In this week's Expatica cinema section - in collaboration with Picturenose - James Drew reviews Reservation Road plus a selection of other films now on release across Europe.

Reservation Road

From John Burnham Schwartz's novel, Reservation Road follows college professor Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix) as he struggles to make sense of the death of his young son at the hands of hit-and-run driver Dwight (Mark Ruffalo). His wife Grace (Jennifer Connelly) wants to put the tragedy behind them, but Ethan - frustrated at the police's inability to catch the perpetrator - becomes increasingly consumed with his desire for revenge.

The film's premise could and should have been electrifying, but Reservation Road director and co-writer Terry George (Hotel Rwanda (2004)) piles on ludicrous intersections by which the men might meet, mistake and try too hard to manipulate one another. When Ethan needs a lawyer, guess whom he hires? And when Emma finds solace in her music, who do you think offers to give her extra lessons? Such contrivances provide for plenty of tense close-ups wherein the men show their torment, but they also stretch credulity, and the film suffers for the plot manipulations.

It rings mysteriously hollow, somehow lacking that final thread that connects the viewer. It is consistently entertaining, but never quite packs the emotional wallop that might have been expected, with the final confrontation between Ethan and Dwight a particular let-down. There are uniformly effective performances (Phoenix is very good), but in the end, Reservation Road would have benefited from the presence of a stronger filmmaker behind the camera, as Terry George just doesn't seem quite up to the job.

102mins.


Il y a longtemps que je t'aime

Two sisters who haven't seen each other for 15 years gradually rediscover common ground in Philippe Claudel's very well received debut.

Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a plainly dressed, world-weary middle-aged woman, whose tragic past forms the film's core. Her sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein), married to lexicographer Luc (Serge Hazanavicius), has a full life that includes raising two adopted Vietnamese daughters and looking after Luc's poorly father (Jean-Claude Arnaud).
 
Claudel's script is built out of everyday, unmelodramatic events that are succinctly dialogued and the story's setting in Nancy, eastern France, allows the characters to develop naturally, unencumbered by the familiar sites of a city such as Paris – a quietly challenging and enjoyable work.


115mins.

Vantage Point  

In a high-profile meeting between the United States and several Arab nations, President Ashton (William Hurt) is seemingly felled by an assassin's bullet, in Pete Travis's Rashômon-esque examination of truth during crisis.

Following the bomb that goes off in the square immediately after the shooting, Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) try to piece together the clues, while camera-toting bystander Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) believes he captured the entire event, including the shooter, on tape, and local police detective (Eduardo Noreiga), who's assigned to the mayor, thinks he knows whodunnit too.

 
Giving new life to the phrase 'twists and turns', and genuinely thrilling in parts, Vantage Point neverthless promises much more than it can ever really deliver in 90 minutes. What's a conspiracy? Everything...

90mins.
 

Horton Hears A Who!  

I know that this is adapted from a 1954 Dr Seuss original, and therefore is beyond criticism, but is it just me, or is its title very silly and annoying? Thanks for listening. Anyway, it's a very entertaining animated feature from Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino - Horton the elephant (Jim Carrey) hears a cry for help coming from a speck of dust. Even though he can't see anyone, the speck of dust is indeed home to the 'Whos' and their city of Whoville.

 But his jungle neighbors think Horton's lost his gourd, and refuse to believe that anything could survive on the speck. Horton, though, stands by his motto: "After all, a person is a person, no matter how small," which was briefly adopted by the US pro-life movement, until the good Doctor threatened to sue. Don't be put off – it's not really a message movie, and has good times on offer for big and small.

88 mins.

'Expatica's weekly cinema-review section is brought to you in collaboration with Picturenose.com'  

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(expatica 2008)