Movie Review: The Captain

The Captain *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Robert Schwentke.

Written by: Robert Schwentke.

Starring: Max Hubacher (Willi Herold), Milan Peschel (Freytag), Frederick Lau (Kipinski), Bernd Hölscher (Schütte), Waldemar Kobus (Hansen), Alexander Fehling (Junker), Samuel Finzi (Roger), Wolfram Koch (Schneider). 

 

It can be interesting to watch a director return to their home country after a time in Hollywood. Robert Schwentke directed several films in America – The Time Traveler’s Wife, Flightplan, Red, R.I. P.D, and two of the Divergent sequels (Insurgent and Allegiant) and never really made the case for why he was a filmmaker you needed to pay any special attention to. All of those films (of the ones I’ve seen) are mediocre studio time wasters that you would likely forget soon after watching them with a real sense of the filmmaker who made it. With The Captain, he returns to his native Germany for the first time in more than a decade – and whatever else you can say about The Captain, you could not call it forgettable.

 

The film is set in the last few weeks of WWII, and centers of Willi Herold (Max Hubacher), a Private in the German army who deserts his unit. As he’s walking across Germany, he comes across an abandoned military car – and inside is the luggage of German Captain. He puts on the uniform – presumably more for warmth than anything else – but is quickly mistaken for the Captain himself. Instead of correcting the mistake, he runs with it. He becomes worse than those he was running away from – overseeing massacres of German prisoners – being held for the same crime he committed (desertion) on a mass scale – and pushing everyone around to do worse and worse things.

 

In a way, the film tells a story not unlike The Milligram experiment or the Stanfield Prison Experiment (the latter of which has kind of debunked, but whatever). How far can you push people when you have a little authority. How will you respond when you are given a little bit of authority? Is everyone just waiting to be given permission to become horrible, violent people?

 

The film is shot in stark black and white – which is the appropriate choice for this material – and the look of the film is the best thing about it. The second best thing is the performance by Hubacher as Herold – who goes from a scared kid, to someone playacting as a Captain, to somehow who truly becomes the evil he was just playing at before, and he has to do all that without really communicating it to anyone, since no one knows his secret.

 

If there is a problem with the movie, it’s that it does grow repetitive over its nearly two hour runtime. Herold does the same thing again and again, and sees what the reaction is, and it’s the same. Things keep getting worse, and he keeps on pushing to see how long he keeps getting away this for. He doesn’t seem to have any long term plans – and when he’s caught, he doesn’t really try to deny anything. What plays out over the end credits brings Herold and his crew into modern day Germany – and it’s both fascinating to watch, and also somewhat confusing. We don’t hear anything but the music being played, and whatever point Schwentke is making here is confused at best. And yet, for all the issues with The Captain – (I didn’t even really mention the smug cynicism of the whole thing) it’s not a film that will easily leave your mind, and it’s not something we’ve really seen much of out of Germany in terms of dealing with its past – and how easily so many people did the horrible things that they did, and how easy it could be for it happen again – anywhere.

Movie Review: Insurgent

Insurgent
Directed by: Robert Schwentke.
Written by: Brian Duffield and Akiva Goldsman  and Mark Bomback based on the novel by Veronica Roth.
Starring: Shailene Woodley (Tris), Theo James (Four), Kate Winslet (Jeanine), Ansel Elgort (Caleb), Miles Teller (Peter), Naomi Watts (Evelyn), Jai Courtney (Eric),  Mekhi Phifer (Max), Octavia Spencer (Johanna), Zoë Kravitz (Christina), Ashley Judd (Natalie), Ray Stevenson (Marcus), Keiynan Lonsdale (Uriah), Maggie Q (Tori), Daniel Dae Kim (Jack Kang), Janet McTeer (Edith Prior).

The middle book or movie in trilogies are often my favorites – and the reason is fairly simple. There is no need for a lengthy set-up, which are all usually the same, as the film has to establish the rules and characters of the world that they have created, and since the story doesn’t really end, it just stops, there’s no need for boring “wrap-up” sequences. Basically, the middle part of a trilogy is all the good stuff, with none of the filler – at least in theory. That isn’t the case with Insurgent, the second movie in the Divergent series, which is almost entirely filler. There is very little actual content or story here – we don’t really learn anything new about this world, or its conflicts, and what we do learn doesn’t really fill two hours’ worth of screen time. I dread the third installment of this series – Allegiant – in part because the book (and yes, I read all three Divergent books) is absolutely horrible, and also because, like all YA franchises now, the studio have decided to split the book into two – for purely artistic reasons, I’m sure.

In Insurgent, our hero Tris (Shailene Woodley, who pretty much singlehandedly keeps these movies watchable) has copped off her hair (and somehow in this post-apocalyptic world, seemingly got highlights as well), and is now on the run with her boyfriend Four (Theo James, who in these movies seems like a poor man’s Sam Worthington), and two other, less willing companions – her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), who doesn’t really trust his sister, and the hated Peter (Miles Teller, who at seems to know how ridiculous the movie is, and decides to have some fun with it). As you will undoubtedly recall, the leader of the Erudite faction, Jeanine (Kate Winslet) had brainwashed the Dauntless faction into killing the Abnegation, with only Divergents, like Tris and Four, being immune. Jeanine is still trying to completely take over – but in order to open up a super-secret box, she needs a Divergent that she can put through five “simulations” that will ensure some very important information gets revealed. The faction system is cracking, the factionless (led by Naomi Watts), want to take over – and of course, Tris is the key to the whole thing.

