In a world of cyber-crime where the serial killer is virtually untraceable, FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh must crack the code before she becomes the next victim.
Untraceable begins when Marsh is given a tip by an anonymous caller about a sadistic website. On the site, the tech-savvy internet predator uses snuff films to document the murders of his victims online. For the purpose of entertainment and distribution, the killer has deemed the public in control of the murders. The more people who log on to the website killwithme.com (now a Sony Pictures interactive site used to promote the film), the faster his victims die. While the first victim is a cat, the murders begin to escalate and, soon enough, the crimes become personal for Marsh.
With muted colors and aerial shots, Untraceable successfully delivers a home-made movie feel complete with jumpy camera takes. Plenty of long shots throughout the film act as watchful eyes peering through the most intimate parts of the characters’ lives. Subtle at first, this manner of filming becomes most evident during an intimate family dinner. Marsh, her mother and daughter are framed in such a way that her dining room window transforms into a television screen, with Marsh’s family as the prime-time program.
A new twist on a familiar plot, Untraceable takes Silence of the Lambs to the next level. Here Marsh (Diane Lane) is not only after a serial killer, but is up against technology—a technology harboring a society of voyeurs and sadists. However, unlike Jodie Foster’s performance as Agent Starling, Lane’s is not convincing. Best known for her roles as a lonely pre-school teacher in Must Love Dogs or a frustrated writer who finds refuge in Italy in Under the Tuscan Sun, Lane’s portrayal as a crime-buster isn’t light-hearted like her past roles. Perhaps her previous roles have defined her or perhaps she just cannot live up to Foster’s Oscar-winning performance, but Lane is better at the comically lonely, love-hungry, middle-aged woman role.
Compared to other crime thrillers, Untraceable did not live up to its potential. With the only recognizable actor being Lane, the cast was lacking. Not only were the main actors (Peter Lewis, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks and Joseph Cross) unfamiliar, but their weak execution of lines evidenced a lack of experience. At the same time, Untraceable was predictable with every downloaded file, with every click of the mouse.
No suspense, no thrills, just gore. If Untraceable was meant to shock, it only disgusted with images of a victim covered in boils from extreme heat or relinquishing his skin to a tub of battery acid. Wondering what the killer’s next torture method will be is the only suspense that drives the film. The only shocker was how the film managed enough material to make it over an hour and a half.
Not a complete disappointment, but a disappointment none the less. Maybe with a better cast, the film could have fulfilled its goal as a suspenseful crime thriller. It may have a technological twist, but with a plot that has been exhausted by the middle of the movie, there’s no need to stay for the end, which is merely a cop-out. Perhaps director Gregory Hoblit (Fracture) thought the torture had already gone on long enough and decided to put an abrupt end to the misery.
No terror here, just a terrible movie with the underlying message that society has become depraved. Unfazed by virtual murder, cyber-space has made the world disturbingly impersonal. This warning is the only remotely chilling thing about Untraceable.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Horrifyingly "Untraceable"
"Atonement" fails to live up to the hype
Visually stunning. Ultimately disappointing.
Joe Wright’s (Pride & Prejudice) film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 2001 best-selling novel, Atonement, left me confused. I really wanted to like it but simply couldn’t. It’s a wonder it was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture.
A Titanic wanna-be, Atonement, marketed as an epic romance transcending time and war, falls flat. Christopher Hampton’s (Dangerous Liaisons) weak screenplay stifles the film’s strong motifs—love, betrayal and guilt. The film has excellent bones and could have had real potential but the menial script and moderate character interaction hold it back.
Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the housekeeper’s son, has also returned from college, but only attended because of the Tallis’s generosity. Briony has an obvious crush on Robbie. However, the attraction between Robbie and Cecilia is much more subtle. So subtle, in fact, they interact little throughout the film. Their passionate romance has no build-up, no substance. With little dialogue between them, it’s a wonder these two ever get together at all. An awkward encounter between them by a fountain makes it clear that Robbie loves Cecilia and she doesn’t realize his existence. Cecilia discovers her true feelings only after receiving a letter Robbie wrote, but the little amount of background information given about their relationship is unsatisfying. After Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for one another, Briony tells a vengeful lie against Robbie. Unable to foresee the implications of her actions, Briony’s jealous rage rips the couple apart and destroys the lives of others.Robbie goes to prison for his alleged crime eventually entering World War II around 1939. In time, Cecilia becomes a nurse awaiting Robbie’s return. They see each other once in five years time. A simple touch of the hand expresses their passion but little development about their relationship makes the romance unbelievable.
Throughout most of the film, there are vignettes of lovesick Robbie traversing Dunkirk trying to find his company with two other soldiers. Cecilia hardly gets any screen time and the end of the film follows Briony as she too becomes a nurse attempting to atone for the sins of her past.
