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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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2 like this review
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 Characters in this movie willingly baptize themselves in oil for the sake of a new religion, capitalism, but what looks new and shiny is really a thin... | Characters in this movie willingly baptize themselves in oil for the sake of a new religion, capitalism, but what looks new and shiny is really a thin black layer over the old and grimy.
The focal point in "There Will Be Blood" is a tiny fraction of frontier town America, the under-populated desert expanse of Texas and California, but the viewer's dismay comes from realizing that every issue that chains raw resources to maniacal religiosity has returned with full force to engulf the entire globe today.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays the central character Daniel Plainview as a sadistically contemplative, almost meditative, character and his rage is released under heavily manipulative stagings. But make no mistake, he is always in control, utterly soul-less, and sucks the color of life from his surroundings. The film palette is appropriately dusty and muted.
We didn’t hear enough about the rest of the cast and Paul Dano's performance should not be forgotten. This film really would not have succeeded to the degree it did if this cast had not been willing to cower in anonymity under Day-Lewis' shadow. |
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1 year ago
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 Director Susanne Bier gives audiences a run for their money when it comes to exploring fate and love in the film “Open Hearts.” The results are a... | Director Susanne Bier gives audiences a run for their money when it comes to exploring fate and love in the film “Open Hearts.” The results are a little less elegant than Wong Kar-Wai’s persistent questioning of how much fate shapes the eternal essence of love but then again, we’re in Denmark, not Hong Kong, and the Dogma 95 strictures of letting it all hang out unevenly, evenly crudely, leaves its mark all over the film.
Bier is not afraid of scarring her characters’ psyches because they’re not characters, they’re human. Instead of being elusive, they are grounded in their bodies and physical urges. So, sex is the first business that gets taken care of before anyone has had a chance to ask, “What am I doing? Where is this going to lead?” (I also suspect that most directors would be foolish not to have the camera linger upon Mads Mikkelsen’s ex-dancer’s physique.)
“Open Hearts” is hardly a simpleton’s premise of searching and finding true love but a more complicated and uncomfortable view that circumstances might create a possibility while human intention makes meaning of it. One second you’re married (or engaged) -- it’s safe, it’s alright -- and then SNAP. You’re tossed in with someone based upon another’s error in judgment and guilt. And then everything is supposed to go to hell. Except it doesn’t quite unravel in the way expected. |
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1 year ago
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