Cyrano

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Cyrano is the latest film adaptation of the 1897 play, Cyrano de Bergerac, and follows the title character as he struggles to reconcile the love he holds for a woman he holds dearest with his so-deemed 'unattractive' physical appearance. As the film progresses and the lady in question, Roxanne, confesses feelings for a young trooper in Cyrano's guard; the heartbroken lover helps the young man by writing letters of love to Roxanne on his behalf. This poetic yet ultimately, tragic web of love and lies casts the tone for this charming musical. I really wasn't entirely sure what I was getting going into this, Cyrano was a figure I knew of but hadn't ever really seen for myself. But the moment Dinklage's portrayal of the swordslinging man appeared on-screen I began to feely myself getting won over. The tragic tale here of people in love struggling to confess their feelings and becoming entangled with one another is classic in nature, and yet as the feature progresses the true tragedy really comes to pass. I love the charming, charismatic figure of Cyrano and how Dinklage has adpated the figure's difficulty with appearance to relate to his own dwarfism. Watching Cyrano's hesitancy to come forward and reveal his intentions crafts a snowball effect that ultimately brings about death and heartbreak that is very powerful.

The manner in which this film is shot is incredibly interesting, at times resembling a Lana Del Ray or Halsey music video. I thought the way the camera married the theatrics of framing a stage with more intimate shots for some ballads was exceptional. The editing also moved fantastically and kept great rhythm with the music of the film, certainly no small feat. The music itself is the real star of the show, boasting a number of tracks that are really moving all set to a score that blends perfectly with the whimsical turned tragic tone of the feature.

 

Haley Bennett, who played Roxanne, was neck and neck with Dinklage for actor who really put their all into their performance; Bennett portrayed the unmatchable wit of her role well and I enjoyed seeing her as this self-confident woman who knew what she wanted from love and life. Kelvin Harrison Jr., who played Christian, is a bold if not simple role that is hard not to like; I enjoyed how Harrison played up his character's passion and genuine affection for Roxanne in spite of his lack of wits. Joshua James, who played Valvert, was truly the first act antagonist this feature needed to set the scene; James' harsh vtriol and open condemnation of the protagonist led to one of the most memorable scenes in the film.

However, the best performance came from leading actor, Peter Dinklage, who played Cyrano. Dinklage enters his first scene with gusto and charm, immediately capturing the hearts of the audience both on-screen and off. He wields vocabulary like a dagger, outperforming any who rise to verbally challenge him. I also have to say that it is impressive how fluid Dinklage and the production team make those action sequences look, it crafts Cyrano as an adept combatant. I love how Dinklage portrayed such a romantic heart, his soul constantly yearning for a woman he feels he could never be with. Seeing Cyrano have to befriend his rival for Roxanne's affections, and the conflict within him over helping the witless gentleman is quite well-portrayed. Dinklage goes above and beyond to craft this beautiful soul who becomes all the more tortured the more distant he feels he is from Roxanne, the power of this alighting from the poetry he recites. I can't say Dinklage is the best singer in the cast but the emotion he pours into his performance eclipses his weakness for song, leaving us with a fantastic protagonist.

This film is quite abrupt as far as musicals go, really bursting into song quite harshly in the first act and taking a moment to find its footing. Cyrano begins with quite measured dialogue, a woman resolute in her decision not too marry and a poorly constructed social class commentary. Just as we're getting into these themes a character opens her mouth and starts singing, not a ballad that feels like the introduction of a musical. In fact, we get quite a mild piece about love and whether or not it can be found. The film toys with big moments like this a lot, going left when it should go right. Sometimes a character is rolling around singing a song sensually which takes you out of the sincerity of the scene, or the antagonist is primed for a big third act confrontation and it never really happens. This is a film that does what looks good and flashy, not necessarily what has the more considered impact. After the big battle scenes in the snow, we return to the city where an ailing Cyrano finally gets to confess his feelings to Roxanne and then perishes. This is quite a moving way to end the feature on paper but they make a lot of elements of this quite abrupt, most severely the final cut to credits did not hit the desired level of impact.

