Once

In a year so far full of blockbuster sequels, gross out comedies, sadistic horror corns and some mediocre straight dramas, writer/director John Carney’s Once from Ireland is a breath of fresh air.

Carney was an ex-bassist of the influential Irish band, The Frames. He loosely based the movie on the band’s leading singer Glen Hansard who also stars in the movie. Once is a small musical with a big heart. A guy meets a girl on the street and their mutual passion for music draws them together for a few fateful weeks. Carney does not give the two leading characters any names. We merely know them as Guy and Girl (played by Marketa Irglova), but their time together not only transform their lives, but also leave a deep impact on the audience.

Once is shot on a threadbare budget and it shows on the screen. The relatively low quality of filming equipment used by Carney gives the entire film a grainy look sometimes suggesting a little shaky camera work. Most of the music in the movie are apparently recorded live on the set and lacks the usual polish in sound caliber that we may have grown accustomed to. BUT, none of them hurts the movie, on the contrary, it actually helps the film with its “slice of life” realism. Without apparent effort, Carney seems to simply let the camera roll and catch his actors as they go through their daily life. That kind of naturalism is the key to this movie’s charm. Carney is either an expert at capturing real life moments and inspiring his little-experienced actors or he is just lucky to have two unknowns that are completely natural in front of the camera. The end result is a total delight.

One reason Once has become such an indie hit in its limited release is that it deals with a popular theme easy for the audience to identify with. Love stories never grow out of fashion, especially the platonic unconsummated ones. Guy is a street musician on his down time and Girl is a Czech immigrant who plays piano whenever she gets a chance. Girl is first one who understands Guy’s music while listening to him on the street and their friendship ensues. When they first meet, Guy is still pining for his ex-girlfriend who currently lives in London and Girl has her own relationship problem. Their loneliness along with their passion for music has pulled them together and we all understand our own desire for company at times. As we get to know them better, we sense that they are soul mates in their musical creativity, but face too many obstacles in reality, let alone their still ambiguous feelings and entanglement with other loved ones. All the emotions and interactions between the two characters are something that we may encounter in our lives. Even when we are blissfully happy in our environment, sometimes a little spark may connect us with a stranger on a much deeper level.

I love a lot of the details and supporting characters Carney writes in the movie: the loan office who has his own rock dream; Guy’s dad brings in tea and refreshment during their jam session; Girl’s straight forward way with English language when she tells Guy that she is not going to his apartment to listen to the CD they have just recorded because they will just be doing “hanky panky”. I particularly love the scene, where Girl plays classical piano surrounded by all the modern guitars and basses on the wall. It is such a contradiction, but then Guy joins Girl and they play a duet of the song Guy writes. At that moment, the modern guitar and classic piano have become unlikely partners and both contribute to beautiful music.

Hansard and Irglova are two big assets in this movie. Prior to Once, Hansard only had a small role in another critically acclaimed Irish musical The Commitments and Once marks Irglova’s screen debut. However, these two look totally at home on screen maybe because they have been friends for years off-screen and the story, in many ways, reflect their real life situations. Hansard is 18 years senior of Irglova, but Hansard has quite a bit of 20-year old spirit and Irglova has a maturity far beyond her teenage years. When they share an intimate look, it doesn’t make the audience cringe; instead their chemistry transcends their age difference. On their first walk together in the city, Irglova with her broken vacuum cleaner and Hansard with his big guitar case have them instantly stand out in the crowd yet also an integral part of the whole urban scene. Irglova is a major find in this movie. Her Girl has accumulated a lot of life experiences in her short life: she is tough and no-nonsense, loyal and protective toward her friends and drives a hard bargain in business dealings; yet she maintains a childish innocence: delights in Guy’s attention and acts like a little girl when asking to try the precious motorcycle belonging to Guy’s dad. Irglova is not glamorous and wears little makeup in the movie, but she is an embodiment of womanhood and adolescence.

