The Heights
A8
Monday, November 19, 2012
‘Dawn’ puts a cliched bow on top of the five-part vampire saga By Taylor Cavallo
Assoc. Arts & Review Editor As if we all couldn’t hate Kristen Stewart any more, in Breaking Dawn Part 2, she kills and sucks the blood out of a beautiful mountain lion. Seriously, though. The final installment of the Twilight Saga young adult The Twilight Saga: fiction series Breaking Dawn Part by Stepha2: nie Me yer, Bill Condon Breaking Lionsgate Dawn Part 2 picks up on the dramatic vampire romance of Bella and Edward Cullen, after the birth of their half human, half vampire child Renesmee. The Volturi believe that a crime has been committed in her birth, as they assume she is a ravenously bloodthirsty “immortal child.” Naturally, confrontation in the scenic Washington wilderness ensues. Despite the anticipation and hype for the final Twilight movie, the final film left a lot to be desired. It was clear that the movie was attempting to wrap up the series in a nice package with a perfectly tied bow on top, but
B+ BD-
the innate desire to tie up all the loose ends was too cliched—too cliched for this clearly cliched film. While this review could purely be a critique of the awful misogynistic messages of the film that come at the viewer from all sides, the film itself, regardless of message, was a disappointment. The opening scene threw the audience right into Bella’s newly predatory senses, which let viewers experience her heightened sense of hearing and sight, and more importantly, her new thirst for blood, which was a great way to set a hopeful pace for the film. Opening with the energy of her invigorated vampire self was exciting, yet this excitement was promptly ruined by the pure cheesiness of her hunting scene alongside Edward. Something about the fast-paced “sprinting” from place to place and her facial expressions while sniffing didn’t work for the normally confused-looking Stewart. The whole hunting montage had viewers laughing out loud and was, frankly, a terrible way to start the film. It was hard to take the film seriously afterward. The special effects of the film, which to an ignorant viewer don’t seem to be very “special,” are meant to help the movie, but actually
amplified its laughable flaccidity. Apart from the creepily (clearly) computer-animated baby (why couldn’t they use a real baby?), the most notable example of this was the too literal yellow stars that appeared around Stewart’s face as she climaxed during her first round of vampire intercourse. Stewart and Pattinson’s on camera chemistry was undeniable at points. And then audiences remember she cheated on him, and all is lost. While the acting all around was pretty lackluster, Stewart stood out by being especially terrible. The redeeming actor of the film was Billy Burke, also known as Charlie Swan, Bella’s father. Perhaps his acting talent was seemingly amplified as he was juxtaposed against actors that were quite frankly either apathetic or melodramatically overacting, but he displayed a naturalness in understanding the depth of his paternal character’s struggle to regain a lost closeness to his somehow changed daughter: a change he can’t quite put his finger on. He was not in the film nearly enough, however, to carry the weight of reestablishing a sense of quality acting. The climax of the film was undeniably the fight scene between the Cullens, their supporters, and the Volturi, where there were
Courtesy of lionsgate
Stewart, Pattinson, and Lautner play their roles for the final time in the hackneyed ‘Breaking Dawn.’ surprising decapitations left and right. While there were certainly moments of chuckles from the audience, most laughed out loud at the film’s cringe-worthy cheesy moments: Renesmee’s gentle hand grazing faces of nonbelievers, sporting a blank stare, and Stewart’s pathetic maternal warmth and too many rough vampire sex jokes, to name a few. As it is the final film of the Twilight saga, it will undoubtedly rake in millions,
but Breaking Dawn Part 1 is a more complete film in many ways. The final montage between the happy Bella and Edward sitting amidst purple flowers in a field is a shared vision of all their romantic moments starting from the first film. While young girls will certainly gush with happiness, anyone looking for a solid film and a good way to spend $10 should go see Anna Karenina. At least you’ll feel good about yourself afterwards. n
Lawrence, Cooper impress in ‘Silver’
2
Box office report title
Courtesy of mirage enterprises
David O. Russell’s heartfelt romance excels with strong performances from the two leads, who engage in an erratic relationship. By Sean Keeley Heights Staff
