FILM | Reviews
DRAMA HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (12A) 94 min ●●●●●
Speculation on the private moments of public figures has become a fashionable mini- genre in the wake of The Queen and The King’s Speech. 2013 holds the promise of Naomi Watts as Princess Diana and Nicole Kidman as Princess Grace of Monaco. The sweetly sentimental Hyde Park On Hudson is virtually a sequel to the King’s Speech finding its focus in a crucial meeting between King George VI (Samuel West) and President Franklin Roosevelt (Bill Murray) at the latter’s New York country estate in the summer of 1939.
The weekend is largely seen through the eyes of Margaret ‘Daisy’ Suckley (Laura Linney), a cousin and confidante of the President who was also part of the harem around him tolerated by his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) and kept hidden from the public. Linney brings a weary, bitter edge to the needy Daisy and the film strays into more daring territory as it reveals the delicate ebb and flow of her relationship with Roosevelt.
Screenwriter Richard Nelson seems more comfortable with the chaos surrounding the royal visit and Olivia Colman makes a wonderfully wary Queen Elizabeth. The film comes alive in the relationship between monarch and President and the mutual esteem forged during the weekend is said to have been a defining moment in the global conflict that was to come.
Bill Murray’s jaunty Roosevelt is charm personified as he places George at ease (‘Stutter? What stutter?’) and encourages him with the kind of praise he has rarely heard elsewhere. A late-night, whisky-fuelled conversation between the two men is a highlight of the film; smartly written and beautifully played by both actors. Whether it bears any resemblance to what actually happened is almost academic in a film that takes a precious moment in time and transforms it into a witty, civilised country house drama. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 1 Feb.
ANIMATION WRECK IT RALPH (PG) 108min ●●●●●
Number one with a bullet on its recent American release, this cleverly-targeted family romp marks a step up both commercially and artistically for the non-Pixar side of Disney’s animation offering. Indeed, on a script level it’s substantially superior to Pixar’s last outing, Brave. The eponymous Ralph, winningly voiced by John C Reilly, is the baddie in a creaky Super Mario-
style arcade game. At the end of the working day the arcade characters clock off and hang out, but Ralph, as a baddie, is persona non grata. A support group for bad guys – while delightfully funny for us – doesn’t rid him of his yen to be a hero, and soon he’s broken out of his own game to find recognition elsewhere. The film spends a touch too long in the toothachey virtual world of Sugar Rush; it would have
been fun to have seen more of other game environments, but maybe that’s being saved for sequels. But the script is brilliantly witty; the visuals sweep, swoop and sparkle; and the message about flawed individuals finding their own way to be heroes is a kindly one, intelligently expressed. (Hannah McGill) ■ General release from Fri 8 Feb.
60 THE LIST 24 Jan–21 Feb 2013
COMEDY THIS IS 40 (15) 134min ●●●●●
Writer/director Judd Apatow’s reign as the modern king of comedy comes to an abrupt end with the bland miscalculation of This Is 40, a self-seeking slice of self-analysis which verges on self-abuse. Setting itself up as a ‘sort-of sequel’ to Knocked Up, Apatow’s 134 minute movie doesn’t feature the central pairing of Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl at all, but instead focuses on their less-interesting friends Pete and Debbie, once again played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. Supposedly happily married in sundrenched LA, Pete and Debbie are presented as struggling with their inner demons as they pass the milestone age.
The Apatow formula has provided sure-fire crowd-pleasing comedies like Superbad and Bridesmaids, and This is 40 harks back to happier days with entertaining cameos from Jason Segel as a vain fitness instructor, Chris O’Dowd as a caustic music-industry exec, and Melissa McCarthy as a foul-mouthed parent. But these brief scenes provide little reward for sitting through the protracted mechanics of Pete and Debbie’s squabbles. By casting both his wife (Mann) and children in the central roles, Apatow seems to be offering autobiography as entertainment, but while aiming for blunt honesty, This is 40 is simply dull. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Thu 14 Feb.
DRAMA NO (15) 118min ●●●●●
With elements of Mad Men and Wag the Dog accompanying its diligent examination of a country in the throes of change, this fact-based Chilean drama focuses upon the role played by marketeers in the 1988 referendum that heralded the end of the 15-year dictatorship of August Pinochet. Gael Garcia Bernal plays René, a skilled advertising exec who’s accustomed to going where the money is. Asked by a friend to author the ‘No’ campaign, against Pinochet’s presidency, René is initially sceptical, but grows more deeply invested as the possibilities become apparent to him. Director Pablo Larraín clearly wishes neither to
sentimentalise the past, nor excoriate it with cynical satire; but this trepidation leaves his film feeling indecisive. Furthermore, the newly-made parts of the film have been shot on Sony U-Matic video. This is formally interesting but it replicates the qualities of a bad pirate DVD. An already intricately tricksy film thus becomes something of a physical task to watch as well. It’s as if Larrain doesn’t want us to enjoy ourselves . . . and maybe that’s some sort of point about the guilty pleasures of propaganda? Or maybe he’s just an obsolete technology geek. (Hannah McGill) ■ Selected release from Fri 8 Feb.