Review: "The Dry"

"Everyone looked away; everyone still looks away. We're very good at it."

I like it when movies fake you out by seeming like something very familiar and then making every decision in a different direction than you expect. "The Dry" is about a federal agent who goes home to investigate the death of a friend, and going in I felt like I could tell you everything that's going to happen before it does.

He'll get emotionally invested in the case and make irrational decisions; he'll get in a scrap with old antagonists and teach them a lesson or three; he'll look up an old lady love, reconnect and wonder about staying; and he'll learn something about himself and the place he grew up, banishing the ghosts that led him to flee.

All of that happens, at least in some way, though not the way we think.

It's a fairly languid story, at least at first, and gradually picks up steam and intensity. Director Robert Connolly, who co-wrote the screenplay with Harry Cripps based on the best-selling novel by Jane Harper, is more concerned with staking out characters' interiors than the usual crime procedural perambulations of the plot.

Eric Bana plays Aaron Falk, who works for the Australian equivalent of the FBI, making headlines for cracking big cases. He left his home region of Kiewarra, a nowhere expanse of farms, 20 years earlier as a teen under suspicious circumstances. It's now beset by a terrible drought lasting nearly a year, turning all the crops to dust and drying out the people's hearts as well.

His childhood friend, Luke (played by Martin Dingle-Wall and Sam Corlett as a kid), has just killed his wife and young son before turning the shotgun on himself, leaving only his baby son alive.

At least, that's the official story. Luke's parents (Bruce Spence and Julia Blake) insist their son was a good man and would never do such a thing, but of course what else would they think? The father browbeats Aaron into opening his own investigation, using the cudgel of Aaron's own disgrace as leverage.

We see flashbacks to Aaron and Luke as teens (Joe Klocek plays young Aaron) and their friendship-slash-romantic dalliances with two girls, Ellie (BeBe Bettencourt) and Gretchen (Claude Scott-Mitchell). Luke and Gretchen were kind of an item, and Aaron and Ellie were beginning to be, since in the gravitational pull of a mixed foursome, when two hook up the others must do the same or become a pair of third wheels.

There were elements of Luke's young behavior that rub at the edges of Aaron's perception, suggesting he could have been capable of this violence. He was egotistical and a bully, and in one scene playfully dunked Ellie underwater, which seems merely jerk-ish until it's revealed she drowned in that same river. Luke and Aaron concocted an alibi about shooting rabbits, but in a small town gossip is more important than facts, and Aaron's dad made him move away before things got ugly.

So really, Aaron's journey is about solving not one murder but two, both inextricably connected in his soul.

Aaron goes through the motions of an unofficial investigation, just to pay the debt, not expecting to find anything. He works with the lone local police officer, Greg (Keir O'Donnell), a meek fellow who's dedicated but way out of his depth and is glad to have a famous lawmen leading the way. Questions  lead to more questions, but not enough answers for Aaron to let it go.

Other characters flit in and out of the story, suggesting possibilities with regard to crimes both old and new. Adult Gretchen (Genevieve O'Reilly) is now a single mother, looking fine and with her dance card open. Things fell apart between her and Luke after Ellie died, so maybe she and Aaron can have a second chance with each other. 

Grant (Matt Nable) is the local troublemaker (we'd call him a redneck) and also Ellie's brother who still believes Aaron is somehow responsible for her death. He keeps pushing Aaron for a confrontation that in most movies would be inevitable, but Aaron sees what he's doing and won't give in to the expected, though he's tempted. 

Bana gives a subtle performance as an even-keeled guy, looking upon Grant more with pity than fury. Like any man he has his breaking point, but prides himself on checking his emotions.

Scott (John Polson) is the principal at the town school where Luke's wife worked, and acts as the local peacemaker. Jamie (James Frecheville) is a squirrelly farmer who supposedly saw Luke shortly before the violence, and uses the same alibi about shooting rabbits that Aaron did so long ago. Daniel Frederikson plays the town doctor, stitching people up after bar fights and such.

