FROZEN II

I walked into FROZEN II expected nothing more than a cynical shameless cash-in on the success of its predecessor.  I knew Disney wouldn't have the balls to give Elsa a gay love interest so it didn't seem as if the story had anywhere to go. But I have to say that all my cynicism was overturned. FROZEN II is a beautifully told, technically stunning, deeply moving film, and one of the best I've seen this year. What's more, having heard a post-film Q & A with director Jennifer Lee, I can happily report that none of the character evolutions have been organised to be safe or commercial - rather to be true to the much-beloved characters and how they might feel at this "second act of a Broadway play".   A classic example of this is with the storyline of Kristoff. As the movie opens, Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) is grappling with how to craft the perfect proposal for Princess Anna (Kristen Bell).  But the writers actually went so far as to create and screen test a version where Anna proposes to Kristoff. The objection wasn't conservative, but that after a movie's worth of his efforts, it felt mean not to let him do it.  Similarly, when it comes to Elsa (Idina Menzel), I'm no fool - of course Disney isn't going to let her be out gay. But Jennifer Lee did make the good point that she's not actually ready for any relationship yet, because she's still at a weird place.  If the first film was about Elsa learning to accept that she can't hide who she is and isolate herself, the second film is about her moving away from just being almost pathologically grateful to be accepted by Arundel, to being genuinely happy in her own environment.

So that's the basic story arc. I loved the way the writers put it.  We have Anna as a fairytale princess and Elsa as a mythic archetype.  And as in the first film, we have to have Anna pull Elsa back from a classic mythic tragic fate, but we also have to respect that each has their own world.  To come to this resolution, we need to allow them to explore their back story. Why doesn't Anna have magic powers? Why were their parents out in a storm on a ship? To find out, the sisters, Kristoff and Olaf head north from Arundel to explore an enchanted forest that contains a dam that stops Arundel being flooded.  In doing so, we get a beautiful story that lightly but earnestly essays the dangers of not respecting nature, and the difficulty of confronting a colonial exploitative past. At the emotional level, there's a beautiful story about not being ashamed to depend on others, and how people from very different backgrounds (indeed, genres!) can come together to balance each other out, without demanding conformity.

All of which sounds terribly profound and earnest, and it is. But it's all dressed up in the most wonderful comedy and musical numbers. Olaf the snowman has a show-stopping old fashioned musical number that had the little children laughing.  Kristoff gets a parody 80s rock ballad that had the adults crying with laughter.  And the big number of this piece - "Into The Unknown" is just as beautifully crafted and penetrating as anything in the first film. I laughed, I cried, and was transported into the most dazzlingly created autumnal world.  I simply cannot wait for FROZEN III!

FROZEN II has a running time of 105 minutes.  It goes on global release on November 22nd. 

CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN

CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN is a strange and fascinating film that feels like it has too many good ideas clashing with each other and shouldn't work and yet somehow does.  It stars Shia Labeouf, but don't let that put you off. His big-eyed naivety plays well here, as the directionless romantic sent to Romania by his dying mother (Melissa Leo).  While there he gets into all sorts of random scrapes, some of which involve taking large quantities of drugs in a youth hostel with Ron Weasley and Jay from THE INBETWEENERS. But the meat of the story is Charlie falling in love with the grieving daughter of the man Charlie sat next to on the  plane. Played with a perfect accent by Evan Rachel Wood, the character of Gabi is perfectly aware that she is a movie trope - immediately asking Charlie if he wants to fall in love with her because she is vulnerable and exotic. She also has that most cliched of movie tropes - a nasty violent ex-husband, played with mordant wit  by Mads Mikkelsen (HANNIBAL).  

It's a movie that can be schmaltzy but is aware of that, and so is undercut by incredibly dark humour. The scenes in the youth hostel are genuinely laugh  out loud funny - I mean, I've never spent time thinking of porn names for Rupert Grint, but Boris Pecker is a work of genius. And some of the exchanges between a completely deadpan Mads Mikkelsen and Shia Labeouf were fantastically funny - just wait for the scene citing Dizzy Gillespie. So kudos to screen-writer Matt Drake for penning such a self-aware, daringly random, and funny script. As for the direction from first time feature helmer Fredrik Bond, it's elegant and particularly good in its use of music. The soundtrack featuring Deadmono is superb.

