Heat (1995)

Blu-ray released October 27, 2009

Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer shoot up L.A in Heat

"Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

That’s Robert De Niro’s Neil McCauley, a professional thief leading an insular life in Michael Mann’s 1995 crime classic, Heat. It’s the kind of attitude you need when your idea of a good time is driving a truck into an armoured car to steal 1.6 million dollars. Especially when a rouge member of your team, Waingro (Kevin Gage), murders one of the guards, necessitating killing the other two to avoid leaving witnesses.

McCauley’s philosophy is his self-preservation mechanism, designed to prevent his capture and imprisonment. That is, however, what the tough snap-at-any-moment cop, Vincent Hanna, played by Al Pacino, most desires. He, like McCauley, is equally detached from others. He prefers to keep company with the criminals he hunts so obsessively. This pleases neither his wife, Justine (Diane Venora), nor his attention deprived step-daughter (Natalie Portman, in her second film).

McCauley, despite knowing Hanna is monitoring their every move, subsequently plans a 12 million dollar heist in Downtown L.A. This sets the scene for a phenomenal extended action sequence. Its virtuosity is in its technicality: the way Mann shoots it with frequent POV shots, Elliot Goldenthal spare percussive musical score. It’s cold, epic and brutal with a grim sense of reality. It’s here that Blu-ray comes into its own, with the thunderous automatic weapon fire rattling all 5.1 channels.

But though it may have been marketed as one, Heat is no action picture. It is instead a layered portrait of two men on either side of the law, both trying and failing to have it all. It deals specifically with their relationship to their women: Hanna to Justine, McCauley to his new girlfriend Eady (Amy Brenneman), and Chris (Val Kilmer), another member of McCauley’s team, to Charlene (Ashley Judd). They try but fail, the most long lasting kinship developing between the two lead adversaries.

Clash of the Titans

It’s perverse that Mann casts two megastars and yet keeps them apart bar one central scene. Taking a break from pursuing each other, Hanna and McCauley stop at a coffee shop and discuss each other in matter-of-fact, detached words. By their own admission, they are two sides of the same coin.

Heat is epic. Not in the same way as The Lord of the Rings or Lawrence of Arabia, but epic in the scope of its depiction of the cops and robbers circulating the underbelly of Los Angeles. There are at least half a dozen more significant characters that flesh out the world, including William Fichtner as an out-of-his-depth businessman and Jon Voight as one of McCauley’s few trusted associates, but the one that looms largest is the city itself. It’s an L.A. of greys and blues, one where the line between good and evil is not clearly defined.

While it’s disappointing that this release has no Blu-ray specific special features – they are the same that featured on the 2-disc DVD – they themselves are excellent. There’s a commentary by Mann, which is not wall-to-wall but interesting, eleven deleted scenes and five documentaries. The featurettes are a mixture of 1995 interviews and retrospectives created around the time of the release of the original DVD. There’s about an hour worth of material, the best of which are “Crime Stories” and “Into the Fire”, which give an in depth discussion of the film’s long gestation period (Mann couldn’t get it financed until shooting a TV movie on the same subject called L.A. Takedown), training the cast to use automatic weapons, shooting the climactic battle and the choice of soundtrack. Much of the cast and crew, including Mann, De Niro, Pacino, Kilmer, Judd and Tom Sizemore are interviewed. These extras are unsurprisingly presented in full-frame SD.

The quality of the feature presentation is, however, splendid and a perfect match of Mann’s uncomplicated style. The washed out cold tones don’t leap out at you as some other, more flashy films, but it’s beautiful and understated, a perfect reflection of the characters and of a Los Angeles divorced from its typical sunny, Hollywood image. It’s this layered depiction of the city and its two damaged protagonists that elevate what could have easily been a simplistic heist movie. Heat is a modern classic.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Released December 26, 2009

Robert Downey Jr.’s version of the famous detective is a dishevelled manic-depressive just as likely to outwit you with his fists as he is his brain. There’s not a deerstalker in sight. Berating modern Hollywood for turning him into an action hero and expanding the story to mythic superhero-like proportions will only prevent you from enjoying one the most purely fun entertainments of the year.

To be fair, many of the elements foregrounded in Guy Richie’s blockbuster are, at least peripherally, drawn from the original stories. Holmes was a trained boxer and a talented bare-knuckle fighter, a trait played up in a delicious blend of Richie’s hyper-kinetic slow motion and Holmes renowned deductive skill as he prefigures the exact blows and injuries necessary to incapacitate an opponent. He was fiercely intelligent and an occasional drug user. He did have little regard for the tidiness of his flat (which is littered with papers, trinkets and half-built inventions), and he was not exactly highly skilled in social situations. For that, he required the more sensible and grounded Dr. Watson. In this incarnation he is played by Jude Law and is more of an equal than an assistant. Their banter, energetically delivered by the two stars, forms the heart of the film.

We open with a tremendous action sequence, accompanied by a thunderously superb Hans Zimmer score, in which our heroes try to prevent the villainous Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) from completing a ritual sacrifice. Holmes is drawn out from his subsequent drug-induced slumber when it appears Blackwood, hanged for his crimes, has risen from the grave and is countinuing his meddlings in black magic and the occult. Blackwood’s scheme rivals that of a Bond villain, though the real mastermind lurks ominously in the shadows. At least, that is, until the sequel.

While there is one extravagant set piece too many, the pace is brisk, the action clever and the CGI evocation of Victorian London stylish. Like Ironman, though, Holmes belongs to Downey Jr., his flippant but layered take on the sophisticated sleuth surely to be added to the Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathebone pantheon.

Dead Calm (1989)

Blu-ray released October 28, 2009

Hate in the air in "Dead Calm"

Nicole Kidman gets a bad rap. Despite the current backlash against her, she’s still a fine actress, and back in 1989 she found herself in her first big role in Dead Calm. Based on a 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Williams, Dead Calm is an efficient and claustrophobic thriller that begins strongly but ultimately descends into slasher movie clichés.

Husband and wife, John (Sam Neill) and Rae (Kidman) are taking some time out for R&R on their yacht. Drifting through the sheet ice seas they stumble across the athletic Hughie (Billy Zane), who claims his shipmates died of botulism. John doesn’t quite believe his story, and leaves his wife and the sleeping Hughie to investigate Hughie's abandoned vessel, the Orpheus. It quickly becomes obvious that their deaths – all attractive young women – may not have been accidental. A tense cat and mouse game between Kidman and Zane ensues as John struggles to keep the sinking Orpheus afloat.

