The Next Great Fantasy World Is China?! The Great Wall

The Good: Special effects, Good performances, Interesting characters
The Bad: Very simple plot
The Basics: The Great Wall is a visually-engaging film that is very simple.


With the popularity of Game Of Thrones on HBO and the end of the marketable Middle Earth books, moviegoers are looking for the next big mythical world to emotionally invest in. The Great Wall implicitly makes the argument that ancient China is a setting worth exploring. The Great Wall blends history and mythology, character and special effects to create a story of heroism that is likely to appeal to those who love fantasy.

The Great Wall is not as sprawling or complicated as Warcraft (reviewed here!) and in some ways that makes it much more accessible. Despite the flash and physical scope of the film, The Great Wall is essentially a simple siege story with a very basic morality aspect thrown in. The lack of complexity does not make The Great Wall bad, though, but it is easy to get swept away by the armor and sprawling mountains and come to believe the film is bigger than it actually is.

Opening with the disclaimer that this is one of the legends of the Great Wall, William Garin is being chased on horseback through the desert with his comrades and are only able to evade their pursuers through luck and cunning. Garin and his team of six men (down by twenty from when the expedition began) are searching for gunpowder, which they have only heard of as rumor and at night, their camp is attacked by something they do not recognize and only see clearly in the amputated limb one leaves behind. Garin and Pero Tovar survive the fight with the creature and are scouting when they are attacked again by riders. They are corralled to the Great Wall, where military forces are defending China. After being interrogated by Lin Mei, a general who speaks English thanks to the tutelage of Sir Ballard, they are imprisoned and brought to the top of the Great Wall.

There, they witness an attack on the Wall by massive reptiles. Freed from their bonds during the fight, Garin and Tovar take down a couple of the creatures and earn the begrudging respect of Lin Mei. The Westerners learn of the Taotie, whose queen breeds an army that attacks every sixty years and whose legions now threaten the capital city. With its population, the military leaders believe that the Queen Taotie will be able to breed enough soldiers to cover the entire Earth, wiping out humanity. After a nighttime attack kills the leader of the army, Lin Mei is promoted and she agrees to try Garin's idea, which is to capture a Taotie to find the creatures' weaknesses. While the military captures a Taotie soldier, Sir Ballard and Tovar flee the Great Wall with a supply of "black powder." Despite immediately mistrusting Garin, Lin Mei is convinced that his desire to stay and fight the Taotie is legitimate. Together, Lin Mei and William Garin mount a daring expedition to find the queen and kill her to eliminate the threat the Taotie represent to Earth!'

The Great Wall very quickly sets up obvious dialectics. William Garin is a mercenary, while Lin Mei fights for the common good of her people; Garin distrusts everyone, Lin Mei survives because she can trust her soldiers and they trust her. Even the adversaries are set up as part of a very simple conflict; the emperor is using his army to protect China and the world; the Taotie Queen is an invader who fell from the sky and threatens to overwhelm the world with her mindless drones.

The plot of The Great Wall is similarly simple. The warriors must repel the Taotie in order to save the kingdom. William Garin and Pero Tovar must choose to join their fight or steal the black powder and flee the Wall with it. So, it is somewhat unsurprising that the film offers both options; Garin takes the high road, Tovar chooses avarice. Thematically, there is something very unsatisfying about the film's resolution, but in general terms, the dialectics are well-established and decently executed.

The characters in The Great Wall play out like very simple archetypes, but they are well-performed by Matt Damon (Garin), Tian Jing (Lin Mei), and Pedro Pascal (Pero Tovar). It is weird seeing Willem Dafoe in such a monolithic supporting role as he is in The Great Wall, where he plays Sir Ballard, but he makes the most of it. Tian Jing dominates the screen as Lin Mei; she plays the military leader with a precision and control of her body language and tone that make it entirely believable that she could rise to such a position of power. Damon is good as Garin, but he takes a back seat to Jing in every scene they share; he plays the mercenary fine (albeit without the charisma of, say, Han Solo), but she plays the military leader masterfully.

The effects in The Great Wall are good. I found the waves of Taotie attacking to get a bit repetitive-feeling, but they are well-rendered. Between the realistic rendition of the Taotie and the brightly colored armor for the various divisions within the army, The Great Wall looks wonderful.

The Great Wall is a stylish-looking film that makes a simple story seem exceptional and that makes for enjoyable, if not objectively incredible, movie.

For other movies currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
War On Everyone
Underworld: Blood Wars
La La Land
Passengers
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Blood Diamond: Another Socially Conscious Movie That Failed To Make A Difference

The Good: Well-written, Good characters, Decent direction, Social message, Acting
The Bad: Feels a little long/predictable, "The Market" did not "get" it
The Basics: With vivid characters played by some of the best actors in the industry, the true cost of the diamond trade is exposed with brutal clarity for the viewer.


When I saw V For Vendetta (reviewed here!) in theaters, I knew that the movie had essentially failed (despite bringing in oodles of money) because the Revolution did not come. When I spoke with a friend about it, she objected saying that if the Revolution came, she would drop everything in a heartbeat. She was offended when I told her that meant she didn't "get" the movie; the point of it was that WE are the Revolution and that each of us must rise up and lead it, we can't follow it. So, our corrupt government continues to exploit the people and women and men in the United States remain slaves to their jobs instead of the economy serving them. Blood Diamond, which is now out on DVD, is another movie that the American people simply did not "get." I say this because diamonds are still worn by Americans and cherished.

Solomon Bo is an African who is captured by militants and forced to mine diamonds at gunpoint. When he finds a giant diamond, he manages to hide it as a military strike saves him and several other enslaved men. In the holding cell, a guard who saw what Solomon pulled from the earth demands to know what happened to it and this gets the attention of Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler. Archer is sprung from jail by his wealthy patrons and he uses his influence to get Solomon free so they can recover the diamond.