Like I said, this is an odd film that defies genre descriptions but if you go with it there's more than enough pay off.  Shia is at his most likeable (low baseline I admit), the music is great, Mads Mikkelsen is truly superb and Evan Rachel Wood is heart-breaking. 

CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN aka THE NECESSARY DEATH OF CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN has a running time of 103 minutes and is rated R.  The film played Sundance and Berlin 2013 and was released last year in Norway, the USA, Denmark and Israel. It was released earlier this year in Singapore, Belgium, France, Portugal and Hong Kong. It is currently on release in the UK and Ireland.

iPad Round-Up 2 - THE CONSIPIRATOR

Yet another thumpingly pedestrian issues-film from Robert Redford.  The movie takes the form of an historic court-room drama, with James McAvoy playing the lawyer defending Robin Wright's Mary Surrat of conspiracy to murder President Lincoln (she was Booth's landlady and her son has mysteriously fled.)  This being a Redford film, the politics are naively simple and oppositional: McAvoy's lawyer is the champion of all things good - liberty, the constitution and the right to a fair trial even in the wake of an appalling political crime.  Kevin Kline's war minister represents the forces of evil:  putting ends before means, willing to sacrifice right to expediency, with a contemporary relevance in that Surrat was denied a civilian trial before her peers, and tried under military law. 

The issues are fascinating, the casting top notch, Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography is superb, and the dilemmas at the movie's heart are clearly highly relevant today.  The problem is that it feels like a college debate rather than a movie.  Movies must entertain. If they educate and provoke as well, then all to the good. But no-one ever learned anything while their eyes were rolling to the back of their head in boredom.  Castigat ridendo mores. Moliere knew this. Redford apparently does not  He needs to treat his subject matter with a little less respect and his audiences with a little more.  

THE CONSPIRATOR played Toronto 2010 and opened in summer 2011 in the USA, Hong Kong, South Korea, Ireland, the UK, Portugal, Australia, Turkey, Kuwait and Germany. It opened last month in Singapore. It goes on release in Belgium on November 16th and in Spain on December 2nd. It is available to rent and own.

London Film Fest 2011 Day 8 - THE IDES OF MARCH

THE IDES OF MARCH is a cheap thriller full of plot holes that wants us to believe that it's an insightful, intelligent political film.  It tries to mask poor writing and construction with an all-star cast, but I'm not buying it.  This is, for all its pretensions and earnest good intentions, a bad film.  Now, I haven't seen the play on which the movie was based - Beau Willimon's Farragut North (a road on Washington DC full of political consultants).  But my friends tell me that this movie makes a departure from the closed world of that play in the final forty minutes - in other words, the movie is not content to stick with the play's obsession with the mechanics of political campaigns - and "raises the stakes" in the jargon of Screenwriting 101.  The result feels amateur and undermines the momentum and spark of the opening half hour.

As the movie opens we feel we are in good hands. The movie has pace and wit and does what a lot of great political films do - it gives us the feeling we're peeking behind the curtain at a world we're fascinated by.  We love how Stephen and Paul (Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman) intricately plot and plan Governor Mike Morris; (George Clooney) Ohio Primary Campaign. We love the Machiavellian scheming of their opposite number, Tom (Paul Giamatti).  We love the whip-smart dialogue from the pushy intern (Evan Rachel Wood) that Stephen's sleeping with.  The dialogue is almost Aaron-Sorkin-esque and the action takes place in seedy hotel rooms and cheap offices and bleak parking lots.  It all seems to be going so right!  We care about whether Morris' will cheapen himself in order to get an endorsement from sleazy Senator Thompson (Jeffrey Wright).  We care about whether he will win.

The problem is that the movie then takes a turn into nonsense.  The event upon which the action turns is that Stephen will take a meeting with Tom. This is anathema during a campaign - the press will jump on it. So why would a guy so smart for for it? OK, I thought, I'll go with it. But then Stephen needs to get just $900 petty cash to propel another key plot point. Does he just draw it from an ATM thus involving no-one else? No! He asks his sidekick to get it out of petty cash leaving no receipt in an open plan office! Not so smart! And if you don't believe Stephen is smart, you don't believe he can rescue the mess he gets himself into, other than through the divine right of the hero in  mainstream movies.

And what about the politics? THE IDES OF MARCH is not telling us anything new by "revealing" that idealistic politicians can make low deals and do bad things. We are a decade after Clinton. We know about sex scandals. It all seems rather old hat. 

