Manchester by the Sea.

The story of Lee Chandler is a study of a mans decent into depression brought about by an accident that leads to a terrible tragedy for which he blames himself. In Kenneth Lonergan’s movie Manchester by the Sea (2016), which he wrote and directed, we learn how a simple mistake can alter the lives of the people directly involved as well as people on the periphery of the incident.

Its brother Joe's death that brings Lee back home.

 

Lee with nephew Patrick.

When we first meet Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) we quickly relies that he is a bitter and lonely man who works as a janitor in a private block of apartments in Boston. On receiving the news that his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has died from a pre-existing congenital heart condition Lee returns to his home town of Manchester by the Sea a fishing village in Massachusetts where he was born and raised. Lee not only realises that he is going to have to confront the events that drove him away in the first place, revealed in an extended flashback, but he then finds out that Joe has made him the sole guardian of his teenage son Patrick (Lucas Hedges), a role he knows he is incapable of fulfilling.  

 

Lee's ex-wife Randi.

This is an authentic and stunning character study from Lonergan whose writing along with Douglas Aibel skill at casting really makes this poignant tale of grief and guilt a must see movie.  This critically acclaimed film that quite rightly been nominated for six awards at the 89^th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director Best Supporting Actor (Hedges) Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams who plays Lee Chandlers wife Randi) and Best Actor for Affleck and Best Original Screenplay for Lonergan, two nominations it must surly must win and did at last nights BAFTA’s in London. 

Incendiary.

I'm sure that all film lovers have done it, read the premise of a movie, thought it would make a great film and have been disappointed with the outcome. One such movie is Sharon Maguire’s so called 'explosive thriller' Incendiary (2008).  The story involves a terrorist attack on a North London Premiership Football Club Stadium where six suicide bombers join 60000 football fans on Saturday afternoon and set off their deadly cargo whilst sitting amongst the crowd resulting in the horrific death of over 1000 men, women and children. The story centres on a young married woman (Michelle Williams) whose husband Lenny (Nicholas Gleaves), a bomb disposal officer of all things, and their young son (Sidney Johnston) are among the victims. While Lenny and the boy are at the match she is having sex with a rich young yuppie (Ewan McGregor) who she picked up in a pub and who lives in an expensive Georgian terrace house opposite the high-rise block where the family lived. Does she suffer with her immoral guilt? I think we can safely say she does not and that her scruples and her loyalty to her dead family are put further under the spotlight when she starts to have an affair with her dead husbands boss (Matthew Macfadyen) who is in charge of the anti terrorist squad who are investigating the explosions.

Sharon Maguire also wrote the film script, which in turn was based on a novel written by Chris Cleave who was inspired by the Milan bombings in 2002. So I bet you agree that the narrative does sound promising? And yes the movie has its good points one being the popular American born actress Michelle Williams whose mastery of a North London accent really needs hearing to be believed and she does make a reasonable job of portraying the promiscuous young married woman. Also Sidney Johnson the young lad, in his feature film debut, that play’s William's son is excellent but...

 

Michelle Williams is the best thing about this disappointing film. 

Yes there is a very large but - mainly with the fact that what should be a gripping and exciting movie - isn't! Matthew Macfadyen is miss cast; it bypasses realism and is made unbelievable by a dull script and large plot holes. What could have been a chance to make a political statement has been completely wasted because of the weak story line. Completely emotionless with a silly spoken narrative where Williams writes a spoken letter to Osama bin Laden over the movies running time. It's a piece of work from the Bridget Jones director that I can't take seriously, a project that is a missed opportunity to make a hard hitting movie on a subject that’s never out of the headlines of the world press.

Wendy and Lucy.

Screenwriter and American indie film maker Kelly Reichardt was responsible for an intelligent western Meeks Cutoff (2010) and the road movie Old Joy (2006) a story of friendship, loss and alienation. The movie that followed this was had a similar ambiance with a minimalist style favoured by Reichardt and writer Jon Raymond, on whose short story Train Choir, the screenplay for Wendy and Lucy (2008) was based.

Wendy Carroll is driving to Ketchikan Alaska to find a new life with her dog Lucy. Travelling with little money she hopes to find work at the Northwestern Fish cannery. It’s when her car breaks down in Oregon that she realises the abnormity of her task. She is apprehended for shoplifting at the local supermarket and while she is in police custody her dog disappears. The only friendly face turns out to be a security guard who takes pity on our young waif.

