The Dark Knight Rises

Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:38 am

There’s a reason you never hear about “your friendly neighborhood Batman.” Spidey may have some angst and guilt and abandonment issues but he is downright sunny-natured compared to the brooding soul of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), holed up in Wayne Manor with only his loyal manservant Alfred (Michael Caine) and his tortured memories. At the end of the second chapter of director and co-writer Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Wayne decided it would be better for the citizens of Gotham to believe that Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) died a hero than to tell them to truth about the descent of a once-honorable man into madness and vigilantism. So everyone thinks that Batman is the villain who killed Dent instead of the hero who saved the city and Wayne is refusing to see anyone.

In Dent’s memory, legislation has been passed to keep dangerous criminals imprisoned and the crime rate is down so low that a policeman jokes they may be reduced to chasing people down for overdue library books. But everyone in this story is tortured by secrets and shame, even Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldham), who carries in his breast pocket a speech setting the record straight but does not have the nerve to deliver it. There is the lissome but light-fingered catering assistant who turns out to be the notorious Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway, rocking the leather catsuit). And there is Bane (Tom Hardy), a terrorist who shows his contempt for humanity by cynically couching his atrocities in the idealistic vocabulary of social justice, trashing spirits as he trashes the concrete and social structures of the community.

It is overlong at two hours and 40 minutes but the action scenes are superbly staged, from the audacious plane-to-plane maneuver at the very beginning to the literally earthshaking attack on the city. The “pod” motorcycle chases are sensational, especially with Hathaway at the helm. She is never referred to as Catwoman, by the way, but when her goggles are up on her head, they amusingly evoke cat’s ears. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a standout as a perceptive young detective who understands Wayne too well. Hardy does his best to overcome the daunting limitations of the masked role, acting with his eyes and body language, but the weirdly disembodied voice is unconnected to the action and at times seems like a bad dub job in a cheesy karate film. Bale’s performance in this role (or, I should say, these roles) has always seemed thin to me, but fellow Oscar-winners Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine add some heft, especially Caine’s devoted Alfred, and it is good to see Tom Conti and Juno Temple in small but important roles.

The “Dark Knight Rises” title applies equally to both hero and villain in this story. This is like a chess game where all the pieces are black. Everyone has masks. Everyone has scars and a soul corrupted by a bitter stew of anger, fear, betrayal, abandonment, and isolation. Wayne says more than once he wears a mask to protect those he cares about, but he wears it to keep himself from getting too close to them, too. Nolan continues his exploration of duality and untrustworthy narrators (though one logical inconsistency inadvertently telegraphs a plot twist). Even the WMD at the heart of the action was originally designed for a benign, even heroic, purpose. This is a thoughtful, ambitious story that explores the metaphor and heightened reality of the superhero genre to illuminate the fears and secrets — and potential for heroism and yearning for a clean slate — we all share.

Parents should know that this film has extended comic book-style action, peril, and violence, many characters injured and killed, torture, hostages, references to sad loss of parents, brief mild language, non-explicit sexual situation

Family discussion: Almost everyone in this movie has secrets and conflicts — how many can you identify? Was Bruce Wayne right in thinking the risks of the energy technology were greater than the benefits? How are Bane and Batman alike?

If you like this, try: the Frank Miller “Dark Knight” comic books and the other “Dark Knight” movies

Warrior

Posted on September 8, 2011 at 6:09 pm

Imagine if Rocky, instead of fighting Apollo Creed, got into the ring with another Rocky. And they were brothers.

I know, I know, but somehow it works in a surprisingly affecting story of the sons of an abusive alcoholic who have not seen each other since they were teenagers and end up fighting each other for a mixed martial arts championship title.

That’s the magic of movies. Somehow, they can take a story of a welder who does post-modern dance numbers in a Pittsburgh bar and dreams of being a ballerina or cartoon characters are live in old-time Hollywood and feel real-er than real life. As cheesy as this movie gets, it keeps raising the emotional stakes over and over again until we just tap out and go with it, largely because of full-hearted, powerhouse performances from Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton.

Tommy (Hardy) comes home. He’s been away a long time. His father, Paddy (Nick Nolte) is glad to see him, but Tommy says he wants to deal with his father only as a trainer. He has no interest in catching up or mending their estrangement. He just has one goal, to win a $5 million mixed martial arts championship.