Ben Mendelsohn, who played De Guiche, has found one of his more lacking antagonist performances in quite a while; Mendelsohn really went hard for the melodramatic here and even played his big villain number in quite a camp way. Monica Dolan, who played Marie, is quite a stoic figure who has very little chemistry with the actress she spends most of her screen time with; Dolan feels neither matronly nor of authority so she becomes background retinue to Bennett's role. Bashir Salahuddin, who played La Bret, is primarily meant to be playing Cyrano's best friend but the pair barely share the screen to establish a rapport; Salahuddin plays up jokes and charm to his co-star that are never really matched with the same energy or tone.

An often disarming film musical, albeit one that has offered Peter Dinklage his best role since Game of Thrones. I would give Cyrano a 6/10.

Uncharted

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Uncharted is the film adaptation of the hit video game adventure series of the same name. In this our young protagonist, Nathan Drake, joins forces with treasure hunter, Victor Sullivan, to discover the missing House of Moncada fortune and his long-lost brother, Sam. The film really came alive whenever it got to play with its adventure origins, seeing our heroes trek their way through ruins solving puzzles or navigate a midair gunfight while scrabbling for a parachute. These moments have a lot of pulse to them and are often quite well-choreographed. I also felt that seeing the balance of power shift between the natagonists was one of the only halfway decent plot twists of the film. The practical stuntwork at hand looks great, especially the plane scene which is highlighted spectacularly. I felt the cinematography was nothing jaw-dropping but Fleischer achieved a visual style that contained the scale of the blockbuster well. The visual effects for that final boat/helicoptor chase was also not too shabby.

 

Antonio Banderas, who played Santiago Moncada, gives one of the better performances I've seen from him in recent years; the way he is coldly driven by a sense of birthright is played with both grace and menace expertly. Tati Gabrielle, who played Braddock, is one truly fearsome antagonist with a ruthless streak to her; I think the bloodthirsty edge Gabrielle lends to her role is what makes her even deadlier than Banderas in some ways. Steven Waddington, who played The Scotsman, is a more comedic antagonist with an intense physical presence; Waddington leaning into a strong Scottish brogue leads to some of the funniest line delivery in the film. Manuel de Blas, who played Armando Moncada, is a more tempered figure of wealth than his on-screen son, Banderas; seeing de Blas try to temper and control Banderas' wild ambitions made for a great early power struggle. Nolan North, who played Hotel Guest, might just be one of the best cameos I've seen in a good long time; the tongue in cheek humour used by having Nathan Drake meet Nathan Drake is expertly done.

 

I really have to commend Mark Wahlberg, who played Victor Sullivan. The man spent a lot of the movie working really hard to keep the tone, humour and stakes of the feature very present and it was clear he was one of the most veteran performers in the cast list. He just has a lot of gusto and confidence from the moment he appears, this is a role who knows how to play a room and furthermore, all the players in it. Seeing Wahlberg twist and turn Holland's Drake is a lot of fun, and the comedic banter between the two is an added bonus. I loved the constant lack of trust for others Sully shows, Wahlberg always seems to have a colder edge to anyone who isn't Holland. This also ties quite strongly to the ultimate character arc Sully faces of choosing between personal gain and loyalty to others which rounds out in a very satisfying way. Mark Wahlberg is one of the leads that really keeps this film consistent and a lot of what works stems from his acting.

