Showing posts with label Peter Sarsgaard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Sarsgaard. Show all posts

Knight and Day Review

Posted by Should I See It on Saturday, July 31, 2010 , under , , , , , , , | comments (0)





Film: Knight and Day.
Director: James Mangold.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard and Viola Davis.
Plot: The life of a woman (Diaz) is turned upside down, when she accidently becomes involved with a rouge Federal Agent (Cruise).
Rating:


I really wonder what it is like to not be afraid of pain. When I watch action movies and the characters leap between cars or off buildings, I always wonder if they ever think, ‘if I miss that car/truck/building I will most certainly break every other bone in my body, sustain severe spinal and brain injuries and may never walk again…’ or do they think… ‘if I miss this car/truck/building, then ….. bring on the pain! I’m not afraid of pain.’

The reason I mention this, is because Tom Cruise’s character in Knight and Day leaps off an alarming number of buildings, cars trucks you name it, without a second thought. Granted he lands every time, MOSTLY sustaining nothing but a few minor injuries (unless of course, it is dramatically important for injuries to occur). But I had to wonder, do characters in action movies ever get scared? Or do they know they will be transformed into Computer Generated Images and thereby negating all fear?



Anyway, that’s all beside the point.

What is there to say about Knight and Day?

It delivers exactly what it promises. Explosions, car chases, gun fights, a bit of romance and a bit of comedy in there for good measure. If you can ignore the silliness of it all, it is actually quite a fun time. Expert film making: not really. Fun: well, yes.

The plot of Knight and Day is inherently ridiculous. For that reason, the film hinges on the performances of Cruise and Diaz more than you would expect, actually. Tom Cruise is funny. Who knew? Cameron Diaz delivers what she does in her usual rom- com fair, just with a gun and some explosions this time around. Not that it’s a bad thing. She is a good foil for Cruise.



Knight and Day boasts quite a few big names in the supporting cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Dano, Viola Davis (her performance made me cringe) but the movie is really Cruise and Diaz doing what they do best: looking pretty for the camera.

Knight and Day is a date movie. Plenty of love-y bits for the girls, plenty of guns and explosions for the boys.


Should I See It?

Only if you’re in the mood for mindless fluff.



Knight and Day Official Site here.

An Education Review

Posted by Should I See It on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 , under , , , | comments (0)



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Film: An Education
Director: Lone Scherfig
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sargsaard, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, and Emma Thompson.
Plot: A coming of age story of sixteen year old British school girl Jenny, in 1960s suburban London, who takes up with David, a man twice her age, who shows her the ways of the world.


I went to see An Education for one reason, and it is the same reason I watch Mad Men: The Clothes. The late fifties - early sixties was definitely a high point in fashion.

Oh, I know, An Education is getting a lot of nominations and critical praise, but I always take that with a grain of salt. Awards only mean you have a good campaign. I knew, regardless of what the film would be like, that the clothes would be good.

And I was right. The period detail in An Education is exquisite. I love the contrast between the mundane suburban London with the high fashion of David’s social whirlwind of fine dining and great music.

But actually, the rest of An Education is exquisite too.



As Jenny, Carey Mulligan is luminous. She has a wonderful Audrey Hepburn quality about her, but thankfully does not have that annoying affected way of speaking. Her butterfly like transformation in discovering a world of life and culture beyond her stilted British girls school and home actually warrants a use of the ‘star is born’ cliché.

Also excellent is Peter Sarsgaard as David. He exudes an easy British charm and charisma, but there is always the hint of something darker lurking beneath the surface. It is criminal that Sarsgaard has been left off so many best actor nomination lists.



As Jenny’s father, Alfred Molina shines. Cara Seymour as Jenny’s mother is solid, but doesn’t have the same connection with Mulligan that Molina and Sarsgaard do. It wasn’t until about twenty minutes into the film where Jenny addresses her as ‘mum’ that I realised she was Jenny’s mother and not her step mother.

One thing the film does not adequately address is the unsettling nature of David’s relationship with school girl Jenny, particularly when it enters sexual territory. The actions of Jenny’s parents also confound me. Her mother, at least, has an inkling of the possibility of a sexual relationship between Jenny and David, yet does nothing. I find it hard to fathom that David’s charm alone would cause them to bend/break/ignore (whatever you want to say) their staunch 1950s principles and let Jenny ‘take up’ with David.



The ‘education’ in question is both figurative and literal. The figurative: Jenny learns about the world and her place in it, but the more interesting one to dissect is in fact the literal education: her schooling. The film opens with images of female students learning deportment, cooking and sewing skills, effectively painting the pre feminist movement ideology on education for women.

Jenny's dream is to read English at Oxford University. yet as her figurative education begins to affect her literal one Jenny begins to reasses the role of education for women. At school at least, she is surrounded by 'educated' women, all of whom are unhappy. Jenny is told, without any fanfare, her options are marriage or teaching or the social service. This decision (while underlying most of the fim) makes the final act all that more interesting.

It's almost as if the film seems to recognise that Jenny would bloom with opportunites made availabl buy the social change that is looming just around the corner.

An Education is a well rounded film, it quietly draws you in to Jenny’s coming of age story. Definitely my favourite of the awards season.


Should I See It?



Absolutely, if only to see the performance that will make Carey Mulligan a star.




An Education Official Site here.