"Revolutionary Road" (2009)

There is an air of desperation about the American dream. Frank and April Wheeler know this, yet they don't seem to care. Was this the closeted attitude of many married couples in the 1950's? Was the illusion of harmony, settlement, assimilation, even happiness, simply that - an illusion? It certainly seems the novel "Revolutionary Road"'s writer, Richard Yates, would think so. Yate's characters inhabit an era defined by a tragic perception of how married life should play out, or at least what it should "fill up" until something bigger and better comes along, if in fact it ever does.

"Revolutionary Road", for better or worse, is a period piece, and Frank Wheeler, like many other complex and nuanced male archetypes, is a character practically written with no one else in mind but DiCaprio. He seethes at time wasted and laments the reality that he may never get it back. DiCaprio's character choices never shy away from the intricate and the layered, even with material that peeps into the lives of two painfully everyday people. Frank Wheeler's journey and life becomes a dismal game of sink or swim, and this is the element that elevates the Wheeler's story from a simple period piece to a level of functioning as an effective and nightmarish cautionary tale. One of the most potent shots in the film is one that looks on as Frank succumbs to an ultimate pitfall of the mundane: He walks to work amidst an endless sea of grey suits and colorless faces.

Opposite Leo is Kate Winslet, who is equally powerful as a spouse thrust into the traditional trappings of married life, and into a role she cannot bear to maintain. April asks Frank with bewilderment: "Don't you miss the city?" to which he replies, "Nothing's permanent". The couple schemes to escape their mundane, "settled down" existence with a grand and clean getaway to Paris. Regrettably, that won't happen. The dream will die. "Revolutionary Road" warns those married men and women who forge on through unhappiness of their futility and foolishness time and again with the "plans" they lay out in attempts to salvage their miserable lives together. A looming fate of the Wheelers' unhappiness steers them forcefully to the brink of madness and fuels contempt for one another, yet they ignore it at their own peril, and isn't that the greatest nightmare of all?

Sam Mendes, a director familiar to themes of marital infidelity and American dissatisfaction in 1999's "American Beauty", explores this notion with a sensibility that's ironic given his British background. Perhaps there is something we Yanks in the states have yet to grasp that can be better understood from a foreign perspective. The iconography of white picket fences, neatly cut green grass and a quaint small town are the backdrop for raw, riveting performances channeled by nothing short of reality. Michael Shannon is highly substantial of "Road"'s tragic motif, providing commentary through the eyes of a mentally unstable man directed at the Wheelers' insufferable quarreling that rattles us to our core. Justin Haythe's writing is superb, each performance is emotionally upsetting but never overstated, and "Revolutionary Road" is a throbbing portrait of unsatisfied American hunger.

★★★☆☆ (3.5/5)

Cast/Credits

Frank Wheeler: Leonardo DiCaprio
April Wheeler: Kate Winslet
Helen Givings: Kathy Bates
John Givings: Michael Shannon
Milly Campbell: Kathryn Hahn
Shep Campbell: David Harbour
Jack Ordway: Dylan Baker
Howard Givings: Richard Easton
Maureen Grube: Zoe Kazan
Bart Pollock: Jay O. Sanders
Ed Small: Max Casella

DreamWorks and Paramount present a film directed by Sam Mendes. Screenplay by Justin Haythe, based on the novel by Richard Yates. Running time: 119 minutes. MPAA Rating: R (for language and some sexual content/nudity).

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"The Book Of Eli" (2010)

"Some will kill to have it. He will kill to protect it". This is the tag line for "The Book Of Eli", a film in which protection seems indeed to be the recurring motif. Eli, (a grisly, weathered Denzel Washington) treads through an apocalyptic wasteland that represents itself as haunting as any other of its kind; it's something akin to the harrowing quality of The Wachowski Brothers' "The Matrix", only with even less civilization. His faith, although at times nonsensical and mysterious to him (as all faiths go), is his protection from aggressors and adversity on his dark journey. Eli's cocoon of blind belief both figuratively - and literally - strengthen his spirit and allow him to carry on as he does.

Washington is not one to shy away from roles with authority and vigor, and the character of Eli is positively no exception. He chews the scenery with an understated self-assurance. He chops, slices, dices, and shoots up crews of amoral scum bags. Apparently once the world comes to an end via devastating war, almost everyone becomes either a filthy disgusting rapist or a goon for hire at one slightly clever and sinister man's disposal; in this case that man is Carnegie (Gary Oldman). Eli's ceaseless mission throughout each act of the film is to transport and protect the ruthlessly sought-after book in his possession, believing that its safety and purpose is for him and him only to decide. His plans for the book (which I will not reveal in my review) as opposed to Carnegie's are, by nature, worlds apart.

We meet Solara (Mila Kunis), and her battered mother Claudia (Jennifer Beals), who live in constant dread for their lives and at the complete mercy of Carnegie's reign over the small town upon which Eli and his book stumble. In true Western fashion, Eli is offered some hospitality (and initially a little bit more) during his stay, a gesture that leads to a companionship between Eli and Solara and a search for the knowledge and truth needed to rebuild whatever hopes there may be left for saving their doomed planet. The Hughes Brothers' harrowing foresight into an armageddon-type world does employ more than one cliche. Books are worth a man's life, water, as Eli says, is "precious". People resort to cannibalism, rape, murder, and corrupted treaties as accepted forms of lifestyle. Brown, looming and cloudy skies move with an unearthly relentlessness. Eli's world is one of roughness and stark desperation, as the atmosphere supports the tone of the film, and again leaves both the audience and characters in search of escape and protection from the bad. In this sense, it is a solid directorial achievement.

