FILM | Reviews
DRAMA DHEEPAN (15) 115min ●●●●●
This 2015 Palme d’Or winner from the great Jacques Audiard tells the story of a former Tamil Tiger who fakes family ties, claims asylum and begins a new life in a housing project near Paris that feels more like the Wild West. It is a very touching human drama in which the former warrior must adjust to changed circumstances and a trio of strangers i nd hope as a fabricated family.
Writer, novelist and political activist Antonythasan Jesuthasan makes an indelible impression as Dheepan, a role that rel ects some elements of his own life. Kalieaswari Srinivasan is equally compelling as Yalini, the woman who seizes on Dheepan and nine-year-old Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) as her escape route. The i lm is at its most captivating when it depicts the way the trio embraces new possibilities – with Illayaal heading to school, Yalini working as a carer and Dheepan becoming a diligent caretaker – yet it is inevitable that the ghosts of the past will return to haunt them.
Dheepan loses some of its focus and conviction as it lurches
towards a cathartic vigilante i nale with echoes of Death Wish and Taxi Driver. It is not an instant Audiard classic then but remains intense and beautifully crafted. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 8 Apr.
DRAMA SON OF SAUL (15) 107min ●●●●●
Hungarian writer-director László Nemes confronts one of history’s darkest hours with his Oscar-winning debut. It documents the grisly toil of a Sonderkommando work unit at Auschwitz, which saw death camp prisoners forced to dispose of corpses following mass executions. Stylistically too, it’s terrii cally bold as we endure a day in the life of one such prisoner, Saul (Géza Röhrig), as the camera gets up in his face and stays hard on his heels. With time running out, Saul assists in an escape plan, but becomes i xated on seeking a proper burial for a boy he claims is his son.
Shooting in the 4:3 ratio, Nemes keeps things tightly focused around his lead. There’s little shock value as tasks such as transporting and burning bodies become part of a macabre production line, with the dead occupying the modest periphery and this sensitive, non-judgemental i lm capturing the dehumanising nature of the work. Stark of subject and muddy of hue, Son of Saul sees our protagonist dragged from one horrii c errand to the next, with the handheld camerawork rel ecting the instability and unrelenting misery of his situation. Intense and challenging it may be but it’s a i lm rich with both empathy and insight. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Selected release from Fri 29 Apr.
BIOPIC – COMEDY EDDIE THE EAGLE (PG) 106min ●●●●●
A feel-good dramedy about a British ski jumper who anyone under the age of 30 probably won’t have heard of, let alone remember, Eddie the Eagle sounds like a crash- landing waiting to happen. But the British have always had a soft spot for plucky losers and Dexter Fletcher’s comic biopic nestles neatly alongside the likes of The Full Monty, Brassed Off and Calendar Girls. Starring Taron Egerton as Eddie in what can only be described as a transformative performance, the i lm is a l aming triumph.
Mixing fact with liberal doses of i ction, we see how Eddie Edwards, the son of a
plasterer (played by Keith Allen), is determined to make it as an Olympian. He settles on ski jumping – simply because Britain has no other representatives – with dreams of reaching the 1988 Winter Olympics.
In Fletcher’s i lm, Eddie befriends boozy, washed-up former ski jumping star Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman, playing a i ctional character), whom he persuades to train him after almost killing himself on a 70m jump in Germany. With the incredulous Norwegian and Finnish teams watching, the mentor-pupil dynamic is established in a series of training montages but it never feels hackneyed, with Egerton lending a delightful innocence to the hapless, goggle-eyed Edwards.
Although there are digs at the upper-class twits that run the British selection committee, the humour is predominantly gentle, the ski jumping scenes (co-ordinated by stunt legend Vic Armstrong) thrilling and the accumulative effect heart-warming in a i lm that consistently confounds expectations. Only the appearance of Christopher Walken, as Peary’s ex coach, feels ill-at-ease with the bonhomie. Otherwise, Eddie the Eagle takes l ight – and stays there. (James Mottram) ■ Out now.
MILITARY THRILLER EYE IN THE SKY (15) 102min ●●●●● The headline-grabbing issue of drone warfare has already made it to the big screen with 2014’s disappointing Good Kill. This latest effort, directed by South African Gavin Hood, is considerably more compelling. It doesn’t so much deal with the pressures of l ying the drones, but the political ping-pong that takes place before targets are eliminated. The crosshairs are lined up on a radicalised Englishwoman who has joined Al-Shabaab terrorists
in Kenya. Overseeing the operation to bring her in is the uncompromising Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) but when their quarry is moved, a drone strike seems on the cards when it’s revealed that she and her cohorts are planning a devastating suicide-bomb attack in the city. What emerges is a i lm that’s both an against-the-clock thriller – as Powell and her colleague Lt General Frank Benson (the late Alan Rickman, in his last on-screen appearance) try to prevent widespread havoc – and a study in the moral grey-area in which military personnel are forced to operate to save lives. Mirren and Rickman are outstanding and Hood complements them by juggling theme and pace with aplomb. The result is as thought-provoking as it is nerve-shredding. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 15 Apr. 68 THE LIST 7 Apr–2 Jun 2016