All Is Lost

First Hit:  Interesting, strong acting, and by the next day I still had a lot of questions.

This film is amazing in that there is only one actor and there is virtually no dialog. Yes the actor is the strong Robert Redford, but we are forced to dig past Redford the person, and see a character which we have to determine, for ourselves, who he is and why is he in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

One of the clues we have is the prologue where the voice over has Redford (as the character) reading the note he puts into a jar and tosses it into the water near the end of the film. The other clue is the name of the boat, the “Virginia Jean”. Is the name of the boat, his wife’s name? Mother’s name? Daughter’s name? Home state? We don’t know and never learn. Did he commit a crime and is hiding from the law? Did he lose his wife and finding solitude by being alone? Did he make it big and decided retirement was to just be the master of his own ship, not having to rely on anyone else?

What we do know, he’s been sailing for a while because the interior of the boat looks well lived in and he is a competent sailor. We engage this unnamed sailor in his boat, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, when it collides with a sinking metal shipping container.

The collision puts a major hole in his boat and it begins to take on water. The scenes following this crash give the audience a view of this man. He’s pragmatic and doesn’t get flustered. He’s a thinking man and he’s older because he can’t and doesn’t move too fast. He knows what he’s doing because he follows what he needs to do as a sailor. As each new disappointing development comes and goes, we continue to see him make survival moves.

One question that came to me while watching was; why was he experiencing these failures? But because we know nothing about him, it is all speculation.

Redford is outstanding in this role. He gives you everything in his actions, expressions, and in his eyes. This role must have been very challenging and Redford shows he’s up to the challenge. J.C. Chandor wrote and directed this film. Many of the shots were amazing and beautiful. I’m still not sure what he wanted to say in this film.

Overall:  Visually strong but with so many questions, I was left wondering.

The Counselor

First Hit:  When all is said and done, there were a few outstanding moments of acting in a film that tried to make a statement.

The question is: What is the statement Director Ridley Scott wanted to make with this film? Was it about greed? Was it about accepting the consequences of the path chosen?

This film begins with a very luxurious soft, emotionally available scene where the Counselor (Michael Fassbender) and Laura (Penelope Cruz) are lying under the sheets in a beautiful modern bedroom. Their mutual attraction physically and emotionally drips off the celluloid.

Then we see that the Counselor must be doing well for himself as he’s driving a Bentley motor car and lives in a very nice home. He visits a client/friend Reiner (Javier Bardem), who we learn quickly is a major player in the drug trade. He enjoys his riches and the accouterments of his home, but he never looks or feels like it is his, it is more like he’s a guest in his home.

Bardem also seems this way in this character; he doesn’t look or feel like he is at home with this character and I never felt like I knew if this was on purpose or not. The best acting of the film came from Cameron Diaz as Malkina who, with her silver nail polish and cold look, defined an I don’t give a f&%# attitude.

Additionally, Brad Pitt as Westray a drug deal middle man carried the right amount of emotional detachment, sleaziness, and peacefulness at the path he’s chosen. The obvious point of the film's main character is: Was The Counselor prepared to pay the price for a big drug deal gone bad? The answer seemed to be not really.

There are major dialogue segments by Reiner, Malkina, Westray, and Jefe (Ruben Blades) that warn him about what the price is, but he still takes the chance. However, questions remain; why is he in this drug deal (excitement, money, greed)? What is the motivator?

Then again, maybe this film is just may be a Ridley Scott vehicle to give his advice on living life.

Fassbender was very good, however I didn’t care about him or his character. There was no background about why he would risk love for more money? Cruz was good as Fassbender’s love interest. Bardem, seemed lost in this role. I never got he was in the role but rather speaking the lines. Diaz was fabulous, showing the ability to be a strong dark presence and make each scene she was in interesting. Pitt was really good at having a laissez faire presence while carrying a clear message to the main character. Cormac McCarthy wrote the script but I don’t know if it was him or Scott that decided to glaze over providing enough information to care. Scott, created some amazingly beautiful scenes and shots but did he just want to tell us his version of the saying; you get what you pay for OR you have to be willing to pay the price?

Overall:  This film was forgettable by the next day, although Diaz’s performance will land her more roles.

The Fifth Estate

First Hit:  Although interesting, don’t think I learned much about Assange through its 2+ hours.

This film is very topical in that the US Government just sent Bradley Manning to prison and Edward Snowden is now living in Russia.

The tie between these two is the publication of documents showing the underbelly of our government. However, the film and camera spends a lot of time on Julian Assange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) but outside a few statements about his past, he ends up being an enigma. Do his decisions make sense? Sometimes.

