Love in the Time of Cholera

The film adaptation of the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and starring Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt and Giovanna Mezzogiorno turns out to be overfull with love, and could have done with a great deal more cholera. Shambling and rambling this tale spanning five decades concerns the interwoven lives of three people in a nameless Latin American country. Poor telegraph boy Florentino falls desperately in love with wealthy Fermina, much to the disappointment of her father who sends her off into the jungle to forget. Upon her return she dumps the poor Florentino and marries instead urbane, devastatingly handsome and successful Doctor Urbino. Florentino vows to stay faithful to Fermina and keep himself until he can marry her. He does this by bedding several hundred women - a surprising feat considering his lack of looks, and increasing age - all due to the fact that he claims his heart is waiting to be filled with love and he represents no threat to the women. There are several problems with this film - all the actors talk with heavy Latin accents (I wonder why they didn't let them speak in their own language and use subtitles - fear of commercial failure perhaps?); the second difficulty is the lack of clear identification of the peripheral characters - it is never clear whether these are relatives, friends, acquaintances or (seemingly nameless) passers by. Then there is the problem of aging. The opening scene the three main characters in their seventies proves that a bit of make up and stooping isn't really convincing. These are clearly youthful actors. The story is only just this side of credible, and regularly strays into soft porn. Is this the fault of the book or the film. A pity, because much more could have been made from the basic premise. Rating - 5/10

Children of Glory

I was so pleased I managed to catch this terrific Hungarian language film - mainly on the recommendation of the film reviewer on Radio 2's Weekender programme. Starring Ivan Fenyo as a water polo player (and therefore a national hero in an Olympic year) and Kata Dobo as a student daughter of parents 'eliminated' by the secret police who becomes involved in the Hungarian Rising of 1956. The film begins with a brutal water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union - it is fixed to ensure a Russian victory, but because Ivan's character shows dissent he is warned by the secret police to stay loyal to Communism or his family will suffer. Shortly afterwards the insurrection begins and he meets Viki (Kata Dobo) who draws him into active participation in this doomed attempt to overthrow Soviet rule. The movie then traces the tragedy of 1956, the false hopes dashed, the brutal suppression, whilst the world expressed horror, but did nothing. As the uprising reaches its final phase, bizarrely (and truthfully) the Hungarian athletes head off to the Melbourne Olympics where the water polo team meets the Soviet Union in the semi finals - and they almost act out the clashes between Soviet troops and the Hungarian people - bloodshed in the pool. This is hardly a fun film, nor perhaps uplifting, but it is moving, very real and raw in emotional terms and the acting is believable. Oh yes, the water polo team defect to the capitalism of America. Rating 9/10

Vantage Point

A political thriller/action movie (and none the worse for that) starring William Hurt and Dennis Quaid (with several other well known actors). The film uses a clever (and effective) device of viewing events surrounding the assassination of a US President at a peace summit in Spain from various perspectives. This demonstrates how each individual (ranging from a TV producer, through secret service bodyguard, tourist, police officer to bystanding child) sees only one fraction of the drama, and often get totally conflicting (sometimes dangerously so) impressions of what is happening. Gradually the plot is uncovered and we see almost all of what has gone on. There is a wonderful car chase (rivalling that in Tell No One) and the body count is appallingly high. I was on the edge of my seat, but there are two flaws. Because there are so many contributors there is no hero - Dennis Quaid is no Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series. Secondly we never find out the plotters motivations and that undermines the 'politics' of this thriller. Still it is worthy of a 7/10 rating.

The Other Boleyn Girl

This average movie tells the tale of how conniving Anne Boleyn catches her man - but at the cost of her own life and the eventual disgrace of her family - but this time seen through the eyes of her younger sister Mary. The Boleyn family were not of the top rank but Anne and Mary's father had married into the Howard family, and was determined to use his daughters as a means of obtaining the top rank. Mary (despite being recently married) is sent in as a last minute replacement for the over pushy Anne and it is Mary who enters Henry VIII's bed and produces the long desired son - but illegimate. To say this pushes Anne's nose out of joint would be an understatement, and so she manipulates events to gain the ultimate prize - marriage to the monarch. Along the way she ousts Catherine of Aragon (and Mary) in the King's affections, but as we all know it all ends in tears. There was a big opportunity here to view history in a very different way and inject some excitement and suspense in this well known tale - but the film is pedestrian, sloppy in direction, clumsy and confusing historically. Still not a complete turkey - and the two girls are well portrayed by Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson. Rating: 6/10

Be Kind - Rewind

Now considering the volume of films I see I suppose eventually I must end up seeing one or two that are below acceptable. This movie starring Jack Black, Mos Def and Danny Glover was just plain dull.

I essence the alleged birthplace of Fats Waller in New Jersey happens to be a video rental store. Now here you have the first of my problems - surely VHS has gone the way of audiotapes and 78 rpm records? Anyway Jack Black becomes magnetised during an attempt to neutralise a local electricity sub station and thereby wipes clean all the stores video tapes, whilst owner Danny Glover is out of town on a fact finding mission to save the building from being demolished by developers. Meanwhile, back in the store, because the customers won't accept the lack of tapes Jack Black and store manager Mos Def set out to re-create the most popular films - well according to the poster with hilarious results. In fact this didn't make me laugh at all, it was dull, unimaginative, and in places offensive. The cast are all stereotypes, and as the pair end up producing a community involvement documentary on the life of Fats Waller it just becomes sentimental twaddle. Rating: a yawn producing 3/10