Allied

First Hit:  Although interesting and at times good, the acting and/or storyline didn’t really hold up well for the life of the film.

This WWII based film is about two agents Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) who are charged with assassinating the German Ambassador to Morocco. Although he’s Canadian and she’s European when they meet they must act like they're married and that he’s been in Paris working and is finally taking a little time off to visit his wife in Morocco. They meet for the first time in a restaurant in front of her friends and it goes off well, with everyone believing they were a couple.

The film spends a nice amount of time letting the audience see them learn about each other. They each learn about the other's skill sets including their marksmanship. Nearing the time for the party where they expect to assassinate the Ambassador, they head out to the desert. After gazing out across the massive sand dunes, back in the car they consummate their relationship with lovemaking.

I bring this up because this scene was one of the best scenes in this film and one of the best, in a car lovemaking scenes, I’ve ever witnessed. The use of a revolving camera and the wind and sand swirling around the car in an ever-rising intensity. It was very effective and it sealed their relationship.

After the job, they head to England together with plans to marry. However, there are complications and that is where the film feels a bit forced. The head of “V” tells him that they think that his wife Marianne is a spy for Germany and that she took the identity of the real Marianne Beausejour.

The remaining part of the film is about Max trying to find out if this story is true or not. In doing so he breaks military rules. There are times that following Max is enjoyable and interesting and other times where it was either overkill or I didn’t believe the character’s (and actor) actions.

Lots of the period items were wonderfully well done, but interestingly I felt that the main actor’s clothing was too well done. It had the feeling of being staged.

Pitt was good, but it was not great by any stretch. Cotillard was one of the best things about this film. She was consistently strong and created an interesting role. Steven Knight wrote a good screenplay and there was some interesting banter and dialogue between the main characters. Robert Zemeckis directed this film and it felt very old style in the way it was presented. Some of the scenes seemed a bit too staged for my liking. In the end, the film didn't seem to know what it wanted to be, was it  Drama, Suspense, Thriller, Romance, or Action?

Overall:  It was engaging most of the time, but quickly left my consciousness after leaving the theater.

Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os)

First Hit:  Superior acting in a dark, moody and excellent film.

This film is rarely a “feel good film” but the superior acting by Marion Cotillard (as Stephanie) and Matthias Schoenaerts (as Alain van Versch) make this a very strong film.

Alain and his son Sam (played by Armand Verdure) are homeless and trying to get to his Alain’s sisters house. His sister Anna (played by Corinne Masiero) and her husband Richard (Jean-Michael Correia) welcome him and his son although there isn’t any love lost between them.

It is clear at the beginning that Alain is self-centered, arrogant, and selfish but he does love his son. He doesn’t think through his actions and generally does what he wants when he wants to. As a security guard, he meets Stephanie after she’s been hit while drunk at a dance club. He takes her home meets her lover but leaves his number anyway.

Stephanie is an Orca trainer at a water show. She loves what she does, but it is clear her shadow self is part of her life. A mishap with the Orcas and she loses her legs. Depressed and suicidal she reaches out to Alain. His selfish but caring manner has her come out of her shell.

There begins the story of their redemption for their actions and a willingness to grow into acceptance of who they are and what they want.

Cotillard is sublime in this role. The variety of emotions, feelings, and actions are done so well that this role is Oscar worthy. Versch is very good as a kind and selfish brute. Masiero was strong as the sister who finds ways to make her life work. Correia was great to seen again and, as always, wonderful as the sister’s husband who tries to make peace between the occasional warring siblings. Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain wrote a very strong script. Audiard directed this film with strength and elegance.

Overall:  A very wonderful film which deserves any Oscar recognition it gets – probably more.

Contagion

First Hit: Interesting, scary, overcomplicated stories and created questions of realism.

What would happen if a new disease came to this world that had a high R 0 factor (R Naught). Although it was explained as a primary part of the film, it wasn’t reinforced enough throughout the film for me to understand the some of the dialogue they used later.

From what I understood a high R Naught means that for every one person who dies multiple more will die. Anyway this was just one of the confusing things in this film. Then I kept having questions while the celluloid rolled. If they created a contagious area, sealed it off a whole city, who would man the electric power stations? Who controls all the other social utilities if the city (Chicago) is dying from a disease?

And although the film-makers showed a society degenerating by having people breaking into banks, grocery stores, and pharmacies; I kept wondering who’s running the electrical grid. Anyway, outside of the problems in this film because it compromised the way society would breakdown with this disease, it did bring up great questions about what would happen if a devastating disease struck the world.

Beth (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) is ground zero for this disease (we discover this at the end of the film). She stops on her way home and has a quickie with an ex-boyfriend (why was this important?), comes home to her husband Mitch (played by Matt Damon), who ends up being immune to the disease but her son isn’t and both the son and wife die.

The film includes the involvement of the WHO and a bunch of other agencies which lets us know that this is important and out of control. The way the WHO and the US Government methodically find a cure and plan how to immunize a lot of people was interesting, but overall this film tried to make drama in too many places which dissipated the energy of the film. I would have rather stayed with just a few of the people and not try to give us so much about so many.

One of the opening scenes when they cut Beth’s scull open to analyze her death, I found myself cringing but ready for a film that would be more focused, it fell off the table and became a different film from there.

Paltrow has a small but critical part because she is ground zero. Damon was good as the caring father. Marion Cotillard as Dr. Orantes was very good and probably did the best acting in this film. Jude Law was very good at playing a blogger named Alan Krumwiede as someone who was skeptical of the government’s action on the disease but he was worse in his lying to his public. Laurence Fishburne was OK as Dr. Cheever and I really thought the story was overplayed when he gave his wife a heads up to leave Chicago. There were lots of other actors but this film didn’t require it and in fact dissipated its energy. Scott Z. Burns wrote the script and made it too complicated by adding lots of strong parts. Steven Soderbergh directed this film and, to me, it needed simplification in some areas to create a more powerful effect.

Overall: This was a good film but too many stories with big time actors dissipated the strength of the idea.

Public Enemies

First Hit: Basically a bunch a scenes, some with gun fights some without, thrown together with some semblance of sequence.

Johnny Depp is great to watch and this film is no exception. However there are fatal flaws in the execution of Public Enemies.

First; outside of an initial placing of the time, there is no time sequence or reference to the story. The scenes give no indication that this film takes place over a week, month, year or years. No one ages in this film so I’m thinking a couple of years or so, who knows.

Second, there is very little character building. Outside of a single reference to his past, Dillinger (played by Depp) hasn’t established why robbing banks are so important to him. The best character building is with Dillinger’s girlfriend Billie Frechette (played by Marion Cotillard). On more than one occasion Billie talks about her background and reason for her chosen life. Christian Bale, playing Melvin Purvis the FBI agent assigned to get Dillinger dead or alive, gave no reason why he basically walked through this film as a good looking wooden board (believe me he’s better than this).

Third, I didn’t sense or feel any chemistry between Cotillard and Depp. As a couple they were mostly lifeless and only Dillinger’s insistence on having a relationship was the basis for them being together. I didn't care about their relationship.

Michael Mann who directed and co-wrote this film needs to take full responsibility for its failings. He had great actors (there are some fabulous actors in this film, just look at the credits) and a compelling subject. Depp was, at times, really worth watching. Cotillard was also very good at times. Bale was non-existent and the best part of the film was Stephen Graham as Baby Face Nelson, total lunatic.

Overall: This was a long waste of time interrupted by moments of brilliance.