Fifty-Plus News - May film reviews

THE CRAIC
(M15+; 87 mins)
IN Irish slang, craic stands for belly laugh or damn good time. Aptly named, ‘The Craic’ is the best Australian film since ‘The Castle’ and not least because it is a comedy. At a time when most Australian film-makers believe a meaningful cinema experience necessitates a humorless and angst-ridden examination of social issues, subcultures or deeply unlikeable people, Jimeoin’s feature film debut comes as a breath of fresh air.
Semi-autobiographical, this good-natured road movie opens in 1988 in Northern Ireland, where friends Fergus (Jimeoin) and Wesley (played by Jimeoin’s real-life boyhood mate Alan McKee) and local bully Colin (Robert Morgan) unwittingly find themselves in the middle of a British SAS raid on the IRA. Fergus and Wesley scarper, but an enraged Colin is carted away, swearing vengeance. Switching action efficiently from Belfast to Sydney, to the Gold Coast, to the outback, the film follows the two lads as they attempt to escape a reinvented Colin, the Australian immigration department, the British SAS and ASIO, never forgetting to have a great time while picking fruit (watch for a quirky and uncharacteristic cameo by Bud Tingwell), learning to surf and meeting girls.
A series of neat plot twists, a genuinely funny script, loads of visual gags and a mature cultural perspective combine to make ‘The Craic’ a thoroughly enjoyable and remarkably accomplished caper from a first-timer, who not only starred but also wrote and co-produced. If only Jimeoin was the rule not the exception, Australian films might attract a more enthusiastic audience. 4 stars — BH

THE MATRIX
(M; 136mins)
ON one level, ‘The Matrix’ achieves a leap forward comparable with that of ‘Blade Runner’. Certainly, its technical achievements seem almost as dazzling — in a ’90s context’ — as Ridley Scott’s remarkable 1982 interpretation of the Philip K. Dick sci-fi tale.
Seventeen years on, the evil mastermind is no longer a human manipulating androids, but a super computer intelligence controlling the very fabric of our existence. Writers/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski have created a dark, nihilistic cyber-unreality, where our computer hacker hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) confronts the nightmarish notion that we’re all unwitting participants in a computer-controlled program known as The Matrix.
Those who know and resist, a group called Zionists who live near the earth’s core and are led by Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne), are hunted down by super cyber-agents (including Hugo Weaving, doing a nice takeoff of one of the Blues Brothers). Yes, the plot is a risible retread of sci-fi storylines and Japanese cyberpunk comics, while the hi-tech special effects (shot in Sydney’s Fox studio) are choreographed to blend with kinetic martial arts fight sequences created by a Hong Kong “chop-socky” movie whiz.
Yes, this box office hit is long, loud, glossy and grimly violent. It purports to challenge our perception of existence, but settles for superficial, knock-em-down, shoot-em-up copouts, just like any other mindless computer game (it looks like a CD-ROM game). So why did I enjoy it almost all the way? Because, despite the two-dimensional acting and formulaic conclusion, ‘The Matrix’ is frequently witty, has a great sense of its own absurdity and roars along with terrific pace. Thoughtful, character-driven drama it is not. 3 stars — MD

AT FIRST SIGHT
(PG; 123mins)
VAL KILMER is one of my least favourite actors. His emotional range, to borrow from Dorothy Parker, runs the gamut from A to B. In ‘At First Sight’ he plays Virgil, a hunky, sweet-natured, blind masseur, whose vision is restored in a breakthrough operation. Problem is, his mind still thinks blind and cannot navigate the sighted world. First casualty is his relationship with girlfriend Amy (Mira Sorvino), who had prodded him into taking the surgical plunge. Inspired by a real-life case study of psychologist/author Oliver Sacks, ‘At First Sight’ has many similarities to ‘Awakenings’. That fine 1990 movie, distinguished by Robert De Niro’s masterly performance, was based on Sacks’s own experience with patients roused from decades of slumber, who eventually slipped back into somnolence. ‘At First Sight’ has a remarkable moment, too, when Virgil cries out that something is wrong when the bandages are removed from his eyes. But, like his sight, our sense of involvement gradually diminishes. The main problem is director Irwin Winkler’s shallow treatment of the relationship between the blind man and sighted woman who loves him. Unfortunately, too, Kilmer is no De Niro, although he tries hard — so does Kelly McGillis as his devoted sister. For all that, the movie’s opening “act”, when the sighted Amy is introduced to the extra-sensory world of blind Virgin, is full of fascinating observations. Apologies for another showbiz cliché, but is this merely a case of the blind leading the bland? 3 stars — MD

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
(PG; 126mins)
KEVIN COSTNER and Robin Wright Penn deserve credit for persevering with this rambing soapie romance, based on a bestselling novel. She’s a recently-divorced researcher for a top Chicago columnist; he’s an embittered, recently-widowed boat-builder whose emotions are all at sea, bottled up in messages penned to his dead wife.
Then a bottle washes up at the feet of Penn, whose own emotional turmoil sends her off in quest of the sender. Enter veteran Paul Newman, as Costner’s ex-alcoholic Dad, who proceeds to steal every scene from his younger colleagues.
Costner and Penn try hard and there are good support roles from John Savage, Illeana Douglas and Robbie Coltrane, but director Luis Mandoki and screenwriter Gerald DiPego make a hash of the principals’ emotional chemistry.
The aim was presumably to recall one of those old ’40s and ’50s melodramas, which once had audiences sobbing and made stars of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and the like. But times — and acting styles — have changed and we demand more reality onscreen.
Costner, in particular, is so unsympathetic that his appeal to Penn seems barely credible and we don’t really care about his ultimate fate ... which brings me to the clumsy ending. But to reveal more would be unfair, even to such a miscued story. — MD

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