Gemma and Mia have both been the tragic wife in two new takes on a French classic, Flaubert’s eternal ‘Madame Bovary’. They both, the actresses and the movies themselves, bring something very individual in doing so – one much more than the other.

Mia Wasikowska’s vehicle is by far the straighter retelling of the two. The Canberran is on an upward trajectory since her debut in local production ‘Suburban Mayhem’. Prior to that she’d had some appearances in the usual soaps, had given up a promising future in ballet and claims to owe her cinematic poise to her parents. Both professional photographers, they were constantly placing her before the camera lens. And no wonder – what a photogenic young lady! She’s a self-starter. At an early age she was spiriting herself off to every Australian talent agency listed and eventually one took a punt, casting her ethereal looks around the traps to see if there were any takers. There soon were and she was away. At only seventeen Hollywood came calling, casting her in HBO’s ‘In Treatment’, as a suicidal gymnast. Big screen appearances followed. Her breakout role came playing Alice in another adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale. It helped that the director was Tim Burton. Later came ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Stoker’, as well as ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’. Then the ingenue returned home for ‘Tracks’ and Tim Winton’s ‘The Turning’. To come is ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’.

Her ‘Madame Bovary’ is quite routine, some might say even plodding. Directed by Sophie Barthes, it is the first time that a woman has been at the helm for a film production of the novel, but it’s still somewhat of a let down all for that. This is a saga so repeated that to start at the end, for which the director has been criticised, hardly matters. We all know the journey, but there was little deviation from a rote telling here. A young woman is taken away from a convent by a hubby-to-be she hardly knows and after a village wedding, she settles down to life in a dank, bleak Normandy. The groom, the local doctor, is distant and leads a narrow existence. Her life soon becomes stultifyingly boring so she takes lovers and engages in the equivalent, back then, of on-line shopping (emporium catalogues), placing the couple deep in debt. In the end, she sees no way out but to take the ultimate step. The costuming of the film is really the only stunning feature but, dear me, why did the director have her actors, a mix of nationalities, speak so heavily in Americanese? To appeal to where the money is? It just made it all sound quite hokey.

In the end, Madame B is just a plaything for her assistants in cuckolding the good doctor. She’s is naive putty in the hands of the rapacious merchant Monsieur Lheureux- an odious Rhys Ifans. His playing thereof is perhaps the film’s highlight. Mia does an okay job in the lead as a none-too-bright ninny. In truth, it doesn’t require great acting chops, although she is beautiful poured into her array of fancy outfits – and I did appreciate the way her beauty seemed to mature as the offering progressed.

Screening simultaneously to Madame Bovary is the latest version of ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’, headed by a luminous Carey Mulligan. If one had to make a choice as to which production to spend a dollar on, get oneself to the latter would be my advice.

‘Gemma Bovery’ has now left our screens, but inevitably will soon be out on a smaller format. It is a much lighter take on the cautionary tale – and here rural France is sun-dappled and most appealing. It updates the whole business to current times, but still with a tragic outcome despite, for the most part, being played as a form of farce.

Gemma B (Gemma Arterton) breezes in from across the Channel, with hubby in tow, to set up residence next to Flaubert-loving retiree Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini). The lesser lights all are more than adequate in their roles, but as one would expect, it is a showcase for the sensuous Ms A.

She’s one of my favourites, this ravishing thesp. Although being in the game for a while, her breakout performance seemingly is still yet to come, despite the fact being a Bond girl figures on her CV. The poor girl has even lost roles she would be superb in due to her perceived lack of star pulling-power. Nevertheless, she still has managed to pile up quite a resume on the large and small screen. Her debut was the romp ‘St Trinians’ in 2007. She was Strawberry Fields in ‘Quantum of Solace’, had lead roles in the underwhelming ‘Clash of the Titans’ and ‘Tamara Drew’, then she flounced around in the footlights for ‘Made in Dagenham’ – the musical. She’s played Hardy’s Tess on tele. Her bravest and most demanding role, to date, was in ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’. Here a kidnapping victim gets her ultimate revenge, but not before much gritty realism takes place. It caused some well-founded controversy on its release. I can but imagine the fortitude it took for her to take on such a taxing story.

But as Gemma Bovery, she is all charm and sparkling, come hither eyes. She happily has an affair behind her husband’s back under the watchful gaze of Joubert – a gaze that becomes obsessive, with him soon perceiving she is headed for deep do-do. And when this did come it was quite a shock, given the tone of the piece up until that point. Her retribution was not at all in the manner of the original. Do the explanations for this version of it stand up to close scrutiny? You be the judge on viewing this fine addition to the oeuvre. To me, despite this, it was a joy, coming to us in a manner we expect of the French. Another woman, this time Anne Fontaine, of ‘Coco Avant Chanel’ fame, was guiding the cast along the narrative and it is most entertaining.

