CINEMAREVIEW PRISONERS
By ghoulish coincidence, this abduction thriller has arrived at the same time as the reopening of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from a resort in Portugal in 2007. The location of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s movie could not be more different – the icy burbs of middle America with winter closing in – but the elemental horror of stolen children is as chilling in its impact and in the outraged emotional response it engenders. A couple of neighbourhood
families are celebrating a typical Thanksgiving together when their two small daughters go missing. Alex (Paul Dano), a young man with the IQ of a ten-year old, is the obvious suspect, having fled the police after being spotted at the location of the crime. Keller (Hugh Jackman), the father of one of the girls, cannot accept it when Alex is discharged from custody and, as in the Wild West, he takes matters into his own hands. Working on the case is Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), a tattooed, jaded cop with a nervous tic
whose approach is as much intuitive as forensic. It is the clash in temperaments of the two men that drives the story while writer Aaron Guzikowski’s screenplay gives nothing away – in fact it sometimes is at great pains to muddy the water. There remained a nagging illogicality for me, but the tension is sustained throughout and the plausibility never questioned thanks to the edgy realism of every character. The shocking realisation that we are all prisoners of our own nature belatedly comes to Keller, whose actions are meant
to be at least partially forgiven after what he’d witnessed Alex doing to his dog (which, for mine, is a cheap trick on Villeneuve’s part). Jackman is great as the alpha male hunter with a short fuse, and Gyllenhaal, not too far from his dogged role in Zodiac, combines his usual doe-eyed softness with unwavering resolve. If an occasional plot point is farfetched, it is not enough to detract from a tightly wrung, abrasive whodunit. ~ John Campbell
Notting Hill to the doted-on Love Actually, his golden touch has never abandoned him. Until now. Minus the irreplaceable Hugh Grant,
and apparently directing from a pulpit, he has come flopping to earth like a brick of blancmange. As is his wont, Curtis employs the protagonist, Tim (Domnhall Gleeson), as the wise narrator who is about to share with you life’s most important lesson. A gangly ranga, Tim is a London lawyer from a privileged upbringing in an eccentric household. At 21, his Dad (Bill Nighy) informs him that the males in the family have the unique ability to time-travel (but only to moments in their personal lives – not the distant past), and that the gift can be used to correct behavioural clangers. The potential for merriment and wit might have been enough to trump the flaky premise, but Curtis’s considerable skills could not make the most of it. For a start, there are too many tedious scenes of Tim’s re-enacting his own history, as well as a complete absence of any underpinning concern that something interesting was about to unfold. Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), the girl of his dreams, who unaccountably falls for him straightaway, and very little else happens for a long time as they court and proceed to wallow in married bliss. The camera’s rose-coloured lens and the script’s preachiness are finally too much to bear as Curtis leads us by the hand, by the nose, by the genre’s
ever-reliable and calculatedly timed piano chords to a soapy ending that is accompanied by (surprise!) Nick Cave’s done-todeath Into My Arms. McAdams
ABOUT TIME In the field of mainstream romcoms, no current practitioner can hold a candle to Richard Curtis. From Four Weddings And A Funeral to
TUESDAY
22 OCT to
WEDNESDAY
30 OCT
BYRON BAY 21-27 NOV
NOW SHOWING
OPENS THURSDAY
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (M) (No free tix) Thu 24-Wed 30: 11:30am, 4:10, 8:45pm ABOUT TIME (M) (No free tix) Tue 22, Wed 23: 1:00, 2:30, 7:00 Thu 24-Sun 27, Tue 29, Wed 30: 9:45am, 3:45, 6:15pm Mon 28: 3:45, 6:15pm TIM WINTON’S THE TURNING (MA15+) (No free tix) Tickets: $19.00 Movie Club Members / $23.00 Non-members. Tue 22, Wed 23: 8:15pm Thu 24-Wed 30: 12:15, 6:00pm PRISONERS (MA15+) (No free tix) Tue 22, Wed 23: 10:00, 3:30, 6:30 Thu 24-Wed 30: 12:00, 3:00, 8:40pm Enjoy our licensed bar
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COMING SOON! OPENS NOV 21
3D: GRAVITY (M) (No free tix) Tue 22, Wed 23: 1:45, 6:15pm Thu 24-Wed 30: 6.50pm 2D: GRAVITY (M) (No free tix) Tue 22, Wed 23: 11:50am Thu 24-Wed 30: 2.15, 9.25pm DIANA (M) Tue 22, Wed 23: 10:00, 12:15, 9:30pm Thu 24-Sun 27, Tue 29, Wed 30: 9:15am RUSH (MA15+) Tue 22, Wed 23: 3:40, 9:30pm Thu 24-Sun 27, Tue 29, Wed 30: 9:30am BLUE JASMINE (M) Last Days! Tue 22, Wed 23: 5:00pm All sessions are correct at the time of publication. Current session times at: www.palacecinemas.com.au Gift cards are the perfect gift
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22 October 22, 2013 The Byron Shire Echo
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is asked to do no more than be nice and smile her lovely smile; Gleeson, alas, is not Grant; the jokes are stale; and with no blip on the horizon except
for one prompted by a storm in a teacup involving a minor car accident, the result is a disappointing yawn. ~ John Campbell
THE ROCKET
Rated M
Saturday 26 th Oct THE DRILL HALL â&#x20AC;&#x153;... Magnificent...â&#x20AC;? QN %JOOFS t QN 'JMN 'JMN 5JDLFUT DPOD #PPLJOHT .VMMVNCJNCZ #PPLTIPQ PS USBWFMMJOHnJDLT!HNBJM DPN USBWFMMJOH GMJDLT DPN
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