Film

I scream

Silent House

While it’s a bit of a relief to see a horror film not using the “found footage” gimmick, Silent House is ruined by a couple of lousy supporting performances and a stupid payoff after a decent start. There’s a pretty good idea at play here: Keep a camera on a girl who is being stalked by “something” in a remote house that is difficult to escape. Directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, who gave us the effective shark thriller Open Water, do a nice job of making the movie look like one long, continuous shot. It isn’t, but there are some impressive long stretches and clever edits to make it appear as such. Silent House is definitely an impressive technical achievement in shooting for that “real time” feel. It just needed a better script and a couple of men who can act. Elizabeth Olsen, so good in last year’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, is a real talent. As Sarah, the young woman who just can’t seem to escape her damned house, she does a supreme job at playing scared out of her mind. One gets the sense that this particular gig must’ve been quite taxing on her psyche. Kentis and Lau probably did a good job of actually scaring her senseless while filming. Olsen has an arsenal of sounds that contribute well to the film’s claustrophobic feel. When she tries to harness and muffle her screams, it really is quite unsettling. She also lets out some pretty decent full-throated ones. Based on this, I would give her the distinction of Muffled and Suffocated Scream Queen.

The film has a few other players. Adam Trese is a real stiff as John, Sarah’s peculiar and particular dad. His line readings are flat, making it hard to invest in his character. Eric Sheffer Stevens is a little better as Sarah’s Uncle Peter, but he’s ultimately dead weight as well. Julia Taylor Ross is just a little too obvious as Sophia, a child friend of Sarah’s who mysteriously drops by to hang out. The film starts with an impressive overby head shot of Sarah as she sits by a lake. TheBob Grimm shot comes down to meet Sarah as she walks bgrimm@ up and into the house, and it’s a nice newsreview.com sequence. Cinematographer Igor Martinovic, whose resume includes a lot of documentaries, works overtime to make the real-time gim2 mick work. It must be said that he is unable to keep his subjects in focus all of the time when they are in motion. It’s understandable given the task at hand, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy on the eyes. This film is a remake of Uruguay’s The Silent House, a movie allegedly shot in one take for an estimated $6,000. I’ve seen portions of the original, and there’s no argument that Kentis and Lau have made a betterlooking film, and probably made a wise choice to make the film appear like one take rather than actually shooting it in one take. A90-minute continuous shot, while possible, would be a total bitch to shoot. As I said before, the film is undone by a payoff that tries too hard to be “deep” and provide a big twist. Given the technical work at play, and the effective Olsen performance, the cinematographer and actress were deserving of something a little more distinct and honest. The payoff throws everything askew, makes little to no sense, and is easily guessed. By the time credits rolled at the screening I attended, people yelled at the screen, using many expletives and variations on “That sucked!” While I don’t think Silent House sucks, I felt their frustration. Had the movie come up with a better final 15, it could’ve been something to remember. As it is, it’s just a semi-impressive stunt that ultimately wastes a solid central performance. Ω

Two dudes and an Olsen sister go in search of ... a better ending!

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POOR

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FAIR

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GOOD

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VERY GOOD

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EXCELLENT 1Act of Valor Even if the real members of the military cast in this film could act—and believe me, they can’t—the story here is a sputtering dud and ineptly directed. Navy SEALS go on a couple of missions involving kidnap victims, drug lords and terrorists, and the film lacks a sense of adventure or purpose. The film’s big draw is that real military types are cast in major roles. Many of them look the part, but they have flat line deliveries. Still, that would be forgivable had directors Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh possessed the abilities to put together a decent action scene and gotten themselves a decent plot. This is a mess of a movie, and it made a ton of money in its first weekend. Shows you what I know.

4The Artist An homage to silent films that’s actually a silent film, this is a funny, touching and innovative piece of work with a fun performance from Jean Dujardin. He plays a silent movie star at the dawning of the sound age, much like Charlie Chaplin, who either must make the leap to sound or slip away. Berenice Bejo plays Peppy Miller, a star on the rise. After sharing a scene in a film, their two careers go in separate directions. They’re wonderfully expressive performers, which suits Michel Hazanavicius’s film perfectly. One of last year’s biggest surprises, and they’ll be watching this one a hundred years from now.

