Furious 7 (2015) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / April 14, 2015

If there’s anything that would haunt this film, it’s the death of series mainstay Paul Walker. Though it’s been probably ten years since I last saw one of these films, I decided to see this seventh entry out of curiosity: how would they handle Walker’s death? Would it profoundly affect the movie’s premise? The answer is yes, but mostly no. Furious 7 never devolves into a trauermarsch of sorts and that’s probably a good thing as drama was never this series’ strong suit.

            Like I said, I didn’t see some of the previous entries in the series, but the film is very watchable even so. So basically, some guy, Deckard Shaw, is pissed that the main crew hurt his brother, Owen, and he wants his revenge. He kills one of them, off-screen mind you, and puts another in the hospital and blows up Dominic’s home, though no one dies. This spurs the crew into action. But wait, there’s more. Turns out a group of secret government agents led by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) are after a super-duper hacking device called God’s Eye, that hacks every possible camera in the world to constantly narrow down a person’s location. A hacker known as Ramsey developed it and is captured by a Somalian terrorist, Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou). Mr. Nobody makes a deal with the crew: help him retrieve God’s Eye and they can use it to pinpoint Deckard Shaw’s location. But wait, there’s more! There’s also a subplot involving Letty and Dom’s relationship. She suffers from amnesia and, though he’s a teddy bear towards her, she has doubts about how this’ll affect their relationship. But wait….there’s more!! There’s another subplot involving Brian (Paul Walker) struggling to adapt to being a minivan-driving dad: he misses the bullets and all that.

            Man, I don’t think the film could be anymore jam-packed with drama in between all the tits and ass and fancy cars. And therein lies the rub: the film tries too much with only moderate success. The inevitable result is that most of the drama feels like an afterthought. This ironically affects Brian’s storyline the most, though you’d think—this being his last appearance—they’d pull out all the dramatic stops on this one. No, the storyline that receives the most attention is Letty and Dom’s relationship, but despite Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez’s valiant efforts, it’s hard to care since it doesn’t affect the main storyline. There’s never a sense of danger of one of them dying or any of the others for that matter.

            This leads us to the action, which is mostly pretty good, but, like I said, suffers from a lack of tension. Anyone watching this series knows it’s all about insane stunts and so on which is fine as it allows for scenes like a car flying from one skyscraper to the next, but you’ll not find any real tension here.

            This, again, leads us to the villain, Deckard, and the same problem applies here. Because the action never generates a sense of dread, of you genuinely fearing for the characters’ lives, Deckard loses his potency as well. Not to mention the fact that, due to the gargantuan amount of plot, he rears his head less and less as the film goes on. He’s at least more potent a villain than Jakande, who spends most of his time barking orders through his bleached goatee. Forgettable doesn’t even begin to describe it.

            Yet, despite all my whining, the film has its moments. Some of the action is pretty fun to watch and there’s some good comic relief, not to mention a nicely symbolic tribute to Walker at the end. Despite all my complaints about the story, I gotta hand it to them: at least they didn’t take the cheap route and integrate Walker’s death into the narrative. Can you imagine if Brian had died midway and we’d get shots of the crew sobbing and what not? Not even a 0 to 100 in 3 seconds sports car would top the speed at which my respect for the series would drop. Anyway, for better and for worse, Furious 7’s got it all. If you don’t go in expecting Walker’s death to change the series into something it’s not and never will be and instead expect something akin to a summary of what’s made the series so popular you’ll probably have a good time. Plus, Kurt Russell absolutely dominates as Mr. Nobody, so there’s that too.

Loin des Hommes (2014) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / April 9, 2015

If you want to talk about the enduring relevance of star power, consider the fact I only went to see Loin des Hommes to see Viggo Mortensen in action. Fortunately, the film surrounding him was pretty darn good too.

