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Reviews
Michael Clayton (2007)
Grows on you
At the end of the movie, Michael Clayton (George Clooney) hails a cab, thrusts some money at the cab driver and asks him to drive him around till the money lasts. As the credits roll, the camera focuses on Clayton's face as he sits in the cab outwardly impassive, yet for the audience who know him by now, he is obviously overwhelmed by emotion, trying to come to terms with the tumultuous events of the last few days that make up the time span chronicled in the movie. As the credits roll to a close, slowly a slight smile lights up his face as he realizes that he has done quite OK.
The impact of the movie on the audience is in some ways similar to the emotions on display during that final cab ride. The movie grows on you - starting slowly, but then gradually, relentlessly tightening its grip on the audience until it culminates in a nail biting finish with the protagonist and audience both left in their seats breathless reflecting on what they have just seen.
Michael Clayton works at a law firm and has a foggy job description. In the words of his boss, he is a miracle worker, in his own words, he is a janitor, called in to clean up stuff when things go inconveniently wrong at the law firm. When an important client 'hits and runs', Michael is send in to help him out. When a lawyer appears to go mad and undresses in the court room during an important hearing, Michael is flown in to clean up. His methods don't always utilize his legal skills - a character tells him "the cops think you are a lawyer and the lawyers think you are a cop". He is part of the system behind the scenes that allows the smooth day to day operations of the law firm. Until one day he has a choice to make - to continue to be a part of the system or to act on his own free will. We know enough about Michael to care about him - a divorcée and parent with money problems bought about by his gambling addiction and from trying to bail out relatives in financial trouble, whose career is going nowhere in spite of being very useful to his employers.The appeal of the movie lies in the fact that in spite of knowing a lot, at no point is it obvious as to what option he will choose. The movie is does not have universal appeal. I have recommended it to a few of my friends, some of whom who have come back after watching it and told me that they thought it was "a little vague". I, however, loved it, the highlights for me being a tight script that keeps getting tighter as the movie progresses and George Clooney who breathes life into Michael Clayton entirely convincing as a frustrated, tired failure who unexpectedly is confronted with a choice that will help him understand who he really is. Hours after the movie ended, like Michael Clayton in the back of that cab, I found myself reflecting on what I had seen and smiling to myself.
I Am Legend (2007)
Better than expected
saw this movie last night on Christmas Eve. The cineplex had a typical holiday eve crowd and my wife and I were there to see a typical holiday season movie - big bankable star, trailers that seemed to indicate standard low brow science fiction-ish stuff: Big Budget effects, Will Smith showing off his buff body, totting gun, shooting at ghoulish looking creatures, crashes, screams, the works. Boy, was I mistaken.
I am Legend is a rollicking ride, but not the one you would expect. Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a survivor from a cancer vaccine gone bad that has infected the world and may just be the the last surviving human on earth. The rest of humanity is either dead or transformed by the virus from the vaccine into flesh eating hyperactive monsters that are allergic to light and therefore emerge from the shadows only at night. How Robert survives while attempting to create a cure for the virus constitutes the main plot of the movie.
The movie flows nothing like a mainstream blockbuster (which most certainly it will be). For the majority of the movie, Will Smith is the only human character around and he entertains himself by talking to his dog, hitting on female mannequins in video rental stores, hitting golf balls from an aircraft carriers into New York city and (best of all) gathering corn and hunting game in a deserted and now overgrown downtown Manhattan. The only hint of menace in his seemingly pleasant routine comes when his watch alarm reminds him that nightfall is at hand and he rushes home to barricade himself from the marauding monsters and to work on a cure for the virus.
The movie has several things going for it. First, this is a great suspense movie. Like all good horror/suspense movies, it understands that what is lurking in the shadows or just out of our field of vision can scare us far more than any horrific sight that the filmmakers can conjure up. The moments in 'I am Legend' that are truly scary (and there are several) come from what we don't see rather than what we can. Second, hard as it may be to believe the movie can be quite philosophical if you know how to look. The thought of being the last human being on earth while being deeply unsettling also raises questions about god and our existence. The movie does not spend too much time on it, but the eerie loneliness of the streets of New York and the screams of the monsters in the night outside Robert's house force us to ask what it would be like to be all alone and whether we already are not. Third and last, Will Smith who has grown from film to film over the last several years has turned in a great performance as a man focused on the job at hand while being tormented by great and unusual adversity.
Net, I am Legend is definitely worth a watch. Regardless of what you expect - a holiday potboiler like I did, a mindless action flick or a deep and powerful action adventure - you are likely to leave the cinema with a little more than you bargained for.
Don (2006)
Don works for surprising reasons
Don works. A slick remake of the '70s hit by the same name, its strength, surprisingly lies in its differences from the original. Unlike the original,this one does not show all its cards at once and deals the deck one twist at a time. The twists in the story work not because they are particularly well crafted but because they represent differences from the original and are therefore unexpected. The film looks gorgeous - beautiful people, clothing and locations, not to mention the attention o detail that gives it the look and feel of a top tier Hollywood action flick. And finally there is ShahRukh playing a larger than life on with snarls and smirks and over the top growls and making it work like only he can.
The weakest parts of the movie are where Shahrukh plays the pan chewing simpleton, most significantly in the "...Pan Benaras wallah..." song. The song simply doesn't work, the setup, the dance moves and Shahrukh are all wrong and this can be a great disappointment for fans of the original. There is also this scene lifted from ConAir that the movie would have been better without.
Net if you willing to let go of what you know and like about the original movie, you should have a good time