I know I’ll be accused of being unpatriotic, but in this battle of the two Madame Bova(e)rys, the luscious Gemma wins, hands down.

Trailer for ‘Madame Bovary’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La-clCmfWGo

Trailer for Gemma Bovery = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6AHGtq_zqk

It’s a name to fall in love with. Bathsheba Everdene. Bathsheba Everdene. Say it out loud a few times. Roll it around the tongue a couple more. Magical.

And fall in love, I did, with that feisty miss – one who was before her time. Looking back, I initially presumed I would have given her my heart from the print version, rather than the one projected up there on the big screen. There was, of course, no VHS or DVD back then as the sixties imploded and turned the corner into the next decade. After all, I had spent my uni years working through the remaining Hardy novels after first encountering him via the tragic Tess in Year 12. She also caused, in me, much inner longing – for what, I wasn’t quite sure.

But, having completed my due diligence, the ether told me the film was released in 1967 and therefore the Bathsheba I was first so enamoured of must have been the Julie Christie version. It’s so long ago now that I viewed this film version and read the novel of ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’. I remember the sheep falling off the cliff and the stolid farm hand, played back then by Alan Bates (who else?), treating Miss Everdene’s flock for the bloat. And I could bring back how dashing Terence Stamp looked in his uniform playing the cad, wooing our heroine for a fast shilling to get him out of debt. He seduced her in no time flat despite the worthy Gabriel Oak, the farm hand, having stuck by her through thick and thin – completely besotted. After she pranked unfortunate rich neighbour on Valentines Day, William Boldwood (Peter Finch) was also pursuing her hand and being driven almost insensible by her constant refusals.

So, with a fond memory of a bygone infatuation, I traipsed off to see the 2015 version of the great work a few weeks ago, optimistically expecting the new Bathsheba, Carey Mulligan, to entrance me as much as her predecessors.

I was not let down. I enjoyed every moment of it – and the story came back to me almost in its entirety, even if I still could not recall how it was all going to pan out. The resurrection of Frank Troy, the slimy soldier-cove was still a great surprise. This time around Tom Sturridge played the execrable, but charismatic, gold-digger to the hilt of oiliness, with the marvellous Matthias Schoenaerts compelling as the faithful Oak. ‘Masters of Sex’ leading hand Michael Sheen ably filled Finch’s shoes as the lovelorn elder suitor. And, as for Carey, if she didn’t win you over as Daisy in ‘The Great Gatsby’, she’s sure to in this. As Bathsheba she takes on a man’s job with steely determination and is the independent woman personified, that is until she’s completely undone by the odious Frank Troy. She would not ride side-saddle, she would not be bidded down for her grain seeds just because she was a woman and she proclaimed she would not give herself in wedlock for gain She’d do it only for love. Ha!

Starring beautifully, as well, was the lush Dorset countryside, with director Thomas Vinterberg ably recreating the descriptions of landscape that Hardy mastered for the printed page. And if you like the director’s take on this classic, look out for a DVD copy of his chilling tale of what can go wrong in the classroom with his astounding ‘The Hunt’. Mads Mikkelsen steals the show in that harrowing journey, but in it there’s no one to match the sublime Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene, Bathsheba Everdene, Bathsheba Everdene……

Official trailer = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCm1XNVD_0c

Word somehow reached him that ‘real’ surfers hated his music. How would anybody know that? Did those ‘real’ wave-riders phone into radio stations to diss his hits; to slag off how trite and trivial they all were? Surfies I knew back then would be far too laid back for that – but maybe the US variety were different. ‘Back then’ was fifty or so years ago now – no internet, no social media. Could it be that pollsters were paid to walk around SoCal beaches to ask surfer types their opinion as they came in from hanging five out on the break? I don’t think so, but somehow he was told that those guys out on their boards all summer long didn’t dig what he was putting out there – and so he went into another one of his funks because of it.

