Backtracking Reviews 3

Director: Wes Anderson
Exec prods: Owen Wilson, Rudd Simmons
Prods: Wes Anderson, Barry Mendel, Scott Rudin
Scr: Anderson, Owen Wilson
Cinematography: Robert Yeoman
Prod des: David Wasco
Ed: Dylan Tichenor
Music: Mark Mothersbaugh

Main cast:
Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Danny Glover, Bill Murray, Seymour Cassel, Kumar Pallana, Alec Baldwin
USA 2001. 108mins.

The same distinctive sensibility that informed Wes Anderson's first two innovative films, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, is very much in evidence in his new serious-comedy, The Royal Tenenbaums, except that the scope is more ambitious, the budget bigger and the cast more glamorous.

With brief, wild strokes, the gifted Anderson paints onscreen a canvas of a three-generational dysfunctional family, headed by an errant, neglectful father (masterfully played by Gene Hackman), whose main wish is to reunite with the rest of his tribe before his presumably impending death. Although Anderson continues to be a critics' delight, his efforts have not reached audiences beyond the arthouse circuit: Bottle Rocket was a festival favourite but seen by few; and Rushmore, his best and most coherent film to date, did not even recoup its modest budget of about $15 million. The new film's most exploitable marketing hook is its stellar cast that includes, in addition to Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Luke and Owen Wilson (the latter is Anderson's writing collaborator), among others.

Regrettably, due to the film's literary format, stylised visuals, postcard-like framing and particularly radically shifting tone (between scenes and often within the same scene), The Royal Tenenbaums is not likely to be a big commercial breakout, although it will do better than Anderson's previous outings.

The good news is that, despite his singular cinematic vision, Anderson, unlike most independent directors, does not repeat himself. Each of his three pictures flaunts a different narrative and distinct style. The bad news is that the format chosen for his new feature is literary: the family album unfolds as a book, divided into chapters, each flashed onscreen with its title, pages and characters. The end result is a vastly uneven film that, like a massive novel, contains some brilliant episodes, but also some that are too clipped or too fake, though by design.

The Royal Tenenbaums renders a new meaning to the term "dysfunctional family", a concept much used and abused in pop culture during the past decade. The "literary adaptation" commences with Alec Baldwin's hefty narration, which introduces the large gallery of characters forming the clan and its associates: father Royal (Hackman), wife Etheline (Huston), their two boys, Chas (Stiller) and Richie (Luke Wilson) and their adopted girl, Margot (Paltrow). This crowd, particularly the children, have been encouraged by their eccentric parents to cultivate their idiosyncratic gifts and to never be ashamed of their unique attributes, such as Margot's missing finger. We also learn that Royal, a former litigator, could not embrace his paternal responsibilities and deserted his family.

Chas started buying property in his early teens, benefiting from an almost unnatural understanding of international finance. Margot was a successful juvenile playwright who won a prestigious $50,000 grant while only nine. A junior tennis champion, Richie was for three years running the winner of the USA Nationals. Unfortunately, the memory of all this brilliance was subsequently erased by betrayal, failure and disaster, both natural and man-made, largely due to their father's fault.

The story then jumps ahead to 22 years later, when Royal is a layabout (at one point he works as an hotel lift operator) in his post-legal career, having been disbarred and served time in prison. Royal's sole wish now is to reconcile with his family before it is too late, and to achieve that goal he claims to be dying. His companion, Pagoda (Pallana), pretends to be one of his doctors, supplying an alibi for all the incredible stories he invents about his various illnesses.

Meanwhile his separated (but officially still married) spouse Etheline, who has carried the family burden single-handedly, is trying to forge a new life for herself with a new flame, Henry (Glover), her distanced bridge partner. After a long courtship, the reserved Henry pulls himself together and proposes to the utterly shocked Etheline, a woman who, by her own admission, has not slept with any man in 18 years.

The main story depicts the family's fables and foibles once all the children find an excuse to move back home. Royal's "rationale" for residing under the same roof is that he's got only six weeks to live, a ploy that he uses to prevent Etheline from marrying Henry. Parallel to the adult romantic triangle is a more youthful but equally problematic one. Margot, a gifted writer who hasn't produced a play in years, is near suicidal, locking herself in the bathroom with her smokes and music. Although married to a loving man, Raleigh (Murray), she 'advertently' and inadvertently encourages romantic advances from her own siblings - and other men. Anderson's humour is wonderfully droll in dealing with the issue of whether or not these affairs are illicit or incestuous; strictly speaking, Margot is not Richie's sister, and Royal gives his blessing.

