Reviews

The challenge of making a film from a theatrical play is staying true to the work created by the playwright. Too often, the result is a film "based" on the play, but adapted to make use of all the crutches on which the modern day filmmaker relies, such as digital animation, car chases, explosions, jittering cameras and other special effects. No other director of the modern age has successfully stayed true to the work of the playwright than Mike Nichols as exhibited in such powerful films as the Graduate, Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, Heartburn and now Closer.

I saw Patrick Marber's award winning play Closer when it first opened in London and then many years later when it showed up in Houston. When I heard Nichols was making a film of Closer, I had high hopes and Nichols does not disappoint.

Closer has only four actors (Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen) a handful of simple sets and a few street scenes. The screen play, adapted by Marber himself, is dialogue heavy, darkly serious, brutally honest and sometimes disturbing. Closer is the tale of two American women in London and their accidental intertwining of relationships with two English men. During their pursuit of love, the four characters struggle to understand the role of the truth while they weave their nest of lies and deceit.

Roberts plays the role of Anna, and she delivers a wonderful performance in a different manner than we are accustomed to seeing from her. Not the usual fast moving, comical script or dynamic characterization with contrived accents or lavish costumes. But her wonderfully brooding facial expressions, unique sense of presence and powerfully delivered dialogue are a critical part to the success of this film. I first suspected that Roberts would carry the film as she normally does, but surprisingly the Oscar nominated performance of Portman stands out from the already strong cast. She continues to impress, showing that her acting abilities extend far beyond that exhibited in the Star Wars prequels and roles previous to that. Portman's performance as Alice captivates, warms and shocks. We love her, care for her and keep trying to better understand her. I wondered after seeing the film the first time, if, to some extent, we are watching a passing of the baton from Roberts to Portman. Only time will tell.

Neither of the male roles draws much sympathy from us. Law is well cast as Dan, a rather weak and soft character incapable of cherishing the relationship he has with Ann. To the other extreme is successful but brutish Larry, played by Owen, And although we like Larry the least, he seems to understand truth the most. Both Law and Owen are perfect for their parts and deliver strong performances.

If you like a dark and powerful drama, I expect you'll adore Closer. And for that treat we can thank the teamwork of Marber and Nichols. The dialogue and story line of Marber coupled with Nichols' ability to coax from his cast that special something that keeps us pulled in even in the absence gun shots and roaring dinosaurs. But be warned; it's dark film without a happy ending to rescue you.

recommended

7.9

Peter Jackson's King Kong will take you on a breathless ride…once the ride begins an hour or so into the three hour movie. With three distinctive parts, Jackson applies the trilogy structure that made him millions upon millions with the Lord of the Rings series. The first part of the film is a largely light-hearted hour of character development and plot establishment which only gets us to Skull Island. All that light-heartiness is immediately squashed in the second part of the film as the cast of characters makes their way onto the island confronting the most creepy of natives, fearsome dinosaurs and King Kong himself. This heart racing, anxiety ridden section is Indiana Jones meets Jurassic Park in the most action-packed 75 minutes you may ever experience. Critically, while on the island, Jackson lays the foundation for the love affair between the beauty and the beast. The final part of the film, the shortest piece of the all-in-one trilogy, takes place in New York and masterfully transitions the film a second time into a pure tragedy of seemingly Shakespearean proportions.

King Kong presents Naomi Watts as we have never seen her before on the big screen. She is stunningly beautiful as Ann Darrow and strikes just the right poses to remind us of dear Fay Ray and other leading ladies of that bygone era. While I thought she was brilliant in the likes of 21 Grams and We Don't Live Here Anymore, my guess is that those dark roles for her may now take a back seat to more main stream Hollywood feature roles, which is unfortunate. I was surprised to see the often silly Jack Black cast as film maker Karl Denham, but he somehow pulls off the role with increasing seriousness as the film rolls on. Adrian Brody is perfectly cast in the supporting role of playwright, Jack Driscoll, the unsung hero of the story.

Jackson's film pays homage to Merian C. Cooper's original version made in 1933. The colorization technique Jackson uses gives an antique feel to the film that reminds of the black and white film era. He stays true to much of the original costumes and even the cast has striking similarity to the original cast. More especially, Jackson preserves many of the scenes and dialog of the original film. Especially notable is the replication of the last line of the film as delivered by Denham, "it was beauty that killed the beast." Unlike the original, Darrow reciprocates the affection that Kong has for her and in doing so Jackson creates a remarkably believable love affair between the beauty and the beast. The affinity between the beauty and the beast is perhaps Jackson's greatest contribution to the film. It is so unlikely, yet so believable that by the end of the film Kong becomes our tragic hero. Jackson plays on this accomplishment by drawing out the final scenes from atop the Empire State Building to perhaps three times the length of the original. These scenes are a triumph for Jackson. The animation is dizzying, the emotion between Devon and Kong is genuine and our sympathy for Kong is real. Though scarcely any dialog whatsoever, we watch in captivated silence at the last precious moments of a heroine with her savior.

Although I believe that Jackson's success on creating the love affair between Darrow and Kong makes his work superior to the 1933 version, I prefer the pace of the original film which is less than two hours. Cooper's version of the film gets us straightaway onto the ship and it's not so long until we are on the island. Little is gained by Jackson's almost movie length first hour intro. Additionally Jackson's 75 minute wild adventure on Skull Island leaves us a little too worn out to truly appreciate the true masterpiece of this film which is the last half hour. One wonders what really would have been lost if the first section were cut by twenty minutes and the second by fifteen versus what would have been gained by maintaining the pace of the original. But if you have an extra 35 minutes, this film is not to be missed.

7.7 recommended