He didn’t surf himself – although he spent a fair amount of time in a sandpit. Only brother Dennis occasionally hit the swells. But it mattered not. At around the time I was entering my teens they were the sound of summer. They sang of hot cars and surfer chicks, but mainly they sang that ‘…the beach was the place to go.’ And I did, summer after summer – here in Tassie when weather permitted, or when I escaped to Mangoland (where it permitted it all the time). But it’s not this early stuff (‘Surfin’ USA’, ‘California Girls’, ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’, ‘Help Me Rhonda’) that had me hooked, but more the tunes coming out around the time I had my first automobile. Can you remember ‘Sloop John B’, ‘Barbara Ann’, ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’, ‘Then I Kissed Her’, ‘Do It Again’, the iconic ‘Good Vibrations’ and what many, in the know, consider his greatest, ‘God Only Knows’? Later, in my uni years, I kept following him through such albums as ‘Surfs Up’, ‘Holland’ and ‘Sixteen Big Ones’. Although critical successes, he struggled to capture the same commercial profit for those with his band, the Beach Boys, as he did for their isolated singles – the public had moved on.

Sadly, for most of his life, this consummate songsmith, Brian Wilson, was a train wreck of emotion. The movie, ‘Love and Mercy’, tells of his time in the depths of the sandpit – so to speak. It informs us, as well, how he’s come back to us as a survivor – well enough to give the world his performances again. But still, obviously, he’s greatly shaken and stirred. And ironically, he is the only Wilson still standing of the three brothers forming the nucleus of the eternal Beach Boys. They will be forever associated with their Southern Californian musings of what made life so magic and simple before it all went so belly-up with complexity and stress – and perhaps BW contributed to that as well.

It is, as critic Philippa Hawker describes it in her positive take on the movie, a ‘Clever biopic…’ It’s split in two, with Paul Dano playing the younger Brian W as he starts the downward spiral. The second half features John Cusak as the musician at his nadir, following him through his journey back up the slippery slope. At this stage Wilson is in the clutches of his Svengali, Eugene Landy, joyfully and oilily played by Paul Giamatti. Here we follow his attempts, in the eighties, to clumsily woo the woman who will be his ultimate saviour – his now wife, Melinda.

Dano was masterful in bringing the younger version to the screen. He certainly looks the part, unlike Cusack whom, if you’re familiar with the muso-dude, struggles to carry off the role convincingly as there’s no resemblance. Just to emphasise this, the man himself puts in an appearance as the credits roll. But, if you can put all that aside, Cusack, in his aping of Wilson’s mannerisms, goes some way to make that distraction not detract so much as to ruin one’s appreciation of what Brian was up against.

There is much to intrigue with ‘Love and Mercy’ and the way novice director, Bill Pohlad, interweaves the two narratives. As well, he organises it so we go right inside Wilson’s head – both visually and aurally. There is also the joy to be had as we watch the members of the band put together some of their best known music product in the studio. Many of these are mini-symphonies as they try to quench Brian W’s fixation on out-Beatle-ing the Beatles.

Not much screen time is given to his brothers Carl and Dennis, with Mike Love coming out of it as an insensitive tool. More emphasis is placed on the two demons in Brian’s world, Landy and his fruitcake of a father (Bill Camp). Together these two characters well and truly made the remarkable singer/songwriter a blathering wreck, that is, until he meets his own gorgeous, feisty Californian girl, played by Elizabeth Banks.

Thankfully these days he’s back up on stage playing his back catalogue for us, as well as his newer material. But he still so obviously carries the legacy of his trials. At seventy-three we trust he will be around a while longer, for ‘god only knows’, what he created is timeless.

Official trailer for ‘Love and mercy’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lioWzrpCtGM

She came out of the water dripping and sent certain feelings whizzing through my teenage self. The venue was the Somerset Drive-in so therefore there would have been seagulls flying across the screen to add to the authenticity – but this lad’s mind was not on those particular birds. I have no idea whose car I was in and whether my girl friend of the time was beside me. I remember nothing else of that movie – but that scene is still etched on my mind to this day.

No, it wasn’t Ursula Andress in her white bikini – that was way back in ’62. This was half a decade later and by 1969 what could be shown up on that big amount of white space had changed markedly, but a scene featuring bare breasts was still novel and the beautiful girl emerging from the sea wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. I’d never heard of the actress concerned, but the male lead, playing an artist, was well-known, being British actor James Mason. His muse and model, Cora Ryan, was played by Helen Mirren in her first screen role. The memorable scene in question took place on a beach on Queensland’s Dunk Island – it was my first encounter with the Dame.

In the nineties, close to thirty years on, she became a regular feature of my Friday nights. Mirren was no longer that nubile lass from ‘Age of Consent’, but as DCI Jane Tennison, in the police procedural ‘Prime Suspect’, she was in the prime of womanhood and still had that something about her that stirred the blood – only this time on the small screen. She was riveting. This night on Auntie was devoted to crime and one hundred percent British. From 1991 till 2006 ‘Prime Suspect’ was one of the best of its kind as we followed our feisty DCI, catching the villains and coping with being a female in a man’s world with a private life that was, of course, flawed.

