What's Eating Gilbert Grape (2003)

My rating: 8.5/10.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is one of those real gems you unexpectedley find. It is amazing to watch how incredibly fantastic Leonardo Dicaprio was during his late adolescence and before his prime. There can definitely be no doubt about whether he deserved the Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He truly is a demonstration of what a good actor is. Someone that starts off with amazing potential and just manages to grow and develop into the mature actor we know him as today.

The film depicts a working class family in the one-street town of Endora. The Grape's consist of two sisters Ellen and Amy, and two brothers Gilbert (Johnny Depp) and Autistic Arnie (Dicaprio). As well as trying to look after their morbidly obese mother Bonnie, they are also striving to live without a real father figure, lack of a decent wage and the highley dependable Arnie. Our hero Gilbert, being the 'man' of the house is the one that has to sacrifice any want for much of a social life or romance in order to work, whilst simultaneously look after an unpredictable Arnie. This becomes the norm until the freespirit Becky (Juliette Lewis) arrives in town for a few days allowing Gilbert to grasp onto a new direction of life.

Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom really manages to effectively portray the mental claustrophobia of Gilbert's life. He heavily depends on a range of close ups of the character's as the main way of emotion. Luckily the cast is made up of very talented people and so they are able to effortlessly produce Hallstrom's desired reactions with their facial expressions - allowing the subtelty of the film to shine through.
Johnny Depp is of course fabulous. With already having cemented himself into the film world as an established actor, his performance in this really highlights the reason why he's there. His character is believable and he doesn't try too hard to make us like him. It is the reserved method of acting that we see, which allows the creation of the empathy.
I wish I could say the same for Juliette Lewis, however I'm just not a fan. She seems to be the same in everything I've seen her in (which admittedly isn't a great deal) and that 'same' is a monosyllabic, bland, emotionless bore. I just didn't warm to her character at all and felt she offered nothing more to the role than what was written on the script. When she spoke, I felt she sometimes made it sound like her character also had mental difficulties. But aside from her, the rest of the cast were great.

With the location being so small, this film risks the danger of the setting becoming boring, however this definitely does not become the case. Hallstrom efficiently uses the scenery and turns the recurring props into motif's. In doing this, it means the character's are forced to dynamically encorporate them into their portrayal. Matches for example is one thing in particular that Gilbert often uses which also becomes an integral component that drives a lot of the plot's substance forward.

The music to this deserves a lot of credit for the endearing nature the film possesses. It's not a big score, or a bizarre, unexpected arrangement of notes. In keeping with the rest of the tone, it plays with a lot of subtelty as well as providing a softener effect to the harsh realities that the film is showing. It is a beautiful charmer that completely draws you into the world and I believe without it, the film would force you into more of a downward struggle.

Overall, I think this film is a greatly underplayed piece of cinema that highley deserves to be seen - it truly is a great watch. If you don't see this for the story or the film itself, I strongly urge you to see it for Dicaprio and Depp. I think their performances alone are engaging enough to keep your attention throughout.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009)

My rating: 9/10

Well, I finally got round to watching Niels Arden Oplev's phenomenon and my god what an incredible phenomenon it is.

As most will probably already know, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the first installment of the adapted 'Millennium' Series. The story is centred around the unresolved disappearance of Harriet Vanger some 40 years prior. Loving uncle Henrik is sure that she has been murdered by one of the Vanger family members but after so many years of investigating, has come up dry. He employs Mikael Bloomkvist to investigate further, and with help from Lisbeth Salander they begin to discover the shocking truths about the Vanger family's past.

Aside from the fantastic scripting, what I enjoyed the most about this film was Oplev's incredible use of lighting. The mood of the scene was captured so effortlessly by the way he displayed the light. He created a shadow effect on objects and character's in many of the scenes which seems like a key device to use within a mystery thriller to portray the unknown. The whole film itself had a dark tone about it that feels necessary in order for it to keep with the genre. It was interesting to see that after the mystery had been solved, everything became much brighter. This use of pathetic falacy is such a simple device but one that I feel always proves to be effective.

As mentioned, another thing I loved about the film was the screenplay and the story line we get from the novels. I particularly enjoyed seeing the development of Lisbeth's character. Her scenes at the beginning of the film with her sadistic boss initially seemed to be a bit unnecessary, however as the story unfolds it becomes quite clear why there is a need for them to be there. Her actions at the end are rectified by her past. I believe that had we not seen this past, her character would seem flat and we would lack understanding as to why she behaves in the way she does.
The actors playing the leads, Lisbeth and Mickael were both fantastic. They were believable as their characters and they provided us with the sense of wanting to go on the journey with them - which is pretty much all you need.
My only flaw with the story would be that the ending felt like a bit of an anti-climax. (SPOILER) After Mickael breaks into Harold's house, he seems far to willing to volunteer the information he knows about the previous killings and the Vanger family. It seemed to me that someone who a moment ago felt that he should keep everything between himself and Lisbeth, should not then go spilling everything to Martin Vanger...regardless of how certain he is that the killer is Harold. The fact that simultaneously, Lisbeth is discovering Martin is indeed the villain we know that Mikael has divulged information to the wrong person. For me, the way that it was Martin who the information was told to, just seemed like an easy and a slightly lazy way of getting the story from where it was to the big finish in the cellar.

I thought the use of music was great. It went against the obvious creepy, mystery thriller stereotype by opting for something that sounded more upbeat. I really liked this mechanism as it enhanced the films pace and gave it a real sense of 'thrill'. The cinematography was fantastic. Some of the Oplev's scenes were really beautiful and breathtaking at points. It all just seemed to look visually perfect on screen.

