FILM | Reviews
ADAPTATION MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (12A) 112min ●●●●●
It’s not classed as one of Shakespeare’s hard-to-categorise ‘problem plays’, but there’s plenty that’s problematic in this mid-period comedy. The traducement, rejection and humiliation of the innocent Hero, for instance, constitutes one of the most brutal betrayals of a female character in all of Shakespeare. Which might cause some to wonder why this play drew the attention of Joss Whedon, one of Hollywood’s prime purveyors of female characters of substance. Well, Much Ado also features – between will-they-won’t-they ex-lovers Beatrice and Benedick – some of literature’s most gloriously spiky romantic banter, the tone of which has plentiful echoes in Whedon’s screen work. Also, Whedon is quite simply a Shakespeare nut: this isn’t an out-of-the-blue stunt project, but the product of years of private readings put on for Whedon’s own enjoyment with friends at his own house. This bargain basement production uses that very set, and keeps everything simple to let the dialogue sparkle. It does have an inevitable air of privileged pals messing about, but why not? This version doesn’t reinvent the text, but it wears both its wit and weirdness admirably lightly, neatly transposing the text into a world of cliquey secrets and fratboy gossip. (Hannah McGill) ■ Limited release from Fri 14 Jun. See feature, page 61.
DOCUMENTARY I AM BREATHING (TBC) 73min ●●●●●
This remarkable documentary from Scottish filmmakers Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon is at once devastating and deeply moving. It documents the last months in the life of 33-year- old Yorkshireman Neil Platt as he deals with the increasingly debilitating effects of Motor Neurone Disease.
Having decided to document his last days through a blog, Platt is very much an active participant in and driving force of the film. Interviews with Platt are mixed with excerpts from his blog (read by an actor), clips of him during his younger days and contributions from his wife Louise. All of this would be moving enough, but Platt’s story is given even greater emotional clout because he is diagnosed with his fatal illness as he is about to become a father. Knowing that his son will unlikely remember his dad, Platt is determined to document his life, in order to leave his boy something to know him by. It’s an ‘extraordinary/ordinary’ story, and one that might have been utterly depressing, or worse, horribly cloying were it not for the sensitivity with which the filmmakers have approached their subject and were it not for Platt’s incredible and admirable passion for life. (Miles Fielder) ■ EIFF, Filmhouse, Thu 20 Jun & Cineworld, Sun 23 Jun. Limited release from Fri 21 Jun.
COMEDY THIS IS THE END (15) 107min ●●●●●
The apocalypse hits during James Franco’s housewarming party. What will the remaining gang of A, B and C-listers (all playing themselves) do to survive? Hard to imagine, isn’t it, how this could be anything other than obnoxious? A bunch of actors prepared to make a whole film riffing on their star personas and Hollywood lifestyles. Well, the happy surprise is that this is one in-joke that it’s worth being in on. It’s funny
about spoiled Hollywood hipsters, horror movies, masturbation and ruptured male friendships. It’s even funny about Channing Tatum, which you wouldn’t think possible. Getting a lot of its laughs from Hollywood knowledge that viewers might not have, it does mean that This is the End will probably get more love from film critics than from ordinary people with more important stuff to do than be familiar with the back catalogue of Danny McBride and the reputation of Michael Cera. And some of the gags, including an elaborate closing set-piece, will have less traction in the UK than the US. Also, make no mistake: about 40% of it is dick jokes, and they’re pretty foul ones. Do not sneak children in on the basis that they like Emma Watson, unless you want to have a LOT of explaining to do. But in the main, this is funny gross-out (eloquent gross-out, if such a thing’s possible): South Park as opposed to Family Guy or early Judd Apatow compared to more recent Judd Apatow.
It would have been nice had more space been made for a funny woman other than Watson’s winning cameo, but you can’t have everything. An enjoyable mainstream American comedy is already something approaching a miracle, so those with strong stomachs for shady humour should grab this with both hands. (Hannah McGill) ■ General release from Fri 28 Jun.
COMEDY STAND UP GUYS (TBC) 95min ●●●●●
While Robert De Niro has been debasing his reputation in The Big Wedding, his Godfather co-star Al Pacino has been alternating cinematic dreck with more interesting TV work. Presumably Pacino wanted to upstage De Niro’s limp output; and Stand Up Guys immediately lives up to the double- entendre of its title by having Pacino take an overdose of Viagra in the first ten minutes. Pacino plays Val, an ex-con released into the hands
of his old friend Doc (Christopher Walken). The duo enlist their old getaway driver (Alan Arkin) for one last job, but the complication is that Doc has already agreed a hit on behalf of local crime-boss Claphands (Mark Margolis), and the burden that Doc carries is that Val is to be his victim.
Director Fisher Stevens is less concerned with trying to build up tension than staging knockabout badinage between the three stars. Even if the dialogue is sub-David Mamet, and the plotting wearingly predictable, there’s some enjoyment from hearing the old-stagers run through a gamut of non-PC insults. Stand Up Guys is very much an old man’s film, but Stevens just about delivers the performances that its aging audience demands. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Limited release from Fri 28 Jun.
62 THE LIST 13 Jun–11 Jul 2013