If that previous paragraph read like incomprehensible goobly-gook, then, you can probably stop reading this review know, content in the knowledge that Insurgent is not the movie for you. Like The Hunger Games before it, the Divergent series is a series of young adult books, and now movies, with a teenage girl heroine, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, trying to take down an enormous power structure. Unlike The Hunger Games – either in book or movie form – the Divergent series isn’t very good – the whole faction system makes no sense, and while Susan Collins, writer of The Hunger Games, was smart to make her heroine, Katniss Everdeen, smart and brave, and yet realize she is still a pawn in the game, that everyone tries to use, Veronica Roth of Divergent really does see Tris as some sort of noble, self-sacrificing saint – the only one who can save the rest of humanity.

You have to give Woodley a lot of credit in these movies. Tris is a fairly impossible character to play – a boring character really, who spends a lot of time obsessing about how special she is, and her sins, even though no one really blames her for what has happened. She spends most of her time either crying or having to kick ass – with a few moments to look lovingly in Theo James eyes. There’s not a lot to play her, but damn it, Woodley does everything she can to make the role work. It doesn’t – but I don’t much blame her for it.

In fact, I’m not sure I much blame the filmmakers behind Insurgent for the fact that it’s such a boring experience to watch. Director Robert Schwentke is one of those anonymous studio directors, who specialize in action movies (Flightplan and RED are among his other films), and the action is handled fairly well here, even if it relies on slow motion too often – and slow motion that makes the slow motion in Zack Snyder movies look better by comparison. Almost all of the actors are better than they need to be in the movie – with Oscar winners and nominees like Winslet, Watts alongside Octavia Spencer and Janet McTeer, and fine young actors like Teller and Zoe Kravitz wasted in their roles.

The problem with Insurgent is the source material. It’s just really, really bad – and so the only way to make it better would be to change it, and the legions of fans of the source material would get really mad about that, so they’re kind of stuck. When you have bad source material, how good can the movie really be?

Movie Review: Red

Red ** ½
Directed by: Robert Schwentke.
Written By: Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber based on the graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.
Starring: Bruce Willis (Frank Moses), John Malkovich (Marvin Boggs), Mary-Louise Parker (Sarah Ross), Helen Mirren (Victoria), Morgan Freeman (Joe Matheson), Karl Urban (William Cooper), Brian Cox (Ivan Simanov), Richard Dreyfuss (Alexander Dunning), Rebecca Pidgeon (Cynthia Wilkes), Ernest Borgnine (Henry, The Records Keeper), Julian McMahon (Robert Stanton), James Remar (Gabriel Singer).

Red has a better cast than any movies of this ilk really deserves. This is a B-action movie, with an Oscar winning cast. While the cast keeps things interesting for a while – the first half of the movie is pretty solid entertainment – eventually its genre trappings take over, and we are left with one over the top action sequence after another to get through in the films second half. When everyone was shooting each other, or going through elaborate car chases, or suffering through long, expository monologues to explain the plot, I kept thinking that I wanted to go back to the films first half – that was more relaxed and allowed its top notch cast to play off of each other wonderfully.

The film has an interesting set-up. Frank (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA agent living in Cleveland. He is bored with his new life, after spending year’s globe hoping for his government. He has no family, no real friends, and the only joy he gets is calling into the CIA pension office to flirt with Sarah (Mary Louise Parker). But then a group of highly trained assassins shows up at his house, and Frank has to go back into his old CIA operative mode. He travels to Kansas City to pick up Sarah, who he has never actually met before, because he rightly thinks she is also in danger. He then tracks down some former CIA friends – the paranoid Marvin (John Malkovich), the wily veteran Joe (Morgan Freeman) and eventually the sexy Victoria (Helen Mirren) to try and piece together who is after them and why. Meanwhile, the CIA has sent William Cooper (Karl Urban), the new Frank, to catch up with them.

But the plot of the movie is really just a Macguffin – it doesn’t really matter who is after them or why, it’s just an excuse to first bring together these old former spies, and then an excuse to string together one action sequence after another. The films first half was to me, much more entertaining the second. I love seeing Bruce Willis as the retired CIA agent in those opening scenes struggling through his life where his biggest concern is Christmas ornaments. He has an easy chemistry with Mary Louise Parker, who is as delightfully offbeat as ever (my wife says she always appears to be stoned, and that’s as good of description as I can come up with). For the second time in two weeks, John Malkovich gives a wonderfully, offbeat comedic performance, although his paranoid Marvin is miles away from his work in Secretariat. He delights in his own paranoia – and I loved the glee on his face when he announces its “time to break out the pig” – and then proceeds to carry around a comical stuffed pig around with him. Morgan Freeman however is pretty much wasted – he has a couple of nice moments, but he’s barely in the film. Helen Mirren proves yet again that she’s still one of the sexiest women in the world, despite her age. And it was fun to see Brian Cox as a KGB agent, who was once their enemy, but now looks back at those cold war days with nostalgia – and considers his former enemies now to be friends. Equally nice to see was Ernest Borgnine (who I had though had long ago died, considering he won an Oscar for playing middle aged schlub Marty back in 1955!) and Richard Dreyfuss who appears late in the game.

