Season of mist and magic
Like falling leaves, this season's films come drifting to our screens in a variety of autumn hues to spark our spirits and warm our cold winter nights with their magic glow. If the world is indeed steadily becoming a coarser and harsher place and films mirror its degree of boorishness and brutality, then a few good ones that possess remembrances of a finer time and place, are highly cherished. Unlike the summer's crop of mindless blockbusters, the autumn harvest displays a deeper more serious pigment. Though budgets may be high, so is the quality, and those we have selected for your viewing pleasure have more gravitas, more Oscar potential, and offer a grand finale to the year's fertile yield.
Children's films are a major component of any studio's output, especially during the holiday season. Dr Seuss's favourite book Cat in the Hat, with the mischievous feline in the striped stove-like hat and a host of other weird and winsome Seuss characters, is sure to bring hearty laughter to the little ones. First published in 1957, Cat remains one of the top-selling hardcover books of all time, and this screen version with Mike Myers as the Cat will delight generations of eager parents and their tiny tots.
A $100 million spectacular to be released Christmas Day, is JM Barrie's Peter Pan. The adventure of the flying boy who refuses to grow up, and the three Darling children, Wendy, John and Michael whisked away on a nocturnal adventure across the skies to Peter's home in Never Never land. There they meet the Lost Boys, Tinkerbell, and join him in battle against the evil Captain Hook.
For the pleasure of the slightly older circle of children, which includes us, is the return of Frodo and his Hobbits in their third and final year of the enchanted Middle-Earth trilogy, Lord of the Rings --The Return of the King. The reluctant heroes pick up the action where they left off in last year's Two Towers, finally meeting with their destiny in their quest to destroy the ring. King is laden with more action, more romance, more character and therefore more screen time. Rumoured to be three and a half hours long, "it's going to be the best one, the most dense, subtle and layered of the three." This episode, hobbit fans hope, will be the one to finally collect Oscar gold for Best Picture or for Best Director, Peter Jackson, who has created a magnificent spectacle of JRR Tolkien's epic adventure, which also happens to be a very good read.
Another anticipated finale to a sensational trilogy is Keanu Reeves's The Matrix Revolutions. This one starts and ends with a bang that is sure to keep the queues long and happy at the box office. Will it unravel the mystery of The Matrix, bringing the final confrontation between man and machine? "Expect the unexpected," say the brothers Wachowski of their climactic conclusion of this fascinating sci-fi super thriller.
It has been many decades since we weathered the sea mist in a gripping voyage on the high seas for a thrilling swashbuckling adventure. Oscar winner Russell Crowe heads the crew as Captain Jack Aubrey of just such an adventure. Based on Patrick O'Brien's popular 20-volume saga about the 19th century British Navy, this sea faring epic explores the complex relationship between two men, the Captain and the ship's mysterious doctor Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) as they patrol the seas in 1805 amidst raging storms, before the final climax in a classic sea battle of pistols, swords and cannons. Master and Commander -- The Far Side of the World directed by Peter Weir is a certain box-office draw, and how can Academy members ignore Crowe after Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001).
Another misty epic sure to impress Academy voters is the historical drama The Last Samurai, which may be the film to bring Tom Cruise his first Oscar, or at least another nomination. The legendary Samurai were more than Japan's noble warriors, they were her poets, philosophers and noblemen. Director Edward Zwick, is full of glowing superlatives for his leading man: "You can talk of Tom Cruise and the Samurai in the same breath - the same dedication, the sense of responsibility, of obligation, of duty, the almost fierce focus." This is not another anglicised adaptation of the Kurosawa classic, but a parallel between a classic Western or Civil War hero, and the Samurai. Captain Nathan Algren is recruited by Japanese Emperor Meiji in the 1870s to school the Japanese army in the modern art of Western style warfare to prepare them to fight the last of the Samurai. Algren learns to respect the Samurai brotherhood, their code of courage, compassion, honour and honesty, and must ultimately decide on which side of the battlefield he belongs.
Director Mike Newell provides a change of pace with the help of the irresistible Julia Roberts and her Mona Lisa Smile. Not since her Oscar winning turn as Erin Brokovich (2001), has Julia dazzled as she does in this updated sunnier version of Dead Poet's Society. Julia plays a free-spirited graduate of UC Berkeley who accepts a teaching position at the prestigious all female Wellesley College where the students are torn between the repressive moves of the time and their longing for intellectual freedom.
Second only to Julia Roberts in female Hollywood clout is last year's Oscar winner Nicole Kidman who is galvanizing again in a Civil War epic drama based on the popular Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain. Jude Law, a wounded confederate soldier embarks on a long and arduous journey home to Cold Mountain and to his sweetheart Ada (Kidman). Renee Zellwegger also stars as a tough wanderer who gives Ada a helping hand on the farm. Oscar winner director Anthony Minghella (English Patient) has another Oscar contender on his hands with this stellar cast, and Kidman may well get her third consecutive Oscar nomination (Moulin Rouge, The Hours).
Jack Nicholson fans will find him back in a romantic comedy as an aging playboy, recovering from a heart attack at his younger girlfriend's house. Something's Gotta Give promises to be a crowd pleasing comedy, reminiscent of his last Oscar winner As Good as it Gets.
Though we have saved the best for last, no release date has yet been set, and the battle is still raging over one of the most talked about productions in a long time, The Passion of Jesus Christ. Director Mel Gibson is fielding countless attacks from every source, but refuses to knuckle under. The controversy arises on many fronts. Catholic Bishops have accused producer/director Mel Gibson of anti-Semitism. They later apologized after having seen the film. "Whether you like it or not the Jews of the time were instrumental in Jesus's death." The Anti-Defamation League condemned director Gibson as fuelling the "hatred and bigotry that many responsible churches have worked hard to repudiate". Moreover, the film starring Monica Belluci as Mary Magdalene and Jim Caviezel as Jesus, depicting the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ, is shot in two dead languages Latin and Aramaic. Distributors refuse to touch it; Gibson refuses to insert subtitles: "hopefully I'll be able to transcend language barriers with visual storytelling". Gibson is passionate in his defence of the film. "I am telling the story as the Bible tells it. I think it is the biggest love story of all time." Surely we will have more to say about The Passion on its release as the whole world eagerly waits and watches.
So if the present day holds for you
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no heartfelt ease
No comfortable feel in any member --
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, --
November!
-- Thomas Hood (1799-1845)there is still hope the Seventh Art will give comfort and joy with a bouquet of the season's blooms to titillate our senses and warm our long winter nights.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 13 - 19 November 2003 (Issue No. 664)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/664/pe2.htm