Snow Cake (2005)

Snow Cake is one of those little gems you stumble on all too rarely. It's an old-fashioned tale of ordinary folk coping with difficult circumstances, and overcoming adversity. In other circumstances, and with a cast of this calibre, this would be a shoo-in for a BAFTA or an oscar, but presumably the low budget, the international cast and the lack of funds to play the political games required, means that this time round Snow Cake lost out.

Whatever the reasons for lack of recognition may be, it certainly wasn't for the quality of the script or the acting, both of which demonstrate just how vacuous most of what fills our multiplexes each week is.

Alan Rickman plays Alex, a lonely, damaged figure who has just come out of prison for reasons that will become clear fairly late on in the story. He bumps into Vivienne (Emily Hampshire), an outgoing, bumptious teenager who persuades him to give her a lift. When a truck hits Alex's vehicle, through no fault of his own, Vivienne is killed and Alex feels the need to visit her mother, Linda (Sigourney Weaver) and express his condolensces and sense of guilt. Linda is autistic and doesn't play by anybody else's rules and the film explores the relationship that develops between Alex and Linda, together with the attractive, if somewhat promiscuous, Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss).

The stand-out performance is undoubtedly that of Sigourney Weaver, whose unsentimental portrayal of autism is alternately laugh-out-loud funny, sad and moving. The actress apparently spent the best part of a year researching autism, and it shows in her performance. Her character, Linda, is difficult but ultimately the healer for Alex who comes to appreciate her honesty, innocence and complete lack of sentimentality, in ways her immediate friends and family have failed to.

Rickman is one of those actors who can be rather over-the-top in his performance, to the point where one sometimes feels he appears to think he is doing panto! Not so here, and his understated performance is just what the character needs. He is our way in to not just Linda's story, but that of Maggie who is to prove another vital element in the healing of Alex.

The cinematography is beautifully presented on this near-perfect transfer to DVD. The beautiful snow-bound countryside (much of it apparently fake as a thaw set in earlier than expected) of small-town Canada is beautifully depicted, and the music score by Broken Social Scene matches perfectly, with pop-rock classics also being used to reflect the influence of Vivienne where appropriate.

If you like your movies to be big-budget action set pieces then this probably isn't for you. But if you like beautifully observed character pieces, with strong dialogue and direction that let the story gently unfold at its own pace, then Snow Cake is a film I think you'll greatly enjoy.

Unusually, the twenty minutes of deleted scenes are the highlight of the extra's. Finished to the same standard as the film, complete with score and stunning transfer, they add little stories and anecdotes that add to the depth of the film - in many ways it's a shame they had to be cut out, presumably because the film was already running past the 'safe' 90 minute mark.

The 'Making of' at around 20 minutes isn't quite as fluffy as the usual marketing featurettes, and gives the history of the project, as seen from the director and various cast members' point of view. The only disappointment here is that the writer Angela Pell is conspicuous by her absence.

A trailer, curiously presented in 4:3 format instead of the original widescreen, is also included.

Snow Cake is a touching, funny and warm movie. Definitely it's worth a rental, if not an outright purchase. Highly recommended!

Miami Vice (2006)

Miami Vice starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx was released for the first time on DVD at the end of last year (27th November). You can read my review of the HD-DVD version, which was released a couple of weeks ago over on my HD-DVD Review blog.

Keane (2004)

There is something incredibly depressing about the fact that this film took more than a year to eventually surface in American cinemas and another year after that before it was able to secure a theatrical release in the UK (which it did - not that you'd have noticed - right at the tail end of 2006). Despite universally favourable reviews, and Stephen Soderbergh's name the box office figures show just how tough it is to make independent films these days.

And it's not just Keane which suffers from this problem. Later today I'll be reviewing another excellent film, Snow Cake, which despite having high-calibre actors and household names like Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver appearing in it, appears to have suffered a similar fate when it comes to turning a profit. Even when the costs are astonishingly low and the quality and the rave critical reviews are all over the quality media, it seems the audience isn't. Only dumbed-down roller-coaster movie rides are what pulls people into cinema's these days, and that's a very depressing thought to start the day on.