It is impossible to do justice to the multi-nuanced, ever-shifting story and its persona. In its good moments, which are plentiful, The Royal Tenenbaums presents a tragic-comic critique of a clan of geniuses, with each member adept at a particular skill - but, as a result of an awful family life, each becomes ill-suited to deal with the kinds of problems most mature people have to contend with. Anderson's new work is full of surprising warmth and charm, but even more than his former films, The Royal Tenenbuams boasts an expansive plot replete with twists, turns and droll characters who bounce off each other in refreshing, often shocking, ways.

Throughout, Anderson demonstrates a tight control (perhaps too much) over every aspect of his production, from the writing to the staging to the overall visual design and pacing. Since the feature consists of numerous chapters and multiple segments within each chapter, the performers are unable to develop much continuity. Nor does it help that Anderson varies the emotional tone from scene to scene and has his cast face the camera directly, rather than each other, while delivering their lines.

Some viewers may also be upset by Anderson's treatment of his characters as both naive and sussed stooges, active yet passive people with "goals" to pursue, be it love, friendship, crime or just notoriety. What the new film's characters share with those of the directors earlier work is a constant, inventive verbosity that has not been heard on the American screen since Preston Sturges in the 1940s. Anderson's dialogue is smart but also deliberately contrived, decorated with a steady stream of deadpan humour that occasionally feels forced, at least compared with his first pictures.

With the exception of disappointing performances from Murray (who was so brilliant in Rushmore) and Stiller, (how the hell does this mediocre pillock get booked into so many good films?), all the other actors hit their marks, particularly Hackman, whose versatility seems to knows no bounds. Endowed with the meatiest role, Hackman provides the cement for an arduously tricky film that might be too episodic and disjointed for its own good.

In a year so far of mostly bad or mediocre mainstream fare, it may be ironic to fault a film like The Royal Tenenbaums for overreaching in its aspirations. But unlike Rushmore, an ultra-frank coming-of-age comedy whose inventive audacity was matched by perfect technical execution and impeccable acting, The Royal Tenenbaums is more ambitious and expansive, but also less fluent and smooth. If Anderson wishes to appeal to a larger audience than the arthouse circuit, he may have to develop a more accessible style to present his highly intelligent ideas. That said, perhaps the best compliment that could be paid to this genre-defying picture is that it's truly incomparable to any other Hollywood comedy, past or present.

Music note:
Score by ex-Devo main-man Mark Mothersbaugh
Soundtrack album track listings
1. 111 Archer Avenue - Mark Mothersbaugh
2. These Days - Nico
3. String Quartet in F Major (Second Movement) - Ysaÿe Quartet
4. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard - Paul Simon
5. Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Minor - The Mutato Muzika Orchestra
6. Wigwam - Bob Dylan
7. Mark Mothersbaugh - Look At That Old Grizzly Bear
8. Look At Me - John Lennon
9. Lullabye - Emitt Rhodes
10. Mothersbaugh's Canon - Mark Mothersbaugh
11. Police & Thieves - The Clash
12. Scrapping and Yelling - Mark Mothersbaugh
13. Judy Is A Punk - The Ramones
14. Pagoda's Theme - Mark Mothersbaugh
15. Needle In The Hay - Elliott Smith
16. Fly - Nick Drake
17. I Always Wanted To Be A Tenenbaum - Mark Mothersbaugh
18. Christmas Time Is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
19. Stephanie Says - The Velvet Underground
20. Rachel Evans Tenenbaum (1965-2000) - Mark Mothersbaugh
21. Sparkplug Minuet - Mark Mothersbaugh
22. The Fairest Of The Seasons - Nico
23. Hey Jude - The Mutato Muzika Orchestra

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Genre/Type: Thriller, Drama, Prison Film, Psychological Thriller
Contains: Violence, Sexual Situations, Explicit Language
Themes: Governmental Corruption, Experiments Gone Awry, Class Differences
Tones: Tense, Visceral, Melancholy, Forceful, Confrontational, Claustrophobic
Produced by Fanes Film / Senator Film Produktion / SevenPictures Film / Typhoon Film
Released by Senator 115 mins.

