Eye in the Sky
(UK, 102 min.)
Dir. Gavin Hood, Writ. Guy Hibbert
Starring: Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Barkhad Abdi, Aaron
Paul
 |
| Helen Mirren is Colonel Katherine Powell in Eye in the Sky, an Entertainment One release. |
Director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi,
Rendition) deliver a taut and provocative political thriller with Eye in the Sky. This riveting chamber drama
deftly conveys the labyrinthine mess of politics and egos that tangle together
in contemporary warfare. Drones remove humans from the equation as combat
becomes depersonalised. Add the element of humanity, though, and war becomes a
moral grey zone, as the military personnel of the film discover when a
potential strike puts a young girl as collateral damage.
Helen Mirren gives an excellent and sharply focused performance
as Colonel Katherine Powell, a veteran who is cool and pragmatic in the control
room, but conflicted by a war that asks her to see the enemy through the safety
of monitors from afar. Ditto Alan Rickman, in his final live action
performance, as a general whose knowledge from the battlefield makes him an
even-handed player in this murky warfare. For all its weighty,
thought-provoking talkiness, though Eye
in the Sky often draws out the dark humour of the bureaucratic nightmare of
computerised warfare and the difficulty in making judgement calls removed from
the action. Eye in the Sky weaves
threads from around the globe into an intense morality play that asks the
audience to weigh the cost of war and freedom as new technology gives the military
unfettered access to enemies and innocents alike.
Eye in the Sky is now playing in theatres.
Hello, My Name is Doris
(USA, 95 min.)
Dir. Michael Showalter, Writ. Laura Terruso, Michael
Showalter
Starring: Sally Field, Max Greenfield, Tyne Daly, Wendi
McLendon-Covey, Beth Behrs, Stephen Root, Elizabeth Reaser, Caroline Aaron
Long live the eccentric cat lady! Sally Field gives her best
performance in years with her hilarious and heartbreaking turn as the endearing
oddball Doris in Hello, My Name is Doris.
She brings a convoluted story to life as her sixty-something recluse brazenly
throws herself at John (Max Greenfield), the hot young new guy at the office. John
never catches on that Doris hits on him about five times a day, although she’s
a little rusty, and Hello, My Name is
Doris often strains credibility as the mature woman develops a friendship
with her younger colleague. He thinks Doris is the coolest cat in town, but is
blind to the fact that she’s in love with him.
It’s hard not to fall in love with Sally Field’s character,
though, as her eccentric character decides to embrace life for the first time
in sixty years. Field is charmingly offbeat and ferociously funny as she
creates a sad and lonely woman, burdened with regrets and baggage, who demands
the audience’s sympathy. It’s a terrific portrait of mental illness and isolation
that could have been disastrous in lesser hands, especially given the film’s
eclectic air, but as Field’s Doris swells with confidence and sass, Doris is impossible to resist.
Hello, My Name is Doris is now playing in select theatres and is now
available on iTunes.
The Jungle Book
(USA/UK, 106 min.)
Dir. Jon Favreau, Writ. Justin Marks
Starring: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o,
Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson
However, the film also stars a human. Newcomer Neel Sethi
assumes the lone live action role of The
Jungle Book in his leading turn as man-cub Mowgli, and he’s just awful. He’s
awkward and never convincing. Ironically, for the only real skin and bones
element of The Jungle Book, he’s the most
lifeless thing about it. It frankly seems unfair to task an inexperienced child
with carrying such a massive project. Most of Sethi’s work on set probably
asked him to act out scenes with green balls on sticks, or to react to Favreau’s
direction, and it shows in the timing, emotion, and intensity (or lack thereof)
in his work.
Sethi’s poor performance draws out the sluggishness of The Jungle Book’s road movie-like
plotting and the wild inconsistencies in tone that plague the film. Two of the original
song numbers from the animated film appear here (like “I Wan’na Be Like You”) and
throw the film totally out of whack while many of the vocal performances by the
major stars are either bizarrely flat (ex: Lupita Nyong’o) or distracting with
their star power (ex: Scarlett Johansson), although Bill Murray is a hoot as
Baloo. For all the magic of the visual and technical accomplishments of The Jungle Book, the film shows that
hybrid affairs of live action and CGI are rarely seamless. Every element needs
to jive or it all feels uneven, as is the case here. Tell the story with
animated wonder, though, and the proper suspension of disbelief lets it all
fall into place.
The Jungle Book is now playing in wide release.
