REVIEWS Film
done before, Frozen’s fight for survival is taut, tough, and enough to make you stick to artificial slopes for the foreseeable future. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release, Fri 24 Sep. THRILLER TAKERS (12A) 106min ●●●●●
From its unsophisticated title onwards, Takers is a most basic heist movie. Frenetic action, headache-inducing score, minimal characterisation and a napkin-sized plot, if you’re looking for the new Heat then this certainly isn’t it. Still, if you’re after the cinematic equivalent of a sugar rush then this second film from director John Luessenhop (following Lockdown) might appeal. The plot concerns a quintet of LA- based thieves (including The Wire’s Idris Elba, for once using his British accent, Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen), who scheme to take down an armoured car worth $25 million. Naturally, there’s a cop on their tail, in the shape of Matt Dillon’s seen- it-all detective. And – surprise, surprise – things don’t go according to plan. In truth, the action sequences are well handled – in particular a thrilling on-foot chase through downtown LA. But it’s when Takers attempts to flesh out its characters or add dimensions to the story that it trips over itself – notably with the sub-plot involving Elba’s drug-addict sister (a terrible Marianne Jean-Baptiste). Flashy, loud and mildly obnoxious, if dollars were clichés, then this film would be cash- rich. (James Mottram) ■ General release, Fri 1 Oct.
www.list.co.uk/film THRILLER FROZEN (15) 93min ●●●●●
DRAMA MADE IN DAGENHAM (15) 112min ●●●●●
This entertaining crowd-pleaser, made in the mould of British comic dramas such as Calendar Girls (and directed by that film’s maker Nigel Cole), dramatises the true story of the industrial dispute between the female work force and the management of the Ford’s motor plant that took place in suburban Essex in 1968. It’s a relatively unknown story – which is surprising given the change in sexual equality in the workplace that it brought about – but it’s one that’s just crying out for this kind of popularist, heartfelt dramatic treatment. The action opens in working-class Dagenham, where the 187 female
employees of the fourth biggest motor company in the world and the largest plant in Europe are taking their grievance about rates of pay to their bosses. The women, whose job it is to stitch together car seat upholstery, are unhappy about having been reclassified as ‘unskilled labour’, a tactic they are disgusted to learn is simply an excuse to pay them a fraction of what their 40,000 male counterparts earn. When their union and the management fail to negotiate a settlement, the girls go on strike.
As scripted by first-timer Billy Ivory and directed by Cole, Made in Dagenham tempers the serious stuff of industrial relations and gender politics with dramatic tension and comic relief. The film manages to evoke both its grotty working-class setting and the colourful kitsch trappings of the late 1960s from mini-skirts to pop music. The cast is excellent, with a host of familiar faces playing to their strengths, among them Sally Hawkins as the bubbly spokeswoman of the female strikers, Bob Hoskins as her admiring union rep, Rosamund Pike as the sympathetic trophy wife of Rupert Graves’ sexist Ford executive, The West Wing’s Richard Schiff as Ford’s American attack dog and, in another priceless turn, Miranda Richardson as Wilson’s wry Secretary of State, Barbara Castle. And stay for the closing credits for a glimpse of the real working-class heroines. (Miles Fielder) ■ General release, Fri 1 Oct.
Despite travelling the same well-worn path of several other man-against- nature thrillers, writer/director Adam Green’s take on the survivalist genre manages a few icy frissons of its own, as well as a withering (if unnecessary) indictment of health and safety standards in the US skiing industry. Set in the snowy mountains of Utah,
Frozen describes the ordeal of three snowboarders who find themselves perilously suspended mid-air when their ski lift breaks down. Parker (Emma Bell) and her boyfriend Joe (Shawn Ashmore) tempt fate when they hook up with their pal Dan (Kevin Zegers) for a little off-piste adventure, but when the ski-resort’s incompetent staff accidentally switch off the chairlift, the trio are left to contend with mother nature in the form of freezing conditions and a ravenous pack of wolves.
Green has clearly moved on since his 2006 horror pastiche Hatchet, and crafts a slow but suspenseful cautionary tale, drawing out his characters sharply and not stinting on the details (the nastiest of all coming when Parker’s ungloved hand becomes stuck to the freezing metal of the chair-lift). Frozen is hamstrung by the familiarity of the material; if you’ve seen Open Water (sharks) or Black Water (snakes), the manner in which the hapless tourists enjoy long periods of isolated chat interrupted by ferocious attacks will offer few surprises. But even if it has all been
ANIMATION/FANTASY THE SECRET OF KELLS (PG) 78min ●●●●●
Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey’s luscious animated film takes inspiration from The Book of Kells, a key work in Irish medieval history. But rather than the three- dimensional style currently favoured by Pixar and DreamWorks, Moore and Twomey offer a colourful, detailed 2D approach, which makes up for in charm what it lacks in narrative drive. The Secret of Kells tells of Brendan (Evan McGuire), a young monk whose
remote community lives under threat of Viking invasion. The arrival from Iona in Scotland of famed illustrator Brother Aidan (the late Mick Lally) leads Brendan to go against the wishes of Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson) and take a mission into the magical forest, where he befriends a benevolent sprite (Christen Mooney) The Secret of Kells artfully makes a case for the value of art and reading, even if the story doesn’t really amount to much. But the animation, which earned the film an Oscar nomination, is a constant source of wonder, reproducing the calligraphy of medieval literature in a rich style that’s somewhere between Terry Gilliam and Richard Williams’ influential but neglected 1993 animation feature The Thief and the Cobbler. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Selected release, Fri 1 Oct.
23 Sep–7 Oct 2010 THE LIST 57