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Notes on The Band's Visit, Spiderwick Chronicles, The Eye, The Golden Compass 3/15/2007 5:42:43 PM
Notes on recent films. The Band's Visit
posted 3/19/2008
A formal band from Egypt gets lost in Israel and ends up spending the night in a small Israeli town. English is the linqua franca, and as the night goes on, human connections happen. A strong sub-plot is the formal leader of the band reconciling with a young man who reminds him of a son who committed suicide.
This is a quiet, thoughtful film about people making connections.
The Spiderwick Chronicles
posted 2/19/2008
This is a film aimed at a younger audience, with some good story mechanics. The underlying story is about a family rebonding. The main character, a young boy, has some serious issues with anger and impulse control when his parents are going through a divorce; he wants to live with his father instead of his mother, meek brother, and a strong-willed older sister. The chronicles of the story were created by his grandfather who learned how to perceive the unseen world of fairies, goblins, and sprites, putting himself and his daughter in danger from trolls and orges. When the young boy opens that book, he must act to save his family.
There are a few scenes that might be too scary for children under five; I sat near one in the theater.
There's not much about the brighter side of the fairy world.
The Eye
posted 2/3/2008
This horror film is a remake of a Korean film. The set up is that a blind woman who gets a cornea transplant is now able to see spectral wraiths escorting the newly dead to the afterlife. The film has some 'boo' moments, but the structure of the story undercuts the drama. For most of the film, the main character is trying to convince a doctor that she's not crazy, that she's really seeing wraiths escorting people to the afterlife. So many of the early scenes are an on-going argument that isn't that interesting or dramatic. It's not until deep into the film that the actress has a stronger goal, finding out about her donor to discover why she now has second sight.
So, there's not much drama in the film to go along with the boo moments. Stronger acting could have helped, but with this kind of story structure problem, it's hard for an actor to overcome not having a clearly defined goal or purpose. Characters in a story define themselves by what they want. When characters don't have clearly defined goals, actors generally struggle.
The film also has a slow pace, which means people like me have time to wonder about the 'rules' that govern what's happening. At different times in the film the wraiths are showing up to escort the newly dead to the afterlife, making sure someone dies, and showing up before people die. This shifting about over the rules of the road allows the film to create a climax, but it's not as powerful as it could be.
The Golden Compass
posted 12/15/2007
The set up for the story is that the main character, a young girl, lives without rules in a society with an organization that wants everyone to live by its rules. Unfortunately, once you get past the set up, the girl doesn't have much of a goal other than reacting to events, so it's hard for the story to develop narrative tension around her actions. Other characters, including an armored bear, do have goals and hence narrative tension when blocked from achieving what they seek. The movie ends with the title character having some clear goals, so the movie operates as an extended set up for the next film.
I hadn't read the book the movie is based on but I did read some reviews that spoke about the movie and the book, so I felt comfortable following the action.
The movie demonstrates once again that a big budget doesn't overcome story structure problems.