A deep, quite film that says a lot without raising its voice, it’s sad but rather lovely, a movie where you really pray that everything will work out for this resourceful young traveller, or will it? Michelle Williams is faultless as the disenfranchised Wendy, and as in all her roles completely nails the part. A wee gem that successfully illustrates the underbelly of middle class America. Unfortunately another example of a movie that will be forever lost under the deluge of tripe that emanates from a film industry that most of the time is only looking to make money: Prove them wrong!!!!

Take This Waltz.

If I remember correctly there were two reasons for seeing Take This Waltz (2011), the first was the lead actress. I initially encountered Michelle Williams in Thomas McCarthy’s 2003 debut feature film The Station Agent, which became one of my all time favourite films. Her other stand out movies have included Brokeback Mountain (2005), Blue Valentine (2010) and the exceptionally enjoyable My Week with Marilyn (2011), a film for which she should have won the Oscar for Best Actress which unfortunately went to Meryl Streep for playing The Iron Lady (2011).

The second reason was the Canadian actress, director and screenwriter Sarah Polley who had previously directed the award winning Away From Her (2006) about a couple whose marriage is tested when the wife, played by Julie Christie, begins to suffer from Alzheimer’s and moves into a Residential Care Home. 

Michelle Williams.

But I’m afraid that her latest film is not a patch on this previous movie, in fact it’s shallow, limp and boring with characters you would feel embarrassed to know. A 28-year-old freelance writer Margot (Williams) whose married to Lou Rubin, a lump of a man played by a so-called comedy actor called Seth Rogan. When a new neighbour (Luke Kirby) moves into the house opposite, Margot can’t help forming an attraction but spends most of the film desperately trying to stay out of the mans bed. Mind you when your married to an idiot that spends most of his waking day cooking chickens and playing silly games who would blame her from wondering.  Take my advice give this one amiss.

My Week with Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe.

On August 5^th 1962 at 4:25 am a Los Angeles Police Department police sergeant received a call from a psychiatrist proclaiming that American’s greatest female sex symbol and star was found dead at her home. Marilyn Monroe was 36 years old; the recorded cause of death was ‘acute barbiturate poisoning resulting from a probable suicide’. Her demise, similar in respect to James Dean’s fatal car crash, essentially froze her immense stardom and flawless beauty in time as an icon of her era leading to the subsequent cult appreciation of her image as distinct from her films. Monroe was, and still is, part of the Hollywood mythology that was the American dream.

Michelle Williams as Monroe.

Monday nights RBC Film Club showing of My Week with Marilyn (2011) is a fine example of the continuing fascination with this great star. Introduced by Audrey Young who skilfully filled in the background to give us a better understanding of what we were about to see.  In 1956 Marilyn came to the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire England to star in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) an American film co-starring Laurence Olivier who was also the films director and producer. It was written by Terence Rattigan who based the script on his play The Sleeping Prince, which incidentally was the original name of the film. Monroe plays Elsie Marina a young showgirl who captivates the Prince Regent of Carpathia (Olivier). Although the wealthy Prince is a stickler for formality, he is a lonely man so he invites the showgirl to his Embassy for a very late supper. Although it has been stated that Olivier did not get on very well with his Hollywood star because of her unpredictable ways, he praised her as "a brilliant comedienne, which to me means she is also an extremely skilled actress" and that "Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all." Critics hailed Marilyn’s performance and the movie was nominated for five BAFTA Awards including Best Foreign Actress for Monroe.

Kenneth Branagh as Olivier.

That Monroe pose.

My Week with Marilyn is a British drama directed by Simon Curtis, who was responsible for the award winning 2008 TV drama A Short Stay in Switzerland, which starred Julie Walters. Colin Clark, the 23-year-old son of the art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, worked as third assistant director on the original 1957 movie and wrote two books on his experiences the first in 1995 called The Prince, The Showgirl and Me, the second entitled My Week with Marilyn. It was this second memoir written in 2000 that Adrian Hodges adapted to form the basis for Monday night film. It allegedly focuses on Colin Clark’s relationship with Monroe during a week he spent alone with her after her husband Arthur Miller went back to America.