Silver Linings Playbook, the new film from director David O. Russell and rising stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, seems poised to be 2012’s answer to last year’s The Descendants. Like that film, this one is a regionally inflected, modest little comsilver linings edy-drama, playbook: at once sarDavid O. Russell c a s t i c a n d heartfelt Mirage that touches Enterprises on dark and troubling subject matter, but is ultimately defined by its lighter elements. It’s a tricky balance to pull off, but Silver Linings Playbook does so successfully for most of its run time. To speak in football terms (as the movie’s characters often do), it is only in the fourth quarter that the movie fumbles, with the script succumbing to a tidy, feel-good final act that feels contrived compared to the naturalistic slice of life that preceded it. Yet it’s not a devastating setback. Guided by a strong cast and a sharp director with a keen sense of location and character, Silver Linings Playbook overcomes the predictability and occasional missteps of its script. The movie begins as Pat (Bradley Cooper), a bipolar former teacher from Philadelphia, is released from an eightmonth stint in a mental institution fol-
B+ B-
lowing a violent episode against his wife’s lover. Despite his wife’s infidelity—and the fact that she has a restraining order against him—Pat is determined to win her back. Yet even as he spends his days getting fit and espousing optimistic messages about finding the silver linings in life, Pat also begins to erupt in erratic and violent ways that draw police attention and worry his parents (Robert de Niro and Jacki Weaver). Things begin to look up when Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a similarly troubled young woman who’s still recovering from the sudden death of her husband. The two form a dysfunctional, volatile, but increasingly significant friendship that may blossom into something more. The basic romantic story at the heart of Silver Linings Playbook is rather predictable, but the success of the movie lies in its details and the ways in which the actors reveal surprising new dimensions. Cooper, in particular, is a revelation—typically typecast as a sexy action star, Cooper here proves that he has a much greater range. The role of Pat demands a lot, asking him to play a mentally disabled man—one full of inappropriate mannerisms and prone to sudden fits of rage—in a way that invokes empathy and not alienation. Lawrence has a similar challenge—her character is damaged, aggressive, and sometimes selfish—but her charismatic performance and chemistry with Cooper make her appealing.
These two young stars are ably assisted by veterans like de Niro, who in one tearful speech late in the film reminds us of his acting caliber after years of dubious choices. Apart from the cast, the film’s strongest asset is writer-director Russell. In films like The Fighter, Russell has displayed a talent for documenting lower middle-class American families in distinctive milieus—Lowell, Mass. in The Fighter and Philadelphia here. Russell’s depiction of his setting isn’t glamorous, with a color palette that tilts toward grey and a naturalistic style that uses subtle handheld camera work to capture the everyday life of its characters. Yet it’s a portrait of American life that is also deeply affectionate, suffused with the characters’ love of football and family rituals. Unfortunately, Russell’s script gets a little too sentimental in its final act as he pulls out all the stops to engineer an unambiguously happy ending for everyone involved. Late-film developments stretch the film’s plausibility even as it becomes increasingly predictable. There’s nothing wrong with a happy ending, of course, but this one seems too neatly tied up in comparison with the ambiguous nature of what precedes it. Still, Silver Linings Playbook is three-fourths of a very good movie, and a problematic final section isn’t enough to derail the efforts of the cast and director. n
weekend gross
weeks in release
1. twilight: breaking dawn - part 2
141.3
1
2. skyfall
41.5
2
3. Lincoln
21.0
2
4. wreck-it raplh
18.3
3
5. flight
8.6
3
6. argo
4.1
6
7. taken 2
2.1
7
8. Pitch perfect
1.3
8
9. here comes the boom
1.2
6
10. hotel transylvania
0.9
8
6
8 photos courtesy of allmoviephoto.com
bestsellers of hardcover fiction 1. The racketeer John Grisham 2. poseidon’s arrow Cliver Cussler 3. flight behavior Barbara Kongsolver 4. sins of the mother Danielle Steel 5. casual vacancy J.K. Rowling
6. panther Nelson DeMille 7. gone girl Gillian Flynn 8. bone bed Patricia D. Cornwell 9. winter of the world Ken Follett SOURCE: Publisher’s Weekly
‘Lincoln’ instills patriotism with stark realism and strong acting By Joe Allen Heights Staff
