Atonement

Atonement is another word for penance.  There are wrongs that need to be paid for, but while they’re still in debt, hanging over your head all you can do is dread when the judgment falls.  You think all the “If only”s and wish you could take back that one gesture, or word that caused the gavel to fall.  And it looms over you, follows you until your atonement has been made.

Thirteen year old Briony (Saoirse Ronan) is an aspiring writer.  Robbie (James McAvoy) is the son of the family’s servant and has plans of going to medical school.  One day Briony sees her sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley) take off her dress and jump into the fountain right in front of Robbie.  Briony assumes this to be completely scandalous and with a few other events misinterpreted more and more she eventually accuses Robbie of sexually assaulting her cousin.

Well, there go Robbie’s hopes dreams and his budding relationship with Cecila.  He’s sent to jail and four years later agrees to join the British army in WWII.  Cecila becomes a nurse, hoping that once the war is over she and Robbie can be married.  Briony, who is just realizing the repercussions of her childish accusation, could have gone to Cambridge, but trains to be a nurse as well.  It seems they’re all waiting in purgatory, all three paying for Briony’s misinterpreted judgment.

Young Briony is just a kid; a bored little girl looking for more excitement in her dull life than there really is.  That’s why she writes plays and makes connections between what she sees and hears to be the worst and most sensational situation she can come up with.  Perhaps there was jealousy unconsciously wanting Robbie and her sister apart, but that certain word put a dark light onto poor Robbie and with Briony’s imagination who else could be the perpetrator?  That little scene where she pretends to drown, just for the romantic idea of being saved by Robbie says it all.

The scene where Robbie is trying to write an apology letter to Cecilia is wonderful, I love the depiction of the writer’s struggle.  He listens to different record tracts, smokes some cigarettes and stretches and even has to turn away from the typewriter and laugh.  He just needs to pay attention to which letter he puts in the envelope.  Rookie mistake.

Atonement won the award for best original score and I know exactly what did it.  At times, it seems like a typewriter is used as a musical instrument.  It’s beautiful, imaginative, catchy and perfectly captures the theme of Briony’s writing.  The typewriter sounds (along with real instruments) create a real sense of movement in the film, sometimes urgency and kept me tapping along.

I’m not one for a love story, but I loved this story because there’s more to it than love and all its wonderful, happy, drippy moments.  It feels utterly real.  Perhaps because there is much more sorrow than there is happiness.  There’s no hiding that.

Atonement is full of passion, sadness, grief, guilt and yet I didn’t cry.  It’s moving, but not in such a sappy way.  It’s a thinking kind of sadness that pulls at your heart, picks your brain by keeping little bits a mystery.  And there’s nothing like a hard sucker punch to really make your heart weep.

I’m picking Atonement for 2007.  I truly enjoyed all the films, but Atonement is the only one that really moved and engaged me on first viewing.  It’s rare for me to find a recent film that can capture all my curiosity and keep me captivated the entire time.

“-If all we have rests in a few moments in a library three and a half years ago, then I don’t know… I don’t…
-Robbie… look at me. Look at me. Come back. Come back to me.”

No Country for Old Men

Within the first ten minutes of the film, we see the tone it will keep: barren of hope, calmly violent, and intriguing.  The Texas desert landscape and few and far between characters make the film feel lonely and isolated, like it was raised this way to become a quiet and unsettling person.

You’re not feeling too warm and fuzzy are you?  And you won’t watching this movie.

In No Country for Old Men, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a hunter stumbles upon a horrific multiple murder scene. It’s a drug deal gone wrong and Llewelyn finds a bag full of money.  He takes the money, but is soon pursued by Anton (Javier Bardem), who’s planted a tracking device in the bag.

In the second scene of the film, Anton calmly chokes a police officer to death with his handcuffs on the station floor, leaving scuff marks all around them in the struggle.  (I now count this as one of my favorite murder scenes, thanks Coens!)  It’s clear that Anton is a psychopath, the menacing kind that will kill anyone with no remorse.  Listen carefully for a little story about a kid who killed a fourteen year old girl in the film, I believe this describes Anton’s first brush with the law, though it is never explicitly told.

Javier Bardem must’ve had a lot of fun playing Anton (villains are often more fun to play than the hero).  His voice is menacing and creepy in a calm and natural way, unlike Bale’s Batman growl.  One of the scariest things about Anton is that he’s nearly quirky.  Think about it, take his stupid haircut, the end of the coin toss conversation and rolling down the window to shoot at a bird on the bridge and you’ve got quite a quirky guy, but of course we put the psychopathic murderer upfront with good reason.  It’s no surprise that Bardem won Best Supporting Actor “for making a bad haircut look scary.”

So, Llewelyn has the money, is running from Anton, Anton is leaving a senseless trail of blood behind him as he follows Llewlyn and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is always just a step behind Anton.  Bell is an aging Sheriff, he’s proud of his work, but is fed up with how fucked up the world has become. “Who are these people?  It’s all out war.”  The messed up stuff he has to deal with has become more than he bargained for.  He’s becoming more and more disillusioned, he thought things would only get better as he got older.  In short, he’s getting too old for this shit.  This ain’t no country for an old man.