With the aid of a plucky reporter, the two enter a war zone to track down the diamond, which Archer wants for profit, Maddy wants for the story and Solomon wants in order to get his family out of the refugee camp they are (essentially) imprisoned in.

I sat down to Blood Diamond because a friend of mine who pulls movies for me mistook my interest in seeing The Last King Of Scotland for Blood Diamond (don't ask). The thing is, I enjoyed Blood Diamond a bit, though a lot of the information was not new to me. The R.U.F. - the rebel forces - drive into Solomon's village and take his son (and many children) away, where they essentially brainwash the boy into a killing machine. This was something I knew before (and not just from the second season of Lost, reviewed here!) and have been troubled by. Blood Diamond presents the reality of youth enslavement and indoctrination into killing machines with the horror that is mirrored only by its truth. This happens every day while the world sits back and through apathy essentially abets the crimes.

I found myself enjoying the movie despite the humanization of the problem. I understand why writers Charles Leavitt and C. Gaby Mitchell needed to put a human face on the problem of blood diamonds (diamonds that are smuggled through war zones and laundered into the legal flow of diamonds). Most Americans don't know about the problems and carnage associated with the diamond trade, so it makes perfect sense to indoctrinate them with a story that resonates as personally as possible. When the credits came up and I saw the movie was directed by Edward Zwick, I found myself pleasantly surprised; it made sense the movie so effectively humanized the problem. Zwick is a master of relating stories about human relationships; his show Once And Again (season two reviewed here!) remains one of my favorite series'.

Central to the movie is the relationship between Solomon and Danny and Solomon and his family. Solomon manages the virtually impossible; finding his family in a refugee camp of one million people. The need to save them and rescue them from their status as citizens without nation gives him a compelling reason to go back for the diamond and risk his life. Solomon and Danny have an intriguing relationship as Danny's isolation with the world - his diamond market patron has essentially distanced himself from the smuggler - allows him to open up with Solomon and the probing questions the less morally relativistic man asks him weaken his acceptance in the way things are.

The movie works when it is a brutal social and political commentary on the diamond market with the foils of Danny's greed served opposite Solomon's desire to protect and recover his family and his homeland. Unfortunately, the story diverges for a while in a somewhat predictable and pointless romantic subplot between Danny and reporter Maddy. It makes the story more human and complicated, but not necessarily better. As it is, Blood Diamond clocks in at almost two and a half hours, so the romantic plot is not needed to fill time.

But the movie works because at the end of the day, it can be reduced to the price of one (albeit huge) diamond. Consider the number of people killed, maimed (the opening scenes where the R.U.F. starts lopping off the hands of villagers begins the process of finding the diamond) and wounded combined with the material resources - planes, helicopters, etc. - destroyed to find and retrieve the diamond and the price tag gets truly astonishing. The moralizing that does not appear in the movie is the connection I shall now make:

Diamonds are worthless.

Because there is nothing backing our economy (we are not bound by a gold or silver standard), all that holds together the U.S. economy is faith. The belief in the strength of the dollar defines the value of the dollar. Thus, all $1.00 is worth is what you can buy with it and what you are willing to do for it. I frequently tell my students that working at their minimum wage jobs they are selling their souls for 4 Value Menu hamburgers and hour. None of them ever quit their jobs. But the point holds, which is the purpose behind collective bargaining. If Americans refused to work for less money, the uprising would declare a more balanced value to the dollar because the connection between the life people possess and the acquisition of material things would be made so apparent that only the most apathetic would slave their lives away for so few crumbs from the corporations. Diamonds are dirt. Dirt that is declared as pretty because it is clear and sparkley and . . . honestly I don't know why. Diamonds have value because greedy industries that thrive on them tell the masses they are valuable - one of the most poignant moments in Blood Diamond comes when a character reveals that the rebels want to flood the market with a billion dollars worth of diamonds in order to fund their war. In the face of evidence like that (where such quantity is available), diamonds are no longer valuable based on their rarity. Diamonds are worth what people are willing to pay and what people are willing to do for them.

And the question left unanswered by the audience of the movie is this: Will you have anything at all to do with diamonds, will you perpetrate the myth of their worth, with even the POSSIBILITY that the true cost of your diamond is at least one hundred human lives lost, the enslavement of a people and the perpetration of war and maiming of a less developed nation? As the market has not collapsed, I may only assume people either did not see Blood Diamond or it failed to carry its message in a way that was meaningful enough to resonate with Americans.

I'm not sure what more director Edward Zwick could do to make it resonate with Americans. When you show women and children being slaughtered by men with automatic weapons as part of the system that brings diamonds to the world, there's not much more that can be shown to connect humanity to the problems. I don't believe the failure is Zwick's.

For those considering taking in Blood Diamond, this is not just moralizing, it is an entertaining film. The journey of Solomon Bo is extraordinary and compelling. The characters are all interesting and Solomon and Danny are completely empathetic. This is a movie about how far people will go and they go far.

What makes the characters work is the acting. Stephen Collins has a brief, but memorable, cameo as an Ambassador who is crusading against conflict diamonds and he was well cast for the bit part. Jennifer Connelly gives a great performance here. Given about as much of a role as she had in Dark City (reviewed here!), Connelly gives a supporting performance that is compelling for the audience in that it confronts the issues directly that the other characters live around. Connelly manages to make Maddy slightly more than just a "type" by infusing her strong sense of confidence in her body language into the strong-willed reporter she is embodying. Connelly evokes the essence of a crusader to make Maddy professionally strong and softens to express an underlying loneliness to make Maddy human.

Connelly plays off Leonardo DiCaprio perfectly and DiCaprio is astoundingly good as Danny Archer. DiCaprio defines Danny with an angry expression and constant heat from his eyes that is piercing. The maintenance of this facade is impressive and it does not waver in this movie.

