Scene it: To The Wonder

I loved Terrence Malick‘s Badlands (1973) and The Thin Red Line (1998), but as beautiful as To The Wonder (2012) is to look at, this exploration of faith is a little disappointing. Apparently quite a few scenes and characters were cut from the film, and I can’t help but think whether this might have improved the story if more of the narrative had been kept.

Neil (Ben Affleck) meets Marina (Olga Kurylenko) in France and they fall in love. The pair visit Mont Saint-Michel where they share furtive glances. They walk together, around the cloisters and out on the beach beneath the island abbey. They hug. Marina twirls. They kiss. They watch the tide come in. They hug some more. Back in Paris, Marina’s daughter Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline) joins them. They all walk together through the Parisian streets and twirl under trees. There are hugs. Kisses. Marina and Neil share furtive glances. Tatiana twirls. Marina and Neil glance some more. They look at the scenery. Fade to… Oklahoma where Marina and Tatiana have accompanied Neil back to his home. They all walk together through golden fields, identifying wildflowers, staring at the sunset. Marina twirls. Neil and her kiss. More furtive glances. Hugs. Flashbacks. Some fighting.

Meanwhile the local Catholic priest Father Quintana (Javier Bardem) is having a crisis with his faith. We learn of this through his voiceover. He preaches without passion and walks through the town, visiting the people of his parish. Often he walks away before they can reach out to him. He walks some more. Marina attends his service. Father Quintana ministers to prisoners, performs at weddings and pays home visits. But all the time, we hear how he struggles with the weight of his vocation.

When Marina’s visa expires, she and Tatiana return to Paris. Neil gets back to work, taking samples of pollution at work sites. Neil re-connects with Jane (Rachel McAdams). He visits her ranch. They feed horses and walk together through fields of windswept grass. There are furtive glances. They hug. Jane twirls. They sneak glances at each other WHILE A HERD OF BISON GRAZE RIGHT NEXT TO THEM (!). They glance at each other some more. They look out across the open plains. They hug. They kiss. They glance some more.

Marina is unhappy in Paris. She looks furtively out the window. She walks the streets alone. She calls Neil. He breaks it off with Jane. There is fighting. Furtive glances. Marina comes back to Oklahoma, Tatiana stays with her father. Marina and Neil get married. Marina twirls. They hug. Kiss. Walk together in the local streets. Marina walks past Father Quintana. Neil takes samples. Marina walks. There is fighting. Faith in love is questioned.

By the end, I felt like I had sat through a two-hour advertisement for French perfume. Or Spanish, in keeping with the two languages spoken in voiceover. Women with French-braided hair twirling through windswept fields, all bathed in a glorious golden light. Rugged men. A handful of words spoken. Furtive glances. Beautiful people captured with beautiful cinematography. Subtitles. Long shots. And did I mention the furtive glances?

Bardem has a great presence as the priest and I longed to see more of him in this picture. Kurylenko and Affleck are good together as the loved-up couple but without much story, left me wanting more. To The Wonder is a visual splendour in the windswept grass. Unfortunately it’s a very slow, repetitive, splendour that had me wondering about how close the Bison herd actually were to Neil and Jane (and the possibility for a stampede), rather than caring about any of the characters’ dilemmas.

Choc top: Tiramisu

I glanced furtively at my choc top. Twirled it around. Mused to myself about the heavy chocolate coating… Then I chomped down. And chomped again. The tiramisu flavour was subtle but, my faith in the choc top never wavered.

Scene it: Star Trek Into Darkness

Right, first confession:  I really can’t say that I am a long-standing Star Trek fan (or should that be Trekkie or Trekker?) Although I kinda do love watching odd episodes of the original series with its ’60s sci-fi aesthetic and belief in the positivity of space exploration.

Second confession: I was swayed to see this big budget, action-packed adventure fillum at the cinema because … it had the Cumberbatch* factor.

Following on from the 2009 Star Trek reboot, JJ Abrams has once more boldly gone into the other-worldly series created by Gene Roddenberry with all visual guns blazing. Star Trek Into Darkness is a  blockbuster action movie that can even come at the audience in glorious 3D (alas, I scene it in 2D).

