A tale of two movies

My week was bookended with trips to the movies, to see the new Audrey Tautou and Jean-Pierre Jeunet film A Very Long Engagement, and also one of the many new Jude Law movies Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

A Very Long Engagement

I was not really sure what to expect, but a colleague had recommended it to me. The film is the story of Mathilda (played by Audrey Tautou), who was engaged to be married to a soldier on the front line of the Battle of the Somme, Manech is one of five soldiers who were court martialed and condemned to be sent into no man’s land, each of the soldiers being guilty of self mutilation.

Mathilda explores what happened to her fiancée, with a determined optimism that he is alive, for if he was dead she would know. Through Mathilda’s optimistic, and hopeful search we learn of the indelible mark war leaves on all those who are touched by it. In the film, a few examples is the German women they met as they head out to the battlefield, and the one of the soldiers, who initially resented Mathilda’s search for Manech. After witnessing the horror of seeing his comrades blew to pieces, this is with little wonder.

The film presents a realistic view of what the trenches in World War One would have looked like, especially the recounting of why the five soldiers had been sent to no-mans-land and almost certain death. A colleague mentioned to me how the film shows us the front line during the war, and how everything was destroyed, all of life – and then we are taken to the same field later and the field is again alive – that land that was scarred experience rebirth. This contrast reminds me of the state of our world – we fallen in sin – are living in a world scared, cursed, and broken, but a world awaiting the blessings of life, of abundance, and redemption. The image is not as intense in this movie, but it is a reminder for me.

As the film winds to its conclusion and we see the strands of the various stories come together, perhaps strands that are times are hard to distinguish, we learn of another women chasing up the story, her course of action, vengeance. The two women, had two distinct responses to the news, both governed by love, one seeking to find and be reunited to her fiancée, while the other, focused on gaining vengeance on those who had a role in keeping these men’s presidential pardon secret, and who pulled the trigger to her partner.

I found the film excessively gruesome at times, in balance though it did a good job of highlighting what war is like, one of the soldiers, willing to allow his wife to bear child by another man so he would have a sixth child, and be sent home. The characters in the film were endearingly created, particularly Mathilda’s family, and their interplay with the postman is funny. I loved listening to the soundtrack, and hearing the dialogue in French as well. French is a beautiful language.

The end was beautifully done; it ended with hope, but at the same time it was not a totally resolution, it ended with Mathilda content just to ‘look at him’, in spite of his loss of memory.

A Very Long Engagement is a gem.

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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Decided to go to the movies on Saturday night with some friends from church. We settled, with reservations, on Sky Captain; which like Closer, and Alfie, features Jude Law. Basic premise of the film, a number of scientists have been going missing, Polly Percy [Gwyenth Paltrow], a journalist and Sky Captain, seek to find out what is happening, and of course defeat the mastermind behind it all. The sentence summary; spend your money elsewhere.

I found the action and dialogue was weak, wooden, and wearying; the plot felt predictable. The dialogue never really went anywhere, the arguments over whether Polly cut his fuel line, and the constant effort of Polly running back to get her camera, or decide she would wait to take her last picture grew to be tiring. Along with its predictability, the plot was filled with holes.

There was not really much in the film to endear it. It was akin to watching a comic book, with the film largely shot against a blue screen and relying on animation. And this didn’t really work for me. But if this intrigues you, it may be worth thinking about having a look. Though don’t expect a masterpiece. Gwyenth, Jude, and Angelina Jolie (her sum total screen time, is about as long as the time it takes to make a cup of coffee); could not save the film with their relatively ordinary acting. There’s no reason for an attraction between Sky Captain and Polly, or at least the script fails to create an emotional bond between he characters, and more problematically between the audiences and the characters.

Spend your money elsewhere.

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