The Secret Scripture

The Secret Scripture appeared in the cinema listings despite having no visible advertising campaign.  The fact that it was not Kong: Skull Island was enough to convince me that it should be my film of choice. 

PLOT:  After being assigned to evaluate Rose (Vanessa Redgrave), an elderly patient who has been incarcerated in a mental institute for over forty years, Dr Grene (Eric Bana) finds himself listening to her story.  Rose tells Dr Grene of her love affair with Michael (Jack Reynor), the inappropriate attentions of Father Gaunt (Theo James) and the events leading up to her being arrested for killing her new born son.  END PLOT

The plot of The Secret Scripture is a familiar tale of forbidden love, this time set in rural Ireland in during World War Two.  The action jumps back and forth from present day to 1942, although the film only really comes to life during the flashbacks.  The love story between Rose and Michael is sweet but their time together is little more than a brief dalliance which lasts no more than a few weeks.  It may have been true love but the only emotion I felt during the entire film was anger at the corruption of the local priest, judgemental nuns and the complete lack of compassion the church used to show young Irish women.  It was a dark time and it will always be an uncomfortable topic.  Unfortunately, The Secret Scripture did not deal with these plot points in any great depth.

Vanessa Redgrave was excellent as the elderly Rose and Rooney Mara held her own playing the younger Rose.  On paper Mara seemed like an odd casting choice but she proved to be more than capable.  Despite being Australian, Eric Bana’s accent appeared to be channelling an American attempting to conquer the Northern Irish accent.  The Northern Irish accent is a tough one to crack, and although Bana’s isn’t the worst I’ve heard, it wasn’t particularly successful.

Theo James is not an actor I am familiar with and his performance has not inspired me to pay attention to his career.  Scowling and staring while scowling is not character development.  I would have liked his character to have been held accountable for his actions.  The explanation that the church does what the church does was probably realistic but it was not satisfying.

The supporting cast, which included the underused Aidan Turner, was made up of vaguely familiar faces.  It was nice to see that Pauline McFlynn has finally grown into Mrs Doyle.

The Secret Scripture is a gorgeous film and Ireland looks exactly how you would expect it to in the 1940’s.   It captured the period well with woollen clothing, thatched roofs and dance halls all being present and correct.  The film was set in May and it looked appropriately cold.

The biggest problem with The Secret Scripture is that I felt like I had seen it all before.  The running time was only 1hour 48mins but I caught myself looking at my watch as I already knew how the film was going to end – the plot twist was not well written, hidden or revealed.  The story needed to be meatier and was saved by the performances of Redgrave and Mara.

Overall The Secret Scripture is a fine film which just about killed an evening at the cinema. It gets 6/10.  The Secret Scripture is worth a look on Netflix on a rainy Sunday afternoon or if you are wanting to avoid a noisy blockbuster.  

It's disappointing that it is instantly regrettable.

Side Effects

Side Effects appeared in the listings with next to no advertising.  Luckily a very convincing trailer had played in the cinema last week otherwise the film would have passed me by completely.

PLOT:  After her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) is released from prison Emily (Rooney Mara) spirals into a deep depression.   Emily agrees to take part in a clinical trial for a new pill Ablixa by her doctor, Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) however once on the medication she starts to suffer side effects which include sleep walking.  In her sleep walking state Emily stabs and kills her husband and is sent to a mental institution.  As Jonathan delves deeper into Emily’s medical history he realises that her reaction to the medication is not at all what it seems.  END PLOT

Side Effects is a very slow paced thriller but if you are prepared to settle in and allow the events to unfold you will be rewarded. The twist is cleverly executed and I will confess that I did not see it coming.

My main complaint in the storytelling was perhaps the lack of ambiguity at the end of the film.  There was nothing left to debate on the journey home as every plot thread had been neatly wrapped up.

Rooney Mara is excellent as the tortured Emily and given the nature of the plot twist it makes her performance at the beginning of the film stronger with hindsight.