Thank goodness for Seamus McGarvey and his mesmerizing cinematography. He brilliantly created captivating portraits on screen. Images of Cecilia in an emerald gown gazing at a mirror with cigarette smoke wafting around her face mark the time period while scenes of young Briony surrounded by patches of yellow and white wildflowers personify her untamed yet innocent nature. Every scene looks like a photograph carefully painted on the screen—particularly, that of the soldiers on the beaches at Dunkirk. The attention to detail makes the landscape look as if it came straight out of an oil painting. It’s difficult to pull away from the vibrant compositions. Alas, the lackluster interaction between the characters helps remedy that urge.Unfortunately, Atonement has no driving force. The timing and pacing are off. Nothing terribly exciting or surprising happens though the ending is slightly unexpected. And when Cecilia utters, “Come back” to Robbie (the film’s one memorable line) it is strangely reminiscent of the days of Rose and Jack on that ill-fated ship. This is definitely not an “I’m on the edge of my seat” kind of film. The people snoring and chatting in the theater were a sign of that.
Whoever said looks can be deceiving wasn’t kidding. It’s as if everyone but the art department took a back seat. The absence of dialogue and character development made the movie heart-wrenching, but not in a good way. By the end of the film, knowing who Cecilia and Robbie are seems very unimportant. Plus, staring at pretty pictures for over two hours only goes so far. It appears that Atonement’s filmmakers have a few things to atone for themselves.
Smart, witty: "Juno" cleverly depicts real life
The characters in the new American comedy Juno feel like people that you and I know. That is the greatest tribute I can give a film about the happenings of everyday people.
Most recent teenage coming-of-age films have depicted teenage characters as sex-crazed and far too mature for their actual age. Even the much-beloved 2007 comedy Superbad was a movie in which the three main characters knew nothing about real love, but a great deal about sex.
This is what makes Juno so unique in modern film. Though the title character, played by the remarkable Ellen Page, speaks in sarcastic, advanced phrases for a 16-year-old, her actions indicate she knows little about the ways of the world, a fact repeated by her stepmother early in the movie.
Juno’s smart dialogue is not another example of a teenager who knows too much for her age, but rather the result of an intelligent script by Diablo Cody, who is making her screenwriting debut.
The movie opens with 16-year-old Juno having to come to terms with the consequences of an awkward true-to-life, initial sexual encounter in a recliner with her best friend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). After finding out that “fetuses have fingernails,” Juno decides not to have an abortion. Instead, she finds a couple looking to adopt in the Pennysaver sales newspaper. Juno meets the couple, Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) and decides that she wants them to adopt the baby.
As the plot twists and turns, Juno learns more than she bargains for about life, as she experiences feelings of love and regret through the pregnancy. Will Juno actually surrender the child to the adoptive parents? Will Juno tell Paulie Bleeker she has real feelings for him? Will another man intervene in Juno’s life first?
Juno is only director Jason Reitman’s second feature film, following the successful 2006 film Thank You for Smoking. In Juno, Reitman focuses extensively on facial camera close-ups to convey the characters’ mixed emotions. Rarely does the sophisticated dialogue reflect the exact feelings of each character, with the exception of the uninhibited Juno. Therefore, the actors and the director must convey the emotion through their expressions for the movie to succeed. This impressive camerawork enables the viewer to know that everything is complicated below the surface.
The acting in Juno is fantastic as well. Page’s sharp wit could win her an Academy Award. She is particularly great in her interaction with her father (J.K. Simmons) and her stepmother (Allison Janney), who Juno clearly loves but seldom respects. For example, she sarcastically tells her stepmother to “Dream big!” after her stepmother tells her that her goal is to get two dogs when Juno moves out of the house. Cera also excels as the awkward father-to-be, in a role similar to the one he cultivated on Arrested Development and in Superbad. Bateman and Garner are just as good in parts that are considerably more difficult to play. Neither character is able to rant like Juno or bumble like Paulie. They have to seem like a happy married couple dealing with their own private issues, much like many American couples do everyday. If Mark and Vanessa do not seem real, the movie fails, regardless of Page and Cera’s excellence.
However, it is Juno’s relationship with Paulie that makes the movie much more than merely effective. Neither character understands feelings or sex, but they know they feel something, and they know they did something. While Juno is able to form coherent thoughts about virtually any topic, including punk music, she is unable to tell Paulie, the one person she can usually tell anything to, exactly how she feels about him. The complicated relationship between Mark and Vanessa shows that the inability to express love does not necessarily dissipate even as people grow older.
This is why Juno is a special film. While almost anyone can pontificate on something, such as baseball or politics, few people can truly talk about love. It is something that can only be expressed through actions. Fortunately for the viewer, the actions of Juno and the other characters are a thrill to experience. How Juno handles problems in the film is how real 16-year-olds would handle their problems. Because of this everyday realism, Juno is a phenomenal film.
