All-action Lara Croft calls the shots
TOMb RAiDER HHH (Cert 12A; 122mins)
MOVE over Angelina Jolie, there’s a new Lara Croft in town. Oscar winner Alicia Vikander stakes her claim to the role in Tomb Raider, a breathless, no-nonsense cliffhanger that takes the Croft story back to basics.
This is the tale of a headstrong young woman and her first steps on the road to becoming an indestructible warrior.
The game plan is to capture a sense of the young Lara’s vulnerability, underlining all the physical and emotional wear and tear. But you are never in any doubt she will emerge triumphant.
When we first meet her she is stony broke and being pulverised in the boxing ring by a superior opponent. It has been seven years since her father Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) went missing. All she has to do is sign the relevant papers to have him declared dead and the family fortune passes to her.
Then she discovers a cryptic message, leading her to a secret lair that reveals her father had been seeking the tomb of Himiko, the first queen of Japan. But he wanted all evidence of his findings destroyed to prevent it falling into the wrong hands.
If Lara obeyed his request, there wouldn’t be much of a film. So she heads to Hong Kong and takes a voyage through the Devil’s Sea in search of the supposedly mythical island that contains the tomb of Himiko.
There is a lot of loopy, nonsensical plot to swallow in Tomb Raider and the story and special effects are reminiscent of the earliest Indiana Jones adventures or The Mummy films.
But in the end it’s all just a backdrop to the action sequences in which Vikander’s fiercely determined Lara runs at lightning speed, leaps into raging waters, scales cliffs, fights for her life and proves to be a dab hand with a bow and arrow. Vikander’s physical commitment to the role is admirable. But the film is competent and watchable rather than anything special.
The villainous Mathias Vogel is blandly played by Walton Goggins and Lara’s sidekick Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) is given too few opportunities to shine. Kristin Scott Thomas makes more of an impression in the modest but significant role of Lara’s guardian Anna.
Tomb Raider comes alive when the pressure is on and the odds of success feel impossible. But for all its effort and efficiency, it still feels soulless and more than a little old-fashioned.
PETER RAbbiT (Cert PG; 95mins)
WHAT have they done to our beloved bunny? The screen version of Peter Rabbit mixes live action and CGI animation but it has more in common with the anarchic antics of Alvin And The Chipmunks than it does with the wholesome world of Beatrix Potter.
It is crass, pleased with itself and seems only too happy to trample all over our happy memories of gentle bedtime stories.
Peter is voiced in swaggering style by James Corden and comes over as a decidedly arrogant fellow. When old McGregor (Sam Neill)
heads to the big farm in the sky, his city slicker nephew Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson) arrives to sell the Lake District property.
Peter smells an easy victory in his campaign to take control of the vegetable garden but the war resumes with Thomas and Peter locked in a violent, tit-for-tat feud.
The visual side of Peter Rabbit is very impressive and children will warm to the menagerie of cute animals. But us adults are in for a bit of a shock.
THE SquARE HHHH (Cert 15; 151mins)
RUBEN Östlund directed Force Majeure with surgical precision. His follow-up The Square may have won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes but it is a sprawling beast of a film that is thrilling in its ambition but sometimes feels like it has bitten off more than it can chew.
Christian Nielsen (a star-making performance from Claes Bang) is the director of a cutting-edge art museum in Stockholm. He is persuaded to adopt a PR strategy designed to generate social media interest and the resulting film goes viral but is in poor taste, showing a homeless girl being blown up.
When Christian’s phone and wallet are stolen, he seeks revenge. But his righteous anger becomes a poison infecting his behaviour at work and his affair with television journalist Anne (Elisabeth Moss).
Then a gala dinner to honour artist Julian (Dominic West) becomes the stage for an outrageous comic set-piece with an overenthusiastic performance artist.
A bracingly original satire that highlights the growing divide between rich and poor and the failings of modern man.
My GOLdEN dAyS HHHH (Cert 15; 124mins)
THE past casts a lengthy shadow in My Golden Days, a playful, nostalgic charmer from director Arnaud Desplechin.
Returning to France from Tajikistan, anthropologist Paul Dedalus (Casino Royale baddie Mathieu Amalric) is detained by the authorities and asked to explain irregularities in his passport.
That’s the cue for him to tell the story of his life from an unhappy childhood to an unforgettable school trip to Soviet-era Minsk and his youthful infatuation with Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet).
The journey through his fondest memories unfolds with a light touch and a vivid sense of Paris in the 1980s and 1990s. The young Paul is played by Quentin Dolmaire and creates a convincing sense of the character then and now. The result is a fresh, engaging tale of first love, betrayal and the sheer joy of being young and alive in a world full of possibilities.
THE MAGIC FLuTE HHHH (Cert PG; 135mins)
CELEBRATIONS marking the centenary of the birth of Ingmar Bergman continue with a re-release of his Oscarnominated 1975 adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
It was originally filmed for Swedish television and has a light, playful touch. You can see the delight on the audience’s faces and enjoy the decidedly old-school masks, puppets and shaky sets as we witness the familiar story of Prince Tamino (Josef Köstlinger) and his quest to rescue the fair princess Pamina (Irma Urrila) from the clutches of evil sorcerer Sarastro (Ulrik Cold). The clarity of the sound recording and the quality of the singing make this a treat.
GOOk HHH (Cert 15; 95mins)
JUSTIN Chon makes a promising directorial debut with the uneven but often striking Gook, shot in black and white and set at the time of the Los Angeles riots in 1992.
Eli (Chon) and his brother Daniel (David So) are two Korean Americans trying to make a go of their family shoe shop. Orphaned African American Kamilla (Simone Baker) uses the shop as a home from home and there is a charming bond between the trio.
As the violence erupts, the film develops into a powerful tale of kinship in the face of adversity.