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Toronto Critic’s Pick: Benedict Cumberbatch Bristles with Brilliance in ‘The Imitation Game’

October 5, 2014 By Thelma

Cumberbatch as Alan Turing

Cumberbatch as Alan Turing


Taking its place among those handsome biopics the British do so well, The Imitation Game tells the fascinating (and ultimately tragic) story of mathematician Alan Turing. A day after the UK enters the Second World War, the Cambridge-educated Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives at Bletchley Park, a top-secret center for breaking military codes used by the Germans — and is soon put to work on cracking a heretofore impenetrable code called Enigma. As presented by director Morten Tyldum (Headhunters), the mercurial Turing is impatient with social conventions and the accepted chain of command. And he is harboring his own risky secret: he prefers bedding boys to girls, resisting even the charms of Joan Clarke, a particularly fetching fellow code-breaker (played by Keira Knightley).

Cumberbatch, as you might expect, bristles with brilliance in the role – and should be considered an Oscar frontrunner. We’ve seen him as Sherlock Holmes, so we never doubt that he packs more brainpower than anyone else on the Enigma-busting team. But, unlike the emotionally cold sleuth, Turing is a real-life historical figure, sensitive and troubled. He feels deeply and passionately for his life’s work, and tears often flood his eyes, a repressed stammer forcing itself on his lips. The performance bears so many shades of varying emotion, on the surface and deep below, that it is nothing short of miraculous.

Among Turing’s many challenges, so vividly embodied by Cumberbatch, is one of identity: who he is, must remain an enigma. The mathematician and crossword-puzzle fanatic cannot make public his proclivities, no more than he can share who he fully is: A genius of visionary foresight into the still-embryonic field of artificial intelligence, and one of the pioneers behind the development of the modern computer.

While ultimately breaking Enigma, and turning the tide of the war in the Allies favor, Turing did not survive to enjoy the ascendance of democracy in his post-war life. In 1952, the police charged him with gross indecency after he acknowledged that he was in homosexual relationship. A judge imposed a sentence of chemical castration. He committed suicide a year later.

Some may know Alan Turing from the play turned TV film Breaking the Code, starring Derek Jacobi, or the movie Codebreaker or even the recent musical, A Man from the Future,composed by two members of the Pet Shop Boys. Yet, with cult-star Cumberbatch in the lead, the Turing triumph and tragedy will reach a much wider audience. Hopefully the film’s message of hard-won tolerance, and the sacrifices made by lesser-known martyrs to the cause, will bolster the continued struggle for equality for all.

The Imitation Game opens in theaters on Nov. 21

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Alan Turing, Benedict Cumberbatch, best actor, best picture, Best Screenplay, biopic, Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

“Gravity” Lost in Hollywood Space

September 15, 2013 By Thelma 237 Comments

Bullock: Ground Control Where the Hell is Major Tom?

Bullock: Ground Control Where the Hell is Major Tom?


Hope for the best, don’t expect the worst. It’s my movie criticism mantra, but as the lights darkened at the Princess of Wales Theater for “Gravity’s” Canadian gala, already hailed as a masterpiece following a Venice Film Festival Premiere, it wasn’t just the fact that I was way up in the rafters wearing 3-D glasses over my already thick specs that was making me queasy. Early on, watching the oh, wow, visuals and the echoey emptiness of what it must be like to be doing routine maintenance in space (I so wanted “Pink Floyd”), I became bothered by narrative claustrophobia. Can one smell bullshit in space?

Despite all the gravity of Alfonso Cuaron’s 3-D space chamber opera, the story, co-written with his son, Jonas, reveals holes as gaping as those on any space station station ripped by the debris of an accidental explosion beyond the earth’s atmosphere.

In brief: Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a testy medical engineer pursuing research in space. George Clooney is Matt Kowalksy, the cheery professional astronaut on, yes, his last run. When space junk from a Russian mishap destroys their mission, their Harvard-educated brown-skinned colleague, their satellite, their station, and that of the Russians and, possibly, the Chinese, the pair struggle for survival, often tethered by a white umbilical cord.

The problem begins, but doesn’t entirely end, with Bullock’s character. She is nervous and brittle: but who isn’t? Okay, Clooney’s Galahad in a spacesuit isn’t. He wisecracks and story-tells and Cloonies to give “Gravity” its much-needed warmth and comic relief.

