Garden State

Every once in a while comes another film which claims it understands that lost era of life called the twenties. Attempting to show how for a decade a whole generation can feel lost, these films are often over-hyped and inaccurate. In his debut feature however, Zach Braff is able to fix this with a superb film about that era of our lives when we never really know where we're going.
At the age of 29, Braff, best known for his role as J.D. in "Scrubs" is well aware of how we can get lost in an age where we continue to put off our futures whilst we spend our times on different types of drug. Speaking in a recent interview for UGC Unlimited Magazine (Dec - Jan issue), Braff said: "I think your teen years are your body's puberty and your twenties are your mind's puberty." Whether Braff is right in his views or not, in his written and directorial debut, all his characters find themselves going nowhere in life.
Braff plays Andrew Largeman, an actor in Los Angeles. On medication since the age of ten, "Large" has been numb for as long as he can remember. Therefore when his estranged father (Ian Holm) rings with the news of his mothers death, the original reaction is far from reactive. Returning home for the first time in almost a decade however, he decides to skip his medication for once and go on a holiday from himself. As his body detoxifies, "Large" encounters his old school friends and the bouncy Sam (Natalie Portman) and begins to question whether the prescribed drugs were actually good for him or not.
"Garden State" is a brilliant first step for Braff. With characters who all suffer and to a degree feel lost, the characterisation is wonderful and the bond which the audience develops is huge. We all care for Braff's main character as he begins to finally experience life, and we all associate with Sam and Large's best friend Mark (Peter Sarsgaard). All three characters have to one degree or another suffered as a result of their parents, and we can all sympathies with that combination of embarrassment and love.
The plot as well is superb in it's detail. Starting with some good laughs at the start which do dwindle in number towards the end, the story keeps us gripped and involved. Whilst it does collapse towards the end as Braff writes a conclusion containing a few too many conventions, the script never relents from keeping us in touch with the characters.
Perhaps one of the finest things about this film is it's soundtrack. Created by Braff as well, this soundtrack has been nominated for awards and was at least partly responsible for convincing Natalie Portman to take the role of Sam. With the right sort of beat at the right moments, Braff's soundtrack adds to the joy of the film and makes it even more something for him to be proud of.
"Garden State" is a VERY good first step up the ladder for Zach Braff. Capturing the twenties with ease, Braff tells an engaging story which keeps the audience hooked from start to finish. With a stunning soundtrack and amazing characterisation, Braff makes us think and feel as his character of "Large" rediscovers himself. Admittedly Braff's one flaw is the slightly too "play it by numbers" finale which rounds itself off too nicely, but even then, we never loose interest. A wonderful first feature for Braff and a positive sign for the future.

Leon: The Professional

I've heard it said that thrillers are among the toughest types of films to do well and one of the easiest to mess up. I don't think that this could be anymore true. Most thrillers, especially many of the recent ones, are typically formulaic and offer nothing for the audience to chew on. They certainly provide a rush, but they don't do much more. Action-oriented films are among the worst in this regard. Often-times, even the action sequences are so ordinary that they're boring. Thankfully there are many films out there that buck the trend. LEON (know in America as THE PROFESSIONAL), Luc Besson's 1994 international breakthrough is part of this illustrious group. It not only provides some superbly crafted action sequences but some very effective drama and a flavorful undercurrent of dark comedy. The result is a wholly satisfying cinematic experience.

12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman) comes from a family with more baggage and dysfunction than normal. Her father (Michael Badalucco) deals drugs and her mother (Ellen Greene) doesn't do anything more substantial. Her older sister (Elizabeth Regen) delights in pounding on Mathilda. She also gets abuse from her father and mother as well. About the only person in her family that matters is her younger brother (Carl J. Matusovich). When she's not doing chores for her family, she enjoys smoking cigarettes in her New York City apartment in order to get by. One day, while she's lucky enough to be away, a dirty cop named Stan (played with gusto by Gary Oldman) breaks into Mathilda's apartment with some goons and kills everyone. This wouldn't mean anything to Mathilda except that they killed her brother...

Enter Leon, a laconic, lonely hit-man who is one of New York's finest. He likes to refer to himself as a "cleaner". He has long since repressed any emotional ties to anyone or anything except for his ever-present plant. He also happens to be Mathilda's next door neighbor. He very reluctantly takes her in when her family is slaughtered. But she simply doesn't want shelter- she wants revenge. Upon figuring out Leon's profession, she insists on learning the tricks of his trade. In exchange, she'll clean (in the traditional sense) for him and teach him to read...

The best thing about LEON is easily the interaction between its two protagonists. There is clearly chemistry between Leon and Mathilda, which makes the emotions expressed and the works spoken between the two of them seem believable, even if the relationship isn't likely to exist between them in real life. Much has been made over the years of the sexual undertones in their relationship as it is depicted. This aspect is very low-key at best. Their's is more of a father-daughter/mentor-student bond- a brilliantly realized one, no less. There is a wonderful montage of Leon and Mathilda developing in their relationship while Bjork's VENUS AS A BOY is playing in the background. It's to Besson credit that he could weave this much character development and unforced drama so seamlessly into the fabric of an action/revenge flick.

