NEW RELEASES
ACCIDENTAL LOVE (15) Directed by: Stephen Greene Starring: Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Marsden, Catherine Keener
HAccidental Love director “Stephen Greene” is the pseudonymous byline of David O Russell, who abandoned this troubled healthcare satire back in 2010 following two years of stopstart production headaches. Now emerging five years on, the cobbled-together film is only worth seeing for an insight into how a promising production can go so wrong. Based on a comic novel by Al Gore’s daughter, Kristin Gore (she also co-wrote the screenplay), the film seems as if it was intended to be a satire on the pre-obama Care heath system made in the screwball style of Russell’s then-previous movie I Heart Huckabees. What’s been salvaged, though, is a concoction of chaotic scenes and outdated pop-culture references, all built around the determination of a young, uninsured waitress (Jessica Biel) to bring about healthcare reform after a carpentry accident leaves her with a nail lodged in her brain. To her credit, Biel plays the “nailed” protagonist with as much conviction as the sloppily assembled film allows, but everyone else – from Jake Gyllenhaal’s flip-flopping politician (below, with Biel), to Catherine Keener’s ballbreaking senator – comes off like a grotesque. As such it’s hard to glean whether or not this would have been any good had Russell made it in more felicitous circumstances. The upside of which is that it doesn’t tantalise fans with thoughts of what might have been. Indeed it may even have catalysed Russell’s own creative evolution: he jumped onto The Fighter months after walking away from this.
HWith the possible exceptions of Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum, few actors have proven themselves able to transcend the inherent woodenness of a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, so it’s probably unfair to judge Scott ‘son of Clint’ Eastwood’s leading man potential on the back of The Longest Ride’s varnished blandness. In typical Sparks fashion, Eastwood’s cowboy falls for an art history student (Britt Robertson), but is too dumb – or possibly just too concussed – to realise that his dream of becoming a champion bull rider might cost him his dream girl. Their love struggles are echoed in the reminiscences of an old man (played by Alan Alda) whose life they save one night and whose memories are played out in equally dreary fashion via extensive, epistolary flashbacks. These allow director George Tillman Jr to fill out the cast with more relatives of Hollywood legends, casting Jack ‘grandson of John’ Huston as Alda’s younger self and Oona ‘granddaughter of Charlie’ Chaplin as his wife.
THE BURNING (15) Directed by: Pablo Frendik Starring: Gael García Bernal, Braga, Jorge Sesán
Gael García Bernal goes a bit Rambo in this eco-themed thriller about a shirtless Argentine rainforest-dweller (Bernal) who invites a whole heap of trouble into his life after rescuing a woman (Alice Braga) from a band of violent mercenaries. In the unintentional spirit of 1970s exploitation cinema, director Pablo Frendik lets the film drag through the extensive, not-particularly-wellacted build up. But when he gets to Bernal booby-trapping the jungle and dispensing machete justice to these reprobates in fields of smoke, while sunkissed cinematography casts everything in a beautifully hellish glow, the results are as watchable as the politics are heavy handed. ALISTAIR HARKNESS