Move a couple of decades on again and Mirren, along with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, are the grand dames of UK female thespians and still going strong. She remains luminous, still taking on starring roles in such box-office friendly fare as ‘Calendar Girls’, ‘The Queen’ and ‘A Hundred Foot Journey’. There are more creases these days, but she is still as stunning up there as she was breathtaking back at the end of the sixties.

And her latest, ‘Woman in Gold’, is doing very nicely too, thank you. Based on a true story, it’s another clichéd tale of the underdog overcoming great adversity to battle the power-brokers of our world and coming up roses. Our Dame, complete with a semi-authentic sounding German accent, appears as Maria Altman, trying to retrieve a family portrait from the clutches of the Belvedere, the great art gallery of Vienna. You see, it was stolen back in the war years from her kin by those dastardly Nazis. To assist in carrying out the task she hires a lawyer (a mostly muted Ryan Reynolds), still very wet behinds the ears, on the grounds he is the son of a family friend and grandson of somebody famous. The problem is the family portrait was painted by the one and only Gustav Klimt. His rendering of Adele Bloch-Bauer only bows down to ‘The Kiss’ as his signature work and hence is regarded as an Austrian national treasure. We all know how this will pan out and it duly does so. But the film maintains interest along its narrative journey and is not without its delights – why there’s even a Gerald Ford moment for us Aussies. That chameleon from small screen series ‘Orphan Black’, Tatiana Maslany, is gorgeous as the young Maria and would seem odds on for more action on the big playing field. She’s on the upward trajectory whilst Katie Holmes, in a nothing role as the lawyer’s wife, would seem headed in the opposite direction. Charles Dance also adds his gravitas, but it is the Dame front and centre and she carries it off well, as one would expect.

From Pacific mermaid to unassailably still at the top of her game in our current decade, hopefully there’s no end in sight for this ageless marvel. Long may she continue to delight film goers – and me.

Official Trailer ‘Woman of Gold’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geJeX6iIlO0

Jake Wilson – you got this one seriously wrong.

Largely I go by reviews. If a film rates relatively highly across the range of reviewers from the Age and the Oz, throwing in the Mercury’s Leigh Paatsch and Tim Martain, I take note. Of course there’s the genre to consider and the players involved as well. An added tick is won if its French or, these days, Scandinavian. So I do my homework to ensure that nothing goes wrong and that I will have a cinema experience that I will enjoy, or at least get something positive from. So, in my scribblings there will rarely be a film I see little merit in – but, gee Age film critic Jake, I was struggling with ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’. And silly man, you gave it four stars.

You’d think featuring the remarkable Juliette Binoche and being by a director with an acclaimed track record, Oscar Assayas, who also wrote the piece, it would come up trumps, I grant you.. The first surprise was when the actors broke out in English – I was expecting a fully sub-titled affair – and perhaps that was an omen. Part one – yes, it had parts including an excruciatingly long epilogue which added little to the experience – seemed relatively promising. Binoche, sporting luxurious locks, was her luminous self and sparkled. Come the second chapter our lead returned with short, spiky hair and now her personality seemed to match. It was all downhill after that and by the final stanza I was well over this offering. I only stayed put to find out what happened to her wingman (spoiler alert if you do venture to view this) – and that was never revealed. Binoche was playing one of her country’s stellar thespians, about to perform, somewhat reluctantly, in a sequel to the play that introduced her to the world. Her wanderings around the Alps with her personal assistant Val – Kirsten Stewart – practising her lines and getting all angsty, were as boring as all get out. Jake describes the movie as ‘….a destructive romance between two women, one young and manipulative, the other middle-aged and vulnerable.’ Some of those adjectives may be accurate, but if there was romance between the two – well, I missed it. There was a certain love/hate thing going on when Val wasn’t chasing some photographer wastrel – but the impression I had was that the actress still had the hots for the leading man (Hanns Zischler) in her break-out play! Nor, Jake could I discern any of your ‘…vivacity and freedom.’ in Ms Stewart’s performance. She showed far more animation in her role in ‘Still Alice’ and that’s saying something. Remind me never to be sucked into watching the Twilight sagas. Val abruptly disappears from the narrative and that provided some relief for this viewer. I wondered if she was meant to be really there at all – but as the second hour of this turgid offering crept on I was beyond caring.

Still, as you would expect, the Alps were stunning. The play our actor and offsider were prepping for was entitled ‘The Maloja Snake’. It receives this appellation due to a weather feature of the Alpine region where the film was set. Think a high mountain version of the Bridgewater jerry and you have a notion of what it’s like – and it was the most interesting feature of the yawnfest I sat through.