Kidman's Rae is apparently not the brightest fish in the sea, and takes some time to appreciate that Hughie does not want the best for his newly adopted hosts. Perhaps this is understandable since Hughie doesn't seem to know what he wants either: while he is clearly a psychopath, one wonders why he just doesn’t kill Rae immediately. This, and other logical flaws (Rae captures him, and then just ties him up on the floor?), mar the second half, which increasingly resembles the final confrontation of any number of slasher movies, complete with the killer's almost supernatural ability to return from the dead.

These contrivances detract from, but don't ruin, an otherwise taut thriller that benefits hugely from the small cast and the isolated location, beautifully captured by cinematographer Dean Semler. The performances from the three leads are fine, the energy between Zane and Kidman nicely contrasting the understated relationship between husband and wife. And it's this subtleness, sparse dialogue and Phillips Noyce's deliberate direction that gives the film its desperate, frightening tone. At least, that is, until Billy Zane turns into Michael Myers.

The Blu-ray itself is mediocre, with no special features bar a very low quality full-screen reproduction of the theatrical trailer, and a transfer that lacks clarity and definition. Still, it's a perfectly adequate reproduction of the film, just don't expect featurettes on the level of the recent edition of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.

Published on Impulse Gamer

Avatar (2009)

Released December 17, 2009

Sam Worthington and Zoe Sandala's CGI cousins in "Avatar"

Words are being thrown around. Masterpiece. Revolutionary. It’ll change cinema. Technologically, it will. If only one could say the same of the dialogue, characters and plot.

Don’t get me wrong, James Cameron’s Avatar is an astonishing achievement. A visual wonder featuring the most sophisticated special effects of any film, it achieves that rare feat of transporting the audience to a living, breathing world. That world is Pandora, a planet overflowing with exotic animals and stunning rainforested scenery, which bursts off the screen in vibrant, colourful 3D. In Cameron’s hands, 3D is anything but a gimmick, enhancing details here and there without ever announcing itself. It’s an integral part of the experience.

The story essentially retells Dances with Wolves with blue aliens. They are the Na’vi, the natives of Pandora. Ten foot tall humanoids that move with feline grace, their livelihood is under threat from American corporate hordes who wish to ravage the planet in search of the mineral “unobtainium”. One way or another, the Na’vi are to be “relocated”. The spanner in the works is our hero, Jake Sully (rising Aussie star Sam Worthington), an ex-Marine and paraplegic who controls his able-bodied Na’vi “Avatar” in an attempt to coerce the natives into submission. His allegiances shift when he befriends the lithe female Neytiri (Zoe Saldana, who gives the film’s most affecting performance). Who’d have thought tails could ever be sexy. When it becomes clear that the invaders, including evil incarnate Colonel Quarich (Stephen Lang), have only their bank balance and testosterone in mind, the scene is set for an epic and unlikely showdown.

Despite its phenomenal visual tapestry that will reward repeat viewings, the story remains a simplistic but effective fable, with obvious allusions to Iraq-war politics and laced with eco-green themes that would make Al Gore proud. It’s energised by frequent bouts of action, some of the most viscerally exciting in years, in which Cameron fully exploits his ability to place the camera wherever he chooses.

Yes, the dialogue in Avatar is at times woeful, and the story routine, but it offers what so few movies do: a sense of wonder. And for that it deserves to be seen, in 3D, on the biggest screen possible.

Wicked

The Capitol Theatre, Sydney
from September 12, 2009

Glinda being Glinda, Elphie being skeptical

A short while ago I had the pleasure of attending a performance of Wicked, currently playing at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. A Broadway musical in every sense of the term, it is astonishingly produced with amazing costumes, sets, special effects and, with one exception, performances. It almost feels too polished.

The conceit itself, as based on Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is inspired. A revisionist spin on the Baum classic told from the point of view of the witches, it tells the story of Elphaba, the green skinned beauty later to become the not-so-evil Wicked Witch of the West. Elphaba is intelligent and perceptive, but outcast as a freak because of the colour of her skin. She dreams of meeting the Wizard and “proving her worth”, with hopes that he may “de-greenify” her. That way, she may finally gain the acceptance she seeks. She attends Shiz University where she meets Glinda - the Glinda - who adheres to the vapid blond college stereotype with only her looks and popularity in mind. Despite this, she means well, and the two form an unlikely friendship.

Various complications and love triangles naturally ensue as the pair head off from college to the Emerald City, where Elphaba finds the Wizard not as honest as she had initially believed. Elphaba flees in disgust as the Wizard announces to the "Ozians" that she is a “wicked witch” and should not be trusted. Furious, Elphaba tries to convince Glinda to join her in rebellion, but she refuses. This sets them both – and Oz – on a path towards their identities in the original story.

The cleverest thing about the story is the way it is interwoven with the original plot. It's as if Victor Fleming had decided to shoot what was happening in the back corridors of the castle instead of shooting Judy Garland watching in horror at the emptying hourglass. Much of the second act covers events known to anyone who’s seen the famous film version, as we learn, for instance, how the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow became the way they were.

"You see what I have to put up with? Those damn flying monkeys..."

But the best thing about Wicked is the music, which is insanely catchy and surprisingly complex. Showstoppers include Glinda's "Popular", in which she attempts to rid Elphaba of her more unique qualities, the act one finale "Defying Gravity" and the pop ballad, "For Good". The music by veteran Stephen Schwartz sticks closely to the mainstream Broadway idiom, but admirably uses the Wagnearian leitmotif to creative effect. A few motifs reoccur throughout, appearing differently each time according to the mood of the scene. The opening dramatic chords, foretelling the darkness to come, for instance, reappear in a more mellow form in the love ballad. The most recognisable is the "Unlimited/I'm limited" theme that represents Elphaba’s dreams and aspirations. This motif cleverly uses the the first seven notes of “Over the Rainbow” disguised with different timing and chords. To be sure, this leitmotif approach isn’t groundbreaking, but it gives the music a little more texture and coherence closer to an opera or film score than your average pop-musical.

