Source Code (2011)

Gawd, maybe I should change the name of this blog to 'My Year with Cyber-Techno-Fantasy Thriller dealies' - we've had The Adjustment Bureau, Limitless, Sucker Punch, that post where I mainly talked about Inception when i should have been talking about something else... A lot of big broad sci-fi. Filmmakers seem to be quite interested in these high concept film about now and that's fine with me. Pure sci-fi bores me. This Bradbury/Matheson/Dick-style stuff really captures my imagination. Source Code is no different. It's about a soldier who goes back to a parallel version of the past (not the actual 'real' one) for 8mins to find out who the terrorist is and he has to repeat it until he comes up with the answer. So far so Philip K. Dick. It's like Quantum Leap meets Groundhog Day meets Hitchcock. Do professional critics make money from the one line reviews on movie posters?.. cos I can do them all day long.
I do imagine that if Hitch had made more technological thrillers, they would look like this. It's got a charismatic leading man, a charming leading lady, bombs, um... a train-He would have loved this.
Now I like Source Code and everything and... It works as a time-travel thingy but there's a niggles for me in the film and as much as these types of films are prone to having them, sometimes you can ignore them and sometimes you can't. Some people struggle with Inception because they don't understand how the technology works. My deal with Source Code is that the soldier,  played by Jake Gyllenhall, isn't pragmatic enough in finding the terrorist. For me, that is. If he was that efficient, then the movie's be 30mins long and would be short on characters and story. Stuff like that. But as i always say, I'm not in control of how I perceive things. Don't judge my irrational perceptions.
That my negative bit over. This movie is so finely edited it seems effortless. It never takes a break, never slows down but it never gets too convoluted either. Gyllenhall is good and I'm preparing to forgive him for Love And Other Drugs; as is Michelle Monoghan, Vera Carnival and the Teflon don of acting, Jeffrey Wright (he's unsullied by whatever tut he's been in). He's like the black Alec Guinness. He can do anything from play Colin Lowell to Jean-Michelle Basquiat to Muddy Waters. Sadly he doesn't have much to do here but I'm always happy to see him.
I think the best thing about this film for me is it has the strong emotional core that Duncan Jones previous and debut movie, Moon, lacked. Yeah, Moon is good and original and worthwhile but it was too remote for me to connect with. If you argued that was the point, I'd throw my hands up and say 'Fair enough' but I didn't feel that about this film and that represents progress to me. I also like that the terrorist is revealed at the end of the 2nd act instead of the end because it gives the film more time to play with the device and the quantum mechanics at play. Admittedly, the super happy ending is a smudge wide of the mark (what would Phillip K. Dick say?) but Source Code is very well made and it's hustle is too hard to knock.

I watched Source Code (2011)  at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Killing Bono (2011)...

Love and Other Drugs (2010)

Ed Zwick's Love and Other Drugs is not a film I should be interested seeing. 

From the way it has been marketed to Ed Zwick's previous films like The Last Samurai, The Siege- 2 films so worthy and boring but I’m drawn to it because the actors, Hathaway and Gyllenhaal who are infinitely likable as well as Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt, especially. So I’m giving this film my time, as it's a departure in genre for Zwick (Not really, Codes.) and romantic comedy can be a great gamble; an audience knows the drill in terms of plot, so expectations are naturally low but a success can be magical should it happen…

Even the most diplomatic viewer would have to say that this film is mess. It's a film at war with where its set- is it the soundtrack and time-line of the 90's or the script and visual-style of the 80's? Can i find much fault with a film that opens joyously with Two Princes by Spin Doctors?

Well, that is a solid place to start but it's really down hill from there. Oliver Platt, Judy Greer and the amazing Hank Azaria are doing great work here but that was to be expected. My main issue (there are too many little ones to mention: Josh Gad doing a poor man's Jonah Hill schtick, George Segal being completely underused, etc.) with Love and Other Drugs is the issue of likeability in it's stars.

Based on their previous work, I really like Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. I can't say either has been in any of my favourite films but I’ve always liked them in whatever they were in or in interviews. I'm not likely to ever watch Prince of Persia or The Devil Wears Prada again but they come across very well in these films. A perfect example is Brokeback Mountain.

In that film, Hathaway and Gyllenhaal play a (sham) married couple but despite the fact, that she's in the film for a short time, they really succeed in portraying people while not IN love,that have a loving relationship based on mutual respect.

So it's bewildering to me that I hated them in this film. (Or is that testament to their acting skills (?!)

Gyllenhaal plays a distasteful drugs sales rep/lady-killer/all-round douche dipper. All i could do was concentrate hate at him for the 20-30mins before Hathaway turns up.

Because then my loathing for Jake, paled in comparison to how much i wanted Anne's character to die.

'It's okay, Cody-she's got a disease- she won't survive the credits.... Shit- it's just Parkinson's-Rats!'
The character she plays suffers from extreme self-loathing- the Parkinson's seems like mild discomfort.

If she didn't suffer from that, she'd probably try to get a toe-reduction 'to allow herself to be happy with herself' or some shit. Christ.
I even was disgusted by Anne Hathaway's boobs. Boobs. Who is I to be disgusted by boobs?

Meanwhile- Jake Gyllenhaal's character is becoming more successful in his work due to the invention of Viagra because he's works for Pfizer. Oh, i forgot to mention this was based on the life of a real cock-sweet-salesman. Well that's cos so does the film- it's not really that concerned with that stuff once Hathaway's character arrives and when it goes back to see how Gyllenhaal's work-life is ticking over, it seems really miscellaneous and plodding.

But i was surprised that after the 1st hour, the film really improved. (If 30mins of something can redeem the previous 1hr of shit.) It starts saying insightful things about what builds relationships. Like if Hathaway and Gyllenhaal's characters are dicks (They are.) and their relationship is held together with the glue of great sex (Sex glue.) and it's not like they have many redeeming features or seek humanitarian endeavours (They really don't-when Hathaway sorts out bus trips to Canada for cheap drugs for oldies, you know it's just for the climatic chase. Actually, there's a great throwaway line, where Gyllenhaal asks if they leave a cafe *sigh* for steamy sex, before being served, does he have to tip!) What is it that they do like about each other? Why are they attracted to each other?

Hathaway asks around the 80min point (would have saved a lot of time if she'd brought it up 40mins before...) 'God knows I’m a hideous yeast infection of a bitch, I am rarely nice to you, It's not even clear what i do while you're at work selling penis pills. (Artist? Waitress? Grey market pharmaceutical travel agent?) - I mean what is it about me that you could possibly like?'

Gyllenhaal answers ''Look… i don't know but when we're together, we make each other happy and… maybe that's enough.' (It is.) 
That personally resonates volumes with me but it doesn't make for a 90mins in the cinema. I'm certain i wouldn't have given this film my full concentration at home on TV or DVD.

I watched Love and Other Drugs at the cinema, on its UK opening day.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Brothers Bloom (2009)...