Drama

Anna Karenina

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Anna Karenina
  • IMDb: link

“Sin has a price, you can be sure of that.”

anna-karenina-posterAttempting another historical adaptation of classic literature, while re-teaming with leading lady Keira Knightley (with whom he collaborated on both Pride & Prejudice and Atonement), director Joe Wright delivers the unexpected with an evocative and dazzling adaptation of Leo Tolstoy‘s legendary novel Anna Karenina.

Limited by budgetary considerations and an unwillingness to repurpose locations other adaptations of Tolstoy’s work, or those used by various recent historical dramas, Wright hit upon an extraordinary idea to breathe new life in the staid genre by staging a setting that transforms around its characters. The result is a game changer in how movies like Anna Karenina are told and a serious contender for the best film of 2012.

Set in Russia during the late 19th Century our story concerns rich socialite Anna Karenina (Knightley), her marriage to an honorable but bland government official (Jude Law), and her temptation and eventual affair with the far more dashing Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

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Dancing, Crazy People, and the Philadelphia Eagles

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Silver Linings Playbook
  • IMDB: link

silver-linings-playbook-posterWith his latest movie, Silver Linings Playbook, writer/director David O. Russell (The Fighter, Three Kings) delivers his most mainstream film to date in this adaptation of Matthew Quick‘s novel of the same name about a teacher (Bradley Cooper) who moves back in with his parents (Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver) after spending eight months in a mental institution. At times I think Russell can get too cute for his own good (see I Heart Huckabees), but Silver Linings provides the director the kind of manic characters he enjoys while still forcing him draw within the lines. The result is one of the year’s best films.

Our story begins with the release of Pat (Cooper) from his stint in the loony bin after brutally assaulting a fellow teacher who he discovers sleeping with his wife (Brea Bee). Armed with medication he refuses to take and an optimistic attitude of winning back his wife (despite being still haunted by her infidelity), putting his life back together, and looking for the silver lining in every bad situation, Pat begins his slow (and rocky) road to recovery.

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Life of Pi

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Life of Pi
  • IMDB: link

life-of-pi-posterBased on the bestselling novel by Yann Martel, Life of Pi is the tale of an impossible adventure of a young man named after a swimming pool who rebrands himself on the mathematical constant Pi (Suraj Sharma) and his journey of survival after a shipwreck and 227 days alone on a life boat with a Bengal tiger as his only companion.

Much like the book, the movie hinges on the audience being able to accept the tale of the unreliable narrator, an older Pi (Irrfan Khan) recounting his adventure years later, despite all logic that tells us the young man’s journey would be impossible.

The film is beautiful to behold, and with only a few exceptions (most notably the odd depiction of Pi’s uncle) the CGI elegantly renders the animals and stark environment the young zoo keeper’s son finds himself. After a brief introduction, and discounting the later events of the older Pi sharing his story to a struggling writer (Rafe Spall), nearly the entire movie takes place on the small lifeboat in the middle of an empty ocean.

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A Royal Affair

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: En kongelig affære
  • IMDB: link

a-royal-affair-posterSet in the last half of the 18th Century, during the Age of the Enlightenment, A Royal Affair examines the reign of the mentally unstable King Christian VII of Denmark (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) from the perspective of his queen (Alicia Vikander) and most trusted advisor, German doctor Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) whose wide sweeping reforms (the abolishment of censorship, torture, the slave trade, and an increase on taxes of the aristocracy for the good of the people) and affair with the queen, albeit briefly, changed the course of Denmark’s history.

Unable to acquire the rights to Stuensee’s story, director Nikolaj Arcel choose instead to adapt a Danish romantic novel of Bodil Steensen-Leth. Because of the source material, far more emphasis is put on the relationships the Queen has with both her husband and Struensee, and the behind-the-scenes palace politics and court intrigue, than the reforms themselves or their effect on the Danish people. The story also never questions the doctor’s noble purpose or motives for grabbing so much power (including so thoroughly dismantling the King’s government) that, along with his affair with the Queen, ultimately led to his downfall.

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Lincoln

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Lincoln
  • IMDb: link

lincoln-poster

Director Steven Spielberg‘s follow-up to last year’s disappointing War Horse is a far more personal character study of a single man during one of the most tumultuous times in America’s history. Adapted from Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, rather than give us a Hollywood version of “This is Your Life,” Lincoln chooses to focus on the final four months of Abraham Lincoln‘s presidency and the end of both the Civil War and slavery.

Daniel Day-Lewis carries the movie with yet another strong performance as our title character, and Sally Field is surprisingly terrific in the role of Mary Todd Lincoln. Although there is more going on, much like Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master, Spielberg’s movie can really be boiled down to two performances that elevate the story around them.

Tony Kushner‘s script focuses on the law, backdoor politics, and Lincoln’s struggle to reunite the Union and abolish slavery rather than the Civil War, which is only used as a backdrop to the events occurring in Washington D.C.

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