Movie Review: Mute

Mute * ½ / *****

Directed by: Duncan Jones.

Written by: Michael Robert Johnson & Duncan Jones.

Starring: Alexander Skarsgård (Leo Beiler), Paul Rudd (Cactus Bill), Justin Theroux (Duck Teddington), Seyneb Saleh (Naadirah), Gilbert Owuor (Maksim), Robert Sheehan (Luba), Nikki Lamborn (Rhonna), Noel Clarke (Stuart), Daniel Fathers (Sgt. Robert Kloskowski), Florence Kasumba (Tanya), Sam Rockwell (Sam Bell).

 

Director Duncan Jones has apparently been working on Mute since before his first film – Moon (2009) – was even an idea in his head. The film is said to be connected to that one – a spiritual sequel of sorts, set in the same universe, but with completely different characters, etc. It’s odd than that for as long as Jones has been thinking about Mute that the films feels as disjointed as it does. Jones is clearly influenced by Blade Runner – as many sci fi directors are – and it shows in the production design and costumes - although the aesthetic of this film feels a little off – too bright, not dirty enough. This is a noir story in a future setting, but neither of those things seem particularly well thought through here.

 

The film opens with our hero as a child (as many do) – as Leo (who will grow up to be Alexander Skarsgaard) gets into an accident, and his Amish parents refuse the surgery that would have given him the ability to speak. Flash forward 30 years, and he still cannot speak, and now works as a bartender in a strip club in Berlin, where he is dating a waitress, Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh). The two clearly love each other, but she’s hiding something, and then goes missing, prompting Leo to go searching for her.

 

We have a feeling from the start that somehow this is all going to connect with the other story strain Jones is setting up – between American surgeons Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd) and Duck (Justin Theroux), trying hard to be a version of Trapper John and Hawkeye from Robert Altman’s MASH. They are doctors in hiding – there is talk about Americans needing Visas, and turning those who went AWOL in, but it isn’t explained very clearly. The two are charming, but undeniably sleazy – and Cactus Bill is also clearly hiding something – perhaps having to do with his daughter, who he brings to a variety of non-appropriate locations.

 

I don’t know that Jones ever really finds the right tone for the film, and he clearly never finds the right pace for it. The film runs over two hours, but it takes almost half that time before anything actually happens in the film. Skarsgaard is not well served by the screenplay – he is actually quite good in the early scenes, where he is able to communicate how love struck with Naadirah he is simply by the look in his eyes, but he’s less successful as his character has descend into hell, like all noir heroes do, to find out what the truth. Rudd is far better as Cactus Bill, leaning in to his sleazy side, and using his natural charm to get you to like him, even as you know he’s a slime ball. Theroux’s Duck is less successful – he’s just slimy from the start, and I don’t think the revelations that come out about him – and his true motivations – do much except to leave a bad taste in your mouth, as they feel cheap and exploitive.

 

Jones, it must be said, is clearly a talented filmmaker. Moon remains one of the most interesting sci fi films of the 21^st Century – a film that grows in your mind after it ends, and keeps growing, and his mainstream debut afterwards – Source Code – is as good as studio sci fi normally gets. Here though, it almost seems like he was blinded to the stories flaws, and never really thought through how to make this story – or this world – really work. Everything feels patched together, perhaps interesting ideas in isolation, but they never really come together into anything more.

Movie Review: Source Code

Source Code ***

Directed by: Duncan Jones.

Written by: Ben Ripley.

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal (Colter Stevens), Michelle Monaghan (Christina Warren), Vera Farmiga (Colleen Goodwin), Jeffrey Wright (Dr. Rutledge), Michael Arden (Derek Frost), Cas Anvar (Hazmi), Russell Peters (Max Denoff), Brent Skagford (George Troxel).

I think the reason why most movies like Source Code don’t work is because they spend too much time trying to explain the logic behind the impossible science on display in the films. Source Code works because it doesn’t matter that the science in the movie makes no sense at all - because it doesn’t care that it doesn’t make logical sense. Instead, it makes emotional sense to the characters in the movie. As an audience member, I am willing to suspend disbelief if it makes sense to the emotional core of the movie. In Source Code it does.

The movie starts off inside a train, as a confused Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up and finds himself talking to Christina (Michelle Monaghan), who keeps calling him Shawn for some reason. He becomes increasingly confused over the course of his few minutes on the train, until the whole train explodes - and Stevens wakes up yet again. This time, it looks like he is in a down helicopter cockpit - which at least makes more sense since he is a military pilot, stationed in Afghanistan. Soon he starts being questioned by Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who he sees only on a screen. She wants to know who planted the bomb on the train. We, along with Stevens, gradually piece together what is going on. Stevens is being sent back in time, inside the body of someone named Shawn was on a train that blew up that morning. Another attack is coming, and they need to find out who planted the bomb to prevent the next attack. It turns out that Stevens can be sent back into Shawn’s body for the last 8 minutes of his life - he can go back as many times as they want, although he can’t always remember everything, and no matter what he does while inside Shawn’s body - which is really an elaborate computer program, cannot change reality.

