COMET) r EVAN ALMIGHTY (PG) 95min 0
That the most expensive corriedy ever made should be a sequel to a disposable Jim Carrey tirnewaster. wrth Carrey not even featuring in the cas . suggests an error of biblical proportions in the Judgement of Universal executives who pumped a reputed $175 million into returning director Tom Shadyac's original one— ioke Saturday Night Livester skit about humble congressman Evan (Steve Carelli, Visited by God (a painfully smug Morgan Freeman). and told to build an ark.
With animals lining up two by two. Evan rs forced to question hrs maker's mysterious ways during hrs conversion from straightilaced suit to mystic sage before the lavrsh CGIA driven resolution confirms the nature of his spiritual guest and wrns him the support of hrs vaprd family. By reworking God's wrath as an 'Act of Random Kindness" (ARK, geddit?) Steve Patch Adams Oedekerk's script leaves Carell's trred funnyrrran-schtrck high and dry in an unashamed attempt to pitch comedy to the notoriously hurnourless bible belt regions of America. The out-takes provrded in the end-credits suggest that ten minutes on set with Carell would be funnier than 90 spent watching this teprd retread of Field of Drearrrs played as religious farce. (Eddie Harrison)
I General release from Fri 3 Aug.
ANIMATION TALES FROM EARTHSEA (PG) 115min 000
The familiar Studio Ghibli look is there. but Tales From Earthsea. based on the books by writer of speculative fiction Ursula K Le Guin. is directed not by the great Hayao Miyazaki. but by hrs son Goro. So. while Earthsea is a decent enough animation with a few inspired moments. the benign w0rldvrew that made Spirited Away such a revelation rs sorely missrng from the stark ‘goodies and baddres'
delineation offered here.
Taking Le Guin‘s The Farthest Shore. the third book of her Earthsea series as his inspiration. Miyazaki Jr opens his story with the uneasy alliance between the wizard Sparrowhawk and his pupil Arren as they begin their guest to save the kingdom of Enlad. As with Miyazaki Sr‘s Howl's Movrng Cast/e. an imported story sits uneasily with the textbook Ghibli Visual flourishes.
Apart from occasional magical touches. such as the hero's jarring premonition of his exit from Hort Town. or his dream of drowning in the sludge-like folds of the queen's dress. Tales From Earthsea looks less like a Ghibli classrc than a filmed steryboard for some staid US-TV sword and sorcery mini-series. A stirring score and a climactic battle atop a reflective tower provrde Tales From Earthsea wrth a satisfying resolution. but sadly the son's sense of stOrytelling isn't quite in his
father’s league. Yet. (Eddie Harrison)
I Cameo, Edinburgh and selected release from Fr; 3 Aug.
Film
INTERVIEW
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HAPPY AS A SANDBAG Love him or hate him Bruno Dumont is the most provocative and interesting filmmaker currently working in France. Kaleem Aftab meets him
A decade ago when La We do Jésus premiered at Cannes French filmmaker Dumont was hailed as the second-coming - the bastard love child of Robert Bresson or Pier Paolo Pasolini. Then the release of his abstract policier Humanity split audiences down the middle. Some thought it was one of the masterpieces of modern cinema, others that it was simply pretentious. Both these films were set in the small town of Bailleul, near Lille, where the 49-year- old director was born and still lives. His third film, Twentynine Palms, was set in America and was widely panned. His latest, Flanders (pictured), is a return to the north of France and a return to form. The very mention of the name Flanders conjures up brutal images of WWII, so it’s unsurprising that Dumont has made a war film. Or is it? The director explains that this is ‘a story of love and all romances contain battles.’ The film follows a group of farmers called up to an unnamed war. They say their goodbyes, and we are shown yet more examples of the perfunctory sex that is the director’s trademark, before they head off to a seemingly meaningless
battle (these scenes shot in Tunisia look like they could have taken place in Iraq or Afghanistan).
The director explains that he has always been a fan of war films. ‘I watched a lot of war films on television when l was a child. Above all what I saw was a space where choreography could be used really well. I wanted to create a war where the action on screen could be the most simple that is possible. The war that is on screen is not a real war, but an interior war. I don't care at all about depicting reality precisely.’
Before establishing his reputation as the enfant terrible of cinema, Dumont was a philosophy lecturer. Talking in a Paris hotel he reflects: ‘The battle between two men over a girl is the same as the fight for two men over a piece of land. It is all about desire. There is no difference between a love triangle and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.’
Dumont makes metaphysical films and doesn’t like to talk about individual characters or motivations. ‘I prefer the audience to decide,’ he declares. ‘When I work I think about the images in the mind of the spectators. If the audience don’t believe in the images then the film will not work in their minds.’
I Flanders, Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 3 Aug; GFT, Glasgow from Fri 70 Aug.
2—9 Aug 2007 THE LIST 19