            The story takes place in the luscious, green…deserts of Algeria, specifically in 1954, during the Algerian War. (At least I can add it to the growing list of films about conflicts I had no prior knowledge of…) Daru (Viggo Mortensen) is a teacher to a small group of children. One day, his class is interrupted when he is asked to escort a prisoner, Mohamed, (Reda Kateb) to a city where he will face trial. Though he first rejects the idea, especially after he violently clashes with several of the prisoner’s pursuers, he finds it in his heart to escort him. Letting him go by himself would only result in his death and Daru would feel partially responsible. Thus begins a road trip of sorts, albeit a very dark one.

            You can pretty much predict what’ll happen (male bonding, etc.), but it doesn’t diminish the film’s impact in the slightest. If anything, their growing relationship is very believable. But the film’s true achievement is its handling of themes like codes of conduct, laws and honor. Almost every source of tension arises from people’s differing codes of conduct. Mohamed killed his nephew, because the cousin stole his grain. This would’ve meant the death of his family. Now, others feel compelled to kill Mohamed in retaliation. Mohamed, however, feels it right to turn himself in as this would ensure the cycle of revenge would end with him – otherwise his little brothers would be honor bound to avenge him again, and so on and so on. Though Daru is hesitant at first, his conscience compels him to escort Mohamed anyway, though his involvement causes several deaths. Later, Daru and Mohamed watch on as two surrendering rebels are mercilessly shot down. Daru tells the commanding officer he’s committed a war crime, to which the officer replies he was merely following orders. Following those orders is inhumane , but disobeying isn’t exactly a life- and career-enhancing option as well. The whole film deals with conflicts where people’s orders, morality, beliefs and so on inevitably end in violence. In the middle of it all, Daru wants to avoid conflict, the impossibility of which is aptly shown during an early scene where his school is attacked by Mohamed’s pursuers. Daru breaks a window, shouting how he doesn’t want to harm them moments before shooting outside to secure his own safety.

One final mentioning of Mortensen's acting can't be forgotten. His acting is, as ever, quite natural. It's also stunning how he, an American, speaks several languages here in what is basically a foreign language film, and yet it never feels unnatural; it never feels like he's showing off or something. I recently read an interview with Mortensen in which he said he just wants to be in films that he could easily watch years from now. Loin des Hommes is one he can definitely add to that ever-growing list.

My Old Lady (2014) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / April 9, 2015

My Old Lady is the type of film whose only saving grace is acting quality. Upon reading the film’s premise, you instantly realize it must’ve been adapted from a theatre play, and in this case, that’s not a good thing.

            The idea is that a fifty-something American, Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline), inherits an apartment in Paris after his father dies. He spends his last dime to get there, so basically this apartment’s his last hope. Upon arriving there, he finds the apartment occupied by an old lady, Mathilde (Maggie Smith). She informs him that she has a right to stay due to something called a viagér; basically Mathias gets to live in the apartment with her and has to pay her rent for living expenses. He can’t kick her out and the only way he’ll get rid of her is if she dies or he moves out. In short, as Mathias eloquently puts it, he’s inherited a 2400 dollar a month debt. The rest of the film traces his changing relationship with Mathilde, her daughter (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his own troubled past.

            The problem is that you can basically predict what happens: Mathias will confront—and overcome—his own tragic past, he’ll form a special bond with Mathilde and so on and so on. It also doesn’t help that you ‘feel’ the staginess of the screenplay: the self-referential lines, the overt symbolism that can just barely be categorized as symbolism, etc. What it does, it does quite well, it’s just that we’re firmly in ‘been there, done that’ territory. So the plot is merely serviceable, which means that there’s only one way for the film to redeem itself: acting. Fortunately for us, it’s pretty darn good. I needn’t waste any words on Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith who are as magnificent as ever, but things get a little trickier with Kline. He’s always been primarily a comedic actor which makes the occasional leap to drama all the more interesting. Although I found his angry, drunk scenes a bit cringe-worthy, overall it’s a good performance. All in all, My Old Lady is one of those films that’s decidedly bland ‘normal’, but whose acting is enough to warrant a recommendation.