Carnegie wants the book to acquire power and influence, to be master of his domain. Eli protects it for that very reason; he has been heading west for 30 years after the "old world"'s end in search of its rightful resting place. "The Book of Eli" has a compelling finish, packaged (although partially with a gimmicky feel) in good taste and fitting expression of the film's larger, more philosophical concerns. Eli's character holds a legacy that prefaces the responsibility of a nation. Ultimately, the story entertains and surprises, though it doesn't excel entirely. For Eli, it's the journey that matters.

★★★☆☆ (3/5)

Cast/Credits

Eli: Denzel Washington
Carnegie: Gary Oldman
Solara: Mila Kunis
Redridge: Ray Stevenson
Claudia: Jennifer Beals
Engineer: Tom Waits
George: Michael Gambon

Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Albert and Allen Hughes. Written by Gary Whitta. Running time: 118 minutes. Rated R (for brutal violence and language).

"Avatar" (2009)

For the record, the widespread acclaim of James  Cameron's name as a result of the tremendous success of "Titanic" (in lieu of the visionary bravado of "Aliens") had previously signified nothing more to me than America's vain and shallow obsession with tediously drawn out epics - pretentiousness on a phenomenally mass-marketed scale. "Avatar", for lack of a better word, has stunned me, and succeeds in marrying the sensibilities of both. Now the name stands as properly represented. Cameron's film isn't simply an exercise in the boundary pushing of sci-fi technology and a freakishly obsessive attention to an air of authenticity in a fictional world, although it is both those things. It holds a message for coexistence over brutality that is both provocative and strikingly reminiscent of a post-9/11 generation.

Through the narrative of Jake Sully - a hard-edged Marine played with a solid sense of grounded gravitas by Australian actor Sam Worthington - we enter Pandora, a lush and thoroughly inhabited planet that is now the envy of the human race. Its surface contains Unobtanium, a highly coveted material that proves to be the sole reason for a human effort to contact and engage with the natives, known as Na'vi, in order that they may mine the material for personal gain. "This pays for the whole party", explains Parker Selfridge (played charismatically by Giovanni Ribisi), leader of the operation, "This is why we are here". Selfridge's bleak and matter of fact commentary on the reason for invading and threatening foreign land brought to my mind the war overseas quite clearly, and defines with precision where the heart of "Avatar" lies. Cameron's screenplay characterizes the human race with an attitude of selfishness, greed, and ignorance that upon reflection makes one ask exactly what it is we're fighting for. Certain sequences evoke an American sense of identity that regrets historical atrocities such as our invasion of Native American soil and the eventual leading up to the "trail of tears", and more pressing, a highly debatable war in Iraq with the shameless involvement of oil, the world's most coveted resource.

The film is riddled in metaphorical and fictional device that could - if not examined thoroughly - be mistaken for sci-fi fanboy fare. Cameron's self-imagined world of Pandora could have its own Wikipedia (and surely will), filled with extensive lists of the thousands of plants within a forest developed entirely by botanists, along with a detailed guide on how to speak Na'vi, the linguistics of the scrupulous director's conceived native tribe. The defining edge to this mirroring of a "Trekkie" and cult-like appeal, however, lies in Cameron's conviction to make it all legitimate. "Avatar"'s special effects cut into bold and refreshing new artistic territory, giving life to absurd creatures, military weapons, and aircrafts that assume a nature that is almost casually realistic. Underneath the animation, audiences are still rightfully exposed to the intricacies and emotion of the film's ensemble, particularly Zoe Saldana's performance as Neytiri, a Navi princess with whom Jake cultivates a universally touching romance. The empathy and sense of human emotion inside even the most seemingly un-relatable of characters - an imagined alien tribe member of fantasy - displays weightiness in a role that should not be overlooked.

"Avatar" most certainly lives up to its hype. Its heart is pure, its imagination and aesthetic beauty spoils viewers, and it possesses an intelligence and undercurrent that may even catch you off guard. In the words of Sam Worthington's Jake Sully, James Cameron has finally turned out an "outstanding" effort.

★★★★☆ (4/5)

Cast/Credits

Jake Sully: Sam Worthington
Neytiri: Zoe Saldana
Grace: Sigourney Weaver
Col. Miles Quaritch: Stephen Lang
Trudy Chacon: Michelle Rodriguez
Parker Selfridge: Giovanni Ribisi
Norm Spellman: Joel David Moore
Moat: CCH Pounder
Eytukan: Wes Studi
Tsu'tey: Laz Alonso
Dr. Max Patel: Dileep Rao
Corporal Lyle: Wainfleet Matt Gerald

20th Century Fox presents film written and directed by James Cameron. Running time: 163 minutes. MPAA rating: PG-13 (for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking).