Author: Kate Larkindale

Review: ‘Nebraska’

Posted by | Feb 6, 2014 |

It’s going to be hard to beat this one for the best film of 2014 and the year is only a month old! Bruce Dern gives the performance of his life (and his career is none-too-shabby to start with) as the elderly Woody, a man edging toward dementia after a lifetime of alcoholism. Clinging to his own reality, he sets off from Montana for Nebraska to collect the million dollars he believes he’s won in some generic sweepstakes contest. Knowing his father all too well, his son David goes along, rather than try to talk him out of it. And so begins what has to be one of the most beautiful road trips ever captured on screen. On their way to Omaha, the pair visit Woody’s family in the small town he grew up in. There Woody’s windfall becomes legend within a day, and by day two people are crawling out of the woodwork to get their share. David’s pleas that his father is not a millionaire fall on deaf ears. The characters here could have been appalling caricatures, but in the hands of Payne and screenwriter Nelson, each one is a real person with his or her own foibles and quirks. Even Woody’s wife (whose first words in the film are a screeched ‘ You dumb cluck!’) is more than a shrill harpy bent on haranguing her husband....

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Review: ‘The Book Thief’

Posted by | Jan 16, 2014 |

The success of Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, was a surprise. Narrated by Death, and telling the story of tweens in Nazi Germany without softening the horrors and abuses suffered, it was not a title expected to fly up the best-seller list. Yet the book’s overarching themes of the joys of living and the triumph of the human spirit over adversity seem to strike a chord in readers young and old alike. Adapting a much beloved book to the screen is always risky, but the filmmakers have done a fine job of capturing the essence of the story and of externalising its innermost themes. The film follows Liesel. After the death of her brother she is sent to live with kindly strangers, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in a small village outside of Munich. Among her meagre possessions is a book, the only one Liesel has ever owned – yet she can’t read. This earns her the ‘dumkopf’ label from her classmates at her new school. Determined to learn she enlists the help of kindly Hans. With her love of words firmly in place, Liesel becomes so addicted to books, she begins ‘borrowing’ them everywhere she goes. Which is not far. The entire story plays out in the village which changes dramatically as the Nazis sweep through, closing stores owned by Jewish merchants and recruiting the football-playing children from the streets. When the Hubermanns take...

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Review: ‘August: Osage County’

Posted by | Jan 6, 2014 |

Family dysfunction doesn’t come much more dysfunctional than this. Meryl Streep plays Violet, the family matriarch of the Weston clan. She has mouth cancer, but even this isn’t enough to keep her from voicing her displeasure with all and sundry around her. When her husband, an acclaimed poet, goes missing during a fishing trip, she assembles her family around her to help manage the crisis. However, her family are all dealing with crises of their own. There are three daughters: Barbara, the underachiever who left town years ago and arrives with her philandering husband and their temperamental teenage daughter; Karen, the bubble-head who turns up in her sleazy boyfriend’s convertible, flaunting her happiness and the rock on her finger; and Ivy, the middle child who stayed nearby and nurses a secret about the painfully shy son of her aunt, Mattie-Fae. That Mattie-Fae has her own complicated relationship with Beverly, the departed husband and father, further stokes Violet’s fire. Fuelled by Percocet and a lifetime of regret, Violet lets loose on her family at the dinner party. It’s a painful scene, but also quietly and blackly humorous. Streep attacks the role with such relish; clearly enjoying the opportunity to let loose and show the villainous side she hasn’t aired since The Devil Wears Prada. As far as acting chops go, Julia Roberts (who plays Barbara) matches Streep stride for stride, and their...

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Review: ‘Philomena’

Posted by | Dec 28, 2013 |

Philomena’s subject matter may lead some to believe they’re heading for a gruelling couple of hours. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Dame Judy Dench plays the titular Philomena, a woman who survived years of servitude in a Magdalene convent after giving birth out of wedlock. Fifty years later a chance meeting between Philomena’s daughter and journalist Martin Sixmith (Steve Coogan), a recently-disgraced political advisor, leads Philomena and Sixsmith on a journey to find the son Philomena lost so long ago. Sixsmith is initially unexcited by the idea of investigating what he considers a fluff piece but, after meeting Philomena, something about her honesty and wit intrigues him. And once he starts digging he becomes more and more excited by what he finds out about the child. The paper-chase leads them to the US where they face some shocking revelations. The joy of this film is in the way the viewer takes the journey alongside Sixsmith and Philomena. They are a mismatched pair, he a lapsed Catholic who embraces his atheism with as much fervour as Philomena still embraces her Catholicism. His cynicism and world-weariness contrast wonderfully with Philomena’s childish excitement in simple things like a breakfast buffet novel. There are clear villains in the nuns who foil the pair at every turn. They initially tell them that all the convent’s records were destroyed in a fire, but it...

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Review: ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’

Posted by | Dec 27, 2013 |

James Thurber’s story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty appeared in the New Yorker in 1939. Since then, the name Walter Mitty has become synonymous with boring men with delusions of heroism.  Eight years after publication a film version was made, starring Danny Kaye. This is an update of that film. In this version Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) works at Life magazine, where he oversees the cover photograph for the magazine’s iconic final print issue. Most of the staff face job losses, yet what really has Walter’s imagination stirred up is his crush on a new co-worker, Cheryl. When the magazine’s star photographer sends in his final roll of film with the note that his cover image (negative 25) is the ‘quintessential’ image, excitement reigns. Yet negative 25 cannot be found. With his job on the line and Cheryl to impress, Walter is forced to stop imagining a life lived boldly, and has to step into it. His quest for the missing image takes him to places like Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan, where he finds himself doing things he hasn’t even dreamed of before – jumping out of helicopters, escaping from erupting volcanoes and more. This makes the filmmakers’ choice of Life magazine rather apt, given the company’s motto had to do with seeing the world and bringing the things it offers to life. This is one of the most beautifully structured films I’ve...

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