Its difficult to put into words how enjoyable I found this splendidly accurate 1950’s period piece, certainly a credit to Britain’s marvelous acting talent who as good as they were, were impressively over shadowed by the American actress Michelle Williams who may not have Monroe’s voluptuous curves, but convincingly portrays both her child like vulnerability and her star status, a pitch perfect and mesmerising performance that disserves recognition as the awards season approaches. Also it’s difficult to separate Kenneth Branagh from Laurence Olivier obviously a part he was born to play. Eddie Redmayne plays the wide-eyed Clark with youthful enthusiasm and as I said previously we get top class performances from many other well-known actors. It’s an emotional and moving look at one of the cinemas most enduring icons and I would whole-heartedly recommend this film to lovers of good quality cinematic entertainment. If you don’t catch it in your local film theatre the DVD is due for release on the 12^th March 2012.

The Prince and the Showgirl.

Meeks Cutoff

The daily drudge of frontier life.

In the1840’s it was the inherent right of people to travel from the thriving American Eastern Seaboard to the new Western frontier with a promise of a new and good life. This became known as the Oregon Trail it was a 2000 mile journey that could take between four and six months. These pioneers travelled with their families and there goods and chattels, some made it across the barren dry landscape and some perished on the journey.

Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy 2006) has based her western road movie Meeks Cutoff (2010) on the true story of the fur trapper and guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), who due to the risk of Indian attacks left the Oregon Trail declaring that he knew a short cut that would avoid the threatened hostilities and get to the destination a lot sooner! Leading three families on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, he soon becomes lost. Fighting hunger and thirst they had to increase their reliance on each other and when a Native American crosses their path the emigrants are torn between their lack of trust in Meek, who has certainly proven himself to be unreliable, and the Cayuse tribesman (Rod Rondeaux) who is perceived to have an interrogate knowledge of the terrain but is seen as a savage and their natural enemy.

The Women become the dominant force.

The film quite vividly demonstrates how the masculine powerbase soon disintegrates when things get really tough and how the “women folk” become the dominant force. Michelle Williams plays Emily Tetherow the most resolute of the travellers who along with the two other female members of the party, played by the Scottish actress Shirley Henderson and Zoe Kazan, become the central individuals in this ever more deteriorating situation. The authenticity of the untamed frontier is greatly enhanced by the splendid cinematography of Chris Blauvelt. As is the story by some genuinely good acting from all our nine leads that indisputably portray the genuine pain and anguish suffered by these early settlers. And what a great ending, one that credits its audience with some intelligence.

Blue Valentine


Monday night’s RBC Film Club showing of the critically acclaimed Blue Valentine (2010) is an interesting independent drama. This romantic/relationship story involves the gradual disintegration of marriage between Cindy, a medical student who desperately wants to be a Doctor and Dean, a removal operative from Brooklyn. Their doomed relationship starts when they agree to marry following Cindy’s pregnancy. The film uses flashbacks and intersecting narratives over a seven-year period, which is quite confusing especially at the beginning of the film even though Jean-Luc Godard once commented that a film should have a beginning, middle and an end but not necessarily in that order. Best scene comes at the start of their relationship where Cindy does an impromptu dance in a shop doorway at night as Dean plays the ukulele and sings the Ink Spots classic “You always Hurt the One You Love” bringing a lump to this old romantic’s throat! It’s basically a sad story of love turning sour between two well-intentioned young people. Dean ends up drinking too much and Cindy’s ambitions gradually disintegrate.

Cindy and Dean.

This is Derek Cianfrance second feature film, an American director and writer best known for TV documentary work and stars Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson 2006, Lars and the Real Girl 2007) as Dean Perira and Michelle Williams (The Station Agent 2003, Brokeback Mountain 2005, I’m Not There 2007, Shutter Island 2010) as Cindy Heller. Williams is set the play Marilyn Munroe in the upcoming British drama My Week with Marilyn. The heart of the film is the soundtrack composed by Grizzly Bear a Brooklyn based folk rock band with the actors allowed to pick some of their own music including one of the films feature songs You and Me by Penny and the Quarters a rather obscure track that makes it a good reason to buy the soundtrack! This movie has some great acting from the leads but your find that it’s impossible to empathise with either of the characters. I really wanted to like this film but strangely I’m not sure I did, perhaps another viewing would help?