Green Book

Green Book (2018)

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, and Linda Cardellini

Directed by Peter Farrelly

Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, and Peter Farrelly

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Captain Fantastic

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Starring Viggo Mortenson, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn, Ann Dowd, and Frank Langella

Directed by Matt Ross

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

The inhabitants of Captain Fantastic are people with whom I would never ever want to spend any time in real life.  Self-professed hippie Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) has taken his six kids out of the "normalcy" of society to live on their own private family commune in the middle of the Washington wilderness where they kill their own food, learn survival skills, live out of an old school bus, and learn about left-wing philosophies.  Leslie, the matriarch of the Cash family, was recently hospitalized for bipolar disorder and at the end of the film's first act, Ben learns that his wife has committed suicide.  With the kids devastated, Ben decides to put his children on the bus and travel to his wife's parents' home where he will try and convince them to acquiesce to his wife's wishes and cremate her rather than having a church ceremony and subsequent burial.

The bus journey makes up the bulk of Captain Fantastic and while it certainly showcases the bond Ben has with his six children, it does little to make me feel that what Ben is doing is good parenting.  While I recognize that my personal opinion is neither here nor there (Lord knows as a conservative-leaning movie-lover, I'd have to hate half of what Hollywood dishes out), the film wants the audience to believe that what Ben is doing with his wilderness living is the best thing for his kids despite the fact that the film shows us several times that it's not.  The film is inherently set up for us to root for the life of Ben and the kids to remain their current status quo, but we in the audience know that's not what's best for them and by Ben being so stubborn in his ways, I found myself losing interest about halfway through.  Granted, by the conclusion of writer-director Matt Ross's film, Ben eventually realizes that he needs to adjust his kids to some semblance of normalcy in order for them to survive in the real world, but it's a bit too little too late.

Still, despite this, Captain Fantastic is moderately engaging thanks to Viggo Mortensen at its core as the genuinely caring father whose disdain for modern life has transferred fully onto his children.  As for those kids, most of them do nice work helping Mortensen to carry the piece especially young Shree Crooks as the headstrong and inquisitive youngest daughter Zaja.  Obviously your mileage may vary, but something about the motivations of the characters made it difficult for me to buy into this film despite the good performances.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Two Faces of January

The Two Faces of January (2014)

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, and Oscar Isaac

Directed by Hossein Amini

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

Quite frankly, I had forgotten that I watched The Two Faces of January about two hours after I watched it.  Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel (the writer who brought us Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley), screenwriter and first-time director Hossein Amini fails to garner any modicum of excitement or thrills -- unfortunate seeing as how this is supposed to be a film that seemingly bases its success on whether suspense is generated.

Taking place in 1960s Greece, the film opens with married couple Chester and Colette MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst) taking a lovely vacation where they meet young tour guide Rydal (Oscar Isaac). Rydal is set up as a petty crook - milking the MacFarlands and other tourists of their money -- and seemingly the film's "bad guy," however, as we soon discover, it's Chester who holds the film's biggest secrets.  After a lovely day with his wife and Rydal, Chester is greeted at his hotel room by a private investigator who states that his clients have had money stolen from them by shady investment practices employed by Rydel.  This sends the MacFarlands on the run with Rydel assisting them through the streets of Greece and Crete as Chester grows increasingly more wary of anyone who tries to assist him.

The Greek setting is certainly lovely to look upon, but the film lacks the necessary tension for a flick like this to succeed.  While Oscar Isaac fares best as the rather innocent Rydal caught up in Chester's foul play, Mortensen and Dunst are almost blank slates, unable to carry the necessary weight and/or emotion for their characters to truly be believable, relatable, or interesting.

The Two Faces of January is a film that I probably should've liked, but instead found quite disappointing. 

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - A Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, and Vincent Cassel

Directed by David Cronenberg

I'm sure there's an appeal out there for the psychological gibberish that's spouted by Karl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) in A Dangerous Method, but it's simply not my cup of tea.  I remember studying these two guys in college and writing papers about how laughable their theories were to my mind.  Still, for about half of this ninety minute flick, I was admittedly intrigued by hearing their various theories discussed and debated.  However, after a while, this very talky film just wears out its welcome and despite a good performance from Fassbender and an oftentimes riveting turn from Keira Knightley, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method just doesn't quite have enough of a story around which to craft a film.

A Dangerous Method revolves around Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), a Russian Jew who is brought to Karl Jung's mental facility acting out with strange and violent twitches.  Jung is taken by the case and finds himself using many of his colleague Freud's sexually charged theories to diagnose Sabina.  As time passes, Jung finds himself falling for Sabina despite his best efforts to keep his focus on his marriage, and he soon finds that his growing obsession with Sabina could ultimately create a divide not only with his wife, but with his esteemed colleague Freud as well.

The film starts out simply astonishingly with Keira Knightley giving the best performance of her career in the opening scenes.  Manic, crazed, and given the perfect opportunity to jut out her jaw (which, if you've seen any of her films, she's very prone to do), I found myself unable to take my eyes off of Knightley.  She has captured what I can only assume to be an incredibly accurate depiction of a psychologically damaged young woman.  Unfortunately for Knightley, once her character begins to turn towards the sane side, she becomes a bit tedious and boring to watch.  While the progression of her character is believable, the commitment and tour de force performance of Knightley in the first half of the film becomes rather bland in the second half.

