Fidelity. That cinema feeds off itself in perpetuating the image of the cool bad dude is partly the point – check out the fabulous scene here where Dillinger, at the movies, identifies with Clark Gable’s suave, bold crook in Manhattan Melodrama. Michael Mann’s latest film resembles in many ways his more tautly written Public Enemies and compelling Collateral – If you weren’t aware of the the action is largely nocturnal fate of John Dillinger before and the viewer is asked seeing this then you just to barrack for the villain haven’t been paying attention. (admit it, you loved it when Warren Oates and other outlaw Tom Cruise blasted those specialists had fallen under homey hoods) – something a hail of G-men’s bullets in easily complied with when numerous accounts of the an actor as attractive and celebrity gangster’s career long accomplished as Depp is in the before everybody’s favourite, role. The period is beautifully dapper Johnny Depp with a recreated – architecture, pencil-line moustache, came wardrobe, automobiles, music along to rob banks and plug (would a white crim from the coppers full of lead. Those backwoods of Indiana have with better memories might listened to Billy Holliday?) – but even recall that the anti-hero’s ambience is superficial when demise took place outside social context goes missing. Chicago’s Biograph Picture America is in the midst of the Theatre, courtesy of John Great Depression, but you Cusack pointing it out in High don’t get a sense of that. Nor
transplanted organs and body tissue in the dogged fight to defeat the disease. Now eleven, Anna has had enough of the needles and hospitalisations and is unwilling to undergo the operation that will relieve her of one of her kidneys. However, as a minor, she has little say in the decision, so she hires a billboard lawyer and charges him with arguing a case for the emancipation of her body from her mother’s control. It could only happen in California, huh? Nonetheless, the ethics of modern medical practice and the degree to which courts might rule on moral questions (the euthanasia debate is not unrelated to the matter at hand) are provocative subjects, but they are ones which co-writer/director Nick Cassavetes treats as side issues, preferring instead to aim at the easier emotional targets of the family’s suffering and the schism caused by Anna’s action. The movie’s PR talk was all about Cameron Diaz’s jump from her rom/ com comfort zone into a part as harrowing as that of the girls’ mother. She is unmadeup and dressed down (in ug boots, even) and, because the audience’s sympathy is with My Sister’s Keeper Anna, she must also try to The thing about death is that elicit compassion for a woman it doesn’t compromise, and whose obsessive maternal when it stalks our nearest and instincts have blinded her to dearest we have no fall-back to the cruelty she has shown a uniformly adhered to way of her youngest child – a tough coping with it. Teenaged Kate call, but Diaz manages to save has been suffering most of her her character from too harsh life from what will inevitably be a judgment. Alec Baldwin terminal cancer. Her parents, as the lawyer does his usual on first being informed of her conniving cuddly bear thing, condition, had sister Anna but it is Sofia Vassilieva and artificially conceived so that Abigail Breslin, a remarkably she might provide Kate with perceptive young actress, who shine as the siblings – ‘how did LATEST IN HI-TECH FULLY AIR-CONDITIONED MBUFTU!JO!EJHJUBM!TVSSPVOE!TPVOE you know what to do?’ Anna MOVIE PRESENTATION EVERY WED ALL SEATS Kerr & Fox Streets asks when Kate whispers that ALLINA AIR CrADMINISTRATION: ALL SESSIONS $8 ONLY Ph. 6686 9600 ADMISSION PRICES she and her boyfriend have MOVIELINE: CINEMAS Adults $11 Ph. 6686 9091 WEBSITES: been snogging. The story is ★ Students/Conc. $9 ballina.info/cinema THURS 6TH TO WED 12TH AUGUST Children $8 yourmovies.com.au told in non-chronological ★ EVERY WEDNESDAY ALL SEATS ALL SESSIONS $8 ONLY ★ ATM NOW AVAILABLE ★ flashbacks and, if the slo-mo at the beach did go for longer than was absolutely necessary and the forlorn music does get THURS 6 TO WED 12 THURS 6 TO WED 12 ★11.45am ★3.40pm a tad heavy handed (including THURS 6 TO WED 12 ★10.20am ★12.50pm ★6.45pm ★9.25pm ★10.00am ★1.55pm ★4.45pm ★9.10pm Girls Just Wanna Have Fun KATHERINE HEIGL ★5.50pm ★7.40pm GERARD BUTLER NB: NO 10.20 SESSION SAT,SUN JOHNNY DEPP turned into a dirge), it’s a bit rich to criticise a work for its sentimentality while tears are streaming down your face – so I won’t. Heartrending SATURDAY 8TH THURS 6 TO WED 12 & SUNDAY 9TH and sustained by superb THURS 6 TO WED 12 ★12.05pm ★3.20pm ★10.30am ★10.05am ★2.45pm ★8.55pm performances. CAMERON DIAZ ★7.15pm FINAL 7 DAYS ALL TICKETS $8 ~ John Campbell
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Noodle This is a small charmer of an Israeli film, directed and cowritten by Ayelet Menahemi. Noodle is about two sisters left with a small Chinese boy after their cleaning lady steps out for half an hour and inexplicably doesn’t return. They can’t speak Chinese so they dub the boy ‘Noodle’ because that is what he consents to eat. The way the story evolves is as surprising as the way it begins, when the character Mira, who plays an air hostess, suddenly finds
herself responsible for a little boy with whom she cannot communicate. As the little boy gradually becomes a precious part of her family, little does Mira realise the impact the child will have on her life. It has unexpected depths, this film, and even manages, quite unobtrusively to draw attention to the plight of illegal guest workers, refugees, in Israel. It’s an enjoyable feel-good story that builds up slowly but delivers plenty of emotional reward. ~ Lounge
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is Mann overly concerned with keeping an iron grip on his narrative, there being moments when time, place and characters are less than clearly defined. I was mixed up a couple of times, but plot is not of paramount importance in a genre as stylised as this. Billy Crudup’s penchant for staginess works a treat in his portrayal of the odious J. Edgar Hoover, but Christian Bale’s arch performance as Purves, the relentless pursuer of Dillinger, is paper thin when compared with Depp’s masterly effort. Marion Cotillard is a dream as Billie, Dillinger’s moll, but because they do not spend a lot of time together their relationship never takes on the all-consuming passion of Bonny And Clyde – only when Dillinger sees her being taken away by the FBI does their love become apparent. Visually sumptuous (shot on HD digital, it’s a poke in the eye to traditionalists who valiantly assert the superiority of film), with gunfights that are not too tedious, you’ve seen it all before, but never with as much bling – or the mighty Johnny Depp. ~ John Campbell
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