In the past few weeks I have seen three movies. Fortunately I ended the streak with a lovely film. Last night I went off to see GREEN BOOK with friends, and despite the length — two hours and ten minutes — this movie never felt long or slow. There were no glitzy action sequences, no CGI wizardry just two men finding understanding and eventually respect and friendship in a difficult and turbulent time.
There was humanity in this movie. It was about the human heart, and pain and loss and fear and ultimately courage. I was tremendously impressed with the script because it was never preachy or sappy. We see the horrors of Jim Crow, but it’s presented as just the depressing facts of life for African-Americans in the early 1960’s. The writer’s and the actors allow the incidents to speak for themselves without editorializing which makes it all the more powerful.
When the Russian cellist tries to explain to Tony why Dr. Shirley is doing this concert swing through the south he never says it outright. Nick Vallelonga and the other credited writers never use on the nose dialogue to explain the courages decision made by the pianist, Don Shirley.
The contrast between the lives of the two main characters is also elegantly drawn. Tony Lip is a hard scrabble guy, a low level mobster, but surrounded by a loving family, an adored wife, sons; while Shirley both brilliant and successful is alone, resorting to alcohol to sleep at night and chase away the demons and secret, hurried sex with nameless individuals.
The movie is by turns searing social commentary, Pygmalion on a road trip and The Odd Couple in a car and ultimately enormously satisfying with outstanding performances by Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. This is the right film for the holiday season. It gives you hope that humans can learn and grown and be kind.
Then there were the two less successful films.
Let me say up front — I love the Harry Potter world. I’ve enjoyed most of the movies (not the first two films but that’s another post). I absolutely loved Fantastic Beasts. Not so much because of the Obscurus and the evil doings of Grindelwald, but because of the kindness and sweetness of the film. Jacob Kowalski the decent man with a dream — his own bakery — sets this movie apart from most adventure films. And most particularly the relationship with Queenie.
I also like Newt because I’m fond of heroes who aren’t all square jawed and manly men, and filled with daring do. Having a hero who loves his creatures and wants to protect them, but is essentially unsure and insecure was a nice change. It’s kindness that drives Newt to try and save Credence just as he loves his beasts, and I found his failure to save the young man to be affecting and powerful —
And then they went and took all of that away in The Crimes of Grindelwald. Credence didn’t really die. Queenie has lost her mind. Jacob is calling her crazy and a problem has been manufactured. Why don’t they just move to England and get married?
There was so much backstory in this movie that I lost track of what was supposed to be the story. I’ve read the books seen the movies and I had no idea why this study of family trees had any relevance to the problem they were trying to solve. It felt like the screenplay was an outline for a novel. I would have been interested to read that novel, but as a movie it was just a muddle.
The creature effects were cool, but I wanted more. I wanted to see more of Newt and his brother. More between Newt and Dumbledore. I did not need all the opaque flashbacks to school days. And what the heck was the thing between Credence and Nagini? Not to mention the whole let’s have an Asian woman turn into an evil snake that kills Snape — and many other people —just so we can have a call back to the earlier films. I think Claudia Kim had one line of dialogue in the entire film. And how did that dead guy from Fantastic Beasts run away and join the circus? And what did the circus have to do with the problem to be solved?
Yes, this movie is a second act, but when an audience is going to have to wait one or two years for that final act it would be nice if a few things were resolved. I suppose Newt “picking a side” and making peace with his brother is one thread that was tied off, but we didn’t see enough of that relationship for it to have much emotional impact.
And then there is Robin Hood. I have seen this so none of the rest of you have to. What can I say? It was random action with ridiculous flourishes like Gatling gun arrow shooters. (I don’t even know what to call them). Explosions. How? Italianate stone cities that are supposed to be Nottingham England. Truthfully I felt more like I was playing Assassin’s Creed than seeing a Robin Hood movie. In fact this would have been much improved it it had been an Assassin’s Creed movie or just a generic fantasy. I don’t know why they had to spray a thin coating of Robin Hood onto this movie.
It’s a shame because it was a good cast. Jaime Foxx, Taron Egerton and Ben Mendelsohn. I could watch Mendelsohn read the phone book. He was so great in Rogue One. But they were wasted in this film. Because it was all action without any of that human heart. And to a large degree that was the problem with The Crimes of Grindelwald. It was so filled with backstory and family trees and frenetic action that they forgot the emotion. Both of these movies forgot that every great story needs a theme. Otherwise it’s just plot without meaning.
I’ll end with this.
“The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself”. ― William Faulkner
