Snippet Reviews: A Mighty Heart, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and The Invasion

A Mighty Heart (2007)

It seems that over the last few years, somewhere between the tabloid covers and the Tomb Raider sequels, most of us have forgotten just how talented Angelina Jolie really is. It's difficult not to recognize that talent once again with her portrayal of real-life Marianne Pearl, wife of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (played by Dan Futterman here), who was kidnapped by a Pakistan-based terrorist group in 2002. Once news of the kidapping reaches Marianne and company, her home becomes a chaotic collection of officials and friends from around the world, all working towards the same goal, of bringing Daniel home before time runs out. Though basically told as a police procedural it's that procedure that helps to maintain the tense environment throughout the film as Marianne and her camp scour the city, attempting to track down Daniel and his assailants. Rather than succumb to self-satisfactory melodrama, seasoned director Michael Winterbottom manages to craft a painfully realistic (mostly on account of Winterbottom's use of digital video) testament to the benefits of intercultural cooperation and communication, despite the inevitable outcome of Marianne's tragic situation. Final Grade: B+

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)

If whimsicality were currency, writer/director Zach Helm would be bankrupt. Dustin Hoffman channels a twisted combination of Willy Wonka and Gene Shalit as Mr. Edward Magorium, the 243 year-old owner of the Wonder Emporium. Nevermind that his store, filled with every sort of colorful bauble imaginable, is smack dab in the middle of a busy New York City street, and there is no one yet to have noticed that this magical toy store has a life of it's own. After Magorium announces to his assistant Molly (Natalie Portman) that he has chosen to bequeath the store to her, things around the Emporium begin to go a bit haywire. Jason Bateman makes a welcome turn as Henry, the deadpan accountant sent in to sort out Magorium's finances, but even he fails to reach his potential and ends up as a cardboard cut-out of a fully developed character. Director Helm, who's writing credits include 2004's Stranger Than Fiction, is not only far too aware of his own quirkiness but also rather unsure of what message he wants to convey. Helm bravely plays with the type of sensitive subject matter not typically approached in family pictures, but even those themes fail to really strike an emotional chord. Final Grade: D

The Invasion (2007)

Another year, another re-make. After two big screen treatments of Jack Finney's novel "The Body Snatchers" the question is, do we really need another? Nicole Kidman is riveting, per usual, as a Washington D.C. psychiatrist who begins to notice strange behavior in her patients and neighbors after a space shuttle crash lands containing an alien virus. It's an eerie tale, but never seems to amount to much else. A lame attempt to intertwine social commentary on the nature of humanity and violence is made, and Jeffrey Wright is criminally underused. Final Grade: C-

Margot At the Wedding (2007)

It's important for viewers to know ahead of time that Noah Baumbach's wry, somewhat sadistic follow up to his 2005 sleeper The Squid and the Whale is not exactly a "comedy". Whoever dares enter a screening of "Margot At the Wedding" should probably be warned that they will be met with much more screaming, crying and cussing than raucous laughter. Despite ingredients that under normal circumstances would just equal a blinding headache, Baumbach has crafted another insightful tale of the parents and their children who seem to be entering emotional adulthood simultaneously.

Margot (Nicole Kidman), a New York-based short story writer, is teetering on the edge of sanity (and alcoholism, it seems). She and her son Claude (Zain Pais) are invited to attend the marriage of her estranged sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Malcolm (Jack Black), a hapless doofus who spends his time sending in written responses to music reviews. To say the least, Margot does not approve. Her arrival inevitably leads to the revealing of long-buried neurosises and painful secrets.

Not since her Oscar-winning turn in 2002's The Hours has Kidman been this good. Her Margot is mind-bogglingly vicious, but just vulnerable and inept enough for us to find loathing her a difficult task. We manage to muster some semblance of sympathy for her. She knows that she is not a nice person. In one scene, her husband (John Turturro) has made the trip up to her sister's home, against her wishes. They're driving late at night when they spot a woman on the side of the road, cradling her injured dog who's been hit by a car. Margot's husband, Jim, pulls over to help, taking the woman and her dog to the vet. "You make me feel guilty," she says, attempting to prove her insensitivity towards the woman and her crisis. "I wouldn't have stopped." She's aware of her own venom, even as it comes catapulting from her mouth.

Pauline makes for a somewhat watered-down version of her sister. She's considerate and insightful, but it doesn't take long before her "abnormalities" begin to surface. Leigh, wife of writer/director Baumbach, is outstanding as always, having built up a sturdy repertoire of winning performances over the last two decades. Black holds up surprisingly well playing opposite two of the most seasoned and talented actresses working today. He's smart enough to understand his own range and forfeits his typical senselessness for sincerity, and a more genuine hilarity, despite Malcolm having more than his fair share of buried secrets.