I also really liked Miranda Tapsell as Greg's wife, who only gets a couple of scenes but makes the most of them as an Aboriginal woman with a sharp tongue who sees things as they are, and says so. In other circumstances, she'd probably turn out as a better investigator than either her husband or Aaron.

"The Dry" is one of those quietly thrilling movies that creeps up on you. It doesn't come out swinging but patiently softens you up for the haymakers that'll come later. The hero doesn't do all the stupid or obvious things, and the locals keep surprising us with more complexity and shadings than we expect.

This could've been a paint-by-numbers movie, and instead they chose to ignore all the laid-down-lines and create a portrait that's entirely different, and better.

 

 

Video review: "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"

I grew up reading and loving the Arthurian Legends, and have mostly groaned at the cinematic adaptations of them. The sub-genre reached its zenith with 1981’s “Excalibur,” and hasn’t come anywhere close since. If John Boorman’s version was the pinnacle, then surely Guy Ritchie’s “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” represents rock bottom.

Some movies are confusing; others are simply confused. I doubt this seemingly random mash-up of King Arthur lore, martial arts chop-socky, steampunk criminal intrigue and New Age-y mysticism made much sense even to the people making the film.

Charlie Hunnan plays Arthur, reimagined here as a street urchin who grew up among thieves and has risen to be their lord. Just a little light extortion and prostitution, if you please. He watched his father, King Uther Pendragon, die at the hands of his evil uncle, Vortigern (Jude Law), and has evolved into a standard-issue Avoiding My Destiny protagonist, a la Simba from “The Lion King.”

Soon enough he pulls Excalibur from the stone, and assumes the leadership of the rebellion consisting of some Uther loyalists, the thieves’ guild, a wayward mage who can control animals and not much else, and the rest of the ragtag.

Meanwhile, Vortigern is building a magical tower that augments his own sorcery, which never really gets all that impressive. Behead that architect!

Ritchie’s whirling dervish directing style, which is the cinematic equivalent of attention deficit disorder, is known for jumping around in time and space with head-snapping velocity. It works in small doses with the right material -- see his 2015 “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” for a prime example.

But “Arthur” often seems like a random assembly of shots without any kind of cohesive aesthetic connecting them. We’ll see Arthur swinging his sword in battle, for instance, and then cut to a shot of the mage standing enchanted on a hill far away, a murder of CGI crows swirling about her in slo-mo.

It’s a great-looking movie, but the story, characters and tone are disconnected from each other, or anything that could be reasonably termed entertaining.

Video extras are decent. The DVD comes only with a single featurette, “Arthur with Swagger,” a profile of Hunnan’s take on the character.

Upgrade to the Blu-ray edition and you add seven more featurettes, focusing on Ritchie’s vision, sword training for the cast, creating a grimier Camelot, stunt choreography, behind-the-scenes relationships and the mythology behind Excalibur.

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Review: "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"

“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” is the sort of movie that ends careers… or ought to.

This is just a stinking garbage pile of a movie. Director/co-writer Guy Ritchie, who turned the Sherlock Holmes stories into a dizzy Ferris wheel of grimy alleys and knife fights, takes on the Arthurian legend with the same aesthetic and considerably less skill.

It plays like a random assembly of Ritchie-esque shots -- slo-mo fights, cutaways to characters standing around looking cool as the wind swirls around them, and that thing he does where the people describe what’s going to happen, intercut with it actually happening.

It’s like they took the cut scenes from the video game version of the movie and made that the movie.

It’s a common insult for critics to say a movie plays like a video game. But I like video games, and such a comparison would be an insult to them.

The entire legend of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the tragedy of Lancelot and Guinevere, etc. is tossed out the window by Ritchie and fellow script men Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram. Instead, Arthur is a street scamp who rises to become the quiet crime lord of Camelot, running brothels and collecting extortion money from merchants.

