The Killer Inside Me: Movie Review

Michael Winterbottom’s "The Killer Inside Me," is a confronting look at a deranged psychopath in the guise of a public facing sheriff’s deputy.

After his outstanding role in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" as well as "Gone Baby Gone," Casey Affleck reinforces his position as one of the best young actors in Hollywood with his role in "The Killer Inside Me" as sherrif deputy, Lou Ford

Affleck’s performance is chillingly absorbing, frightening and utterly believable as the unhinged killer.

That said, this movie is difficult to watch at times, and the violence is extremely graphic and unrelenting, presumably intended to get the point across – however that point is somewhat unclear.

Affleck's atrocious attack on Jessica Alba as prostitute, Joyce and Kate Hudson as Lou's girlfriend, Amy, are practically unwatchable.

The backdrop is a Texas town in the 50's and Lou has been requested by the richest man in town to break up the affair of his son and a lowlife prostitute, Joyce, (Alba) that is getting out of control. Lou has been asked to run Joyce out of town, however, instead, the pair become intensely involved.

Lou changes plans and inexplicably, decides to kill Joyce and frame the son into making it look as if they have killed each other.

But Joyce survives and Lou commits more appalling acts to try and cover his trail. As he plummets deeper into his own psychosis, his carelessness leads the police to his doorstep and his number is up.

There are several issues with "The Killer Inside Me."

The plot isn’t easy to grasp with its continued twists and turns. New characters continue to be brought into the film even right towards the end to clarify things but only serve to confuse the story further and both Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson aren’t strong enough to support Affleck; however that isn’t entirely their fault. They are clearly there to play the victims and not much more but unfortunately both lack any sort of screen presence to hold their own.

Affleck alone carries this film. His unflinching performance is an intense look inside the mind of a disturbed man and is in itself the strongest thing about "The Killer Inside Me" but without the support of story and cast it isn't enough to carry this difficult film.

Changeling – A Mother’s Fight For Justice

cocobytes Review
"Changeling" is a heavy, sombre story with a lot of shade and not so much light within its narrative.

Continuing his series of darkly themed movies, Clint Eastwood, 78, aptly directs this “true story” of single mother, Christine Collins, played by Angelina Jolie who in 1928 Los Angeles, returns home from work to find her young son, Walter, is missing and attempts to report this to the police.

After an initial feeble attempt in getting involved, the LAPD find themselves, months later, under pressure to solve the case. They return a boy to Christine and arrange for the media to capture the reunion.

However, Christine quickly realises he is not her son and fights to find justice and truth within the police force, whilst relentlessly continuing the search for her son. She is supported on her pursuit by Presbyterian minister, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), who himself is on a campaign to expose corrupt cops.

Christine’s dogged battle with the police ultimately sees her thrown into a mental hospital, where she finds other woman in similar situations for speaking out. She struggles to clear her name and resume the gritty search for her son.

Angelina Jolie, has a lot on her plate playing Christine Collins and is required to produce a gamut of emotions from loss, grief, fear, anger, frustration as well as moments of hope. It’s a lot to ask and at times Jolie is robotic and appears to lack the substance to make us empathise with her character.

We know we are supposed to feel emotion for her but it’s hard when her extraordinary face and red, luscious lips are continually displayed on the screen at every given opportunity, distracting us from the storyline and somehow giving the feeling that despite her grief, Christine was always able to apply Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick.

The story at times is difficult to watch due to the subject matter and not necessarily aided by overacting on the part of some of the main actors however, scene stealer, Amy Ryan as the prostitute imprisoned in the mental hospital, gives another convincing performance.

"Changeling" as a whole has its flaws but the compelling story leaves the viewer with the feeling that the pursuit and determination to discover the truth is the only way we can truly live our lives with integrity.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Not So Curious Really

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Though you are curious as to the manner of how Benjamin Button develops throughout his life, (i.e. he ages backwards),once you get past this fact, the rest of the story is a fairly rudimentary yet busy tale about two beautiful people who love each other.