Jude Law is the films true lead and although he is very capable Mara steals every scene they are in together.

The most likeable actors in Hollywood Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones pop up in strong supporting roles.

The cinematography was gorgeous with the sweeping closing shot being one of the best moments in the film.

This is a ridiculously short review as the more I write the more inclined I am to spoil the film so I think it is best to quit while I am ahead not behind.

I have never been able to call myself a fan of Steven Soderberg but Side Effects proves that it’s time I seek out Soderberg’s back catalogue.  It is typical that the film that makes me sit up and take notice of a director is reportedly his last.  Side Effects deserves a 9/10 and is most definitely worth your time.  

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

To this day I still say with misplaced pride that I have never touched a Harry Potter novel let alone read one.  The same can now be said for the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

The Swedish films have always been appealing but unfortunately they have never made it off the dvds to watch list. There is something about this particular series which requires more effort than I am prepared to give.

To cut a long story short – I went to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 100% blind.

PLOT:  Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a disgraced journalist who is hired by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the murder of his granddaughter.  Mikael enlists the help of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) an extremely troubled yet talented investigator to help him solve the mystery.  END PLOT

The murder mystery plot-line was strong yet in hindsight it had a real feel of “heard it all before” to it.  Despite having no knowledge of how this story arc would play out the casting made it quite obvious just who was likely to be the villain in the final showdown. 

The ending of the film was very disappointing as it just seemed to drag on and on and then on some more ensuring that I will now have arthritis in my knees before I am thirty.  

Lisbeth’s sudden ability to create disguises and steal bank bonds felt very out of place with the rest of the film.  The final scene with Lisbeth riding off into the snowfall after watching Mikael kiss his girlfriend was as dramatic as a daytime soap opera.  I have no idea how it compares with the ending of the book but it didn't work well on the big screen.  The last twenty minutes of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo were incredibly weak.

Luckily The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo had more to offer than the murder mystery plot with the character of Lisbeth Salander who is not your average detective.  The fact that Rooney Mara is essentially a newcomer worked very much in her favour and she was excellent as Lisbeth.  Kudos must be given to Mara as some of the scenes were very dark.

I am not against violence in film provided it isn’t shoehorned in like that one “fuck” in a 12A but The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo did have some extremely graphic scenes of sexual assault.  It was an uncomfortable watch due to the content but also because of the performances of Mara and Yorick van Wageningen  The character of Bjurman, Lisbeth’s social worker, was very quiet, dangerous and probably more effective than the main villain.  This character played a very small, yet important role. 

Daniel Craig is an actor I don’t care for but his performance was less wooden than usual, Stellan Skarsgard's Swedish accent still sounds out of place even in a film based in Sweden and I was mistaken in my belief that Christopher Plummer had died.  The supporting cast were all fine but this is Mara's film.

Much has been said about Trent Reznor’s score although I cannot recall paying much attention to it whilst watching the film.  Reznor may have created a piece of music on par with Bach but it will forever remain unappreciated due to the fantastic use of Enya in the most unexpected of places.  Enya will finally learn what type of clientèle her music attracts. 

The film looked stunning and you can’t fault David Fincher’s direction.  I am a fan of Fincher but he does have a habit of making films which I love yet don’t watch more than once in several blue moons.  I appreciate everything about this film yet I know that it is unlikely to be viewed again. 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is probably the best film I have watched in a long time and the fact that it was sandwiched between Sherlock Holmes and MI4 made it oddly refreshing to watch something dark over the festive period.   I absolutely loved the film and it scores a high 8/10; it would have scored higher if the ending wasn’t so long and drawn out. 

Did it inspire me to read the novels? No, and I say that without missing a beat.  The book snob in me can’t help but see it as another crime novel which just happened to get lucky.

Did it inspire me to finally watch the Swedish films?  They have moved slightly higher up my 2012 to do list.