Sarah’s Key (M)
Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Charlotte Poutrel, Melusine Mayance
Rating: 4/5
111-minutes; screening from 23 December
There are a couple of very powerful stories running through Sarah’s Key, Gilles Paquet-Brenner's excellent adaptation of Tatiana De Rosna’s novel of the same name.
The eponymous Sarah (played by Charlotte Poutrel and Melusine Mayance) spends a lifetime dealing with the dreadful implications of a split-second childhood decision, while journalist, Julia Armond (Kristin Scott Thomas) becomes obsessed with uncovering the mystery of Sarah’s circumstances.
And in the process of her research, Julia learns of the despicable story of Vichy France’s collaboration with the Gestapo to intern thousands of Jews in a disused velodrome before their deportation to Germany’s concentration camps.
Flashing back and forth between Julia’s investigations and various moments in Sarah's life, Sarah’s Key is a fascinating examination of the consequences of decisions made under extreme duress. As Julia learns of Sarah’s terrible experiences in her fight to return to her childhood apartment, there are similar conflicts tearing at her own life, including a decaying marriage. Kristin Scott Thomas offers an excellent performance as Julia.
So too does the young Charlotte Poutrel as the young Sarah, who is single-minded in her determination to escape the grip of the Nazis and save her younger brother.
But perhaps the most upsetting aspect of this moving film is the complicity of the French authorities in rounding up over fifteen thousand Jews and sending them to their deaths.
This little known blot on French history prompted an apology from Jacques Chirac in 1995, and has been faithfully and sensitively documented here.
Pound for pound, the music really rocks
Tron: Legacy (PG)
Rating: 3/5
127-minutes, screening from 9 December
Megamind (PG)
Rating: 3.5/5
95-minutes; now screening.
I was looking forward to the sequel to Disney’s 1982 film TRON, if only to hear more of Daft Punk’s pounding soundtrack, and in that respect I wasn’t disappointed. The music in TRON: Legacy is quite wonderful and ably complements the action (and there are no mentions in the credits to back up my suspicion, but I reckon the two DJs pumping out tunes in Castor’s nightclub The End of the World were probably the actual Daft Punk duo, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo).
Sadly, the film itself is a little *meh*, as it dredges up Jeff Bridges in grizzly and youthful form as Kevin Flynn and his digital counterpart CLU, and plunges Flynn's son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund) into the digital world of the grid. Debut director, Joseph Kosinski's film is certainly very pretty, but the story itself is lacklustre. In the hope of jazzing things up, I found myself rooting for CLU to bridge the gap and invade our real world.
I was much happier with Tom McGrath's very cheeky animated film, Megamind. McGrath also made the Madagascar films, which were very funny and mischievous, and the director makes a successful transition to the world of the superhero.
Starting out firmly in the mould of the Superman universe, Megamind (Will Ferrell) relates his journey from a dying planet to Earth, at the same time as the impossibly glamorous Metroman (Brad Pitt) undertakes his own childhood journey from a neighbouring dying planet.
Their subsequent parallel lives are spent battling each other in Metrocity, and Megamind has a suitably anxious complex about his competition with Metroman until one villainous plan unexpectedly succeeds in destroying his nemesis.
Then, poor Megamind has trouble adapting to his new status as the megalomaniacal ruler of Metrocity. McGrath enlisted a rich cast of voices including Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, and David Cross as wonderful characters to make a very enjoyable and iconoclastic film.
THE BINGE
Silly season fare
The Independent will be back from the Christmas break in early January, so I thought I'd mention a few films that will be released over the silly season.
On Boxing Day, I'll be avoiding the Little Fockers like the plague; instead, I might try the Oscar-magnet The King's Speech, which features Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.
Romain Duris stars as the eponymous Lothario in the French romantic comedy Heartbreaker, and Jack Black will step up as the lead in a very dodgy-looking version of Gulliver's Travels.
Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie will be pairing up for a mistaken-identity story in The Tourist, while Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton chase the laughs in Morning Glory in early January. There's more animated fluffery in Tangled, a reworking of the Rapunzel fairytale, and many are looking forward to Natalie Portman's amazing performance in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.
Finally, Ron Howard will release The Dilemma with Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, but I have to admit that based on the trailers, I'm not holding my breath for this one.
In DVD news, Madman Entertainment is releasing on DVD Vincenzo Natali's (Cube and Nothing) new sci-fi horror film Splice, which stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley as scientists looking to clone new life. And Antidote Films will be releasing an excellent documentary that recently screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival. Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould tells the story of the life and music of one of the world's most talented concert pianists.
Win FREE tickets to The Green Hornet
Courtesy of Sony Pictures, The Indie has 10 double passes to a preview screening of the action comedy, The Green Hornet, on Monday 17 January at 6.30pm at BCC Myer
Centre Cinemas. The movie, starring Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz, opens on Thursday January 20. Simply send an email to us to editor@theindependent.com.au with the words “Green Hornet in the subject field before January 1 2011 and we’ll select 10 winners at random to go see this fun flick. Winners will be notified by email
and their names will be placed on the door.
