When the killer pair of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory come together on any project, one can be rest assured that the movie is going to be watchable. So the base scale at 5 on 10 is really bad for this super successful cinematic pair. Rest assured, Le Divorce lives upto the average Merchant Ivory fan’s expectations. It is not the arty kinds that take you back to the MI movies of the seventies where there are severely long pregnant pauses to create the impact desired. And don’t let the cast misguide you into thinking that they have succumbed to the temptation of making movies that are super commercially viable. It’s a good combination of the traditional Merchant Ivory values with some new blood spiked in. Le Divorce is a refreshing, stylish, classy Rom Com.
Isabel Walker (Kate Hudson) walks into Paris to visit her pregnant sister Roxanne (Naomi Watts) who is a poet and married to Charles Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud) and has a 5 year old daughter. Roxanne is out grocery shopping and is unaware that her husband is planning to take off that very day with his mistress and new found love, Magda Tellman (Rona Hartner). Roxy walks back home only to find CH hurriedly leaving their home. He offers her no reason and runs off as quickly as he can only to bump into Isabel on his way out. Very non chalantly, he plants a kiss on Isabel’s cheek and before you know it he’s gone.
Isabel and Roxy try to soak in the shock of the moment in as best a manner as possible. Its not always that a pregnant woman walks into her house to see her husband walk out and leave a 5 year old girl to take care off. They try to piece their lives back together. The weekend was to be spent with CH’s parents which cannot be cancelled. So in atypical French style when asked where CH was, the answer is deflected to an official reason – to sell a painting for e.g. That in French custom is a good enough hint to the mother that something is amiss.
Roxy does not believe in divorce but when CH initiates proceedings, she is left with no choice. She is introduced by her author friend, Olivia Pace (Glen Close) to Maitre Bertram (Jean-Marc Brar) who is a lawyer to help her with some advise on the divorce and most importantly a painting of St. Ursula which is speculated to be the original by Georges de la Tour. Parallely Isabel is making the most of her time in France first with Yves (Romain Duris) who is introduced to her by Olivia and then with leading French Politician and CH’s uncle Edgar Cosset (Thierry Lhermitte). The main twist is yet to enter the story when one day on her return, Isabel finds at her door, Tellman (Matthew Modine). Tellman is the husband of Magda who CH has run off with. Tellman for some reason believes that the only way to get back and CH and Magda would be for him and Roxy to also have an affair.
James Ivory goes on through the movie as a satire on French customs and divorce laws that are super archaic. Woven in between all of these are the cultural differences between the Americans and the French – some of which seem very exciting (read better) for the Americans. Others which are fundamentally flawed – American or otherwise. The dialogues are smart and classy which is expected of a MI movie. The humour is very very very French. The locale…. Ah… Paris (pronounced with the silent s). Made mental note of making enough money to retire into somewhere in France eventually .
The cast is wonderfully picked up. Very balanced between the French and the American. The language is again balanced with quite a large portion of the movie in French. Trust MI to understand that the nuances of the movie could have been best delivered only in the local language. And with the ever trusted Ruth Pravar Jhabwala are their side they probably could not go wrong. Glen Close is oh so serene in her role as the retired author. Simplest of roles but such amazing screen presence!!!! Watts and Hudson give very good performances but somewhere they pale in comparison to the French cast which is outstanding.
Good concept, lovely humour. Very classy as mentioned earlier. 7 on 10 for this one
Showing posts with label Glen Close. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glen Close. Show all posts
Friday, 13 August 2010
Reversal of Fortune
Sunny Von Bulow (Glen Close) and Klauss Von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) are your atypical high society couple whose marriage is but obviously on the rocks. Sunny however is eccentric and doesn’t want a divorce knowing fully well that it is probably the only resort left. But she is unable to come to terms with the fact that she has had one failed marriage and the other one is also heading towards a disaster. Depressed, she takes to a life of alcohol and sedatives much to the chagrin of Klauss who is nothing but seemingly a mute spectator.
Things turn nasty when Sunny collapses into a coma one day but manages to recover quickly from that. Nevertheless, she refuses to learn and continues her wild ways smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day with endless alcohol and sedatives. The first instance itself has created a doubt in the minds of her children that Klaus is in some way responsible for the entire episode. The suspicion is enhanced when Sunny is found unconscious on her bathroom floor and has again slipped into a coma. Only this time, she does not recover from it as quickly as before.
Promptly, Klauss is taken into custody and based on charges framed by the children, is tried and convicted for the attempted murder of his wife. A decision which, obviously, doesn’t leave him too pleased. But being the millionaire that he is, he coughs up the million bucks of bail that is required to be borne and gets out of jail pending a judgement on the appeal. He then approaches Prof. Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) for help in defending him. Alan is a famed solicitor who teaches law at the local university and does a lot of pro bono work. But it is cases like these that get him the big bucks to subsidize his other philanthropic activities. Although he is in doubt over Klauss’ guilt, he takes up the case after much deliberation and starts roping in a few of his students to do the ground work for the same as quickly
Reversal of Fortune then tracks Alan’s attempts to punch in as many holes as possible into the prosecution’s case despite not being completely sure Klauss not being guilty. He does this out of a conviction that the methods used by the prosecution in proving Klauss guilty were not legally sound and could set a precedent which would have a whole other negative impact on society in general and therefore the legal fraternity. Director Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female / Desperate Measures / Murder by numbers) clearly captures Alan as the passionate lawyer who is also a single father, trying to ensure that the right messages are passed on to not only his students but society at large. The movie, at large, focuses on just this effort of proving Klauss innocent.