The crazy, mixed-up family gathering is certainly not an uncommon plot device, but it's not often that it's carried out with such precision and wisdom. The film is plagued by an occasional loose end, one in particular being an awkwardly undeveloped relationship with Pauline and Malcolm's neighbors, who have a tendency to slaughter and roast whole pigs in their backyard. That said, Baumbach's writing is razor sharp and he's managed to illicit a number of great performances from his cast to create a marvelous character study. It can't be assured that by the end everyone has learned their lesson, but it's probably safe to say that every character finishes the day just one step closer to sanity.

Final grade: A-

No Country For Old Men (2007)

It's been eleven long years since the release of Fargo, the Coen Brothers' undeniable masterpiece. The tale of a kidnapping gone horribly wrong, it was told with unparalleled wit and gusto, and the film permanently placed the Coen's on the critical and artistic map. Now with the first literary adaptation of their careers they've created a masterful, dark, and truly exhilirating neo-Western parable that will no doubt be considered one of the defining films of 2007.

Just minutes into "No Country For Old Men", it becomes painfully clear that Javier Bardem's Antone Chigurgh is more than simply a force to be reckoned with. The most effective screen villain since Hannibal Lecter, Chigurgh sinisterly shuffles from kill to kill sporting a bowl-cut that would have brought even The Monkees to tears. His eyes sallow yet piercing, he speaks in a confident drawl, noisily dragging a compressed airgun behind him as he goes. The airgun, an instrument typically used on cows in the slaughterhouse, operates by projecting and then retracting a small steel bolt through the forehead. The sound of Chigurgh's weapon - no doubt heavy with the weight of its countless casualties - as it scrapes across the shoddy wooden floors of motel after motel, is more than enough to shoot a shiver done the spine (no pun intended).

In this case, the object of that tool's fancy is Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a good old boy Texan and Vietnam vet who, rather unluckily, stumbles upon $2 million at the scene of a drug deal gone wrong. Vaguely aware of the implications of such an immense find, Moss hastily sends his unknowing wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) off to her mother's and hits the road. Chigurgh is hired by an investor (Stephen Root), whose finances are closely tied to the success of the botched deal, to track down the stolen loot. As Moss makes his way from town to town Chigurgh is never far behind, leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake. Tommy Lee Jones lends his familiar world-weary wisdom as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, the man assigned the harrowing task of tracking down Moss before it's too late. "You think this boy Moss got any notion of the sorts that're huntin' him," asks a fellow officer. Bell shrewdly replies, "I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me."

Moss and Chigurgh quickly settle into a tense game of cat and mouse, Chigurgh always just a few steps behind his target. Moss proves himself a worthy adversary as he, for awhile at least, manages to outsmart his pursuer. Inevitably, Moss and Chigurgh are forced into a showdown. One of the most tense moments in the film comes just moments before their meeting, in which we hear the incessant beeping of the transducer Chigurgh has used to locate the tracking device buried amongst the $2 million. He paces just outside Moss' motel room door, his thick boots thumping across the wood floor. We hear him halt just outside the door and immediately identify the odd screeching noise; he's begun to unscrew the lightbulb. It's a terrifying moment, filled with dread for both Moss and the viewers. In another scene, we see Chigurgh exit a house after conversing with someone he may or may not have killed. He stops on the porch, and quietly checks the bottom of his boots. Nothing beyond that must be said for us to realize that the person inside that house, unlucky enough to have crossed paths with such a man, is done for. To create a sense of interminable terror from such a rudimentary action is a near impossible feat, but one that the Coen Brothers seemingly accomplish with great ease.

Here the Coen's have chosen to step out of their comfort zone, abandoning their usual buoyant techniques for a much more sinister, mischievous tone, and they pull it off beautifully. The sparse, arid landscapes of Southern Texas prove to be a perfect canvas for their palette. The twistedly sharp dialogue is nearly as breathtaking as Roger Deakins' bone-dry cinematography. The first 90% of the film is absolutely flawless. The last 20 minutes or so may leave even the most attentive viewer with a question or two, but by then the ride's been so fantastic that the majority of viewers won't even mind.

The film opens with the dryly comforting voice of Sheriff Bell as he reflects over an experience as a young deputy in which he oversaw the execution of a man for murder. It is that reflection which embodies the axiom of the film. Just minutes before the man was schedule to be executed, "[he] said he'd been fixin' to kill someone for as long as he could remember. Said if I let him out of there, he'd kill somebody again. Said he was going to hell". The evil he sees in this boy is the very same he sees in Chigurh, and after decades as a lawman, Bell's learned that when it comes to monsters such as these, there's not much one can do beyond making sure they stay the hell out of the way when men like Chigurgh come barrelling through town. Bell knows better than anyone that this new country is a ruthless one, awash with drugs, and violence, certainly no place for the heroes of yesteryear.

Final grade: A