Carol.

The American authoress Patricia Highsmith wrote, amongst her other literally works, 22 novels of which around two dozen were adapted for either the TV or the cinema. Cinematic adaptions included several of her five Tom Ripley novels. The best-known adaptations are probable Strangers on a Train (1951), Plein Soleil (1960) its American remake The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), Ripley’s Game (2002) and The Two Faces of January in 2014. The latest of her novels to be served up for the big screen is her only non-crime novel and a landmark in LGBT fiction, The Price of Salt that was published in 1952 under the pseudonym of Clair Morgan. The novel was later republished under the title of Carol (2015). It tells the story of a developing love affair between a young aspiring photographer Therese Belivet and an older privileged housewife Carol Aird who is going through a rather acrimonious divorce that involves the custody of her young daughter.   

 

Carol and Therese develop a relationship.... 

....that makes her divorce more complicated....

Set in New York City in the early 1950’s it stars Cate Blanchett as socialite Carol Aird, Rooney Mara as Therese Belivet a role that raises her above the two dreadful films I had seen her in previously, namely The Social Network (2010) and the lame US remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2011.  Also cast in important roles are Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler. The movie was directed by Todd Haynes who produced Meeks Cutoff (2010) and Wendy and Lucy (2008), and whose directorial credits include Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002) and I’m Not There (2007).

....which in turn bears down on Carol. 

Haynes has elicited exceptional performances from both Blanchett and Mara from whose portrayal’s one can feel the warmth that develops between the women radiating from the screen. This along with the beautiful 1950’s clothes, superb cinematography by Edward Lachman who has previous with Haynes and a soundtrack by prolific film composer Carter Burwell, probable best known for his Coen Brothers scores, makes this a film not to be missed by anyone cinematically turned on by a good well written drama. Its just a shame that the movie was snubbed by the movie establishment and missed out on a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards - because of its subject matter?

Side Effects

A clever man our Mr Steven Soderbergh, not only does he direct but he also edits most of his work under the name of ‘Mary Ann Bernard’ and is credited as ‘Peter Andrews’ for the cinematography as well. A director, rumoured to be retiring following this latest film, that has produced a varied body of work over the years some of which I’ve not been very keen on, for example 2008’s two part Che, which could have been so much better, the forgettable Haywire (2012) and The Informant (2009) which I found rather dull. But of course he has made some very good films like his debut feature film made in 1989 Sex, Lies, and Videotape, the award winning Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000) for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director. Side Effects (2013) certainly swings towards the better side of his oeuvre pendulum.

The film manoeuvres the audience from what at first appears to be an exposé of the high end of the prescription drug market where psychologists can be paid vast sums of money to push certain types of drugs, not always in the interest of their patients, to an intriguing noir influenced psychological thriller.

Our main character is Emily Taylor, played by Rooney Mara who redeems herself after appearing as Lisbeth Salander in the dreadful American remake of Stieg Larssons The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). Married to Martin (Channing Tatum,) an investment banker, who is just about to be released from a four-year prison sentence for insider trading, Emily is severely depressed after loosing their beautiful house and a considerable fortune. She attempts to commit suicide by driving her car into a concrete wall at speed. In hospital she is assessed by Dr Jonathan Banks (a great performance from Jude Law), who agrees to her release on the proviso that she attends his clinic and start’s on a course of prescription drugs. But when she attempts to kill her self again by jumping in front an underground train he feels something stronger is needed and signs up to trial a new antidepressant drug called Ablixa, which leads his patient even deeper into the dangerous dark depths of despair. This in turn leads to a tragic event which effects not only Emily but also her husband and Dr Banks, consequently drawing into the story Emily’s previous shrink the sinister Dr Victoria Siebert played by the attractive Catherine Zeta-Jones.

 Emily Taylor.

 

Dr Jonathan Banks,

Is carrying out a crime different from being guilty of a crime? Just one of the many questions raised by a movie that paints a picture of a sick society in which it is deemed there is a pill to cure any mental disorder: at a cost and not always financial. A very clever story, driven by Scot Z Burns sharp intelligent script originally titled ‘The Bitter Pill’. This absorbing movie is more Henri-George Clouzot than Hitchcock; as most of the critic’s seem too claim see Les diaoliques (1955) If this is Soderbergh’s swan song then he is definitely going out on a high.

 

The sinister Dr Victoria Siebert.