The very end of this film was very clever. It effortlessly set up it's sequel 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' enough to inform us of what the film will be about but without giving us any idea as to what the actual content will contain.

All in all, this film is by far one of the best films I have seen this year and if the rest of the trilogy live up to the high bar that TGWTDT has set, then in my opinion, it will definitely go down as one of the greatest trilogy's made!

Stardust

My rating: 9/10

I distinctly remember the release of this film in 2007, and this is for two reasons only. The first was the recently reformed Take That's latest song being the soundtrack to the trailer, and the second was the fact it starred Claire Danes in it of whom I recall thinking that I had heard nothing of since 'Romeo and Juliet' in 1996. The fact that it was only these two factors that remained in my mind shows how much of a rush I wasn't in to go and see this film.

The Second time this film came about into my life was when my dad brought it home on DVD. My mother and himself sat down and watched it one evening and my dad (who's opinion on film I greatly respect) told me it was good. Even so, I still felt apathetic towards it. Had I been in the room with them, then I would most definitely have watched it. However I was not, and so it remained that I did not watch the film.

Flash forward three years later, 'Stardust' makes it's terrestrial premier on Channel 4. Having seen it advertised all week, my boyfriend and I decided that we would watch it. To say the film is good would be an understatement. I have no idea why I had been apathetic towards this film for so many years!

As the name might suggest, Stardust is a very magical film. The film's concept is of a supernatural realm called "Stormhold" that is just on the other side of a wall keeping it separate from England. Our protagonist "Tristan" crosses this wall in an attempt to capture a falling star for the girl, Victoria, who he is devotedly in love with. Although Tristan finds the star, "Yvaine" who is actually a girl, fairly easily, he is not the only one who is after her. Amongst Tristan vying for Yvaine's possession is the decaying witch Lamia who seeks her for eternal youth and immortality, and Septimus. Septimus desires Yvaine as she is wearing a necklace that will be the key to him gaining his father's throne to rule the land.

Yvaine quickly learns of the dangers she is in if she should end up in the wrong hands, so trusting Tristan they set off back to "Wall village" so he can prove his love for Victoria before sending Yvaine home. They encounter a few different people on their adventure, gaining capture aboard Captain Shakespeare's ship (Robert De Niro) and suffering at the hands of the witches. But of course they're journey comes to an end and we eventually see the magical conclusion that we desire.

This film is enchanting from the start. Each corner it takes leaves you burning with desire to see what will happen next and what more magic will arise from this beautiful unknown world. The cinematography is amazing as it creates perfect visually stunning framework that draw parallels with the stunning world of Stormhold and the magnificent fantasies of our minds that it acts out. It is enriched with originality and the complex yet simple script is truly refreshing and brilliant.

The cast is great and has many well known names in, however our protagonist's (Danes and Cox) have been doctored to be more unfamiliar names which I firmly believe is a clever mechanism for drawing us into the characters's likeability instead of being drawn to our own personal opinion's on the actor. With the likes of Ricky Gervais playing a merchant and David Walliams playing one of the dead brothers, we are shown a lot of familiar British comedy that makes the film seem more endearing as we can see the real depths the British writers have managed to incorporate.

Although admittedly there are a few moments which seem a bit too easy, take the moment where Lamia is destroyed, and some which you may think predictable, it still does not hinder the amazing essence the film has as a whole. It's such an exciting adventure to follow and the pace continuously moves quickly that there is not a point that we can look away as in doing so we risk missing something intrinsic to the plot. It leaves you with a great feeling of warmth and magic as well as a big silly grin on your face, and as a result I would most definitely recommend it.

Disney Pixars "Up"

My rating: 9/10

Despite the Oscar nomination and flood of great reviews this film received, there was a very big part of me that still failed to retain any enthusiasm to watch it. It wasn't until my boyfriend forced me into sitting through it with him that allowed me to give it some time. As it turned out, I loved it!

The start is fast with very little dialogue. Although initially this seems a bit unnecessary and strange, it is intrinsic in order to set up the true beginning of the story as well as aiding the purpose behind it. The first introduction of Ellie's 'Adventure Book' is an important part of the rest of the story and so it is necessary for us to understand the idea's and the formality of the book so we can understand the path, our protagonist, Carl chooses to take during the film.

Up is a story about an elderly man who strives to fulfil his deceased wife's lifelong dream of living in "paradise falls" in South America. And so in a bid to achieve this dream, he lifts his house in the air with the aid of helium balloons and flies it to his destination.

Of course this journey is not made easy, as what kind of story would it be if it were? Mid flight, Carl realises he has accidentally set sail with aspiring wilderness adventurer, Russell. Russell is an annoying child with the ability to talk somebody into an early grave. However his positive energy and continuous good nature allows him to be instantly and constantly a very likeable character. His willingness to help Carl even though Carl has shown no warmth to him is truly heart-warming and it is this reason he warms his way into our hearts.

Naturally when they arrive in South America, things don't go smoothly when they are faced with the antagonistic force of Carl's childhood hero, Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer) who has set his team of dogs out to wipe Carl out at all costs.

Up is a very unique, heart-warming story that touches the surface of many emotions dealing with grief, anger, comradery, betrayal and above all things love. It is truly an engaging story that anyone can enjoy. With talking dogs and a flying house, what child would not love this? It is filled with simple, innocent jokes that both adults and children can enjoy. And the level of depth within the characters is something that allows a great empathetic connection making it a very beautiful and lovely film to watch. The soundtrack is perfectly suited to the film. The music is beautiful and uplifting which creates a direct parallel to the characteristics of this picture.