REVIEW: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (12A)

9/11, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC, took place less than a month before our first child was born. My wife and I wondered what sort of a world we were bringing a child into or even if there was going to be a world to bring them into as we watched images of the Twin Towers being attacked, on fire and, eventually, tumbling into piles of rubble.



It's unusual for Tom Hanks to be in a controversial movie, but Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close has received a lot of criticism from those who say that it is too soon to explore the emotions of that day in September 2001, and yet it isn't the first movie about the events that shook the world and changed everyone's lives since. Even with critics of the timing and suitability of the subject matter, and some other very negative reviews, the movie has been nominated for Best Movie at the Oscars, which take place on February 26th.

Stephen Daldry's movie is an adaptation of a novel, written in 2005, by Jonathan Safran Foer. The movie begins with a body falling from the sky - one of the "jumpers" who leapt from the WTC.

Oskar Schell (played by Thomas Horn in his first ever movie role, having been spotted as a winner on a kids' special of the quiz show Jeopardy) is the son of Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks), who died in the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Oskar recalls the scavenger hunts his father set up for him to help him deal with the real world as Oskar is, it is implied, borderline Asperger's. The hunts are meant to be a learning experience so that Oskar can learn that "if things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding". The scavenger hunt starts at a playground swing in Central Park, where Thomas says he played as a child. Oskar, though, is afraid of swings.

Oskar school closes early on September 11th and when he gets home he finds six messages on the answer machine from his father. His mother (Sandra Bullock) is at work, so Oskar listens to the messages which say that his father is in the World Trade Center on the 105th floor of the North Tower. Oskar switches on the television and watches the TV news coverage of the events. As the Twin Towers collapse, Oskar realises his father has been killed and goes to hide underneath his bed.

A few weeks later Oskar tells his grandmother what happened and as they become closer Oskar's relationship with his mother worsens as she is unable to explain why the events of 9/11 and the death of Oskar's father happened.

One year on, Oskar decides to look through his father's closet and, in doing so, smashes a blue vase in which there is a key inside an envelope. On the envelope is the word "Black". Oskar decides to track down what the key fits will open. He looks up the name "Black" in the phone book and finds there are 417 people with that surname. And so Oskar sets about meeting all 417 people called Black to ask if they knew his father.

Well into his hunt, Oskar notices that an elderly man had moved into his grandmother's apartment. His grandmother describes him as a "stranger".

Calling on his grandmother, he meets the stranger (Max Von Sydow) and the two strike up a touching friendship. The stranger, known only as "The Renter" doesn't talk, perhaps because of a childhood trauma in the Second World War, so he communicates by writing messages on a notebook.

Eventually, Oskar does find where the key belongs and learns to confront many of his fears of the world.

Now, there are some lovely moments, and, yes, I admit it, there were a couple of times when I blubbed (but then I am known to cry at all sorts of films from Up! and Toy Story 3 to West Side Story and Scott of the Antarctic (yes, really)). The friendship between Oskar and The Renter is genuinely touching, and Max von Sydow's performance is beautifully expressive despite him not speaking (indeed, he is one of three actors nominated for an Oscar who says nothing!), but so much of the movie is overly long and clunky.

The basic premise of the movie, a young boy moving around Manhattan alone while his mother stays at home being depressed, is justified by a tortuous, unbelievable and clunky plot device late on.

Now, I'm normally someone who prefers movies to books, but maybe, just maybe, I can see that this might be better as a book. The web of small stories of all the people Oskar meets on his hunt just seem rambling and pointless in the movie but could each be explored more in a book. (I've not read the book, maybe that rambles and doesn't make complete sense either!).

And there's no real explanation of the title, which, after Martha Marcy May Marlene has to be the trickiest title to get right in many a year.

It's not an awful film, I've seen much worse, and worse films have ended up winning Best Movie at the Oscars, but, for me, this wasn't the movie I was hoping for, it didn't live up to the trailer which, I thought, looked inspiring, emotional and coherent.

OPINION: Time to merge Best actor/Best actress

I really like the whole award ceremony season that runs from mid-January to the end of February: the Golden Globes; BAFTAs; Brit Awards; etc. and, of course, the OSCARS. I know some see it all as meaningless baubles but I enjoy it and enjoy comparing my opinions with those of the judges.

What I find odd, anachronistic, is the fact that all the ceremonies have awards that divide the shortlisted by their gender.

Increasingly actresses call themselves actors, and this is right. Actors and actresses are all people who act. In the modern world there is no justification to give a separate award to men and women, unless you're saying there's no way that one group could win over the other - it's a consolation prize. That is a sexism which has no place in the 21st century.

No one would dare suggest having separate awards based on skin colour or sexuality would they? It's nearly 50 years since Sidney Poitier became the first black actor to win the OSCAR for best actor. At the time it was revolutionary, but today, particularly in the music world, awards are won by people of all skin colours.

Why aren't women offended that they are being patronised by all these awards ceremonies? Or don't they realise the negativity in having separate awards based, for no good reason, on the genitalia of the recipient?

Surely Jodie Foster or Olivia Coleman or Hlenn Close or whoever would like to be the best actor, judged against all her peers? It's not as if there are separate awards for male and female director, or male and female record producer. It is only when it comes to the frontline talent.

I'd love a female who wins best actress to reject it publicly, highlight the nonsense. Maybe it will happen at this year's OSCARS?