The performances of the Sydney cast were exceptional, with Jemma Rix's (as Elphaba) vocal strengths particularly evident in the difficult act one finale. The one exception was Bert Newton, who took over the role of the Wizard from Rob Guest following his death. Straining credibility in both acting and vocal ability, he's the only weak link in an otherwise phenomenally polished production. Thankfully, at least, his character does not garner a lot of stage time.

That the drama of Wicked is a little unfocused and sometimes gets overwhelmed by the spectacle is just a reflection of the type of show it is: a grand, exciting and emotional piece of Broadway entertainment. I can't wait to see it again, and I can't wait to see what they do with the film adaptation when it rolls around in a few years time.

The Negotiator (1998)

Blu-ray released October 24, 2009

Where did you put my mother-f**kin' snakes?!

The Negotiator is one of the best thrillers of the 90s. Essentially Die Hard all over again, it's elevated by two compelling performances by Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey.

The hook this time is that instead of Alan Rickman with a German accent as the antagonist, it’s Jackson’s hostage negotiator, Danny Roman. Framed for his partner’s death, who was killed for getting too close to exposing an embezzlement fraud, Roman holes up on the twentieth floor of 77 West Wacker Drive in Chicago with four hostages including police commander Grant Frost (Ron Rifkin) and internal affairs officer Niebaum (the late J.T. Walsh). And he won’t leave until the real culprits are exposed.

Cue the arrival of fellow negotiator Chris Sabian (Spacey). Sabian is an independent observer who is proud of his zero casualty record. Interested only in peacefully diffusing the situation, he has a hard time preventing the police hordes from storming the building by force.

An exciting cat and mouse game ensues, as the two intelligent leads battle the bureaucracy and corruption around them in their search for the real culprits. It's reminicsent of other mano-o-mano confrontations such as Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in Crimson Tide. Not as well written as that film, the screenplay is formulaic but elevated by small, clever details. A reoccurring argument about the ending of Shane, for instance, is infinitely more interesting than the usual action schtick of bellowing expletives at each other.

Elevated almost entirely by performances, the two compelling leads are accompanied by a rich cast of stalwarts playing exactly to type, including Rifkin, Walsh, David Morse and John Spencer. Paul Giamatti, before cementing a reputation as a character actor in Alexander Payne’s Sideways, is also in the cast, playing a shifty con man and one of Roman’s hostages.

Set mostly within one office building in Chicago, there’s a terrific sense of tension and claustrophobia, punctuated by bursts of action as the force attempts to take Roman down before he learns too much. Director F. Gary Gray, who also directed the equally enjoyable remake of The Italian Job, knows how to maintain tension and keep the energy high. If it falters, it’s in the finale, which, like the ending to Die Hard with a Vengeance, feels tacked on and superficial.

It’s appearance on Blu-ray is a mixed blessing. An uncomplicated release, the film is presented well in HD, free of artefacts and visual blemishes. It's better than the DVD release, but still lacks the clarity of the top tier blu-ray discs. There is also little in the way of special features. The only inclusions are a short documentary entitled “The 11th Hour: Stores from real Negotiators”, a short 16 minute featurette about the making of the film and the theatrical trailer. The extras are only in 480i and have two channel sound.

While far from a great film, there’s much to enjoy here. Sometimes all you want is a solid action thriller, and on that score The Negotiator is an unqualified success.

Away We Go (2009)

Released December 10, 2009

John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as the ideal couple in "Away We Go"

Director Sam Mendes takes a break from his harder, more biting previous work (Revolutionary Road, American Beauty) in this immensely enjoyable dramedy about a couple looking to find a place to call home.

John Krasinski (of The Office) and Maya Rudolph (of Saturday Night Live) play Burt and Verona respectively. Burt is bearded, bespectacled, clumsy and spontaneous, but an all around nice guy who loves his girlfriend dearly. She, Verona, is six months pregnant. They live in Colorado near Burt’s parents (an hilarious Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara), who seem more interested in moving to Belgium than their impending granddaughter. Now with little reason to stay, Burt and Verona uproot and flutter between Arizona, Wisconsin and Montreal surveying different lifestyles and possibilities.

The episodes that follow are funny and laced with a wealth of acting talent in small roles. Stand outs are Allison Janney as a loud, obnoxious mother, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as an uptight new ager with an aversion to strollers. While these characters are overblown and the gags sometimes stray into banalities that could form the crux of a lesser film, the central couple are sensible, intelligent and likable people who keep it emotionally grounded.

This whimsy, complete with requisite indie songs that could have been plucked from Juno, charms, but sentimentality takes over as the leads close in on their search for home. However subtle the acting and direction in these scenes – and they are affecting – the closure they offer is unnecessary.

Critical reaction to Away We Go has been mixed, with some claiming the ideal of Burt and Verona makes them smug and condescending, while A.O. Scott describes their quest as a "flight from adulthood, from engagement, from responsibility". Both, perhaps, are true. If so, I’m happy to indulge Sam Mendes the fantasy.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Blu-ray released November 16, 2009

Hermione, I think someone wrote a book about us...

While the third film in the series, the Alfonso Cuaron directed Prisoner of Azkaban, remains its artistic high point, David Yates’ two most recent instalments in the Harry Potter franchise are polished and engaging. Charting the ever rising influence of the nefarious Lord Voldemort, Half-Blood Prince alternates between those dark and ominous rumblings and the frothy teen romances developing between the leads. These two equally intriguing halves dance around each other but pull us in different directions. The two never satisfyingly converge.

A new Hogwarts staff member is custom in each new episode, and here Jim Broadbent plays the newly appointed potions teacher, Horace Slughorn. His appointment is a ruse concocted by Dumbledore, who is attempting, though Harry, to exploit Slughorn’s knowledge of Voldemort’s past. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord has given Draco a difficult and dangerous task akin to Anakin Skywalker’s Faustian moment of lopping off Count Dooku's head. To aid Draco on his mission, his mother and the scene stealing Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) coerce the delicious Alan Rickman’s Severus Snape into a magical agreement to act as his protector. Concurrently – and tangentially – we also follow the romantic entanglements of the hormone-infused leads, which include Harry’s growing affection for Ginny and Hermione’s crush on the oblivious Ron.

Drenched in Gothic greys and blacks, visually the film is a wonder, but unlike the earlier films, even The Goblet of Fire, the tone is overly drab and melancholy. No doubt foreshadowing events to follow in the final chapter (Deathly Hallows, split in two), much of what occurs merely seems to be a lull before the storm. Even the momentous death near the film’s end, no doubt known to most, fails to deliver the emotional punch it should.

