Close encounters of the strangest kind
IT IS more than half a century since the late Madeleine L’Engle published her children’s classic A Wrinkle In Time. It retains its wholesome, old-fashioned appeal in this gaudy, eye-popping Disney screen version, even if the computer-generated special effects threaten to drown out the film’s simple message and good intentions.
There are elements of The Wizard Of Oz and Alice In Wonderland in the story of a young girl on an epic quest.
Schoolgirl Meg (Storm Reid) is devoted to her scientist father Alex (Chris Pine) but it is four years since he went missing. Everyone assumes Alex is dead but Meg’s mother Mrs Murry (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) urges her not to give up hope.
Her faith reaps rewards when otherworldly guardian angel Mrs Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) arrives to reveal that Alex is alive and well but trapped in a parallel dimension far, far away.
Flame-haired chatterbox Mrs Whatsit is accompanied by quotation-spouting Mrs Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs Which, played by a regal Oprah Winfrey decked out in sparkly make-up and some eye-catching finery seemingly designed by Vivienne Westwood for a pantomime dame.
Plucky Meg, her adopted super-smart younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and Meg’s classmate Calvin (Levi Miller) set out to travel across the cosmos on an urgent rescue mission. They are able to travel through space in a process called “tessering” and are soon experiencing close encounters with eccentric individuals such as guru Happy Medium (Zach Galifianakis) and visiting strange worlds and diverse planets, the scariest of which is Camazotz, under the control of the embodiment of all evil known simply as It.
Fifty years or so ago this might have been a perfect vehicle for Hayley Mills and it bears some resemblance to In Search Of The Castaways. But it is definitely not the most subtle or sophisticated of films and, despite reports of a budget in excess of $100million, it often looks quite cheap.
Some may also find the film’s tone preachy but it is hard to argue with its message of hope, the importance of family and the need to tell your nearest and dearest how much you love and cherish them because you never know when they might not be around any more.
It also celebrates a sensitive, insecure teenage girl growing in confidence as she rises to countless challenges and discovers the warrior within.
A Wrinkle In Time is obvious and wears its heart on its sleeve but it still offers imaginative, warm-hearted children’s entertainment over Easter.
It might even encourage a few more people to read Madeleine L’Engle’s books and that can’t be a bad thing.
MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE (Cert 12A; 103mins)
LIAM NEESON has become so closely associated with macho revenge thrillers such as Taken and The Commuter that it comes as a pleasant surprise to find him in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House.
You might not recognise the
name but Felt was Deep Throat, the whistleblower who fed the Washington Post juicy insider details about the notorious Watergate break-in.
Felt had been a loyal company man at the FBI for three decades and was expected to succeed J Edgar Hoover as the bureau’s director. When Felt is passed over in favour of Pat Grady (Marton Csokas) he senses that the FBI is becoming a political pawn with Grady appointed to protect the interests of the White House.
The countdown to the 1972 presidential election lends an urgency to the story as Felt watches the rising tide of sleaze and corruption presided over by Richard Nixon. His anger about the state of the nation leaves him little choice but to spill the beans to the press.
A gaunt, silver-haired Neeson plays Felt as implacable and poker-faced, nicely supported by Diane Lane as his Martini-swilling wife Audrey. Some of the detail about Felt’s private life feels like a distraction but this is mostly a solid, absorbing political drama.
UNSANe (Cert 15; 98mins)
THE Crown star Claire Foy grabs the chance to show more of her dramatic range in Unsane and her spiky, compelling performance is easily the best thing about this feverish B-movie thriller.
Foy plays Sawyer Valentini (great name), a financial analyst trying to rebuild her life after being the victim of an obsessive stalker. She attends therapy sessions at Highland Creek clinic and is persuaded that she might benefit from a short spell staying at the institution.
But she is soon trapped in a living nightmare, convinced that a nurse on her ward is her stalker and unable to make anyone believe that she is rational and frightened for her life. Is she losing her mind? Or is she at the mercy of a deadly conspiracy?
Director Steven Soderbergh shot the entire film on his iPhone 7 Plus but, while the technology may be cutting edge, the story is very familiar, dating back to the Ingrid Bergman classic Gaslight and beyond.
Entertaining grand guignol nonsense that is not to be taken seriously.
I GOt LIfe! (Cert 15; 89mins)
IT was the great Bette Davis who declared that old age ain’t no place for sissies. Fifty-year-old waitress Aurore (Agnès Jaoui) discovers how right she was in I Got Life!, an endearing and warm-hearted French charmer. Aurore is single and about to become a grandmother and she feels she might as well be invisible as far as the world is concerned.
Her boss can’t remember her name and even automatic doors fail to react as she approaches them. Is the future just a desert of loneliness, neglect and physical decline? Should she just shrug and accept it, or rage against the dying of the light?
Her bittersweet acceptance that she will never be 21 again is handled with gentle wit and understanding by director Blandine Lenoir and a radiant Jaoui shines as a woman who refuses to be thrown on the scrapheap of life just yet.
CROwhURSt (Cert 12A; 103mins)
HOT on the heels of The Mercy, Crowhurst offers its own distinctive, low-budget perspective on the tale of the amateur yachtsman who attempted to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly.
Justin Salinger’s Crowhurst seems a more highly strung, neurotic figure than Colin Firth’s.
There is a sense of desperation and deep-rooted insecurity in his decision to enter the Sunday Times competition in 1969 and show the world that he is a man of substance.
His recourse to deception and a lonely descent into high seas madness is the stuff of nightmares in this intense, imaginative production.
the thIRD MURDeR (Cert 15; 125mins)
THE Third Murder begins as an open-and-shut case. A man has been bludgeoned to death. Misumi (Yakusho Koji) has confessed to the crime. The only challenge for defence attorney Shigemori (Fukuyama Masaharu) is to devise a narrative to save his client from the death penalty. Were there extenuating circumstances? An ulterior motive?
When evidence is taken and witnesses are interrogated, what had seemed crystal clear grows murky and uncertain. Memories are contradictory, testimony lacks the ring of truth.
Shigemori claims: “You don’t need empathy or understanding to defend a client.” The claim returns to haunt him when the investigation reveals personal connections to Misumi including the fact that Shigemori’s father, a retired judge, showed leniency to Misumi in a similar case 30 years earlier and saved him from the death penalty. Shigemori feels a sense of responsibility about the fact that Misumi was free to strike again.
The Third Murder grows into a compelling examination of truth and justice and asks whether any of us have the right to judge the actions of a fellow human. A sombre, thought-provoking film.