BRITISH writer-director Joanna Hogg makes a striking debut here, with a quiet, understated, truthful and beautifully composed drama about a fortysomething woman trying to hold herself together as her marriage appears to be splintering.
This is A
nna (Kathryn Worth, who is astonishing) whom we meet as she pitches up at a Tuscan villa in the middle of the night to join an old school friend and her family on holiday. She was supposed to arrive with her partner, but a series of one-sided phone conversations hint at the fraught nature of her relationship and further clue us in to her introverted, vulnerable state, which gradually sees her gravitating towards her friend's grown-up children rather than hanging out with what they obnoxiously refer to as "the olds".
Shot with the detached style of an entomologist, Hogg's camera observes the ensuing family drama – meltdowns, heartaches, bitter feuds – in fascinating detail, gradually drawing us into this world and offering up the kind of complex portrait of women that is all too rare in cinema. Highly recommended.
THE HOUSE BUNNY (12A)
***
DIRECTED BY: FRED WOLF
STARRING: ANNA FARIS, EMMA STONE, COLIN HANKSLIKE many great comedic actors before her, Anna Faris is usually brilliant even if the movie around her is an absolute dog – anyone who caught her mercilessly funny bit-part in Lost in Translation or recent turn on Entourage will know better things have always been in store for her. This latest star vehicle isn't necessarily that thing, but she performs such miraculous life-saving duties on its rehashed, predictable plot that it should finally put her somewhere near the top of the A-list.
She plays Shelley, a relentlessly sunny Playboy Bunny cruelly kicked out of Hugh Hefner's mansion upon reaching retirement age of 27 (59 in Bunny years, apparently). Suddenly homeless, she falls into the position of housemother to a group of nerdy, man-hating sorority girls in need of a popularity boost if they're to save their accommodation. Inevitably this leads to lots of confidence-enhancing makeovers and lessons in the art of manipulating men – and, just as inevitably, lots of lessons about how it's possible to be true to yourself and look great. Faris, though, manages to make this seem less vapid, delivering gloriously ditzy lines with sly intelligence and real heart.
CITY OF EMBER
***
DIRECTED BY: GIL KENAN
STARRING: BILL MURRAY, TIM ROBBINS, SAOIRSE RONANTHIS latest fantasy film, which has the feel of an early Terry Gilliam piece, has an endearingly hand-crafted quality that immediately distinguishes it from the raft of CGI-heavy flicks out there. Far in the future, the last vestiges of humankind have been living deep underground for generations in an elaborate metropolis, in which everyone works for the good of the city.
Somewhere along the line, though, leadership of this community has gone awry and with power and food shortages threatening its continued existence it falls upon two teenagers (Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway) to embark on a quest to unlock the secret of the city and find an escape. Which is a promising set-up full of nicely judged allegorical touches and some enjoyable supporting turns from Bill Murray and Tim Robbins.
Alas, while it is more satisfying than dreary would-be epics such as The Golden Compass, this still suffers from the curse of modern fantasy film-making by being unable to tell a satisfying story within the timeframe of a single movie – there are a few too many deliberately engineered plot holes here that seem destined to be filled in should the film prove successful and inspire a franchise.
TIME AND WINDS (15)
***
DIRECTED BY: REHA ERDEM
STARRING: OZKAN OZEN, ALI BEY KAYALI, ELIT ISCANTHE frustration of childhood is the theme of this gorgeous looking but pretentious film from Turkey, which seems to have been made with one eye rather too prominently fixed on securing international arthouse distribution rather than creating a wholly compelling feature.
Revolving around a trio of classmates coming to terms with the limits that their lives in a remote mountain village seem destined to impose on them, Time and Winds certainly ticks all the right boxes beloved by consumers of this type of fare (beautiful scenery, non-professional actors, characters living impoverished lives), but mercifully it transcends its film festival roots to suck you into the world of its protagonists, including a boy full of murderous rage for his father, a girl freaked out by the realities of reproduction and a another boy besotted with his teacher.
In each case, director Reha Erdem builds up a portrait of the way certain types of behaviour and certain ways of life are passed from generation to generation regardless of how damaging such attitudes might be, yet still the film manages to leave us feeling hopeful that change is a possibility.
The full article contains 823 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