David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is based on a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald about a man who ages backwards from beginning his life as an eighty year old to dying as a newborn while all around him everyone ages in the conventional sense.

Button stars Brad Pitt playing the lead character of Benjamin Button, Cate Blanchett playing his love interest, Daisy and a standout performance by Taraji P. Henson, who plays Benjamin’s mother.

The story begins when Benjamin is born “under unusual circumstances” in 1918 in New Orleans as a wrinkly, old man. His mother dies just after his birth and upon seeing the child, frightened and shocked father, Thomas, (Jason Flemying) abandons the child on the steps of a nursing home owned by Queenie (Taraji P.Henson). Queenie takes pity on Benjamin and adopts the child as her own.

Little, wrinkly Benjamin seems to fit in rather well with the other residents of the nursing home who take on his appearance as an unfortunate illness. Nobody including Benjamin, expects him to last long due to his delicate health but he continues to grow, get stronger and younger as he ages.

At 12 years old and looking ancient, he meets 7 year old Daisy and is instantly smitten, likewise for Daisy. They hang out together late at night which seems a bit weird and creepy to watch but over time, Daisy becomes his soul mate and destiny keeps bringing them together throughout their lives as Daisy grows older and Benjamin gets younger.

Over the rest of the duration of the almost three hour film, everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in with numerous supplementary characters brought in to confuse the viewer. Major events that occur in Button’s life are shown including getting a job on a boat led by Captain Mike (Jared Harris), fighting at sea in World War II and having an affair with aristocrat, Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton) whom he meets along his travels.

Sidelining these key events is his relationship with Daisy who becomes a famous ballerina. As their ages are now more closely aligned, their love for each other deepens though is tinged with sadness as they both know they won’t be able to grow old gracefully together due to Button’s “illness” and they cherish the remaining time they have together.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has many strong points. Ten stars go to the fantastic CGI and prosthetic effects which are subtly done although at one stage when Brad Pitt was supposed to be about sixteen years old, his smooth skin and young features made me laugh out loud as he looked like he had just come from the set of “Thelma & Louise." Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are strong in their roles, but neither are particularly moving or affecting to the viewer.

The movie is appealing but perhaps something has got lost in translation from the book to the film as it lacks any real dynamism to make it outstanding. The themes are sober, the underpinning score is heavy and the duration of the movie keeps the tone serious.

By the end of the nearly three hours, I was relieved and my curiosity was well and truly sated for another day.

Slumdog Millionaire - Truly Divine Providence

cocobytes Review
Danny Boyle’s latest movie, “Slumdog Millionaire” is essentially a film about karma.

A spiritual and uplifting story of outrageous colour, devastating poverty and heartfelt performances set against the frenzied, multifaceted & sadistic backdrop of modern day Mumbai, India.

With Slumdog, Boyle has changed direction yet again from previous films such as “Trainspotting,” “The Beach,” and “Sunshine”.

An outstanding Dev Patel as Jamal Malik is a poor street kid (slumdog) who somehow through divine intervention appears as a contestant on the Indian version of game show “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.” Jamal manages to correctly answer every question thrown at him by the show’s host, (brilliantly played by Anil Kapoor), through his own life experiences until he comes to the final 20 million rupee question. How could a penniless street kid possibly know all the answers?

The show producers are very suspicious and Jamal is dragged away for a torturous questioning session led by police inspector, Bollywood star, Irfan Khan. During the interrogation, we begin to see the pieces of Jamal’s life story and how each of the questions he answers in the show are not studied from a book but are linked to the many traumatic events that have taken place during his deprived life.

His story is of the three musketeers, Jamal, his brother Salim played by Madhur Mittal and Latika, the beautiful Freida Pinto, a girl he meets along his travels and falls in love with. We follow the many harrowing challenges that they face together during their young lives. The story alternates from Jamal’s appearance on the show to flashbacks of his upbringing and watch as the small group grow up and are faced with these confrontations to enable survival.

