Here’s another one to put on your must-see/must-read list (sorry, Shelley P and Julien, for making your stack so tall!). When Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island first came out in 2003, I wrote the review below for mysteryinkonline.com. When I heard about Martin Scorsese directing a movie version with that cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Max von Sydow, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Emily Mortimer—insane!), I was like a kid who couldn’t sleep on Christmas Eve.
Now the trailer’s here. How crazy, creepy is it? The movie opens October 2 in the U.S. and Canada (Oct. 1 for Shelley P, Oct. 9 for Poncho and Oct. 14 for Julien) but Santa can’t come soon enough!
My 2003 review of the book (no spoilers):
A few years ago, Dennis Lehane decided to take a sabbatical from his Patrick Kenzie/Angie Gennaro series to write a different kind of thriller. Lehane has said he wanted to improve his prose instead of relying on his usual minimalist, dialogue-laden style. This change of direction led him to Mystic River, a languidly-paced, character-driven mystery that became a critical and commercial breakthrough for him (and an Oscar-winning Clint Eastwood movie). Now, with his follow-up, Shutter Island, Lehane continues his growth as a sophisticated and insightful writer.
Island takes place in 1954 and follows U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule as they investigate the mysterious disappearance of a mental patient from a maximum security institution for the most violent and insane offenders. This hospital is located on the eponymous island and shelters almost as many secrets as residents. After the marshals’ arrivals, the island is hit by a deadly hurricane which temporarily neutralizes the electric-powered security systems. Daniels and Aule are trapped with escaped criminals, ambiguous doctors possibly dabbling in illegal experiments and a mysterious “67th patient” whose identity no one seems to know. Daniels struggles to uncover the truth about the island’s nefarious activities while struggling with grief from the recent death of his wife (aptly named Dolores, meaning “pains” in Spanish). Daniels may also have a secret agenda for being on the island but the question becomes: Will he and Aule ever get off the island?
First with Mystic River and now with Island, Lehane proves he is definitely moving in the right direction. There are many passages in Island which beautifully demonstrate his insight into the human condition. He can illustrate emotions such as love and sorrow as tangible entities, living things which can lift you off your feet or stab you in the heart. And while his prose has certainly become more eloquent, he has not abandoned his gift for dialogue. The marshals have an easy banter between them and there are touches of humor courtesy of Aule, who functions as the good cop of the duo.
As good as Mystic River was, Shutter Island is even more accomplished, with a plot that’s more complex. Just when the reader thinks he knows where the story is headed, it turns down a surprising path. As many plot twists as Island contains, however, they’re not there just for shock value and nothing else. Each revelation is duly supported by earlier events, making the ending—and the book—a tense and satisfyingly plausible read.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might know I’ve been keeping tabs on the movie version of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife since it’s one of my absolutely favorite books ever. I wrote about it earlier here when a source saw it at a test screening (and about her next novel here).
I’ve since also seen a version that, if it’s not the final cut, must be very close to it. The film moved me deeply—it retains the spirit of the book while having to omit and change some things—but I’ll save a formal review for after seeing the finished product.
Meanwhile, the trailer is out and the one-sheet has been revealed. How gorgeous is that poster? I want to frame one and hang it in my den.
What do you think, TTTW fans? How excited are you? (UPDATE: Read my interview with Hailey & Tatum McCann, who play Alba at different ages in the film.)
Just got back from a screening of this, sponsored by Creative Screenwriting magazine. The movie, which borrows the title from the 1974 Walter Matthau-Robert Shaw-starrer (screenwriter Brian Helgeland claims in interviews it’s not really a remake), concerns a hostage situation where gunmen take over a subway train and demand $10 million from the city of New York or else they start shooting passengers. Denzel Washington plays Walter Garber, the Mass Transit Authority employee who takes the ransom call from Travolta’s character, called only Ryder. The entire movie takes place in a matter of (really tense) hours.
I didn’t like it but my movie partner Eric did, so we’re pulling out the Siskel & Ebert-style review again.
PCN: I didn’t like this movie.
Eric: Really? Nothing about it?
PCN: I liked Denzel’s work. He’s always solid. But Travolta’s character was not that interesting a bad guy. He had no right to be mad at the city. And Travolta didn’t just chew scenery. He devoured it, regurgitated, then chewed it some more.
Eric: I admit he did go for flash over substance. But it’s a rare occasion when I get to see a movie in which I could relate to the hero. Garber’s not a superhero like Wolverine; he’s just an average guy having a really bad day. His character arc held my interest and I stayed with him as he took me through the whole story. He kept the movie on track for me, pun intended.