In Once, the city of Dublin is the third unbilled co-star. Never before in films has a city been brought out so alive without much sentimentality or glamorization. The characters constantly walk around the street among the hustle and bustle of the city. Carney never tries to pull the two characters out of the crowd and leaves the camera rolling even when some of those pedestrians become aware of the camera and turn to look at the actors. When Guy and Girl sit at a café window having a quick lunch, the city is still lively reflected on the glass and we see the two characters superimposed with those reflections. Even if you have never been to Dublin, this movie makes you feel that you know its every pulse and can even smell the fresh sea air and hear all the noises in every street corner.

Of course, any talk about Once has to mention the wonderful music throughout the movie. Hansard penned most of the songs and they are the heart and soul of this film. Hansard has a very strong voice that goes well with both rock anthems and soft ballads. By comparison, Irglova’s voice is much weaker and more fragile. Irglova is perfectly willing to have Hansard be the lead musical voice in the movie and all the songs will linger in your mind long after the movie is over. While the music is original, some of the singing scenes get old and stale. Carney doesn’t vary his camera style much when he films Hansard sing. Maybe I am old-fashioned. Once sometimes leads me to long for those musicals in Hollywood’s Golden Age. Back then, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly rarely sang all their numbers still and there were always fancy footwork and lavish movements involved. Once is a musical strictly in the sense of music and dancing is absolutely out of the question here. In one scene, Carney has Hansard sing a love ballad to a video montage of his ex-girlfriend, it may be the only melodramatic sin he commits in this movie. The end result looks like some cheap amateur music video.

Is Once “the best music film of our generation”? Only time will tell, but it does have the most original songs in recent movie history and its soundtrack is definitely a must-have for any music lovers. Combined with Hansard and Irglova’s great chemistry and Carney’s laid back directing style, this bittersweet romance is also a must-see for any movie lovers.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon) is back! For the third time, the former government secret agent and trained assassin goes half way around the world to search for his true identity and eventually lands in New York to confront CIA superiors.

Yes, the story has become stale by now. It surprises me that Bourne still needs to encounter so much danger before he realizes that CIA may be behind all his troubles. Haven’t we found that out during Bourne’s previous two outings? Also why does a senior CIA field agent want to divulge top agency secrets to a journalist? Many key plot points are not well laid out and a lot of them are recycled from the previous two movies. At any rate, most Bourne fans don’t go to see the movie for its clear logic; they are in the theater for at-the-edge-of-your-seat action. The movie is more about how Bourne eludes killers on his heels than creating a credible story that puts him in that situation.

Director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon don’t disappoint their fans in the third installment of Bourne franchise. Before The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Supremacy, Greengrass is best know in artsy movie circle for his documentary style filmmaking in films such as Bloody Sunday. His 2006 Oscar nominated United 93 closely follows in Bloody Sunday’s footsteps and it is as realistic as it comes when portraying a real life event on the big screen. Now with The Bourne Ultimatum making a big box office splash, Greengrass has proven himself a commercial asset in Hollywood, a dubious title in ever money conscious Tinseltown. However, that shouldn’t diminish his contribution to action genre. He brings his naturalistic approach to filming all the action sequences. In The Bourne Ultimatum, he covers foot races, car chases and hand-to-hand fights, pretty much the same ordeals Bourne went through in the first two movies; nevertheless all the action scenes feel fresh and pulse with energy. Greengrass’ trademark hand-held camera puts the audience right in the center of all the thrills and makes you physically dizzy. Talk about a visual roller coaster ride!

Damon is an unlikely action hero. He has neither golden boy good looks nor a tough guy image, but in Jason Bourne’s case, his ordinariness may have played to his advantage. Bourne doesn’t have James Bond’s upper crust snobbery or condescending flirty attitude towards women. He is trained by the government to be ruthless and unemotional. His search for identity has invariably become a search for humanity. Damon’s everyman appearance resonates very well with the audience and grabs our empathy.

This movie would have made a perfect double bill with German Oscar winner The Lives of the Others. Both expose government surveillance on ordinary people. The Stasi agents in The Lives of the Others could probably never have dreamed all the modern spying technology while the CIA agents in The Bourne Ultimatum could have benefited greatly from Stasi agents’ years of operative experiences. The movie shows sadly like many things in today’s world, surveillance has also gone global. Our government can reach into all corners of the world whenever they feel they are justified.

