Movie Review - The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour (2011)

Starring Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor, and Joel Kinnamen

Directed by Chris Gorak

While visiting Moscow, a group of five twenty-somethings -- three Americans, an Australian, and a Swede -- manage to be some of the few survivors when an alien life-form comes to Earth one night and annihilates much of the Earth's population.  The aliens are essentially invisible, but sometimes appear to the human eye as visible electric currents that completely disintegrate to dust any living organism they touch.  Overall, the premise of The Darkest Hour had maybe a bit of promise, but in execution, it's basically a glorified SyFy Channel movie that found the budget to include 3D effects in its theatrical release.

Although it may have been difficult to craft a horror film featuring a nearly invisible foe, had The Darkest Hour been successful, it may have been unique enough to at least be worth a watch.  However, the film is a bore of a sci-fi/horror amalgamation in which its ninety minute runtime is its only positive.  There's very little tension and the main characters are all so incredibly underdeveloped that it doesn't matter in the slightest when they get zapped by the aliens.  While the actors all try their hardest, the inane dialog they're forced to spout makes them all look sillier than they deserve to appear.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - The Ides of March

The Ides of March (2011)

Starring Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Max Minghella, and Marisa Tomei

Directed by George Clooney

I'm not sure if The Ides of March was attempting to be something more thought-provoking than the simple melodrama I took away from it, but if George Clooney's film was trying to be meaningful and insightful, it didn't succeed at all on that level.  The slowly unfolding story (and I do mean slowly...particularly in the first fifty minutes of tedium) eventually turns into something rather riveting, but it's really just a glorified soap opera -- not that there's anything wrong with that if it's as well-crafted as this is in its final moments.  That said, The Ides of March tries to mask the overly dramatic moments, wanting instead to feign that it's incredibly important when, in fact, it simply reiterates what is already known -- politics is full of shady dealings and lapses in ethics by the very people who purport to be the moral pillars of society.

I knew very little going into The Ides of March and, in the end, that's probably for the best, so I'm going to reveal very little in terms of the plot except to say that the film focuses on thirty-year-old Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), a young campaign advisor for Pennsylvania governor/Democratic presidential candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney).  Stephen is a strong up-and-comer and is lauded for his smarts when it comes to the political spectrum.  Stephen's partner/boss on Morris's campaign is Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a longtime advisor to Democratic candidates.  Paul and Stephen seem like a solid duo, offering the opposite spectrums of weathered experience and wide-eyed optimism, respectively, to the Morris campaign.  For nearly the first fifty minutes, the film simply feels like a look at these three men on the campaign trail with occasional looks at Morris's competitor's campaign headed by Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) who is certain his candidate will overtake Morris's apparent lead.

Finally, nearly an hour into the movie, something interesting finally happens which I won't reveal here and the movie takes the viewer on an interesting little ride which, while not full of necessarily surprising twists and turns, is at least thoroughly entertaining.  As an auteur, George Clooney (like his fellow actor/director Clint Eastwood) is very old school, utilizing very little in terms of gimmickry.  Usually, I'd be all for that, but in all of Clooney's films (much like Eastwood's) he can't move the movie along at a quick enough clip to keep me interested.  While well shot and nicely framed, the story just lacks a powerful punch for nearly half of the running time.

Part of the problem in The Ides of March is that the film doesn't give the viewer anything new to chew on.  Are we surprised that members of the same political party do anything and everything they can to defame their fellow members (shades of Herman Cain and the current Republicans perhaps)?  Are we shocked by a lack of ethics from our political candidates and their campaign workers?  There's just nothing surprising about the uncouth underbelly of politics.  The film at least comes alive when it gravitates towards the melodrama that comes hand-in-hand with lapses in morality.  The lack of vivacity and any modicum of excitement in the first half, though, doesn't push the film forward at all.  [Truth be told here...I looked at my watch about twenty minutes into the movie and I seriously felt that at least fifty minutes had gone by...I almost said aloud, "You've got to be kidding me."]

"Star" George Clooney actually takes a backseat to Ryan Gosling's Stephen, but this is still Gosling's least interesting role this year (after Crazy, Stupid, Love and Drive).  However, Gosling continues to prove that he is probably the best actor of my generation.  He plays a smooth talker here with Stephen's up-and-coming status in politics not having sullied him yet by the cynicism that permeates his fellow older co-workers' daily lives.  Clooney is fine, but is hurt by an opening hour that simply has him spouting off speeches that seemed too well-written to ring true.  Hoffman and Giamatti are both quite good in their roles of the weathered campaign advisors and Evan Rachel Wood is also strong as the young intern who has a thing for Stephen.

Still, had The Ides of March simply dropped the pompous aire of self-importance in the opening acts and skipped directly to the smart soap opera-like twists and turns that made up the rather exciting climax, this would have been a flick I could have wholeheartedly recommended.  As it stands, though, it's too bland to really amount to anything worth talking about.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Agora

Agora (2010)

Starring Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar

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

There's not a doubt in my mind that Alejandro Amenábar's flick Agora is anti-Christian.  In case we weren't aware of this via his blatant storytelling, Amenábar costumes all the Christians in dark clothing while everyone else wears white.  Still, somehow this period costume drama that focuses on (sarcasm alert) über-exciting topics like religion and philosophy kept me interested for over two hours, moving at a shockingly quick pace.  Granted, the one-sided nature of Agora ultimately brings the film down a notch or two, but thanks to some decent performances, my interest was piqued in this historical drama.

In 4th century Alexandria, Greek philosopher/teacher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) finds herself and her students at the center of a changing society.  Her peoples' paganistic beliefs in multiple gods are at odds with the increasing Christian presence in the city, and they're fighting a losing battle as their famous Library at Alexandria soon becomes ransacked and destroyed.  With the Christians taking control of the city, they will stop at nothing to eradicate all non-believers, Hypatia and her colleagues included.

While there's undoubtedly an anti-Christian tone on display, I prefer to look at this film as a diatribe against fanaticism of any religion.  In that sense, I found the film moderately interesting.  (Of course, I may just be stretching the actual truth, trying to make this film more enjoyable for myself than it probably should be.)  Still, the disappointing black-and-whiteness of the whole thing with the Greek pagans doing absolutely nothing wrong and the Christians doing seemingly nothing right is kind of a crock.  Co-screenwriter Amenábar doesn't allow for anything beyond one-dimensional complexities on either side and it hurts the flick in the end.

Still, there's a pretty good performance from Rachel Weisz as Hypatia even though I found some of the dialog she's forced to spout comparing scientific reason to unwavering faith fairly lame.  In fact, it's the subdued scenes with Weisz that play much better than the rather silly swordfighting shenanigans that go on around her.

The RyMickey Rating:  C