Martha Marcy May Marlene
(Starring Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy)
Most of us never think twice about how living in a cult will permanently change a person's psyche. This movie confronts us with that idea in a lugubrious but heartbreaking manner.
Martha (the amazing Olsenâ┚¬â€Âa sister to the Olsen twins) is a young, orphaned girl who finds herself living two years in a community led by the enigmatic, mentally abusive Hawkes. When she escapes, she runs to sister Paulson. Years ago, after the sisters lost their parents, Paulson went to college, leaving the fragile Olsen to a dour aunt. Now Paulson is starting a successful yuppie-fied marriage to dashing Dancy. Olsen cannot bring herself to tell her family about the communityâ┚¬â€Âthe rapes, the crimes, and the mental torture, but also the love and belonging.
However, it's also weird how her educated sister and brother-in-law can never ask her the right question, or even sense when something is horribly wrong.
Films become transcendent when they can do away with a lot of dialogue to portray a gripping, character-driven story. This technique exemplifies why a movie is called a â┚¬Å”showâ┚¬Â and not a â┚¬Å”tell.â┚¬Â However, it's also frustrating when seemingly intelligent characters never ask the obvious questions. Furthermore, the actual plot often becomes very limp, colored like an old, faded Polaroid, meandering and sometimes even confusing. The whole endeavor is only saved because Olsen's and Hawkes' acting shows us truths about something that many of us have limited understanding of.
In Time
(Starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy)
In Time boosts a brilliant premise, one that metaphorically ties it to our current Occupy Wall Street protests.
In the future, time is literally moneyâ┚¬Â¦and life itself. People are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. Time is health and beauty and security. The rich live forever, stealing time from the overpopulated. The poor live day-to-day, minute-to-minute, dying when time runs out.
Timberlake is a noble young man who is gifted over a century of life from a rich man who is tired of living, sick of his own moral complicity in a system that kills some so that others can live forever. Seyfried is the daughter of a rich, heartless tycoon with all the time in the world. Together these two make a fascinating Bonnie and Clyde. They plan to steal time and give it to the poor; cop Murphy is tracking them.
The acting and art direction are nifty, even as the story turns a bit cliché. Because of commitment to emotion, the soapbox theme is more palatable. The bigger problems here are the many small plot holes. Technology is used to find the criminals but not to track them. Even today, we can track people by their credit card spending, a system that seems lost to the future.
However, this set-up is so fascinating, and everyone commits with emotion and dignity. And you cannot ignore that the themes are certainly corollary to our own times.
The Rum Diary
(Starring Johnny Depp, Richard Jenkins, Michael Rispoli, Giovanni Ribisi, Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard)
The Rum Diary is one of Hunter S. Thompson's lost novels, unpublished for nearly 30 years. The movie version is enjoyableâ┚¬â€Âfunny and well actedâ┚¬â€Âbut someone is confusing fiction with the author's life. Despite clever acting, this flick's purpose is messy, and not in a good, Hunter S. Thompson sort of way.
The drug-loving Thompson went to Puerto Rico in 1960 to be a journalist after failing for years as a novelist. Andâ┚¬â€Âlike Depp's fictional character Paul Kempâ┚¬â€Âhe probably did a lot of drinking and took his first hit of acid. The island itself suffered under crooked land deals, civil unrest, colorful characters, cockfights, poverty, and a burgeoning tourist trade. Thompson revels in all the backstabbing and debauchery with glee. But there's a reason the outspoken Thompson called this story fiction.
That's not to say the movie isn't often hilarious. The performances are phenomenal, and the art direction is polishedâ┚¬â€ÂMad Men meets Che. Minor characters from the novelâ┚¬â€Âlikeâ┚¬â€ÂRibisi's Moburgâ┚¬â€Âare given more time, just because Depp and the other producers know they're fun to watch.
Thompson was an inveterate drug-lover who also took â┚¬Å”the bastards of this worldâ┚¬Â to task. This entertaining fiction just cannot sort out his recklessness from his higher calling, confusing the author with his creation. Both ideas are left half-baked. Thompson was never himself half-baked; he baked the whole way.