Brendan (Edgerton) has a good life as a high school science teacher with a family. His wife says, “I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to raise our children in a house were their father gets beat up for a living.” But paying for his daughter’s health care has put the family at risk of losing the house. He needs a lot of money fast and the only way he knows to get it is to win the mixed martial arts championship. He goes into training with an old friend. Cue the montages.

The script by writer/director Gavin O’Connor (“Miracle”) is as corny as an “up close and personal” Olympics athlete profiles, but as effective, too. Every time you think you’ve made up your mind who to root for, it switches around on you, and then switches around again. The fight scenes are powerful, but in large part due to the emotional weight given to Tommy and Brendan by Hardy and Edgerton. The final bout, well, its a knock-out.

(more…)

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Comic-Con, Part 2

Posted on July 23, 2011 at 10:00 pm

I got to meet with the stars of three upcoming films from Lionsgate today. First was Australian Joel Edgerton and British Tom Hardy who play estranged brothers from Pittsburgh in “Warrior,” the story of a mixed martial arts championship bout that pits them against each other. Oh, and their father is played by Nick Nolte. I’ve seen it, and it is as fun as it sounds, sort of like two Rockys kicking and punching each other. They arrived two months before shooting to work on their fight skills (and “East coast with a blue collar edge” accent). “I have mad love for Pittsburgh,” Hardy told us. Working with Nolte was a huge draw, especially since the movie has a “70’s vibe,” he said. “He’s got a face carved from the rock of method acting. Very specific.” Edgerton liked the way the story had “two protagonists marching toward the same battlefield.”

Dominic Cooper talked with us about “The Devil’s Double,” an amazing true story of a man hired to impersonate Saddam Hussein’s son Uday. Cooper plays both roles. “I loved it,” he said. “Completely exhilarating.” While it was a challenge to work without another actor to help develop the scene, he was grateful for the opportunity to take a break from the exhaustion of playing the psychotic Uday to play the double, “a good man, an observer, watching the madness play out.” To find a way to reach into the character of Uday, who had “nothing I could find any remorse for, my way in was ‘why was he like this?'”

And then we spoke to the producer and three stars from the new “Conan the Barbarian” movie, coming out next month. Producer Fredrik Malmberg told us he worked for ten years to bring this movie to the screen. His primary focus was to return to the original spirit of Conan’s creator, Robert E. Howard, rather than try to remake the John Milius, Arnold Schwarzenegger classic of the 1980’s. “Schwarzenegger was his own special effect,” he said. “We are going back to the source material, back to Howard.” It was good to be back at Comic-Con, where the deal for the movie was made four years ago. Jason Momoa and Rachel Nicols talked to us about playing Conan and Tamara, as he was eating all of the meat out of a Subway sandwich. “Meat every two hours, bland, no salt, lift heavy weights, and sword training,” was his description of the regime required for the role. Nichols talked about her character, who at first “has no idea who she is, what she is going to represent,” but “an innate warrior.” And they spoke about filming in Bulgaria, which “offered up a lot” in terms of terrain and climate.

Dreamworks brought in the cast and the people behind “Fright Night,” who talked to us about remaking the 1985 horror film about the suburban teen with a vampire next door. That film’s star, Chris Sarandon, appears in the remake, written by Marti Noxon, something of an expert on vampires from writing and producing “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The tone had to be updated, she explained. “The boys would be aware of genre conventions. We live in a ‘Twilight’ universe.” It retains some of the humor of the original, “but in a very grounded way. People are funny in a scary situation, not in a funny situation.” But, she assured us, “it’s not campy because that makes you not believe the scary part.” Colin Farrell, who plays Jerry, the neighbor, told us he views the character as enjoying the threat he imposes on the boys in the neighborhood, but he is “debonair, cultured, suave.” He “treats humans like a cat treats a ball of wool, like playthings. He has no human virtues.”

You’d think that after helming the Starship Enterprise and three X-Men movies, Patrick Stewart would be an old hand. But his first-ever visit to Comic-Con is on behalf of…”Dorothy of Oz,” an animated film opening in the summer of 2012. It is based on a book written by the grandson of Oz creator L. Frank Baum and Stewart’s co-stars include Lea Michele (Dorothy), Kelsey Grammer (Tin Man), Jim Belushi (Lion), Martin Short (the villain), and Dan Ackroyd (Scarecrow). He talked to me about the great advantage of doing voice work as an actor — being allowed to overact!

More coming soon — stay tuned.

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