So we're left with a film whether the story is simply not credible and falls from grace into cheap thriller. The only things we can cling to are superb supporting performances from Evan Rachel Wood (who manages to make a stock character sympathetic and nuanced) and the always legendary Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Where's the elegance and sophistication that coloured Clooney's earlier directorial effort, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK?

<< Philip Seymour Hoffman (Paul Zara); Evan Rachel Wood (Molly Stearns) and George Clooney (Governor Mike Morris and Director)  at the photocall for THE IDES OF MARCH at the BFI London Film Festival.


THE IDES OF MARCH played Toronto and Venice 2011. It opens in the US on October 7th; in the Netherlands on October 20th; on October 28th in France Portugal, Ireland and the UK; on November 4th in Sweden; on November 11th in Finland; on December 22nd in Germany; on January 5th 2012 in Hungary and on February 14th in Russia.

Random DVD Round-Up - WHATEVER WORKS

WHATEVER WORKS is Woody Allen decoupage. You watch a bunch of his film and cut out and assemble the familiar characters and themes. First, you take a Woody Allen cipher, played in his younger days by Allen, and now by Larry "Curb Your Enthusiasm" David. Second, you have that character be cynical about life, and to talk about his cynicism incessantly to his friends, random strangers and, breaking the fourth wall, to the audience. Third, you have the Allen character meet and, rather improbably, have a sexual relationship with, a nubile young girl. It started with Mariel Hemingway in MANHATTAN but we now get a surprisingly charismatic and fascinating Evan Rachel Wood. Fourth, you have all the characters fall in and out of love and talk about charmingly in a series of rather lovely autumnal New York scenes. Finally, you have the cynical old know-it-all realise that the young flibbertigibbet was really on to something when she said, "you gotta have a little faith in people". The End. The only real difference in WHATEVER WORKS is that the old lech and the young idiot actually get married in an implausible turn of events that seems like a desperate plea for understanding by a writer-director who's marriage to his much younger adopted daughter has been ill-received.

Larry David is just about watchable even when he's trying to shoe-horn his schtick into the Woody Allen straitjacket. As I said, Evan Rachel Wood acts just about everyone off the screen. Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Junior are just fine as the parents who come to get their daughter back, but end up being transformed by the magical mystery powers of New York. Henry Cavill is rather flat and anonymous as the younger man. All's well that end's well, I suppose, but the whole film feels rather warmed over and re-hashed - like a Muzack cover of a Greatest Hit.

Where's the provocation of CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS? Where's the genuine heartbreak of ANNIE HALL? Where's the fizzy subversion of VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA?

Eventual tags: woody allen, comedy, evan rachel wood, larry david, harris savides, patricia clarkson, henry cavill, ed begley jr, conleth hill, michael mckean

WHATEVER WORKS was released earlier this year in the USA, Canada, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, and Finland. It is currently on release in Brazil and Estonia. It opens on November 27th in Iceland. It opens in Germany on December 3rd and in Russia on December 31st. It does not have a UK release date but is available on Region 1 DVD.

London Film Festival Day 12 - THE WRESTLER (Surprise film)

THE WRESTLER is one of those films that makes you re-assess your preconceptions about a certain actor or director. After the bloated disaster of THE FOUNTAIN I was wondering if Darren Aronofsky would ever produce anything as visceral and devestating as REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. And as for Mickey Rourke - well his career was a joke, wasn't it? And yet here we are with THE WRESTLER - a movie that eschews all the technical tricks and pretentious philosophical musings of Aronofsky's earlier work to give as a restrained, emotionally rich character study. And here we have a central performance from Rourke that's just astounding and definitely Oscar-worthy, channelling all his own experience of a fall from fame into a nuanced and endearing performance. Indeed, THE WRESTLER is up there with IL DIVO and HUNGER as the best movie of the festival so far.

It's a simple story, well told. THE WRESTLER opens with a wry sub-title "twenty years later". Rourke plays a wrestler called "The Ram" who was famous in the 80s but now ekes out a living playing local exhibition matches for cash-in-hand. He lives in a trailor - his daughter doesn't want to know him - his only emotional engagement is with a stripper - his body is a beaten-up mess. But despite all this, The Ram remains a surprisingly upbeat, stand-up guy. He's a pleasure to spend time with. He throws himself into life - even a shitty job at a supermarket deli counter - with gusto. And thanks to a brilliant performance from Rourke, we really want him to turn around his relationship with his daughter and to have a proper relationship with the stripper.