Visually, “Slumdog Millionaire” is dazzling. The screen is awash with the fluorescent hues of saris, buildings, landscapes and the people. We move rapidly through narrow slums, palaces, skyscrapers, railroad tracks, hi-tech call-centres and the pungent melange that make up present day Mumbai but are always aware of the intense poverty and terrifying brutality that is rampant.

The tight editing and kick ass soundtrack are skillfully executed with pumping drum & bass and Bollywood strings that accentuate the chaos that is Mumbai. But in the end, it’s the heartfelt performances by this mostly unknown cast that will suck you in.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is a movie that makes you aware that sometimes in life divine providence does truly step in to help the underdog.

See it now.

Australia: A Movie As Big As the Opening Title

cocobytes Review
Even before “Australia” began playing in the cinema last night, there were so many ads shown prior to it with the tagline “proud sponsors of Australia the movie” that I was in no doubt I was about to see a movie called “Australia”. Is it necessary to pump us with even more “Australia” advertising just before it starts? You’ve already got my ticket money – let’s leave it at that.

“Australia” is definitely a spectacle to behold but then that’s what Baz Luhrmann does best - produces fabulous extravaganzas of epic proportions. He set himself a very bold agenda and on a broad scale he delivers. Luhrmann works with the same mantra as he did on “Moulin Rouge” – big, ambitious and dazzling is better. But is it? It worked to some degree for “Moulin Rouge” but does it work here?

Luhrmann delivers every cliché in the rule book. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we have seen it all before. Apparently Luhrmann referenced every Australian movie that’s been made as well as a good deal of American movies whilst researching for “Australia” and frankly you can see that whilst you’re watching it.

Scenes from movies previously viewed kept flying through my head – “Pearl Harbour”, “Dirty Harry”, the Dunkirk scene from "Atonement”, “Titanic” etc etc. The settings and styling were so stereotypical, it’s like they borrowed a big reference book of ideas, designs & clothes of that period in history from the library and proceeded to copy them exactly.

Out of the actors, the one true standout is newcomer Brandon Walters who plays half –caste “Nullah”. He is unaffected and natural next to the overhyped performances around him that you feel drawn to his story which is somewhat brief as Luhrmann has a lot to cover before the movie finishes.

The actors are fairly typecast in their various roles and their Australian accents are so over the top Aussie twanged, it’s just silly, if not just a tad condescending to assume everyone speaks like that. Hugh Jackman for one, sprinkles his conversation liberally with the word “Crikey” a little too often.

Other solid performances are given by David Wenham who plays the not so nice Neil Fletcher and David Gulpilil as Nullah’s grandfather King George. Lead actor Hugh Jackman is clichéd but strong if only because he is playing against Ms Kidman.

Which brings us to Nicole.

OK so I have waited till the end to mention her and there is just one word to describe her performance – demented.

Her face is so absurd that it’s impossible to take the woman seriously. I have never seen a person with eyebrows at such right angles. She permanently only has one expression throughout the movie – a sort of psychotic stare that she uses to convey every emotion – rage, happiness, concern, sadness. I was also drawn to her ever changing lips. In some scenes they looked so huge and plumped, it’s like she went into her trailer for a quick injection during lunch breaks.

If you did manage to get past her face to at least take on board her acting skills, well you were wasting your time – that was dreadful too. It’s cringe worthy and over the top where it needn’t be. Nicole just cannot act. Life has made her far too self-conscious to ever be able to deliver a good performance now. She couldn’t really act pre-botox and now not at all. It’s a harsh sentiment but unfortunately true.

In the end “Australia” is watchable but not enough to move you and if you can get past the spectacle of Nicole Kidman’s unlined face against the cracked dry backdrop of the outback, you just might enjoy it.