 

This is a film that worked hard to make those big moments of adventure thrilling and epic in scale, but the rest of the feature felt very poorly crafted. Nathan Drake is motivated by this need to find his brother but we don't necessarily feel that urgency or connection from the one flashback scene we have at the start of the film. In fact the solution to this is to have a number of voice overs from the actor who played Sam Drake, peppered throughout the film. It was a very weak way to make us feel like Nathan was personally motivated by this quest. Beyond this there's this whole story arc around trust and both the protagonists and antagonists are double crossing one another constantly. It grows tiring having every second dialogue line basically be, "You can't trust him kid" or something of that sentiment. Uncharted feels impatient to jump to the action sequences, for instance Nathan almost immediately joins up with Sully after declining him in the previous scene. The film fails to understand how to progress its characters beyond a very surface level change, the characters are all in their own way quite alike when you examine their personalities and motivations. I don't think I've seen a blockbuster this slowly pieced together in a while, and I certainly felt giving us the plane scene twice was quite over the top. I admire Ramin Djawadi as a composer but he gave one of his blandest scores yet for Uncharted, the tracks were generic adventure fanfare that felt like they'd been pulled out of an early 2000s blockbuster. 

Tom Holland, who played Nathan Drake, comes at the role with a lot of charisma but is never quite right for the part; Drake is clearly written to be a little cocky and self-confident while Holland still brings some of that awkward but charming energy we more associate with his Peter Parker role. Sophia Ali, who played Chloe Frazer, has one of the most ghastly Australian accents I've had to listen to; her role felt like a broken record giving speeches about not trusting anyone every second scene. Tiernan Jones and Rudy Pankow, who played Young Nate and Young Sam respectively, weren't very compelling as these young sibling thieves/would-be treasure hunters; Pankow in particular delivered some quite empty lines about how much he cared before disappearing into the night. We never truly came to appreciate what these characters were like younger so it was very hard to empathise with Nate missing his brother later in life.

A passing adventure feature that never really escapes the curse of video game to film adaptations. I would give Uncharted  a 5.5/10.

Marry Me

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Marry Me is a romantic comedy following superstar Kat Valdez, who is set to marry her celebrity fiancé live in concert. But when she discovers that he has cheated on her moments before they exchange their vows, she decides to marry a stranger in the crowd instead. Now we're left to wonder if Kat Valdez and divorced maths teacher, Charlie Gilbert, stand a chance. I liked the moments in which this film slowly and steadily built up the heart. This idea of a budding romance between two unlikely people who just connect and find comfort in one another was such a pure takeaway message. I enjoyed seeing these grounded moments in which Kat got to go to a high school dance or be a step-mum; likewise Charlie rediscovered joy in living around such an energetic, larger than life person. The pieces don't always fit well, they're not supposed to, but that message of pure genuine connection is wonderful. I thought the editing managed a good pace against all odds, crafting steady dialogue scenes and this heart-wrenching montages in all the right places.

It was unbelieveable to me how much hard work Jennifer Lopez, who played Kat Valdez, put into this film. It was clearly work that paid off, because she is by far the best performance in the feature. When first we meet her we are greeted with this focused, driven woman who is brimming with talent. She is beyond a shadow of a doubt a protagonist in her own life, and breezes through scenes with exceptional presence. I loved seeing the excitement and joy bubble within her as she drew closer to getting married. Yet, the scene in which she discovers she has been cheated on and unravels onstage is quite moving, you feel how she is barely keeping together while also coming apart on live TV. From there Lopez is intent on crafting a role who seizes her own agency while being vulnerable enough to slowly let this new figure into her life. The chemistry Lopez and Wilson share is quite sweet and those quieter scenes in which they get to be alone tend to play the best. Seeing Lopez play the character fighting for her love right at the end of the rom-com was a delight to watch and a beautiful note to end the feature on.

 

John Bradley, who played Collin Calloway, might be presenting as the manager for this but he felt more like Lopez's British big brother; the amount of genuine care and sympathy Bradley put into his performance was extremely moving. Owen Wilson, who played Charlie Gilbert, comes at his role quietly and humbly which I found to be perfect; Wilson's soft-spoken performance and natural good nature is what makes you feel won over by him. Sarah Silverman, who played Parker Debbs, is the comedic wild card of the cast; Silverman hoards the best lines and earns every single laugh she gets from the audience.

