Logan’s run is more marathon than sprint, but worth every mile
Dir: James Mangold With: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant Runtime: 137 minutes
GETTING on in years is enough of a bore for us mere mortals, so spare a thought for ageing superheroes. Who will fetch meals on wheels to wherever Spider-Man is lurking? Can Specsavers cater for the changing ocular needs of a greying Cyclops? And how will Iron Man cope when the rust sets in?
The questions are endless, but at least now, courtesy of James Mangold’s action drama Logan, we know how Wolverine, he of the giant sideburns and Freddy Krueger-like talons, gets on after the bus pass arrives. Not terrifically is the short answer, but stick around for the long take because Mangold’s picture, set in the near, bleak future, is far smarter than your average comicbook outing.
It even ventures successfully into the territory of being genuinely moving, though the extreme violence rather takes the soft edge off that aspect. There will be blood in Logan, and lots and lots of slashing. Note that 15 certificate – they are not kidding around. This is a movie for those who have grown up with Wolverine, not for youngsters just starting out on their comic-book movie odyssey.
Asisusualwithsuchmovies,a Masters in superhero lore is requiredtoworkoutwhatthe heck is happening initially. It is 2029, and Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is working as a limo driver, a man driven mad by the young punks he has to ferry around. Depressed, drinking and on pills, he spends his downtime heading across the border to Mexico where Charles Xavier/ Professor X (Patrick Stewart) is being looked after by mutant tracker turned good guy Caliban (Stephen Merchant, complete with West Country accent).
Logan’s life is complicated enough without a mysterious woman with a strange child in tow turning up to ask for his help. Whoisthegirlandwhyisshe being hunted by what looks like half the US special forces? All will be revealed over a running time of 137 minutes. No-one could accuse director James Mangold (who also helmed 2013’s The Wolverine) of short-changing fans. They are here to see how their hero’s story plays out, and Logan delivers.
Mostsuperheromoviesmakea stab at showing their characters enduring long, dark nights of the soul. But there is something about watching grown adults, often men, usually in Lycra, cavorting around like sugar-drunk toddlers that brings out the comic in comicbook movies. Logan, however, manages to be a genuinely convincing portrait of a man/ mutant in torment. One feels every crick of those old bones, every spasm of conscience as he looks back on a life of violence and loss.
For that, the film and fans can thank Jackman. Courtesy of him, Wolverine has always been much more than a grumpy sort in need of a manicure and a course in anger management. In Jackman’s handsheisafiercelyromantic rebel with a cause, a Jimmy Dean with sideburns and attitude to burn, the last mutant holding out against a society that wants him destroyed. Oh, and he has a cute way with a funny line too.
Logan finds Jackman adding another dimension to the character, with some winning scenes between Charles, Logan, and the silent child who wants to go to a certain address in North Dakota. At times, when Jackman and young Laura (Dafne Keen) are on screen, Logan plays out like a bizarre remake of Paper Moon with Ryan and Tatum O’Neal. As for Stewart, he is the perennial class act as Xavier, here going through his own trials.
Mangold keeps the action tearing along. Speaking of tearing, the fights are watch-through-thefingers stuff, while the language is strong enough to strip paint.
Neither Mangold or his cast are messing around here, with all concerned determined to deliver a final, hugely satisfying, one-way trip for this A-list member of the X-Men. As for what might come next, one fancies fans will like that too. *** Dir: Gurinder Chadha With: Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson Runtime: 106 minutes IF you ever wondered what Downton Abbey would look like transported to the last days of the Raj, venture no further than Gurinder Chadha’s drama.
It is not just that Viceroy’s House features Hugh “Earl of Grantham” Bonneville as Lord Mountbatten, but there is that same sense of upstairs/downstairs about the piece, only in this case the downtrodden party is an entire nation, India, desperate to be free of British rule.
Bonneville plays Lord Mountbatten, with Gillian Anderson as his wife Edwina. It is 1947, and Mountbatten has been charged with managing the transfer of power.
With no agreement between political leaders, he begins the process of partition.
Lines are being drawn on a map, millions of lives are being turned upside down with many losing everything in the process, and a race against time is on.
Aside from a sub-plot involving a young couple from opposite sides of the religious divide, the focus stays very much on the Brits, for good and ill.
Bonneville, looking as much like Mountbatten as I do, does not stray far from his Downton persona, while Anderson’s terribly pukkaaccentissosharpit could etch glass.
In time, the Pathe newsreel air of the piece, initially charming, begins tograte.
Still, Chadha (Bend it Like Beckham) deftly manages to capture the frantic mood of the times and the politicking that went on, not least by the British, and the settings are magnificent.