Premiering just days after President Barack Obama’s reelection, Lincoln takes audiences back to the days when freedom wasn’t guaranteed in America and when voting, then considered a privilege and not a right, was of paramount imlincoln: Steven Spielberg portance. The collaboration Dreamworks of director Steven Spielberg, writer Tony Kushner, and actor Daniel Day-Lewis produced this intricate, two-anda-half-hour examination of the final months of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, especially the political maneuvering of January 1865 to get the Thirteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution passed in the House of Representatives, the law that legally abolished slavery. Based on Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the film begins with Lincoln (DayLewis) seeing the carnage of battle in the Civil War in January 1865, and also meeting men, both black and white, fervently reciting his Emancipation Proclamation of two years prior. To follow through with the promise of this Proclamation, Lincoln must have the Thirteenth Amendment passed before a peace negotiation with the South. The law had been
B+ B+
passed by the Senate in April 1864, but the House of Representatives remained divided on the issue. To pass it, Lincoln had to use his political cunning, along with outside help, to sway over a dozen voters. As Lincoln navigates these treacherous political waters, Lincoln’s deep bench of acting talent is illuminated. Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn), a friend of Lincoln’s, is one of the first to turn his back on him. Tommy Lee Jones proves unsurprisingly brilliant in his portrayal of Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical Republican who initially looked down on Lincoln’s amendment for not saying that all men are equal, outside of a legal sense. Many other familiar faces abound in this historically epic cast, most notably Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln’s oldest son, Robert Todd. While all the actors play their parts well, Day-Lewis becomes Lincoln. One of the chief draws of this film is the curious thought of “What was Lincoln really like?” Day-Lewis, a known method actor, makes the audience forget that he isn’t, indeed, Lincoln, after the novelty of seeing a famous figure on the big screen wears off. With a quiet, assured voice and a slow, pained walk, Day-Lewis wows by focusing on the details. This is not his loud, jaw-dropping performance in There Will Be Blood, but it is just as commanding, as Day-
Lewis recreates one of our nation’s heroes with grace, a seemingly impossible task that seems to come easy to this veteran actor. The other ultra-famous player behind this film, Spielberg, shows an attention to detail that always enhances his historical movies. From the dresses of Mrs. Lincoln, to the set of the Oval Office, to the brutal Civil War battle that opens the film, Spielberg concerns himself greatly with historical authenticity, making the audience believe they are actually running across Washington, D.C. in the 19th century. Spielberg, who has been researching this project since 1999, and Kushner, smartly set the film in a small yet historically important time frame. Focusing on just one issue of Lincoln’s presidency, the film’s 150 minutes still fly by. Much of the film involves debating, and Spielberg smartly delivers bits of Lincoln’s backstory as the president himself tells anecdotes to drive his points home. Through Lincoln’s conversations and reflections, audiences get a strong sense of his outstanding character. Lincoln’s one glaring flaw, however, is that most viewers already knows this. Lincoln is famous for being an anti-slavery, politically savvy, all-around good guy. The movie paints this obvious fact with care and a passionate attention to detail, but it remains an obvious fact nonetheless. By
movie’s end, audiences don’t know more significant information about Lincoln. At times, as Lincoln gives a room-silencing speech or as he carries his sleeping son to bed, Lincoln feels like a (spectacular) history review. The lack of discovery in Lincoln lessens it, especially when compared with other historical dramas. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List shocked with its blunt, truthful depiction of the horrors of the Holocaust. To use a less extreme example, The King’s Speech recently shed light on the heroism of stuttering King George VI.
Lincoln has no new revelations about its titular character or the United States to make, which keeps it from greatness. That isn’t to say that Lincoln is inconsequential. Almost 150 years after Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, in an age when publications can run articles titled “Top 10 Lies of the Presidential Debate,” Lincoln reminds America of what our country is capable of at its best, and of what a true leader is. For this reason, Americans should line up to see Lincoln. n
Courtesy of dreamworks productions
Daniel Day-Lewis gives a stellar performance as iconic American president Abraham Lincoln.