Leading the USS Enterprise in this film is Chris Pine as the young  maverick, Captain James Kirk, with Zachary Quinto in the role of the logical Vulcan Spock, and Kiwi Karl Urban as the flight-phobic grumpy medical officer Bones. Rounding out the bromantic trio are Zoe Saldana as the feisty communications expert Lieutenant Uhura and Simon Pegg, with a bold Scottish accent, in the role of ‘Beam Me Up’, Scotty.  Also on the bridge are John Cho as the steely Hikaru Sulu, and Anton Yelchi as young Chekhov, while new crew addition, Alice Eve, joins as science officer Dr Carol Marcus.

The film opens with a mission in progress, setting the scene for the high energy action to follow. Fleeing angry inhabitants on a planet striking for its use of three colours (white, yellow and red), Kirk and Bones run for their lives as Spock commences a mission to prevent the planet being incinerated by an erupting, giant volcano. In order to save Spock, Kirk goes against the Starfleet prime directive, and allows the planet’s primitive inhabitants to see the USS Enterprise blast its way out of the sea. Kirk omits the near death/people saw our spaceship details of the mission in his account to Starfleet while the logical, regulation-following Spock files an official report. The result: Kirk is demoted back to First Officer and Spock is reassigned.

However an act soon occurs that brings them back together, and Benedict Cumberbatch into the picture. Cumberbatch (John Harrison) engineers the blowing up of Starfleet’s London base before launching another attack on the Starfleet’s top command in San Francisco. The command, of course, hastily convened together to address the London bombing— all part of Harrison’s calculating scheme. After a fast, big bang thrills and spills shoot out, the Enterprise’s crew are back on the bridge, tasked with hunting Harrison down. Ultimately, as the chase with Harrison takes a different turn, Kirk has to make some life and death choices for himself, and his crew.

With stunning visual CGI effects and frenetic chase scenes, fight scenes and life-threatening challenges, Star Trek Into Darkness still has those cheesy comedic moments. Dialogue exchanges lighten the mood such as when Bones says to Kirk, “Damn it Jim, I’m a doctor, not a torpedo technician!”

As a big action flick, the movie ticks all the boxes. The bromance between Kirk and Spock could’ve done with a bit more spark as the movie dipped into the conflict between emotion and rationality. And while Uhura is at times part of the action using her Klingon comms skills, it might have been nice to have seen her and Dr Marcus playing more of a role in the high energy action. But, really, it is the super powerful villainous Harrison who completely captures your attention whenever he’s talking, fighting, or leaping across the screen.

Last confession: For a lazy, rainy afternoon film, with no attachments to the mythology of the past or thoughts to the Trekkie future, watching JJ Abrams’s crew of actors in Star Trek Into Darkness was actually kinda fun.

Choc top: Caramel honey nougat

Layer of chocolate coating was quite modest. The almost (almost) too sweet caramel honey ice cream was balanced by chunks of chewy nougat.

*“It’s not even politeness, I won’t allow you to be my bitches. I think it sets feminism back so many notches. You are… Cumberpeople.”

Benedict Cumberbatch interviewed by Caitlin Moran for The Times.

This review is part of my log of fillums and choc top fillings, Scene It.

Related articles

• Movie review: ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ (utsandiego.com)
• Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) – Review (itsmuchmore.wordpress.com)
• Movie Review: Star Trek (2009) (johnreviewsmovies.wordpress.com)

Scene it: Rust & Bone, and Camille Rewinds

At the moment I know of five friends travelling in France. Not together, not in the same place nor for the same amount of time. Each is there to experience the country yet for different reasons: a few weeks lazing in a Paris apartment; bunkering down for some live-in-learning; and, even some agricultural volunteering. As they upload photos or email me their travelogues, each of mes amies are letting me see new facets to the great French Republican countryside.

I think this is possibly why in the last few days, I have indulged in a bit of ‘Francophilism’ of my own. The last two have been French fillums: Rust & Bone, and Camille Rewinds. Both movies explore love, regret and renewal, but each takes a very different approach when telling its story.

