The Listener's ace reviewers preview the holidays’ big-screen offerings.
Opening December 22
MELANCHOLIA. A more rapturous vision of universal obliteration you will never see. Lars von Trier dramatises depression and also, erm, the apocalypse. Somehow it works. (Review here.)
Opening December 26
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN. Steven Spielberg and producer Sir Peter Jackson bring out the best in each other, a cast of fine voice actors do excellent work, and the wizards of Weta do their best motion-caption animation yet. Tintin purists will carp, but this is outstanding summer fun, and worth catching in 3D if you can. (Review here.)
The Iron Lady
THE IRON LADY. Meryl Streep is Margaret Thatcher, but no matter your view of Britain’s former PM, this tremulous, unfocused biopic is less than she deserves. People will no doubt project their own Thatchers onto Streep’s predictably excellent performance; they’ll have to, because what director Phyllida Lloyd and writer Abi Morgan think of their polarising subject never quite emerges.
WE BOUGHT A ZOO. Has “heart-warming” stamped all over it in giant letters. Also has Cameron Crowe, Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, so may be heart-warming for real. Single dad Damon buys his kids a … well, let’s not spoil it.
TOWER HEIST. Zeitgeist comedy-caper in which some of the 99% attempt to inflict equitable wealth distribution on their billionaire boss. Interesting cast (Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda, Gabourey Sibide), worrying director (Brett Ratner, X-Men: The Last Stand).
HAPPY FEET 2. Mumble the tap-dancing penguin returns, as does one of the two writer/directors of the surprisingly enjoyable original. Not the other one, though, and lukewarm overseas responses suggest he’s sorely missed. The animation will, of course, be glorious.
ALBERT NOBBS. Glenn Close’s playing of a woman disguised as a man won’t fool you completely, but you can’t take your eyes off her. Her shy, naive butler is the linchpin of this sensitive and unpredictable treatment of class, gender and identity.
Opening December 29
The Muppets
THE MUPPETS. It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights! All attempts to explain to members of the younger generation why we’re so excited about this film have failed. (“A pig? A frog? A Swedish chef?”) They must be made to watch it, anyway.
Opening January 5
SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS. A director from the “explosions-and-slo-mo” school takes on a set of characters with a large pre-existing fan-base and makes a surprisingly enjoyable fist of it, and a franchise is born: is Guy Ritchie’s Holmes series the new Transformers? The non-celebrity casting of Jared Harris as Professor Moriarty inspires some hope for this second outing, as does the presence of Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander in the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).
RESTLESS. Mother of the new girlfriend, brightly: “Annabel tells me you’re a funeral-crashing dropout with a ghost for a friend.” Gus van Sant’s latest looks hardcore quirky, blending teen romcom with Teens Learning About Death. Promising sign: it has Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right, Jane Eyre).
THE HUNTER. Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe, a story by Julia Leigh (writer/director of Sleeping Beauty) and the producers of Animal Kingdom: these are reasons to be interested in this Aussie psychological drama about a tracker sent into the wild to look for the (extinct, but maybe not) tasmanian tiger.
DOLPHIN TALE. Morgan Freeman plays the prosthetics expert who helps the determined boy who comes to the aid of the injured dolphin in this quote-unquote inspirational true-life story. We note director Charles Martin Smith also tried for inspirational with his last film, the startlingly bland Stone of Destiny.
VIVA RIVA. Energetic exploitation-noir crime flick, vividly played, and set in a busy and well-utilised Kinshasa. A small-time hustler sets his sights on the wrong big score and, more hazardous still, the wrong woman. A sympathetic character or two would not have gone amiss.
Opening January 12
Cinema titans go head-to-head: Martin Scorsese with HUGO, Steven Spielberg with WAR HORSE, both with boy protagonists. Hugo’s an orphan discovering the magical mystery of cinema in 1930s Paris. Excitingly, it’s Scorsese’s first 3D outing. Features a fully clothed Sacha Baron Cohen. Spielberg’s slightly disconcerting mix of boy+horse tearjerker and war movie is longish and formulaic, but the hero horse is one cool performer.
COLLABORATORS (NT Live). National Theatre’s Nicholas Hytner joins forces with Trainspotting screenwriter John Hodge in imagining playwright Mikhail Bulgakov being commissioned by Stalin to write a play for his 60th birthday. Which, for Misha, could be a good thing or a bad thing. Darkly humorous thriller with the fabulous Simon Russell Beale as Stalin.
THE DARKEST HOUR. Probably bored with LA, the aliens dump on Moscow this time. No worries, five American tourists step up to do the necessary biz. Slight hitch: the critters are invisible.
Opening January 19
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. There’s a mole at the top of the Circus, and George Smiley (ret) is sent in to fetch. Let’s hope Peter Morgan’s screenplay is less dizzying than John le Carré’s fractured narrative and multiple characters. And will Gary Oldman upstage Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley? Tomas (Let the Right One In) Alfredson directs.
BIG MIRACLE. One of the many pleasures of Bridesmaids, John Krasinski plays small-town journalist to Drew Barrymore’s Greenpeace volunteer (what?) as they persuade superpowers to save three gray whales trapped under the Arctic ice. And, presumably, bring about world peace.
JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (3D). Journey 1 was 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, with Brendan Fraser. Now young Sean is lumbered with Dwayne Johnson as they search for his missing grandfather (Michael Caine) on the eponymous island.
Opening January 26
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. Purists are already curling their lips at this American remake starring Daniel Craig. Might be wise to wait – David Fincher is directing. But will Rooney Mara upstage Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander? We think not.
THE DESCENDANTS. Sideways’ Alexander Payne brings together odd bedfellows – Hawaii, family healing and ancestral responsibility – with ease and understated truthfulness, while George Clooney, supported by a great cast, burnishes his non-matinee idol repertoire with an engaging turn as a flawed, awkward parent trying to do the right thing.
YOUNG ADULT. Still with awkward, Juno writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman team with an unglam Charlize Theron as a teen-lit writer returning home to hit on her married high school sweetheart. Should be dark. Should be funny.
BUCK. Prepare to be blindsided emotionally by this doco. Buck Brannaman was the inspiration for The Horse Whisperer, but it’s his personal story that gives deep, moving insight into his magical touch with horses. A must for horse lovers.
Opening February 2
J. EDGAR. Clint Eastwood weaves J Edgar Hoover’s public and private personas to reveal the personal secrets of “the most powerful man in the world”. We remain to be convinced Leonardo DiCaprio is the right casting choice.
A Few Best Men
A FEW BEST MEN. We’re thinking, Bridesmaids in the Outback. With blokes. Groom’s a Brit, bride’s Aussie – played by Rebel Wilson, who was in Bridesmaids – so fingers crossed.
LIKE CRAZY. Sundance awarded Felicity Jones Best Actress for this small, performance-based dissection of love at long distance. Autobiographical, so authenticity sometimes means lacking in drama.
If summer gets too hot, chill with these. In CHRONICLE, three guys unexpectedly acquire special powers. Harmless fun freaking out strangers ensues, but then the powers go feral, and guess who’s freaking out now? THE DEVIL INSIDE looks scarier: a young woman goes to Italy to visit her mother, in prison for supposedly murdering people during an exorcism. Mother, it seems, still has issues.