Now for ‘Wild Tales’. Thankfully it was anything but a yawnfest. This effort from Argentina had my cinema room in stitches. If I wasn’t chortling with this, I was cringing, hiding my face from the screen. If you have ever thought you’ve had a bad day I bet if you see this, yours will never match the dies horribilis, with emphasis on the first Latin word, the guys and gals had in this omnibus of truly revolting experiences. All the episodes are totally unrelated except for the fact that they portray human behaviours in the worst possible light. A couple relaxing in their backyard are about to have an extremely bad day. A business man travelling a lonely byway is about to have an extremely poor few hours too, with shades of Spielberg’s ‘Duel’. A waitress in a cafe is about to have the worst evening of her life as the night’s first customer arrives.. A bomb disposal expert, stopping off to buy a cake for his daughter’s birthday, is about to become a national hero after losing the plot completely due to his very bad day. And a bride, at her reception, discovers she has been cuckolded by her hubby so chucks a reggie like no other. Director Damián Szifrón takes us on this rollicking lark with flair and verve. It features a prescient take on a recent airliner disaster, sex with a wedding cake, defecation in an unusual spot and a road rage that puts anything experienced in the real world into perspective. The vignette featuring that was the most successful of the movie for my money, worth the ticket price alone.

Rightly this was huge in its homeland, was nominated for an Oscar and won the gong at last year’s Goyas for best Spanish-language film. Unlike Jake with the French title, Age critic Paul Byrnes so gets it right when he concludes ‘Wild Tales’ ‘….is a blast of fresh air.’ It has to be amongst the year’s best simply for its audacity.

Trailer for ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zup27u6tMzY

Trailer for ‘Wild Tails’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUnXv6R2HI8

I wonder if it happened under the Nut? Yes, that Nut. Stanley’s Nut. Was its genesis overseen by that striking North West Tasmanian landmark? It would be lovely to think they fell in love on the rich soils of that corner of our island. Perhaps, somewhat naively, the Scandi-actress is trying to keep her private life well and truly separate from her public, according to reports. It would be a fair bet that it occurred here though – that she and her co-star commenced their relationship in Tassie. Some filming had already been completed over in West Australia for ‘The Light Between Oceans’, the film adaptation of ML Stedman’s best selling book. Ergo, she would have had plenty of time to get to know Michael Fassbender beforehand, presumably having already dumped previous squeeze Alexander Skarsgard. The actress has been hailed as the new Cate Blanchett, such has been her impact, even this early in her time in the spotlight of international film-making. She’s only been in the game since she gave up her dance career, due to injury, soon before making her first movie in 2010. Already she has taken on an eclectic choice of roles across several continents, requiring many variations of accent for the native Swede.’TLBO’ is her second outing to our shores after the brave attempt, but fast disappearing, ‘Son of a Gun’ with Ewan McGregor.

Alicia Vikander first entered my radar, I have since realised, with a turn in the Danish costume drama ‘The Royal Affair’ – a nomination for the best foreign product at the Oscars. She followed that up with ‘Anna Karenina ‘ alongside Keira Knightley, a film not liked in some circles because of its staginess, but one that this scribe really took to. It was through this production she first encountered Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson.

I suspect, though, it will be via her performance in ‘Testament of Youth’ that, sometime in the future, it will be agreed that Ms Vikander really hit the big time. Of course, this is a film version of the memoir by Vera Brittain that came to represent the experience of a generation. It reminded a nation of the appalling effects war has by outlining what happens when utter folly sends young men to charnel houses such as Flanders. Here the author lost her fiancé, brother and several of her friends. Then she, as we discern in the movie, left academia to nurse their wounded and dying colleagues at the front.

Presumably the question needs to be asked. Why not choose a British thesp to play such an important figure in their literary landscape, a quintessentially English character? It’s not as though there aren’t enough commendable natives to take on the task, particularly as in the movie’s two hour running time there is barely a moment when the lead is not required to be the focus of attention. That question outstanding, the Scandinavian gives a flawless turn as the wordsmith who later became a leading pacifist. In her outing we see the new woman of her times, breaking away from the subservience required by the social system of Edwardian days – one dominated by the male gender. It was a transformation for many that followed on from the groundwork completed pre-war by the suffragette movement. Girls like Vera certainly did not know their place. Although there were set backs to the cause, as the current television series of ‘Mr Selfridge’ is demonstrating, the tide was starting to turn.

