Franklyn (Gerald McMorrow, 2008)

Franklyn is a film I stumbled upon while browsing the New Release wall of MovieStop about a week ago. I was intrigued not only by the description on the back of the case ("Four souls bound by fate, romance and tragedy collide in the parallel worlds of London and the futuristic Meanwhile City, where a single bullet will alter the course of their lives forever."), but also due to the simple fact that Eva Green - an actress I became particularly fond of after her performance in Casino Royale - plays one of the leading roles. Still, I remained unconvinced and placed the title back on the shelf. A few days ago, however, I made another trip to MovieStop in search of Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi and once again came face-to-face with Franklyn. I had money to spare due to Christmas funds from relatives, so I decided to indulge in the blind purchase.

Normally when I do such a thing, I find myself trading the DVD in if I do not like it (as I did with the previous film I reviewed, The Other Man), but Franklyn is one that I believe I will hold on to. Right from the outset, the film drew me in with the beautifully decayed Meanwhile City, a futuristic world where mankind is ruled by religion. There are literally millions of different faiths, some outrageous in their ridiculousness (such as the Seventh Day Manicurists), and everyone is required to belong to a faith. Sure, the overall design is not far from your typical Utopian future found in a great many sci-fi films, but it at least maintains an air of originality.

One of our protagonists, living in Meanwhile City, is a man named Jonathan Preest (Ryan Phillippe), a character that is sure to spark comparisons to Rorschach from Watchmen. Basically, Preest is a masked vigilante who has no faith and is attempting to track down the leader of a particular religion. Known only as "The Individual," the leader is responsible for murdering an eleven-year-old girl that Preest had been trying to protect. Unfortunately, in his pursuit of justice, Preest is captured by the government and imprisoned for four years. He is released after he accepts an intriguing offer: he will regain his freedom if he will track down and stop The Individual, who is back in Meanwhile City. This seems a bit silly, though, as this offer is coming from the very people who stopped Preest from getting to The Individual four years prior.

Enough about Meanwhile City, as it is only one side of the narrative. The film frequently alternates between Preest's world and modern-day London, where the viewer plays witness to three stories. One involves a heartbroken man named Milo (Sam Riley) in his search to find love again; another follows a man named Esser (Bernard Hill) as he attempts to find his missing son; and the third observes an art student named Emilia (Eva Green) who is eerily engrossed in a project that has her recording her own suicide attempts. These stories are where the film suffers to some extent, as it seems that more information surrounding each character could have been divulged. I love a film that makes me think - as this one surely did - but a lot of said thinking was in trying to piece together aspects of the characters' lives that could have (and perhaps should have) been more clearly explained.

Another unfortunate quality of the film is that it flows at an exceptionally slow pace - too slow in some areas. I found myself constantly wishing to be transported back to Preest's exploits in Meanwhile City, as his scenes move swiftly and are infinitely more interesting than those set in modern-day London. That is not to say that the other characters are not interesting. Quite the opposite, actually, as all three become increasingly engrossing and are greatly aided by the three capable performers filling the roles. Basically, it is a scattered pacing that upsets what should have been a balance between the four stories.

Though slow and uneven, the film does build up to a finale that is both clever and surprising, even if one scene involving Esser does make what revelation is forthcoming rather obvious. Despite a few flaws in logic that raise some bothersome questions by the end of the film, director Gerald McMorrow successfully draws the four characters together - as well as the worlds of Meanwhile City and modern-day London. The viewer is left with a great deal to contemplate thematically, which is an immensely positive attribute in my eyes. While Franklyn possesses a number of flaws, it serves as one of the better directorial debuts I have seen as of late. Thus, McMorrow is definitely a director I will be keeping my eye on in the years to come.

The Other Man (Richard Eyre, 2008)

One fine day, while browsing through an issue of Film Comment (as I am wont to do), I had my interest piqued by a film on the back cover titled Five Minutes of Heaven. I was intrigued for two reasons, one being that it was a new film from the director (Oliver Hirschbiegel) of Downfall (2004; starring Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler in one of the most incredible performances I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing). The other reason was that it starred Liam Neeson, whom I had just recently seen in Taken (Pierre Morel, 2008). Due to my admiration of Taken and the exhilarating trailer for Five Minutes of Heaven, I decided to see what else Neeson had been up to lately. That is how I learned of The Other Man. Upon discovering that Laura Linney was also starring in the film, I was sold. The trailer was mighty promising, too.