Featuring:
Moritz Bleibtreu
Christian Berkel
Oliver Stokowski
Andrea Sawatzki
Edgar Selge
Antoine Monot, Jr.
Andre Jung

A man taking part in a scientific study finds the fine line between play-acting and reality has been blurred beyond recognition in this taut drama. Tarek Fahd (Moritz Bleibtreu) is a journalist who is temporarily making ends meet by driving a taxi when he sees an advertisement offering 4,000 marks to people willing to submit to a psychological experiment.

Intrigued, Tarek offers to take part in the study, and persuades one of his former editors to help him work up a story about his experiences. Recording the events using a special high-tech video camera hidden in his glasses, Tarek arrives for the two-week experiment to discover half of the volunteers will pose as prison guards and the other half will be their prisoners. Before long the behaviour of the subjects suggests more than just make-believe; "inmate" Tarek in particular is unwilling to take abuse from the "guards" and makes no secret of his contempt, while Berus (Justus von Dohnanyi) begins playing a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with Tarek. Tarek, meanwhile, begins escaping reality by fantasizing about Dora (Maren Eggert), a woman with whom he had a brief fling before taking part in the experiment.

A highly charged, disturbingly graphic, documentary realism-style study of the human psyche in terms of role adoption and the power of uniformity.

Dir: Jessie Nelson. US 2001. 134mins.
Pro co: Bedford Falls Productions, Red Fish, Blue Fish Films
Prod: Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz, Richard Solomon and Jessie Nelson
Exec prod: Claire Rudnick Polstein, Michael De Luca, David Scott Rubin
Scr: Kristine Johnson & Jessie Nelson
Cinematography: Elliot Davis
Pro des: Aaron Osborne
Ed: Richard Chew
Music: John Powell
Main cast: Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Laura Dern, Dianne Wiest, Caroline Keenan

This film about a mentally-challenged father (Penn) whose seven-year old daughter is taken away from him by social workers is as cloying as they come and will try the patience of even the actor's most loyal fans. Certainly there is an audience for this type of treacly fare and the presence of both Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer - as the high-powered attorney who tries to win the girl back for her dad - will bring some people into cinemas. However, I Am Sam is unlikely to make the massive in-roads at the box office.

Sam Dawson, a gentle soul with the mental capacity of a seven-year old, has achieved quite a lot in life: he holds down a job at a Starbucks coffee bar and manages to take care of himself. However, Sam has also made Rebecca (Caroline Keenan), a homeless woman, pregnant - but she runs off soon after she gives birth, leaving Sam to raise Lucy (an adorable Dakota Fanning) by himself. Although Sam is a loving and attentive father, the time comes when his daughter's own intellectual growth surpasses his own. When well-intentioned child welfare workers take Lucy away, placing her in a foster home, Sam enlists the assistance of highly-strung self-absorbed attorney Rita Harrison (Pfeiffer). Needless to say, Rita isn't a very good mother to her own son, until exposure to Sam and Lucy reminds her of what is important in life.

In her second outing as a feature director, screenwriter Jessie Nelson makes some of the same mistakes she made with her debut film, the 1994 Whoopi Goldberg vehicle Corrina, Corrina. Unfortunately, her work here possesses an even weaker storyline and dialogue and more overt sentimentality. The music, by the reliable John Powell, is chirpy and bouncy, the soundtrack album is excellent, featuring a broad cross section of artists covering Beatles' tracks. Nelson and cinematographer Elliot Davis favour a wild hand-held camera style, filled with split pans, slow-motion digressions and unnecessary jump cuts: it's the kind of dizzying panning and zooming around one usually associates with the work of Lars von Trier and is not really appropriate for this kind of story.

Penn does his best with his Rain Man-style role (comparisons with that film and Dustin Hoffman's performance will be unavoidable) - but playing an individual who never grows or changes is not easy, since there is not much character to go with. Pfeiffer is gorgeous looking but offers a stereotype of a harried, outwardly tough but inwardly fragile woman. Laura Dern does a fine job in the film's toughest role as the foster mum who is breaking up Sam and Lucy's happy home. Best see it for yourself, and make up your own mind!

