Review: "Brave"

Merida is a headstrong princess, who prefers the free life of a warrior to the discipline and etiquette that comes from the life of a future queen. Her father, Fergus, encourages her and takes pride in his daughter's spirited nature, while her mother, Elinor, is attempting to prepare her for the expectations that come with nobility. This is frustrating for Merida, creating friction between the two women and a longing by Merida to somehow change her mother's traditional way of thinking. It is this contentious relationship with her mother, which will set in motion a series of events that will irrevocably change the two of them forever.

The marketing campaign for Brave has avoided spoiling the mid-movie twist at all costs, so I will not do so here, but like Wall*E, this film is sort of split down the middle, with the first half building towards one pivotal moment that will springboard the story into a new direction. The previews and TV spots have hinted at a larger thematic canvas, one filled with magic, myths, and legends, using quotes from the film that contain words like "fate" and "destiny," which I found to be a bit misleading. If you are expecting this to be The Great Pixar Fantasy Movie, you will be disappointed.

Brave is really about identity, how we hold our identity dear and the fear of losing that identity. Merida is afraid of getting married because she views it as something that does not fit who she is and how she sees herself. The fairy tale twist takes the character of Elinor, and places her into a situation where she also fears the loss of her own identity, while simultaneously placing the two of them in grave danger. As a result, they will both see each other in a new light as the film races towards its epic conclusion.

While it is commendable that the film does not fall into a typical fairy tale mold, relying on a romantic prince to save the day, that's actually part of the problem. Merida is a strong character, but the second half twist renders her defiant traits almost completely irrelevant to the story being told. Also, with so much time spent building her up as an archer, Merida's sensational skill with a bow is never a factor during the final stretch. With the exception of providing a resolution to the mother-daughter spat, the second half pays off none of what is set-up in the first half.

Is Merida fated to be like her mother, or is she destined to be something else? This is really a red herring because the film isn't interested in answering that, and the story takes a dramatic turn into territory where those questions no longer matter. Ultimately, Brave has, at its center, a strong character with which to tell a story, but its story falls short of being worthy of that character.

Story issues and production troubles aside (originally titled "The Bear and the Bow," Brave underwent significant rewrites, and the original director, Brenda Chapman, was ousted and replaced with Mark Andrews), the film is still able to deliver strong characters, solid laughs, and amazing visuals. This is a film that will most likely appeal to children in much the same way that the later Shrek films did, but may be just as disappointing to adults. The first half of Brave is very promising, but the second half feels like a different film altogether, one filled with uncharacteristic silliness, slapstick comedy, and a soft-serve "careful what you wish for" moral goo at its center.

Whether it's fair or not, we have very high expectations for each new Pixar film. That is what you get when you consistently produce exemplary product. Their past successes have elevated material beyond what was thought possible. Like Brave, both Toy Story 2 and Ratatouille were famously "in trouble" before their release, only to be triumphant -- commercially and critically -- upon release. This is the first film they've made that feels interchangeable with the typical Disney and Dreamworks animated efforts -- two studios that have raised their game recently (Tangled from Disney, How To Train Your Dragon from Dreamworks), in an effort to compete with Pixar.

It's not going to get any easier for them either. With two key members of the company's core creative team moving on to live-action moviemaking (Brad Bird - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Andrew Stanton - John Carter), and John Lasseter now heading Disney's animation, Pixar needs to show us that they can find new storytellers who can uphold the legacy of the company. Unfortunately, Brave is a misstep that they will need to learn from. 

"Setting the Frame" Film Grade = C

Review: "Rock of Ages"

Based on the broadway smash hit, Rock of Ages is that all-too familiar story about a small town girl with dreams of making it in the big city. Sherrie (Julianne Hough) leaves Oklahoma for Hollywood where she meets Drew (Diego Boneta), an aspiring singer working at the biggest club on the Sunset Strip, where the legendary rock group, Arsenal, is ready to light up the stage for one final show.

It's hard to believe that in 1987, the year the story takes place, moral crusaders would still be trying to put an end to the "evil of rock 'n roll" -- especially since gangster rap was getting big at this time -- but the mayor's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) wants to clean up the streets and shut down the club. Her protesting seems much more appropriate for a 1950's era story, rather than this nostalgic look at the late 1980's hair band era, but she is also driven by a personal vendetta against Arsenal's front-man, Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise).

The club's owner (Alec Baldwin) and manager (Russell Brand) are depending on the big show to help rescue their business from looming debt, but Jaxx's manager (Paul Giamatti) is hard at work screwing them out of the take. If Zeta-Jones' character represents the puritanical opposition towards the rock 'n roll lifestyle, Giamatti's character is definitely the opportunistic devil inside. He's pulling triple duty by screwing the club, leeching off of Stacee, and trying to lure Drew into selling his soul for a chance at fame.

The musical numbers are supposed to be the highlight of a movie like this, but while numerous, the retooled versions of classic eighties hits from Poison, Def Leppard, Journey, Foreigner, and Twisted Sister among others, have lost their original punch. Also, the Glee-style mash-ups -- where two songs are sung together -- only work well once, as Zeta-Jones belts out "We're Not Gonna Take It" against Russell Brand's rendition of "We Built This City."

Lackluster musical numbers aside, the film's real failing is not developing the romance between Sherrie and Drew enough. Hough and Boneta are fine performers, but their story is thin, and stretched out "like butter over too much bread." You may be rooting against Giamatti's or Zeta-Jones' characters, but you're never pulling for the young couple to be together, the way you do for Danny and Sandy in Grease, for example.