The movie hinges on the acting of Djimon Hounsou. Hounsou came to my attention in the third season of Alias (reviewed here!) where he had such a distinct and memorable role that it astounds me to find he was only in 3 episodes. His presence was much bigger than that. Hounsou reveals the depth of his acting ability in Blood Diamond by creating an essential human character with such decency and grace that there's not even the hint of the heavy he played on Alias. That's acting: to create two entirely opposite characters and make both vividly believable.

Blood Diamond is reminiscent of the truly amazing film The Mission from the 1980s. The Mission (reviewed here!) explored the church conflicts that resulted in the enslavement of natives in South America. One wonders if The Mission had been made while the events in it were current if it would have had an effect, if it would have stopped the carnage. The events in Blood Diamond are going on now. The question must be asked, can the exposure of these truths to the masses stand as the wake-up call to stop this carnage? I wait, astonished that the diamond industry continues to thrive; were I Zwick I would have hoped by the time the film was released on DVD, the industry would have collapsed.

For other works with Stephen Collins, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Three Stooges
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia - Seasons 1 & 2
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
All The President’s Men

8/10

Check out how this film stacks up against the others I have reviewed by visiting my ever-growing Movie Index Page where the reviews are organized from best film to worst!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Best Picture Of Early 2009: Defiance Tells A Russian Holocaust Survival Story Incredibly!

The Good: Acting, Characters, Story, Music, Cinematography
The Bad: Pacing issues at the beginning.
The Basics: An amazing cinematic achievement, Defiance is beautiful to the eye and ear and is troubling to the soul as a story of Jewish survivors in Russia during World War II.


It takes a lot for me to consider a film, truly great and lately, it has been harder for me to find films that I feel that passionately about on the first viewing. But tonight, I screened a film that easily fits the bill and it is unfortunate it has been released so early in the year, when most people will likely have forgotten about it by next year's Oscars voting. The film is Defiance and it is the first real gem of 2009.

I suppose it is worth noting going in that I had no notion of what the film was about and I'm not big on Holocaust movies. I've learned so much about the World War II Holocaust against the Jewish people that it takes a lot to get me into a mood to see a movie dealing with the holocaust. Defiance is a rare treat in cinematography: it is a film set in Russia during World War II, focusing on Jewish survivors and as a result, this is not one of the movies that attempts to capture or recreate the concentration camps. Instead, it is focused on the Russian survival instinct and the resiliency of the Russian Jews. If anyone wanted the perfect combination of a holocaust film and a Russian war epic, Defiance might well be it. Think Life Is Beautiful (without the crazy) meets Doctor Zhivago (reviewed here!).

In 1941, as the Nazis invaded Poland and Bellarus, four brothers - the Bielskis - fled into a forest that they knew well. Accustomed to fleeing the police there when their parents ran a smuggling operation, Tuvia, Zus, and the younger brothers Asael and Aron, evade the Nazi patrols and disappear into the woods. Camped out for a few days, they soon get hungry and need supplies. Aided by a loyal friend of the family, Tuvia is given food, but also a few families of Jewish people who are also fleeing the Nazis to take with him. Disgusted by the sudden dependents, Zus bids for power within the small camp and to keep them safe and not live in his brother's shadow, Zus joins the Red Army in fighting the Nazis around the woods.

As winter comes in 1941, Tuvia works with the many Jews who find their way to the camp to create a community. When the ghettos are liquidated (i.e. all of the Jews there are being slaughtered) Tuvia organizes a rescue and soon their camp has hundreds of people. Surviving the harsh winter is bad enough, but dealing with low food supplies, power-hungry younger people and the threats of both the Nazis and the Soviet army keep Tuvia and his brothers struggling to keep as many people alive as possible.

The brilliance of Defiance, arguably one of the few "instant classics" in recent times, is that the film is remarkably multifaceted. This is a survival story, yes, but it is also about maintaining the balance between the needs of the community and the strength of the individual. Rivals for control of the camp rise and Tuvia must deal with them. He works to establish laws and then struggles to enforce them. As a result, the film is careful not to make Tuvia a flawless, idealized hero. He gets angry, he murders, he sits back and lets others do horrible things. In other words, he is human.

But the strength of the character - who is based upon a real life Tuvia Bielski who did start camps in the woods to save Jews during World War II - is in his humanity. To save the greatest number of people, he asserts his dominance when necessary and when possible, he appeases the intellectuals by talking about the community that is being formed by the Jews in the woods. He is careful to insure that survival is not the only about living, but about having beliefs that one holds true to. This distinction becomes what Defiance is truly about and the film is smart enough to illustrate the conflicts in a realistic light.

As a result, collaborators with the Nazis are shown to be people who are trying to survive the occupation the only way they know how and the Jewish characters are not treated as unflinchingly good. Instead, they menace one another at times and there are dangerous people even in the safety of the camp in the woods.

Defiance was adapted for screen by Clayton Frohman and director Edward Zwick. Zwick, the socially conscious mind that brought us Blood Diamond is smart and careful to preserve the realism of the concept of survival and the many facets of what that entails instead of simply painting the rosy picture of people who become great in the worst possible crisis. No, characters like Tuvia fall and the joy of experiencing Defiance is watching his learning curve.

Defiance is difficult to watch at several points, but not for the usual holocaust film "big death scene" reasons. Instead, as the film slowly develops over the first year of the Bielski resistance and camp, Tuvia makes difficult decisions, sometimes with who loves and who dies. He falls ill and watching the scenes where others take advantage of the weakness of his health are understandably painful.

Still, there is a clever balance maintained, sometimes even within a scene. Zwick plays a wedding - Asael and Chaya, who have obvious chemistry find some happiness together - against a military raid between Zus's battalion and a German convoy. The contrast is stark and filmed in a way that is absolutely beautiful. Moreover, the score - by Joshua Bell - plays off the cinematography in such a way that it is easy to watch (stylistically) all that comes up in Defiance.

As well, the acting is phenomenal. Liev Schreiber plays Zus as quietly jealous until he erupts, Jamie Bell has an unwavering goodness in his portrayal of Asael, and Alexa Davalos is the embodiment of strong as Lilka (Tuvia's romantic interest). Young performers like Mia Wasikowska vie perfectly for attention on the screen with the likes of Mark Feuerstein and Tomas Arana.

