In this week's Expatica cinema section - in collaboration with Picturenose - James Drew reviews 'Love in the Time of Cholera ', '[Rec]', ' Iron Man' and 'Taken.'

Love in the Time of Cholera

A courageous or foolhardy move from director Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco (1997), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)) to adapt Gabriel García Márquez’s El amor en los tiempos del cólera, which has already established itself as one of the greatest modern romantic novels?

Well, there’s no doubting Newell’s competency behind the camera, which translates visually into a sumptuous feast for the senses, but whether Ronald Harwood’s screenplay captures all the intricacies of the love, lost and regained, that’s at the heart of the incredibly rich and detailed prose of the original, is another matter, and one that will doubtless be fiercely debated by the book’s devotees.

The setting is 19th century Columbia – young romantic Florentino Ariza (Unax Ugalde) spies young maiden Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) promenading through the plaza and is forever, hopelessly smitten. Captivated by her beauty, he resolves to remain a virgin until they can be together but – oh, misery! – following a heated exchange of letters and a long-distance barrage of telegrams, after Fermina’s father (John Leguizamo) has taken her in country to stymie the relationship, Florentino is casually rejected, with his beloved citing the temporary insanity of youth. Enter successful young doctor Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt), who wins fair lady’s hand – and we cut to an older Florentino (now played by Javier Bardem) who, while still forever betrothed in his heart to his amour perdu, eases the pain of his heartbreak via sex with lots and lots of women. A dirty job, but somone’s got to do it…

Accusations of, ahem, ‘chick-flickery’ may follow, but they are misplaced – despite perhaps a mistake being made in the casting of Mezzogiorno as Fermina (her looks are simply not captivating enough, which somewhat undermines the original credibility of Florentino’s amour fou, particularly when one sees the ravishing beauty of many of his conquests), Bardem’s performance is a text-book account of the perils and pain wrought by the heart, and is thus the lynch-pin for a film that manages to avoid popcorn stereotypes.

The near two-and-a-half hour running time may seem extensive, but kudos, in fact, that so much of the novel’s original thrust remains, because a 12-hour mini-series adaptation would still have faced criticism over what had been removed.

Hearts of stone need not apply, but for the rest, the film can be seen as a qualified success, parts of which do resonate in the deepest places.

139 mins.

[Rec]    

The horror cinéma-vérité sub-genre is enjoying a whole new lease of life. A concept that was originally set in motion by The Blair Witch Project (1999) and which, after an absence of nearly ten years, has already been well-served last year by fake documentary flicks such as George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead and Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity, and in 2008 by Matt Reeves’ and J.J. Abram’s Cloverfield.

Spanish director Jaume Balagueró (along with co-director Paco Plazo and writer Luis Berdejo) steps into the fray with [Rec], and praise be for that – Balagueró’s earlier films, such as The Nameless (1999), Darkness (2002) and Fragile (2005) pushed back the fear factory’s boundaries, expertly blending traditional ghost story elements with far, far worse concepts.

And the concept here couldn’t be simpler: Ángela (Manuela Velasco) is a TV reporter shooting a documentary series on firemen’s night work. Answering a routine rescue call to an apartment building, the crew find themselves in hell when the alleged rescue-ee starts chowing down on one of the rescuers. With cameras rolling (and thus the audience’s perspective assured), the crew and residents must find a way to survive the zombie outbreak when they find themselves quarantined inside the building by the trigger-happy military.

While the monsters may be almost perceived as traditional, a horror ethos suitably informed by the brilliant work of George A. Romero, the approach is anything but - the experience is akin to spending a night in a haunted maze, with stuff-of-nightmares images and a veritable flood of chaos, claustrophobia, and ‘Oh-my-dear-God-NO!’ moments, culminating in what is perhaps the most terrifying ‘resolution’ ever filmed.

In an astounding development, there’s a Hollywood remake on the way – do the world a favour and see this first, capisce?

85 mins.

Iron Man

So, Robert Downey Jr. is the latest action superhero, right? Before you get the fear, be assured that director Jon Favreau’s take on yet another Stan Lee Marvel Comic original, is not, in fact, half-bad.

Tony Stark (Downey, Jr) is billionaire playboy owner of Stark Industries, one of the US’s largest military weapons manufacturers. Stark, while demonstrating his latest military technology to top brass in Afghanistan, is kidnapped by terrorists who demand that he build a missile for them but – a-ha! – Stark instead constructs a super-powered iron bodysuit that’s bulletproof, can fly and in addition boasts a flamethrower. Quite where he manages to find the necessary raw materials to do this in and around an Afghan cave is perhaps sensibly left unexplained, but never mind – Stark quits the lucrative weapons industry and transforms into a force for good. See if you can work out two things – first, what he calls himself and second, how many toilet breaks does he have to take? Does he have to land for such matters, or is his suit designed like an astronaut’s for that very purpose? It’s never explained, you see…

All sarcasm aside, this is enjoyable enough – Downey Jr.'s lead performance is far more in depth than one might expect, the action is kick arse, and Jeff Bridges has lots of fun as the cigar-chomping baddie, Obadiah Stane (no, really). Will that do for you?

126 mins.


Taken

Fair-to-middling action-flick debut from Liam Neeson, in this Pierre Morel-directed, Luc Besson/Mark Kamen-written thriller. Neeson plays Bryan, a former US armed forces mercenary, whose estranged daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped following her arrival in Europe. She’s in the clutches of sex traffickers, and time is running out…

93 mins. Language: English / French

James Drew

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

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(expatica 2008)