Category: Film Reviews 2014

Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman and Stellan Skaarsgard star in this adaptation of a bestseller, itself a true story of the horrors of war, and the ramifications of torture within a japanese POW camp echoing through life to the present.

Colin Firth is, by all interpretations, a geeky trainspotter. The opening of the film, which wonderfully manages a reference to Oban and the West Coast of Scotland, its extraordinary beauty and how one might fall in love with it. (something i know all too much about), sees him on a train chatting to recently seperated Kidman, and using the art of charm and personality known only as Colin Firthness, reigns her in. The two fall in love, everything is wonderful.

Except, its not. You see, Firth is still psychologically damaged (i use the word damaged but its such an understatement) as a result of something that happened to him during the second world war. At this point, we don’t know what. So Kidman, worried for her husband, contacts his old unit, and tries to find the truth. And to make matters worse, it turns out the japanese soldier responsible for whatever horrors occurred, is still alive. How will Firth react to that?

Its a harrowing tale, and certainly not a comedy. But what it also is, is phenomenal. Its a brutal slice of post-war reality and a story of the fragile human mind. The real clincher for me was that the only reason Firth was tortured is because the japs thought he was a spy – because he knew about the trainlines. And the only reason he knew about the trainlines is because he was a trainspotter. And because he didn’t have an app for it on his phone he drew a map, which fell into the wrong hands and raised the wrong suspicions.

A really well made film it certainly is. Not one i’d perhaps watch again anytime soon, but i could say the same for Schindlers List, or Empire of the Sun. (the latter being my favourite war film).

Hats off, however, to the only person in the film better than the great Colin Firth, and that was his younger self, played to perfection by Jeremy Irvine, most recently seen in War Horse.

My only gripe is trivial; i wasn’t as emotionally devastated as i was expecting to be. Weird complaint, considering perhaps being emotionally devastated is a bad thing, but nonetheless, i was expecting traumatisation, and instead i just got a dashed good film. Read into that what you will.

Firstly; what a cast! I mean, Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner all in the one film? In any circumstance, ONE of these hardhitters could have me in the cinema and paying attention. But all of them at once? This has one of two outcomes; a mess, where the ensemble engulfs the individual and the plot collapses, or, more likely given the quality of the director (whose previous film “Silver Linings Playbook”) was excellent, a perfectly executed story where the actors all play off each other and provide falls for the others whenever required, never exploiting anybody as ‘bigger’ or ‘better’.

Thankfully; the latter is the result. The actors all give way to the others for an almost structured amount of screen time. Each one of them, also of note, plays a character which is out of form of their other, perhaps more famous roles. Christian Bale is NOT batman, Jennifer Lawrence is neither Mystique or Katniss Eberdeen, Amy Adams not the chick-flick wide-eyed character, Bradley Cooper is NOT mike from the Hangoever and Jeremy Renner is NOT bourne 2.0 or Hawkeye. In fact, the open fronted Adams is deliciously different from anything else shes done and the slutty, white trash Lawrence is gloriously surprisingly coarse. This wonderfully shows the scope of actors these days, showing that despite being classed as Hollywood-elite pretty boys/girls, they can drop their pretence and be ACTORS. Christian Bale’s diabolical wig is an example.

Its fortunate then, that the actors drive the film, because the plot is a bit rubbish, unfortunately. Now, i say this as a fan of the British TV program “Hustle”. And the plot of this film is pretty much an episode of this show, on the big screen. And that, i’m afraid, nullifies most of the threat hinted to in the story. But theres always that niggling thought that they’ve planned ahead. And i wasn’t wrong.

Still; a fantastic watch. If even just for shallow reasons (Amy Adams’ dresses).