Mirror Mirror

I wanted to love this movie.  So bad.  It could be my distaste for Kirsten Stewart's acting range that motivated me, but I wanted to adore this film.

Mirror, Mirror as you may, most likely, already know is a retelling of a the Snow White fable, with a few new innovative adjustments to the story.  The reference to Stewart of course refers to the second Snow White film which is to follow later this year, while Stewart's takes on a darker, brooding concept, Mirror Mirror bathes in a mash-up of romance, comedy, and caper.  This will be one of its downfalls, it doesn't know what it wants to be.



There were many elements going for it, the costume and set design is spectacular, fantastical, and whimsical, everything you would crave from a fairytale.  The dresses of the two leads, The Queen and Snow White were particularly impressive, each costume change expressing their character and providing a indicative motif for the viewer.  The Queen was ostentatious, Snow White was innocent, decent, and fair.

It was refreshingly tongue-in-cheek.  The sarcastic pinging gleam of teeth punctuates the smaltz so as to prevent the audience from lapsing into a sugar coma.

The few narrative additions were surely an attempt to give the Snow White tale relatability for those who aren't fans of princess-romances.  The seven dwarves were given motivation in life beyond their lust of Snow White; Prince Charming was given a personality; and to make The Queen really wicked beyond her hatred and neglect of her step-daughter, the film made sure to show the poverty-stricken subjects of the kingdom, whose only hope is, you guessed it, Snow White.

All the elements are there for a successful and enjoyable film, but Mirror, Mirror has spun itself a web too big. It fails to control all these subplots and bring them together as a cohesive entity.

It's disappointing, particularly when the opening is deliciously good.  The Queen is narrating over a brief animated summary of the last sixteen years, and we are led to believe this is going to be her story.  This is a ploy to lure you in to a false sense of intrigue.  Because the apparent focus on Julia Roberts's fantastically wicked Queen bitch is soon overshadowed by Lily Collins's pathetic protagonist.  Talk about casting actresses with no emotional dimension as Snow White.  Sure she looks the part, but it was if she just copied the Snow White from the original Disney animation.  She lacked the endearing passion that is so intrinsic to carrying a film.

Unfortunately for me, this cinema outing lacked the promised fairytale quality.  Had the story stuck with the Queen it may have been saved.

A Dangerous Method

I didn't know what to expect when going into see A Dangerous Method. The collaboration is such a eclectic fusion of talent.  At the helm there is director David Cronenberg, renowned for his visceral films that veer into the horror genre.  Then we have Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender, two actors who come from the school of method.  Then the limp noodle of the bunch, I have to be honest, was the mention of Kiera Knigthtley.  Though a previous Oscar nominee, Knightley has never astounded or transfixed on screen, she works with what she has but had so far demonstrated little range.

Now back to the plot, the gloriously tense plot.  It begins at the dawn of  psychoanalysis, focusing primarily on Carl Jung (Fassbender), his observations, opinions, and relationship with Sigmund Freud (Mortensen, who soaks up the screen with a measured but relaxed turn as the original shrink).

Freud takes a shine to the younger, less experienced Dr. Jung, taking him under his wing as they delve into the uncharted field of psychoanalysis.

When Jung takes on the case of Sabina Spielrein (Knighley) the Jung and Freud dream team is thrown into jeopardy.  Spielrein is, for all intents and purposes, the guinea pig of the operation.  Spielrein's condition conforms to Freud's theories of sexual repression being central to the experience of psychological anxiety.  Jung resists this notion, though this resistance may stem from denial for when he embarks on an affair with Spielrein his own repressive habits are highlighted, and he would prefer to develop a psychological study that is not so centralised in the realm of sexuality.

First of all, my problem with this film is how it was advertised.  Sure, lunacy and spanking are part of the story, but only initially.  The trailer makes it out to be a fetishistic, psycho-orgy.  To me Cronenberg is more interested in looking at the tensions evolving between Jung and Freud as psychoanalysis develops.  The tension, the diverging opinions, the father-son, possibly underlined sexual attraction between the two.  (Who knows though, maybe I'm just taking Freudian theme and getting ahead of myself).