Does he really believe in what he is doing? It appears so. Does he use people? If the film is to be believed, yes at times. One statement in the film that seemed to fit the character as Cumberbatch portrayed him was: “Julian is out for himself.” For the 2+ hours we float from scene to scene watching and waiting to see how Wikileaks handles the exposure of a plethora of US Government documents.

The suspense is minimal, because we know the answer already. The worst part of the film is that it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression about Assange. I did feel compassion for Daniel Berg (Daniel Bruhl) as he was a believer of Assange’s drive and belief, but ended up feeling betrayed by him.

Did the film move forward the Wikileaks cause? I don’t know. My personal dilemma with Wikileaks is that, although I think exposure of information is really good, if it is posted anonymously, one has to trust that the information is fully validated before it goes public; else it becomes a personal bitch Yelp posting. So far so good; I can only hope it stays that way.

Cumberbatch is excellent at giving the illusion of an enigma of a person. Bruhl is really good as Berg and I could feel him become a believer and how he provided traction to the cause. Daniel Domscheit-Berg and David Leigh wrote the book on which the film is based and it shows the elusiveness of Assange. Bill Condon seemed lost, as we spend 2+ hours getting to the big test of Wiki Leaks but the breadcrumbs along the way weren’t necessarily interesting or engaging.

Overall:  Maybe this film comes too early in Assange’s life. It might have been a better film if there was in-depth character development – as there was none here.

Escape Plan

First Hit:  This film is mindless because it, and its actors, are not believable.

Sylvester Stallone (playing Breslin) as a very intelligent, observant professional prison breaking consultant is not believable. He doesn’t come across as intelligent or overly observant.

Although the storyline has him looking with intensity around his surroundings, his eyes didn’t reflect intelligent observation as the script called for – I didn’t buy it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character Rottomayer, is supposed to be high tech financial wizard that manipulates the market through computer programming, was just as ludicrous. Again, it’s the eyes; nothing in Arnold’s eyes or the script had me believe his character. Although neither one of these gentlemen pulled off their characters; they do pull off the rough and tumble fighting behavior on the stage they are given – prison. 

This part of the film is fun and you can tell these guys like working with each other. The essence of this script is Breslin’s legitimate business partner wants to get Rottomayer’s knowledge so that he can get rich. To do this he sticks Breslin in a prison that he cannot escape from.

Stallone is the same guy he always is; sad eyed, rough around the edges, grunts a lot, and very muscular who will end up punching someone in a film. Schwarzenegger, like Stallone is getting a little old to taking roles where he punches people to get his way. However, he comes off better in his role than Stallone does. Miles Chapman and Jason Keller wrote the script and it might have better to have younger actors in the parts. Mikael Hafstrom directed these two the best he could and my guess it wasn’t easy.

Overall:  This film will probably need an escape plan.

Captain Phillips

First Hit:  Tom Hanks is Oscar worthy as was Barkhad Abdi in their respective roles although the film is longer than needed.

This is a great story of two men from different cultures with different objectives colliding.

We meet Captain Phillips (Hanks) with his wife as he heads towards the airport to be dropped off for another trip. He’s a rules guy and wants his crew to shape up – he takes his job seriously. Just as he’s testing the crew on their readiness, a set of boats are approaching fast.

As he discerns that they are pirates, he implores his crew to follow procedure and lock-down the ship, hide, and don’t take chances. He on the other hand, will take intentional chances to keep his crew, the ship and the cargo safe.

Muse (Abdi) is leading a small group of pirates to hijack Phillip's ship and take it back to Somalia for “millions of dollars”. His "boss" has control of Muse's village and forces them to hijack ships or their village will suffer casualties. The ship he attacks is a US registered ship and the US Navy isn’t going to let his dreams of millions come true.

That’s the overall plot. But the action is the dialog between Phillips and Muse. It is intense, crisp, and objective driven.

Director Paul Greengrass uses hand-held cameras and for the most part makes effective use of them by not shaking them just for shakings’ sake. Ships use space effectively and there are a lot of close quarters so his use of these cameras is required to make this film work.

Where the film didn’t work for me was that we are required to spend well over an hour (of a 2+ hour film) waiting for it to get toward the inevitable conclusion. It just seemed to me that some of the extended scenes in the lifeboat weren’t needed.

Hanks is phenomenal. He will win an Oscar nomination for best actor. His final scenes of going through the shock of his experience were transcendent. Abdi’s performance was equally remarkable as Hanks. His intensity as expressed through his eyes showed through. He deserves a best supporting actor nomination for his portrayal of the “Captain” of the hijackers. Everyone else was good. Billy Ray wrote an engaging script and Greengrass did an extraordinary job of bringing this true story for life.

Overall:  Although too long, this is a great story and film to watch.