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A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind
The controversy over Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind has taken away an important fact: the Oscar-winning film is a terrific example of Hollywood filmmaking at its best.
Howard's slick production chops up Sylvia Nasar's biography of John Nash, to be sure, but handsome photography and an inventive screenplay by Akiva Goldsman provide ample reasons to admire the filmmaking.
Best of all are the central performances by Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany. As the Nashs, Crowe and Connelly strike the perfect notes as foils for each other: he the tempestuous genius, she the calm that weathers the storm. And Bettany gives another strong supporting turn as Nash's "imaginary friend", as it were, a phantom of support that Nash is required to finally abandon for sanity.
Only horrific aging makeup at the film's end prevent it from being a flawlessly executed piece of studio production.
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
Amelie
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's sugary-sweet ode to a pixieish do-gooder named Amelie is a visual wonder, but leaves something to be desired on the narrative side. Early on, I was drawn in by Amelie's exploits (the victim of a strange childhood, to say the least, she becomes a kind of invisible patron saint for riff-raff), but as her romance dragged on and on, I wondered whether there was really any point to it all. Apparently the moral is that if you do nice things for people, sensitive men will follow you all over the city to win your heart.
Leaving a bit of the sarcasm behind, Amelie is entertaining to a point, but the whole thing is just so drippy at times that it can't seem to hold the weight of its own ideas. Audrey Tautou is cute as a button, but her titular heroine is simply too much of a "good" thing.
Still, Jeunet's photographic palette is as exquisity as ever, and a great many of Amelie's exploits are wondrous, such as when she rushes a blind man through a busy street, describing everything for him in minute detail, then leaving him just as abruptly to soak it all in. And her little revenges against a bitter street vendor are truly a delight to watch unfold.
I just wish the filmmakers could have decided whether to make an idea film or a fairy tale. As it is, Amelie is nothing more than the sum of it parts, parts which could have added up to so much more.
All the Real Girls (2003)
All the Real Girls
A love story can be told in any number of ways. David Gordon Green, the director of the supremely accomplished George Washington, begins his somewhere in the middle of the courtship. Noel (Zooey Deschanel) and Paul (Paul Schneider) are dating, but in secret. Paul, a notorious womanizer, is the best friend of Noel's brother, Tip (Shea Whigham). The conundrum the two face lies in Paul's storied past. Tip, who's been Paul's accomplice on many occasions, knows how the rest of Paul's liaisons have turned out: with the girl heartbroken. Indeed, when Tip does find out, it sets him off on a drunken, violent tirade, swearing off the friendship, only to recant later. The romance encounters bumps and bruises, most notably when Noel has a weekend fling with another man. Paul, never having been on the hurt end of a relationship, goes off the deep end.
Green's lovely film (shot by Tim Orr, the D.P. on Green's George Washington, as well as the Raising Victor Vargas), explores the machinations of new love, with notable flourishes around its painted edges. Green captures unique moments, sometimes just snapshots, of the small town life surrounding the love story: a three-legged dog hobbling across the street, a field, etc. Green has an amazing eye for externalized beauty and possesses one of the most distinctive voices in American cinema. Like Wes Anderson's punchy irony, or Steven Soderbergh's notorious commercial/art-house balancing acts, Green's lyrical downhomeness allows for simple details to compliment larger acts of narrative drive.
Paul Schneider (also credited with the film's story) is a complicated actor. He has a bit of Mark Ruffalo's solitary handsomeness, but is much more extroverted with his emotions. He exudes charm and a sly machismo, but seems capable of truly loving someone, if only he knew what love really meant.
Zooey Deschanel, so good as a bit player in other films is remarkable here. Her expressive, yet pensive, work in this film performs one of his best acting. She wears Noel like a loose sweater, all feeling and baggy emotions. It's not a performance that calls a great deal of attention to itself, which is exactly why it works so well. Like the rest of Green's set dressing, Deschanel is a perfect mechanism for conveying the well-wrought emotion of the love affair that approaches serenity, but ultimately must settle for a plateau of understanding.
There are no grand gestures at the film's end, merely a mutual agreement to carry on, come what may. It's a refreshing approach that pays off splendidly. All the Real Girls is a work beautifully realized from a filmmaker, whose career It's full of ups and downs. The latter, however, much more than the former.