The tragedy is that The Ram is now so bent out of shape that to fight will kill him. But what else can he do? In real life, he's called "Robin", he works a crap job, and he has to struggle for respect. In the ring, to the fans, he's a god. This is the secret of his relationship with the stripper. In the club, she's Cassidy. But outside of the club, she's Pam - a hard-working mum with a kid. For a moment, it looks like they'll be able to help each other, but in the final analysis, the wrestler can't switch his identity so late in life. Really, this movie has the perfect title - it's how The Ram identifies himself and who are we to judge him for sticking to that?

THE WRESTLER played Venice, where it won The Golden Lion, Toronto and London 2008. It opens in the US on December 31st, in Australia on January 15th and in Germany on February 26th.

KING OF CALIFORNIA - harmless

KING OF CALIFORNIA is a rather harmless, whimsical story of the relationship between a responsible-before-her-time teenager and her sporadically mentally-ill father. The daughter, played by Evan Rachel-Wood, is basically a good kid, who panders to her father's delirious dream of finding Spanish gold buried beneath - of all places - a big-box grocery store. After all, in a world of convention and dull consumerism, isn't it far more fun to go with the crazy idea? Michael Douglas clearly has a whale of a time in a wild beard and an even wilder physical performance. But for all the warm-feelings aroused by this indie comedy, I couldn't help but want a tighter script and plotting. The movie washed over me - it was pleasant enough - but not particularly memorable.

KING OF CALIFORNIA played Sundance and Toronto 2007 and was released in France, the US, Germany, Hungary and Austria last year. It was released in Israel, Argentina, Italy and Spain earlier this year and went straight to DVD in the UK.

The best bit in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was when the stupid hippie blew himself up

Oh dear. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is a bit of an embarassment. Director Julie Taymor of FRIDA fame decides to make a high-concept film. She'll paint a love story against the backdrop of Vietnam and the summers of love, people it with rock stars and set it to re-worked Beatles songs. I was a bit dubious about the concept from the start, mainly because I hate the way in which West End theatres have been filled with lazy musicals. Take MAMMA MIA or WE WILL ROCK YOU or the countless imitators. All they do is stitch together the greatest hits of whoever, making trite love stories out of corny lyrics. The plot and character development are hostage to the next three-minute number. Of course, you could argue that The Beatles would respond better to such a treatment. After all, the songs are of infinitely higher quality than your average pop song and they are peopled with colourful characters. Moreover, the Beatles story is iconic precisely because it reflects back the fall of innocence of a generation and the nasty hangover that was the 70s.

So maybe it could work. Maybe. Maybe not.

Julie Taymor, Dick Clement and Ian le Frenais simply fail to fashion a convincing story that hangs together apart from the songs. Basically, what we have is a very thin love story between an american girl called Lucy and a travelling scouser called Jude. (Yes, yes, it's THAT obvious.) Lucy's elder brother gets shipped off to Vietnam and their flatmate Sadie is in a rock band with a quasi-Hendrix and a sapphic ex-cheerleader. The lovers meet, they hang out, she becomes an activist, he doesn't, he gets deported back to Blighty, and then they all get back together again because, after all, ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.

It was pretty depressing to see this great anthem, that always struck me as hugely outward looking and political, reworked as introspective, trivial love song. But that pretty much sums up the film. The backdrop may be radical but the action is petty. There are hints early on that the film will tackle the black and gay experience of the decade but it barely scratches the surface. It's examination of the Vietnam war experience is pretty sketchy too.

So, story aside, what of them musical numbers? Most of the songs are straightforward renditions to screen and the visualisations, like the naming of the characters, is pretty ham-fisted. On occasion, the performances are also under-whelming. Joe Anderson as Lucy's brother Max simply can't match the raw energy of HEY JUDE and perhaps surprisingly Bono is pretty lacklustre in his rendition of I AM THE WALRUS. (Although he turns out to be surprisingly good as Doctor Roberts.) Having said that, the only song that I thought was really badly staged was I'VE JUST SEEN A FACE, purely because it seemed to rip on the infinitely better bowling sequences in LEBOWSKI.