Cast>
John Nash: Russell Crowe
Parcher: Ed Harris
Alicia: Jennifer Connelly
Charles: Paul Bettany
Dr. Rosen: Christopher Plummer
Helinger: Judd Hirsch

Directed by Ron Howard.
Written by Akiva Goldsman based on the book by Sylvia Nasar.

Running time: 129 minutes.

The Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr. still teaches and walks to work every day. "A Beautiful Mind," the story of a man who is one of the greatest mathematicians, and a victim of schizophrenia. Nash's discoveries in game theory have an impact on our lives every day, although he also believed for a time that Russians were sending him coded messages on the front page of the New York Times.

The film stars Russell Crowe as Nash, and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Alicia, who is pregnant with their child when the first symptoms of his disease become apparent. It tells the story of a man whose mind was of enormous service to humanity while at the same time betrayed him with frightening delusions. Crowe brings the character to life by sidestepping sensationalism and building with small behavioural details. He shows a man who descends into madness and then, unexpectedly, regains the ability to function in the academic world. Nash has been compared to Newton, Mendel and Darwin, but was also for many years just a man muttering to himself in the corner.

Director Ron Howard shows the small gem of goodness in Nash that inspired his wife and others to stand by him, to keep hope and, in her words in his darkest hour, "to believe that something extraordinary is possible." The movie's Nash begins as a quiet but almost arrogant young man who gradually turns into a tortured, secretive paranoid who believes he is a spy being trailed by government agents. Crowe, who has an uncanny ability to modify his look to fit a role, never seems less than convincing as a man who ages 47 years during the film.

The early Nash, seen at Princeton in the late 1940s, calmly tells a scholarship winner "there is not a single seminal idea on either of your papers." When he loses at a game of Go, he explains: "I had the first move. My play was perfect. The game is flawed." He is aware of his impact on others ("I don't much like people and they don't much like me") and recalls that his first-grade teacher said he was "born with two helpings of brain and a half-helping of heart."

It is Alicia who helps him find the heart. She is a graduate student when they meet, is attracted to his genius, is touched by his loneliness, is able to accept his idea of courtship when he informs her, "Ritual requires we proceed with a number of platonic activities before we have sex." To the degree that he can be touched, she touches him, although often he seems trapped inside himself; Sylvia Nasar, who wrote the 1998 biography that informs Akiva Goldsman's screenplay, begins her book by quoting Wordsworth about "a man forever voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone."

Nash's schizophrenia takes a literal, visual form. He believes he is being pursued by a federal agent (Ed Harris), and imagines himself in chase scenes that seem inspired by 1940s crime movies. He begins to find patterns where no patterns exist. One night he and Alicia stand under the sky and he asks her to name any object, and then connects stars to draw it. Romantic, but it's not so romantic when she discovers his office thickly papered with countless bits torn from newspapers and magazines and connected by frantic lines into imaginary patterns.

The movie traces his treatment by an understanding psychiatrist (Christopher Plummer), and his agonizing courses of insulin shock therapy. Medication helps him improve somewhat--but only, of course, when he takes the medication. Eventually newer drugs are more effective, and he begins a tentative re-entry into the academic world at Princeton.

For many years Nash was a recluse, wandering the campus, talking to no one, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, paging through piles of newspapers and magazines. And then one day he paid a quite ordinary compliment to a colleague about his daughter, and it was noticed that Nash seemed better.

There is a remarkable scene in the movie when a representative for the Nobel committee (Austin Pendleton) comes visiting, and hints that he is being "considered" for the prize. Nash observes that people are usually informed they have won, not that they are being considered: "You came here to find out if I am crazy and would screw everything up if I won." He did win, and did not screw everything up.

Films regularly have a way of pushing mental illness into corners. It is grotesque, sensational, cute, funny, willful, tragic or perverse. Here it is simply a disease, which renders life almost but not quite impossible for Nash and his wife, before he becomes one of the lucky ones to pull out of the downward spiral.

When he won the Nobel, Nash was asked to write about his life, and he was honest enough to say his recovery is "not entirely a matter of joy." He observes: "Without his 'madness,' Zarathustra would necessarily have been only another of the millions or billions of human individuals who have lived and then been forgotten." Without his madness, would Nash have also lived and then been forgotten? Did his ability to penetrate the most difficult reaches of mathematical thought somehow come with a price attached? The film does not know and cannot say.

(Note:If you'd like to read Nash's autobiographical statement, go to
www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1994/nash-autobio.html)