Before you watch the movie, first watch this snippet of about 7 minutes. This is a speech that is given by Willie Stark (Sean Penn) when he first realizes that he is being played for, in the upcoming election. More importantly, he realizes somewhere in his head that he has what it takes to be Governor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw_uTjf6VPc&feature=related
Based on the 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warner of the same name, All The King’s Men tracks the life of Willie Stark who is married to a school teacher. An accident in his county where a school caves in due to poor construction moves him to take up the cause of ensuring standards. One thing leads to another and before you know it, he is running for governor.
But as mentioned earlier, he was only being played for the part to ensure that there is a vote split between the other chief competitors. The scheme fails thanks to some great campaigning by Stark and he wins the race. The rest of the story is Stark’s movement from being an up-country politics unfriendly person to one who climbs the learning curve of dirty politics at the speed of light. He moves into being a dark scheming character – continuing to fight for the deprived – but playing his cards like a pro.
The director, Steve Zaillian, is actually better known for his prowess in screenplay (Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Moneyball, The Millenium Trilogy) and has had several nominations in the category. But when it comes to direction, he had two, not so well known but decent movies to his credit before he made ATKM. Arguably, ATKM was his best effort to date. There are a lot of segments where you maybe a bit lost but the pieces fall together as the movie trudges along.
One can fault Zaillian for pace but as I have always said, there is a thin line between slow and intense and I thought Zaillian did a good job flirting with the line. What works for him are the right cuts that ensured that moves the unnecessary stuff out. And of course the screenplay that’s Zaillian’s forte anyways – rocks.
ATKM is otherwise an actor’s movie. Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson & James Gandolfini. All Zaillian had to do was not screw up. And these 7 names would have done the rest. That’s exactly what happened. You will not get bored for certain. But as warned earlier – slow. 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV_Yad1i36w
Showing posts with label Talia Balsam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Talia Balsam. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Sunday, 13 February 2011
No Strings Attached
This one has been made for the die hard RomCom hater. Even if you are one, you are bound to love No Strings Attached (NSA) for its slick direction, brilliant dialogues and superb acting by almost everyone in the cast. I saw the trailer first over a couple of months back and was quite certain that it would be entertaining. That it would turn out to be a great balance between quality comedy and great romance was something that I had not expected really. And a personal word of advise to my friend Sumantra Mukherjee, a die hard Natalie Portman fan – Don’t watch this before you are placed my friend lest you die of a heart attack – Portman looks delectable to say the least.
Adam (Ashton Kutcher) is all of 14 years old and a reluctant member of a summer camp – thanks to his parents getting divorced – when he meets Emmaa (Natalie Portman). He uses the sympathy vote to try and get a feel of Emmaa but our lady is one up on him. She is not one to be swayed by the sympathy vote factor and just lends him a shoulder to cry. Poor Adam. 10 years down the road, Adam and Emmaa meet up once again at a sorority party which is getting really ferrel as she walks in. She doesn’t look too thrilled to be there as such but tries to settle in when she finds Adam having a blast with a couple of chicks – or should we say that Adam finds her. Doesn’t really matter. Emmaa is now @ MIT studying medicine and asks Adam over to her place the next day for “doing something”. Turns out to be Emmaa’s dad’s funeral and Adam is the only person dressed in yellow in a sea of black. Sounds quite morbid right. Not really when you watch it. It is quite funny actually. Fast forward 4 years more and Adam’s friend Eli (Jake Johnson) bumps into an old acquaintance, Patrice (Greta Gerwig). And what do you know? Patrice is doing her internship at the local hospital and is sharing a place with – ta dah – Emmaa. Looks like there is not turning back for this couple considering that they keep bumping into each other once every few years. This time however, it seems to be for good. After a few embarrassing moments for Adam though.
