Love in the Time of Cholera – Starring Javier Bardem

Love in the Time of Cholera (2007)  Directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Donnie Brasco (1997), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2006)), starring Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men (2007), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Biutiful (2010), Eat Pray Love (2010)), Benjamin Bratt (Traffic (2000)), Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Fernanda Montenegro and others.  The film, Love in the Time of Cholera, is, of course, based on the eponymous novel (1985) by the Nobel-prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose 100 Years of Solitude (1967) introduced so many to the wonders of Magic Realism.  In his novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, however, Garcia Marquez has toned down the fantastical elements (a bit) and has opted for a treatise on the many forms and mysteries of love, from the brute fugue to the capital L, and yet his writing is no less superb, inspired and, yes, magical.  Unfortunately, Mike Newell’s film, Love in the Time of Cholera, despite a commendable effort by the enormously talented actor Javier Bardem, and sumptuous locations, is a leaden thing, a series of scenes missing all the essential life at the heart of Garcia Marquez’ magnificent novel. Yes, and all the magic.(PR)

See our post on the film No Country for Old Men, starring Javier Bardem.

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The Other Boleyn Girl – Starring Natalie Portman & Scarlett Johnansson

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)(DVD)  Directed by Justin Chadwick, starring Natalie Portman (My Blueberry Nights (2007), Black Swan (2010)), Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation (2003), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)), Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient (1996)) and others.  This period drama, with Eric Bana as King Henry VIII, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn, Scarlett Johansson as her sister Mary Boleyn and Kristin Scott-Thomas as the young Boleyns’ mother, permits itself liberal historical license, one supposes, in the name of drama itself.  However, it should be said, Eric Bana is lacking the necessary regal weight, shall we say, as Henry VIII, Portman, as the unsympathetic Anne Boleyn is certainly unsympathetic, Johansson as the “good” Mary Boleyn is, at best, generally attractive, and Scott-Thomas, though allotted little screen time, manages to be redeemably feminist, if that can be considered a plus in the context.  In the end, The Other Boleyn Girl, with its poor dialogue, unimaginative music, editing to the point of virtually meaningless fragmentation, unfulfilled promise of a “sexy and sassy” take on the subject matter, not to mention its questionable grasp of history, could, possibly, be recommended to those who enjoy, well, period costumes, or truly dedicated fans of Portman or Johansson. (PR)

See our posts on Blackswan, and Closer, with Natalie Portman, and The Island, with Scarlett Johansson.

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Whatever Works

Whatever Works (2009)(DVD)  Directed by Woody Allen (Take the Money and Run (1069), Sleeper (1973), Annie Hall (1977), Radio Days (1987), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)), starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood (King of California (2007), Patricia Clarkson (The Untouchables (1987), The Pledge (2001), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Shutter Island (2010)) and others.  This comedy could be called “old-school” Woody Allen in that Allen says he wrote it in the 1970s, which one would hardly doubt, and in the very strong impression one has is that the main character, played by Larry David, seems so very autobiographical, which, for some reason, Allen denies; sixty-something year old, Jewish intellectual New Yorker marries a 21-year old, from, shall we say, another culture.  Rachel Evan Wood is quite good, as the 21-year old Melodie, and rather amusing, Patricia Clarkson, as her mother, is also good.  Nevertheless, and perhaps due to it having been written in the ’70s and being a particular product of the era, Whatever Works is rather flat, rather boring and rather formulaic, despite some very funny lines now and again. (PR)

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No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men, by Joel & Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy

No Country for Old Men (2007) (DVD) Joel & Ethan Coen (Fargo (1996), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), True Grit (2010)), starring Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), In the Valley of Elah (2007)), Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside (Mar adentro) (2004), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Biutiful (2010)), Josh Brolin (W. (2008), Milk (2008), True Grit (2010)) and others.  No Country for Old Men, described by some as a “crime thriller”, is quite simply a superb movie (receiving numerous awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh) among others) very closely based on the superb novel of the same name, written by Cormac McCarthy in 2005.  One may call it an examination of destiny and circumstance, a “new western”, even “a masterful evocation of time, place, character, moral choices, immoral certainties, human nature and fate” (Roger Ebert) and many other things.  The fact remains that Bardem as Chigurh is an extraordinarily compelling villain, the writing and direction are masterful, and one simply must see it, more than once. (PR)

See our posts on other novels by Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian, and Outer Dark.

Also see our post on the film by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood, filmed in the same region as No Country for Old Men.

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