It is worth noting that, in preparing for her role, Alicia was bought into the orbit of Shirley Williams, a doyen of British Labour – who also happens to be the daughter of Vera Brittain. She was therefore well primed for the film. Although one could point out that, although it was certainly demanding, playing the gritty, determined lead was well within the range of this new, luminous screen presence. The film itself truly brings home the senselessness of that conflict, of all conflicts. It is superb. It is very moving.

It’s probably too late to give such advice in a year already awash with commemorative film and television paeans to the Great War, but if there is one worth your viewing time, it is this production. Told completely from our heroine’s perspective, it doesn’t focus on battles or gallantry in the face of impossible odds, as so many do, but the aftermath – the human toll on mind and body of the killing fields. It’s films like these that should be watched by the pollies before they decide, yet again, to put our young men and women in danger’s way.

And now for something completely different featuring Alicia V. In ‘Ex-Machina’ this beautiful actress becomes an android. It’s a clinically cool imagining from first time writer/director Scott Garland. The only aspect of the film that may have been a stretch for gifted Vikander could have been the costume and make-up she was expected to don – and maybe the nudity towards the end. Think a mix of ‘Metropolis’, ‘Her’, ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ and even ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’ and you have a taste of the flavour of this offering. Initially the movie is an epistle to man’s desired control over women, even if (spoiler) they all turn out to be mechanical ones. Wide-eyed Caleb (here Ms V is reunited with her ‘Anna K’ buddy Gleeson) is bought to an isolated laboratory, set deep in the forests of some undisclosed country, to run artificial intelligence tests on the human-like outcomes of semi-alcoholic digital genius Nathan’s vision of the future. This character is played, with relish, by Oscar Isaac. This creator of gorgeous women may be possessed of a great mind, but he is one total sleazeball and not to be trusted. Nathan has Caleb wrong – he’s not a totally mindless nerd in thrall of his misogynist boss. Caleb is sensitive enough to discover he has feelings of sort for Ava (Vikander) and starts plotting her escape from Nathan’s devious clutches.

I must say for the first half this movie is a bit of a plod and alone, in an icy cinema room at the State, I was struggling to hold interest in it. But as the conditions slowly thawed and Caleb starts his machinations for freeing Ava, events on screen hot up, It becomes quite watchable for all sorts of reasons, none the least being the antics of Nathan’s sexy, mute offsider Kyoto (Sonoya Mizuno). It all climaxes in fascinating, pot-boilerish ways. Just who will win out?

And now take a gander what we have to look forward from this exquisite actress from films already in the can or listed for production. She’s in Guy Ritchie’s new take on ‘The Man From UNCLE’, is with Eddie Redmayne in ‘The Danish Girl’, Christoph Waltz in ‘Tulip Fever’ and, of course, beau Fassbender in ‘The Light Between Oceans’. Can’t wait to see the Nut up there on the big screen with fascinating cinematic happenings occurring under its ramparts, placing Alicia V front and centre.

Alicia and Fassbender at Bondi

Trailer – ‘Testament of Youth’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tP7k4wqVJo

Trailer – ‘Ex-Machina’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYGzRB4Pnq8

I like Eddie. One of the joys of watching the second season of ‘Ray Donovan’, as the Lovely Leigh and your scribe are currently experiencing, is seeing Eddie Marsan in the role of Ray’s brother, Terry. He’s perhaps the only remotely sane member of the Donovan clan, although he has his moments. For this Donovan life is pretty dour, the ex-boxer being affected by Parkinson’s. At least he can pride himself in having never thrown a fight. There’s little pride left for his siblings and crim father Mickey, though. For Terry there is a woman involved, his only salvation – we’re both hoping it turns out well for him. The two series have so far been compulsive viewing – and there’s a third on the way. Eddie was also exceptional in last year’s big screen minimalist treat ‘Still Life’. His performance was so nuanced and so ultimately moving.

In the new release, ‘X+Y’, Eddie M plays the genial coordinator of a group of teenage nerds billeted in Taiwan and about to represent the UK in the International Mathematics Olympiad. Eddie is not the lead here, nor is the role a stretch for the gifted character thesp, but his presence adds to the allure of this gem. Asa Butterfield, of ‘Hugo’ and ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ fame, as Nathan, gives a stellar performance, being the focus of the movie. He’s an autistic social misfit who can only make sense of his world in mathematical terms. So when love enters the equation, in the form of his Taipei exchange partner Zhang Mei (Jo Tang), he has no means to cope. This junior version of ‘A Beautiful Mind’ – in fact the film was rebranded ‘A Brilliant Young Mind’ for its US release – is choc full of struggling souls. There’s Nathan’s mother (Sally Hawkins), still reeling from the tragic death of her husband, the only person to really have a handle on Nathan. Enter a damaged, by disease and alcohol, teacher (Rafe Spall) who emerges as a love interest for the long-suffering mum. Then there are the various teens who accompany the maths freak to foreign shores – all seem to be carrying their own demons at an early age. Hawkins manages, as usual, to light up the screen in this, even if she’s devoid of all glamour. Young Jo Yang is the perfect foil for Nathan – how could he possibly not fall for her?