Romantic comedy is a very fun genre I think; they have a lot of charm and that journey to a happily ever after is quite the nice journey to be on. It is also one of the genres with some of the laziest writing I have ever seen. In recent years we've been treated to films like Man Up or Long Shot that tilt the genre on its head and have shown a lot of growth for this brand of storytelling. Marry Me was like watching a script that says, "You know what? I kinda liked what we were cranking out twenty years ago better." The film isn't inherently funny, though there are a couple of worthy zingers in there. The big punchline is the premise, how unlikely that someone like Jennifer Lopez would ever wind up with someone like Owen Wilson. But that isn't actually very funny, it's a bad message that counters the film's actual theme. The film operates this way a lot, promoting love and connection while actually only doing it in a very shallow way. It's very difficult to relate to Kat because she's so unlike a grounded everyday person; while Charlie, the awkward maths teacher, is a little too cheesy to feel especially real. Seeing these roles interact is nice, but later in the film it becomes a struggle to create conflict between them. Having Charlie rather selfishly break up with Kat out of jealousy was not a strong moment and actually muddied the overall sincerity of the film.

Kat Coiro has a very monotonous visual style that makes spaces feel cramped, even concert scenes felt small which I found to be rather telling. The score done by John Debney is nothing to remark upon, there is barely a musical cue within the feature I found memorable. I was also extremely underwhelmed by the soundtrack, especially because these songs being written and performed was such an integral aspect of the story. Instead the songs came out as very empty, meaningless pieces filled with very vapid lyrics that showed little forethought.

Utkarsh Ambudkar, who played Coach Manny, is a bizarre minor role that feels very out of place in the final act; Ambudkar's intense school rivalry persona makes an already cheesy scenario worse. Maluma, who played Bastian, is quite a two-dimensional playboy pop star role; Maluma never really shares any chemistry with Lopez so their break-up doesn't sting as much as it could. Chloe Coleman, who played Lou Gilbert, is one of the weaker child performers I've seen in recent years; she couldn't have been any less connected to Wilson (who played her father). Jimmy Fallon, who played himself, is a rather egregious cameo; Fallon fails to present him or his talk show in a way that gives his platform any worth. Michelle Buteau, who played Kat's Assistant, is a comedic role that could've dealt to have some funny lines; it felt like Buteau was paired poorly with a very stoic character. Stephen Wallem, who played Jonathan Pitts, had one running gag that defined his role the entire film; seeing Wallem fanboy over Lopez the same way throughout the film came to be quite tiresome.

It's insanely charming and tried to hook me in but I can't get past the fact this brand of rom-com belongs in the early 2000s. I would give Marry Me a 4/10.

Moonfall

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Moonfall sees the entire Earth placed under threat when the Earth drops out of orbit and threatens to collide with the planet. Three astronauts are the heroes who must fly to Earth's rescue and stop the extraterrestrial threat that seeks our destruction. As a whole this is a film that doesn't have a lot to give but I will praise the special effects. I found a lot of the visual effects of space, the moon and the 'megastructure' interior of the Moon to be absolutely fascinating visuals.

 

The best (and only good) performance within the film came from Michael Peña, who played Tom Lopez. This character is perhaps a little more grounded than the roles a lot of the rest of the cast play, which is definitely an advantage. Peña serves the character well because he's that new husband/stepdad character who feels like he's living in conflict with the reckless behaviour of the original husband (Wilson). Seeing this pair bicker and fight on-screen is quite fun, and I enjoyed that Peña doesn't fall into the same traps as other on-screen stepdads but rather comes at these conflicts in quite a sincere manner. As the feature progresses and we see the love and care he has for his family you see a lot of heart under the surface. I was particularly impressed with Peña's last scene, in which his role selflessly gives up his own means of survival and uses his last words to drive his young daughter to safety. A very moving moment in an otherwise senseless piece of blockbuster.

