Like Cast Away,
much of this story is about a man stranded and alone, but instead of
being American he is Indian, instead of an island he is on a small boat,
and instead of a volleyball his only companion is a non-human
predator called Richard Parker. Director Ang Lee and screenwriter David Magee’s (Finding Neverland) adaptation of the Yann Martel bestseller is faithful to the novel’s spirit, though it omits many details about how to survive alone on a lifeboat.
Perhaps unnecessarily, Lee preserves the novel’s structure — a
grown man, in Canada, telling the story of his distant childhood in India, and then his perilous voyage, to a
curious stranger — and adds frequently gorgeous visuals: shimmering skies, glowing seas, and pastel cityscapes suggestive of a fable. Pi’s is a story “to
make you believe in God,” the stranger has been told. Pi (played winsomely by newcomer Suraj Shjarma), the son of an atheist, himself subscribes to Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, and an element of
spirituality runs through the movie, which can alternately be seen as a kind of magical realism. In some sense, both book and film draw a parallel between religious faith and storytelling, suggesting that the power of a good story is more important than certainty or literal truth. One need not agree to enjoy this existential story of adventure.
IMDb link
viewed 2/11/13 7:00 pm at Ritz East
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
The Master (**1/2)
Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Magnolia), is one of
the few director of whom it can be said both that he brings a
distinctive sensibility to all his films, yet makes films distinctly
different from each other. A common element is the presence of a
character pushed to his limit, often along with a larger-than-life
character who pushes him there. That was the case with There Will Be Blood,
set in the early days of the oil business, and is in the film, set in
mostly in the first years of the 1950s. Pushed to his limits is Freddy
Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a drifter, alcoholic, sex-obsessive, and World War II veteran who literally wanders into the orbit of larger-than-life Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
Said to be inspired by the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Dodd is a man bold enough to introduce himself as a “writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher, but above all…a man.” The Dodd we encounter in this film has already coalesced into his final form as a guru, though. His philosophies, gathered in a book called The Cause, are an admixture of simple mind-over-matter pronouncements — “man is not an animal” —and metaphysical gobbledegook. His own son says that he “makes hit up as he goes along,” but his second wife (Amy Adams) seems simultaneously to be a true believer and to understand that “The Cause,” as it is called in the movie, is a self-creation. Assistant, partner, moral compass, power behind the throne, and more, this character intrigues in Adams’s relatively few scenes. Though we aren’t meant to take the Cause seriously, and it’s doesn’t seem that Dodd is truly sinister (so the movie is no exposé), the ways such men seduce their followers seems to me an inherently fascinating subject.
Unfortunately, the way Anderson explores this subject is through the lens of the film’s primary protagonist, Quell called a “scoundrel” by Dodd but nonetheless an object of indulgence, curiosity, and attention for him. Quill is not likable; he is not impressive; he is not a villain; he is not even particularly complex; he is alienating rather than charismatic, as the Daniel-Day Lewis character in There Will Be Blood was charismatic. In short, he is a difficult, unpleasant character to follow for two and a half hours. Though I gather that we are supposed to become involved in his efforts to overcome the darker parts of his nature, and the efforts of Dodd and, to a lesser extent, his followers, I did not find myself absorbed by this quest, though individual scenes between the two of them, which often are like a strange kind of therapy, are intense and well done. I will also concede that Phoenix’s portrayal is consistent and skillful, even down to his odd posture, and my reaction to the character, that he seems incredibly creepy and repellent, subjective, as was my feeling that Phoenix seemed too old to portray the character. (A subplot is Quell continuing longing for a girl he knew when she was 16; it’s unclear how old Quell is supposed to have been when he knew her, but the flashback scenes make no attempt to make Phoenix look younger. Also, the plot fits better if we assume Quell was about 20, not 30 or so, when he courted the girl and went off to join the Navy. But Quell/Phoenix looks too old to have been 20 around 1941.)
In a way, figures like Dodd (or Hubbard) represent the seemingly very American ability to turn imagination, even an amalgamation of psychobabble and pseudoscience, into reality. No doubt it’s unfair of me to want the movie to be Elmer Gantry, i.e. more about the spiritual leader as huckster. No doubt Anderson is a very skillful filmmaker. His camerawork, especially in shooting wide vistas, is memorable, and there is an intensity he brings to his storytelling. But, no doubt, I found The Master only intermittently spellbinding.