I like Omar. It would be impossible to do otherwise after his exuberant, larger than life force of nature turn in ‘The Intouchables’, the French super-hit of a few years back. Since then he’s been trying his luck in Hollywood, but returned to his home country to take the lead in the eponymous ‘Samba’. Although, in this offering, Omar Sy has a less effusive impact, his role is none the less magnetic. Sy’s character has managed to survive in Paris for ten years now, struggling to negotiate the red tape involved to achieve permanent residency whilst, at the same time, keeping a low profile. This means staying on the right side of the law. He dreads being shipped back to his native Senegal. In France the system offers hope for its illegals – something we in Oz could take a lesson from. Still, for Samba, it’s a hand to mouth existence, but hope is offered by novice immigration worker Alice, the always radiant Charlotte Gainsbourg. She’s recovering from a melt down of volcanic proportions – watch for the scene with the suits and their mobiles – and is not in a fit state to counter Samba’s overwhelming charms. At first their relationship is at arm’s length, but when he manages to get in deep do-do with the authorities and requires her assistance, they become more intimate.

There’s interest to be found in the underground economy of the cash-in-hand jobs Samba and his mates are forced to take on. For our vertigo afflicted lead, the one involving cleaning the windows of Parisian high-rises provides some light relief. Another delight is a free spirited performance from Tahar Rahim, so good in ‘The Past’, as his ‘Brazilian’ pal Wilson.

But it is Omar S’s performance that constantly dominates the screen with his hulking frame. It put me in mind of Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts’ Alain in ‘Rust and Bone’. Both have that certain something up there on the screen, but their future star vehicles will need to be tailored to their uniquely individual strengths.

The directors of both these movies (James Graham ‘X+Y’, Oliver Nakache and Eric Toledano ‘Samba’) take their art house audiences along the two narrative trails at a leisurely pace, minus the bells and whistles of much present day product. What they have come up with, though, are both out and out crowd-pleasers and will charm the socks off you. Do yourself a favour, eschew the hoopla of mega-budgeted multiplexes and take a look at this duo of quiet wonder.

‘X + Y’ Official movie Trailer = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DueSeIWn2E

‘Samba’ official movie trailer = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tqzwbjy0WQ

The kids didn’t grate, they honestly didn’t grate. The lovely Leigh and I discussed this fact as we drove homewards after seeing the movie ‘Infinitely Polar Bear’. Why didn’t they grate? Was I getting more tolerant in my dotage – or perhaps it was that American and film-makers world-wide are now looking for more from their junior-thesps than cutesypieness, as Leigh suggested. The two kids in this production – Imogene Wolodarsky as Amelia Stuart and Ashley Aufderheide as her sister Faith – expertly played just being kids. They weren’t perfect goody two-shoes. They had spats and they had tantrums. They were believable and increased my enjoyment of the offering – rather than, as in the past, detracting. Turns out young Imogene is the daughter of its writer/director, Maya Forbes.

I was certainly charmed by the pair of lasses, but what really caught my attention and impressed was a performance I felt up there with the Oscar nominated boys this year. I now realise that Mark Ruffalo has passed under my radar for years, not seeing his turns in the recent ‘Foxcatcher’ or the ‘Avengers’ franchise. His face was familiar, so checking out the forty-seven year old actor’s filmography, I discovered I had seen him up on the screen in that marvellous ensemble piece ‘The Kids are All Right’ from 2010, as well as, further back, in ‘My Life Without Me’ and the Jane Campion offering, ‘In the Cut’. I have the latter on DVD somewhere so must watch it again.

As written, I thought Mark Ruffalo was sensational in ‘Infinitely Polar Bear’ – see the movie and if you’re attentive you’ll pick up the origins of the title. This Wisconsin born is of mixed Italian/French Canadian heritage and was a wrestling champ at school – thus his casting in ‘Foxcatcher’? He worked in minor movies through the nineties, hitting the big-time alongside Laura Linney in 2000’s ‘You Can Count on Me’. He has been in demand ever since. He also takes to the stage on occasion and has tried his hand at directing. He now resides in NYC, has a couple of daughters – so he’s no stranger to that species – and a son, being married to French actress Sunrise Coigney for thirteen years. Politically active, he is a strong campaigner for pro-choice and anti-fracking – good on him.