Rust & Bone

Director Jacques Audiard has followed on from his compelling 2009 prison drama A Prophet, with a love story of brutal tenderness —Rust & Bone (2012). The story is adapted from a collection of short stories by the Canadian author Craig Davidson, and the title refers to the taste in your mouth that you get after taking a hard punch.

In Audiard’s film, Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a man who has fallen on hard times and is trying to survive with his young son Sam (Armand Verdure) in tow. He relocates to Antibes on the French Riviera to live with his estranged sister Anna (Corinne Masiero) and her partner in a cramped apartment in the less glamorous parts of Antibes.

Ali gets work as a nightclub bouncer where one night, he meets Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard), assisting her home to witness an obviously unhappy relationship. Stéphanie trains killer whales at the local Aquarium, performing alongside cheerleaders, Mexican-waving crowds and blaring Katy Perry music. She is more at ease in the presence of the Orcas than with her boyfriend.

Ali looks to reestablish his boxing and martial arts career, prioritising work and training over the care of Sam —often leaving his sister to take care of his son. After Stéphanie is injured in a tragic accident, she reconnects with Ali. He helps draw her out of a deep depression through his straightforward, sometimes brutal, but simple approach to life.

As they enter into an awkward yet tender courtship, the chemistry between the two leads is clearly evident on-screen. Flawed and physically imposing, Schoenaerts’s Ali has vulnerability about him that you can understand Stéphanie would be drawn towards. While Cotillard is emotionally powerful in the role of Stéphanie, a fiercely intelligent woman struggling to cope with her changed world.

Many scenes tugged at the tear ducts: the Orca emerging from the depths of the aquarium as Stéphanie waits by the window, and Sam floating under water as Ali smashes his fists, splattering blood across the frozen ice.

Rust & Bone shows how life can be transformed and rediscovered though the explosive fireworks of love.

Camille Rewinds

Written, directed by and starring Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Rewinds (2012) is a crowd-pleasing bittersweet rom-com described as the French equivalent of Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

Camille (Lvovsky) is a whisky-guzzling 40-year-old Parisian still struggling to make a living as an actress. Reeling from her husband Eric’s (Samir Guesmi) announcement he is splitting after 25 years together to be with a younger woman, Camille ends up drowning her sorrows at a New Year’s Eve party in 2008 where she passes out and wakes up back in 1985. The clock has rewound twenty-five years. Camille is turning 16 again.

She is back in her family home where her parents are both still alive, back suffering high school with her three closest friends, and back listening to a steady stream of ’80s pop on her yellow Sports Walkman.

At first believing it is all a dream, Camille relishes the opportunity to be back with her beloved parents (Yolande Moreau and Michel Vuillermoz). Camille starts to record their conversations, following them around, eager to capture their voices on tape. Their relationship is strong and the rewind tinged with sadness, as 40-year-old Camille knows exactly when this intimacy will be over.

Equally aware of Eric’s betrayal in 2008, Camille is determined not fall in love with him again. However Eric’s passion for her only grows with every rejection —his smooth dance moves to Banarama at a party eventually wearing her down.

While everyone around them views Camille and Eric as 16 year olds, they are not subject to any special effects for ageing. Instead their joyful, spirited performances (and ‘80s wardrobe) convince us that they are teenagers.

Camille repeats the choices of the past after eventually realising that she can’t run away from her fate. This light, fun time-travelling comedy shows that while some life choices can change, others can also be accepted. Go and see Camille Rewinds —you’ll come out walking on your own little piece of sunshine.

Choc top: Rust & Bone – Cafe Grande

Anything that has coffee and a topping of nuts is fine by me. A few chomps into the ice cream I discovered chocolate-coated coffee beans sunk within the smooth, coffee flavoured ice cream. Hurrah for a crunchy wafer cone that didn’t fall apart before I finished eating.

Choc top: Camille Rewinds – Blueberry Cheesecake

I surprised myself with this choice, as I’m not generally a fan of berry in a choc top. But I was glad I broke free and tried this very tasty combination. Topped with a white chocolate bud, the chocolate coating was uneven and generous. As the ice cream rose to room temperature, the creamy, subtle cheesecake flavour became more evident, and blueberry seeds stuck to my teeth.

This review is part of my log of fillums and choc top fillings, Scene It.

And, yes you did read ’em, those pop song references