I can dream.

It's time to stop this nonsense and eliminate the blatant sexism that is inherent in the current system.

The Oscars 2012 - the trailer

And so the build up to the 2012 Oscars begins with this trailer for the February 26th ceremony.

MOVIES: Could a silent movie win Oscar?

Could The Artist be the first silent movie to win the Oscar for Best Movie since Wings in 1929?

A lot of people think it might.

REVIEW: The Adventures of Tin Tin - Secret of the Unicorn (PG)

 This morning I went to watch The Adventures of Tin Tin - Secret of the Unicorn expecting big things - directed by Steven Spielberg, co-written by Steven Moffat, produced by Peter Jackson, score by John Williams and a trailer that showed some of the finest animation ever produced - I wasn't to be disappointed.



 Tin Tin (let's call it that for simplicity) is a tremendous romp - buckles are swashed with abandon, there's tension and action, fantastic chase scenes and a fair bit of humour and levity.

The movie opens in the visual style of the original Tin Tin books (and the old television series) with a pre-story a bit like the pre-title sequence in a Bond movie before shifting into the modern animation.

The movie combines three Herge stories: Red Rackham's Treasure, The Crab with the Golden Claws and The Secret of the Unicorn. Tin Tin (Jamie Bell) meets Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) and follow clues to find the treasure of the Captain's ancestor, Sir Francis Haddoque. There's Snowy the dog and the Thompson Twins (played by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg) and some great baddies.

The animation is truly magnificent - it's a mixture of Motion Capture and more traditional/CGI techniques. For the vast majority of the movie you forget that it's animated, so good is the animation and characterisation. This does, of course, raise the question.... 

Why not use real actors?

There's truly amazing reflections in multiple mirrors and distortion through a magnifying glass; there's floods and waves and waterfalls and breaking glass.... it's all there. They've moved the bar for animation not an inch or two but several yards.

The use of 3D is good - I mean, the vast majority of the time you don't notice it, it seems totally integrated into the movie and, apart from one moment (you'll spot it) there's no silly 3D gimmicks.

Many of the chases (and much of the finale) feel like they could have been in a new Indiana Jones movie - particularly when he climbs aboard a motorbike:



John Williams' score is, as you would expect, brilliantly cinematic and combines big orchestral sounds with hints of West Side Story-jazz rhythms and even some French (Belgian?) accordion music.  It does, though, lack the big memorable tune that is usually Williams' thumbprint - the 5-note Tin Tin leitmotif isn't, to my mind, catchy enough and feels rather like Danny Elfman's Batman theme.

This is, without doubt, the movie event of the year.

Could an animated movie win best picture at next year's Oscars?

REVIEW: Contagion (12A)

Such is the power and plausibility of Stephen Soderbergh's latest movie I found, to my cost, that when watching Contagion at a cinema it's best not to cough. People give you funny looks. In fact the quietest throat-clearing or little sniffle from someone sitting near you and your brain instantly wonders whether the events on screen are about to become reality.

Contagion tells of a near-future dystopia in which a virus, similar in nature  to (but worse than) Bird Flu or Swine Flu sweeps from  casino in Hong Kong around the world killing millions and beginning the breakdown of society.



The interweaving narrative threads reminded me, somewhat, of Crash, the surprise winner of the Oscar for Best Film in 2006.  It is a superb ensemble piece lead, if there is a headliner, by a great performance from Matt Damon.

Few movies would hire Gwyneth Paltrow's services and then kill her off in the first 10 minutes, but this is a sign that this is story led and not star led. She's also not the only Academy Award winner or nominee to come a cropper during Contagion's tense 106 minutes. Other performances of note include Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Jennifer Ehle and the sensational Kate Winslet, in what I would say is one of her best performances.



There are some squeamish moments including someone being run over and someone else having their skull cut open (yuk!) and there is surprisingly little in the way of swearing - I imagine that in a world where social order was collapsing there could be a few more f-words!

Atmospheric music that never distracts, despite often sounding like Schoenberg's reworking of the score to The Social Network, only adds to the tension.

For me there were two weaknesses that stop this becoming a 10/10 Five Star movie:

Elliot Gould who, despite an illustrious career spanning many decades, fails to shake off being the bumbling and socially inept Jack Geller, father to Ross and Monica in Friends.

Jude Law is just awful in Contagion. He plays Alan Krumwiede, an internet blogger who wears quirky clothes, has an unfortunately timed Tin Tin quiff, dresses up in an amazing home made space suit and hats and has severe accent problems - worse than Russell Crowe in Robin Hood. He begins with a Dick van Dyke faux-cockney accent that has you waiting for him to say, "Cor blimey, Mary Poppins, what you going to do about this bloomin' virus?", turns into the Australian John Torode from Masterchef ("Viruses don't get any tough than this"), and then slipping freely between New South Wales and the Isle of Dogs until the movie ends. His character isn't necessary for the plot (it appears to be a little anti-internet rant from the scriptwriter) and this character should, I suggest, have met his end on the cutting room floor.

It's so nearly a great movie - it kept me, and the rest of the audience, enthralled for its duration and has so much to commend it. It's a shame about it's weaknesses, and it's particularly unfortunate about Jude Law.

If you haven't see it, I'd definitely recommend it - it's worth watching and let me know what you thought.