Film Review: Due Date
It’s very American is all I can say, by which I mean clearly made for a very broad, undemanding, Friday night, cheap-and-easy-laughs market. That would be all well and good in itself if it weren’t such a drab, lifeless, cynical and uninteresting film, which has nothing to say about its characters and doesn’t even pull the comedy off well. Robert Downey Jr plays an architect in Atlanta desperate to get home to his wife in Los Angeles who’s about to give birth to their first child. At the airport he comes into contact with Zack Galifianakis, a perm-headed lunatic with behavioural problems far more serious than just tourettes. Galifianakis gets them thrown off the plane and onto a no-fly list, forcing the most unlikely road movie ever; without even his wallet, Downey has no choice but to join him driving across the US.
It would be all well and good if this were merely a re-run of the far superior ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’ but this film fails in every area where Steve Martin and John Candy succeeded. Galifianakis has no redeeming qualities worth speaking of – he portrays the lovable Candy figure from time to time but is hindered by a one-note script. Downey has the same problems – where he’s supposed to be the straight man, he’s written as the fully straight man – he’s not terribly likable either, nor terribly interesting, and has to get by on his charisma alone (of which he admittedly has in abundance). To succeed and overcome its lack of originality this film needs charm, but mystifyingly neither of the leads offers it. Galifianakis may not yet have proven any ability more than he demonstrated in ‘The Hangover’, not so Downey. I can’t fathom why he accepted this role which, given his enormous comedic talents, he then appears to sleepwalk through. I’m sure he needs a quick film between Marvel film appearances, but this shouldn’t have been it. The only time he comes alive is with Jamie Foxx – hardly surprising given their chemistry in ‘The Soloist’, but it makes you wonder why either of them bothered with this.
You could yourself write most of the thrills and spills they get into – Galifianakis falling asleep at the wheel, their accidental incursion into Mexico, the confrontation at the Grand Canyon, but for reasons known only to the committee of screenwriters an extra level of conflict is added – could they not agree a more convincing motivation to justify Foxx’s casting? But it’s a mystery too why punching a child in a film otherwise relatively serious should be deemed funny, or why Downey’s character should be written as so relentlessly mean in a film meant to be a comedy. Perhaps the American audiences aren’t thought to care that much – the British one never raised much more than a titter. A confused and pointless film, just not uniformally hateful.
5/10
Film Review: Law Abiding Citizen (Spoilers)
Gerard Butler’s latest is a slickly made twist on the Silcnce of the Lambs premise – serial killer manipulates the criminal justice system for his own aims, except this serial killer was created by the judicial system. To make it work, director F Gary Gray needed it either to be a slamming indictment of American justice or an hilarious pantomime, and he just manages to toe the line between the two. Just. Kurt Wimmer’s screenplay is underdeveloped and is ultimately brought down by some shockingly bad dialogue and weak character development, but despite that and some awful acting by Jamie Foxx who practically sleepwalks through the whole thing, it manages to entertain, and in quite a big way. Much of the credit goes down to star Butler, who manages to keep his character believable, despite some frankly preposterous contrivances.
He plays family man Clyde Shelton, who is pushed over the edge after witnessing his wife and daughter’s murders and who is then betrayed by hyper-ambitious assistant D.A. Jamie Foxx. Shelton takes horrific revenge on the killers, but then turns his attention to the system which allowed the perpetrators to get away with it, picking off assistant D.A.’s, judges and even the D.A. himself (Bruce McGill). All the while Foxx and the police stand by helpless, ruthlessly manipulated by the man they let down. Except he’s killing again and again whilst still in jail – how is he managing to do that whilst incarcerated?
From an intriguing start the film gets increasingly overblown, as the scale of Shelton’s conspiracy becomes clear. But under the surface there’s actually a very strong premise – a huge number of us have lost faith in the criminal justice system, which has indeed become more about expedience for its own benefit rather than about justice. Yet whilst that message is thrown in our faces every few minutes (thanks Gray, we did actually ‘get it’ the first time), it’s never investigated with any sincerity. Take Shelton’s Batman-esque preparations and Lector-esque post-incarceration scheming out of it and you could have a dark, subversive look at a subject which motivates us all. But Butler’s pitch-perfect performance notwithstanding, it’s hampered by poor characterisation (Foxx’s character is never believable or sympathetic) and very little logic. It’s a great pantomime, with more underpinning it than most, but never really amounts to much more. Shame, but enjoy the romp!
7/10 (at least one for entertainment value alone)
Film Review: The Soloist (Spoilers)
If you’re expecting sentimentality you’ll be sadly mistaken – director Joe Wright’s adaptation of the real world Steve Lopez’s (Robert Downey Jr in the film) book about his real life relationship with Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx) might have a thin plot, but it’s well-steered into territory which is occasionally awkward. Sure the pitfalls are there – journalist desperate for a story finds musical prodigy on the streets and tries to help, not acknowledging to himself that his helping is pretty much entirely an opportunity to boost his own ego. With actors less capable than Downey and Foxx this could have descended into trite schmalz, but Wright gets two powerhouse performances by actors at the top of their game, who lift this into much more interesting fare. Downey particularly impresses – even though he doesn’t play the character afflicted with mental illness, he himself recently survived his own brush with madness, and it clearly affects his performance. Where his Lopez could have come across as merely egotistical or overly ambitious or insensitive, Downey allows his own feelings about Ayers’ reality to shine through. That mixture of anger and fear won’t be his big moment – there’s clearly at least one Oscar in his future – but I don’t think we have much longer to wait.
Foxx in turn plays Ayers with an unaffected grace, yet leaves no doubt this is a tormented character. He imbues Ayers with an easily recognisable humanity, whilst emphasizing just how impossible it is to truly know him (and how impossible it is for him to know himself). No there isn’t a happy ending, but no it’s not all doom and gloom either – writer Susannah Grant’s screenplay leaves serious questions over Ayers’ ultimate fate, and whilst she’s occasionally a bit preachy, succeeds nonetheless at balancing out difficult social issues around mental illness with the need to entertain. Given that Downey’s Steve Lopez fails to handle the same issues compassionately it’s no mean feat. There are clunky bits – all the scenes involving Tom Hollander’s cringeworthy cello teacher are poorly thought out – but otherwise this is above average fare which is well worth your time.
7.5/10