PCN: I had no problem with Garber. But a hero is only as compelling as his foil and Ryder was too cartoonish. It was like the lead actors were in different movies. Denzel kept it real while Travolta was over the top. There were funny moments in the movie but sometimes I laughed when I wasn’t supposed to.
Eric: Ryder is never going to make my list of top villains ever. But his goal was simple: He wanted that money and he’s going to take it by any means necessary.
PCN: And we go back to his character being one-dimensional. The best villains have interesting reasons for their actions. Remember why Pacino held up that bank in Dog Day Afternoon? Ryder’s motivations were too simple, as you say.
Eric: Then focus on the bait and switch, how you thought his goal was one thing and it turned out he was doing something else.
PCN: By the time that was revealed, it was too late. I had stopped caring about why he was doing anything. And the ending—that scene on the bridge—didn’t make any sense to me. **SPOILER ALERT!**
I don’t know why the cops didn’t take Ryder out as soon as he reached for his gun. He would’ve been riddled with holes. Garber wouldn’t have been able to take that one shot.
**END SPOILER**
PCN: The action sequences were uninspired. Nothing new or exciting here.
Eric: The only problem I had with the film was that New York could use a break from being terrorized on screen.
PCN: Well, then you’d have to change the title and mode of transportation. They don’t have subway trains in Omaha.
Eric: Good point. I’d still recommend this movie.
PCN: I’d say save your money or see Up again.
Nerd verdict: 1 2 3 is a rote, by-the-numbers action flick. Eric’s verdict: Worth buying a token for it.
I’m trying not to drool as I write this. Variety reports that Javier Bardem has been cast in the movie version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s monster bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love as “Felipe” (his real name is Jose),the irresistible man she meets in Bali. Julia Roberts had already been cast as Gilbert, with Richard Jenkins playing her friend Richard from Texas (who answered a few questions for me about that here).
Though Bardem is not old enough—he’s younger than Roberts when Felipe is significantly older than Gilbert—he would be a compelling reason for Gilbert to break her self-imposed celibacy. Viewers would nod their heads and say, “It’s okay, you tried but we understand.”
Any other EPL fans out there? What do you think of this casting? (UPDATE: Click here for my review of Gilbert’s follow-up, Committed.)
Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus screened at Cannes and the reviews are out. Here’s Entertainment Weekly‘s, Variety‘s and the Hollywood Reporter‘s. Heath Ledger died while working on this (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped in to finish his role) and apparently the first time you see him in the movie is as a corpse. Yikes.
The plot sounds intriguing but also confusing. I’m not a huge fan of Gilliam’s oeuvre and the movie doesn’t have a U.S. release date yet but I’ll probably see it when it does arrive so I can pay tribute to Ledger’s work. Will you?
I’ve been waiting for this trailer. Not only am I a deep-rooted Sherlock Holmes fan (devoured all the stories, short and long, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the summer before 7th grade), I think Robert Downey Jr. is one of the best actors currently alive. One’s playing the other? I hyperventilated when I heard the news.
And now the trailer is here. You have to tell me your first impressions because I’m not sure what to think. It’s all over the place for me. Some of it looks good—the on-location scenery, some of the action, Downey and Jude Law (as Dr. Watson) and Rachel McAdams—but some of it is questionable. Downey’s British accent seems uneven to me and so does the tone. Is it a dark, gothic action thriller or Forgetting Sarah Marshall, as indicated by the nude scenario at the end? (Update: Read review here.)
From L: Dench, Cruz, Cotillard, Loren, Ferguson (in front), Kidman, Hudson
I seriously dislike musicals and didn’t like Fellini’s 8 1/2 much, either. But Nine, the musical version of that Italian film coming out this November, is one of the movies I’m most eagerly anticipating this year. Why? First off, Daniel Day-Lewis is in it. That man can do anything and he’ll apparently be singing and dancing here. Can’t wait to see that.
As extra incentive, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Penelope Cruz, Dame Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson and Fergie, er, Stacy Ferguson also show up to display their jazz hands. The title of the movie might as well stand for how many Oscar winners are in the cast.
And they’re all being directed by Rob Marshall, which excites me because I really enjoyed Chicago despite my aforementioned lack of love for the musical. This man turned the usually wooden Richard Gere into a dashing musical performer—imagine what he can do with Day-Lewis—and got Catherine Zeta-Jones an Oscar. Since most cast members this time are already Oscar-winners, how high can they go?