So far the three Bourne films have been based on Robert Ludlum’s trilogy, although the story lines in the movies have resembled nothing in the books. Ludlum’s Bourne books, by themselves, are actually a very interesting and thrilling read, but their cold war themes are probably like some fantasy to current young moviegoers. The creators of the franchise have been very faithful about Ludlum’s book titles although the second and third movies feel more like The Bourne Identity II and III. Hopefully for Bourne’s next outing, we can see him get some real spy work somewhere instead of circling around CIA again and again.

Sunshine

Sci-fi movies are rarely good because they are usually weighed down by ridiculous plots. Director Danny Boyle’s Sunshine fails as a sci-fi film, shines as a psychological drama and then crashes to the ground as it turns into a horror flick.

Sunshine follows eight astronauts on their ill-fated mission to re-ignite the sun. Seven years ago another group of astronauts had attempted the same mission but was lost in space, all presumed dead.

The first third of the movie is slow and very Alien-like. The eight astronauts have been in flight for a few years and are getting close to the sun. We see their mundane everyday life on the spaceship. There are a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo explaining the background story and setting up the premise. I don’t know if any of those scientific terms make any sense to real-life scientists, but at least writer Alex Garland does build up a consistent technical logic at this point of the movie.

The interesting part really starts during the second third of the movie. The crew receives a distress signal from the first spaceship. They are faced with the dilemma of whether to approach the other ship or continue on their own course. Here each personality starts to emerge and the tension among the crew members slowly reaches a boiling point. The decision-making process is nerve-racking since each one can be a life-or-death choice. Garland and Boyle are clearly fascinated with exploration of human nature under duress. How do we take responsibility for our decision? Does good-for-all-mankind justify killing one person? What is man’s relation to God when we have means to explore all these new territories in the universe? How do one feel and act when he finds out that they may never be able to get back to earth? Boyle has a couple of on-the-edge-of-your-seats action scenes as the astronauts conquer one obstacle after another, but mainly this part of the movie is really more of a psychological thriller than a sci-fi picture.

Unfortunately, during the last third of the film, Boyle and Garland go back to the most recent genre they had explored together: horror as in their last collaboration 28 Days Later. They completely lose all the credibility they have built up by that point and actually seem to have given up making sense. The movie becomes a slasher in tradition of Scream combined with Boyle’s quick blurry editing. It is almost visually impossible to distinguish what is going on screen.

Boyle has an international ensemble cast for Sunshine. My favorite Japanese actor from my favorite Japanese samurai movie The Twilight Samurai, Hiroyuki Sanada, plays the captain of the ship. Cillian Murphy is the physicist, Michelle Yeoh the biologist, Chris Evans and Troy Garity the pilots. No one really shines or sucks here. They all struggle with the technical lingo they have to utter, but are reasonably convincing in emotional situations.

One big attraction in almost all sci-fi film is the spectacular images and cool gadgets. In Sunshine, understandably we are exposed to a lot of, what else, bright sunshine. After viewed once or twice, the brilliant sunlight feels a bit redundant and stale. If you are into knives, you may enjoy the blade-twisting knife as a fantastic future contraption.

In the end, Sunshine is likely to end up just another solar eclipse in the vast movie sky.

The Lives of the Others

The Lives of the Others was the dark horse at this year’s Academy Award ceremony and its surprising win of Best Foreign Language Film over critics’ and my favorite Pan’s Labyrinth was the biggest upset of that night. Sony Pictures Classics decided to re-release the movie during the summer blockbuster season so any serious audience will have a chance to catch it instead of having to sit through one after another teenager-oriented fares.

After viewing it, I have to admit it is very well done in a conventional way. Above all, the script by director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is extremely strong. Donnersmarck does not dazzle audience with any special cinematic approaches; instead he focuses on telling a compelling and interesting story. Wiesler (played by Ulrich Muhe) is a long-time experienced secret agent of the notorious East German Stasi. When a high-ranking official becomes interested in Christa-Maria Sieland (played by Martina Gedeck), a famous actress, her boyfriend, the equally famous playwright Georg (played by Sebastian Koch) becomes the target of Stasi’s 24-hour surveillance in hope that there will be evidences of his subversion to put him in jail for good.