Adam’s dad, Alvin (Kevin Kline) decides to drop a bomb onto him one fine day by informing him that he is actually dating Adam’s ex girl friend. Depressed with the thought, Adam decides to get drunk and call up all the girls on his phone to get laid and eventually wakes up the next morning @ Emmaa’s place. Nope they haven’t done it yet. But they will in a few minutes post which Adam is not able to get her out of his head. Funnily enough Emmaa seems to be all non chalant about it and continues to go on with life one day at a time. She really doesn’t believe in getting emotionally tied down and much to Adam’s happiness proposes to continue seeing each other purely for sexual purposes – a man’s dream come true one would assume. But not if you were to so obviously fall in love with the woman of your dreams.
A predictable flick but very well made. You will kept laughing all through the movie and leave the hall quite satisfied with the way you spent the previous 2 hours. Natalie Portman is fabulous as the girl who doesn’t believe in love and believes that the weight of the world is on her shoulders and that she can go through life alone. Ashton Kutcher is his normal playboy self and the support cast is also quite good. Kevin Kline seems to have settled into playing the role of a father of the lead actor very well and hasn’t lost his comic touch one bit. Ivan Rietman has given us a very compact modern day RomCom with very little wastage of time or anything that can clearly be called unnecessary. One of the better RomComs made. 6.5 on 10. Must watch this Valentines.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1902549273/
Adam (Ashton Kutcher) is all of 14 years old and a reluctant member of a summer camp – thanks to his parents getting divorced – when he meets Emmaa (Natalie Portman). He uses the sympathy vote to try and get a feel of Emmaa but our lady is one up on him. She is not one to be swayed by the sympathy vote factor and just lends him a shoulder to cry. Poor Adam. 10 years down the road, Adam and Emmaa meet up once again at a sorority party which is getting really ferrel as she walks in. She doesn’t look too thrilled to be there as such but tries to settle in when she finds Adam having a blast with a couple of chicks – or should we say that Adam finds her. Doesn’t really matter. Emmaa is now @ MIT studying medicine and asks Adam over to her place the next day for “doing something”. Turns out to be Emmaa’s dad’s funeral and Adam is the only person dressed in yellow in a sea of black. Sounds quite morbid right. Not really when you watch it. It is quite funny actually. Fast forward 4 years more and Adam’s friend Eli (Jake Johnson) bumps into an old acquaintance, Patrice (Greta Gerwig). And what do you know? Patrice is doing her internship at the local hospital and is sharing a place with – ta dah – Emmaa. Looks like there is not turning back for this couple considering that they keep bumping into each other once every few years. This time however, it seems to be for good. After a few embarrassing moments for Adam though.
Adam’s dad, Alvin (Kevin Kline) decides to drop a bomb onto him one fine day by informing him that he is actually dating Adam’s ex girl friend. Depressed with the thought, Adam decides to get drunk and call up all the girls on his phone to get laid and eventually wakes up the next morning @ Emmaa’s place. Nope they haven’t done it yet. But they will in a few minutes post which Adam is not able to get her out of his head. Funnily enough Emmaa seems to be all non chalant about it and continues to go on with life one day at a time. She really doesn’t believe in getting emotionally tied down and much to Adam’s happiness proposes to continue seeing each other purely for sexual purposes – a man’s dream come true one would assume. But not if you were to so obviously fall in love with the woman of your dreams.
A predictable flick but very well made. You will kept laughing all through the movie and leave the hall quite satisfied with the way you spent the previous 2 hours. Natalie Portman is fabulous as the girl who doesn’t believe in love and believes that the weight of the world is on her shoulders and that she can go through life alone. Ashton Kutcher is his normal playboy self and the support cast is also quite good. Kevin Kline seems to have settled into playing the role of a father of the lead actor very well and hasn’t lost his comic touch one bit. Ivan Rietman has given us a very compact modern day RomCom with very little wastage of time or anything that can clearly be called unnecessary. One of the better RomComs made. 6.5 on 10. Must watch this Valentines.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1902549273/
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