But it is Daniel Craig who sells Defiance as Tuvia. Strong in a way that he was not allowed to be in the role of James Bond (i.e. strong, but deeply human), Craig evokes pathos with each tough decision his character is compelled to make. Craig is adept at acting with only his eyes and the slouching of his shoulders in several scenes and it works masterfully for the story and the character. His performance is the type awards are rightfully given for.

And in the end Defiance is exactly the type of film that deserves to be seen: the story ought to be told and this history should not be lost. And with characters, performances and effects (musical and visual) as incredible as in Defiance history comes alive and is enduring.

For other works Edward Zwick is associated with, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Dangerous Beauty
The Siege
Traffic
i am sam
Once And Again - Season 1
Once And Again - Season 2
Love And Other Drugs

10/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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After Years Of Waiting, I Check Out The Pre-9/11 The Siege And Love It!

The Good: Great acting, Wonderful story and social message, Interesting character dynamics, Educational.
The Bad: No DVD bonus features, Pacing
The Basics: Clever, well-acted and intense, The Siege has Denzel Washington and Tony Shalhoub at the forefront of investigations into terrorist attacks on New York City!


There are few films that have come so highly recommended to me in recent years as The Siege, a film about terrorism in the United States that predates the September 11, 2001 attacks to New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. It came to me recommended because of my politics and my appreciation of the works of Edward Zwick, who was one of the co-creators of one of my favorite canceled television shows, Once And Again. Given Zwick's adeptness as a writer and director, I had no doubt going into The Siege that I would be entertained at the very least. And given how much I learned during the Bush Administration about international law, counterterrorism methods and intelligence agency turf wars, the only real unfortunate aspect of taking so long to watch The Siege was that a lot of the information was known to me, so it did not have the educational impact I hoped it might have.

Even so, The Siege reminds viewers of the principles upon which the United States was founded and the importance of both civil rights and maintaining national identity based on principles over slogans. Like the two-part Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Homefront" (reviewed here!) and "Paradise Lost" (reviewed here!), The Siege explores terrorism in the United States (or an evolved society based upon it) as a hypothetical, with the idea of inherent human rights at the forefront of the plot and character issues. As a result, the essential character conflict throughout The Siege is one between those who stand for freedom versus those who stand by the enforcement of law and social order at all costs.

FBI agent Tony Hubbard is working the streets of New York City dealing with an odd crime with his team when all hell breaks loose. Accompanied by his partner, an Arab American agent named Frank, the FBI works to negotiate for the safe release of a busload of hostages who are suddenly covered in blue paint when the bomb goes off. The weird crime, if it is a crime, is soon mirrored by the abduction of a bus filled with people which is detonated with most of the people inside, as the FBI and media crews watch. Tony and Frank work to piece together who is behind the terrorist attacks and stop the next one.

Unfortunately for the FBI, the terrorist cells which have sprung up in New York City seem to be working for a cause and with the knowledge of some of those within the U.S.'s intelligence community. As Tony and Frank investigate the bombings, they encounter Elise Kraft, an N.S.C. agent who has a vested interest in the case, as she is the handler for a prominent asset, Samir. As well, Tony develops a relationship with Major General William Devereaux, a high ranking army officer who has contempt for the President's soft policy on terrorism and has a history with a Sheik allegedly captured by U.S. forces years before. As the situation in New York City degenerates as the result of more terrorist attacks, Tony races to prevent chaos and insure freedom as Devereaux declares martial law and effectively takes over the City in search of the final terrorist cell.

The Siege reminds the viewers what the last several years seem to have caused many of us to forget: that individuals are responsible for their actions and that groups working against the United States often have surprisingly rational reasons for their actions, even if their methods are surprising and incomprehensible. In the first scene in The Siege, the motivation for virtually everything that comes after is given when Devereaux is part of an operation that captures a Sheik. Of course, the tensions go deeper than that; the Sheik is captured for prior acts of terrorism.

What Edward Zwick does exceptionally well with this film is illustrate how proud Americans - especially the naturalized ones - are of their heritage as Americans. At the same time, he creates a piece that has a density to it and is not likely to give easy or convenient answers. So, just as Frank is an obvious and proud American who is part of the FBI's counterterrorism unit and has a clear love for the principles of the United States, Samir's status as an informant and agent for the terrorist cells keeps his true allegiances murky. And while Frank is tested when his son is inadvertently put in the internment camp, his desire to uphold the principles of the United States never waver. Instead, he is always fighting the good fight and he makes for a great partner for Anthony.

Zwick spends a good amount of time illustrating the fundamental problem with intelligence agencies in the United States with the first half-hour or more of The Siege. As Anthony and Frank hunt for the criminals responsible for the first bus hijacking, they encounter Elise, who works for the NSC. The way the FBI, NSC and military trip over one another becomes a contributing factor to the declaration of martial law in New York City and their inability to share with one another helps the terrorist cells operating in New York City to gain strength.

But largely, what Zwick does best in The Siege is illustrate the importance of defending essential human rights in the United States. The U.S. suffers when we discriminate and profile and the result is an ugly situation that is anything but American. By establishing the multiethnic task force well before the declaration of martial law, Zwick uses The Siege to show how the ideal works and what happens when it becomes corrupted. The wonderful foil for a post-9/11 world is that Zwick illustrates how terrorism can be dealt with without giving into fear. Unfortunately, The Siege seems more like an ominous foreshadowing, a playbook for the U.S. government on how to exploit the fear of the populace, as opposed to rallying against it.

