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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 January 2004

I find it hard to believe Underworld was filmed on a budget of just $23m (as reported at the Internet Movie Database).  If so, they’ve certainly gotten value for their dollar.  Makes you wonder how they end up spending $100m or more on so many action blockbusters.  This film has some awesome looking sets, many detailed costumes, heaps of dangerous stunts, and numerous touch-ups with the special effects paintbrush.

For centuries, vampires and werewolves (known as lycans) have fought against each other in a violent war.  No one can remember how this war began but the vampires have seized the advantage with very few lycans remaining in the world.  Selene (Beckinsale) is what is known as a death dealer – a vampire charged with roaming the night in search of lycans.  On a routine evening, she sights two lycans but they escape her grasp.  What interests her most is what they were up to – they were following a human.

As humans are unknowing of this war and serve no use, this intrigues Selene.  She identifies him as Michael (Speedman) and tracks him down but he too is oblivious to why he is so important.  Her investigations will uncover a conspiracy she could never imagine.  There are many power hungry individuals involved and their plans will change the world of vampires and lycans forever.

It’s quite confusing to be honest and there’s an abundance of characters who at times are hard to differentiate.  The dark setting (with the film shot entirely at night) doesn’t help this problem.  Still, it’s better see an intricate plot rather than one which is too silly and simple.  At least screenwriter Danny McBride has made a concerted effort.

Kate Beckinsale is great as our feminine action hero.  It’s nice to see her not typecast as a romantic starlet ala Pearl Harbor and Serendipity.  Her costume happens to be a nice tight fit which I’m sure was no accident.  Not sure why she wears it but few audience members will care.  Late in the film sees the arrival of English actor Bill Nighy who looks very menacing under his make-up.  You may remember him as the only good thing in Love Actually and he’s great here also.  I had never heard of Nighy a year ago but now I see him as a promising talent.

It’s a bit of a stretch at just on two hours and could have been trimmed in places to speed up matters.  Maybe I’m just not a big enough fan of vampire movies (there seems to be so many these days) but I do admit to enjoying Underworld most of the way.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 17 January 2004

To best describe 21 Grams I need to steal a quote from the film’s Mexican director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros) – “I don’t think it’s a dark story.  It’s about a chain of losses, and how we confront those losses and move on with our lives.  In the end it’s about hope.”

Paul Rivers (Penn) now has little more than a month to live and is still waiting for a donor heart which can save his life.  He has no children but his wife, Mary (Gainsbourg), is determined to become pregnant so a little piece of Paul can carry on if he should die.  Unfortunately, her fallopian tubes are damaged and she herself will need an operation if there’s to be even a slim chance.  Time looks set to beat them both.

Jack Jordan (Del Toro) has been in and out of jail most of his life but through a friend has “found God”.  He devoutly prays each day and now lives his life through the bible.  Through his local church he has been trying to help younger people in trouble get their own lives back on track as he as done.  Jack makes ends meet working as caddy at a nearby golf club and this provides just enough for himself, wife Mary (Gainsbourg) and their two children.

Christina Peck (Watts) has two daughters and lives happily at home with her husband Michael.  Long ago, Christina was a heavy drug user but following the birth of her children she changed her ways and has flown straight ever since.  She doesn’t work and performs the house duties at home whilst getting out from time-to-time to play squash and swim at the public pool.

Three separate people with three different lives who will come together under a series of events.  Are these events predetermined?  Were they destiny?  This is something that screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga touches on and he leaves it up to the audience to draw their own conclusions.  Life has a funny way of working out sometimes.

When watching 21 Grams, you need to be prepared for an unconventional viewing experience.  Generally, the scenes are in order and things are easy to understand but mixed throughout the film are glimpses from the past and glimpses into the future.  We are given intriguing hints as to what will happen to these characters but you won’t be quite sure until the very end.  I loved this bold technique.  You watch the events unfold in a different light because in the back of your mind you sense what will happen.

