Screen: Reviews

BIOPIC
W (15)
3/5

Movie-making firebrand Oliver Stone has one of the most despised leaders of the free world on the ropes releasing his film in the states days before the US election.

So why doesn’t he take the opportunity to clobber him?

The man behind JFK and Nixon has veered from enraged artist to crazy babbling street hobo for much of his film career. So why are we now watching W, a movie in which Stone peers into the life of George W Bush and tries to understand him?

Let’s get this straight, Olly. We don’t want you to help us understand Dubya. If we wanted that, we’d be trawling the lesser known satellite history channels in the early hours of the morning.

And it’s not as if you’re going to drop off the Republican Christmas card list for dumping on their boy.

Chances are, if they’ve put you on any list after 1995’s Nixon, it’s not one with clip-art pictures of Santa on it.

What we want from you is the rousing passion that’s dripping from the lips of much of the world right now. And in trying to present an achingly balanced view of the big W, you’ve left us with a man with lots of flesh and no bones.

Josh Brolin puts in a fine performance as the 43rd president, who oversaw financial collapse and a war in Iraq.

In attempting to explain Dubya’s route from baseball-loving fratboy to the highest office in America, Stone focuses more on personal moments in his earlier years rather than the major flash-points of his presidency.
It’s a move designed to bring Dubya the Man to the fore, but it means that Dubya the President doesn’t get nearly as many brushstrokes as he should.

In denying his better instincts for his “duty� as a biographer, Stone has made a potential talking point into a worthy but pointless side-note to history.

ACTION
Pride and Glory (15)
3/5

Have you ever spent time in a bar, restaurant or coffee house discussing the best-performed nativity play of all time?

Unless you're constantly surrounded by cooing parents, the chances are that the answer’s no. And there’s a very good reason for this.

The nativity is a hugely familiar story, played time and again by identikit characters every year. So even if some kid is a Larry Olivier as the third sheep from the right, you’re still going to be watching the same old tale for the 400th time.

Maybe that’s why I find it hard to get excited by Pride And Glory. Sure, stars Edward Norton and Colin Farrell are good, the supporting cast are solid and the pacing is tight. But you can’t get away from the fact it’s about police corruption again.

The plot – which you already know by sheer repetition – focuses on straight-arrow Norton, whose investigation into the killing of a policeman puts him on a collision course with brother-in-law cop Farrell, who’s been cramming his hand into a very frosty cookie jar.

It’s a very efficient thriller that’s bolstered further by supporting performances from the likes of former Pride And Prejudice gal Jennifer Ehle.

But being entertained is different to being gripped, and being shocked by this film is about as likely as hearing gasps when the nativity innkeeper can’t find a twin room free for the 25th.

COMEDY
Easy Virtue (PG)
3/5

Thud.

That’s the sound of the audience being split down the middle at this adaptation of Noel Coward’s 80-year-old play.

On one hand, the throng cheer for star Jessica Biel, and praise the light and snappy flow and wit of an enjoyable if not exactly challenging movie.

To the right, others mutter about the muddling of Coward’s dialogue, and note that few worthy period adaptations have soundtracks with snippets from Car Wash and Sex Bomb.

They’re both right to an extent. Easy Virtue is different to the original vision, but it’s not as if the premise hasn’t turned up before or since. Coward’s vision sees posh chap John Whittaker turn up at his parents’ house with a new beau in tow, only she’s independent, she’s older than him, and – worst of all – she’s American (sigh).

The stage is set for the sort of Meet the Parents cringeworthiness that audiences lap up. And it’s Jessica Biel that’s called on to carry most of the film as the sparky Larita, who’s witty and sharp as the lead even though she’s probably in the wrong age bracket for the role.

Even though it’s probably lightened itself up to survive in the modern age, Easy Virtue is at least a serviceable attempt at a charming movie in a genre so bloated that’s it’s practically snapping its corset.