6/05/08

Bob's Big Screen

Intrigue, betrayal and VHS remakes

by Bob Connally

Royal scandals and FBI warnings are the subjects of this issue’s upcoming new releases. Are they worth your time?

The Other Boleyn Girl

(PG-13, Avail. 6/10)

Royal history is full of scandalous tales and backstabbing. How this juicy subject inspired a film as drab as "The Other Boleyn Girl" is a mystery.

Sisters Mary (Scarlett Johansson) and Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) are as close as can be. However their father and uncle create a fierce rivalry between them in an attempt to gain power for the family.

After marrying William Carey (Benedict Cumberbatch), Mary is content to live life quietly. Older, ambitious Anne wants more. She gets her opportunity when her family sets her up to be King Henry VIII's latest mistress.

Henry (Eric Bana) is quite taken with Anne but it's not long before his attention turns to Mary, who reluctantly bows to family pressure to have an affair with him. Together Henry and Mary produce a baby boy, but due to Henry's marriage to Katherine (Ana Torrent) the child cannot be heir to the throne. After a time Henry casts Mary aside and goes after Anne, who tries to convince Henry to annul his marriage so she can be Queen and mother to the future King.

I've never had a problem with Brits playing Americans or Americans playing Brits. Having said that, Portman and Johansson needed to spend more time with the dialect coach. Otherwise Johansson’s performance is decent if unmemorable. Portman doesn't fare well. She was wonderful in "Leon" and "Garden State," but she needs to stop playing royalty, a lesson she apparently didn't learn from "Star Wars." The normally outstanding Bana, like the rest of the movie, is pretty lifeless here.

Kristin Scott Thomas as mother Lady Elizabeth Boleyn and Jim Sturgess ("21") as brother George are among the film's few bright spots. Elizabeth is the one character in the film who knows from the very beginning that things are going to go very badly for everyone involved. Despite her best efforts, however, there's really nothing she can do. It's much like Thomas, whose performance deserves to be in a better film.

Written by Peter Morgan (who delivered an excellent script for “The Queen”), the film is full of dialogue that spells things out too neatly. Several lines come across like background information instead of people talking. Director Justin Chadwick doesn't do anything interesting or engaging. There are a few breathtaking shots but much of the film looks rather bleak. This is befitting of the picture's mood, but even gloom can be stylish. This is not.

To see this sort of thing is done right, rent "Becket" and “The Lion in Winter” (both of which star Peter O’Toole as Henry II). Both of those films bring royal betrayal and intrigue to vibrant life through crackling dialogue. Season 1 of “The Tudors” is available as well. You have plenty of alternatives to “The Other Boleyn Girl.” 4/10.

Be Kind Rewind

(PG-13, Avail. 6/17)

I don't miss VHS. The tracking button, the way a tape died a little with each viewing and, of course, the rewinding. But director Michel Gondry is nostalgic for those old tapes and he's made a film to show us why.

"Be Kind Rewind" is the story of a little video store in Passaic, New Jersey that remains exclusively VHS. The store's owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) is going out of town for a week and leaving his young associate Mike (Mos Def) in charge. Mr. Fletcher should have nothing to worry about. There aren’t many customers. West Coast Video across the street is well stocked with plenty of the latest DVD releases. As Fletcher leaves town he frantically tries to give Mike an important message: to keep his eccentric best friend Jerry (Jack Black) out of the store. No such luck.

After the store closes one night, the frenetic Jerry tries to convince Mike that the electricity is “messing with his mind” and they need to disrupt the local power grid. Fed up with Jerry's shenanigans, Mike takes off and Jerry is electrocuted.

The next morning a dazed and magnetized Jerry heads into the store and browses through every tape, unwittingly ruining the store's entire stock. The one regular (Mia Farrow) wants to rent "Ghostbusters." Not wanting to let down the only loyal customer the store has, or Mr. Fletcher, Mike comes up with a solution. Armed with a video camera he tells Jerry, "I'm Bill Murray, you're everyone else."

They spend the remainder of the afternoon shooting their own 20-minute version of "Ghostbusters," reconstructing the film's highlights from memory. What starts out as a desperate experiment soon turns Mike and Jerry into local celebrities and transforms the little store into a success. But the FBI warning… well, it turns out they really mean it.

Michel Gondry is an incredibly talented director, as evidenced by "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." His follow-up, "The Science of Sleep," while good, suffers from the same problem "Be Kind" does. Gondry's talents lie behind the camera, not as a screenwriter. "Eternal Sunshine" worked because it married Gondry’s innovative visual style with Charlie Kaufman's brilliant dialogue and character development. Gondry's concepts are interesting but his dialogue lacks punch.

Like "Science," "Be Kind" is a good film that could have been great. It's at its best when we're seeing bits of Mike and Jerry's remakes (or "Sweded versions," as they call them), particularly of "Ghostbusters" and "Rush Hour 2." This is also when Black and Def get to shine. Like most everything else in this movie, their performances are likable but only really special for a few moments at a time.

Despite its notable flaws I still enjoyed "Be Kind Rewind" simply because it's a film with true heart. The "Sweded" remakes must look like the films a young Gondry made 20 years ago in his own neighborhood. The message of the value of community and the way that film can bring people together is delivered in a bit of a corny way, but it's clear that Gondry really means it. 7/10.

Also Coming to DVD:

6/10

John Adams: HBO Miniseries

The Bucket List (PG-13)

Jumper (PG-13)

6/17

Californication: Season 1

Fool’s Gold (PG-13)

Burn Notice: Season 1

Jericho: Season 2

Joy Division: The Miriam Collection