Movie Review - Suffragette

Suffragette (2015)

Starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, and Meryl Streep

Directed by Sarah Gavron

There are certain movies that seem made purely to garner awards attention.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes the "importance" of a piece can too highly overshadow a film's cinematic values and that's unfortunately the case with Suffragette, a film that never succeeded in bringing me into its story.  While it certainly tells an important tale as it deals with the British suffrage movement in the late 1910s, Suffragette suffers from relying too heavily on contrived predicaments in order to emphasize the struggles facing women a century ago.  While the heavy-handed plot lines our characters face may very well be based in reality and truth, when placed into a film setting, they can't help but feel piled on in order to achieve a desired emotional impact.

Carey Mulligan is, as always, doing excellent work as Maud Watts, a married laundry worker and mom of one who stumbles onto the suffragette movement one afternoon when she spots co-worker Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) tossing rocks into a store window in an attempt to have civil disobedience bring awareness to their cause.  However, as great as Mulligan is at taking us on her character's journey that begins with nonchalance towards the movement and ends with staunch advocacy on behalf of equality for voting rights, it is Maud who is inherently the film's problem.  A fictionalized character, screenwriter Abi Morgan piles heartbreak after heartbreak onto this women which, while once again may have truly happened to some in the 1910s, feels in a cinematic setting as an easy way to emotionally tug at audiences' heartstrings rather than resonate as realistic.

Morgan's script isn't helped by Sarah Gavron's pedestrian direction which, given the subject matter, fails to rouse the audience to join the cause in any way.  Weighed down in grays and browns with production design that always seems as if we're on a set rather than in a natural setting, Suffragette keeps the viewer at a distance rather than involving them in the plot despite its obvious intentions to do just the opposite.  While Gavron consistently gets good performances from key cast members -- including a nice turn from a subdued Helena Bonham Carter as a leader in the suffragette movement -- they're not enough to save this one from being a disappointment.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Before I Go to Sleep

Before I Go to Sleep (2014)

Starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Anne-Marie Duff

Directed by Rowan Joffe

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Considering the strength of the actors involved, Before I Go to Sleep had the potential of being a solid thriller.  Unfortunately, the combined talents of Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Anne-Marie Duff (all of whom I've certainly liked in things in the past) can't save a script that keeps hitting the same beats over and over again making this 90-minute flick a bit of a snooze.

Kidman plays Christine, a forty year-old woman who wakes up every morning unaware of who she is and where she's been for the last decade.  Next to her every single morning is Ben (Firth), her husband of fourteen years who strives to make the best of his wife's unfortunate situation which came about after a horrible accident caused trauma to her head.  Also trying to help Christine is Dr. Nasch (Strong) who gives Christine a camera to record her thoughts and memories throughout her day in an attempt to jog her mind the next morning.  However, Dr. Nasch seems to believe that Ben is not being entirely forthcoming with Christine and he may be hiding some dark secret from her.  Christine, on the other hand, begins to question whether Dr. Nasch is someone she can even trust.  This constant uncertainty plagues Christine and she can't help but question if she is truly safe in her own home.

I'll give Before I Go to Sleep credit in that admittedly I didn't peg the ending in director/screenwriter Rowan Joffe's flick.  I probably should have -- it's not like it was incredibly off-the-wall or unfathomable -- but I did wind up a tiny bit surprised at the end.  Unfortunately, the film's inherent flaw is that when Christine loses her memory and wakes up the next morning, we in the audience are constantly bombarded with her need to relearn everything again.  We seemingly witness the same scenes over and over and over again with the tiniest minutiae of changes.  While I understand this is a way for Joffe to allow us to connect with the film's dazed protagonist, it just wears out its welcome very quickly and it bogs down the film to an almost unwatchable point halfway through.

Credit certainly goes to the quartet of actors listed above who all make the most of what they've been given here.  Firth and Kidman in particular more than carry the film and strive to elevate it above the level of a television movie.  I'm not quite sure they achieve that goal, but their attempts are admirable.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Closed Circuit

Closed Circuit (2013)

Starring Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Ciarán Hinds, Julia Stiles, Anne-Marie Duff, Denis Moschitto, Hasancan Cifci, and Jim Broadbent

Directed by John Crowley

I keep waiting for the movie that's going to provide the breakout role for Rebecca Hall.  Not only is she incredibly attractive (with a British accent to boot), but she exudes an intelligence and a down-to-earth demeanor that I find appealing.  Closed Circuit certainly didn't provide the breakout, but it's a perfectly acceptable political thriller that is elevated because of the respectable cast.

