Summer cinema sampler - Part 3

The pre-Oscar period means most of the heavyweight contenders are on show. Some other new releeases are also worth checking out.

FEBRUARY 3
True Grit The talented Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, Burn After Reading) adapt Charles Portis’ much-admired 1968 novel of the Old West, which follows the story of 14-year-old farm girl Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) seeking justice for her father's killer (Josh Brolin). She is assisted by a pitiless marshall (Jeff Bridges) and a Texas ranger (Matt Damon) in a much tougher rendering than the highly massaged John Wayne version that earned him a Oscar in 1969. The Coens retain much of the original narrative and dialogue, making this a much more satisfactory and authentic adaptation. In fact, it is hard to fault anything in how Portis' often flowery and formal language is used in the grim wilderness where much of the action is concentrated.

Wild Target A near miss as the farcical elements from its French origins undermine the standard violent thriller plot. Based on a 2003 film called Cible émouvante (moving target), it casts Bill Nighy as an English gentleman but looking more like the archetype Parisian (think Jean Rochefort in the London-set Twice Upon a Time; Rochefort was in the French version). The English remake also channels Stanley Donen's Charade, with Nighy playing a professional hitman, who is sideswiped by a ditzy kleptomaniac (delightful Emily Blunt looking very much like the new Audrey Hepburn). Nighy is supposed to eliminate her on behalf of mobsters she has cheated but romantic entanglements ensue. Rupert Grint (Harry Potter) is the annoying (and innocent) third part of the triangle. The mixing of genres make the result less funny and grimmer than it could have been.
 

FEBRUARY 10
127 Hours It pays to have no preconceptions about this real-life account of how adventurer Aron Ralston became trapped in a remote canyon in Utah by a boulder that pins one of his arms. Director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) digs deep for inventive ways to depict an ordeal where literally little can happen as Ralston (James Franco) faces his demons about solitude and his options on how to escape. To his credit, Boyle raises a range of contentious issues, from obsessions about the outdoors and wilderness in affluent societies through to cinema audiences' predilictions for sadism and self-mutilation, in this case for real. These help keep the mind active as 18 days pass in a compact  one hour 35 minutes on screen.

Fair Game More real life events are depicted in this retelling of how CIA agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) was hung out to dry when her husband, retired US ambassador Joseph Wilson (Sean Penn), challenged the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq. Wilson is sent on a mission to Niger, where the CIA suspects Iraq has been buying yellowcake (a source of uranium source for nuclear weapons). But Wilson rubbishes the idea, to the chagrin of the White House, which then leaks his wife's true occupation, blowing her cover. The most effective parts of the film are played out as a credible personal drama, weighing up a citizen's duty to point out when a government is lying against the consequences on family loyalties. Washington-based political intrigue usually makes exciting cinema, if sometimes free with the facts. For example, reporter Judith Miller's real-life role in the affair is omitted, though she has reviewed the film against the facts. But you can't help being affected by a story in which the exercise of power is completely one-sided.