Life of Pi’s magic heads to small screen
Performances don’t match director’s vision
Life of Pi: ½ stars
out of five
Working a strange magic that cajoles more than it convinces, Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s international bestseller isn’t as good as we might want it to be, but it’s still a remarkable effort given the source material was considered unfilmable.
A survival story set on the high seas, Life of Pi tells the tumultuous tale of young Pi Patel, an Indian kid emigrating to Canada with his parents and a cargo hold full of live animals from the family zoo. When the ship runs into a storm, Pi is forced to survive on a lifeboat with only a tiger as a companion.
Lee has complete control of this sprawling canvas and creates the requisite surreal landscape. Sadly, the human performances turn out to be something of a disappointment — particularly the scenes shot in Montreal. These moments are unforgivably awkward and stiff, and shooting in stunning 3D digital technology only makes the dramatic flaws more obvious — whether it’s the lurching pauses or the desperately intense gazes.
Sound City: ½
When the doors of Sound City were slated to close two years ago, Dave Grohl decided to salvage the LA-recording studio’s circuited heart and soul: the custom Neve soundboard that channelled the signals of such legends as Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty.
Grohl says that console made him who he is today, largely as a result of the board’s role in Nevermind, the groundbreaking studio album that introduced Grohl’s former band, Nirvana, to the masses.
Hitchcock:
Anthony Hopkins channels the hefty spirit of Alfred Hitchcock in this colourful and beautifully executed period piece that takes us onto the backlot during the filming of Psycho — a genre-breaking thriller that put Hitch’s own ego and personal fortune on the line. Braiding a professional crisis with the director’s personal life, director Sacha Gervasi (Anvil: The Story of Anvil) gives us two sharp entry points to the story, and then slashes away at character.
Using dark comedy as his guide, Gervasi not only occupies a decidedly Hitchcock state of mind, he pulls us into the fetid crevices of the master’s own imagination as he eyes the icy blonds and raids the refrigerator. Thanks to some beautifully restrained supporting performances from Helen Mirren (who plays Hitch’s devoted wife Alma) and Scarlett Johansson (who plays the screaming Janet Leigh), Hitchcock is more than a biopic about a cinema legend.
Smashed: ½
Mary Elizabeth Winstead hands in the best performance of her surprisingly long career in this Sundance-lauded effort about an alcoholic couple coming to grips with reality. Kate (Winstead) is a kind schoolteacher who loves and lives with Charlie (Aaron Paul), her enabling hubby who thinks everything is under control. However, when Kate wakes up one morning on a urine-soaked couch in downtown Los Angeles, she realizes she may be in real trouble.
Not long afterward, she vomits in the school garbage can and tells people she’s pregnant. As one lie leads to another, Kate paints herself into a corner where the only way out is facing the ugly truth. The nice thing about this movie is it never gets preachy. The filmmakers always manage to find humour in the wreckage of daily life, allowing the characters to emerge as real people instead of messageladen cut-outs. Special features include digital transfer.
A Late Quartet:
Slowly dragging a horsehair bow across four taut strings of character, director Yaron Zilberman creates a tight little piece of cinematic chamber music in A Late Quartet. Neither flamboyant nor sedate, this moody winter’s tale goes for a very tempered, authentic mood as it scratches at the guts of a seasoned string quartet.
Christopher Walken pulls us into the “F hole” of this particular instrument as Peter Mitchell, a veteran cellist who is diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the top of the picture. Peter is obviously distraught by the news and begins to question his larger life purpose now that his musical sunset is on the horizon, but his bigger concern is the fate of the string quartet he helped birth many moons ago.
Rise of the Guardians:
Festooned with bright pixels and secular bells, Rise of the Guardians may look like another salute to the consumerism of the Christmas season, but this story of Jack Frost’s transformation from mischievous prankster to spiritual guardian of all children across the globe is going for something much bigger than a pretty package. Peter Ramsay’s animated adaptation of William Joyce’s book is genuinely seeking to inspire and enlighten the kids who will gather around its theatrical apron by teaching the beauty and deep meaning of altruism.
Sharing several similarities with the man who gives Christmas its name, Jack Frost (Chris Pine) has a lot of human characteristics, but oddly supernatural abilities. When he emerges into our world over a frozen pond in the opening frames, he discovers he can freeze water, breathe hoary streaks across glass and essentially affect the destiny of humankind.
Playing for Keeps:
Gerard Butler is very convincing as a washed-up soccer star in this paint-by-numbers romantic comedy, but for all his jock-ability and cougar-bait sex appeal, this movie never boots it past midfield. The biggest problem is the predictable script that features Jessica Biel as the ex-wife who still makes his heart go pitter-pat and prompts a latter-day reformation of the serial stud.
We can see every plot twist coming, which not only extracts any sense of suspense, it also leaves the cast without anywhere to go except straight ahead — into the brick wall of cliché. Catherine Zeta-Jones comes up with a few unexpected moments as the broadcaster who helps the old boy out with an audition, and Dennis Quaid adds a hint of authenticity to the storyline as the aging playboy, but Playing for Keeps finally gives too much away to work any magic.
Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away:
A collection of the Cirque’s best stage moments in one simple reel seems like a good idea, but throw an extra dimension in there and you’ve got a 3D spectacular with some of the best acrobatics ever recorded. For people who have never seen a Cirque du Soleil production, Worlds Away offers an excellent introduction.
However, if you are familiar with the mid-altering acts of balance, strength and skill, Worlds Away will lose a lot of its lustre on the small screen — especially in just two dimensions. All the same, the movie still works on its own as we follow Mia, a young woman who dreams of running away to join the circus and samples snippets of every act to see where she fits in. Special features include making-of featurette and A Day in the Life.
Ministry of Fear:
Considered a landmark of film noir, this Fritz Lang piece of paranoia from 1944 stars the quintessential noir hero, Ray Milland, as Stephen Neale — a recovering mental patient who pulls into a small town with paralyzing results. Is it him, or is everyone looking at him funny?
Lang doesn’t give the viewer any hints at the beginning of this adaptation of a Graham Greene novel, but by the time he sets the trap, we’re already willing victims in the web of deceit. Haunting, adult and masterfully crafted, Ministry of Fear created a template for psychological tension that is still used today — even if the plot points remain a tad mysterious.