The International

This thriller, true to the title takes you across the United States, Europe and the Atlantic with Clive Owen, a die-hard Interpol agent and Naomi Watts, a New York assistant district attorney, trying to track down the huge financial irregularities by a Luxembourg-based bank called The International.

The plot holds firm till the first half. Owen is always taken on the wrong track to get the real people behind the mega scam. It gives the impression that ‘The International’ could be a serious flick with signs of secret tie-up between government officials and banks to finance terrorists.

The film also rolls quite fast with some amazing gunfight scenes and beautiful architectural setup until the second half when the script requires more sitting and speaking by the characters.

This is where you get the holes. When characters speak too much to explain what the film is about it usually means it has failed to make you see the best techniques in making a good cinema. The plot, therefore, disintegrates slowly with each character turning out to be some kind of complicated letters even a small kid would find it difficult to read.

However, this is not to say that the film is a total turn-off. The efforts put in by the entire cast balances the flaws. Armin Mueller-Stahl as a former communist who now serves as a middleman between banks and their ‘esteemed customers’ looks exceptionally good in his suit. The film may not be a wholesome thrilling exercise but there are director Tom Tykwer’s exotic setup and brilliant action scenes to keep you spellbound.
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The International
English (A)
Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen
Director: Tom Tykwer

Out of Bounds

Nominated for the Golden Leopard at the 2007 Locarno International Film Festival and Winner of Silver Leopard Best Actor (Michele Venitucci), at the 2007 Locarno International Film Festival, ‘Out of Bounds’ gives a brutal account of the illegal fight clubs in North-Eastern Italy.

A 30-something hot blooded fighter Mike (Michele Venitucci) dreams to make it big as a profession boxer. He enters the fray against his sister Anna’s (Maya Sansa) wishes, without knowing how far he has to undergo the pain and unknown dangers. Initial success makes him a favourite but when he tries to get out of the illegal fistfights, a new gameplan which he had never imagined must be conquered first.

There is no doubt that Italian director Fulvio Bernasconi is brilliant but his scripting of this interesting tale of struggle is a disappointment to a certain extent.

The bitter story lacks the punchline it needed. The spirit of survival barely manages to crawl out of the shady warehouse where the gruesome fights are shot.

The spark between the brother-sister duo also provides a second thought on their relationship. It is too ambiguous to figure out what really goes on between them.
The cliched script, the stereotypes in portraying the villains and the lack of a hard-hitting climax are definitely a setback had it not been for the excellent performance of Venitucci. All in all, ‘Out of Bounds’ is a safe bet but don’t expect too much in return.
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Out of Bounds
Italian (A) with English subtitles
Cast: Michele Venitucci, Maya Sansa, Juan Pablo Ogalde, Vili Matula, Claudio Misculin
Director: Fulvio Bernasconi

Fine Just The Way It Is

Author: Annie Proulx
Publishers: HarperCollins,
Year: 2009, pp 221,
Price: Rs 325

Of all the clouds and dusts 'Fine Just The Way It Is' remains a compelling take on how fate decides human lives.

What happens when the author’s name becomes bigger than the book title itself? Well, great expectations plus some disappointments are the usual answers. For Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx (of The Brokeback Mountain fame) this is her third edition of the Wyoming Stories — a compilation of nine short stories featuring life in America’s West.

Annie stretches her symbolic boundaries covering generations of Americans and their struggle by infusing endless and painful memories, yet there appears to be some gap in some of the stories involving the never-ending search for peaceful-reunion with the self.

The book begins with the ‘Family Man’, the reminiscences of an old rancher in a nursing home, and climaxes it with the remarkable ‘Tits-Up in a Ditch’, a kind of an autobiography of a character Dakotah Lister. Lister is a bitter single mother who returns to her grandparents’ farm after losing an arm while serving in Iraq. Sandwiched between the opening and the closing stories are, traumatic experiences and some black humour involving poor cowboys, damned hikers, and awfully lonely women. The first and the last stories are perhaps the most painful of all. The ‘Family Man’ invokes the reader’s sympathy and support for the old man who tries to reveal his family’s bitter secret to his granddaughter. ‘Tits-Up in a Ditch’ prods the softest corner of the heart and it hurts.

Narration remains Annie’s forte. One could clearly picturise the vastness, the void and emptiness in the lives of her characters. ‘I’ve Always Loved This Place’, ‘Them Old Cowboy Songs’and ‘The Sagebrush Kid’ (not exactly about a boy) makes a lighter read with a bit of dark comedy here and there. However, ‘The Great Divide’, takes a new turn when a couple, Hi and Helen, looking for a suitable home faces obstacles the ‘American way’.
Annie also provides a wide-ranging mixture of metaphor in symbols associated with Old American West which may be interesting for cowboy genre fans. But for an ordinary reader, there are many phrases and expressions that need simplification.

All the stories are generally sad and depressing. The characters try to run away from extreme poverty but fate always had something else for them. We feel sorry for them but at the same time Annie seems to stretch way beyond imaginable limits. Her bold language and complexity in revealing the plots are also a turn off.

The overall theme of the book is admirable for its detailed observation and sense of humour but stretching the reader’s mind too far way from the event to other elements like the weather and so forth, is somewhat distracting.

Of all the clouds and dusts Fine Just The Way It Is remains a compelling take on how fate decides human lives.

Monsters vs Aliens (A review)

The makers of ‘Shrek’ and ‘Kungfu Panda’ have come up with another unlikely animated film.

The plot of ‘Monsters vs Aliens’ is simple with a young woman, Susan extremely happy at the thought of getting married to her news anchor boyfriend. But fate spoils her dream on her wedding day when she is hit by splinters of a meteorite infused with Quantonium, a powerful element that causes her to grow to an enormous size.

Captured by security forces and held at a secret location she meets odd characters: Dr Cockroach, a scientist whose accidental experiment transformed him into a humanoid-cockroach; B O B, a gelatinous, brainless mass brought to life in an experiment gone wrong; The Missing Link, a lizard man, and mutant larvae named Insectosaurus.

Now with alien overlord Gallaxhar trying to capture planet Earth, United States’ President Hathaway offers the ‘monsters’ their freedom if they could defeat Gallaxhar and his legion of robots.

‘Monsters vs Aliens’ though not a typical superhero animation flick is packed with endless laughs. Unlike the our ‘friendly neighbourhood’ kind-of-superhero storyline this film is devoid of any preachings or lessons to adopt.

It is cent per cent fantasy adventure with lovable characters. From a president who is always confused with which button nuclear weapons will be activated to jelly-like B O B’s ‘brainless’ acts, all you get is fun save for the last few minutes towards the end.

Though the film remains largely a 2D show in most theatres across the world DreamWorks’ team of special effects and graphics gives you an almost perfect 3D screen experience. Besides, the superb sound quality can raise a few hairs.

Unusual plot and even unusually light script with lots of fun embedded throughout make ‘Monsters and Aliens’ an all out family entertainer.
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English (U/A)
Cast: Featuring the voice of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett
Director: Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon
Monsters vs Aliens