From what I hazily remember about the original, the story is about a director who’s experiencing a creative block while directing his ninth film (8 1/2 because he only co-directed one of the films). Compounding this problem are personal issues he has with the many women in his lives, some in the present and some in the past. And there were a bunch of confusing dream sequences.
Anyway, check out the trailer below and tell me what you think. Fergie’s doing the singing, Kidman’s doing the kissing, Hudson’s doing the booty-shaking and Cruz is doing that really flexible thing with her leg. (UPDATE: See new trailer and hear Kate Hudson & Marion Cotillard sing here.)
It’s always fun for me to interview people but this time was especially fun because Tomas is a friend and fellow obsessive pop culture nerd. He’s also a screenwriter/producer who wrote last year’s MTV movie musical, The American Mall.
This Friday, May 15, the supernatural thriller he co-wrote and associate produced, Not Forgotten (see trailer below), opens at the Mann’s Chinese theater in L.A. The film stars Simon Baker (who has shirtless scenes), Paz Vega (Sex and Lucia, Spanglish), Michael DeLorenzo (New York Undercover), and features Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black). It’s about a man who seemingly has the perfect life in a Texas border town until his young daughter is kidnapped. The incident is tied to his dark, secret past involving his faith in Santa Muerte (Saint Death), something he must invoke again in order to get his child back.
In between writing American Mall 2 and a post-apocalyptic teen comedy, Tomas agreed to answer my nerdy questions.
PCN: There are a lot of whores in this movie. Was it a fun set?
With actress Carmen Perez
Tomas Romero: I believe they prefer the term “working girls,” but yes, the Mexican whorehouse scenes were just as fun to shoot as they were to write. It’s funny, though, I kept apologizing to the actresses on set, like, “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a name, Curly-Haired Whore or Grabby Girl #2, but I must say, you look awesome in that pink halter top.”
PCN: Oh, I’m sure that made up for it. The movie also includes lots of details about death cults. Research or personal experience?
Santa Muerte
TR: No, man, I gave up death cults in college. Seriously, though, we did loads of research and even though much of what my co-writer, the film’s director Dror Soref, and I unearthed about the very real cult of Santa Muerte was fascinating. I think the thing we found most interesting about Santa Muerte is that she is a street Saint, a down-and-dirty version of the Virgin Mary if you will. And though she is invoked most famously by criminals, gangsters, and prostitutes, she is also a very real part of many people’s lives in Mexico. We found several instances where policemen in these areas actually prayed to Santa Muerte for protection before their shifts. I mean, how cool is that?
PCN: Um, pretty cool, I guess, but she still looks super creepy. You started writing this script many years ago. Why do you think it came together now?
TR: Ha! If I had an answer for that, I’d have a lot more produced movies under my belt. I’m kidding, kinda, but the reality is that getting a movie made these days, even at a studio level, is very difficult and taking a truly independently-financed film from page to screen is next to impossible. Luckily for us, we had a small army of very talented folks behind the scenes. Not counting myself, there is like a baker’s dozen of producers on this movie and they all rocked.
PCN: How did they get the financing?
TR: Santa Muerte!
PCN: Dur! OK, you didn’t have children when you wrote this but now have a baby daughter. Do you look at your own script and say, “Oh, crap! I just created my worst nightmare!”?
Baker, Moretz & DP Steven Bernstein
TR: OMG, I know, I can’t even imagine. Some of the things we put poor Chloe Moretz—the crazy-talented young actress who plays Baker’s kidnapped daughter Toby—through in this movie, I was like, Please don’t watch this movie ’til you’re, like, 30. She was fine with everything, a total pro and hilariously funny to boot, but I was a wreck during all her scenes. And now that I have a daughter of my own—forget about it.
Baker
PCN: By scene 10, Jack and Amaya are in a steamy sex scene. Did you put that in before or after you knew you’d landed Simon Baker and Paz Vega?
TR: That scene was always there. The casting of Paz and Simon just made it that much steamier, so, yay for us!
Carmen Serano, Michael DeLorenzo, Benito Martinez
PCN: My friend Carmen Serano is a gorgeous actress and model. Why’d you cast her as a gimpy prison warden with a unibrow?
TR: I know. What were we thinking? Clearly, Carmen would have made a much better whore. Ha! Totally kidding. Carmen was awesome to work with and her character does get some of the biggest laughs in the movie, so, unibrow or not, I think she’ll be very happy with how she comes off. Your other friend, Benito Martinez, is also fantastic in the movie. Benito plays a sleazy Mexican police chief like nobody’s business and the dude steals every scene he’s in! He’s great. OMG, and [your other friend] Greg [Serano] is so badass in the movie!
