THE DEBT

Written by Matthew Vaughan, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan

Directed by John Madden

Starring Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain and Tom Wilkinson

Stephan Gold: Truth is a luxury.

Debt has always been something of a dirty word but hopefully the anxiety it inspires in people won’t keep them away from the new John Madden film, entitled THE DEBT. Those who do see it will be swept up in a whole other kind of restless stress, the kind only a good thriller can provide. Madden’s remake of the 2007 Israeli film tells the story of three young Mossad agents (Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain and Martin Csokas) and their successful mission to hunt down and kill one of the worst Nazis to go missing after the war. Many years later, Ciarin Hinds, Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson must cover up the lies surrounding that mission that they’ve been hiding ever since.

Debt weighs you down and and the trio of combatants in THE DEBT know this all too well. Without revealing what they’re keeping secret, the secrets themselves have kept all three of them trapped in the 1960’s, when they successfully caught one of the most nefarious, infamous, and not to mention fictional, nazis ever to escape capture at the end of World War II. While they keep him under watch and await instructions as to what to do with him, things go awry. This is where the lying starts and the truth threatens to show it’s “ugly” head some 30 years later. The time passed has given the initial debt time to grow and now their lies echo around the world. While the global impact of the truth coming out would be monumental, Mirren, as Rachel Singer, is most worried her daughter will find out her mother has been lying to her for her entire life.

Aside from the clear morality lesson at play, THE DEBT, does not spend a lot of time trying to make grand statements, political or otherwise. Instead, it focuses on maintaining suspense while exposing the humanity of what it means to lie about something on such an international scale. Sure, the players are only debating coming clean now that their cover could potentially be blown but that does not take away from the weight they have carried all these years. Their personal debts have taxed them all greatly and the performances, great across the board, including yet another mesmerizing turn from Chastain, are all heavy and harrowing. It is not about emotion for them but rather everything they do is for the mission. Fortunately, Madden accomplishes his mission with style and great tension, allowing for him to make good on this debt.

LAST NIGHT

Written and Directed by Massy Tadjedin

Starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes and Guillaume Canet

A lot can happen in one night. When it comes to couples, seemingly very little can happen but yet still have a momentous impact on the strength of the relationship. And when a married couple is apart for the night, in different cities no less, well the possibilities can open right up for potential disaster to take place. This of course doesn't apply to regular married couples who just go about their business every day and who are just happy to spend their time together at night. No, these couples can take solace that they are not of this particular dramatic variety and just stay in to watch LAST NIGHT instead.

First time feature filmmaker, Massy Tadjedin, understands the nuances between couples who have been together for some time and that the tiniest shift between them can sometimes not be undone. Her first film focuses on these moments, beginning with Joanna and Michael Reed (Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington) as they prepare for a night out. They move around each other like they can anticipate each other's next step, so it is no wonder that Joanna is able to pick up on some sexual tension between Michael and a very attractive co-worker (Eva Mendes), that night at the party. When Michael leaves on a business trip the next day with said attractive co-worker, Joanna accidentally runs into the man that got away (Guillaume Canet). As each Michael and Joanna struggle with their devotion to each other and their baser instincts, Tadjedin observes carefully and allows the sometimes deceitful and selfish sides of marraige to play freely.



LAST NIGHT comes off at times as a tad bit too experimental. The able and engaging cast all smoulder but all the brooding doesn't make for a very entertaining evening and Tadjedin does not allow for many breaks from the drama. Still, it is a stylish, smart work of film that is really only hindered by its intensity from time to time. One thing is for sure, LAST NIGHT will not easily be forgotten.



LAST NIGHT is now available to rent or own thanks to eOne Entertainment.

Clash of the Titans - 2010

The new incarnation of “Clash of the Titans” is as glum, dreary and depressing an adventure movie as I’ve ever seen. It has no romance or poetry in its soul; what it does have is a series of combat scenes resembling a video game connected by the wispiest of narrative threads. I found it truly unbearable from beginning to end.

The film is a remake of the 1981 film “Clash of the Titans”, the last film with special effects provided by stop motion animator guru Ray Harryhausen. It made a lot of money for M-G-M and is fondly remembered by many. It certainly had the most prestigious cast of any Harryhausen film, including Laurence Olivier as Zeus, Claire Bloom as Hera, Maggie Smith as Thetis, Burgess Meredith and others.