Despite the inherent perils of telling a story with the same characters – and same villain – over a half dozen movies, each film has nonetheless worked on its own terms, a feat which few other series can claim. More akin to a TV show (or a series of novels, perhaps?), each episode contributes to the arc while still retaining its own satisfying structure. In Half-Blood Prince, the structure works as a means of getting Harry, Ron and Hermoine in a position for the final act, but less so as a stand alone narrative. With a less easily defined plot that seems to amount to zero by the end, character development becomes prominent, a characteristic which makes the story impenetrable to those who have at very least not seen all of the previous films.

This two-disc high-definition package offers a pristine visual and sound transfer. One would expect nothing less from such a recent high-profile release. The special features include a “maximum movie mode”, a Blu-ray exclusive, where one is able to select features at scene-specific points throughout the film.

The features available on the DVD release are presented on the second disc. Emphasising the Potter juggernaut over content, these features are directed towards the younger cohort of fans, with the young stars presenting short segments on the major facets of the production. Also on the disc is a 45 minute documentary entitled “J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life”, a preview of the Harry Potter theme park to be built in Orlando, Florida, which looks suitably kitsch but will no doubt send fans into a frenzy, and a stack of deleted scenes. Were it not for the already extended running time of a shy over two and a half hours, some of these transitional scenes would have added to the film and made it more easily comprehensible to the uninitiated.

Beautifully crafted, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is an example of what an A-list blockbuster should be: well-made, entertaining and sophisticated. Whatever its narrative shortcomings as a stand alone story, most telling is that, by the end, one feels the next installment can't come soon enough.

Paranormal Activity (2009)

Released December 3, 2009

Look, honey, a cockroach!

There’s a lot of hype surrounding this micro-budget horror film. Shot for a mere $15000 it has already recreated the box-office success of The Blair Witch Project to which it is clearly indebted. The trailer, which barely includes any scenes from the film, depicts apparently common scenes of terrified audiences huddling in fear. One critic called it the “scariest movie ever made”.

Said critic must have been watching a different film to I, since while offering some effective suspense sequences and an ending which has some sort of payoff, most of Activity burns along with no sense of plot or characterisation.

The setup is thus: a couple, Kate and Micah, move into a San Diego home and are restless about the presence of malevolent spirits in their upstairs bedroom. Micah setups up a camera to monitor them in their sleep. It’s not long before strange noises are heard, lights switch themselves on and off and doors sway on their own accord. They are visited by a psychic who suggests it may be a demon. Perhaps they should consult a “demonologist”, he tells them. Conveniently out of town, Kate and Micah instead are left to deal with the deterioriating situation alone.

The hand-held camera is modestly effective and uncredited writer/director Oren Peli cleverly uses sound and its absence to heighten the suspense. The lack of production values is consistent with the idea that the footage is real and found after the fact by the San Diego police, but the film's sparseness is also its weakness. There’s nothing here that engages on any level above the most primal. While that may be true of many horror films, at least they do so with some sense of narrative and style.

Paranormal Activity may be refreshingly devoid of gore, but it's so simplistic it's also devoid of most anything else.

The Informant! (2009)

Released December 3, 2009

Matt Damon in Movember

The versatile Steven Soderbergh's latest film is a dark comedy that feels like a cross between Catch Me If You Can and Burn After Reading.

It’s set in the early 90s but you can never really be sure. Some details, like the brick-sized mobile phones and green text on antiquated computers, fit, but others, from the retro jazzy score and the idyllic white-picket fence suburbia, suggest anything from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The protagonist is equally difficult to define. Portrayed convincingly by a moustache-totin', heavy-set Matt Damon, he is Mark Whitacre, an executive for the agriculture company, ADM. Outwardly a talkative idealist, his thoughts are rendered in a stream of consciousness voice over in which he discusses such important questions as whether or not a polar bear considers its black nose a hindrance to its camouflage. After learning of a price-fixing conspiracy within ADM, and prompted by his wife, he becomes a whistle blower for the FBI and a makeshift undercover agent.

Not trained for the task, he nonetheless blithely manages to clandestinely record meetings and gather enough evidence to convict. Despite planning to expose his coworkers as frauds and swindlers, he still naively believes he will still have a place at the company when the guilty are exposed.

Whitcare is an enigma to the other characters, the audience, and ultimately himself. His journey from the early scenes, which zip by in a blur of 1940s-esque dialogue, to the latter which examine the consequences of the investigation and Whitcare’s ever evolving version of events, is both funny and engaging.

Drowned in a warm lather of yellows and oranges and accompanied by a prominent and bouncy score by Marvin Hamlisch, the film is beautifully constructed. Damon could very well garner Oscar consideration, and again proves that he's both a superstar and a talented actor.

Night at the Museum 2 (2009)

Blu-ray released November 10, 2009

Ben Stiller and Amy Adams gawking at the size of their movie

Amy Adams can brighten up the room, or at least light up the screen, which is what she does in this bigger and more colourful sequel to the 2006 hit. She plays a sassy 30s film star version of Amelia Earhart, busting at the seams with her love of flying and sense of adventure. She also has an impetuous crush on the hero, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), whom she is helping navigate, this time, through the Smithsonian museums in Washington D.C.

The first Night at the Museum worked beautifully as an advertisement for the American Museum of Natural History, and this seems destined to do the same for the National Air and Space Museum and the National Gallery of Art. It had to be this way, since without it the filmmakers would never have received permission to film in the real locations. Think of it as the Top Gun for museums.

We find Larry having left his life as a night guard behind and instead running a successful infomerical business. Smartly dressed and cruising around in a chauffeured vehicle, he heads back for a visit his old haunt on Central Park West. He discovers that his old friends, including Owen Wilson as Jedediah and Steve Coogan as Roman Emperor Octavius, are to be transported to storage in the Federal Archives underneath the National Mall in D.C. Robin Williams' Teddy Roosevelt is to be left behind, presumably because Williams wasn't keen on the sequel.

It's for the best since Larry encounters far more engaging characters on his subsequent rescue mission. They include Adams' aforementioned Amelia and Hank Azaria, channeling Boris Karloff, as the evil Pharaoh Kahmunrah. Kahmunrah plans to open the gates the underworld so he can rule the Earth (or something). He is aided by the womanizing Napoleon, plain confused Ivan the Terrible and a young, black and white Al Capone, who inexplicably never gets to fire his Tommy gun. Maybe that was a clause in the filmmakers' Smithsonian contract.