Unfortunately, Richard Eyre's effort is a tragic case of a good premise gone horribly wrong. The plot is intriguing enough: a seemingly happy couple living in England is introduced; the wife (oddly) asks her husband if he has ever thought of sleeping with another woman; fast-forward to the future where the wife is gone; husband learns that she had been having an affair; husband tracks down his wife's other lover and confronts him, desiring revenge. The husband, Peter (Neeson), is a jealous individual who seems to be easily angered (and who would not be in such a situation?). His wife, Lisa (Linney), is a bit of a mystery. Her conversation early in the film with her husband is incredibly awkward, albeit as a result of poorly written dialogue that serves little purpose other than as an allusion to what revelation is forthcoming - as if the title of the film did not make it obvious enough.

The film revolves around a rather profound twist - at least one that is profound in nature. The actual revelation in the film is forced and rather dull. This was primarily due to the fact that what little interest I had in discovering this ultimate truth was constantly being placed behind my desire to know why the characters were acting the way they were. After the aforementioned conversation between Lisa and Peter, the film, as I said, leaps into the future - though it does not say how far. Peter is giving some of his wife's belongings to his daughter, attempting to clean out the house. Okay, so she is gone. That is all the viewer knows: she is gone. During the exchange with his daughter, Peter is given a note that his wife left for him and from there he begins digging into her apparent secret life, discovering much to his dismay that she had been having an affair with a man named Ralph (Antonio Banderas). Obsessed and angry, he tracks Ralph down in Italy and befriends him. While getting to know Ralph (who constantly talks about Lisa, not knowing that Peter is actually her husband), Peter pretends to be Lisa and starts contacting Ralph through e-mail. For whatever bizarre reason, Peter's daughter decides to make the trip out to Italy to find her father, nearly having an emotional breakdown when she learns that Peter has been posing as Lisa and stringing Ralph along. But why? And why is everyone around Peter so concerned about him, always teary-eyed?

There are a lot of peculiar moments such as these in The Other Man that are given proper explanation by the time the credits role, but the manner in which the climactic events are executed is poorly conceived and wholly unremarkable, especially given the distracting nature of the awkwardness surrounding the actions of practically every character in the film. It is a shame, considering the talented cast (all giving rather good performances) and solid foundation. I went with it at first, hoping that my endurance would pay off, but by the end, I was only left thinking of ways that the film could have been better - incredible, even - and thus utterly distraught that it was not so.

Ninja Assassin (James McTeigue, 2009)

If there is one thing that James McTeigue has accomplished with Ninja Assassin, his third outing as a director (though he has served as an Assistant Director on many films), it is that he has a deliciously alluring knack for orchestrating slick, hyper-stylized visual elements - particularly action sequences. That is essentially what Ninja Assassin is - pure style over substance. There is a plot, or at least there is the absolute slightest foundation for one, told mostly through flashbacks of opportunity. However, the plot is not what draws one to see this film, and McTeigue knows this fact all too well. The script serves only as a bridge to cross the gaps between scenes of brutal, frenzied bloodbaths in which the protagonist, Raizou, slaughters countless evil doers (predominately other ninjas from the clan he once belonged to). Just like most other films featuring a rogue badass taking on absurd odds in every other scene, none of the other ninjas can seem to take Raizou down, despite the fact that they attack in ridiculous numbers and have undergone the same rigorous training.

Though preposterous, Raizou's godlike abilities do make for one hell of a fun time. McTeigue maintains control throughout each fight sequences, meticulously blending fluid choreography and CGI effects (specifically blood - of which there is an ample amount) to create visually appealing (if not occasionally disgusting) scenarios that are truly a spectacle to behold - especially in the final scenes of the film. The final battle between Raizou and his former master stands out among the rest, as McTeigue beautifully renders the action inside a burning temple, capturing an immensely entertaining duel that unfolds amid flames, cinders, and ashes that majestically share the frame with the two combatants. This climactic bout provides as much closure as the narrative requires in its extremely limited scope, and leaves the viewer with something bordering on breathtaking, if only for the pleasure it brings to the eyes.

So, is Ninja Assassin a good film? Hardly. It is merely an acceptable offering aimed at those thirsting for action, which has been provided in copious amounts all throughout the summer by a tidal wave of blockbusters - most of which ranged from mediocre to downright awful. This film finds its place somewhere in between. Given that McTeigue was the director of V for Vendetta, a directorial debut I would go so far as to call a masterpiece of cinema (it is my favorite film, after all), his latest effort (which is his second credited as director, though was hired to direct some additional scenes for the 2007 remake of The Invasion when the studio was unsatisfied with the original cut [according to IMDb]) is all the more disappointing. However, his visual flair (which took flight with V for Vendetta) is unique and promising - he just needs to focus on having it grounded in more solid narratives.

Basically, Ninja Assassin is little more than a flashy action film that substitutes a gripping, coherent narrative for an overly violent, lush and exquisitely exaggerated style. This is not particularly a problem, though, if one has the right expectations. After all, the movie is titled "Ninja Assassin." Keeping that fact alone in mind, McTeigue delivers what one should anticipate in such a film, and nothing more.