‘Pharmaceutical companies spend more money on lobbying than any other industry’ USA Today

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011

I’m not a great admirer of David Fincher’s recent work. Zodiac (2007) was completely devoid of any real tension, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) was tiresomely long and tedious and although I would agree that it was cleverly written The Social Network (2010) was interesting without being dynamic. There’s always a tendency toward flashy technique in Fincher’s output. His latest attempt at directorial immortality, the reworking of the brilliant Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), is no exception; a glitzy out of place opening credit sequence and flamboyant soundtrack does not make up for the films obvious failings. 

This unnecessary reworking of the first part of Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) was the subject of this week’s RBC Film Club evening. Our very own Filmmaker Alec Barclay gave a fine introduction to the evening and took a rather fiery discussion that followed the viewing.  Alec explained that this version of the film, was still set in Sweden but with it’s large Hollywood style budget could afford some well known actors and actresses although the relatively unknown Rooney Mara takes over the role of Lisbeth Salander previously played by Noomi Rapace with Daniel Craig taking time off from his day job as the British spy James Bond to play Larsson’s alter ego, the investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Alec went on to talk about the soundtrack, which resurrects Led Zeppelins Immigrant Song this time sung by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and was created by the same team who won an Academy Award for the music for The Social Network, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Atticus Ross son of Radio Caroline founder Ian Ross.

The original Lisbeth Salander.

Fincher's Lisbeth Salander

This is the first part of Larsson’s Trilogy, for which to date 65 million books have been sold, it depicts the relationship between the middle-aged left wing investigative journalist and the young bi-sexual ward of the state, researcher and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. The pair join forces to investigate the disappearance, some 40 years previous, of the great niece of Hendric Vanger, (Christopher Plummer) the 82 year-old former Chief Executive Officer of a group of companies owned by a very wealthy Swedish dynasty.

Hendric Vanger and Mikael Blomkist.

I personally have two main problems with Fincher’s USA remake. Lisbeth Salander is an iconic character, one I will always associate with Noomi Repace’s inspired performance. There’s an authenticity in the way she, and Michael Nyqvist who plays Blomkvist in the original film, portrays the main characters. In my opinion Fincher goes to far in softening Lisbeth’s image, which does not convey her deep hatred for men. In the original she only had sex with Blomkvist to satisfy her carnal desires whereas in the remake she seems to fall in love with the journalist also at the climax of the film she asked Blomkvist permission to kill the ‘villain’ the real anti authoritarian punk would not seek permission! My second gripe is that the strength of original film, directed by Neils Arden Oplev, is in the way it transposed Larsson’s written word onto the screen. In this inferior interpretation Steven Zaillian takes unnecessary liberties with the novels narrative including changing the ending along with the important fact that Blomkvist’s mysterious list of telephone numbers was solved by someone other than Lisbeth and while we are on the subject what happened to Blomkvist’s prison sentence?

Finally I will ask again the question’s that was raised many times during Monday nights discussion: why did the Americans remake a brilliant Swedish thriller, other than the fact that they can’t read and secondly why on earth did half the cast speak with dodgy Swedish accents (the exception being Sellan Skarsgard who is Swedish) and the other half did not? Perhaps Mr Fincher would have been better to have set the story in America, he made so many unnecessary changes one more would have not made a lot of difference.

The Social Network

Film poster

I was obviously in the minority at RBC Film Club on Monday night, there was me thinking that David Fincher's latest film was about the social network service and website Facebook and the obnoxious wee Harvard students that conspired for world domination of cyberspace but I was wrong! It was a court room drama? The lightweight plot of The Social Network (2010) pivots between the rapid expansion, during 2003 – 2004, of the addictive, at times dangerous, internet phenomenon and the subsequent court squabble between the person credited with programming it, Mark Zuckerberg, and his former friends and business partners, litigation reaching a monitory conclusion but very little else.

The film, based on a book by Ben Mezrich The Accidental Billionaires, is interesting without being dynamic and far from being a candidate for the film of the year as suggested by some of Monday night’s audience. Although it has a cleverly written script by Aaron Sorkin, its rapid fire dialogue could be hard to understand at times. For example the opening scene between the soon to be Americanised Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara, and Jesse Eisenberg (Roger Dodger 2002, The Squid and the Whale 2005, Adventureland 2009) who plays the second year undergraduate. Zuckerberg and his cohorts are some of the most unlikable characters committed to film, the man himself is a surprisingly unsympathetic social introvert driven by the need to date girls more easily. I would disagree with the opinion offered that the film offers a snap shot of today’s youth culture, it may offer a snap shot of the more privileged section but certainly not of youth in general.