The film opens with a bombing in a open-air market in central London.  The police arrest Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto), a man who seemingly has ties to Middle East terrorist organizations.  When the barrister set to represent Erdogan in the public hearing commits suicide, up-and-comer Martin Rose (Eric Bana) is plucked to replace him.  However, prior to the public hearing, a private hearing needs to be held.  With many aspects of the bombing having the ability to compromise MI-5's terrorism investigations, the government appoints another lawyer to Erdogan's defense, Claudia Simmons-Howe (Hall), to look over all of the government's secret information relating to the attack and determine what, if anything, needs to be made public record in order to help her accused client.  While Martin and Claudia are supposed to not have contact with each other -- as Claudia's private information may affect Martin's public defense -- the two used to have a romantic relationship and find it difficult to cut ties.  Not only that, but as both Claudia and Martin dig into the Erdogan case, they realize that things may not be as cut and dry as MI-5 hoped it would be.

Closed Circuit is a solidly made thriller that moves along at just the right pace.  However, I couldn't help but think this belonged on the BBC rather than in a movie theater.  There's nothing about it that screams "THEATRICS," but that doesn't by any means signify it's not of a high quality.  Seeing as how this is out of theaters and you'd just be watching it at home anyway, it's absolutely worth watching should political thrillers be your cup of tea.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy (2010)

Starring Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Anne-Marie Duff

Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood

There's a reason I've held off on announcing the 2010 RyMickey Awards and it's because I want to give myself time to see these little movies like Nowhere Boy that I might not have had an opportunity to see last year.  [This film, for example, played for one week at the local cineplex and then vanished.]  What a nice pleasant surprise this biographical take of Beatles star John Lennon's late teen years is.

Aaron Johnson, perhaps best known up until this point as starring in the title role in 2010's Kick Ass, takes on the iconic John Lennon in this flick.  Of course, he's playing John Lennon as a seventeen year-old which was quite a ways before he and his mates made it big as perhaps the most popular music group of all time.  Here we find John living with his rather stern aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) who, while only wanting what's best for her nephew, ends up stifling him creating a rather rambunctious youth.  John always wondered what happened to his mother and one day he discovers that she lives within walking distance from his house.  Finding the courage to face the mother who abandoned him as a youngster, John meets the rather free-spirited Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) for the first time in over a decade and soon begins to form a bond with her, much to the chagrin of her sister Mimi.

Anyone who has read this blog knows that the "biopic" is one of my least favorite genres, but Nowhere Boy succeeds where others have failed in that it focuses solely on five years of John Lennon's life.  We never even hear a Beatles song here.  Instead, this is a look at part of what shaped Lennon into the man he would become.  This brief glimpse into a short portion of his life is intriguing and shows fans something they may not have known about the singing superstar.

It also helps immensely that the film is carried by three really stellar performances.  Aaron Johnson is pretty great as Lennon, showcasing both emotional vulnerability and the necessary rock star swagger needed to be an aspiring teen idol.  Kristin Scott Thomas takes what could have been a stereotypical curmudgeonly role and turns it into something rather endearing.  Despite her icy demeanor, it's obvious that she cares for young John and wants to nurture him the best she can.

But perhaps the best role belongs to Anne-Marie Duff, an actress who is new to me, but delivers one heckuva performance as John's long lost mom, Julia.  She knows that John is in good hands with Mimi and she knows she herself wasn't quite fit to raise John a decade ago.  Having two daughters now and seemingly having settled down, John's re-emergence in her life seems to cause her to revert back to the crazier days of her youth which is obviously a detriment to her current family situation.  There's a twinkle in Julia's eyes whenever she's around John, but behind the happiness that Duff presents is a sorrow for having to be the "adult" that she is forced to be today.  This struggle is pivotal to the flick and Duff excels in every scene.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-