I think we can all agree that No Country for Old Men is a complete downer.  In fact, four of the five nominations of 2007 are, I believe John Stewart said it best, “Thank God for teenage pregnancy!”  There are some people that just plain wouldn’t like this movie.  There is a lot of violence.  Senseless, psychopathic, blood on the walls violence that is never brought to justice, and for many people I understand what a moral killer that is.  If you’re one of those people, you’re better off watching Juno five times.  But if you can stomach it, No Country for Old Men is a really amazing film.  The Coen brothers know what they’re doing and if you let them lead you into this horribly violent and lonely world you can still come out to be a normal functioning person in society.

“What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?”

Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a fixer.  He’s the lawyer you call when everything has gone to shit.  He’s the guy you buy.  Some call him a miracle worker and get pissed if he’s anything less.  But it’s going to take a man gone crazy off his pills to get Clayton to realize that those who call him dad and brother matter most.

The opening of the film is actually closer to the end, then it backs up four days earlier to show how it got to that point.  Keeping that in mind and realizing that the voice we hear in that opening, intriguing monologue on Michael’s voicemail is Arthur’s are key pieces that are essential for understanding the plot.

Arthur (Tom Wilkinson) is a lawyer working for UNorth, a crooked agrochemical company that poses as environmentally friendly.  For the past six years he’s been working on a three billion dollar lawsuit and trying to cover up the fact that UNorth’s chemicals are toxic.  He has a nervous breakdown where he starts ranting and strips naked in the middle of a meeting.  It’s caught on tape.  UNorth hires Clayton to fix the damage that Arthur has done to their company, but maybe it wasn’t just a nervous breakdown, but a rebirth of morality.

Unfortunately for Michael, the Arthur situation isn’t the only thing he’s worried about.  He’s gambled so much that he owes a loan shark eighty grand to cover his alcoholic brother’s debts and his son (who thankfully seems pretty smart) needs a male figure to look up to.

Now, my husband saw this when it first came out and complained that he didn’t enjoy it.  I think he was looking for a movie to just veg out to for a while; that doesn’t work well for Michael Clayton.  I wouldn’t exactly call it a thinking movie, but it does contain more intelligence rather than cheap entertainment.  And like I said earlier, if you don’t process that opening, it’s easy to be lost for the rest of the movie.

Michael Clayton was nominated for about as many awards as it could be.  Pretty much all the big awards, except editing.  George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson are nominated as lead and supporting actor, but it is Tilda Swinton who takes home the film’s only Oscar for best supporting actress.  Her portrayal of Karen, the high stakes, corrupt business woman for UNorth is astounding, especially from that first unflattering shot of her profusely sweating in a bathroom stall.

Who would enjoy Michael Clayton?  If you’re a fan of George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson or Tilda Swinton, this should be on your list.  If you enjoy morality lawsuit movies, I encourage this.  But if you’re looking for something to kick back and let your mind turn to mush for a while, you won’t get anything out of this film.  Pick up The Men Who Stare at Goats instead.

“I am Shiva, the god of death.”

There Will Be Blood

Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) is an ambitious oil man.  He’s spent his adult life out in the desert risking his life to dig mines and pump oil from the ground.  With his young son and partner, H.W. (Dillon Freasier) he gets a tip from young man Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) about a place called Little Boston full of oil .  Daniel and H.W. venture out there claiming to hunt for quails and try to get on good terms with the Sunday family, who own a sizable ranch.  Paul’s tip proves accurate; oil just seeps from the ground.  So Daniel offers to buy the ranch from the Sundays with no mention of oil, hoping to get a cheap price (i.e. swindle the poor family off their oil goldmine).  But Paul’s twin brother, Eli (also Dano) knows about the oil and ups the price, wanting to put it toward his church.  Daniel sees that Eli is going to be quite the obstacle.

So tables start turning in Little Boston go create the oil well.  At the opening ceremony, Eli wants to give the well a proper (and public) blessing, but Daniel just kinda glosses over that.  When tragedy strikes, Eli turns it against Daniel and says it could have been avoided with his simple blessing.

The middle of the film just kinda drags for a while.  It’s the setup, the tragedy and the end that act as the meat.  That middle bit with the brother helps us expand Daniel’s character a bit, but feels like a limp leaf of lettuce on an otherwise delicious sandwich.

The soundtrack is composed mostly of a string quartet to add their input on the overall unhappy mood.  They play very long violin chords that just kinda hang and hum in and out of pitch.  Then as a more action arises they play something a little more plucky.  The whole feel is very simple and nothing in the film that needs a sweeping orchestra.

The film is very visual, no words spoken for nearly the first twenties minutes.  First, we must see process of finding oil, watch the hard labor, the bodies in motion, the rickety rigs, the black glistening goop being brought up in buckets.  Only then can we appreciate the voices that come later and truly understand the oil spewing from the earth, into the sky and raining back down.