He’s played by Charlie Hunnan, wearing a smirk and one of those haircuts that are popular these days where it’s buzzed to the scalp everywhere except the top. (Note to men: If you’re north of age 14, don’t.) He manages to pull the sword from the stone pretty early in the going, and spends the rest of the movie working out his daddy issues.

Eric Bana plays Uther Pendragon, murdered by his brother (!), Vortigern, played by longtime Ritchie thespian Jude Law. He’s trying to build a tower to increase his magic powers, except we never see him do anything more impressive than light a candle with his mind. Well, he does have one other trick up his sleeve, but it’s actually the work of a strange sea creature that resembles Ursula from “The Little Mermaid,” who demands a heavy price.

Merlin is off away doing something, but he has sent another mage, known simply as The Mage (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), in his stead to help out. It seems Vortigern has been carrying out a genocide against the mages. She can do that thing where her eyes go all-pupil and she takes over the body of wild creatures. We keep thinking she and Arthur are going to hook up, but first somebody needs to feed her.

Rounding out the cast are Djimon Hounsou as Bedivere, a loyal general to Uther who helps out the son; Aiden Gillen from “Game of Thrones,” who apparently is now required to be in every medieval movie, as Goosefat Bill, who makes quips and flings arrows; and Kingsley Ben-Adir and Neil Maskell as Arthur’s criminal lackeys, Wet Stick and Back Lack.

There’s also a martial arts school in the middle of Camelot, with an Asian teacher named George, who tutored young Arthur in the ways of badassery. And David Beckham turns up in a cameo as a flunky with a nasty eye scar.

(Lots of people have eye scars, for some reason, including Arthur.)

Other weird stuff: Arthur passes out a lot. No, really, whenever he touches Excalibur, he just faints dead away like a Southern belle with the vapors. For some reason, the rebels looking to overthrow Vertigern keep following him.

There’s also Arthur’s odd montage quest to the Darklands, which is supposed to be his big descent into darkness and accepting of his lineage. Except he’s still a prick when he comes back.

I grew up reading and loving the Arthurian legends -- what, most 9-year-olds don’t tear through “Le Morte d’Arthur”? -- so to see them used for this sneering bit of tomfoolery pains me to no end.

There’s not a spark of magic in “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.” It’s a visually splendid movie that proves the limits of what eye candy alone can do.

Video review: "The Finest Hours"

“The Finest Hours” is in the finest tradition of derring-do true life adventures in which ordinary men did extraordinary things, and you’re going to hear about them.

It’s the story of the 1952 rescue of the SS Pendleton, which was split in two by a fierce storm off New England. Men from the U.S. military’s least-celebrated branch, the Coast Guard, get their moment in the spotlight as we learn how they effected one of the most daring rescues in naval history.

Chris Pine plays Bernie Webber, a crew leader stationed in Cape Cod. He’s a gentle soul, rather dim, speaks as if he’s got a mouthful of cod and crab all the time like any good Greater Bostonite. He actually believes the old seaman’s lore that he has to seek permission from his commander (Eric Bana) before getting married to his girl, Miriam (Holliday Grainger).

Frankly, he’s the guy the other Coast Guard guys pick on, though he’s too oblivious to realize it, and too kind to do anything about it if he did.

But when the storm hits and there’s nobody else to help, Bernie picks a handful of guys and they take off on their tiny powerboat to brave waves the size of cliffs. Ben Foster, one of Hollywood’s most reliable young character actors, shines as Bernie’s unexpectedly loyal right-hand man.

One of the best storytelling decisions by director Craig Gillespie and screenwriters Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson was not to treat the men onboard the Pendleton as faceless and helpless. Casey Affleck plays Ray Sybert, the chief engineer, who organizes his team to keep the remains of the ship afloat. They even rig up a makeshift navigation system using spare parts and spit.