Like many high-budget sequels, the number of characters and ideas flattens the narrative, but many of those are so exuberant it hardly matters. A visit to the Lincoln memorial, flying the Wright flyer inside the Air and Space Museum and, best of all, jumping into the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of a sailor kissing a nurse on V-J day in Times Square, 1945, flash by one after another. Larry's character arc is predictable, and the message to kids that they should "do what they find fun" is obvious, but it's affable and inoffensive. It sits more comfortably than the occasional lapses into juvenile humour, which will amuse only the most undemanding kids.

The Blu-ray release is superb and heavy on special features. There are two commentary tracks, one by director Shawn Levy and another from the writers, Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. There are twelve featurettes, the best of which is a twenty minute "A Day in the Life of Director/Producer Shawn Levy", which follows him on a particularly effects-heavy day of shooting, and is a great insight into the day-to-day process of creating a big-budget feature. There's also over half an hour of deleted scenes, many which are alternative versions of scenes in the film with different improvisations, and a gag reel mainly featuring Azaria and Ricky Gervais, who plays the original museum's director.

Night at the Museum 2 is unashamably an ungainly, unsophisticated big budget effects-laden Hollywood production with an obvious agenda. If you are willing to accept that premise - and who am I to fault those encouraging young people to be interested in history - then it delivers what it promises.

If not, then see it for Amy Adams. She's postively phosphorescent.

Note
This is a new disc and may require a firmware upgrade on some older players.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

Released November 19, 2009

Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais are an odd couple. As he (Mark) picks her (Anna) up for their first date, she gleefully informs him "I was just masturbating". "That makes me think of your vagina," he replies. Not only do the characters in this Gervais-verse never tell a lie, they have no control over what they say and when.

Society is thus peaceful and serene. Despite the lack of the existence of "art", for that stems from lies, Gervais works for an insidiously white collar production company that produces non-fiction films. He writes scripts so that very serious old men can dryly recite historical events directly to camera.

Miraculously, he suddenly acquires the ability to lie. He uses his new found power both for good (relationship advice, helping the homeless) and evil (getting rich) and invents a myriad of stories about a "man in the sky" who controls everything on Earth. People listen, and begin to believe he is some kind of Prophet. The one thing that seems unattainable though, is Anna, who likes him but doesn't want kids who are "chubby and snub-nosed".

Gervais’ usual dry and rambling humour is unusually flat and repetitive. Jennifer Garner though, is warm as always, and the supporting cast, including Jonah Hill, Rob Lowe and Tina Fey do draw the odd laugh. But there's only a limited amount an audience can invest in protagonists who have no social skills and no comprehension of Gervais' situation.

With a clever but ill-conceived premise, malleable according to the whim of the plot, most of The Invention of Lying misfires. Still, you have to admire the audacity of a film that turns into a scathing satire of religion and paints Gervais as a Christ figure. It ends up being more of a drama than a comedy and that, perhaps, is most telling.

Cold Souls (2009)

Released November 19, 2009

The idea behind Sophie Barthes' feature debut as writer/director is inspired. What if, she asks, the human soul doesn't merely exist, but can be extracted? What would a human be without a soul?

Paul Giamatti, playing a version of himself, is an actor struggling through rehearsals of Chekov's Uncle Vanya. Anxiety ridden, he meets with Dr. Flintstein (a suave David Strathairn) in an office that's a cross between a dentists and a hair salon. Flintstein offers him a solution: have his soul extracted and free himself from the burden of his emotions. Do so, he says, and "everything becomes functional”.

The procedure is a cop out, of course, the newly soulless Giamatti now able to perform, but without conviction. After his soul is stolen by a Russian-American soul trafficking business, in desperation he chooses the soul of a Russian poet as a temporary solution. While Paul seems little different whether or not he has his soul, his perceptive wife (Emily Watson) knows something is amiss.

Bleak yet darkly comic, this philosophical tragicomedy is reminiscent of the work of Charlie Kaufman, minus the overt surrealism. Barthes' wrote the script for Giamatti, and it shows. His furrowed brow and hilarious deadpan mesh perfectly with the absurdity of the premise, which is played straight as if soul storage were an everyday practice.

The script was a screenplay competition winner, and is inventive but conventionally structured. By the time Giamatti visits an austere snow-covered St. Petersburg, as if that was necessary to visualize the characters' mood, the unwavering weight their grievances almost becomes too much. It does however reflect the film’s point of view: without a soul we would be unburdened, but empty; you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

A Serious Man (2009)

Released November 19, 2009

The Coen Brothers' most recent opus is decidedly odd. It opens with a non-letterboxed prologue reciting a myth from Jewish folklore about a rabbi who may, or may not, be a malicious spirit - a "dybbuk". Shifting to late 1960s Minnesota suburbia, we find Physics teacher Larry Gopnik lecturing a class about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and whether Schrodinger's cat is, or is not, dead. As an audience member watching A Serious Man, you may well ask yourself whether you are meant to laugh, or whether you are meant to cry. Perhaps it is both simultaneously.

Relative unknown Michael Stuhlbarg, in a perfectly pitched performance, plays Larry, the most ineffectual protagonist in recent memory. When he discovers his wife is sleeping with another man, instead of confronting her or taking matters into his own hands, he merely shrugs in perplexed wonder. God's plan, if there is one, seems to involve Larry subsequently sleeping at the local motel, the "Jolly Roger", and accepting awkward embraces from his conceited competition, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed).

These are not Larry's only problems. A Korean student at the school is attempting to bribe him for better grades, his son is more interested in F-Troop and smoking pot than his studies. and his even more hopeless brother, Arthur (Richard Kind), is sleeping on the couch. The sum of knowledge he is able to extract from visits to three rabbis, in a desperate search for answers, is to "accept the mystery". Helpful, indeed.

Who and what is doing the tormenting, and whether or not anyone has the power to do anything about it, is the focus of the Coen Brothers' enquiry in a film which is as funny as Burn After Reading but bleaker than No Country For Old Men. Drawing upon their own childhood, this awkward and hilarious satire of jewishness, faith, family and life is so grim it may alienate some. By the time the credits roll around you, like Larry, are no closer to finding "Hashem", "God" or "Truth".

