THETREND REVIEWS
Cinema This Means War
WORDS marisa cutillas
»»Genre
Comedy/Romance
»»Director
Martha Marcy May Marlene
If you’ve seen Legally Blonde or Sweet Home McG (Terminator Alabama then you may agree that actress Salvation) Reese Witherspoon is every inch the comic » » Actors Reese genius that Doris Day was in her day; few Witherspoon, others are capable of comedic roles while Chris Pine, Rebel looking enviably gorgeous. In This Means Wolson War, she plays the object of desire of two friends who also happen to be CIA agents. As the competition heats up by the second and the friends begin to rely on their finely honed CIA strategies to eliminate each other from the race to win her heart, the foundations of their friendship begin to shake, yet frankly, they don’t give a damn!
You may have heard of Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen, the twins who began their careers as babies, starring in the hit 1980s TV series, Full House. These days, they’re all grown up and pursuing careers in fashion design, meanwhile their little sister, Elizabeth Olsen, aged 23, is taking up where they left off, lighting up the big screen in interesting roles such as that of Martha, the character she plays in the hit psychological thriller of the season, Martha Marcy May Marlene. Martha is a young woman who is extremely fragile after having escaped from a sect and its cunning leader (played by John Hawkes). She turns to her sister and brother-in-law for help, but refuses to let them know the real reason for her disappearance. Suddenly, memory flashes begin making Martha increasingly paranoid, fearing that members of her former sect will come after her. As she struggles against mental illness, the line between reality and illusion begins to blur.
»»Genre Thriller »»Director
James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) »»Actors John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve
»»Genre Drama/Thriller »»Director Sean Durkin (Doris) »»Actors Elizabeth Olsen,
Christopher Abbott, Hugh Dancy
Elizabeth Olsen: Rising to Thespian Challenges Elizabeth Olsen is known as one of Hollywood’s new ‘it’ girls, famed for starting trends, gracing magazine covers and modelling the wares of top international fashion designers. But her performance in Martha Marcy May Marelen proves that she is much less concerned about dazzling the paparazzi on the red carpet than she is about proving herself as a capable actress. When asked how she coped with playing Martha, she told us: “I have always been fascinated with the source of mental illness. Knowing how someone with paranoid schizophrenia confronts daily life is very interesting to me. So I tried to really get in her skin and react to her surroundings the way someone with her condition would. I think that you can’t understand how isolating it can be to doubt the reality of the world you’re living in. I think that to a great extent, I came to understand Martha as a person and that gave me the confidence I needed to play her.”
The Raven
The Raven will undoubtedly be one of the most watched films of the season, owing in no small part to the big fan base still enjoyed by one of the most terror-inducing authors of all time: Edgar Allan Poe. Director James McTeigue (who proved more than capable of fusing the thriller and romance genres in V for Vendetta), takes us to 19th century Baltimore, where Edgar Allan Poe (played by prolific actor John Cusack) uses his powers of deduction to help a young detective find a killer who is using Poe’s works to inspire a series of brutal assassinations.
One for the Money »»Genre
Comedy/ Romance
»»Director
Julie Ann Robinson
»»Actors
Katherine Heigl, Jason O’Mara
these days and while we doing nothing but rom coms Katherine Heigl seems to be to admit that her films ten has challenging flicks, we would like to see her in more py vibe. In One for the good time and a positive, hap are usually a guarantee of a has just got ten divorced who an , a 30-year-old wom Money she plays Stephanie Plum s a job at her cousin’s rather desperate, she accept down a former and lost her job. Penniless and king trac lves first assignment invo bail-bond business, where her e been her first love der – who also happens to hav policeman on the run for mur hunter, she sets out to nty bou h the help of a skilled when they were teenagers. Wit once broke her heart. ser ve revenge on the man who
14 / ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MARCH 2012
153CiE.indd 14
2/21/12 11:43 AM