And it's in that second half that things start to unravel.  I give credit to director David Cronenberg for his use of deep focus -- allowing all things near and far to both be in focus in a particular scene -- which adds an interesting visual tableau to the mundanely verbose proceedings throughout much of the film, but the lovely sights aren't enough to save the disappointing conclusion to the flick.  As Sabina gets mentally better, the film shifts a bit more of its focus onto the relationship between Jung and Freud and, quite bluntly, it couldn't keep my interest.  Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen are fine as the two doctors (with Fassbender coming off a bit better probably only because his character is given an actual arc as opposed to Mortensen who seems to simply be playing a figurehead with little else to do other than spout Freud's famous dictums), but neither of the actors (or perhaps their characters) are charismatic enough to carry the second half of the movie.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Psycho

Psycho (1998)

Starring Anne Heche, Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, and William H. Macy

Directed by Gus Van Sant

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

***Warning -- Spoilers ahead***

Why?  That's the question I've posed for the last fourteen years since I first found out that Gus Van Sant was making a near shot-by-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece (and my favorite movie of all time) Psycho.  What's the point?  I still don't get it even after I watched the film -- I guess it was some weird "experiment" -- but I will say that the film was better than I thought it would be.  That being said, I also thought this was going to be one of the worst moviewatching experiences I'd ever have so it wasn't going to take much to prove me wrong on that front.  However, the remake comes nowhere near close to the brilliance of the original.

Admittedly, I was actually quite impressed with Anne Heche's take on Marion Crane.  Janet Leigh is so iconic to me in that role and has an undeniably devious take on the character.  Not that the viewer ever gets a sense that Leigh's Marion "deserves" to die, but there is a slight feeling that she gets her appropriate comeuppance in the end.  Heche, however, plays Marion a bit more innocently and I admired that quality.  Unfortunately, Heche is only in the film for 35 minutes and things fall apart rather quickly at that point.

Vince Vaughn is simply painful as Norman Bates.  His Norman is visibly off his rocker right from the very first time we lay eyes on him -- he nervously laughs at the end of his first line and it felt so forced and "actor-y" that it took me out of his performance immediately.  Anthony Perkins played Norman as an outwardly normal guy who just so happened to be nuts.  Vaughn's Norman is simply nuts.  I despised nearly every line reading by him and when the last two-thirds of the movie shifts its focus towards him, it disappointed.  Similarly, Julianne Moore has been told to play Marion's sister Lila as a seemingly "butch" tough gal which didn't fit for me at all and felt incredibly off-putting.  When Lila gives Norman a take-down kick to debilitate him in the final basement scene at the Bates Motel, I couldn't help but think she should have yelled "Girl Power!" and it nauseated me with the political correctness of the change.  

The film updates the story to 1998 and I can't help but think it proves to be a detriment.  While it takes place in modern times, everything felt incredibly dated.  By replicating nearly everything from the 1960s -- sets, camera shots, music, costuming -- I don't quite understand the point.  Maybe it was done to allow the slight changes that are enacted -- like Norman masturbating when looking through the peephole as Marion prepares to shower or the odd flashes of rolling thunderclouds as Marion meets her demise in the shower -- seem appropriate in tone or something.  Nonetheless, those changes evoked chuckles from me and didn't add a thing to the tale.

The question still remains -- why was this remake needed?  What does it add to the discussion of Hitchcock's Psycho?  The answer seems to be that the story itself still holds up and the camera shots and dialog still work even in a modern-day setting.  However, it's not even remotely comparable in terms of quality and tension to the original.  Do yourself a favor -- if you've never watched Hitchcock's classic, rent it and revel in its awesomeness.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Road (2009)

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron, and Guy Pearce
Directed by John Hillcoat

I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road last year and it really got me started on this "I should read more" kick. I truly enjoyed the book -- McCarthy created a tale about an apocalypse with heart. Unfortunately, it's the heart and compassion that really feels like it's missing from the film adaptation. It's not that the film in and of itself is bad -- in fact, it's quite a well-crafted movie all around -- it's just that the book's hopeful soul is nonexistent.

Somehow, Earth has fallen to shambles. The sun no longer shines. All life -- trees, animals -- has died. Ash constantly falls. Earthquakes are a common occurrence. The few human survivors hunt for whatever nutrition can sustain them...even if that means resorting to cannibalism. However, a nameless father (Mortensen) and his nameless son (Smit-McPhee) will not resort to eating their fellow man and instead are on a constant search for food, shelter, and safety.

That's it. That's the story. It's surely a simple premise as we watch the man and boy travel across barren wastelands having awful things happen to them in the process. They're traveling south seemingly because that's what the man's wife (Theron) told them to do before she died. It seems that the father's dreams of his wife are pushing him on this journey...that and his strong desire to not have anything bad happen to his son.

Yes, the film certainly depicts a father's love for his son and vice versa. But the heart and soul that were in the novel seemed to be missing. And it's not that it was Viggo Mortensen's fault. He, once again, proves that he's one of the great actors of our generation (seriously, everyone should watch his badassery in the flick Eastern Promises). The love and devotion for his son certainly come through. And as his son, the young Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the role with a child-like innocence that worked to a tee. To some, the son may seem too innocent for his own good -- but to me, even though he's seen some horrific things, his father's love has somehow shielded him from the world around him. Born after the apocalypse occurred, the son's never seen anything outside of what his father has shown him -- no tv, no movies, no radio. I can see how some would be annoyed with the soft-spoken son, but it seemed spot on to me.

And as far as that missing "heart" goes, it's definitely there in a scene where the father and son come across stockpile of food in an underground shelter. That scene -- the one happy moment in the movie -- had everything that I was looking for in this movie. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie didn't have that sense of hope for me.

I realize I'm probably not making a lot of sense with this one, but I'm gonna post it this way anyway (it's 3am...). Once again, it's not that this movie was bad...in fact, the story itself was a decent adaptation. Something was missing, though. Maybe in a day or two I'll realize what that "thing" was.

The RyMickey Rating: B