But once the movie introduces all of its characters, it doesn’t really have anything interesting to do with them, except make them shoot at each other, and the faceless people who are coming after them. The cast keeps things interesting, but once the setup is complete, it quickly becomes apparent that the filmmakers don’t plan to do anything all that interesting with the plot. They are going through the motions, hoping that because they have assembled a great cast, no one will notice that the film is rather cheesy – and once the action starts, kind of dull. Director Robert Schwentke does as much as I think can be expected of him, but I wish the screenplay in the second half had been more developed. Based on a very short, spare graphic novel (that none of the characters accept for Willis and Parker’s voice are even in) the screenplay runs out of steam long before the movie ends.

I will say that I enjoyed much of Red. It is an interesting diversion for the first hour, and even when the movie devolves into nothing but action, it is never really boring. But I expected more from a movie with this cast then they delivered. Red, as good as it is in parts, never really adds up to anything.

Movie Review: The Time Traveller's Wife

The Time Traveller’s Wife ** ½
Directed By: Robert Schwentke.
Written By: Bruce Joel Rubin based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger.
Starring: Eric Bana (Henry DeTamble), Rachel McAdams (Clare Abshire), Arliss Howard (Richard DeTamble), Michelle Nolden (Annette DeTamble), Jane McLean (Charisse), Ron Livingston (Gomez), Philip Craig (Philip Abshire), Stephen Tobolowsky (Dr. David Kendrick), Brooklynn Proulx (Clare at Six and Eight), Hailey McCann (Alba at Nine and Ten), Tatum McCann (Alba at Four and Five).

Henry is a time traveler. He has no idea when he is going to fade out of one time, and show up naked in another time. He is the only one in the world who has this condition - or at least the only one he knows about. He is more likely to time travel if he’s been drinking or if he gets stressed out. Other than that, sometimes he just fades away.

Henry (played by Eric Bana in the movie) is lucky in that he finds a woman who loves and accepts him. Henry first met Clare (played by Rachel McAdams as an adult), when he is in his 40s and she is 6. He travels back in time, from when he and Clare are already married, and over the years he continues to show up in her life again and again, and she falls in love with him. When they meet again, when she is in her early 20s, and he is a few years older, she is already in love with him, and he has no idea who she is - after all he did not start traveling back in time to see Clare until later in his life. But it doesn’t what age they are when they meet. They are made for each other, pure and simple, and despite all the problems that Henry’s disorder causes, theirs is a love that spans years.

In book format, The Time Traveller’s Wife was a wonderful romance. The romance between Henry and Clare was heartfelt and touching. Despite the hardship that Henry’s illness causes, they have a full, happy life. Like any couple, they have their ups and downs, but overall, everything they go through is worth it, because they were made for each other.

In the movie adaptation however, what was a sweeping, almost epic romance has been truncated. The movie moves so quickly moving from one plot point to the other, from one hardship to another, that the happiness in their romance has been all but lost. The movie is much too somber. The people in the film appear to be miserable from start to finish. Yes, they love each other, but you get the feeling that almost everyone would be better off had Clare and Henry never met each other.

One of the problems with the movie is Eric Bana’s performance as Henry. He is depressed when the movie opens, and pretty much spends the whole movie in the same mode. He is somewhat dull and lifeless in the role. He is in fact pretty much the most boring time traveler that I have ever seen in a movie. Rachel McAdams fares much better as Clare. She is at least full of life as Clare. She is happy when Henry is around and attentive, but becomes frustrated when he leaves for hours, days even weeks at a time. She is the character we feel for in this story, in both formats, and McAdams does a wonderful job of bringing her to life. Like in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the man has more screen time, but the female role is much more complex. In both cases, the main character has to suffer with a rare disorder, and dealt with it as best they could. But it is the women in their lives who have to choose to live with the disorder in order to have the men they love in their lives. The Time Traveller’s Wife certainly suffers when compared to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, two movies with similar goals.

The director of the film is Robert Schwentke, whose last film Flightplan was liked by many, but not really by me. Here, he once again does not quite get the tone or the pacing of the story right. He moves too quickly from one scene to the next, never pausing long enough to let the emotions sink in. The bigger problem though is the screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, who also wrote Ghost. The movie suffers from some of the same problems of that beloved “classic” - which I have always hated.

But The Time Traveller’s Wife is not really all that bad. It certainly holds your attention for its entire running time. It has an interesting premise, and even if it does not quite live up to the promise of the book or the idea, it is still an okay film. For fans of this kind of movie, ones who like their romances with a little bit of sap, cheese and heartbreak, than The Time Traveller’s Wife will most likely satisfy your needs. For the rest of us though, The Time Traveller’s Wife is nothing but a disappointment.