Sean Penn, Benecio Del Toro and Australian Naomi Watts give three blisteringly passionate performances which has already seen them honoured and may ultimately find them a place in the audience at this year’s Oscars.  They make their characters so real.  There’s nothing black and white about them.  There each have separate qualities that make them both likable and unlikable and these qualities reveal themselves at pivotal moments.

21 Grams is a wonderfully audacious production.  A gripping story that should leave you thinking long after leaving the theatre.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 January 2004

The following self-assessment exam represents 100% of your grade in Film 101.  Please read the case study below before answering the questions which follow.

Case Study

Reuben Feffer (Stiller) is an expert risk assessor at a leading insurance company.  He is very conservative, somewhat neurotic and never takes a risk himself without fully calculating what he’s up against.  Reuben has just married Lisa Kramer (Messing), a lovely lady who we know nothing about (a deliberate ploy so that we don’t feel sorry for her I’m sure).  On their honeymoon, Reuben and Lisa are approached by a nudist named Claude (Azaria) who asks them to come scuba diving on his boat.  Reuben pulls out at the last minute with cold feet.  When he returns to the boat a few hours later, he finds Lisa and Claude making passionate love inside the cabin.

Reuben heads back home to New York.  His best friend, Sandy (Hoffman), encourages Reuben to come with him to a swanky party.  There he is approached by a waitress named Polly Prince (Aniston) who remembers him from middle school.  Polly details her immediate past – she’s never been married, hates commitment, loves spontaneity and has been in eight consecutive doomed relationships.  On paper, she is anything but a perfect match for Reuben.

Part A (5 marks)

If you were a cliché ridden Hollywood screenwriter only interested in creating feel-good schmaltz garbage in the interests of financial profit, what plot developments would follow and how would this film end?

Answer Guide – Part A (award 1 mark for each of the following points)

• Reuben will go out on a date with Polly.  It will go horribly but in being insanely funny,  neither will seem to mind.

• The start seeing each other more and will be on the verge of falling in love.

• Lisa will then return unexpectedly out of the blue looking for forgiveness from Reuben.

• Polly will then think she has no chance with Reuben and will stop returning his calls.

• His father will then give some advice and from utter confusion, Reuben will understand in an instant with crystal clarity who he loves – Polly.

• Reuben will then goes after Polly only to find out from a close friend that she’s leaving town on a plane in just two hours.

• He will go racing after her, they will look deeply into each other’s eyes, express their true feelings and live happily ever after.

• All the above will be inter-laced with tired, lame, predictable jokes (the best of which appear in the trailer).

• A bonus mark is to be award to anyone who points out the irony of a film about telling us to take risks when the filmmakers themselves don’t take a single risk.

• A further bonus mark to anyone mentioning the unoriginality of writer/director John Hamberg or questioning his sanity.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 17 January 2004

“No hand can deter me from my battle for the truth.” – Veronica Guerin

Veronica Guerin was a relentless journalist who wrote for Ireland’s Sunday Independent.  Between 1994 and 1996, her stories about the drug lords of Dublin left her synonymous with the Irish public.  Never before had someone had the guts to expose these criminals and finally the citizens of Dublin were learning of the seedy underworld corrupting their city.

Her popular, award winning articles were also read by those who featured in them.  Suffice to say they did not enjoy their anonymity being shattered in millions of newspapers across the country.  In October 1994, bullets were fired through the windows of her home.   In January 1995, a masked man entered her home and shot her in the leg.  In September 1995, she was heavily beaten by a suspected drug lord whom she was trying to interview.  Finally, in June 1996, she was shot by two men whilst sitting in her car at a set of traffic lights.  She was the first journalist ever to be murdered in Ireland.

