The Judge.

I find it quite strange that on two visits to the cinema within a couple of days, you can see the screening of a film that does nothing to draw you in and to some extent alienates you from it’s narrative. As I inferred in my blog on Gone Girl (2014) it was not as though it was a bad film, just one that I personally could not get engaged in or for that matter one that I did not really enjoy. Now as I say, two days latter I go to the same wee cinema in Dumfries and find a completely different set of cinematic circumstances. The Judge (2014) is every thing that David Fincher’s film was not!

 

The Hot Shot Chicago Lawyer. 

Firstly you have got the story, which has characters you can empathise with and in all honesty, quite like. There’s the successful Chicago hotshot lawyer with a motor mouth, Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr) who helps the guilty beat the system “innocent people can’t afford me” he boasts. When his mother dies he returns to his hometown of Carlinville Indiana, somewhere he has not been for many years. This wee rural town is where his two brothers still live, the older brother Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his mentally impaired younger brother Dale (Jeremy Strong). But the reason that Hank has not been back is his fraught relationship with his father, local Judge Henry Palmer (Robert Duvall). Hank fully intended to return to his unfinished court case in Chicago right after the funeral but when his fathers car is discovered to have been damaged and blood is found on the vehicle and the body of a man is discovered on the highway - the Judge is suspected of running him down. Hank Palmer wants to stay to defend his father should the case come to court, but there are a lot of bridges to be crossed before this stubborn pair can renew any form of relationship.

 

The matriarchal small town Judge. 

Secondly we have a cast whose acting is first rate. Although admittedly the most riveting scenes are these between Downey Jr and Duvall the rest of the cast are superb. D’Onofrio and Strong are convincing as the brothers with a great performance from the lovely Vera Farmiga as Hanks hometown love interest, we are also treated to a fabulous performance from Billy Bob Thornton as Hanks opposite number in the films thrilling court room sequence’s.

 

The girl who was left behind.

Although David Dobkin is better known for comedies he certainly makes a grand job of helming this drama. The soundtrack was composed by Thomas Newman who has collaborated with Sam Mendes on six occasions including Skyfall (2012) and the new James Bond, Spectre due to be released next year. Its very crisp cinematography is in the very capable hands of the Janusz Kaminski who has previously won Academy Awards for his work on Schindlers List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), and has more recently been DOP on War Horse (2011) and Lincoln (2012).

 

'Hot Shots' opposite number.

Part family drama, part courtroom drama, I found the movie quite emotional and in certain scenes quite heart rendering. It’s both interesting and entertaining with a sly sense of humour. And unlike my previous film this week, it’s nearly two and a half hour running time absolutely flew by.

Source Code

Poster.

The 40-year-old Duncan Zowie Jones certainly could have a successful career in TV with a revamped series of Tales of the Unexpected! His first feature film the 2009 science fiction thriller Moon told the story of a solitary Lunar Industries employee who experiences a personal crisis at the end of his three year stint overseeing the extraction of Helium 3, a source of clean energy for earth, as I have said previously it would have made a good first episode and his latest motion picture Source Code (2011) would make an even better second episode. Again it has a suitably outrageous story line with a twist at the end.

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a helicopter pilot flying missions in Afghanistan who becomes part of a top-secret experimental government programme investigating a terrorist attack. He finds himself in the body of a Sean Fentress a teacher and regular commuter on a train that a terrorist plans to blow up. Stevens/Fentress have to constantly relive the harrowing train bombing until the person can be found who is responsible for the attack. It’s on these train journeys that he meets Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) with whom he falls in love.  Vera Farmiga, who you will probable recognise from Up In The Air (2009), plays the part of Stevens indifferent controller who develops a computerised relationship with the pilot.  Jeffrey Wright plays Dr Rutledge the cold obsessive inventor of the Source Code.

 This techno-thriller could have been so much better if it had not been overly sentimental, dissolving a decent story in to some kind of techno romantic drama, cut down to fast paced 60 minutes it would have been terrific.  I would like to see Mr Jones try his hand at something with more backbone next time, A Matter of Life and Death its not.

Part Two!

Down to the Bone

In my humble opinion Debra Granik directed one of the highlights of my film year. Winters Bone (2009), winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, showed in some detail how the people that make up the Ozark society live out a bleak, almost destitute existence, the story is told through a 17 year-old girl who becomes ultimately responsible for her mother and her two younger siblings.

Life's not always easy!

My admiration for Winters Bone encouraged me to seek out Granik’s first feature film Down to the Bone (2005). In this she addresses the effects of drug addiction winning her the Dramatic Directing Award at 2004’s Sundance Film Festival. The story’s central character is Irene who struggles to raise her two sons, keep her stale marriage together and manage a long-term cocaine habit. Desperate to change her life around she books herself into rehab. While there she meets Bob a former addict and now a nurse. At first Bob is a great mentor but he hides a guilty secret and all too soon Irene realises they have more in common than she bargained for.

Another fine example of American independent cinema. This well crafted movie is blessed with a great performance from Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air 2009) as Irene, for which she won two Best Actress Awards. A stark disturbing film that gives the viewer very little respite, there for the grace of God…….

Up in the Air

Jason Reitman (Thank you for not Smoking 2006, Juno 2007) adapted his latest movie Up in the Air (2009) from Walter Kirn's 2001 novel of the same name and turned it into a razor-sharp view of modern corporate America. George Clooney is at his smooth-taking best as Ryan Bingham, a middle-aged ‘career transition consultant’ a man who fires people for a living on behalf of management that have not got the balls to do the job themselves, a man whose only ambition in life is achieving ten million air miles which will reward him with a platinum card and a quick chat with a pilot! Two women arrive in Ryan’s life and challenge his relationship free existence. The first is Alex Goren (Vera Farmiga), much the same age as Ryan and living a similarly fancy-free airborne life, with whom he has an affair. On the surface an ideal couple. ‘Think of me as yourself with a vagina’ she tells her fellow corporate traveller. The other women is 23 year old Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) who threatens the very existence of Ryan and his colleagues when she persuades their boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) that firing people impersonally via a computerised video link would save the company a fortune in air fares and hotel bills. Ryan is to take one last trip to show the young and inexperienced Natalie the ropes. Reitman black comedy is full of sharp dialogue and great one liners, ‘a feel good film for feel bad times’ as Philip French described it. Not to be missed, highly entertaining.