A Week In Film #009: A snowy German January

Martian Child
John Cusack is a science fiction writer still missing his dead wife. He decides he wants to adopt a troubled orphan who thinks he is an alien. Less cloying than it could be. The LLF did ask whether JC turned down any roles these days, going on his appearance in this and 1408. Toby from The West Wing turns up as an evil social worker (okay, not evil, but definitely a social worker).

300
Zach Snyder delivers an energetic, mostly-faithful-to-the-text version of Frank Miller’s comic book about Spartans holding off Persian hordes at Thermopylae. Entertaining cultural propaganda, though as the LLF pointed out, “not much happens in this, does it? It’s just one long fight.”

From Hell
Gobsmackingly poor Hughes Brothers’ version of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s thoughtful comic book meditation on Jack the Ripper, his deeds and his effect. Johnny Depp and Heather Graham wheel out comedy cockney, every working actor in England gets to cash in their artistic integrity for a pay cheque.

Music And Lyrics
Fun romcom with Hugh Grant as a washed up 80s pop star (think: Andrew Ridgley meets the dude from Dollar) forced from his cosy convention PA circuit into writing a new song for a Christina/Britney-style starlet. Drew Barrymore is his ditzy plant waterer with a gift for writing lyrics. You can guess the rest.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Woody Allen at least has the courtesy not to stick himself in front of the camera in this one, about two (rather annoying) young American women in Spain (Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall, last seen as young Sophie in The Camomile Lawn), who meet a brooding Spanish painter (Javier Bardem). It definitely perks up when his (bipolar?) ex wife, played by Penelope Cruz, appears. A decent little number about the many shapes love takes. The LLF wasn’t impressed by the whole ‘in Barcelona to research Catalan identity’ thing (”She can’t speak Spanish or Catalan, so how does that work?”)

Love Actually
Richard Curtis/Hugh Grant/Working Title/’feelgood romcom’.

Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Cosy Southern nostalgia in the Fried Green Tomatoes/Miss Daisy vein. Okay but not great.

Snow Cake
Quite nice little indie flick about an Englishman in Canada, wrestling with guilt. Alan Rickman in quiet mode, Sigourney Weaver does Rainwoman, Carrie-Ann Moss providing excellent support.

Capote
Philip Seymour Hoffman impersonates Truman Capote as he researches and writes ‘In Cold Blood’. Catherine Keener is good as his friend Nelle Harper Lee, Clifton Collins Jr. is sympathetic as killer Perry Smith, Chris Cooper is solid as lawman Alvin Dewey. Didn’t really say very much to me.

Infamous
Toby Jones impersonates Truman Capote as he researches and writes ‘In Cold Blood’. Sandra Bullock is very good as his friend Nelle Harper Lee, Daniel Craig Jr. is menacing as killer Perry Smith, Jeff Daniels is wet-eyed as lawman Alvin Dewey. The sequences with Capote’s New York scene friends as talking heads were distracting, and made me think of Casual Sex?, for some reason.

Oh, Mr Porter!
Will Hay vehicle based on a popular play by Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey from Dad’s Army!), which in turn seemed to inspire every Scooby Doo plot, ever. Will is a station master at a sleepy rural railway station on the Irish border, where strange things are afoot. Naturally there is a perfecly reasonable explanation. I like this for the comedy interplay between Will and his two feckless colleagues, played by Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt, though the actual plot is a bit boring.

The Ghost Train
Arthur Askey vehicle based on a popular play by Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey from Dad’s Army!), which in turn seemed to inspire every Scooby Doo plot, ever. Arthur is an annoying tit who gets stranded at a remote railway station late one night, along with a bunch of other people, and strange things are afoot. Naturally there is a perfecly reasonable explanation. Quite a taut little comedy thriller, with shameless don’t-you-know-there’s-a-war-on touches.

Reds
Warren Beatty’s quite good take on John Reed’s Ten Days That Shook The World take on the Bolshevik Revolution, with Diane Keaton sparring impressively with the director-star.