Movie Review #4: Gravity(2014) - English

Gravity is an experience rather than a mere viewing.  Its one of the rarest of movies that transports you to a different world that has lasting impression even after the end credits roll.

I was told that Gravity should be experienced in 3D especially in big screen.  That was quite true.  Having watched in the big screen, I doubt whether it would be the same movie when seen in a small screen albeit in 3D.  I would even go further and say if you don’t watch it in big screen, you rather don’t watch it at all.  Please don’t mistake, Gravity is not just about visual gimmicks.  It is still character oriented.  Even if you put aside all the visuals, it still holds good as a strong character-based movie, however 3D takes it to the next level.

The movie revovles around just two primary characters, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) who are on a space mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.  Things goes awry from there and the pair bumps into one disaster after the other.  Now, Ryan just wants to do a simple thing that every strayed living being would do: Go home.  But, such a seemingly simpler task becomes herculean at every passing moment.

Making believe is one thing, but pulling completely into a movie is something amazing.I

tried to remind myself that what appears on the screen is just a movie and not a reality, but I couldn’t successfully do it.  I was even grappling the seat afraid of getting afloat by just watching the events on screen.  There is one sequence where two astronauts, connected to a rope, encounter fast moving space debris.  Viewers, please be careful - you will be ambushed.

Director Alfonso Cuarón, sets up the atmosphere (literally) slowly but builds up the events gradually with the help of some great special effects.  It could have been another disaster movie if it just focusses on the calamities, but by showing the feelings of the protagonist, we tend to get attached to her.  We get breathless when her oxygen level decresses.  We get motion sickness when she is spun out in the space.  At one point, I thought that it is futile to survive such odds and that is exactly the protagonist also concludes.  We are with her all the time and feel for her.  An unexpected motivation from an impossible source gives her the necessary energy to give a fight before resigning to fate.

Like a tiger that waits for the right moment to pounce on its prey, Steven Price, the music director, who remains in the background for the most of the time, emerges with an astounding music sequence at the final moments of the film.  I was reminded of soundtrack of the films "Memento" and "The Dark Knight" which were integral to setting the tone of the respective climax scenes.

Some more movies comes to my mind.  "Moon" was very similar in setting the atmosphere, but it was out and out a character driven movie on a peculiar environment.  "Sunshine" is another that comes close to setting up the life in spacecraft and the ever-present Sun.  But, talk about spacewalk, Gravity stays at top.

The Force is Overwhelming

Madhan

April 2014

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Movie Review #3: The Prestige (A Mesmerizing Magic)

During its release, ’Prestige’ was dubbed as a cheat by most of the top critics. Either they were too naive or expected another ’Memento’ (my all time favourite) from Christopher Nolan. I agree that the end is not thoroughly convincing and takes a complete U turn from the entire movie’s theme. 
However, this didn’t stop me from admiring the rest of the movie, no matter how many times I see it. 
’Prestige’ looks into two egoistic magicians, who are too obsessed to outmatch each other and in the process enduring great mutual loss. Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) are magician apprentices. When Alfred, during a magic show, accidentally kills one of the performer, Julia (Piper Perabo), who also happens to be Robert’s wife, the war starts. Both embark on their separate careers, with only one agenda in mind: to destroy each other. 

The plot unfolds non-chronologically and there lies the greatest entertainment. It is shown as Alfred reading Robert’s diary, which mostly consists of how Robert tries to understand a magic trick by reading Alfred’s cryptic diary. We get to see events unfolding layer by layer as the movie switches from Robert’s diary to Alfred’s diary. Robert is a natural showman, but less talented of the two. He is successful but always envies on how Alfred is able to pull out ’The Transported Man’, Alfred’s trademark magic. The talented Alfred lacks presentation skills and therefore less successful in his endeavors. What is similar between them is the ruthlessness to go beyond any limit to achieve their obsessions. Robert even gambles his girlfriend to spy on Alfred, while Alfred is ready to lead a ’double’life if that is what it takes to keep his magic a secret. 

