Tag: joel edgerton

In Theaters: Thirteen Lives

July 29th, 2022

Thirteen Lives
147 minutes; PG-13; directed by Ron Howard
Critic’s grade: B

There are certain types of movies involving harrowing experiences, often inspired by real-life events, that tend to leave viewers practically exhausted by the time the credits roll. They’re so realistically photographed, and the stakes are so high for those involved in the nightmare, that moviegoers can’t help but feel as if they had taken an emotional, even physical journey alongside the main characters.

“The Impossible” (2012), about a British family of five who survived the Tsunami that swept them away from their resort in Thailand and into the raging waters of the Indian Ocean, was one such film. Against enormous odds, a married couple and their three kids managed to stay alive.

A decade later, here comes another survival film set in the same country (but mostly filmed in Australia). Ron Howard’s “Thirteen Lives” tells the story of the dramatic rescue of a boys soccer team trapped in an underground cave in northern Thailand, where fast-rising flood waters made escape unlikely at best and impossible at worst.

But beating the odds is the name of the game for this kind of inspirational tale, which comes with a conclusion that won’t be a surprise to anyone who followed the widely disseminated news of the 2018 incident or watched last year’s documentary “The Rescue” or 2019 docudrama “The Cave.”

Howard, who effectively ratcheted up the tension in “Apollo 13” (1995), a true story of survival in outer space, demonstrates similar skills with what might be viewed as an inner-space narrative in “Thirteen Lives.” He directed from a rather conventional screenplay credited to William Nicholson (“Les Miserables,” “Gladiator”) and Don MacPherson.

The filmmaker and Thai-born cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom set the stage for the two and one-half hour saga with scenes that are practically pastoral — boys play soccer on a green pitch with a backdrop of majestic mountains, and then they ride their bicycles, all in a line, through roads taking them past fields of crops. Locals gather at colorful food trucks, and a family rushes around getting ready to throw a birthday party for one of the boys.

It’s the calm before the literal storm: A dozen of the players, who are between the ages of 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach, take a quick pre-party detour to visit a local cave, unaware that a massive rainstorm, indicating an early arrival of monsoon season, is about to change their lives forever.

Once it becomes apparent that the team is trapped, the province’s governor calls in the military and its expert divers, assuring parents and the community that the crisis will be averted promptly and the boys will come home.

But days go by, prospects diminish for a safe, quick rescue, and the governor and the military have no choice but to let a team of experienced cave-rescue divers from the UK brainstorm a solution. The group, led by can-do guy John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) and the cantankerous, more pragmatic Rick Stanton (Viggo Mortensen), also includes their colleagues, Dr. Harry Harris (Joel Edgerton), young Chris Jewell (Tom Bateman) and Jason Mallinson (Paul Gleeson). Their camaraderie, bravery and mild rivalry with one another in support of an act of pure selflessness, at no small risk to themselves, are among the movie’s most affecting elements.

Howard takes a workmanlike approach to this material, handily weaving together the various strands of the all-in rescue effort, including a massive, largely successful operation to divert rainwater — which has been pouring down the mountainside — away from the cave entrance and into local fields, in the process destroying crops but perhaps helping save the boys’ lives.

High-end craftsmanship bolsters the tricky underwater sequences, as the UK and Thai divers variously engage in hours-long dives, making their way through tight tunnels and dealing with other obstacles enroute to the chamber where the boys are located. Got claustrophobia? These scenes might make you uncomfortable.

Perhaps in part due to Howard’s desire to not have the movie solely focus on Westerners arriving to save the day, the narrative feels a little disjointed, as the storytelling relies on steadily evolving points of view, with radio and TV broadcasts filling in some of the gaps. We take in the proceedings through a variety of lenses — the governor, the military, the locals engaged in diverting water, an engineering expert, the parents of the boys, and the UK team. Consequently, there’s limited character development.

“Thirteen Lives” nevertheless offers an engaging expedition to the center of a headline-grabbing crisis, an 18-day ordeal that united a village, a region, a country and, briefly, the world, in sympathy for and support of a group of boys who faced the very real risk of losing their lives.

Bonus: The film may help Howard further separate himself from the bad publicity surrounding his last film, misguided redneck drama “Hillbilly Elegy” (2020).
“The Odd Life of Timothy Green”: Good Intentions Can’t Save Saccharine Story (review)

August 15th, 2012

Stars Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, and CJ Adams; Directed and written by Peter Hedges, from a story by Ahmet Zappa. Rated PG. 105 minutes. Critic’s grade: C

Remember the Lyle Lovett song that goes, “She wasn’t good, but she had good intentions”?

That sentiment comes to mind with “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” a fanciful, family-oriented comic drama that’s the third film from Peter Hedges; he fared better with a roomful of sympathetic and well-played characters in 2003’s Steve Carrell vehicle, “Dan in Real Life.”

The good intentions: Hedges built his script on a sweet story, penned by Ahmet Zappa (the less-famous son of Frank Zappa), concerning a childless couple’s encounter with a young boy (CJ Adams, who had a small part in “Dan in Real Life”) who magically springs from the earth, borne both of mystical elements and his new “parents”‘ list of qualities they desired their offspring to possess.

The “wasn’t good” part: The entire movie is bathed in the saccharine sentimentality that fails to cover up its flaws, including a truncated set-up, a low level of chemistry between Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton (“Warrior,” “Animal Kingdom”), as the baby-pining Cindy and Jim Green, and the filmmaker’s penchant for practically throwing away potent story conflicts, like the Greens’ efforts to explain the sudden appearance of Timothy. Not to mention the often trite dialogue, and the unsatisfying participation of such acting talent as David Morse, Dianne Wiest, and M. Emmet Walsh, all of whom gamely take on one-note, underwritten roles.

