Hello all!
You may well guess from the post title that yesterday I saw two film - that's right, two films in one day. What's amazing is that each film, by my guess (I haven't checked because I'm on holiday so I don't really care!), was 2.5 hours. Add on adverts and trailers and I spent about 6 hours in the cinema yesterday! How did I manage to accomplish anything else?!
So, film one was Mission Impossible 4 (aka Ghost Protocol), and film two was The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo (the English version with Daniel Craig, just to be clear). If I had a place to write a subtitle for this post I would have written Lights and Clockwork. That is, Mission Impossible being lights, and TGWTDT being clockwork.
MI4 was all lights and very little substance. It's the same old espionage premise of a new wrinkle on detente - that is, some subversive moron trying to restart the Cold War. The stunts are spectacular, but the layering of impossibility upon impossibility drives this film into the realms of absurdity: climbing up the outside of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building (at 828m / 2,717ft) with nothing but powered suction gloves (one of which, of course, breaks on the way up) in the face of an approaching sandstorm...need I say more. On the other hand, all the lights were very entertaining, it's just a shame that the two brief attempts at clockwork are of almost no interest by the time they come to "light"!
By comparison, TGWTDT is virtually all clockwork and no lights. I think the film does Sweden a disservice in as much as the entire country (including everyone and everything in it) looks grey from start to finish. In addition, whether it's a Hollywood version or not, the international cast being almost devoid of Swedish talent, is remarkable. To give the film its due, the acting is remarkable in many places - notably Christopher Plummer and Rooney Mara. Stellan Skarsgaard is in fine form as always, but many of the other actors seem to be going through the motions more than anything else. Going back to Rooney Mara, the magnetism of her appearance aside, her acting is remarkable, considering how little she actually says. The final scene in particular is astonishing in its intensity, and perhaps that also explains, to some extent, the harshness of my opinion on the film. I felt deflated, a much diluted version of her character's feelings. On the other hand, the film did ultimately leave me interested in reading the books - more than any review or word of mouth recommendation has thus far accomplished (despite one failed attempt with this first story).
To conclude, neither film is magic. I would only see either again to kill time, not really for the escapism I generally seek at the cinema. I don't want to put anyone off. Mission Impossible is solid work, and is entertaining while TGWTDT is a very dark, haunting film that I enjoyed; the fact simply remains that neither have that winning combination of lights AND clockwork.
In other news, I have seen trailers for Men in Black 3(?!), a fantastic looking film called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which - despite my better judgment - I hope will see a return to form for the Spielberg-Williams partnership. And finally, The Artist, looks truly wonderful as an exploration of the troubled transition from silent movie to talkie.
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