SIDE EFFECTS

SIDE EFFECTS
Written by Scott Z. Burns
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherince Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum

Emily Taylor: I don’t think you should be my doctor anymore.

Steven Soderbergh has never been very happy with the Hollywood filmmaking system and has been threatening his retirement from the medium for what seems like years now. Each theatrical release was supposed to be his last but then another project would pop up before too long and it seemed as though the cycle might never be broken. Well, the moment has supposedly finally arrived, after directing more than 20 movies, with the arrival of his latest, SIDE EFFECTS. Soderbergh may misfire from time to time but when he gets it right, he creates some of the most innovative and insightful films to come out of Hollywood. I am a fan and it saddens me to say that his last theatrical effort isn’t that great. It saddens me even more to say that it isn’t even that good really.

So apparently, drugs are bad. This is the revelation that SIDE EFFECTS opens with. After her perfect husband (Channing Tatum) proved himself to be very much less than perfect by getting himself arrested and sent to jail for insider trading, Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) fell into a bit of a depression, understandably. When her husband is released four years later, her mood sinks again, somewhat less understandably. She starts to see a therapist (Jude Law) and gets bounced around from drug to drug until she finds the perfect fit. And so we go on for a while thinking this is the premise. Why is this girl on the verge of having her life back so miserable? (And trust me, Mara knows how to be painfully miserable.) Then Soderbergh shocks the audience and switches gears half way through. Suddenly, SIDE EFFECTS is an intense thriller, or at least it tries very hard to be. I’m all for zigging when the audience expects you to zag (PSYCHO, anyone?), but the destination needs to be worth the detour.

Screenwriter, Scott Z. Burns, a frequent Soderbergh collaborator, completely misses the mark with SIDE EFFECTS. Firstly, the whole prescription drug angle is a tired hook. Obviously, tales of depression and woe continue to this day, but focusing on the potentially tragic consequences that come with taking them, and subsequently debating the legal ramifications of these consequences, is not thrilling in the least. And both Burns and Soderbergh know it too. As the plot plodders on, they thicken it thinking the effect will be bewilderment and fascination, but all it really does is expose how thin the whole thing was to begin with. If there was a little pill to make me forget watching SIDE EFFECTS, I would take it without hesitation, regardless of any side effects it might have on me. At least this way, in my mind, MAGIC MIKE would still be Soderbergh’s last picture.

278. Anna Karenina

278. (18 Nov) Anna Karenina (2012, Joe Wright)* 74



Though it works better in segments than as a whole, it's hard not to be swept away by Joe Wright's rapturous Anna Karenina. It's a film of which my opinion evolves the more I think on it. Will there be something more breathtaking or perfect as the ball when Anna and Vronsky first dance? I can say now nothing could, or at least should, hope to rival it for the Production Design and Costume Design Oscars.

Joe Wright and Tom Stoppard's adaptation, for all its artifice, gets quite to the heart of Tolstoy's work. There's a passion for the characters and narrative here that makes it irrelevant that a dense, sprawling novel has been condensed into two hours. The quickly shifting set pieces and beautiful segues of sight and sound make the movement completely fluid. Combine that with a strong core performance by Kiera Knightley and Dario Marianelli's evocative score and it's clear there could be no better or more inherently cinematic telling of this story.

360

360
Written by Peter Morgan
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Starring Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Foster

The concept that we, as human beings, are all tied to each other in some way is one that most people understand on the basest of levels. Many might not think anything of it, while I’m sure many others think the theory is without merit. To genuinely try to conceptualize the grandness of the idea though can be overwhelming. Regardless, it is often fodder for filmmakers, including Fernando Meirelles, the Brazilian director of CITY OF GOD. His latest, 360, takes the viewer around the world to understand that we are just living in one big global community. Who knew that such a big trip could feel so slight?

Even talented scribe, Peter Morgan (FROST/NIXON, THE QUEEN) cannot revolutionize the 360 concept. The trouble with tackling this topic is that the filmmaker’s hand is shown in the first act of the film. The audience may not know precisely where they’re being led but they know that it will be from one insignificant moment to the next in an elaborate game of connect the dots. Subsequently, no attachments are made to the characters on screen and thus, very little engagement in the film is established. Gifted actors like Jude Law and Rachel Weisz (who won an Oscar the last time she worked with Meirelles on THE CONSTANT GARDENER) appear and disappear almost as quickly. Only Anthony Hopkins manages to carve out a memorable scene, with a passionate confession at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. And then he’s gone.

Life is made up of these fleeting moments and 360 does a good job demonstrating how even the seemingly least significant of those moments, derived from chance encounters in airports or dentist offices, can lead to life altering events. It does so in such a banal and uninspired fashion though that all it truly made me feel is that I would be better off making connections with people instead of watching people make them.

Review copy provided by eOne Entertainment.

ANNA KARENINA

ANNA KARENINA
Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Joe Wright
Starring Keira Knightley, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew MacFayden and Jude Law

Anna Karenina: This is wrong.
Count Vronsky: Makes no difference.
Anna Karenina: You’ve no right.
Count Vronsky: Makes no difference.

Director, Joe Wright, reunites with his apparent muse, Keira Knightley, for their third collaboration together and what will be the fourth film version of Leo Tolstoy’s classic, ANNA KARENINA. After branching out with his contemporary thriller, HANNA, Wright returns to the period pieces that made his career (ATONEMENT, PRIDE & PREJUDICE) and what a welcome return it is. Not only does Wright know how to translate potentially dated material for modern audiences without sacrificing the source, but his take on this particular tale only further establishes him as one of the world’s most exciting directors working today.

