The Assistant

 The Assistant (2020)

Starring Julia Garner and Matthew Macfadyen

Directed by Kitty Green

Written by Kitty Green

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Quiz

Quiz (2020)

Starring Matthew Macfadyen, Sian Clifford, Mark Bonnar, Helen McCrory, Michael Jibson, and Michael Sheen

Directed by Stephen Frears

Written by James Graham

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

Starring Mackenzie Foy, Keira Knightley, Eugenio Derbez, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E. Grant, Misty Copeland, Helen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman

Directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston

Written by Ashleigh Powell

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina (2012)

Starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Williams, and Emily Watson  

Directed by Joe Wright

Oh, what a conundrum Anna Karenina places me in.  It's not really a conundrum, I guess, so much as disappointment.  Considering all that is good about this re-telling of the classic Leo Tolstoy novel (of which I was entirely unfamiliar with), it pains me to not be able to recommend this one.  Despite some ingenious direction and a career-best performance from Keira Knightley, this flick just can't get past the fact that there's not enough story -- or at least not enough interesting story -- to cause the audience to give a damn.  I'm not quite sure there's anything director Joe Wright could have done -- and he certainly tries -- to have made this late 19th century soap opera appealing to a modern audience.

I knew absolutely nothing about Anna Karenina prior to venturing into this film.  In fact, I'm not even sure I saw a complete trailer for the movie, let alone cracked open a Cliffs Notes version of the book.  However, I knew going in (and this was probably incredibly helpful) that director Joe Wright had rather cleverly set up the film as if it was all being performed on a stage.  Sets move in and out fluidly.  Cast members are sometimes seen playing different roles in the background.  We see stage props and the unfinished backsides of backdrops.  This stylized, grandiose approach certainly kept my attention throughout and provides many glorious scenes that I truly loved.

Unfortunately, this story is just too formulaic and too banal to have any reason to be filmed.  Maybe the novel was a revelation in 1877, but now the whole thing reads as a trite soap opera elevated to importance only because people speak in British accents (despite the fact that this takes place in Russia...but that didn't bother me in the slightest).  Keira Knightley is the title character, a young mother who is seemingly stuck in a marriage with a husband, Alexei (Jude Law), who monetarily provides for her, but fails to express love for her and her son.  While on a visit to see her brother (Matthew Macfadyen), Anna meets Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and instantly becomes mesmerized with him (as he does with her).  They begin a rather torrid affair that isn't exactly kept as secretive as it should be.  With Anna already in a marriage and Vronsky set to be betrothed to the young Kitty (Alicia Vikander), this doesn't sit well with the community and Anna finds herself being ostracized and looked down upon by all.

Had the Anna-Vronsky-Alexei triangle been all that we had to worry about, I may have been okay with the premise.  However, we then get sidetracked to a forlorn Kitty, sullen and upset that Vronsky left her, falling into the arms of the less wealthy Konstantin (Domhnall Gleeson).  Frankly, despite a decent effort by the actors to convince me otherwise, I couldn't have cared less about the Kitty-Konstantin angle and found that it slowed down the movie to uncomfortable levels.  It certainly doesn't help that Anna's now-ruined life is drawn out seemingly ad infinitum as well.

And the shame of it all is that Keira Knightley is pretty fantastic.  Even in her better roles (like last year's A Dangerous Method), Ms. Knightley still relied on her ever-present crutch of jaw-clenching to express frustration, anger, or fear.  Somehow, she's grown quite a bit as an actor and her director (whom she's worked with twice before) has nixed that jutting jaw of hers.  Anna is her most mature role yet with Knightley exuding passion, sexiness, heartbreak, and maternal instincts.  It really is a well-rounded performance in a movie whose story doesn't permit her character to soar the way it deserves.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers [in 3D] (2011)

Starring Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Orlando Bloom, and Christoph Waltz 

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

Sometimes we don't need movies to be deep and meaningful.  Sometimes we want to go to the cinema and simply be entertained and, rather surprisingly, The Three Musketeers succeeds at being entertaining.  This certainly doesn't contain stellar acting or a fantastic script or a unique story, but director Paul W.S. Anderson's flick is fun, never boring, and quite visually appealing.

