FilmDailies.com – A filmmaker’s blog

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie coming from Eastern Europe with decent production values. And I’m not talking about the crap-o-rama coming from Nu Image.

Tobruk is a solid war movie. I’m not using the term drama here because it’s next to non-existent. Some reviewers have attributed it to lack of action scenes. Not so.

Tons of TNT have apparently been used to recreate the battle of Tobruk. Yet, I couldn’t care less if anyone from the section (about 10 men) dies or lives.

Part of the reason is we don’t get a lot of background on them, e.g. protagonist Liebermann wants to open a bookstore when the war ends…

This kind of shallow characterization is one reason why the movie seems to go for hours, when in fact, it’s just a bit over the bare minimum (at 100 minutes).

I’m not going to ruin the “suspense” by describing the last scene but it felt anti-climatic and cliché.

To sum up, the production values are what sets this movie apart. When you look at some of the desert cinematography, you feel this could be The English Patient or Lawrence of Arabia. Unfortunately, the similarities end there.

I saw Killshot for one reason only – Mickey Rourke. After his acclaimed performance in The Wrestler, he has made an impressive comeback. So has he the Midas touch too?

The short answer – NO. Long answer is NO because a good actor needs a lot more than just good acting to make a come back. He needs a good plot, a good director… the list goes on.

At least on surface, Killshot has a good plot. After all, it’s based on Elmore Leonard’s book by the same name.

Mickey plays a Toronto hitman who messes his last job and has little choice but to take an unlikely partner – Richie Nix (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) – a petty thief and extortionist.

The two are seen by a couple going through divorce and in Mickey’s character’s world that means a death sentence. The couple is supposed to have their own problems but they are so cliche that one is forced to look for entertainment in Joseph Gordon-Levitt performance who chews the scenery both literally and metaphorically.

Elegy is based on Philip Roth’s The Dying Animal. First off, I’m a big fan of Philip Roth and I also like Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz.

If you hate any of these three, you are better off going to another movie! Ben Kingsley carries the whole movie and you can find hardly a frame where he’s not in. Another word of warning, there’s a lot of skin the movie. Ben Kingsley looks OK for a sixty-year-old guy but there are also Penélope Cruz breasts.

Moving on to the movie itself… Ben Kingsley is an aging intellectual (professor, talk-show host, etc.) who is hitting on a different student each semester. He’s careful. He waits for the END of said semester and then holds a cocktail party. Obviously, his trick works flawlessly with years of practice.

With that kind of an attitude, it’s hardly surprising Ben’s characters is deeply cynical and doesn’t believe in LOVE (capitalized for added effect). So when Penélope Cruz enters his exquisitely-calibrated trap, he hardly expects to see her again – after the SEX, of course.

As luck (I mean Philip) would have it, Penélope Cruz comes back but Ben’s character fails to appreciate the change that has occurred.

Overall, the movie poses a lot more questions that it answers – especially about age, and change of old habits. I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie gets an Oscar nod.

I saw this movie last night, so I’m still pondering most of the unanswered questions.

Let’s start with the good news first. The craftsmanship of the people involved is amazing, considering the low budget. The camera work was excellent despite the obvious limitations – most shots were static, taking full advantage of the meticulous set designs. The supernatural moments (if you could call them that) were traditionally lit in what I call blue-moon glow which definitely added to the scenes.

Last but not least, the editing was superb – as you might imagine when you see it was done by Walter Murch, definitely not a stranger to Coppola movies. Considering the amazing work he did sowing together the different pieces The English Patient, he doesn’t disappoint even though the plot is convoluted.

Which leads us straight to the bad news: the plot. Youth without youth is based on Mircea Eliade’s novella about an old professor who is hit by lightning. This leaves him not only physically younger but also takes his mind faculty to a level beyond that of a mere human. The story is set in 1940s in Romania, so the Nazis get involved almost immediately. Our hero escapes them with the help of the professor who started the whole “healing process”.

At this point of the movie, all kinds of plot devices break lose. First, he meets the reincarnation (?) of his fiance of some 50 years back. In short order, the girl is hit by lightning (talking about lightning hitting twice!) and discovers her own talent – she is aware of her previous lives. In fact, she’s “possessed” by a 7th century Indian girl who only talks Sanskrit. She’s taken to the cave where that girl lived some 14 centuries before …

Now, I’m not going to spoil all the “fun” by revealing all the plot twists from this point on. Frankly, I tried my best to concentrate but the last part of the movie was such an uneven ride that all the craftsmanship in the world could not redeem it.

This is what Variety had to say about the final act:

By the time this stage is reached, the serial-worthy plot has moved through any number of genres without holding onto any of them. Perhaps Coppola’s affinity for a character obsessed by unrealized projects was too close to allow him to see the piecemeal nature of his script, bogged down by endless chatter. Immortality and the ramifications of eternal life, on both ethical and emotional levels, have been dealt with much more effectively in works varying from “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (referenced toward the end) and Janacek’s superb, emotionally resonant opera “The Makropoulos Case,” a far more powerful analysis of the cruelty of time.

Amen. Although I secretly hope this isn’t the last movie to come from Coppola.