The setting is small-town Stanleyville, an all-American looking burg — Georgia passing for the Midwest — where life is largely lived in the permanently gorgeous hues of late afternoon fall. Those bright autumnal colors provide the backdrop for the unhurried comings and goings of a place centered on the Stanley Pencil Factory. Jim toils there, working for arrogant, self-centered Franklin Crudstaff (Ron Livingston). Cindy spends her days at the factory-affiliated museum, where her cold and officious boss, Franklin’s mom (Wiest), naturally shares some unattractive qualities with Jim’s boss.

One dark and stormy night — literally — Timothy bursts from the earth, and, covered in mud, his legs adorned with leaves that seem to be permanently attached, he shows up inside their home, declaring, “I got here last night. I come from the garden.” Even creepier, the 10-year-old calls his new hosts “Mom” and “Dad.” Good thing mom and dad never watched “Children of the Corn.”

What might have played as a horror-movie sequence in another film (which, coincidentally, takes place in the house where “Halloween II” was shot) barely seems to spook the Greens. They quickly get Timothy cleaned up and tucked in bed, and make plans to enroll him in school and sign him up for the soccer team.

Before launching his career as a director, Hedges penned the terrific, full-bodied screenplays for “About a Boy” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” So it has to count as somewhat puzzling that he fills out the bulk of “Timothy Green” with mostly uninteresting doings set on the soccer field (hop-hop star Common plays the exasperated coach), at the factory, at the museum, and at the Greens’ home. Sibling rivalry, and father-son issues, figure into things, as does something akin to young love, and a meanie or two get their comeuppances.

The film, too, is lined with a few predictable, and rather routinely rolled out big themes, centered on acceptance of the “different,” and the desirability of unconditional love not poisoned by possessiveness. There’s also the clear positioning of CJ, his arms often outstretched to absorb the sun, as a sort of Christ figure, someone who lives and dies for the sole purpose of redeeming those who love him.

Yes, potentially provocative themes all – too bad they’re wrapped in the rather bland plot machinations of “Timothy Green.”
Warrior — First Blush: You’ve Got to Be Cruel to Be Kind

August 12th, 2011

The new adaptation of Conan the Barbarian is due next Friday.

Meanwhile, Warrior, the season’s other he-man fighting hero movie, a contemporary tale of bloodsport, is being shown to critics well in advance of its Sept. 9 opening date; positive word of mouth is expected to be key to the film’s success. The audience at the screening I attended responded boisterously — cheering, shouting — to the superbly choreographed scenes of mixed-martial-arts action.

Like last year’s beautifully acted and directed The Fighter, the new film, directed by Gavin O’Connor (hockey movie Miracle), is as much about healing broken relationships as it is about winning pitched battles. Warrior, too, concerns a rift between two brothers, this time played by Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom, forthcoming remakes of The Thing and The Great Gatsby) and Tom Hardy (Inception, Thick as Thieves, next year’s The Dark Knight Rises)

In addition to facing their own problems, the siblings are contending with a dad (Nick Nolte) who’s a recovering alcoholic with a history of mistreating his family. The final showdown takes place at a glitzy last-man-standing event in Atlantic City.

A few quick observations: 1)At 140 minutes, the movie is long but so expertly paced, closing with a long crescendo of excitement, that it feels as if it moves quickly; 2)Coincidences fall like rain, but suspension of disbelief isn’t an obstacle; 3)The Great Recession plays a role, as does, uh, the comeback of the Soviet Threat, in the form of a fearsome Russian fighter; 4)The moral of the story seems to be, “You’ve got to be cruel to be kind, in the right measure” (thanks to Nick Lowe).

Stay tuned for a full review.
Is Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 Thriller an October Surprise, Hollywood Style?

August 10th, 2011

Navy SEAL Team 6’s successful mission to find and kill Islamic super-terrorist Osama Bin Laden, the architect of 9/11, is the subject of a forthcoming feature film from Kathryn Bigelow (below) and Mark Boal, the same directing-writing team behind brilliant 2008 Oscar winner The Hurt Locker.

So far known as “Untitled International Thriller” on IMDB, the film’s cast includes Australian-born actor Joel Edgerton, who appeared in the much admired Animal Kingdom and will be seen later this year in Warrior and a remake of The Thing.

Here’s the most interesting aspect, so far: The film, which focuses on an American military triumph credited to the Obama Administration, is slated for release on Oct. 12, 2012, just a few weeks before the next U.S. presidential election. Political strategists have already pointed to the Bin Laden killing as an accomplishment likely to receive top billing during Obama’s campaign.

Is the timing a coincidence?

Perhaps even more controversial is the possibility, as suggested in a piece by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, that the filmmakers received classified information about the mission from the administration. Representative Peter King (R-NY) is seeking an investigation into that question, according to a story by Mike Fleming, of Deadline.com.

Bigelow and Boal, in response, released the following statement: ““Our upcoming film project about the decade long pursuit of Bin Laden has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, the dangerous work of finding the world’s most wanted man was carried out by individuals in the military and intelligence communities who put their lives at risk for the greater good without regard for political affiliation. This was an American triumph, both heroic, and non-partisan and there is no basis to suggest that our film will represent this enormous victory otherwise.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed King’s concerns as “ridiculous.”

Of course, there’s one way to ensure that folks don’t view the film as meant to boost the prospects of one presidential candidate: delay the film’s release until after the election.

Tag: joel edgerton

In Theaters: Thirteen Lives

“The Odd Life of Timothy Green”: Good Intentions Can’t Save Saccharine Story (review)

Warrior — First Blush: You’ve Got to Be Cruel to Be Kind

Is Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 Thriller an October Surprise, Hollywood Style?