I write this blog entry on the morning that this year's BAFTA awards are to be announced. It used to be that award ceremonies were there to help 'the little guy' and gain visibility for quality films that might otherwise get unnoticed. I think Daniel Craig is one of our finest actors, but a high profile picture like Casino Royale barely scratches the surface of his talent, and hardly needs the publicity the award ceremony gives him. The same handful of films get nominated at each and every ceremony - BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, the Oscars - is ANYBODY able to tell the difference between these different 'popularity contests's any more??!! It's a crying shame that the best performances and films are getting shamelessly ignored in favour of the same small handful of films that have already performed well at the box office.

Not that I'm saying Keane is an oscar-winning film. It's too 'art house' and lacking in real narrative structure for that. But I don't think anybody could deny that Damian Lewis' performance is anything less than world class. Playing a troubled loner with serious mental problems is not easy. Making that character sympathetic and conveying the pain and misery of mental illness, in the way the actor does in Keane, is nothing short of astounding. That Lewis is such an astonishing actor comes as something of a shock to those of us who've only seen him as a guest presenter - an incredibly witty and professional one, it must be said - on BBC 1's Have I Got News For You. And him being a 'ginge' and all. Who'd a thunk!

As the film opens Lewis plays Keane, a father clearly in some distress, trying to find his lost daughter. As the film moves on, and his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, doubts start to emerge. Does the man actually have a daughter? Did she really go missing? What is the nature of Keane's obvious illness, for which he is self-medicating, and does it hold danger for the young girl and single mother he befriends?

Not all these questions will be answered by the end of the film, but there is hope here. Hope and an insight into mental illness that this viewer has never seen so well portrayed on film. The hand-held nature of the filming, and obvious low budget approach may turn some viewers away, but the suspense is built up such that spends most of the journey the film takes you on, sat on the edge of one's seat, wondering how the various bits of puzzle presented fit together, and how the puzzle will resolve itself.

As in real life, the puzzle doesn't really resolve itself, and was never meant to. An alternate edit of Lodge Kerrigan's film, by producer Steven Soderbergh shows how different clues can be interpreted completely differently if the linear structure of the scenes is changed. Soderbergh's edit, included as a second disk version on this DVD release, cuts out the introductory 'hook' of the man searching for his lost daughter, and by shifting key scenes around, makes Keane appear to have targeted the mother and child having overheard a conversation which in the theatrical cut occurs after Keane has met them and come to their rescue. It's an interesting exercise in showing the power of the film editor, albeit one that is much better evidenced by studying Memento

Keane is a fascinating film, a film that, unlike Gilliam's Tideland does make you think, and will still have you thinking several days after you've seen it. Awards ceremonies were made to recognise films such as this, and it's a great shame that they don't!

The double-disk 'Collector's Edition' title is confusing, and frankly the DVD set turns out to be a major disappointment on the extra's front. There's nothing to see here other than a trailer. No commentary, no deleted scenes, no 'Making of' featurette, not even a cheap and nasty Q&A session with the lead actor snatched during a coffee break! Instead one gets a second cut of the film which, in all honesty, will only be of interest to film students and wannabe editors. The guerilla approach to film-making adopted here means there are no alternate takes to draw on to make this alternate cut interesting enough to view a second time, and the 'fly on the wall' documentary style of the film means it's just not the sort of film you would want to sit through a second time.

The film is a rental, rather than a purchase because of the difficult nature of its subject matter. Its impact significantly lessens once you know where the narrative is going to lead. But it's a very good rental and one that comes highly recommended.

The Wicker Man (2006)

The Wicker Man remake, starring Nicolas Cage was released for the first time on DVD on 22nd January. You can read my review of the HD-DVD version over on my HD-DVD Review blog.

Tideland (2006)

The DVD of Tideland features an (optional) short introduction from the film's director, Terry Gilliam which prepares the potential viewer, and also readers of this blog for what is to follow:

"Hello! I'm Terry Gilliam and I've a confession to make: Many of you are not going to like this film! Many of you, luckily, are going to love it. And then there are many of you who are not going to know what to think when the film finishes - but hopefully you'll be thinking!

I should explain: this film is seen through the eyes of a child. If it's shocking it's because it's innocent. So I suggest you try to forget everything you've learned as an adult: the things that limit your view of the world, your fears, your prejudices, your preconceptions. Try to rediscover what it was like to be a child with a sense of wonder and innocence. And don't forget to laugh. And remember children are strong. They're resilient. They're designed to survive. WHen you drop them they tend to bounce. I was 64 years old when I made this film. I think I finally discovered the child within me. It turned out to be a little girl. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

If only things were as simple as Mr Gilliam would have us believe!

