Bee Season
When the eleven-year-old daughter of a Professor of Religious
Philosophy unexpectedly starts to win at Spelling Bees, the
Professor puts all his efforts into guiding her into the National
Spelling Bee Finals, to the detriment of the rest of his family.
Working from a novel by Myla Goldberg, directors Scott McGehee
and David Siegel have created an interesting and visually
exciting movie in their unusual film ‘Bee Season’.
As the Professor indoctrinates his daughter in Kabbalist theory,
to enhance her spelling ability, his son seeks fulfillment
with the Hare Krishna sect, while his wife continues her studiesinto
the mysteries of ‘light’. Each of the family,
in their own way, is seeking a spiritual illumination that
has eluded them, and, as their metaphysical investigations
get underway, the family finds itself spiraling into doubt
and uncertainty. This absorbing film examines various approaches
to spiritual enlightenment in an extremely intelligent way,
but, perhaps, the most intriguing aspect of the film is the
visualization of the young girl’s thought processes
as she spells out the ever-increasing difficult words in the
Spelling Bees. The visual effects in these sequences are absolutely
captivating. In his minimal way, Richard Gere is perfect as
the caring Professor who doesn’t comprehend that he
is slowly destroying his family, and, Juliette Binoche is
superb as his emotionally-disturbed wife. There is a ‘mystery’
about Juliette, in the story, that is the subtle underpinning
of the whole movie, and it is disastrous to give it away.
Directors McGehee and Siegel have made a quiet little movie
that gently builds in intensity, and leaves you quite breathless.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Based on True Events, director Scott Derrickson’s rather
frightening movie ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’
is, basically, a court-room drama. When an exorcism goes wrong,
resulting in the death of the young possessed woman Emily
Rose, the priest, presiding over the affair, is charged with
Negligent Homicide. The State wants to prosecute as they don’t
want the Church to be seen as Above the Law, while the Church
wants the whole matter cleaned-up as quickly as possible,
as they don’t wish to see the case turned into a public
controversy. Meanwhile, the priest, at the centre of the furor,
is not prepared to ‘plea-bargain’, as he wants
the full story to come to light in a court of law. As the
prosecuting and defending attorneys face-off in the court-room,
and present their cases, the movie takes the opportunity to
segue into a series of flashbacks that depict the events leading
up to the possession of Emily, and her inevitable exorcism.
This is very scary stuff. The movie is intriguing in so much
as the ‘rational’ evidence put forward by the
State is balanced by the ‘irrational’ defending
evidence. The movie-viewer’s appreciation of what can
be termed ‘rational’ or ‘irrational’
becomes very mixed up. Laura Linney is fantastic as the gin-sodden
defending attorney, who has had one-too-many martinis, and
is grabbing at the case as a means of working her way up the
corporate ladder. As the trial progresses, she also has to
come to terms with her agnostic beliefs, when confronted by
evidence that there is more to this World than we care to
admit. People who like their Court-Room Dramas with a touch
of Satanic Horror are going to find the movie gripping!
Rent
On the rarified heights of the Broadway Stage ‘Rent’
was an outrageous success. As I recall it won a ‘Tony’
or two, but, a Broadway Hit does not necessarily create a
Movie Success. Chris Columbus’ adaptation of the show
to the Big Screen is a woeful affair. There are numerous things
wrong with this production, which features Book, Music and
Lyrics by Jonathan Larson. The first problem is the script.
Ok, if you have seen Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’
you have seen the show. But, where in the Opera everyone was
dying of Consumption, in this version of the story AIDS is
the issue. ‘Rent’ was written in the late 1980’s,
and it concentrates on the doom and gloom of the AIDS virus.
In adapting the stage show Columbus could have considered
updating the AIDS issue. Alright, we are dealing with a ‘period-piece’
and a ‘tragedy’, but, even so, it is just a touch
too tragic. While it is not stated, the cast in the movie
appear to have come from an on-going stage production. They
give big performances that are ideal for projecting a character,
or belting-out a number, to the back-row of a theatre, but,
these performances could have been pulled back just a tad
for the Big Screen, where the principle of Less is More always
applies. The characterizations, as such, are a bit theatrical
and this grates after a while. Sadly, there is the music.
There isn’t a decent number in the show. You don’t
leave the movie whistling a tune. The songs skate somewhere
between show-tunes and operetta, and they are belted-out with
a driving rock ‘n’ roll beat that is old-fashioned
and unharmonious. Chris Columbus, however, has done a great
job expanding the show. There are some fabulous sets and one
or two production numbers that are entertaining, but, does
this constitute an entire movie? Still, the movie has no ‘second-act’,
or what there is of it is weak, and you get the feeling that
much of the stage show has been left-out to bring the movie
in at an acceptable length. There is also a smug, self-congratulatory
air about the stage musical and film adaptation that really
irritates. New York should remember that it is not the only
city to have a vibrant bohemian sub-culture.
Bandidas
Luc Besson creates a comedy for those two delectable Latino
actresses Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz (it has long been
a fantasy of mine to see these two ladies in the same film),
and, though each actress has claimed in the past that they
are not a ‘sex-symbol’, that is exactly what they
are in this movie. As a comedy-action caper, set in Revolutionary
Mexico, ‘Bandidas’ is a little bit flat. The same
cannot be said of Salma and Penelope’s bosoms!
