John Le Carre said in an interview on the DVD that when the screen adaptation of his book The Constant Gardener was pitched to the Hollywood bigwigs, it was rejected because the movie included the “A� word – Africa. It seems Hollywood, who ever that is, wasn’t ready to make a movie about Africa, or at least not this movie about Africa. It’s a good thing that they weren’t ready. The Constant Gardener would not have been as good had it been made by some Hollywood hack.
The film was shot partly on location in Kenya. The scene in which Tessa and Arnold walk through Kibera was actually shot in Kibera. Kibera is a city within a city and has over 800,000 people living without running water and sanitation. When they show the two of them walking through filth and children sorting through garbage, it’s real. That is one of the subtleties of the film, how the reality of life in Africa comes through. And it’s not just the reality for the British folks who live there, it’s the reality that the Africans themselves live with each day. One of the many sequences that illustrate this is a party scene. It begins with shots of people working in the kitchen. A waiter picks up a tray and heads through the swinging doors. The camera follows him out as he brings the food to the stuffy British mucky-mucks attending the party. There are several moments like this in the film, where we get to see snippets of African life from the African’s point-of-view. I won't debate the fact that a white dude shot the picture, but his intensions were to show Africa from the African point-of-view. It’s not something that a Hollywood director would include. They would probably insert shots of the British hob-knobbing amongst themselves and show plenty of shots of the gorgeous décor.
The story is a good one; part mystery, part love story. It’s a bit sad, but it will keep you intrigued. It’s also good because it’s not a typical Hollywood action movie, even if the trailers made you think it was.
When Evelyn Mercer is murdered in the opening scene of Four Brothers, you don't actually see it happen. When she is killed, the camera shows a long shot of the store front. Gun blasts flash through the store windows, the shooters run out the front door and the story begins. The shooting is shown later in the film, as her four sons watch it played back on the surveillance tape. It almost didn't happen that way. One of the deleted scenes on the DVD is the shooting. It was a good decision. It's far more effective to see the emotions on her sons' faces than to watch it as it happened.
So many things about this film are wonderful. The story of four brothers, 2 black, 2 white, all adopted, all different, is a compelling one. Sometimes the story veers away from reality - would you really get away with waiving a gun around a basketball game - but that's what makes it interesting. How far are the brothers willing to go to find out who killed their mother? Very far, as you will see if you watch the film.
The one thing that I really disliked about this film is how the brothers continually demean each other. For example, the oldest brother continually taunts the youngest brother about being gay. The youngest brother was sexually abused before he came to the Mercer house so of course the other brothers have to use that to taunt him. It's quite despicable. But, according to the director and some of the actors, that's how brothers treat each other. Really? Why exactly? I've seen this behavior from men and I don't think I will ever understand it. To the brothers' credit though, they really do love each other and care for one another. That part does come through in the film in many ways even if they do act like jerks on occasion.
PS The shootout at the Mercer house is awesome. It's right out of a western - sans machine guns.
I have a mystery of my own to solve. A coupon for a free ticket to the Pink Panther appeared in my mailbox at work. The envelop in which the ticket appeared had no indication as to who it was from. My name was hand-written on it, but I didn’t recognize the writing. I have a few ideas about who would leave it, but nothing concrete. I’m hoping to have handwriting and fingerprint analysis completed by the end of the week so I can get to the bottom of this. But does it seem rather creepy that this person didn’t leave a name? I would have done that at least, especially if I was leaving it for a co-worker.
Mysterious movie ticket aside, this was a funny movie. I love Steve Martin, so I was really looking forward to seeing it. I will admit that I was never a fan of the original Pink Panther movies. I guess I never quite got Peter Seller’s shtick. I hope that’s not too blasphemous. But Steve Martin, I get him. His accent is great, he has a great screen presence, and hardly anyone can match his abilities with physical comedy. My son also loved it. He could hardly stop from laughing. I think we both agree that our favorite scene was the one in which Inspector Clouseau gives his female assistant Nicole the Heimlich maneuver to save her from choking on an egg. Gilbert, Clouseau’s partner, walks in on the scene and thinks something quite different is going on between the two. When the egg is dislodged from Nicole’s throat, it flies out the window and hits some poor bicycle rider in the head. He loses control of his bike and crashes into a hot dog cart. The cart then explodes. It was really, really funny.
If you’re not into physical comedy, you won’t like this movie. If you are a die hard Peter Sellers fan, you may not like this movie. But if you like Steve Martin, I think you won’t be disappointed.
When Dorothy landed in Oz, the film stock changed from black and white to color. Dorothy’s real life on the farm was drab and gray; the world of Oz – her fantasy - was a world of color. Corpse Bride does something similar with color. The world of the living is rather monochromatic. The world of the dead is one of color and light. It’s an interesting device and one of the many brilliant stylistic elements that are used throughout the film. I really think that stop-motion animation is beautiful. Computer generated animation can never quite equal it it.
What doesn’t work very well in the film are the musical numbers. The score is wonderful - I love the harpsichord and the organ - but when the characters began to sing, my ears almost hurt. Most of the lyrics were awkward and the singing was atrocious. Danny Elfman made an honorable attempt to mimic several music genres, such as opera and jazz, but he failed miserably with those lyrics. Often, the singers were trying to muddle through words that didn’t quite seem to fit with the melody.
In general, it was worth seeing. But how many of you figured out that Lord Barkis was the Corpse Bride’s murderer the moment he was introduced? My son called that one right away. Why else would that Lothario be in the film?
Cube dwellers of the world unite! Take up your cordless drills and tear down the cubicle walls that ensnare you! Cast off your neck ties and suits! Rebel against your oppressors and come late to work!
If only the movie Office Space had even half the exuberance of that paragraph, it probably would have been a better film. Yeah, um, I think I’m gonna have to say that the movie was kind of dull. Okay? There were some brief moments of humor. I think I only laughed twice. Once when he gutted the fish at his desk and again…okay, maybe I did only laugh once. It wasn’t a total loss though. I love the scene where they destroy the copy machine. It was shot and edited like a scene from a mobster movie, the ones in which the big goons beat to death some poor fool that has really f*** up big time. There are slow motion shots, low-angle shots, shots of the copier busted up into pieces…all of that goes on while that awesome - and quite profane - rap song plays. It reminded me of the scene in Goodfellas where Joe Pesci’s character is beaten to death. Not a bad piece of film making by the Office Space director. What was he doing the rest of the time he was on set? Did he have a bad case of the Mondays the whole time?
There is a lot that I could write about Reign of Fire. It's actually a very interesting movie. It often adheres to genre conventions and then sometimes defies them in very subtle ways. But the question that comes to mind right now as I am watching it is, what music do you want to survive into the future?
The story in Reign of Fire is about dragons decimating the human population and the earth. This may seem rather preposterous, but that's the premise. The people that survive this dragon-induced apocalypse live in small communities. At one of their "soirees," they play Jimi Hendrix's "Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire." Would you want that song to live on into the future? What music wouldn't you want to live on into the future? I think we can all agree that anything by Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson or any of those silly boy bands can go bye-bye. But what should live on?
Here's a list of 5 that I would pick:
1. The Beatles,
2. Mozart,
3. Billie Holiday,
4. Dave Brubeck,
5. Wham...ha, ha, just kidding on that one! I really meant Elvis.