For those who aren’t already familiar with it, Anna’s story is a tragic one. She was married at the age of 18 to an older politician (Jude Law), bore him a son, and for some time, her life was good. Being so young though, she didn’t know what she was missing. Enter the attractive and persistent Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and suddenly, Anna learns of something she thought she had already figured out - love. An affair will ruin her standing in society though so, with the stakes raised high, she must choose between passion and position.

Wright stages this period melodrama in the only place that it can be allowed to embrace its more sensational elements, the stage itself. He playfully moves the action back and forth between a majestic theatre and exquisitely elaborate locations with transitions that energize the piece in ways that will constantly surprise and delight the more open-minded viewer. It is easy to see some more casual filmgoers being put off by Wright’s style but there is simply nothing casual about ANNA KARENINA.

Best Supporting Actor 1999: Results

5. Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules- Caine with a strange accent gives a dull sometimes almost lifeless performance that never seems to bring the genuine emotions one would for a part that seems like it is only ever trying to be emotional.

4. Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile-Duncan achieves this well with his performance by finding just the right sort of characterization for Coffey all the way through the film.

3. Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley-  Law gives an performance effective because he never only seizes one note with his performance and realistically portrays both Dickie's cruel and charming side equally well.

2. Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense- It would have been very easy to lose the human element to the horror that comes into the film, but Osment always is able to keep the humanity in his character alive throughout the film in his performance.

1. Tom Cruise in Magnolia- Cruise might not be my favorite actor, but he is absolutely brilliant here absolutely succeeding with a character that could have gone wrong in a great number of ways but never does. He turns his bizarre guru in a memorable and very intriguing character.

Deserving Performances:
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Magnolia
Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest

Best Supporting Actor 1999: Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley

Jude Law received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

The Talented Mr. Ripley details Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) a strange young man who sent to Europe return a rich man's son, but does far differently than what was planned.

Jude Law portray Dickie Greenleaf the rich man's son who is a rather shallow character. The whole point of his character though is this fact as he is not a very depth filled man in the least. Dickie is far more of just a spoiled rich brat who wants to just sort of live his way no matter what the consequences may be to others, or how he treats some of the various people around him. Portraying a shallow character actually can be more difficult that it might seems because one must avoid only giving an entirely shallow performance as well. Law though avoids this portraying the rather shallow Dickie creating a realistic portrait of a shallow man.

In his early scenes when he first meets Ripley there the right sort of welcoming quality in Law's performance. I would not say a warmth but most certainly there is a great deal of charm Law has as Dickie. He effectively does make us like him even if he really is lacking in likable qualities simply because of this charm that is present in Law's performance as Dickie. He makes it entirely believable that everyone around him is basically swept up by him whether it be Tom, his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow), or his other friend Freddie (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Dickie though is in a way just a charm though that can only last for so long as he still is a shallow man who most certainly uses whatever he wants out of other just like Tom Ripley. The difference though between he and Tom though is that Law shows Dickie manipulations of still a man rather than the calculated villain that is Ripley. What makes the the cold side so effective though is the way Law's completely authentic fashion in which he portrays this coldness. He shows it as just a part of the spoiled brat that is Dickie it is just something he does and barely even thinks about.

Law effectively portrays this cruelty he is just as believable in causing Ripley's alienation as he was in bringing him in with his charm. Law is effective because he never only seizes one note with his performance and realistically portrays Dickie many sides of his personality well. He can go from absolutely charming to absolutely cruel in just a few moments believably because of Law. Dickie is indeed a shallow individual, but Law never portrays him in shallow way. He realizes a fully fledged character in his own right that fulfills his role in the film.

Best Supporting Actor 1999

And the Nominees Were:

Tom Cruise in Magnolia

Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley

Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules

Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile

Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense

005. Contagion

005. (02 Jan) Contagion (2011, Steven Soderbergh) 53



Clinical for the most part, Contagion occasionally lets itself turn mawkish for no good reason. Marion Cotillard's subplot where she's held captive until a vaccine is delivered the compound she's at is especially dumb. The film occasionally allows itself a naivete despite seeming otherwise hard-edged. Jude Law is the standout here. Gwyneth Paltrow would've been if she hadn't ingested that guano.

CONTAGION

Written by Scott Z. Burns

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Lawrence Fishburn, Jude Law, 

Marion Cotillard and Gwyneth Paltrow

Dr. Ian Sussman: Blogging is not writing. It's graffiti with punctuation.

I’m not sure I can in good conscious recommend CONTAGION to anyone at all. It’s not that it’s a bad film; it’s just that seeing it has potentially damaging consequences on your psyche. About ten minutes into watching it, you might become hyper aware of your surroundings. Coughing noises will become amplified while your armrest might suddenly feel stickier than it did when you first sat down. In fact, by the time you’ve gotten home from seeing it - after touching door handles, staircase railings and, god forbid, other people - you may never want to leave the house again.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, CONTAGION stars many an Oscar winner, from Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow to Marion Cotillard and Kate Winslet. For all it’s familiarity though, it presents like a faceless production to demonstrate just how feasible this scenario really is. There is no real character development - there is no time for that - just different people reacting to a common foe. The enemy here is a new disease named MEV-1. It is considered novel because humanity has never seen it before and Soderbergh paints what he believes to be a very real picture of how the planet would handle something like this. As you can imagine, we don’t do very well.

CONTAGION is not as infectious as it could be. With so many plots in the air, some are almost forgotten and Soderbergh is none too subtle about how lackadaisical we all are with everything we touch. Still, with this much talent on screen and Soderbergh’s brilliant eye, CONTAGION remains a tense thriller with plenty of casualties and horrifying moments. Perhaps the most dire thing about it though is the hard reality that even in our darkest hour, humanity still exudes selfishness and greed, leaving every man to fend for himself. Sure, it’s a theory but it’s a plausible one and really just another argument to stay indoors.