 

Seeing this film felt like I was trapped back in that era of 90s to early 00s blockbuster, in the worst way possible. The idea here of the moon being rooted in disaster for the Earth is fine, but then we start learning the conspiracy theorists are right and that the moon was built by aliens. Oh, then we learn that the 'aliens' were in fact the original humans who built the moon to help oversee the development of Earth humans. Oh and then we learn that those original humans? Yeah they were wiped out by a swarm of machines governed by an A.I. that they built themselves. So the Moon is plummeting to Earth because a rogue A.I. our alien descendants made is attacking it from within and the only way we can stop it is if 2 astronauts and one conspiracy theorist go to space and set off an EMP. They will greenlight any old blockbuster script these days. There's a lot here that doesn't work, the film begins with a huge ten year time jump that's very jarring and makes character relationships quite murky to follow. Even then a lot of the characters in the film barely feel connected with one another, a lot of them are so annoyed to be in the same room as one another that it's difficult to get any joy out of actually watching these roles interact. The disaster element of this film goes quite extreme, to the extent that it's very hard to believe anyone has actually been saved by the end of the feature. The entire journey this film takes us on, in which a barely functioning NASA is deferred to by an American military brimming with impotency and paranoia is a strange one. Too often the film just stumbles through cliche, goofy one liners or rips off better science-fiction to find its way through to the next scene. Emmerich's special effects may be good but his camera work sure isn't. this is a film crammed with a lot of dull wides and over-populated with some strange and very jarring close ups. Kloser and Wanker's score is a very generic blockbuster fanfare of sound, there's no heart or emotion in the music to lift the scenes up.

 

Halle Berry, who played Jacinda Fowler, comes off the back of directing and leading an exceptional MMA film to co-leading this dumpster fire; watching Berry deadpan deliver science jargon seemed like a waste of my time and hers. Patrick Wilson, who played Brian Harper, is also quite off as a lead in this film; they were clearly going for a man who felt larger than life with a chip on his shoulder and Wilson never matched up to this. John Bradley, who played KC Houseman, is some very weak comic relief; the entire film pushes Bradley to be as zany and out there as possible and he never managed to make me laugh anywhere but at him. Charlie Plummer, who played Sonny Harper, has no chemistry with Wilson whatsoever despite their father/son relationship being his defining motivation; Plummer is so lacking in emotion this entire film that you struggle to get through those Earth scenes. Carolina Bartczak, who played Brenda Lopez, is shoehorned into the overly concerned mother role with little room to play outside of this; Bartczak has no real connection with either of her on-screen partners which sees her drop into the background early on. Zayn Maloney, Ava Weiss and Hazel Nugent, who played Jimmy, Nikki Lopez and Lauren Lopez respectively, are young performers with not alot of range between them; Weiss and Nugent in particular feel like they're more in the film to be plot devices rather than play characters. Eme Ikwuakor, who played Doug Davidson, was quite a stoic role with a very distant chemistry with his on-scren ex-wife Berry; Ikwuakor is meant to play quite heavily to the concerned father aspect of his character but you never really feel that that relationship is present. Kathleen Fee, who played Elaine Houseman, gives the same absent-minded old parent with dementia performance a lot of these hollywood blockbusters toss out; it's quite a two-dimensional take and Fee is happy with dishing little more than that out. Donald Sutherland, who played Holdenfield, is a very big name for such a forgettable role; Sutherland's cryptic warnings in the dark is a scene that felt quite confusing to watch and added nothing to the film as a whole. Azriel Dalman, who played Young Sonny Harper, doesn't function as much of a role when he plays a kid; using Dalman later in the film to dish a heavy exposition dump was an exceptionally big mistake on the film's part. Kelly Yu, who played Michelle, is such a confusing role that never really justifies her place in the feature; the exchange student angle of her character feels retroactive in some scenes because she often feels like she's playing to Berry romantically.

A career low for Roland Emmerich, which by this point is saying something. I would give Moonfall a 1/10.