DVD reviews

The Timaru Herald

A look at what is on the new release racks.

EASY VIRTUE

Director: Stephan Elliott
97 minutes

Easy Virtue is an act of comedy and class.

Colin Firth, alone, is capable of both despite playing a dishevelled chain smoker – a far cry from his immaculate appearance as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.

Firth plays Jim Whittaker, the family peacemaker when his son John (Ben Barnes) returns home to England married to American racing-car driver Larita (Jessica Biel).

His mother, Veronica (Kristin Scott Thomas), almost immediately disapproves, while his sisters Hilda (Kimberley Nixon) and Marion (Katherine Parkinson) enjoy their famous sister-in-law for all of five minutes.

It's not long before Hilda and Marion begin to research their family's latest addition, digging up a past Larita would rather forget.

The story, which is an adaptation of Noel Coward's play, is set in the 1920s but luckily the film is not left high and dry by the seriousness that is often portrayed by the era.

Director Stephan Elliot adds an unexpected collection of songs to lighten the mood including Car Wash and Sex Bomb sung in a 1920s style – the only cringe factor I can recall.

I'll admit the songs did lighten the mood and added a touch of comedy, but they are two songs I have no tolerance for, no matter how they are sung or who is singing them.

However, I do approve of Elliot's choice in Biel to play the leading lady.

Although her magnified American accent was hard to take at times, her ability to act was faultless.

Larita regularly teased her mother-in-law and successfully made an enemy of herself when she killed the family's much-loved dog by sitting on it.

If you want to see comedy collide with the 1920s or – better still – Colin Firth stripped of his charming Mr Darcy status, then this is the movie for you. - ALEXIA JOHNSTON

FROZEN RIVER

Director: Courtney Hunt
93 mins

Frozen River is a simple tale beautifully told.

Set in winter in up-state New York, it plays on the universality of a mother's love and the lengths to which people will go to provide for their family.

Just days before Christmas, Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo, who deserved her Oscar nomination for this role) watches her new double-wide mobile home roll away; the money she needs to secure the purchase has disappeared along with her husband, a gambling addict.

The dream of a new home for her family, TJ, 15, and Ricky, 5, seems beyond her grasp until a chance encounter with a surly bingo-parlour employee Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), sets the women on a dangerous drive across the frozen river which separates Canada and the United States.

The Mohawk Reservation overlaps both countries, and the ice highway between them is not monitored by State Troopers who have little power on the reservation; a certain amount of smuggling is tolerated, Lila tells Ray.

With an uneasy alliance, and for $1200 a pop, the pair don't so much drive themselves, but are driven by their circumstances to make the perilous journey across the ice and collect immigrants desperate to enter the US: Ray is determined to get her new home; Lila wants her one-year-old son – who was taken from her at birth by her mother-in-law.

Frozen River relies on the strength of its plot, which offers a glimpse of American life seldom subjected to the film-maker's lens, and the convincing performances of its leads to hold its audience.

Hunt successfully uses her landscape to illustrate the difficulties both women face. The beauty of the snow and ice from afar is stripped away to reveal uncomfortable truths; up close, there's mud, puddles, a pervasive chill. Whether you're white or native American, this is a harsh environment.

An understated score and low-key script reinforce the stark realism of the story. - FLEUR COGLE

WALLED IN

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
87 mins

 

What I'd like to know is: Who did the casting for this film? They need to be fired.

I'm no acting expert but I know when a person on screen is not doing a good job.

If you can't watch a movie without cringing at every line, then it's probably not a five-star flick.

Mischa Barton, who plays 25-year-old tomboy Sam Walczak, was pretty good in American drama series The O.C., but Walled In was appalling. That must be why it wasn't advertised in any cinemas around the country. Not good enough for the big screen, huh?

The story follows Sam, who has just graduated as an engineer for her father's demolition company. Her first job is to examine the mysterious Malestrazza building and prepare it for wrecking.

But the apartment block has a secret – many of its tenants were victims of a murderer, who entombed them alive within the walls.

Sam must fight off the few lingering tenants who are quirky, creepy and reluctant to leave. One of the tenants, a 15-year-old boy whose father was murdered, develops a dangerous infatuation with her and she must cope with his insanity while facing the possibility of her own death.

The film had the potential to be a great horror-thriller but it did not deliver on what was an interesting storyline.

Cameron Bright, who plays Jimmy, Sam's 15-year-old stalker, was stiff – in his facial expressions and his lines – and made the film more of a comedy than a horror. Bits that should have been frightening were simply laughable.

Were there no other actors available for Walled In? Or could all the good ones see that it wasn't going to be pulled off?

Walled In was a complete flop from start to finish. - KATARINA FILIPE