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| Subject: Two movies I've seen recently | |
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Author: Kylopod |
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Date Posted: 05:34:17 01/23/08 Wed Author Host/IP: NoHost/66.16.61.163 I recently saw two movies, The Science of Sleep and The Bridge to Terabithia, both of which happened to premiere on cable at about the same time. It wasn't until after I wrote reviews for both films that I noticed their similarities, not immediately obvious considering that one is a children's movie, the other a grownup film. The fact that I chose to watch these two films probably says more about me than it does about the films, as I seem drawn to movies about characters with unrealized artistic ambitions who escape into fantasy worlds. The Science of Sleep I've noticed that movies made by music video directors tend to feature a reconstructed dream world. And why not? The music video is probably the art form that comes closest to approximating a dream, with its disconnected imagery. This approach may not always translate effectively to a two-hour film, but at least I can understand what draws music video directors to a genre known more for visual richness than for narrative coherence. The three directors I have in mind are Spike Jonze, Tarsem Singh, and Michel Gondry. Singh almost doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the other two, for his The Cell is a weak entry in the genre, a barely competent thriller puffed up by lavish but nonsensical dream sequences. Gondry's The Science of Sleep occasionally gets carried away in this manner, but for the most part it's an intriguing drama, if not quite as fabulous as Gondry's previous film, the Charlie Kaufman-penned Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The movie is about a young man played by Gael Garcia Bernal, whose dreams begin to intrude upon his real life. He'll perceive that he's in the middle of a dream, but he'll be walking around in the real world and doing things he may regret later, apparently in some kind of hallucinatory sleepwalking state. It's a twist on the old conundrum of thinking you're awake when you're really dreaming. Bernal plays an eccentric artist who goes to live in France with his widowed mother, who lands him a job at a calendar-making company he incorrectly believes is seeking his artistic talent. He falls in love with a neighbor (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a fellow artist who seems to be after friendship rather than romance. As I write this plot description, I'm struck by how mundane it sounds. It didn't feel that way when I was watching the film. Like 21 Grams, the film is presented in such an unconventional manner that it isn't until it's all over that you realize how straightforward the story is. Since everything we see is from Bernal's perspective, how can we tell any of it is real? At first, his dreams are pretty obvious, with loads of cartoonish imagery, but then that imagery starts to appear in his real life. Running water looks like rolls of cellophane, animals look like animatronic models, and people's voices are heard backwards. The entire story seems framed by a weird television program hosted by Bernal, talking about dreams and philosophizing on the matter. Furthermore, many of his conversations with his quirky coworkers are not with the real individuals but with dream representations of them. By paying close attention (you have to in a movie like this), you can navigate the events. But a shroud of mystery hangs over the plot. For example, why does Gainsbourg push Bernal away? Some of her remarks made me think she was a lesbian, or perhaps not into sex at all. He seems to perceive that she's simply not attracted to him. But it may just be due to his unstable personality. She sees that he has a loose grip on reality, and the fact that he proposes marriage to her very early in their relationship probably doesn't help things. What's interesting is that we have to infer all this, for the evidence of what we see isn't conclusive. I admit that I entertained the idea that Gainsbourg's character doesn't exist outside of Bernal's mind. They have the same name (Stéphane and Stéphanie) and at one point he says she reminds him of her father. Maybe I'm too used to watching movies that pull a fast one on the audience. But I also was expecting more after having seen Eternal Sunshine, which was far more plotted than this movie, which seems to end without much of a resolution. As with 21 Grams, I had to ask myself whether the story was interesting in itself, or simply propped up by a gimmicky method of storytelling. I concluded that I liked the relationship between Bernal and Gainsbourg, mysterious as it was, though Gainsbourg's performance impressed me more than Bernal's. She has always struck me as having an odd look, not traditionally pretty, and I suspected that his attraction to her (which is not immediate) was influenced by his lack of inhibition. With movies like this, you wonder whether the filmmaker has a clear vision or is faking it, but this one has enough decent material for me to recommend. Bridge to Terabithia I had high expectations for this film, and I was disappointed. Based on a popular children's book, the movie imposes some quasi-fantasy elements on a realistic story, as the imaginings of two children playing in the woods are brought to life with CGI. It's a great idea, one that couldn't have been done twenty years ago when the first movie version of the book was made. Unfortunately, after a momentary feeling of awe, the scenes in the woods just sit there, while the more earthbound scenes outside the woods are flat and underdeveloped. The movie feels unfinished, like the script should have been sent back for rewrites. The story involves a boy named Jesse (Josh Hutcherson) in a farming town. He spends his time drawing and is a talented artist, but he is either ignored or mistreated by the people around him. At home, he is given little love or attention in a family of six. At school, he is picked on by bullies and teachers alike. He has a mild crush on his piano teacher (Zooey Deschanel), one of the few characters to treat him like a human being. Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), the girl who moves in next door, is an imaginative outcast whom Jesse soon befriends. They go into the woods where they pretend to have adventures in the magical kingdom of Terabithia. It's the type of behavior you might associate with ten-year-olds (their age in the book) but the actors look to be around 13 or 14. I don't want to dwell on this complaint, because it's the least of the movie's problems. There have been good movies in which the actors weren't quite the right age. This isn't one of them. The Terabithia scenes just get old very quickly. There's no structure to the children's fantasies and ironically not much creativity. It soon begins to look like a primitive, boring video game, as the children fight off weird black creatures darting at them too rapidly for us to get a good glance at them. The movie seems to have forgotten the way real children play, the elaborate stories they can come up with on their own. The movie is really about the friendship between Jesse and Leslie, and how he is unappreciated by almost everyone else. But the relationships lack development. Two characters in particular are handled weakly. Jesse's dad (Robert Patrick) gives much love to Jesse's younger sister but most of the time acts cold and distant to Jesse. Since his motivations are never explained, his transition in the later scenes lacks impact. In contrast, the motivations of the female school bully (Lauren Clinton) are eventually explained, but in a manner that seems too pat, with too much happening off screen. None of the characters show true growth throughout the film. They simply react to situations as they arise. This is an example of a movie that depends too much on gimmicks. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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