Mirror Mirror

Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s first directorial attempt was with a movie that very few could understand. I was part of the other half of people. The Cell starring J Lo was a movie that had so many layers in it that one got lost in a matter of minutes. Regretably, it didn’t work out. I haven’t seen his next movie – The Fall – but a curious fact presented itself to me while researching for Mirror Mirror. Tarsem was the Assistant Director for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Now I haven’t heard of any director who would have gone back to being an Assistant after directing 2 full length features. Speaks volumes about the man’s courage and I guess it did manifest itself a bit in Immortals which released last year (and was part of the list of movies I missed ).

With Mirror Mirror, Tarsem has given himself a chance to be considered as a director of substance and more importantly, one who wants to stick around for a while. Tarsem’s take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is made very slickly with the right mix of special effects and performances. I guess it was only a matter of time that someone took the story of Red Rose’s sister to the big screen in a big way. And it was also only a matter of time before Julia Roberts played a negative role isn’t it? So Tarsem kills 2 birds with one stone.

The Evil Queen (Julia Roberts) has schemed away over the years and finally uses her magic to get rid of the king (Sean Bean). Over the next few years, she fritters away all the money that is available to her and resorts to more and more taxes to take care of her lavish lifestyle. She is assisted in this effort by her timid and reluctant aide Brighton (Nathan Lane). Her source of power comes from the Mirror which is beautifully shown at right angles to the world. The Mirror keeps warning her about the fact that magic comes with its own price and is never without any adverse effects. But she pays little heed and continues with her ways.

When Snow White (Lily Collins) turns eighteen, she ventures out of the castle and first bumps into Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) and then into the seven dwarfs who play giants by using flexible stilts. Their names – Butcher, Half Pint, Grub, Napoleon, Chuckles, Grim and Wolf. Together, they get the evil queen to her knees and regain control of the castle.

Mirror Mirror is a wonderful adaptation of the Brothers Grimm classic. Jason Keller (Machine Gun Preacher) and Melissa Wallack (Meet Bill) have combined to give us an exciting adventure. It is peppered with some nice corny dialogues – corny but really nice. Like, “Don’t do that. The prince has to come in to save the princess. It has been focus grouped and it works the best”. And the performances across the board are near perfect with Julia Roberts taking the cake. I really liked this one. I am going to stick my neck out and give it a 6.5 on 10. Try and catch up with it on the big screen.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3708919321/

J Edgar

Is it just me or is there anyone out there who believes that Clint Eastwood has seemingly gone low on his Clint in a manner of speaking? I was one of the few people who thought that Invictus wasn’t really upto the Clint Eastwood mark that kept going up till The Changeling. Hereafter was a notch lower than Invictus and now we have J Edgar which can be at best called out as being at par with Hereafter. Don’t get me wrong here. I love Clint Eastwood. I am just a wee bit disappointed because the intensity and class that we seem to have gotten used to in slowly fading. I think he should also take a cue from the Academy because both Hereafter and J Edgar have been given a cold shoulder of sorts.

Like any biopic would be, J Edgar is centered around the life and times of the longest standing director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – J Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio). It brings to the fore a very well written story of a man who was not so popular during his days as the Director. Someone who every single president tried their best to oust but with little or no success – because J E knew everything that was worth knowing and not worth knowing about the most powerful men in the world. It shows how he quickly works his way to being the director of the bureau even before he turns 30. How he goes about pushing the use of technology to make the bureau as fool proof as possible. His fights with the government to give the bureau its proper place in the sun which he strongly believes it deserves. His gay romance with close friend Tolson (Armie Hammer) and attempted romance with his secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts). And even why he was called “Speedy” as a kid.

I guess what adds to Clint Eastwood losing his sheen as a director is Leo DiCaprio getting into character roles that are beginning to stereotype him and probably get people to believe that even personally he has becaome like his characters. His performance as JE wasn’t too different from his portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Gets the audience also thinking as to whether there has been a genuine attempt or not. Both Watts and Hammer were good but not great in any ways. And I am honestly not qualified enough in any manner to comment about Dame Judi Dench’s acting capabilities. Stunning – yet again!!! Oh the woman never ceases to amaze me.

The other departments are quite good. Like Make up for example - by Alessandro Bertolazzi for Watts & Sian Grigg for DiCaprio were worth mentioning but I guess not good enough for the Academy. Check out the photograph of the real JE in the link below http://content9.flixster.com/photo/12/98/51/12985179_ori.jpg and make up your minds for yourself I guess. But even here, Tolson’s make up was a tad over done.

J Edgar is a very slow movie and will take a lot of patience from your end. But Clint Eastwood has never made fast paced movies. Not great by Clint Eastwood standards but way ahead of the curve with respect to some of the crap that we see these days. 7 on 10. Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1849990169/