In a Better World (***3/4)

This was the winner of the Foreign Language Film Oscar, and it’s better than the Best Picture winner, The King’s Speech. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the latter, but it settles for being a well-told drama without ever surprising the viewer in any way. Danish writer-director Susanne Bier likes to tell harder stories, of people caught between conflicting loyalties. She is best known for her features Brothers (faithfully remade as an American film in 2009) and After the Wedding. Those films and this one (all written in collaboration with Anders Thomas Jensen) have the common element of a male main character who has returned from overseas. Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is that character here, a doctor who spends much of his time away from home, treating victims of violence in a refugee camp in Africa. He is separated from his wife, with whom he has a young son.

The parallel story concerns Christian, a taciturn boy who has just returned to Denmark from London following the death of his mother. Christian takes the side of a boy who’s been bullied and helps him take revenge upon his tormenter. Yet at the same time we applaud this as justice, the anger from which it stems is unsettling. The story of the boy and of the man both intersect and parallel each other, though it takes a bit of time to see how. The obvious point, though, is that whether it’s in civilized, modern Denmark or a country ruled by warlords, the dark heart of man lies only a bit beneath the surface. It is only because most people in places like Denmark submit to the rule of law that keeps the one sort of place from becoming the other. Returning to Africa, Christian must operate on a different set of values.

In the end, Bier veers from this theme and more toward those of family and loss, which is less difficult. In the way it is also about these things, it becomes more broadly accessible. One might quibble with the tidiness in which this plot unfolds, but for the most part her and Jensen’s script is a model of good storytelling. In a better world, there would be a larger place for thoughtful films like those of Bier.

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viewed 4/20/11 at Ritz Five and reviewed 5/10/11

Gran Torino (***1/4)

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viewed 12/31/08 at Ritz 5

The Kite Runner (***1/2)

Having seen Atonement the day before this, I thought the title could well apply to this adaptation of another best-seller, Khaled Hosseini’s semiautobiographical story based on his childhood in Afghanistan. The first hour mostly tells the story of young Amir’s friendship with a shy boy who was, nonetheless, his fierce protector. Also vividly portrayed is Amir’s father, a sophisticated, literate, man who nonetheless cannot repress his contempt for the boy’s cowardice. Although the father is only a supporting character, he is surprisingly multidimensional, and I wound up feeling that I understood him.

The relationship of the boys and their fathers (one works for the other) is not particular to the time and place. On the other hand, it may come as a shock to see the re-creation of 1970s Kabul, a place that, if not a sophisticated place, was nonetheless a place where a sophisticated man could find a niche. Also particular to the setting are the kite battles alluded to in the title. Director Marc Forster (Stranger Than Fiction, Stay) wonderfully captures this colorful custom of Hosseini’s youth. (He again collaborates with Stay screenwriter David Benioff.) It is before the Soviet invasion, before war, before the Taliban. Knowing about these things, the viewer awaits devastation that turns out to be as much emotional as physical.

The adult Amir (Khalid Abdalla), who has wound up in California, is a less vivid character, and plot and the prospect of returning to Afghanistan must sustain the film’s second half. Like Atonement’s Briony, Amir feels guilt but cannot undo the past, and so crafts an ending to his own story that will allow him to live with himself.

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reviewed 2/24/08

Varsity Blues (***)

This is a lot like Friday Night Lights, which came a few years later. That is to say, it focuses on high school football in a small Texas town. This is less of a downer, though. The coach, played by Jon Voight, is as mean as anyone in the later movie, willingly sacrificing the health of his players, tolerating no challenges to his authority. The hero (James Van Der Beek) is the second-string quarterback, who seems to have talent but irritates the coach because he does things like read books and suggest different plays. His girlfriend (Amy Smart) doesn’t care for football players.

There is some attention paid to the role the game plays in an otherwise dull small town, and to the outsize privileges and attention afforded to its young stars. (The movie’s best-known scene involves Ali Larter’s cheerleader character’s innovative use of whipped cream as a tool for seducing them.) But compared to Friday Night Lights the story is more about the hero’s clashes with the coach and his own morality, less about seeing the town or the coach (an easy villain) as a microcosm of something larger. Still, it’s easy to watch and enjoyable, with Ron Lester’s Billy Bob probably the most compelling supporting character, a 300-pound behemoth who proves the most fragile of the players.

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viewed 1/99 at Moorestown; re-viewed 01/30/10 on television; reviewed 1/31/10