Perhaps, the Coen's suggest, we're not meant to.

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Released November 5, 2009

In Michael Moore’s latest film one gets exactly what is expected, no more, no less. His usual outspoken, provocative and amusing self, he lodges a heartfelt attack on the economic system responsible for the growing imbalance of power between corporations and the everyman.

A large part of the blame, Moore claims, should be placed at the feet of Ronald Regan, whose deregulation of the economy gave the banks newfound – and unmonitored – power. It has allowed the United States to evolve into a “plutocracy”, a state where the majority of power is controlled by the wealthy. This description was printed, astonishingly, in an internal Citibank report.

Equally as surprising is the revelation of some companies taking out “dead peasant” insurance on their employees, thus profiting in the event of their death, or the privately funded juvenile detention centre whose profits increased proportionately with the number of inmates. These segments are engrossing but blatantly manipulative. If he’s not appealing to our sentimentality, he’s pressing our buttons with Carmina Burana or Beethoven’s 9th.

And yet, Moore’s appeal is not only for his by-now predictable polemic, but as an entertainer. And Capitalism: A Love Story is nothing if not entertaining. Whether he’s wrapping the New York Stock Exchange in crime scene tape or jostling with security guards outside the GM headquarters, he demonstrates that he is unwavering in his convictions, even if the very same gimmicks act to diffuse some of his more persuasive arguments.

After the amusement of Moore’s grandstanding fades, what lingers most is the recently uncovered footage of Franklin D. Roosevelt presenting the “Second Bill of Rights”. He proposed that all citizens would be guaranteed a job, a home, an education, medical care, and “freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies”. If this seemed ambitious at the time, today it feels no less relevant and just as elusive. Roosevelt was dead the following year, and his goals remain unrealised.

It’s his sincere sentiments, more than those of the rabble-rousing Moore, which remain the most affecting.

The Piano (1993)

Blu-ray Released November 4, 2009

Jane Campion is an unashamedly feminist director. This is, after all, the woman who made In the Cut, a mostly failed serial-killer lark known primarily for an unglamorously disrobed Meg Ryan. Ten years earlier she made the universally praised period film The Piano, a raw and confronting study of people on the edge of civilization in the mid 19th century without the skills to communicate effectively with each other.

For the thirty-something protagonist, Ada (Holly Hunter), it is not by choice or lack of awareness: she has been mute since the age of six. She instead communicates through sign language and vicariously through her plucky daughter (Anna Paquin), who acts as interpreter. Her real vehicle of expression, though, is her piano. She brings it with her to New Zealand when her father sells her into marriage with frontiersman, Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill).

In the untamed and almost mythical forest, Ada finds herself stuck oddly between Alistair and Baines (Harvey Keitel), a white man who has tattooed his face in the style of his Maori neighbours. Baines obtains Ada’s piano, up until now still stranded on the beach, in exchange for land from Alistair. He offers the furious Ada a deal: she can buy her piano back, one key at a time, if she will only “teach him piano”.

The piano lessons are however only a cover for the growing sexual attraction between them, a desire that feels as new and seductive as an adolescent discovering their body for the first time. Campion states in the short documentary on the disc that she was interested in the “innocence about sex, erotica and love”, a concept foreign to our modern culture of over-exposure. One of the most striking things about the film is this raw eroticism which is explicit, but not gratuitous.

All the performances are fine, especially Hunter and Paquin, both of whom won oscars from their work. It's remarkable that our sympathies always lie with Hunter even when she does not utter single word on screen. And it's hard to believe Paquin, only 11 at the time, would turn into the woman who is the star of HBO's True Blood, where little of her is left to the imagination. Here she gives a performance only a child star could give: honest and uncluttered by ego and over-calculation.

The score by Michael Nyman has since gone on to be a popular hit, the two centrepieces "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" and "My Big Secret", the most well known. By acting as Ada's metaphorical "voice", the score is massively important. Except for an odd misstep involving belching saxophones, the piano-led score captures the right mix of melancholy and romance, its mix of traditional folk tunes and contemporary styling emotive but unmanipulative. The same could be said of Jane Campion's direction, which is tremendously effective but mostly invisible.

The Blu-ray itself is superb. The video is presented in full 1080p and enhanced 16x9, while the audio is DTS-HD 5.1. The special features are few, but engaging, and include a short fifteen minute archive documentary with interviews with the principals, and a commentary by Jane Campion and producer, Jan Chapman.

Moving, beautifully photographed and performed, all film fans owe it to themselves to have this disc in their library.

Emma (1996)

Blu-ray released November 4, 2009

I confess that I seem to possess an inbuilt aversion to the costume dramas of manners typified by the Jane Austen big screen adaptations. And yet when I commit to them – Wharton’s The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence spring to mind, I find myself taken. Austen is more comedic and spirited than the more scathing Wharton, two characteristics which could equally be used to describe the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow-starring version of Emma.

The story is populated by characters who define themselves by their social circles and whose coded conversation is mostly gossip about who should marry whom. Directly doing her best to manipulate potential pairings is Emma Woodhouse (Paltrow). Just peppy enough to engage our sympathies, she blindly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities.

Doing all in her power to match the self-esteem challenged Harriet (Toni Collette) with Mr. Elton, she fails to notice his affections are instead directed toward her. Upon announcing his intentions, she blusterfully rejects him as if her involvment with any man were inconcievable. Other possible suitors come and go, including a young Ewan McGregor as Frank Churchill. His Fabio-esque blond locks and smooth charm does not go unoticed by the memebers of either sex. Present alongside Emma throughout her machinations is Mr. Knightley, played charismatically by Jeremy Northam. The affectionately antagonistic relationship between them manifests in a light comedic sparring which is one of this lush film's great pleasures.

Paltrow is excellent in the lead as the manipulative Emma, depicted with just enough heart to make her likable even if she is frequently blind to the impact her actions have on others (such as when she publicly insults the insufferable Miss Bates).

Less impressive than the film is this Blu-ray release which contains no special features and woeful visual quality. The picture appears to have undergone no restoration process, with film artefacts clearly visible. Such blemishes would have been unacceptable even if it were presented on DVD. Grainy and lacking clarity, it’s a shame that the lush and colourful visual palette is not given the treatment it deserves. The audio is fine, but unremarkable, and presented in a single DTS-HD 2.0 track.

