The BFI London Film Festival 2017 concluded last week. Here are my reviews of the films which we went to see in Week 2; The Shape of Water, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Forgiven, Journey’s End & Bad Genius…
The Shape of Water
I’m still reeling from this extraordinary film and finding it hard to quantify the experience for you. I have been a fan of Guillermo del Toro since his early works, Cronos, in particular, seeming to announce to the world that here was a storyteller who looked at the world a little differently from the rest of us. Del Toro has become a master of fantasy and the creator of some of the most amazing creatures in cinematic history – will the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth, however, please feel free to leave my nightmares?
‘Odd couple romance’ does not even begin to cover the unusual coupling in this film, between a mute woman and a monster that bears a striking resemblance to the Creature From the Black Lagoon (and represents another brilliant turn by the 6ft 3½” Doug Jones). Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, a cleaner at a top secret laboratory who becomes fascinated by the creature in a secure tank. Michael Shannon decides not to concern himself with type-casting and essays another odious villain, enhanced by his espousing of Trumpian ideals, despite the 50’s setting. Much to Elisa’s horror, Strickland appears to be intent on dissecting the beautiful creature she has befriended. Roping in her gay best friend (a sensitive Richard Jenkins) and her fellow cleaner (The Help’s Octavia Spencer), Elisa pushes the fantasy into thrilling ‘caper’ territory.
It is the most unusual romance you will ever see but it is also a compelling and beautiful one, as well as a reminder of the power of love in our uncertain world.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
This was another unusual film but anyone who saw Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster might have guessed that The Killing of a Sacred Deer was not going to be, in any way, conventional.
The indication that we are not quite in our own reality is clear from the moment the cast speak, delivering their lines in deadpan robotic fashion. The unravelling of Colin Farrell’s surgeon’s baffling friendship with a 16 year old boy perplexes the audience – what exactly is going on between these two? At last, man and boy share a moment in a diner where the boy, Martin, demands reparation, a personal sacrifice from the surgeon. We continue to watch in horror as Martin’s threats to the surgeon’s family appear to come true.
I debated afterwards whether the film would have been more effective if played straight. I kept being reminded, for instance, of the film, Funny Games, but, with its looks to camera and remote control, even that horror was not completely in our world but a heightened version of it. So, The Killing of a Sacred Deer lures us in to its dark new world and we find ourselves quite unable to escape its clutches.
Unnerving.
The Forgiven
Taking its inspiration from South Africa’s Truth & Reconciliation Committee, The Forgiven betrays its stage roots by focussing on the dramatic confrontations between Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Forest Whitaker) and an unrepentant former death squad murderer played by Eric Bana.
Whitaker is a fine actor but there is little of Tutu’s twinkle in his performance and, inevitably, it is hard for the imposing actor to capture the small and, at the time, frail, Archbishop. Bana’s Blumfield is convinced of his country’s inevitable descent into a race war and seems to revel in playing the role of Lucifer, oft quoting Milton. Whilst Whitaker and Bana spa nicely, the dialogue never quite seems to soar in the Oscar-worthy manner I had hoped. Even the moving courtroom scenes, which ultimately bring some resolution to a grieving mother, never quite seem to reach the emotional depths the director appears to think they do. The film works best in its excoriation of gangs in prison and their rather sad devotion to colonial demonstrations of power. Sadly, if anything, this narrative distracts from the central battle of wits, rather than enhancing it.
That South Africa did not descend into the mire of civil/race war was miraculous and Tutu, always stressing non-violence, as he did, was an important factor in calming the nation, but there will be better films than this which honour his legacy.
Journey’s End
The first problem with this film is that modern audiences are so familiar with Blackadder Goes Forth, that it is hard not to expect Baldrick to suddenly appear alongside the film’s cook, played here by Toby Jones, to make one of his special coffees. The second problem is that the film follows on the heels of the superior Dunkirk, which similarly considered the effect of trauma upon young British soldiers and did so rather more eloquently.
Journey’s End began life as a play by a veteran of the trenches. Its first incarnation on film inspired the playwright to adapt the play as a novel and it is this novel, which, itself, inspired this new cinematic outing. I think that we lose something of the claustrophobia, so effective in the play, through the director’s choice of opening up the play to show the world outside of the trench but I can understand his desire to do so.
Asa Butterfield plays the childlike Raleigh, discovering the reality and true horror of war. Sam Claflin is decent as the shell-shocked Stanhope and Paul Bettany superb as the caring ‘Uncle’. Unfortunately, we just don’t care enough about the fate of these characters, at least not in the same way as we did for those in Dunkirk (or Blackadder for that matter).
Did I imagine that the play hints at more history between Raleigh and Stanhope? I found myself asking why Raleigh went along as gooseberry to his sister’s romantic walks through the forest with Stanhope? Having first seen the play at school, perhaps my teenage mind imagined more of a gay subtext than actually existed but the film might have been given more emotional depth if Raleigh’s interest in Stanhope was more than just hero-worship.
Bad Genius
This was a fitting way to end the London Film Festival, with a fun little Thai thriller. You might not think that international examinations would be all that great as source material but, in some countries, it has become such a high stakes world that it is ripe for exploitation. Director Nattawut Poonpiriya has fun mirroring Thailand’s class inequalities and laying bare its corrupt school system in this teenage Ocean’s Eleven.
Lynn (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) is a maths genius with few social skills who becomes friends with the more worldly-wide Grace (Eisaya Hosuwan) and is drawn into helping her cheat. There is a progression of genius ways of cheating on tests which leads up to the final attempt to aid mass cheating on the STIC (an international standardised test for university admission). Aided and abetted by her fellow genius, Bank, Lynn wrestles with the moral implications of her decision.
Bad Genius is beautifully shot and the director succeeds in racking up almost unbearable tension. It is best when it is having fun and only ever falls flat when moralising. Like Lynn, however, we are torn between wanting the caper to succeed and feeling that there ought to be some retribution for those not clever enough to succeed on their own merits.