Utilizing a steampunk style in an incredibly successful manner, The Three Musketeers tells a story we've all seen before.  Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Porthos (Ray Stevenson), and Aramis (Orlando Bloom look-alike Luke Evans) are the titular trio who have been down on their luck as of late, finding themselves running out of funds to support their escapades (and their substantial alcohol consumption).  Along comes young D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) who ignites a bit of a fire under the group and they find themselves embarking on another epic adventure involving the French king, the roi's villainous confidante Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz), and his helpful double agent Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich).

I'm well aware that this is not a great film, but it's just so goshdarn amusing to watch that it's tough to not at least join in on the fun that's displayed onscreen.  As I said, with the exception of some absolutely stunning set design, there isn't much else that could be considered stellar (although I will say that this flick makes some excellent usage of 3D...the best I've seen in awhile).  Somehow, though, the whole thing kind of works despite its faults.  Milla Jovovich took to Twitter this past weekend complaining about the lack of advertisement to promote this family friendly feature.  While I'll neither agree nor disagree with the claim of faulty promotion, I will say that this is certainly a flick that the whole family can enjoy together and be treated to an evening of fun.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

(Remember, take a look at my ratings over to the right...a 'B-' may seem low based on my review, but this would still fall into the category of 'Still Worth Your Time')

Movie Review - Robin Hood

Robin Hood (2010)

Starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong, and Oscar Isaac 

Directed by Ridley Scott

There was much talk when this version of Robin Hood was released in theaters last May.  People felt like the Robin Hood story had been told one too many times.  While that may be true, I was willing to give this version a chance.  The first act of the film had me decidedly won over and I was actually quite intrigued.  That fervor didn't last, however, as the film drifted into a silly romance about thirty minutes in that bored the heck out of me and had me itching for the thing to be over.

The basic old standby summary of Robin Hood is that he's a guy in medieval England who steals from the rich and gives to the poor.  In Ridley Scott's version, while Robin certainly assists the poor, he's not stealing from the rich.  When the film begins, we discover that Robin (Russell Crowe) is aiding the Crown in a fight against France on the foreign country's soil.  When England's king is killed in battle, Robin and three of his friends decide to skedaddle back home -- they've fought for a decade and long to get back to regular life.  Along the way to the French coast, they encounter the English royal guard who, while attempting to get back home to announce the death of the king, get attacked by French soldiers who just so happen to be assisted by English traitor Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong).  Robin and his men manage to stop the attack, but the entire guard is killed, so Robin must bring word of the king's death to their compatriots.  

And it's at this point that the film loses me.  Robin ends up traveling to some village where he meets Marion (Cate Blanchett).  They end up falling in love which leads to a ridiculously silly final battle scene when Marion takes up the sword and, like the stereotypical way in many films, causes more havoc than good, forcing Robin to put himself in more danger because of her.

The film isn't an overwhelming letdown -- there are positives.  Crowe portrays Robin as both powerful and caring and he was actually pleasant to watch.  I often find him quite boring and unemotional, and while that's kind of the case here as well, it worked for this character for some reason.  Also good is Ridley Scott's direction of the battle sequences.  The opening thirty minutes are one battle after another and they're all staged rather well.  While he's not averse to using the quick cuts of many of his contemporaries, he doesn't employ them too often to become annoying.  Additionally, the final battle is quite good, too, although it's marred by an absolutely ridiculous last shot involving a impossibly perfectly shot arrow that had me laughing when it certainly wasn't supposed to.  For that I fault both Scott and the incredibly silly screenwriter for somehow thinking that would play well onscreen.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the film is the reliance on the romance between Robin and Marion to carry the film's plot.  There was not a moment where I believed that Crowe and Blanchett had any inkling of chemistry.  Sure, that's partly their fault, but this lack of connection between the characters is also due to screenwriter Brian Helgeland.  Their romantic "journey" was laughable and not the least bit interesting or surprising.

You could certainly do worse than this version of Robin Hood, but there's not enough here for me to recommend it.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-