That’s just the setup of the movie, and all I am going to reveal about the plot of the movie, because one of the pleasures of the movie is to watch as it twists and turns towards its conclusion. We continually travel back with Stevens onto that train, and view the same people every time, the only things that changes are what Stevens himself changes.

What I admired about the movie is not only how director Duncan Jones, who made the much better sci-fi film Moon two years ago, keeps the movie going at a breakneck pace and handles the twists well, but also how the movie never loses sight of its characters. In fact, it is the characters who makes the movie as good as it is. The identity of the bomber does not really matter at all. What impresses me is how well the characters are developed, without us every really noticing it at all. When the movie begins, we are drawn in by the story, by the end; we barely care about it at all.

In a movie like this, the performances are important in drawing us in and making us care. Jake Gyllenhaal is basically playing an everyman here - he is our conduit into this world, as he is just as confused as the rest of us at the beginning. As his story becomes clear, we start to feel for this guy. He is not just an action hero - but a fully fleshed out character, and Gyllenhaal does a great job with the role. For her part, Michelle Monaghan makes Christina completely lovable - which is important if we are going to believe that Stevens does what he does - and hard seeing as how she has to play the same scene over and over again. Vera Farmiga starts out in what we first assume is a nothing, throwaway role - the type of roll many great actresses have to take in mainstream films to pay the bills. But gradually, she too reveals a real character beneath her military exterior. And Jeffrey Wright - that great actor who for whatever reason has never gotten the rolls he deserves - is excellent as the kind of Dr. Frankenstein of the whole project.

If Source Code has a flaw, its in the conclusion. I didn’t quite buy it, and feel that a darker ending would have been more appropriate for the movie. Yet, the film is fast pacing, entertaining and involving from beginning to end. Unlike most sci-fi action movies these days, Source Code actually has a brain in its head.

Movie Review: Moon

Moon *** ½
Directed by: Duncan Jones
Written By: Duncan Jones & Nathan Parker.
Starring: Sam Rockwell (Sam Bell), Kevin Spacey (Gerty), Dominique McElligott (Tess Bell), Kaya Scodelario (Eve Bell).

Sam Rockwell is one of the most interesting actors working today. Whether he’s doing offbeat comedies like Confessions of a Dangerous Mind or dramas like Snow Angels, or even a strange, flawed movie like Choke, Rockwell is always fascinating screen presence. In Moon, he gets perhaps his best role and has to carry the entire movie on his shoulders. For most the movie, Rockwell has no one but himself, and a very strange robot with the voice of Kevin Spacey, to play off of. And he pulls it off brilliantly. Without him, this movie would fail miserably. But because he is so great, the entire movie is elevated.

Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an astronaut stationed on the moon by himself for three years. His job is to over the harvest of the hydrogen - or some other gas, I cannot really remember - which in the near future is the earth biggest supplier of energy. He only has two weeks to go, and he is going slightly stir crazy. The communication satellite is down, which does not allow for direct communication with earth. All messages have to be sent through an elaborate system, so the only way he was to talk to his wife is through videotaped messages. His only contact with anything resembling a human is with Gerty, a robot who roams the ship, and has a computer screen with a smiley face on it, that changes expressions depending on what information he is conveying. Gerty does everything for Sam - from cutting his hair to preparing his meals. As much as a machine like Gerty is capable of loving a human, Gerty loves Sam.

One day Sam goes out in his lunar car to check on a problem with one of the harvesters, and ends up in an accident, that almost kills him. When he wakes up, he is in the infirmary, and Gerty tells him what happened. Sam does not remember how he got back to base, but Gerty will not let him leave. Eventually Sam does leave, and sneaks off to the scene of the accident. There he finds his own body - except he is not dead. He brings himself back to the base, where once again Gerty insists on putting this other Sam in the infirmary. The question is why are there now two Sam’s, and which, if either, is the real one. The one who was in the accident knows he has been there for neary 3 years, while the other one claims to have been there only a week. What follows is strange, intelligent science fiction, with more emphasis on its character than special effects.

Moon was co-written and directed by Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie, and unlike most current science fiction movies, it is not just an action movie or horror film in sci-fi dressing. It is a movie that takes its science fiction premise seriously, and follows it through to its most logical conclusion. It does feel the need to dress it up with anything unnecessary. The special effects are low key, but just about perfect. You never doubt that you are on the moon. The score by Clint Mansell is wonderfully trippy. For people raised on modern day science fiction, they may think that Moon is too slow - they’ll keep waiting for the action or the horror that never comes. But for fans of real science fiction, Moon is one of the best in years.

One of the best things about the movie, aside from Sam Rockwell’s amazing dual performance which carries the film, is the portrayal of Gerty, the robot. I have seen countless movies about robots that are programmed with artificial intelligence who eventually snap and look to kill the human characters. But Gerty is different - he is actually a nice robot. He has grown to love Sam, and he helps him, even when that help goes against the wishes of the company that made him. Kevin Spacey does a great job with the voice of Gerty, making him sound slightly untrustworthy at first, but soon becomes actually quite comforting.

Moon is intelligent science fiction, well written, well acted, well directed. It is a film that trusts it audience to come along for its slow burn of a ride. It is one of the best science fiction in the last few years.