IMDb link
viewed 11/14/12 5:15 pm at Ritz 5 and reviewed 11/15–11/17/12
Said to be inspired by the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Dodd is a man bold enough to introduce himself as a “writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher, but above all…a man.” The Dodd we encounter in this film has already coalesced into his final form as a guru, though. His philosophies, gathered in a book called The Cause, are an admixture of simple mind-over-matter pronouncements — “man is not an animal” —and metaphysical gobbledegook. His own son says that he “makes hit up as he goes along,” but his second wife (Amy Adams) seems simultaneously to be a true believer and to understand that “The Cause,” as it is called in the movie, is a self-creation. Assistant, partner, moral compass, power behind the throne, and more, this character intrigues in Adams’s relatively few scenes. Though we aren’t meant to take the Cause seriously, and it’s doesn’t seem that Dodd is truly sinister (so the movie is no exposé), the ways such men seduce their followers seems to me an inherently fascinating subject.
Unfortunately, the way Anderson explores this subject is through the lens of the film’s primary protagonist, Quell called a “scoundrel” by Dodd but nonetheless an object of indulgence, curiosity, and attention for him. Quill is not likable; he is not impressive; he is not a villain; he is not even particularly complex; he is alienating rather than charismatic, as the Daniel-Day Lewis character in There Will Be Blood was charismatic. In short, he is a difficult, unpleasant character to follow for two and a half hours. Though I gather that we are supposed to become involved in his efforts to overcome the darker parts of his nature, and the efforts of Dodd and, to a lesser extent, his followers, I did not find myself absorbed by this quest, though individual scenes between the two of them, which often are like a strange kind of therapy, are intense and well done. I will also concede that Phoenix’s portrayal is consistent and skillful, even down to his odd posture, and my reaction to the character, that he seems incredibly creepy and repellent, subjective, as was my feeling that Phoenix seemed too old to portray the character. (A subplot is Quell continuing longing for a girl he knew when she was 16; it’s unclear how old Quell is supposed to have been when he knew her, but the flashback scenes make no attempt to make Phoenix look younger. Also, the plot fits better if we assume Quell was about 20, not 30 or so, when he courted the girl and went off to join the Navy. But Quell/Phoenix looks too old to have been 20 around 1941.)
In a way, figures like Dodd (or Hubbard) represent the seemingly very American ability to turn imagination, even an amalgamation of psychobabble and pseudoscience, into reality. No doubt it’s unfair of me to want the movie to be Elmer Gantry, i.e. more about the spiritual leader as huckster. No doubt Anderson is a very skillful filmmaker. His camerawork, especially in shooting wide vistas, is memorable, and there is an intensity he brings to his storytelling. But, no doubt, I found The Master only intermittently spellbinding.
IMDb link
viewed 11/14/12 5:15 pm at Ritz 5 and reviewed 11/15–11/17/12
Friday, November 18, 2005
Bee Season (**1/2)
Spirituality
and a daughter’s success in the National Spelling Bee figure into this story of
a domineering father (Richard Gere), his wife (Juliette Binoche), and their
children. Some nice visuals don’t make up for a film that never quite gels.
Having
not read the Myla Goldberg novel on which Bee Season is based, I
expected it to be a cross between Searching for Bobby Fischer and the
superb documentary Spellbound, a story about a father and a gifted
child. While a daughter’s success in the National Spelling Bee is a major part
of the story, it’s actually more like The Squid and the Whale, in that
the father (Richard Gere) is a university professor who seems oblivious to his
influence on the rest of his family, and the story is about the family dynamic.
His wife (Juliette Binoche) and son are having different kinds of spiritual
crises. He’s a rock-solid Kabalah man. Bee Season seems to be getting
more of a marketing push than Squid and the Whale, but its characters
are less sharply etched and its story less convincing. To me, a spelling bee is
an odd vehicle for a film that’s in part about spirituality. I had trouble
believing that even a self-absorbed, spiritually-minded guy would use the weird
anagram and meditation techniques to help with spelling, a task of
memorization. The act of rebellion that ends the film is also unconvincing.
Directed by the duo who made The Deep End (an excellent psychological
suspense film), Bee Season has some compelling visuals. The smug father
role plays to Gere’s strength, and neophyte Flora Cross is very natural as the
daughter. However, any of the above films are more absorbing.
circulated via email 11/24/05 and posted 9/21/13
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