PCN: That’s hilarious, because I think Greg is goofy. And I mean that in the best way.
TR: He has this one great scene where he is grilling Jack and Amaya and he holds his own, baby. If this whole acting thing doesn’t pan out, which it obviously has since he’s been working non-stop, the dude would make a truly scary policeman! Yikes!!
PCN: You also wrote the story for MTV’s original musical, The American Mall. Any similarities between singing mall rats and chanting death-cult followers?
Paz Vega, Moretz
TR: Totally! MTV’s standards and practices made us cut the death cult chant from Mall but it was so cool! Seriously, the movies are a lot more alike than they seem. I mean, deep down, both films are about staying true to your authentic self at all costs, and the steep price you pay when you don’t. The female leads in both movies know this from the get-go, it’s the male leads that have to learn this lesson the hard way. And though the mechanics of their situation are very different, the journey both Joey in Mall and Jack in Not Forgotten take is essentially the same.
PCN: How do you feel about Not Forgotten opening on the same day as Angels & Demons? I feel like I should wear a giant cross around my neck if I go to the movies this weekend.
TR: You should totally wear your cross, because there is gonna be a whole lotta death cult and demon love going on at the movies this weekend.
PCN: Some people I know saw the trailer and said it’s too scary for them. Give them one reason to go see it anyway.
TR: Well, it is kinda scary, but, I think it’s important to differentiate between scary movies that exist solely to scare and scary movies that have a little bit more going on. Take for instance, The Exorcist. On the surface that movie scared the crap out of me as a kid—and still does, actually—but I kept watching because I really, deeply cared about what was happening to this poor woman and her daughter. Not Forgotten is kind of the same way. You might wanna cover your eyes sometimes, but at its core, it is a movie about a father struggling to hold his family together despite some spectacularly tall odds. And, Mexican death cult or not, who can’t relate to that?
I was among those who contributed to X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s humongous $87 million take this weekend and here are some quick thoughts I had in case you’re still not sure if you should slap down the dough:
It has some awesome action sequences (Logan against a helicopter was whoa!-worthy)
Several good actors were wasted, namely Lynn Collins and Dominic Monaghan (though they’ll surely enjoy the residual checks)
Danny Huston as yet another bad guy is so tiresome. I’m not talking about his acting, which is fine, only saying he’s a predictable, uninspired choice for Stryker because he’s played so many evil men (he continues the streak in the upcoming Mel Gibson-starrer Edge of Darkness, a rough cut of which I’ve seen)
Keep your eyes on Daniel Henney, who plays Agent Zero, because he’s going places (he’s already a huge star in Korea)
Hugh Jackman can really fill out a pair of jeans (or not—he’s completely nude at one point)
You shouldn’t think too much about the plot because a lot of it doesn’t make sense. I don’t need to go into detail because the title says it all—this is an origin story, telling us how Wolverine came to have adamantium claws, healing powers and memory loss. Ignore the loopholes and occasionally clunky dialogue and enjoy the eye candy
It would help you enjoy this movie if you’re already a fan of Hugh Jackman and/or Wolverine
On the comic-book-turned-into-a-movie scale, it’s not as good as the first two Spider-Man flicks, or even Iron Man, but it’s certainly more watchable than Ang Lee’s abysmal Hulk.
Nerd Verdict: Wolverine could be fiercer but still has some bite
Varietyreports that Miramax and Focus have acquired rights to remake the French thriller Tell No One, with prolific producer Kathleen Kennedy producing. This is exciting news for me because I’ve read the book and recently caught the movie on DVD. I enjoyed the book by Harlan Coben quite a bit, as I do all his novels, but I thought the movie was even better. How often does that happen?
The story is way too twisty for me to adequately synopsize but here’s the basic premise: A pediatrician who believes his wife had been abducted and murdered suddenly gets mysterious e-mails from someone eight years later who knows things only his wife would know. The sender wants to set up a meeting but urges him to, you guessed it, tell no one. The doctor gets thrown into a combination of turmoil and hope as he re-investigates the evidence in his wife’s case and probes the possibility that she might be alive. He ignites a chain of events that leads to another death, him being framed for it, his running from police, trying to stay alive long enough to make it to the rendezvous and hopefully see his wife again.