The Siege is also remarkably well-cast and Zwick uses all of the actors in the film extraordinarily well. Bruce Willis gives a strong performances as Devereaux and Willis's best moments are not realized until one reflects upon the film. Anthony references Elise and Devereaux, who has an apparent ax to grind with her, plays the scene cool and later when one of Elise's secrets comes out, Devereaux looks surprisingly cool. Willis deserves a lot of credit for that earlier moment as he makes the payoff later in the film truly work. Similarly, Sami Bouajila (Samir) and Annette Bening (Elise) are wonderful and have great on-screen chemistry which keeps the viewer guessing as to all of the angles their characters are playing.

Denzel Washington leads the cast and from his performance here, it is easy to see how and why he was cast for The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3. Essentially, he is playing the same character in this earlier work, a man who is cool under pressure and fights the good fight day in and day out. Here Washington is utterly convincing as a professional counterterrorist agent and he flawlessly sells the role.

But it is Tony Shalhoub who completely rocks The Siege. From the moment he first appears on screen, Shalhoub is badass. He carries a gun (convincingly!), investigates the crimes and speaks multiple languages flawlessly. For those used to seeing him as Monk or the other hapless sidekick characters he has played, this is a strong departure and he is completely at home in the role of an efficient investigator who is smart, funny and occasionally menacing.

The Siege continues Zwick's tradition of socially smart films with a message that is timely and pro-American. All that truly drags this one down is that it takes a while to get to its point. As well, the DVD was originally released with only the film's trailer. For such an important film, we'd like more in the way of bonus features (the Blu-Ray now has them!). Still, this remains a great film that should be watched by all Americans, if for no other reason than to remind us that fear need not be the only response to horror.

For other works Edward Zwick is associated with, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Dangerous Beauty
Traffic
i am sam
Once And Again - Season 1
Once And Again - Season 2
Love And Other Drugs

9/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the films I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Partnerships In Transition: Once And Again Season Two

The Good: Excellent acting, nice character development, good balance, Good writing
The Bad: Awkward soap-opera moments, Dramas outside the family
The Basics: While Rick and Lily evolve their relationship, they run into many problems with their children, ex-spouses, and occupations in this realistic drama.


The original concept for Once And Again was a good one; two divorced parents meet, fall in love, and navigate the struggles of blending their families. In the first season of the television drama, Once And Again (first season DVD set is reviewed here!) fell out of balance, in the mid-season shifting abruptly from the new partnership of Lily Manning and Rick Sammler to the end of the partnership between Lily and her husband Jake. Rick falls out of play for much of the latter-half of the first season.

The producers of Once And Again apparently realized this and the second season of the show returns with the partnership of Lily and Rick front and center, evolving naturally through the second season. In fact, the show's best moments focus on Rick and Lily, though Rick's daughter Jessie gets some awesome developments and scenes. Conversely, the season's disappointing aspects come in the form of the larger than life issues that the show suddenly takes on. Allow me to explain.

The second season of Once And Again begins a few months after season one's finale, with Rick and Lily reconnecting following a summer mostly-apart. They take hesitant steps to move as a couple into the lives of their various children and those efforts are balanced with them taking time to be together. As Rick and Lily get closer, Eli becomes more rebellious and he starts a band, Grace finds herself hanging out with social misfits and outcasts, Jessie develops an eating disorder (cleverly alluded to in the first season), and Zoe goes through the usual struggles of a preteen. Lily finds new strength in her new job, though she must deal with sexual harassment and her sister Judy who revamps the bookstore she previously owned.

On the other end, Rick and Miles Drintell begin work on a mammoth development known as Atlantor. Atlantor makes Rick a public figure and the scope of the development puts him under attack by Karen, his ex-wife, who represents many community organizations that object to the Atlantor project.

Unfortunately, as much of the plot becomes consumed with Rick duking it out with Karen and Grace over the Atlantor project, the show gets away from the meat of the concept. Not the Lily/Rick relationship, which becomes deeply intertwined with the Atlantor issues, but rather the concept of a family drama that focuses on the realism of attempting to blend two families. The show takes on an overly dramatic quality at times with Rick and Karen ending up in court a few times, adding something of a fantastic quality to the show.

In stark contrast, the Jessie storyline, wherein her anorexia is exposed and treated, is brilliant for its realism. Once Jessie gets into counseling, the show has numerous scenes that are unlike anything else on television. Jessie talks, the therapist listens, we see a young woman working through problems. Nothing huge or earth-moving, but certainly leaps and bounds for the character.

And this is, ultimately, a show about characters, individuals who do things and grow in different directions. Here is how the second season finds them:

Lily Manning - Reconciled to divorcing Jake and getting on her life with Rick, Lily juggles her love for Rick, her children and her job. Her story is one of standing by her new man through troubles while she confronts difficulties of her own at work,

Rick Sammler - Unwittingly finds himself in the crosshairs of public debate when his project with Miles Drintell becomes a huge development that outrages local advocacy groups. He must deal with reaching out for his potential success and taking it, while dealing with his rebellious son, his adversarial ex-wife and his anorexic daughter. All this while maintaining and growing a relationship with Lily,

Jake Manning - Devoted to the restaurant, he works to be a better father to Grace and Zoe while moving on with his life. That is, until a Giant Plot Moment, which will shatter his life forever,

Karen Sammler - Now befriended to Judy, Karen must wrestle with issues of letting go of both Eli and Jessie. She develops the strength to make decisions completely independent of Rick, with results that radically change the family,

Eli - Suddenly starts a band, falls in with a troubled girl named Carla and rebels against everything as his academic and sports life suffers,

Grace - Befriends a social misfit named Carla, learns to drive, and starts to date a social outcast named Spence. As she spends time with Carla and Eli, she finds herself troubled to realize that her feelings are a lot more confused than she originally suspected,

Jessie - In denial about her parents' never reconciling, she develops an eating disorder. Her story is one of finding herself and growing up,

Zoe - Provides comic relief,

and Judy - No longer with Sam Blue, she befriends Karen and puts her struggle to find love into her bookstore, with brilliant results.