A highlight of that film is the wonderfully creepy Medusa sequence, one of Harryhausen’s very best creations. Unfortunately, the film also contains some of Harryhausen’s worst work, especially the final showdown with the Kraken. The scenes of the Kraken’s destruction are among Harryhausen’s most embarrassing.

But there is still much to recommend about it, including the beautiful cinematography of Ted Moore (he shot many of the Bond films), the soaring symphonic score of Laurence Rosenthal and the incredibly cute Judi Bowker as Andromeda. The film also cleverly re-wrote portions of the Perseus (Harry Hamlin) myth for dramatic purposes.

The new “Clash of the Titans”, alas, has butt ugly cinematography, a score which sounds exactly like every other musical score composed in the last ten years (it could be lifted wholesale and placed in a cop or army movie and no one would be the wiser) and no epic love story. Characters in Greek mythology are always larger than life – in the 2010 “Clash of the Titans” they’re depressingly small.

The new Clash deals with surly demi-god Perseus (Sam Worthington, who sports an anachronistic buzz cut which makes him look like he just emerged from six weeks of Marine boot camp) who is angry with his father Zeus (Liam Neeson) because Zeus killed his human family. Perseus vows war on the gods. The local populace also feels they can get along just fine without the gods and cease their prayers and observations. (I’m not as familiar with Greek mythology as I used to be, but I don’t remember any wholesale rejection of the gods as shown here, but I could be wrong).

Meantime Zeus and the other gods (living in a depressingly small-scaled Mount Olympus – where’s the grandeur?) are tired of this lack of worship and Zeus and his brother Hades (Ralph Finnes) decide to teach mankind a lesson by destroying the city of Argos unless they sacrifice the Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) to the monstrous Kraken, a giant sea monster.

Perseus undertakes a quest to destroy the Kraken by securing the head of Medusa, whose gaze can turn any living thing into stone. He doesn’t do it to save Andromeda, who he barely knows, but to avenge his parents and thwart the god’s plans.

Andromeda is one of the film’s many problems. Why is she even in this movie? She’s barely a blip on the film’s radar. Never mind that Perseus and Andromeda are one of the most famous couples in Greek mythology, right up there with Jason and Medea, or Paris and Helen. Greek astronomers even named constellations after them. Here she barely exists.

Too bad because Davalos is lovely and her very brief scenes show her being wiser than her parents, and showing compassion to the city’s poor. I would have liked to seen more of her. But that would have meant Perseus establishing a relationship with her, and any kind of human interaction is anathema to the film’s creators.

Oh there is a love story of sorts between Perseus and Io (Gemma Arterton) who is also half human and acts as Perseus’s protector. She’s just there for decoration, and doesn’t make half the impression that Andromeda does.

Like all action movies today, the fighting scenes are shot too tight and cut too fast. I had hoped this trend would have ended by now, but no, the film makers still feel this is the way to go. (If anything good comes from the success of “Avatar” it’s the hope that directors would study James Cameron’s way of staging and shooting action).

From what friends have told me who have visited there, the Greek Islands and the Aegean Sea are among the most beautiful locales in the world, but you’d never know it by watching this film. Everybody is dirty and the sky seems perpetually overcast. When the characters enter the dire underworld to face Medusa, there’s no difference between where they’re heading and where they’ve come from, thus making the Medusa sequence far less effective than it should be. There’s zero contrast involved.

The Medusa sequence in the original is beautifully staged, and genuinely suspenseful. Here it’s another loud action scene with lots of running and fast cutting.

Worthington is a total stiff, offering monotone line readings and a disagreeable presence. He makes Steve Reeves look like Olivier. Actually that’s not fair, as Reeves was very likeable and had great screen presence. And he was a better actor.

I usually try to find something good to say about any movie, but I’m hard pressed to with this one. I found it as dreary a movie I’ve seen in a long time. If you ever wondered what a movie would be like made written and directed by 12-year-old boys who like their movies to resemble video games, and who think girls are icky and have no place in the story, then the 2010 “Clash of the Titans” is that movie.