One of the best scenes is when the oil well explodes or gushes, I’m not sure what the technical term is.  Anyway, the music starts like a very subtle Jaws theme and suddenly a rope shakes out of control and  H.W. thrown about twenty feet backwards.  Oil spews up to the sky and rains down. The music turns to a racing heartbeat of percussion as Daniel runs with H.W.  When the spraying oil goes up in flames, the camera moves across field running with the men running to the burning well.  The inferno burns into the night, beautiful and terrifying.  Or perhaps it isn’t night, there’s blue sky, a red glow from fire and the frame nearly outlined in black smoke.  There’s something eerie and less human about oil covered faces glowing in light of the flames and silhouettes against the fire.  If you want to see why this won cinematography, this scene says it all.

Don’t beat me with your bibles, but in this film, religion is used as a tool to get ahead.  It gives Eli power and authority in his community and later in the film it gives Daniel a second chance to be accepted and trusted by the community he once wronged.  That’s just how it is here: plain, simple and bleak.

Hang in there though, the ending is worth the wait and finally fulfills the title.

“I’m finished!”

Juno

I came home from college one weekend to take my sister and brother to see Juno.  They were seventeen and thirteen at the time, right in the audience demographic.  When we got home, dad asked us about the movie.  They casually told him it was about a sixteen year old girl who gets pregnant.  I got drilled, but just for a moment.  I told him flat out that there’s nothing in the film that glorifies or encourages risky teen behavior, it was quite the opposite.  That calmed his nerves, but he still asked if they learned anything.  My sister said, “Yup, don’t get pregnant.”

Juno (Ellen Page) is a typical sixteen year old girl, yet not so typical.  She has a walk, talk and actions that seem like she wants people to know that she knows who she is, but we soon find out that she has a lot to learn.  When we first meet her, she casually walks down the street swigging a gallon of Sunny D and buys her third pregnancy test of the day at the mini-mart without even trying to hide it.  I don’t think I’ve known anyone at sixteen to be that independent and confident in such a huge pickle.

Juno first breaks the news to her friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), who is loyal, but seems to be a bad influence.  In their hamburger phone conversation, we get the idea that she’s helped other friends secretly get abortions and is sexually active herself, like it’s no big deal.  Many times kids follow their friend’s lead, it makes me wonder if Leah is one of the reasons Juno decides to have sex.

That brings us to the father, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), a skinny boy constantly running with the track team that gallops across the town like a herd of horses in bright yellow shorty-shorts.  He’s a very soft spoken boy and when Juno breaks the news to him, she leaves exits casually saying, “Sorry I had sex with you.”  All he can do is stand on his stoop for a moment wondering out loud, “Who’s idea was it?”

So after Juno chickens out of an abortion, she and Leah look for a nice couple “desperately seeking spawn” in the PennySaver.  They stumble upon a picture of Mark and Vanessa Loring and decide that they will be the adopted parents.  Now that Juno has a plan all figured out, she can finally tell her parents.

And cue the two most dreaded words a parent can hear from their teenage daughter: “I’m pregnant.”  They would rather deal with Juno being expelled or into hard drugs, anything but this.  Juno’s father and step-mother (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney) are obviously disappointed, but immediately jump into support mode.  I love Simmons in this scene, the disappointment is in his voice as well as in his face.  “I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when.”  Ouch, a hard blow from dad, and all Juno can muster is, “I don’t know what kind of girl I am.”

So Juno and her father go to meet Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) to hammer out legal details over the adoption.  While there, Juno discovers that Mark is a musician and starts to bond with him, creating a very slippery slope.  Later, she drops by unannounced to show him ultrasound pictures and again for no real reason.  Juno is much too young to understand that her maternal instincts are drawing her closer to the future adopted father of her child or the danger she’s creating by spending time with him.

Around Juno’s eighth month, shit hits the fan (I won’t tell you how) and she finally breaks down.  She’s been able to hold herself together and keep a brave face through pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and the thought of giving her child away, but this is too much.  It’s like she’s finally realized (made us realize as well) that she is just a kid and that all these issues she’s dealing with and everything happening inside her is bigger than she can really comprehend.  “Just out dealing with things way beyond my maturity level.”

I hope people now see why I took my teenage siblings to see Juno.  The way the film illustrates the very real issues of teenage pregnancy can be a huge eye-opener for adolescents, and the immature dialogue and quirky characters will help pull them into the film.  Kids aren’t prepared to deal with all these issues and they get annoyed with their parents and teachers warnings.  I’d suggest watching Juno to help open up the teenage-sex-is-a-dumb-idea/don’t-get-pregnant talk with your kids.  They’re more likely to listen to a good movie and base the conversation off of that.

“Uhhh, I hate it when adults use the term “sexually active.” What does it even mean? Am I gonna like deactivate some day or is it a permanent state of being?”