This is, at its best, a family drama with character at its center. The advantage of Once And Again is that its characters are brought to life by an immensely talented cast. One of the ironies of the casting for Once And Again is that it is an adult show that gave rise to Shane West, a teenage heartthrob. Those who moon over West are far too young to "get" this show. Shane West is, however, remarkably talented as Eli and he plays off Billy Campbell brilliantly.

The real winners in the second season of Once And Again are the women. Susanna Thompson evolves her character of Karen from a somewhat monolithic antagonist to Rick in season one into a fully developed, complex, emotive character. Thompson's brilliance is that she manages to make the transformation through her body language, her expressions a softening of her tone, a movement of her eyes. She is brilliant and it is clear the actress is contributing a lot to the character's intricacies.

Julia Whelan, who plays Grace Manning is similarly brilliant. Clearly classically trained, Whelan is a rising star whose talent will take her very far. She plays the average and disaffected young woman perfectly, portraying Grace with something more than what is in the lines and words she delivers. Whelan is brilliant at exploding the potential of Grace with her soulful eyes and passionate deliveries.

The hands-down best performances in the second season of Once And Again are delivered by young actress Evan Rachel Wood. She is brilliant in her character struggles as she - in the course of the season - transforms Jessie from a girl into a young woman. Wood is charismatic, never pushing Jessie from angsty realism into melodrama. She is a pro and her scenes, especially the counseling scenes which have the potential to be gruesomely awkward, radiate with intrigue and nuance that is far beyond anything any other young actor or actress is doing on screen today. She is, frankly, awesome and her performances are worth the price of the boxed set DVD alone!

As for the DVD set, it's nice (a lot thinner than the originally-released Season 1 boxed set). Unfortunately, fans of the series are likely to remain disappointed with the way Buena Vista fails to support this title. One episode has commentary. That's it. No deleted scenes, no behind-the-scenes, nothing. One episode with commentary. Is the commentary good? Yes. Could fans of the show hope for more? Yes.

On the plus side, there is still one more season that could be packed with extras. This is a show that deserves them. A wonderful show for anyone who has been divorced, struggles with relationship issues or anyone who wants to watch talented people act like individuals going through (mostly) realistic struggles in life, love, parenting and/or growing up.

For other dramas focused on families, please check out my reviews of:
Veronica Mars
Freaks And Geeks
Parenthood Season One

10/10

For other television program reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Family Drama At Its Best: Once And Again Season One Succeeds!

The Good: Amazing character work, Great acting, Nice plots
The Bad: Imbalance in the use of cast and characters, No DVD bonus features!
The Basics: Once And Again tells the story of two families that are coming together when their single parents fall in love, and all of the repercussions of that!


Every now and again, a television show comes along that is just plain fabulous and it deserves the acclaim it receives. They are few and far between and at the end of the 1990s, the only one that actually achieved its acclaim and deserved it was arguably NYPD Blue. My favorite, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, never received the praise it deserved and so until Once And Again came along, there was not a show that was both purely great and recognized by the critics that lasted long enough to find its audience (Sports Night, for example dying a horrible death right around the same time Once And Again was on). Once And Again deserved the praise it received and it never deserved the lack of audience it suffered.

Once And Again tells the story of the Sammlers and the Mannings, two families that are marred by divorce and have resulted in two children a piece being raised by two parents separately. Rick Sammler is father to Jessie and Eli, ex-husband to Karen. Lily is in the process of divorcing her cheating husband Jake and takes pride in being the mother of Grace and Zoe. In the pilot episode, Rick and Lily meet and fall in love.

Their love, it seems, is continually complicated by the various factors in their lives. Rick's son Eli has a learning disability and his ex-wife Karen is almost as demanding with Rick as she is with Eli. Jessie faces self-confidence issues and the youthful fantasy of having the whole family she was born into together. But the bulk of the complications come on Lily's side. Lily and Jake are not yet divorced and as the season goes on, Lily has to face that and she does, with an indiscretion with Jake. Their one night fling sickens Lily and taints her relationship with Rick. As the two slowly work back to one another, the divorce with Jake gets ugly over the restaurant Jake and Lily are part owners in. To complicate things more, family crisis after family crisis arises to strain their relationship.

But through it all, there is this love.

At the end of the day, this is a drama about love, how people love and how it works in complicated, modern-day family situations. The coming together of two different families is something that has not been explored well in the film media and Once And Again is pretty much the best exploration of it out there. Why? Such blended families, those where there are children from prior marriages in both adults' life, are complicated and therefore need more than simply ninety minutes to tell the story with all of the variables well. Therefore, to do a story about a blended family, one needs a television series, not just a film.

Once And Again is an adult television show. The adults are dealing with adult problems like love, children, divorce, infidelity, and death. There's nothing childish about the series, though some of the episodes do focus on the problems and perils encountered by the children in their schools and life outside. The episodes are written with a keen insight for the way people interact and live their lives. The dialog in Once And Again is tight and realistic. The people speak more as real people we might know or as people in the situations they find themselves in than individuals in a drama series. And Once And Again is serialized, requiring an adult commitment to the show week after week to build the characters up and progress them forward.

That is not to say that the series is not entertaining. The realism only makes it more entertaining. It fills a void in television that existed before the series came on and has existed since it was canceled. The characters are interesting and they find themselves in difficult situations and how they get themselves out of them are worthy of attention. Part of this is entertainment is created by what I call the "honesty rooms." The characters speak directly to the viewer at different points, articulating their deepest, most honest thoughts. Some of them are desperately painful, like admissions of deep wounds, some are hilarious, such as when Grace notes that "boys are so dumb. It's amazing they survive."

The only real problem with the first season of Once And Again is the imbalance in the show toward Lily's character. As the season goes on, she dominates in a way that almost buries the Rick character. Still, all of the characters are intriguing. The main stories involve:

Lily, who opens the series with an inner strength that causes her to separate from her cheating husband, Jake. Lily falls in love and experiences a rebirth, which empowers her to take charge of her own life, live without fear and strike out against Jake and pursue a new profession all while exploring a relationship with Rick.