I read the book a long time ago but remember there were some loose ends that weren’t tied up by the end. The movie, which won four Cesar Awards, explained everything clearly and made it all believable. The acting is solid all around, from Francois Cluzet as the grieving doctor and Marie-Josee Croze (The Diving Bell and Butterfly) as the possibly dead wife to Kristin Scott Thomas—speaking perfect French—as the lover of the doctor’s sister.
Since I was disappointed by the recent American adaptation of the BBC’s superb State of Play, there’s trepidation mixed in with my excitement about this remake. It’s ironic since this is an American story and the book is set in the U.S. so it’s actually being brought back to its roots. I do have hope in Kathleen Kennedy producing—she produces most of Steven Spielberg’s films—so I thought I’d start casting the American version just for fun.
For the pediatrician, Jon Hamm or George Clooney would be ideal. The actor has to convey intelligence but can’t look like an action hero because the doctor is just an ordinary guy caught up in extreme circumstances. The wife’s part is much smaller so Cate Blanchett probably wouldn’t do it but Michelle Monaghan or Jennifer Connelly would be great. The pivotal role of the wife’s father, who happens to be a retired police captain, is something Robert De Niro or Anthony Hopkins could knock out of the park. As for the lesbian lover part, why not let Kristin Scott Thomas reprise it?
Anybody else read the book and/or seen the French film? How do you feel about an American adaptation finally being made? How would you cast it?
I know that’s Meryl Streep in the trailer (see it below) but her voice and look are uncannily like the famous chef’s. I freaked for a moment: “Julia Child is dead! How can she be in this movie?!”
“Based on two true stories,” the feature is about Child finding her calling and a woman named Julie, played by Amy Adams, searching for a purpose in life by cooking her way through one of Child’s cookbooks in one year. The trailer looks so-so, but it’s got Streep and Adams and Stanley Tucci and Jane Lynch and Mary Lynn “Chloe” Rajskub (who has the funniest line in the trailer) so it has to be smart and witty, right?
What do you think? Gonna see it when it comes out August 7? (UPDATE: I went to a screening. See my review here.)
I was flipping through a People magazine recently when I saw a blurb that Ice Castles is being remade. Remember that movie with Robby Benson and Lynn-Holly Johnson as the blind ice skater? It is cheesier than a log of Velveeta but boy, did it make me cry when I first saw it in 1978.
I was in 7th grade when I walked to the nearby movie theater after school by myself to see this movie. When the Johnson character, Alexis Winston, had the accident and lost her sight, I was crushed, CRUSHED. What would happen to her dreams of becoming a world champion figure skater?! But wait, along came a cute boy named Nick (Benson) who helped her realize she could still triumph in a skating competition and in life, blindness be damned. By the time that theme song played over the end credits, I was sobbing into my bucket of corn.
But it didn’t end there. I went out and bought the sheet music for said theme song, “Looking Through the Eyes of Love” by Melissa Manchester, and spent weeks plinking it out on our yard-sale piano, singing in my most angsty voice, “Please don’t let this feeling end, it’s everything I aaam…,” wondering when someone would come along to look through my eyes of love. Oy. Did I mention I was a very young girl?
This memory is funny to me because nowadays, I am allergic to sap. I roll my eyes violently at the slightest hint of melodrama. But when this remake airs on TV, I’ll probably tune in. It’s interesting that the original director, Donald Wrye, is also doing the remake. How many times has that happened? (Off the top of my head, I can only think of Alfred Hitchcock and The Man Who Knew Too Much.) This version has real-life figure skater Taylor Firth in the lead role, with Rob Mayes (American Mall) as Nick. Michelle Kwan will also cameo.
But the real reason I’ll probably watch is to see whether 30 years of intervening life experience will allow me to react to the movie in the same way. Though I’m highly skeptical, there’s a part of me that hopes the answer will be yes.
Any other closet Ice Castles fans out there? See if the video below brings back memories. If not, which sappy movie do you think is ripe for a remake and why? Leave me a comment and I promise I won’t judge (unless you say Beaches).
A few years ago, Dennis Lehane decided to take a sabbatical from his Patrick Kenzie/Angie Gennaro series to write a different kind of thriller. Lehane has said he wanted to improve his prose instead of relying on his usual minimalist, dialogue-laden style. This change of direction led him to Mystic River, a languidly-paced, character-driven mystery that became a critical and commercial breakthrough for him (and an Oscar-winning Clint Eastwood movie). Now, with his follow-up, Shutter Island, Lehane continues his growth as a sophisticated and insightful writer. 