Acting is another one of LEON's strong suits. For Natalie Portman, this was her debut performance and it showed much promised for her right from the word go. By combining youthful exuberance with world-weariness, she makes Mathilda real in a way that many veteran actors can't grasp. As the title character, Jean Reno is also very impressive. His character undergoes the most change throughout the film and Reno is there with him almost every step of the way. There are times when he's a little stiff- particularly when he has to be more emotionally attached to Mathilda. Overall, however, his quirky, deadpan style of acting serves him well. He also provides some great comic relief, particularly when he tries to imitate a few legendary figures. As expected, Gary Oldman can be counted on to give a memorable performance. His villain is gleefully over-the-top and some of his mannerisms add some more dark humor to the proceedings. As Leon's mentor, Danny Aiello has a supporting role.

The action sequences in the film are quite masterful. The best ones are the opening and closing sequences. There are a few skirmishes throughout the film, but these two set pieces are the most skillful. Besson peppers everything with a wonderful European flavor, giving the film style as well as substance. Best of all, it doesn't buckle under the pressure to cheat the audience with a cop-out Hollywood ending, opting instead for one that preserves the emotional impact of the storyline. With it's combination of pathos, violence, action and humor, LEON deserves recognition not only as an excellent thriller, but as an excellent all-around film.

Closer

This film is beautiful, terrible, and real. Sadly, in a world where we're used to hearing stories in the simplest and most easy to swallow terms, I doubt that the average lover of romantic comedies and action flicks will like it. This is a story about the perpetual struggles found in human relationships and if you're used to seeing on-screen romance played out with operatic tragedy, (The English Patient) fable-like tenderness (Like Water for Chocolate), or perfect endings (Officer and a Gentleman), you might be out of luck with this movie. If, however, you think you'd like to see something a little more up-close, complex and real, this might be a movie that will change the way you think about love.

This is a film that focuses less on individuals, and more on the relationships between those individuals. If the four characters in Closer were represented by four points on a map, this movie would be a study of the lines that cross between those points, rather than the points themselves. In this way, we can easily see ourselves and each other in what happens on screen: you don't have to be a photographer to relate to Julia Roberts' self-loathing adulterer, because the film doesn't strive to tell the story of where she came from or why she takes pictures. For her character, it strives to tell the story of someone completely overcome both with lust and with the guilt that accompanies it. These two compulsions feed off of each other so feverishly that she cannot find happiness either in acting on her lust or in abstaining. Telling this side and only this side of her story helps it become more universal, as do the stories of her surrounding characters.

Patrick Marber made only a few changes in adapting his play to the screen, resulting in distinctly theatre-esquire dialog. This intense stylization helps the unconventional narrative seep into your unconscious: with the characters speaking a slightly altered language, it becomes easier to accept their slightly altered depiction of romantic entanglements. Make no mistake, Closer pulls no punches when it comes to the ugly side of romance, of commitment, of love and of the need to be loved.

Marber seems to be preoccupied with the way a slighted lover will beg or even demand to know every excruciating detail about their lover's infidelity. This inexplicable and seemingly masochistic phenomenon pervades Closer on both a literal and thematic level, because Marber has a very simple and universal idea to present. This need to hear these painful truths is the thesis of Closer. What we're soon able to see through the weaving of the characters' relationships is that this desire is a manifestation of any lover's need to possess his or her beloved. The victim of an infidelity grapples not just with the pain of betrayal but also with the inescapable knowledge of a most intimate element of their lover that will never, ever be theirs. In the same way that a man might find himself unable to live with the knowledge of his girlfriend's past sexual encounters (a la Chasing Amy), the cheated-on man or woman has to confront their pain, however irrational, for being unable to think of every element of their partner as their own.

Closer revolves around this theme. On the one hand, it does this through the literal story of a man wanting to know the details of how and where and with whom his wife cheated on him, vainly trying to take back those intimate moments and claim them as his own. On the other hand, however, Closer uses this theme in a much more general way. A man may grasp at the lustful experiences of his wife, trying to reverse his exclusion from them, but the way that grasping is employed in Closer shows us that even if it weren't for the infidelity, he would be grasping anyway. We all would. Our need to feel we have complete possession of our lover is what drives us to desperately dig deeper and deeper, trying to gain some secret knowledge of who and what they are at their most pure and uncompromised level. The scene where Larry (played by On-Screen Demi-god Clive Owen at his raving, ravishing, ravaging best) verbally taunts Anna about her lustful experience with Dan makes it my all time favorite scenes in all the movies that I have seen. I felt the sensation you get when you watch a bullet travel from inside the cylinder of a .44 carbine revolver through the insides of a brain, cranium et al and out through the back of a throat, inslow motion. That's almost as accurate as I can put it.

In the end, however, this level doesn't exist. The digging, the struggling and the grasping is futile as no person can be reduced to a singular truth. We are an entirely different thing, practically a different animal, from moment to moment. As Natalie Portman's character so perfectly illustrates by the end, even the most mundane details about who we are can turn out to be transitory or meaningless. That's not a pretty area of human life to shine a light on but Mike Nichols does it and with an unflinching ability. If it's a perspective you're prepared to spend some time considering, Closer might just be the movie to get the ball rolling.