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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 12/17/2010 : 19:37:36
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Talking acting here -- the thing is that Russell Crowe probably couldn't turn in a bad performance if they paid him. The natural screen charisma he exudes is topped by such attention to detail you'd think he'd fashioned it with elven tools.
When as ultra-devoted hubby to jailed wife Elizabeth Banks he visits her, together and without very much dialogue, they establish the years of a marriage built on trust and devotion. Both, but especially he, send out looks that mean there's no way he will ever believe her guilty of murder and failed as they are by the system, he will find a way to get her life back, get their lives back. Back together with their son.
They are quite simply the kind of family that assumes a mythical paradigm. The kind that 1950s American television tried to make us believe was possible. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, latterly documented by such post-modern series as Mad Men.
But director Paul Haggis, in this remake of the French film Pour Elle (For Her), propels Crowe into a journey of emotional truth that sadly never quites lift the material from its confused roots. It's clearly not a typical romance, nor exactly a thriller, though it borrows from both genres.
It does play with our sense of uncertainty. Maybe she did really kill a woman. Maybe he's just driven so crazy from the implications of what the rest of his/her/their life will be like from now on, that he must take any risk to subvert the inevitable.
Either way, there's just not enough substance. The pacing is great, the shots often sublime. And if excellent acting is enough for you to overlook big fat scripting flaws, then see it for a lesson in screen honesty.
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 12/27/2010 18:56:28 |
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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 12/18/2010 : 14:29:56
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The Next Three Days
The English title of the far superior original film is in fact Anything for Her.
Just a couple of minutes into this I had the same sinking realisation as when I sat down to watch Quarantine. It was so immediately evident that it was going to be another scene-for-scene remake that I just felt a sense of dread at getting through the next couple of hours.
Russell Crowe is certainly not a particularly good actor, and he is no better in this than usual (bizarre faux-American accent in tow), but if there were any real point to this film then it would be fairly enjoyable. However, there is not: it adds nothing significant, and thus has only been made for people too lazy to read. I am especially annoyed by its being shown in Poland, since the subtitles mean they may as well be showing the original instead.
On the upside, there is one quite striking action sequence that I don't remember from Anything for Her, so I have given it 1/5 instead of Quarantine's 0/5. |
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The Next Three Days - please see my Bafta thread