There are exceptions though, that almost, but not quite, make this movie worth seeing. I thought the most honest and movingly sung number was TV Carpio's rendition of I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND, sung as a love-song of closeted homosexuality. After that, I really liked the grungy angry version of COME TOGETHER, sung by Joe Cocker. Dana Fuchs and Martin Luther clearly also rock. In terms of the visualisation of the numbers, as I said before, I was disappointed to see that most were pretty banal. But I WANT YOU stands out as a bit of fantastic cinema. It's imagined as a song sung by Army recruiters to conscripted young men and its full of great choreography and real imagination. Eddie Izzard was also fantastic as Mr Kite. It's a shame Julie Tayor didn't let rip more often.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE played Toronto 2007 and is already on release in the US and UK. It is realeased in Australia, Slovenia, Turkey, Estonia, Germany, Italy and France in November and in Belgium on December 19th. It is released in Singapore on Janary 10th and in the Netherlands on February 14th 2007.

Overlooked DVD of the month - THE UPSIDE OF ANGER

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER is an interesting and original adult drama. (I refrain from calling it a rom-com). It's original because writer-director Mike Binder dares to feature a romance between two mentally and physically out-of-shape middle-aged people. This means that a great "character" actress like Joan Allen can get a starring role as a woman whose husband has apparently left her for his younger PA. She hits the bottle pretty hard and starts an affair with a has-been baseball player called Denny (Kevin Costner). She also has four teenage daughters who have various issues. It's not one of those laugh-out loud movies, although it does contain some wry laughs. And it doesn't have the typical formulaic plot arc where the happy couple meet, argue, get back together. It moves at a patient pace and creates interesting characters. I just think it's lovely to see a mature film for a change, and in some ways, the less epic plot creates a more cohesive and successful film that Binder's later work, REIGN OVER ME.

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER played Sundance in 2005 and opened in the US that year. It didn't open in the UK until May 2007 and is available on DVD.

THE REEF aka SHARKBAIT aka PI'S STORY - a stinker by any other name would smell as rotten

As much as I hate the liberal earnestness of a movie like HAPPY FEET, there's something equally annoying about a kids movie with the moral center and profundity of a Sweet Valley High novel. THE REEF is a poorly animated CGI movie from South Korea featuring a series of mediocre voice talent who use the word "dude" too much. The plot sees a Nemo-esque cute fish seek refuge in a protected Reef after his family becomes sushi. He falls for a cute fish called Cordelia (Evan Rachel Wood in a career mis-step) but in true Karate Kid form, she is the preferred date of a bullying tiger shark. So, little Pi has to stand up to the mean shark in order to save his chick, with the help of a hard-as-nails turtle voiced by the embodiment of cinematic evil, Rob Schneider. Presumably, really small kids will be thrilled enough by the mere concept of animated talking fish but for anyone else, I suspect, intense boredom awaits.

THE REEF was released in South Korea in July 2006 and is currently playing in the UK. It opens in the Czech Republic on February 22nd and in the Netherlands on April 25th.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS - incoherent

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is a star-packed adaptation of a best-selling memoir that is now the subject of a lawsuit. Unsurprising, given that the author, Augusten Burroughs, depicts his adoptive family as a bunch of crazies (technical term) stretching the viewer's credulity. Dumped by his egocentric, failed poet mother, Augusten moves into the criminally filthy, decrepit Finch household in the mid-1970s. There follows many a bizarre-O scene involving Papa Finch (unlicensed, tablet-dispensing, tax-owing Psychologist - Brian Cox); Mama Finch (eats pet food); Hope Finch (high-strung, eats dead cat - Gwyneth Paltrow); Natalie Finch (raped as kid, rebel - Evan Rachel Wood); Bookman (schizo, gay, paedophile - Joe Fiennes); kid who poops under the Christmas tree.......Sadly, the director, Ryan Murphy never manages to fashion a coherent whole from this gallery of grotesques. Worse still, he never makes us care. Final result: dull, dull, dull, despite a star-turn from the ever-brilliant Annette Bening as the kid's mum.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS was released in the US last October, in Brazil in November and in Germany, Norway and Spain in January. It is currently on release in Singapore and the UK and goes on release in Italy on the 16th and in Argentina and Israel on the 22nd. It opens in Sweden on March 16th, France on March 21st, Belgium on March 28th and Australia on March 29th.

Random DVD round-up 4 - PRETTY PERSUASION *

PRETTY PERSUASION is a weak-ass attempt at the kind of satire of social and political mores that HEATHERS and ELECTION pulled off with great style. It wastes the talents of Evan Rachel Wood as a sexually precocious, cynical fifteen-year old who is willing to set up her sleazy school teacher on sexual harrassment charges just to get revenge on her boyfriend-stealing best friend and break into TV. There are also wasted performances from James Woods - who provides the only real belly-laughs as the girl's ranting racist lawyer father - Jane Krakowski as the lesbian local TV reporter, Ron Livingston as the teacher and Selma Blair as his girlfriend. The film is a lot less clever and biting than it needs to be to sustain the conceit and the run-time. A noble effort, but a sheer waste of 110 minutes.

