Sad tale of a shopping mall gorilla
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN
(U, 93 mins)
Director: Thea Sharrock
Stars: Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren
Streaming now on Disney+
MESSAGE MAN
(Cert 18, 91 mins)
Director: Corey Pearson
Stars: Paul O’brien, Aji Santosa, Verdi Solaiman
Streaming now on major digital platforms
COUP 53
(Cert 15, 120 mins)
Director: Taghi Amirani
Stars: Taghi Amirani, Ralph Fiennes Streaming now on major digital platforms
CINEMA-OWNERS went from lockdown to meltdown when Disney revealed plans to send its live-action Mulan remake straight to its home-streaming platform. But there was very little chest-beating when this star-studded, talking-gorilla flick was quietly ushered down the same path.
The One And Only Ivan may be based on Katherine Applegate’s hit children’s book but it was never going to have the cross-generational appeal of a revamped classic. And on reflection, the small screen feels like the natural habitat for its menagerie of chatty circus animals.
It’s not that it looks cheap. The CGI critters aren’t quite as photo-realistic as those in last year’s The Lion King but their fuzzy hair and sparkly eyes put them in roughly the same safari park. But it’s a strange beast. The characters (both human and CGI) feel underdeveloped, the jokes tame and, until the final act, its message is confusingly elusive.
Ivan (voiced by Sam Rockwell) is a laid-back, silverback gorilla who lives in a cage in the Big Top Mall, an American shopping centre that features ures an animal-based circus.
This enterprise is clearly rly an affront to modern notions of animal welfare but, alarmingly, it’s introduced as something of a lark.
Ivan is the star turn, taking the stage at the finale to beat his chest and roar at the children. But, as his opening voiceover reveals, to him this is just t show business. Backstage e he is best friends with Danny Devito’s stray dog. and Angelina Jolie’s elderly elephant is a wrinkly surrogate mother.
The other creatures are just comic relief – snarky chicken (Chaka Khan), a rabbit fireman (Ron Funches), a neurotic seal Frankie (Mike White) and a preening poodle (Helen Mirren).
The cruel but big-hearted circus master Mack (Bryan Cranston) is harder to get a handle on. It’s not Cranston’s fault; the script is as indecisive about his character as the art department is about the setting, which could be anything from the early 80s to the modern day.
Things begin to become a little clearer when Mack brings a cute, baby elephant (Brooklynn Prince) in as his new headliner. At first, the animals hope that she can turn the fortunes of the circus around but she reawakens a sense of yearnin yearning in Ivan who begins to re remember his own chi childhood in Africa.
When a little girl gives h him a set of paints, he starts to daub jungle scenes. From here Dumbo begins to turn into Free Willy, as the animals dream of a n new relationship with th their human masters. The Th drama at last comes aliv alive in the final act with the mournful tone giving wa way to something more rousing. It’s not a new family classic, more something to nod off to during a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Star-free, Aussie action film Message Man takes a while to get going too but the slow-burning set-up gave me a chance to check out the action hero credentials of its leading man. I never saw Paul O’brien in Home And Away but, with the looks of a peak-fame Nick Knowles, his moody entrance failed to convince.
However as the bodies piled up, all thoughts of DIY punditry began to fade. By the end, I could see a bit of Clint Eastwood in the former Summer Bay bobby. The plot is pure Spaghetti Western. O’brien is Ryan, a mysterious stranger who rolls up on an Indonesian island to get his yacht repaired. After befriending cheeky street kid Doni (Aji Santosa), he crosses paths with a gang of thugs who are kidnapping the womenfolk and trafficking them as sex slaves.
After butchering a few of them, Ryan discovers that they are working for his nemesis and heads to Jakarta to finish off the crazy Mr Lee (Verdi Solaiman).
The finale, a siege on a strip club, is wildly inventive and loony Lee makes a refreshingly original villain. His wild bow ties and shiny waistcoats give him the air of an over-excited snooker player driven mad by the polite silence of The Crucible.
The villains are wearing Savile Row and smirks in Coup 53, Taghi Amirani’s fascinating documentary about MI6’S involvement in the CIA ousting of the Iranian Prime Minister in 1953.
Mohammad Mosaddegh was T ime magazine’s Man of the Year in 1951 but nationalising a Bp-run oil company put him in the cross-hairs of the British establishment.
Amirani structures the film around his 10-year search for documents that would prove the British instigated the plot. He strikes gold with unedited interviews with fusty British spies and bureaucrats from a 1980 BBC documentary. It seems 27 years is enough elapsed time for the expensively educated to brag about ousting a democratically-elected leader.
An interview with an especially loose-lipped chap mysteriously disappeared from the programme shortly before it was due to be broadcast. After finding a transcript, Amirani has Ralph Fiennes help stage a reconstruction, like an out-take from a John le Carré drama.