I found the movie interesting because it’s the story of two men, neither of whom are natural born leaders, who stepped into the fray when the call came and found that others looked to them for guidance. The film serves as an appreciation for the alpha male, the fellows who are usually stuck in the background of movies like this.

The seaborne action sequences are well-done and often thrilling. Bernie’s boat actually crashes through the waves rather than trying to go over them, briefly becoming a submersible craft as the desperate men hold their breath. Gillespie lets the seconds tick by as we expect the boat to emerge back into the life-giving air… any moment now…

“The Finest Hours” may not win many points for originality. But it’s a solid blend of action, drama and historical celebration.

Bonus features are pretty good, though you’ll have to spring for the Blu-ray upgrade to get the majority of them. The DVD version comes only with a documentary about the real-life rescuers, “The Finest Inspiration: The U.S. Coast Guard.”

With the Blu-ray edition you get three making-of featurettes: “Against All Odds: The Bernie Webber Story,” “Brotherhood” and “Two Crews.” You also receive firsthand accounts of real-life Coast Guard rescues and two deleted scenes.

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Review: "Lone Survivor"

Imagine you find yourself stuck in a situation where you must take innocent lives, or risk your own. Not only that, but an evil man lives while your comrades perish.

That was the plight facing four Navy SEALs in 2005 while hunting a Taliban leader in remote Afghanistan. Ultimately they made the moral choice, but it sealed the fate of all but one of them.

That’s the based-on-a-true-story premise of “Lone Survivor,” a powerful new action-drama starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster as the soldiers. Expertly crafted and harrowing, it’s not an especially deep film, falling back on firefights and familiar “band of brothers” tropes.

But in capturing the horror and confusion of modern combat, it’s as good as anything that has come along since “Black Hawk Down.”

Wahlberg plays Marcus Luttrell, the survivor who wrote the book upon which the movie is based. He’s an older, more seasoned SEAL, the voice of moderation and the guy the rest of the company turns to advice, whether it’s about mission equipment or what type of horse he should buy his fiancée as a wedding present.

Kitsch is Michael Murphy, the lieutenant and squad leader. He’s something of a legend among the SEALs, and lives up to his rep. Ben Foster, the excellent character actor, is terrific as Matt “Axe” Axelson, the hardcase sniper. And Emile Hirsch plays Danny Dietz, the youngest team member and communications man.

The mission was to drop into a hostile zone in Afghanistan where Taliban leader Ahmad Shah (Yousuf Azami) is known to be staying, and take him out. But while waiting for nightfall, three goat herders stumble across the soldiers, one an old man and another a young boy.

An argument breaks out over their options: kill the shepherds? Tie them up and face certain death from wolves or freezing temperatures? Or let them go, risking they’ll run right to Shah and bring down a small army of Taliban fighters on their head?

Ultimately, they made the third choice. Tellingly, writer/director Peter Berg makes these soldiers self-aware men who are cognizant of their place in a media-saturated world. Killing the shepherds, who are in possession of a satellite phone and almost certainly are pawns of the enemy, is undoubtedly the smartest movie from a Machiavellian standpoint. But, as Marcus points out, word will get out: “‘SEALs kill kids.’ That’ll be what they say on CNN,” he predicts.

From there, the film moves straight into action mode, with the ranging battle between the Americans and Taliban taking on a frightening verisimilitude. The SEALs have the superior experience and training, but they’re still four men up against dozens.

All the soldiers are grievously wounded, both by bullets and the necessity of throwing themselves off not one, but two cliffs to escape. It’s a testament to how much punishment the human body can take in extreme circumstances.

Eventually the only one left alive, Marcus makes his way to a nearby village, where he encounters a tribal leader (Ali Suliman) and more peril, but also a sort of bravery that rivals that of the SEALs.

Ultimately, “Lone Survivor” is an action-drama that lays more emphasis on the action part than the drama. But the firefight scenes are realistic and unnerving, and all four actors draw distinct portraits of young men at war.