The film was released the same year as a version made for British television starring Kate Beckinsale. Perfectly fine on its own merits, this version is more spritely and enjoyable. If only the transfer quality weren’t so mediocre.

30 Rock

Seasons 1-3

If you've spoken to me recently, you'd probably have noticed I have a wee bit of a crush on Tina Fey. Known to many, perhaps, for her dead on portrayal of Sarah Palin back when the election was in full swing and her stint as the first female head writer on SNL, she is also the head writer and lead actress on her show, 30 Rock.

Now entering it's fourth season, 30 Rock is a show about a show. Reflecting its principals lives possibly more than they care to admit, we follow head writer Liz Lemon (Fey) as she struggles to hold together the "TGS with Tracey Jordan" show. Various forces, such as her moody and needy actors, studio exec Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and her own insecurities, act to make her life difficult.

The cast includes Tracey Morgan as the insane actor Tracey Jordan ("I'm black, very proud, like peacocks, baby!") and Jane Krakowski, from Ally McBeal, as his attention seeking and vain co-star, Jenna. Jack McBrayer, whom I had only seen for his small role as the sexually confused Christian newleywed in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is the not dissimilar, but more cheerful and rosy-eyed page, Kenneth. Rounding out the regular cast are Scott Adsit as Pete Hornberger, the show's producer, and Judah Friedlander as the perpetually-capped Frank, one of the writers of Liz's eclectic staff.


The show is, essentially, a sitcom, though the single-camera setup, lack of laugh track and ongoing storylines give the characters more depth and reality than normal, even when the situations they find themselves in are often absurd. Liz is the heart of the show, a wonderful character that stands in for us all. Jack says accurately of her, to her: “"New York third-wave feminist, college-educated, single-and-pretending-to-be-happy-about-it, over scheduled, undersexed, you buy any magazine that says 'healthy body image' on the cover and every two years you take up knitting for...a week." Intelligent, funny but at heart a bit of a nerd and out of her depth, she faces many empathetic problems, even if they are as ridiculous as Tracey and Jenna attempting to one-up each other by dressing as a white woman and black man, respectively.

A revelation, of sorts, is the comedic talents of Alec Baldwin as the Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming. His backhanded compliments to Liz about her masculine clothing and love-life advice are pure deadpan genius. It is particularly interesting that Jack, initially an antagonist to Liz, has become her closest confidant as the seasons have progressed, and a character that has shown much compassion underneath his manipulative streak.


The writing, lead by Fey, is smart, wry and clever. It's much more sophisticated than most other current TV comedies, and makes other current favourites of mine, such as The Big Bang Theory, seem hammy and formulaic. An extra layer is added simply by being a show-within-a-show, providing plenty of opportunities for stabs about the unpredictably of actors, the meddling of studio bosses, product placement and TV as commodity. Particularly hilarious and bizarre are those occasional moments when the characters, usually Liz or Jack, break the fourth wall and stare down the barrel of the camera, almost as if Fey and Baldwin are winking at you, letting you in on the joke.

As the show has progressed, it has only gotten stronger, giving more depth to their lovable characters and consistently providing laugh-out loud laughs. Tina Fey is obviously riding a whirlwind right now, with a cabinet full of Emmys and her creation a critical-smash hit. Her show deserves all the accolades heaped upon it, even if it curiously does not have the ratings figures to match. Maybe that will change upon the imminent arrival of the fourth season. I can't wait.

Season 4 premieres on October 15 on NBC.

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Released June 28, 2008

Jack Black is Kung Fu Panda, a fat, clumsy noodle chef with martial arts dreams. While Keanu Reeves might be able to learn kung-fu after seconds of being plugged into a computer, for our Panda, “Po”, things will be more difficult.

By matters of fate and story necessity betrayed by its title, Po is chosen as the new “Dragon Warrior” by the mysterious turtle Oogway, master of the temple perched, as they always are, on the side of a mountain in the ranges of China. Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), who will be his master and trainer, and his five disciples, Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane, are none too pleased. It’s a sacrilege, they say, that an unglamorous, unprepared and overweight Panda be chosen. Oogway is wise however, and knows that Tai Lung (voiced by Deadwood’s Ian McShane), a misguided student of Shifu, has escaped from prison and is on his way to battle the one destined as the Dragon Warrior. One does not need to extrapolate too far to see where the story is headed.

It doesn’t matter, however – Kung Fu Panda works because of its charm and humour which riffs on old kung-fu movies and the expected conventions but yet still remains, unlike the Shrek films, within its own universe. The visuals, lighting and landscapes are often truly beautiful, and while the characters lack the nuance of those in Ratatouille, the voice cast, which also includes Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan, are fine.

The story is merely a retread of a thousand other children’s films, but its delivered with such verve and exuberance that it’s the story’s inherent strength rather than familiarity that dominates. After all, what child – or adult – does not dream of being a kung fu master?

The Box (2009)

Released October 29, 2009

A strange man arrives at your doorstep with a box which has atop it a big, red button. If you press the button two things will happen:
(a) you will be rewarded with one million dollars, and
(b) somewhere, someone you don't know, will die.
If you don't press the button, you can return the box without obligation. What do you do?

This is the moral dilemma presented in Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's third feature, The Box. The hard questions, however, come in the consequences following that decision, since it is hardly a spoiler to reveal that Cameron Diaz as Norma, and too-pretty-to-be-true James Marsden as husband, Arthur, do make the seductive choice.

It's not long before strange and horrific events start intruding on Norma and Arthur's lives, affecting not only them but their young son, Walter. Frank Langella plays the strange man, his face disfigured a'la Harvey Two-Face. Intimidating but seemingly honest, his origin and affiliation is unknown. Kelly, who wrote the screenplay, cleverly refrains from explicit explanations and instead allows his philosophical ramblings free reign. Causality takes a back seat to theme, in which it is suprisingly coherent, with an ending manages to tie enough of a bow to be satisfying without feeling contrived.

Occasionally frightening and often suspenseful, your enjoyment will depend on whether you accept the premise and the morbidly humourless tone. Like other well-intentioned and sometimes provocative science-fiction films based in the real world such as Alex Proyas' Knowing, The Box treads perilously close to hokum, sometimes crossing the line, before being pulled back by the strength of its ideas.