PRETTY PERSUASION played Sundance 2005 and was released in the US in 2005 and in the UK in August. It is available on Region 1 and 2 DVD.

DOWN IN THE VALLEY - great performances, great movie

DOWN IN THE VALLEY is a fascinating movie that tackles issues of personal identity, contact between families and outsiders, and relationships across the ages. It does so in a manner that is far more convincing and affecting than recent movies such as THE KING, and (I am laughing at mentioning this in the same review) PRIME. Set in contemporary California, the movie tells the story of a thirtysomething drifter called Harlan (Edward Norton), who comes across as a throw-back to the days of the Wild West. By chance he meets a teenage girl called Tobe (played by Evan Rachel Wood), who causally invites this strange, other-wordly man to the beach. Despite the uneasiness we feel at the age gap, it is clear from the early scenes of the movie that it is Tobe who is making all the running, although it is telling about Harlan's grip on reality that he never thinks to check how old she actually is - at least on camera. In addition, it is a mark of Edward Norton's talent that while he can incite the audience's unease at much that Harlan does, we never think of him as a stock-sexual predator. In fact, in many scenes between Tobe and Harlan - riding on horseback, or just sitting in the bath together - they just look plain innocent and love.

The relationship between Tobe and Harlan reminds me of a current hit song in the UK, whose chorus plays: "Show some love, you ain't that tough: fill my little world right up, right up." Both Tobe and Harlan are characters who live is small, isolated worlds. Harlan has no friends to speak of, no job, and no real home. He spends his time play-acting old Western movies in his motel room and writing letters that serve as vehicles for defining his persona rather than actual attempts at communication. Tobe meanwhile has a kid brother who she loves but is faintly irritated by and an absentee father. So when these characters meet, with nothing to distract them from this new all-consuming love, things reach a pitch intensity that is almost bound to be unstable. The intensity of love where there once was an emotional vacuum is echoed in Harlan's relationship with Tobe's younger brother, Lonnie. Lonnie is a poor, lonely kid who knows that he is not his father's biological son, and also that he lacks "gumption" and other qualities that would make his father, Wade (played by David Morse), look upon him kindly. When Harlan shows him attention and tells him he is an okay kid, it is as though Lonnie suddenly has something to believe in, and that faith is ever-enduring.

Other than the universally fantastic acting, other things to note about DOWN IN THE VALLEY are the evocative sound-track and photography, by DP Enrique Chediak. He beautifully contrasts the "road to nowhere" rat-race of crowded highways, day and night, with Harlan's horseback rides on the edge of the city. The topography of the Valley is used to great effort - notably when Harlan's takes a vantage point on the traffic below, and in scenes at dusk near the end of the movie, when Lonnie and Harlan are walking near the camp-fire. At times, you can just sit back and just soak up the photography with the wistful score, and let the action roll on - almost as an afterthought.

Which is what some viewers may want to do. Some of the people I saw this movie with complained that the screenplay took the characters to extreme places that seemed not at all in keeping with what we knew about them. However, I have to respectfully disagree. I think the script is at pains to point out the conflicting feelings that Tobe has about Harlan, and also, given what we know, fully explains Lonnie's unswerving devotion to him. In addition, the movie opens itself up to criticism by referencing a number of cinematic greats, not least TAXI DRIVER. Referencing the greats is always risky, because you remind the audience of films which they are likely to think "better" than what they are currently watching. Worse still, it can just seem lazy. However, I think that these cinematic references are justified, as they throw up the pop-culture references that make up Harlan's psyche.

To my mind, DOWN IN THE VALLEY is one of the most original and interesting movies that I have seen all year. You have to buy in to the underlying concept but I believe that once you do this, everything that Harlan, Tobe, Lonnie and Wade do seems in character. Best of all, there is a certain thrill in seeing such an all-round quality product - from the acting to the sound to the photography to the editing. Go check it out!

DOWN IN THE VALLEY showed at Cannes 2005 and went on release in France in February and the US in May 2006. It is currently on release in the UK. I do not know of a release date for Germany, Austria or Australia.