Reviews
The Sunday Age
Sunday April 4, 2010
˜…˜…THE BOUNTY HUNTER(M, 110 minutes). On general releaseOnce married, now divorced and antagonistic, Milo (Gerard Butler) and Nicole (Jennifer Aniston) bicker their way through a wan romantic adventure in Andy Tennant's movie. She's a tabloid reporter who jumps bail to chase a story about police corruption; he's the bounty hunter assigned to bring her in. The leads resort to what they know best: self-fulfilling coyness from Aniston and muscular banter from Butler.CM˜…˜…˜…BROTHERS(M, 104 minutes). On limited releaseJim Sheridan's moving adaptation of Danish writer-director Susanne Bier's 2004 return-of-the-soldier drama is the story of a US officer who goes missing on the Afghan battlefront while his brother tries to keep the home fires burning. A vivid study of domesticity's unifying power and what happens in its absence, it stars Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal.TR˜…˜…˜…THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO(MA15+, 153 minutes). On general releaseBased on part one of the late Stieg Larsson's "Millennium trilogy", Danish director Niels Arden Oplev's drama works well enough as a mystery thriller but largely sidesteps the social and political resonances of the source material. Noomi Rapace is perfect as the punky computer hacker who teams up with Michael Nyqvist's disgraced journalist to investigate a missing-persons case. TR˜…˜…˜…GOOD HAIR(M, 98 minutes). At ACMI until April 21What African-American women regard as "good hair" and the lengths to which they're prepared to go to get it are the subjects of this thoroughly entertaining documentary produced, co-written and narrated by actor-comedian Chris Rock. He talks to celebrities, experts and ordinary folk about what they think and leaves us to join the dots.TR˜…˜…˜…HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON(PG, 98 minutes). On general releaseDean DeBlois and Chris Sanders' animated feature proves to be one of the better suggestions for adolescent audiences in recent times. In a Viking village eternally in conflict with dragons and various other scaly creatures, the misfit son of the tribe's chief (voiced by Jay Baruchel and Gerard Butler respectively) upends generations of accepted thinking when he befriends an injured creature. The movie amusingly values diversity over conflict. CMLA MIRADA FILM FESTIVALAt ACMI to April 11Co-programmed by Pedro Almodovar and also featuring selections from guest curators Martin Scorsese and Stephen Daldry, the fourth La Mirada festival offers a program of 27 films, including six from the vaults. Among them is Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (2009, 104 minutes), a strained but nonetheless steamy drama about romantic obsessions and cultural differences, written and directed by Isabel Coixet (Elegy, My Life Without Me) and starring Rinko Kikuchi and Sergi Lopez. TR˜…LITTLE ASHES(MA15+, 116 minutes). At the George.Paul Morrison's leaden melodrama is a miscalculated account of the mixed-up friendship shared by playwright/poet Federico Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran), artist/oddball Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson) and filmmaker/homophobe Luis Bunuel (Matthew McNulty). The film keeps asserting weighty themes about life in pre-Civil War Spain but lends them little substance, the strained artiness of the style not helped by Pattinson's unsteady performance in an impossible role.TR˜…˜…˜…˜…MICMACS(M, 104 minutes). On general releaseA bit like a cross between a comic fairytale and a heist movie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's delightfully exuberant film is a David and Goliath story about a social outcast who joins a group of kindred souls in a plot to topple the French arms industry. Deliciously idiosyncratic and endlessly inventive, it stars Dany Boon, Andre Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Yolande Moreau.TR˜…˜…˜…THE REBOUND(M, 94 minutes). On general releaseIn writer/director Bart Freundlich's surprisingly nourishing romantic comedy, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Sandy, a wife and mother of two who moves back to Manhattan with her kids after learning of her husband's infidelity. Dating proves difficult and she eventually finds that a possible Mr Right is Justin Bartha's Aram, a listless university graduate who wants to move from babysitter to boyfriend. CM˜…˜…˜…REMEMBER ME(M, 113 minutes). On general releaseSet against a background of New York nightmares, Allen Coulter's affecting second feature is a love story and a drama about how "our fingerprints don't fade from those we touch". Robert Pattinson plays an angry young man, Emilie de Ravin is the fellow NYU student who becomes his soul-mate, and Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper play their fathers.TR˜…˜…˜…SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE(MA15+, 104 minutes). On general releaseIssues of self-esteem are to the fore in British director Jim Field Smith's feature debut, a ribald but sweet romantic comedy set in Pittsburgh about a young man overcome with disbelief when a beautiful blond declares her interest. Smith's two-shots give Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve plenty of room to move as the unlikely couple and they use it well. TR
© 2010 The Sunday Age