Dr. Stone (sinking like a ….) is just not a woman (or even a man) that could have passed the rigorous training process that NASA inflicts on its candidates. I don’t know the statistics, but even among the thousands or tens of thousands that want to become an astronaut (include me not!), less than one hundred achieve that vaunted status. Life is hard, becoming an astronaut nearly impossible.

When we first encounter Stone and Kowalsky while she repairs some failure like a nearly hired tech from the Geek Squad and he marks time, their dialog speaks of people who hardly know each other, not members of a small elite team that have trained, lived, flown and, likely, vomited together. They could be on a bus, polite strangers, two people at a wedding, one on the bride’s side, one on the groom’s.

Disaster, inevitably, strikes. Dr. Stone freaks out, spinning, spinning, spinning, hyperventilating and banging against satellite and space station and colleague corpse. Like a tumbled stone, she gradually reveals the tragic nugget of her neurosis. All anybody who knows NASA can say is “next candidate, please!” She would never have made the cut. So her arc from a professional woman emotionally untethered from her own life, that ultimately fights to survive and get her feet back on the ground, is baloney. Or space baloney, on sale at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in shiny packages.

The set-up resembles “Open Water” in space. The nifty little seventy-nine-minute 2004 thriller written and directed by Chris Kentis about a cute scuba-diving couple accidentally left behind by the tour boat in shark-infested waters. Adrift, the pair go from hoping for rescue, to fending off sharks, hypothermia and exhaustion, all the while treading spiritual and emotional water.

Yes, it’s a trick, a movie incredibly intense because we are in the water with this man and woman as they struggle to survive, and every strength and weakness of their romantic bond, and personal character, reveals itself as they swim in the ocean’s fatal flush. They should be back at the harbor drinking Mojitos. They’re not. They never will be.

At the Princess of Wales screening, Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield attended and tweeted the next day: “Good morning! Gravity was fun last night. Fantastic visuals, relentless, Sandra Bullock was great. I’d fly with her.” Well, who wouldn’t fly with Bullock? She’s such a good sport. But, really, never in a million missions would Commander Hadfield place his life, or that of his crew, in her incapable hands.

I respect Hadfield’s gallantry, and “fantastic visuals” rings true. The visuals are fantastic. It’s also a safe reaction to another Hollywood fairy tale that fails to understand the incredible craft and skill of having “The Right Stuff.” However finely wrought, however mind-blowing the seventeen-minute takes, the revolution in 3-D technology, the movie misunderstands the incredible craft, physical stamina and mental acuity of those who go into space.

That’s not to say astronaut’s can’t and don’t crack. But when they do, they break in a control-freak, OCD way. Take the astronaut-turned-stalker Naval Captain Lisa Nowak. She flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2006. The following year, she was arrested in Orlando for attempted kidnapping after pursuing a romantic rival from Texas to Florida, allegedly wearing disposable diapers so that she would not have to stop during the 900-mile car trip. Maybe you’ve seen the “Rocket Man” episode of TV’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”

Nowak might have been a crazy stalker, but she had wanted to become an astronaut since she was six. And she massively trained for her opportunity to leave earth’s gravity in a souped-up tin can, logging 1,500-plus hours on thirty different aircraft, and multiple spacewalks during her 13 days on the shuttle. But the brittle but buff Dr. Ryan, with her panicky refrain that she repeatedly crashed her simulated escape pod during training, would never have made it out of the parking lot and onto the flight deck.

Filed Under: Criticism, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Adams on Reel Women, Alfonso Cuaron, best actress, best picture, George Clooney, Lisa Nowak, Open Water, Oscars2014, Sandra Bullock

Yahoo! Movies: Joaquin is crazy in Toronto – on screen in “The Master”

September 22, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master” (The Weinstein Company)

Is Joaquin Phoenix crazy? Since I don’t plan to dine with him here in Toronto, I think that question is beside the point. At the premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” last night at the Princess of Wales Theater on King Street, Phoenix received adulation for a performance that was already getting buzz out of Telluride. Clean-shaven, formally dressed, eager to please, he held his right arm protectively around the waist of a young bottle-blond identified only as “Heather.”‘ Nearby, The Weinstein Company’s Harvey Weinstein held court with the expansion of personality that comes from having the gut feeling that “The Master” will be part of the awards conversation and is also “high art” in a Hollywood sense.