"Charlie Bartlett": the cure to teen comedy
Charlie Bartlett, like Juno, proves that the next generation of teen comedies is intelligent, witty and sophisticated—something the Freddie Prinze Jr. movies of the ‘90s were lacking. Perhaps the movie industry finally wised up by delivering a film that suits the intelligence level of teens because, let’s face it: they’re smarter than they look.
The movie is somewhat predictable and all of the loose ends tie up rather conveniently, but it is the dialogue between Yelchin and Davis that makes this teen comedy into a unique movie-going experience. Yelchin’s (Alpha Dog) performance as Charlie Bartlett will open doors for this young actor whose monologue from “The Misadventures of a Teenage Renegade” early on in the film had the audience laughing until the point of tears. Davis’s performance as a drugged up WASP of a mother who acts more as a friend than a responsible guardian will have the audience cringing in their seats when she breaks into song and dance, giving an impromptu performance for Charlie and his love interest, played by Kat Dennings (The 40 Year Old Virgin). It is the unhealthy mother-son relationship, as well as the ongoing theme of hope that make this film a realistic look at the life of teens today.
The vivid personality of each character, as well as the intelligent script, make the teen comedies of yesteryear look more suitable for ABC Family, rather than Regal Cinemas. Charlie Bartlett will have the audience cheering throughout the movie. If you want to stand up to the bullies, fall for the girl of your dreams or revisit the days of just wanting to fit in, then this movie will fulfill all of those desires. Charlie Bartlett is playing with the big boys of the sophisticated comedies and proves that catering to the intelligence of the target audience not only will satisfy teens, but it’ll also satisfy the parents sitting in the back corner of the theatre, spying on their kids’ first dates.
"Atonement": a haphazard must-see
One would think that Atonement, the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel, is the product of a long established, Academy Award-winning director. It’s not. This breathtaking 2007 film is only the second feature of director Joe Wright. His work results in haphazard perfection.
The film grabs its audience with a heart wrenching love story and tumbles through every sentiment possible leaving viewers pleasantly traumatized. It is a collision between Wright’s first feature, 2005’s Pride and Prejudice, and the tragic last half of a much better, more mature Titanic. Surprisingly, it is not the plot that makes Atonement so intriguing; it is the way that the plot is revealed. It sucks the audience in with a shallow scene and reveals the meaning in the next. You think you know what is happening only to find out five minutes later that you didn’t. This method creates a sense of captivating confusion.
This epic story spans decades, beginning on the wealthy British estate of the Tallis family, moving to London hospitals and World War II’s Dunkirk battlefields — displayed in a heart-stirring 5 ½-minute tracking shot — and finishing with a heartbreaking yet eloquent present-day monologue. The story is about two sisters, Briony (Saoirse Ronan) and Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightly), both in love with the same servant boy, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy). Young Briony’s reaction to a toxic mix of feelings toward Robbie and Cecilia’s heated romance serves as the movies center.
The movie is quick once it reels you in and doesn’t ease up until the closing scene, where Vanessa Redgrave gives a moving performance as a dying Briony. The actors deliver award-worthy performances. James McAvoy, the true star of the movie, lends soul to the film through poignant scenes and an understated presence. His emotion is unmatched by the other actors and his actions portray what words cannot. His creation of Robbie Turner is spot on and he, along with Saoirse Ronan, playing young Briony, make the movie. Ronan is quiet but effective, and her expressions and composure make her a success in this film. Even with no dialogue these stars would have glistened.
At the Academ Awards, only one of the actors received a nomination (Ronan for actress in a supporting role). McAvoy was sadly overlooked without so much as a nod for the Academy. The film itself, however, was up for several Oscars, including best picture, writing for an adapted screenplay, art direction, cinematography, costume design and score.
Wright wows the audience, intensifying scenes with dramatic zooms and rapid shifts of perspective. He sets a steady pace for the film in the opening seconds with a strategically clicking typewriter that is woven in throughout the movie. The cinematography peaks at Dunkirk; however, all of the French war shots are incredible. Robbie’s entire journey, from the shelter where he is first seen as a soldier to the beach where over 300,000 troops were rescued, is shot masterfully. It is a film that had great opportunity for failure, but the perfect mix of professionals created something worthwhile for viewers. The team came together to form a magical mix that resulted in a film with morsels of excellence throughout.
Atonement is modern through direction and cinematography, yet timeless in screenplay and score. Unfamiliar perfection is made as every element clashes together haphazardly, all through disorder, trauma and timeless love. It is a divine piece of art while still being entertainment at its finest. Full of history, passion and anguish, this movie will leave the audience flooded with every emotion and in thought for hours if not days.
