By BRUCE DENNILL
Rebel In The Rye / Directed by Danny Strong / 13DV
Robin Hood / Directed by Otto Bathurst / 13LVB
The Meg / Directed by Jon Turteltaub / 13PG
All Saints / Directed by Steve Gomer / PG
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again / Directed by Ol Parker / PG
Flatliners / Directed by Niels Arden Oplev / 13LSHV
It’s unfortunate that this biopic of JD Salinger came out in the same year that Kevin Spacey, who stars as a magazine editor who encourages and develops the young writer, was first accused of sexual misconduct. It’s not certain, however, that Rebel In The Rye would have been a much stronger product without that unfortunate connection. Salinger is a legendary figure in the full sense of the word, a hugely successful author but also (in real life) a mysterious recluse whose reputation only grew and intensified once he vanished from public scrutiny. Nicholas Hoult is a talented actor and does a solid job with the material afforded him here, but the decisions made in terms of telling the story hamstring not only Hoult’s effectiveness but the authenticity of the story as a whole. Salinger’s writerly inspiration is depicted in endlessly cliched ways, and the author’s more ragged edges are smoothed over in a way that ultimately makes the piece less dramatic and raw. It’s a pity – with better direction and a braver narrative decisions, this could have been a fascinating tale about an enigmatic maverick. As it is, it’s more of a puff piece – something Salinger would probably have hated.
If there was a competition for how loosely based a film might be on its source material, this version of Robin Hood would be a frontrunner. There’s a guy with a bow and some arrows (Taron Egerton), a sneering sheriff in a long coat (Ben Mendelsohn) and a comely maiden (Eve Hewson) with whom the former is infatuated. But there – bar a few of the characters’ names – the resemblance to the enduring legend of Robin of Locksley ends. This is designer tunics, war sequences that are closer to Black Hawk Down than the Crusades, and…fire. So much fire. Beyond the posing and the brooding and the flames and the leather, there is a plot that with far more twists than is strictly necessary, designed to show how layered Robin is – the tortured hero, the complicated nobleman, the principled soldier – and to allow for as many high-intensity action set-pieces as possible. So long as you don’t care for the lack of historical or cultural input, this is shiny Hollywood fare that requires little intellectual effort and fills time with colour, volume and brashness that’s amiable enough.
Scientists studying what life forms may exist in the deepest reaches of the ocean. Been done. Big shark that always wants to eat people. Been done. Jason Statham, scowling, perpetually grumpy and not afraid to solve problems with his fists. Been done. Putting them in one project, then, means either wall-to-wall clichés or a proven formula that works, even if it’s not particularly original. In The Meg, the final result falls somewhere in the middle, and it works well enough to not be annoying. Everything is more or less as you’d expect, including the dragging out of the inevitable chapter markers and ending in a story where a prehistoric monster is the bad guy and a tough human is the hero. With expectations thus defined, The Meg is a guileless, rowdy action flick that won’t leave you any happier about going back in the water than you were when Bruce bit a boat in half for Steven Spielberg and which will create a tight ball of tension whenever the massive creature is nearby but out of shot.
It’s almost impossible to make a mainstream Christian film that will please both believing audiences and general film fans. Filmmakers in this genre often tend to go big on political correctness, without much concern for subtlety, character development or even much of a story. All Saints has strong source material – it is the true story of a failing church just outside of Nashville, reinvigorated by the arrival of a group of immigrants who need help – that means there doesn’t have to be a great deal of imagination involved in the narrative. And though it may seem counter-intuitive, this is one of the strengths of the piece. Director Steve Gomer doesn’t try to be too clever, and his cast, led by John Corbett – a million miles from Sex And The City – simply inhabit the kind of real, flawed, but ultimately good-hearted people that can and do make a difference in church-centred communities around the world. The challenges faced by the characters are real, and the way they are faced and engaged with feels authentic. It’s not about inspiration – these guys, as we all do, make too many mistakes for that – but rather about understanding the genuine value there is in a community working together for the common good. There are lessons to be learned here, but none of them is thrust aggressively into the viewer’s face, and it’s more than likely you’ll find some common ground with those involved that allows for a real appreciation of the predicament Corbett’s pastor and his congregation find themselves in.
Musicals are a wonderful art form. ABBA were superb songwriters. Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep. So a film version of the frankly daft stage musical just about survived most of its stars annihilating the soundtrack. But that should have been a one-time formula; it was always unlikely to endure another trotting out. This time, Meryl is dead. Well, beyond the budget. Her character is dead. And the story has jumped backwards in time to when she was young (the character, Donna, not Meryl), to show how feisty and irresistible she was. Lily James, as Donna The Younger, is – to be fair – feisty and irresistible, but that has little or nothing to do with the script; she’s just gorgeous. The script for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is rubbish. And all the best ABBA songs were used in the first film. So there are tenuous links between second-rate songs by pretty people, and that doesn’t make for a great movie. Or a good or even average movie. Skip it.
Where a film relies almost entirely for its impact on a novel concept, it doesn’t seem terribly sensible to use exactly the same concept as the basis for a remake, particularly when the remake also (with respect to Ellen Page and Diego Luna, good actors both) lacks the star power of the 1990 original of Flatliners, which featured Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland and others. Another shortfall in this new scenario is that the arrogance of the characters – you have to be arrogant to believe that you can cheat death – is never really tempered by thoughtfulness, empathy or anything on that end of the emotional scale. The result? The thought of their experiment failing is not as devastating as they might hope. Danish director Niels Arden Oplev has also chosen to make the piece, outside of the central conceit, more of a straightforward horror film, and it’s simply too banal – and boring – to hold attention.