FILM ... with Tim Milfull
The Girl who Played with Fire (MA15+)
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Peter Andersson
Rating: 3.5/5
129-minutes, screening from 23 Sept
The second in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl who… series comes to Australian screens next week, and armies of the books’ fans will be loyally tromping into cinemas to see how Lisbeth and Mikael deal with their latest adventure.
I’m one of the guilty few that hasn’t read the novels, but I’m well aware that the plot of the film is necessarily less complex than the novel. Despite this, director Daniel Alfredson, who helmed the first adaptation, offers an even more tense ride this time, putting both his cast and the audience through some harrowing paces. For the benefit of the ignorant, Lisbeth (Noomi Rapace) returns to Sweden from her lush hideaway in the tropics to ensure the continued subjugation of her former tormenter and legal guardian Bjurman (Peter Andersson).
But the latter has some shady connections that mean Lisbeth’s homecoming is noticed by the wrong people, and soon she is framed for murder and on the run. Mikael Blomqvist, fresh from his incarceration for defamation, and on the hunt for new leads for a story about sex slavery, is suddenly concerned for Lisbeth’s safety, as she is credited for one murder after another.
The good news – and there’s no bad news– is that Alfredson once again succeeds in unnerving the audience with tight plotting, freakish scenarios, and two or three abhorrent new villains.
David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, and The Social Network) is currently filming the Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with Daniel Craig taking on the Mikael Blomkvist role, and relative unknown Rooney Mara wearing Lisbeth’s tattoo.
How and whether Fincher and Oscar-winning screenwriter, Steven Zaillian transport a very Scandinavian story to US shores remains to be seen, but they’ll have to work hard to satisfy Larsson’s Legion.
Ethnics targeted with ethics and humour
The Reluctant Infidel (MA15+)
Director: Josh Appignanesi
Stars: Omid Djalili, Archie Panjabi
Rating: 3.5/5
98-minutes, screening from 16th Sept
There’s not exactly a surplus of comedies about Moslems at the moment but the fact that there are two playing on Brisbane screens this week is interesting – and take note, these aren’t derogatory films but affectionate and sometimes poignant portrayals of a much maligned section of our community.
While Chris Morris’s Four Lions tackles the much more controversial territory of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist acts with very funny (and really quite tragic) consequences, director Josh Appignanesi takes a more restrained route, concentrating on the impact of fundamentalism on a relatively ordinary Moslem family.
Taxicab company-owner and lapsed-Moslem, Mahmoud (stand-up comedian, Omid Djalili) delights in tormenting his Pakistani wife, Saamiya (Archie Panjabi) by teaching his young daughter jihadi slogans and arming her with a plastic scimitar. Their twentysomething son, Rashid (Amit Shah) is desperate to marry the beautiful Uzma (Soraya Radford), but knows his new step-father-in-law, the ultra-radical celebrity cleric, Arshad El Masri (Yigal Naor) will drive his very moderate father nuts.
Surprisingly, when Mahmoud finds out about his soon to be in-law, he eventually becomes the epitome of patience and understanding, determined to keep things smooth for his son. But things become complicated when Mahmoud finds his birth certificate in his late mother’s belongings, and realises that he was adopted, and worse, from Jewish birth parents.
With a wedding looming, and the prospect of reuniting with his long-lost father aggravated by a very stubborn rabbi (played to hilarious effect by Little Britain’s Matt Lucas), Mahmoud’s only hope lies in calling on the misanthropic cabbie, Lenny (The West Wing’s Richard Schiff) for guidance in how to be a good Jew. All the elements are here for a very funny film, and while Appignanesi and his cast and crew are careful to treat all of their ethnic targets with respect, they still manage to find the amusing sides to these cultural collisions.
A fine figment of the imagination
The Tree (M)
Director: Julie Bertucelli
Stars: Aden Young, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Morgana Davies
Rating: 3/5
97-minutes, screening from 30 Sept.
Writer-director Julie Bertucelli’s beautiful 2003 film Since Otar Left focussed on migration in Europe. Almost seven years later, Bertucelli has resurfaced, directing The Tree, a French-Australian production filmed entirely in and around south-west Queensland and adapted from Judy Pascoe’s novel, Our Father Who Art in the Tree.
The Tree has a spectacular opening, with Aden Young’s Peter driving a Queenslander from the Outback to the coast. After picking up his charming young daughter, Simone (Morgana Davies) from a rail siding, where she is playing chicken with trains, he returns home, and life forever changes for the O’Neill family.
Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Peter’s wife, Dawn, and within minutes of the credits, her character is numb with depression, and almost unaware of her kids’ existence.
While the nearly adult Tim (Christian Byers) struggles to keep his family together, and the much younger Charlie (Gabriel Gotting) worries about his mother, Simone realises that the massive Moreton Bay Fig shading their sprawling house might just offer a connection with their missing father.
Bertucelli draws an unusually naïve performance from the well-respected Gainsbourg as Dawn, but The Tree is really much more about how the O’Neill children cope with grief and loss, and the three young actors deliver excellent performances to complement those of the adults, including the gruff, but empathic Marton Csokas as George.
This is a charming, beautifully shot film, but be quick and see this one, as films like this don’t hang around too long in Australian cinemas.