Rick Sammler is a somewhat depressed divorcee who comes alive when he meets Lily. He is plagued by his ex-wife Karen and as his personal life gets better and better, he falls into a destructive work relationship with a crazy advertising mogul named Miles Drentell to the detriment of his partnership with fellow architect David, who is perpetually single.

Karen Sammler is a perpetual worrier who wants what's best for Jessie and Eli, but finds her position in their lives threatened by Lily. As a result, she opens up to love again, first to a kind, but dull man, then to a much younger man who challenges her in every way.

Jake Manning is the owner of Phil's, the restaurant founded by Lily's father and now managed by Jake. Stressed by his extramarital affairs and complications with the restaurant, Jake works hard to be a decent father, but usually comes across as a jerk.

Eli Sammler, a basically good young man who comes to sexual maturity in the first season and is forced to prioritize his life when his learning disability makes him choose between doing what he wants and being knocked off the basketball team where he thrives.

Grace Manning, a young woman mired deeply in fear of everything that surrounds her. In the first season, she faces the dissolving of her family and in the process opens up to the consequences of truth and her first love. She's perhaps the most realistic and intriguing character in the series and her process of coming out of her isolation is compelling and wonderful to watch.

While Jessie, Zoe and Lily's sister Judy all have character arcs and growth throughout the season, they are primarily supporting players in the first season of Once And Again. They tend to live in the orbits of the primary characters listed above. At least in the first season.

The acting in Once And Again is magnificent. While Sela Ward won awards for playing Lily, Billy Campbell, who plays Rick is just as good. Both have subtle, emotive performances that traverse the whole range of human emotion. As the series progresses, we see them loving, whimsical, angry, hurt, and impassioned. Add to that, Ward and Campbell have wonderful screen chemistry that makes their relationship believable.

But the real acting winners come in the supporting performances of Susanna Thompson and Julia Whelan. Thompson plays Karen with so much longing and hurt that it is sometimes difficult to watch her. Yet, she is compelling and strong as an actress consistently delivering empathetic performances that are worthy of awards. As her character must face the loss of the potential with her ex-husband, Thompson continues to deepen her performance with subtlety and nuance.

Julia Whelan plays Grace and the actress has a presence to her that is impressive for such a young person. She dominates her scenes as a character that begins as a scared brat and quickly deepens into an individual that has layers of fear that are being pulled back to reveal a confused, vulnerable, intelligent and loving young woman. Whelan is an expert at using her face and body language to portray the changes in confidence Grace undergoes in the first season.

Over three DVDs, the 22 stories of the first year of the Sammlers and Mannings is told wonderfully with realism and compassion and a clear understanding of how humans work. The only real disappointment in the DVD collection is that there are no extras. And this is certainly a show that deserves as much commentary as it has critical acclaim and loyal fans.

While not a perfect show, this is possibly the strongest first season of any television show I've ever seen (right up there with Sports Night), making it a great value in DVD form.

For other family dramas, please check out my reviews of:
Parenthood - Season 1
Gilmore Girls
Six Feet Under

9.5/10

For other television or film reviews, please check out my index pages on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Anne Hathaway's Breasts, Jake Gyllenhaal's Butt And A Great Story All Make Love And Other Drugs Eminently Memorable!

The Good: Acting, Characters, Story
The Bad: The final third has serious pacing issues.
The Basics: Love And Other Drugs is more than just a delightful fantasy for fans of Anne Hathaway, it is one of Edward Zwick's best works!


My wife has a real beef with me, one which put me going to the movies without her on Thanksgiving. It seems, early in our relationship two years ago, as we were courting one another, I told the woman I had just met that I had more than a little thing for Anne Hathaway. I suppose it probably happened when she tried to get me to watch Hoodwinked our first weekend together and that's when I probably said, "That would be great; I love Anne Hathaway." Ugh. That has been haunting me since and my wife is very unhappy whenever I want to see any film with Hathaway (though we made it through Alice In Wonderland together just fine earlier this year!). So, when I was taking the car today while my wife was at work, it was with disbelief she looked at me when I told her "I want to see Love And Other Drugs because I like Edward Zwick's other works!" Sure, Hathaway is a big selling point for me, but last year, Edward Zwick had a perfect film with Defiance and that type movie always gets me to go to the next film by the director.

Love And Other Drugs was on its way to hitting "perfect film" status with me as well, but then the film hits a weird wall in the final third and the pacing and plot go into a wonky, dead zone that saps the life out of it. Unfortunately, the more I consider the film, the more I am forced to confess that I have no clue how to fix the film. Honestly, Love And Other Drugs seemed like it was going the way of the charming romance and would end one of three ways: a breakup, a happy ending (until I actually heard that Maggie had Parkinson's, I thought the reference early in the film to unintended benefits to prescription drugs would yield a surprise cure for Maggie from Viagra), or the inevitable tragedy. Zwick and his co-writers, Marshall Herskovitz and Charles Randolph, go a different way but not before dragging the audience through a more plot-predictable section that left me feeling disappointed. And believe me, that's something I never expected to say in a movie that offered me pretty much all of the Anne Hathaway I could want (at least while still being married!). Fortunately, Zwick and Hathaway (and entirely surprising for me, Jake Gyllenhaal) make a movie that is largely satisfying and is one that ought to endure through Oscar Pandering Season at the box office.

From the moment the film starts with the distinctive chords of the Spin Doctors' "Two Princes," Love And Other Drugs establishes a very firm time and place in 1996 and 1997 as Pfizer exploded its profits by releasing Viagra. The film is a Zwick/Herskovitz dramedy that utilizes many elements that viewers have come to expect from the great team. There is a lot of humor, the film is sexy as hell and the characters have more depth than most films that are under two hours long.

