany up through to the end of the war and while the film doesn't tend to go with any of the typical trappings you might usually see coming from a film concerning Hitler and his minions what it does instead is give us pure insight into the day to day of what it was like to live during that time. In a constant state of fear, in worry of smiling too often or even stimulating ones mind by reading. While this all may sound like familiar ground and in some sense it is, The Book Thief is also a film that delivers a wonderful set of performances wrapped in a historical context that will do you no harm in coming to understand it a little better. That, and my wife absolutely loved it so take my words with a grain of salt as she's typically more in tune with what is genuine quality, if I do say so myself.