The best scenes in the film belong to Cruise, who is electric as Stacee Jaxx. Looking back at that famous scene in Risky Business, where he dances in his underwear, it may have only been a matter of time before Cruise ended up in a musical. His version of a burnt-out rocker past his prime, finally having some truth thrown in his face by a young Rolling Stone reporter (Malin Ackerman), is the reason to see the film (if you see it at all). It's a character type that Cruise has never played, and he seems to have a lot of fun in these smaller roles (remember Magnolia and Tropic Thunder?). There's an intensity to his scenes with Ackerman that the rest of the film never manages to duplicate.

Musicals are few and far between these days, so it would be easy to get swept up in the nostalgia of Rock of Ages, but the film favors jamming in a few too many songs, and taking a less-is-more approach to the story. The experience is comparable to watching a well-meaning cover band . . . the notes are in the right place and the words are in the right order, but it just feels a bit lacking.

"Setting the Frame" Film Grade = C -

Review: "Turn Me On, Dammit!"

Alma (Helene Bergsholm) is a sex-obsessed, 15 year-old girl living in Skoddenheimen, Norway. Her mother (Henriette Steenstrup) is at wit's end, not knowing just what to do about Alma's constant self-gratification and escalating phone sex bills. Saralou (Malin Bjorhovde), Alma's schoolmate and best friend, wants to move to Texas in order to fight against capital punishment, and writes letters to death-row inmates in her spare time. The two girls envy Saralou's sister, who at college in the big city of Oslo, and have such contempt for their small town that they routinely flip-off the road sign with its name as they ride by it each day on the school bus.

Alma has a crush on the boy down the road, Artur (Matias Myren,) who suggestively pokes her with his naked, male body part at a party one night. What might seem like a dream come true for her turns out to be awkward and unromantic. When Alma returns to her friends with the embarrassing details, the others don't believe her, and Artur denies it when confronted. She is branded a liar and ostracized to the point where even Saralou can't be seen with "dick-Alma."

A film with the title, Turn Me On, Dammit!, may sound like it would be full of graphic material, but it's handled in a sweet, playful way, with very little nudity or actual sex. Alma may be thinking about sex just as often as a boy would, but isn't getting any more action than her sex-crazed, teenage male counterparts. Her hilarious daydreams (featuring just about anyone) feature lots of explicit talk -- things she's used to hearing on the phone-sex line -- but stop short of her getting physical with anyone, except Artur, who appears in much more romantic fantasies.

It's not surprising that the film's director, Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, comes from a background in documentary filmmaking (this is her first narrative feature); the visual style is naturalistic and she uses non-actors to fill many key roles, which helps give the film its realistic feeling. Turn Me On, Dammit! is a sensitive, but funny look at a subject that is rarely handled well (or at all) in American film: the burgeoning sex drive of a teenage girl. Too often, all we get is the subject from the male point of view, with the perspective that "scoring" is an exclusively male agenda.

"Setting the Frame" Film Grade = B+

Review: "Snow White and the Huntsman"

The second Snow White film of the year arrived in theaters this week and it couldn't be further apart in tone from Tarsem's Mirror Mirror, which starred Julia Roberts as the evil queen and Lily Collins as Snow White. Whereas that film was light and comedic, Snow White and the Huntsman is a dark, visually rich, full-blown fantasy that strives to come much closer to its Grimm beginnings.

Locked up in a castle tower ever since her kingly father was killed, Snow White (Kristen Stewart) is at the mercy of her stepmother Ravenna (Charlize Theron), an evil queen with supernatural powers. The queen is obsessed with youth and threatened by anyone whose beauty could surpass her own, so when her magic mirror slaps her in the face with the old "you are no longer the fairest" bit, she must literally eat Snow White's heart in order to retain her immortality.

Snow escapes, however, and is chased into the dark forest, where the queen's men are too afraid to follow. Enter the titular huntsman (Chris Hemsworth - playing it like a blue collar version of his character, Thor), who is forced by the queen to capture and return Snow for the queen's heart-y feast. Of course, no one could resist the charms of Kristen Stewart (Ahhahahahahaha!), and the huntsman quickly becomes her protector as they navigate the dangers ahead.

It isn't until the second half of the film that we get our first glimpse of the dwarves, who, in a bit of Benjamin Button-style trickery, are played by some very recognizable non-dwarfs (with Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, and Nick Frost among them). Also arriving late in the story is William (Sam Claflin), the son of a nobleman and a childhood friend of Snow White's, who hopes to rescue and marry her. Unfortunately, for both the dwarves and William, as the film rolls to its final act, there isn't much for them to do, and it feels as if they're simply there to be checked off the list of required fairy tale characters. Since the huntsman easily serves that double role of protector and love interest, the best scenario would have been to cut William out of the story completely.

Charlize Theron is outstanding as the soul-sucking, wrinkle-obsessed, vampiric Ravenna. She plays the obsession, paranoia, and madness to extreme levels, but there's also a modicum of real-world hurt underneath it all. In many ways, she's a sad character, trapped within a cycle she cannot break free of. On the flip side of that, Kristen Stewart is serviceable in the title role, but is never able to fully convince the audience to believe in her the way the characters in the story do unreservedly. Whereas the queen does some pretty terrible things, our heroine never really does anything equally good. Dramatically, the filmmakers are relying on us to project our idea of purity and goodness onto her.

There's a lot of imagination on display from first-time director, Rupert Sanders, who almost overcomes the poorly-crafted screenplay with his impressive visuals. The design work that went into the dark forest, the queen's army, the magic mirror, and the fairy-meadow are all standouts that help the film wow the audience in the way that a fantasy movie should. Snow White and the Huntsman takes itself seriously, and while there are a few moments of levity, it maintains a consistent tone and keeps things moving with a sense of urgency.


"Setting the Frame" Film Grade = C+