Month: April 2011

In A Better World, winner of this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar, follows two Danish schoolboys and their parents up to the edge of a moral abyss and into ethical areas where they’ve never been. The film explores revenge, violence on behalf of a greater good, and parental responsibility and guilt while it entertains to the hilt. Intriguingly and credibly, director Susanne Bier (the original “Brothers,” far superior to it’s American version) ties together parallel stories. One involves the encounter of Anton (Mikael Persbrandt), a pacifist, altruistic physician, with a Sudan-like country’s civil war; the other his bullied son’s rebelling at school against his vicious tormentors. The son, Elias (Marcus Rygaard) is delivered a petulant, fearless rescuer when Christian (a stunning performance by Willam Johnk Nielson) moves back into town after his mother’s death.

The kids begin to take action, propelled by Christian’s increasing nihilist reaction to the absence of his mom. Christian further makes an impression on Elias as a counterpoint to Anton’s own inaction in matters of standing up for himself in the face of being humiliated in front of the boys. Throw in a harrowing incident in Africa that forces Anton to make a no-win moral choice, and you’ve got a full plate of a film.

Does it verge on exploiting the plot’s schematics in almost handing us a too-close-for-comfort neatly wrapped parable package? Let’s not quibble. The critical backlash to this film ignores that it’s highly suspenseful, impeccably crafted, superbly acted, and quite thought provoking. My only quibble is they should have stuck with a more literal translation of the title: the straight scoop from the Danish is more like “Vengeance,” a subject on which Bier writes a whole new chapter.

8.5 out of 10

In A Better World, winner of this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar, follows two Danish schoolboys and their parents up to the edge of a moral abyss and into ethical areas where they’ve never been. The film explores revenge, violence on behalf of a greater good, and parental responsibility and guilt while it entertains to the hilt. Intriguingly and credibly, director Susanne Bier (the original “Brothers,” far superior to it’s American version) ties together parallel stories. One involves the encounter of Anton (Mikael Persbrandt), a pacifist, altruistic physician, with a Sudan-like country’s civil war; the other his bullied son’s rebelling at school against his vicious tormentors. The son, Elias (Marcus Rygaard) is delivered a petulant, fearless rescuer when Christian (a stunning performance by Willam Johnk Nielson) moves back into town after his mother’s death.

The kids begin to take action, propelled by Christian’s increasing nihilist reaction to the absence of his mom. Christian further makes an impression on Elias as a counterpoint to Anton’s own inaction in matters of standing up for himself in the face of being humiliated in front of the boys. Throw in a harrowing incident in Africa that forces Anton to make a no-win moral choice, and you’ve got a full plate of a film.

Does it verge on exploiting the plot’s schematics in almost handing us a too-close-for-comfort neatly wrapped parable package? Let’s not quibble. The critical backlash to this film ignores that it’s highly suspenseful, impeccably crafted, superbly acted, and quite thought provoking. My only quibble is they should have stuck with a more literal translation of the title: the straight scoop from the Danish is more like “Vengeance,” a subject on which Bier writes a whole new chapter.

8.5 out of 10

Imagine a present day war where eight million Americans perish. That’s the scope of the devastation produced by our Civil War, where 600,000, or two percent of our population, died. Taking place only days after Lee’s surrender and while battles still raged, the Lincoln assassination produced a government crisis where the Union’s fragility was starkly tested.

Robert Redford’s compelling The Conspirator chronicles a dark chapter in America’s history that took place amidst that crisis. The film depicts the outrageous trail by military tribunal of Mary Surrat (a radiant and dignified Robin Wright), who operated a rooming house frequented by assassin John Wilkes Booth, who was often in the company of Mary’s son. That Mary takes a hit for her vengeful son’s actions is an understatement. That she is innocent is still up for debate 150 years later.
Government prosecutor Danny Huston, taking cues from Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (an intensely forceful Kevin Kline), throws the Constitution to the wolves. The rush to judgement is driven largely by Stanton’s desperation to hold the tenous Union together at any cost. Stanton leads the charge to bring down any and all conspirators as quickly as possible, to leave them “buried and forgotten.”

With comically contradictory government witnesses against her, with no right to testify, no jury, no opportunity for appeal, and ultimately no right of habeas corpus, Mary’s trial quickly becomes aa shambles. She’s defended by a reluctant former Union soldier Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) whose mentor, the Senator and former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (a brilliant Tom Wilkinson) can’t defend Mary himself due to his southern background. Surratt, a Confederate sympathizer is the lone woman accused conspirator tried by a court that is more Kafka than kosher.

A strong supporting cast includes Evan Rachel Wood in a pivotal role as Mary’s daughter aand the incomparable Shea Whigham as a prosecution witness–his second such role recently after playing a jailhouse snitch witness so effectively in The Lincoln Lawyer.

The Conspirator is a vivid, dramatic old-fashioned-feeling film whose characters stand up to scrutiny and whose art direction poignantly depicts the era. Anything but a dry history lesson, it contains lessons nonetheless. Parallels to more recent dilemmas about the wisdom of military tribunals and their relationshp with government security can be drawn, as can the question of when is it ever moral for forecful political revenge to seek a convenient scapegoat?

8 Out of 10

Imagine a present day war where eight million Americans perish. That’s the scope of the devastation produced by our Civil War, where 600,000, or two percent of our population, died. Taking place only days after Lee’s surrender and while battles still raged, the Lincoln assassination produced a government crisis where the Union’s fragility was starkly tested.

Robert Redford’s compelling The Conspirator chronicles a dark chapter in America’s history that took place amidst that crisis. The film depicts the outrageous trail by military tribunal of Mary Surrat (a radiant and dignified Robin Wright), who operated a rooming house frequented by assassin John Wilkes Booth, who was often in the company of Mary’s son. That Mary takes a hit for her vengeful son’s actions is an understatement. That she is innocent is still up for debate 150 years later.
Government prosecutor Danny Huston, taking cues from Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (an intensely forceful Kevin Kline), throws the Constitution to the wolves. The rush to judgement is driven largely by Stanton’s desperation to hold the tenous Union together at any cost. Stanton leads the charge to bring down any and all conspirators as quickly as possible, to leave them “buried and forgotten.”

With comically contradictory government witnesses against her, with no right to testify, no jury, no opportunity for appeal, and ultimately no right of habeas corpus, Mary’s trial quickly becomes aa shambles. She’s defended by a reluctant former Union soldier Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) whose mentor, the Senator and former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (a brilliant Tom Wilkinson) can’t defend Mary himself due to his southern background. Surratt, a Confederate sympathizer is the lone woman accused conspirator tried by a court that is more Kafka than kosher.

A strong supporting cast includes Evan Rachel Wood in a pivotal role as Mary’s daughter aand the incomparable Shea Whigham as a prosecution witness–his second such role recently after playing a jailhouse snitch witness so effectively in The Lincoln Lawyer.

The Conspirator is a vivid, dramatic old-fashioned-feeling film whose characters stand up to scrutiny and whose art direction poignantly depicts the era. Anything but a dry history lesson, it contains lessons nonetheless. Parallels to more recent dilemmas about the wisdom of military tribunals and their relationshp with government security can be drawn, as can the question of when is it ever moral for forecful political revenge to seek a convenient scapegoat?

8 Out of 10

Back to the future? As a plot artifice here it’s a surefire suspense stimulant. Read more →

Back to the future? As a plot artifice here it’s a surefire suspense stimulant. Read more →