This movie itself resembles a magic that is carefully executed to hold our attention till the end. If you are not watching closely, you will end up losing an important trick or two. In fact, that’s the reason for the punch line: Are you watching closely? The entire plot is in fact revealed in a scene, where a pigeon trapped in a cage crushed to death and moments later brought back to life. The small boy who watches this magic is able to understand the trick by his sheer innocence and grieves for the bird while all the adults applaud the magic. 

It is also interesting to see how Alfred and Robert ploys to ruin each other. Robert plants himself in Alfred’s Bullet Catch magic that costs Alfred his fingers. As a revenge, Alfred paybacks by breaking Robert’s leg and inducing a mutiny within his team. The scene where Alfred talks to Robert’s double intentionally mistaking him as Robert and subtly hinting on how he should keep a check on his double is a masterpiece. 

Nolan uses frequent parallel shots in his narration and he is quite successful with that. The way the film opens with the voice over of Cutter (Michael Caine): "Every magic has three acts: the pledge, the turn and the prestige" is excellent. We see Cutter performing a bird trick to a little girl with parallel shots on a stage performance subtly implying a connection. As in ’Memento’ the answer to the movie lies everywhere throughout the movie and all we have to do is watch it closely (again). 

The climax is the most controversial part where the film crosses its rules and move to the science fiction territory. It is certainly a letdown for such a great build up. But on afterthoughts, it’s difficult to envision an alternate way to conclude the film. The final battle of words between Alfred and Robert is quite thought provoking. When we end up tallying the successes and sacrifices from both sides, it’s unclear on who has gained and who lost the war. 

Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman fit to their roles like gloves. Michael Caine as Cutter is the narrator and hence we often see his point of view. Scarlett Johansson as Olivia is the spy who changes sides. ’Prestige’ is a visual treat that needs to be enjoyed by involvement and further enhances watching experience on repeated viewing. 

Madhan

April 2014

Movie Review #2: Wages of Fear

For those who want to know what a genuine thriller is please watch ’Wages of Fear’.  If you think that jump cuts, intuitive camera angles, boo moments and over-the-top-music would amount for a thriller, please look somewhere else because this film works on characterization.  It is in the desperation of the protagonists, we experience the thrills rather than artificial plot convolutions.

Somewhere in South America, an oil company hires four desperate truck drivers for $2000 to transport highly inflammable nitroglycerine to put out a fire in one of their oil fields.  The problem is the road to the oil field is so rough that it is a literal death trap.  A tiny spill of nitroglycerine on the way is a sure way to end life.  The four drivers, two on each truck start their final journey, which is capable of making even a daredevil into a coward.

’Wages of Fear’ is not a thrill-per-second movie.  Most part of the first half has nothing but character building.  We get to know a bunch of unemployed expatriates stuck in a land of misery.  Their only way out is to get a job that pays their return ticket to the outside world.  Mario (Yves Montand) an idler with no job, Jo (Charles Vanel) the tough guy who is ex-gangster, Bimba (Peter van Eyck) a quiet person, Luigi (Folco Lulli) the easy going chap are the four stranded men.  We see the interaction between these guys.  Jo and Luigi often get into fights where the former overpowers the latter convincingly.
The journey starts normally with no incidents at first.  But, the impending danger of transporting such a volatile cargo, makes a big impression on Jo if not all of the men.  The tough Jo begins to crumble due to stress.  In fact he even gets humiliated by Mario who revered him as a leader once. That is the power of money.  It will change a coward to a hero and vice versa. 

During the journey, the men face many hurdles.  They overcome these hurdles either through common sense or through sheer stupid courage motivated by money.  What makes us sit at the edge of the seat is not because of the dangerous cargo but the men’s indifferent and careless attitude in handling such a danger.  For each hurdle, Jo reaches his new low of cowardice, where the others gain more courage.  The positive side is these men develop a bond among themselves.  They plan together and care for each other in the wake of danger.  But on the negative side, Mario is even ready to run over the truck on his partner to reach his destination.  The end is an expected poetic justice.  Danger will consume those who play with it.  

’Wages of Fear’ is an ageless classic.

Madhan

March 2014