Tideland tells the story of Jeliza-Rose (played by Jodelle Ferland), a rather strange, lonely child who deals with her loneliness and survives her ordeals through conversations with imaginery friends, physically manifested as dismembered Barbie doll heads that she carries around on her fingers. Her father is a drug-addict rock performer who's well past his prime, and her mother a 'trailer trash' junkie who overdoses at the start of the film. When the same fate befalls her father the abandoned child finds she has to use all her imagination to cope with the situation, which is helped or hindered (depending on your view) by the discovery of her next door neighbour's - an eccentric taxidermist former girlfriend of her father's who's terrified of bees and her retarded brother (or is he her son?). Strangeness, as is common with Gilliam, abounds, albeit strangeness on a quick shoot with a low budget.

Gilliam has described the film, in typically lazy marketing sound bite style, as being 'Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho'. We should be so lucky! Even allowing for his commentary confession (or is it another in-joke?) that he's never seen a Hitchcock film, this is an extravagent claim too far. What we really get is the best part of two hours following a little girl talking to imaginary friends, with only the occasional interruption from the rest of the cast. Personally I can remember just how dreary listening to a child with only a doll as a friend was back in my youth - I don't need to witness it all again on film, even if there is the odd visual treat to liven the experience up. Gripping it isn't! And whilst Gilliam and his writer use the commentary track to make fun of the critics who didn't like the film (that'll be all of them then!), with constant complaints that 'Nothing's happening', there's too thin a thin line between satire and truth here.

A couple of rather impressive dream sequence effects aside (all the best bits are in the trailer, which cleverly gives the illusion that this is a film of big-budget Alice in Wonderland extravagance) the low-budget high-speed shoot origins are painfully obvious. Make no mistake - this is essentially two hours spent with a troubled little girl talking to herself, and not a lot else, at least plot-wise, besides. Why would anybody want to see that?

Well, as it turns out, there are a few reasons. Gilliam himself is one. In the homogenised world of Hollywood movies, his refreshingly different take on things can prove an interesting diversion. The cast are another. The performances throughout, from stalwart Jeff Bridges as the father, to newcomer Brenadan Fletcher as the mentally subnormal 'Dickens', through to Jodelle Ferland who has to carry the bulk of the film on her solitary shoulders, are impressive. The direction is quirky and imaginative: all strange angles, trick perspective and beautiful set design, albeit a single set for the bulk of the running time. But God, it's dull without anything other than the seemingly random thoughts of a young girl and her dolls as the main plot. One wants to like the film so much, but while there's a lot to admire here, watching it often feels just too much like hard work.

The DVD is beautifully packaged as a two-disk edition in slipcase, although I'm not convinced two disks were really needed. The Getting Gilliam - a 60 minute documentary is the main attraction, but much like the main feature it under-delivers coming in at 42 minutes in total. This feature is a mixture of on-set documentary and fan-homage, made by a young film maker given the sort of on-set access to Gilliam that most film-making students would kill for. It's quirky and different enough to ensure that Gilliam's 'enigmatic genius' myth isn't damaged, but at times one does feel that Gilliam labours the point somewhat. There are also two 'sit them on a chair and point a camera at them' low-budget interviews, one with Gilliam himself, the other with producer Jeremy Thomas but both were clearly in need of some editing, as is the very amateur Q&A session with Gilliam and the book's author Mitch Cullin at the Hay Festival. Minor deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer complete the second disk, but given the double-disk 'Special Edition' packaging it all feels a bit thin. Even the commentary track on the main feature under-delivers, being mainly a chance for Gilliam and his co-writer to moan about the critical reviews and send them up. Most of what's given here in terms of anecdotes and film-making has been delivered in more concise form in the talking head interviews and the film Q&A, so that when hears Gilliam's defence of the film's more graphic scenes for the third time it all sounds a bit weary.

If you're a Gilliam fan then the chances are you've already seen this (and voted over on imdb!) and own it. For the rest of us, it's maybe worth a look in a 'slow' week, but it's probably a rental rather than a purchase. Ultimately the film is a brave experiment, but a failed one that's only saved by the stunning digital transfer that's been made for the DVD, and some insight into Gilliam's working methods that are on the included extra's.