In ‘IPB’ he plays Cam and he’s a bit of a plonker. But it’s not his fault – you see he’s afflicted with the curse of bi-polar. He is unable to hold down a job, boozes and constantly has a fag dangling from his lips – not a great role model for his girls, but they love him – for good reason. In contrast, long suffering missus, Maggie (Zoe Saldana), is struggling to cope with him. When she is forced to leave Boston, for better employment opportunities in New York, she has no choice but to make Cam responsible for the two girls. Mayhem ensues. But it’s Cam’s ability to stick his head above his usual hopelessness that charms the audience, if not so much his wife. Whatever his failings, we’re left in no doubt of his love for her and devotion to the kids. With a manic father, this family is battling against the odds. Will it all fall apart or can they finally make it work? Well, this is Hollywood, after all, so what would you think? But even so, this is a journey well worth taking and for my money Ruffalo surely proves he has real star power. So take it from me, I’ll be off to see him whenever his name appears up there in lights – although I’ll draw a line at ‘Avengers Age of Ultron’. I am not that enthusiastic about him!

‘Infinitely Polar Bear’ – official trailer = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvjS7rN8HT0

Wendy Squires, invariably in her columns, strikes a chord with me. She did it again this week in her latest – this time it was her way with words on fruit and veg. She’s not talking so much about the sleek, succulent examples we have for the taking on the supermarket shelves of the Big Two, which, once bought home, more often than not, soon start to shrivel. No, she’s pontificating on the ones overlooked – those thrown on the scrap heap, left to rot or ploughed back into the farmers’ fields. Such wastage with so much of the world hungry! Now one of the Two has seen the light and is offering imperfection at a reduced price. Woolies is following the trend in the UK, championed by Jamie Oliver, that has gone gangbusters there – let’s hope it does here. Squires not only likened these second grade carrots and apples to her own physical imperfections, but also to Ronnie and Jean, a Canadian couple she met in an Auckland hotel – an older pair living their dream before it all becomes too late.

Now I am about to take Wendy’s analogy one step further and liken a couple we can meet in the movie ‘Love is Strange’ to these not beautiful enough products of agrarian effort.

Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) are gay, still in love after decades together, but with age starting to become an impediment – neither are as beautiful as they once were. But they also decide to live the dream too. Unlike our own country with its Dark Ages politicians, more and more US states are freeing up repressive laws and allowing same sex couples to marry. Our two imperfects decide to similarly formally commit. Soon their happiness turns sour when, for George, this decision is crossing the line for his employer. He’s a teacher of music in a school and although they have known about his sexual orientation, openly marrying is not favoured by the Catholic Church and he is immediately dismissed. This causes a financial crisis for the duo and they are forced to give up their Manhattan apartment. For a while it seems, until fortunes change, the only alternative is couch surfing with family and friends. They both struggle to cope with apartness, their hosts struggle to cope with each of them.

Director Ira Sachs produces for us a fine film that has as much to do about ageing and the fragility of life as it does about gaydom and attitudes towards it. It is an offering of muted pace and muted tones, but the performances from the two leads are brave, heartfelt and nuanced – as we would expect from these two seasoned thesps. It’s not played for the appearance of hankies and tissues, even when one of the pair doesn’t make it through to that change of fortune. The production has garnered gongs world wide for what the New York Daily News describes as its ‘…thoughtful, intelligent reserve.’ I couldn’t put it better.

As well as Lithgow and Molina, for me the other stand-out performance was from young Charlie Tahan as Joey, the put upon teen who is forced to share his confined bedroom with his gay great-uncle Ben. The lad understandably resents the intrusion and all sorts of friction ensues. But in the development of a positive relationship between the two, as well as Joey’s struggles to develop relationships of his own, we have one of this movie’s true joys.

Yes George and Ben, along with Ronnie and Jean, as well as undoubtedly yours truly, are of an age where, as imperfections increase and we generally fade from view to join the plethora of similarly invisible baby-boomers, there are still films such as this and increasingly many others – cite the ‘Exotic Marigold Hotel’ franchise. It all serves to remind the rest that old people, like disfigured fruit and vegetables, still have some worth.

Wendy Squires article = http://www.theage.com.au/comment/inglorious-fruit-and-veg-were-so-aware-of-looks-we-wont-even-eat-ugly-food-20150409-1mdeya.html

Official trailer for ‘Love is Strange’ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdfA5Ff5e78