Jamie Randall is an electronics salesman who is exceptional with the ladies and with selling. After he has an affair with his boss's girlfriend in the store, he is fired. After a stifling dinner with his vastly more successful family, Jamie goes to work for Pfizer, selling Zoloft and Zanex to health professionals. Stuck in the mid-Ohio region, Jamie is pressured to meet near-impossible quotas under the tutelage of Bruce Winston. Jamie's big target, that can help him meet all of the quotas, is Dr. Stan Knight. After several bad attempts to get into Knight's office, Jamie succeeds and there he meets Maggie Murdock, a 26 year-old who has been suffering the onset of Stage 1 Parkinson's Disease.

Beaten up a bit by Maggie, Jamie becomes fascinated by her and organizes a date with her. Despite analyzing the meeting for exactly what it is, an attempt to hook up, Maggie goes for Jamie and soon they are frequently frolicking together. But then, Jamie manages to get exactly what he needs for his job, which is to be one of the first salespeople for Viagra. As Jamie becomes very successful, he actually falls in love with Maggie and becomes more devoted to helping her through her rough future. But Maggie does not want Jamie's love, which she mistakes as pity, and the two are cast into more turbulent emotional waters.

Love And Other Drugs is charming and surprisingly deep and much of it has to do with the casting and the direction from Edward Zwick. The story starts as very much a typical "boy meets girl" romance and frankly, Jamie is not initially likable. As well, Maggie is not terribly likable as she is angry at the world and at Jamie. She is initially characterized as deeply intelligent and self-aware and the first scene they share reminds one of the way the protagonist from The Social Network spoke. Maggie psychoanalyzes Jamie and the way he approaches all relationships. She has his number from the very beginning and from the moment they start to move toward a relationship, the viewer is rooting for them. We root for them not from a sense of artifice; not just because these are the two stars or two incredibly good-looking people, but because they have enough to bond with to start a genuine relationship. In this regard, Love And Other Drugs truly satisfies.

What is odd is how on the surface Love And Other Drugs is an indictment of Big Pharma, while it still manages to plug it. The pharmaceutical companies are taken to task for prioritizing men's erections over Parkinson's research and rightly so. In this way, Zwick continues his trend toward social commentary in his films and that succeeds wonderfully. But throughout the first half, a supplemental character is thrown in who benefits greatly from the use of Prozac, which Jamie is throwing out. So, while the movie seems to be pro-Voloft, it has a strange undertone plugging Prozac.

And as for my salacious title, yes, there is quite a bit of nudity in Love And Other Drugs. The thing is, actors and actresses frequently mention that they will only do nudity if it is germane to the story. Fortunately, if that was one of Anne Hathaway's hangups, she picked a film that starts with some of the most sensible nudity and moves onto the delightfully gratuitous. Hathaway and Zwick push nudity in the beginning as a character aspect. In fact, when Hathaway's Maggie bares her breast to Dr. Knight, she does it with a fearless quality that is absolutely indicative of her character's strength. Maggie is forthright and the way she reacts to learning Jamie is just a sales rep and not an intern, is delightful and holds up for her character. After that, there are several scenes with Jamie and Maggie in bed and those frequently lead to more character development between the two.

In fact, one of the most delightful moments of the film involves the conversation that comes when Jamie and Maggie do not have sex the first time. Sometimes, that type scene is an inevitable plot point, but in Love And Other Drugs, the scene works. Between that and the moment that Maggie demands Jamie tell her five good things about himself flesh out the two characters in ways that make viewers want to see more of them. Jamie's humanity is brought out, as well, by the way he treats his brother Josh. Josh starts with great wealth, but a severe deficiency of ambition when his marriage falls apart and Jamie takes him in.

When the movie goes into a seminar on the effects of Parkinson's Disease, Zwick scores some high emotional points, but unfortunately, after that the film falls apart. The character choices are not as compelling and I began to feel cheated. The reason my emotional reaction was so very strong was that far earlier in the film, I found myself actually caring for the characters and that is a true gift in film today.

Zwick and his team also deserve a lot of credit for the casting and the use of their actors. Anne Hathaway, despite my obvious bias toward her, is fabulous as Maggie. She is funny and heartwrenching and she is easy to watch. Her facial expressions are great as she creates Maggie as a quirky and direct character. When she has Maggie twitch from her flare-ups of Parkinson's, the viewer buys it completely. And she has great on-screen chemistry with Jake Gyllenhaal.

Gyllenhaal works some surprising magic for the viewer. If this year's Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time had him as a flat action hero who was difficult to watch for his monolithic qualities, Love And Other Drugs provides him with a rebirth for the charismatic side of the actor. Beyond his shining eyes and winning smile, Gyllenhaal is delightful with his deliveries and he plays both the fun and the strength of his character well. The serious elements of Jamie's character would not be viable were it not for Gyllenhaal's acting, but there never came a moment when he is facing Hathaway and trying to project the idea that he is a solid guy and he doesn't land it.

Zwick is also smart with the casting of the supplemental characters. Hank Azaria is solid as Dr. Knight and Zwick's use of Oliver Platt is wonderful. Indeed, one of the most wonderful, subtle moments in the film happens in the first five minutes when Jamie and Bruce are sitting side by side and we realize that Platt's Bruce is just the aged version of Jamie! That is genius casting. And even if Josh Gad just seems to be lining himself up as the next Jonah Hill, his scenes as Josh in the film are good.

Ultimately, what Love And Other Drugs has going for it is a good story, well presented with characters that endure well after the final credits roll. For all my wife's accusations that I still hold a torch for Hathaway, the strength of the film might be most in the fact that the longer I watched the film alone, the more I missed my wife and felt eager to see her again. Love And Other Drugs captures perfectly the excitement of real romance and will make one want to be with the one they love. And with rising ticket prices at the movie theaters, it is arguably the best film for adults to spend their time and money on this Oscar Pandering (or holiday) Season!

For works featuring Anne Hathaway, please check out my reviews of:
Anne Hathaway For Wonder Woman!
Family Guy Presents: It's A Trap!
Valentine's Day
Twelfth Night Soundtrack
Rachel Getting Married
Passengers
The Princess Diaries

8.5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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