Spielrein is the foil and catalyst by which the cogs turn in the movie, which is why I was (shockingly) impressed with Knightley's performance.  She did hysteria without being caricature, she has mastered the physical tics and bulging eyes thus denoting that paranoid fear that comes out of repressed anxieties.  These all sound a little stereotypical sure, but she does this in such a subtle way, contradictory I know, a lunatic being subtle.  Maybe it's because my past opinions of Knigthley veer on the side of can't stand, this was almost poetic.

A must see for performances alone.  I have heard others say the story line lagged, or something to that effect, but the slow, defined unfold of the plot reflect the tension between the three leads as well as underlining the conservatism of the society they were a part of.  Radical thinking such as their's wouldn't have been accepted overnight.

The Descendants

Although it would be nice for the Academy to get over their George Clooney-love in, The Descendants trailer was undeniably appealing.  It looked invigorating, spiritual, a perfect anecdote to the gloomy shroud that consumes you during winter.

(Will not be held accountable to adverse affects experienced from lusting after Hawaiin climate...)

The film marks also the return of Alexander Payne, last heard from with Sideways.

The film opens with a brief shot of a woman on what appears to be a jet ski, what is compelling about this scene is her expression, one marked be utter contentment.  The fade to black is ominous.  We soon learn that that woman was Elizabeth King, now in a coma, a wife to successful and frugal lawyer Matt King, who is diligently working by her hospital bed in the establishing shot where he narratives a brief summary of life and up to there.

The coma acts as a catalyst which through Matt's otherwise comfortably uneventful life is thrown into disarray where he must acknowledge things and take action.  He is forced to commit to parenting for the first time in his life, referring to himself as the back-up parent.  His unruly seventeen year old Alexandra, played by the unexpectedly sublime Shailene Woodley, and petulant Scottie are independent forces to be reckoned with.

He learns his wife was cheating on him and planning to leave him.  While this sets things in motion for the journey of the film, the trailer makes it seem like this is what the film centers on.  Wrong.

Matt's entire journey seems to be summed up in the allegory of the land.  He is the named trustee to a large acreage of land, and he and his cousins are in the process of figuring out who to sell the land to.

Because the subplot of land, (woah careful now, I am making this sound like a sequel to The Field) Hawaii predictably becomes a character in and of itself in the film.  It clearly has a profound effect in rebuilding the relationship between Matt and his daughters, and helping them through their grief and anger experienced in the aftermath of their mother's accident.

This would be my only gripe about the film.  Its predictability.  It does not shy away from cliche or sentiment, which is probably a result of the source material, the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings.  While it is far from a run of the mill chick flick, there is almost a paint-by-numbers characters progression but this has thankfully been peppered with enough Alexander Payne flair to rescue it and brings it to life.

It's a genuinely funny piece.  It combines many levels of humour without going overboard, we get a little bit of physical comedy, thanks to out of shape Matt's jog in flip flops down a spiraling Hawaiian suburban hill.  There's a little bit of stoner exploitation, courtesy of Sid, (Nick Krausse), Alexandra's inexplicably present boyfriend.  The caper quality, perhaps a nod to Clooney's Ocean Series, bestows the film with an adventurousness that involves the audience, giving a emotional connection.  You will root for this family as they scour the beaches in search of the adulterous mother's partner.  Also the Hawaiian uniform provides a good ole laugh, probably unintentional.

Clooney is obviously promoted as the face of the movie as he's a big box office draw, but the way each character is drawn in this story is genius.  Each character is given such dimension.  Even Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard), the man whom Matt's wife was in love with, is likable because his vulnerability is shown.  So even though the movie itself delves into cliche, the characterizations and actual performances strengthen any weaknesses.

Even though I was hyper aware of the cliche, blame my English course in film for making me so judgmental,  the film still manipulated an emotional response out of me.  Because what is shown in The Descendants is truth in many ways.  It does not dwell on the "why me"s, but simply shows these people dealing with everyday life even though their world has utterly changed.

Cliche is cliche for a reason, even though we think we are all individual, we all invariably go through similar experiences of pain, beauty, happiness, and grief.  The Descendants is actually a very refreshing take on that, not unearthing shattering, but thank Hawaii.  And Alexander Payne.