Donnersmarck’s gripping drama wastes little time in exposing the oppressive environment in communist East Germany before the fall of the wall. The dialogue and plot are tightly entwined and the traditional three acts of a movie script are developed beautifully. Even though the audience sees both the secret agent and his target and therefore knows both sides’ stories, one still gets riveted by the mind games each side plays.

Donnersmarck’s movie may have unintentionally hit too close to home for modern Americans. The tight surveillance under Stasi reminds audience of our contemporary computer-hacking, voice-activating and wire-tapping intrusion into private lives all in the name of counter-terrorism. When Wiesler talks about investigation techniques at the Stasi academy, it makes one shudder to see the similarities in our approach when questioning terrorist suspects. It is unfortunate that history seems to always mercilessly repeat itself.

Considering the entire movie is mainly built on an excellent script, I find the opening sequence and the ending are the weakest links in the plot lines. The movies opens with Wiesler interrogating a political prisoner. It is mixed with Wiesler’s lecture at the academy with the interrogation tapes played for the students to learn. The scene is great in revealing communist government’s ruthless nature, but it makes Wiesler’s later transition to a sympathizer of those political dissident highly implausible. For any one who has experienced communist regimes, the tragedy Georg and Christa have gone through happens more commonly than westerners may think. Years of working for Stasi should have made hard-case Wiesler particularly immune to those human tragedies. It is unclear why this case has affected Wiesler so deeply. There are some hints that Wiesler may have fallen in love with Christa himself, but Donnersmarck does not try to make that point clear. However, Muhe’s performance helps me overlook all the flaws in the script for his character. His steely eyes are mesmerizing and convey all the emotions for a man who is used to not revealing his feelings. He portrays Wiesler as someone torn between his communist idealism and disdain for corrupt socialism officials. He is brutal toward the state’s “enemies” while at the same time touched by his own loneliness and desire for something more. You believe every tic and quirk in that character. He is undoubtedly the most charismatic bald actor since Yul Brynner. Martina Gedeck of Mostly Martha (the movie has been remade by Hollywood and it is now in theater under the name of No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones playing Gedeck’s old role) plays a completely different character in this movie. Her Christa is sexy and seductive. She loves performing and being with Georg. In the end, she is forced to choose only one. Gedeck was great in the light comedy Mostly Martha, but here she proves her wide acting range and dramatic assurance. Also for some reason European actresses just look better, sexier and more natural than their American counterparts, maybe because they are not obsessed with cosmetic surgeries and rather enjoy their new level of sensuality that comes with age. Donnersmarck obviously fashions Georg after himself. Koch even looks like him in the movie, but he is really the least developed character in the movie. Not for a minute did I buy his character’s naivety about the communist regime. How can he not be aware of communist mind-oppression while his best friend and apparently many others have been black-listed for one thing or another?

The ending of this movie is a sellout in the Hollywood tradition. I would prefer that it ends right after the climax. It would have been much more powerful and soul-shaking. Instead, Donnersmarck opts to have everything neatly revealed and everyone gets some kind of satisfaction. Unfortunately in real life rarely do things get resolved so perfectly!

The music in the movie is also a bit overwhelming at time. It seems that Donnersmarck doesn’t trust that his story alone can build up enough tension for the audience and he heavily depends on Gabriel Yared’s jarring music to add suspense. Yared writes fantastic music, but here it is simply overused in the movie and ends up distracting audience’s attention from the tense situations.

The Lives of the Others is a promising start for Donnersmarck’s film career and I look forward to all his future works. As for which movie was more worthy for that foreign film Oscar, my vote still goes to Pan’s Labyrinth. The Lives of the Others is an excellent movie done by the book while Pan’s Labyrinth has expanded conventions and brought the audience to a completely new level of excitement.