Guerin’s story is the stuff of which movies are made.  She was an unfortunate victim but she was living proof that one person can make a very big difference.  Within a week of her death, the government introduced laws clamping down on drug dealers.  Those responsible for her death were brought to justice and eventually over 150 arrests were made.  It would be wrong to say she was solely responsible for this but her actions went a lot way.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett puts on a superb Irish accent to play this revered character.  Some viewers have been critical that the film portrays Guerin as too much of a “saint” and that she wasn’t as passionate and determined about her plight as the film makes out.  Perhaps this is so and I do not know the fact well enough to dispute them.  Still, I enjoyed the overall feeling of this picture and whilst we often criticise them (me included), there are many journalists who do an amazing job and will stop at nothing to expose hidden truths.  Director Joel Schumaker makes reference to this in the finale when he points out that 189 journalists have been killed in action within the last six years.  That’s a staggering number.

The film itself was shot in Dublin on a budget of just $17m and the most has been made of the money and location.  It’s ironic but Joel Schumaker is always at his directorial best when working with a small budget.  Compare the brilliant Tigerland, The Lost Boys and Falling Down with the not-so brilliant Batman & Robin, 8MM and Bad Company.

Receiving only a limited release in Australia on a small number of screens (I’m not sure why), Veronica Guerin is a very unique and interesting story which I heartedly endorse.  A little sugar coated but aren’t all true life adaptations these days?

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 January 2004

“In telling the story of my father’s life, it’s impossible to separate fact from the fiction, the man from the myth.  The best I can do it, is to tell it the way he told me.” – William Bloom

Edward Bloom was the “biggest thing” the town of Ashton had ever seen.  He was the town’s best basketball, football and baseball player.  Men wanted to be him and women wanted to be with him.  Soon after his 18^th birthday, Edward knew it was time to leave his simple life behind.  He was “destined for larger things”.

Accompanied by a 14-foot giant named Karl he had befriended, Edward set off and adventure he found.  Down a dark and haunted road, Edward came across the hidden town of Spectre – a mystery unto itself.  He met the woman who would become his wife at a circus run by a short man with a unique ability.  He fought undercover in the Vietnam War and returned to America with strange company.  He caught a legendary catfish using his wedding ring as bait on the day his only son was born.

That son was William (Crudup) who grew up adoring and believing his father’s stories.  Now, William is married and hasn’t spoken to his father in over three years.  He is angry that his father led him to believe such nonsensical tales for so long.  Will tried hard to get the truth from his father about what really happened but it only led to crazier and more elaborate stories.

Now, his father is dying and somewhat reluctantly, Will has returned to the family home to be with his dad for the last time.  At his bedside Will hopes finally for some straight answers and pleads with his father “to just show me who you are for once”.  Edward is not going to make it easy for Will but in the end, everything will make perfect sense…

Such a fantasy could only have been directed by the brilliant Tim Burton.  You never know what to expect from Burton and his films take us into strange new worlds laced with originality.  Just look at Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow.  He has an extraordinary vision and an imagination second-to-none.  Once you’ve seen this film, you can only look back at amazement at how impossible this must have been to visualise from a simple script.  I am deliberately trying not to reveal too much at the risk of spoiling its beauty for those yet to see it.  Just see how many references to water you can spot.

The story is told in the present tense with flashbacks and retellings of Edward’s great stories.  This provides both joy and sadness.  It is all leading to an emotion packed ending that will undoubtedly leave you thinking about the film but also about your own life.  It could have been too unbelievable or perhaps too sentimental but Tim Burton and screenwriter John August (writer of the underrated Go) have nailed the finale with ultimate precision.

Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) plays the younger Edward with Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich) playing the elder.  They do share an uncanny resemblance.  My favourite character was the giant, Karl, played by Matthew McGrory.  He’s very tall himself in real life but the specific effects and trick photography make him the most realistic giant I’ve ever seen.

My most looked for quality in a movie is a great story.  Well here is a great story about someone telling great stories.  In the words of William Bloom - “it’s doesn’t always make sense, but that’s what kind of story this is.”