2Friends with Kids A large swath of the cast of Bridesmaids shows up for this romantic comedy that seems to be going an unconventional route for most of its running time. Too bad it falls apart in the last reel, cops out, and wraps up with some sort of weird Eyes Wide Shutending. Written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt, who also stars, the cast is great and the movie works on a moderate level until the implosion. Adam Scott and Westfeldt star as two best friends living in Manhattan who decide to have a kid together while still dating other people. They are a likeable pair of actors, as are costars Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd, Edward Burns and Megan Fox. Westfeldt writes good dialogue and, let’s face it, Adam Scott is The Man, especially when he’s allowed to be a little mean. It’s a shame they couldn’t come up with something better than the torpedo ending.

3John Carter Every piece of marketing for this movie made it look like total garbage. While it’s no amazing cinematic feat, it does manage to be enjoyable. Taylor Kitsch plays the title character, and he’s taking a critical shellacking for his central performance. I happen to think his performance is the best thing in the film. Based on novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs way back when, this science fiction fantasy on Mars is a bit overblown in spots, and totally fun in others. I loved when John Carter, a Civil War soldier teleported to Mars, first discovered his ability to jump on the planet. And Willem Dafoe provides his voice to the animated, four-armed Tars, a decent special effect. Casting around Kitsch is awful (Mark Strong and Dominic West as villains … AGAIN), and it feels a bit long. But, like Waterworldbefore it, it’s much better than some critics will lead you to believe.

2Project X The found-footage gimmick is applied to teen party comedies with mixed but mostly lousy results. The script for this movie is no better than one of the American Piedirect-to-video sequels. While a bunch of teens getting together and throwing a wild party has been funny in the past, and will most assuredly be funny in the future, it’s not funny here thanks to a mostly unmemorable cast. I was a little less annoyed by a person continuing to film while supposedly funny things are happening as opposed to holding onto the camera while being attacked by monsters and maniacs as in past “found footage” films. But very few of the gags work, and this is all stuff we’ve seen done better before. It’s making a ton of money, and a sequel is already in the works. The found-footage thing is here to stay. Damn it.

3Safe House Ryan Reynolds plays Matt Weston, a CIA operative who has spent a year sitting in a safe house bouncing a ball against a wall and listening to tunes. He longs for the big assignment in the field, but the organization seems content to keep him out of the way and performing menial tasks. Things change mightily when Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) is brought to his house for some questioning and good old healthy waterboarding. Frost is a former agent gone rogue, selling secrets to enemy countries and making a decent living off of it. He’s also a dangerous, murderous son of a bitch. Throw into the mix that he’s also virtuous, and you have your typically complicated Washington character. Reynolds and Washington complement each other well in this action thriller that constitutes the rare Reynolds film that is good.

4A Separation An Iranian couple is forced to separate when the wife, Simin (Leila Hatami), wants to live abroad, while the husband, Nader (Peyman Moadi), needs to stay home and take care of his ailing father. The situation causes many difficulties, especially when a hired housekeeper (Sareh Bayat) asked to care for the father starts behaving strangely. Writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s film, which recently won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is a strong portrayal of family strife and illness. Moadi is especially good as a man who finds himself in all sorts of trouble for one short instance of overreaction, which also gives us an interesting look at the Iranian criminal justice system. It’s an absorbing movie, and it deserved its Oscar.

2This Means War Likeable performers can’t save this silly film from running out of steam by the time credits roll. Reese Witherspoon plays Lauren, a woman with a job I can’t really explain—she’s some kind of product quality tester—who winds up dating not one but two CIA operatives (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy), who are also best friends. The two men find themselves in competition for Lauren’s hand, and they do all sorts of unethical things to win it. All three are good and funny here, but director McG can’t make the premise work for the entire running time, and the film just runs out of energy. McG, who made the weak Terminator Salvation, is quite the messy director. Full blame goes to him for this film’s failures, because the actors almost pull it off.

3Wanderlust Paul Rudd plays George, a politely frustrated Wall Street worker living in a microscopic Manhattan apartment with his bad documentarian wife, Linda (a funny Jennifer Aniston, Rudd’s costar in The Object of My Affectionand Friends). When George loses his job and Linda’s penguin cancer documentary is passed over by HBO, they wind up at a free sex commune presided over by a strange Christ-like figure (Justin Theroux). It’s directed and cowritten by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models), and that’s a good thing, because Rudd has had some of his best screen moments under Wain’s direction. There are a few scenes here that are among Rudd’s best, including a mirror moment when he practices sex talk that’s an instant classic. Not Wain’s best, but Rudd and company, including many members of The State, make it memorably funny.

Reno

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