Ron Silver is probably best known for his roles in the TV series’ – Chicago Hope (Tommy Wilmette) & The West Wing (Bruno Gianelli) and maybe also for his performances in Live Wire, Blue Steel and Entity. He comes across as a very passionate actor. The only reason for not having made it big time in Hollywood would be his tendency to put in a bit too much into every scene. He does tend to over act a bit. Glen Close to me always has the wicked image that she managed to pick up around her Dangerous Liaison days. She does not have much of a role in this one. A Pity because she is such a versatile and extremely talented actress. Although her role in this particular movie is very muted to a few scenes and that of a narrator.
The stand out performance in typical ice cold fashion has to be that of Jeremy Irons who with utmost ease essays the role of a character who you would, in the spirit of the movie, like to be proven innocent. But in your heart of hearts, you really cannot decide with utmost conviction that he is. Irons’ portrayal of Klauss Von Bulow is yet another proof point of his capabilities as an actor and commitment towards getting under the skin of his character. Superb performance as always. Cant say it was his best but then with Jeremy Irons it is very difficult to choose a role which he has probably not given what the role demanded.
The rest of the cast is quite passé. Even Felicity Huffman in her bit part role as one of the students does not register with her performance. Decent movie to watch when u are down in bed on a working day unable to go to work. Not paced very well though. Survives on a couple of strong performances. Direction is not really any where close to being world class. Would give it a 5 on 10 at best.
Things turn nasty when Sunny collapses into a coma one day but manages to recover quickly from that. Nevertheless, she refuses to learn and continues her wild ways smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day with endless alcohol and sedatives. The first instance itself has created a doubt in the minds of her children that Klaus is in some way responsible for the entire episode. The suspicion is enhanced when Sunny is found unconscious on her bathroom floor and has again slipped into a coma. Only this time, she does not recover from it as quickly as before.
Promptly, Klauss is taken into custody and based on charges framed by the children, is tried and convicted for the attempted murder of his wife. A decision which, obviously, doesn’t leave him too pleased. But being the millionaire that he is, he coughs up the million bucks of bail that is required to be borne and gets out of jail pending a judgement on the appeal. He then approaches Prof. Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) for help in defending him. Alan is a famed solicitor who teaches law at the local university and does a lot of pro bono work. But it is cases like these that get him the big bucks to subsidize his other philanthropic activities. Although he is in doubt over Klauss’ guilt, he takes up the case after much deliberation and starts roping in a few of his students to do the ground work for the same as quickly
Reversal of Fortune then tracks Alan’s attempts to punch in as many holes as possible into the prosecution’s case despite not being completely sure Klauss not being guilty. He does this out of a conviction that the methods used by the prosecution in proving Klauss guilty were not legally sound and could set a precedent which would have a whole other negative impact on society in general and therefore the legal fraternity. Director Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female / Desperate Measures / Murder by numbers) clearly captures Alan as the passionate lawyer who is also a single father, trying to ensure that the right messages are passed on to not only his students but society at large. The movie, at large, focuses on just this effort of proving Klauss innocent.
Ron Silver is probably best known for his roles in the TV series’ – Chicago Hope (Tommy Wilmette) & The West Wing (Bruno Gianelli) and maybe also for his performances in Live Wire, Blue Steel and Entity. He comes across as a very passionate actor. The only reason for not having made it big time in Hollywood would be his tendency to put in a bit too much into every scene. He does tend to over act a bit. Glen Close to me always has the wicked image that she managed to pick up around her Dangerous Liaison days. She does not have much of a role in this one. A Pity because she is such a versatile and extremely talented actress. Although her role in this particular movie is very muted to a few scenes and that of a narrator.
The stand out performance in typical ice cold fashion has to be that of Jeremy Irons who with utmost ease essays the role of a character who you would, in the spirit of the movie, like to be proven innocent. But in your heart of hearts, you really cannot decide with utmost conviction that he is. Irons’ portrayal of Klauss Von Bulow is yet another proof point of his capabilities as an actor and commitment towards getting under the skin of his character. Superb performance as always. Cant say it was his best but then with Jeremy Irons it is very difficult to choose a role which he has probably not given what the role demanded.
The rest of the cast is quite passé. Even Felicity Huffman in her bit part role as one of the students does not register with her performance. Decent movie to watch when u are down in bed on a working day unable to go to work. Not paced very well though. Survives on a couple of strong performances. Direction is not really any where close to being world class. Would give it a 5 on 10 at best.
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