Based on a short story penned by Richard Matheson and subsequently turned into a Twilight Zone episode, Kelly’s version, set in 1976, is as old fashioned as the original series. Rod Serling would have approved.

An Education (2009)

Released October 22, 2009

Peter Sarsgaard has a peculiar way of being simultaneously seductive and sinister. He plays David in this 1960s coming-of-age tale from acclaimed scribe Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity) and director Lone Scherfig.

David somehow makes a living through real estate, though he seems to spend more time hustling and crusing in his Bristol sports car. His charms seduce not only the young sixteen year old Jenny, played luminously by Carey Mulligan, but also her parents, Jack and Majorie. Alfred Molina's Jack is one of those stodgy, conservative and meddling fathers with a clear plan for his daughter's life: she is to advance her social status by striving academically and gaining entry to Oxford.

Living in the lower-middle class Twickenham, Jenny feels constrained by the conservative suburbia that has not yet hit the 60s revolution. She shuns her studies for, in her eyes, the far more attractive and carefree life with David and his swinging friends which include Dominic Cooper and the very blond Rosamund Pike. They frequent classical concerts, nightclubs, auctions and even have some time for a spot of low-class thieving: “I never did anything before I met you,” she tells David.

Even as the perceptive Jenny becomes aware of the less savoury aspects of her newfound life, and of the emptiness at the heart of her lover’s character, she feels compelled to follow it to its end. This is despite the stern words from behind the glasses of Emma Thompson’s headmistress, and the objections of Olivia Williams’ kindly teacher, Miss Stubbs. An attractive woman dressed unflatteringly by her own volition, Miss Stubbs feels an odd identification with her student, and perhaps a regret for paths not taken.

Beautifully shot with a real sense of the period, An Education is delightful and honest, even though the age difference between the burgeoning lovers is oddly never raised.

While Mulligan is the obvious star, also noteworthy is Ellie Kendrick as one of Jenny’s school friends. It’s a small role, but on the basis of her star turn in the BBC series The Diary of Anne Frank, she, like Mulligan, is destined for bigger things.

Stargate Universe

SyFy Channel on Fridays from October 2, 2009



Stargate Galactica
Air Parts 1, 2 and 3

I have just had the modest pleasure of watching the three-part pilot of the third Stargate TV series, Stargate Universe. It shows great promise and is far more interesting than the later seasons of either earlier series, which seemed too stuck within formula and their clean, PC sci-fi world.

Entitled "Air" and set in the present day, it follows the story of a group of humans stranded far from Earth on the spaceship "Destiny", built eons ago by the Ancients. It a familiar but reliable conciet already exploited in shows such as Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: Voyager.

As one may expect, aboard the newly discovered ship are a diverse array of military officers and civilians, a perfect setup for much of the tensions which will no doubt arise. Characters which make themselves notable are Robert Carlyle as the practical and not-entirely likable Dr. Nicholas Rush and the requisite geek character, Eli Wallace (David Blue), who finds his way into the Stargate world by solving a mathematics puzzle embedded in a MMO game. While perhaps sitting well within the world of SG-1, his presence is mostly a contrived distraction in Universe, which draws more than plot inspiration from the recent gritty, and brilliant, Battlestar Galactica.

If nothing else, creators and Stargate veterans, Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper must be applauded for trying to create a show distinct from either of its forerunners. Still, at this early stage, much of the attempts for darkness seem as tepid as Susan Ivanova's lesbian dalliance in Babylon 5. There's a 20 second sex scene, for example, that seems included merely to say "look BSG! Stargate can be racy too!", and while the plot revolves around usual Stargate territory (the main problem facing the crew at the outset are the malfunctioning life-support systems), there are attempts to give major characters moral dilemmas. One particular moment late in Part 2, everyone's survival on the line, sees Dr. Rush intending to choose a sacrifical lamb. Later it is implied that it is instead through an act of noble sacrifice than the crew are saved, though the dialogue itself is somewhat ambiguious. It is possible the writers are planning something more subversive that is evidenced here, and I certainly hope they are willing to have faith in their characters rather than bending them to the whim of the plot.

Despite these quibbles, and the other leads which have yet to establish an obvious identity, there's plenty to enjoy: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping all make cameos, the mammoth ship clearly provides endless scope for storytelling and the use of flashbacks help ground the characters in real emotion. The heavy use of hand-held cameras also works suprisingly well in conjuction with the slightly darker tone.

Stargate Universe has little claim to originality solely by being part of a franchise, and especially in light of its borrowings from BSG and Voyager. Still, if there must be another Stargate TV series, this is probably the best one could have hoped for. Now it just depends on whether the writers continue to follow the more innovative (at least for Stargate) elements rather than falling back upon the less-interesting and formulaic tropes already established.

Okuribito (Departures, 2009)

Released October 15, 2009

Beating out other high profile releases such as Waltz with Bashir for the best foreign film Oscar is this touching Japanese drama about an out-of-work cellist who falls into a career as an “encoffineer”: those who dress and prepare the dead as the bereved say their final goodbyes. Daigo is played by Masahiro Motoki as a sort of well-meaning awkward child who slowly becomes more comfortable with his socially maligned job and, critically, his relationship with his estranged father, whom he has not seen since he was a child.

He is instructed in the fine art of washing and dressing the corpses by the hardened veteran Sasaki, his boss and mentor. The care and affection to which Sasaki and, eventually, Daigo, pay to their work is touching, poetic and accompanied by the aching strains of Joe Hisaishi’s cello-based score.

What’s most impressive is director Yokiro Takita’s bravery in taking on the subject of death and how it is perceived – or denied – by the living. His thesis seems to be that embracing the “circle of life” is the only way to find solace with our ultimate fate. The dead and roasted chicken Daigo and Sasaki devour on Christmas Eve, for instance, is representative of this never ending cycle.

While beautiful in its monotone reverence of those passed, the dramatic beats are telegraphed too early and the final act is too repetitive. Shameless emotive montages over soaring strings push and pull in all the right places and threaten to replace the heartfelt sincerity with something more manipulative. There’s also a very uncomfortable splash of oddball humour that is too weird to gel comfortably with the otherwise respectful and sincere tone.

Clearly perfect award bait, Departures is nonetheless at pains to avoid any real drama. Like the musician, later mortician, who seems more interested in the art of his profession than its heart, it is a beautiful and uplifting affirmation of life through death, but one constrained by its own peculiar brand of manipulation.