As for Phoenix, despite the fact that the screening was an hour late and it would be polite to say that the audience was testy, he was a man behaving Sunday-school best, bad boy issues shelved and beard shaved. He’s playing the off-screen role of penitent Oscar-nominee and Oscar-seeker — not crazy man on a vendetta to slay his own career. The screening began and Phoenix sat with Heather in the orchestra seats alongside co-star Amy Adams. If the screening of a 70mm print of “The Master” had begun on time, there’s no saying how much star power would have ascended to the stage before or after. However, the lateness of the night (delayed by the appearance of Canadian mega-star Ryan Gosling at the earlier premiere of “The Place Beyond the Pines” and adoring throngs) meant that director Anderson was very, very brief in his opening remarks and the stars never took the stage. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Celebrity, Criticism, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: best actor, Best Director, best picture, Best supporting actress, Joaquin Phoenix, Oscars2013, Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master, TIFF12, Yahoo! Movies

EW Cover: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

November 13, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The girl wrapped around the guy who plays Bond

This cover is exactly what I’ve been afraid of ever since I heard that David Fincher was making the American version of the Swedish best sellers. How very dare he subordinate the girl to the he-man? The title of the books is THE GIRL with the dragon tattoo, and Lisbeth Salander is the main character, the through line. She is definitely no ingenue! I read the first book when it came out in America, and then was so impatient that I ordered the next two from Amazon UK. Her story is a shocking journey that ranges from the highly personal to a scandal capable of taking down a corrupt government. Salander does not need to clutch at the chest of a man, as she’s represented here. My concern has always been that she was too much woman for Fincher to handle. International audiences have been eating her character up; will Hollywood smother her in ketchup, add ground beefcake, and insists it tastes the same?

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: best actor, best actress, best picture, Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Oscar’s Angels: Best Picture Roundtable 2012

October 11, 2011 By Thelma 12 Comments

 

The Artist,Jean Dujardin,Berenice Bejo,Best Picture, Best Actor,Best Supporting Actress

Dujardin, Bejo: let them entertain you

OK, Angels, let’s do the best pic tango. Here’s my first look. Personal fave: The Descendants. Personal movie l least want to see: War Horse. At this point in the year, the wobble of identifying best picture is that so many of the biggies are yet to be seen. And, still, given that one of the Eastwood- or Spielberg-driven monsters may flounder, here’s my take on the viable top ten.

Of this list, I’ve actually seen six (starred below):

The Descendants *
War Horse
J. Edgar
The Help *
The Artist *
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Moneyball *
Midnight in Paris *
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy *

What’s your take, Susan?
Susan Wloszczyna: One topic that I haven’t seen discussed very much in terms of best picture: It’s unlikely an animated film will make the cut since Pixar released its weakest feature ever with Cars 2. And no one is bringing up an alternate title in the genre — although I guess The Adventures of Tintin might qualify and Rango has its fans.

Of the pre-fall releases I agree with Thelma that Midnight and The Help are more apt to sneak in than The Tree of Life.

The Help, Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Oscar 2012, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Kathryn Stockett

Stone, Davis

Of the un-seens (at least by me), J. Edgar and Tattoo feel like they could be more vulnerable than War Horse. But then I remember I haven’t really been satisfied by a Spielberg-directed film since 2002 and you have to wonder.

Considering that Stephen Daldry has yet to not be nominated for one of his films, Extremely Loud would have to be a mess not to get in — and the trailer does not suggest that it is.

For some reason, as far as thrillers go, Tinker might be more to the academy’s liking than Tattoo. Of course, I am still mad that Zodiac was so mishandled by its studio so part of me is rooting for Fincher to make the cut.

THELMA: Zodiac was my favorite Fincher by far.

SUSAN: The certainties seem to be The Descendants, the current fave although some might consider a mature Payne to be a lesser Payne. And there is no way they will ignore The Artist.

My question: Is there something unexpected that could suddenly sneak in? What of Hugo and Tintin? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: best picture, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Hugo, Michael Fassbender, Moneyball, Oscar's Angels, The Artist, The Descendants

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