Tag Archive: Colin Farrell


Steve McQueen’s empowered but flawed Widows

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November 28, 2018

WIDOWS directed by Steve McQueen (UK,USA 2018)

widows_282018_movie_poster29There are many reasons why the best TV series are more rewarding and creative than most current movies and Steve McQueen’s latest feature film illustrates why.

There’s something deeply unsatisfying and frustrating about seeing a complex, multi-layered plot condensed into just over two hours. A story divided into one hour episodes can take its time building nuanced characters and the twists, when they come, they don’t feel forced or rushed.

‘Widows’ is based on Lynda La Plante’s ITV series broadcast in the UK in the early 1980s. La Plante had previously written the peerless ‘Prime Suspect’ starring Helen Mirren which proved that ball-breaking women make compelling protagonists. Continue reading →

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MALICK’S NEW WORLD

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September 15, 2011

 I haven’t yet got to see the Tree Of Life but of all the Terrence Malick movies I have seen The New World is his weakest. It looks splendid and the editing of images with the soundtrack is a work of genius but the story plods along with a very wooden script.

Malick’s Days Of Heaven restored my faith in the voiceover but in The New World you have not just one, but three which seems to be over-egging it. These largely replace the need for dialogue and gives the movie a cold, detached quality.

Colin Farrell as Captain John Smith has the pissed off demeanour of a man who has stumbled into the wrong movie. He looks pumped up for some meaty action scenes but after some brief skirmishes with the savages (or ‘naturals’) these never materialise. There’s one unintentionally hilarious shot of him where one of the tribal leaders is talking to him in his native tongue. It’s not clear whether Farrell’s faraway look is meant to denote that he understands what the man is saying or whether he is thinking “what the fuck is this dude saying”?

On the subject of language, the speed with which Pocahontas (Q’orianka Kilcher) learns English is astounding. One minute she’s asking for some basic vocabulary – sun/sky/eyes/lips, the next she’s chatting away fluently. I wish some of my students were as gifted as her.

Christian Bale as John Rolfe swans around trying to look deep and sensitive but he’s never been an actor who convinces me.

I recognise that Malick’s poetic cinema is on a higher plain than most directors, and arguments rage about which version of this movie is the definitive one but my first impressions (I watched the extended cut) were not positive.

Maybe my expectations were too great. M aybe I need to see it again. After all, there are many who regard it as a misunderstood masterpiece.

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IN BRUGE

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October 11, 2008

I’ve never been Bruges but, unlike the two Irish hit men in this movie, I do at least know that it’s in Belgium. It looks a bit like Prague with a picture postcard prettiness and historical treasures.

The two are holed up in the city after a hit job went wrong. They’re like The Odd Couple with guns and swearing or the philosophising assassins in Pulp Fiction transferred to a more scenic location.

Ken (Brendan Gleeson) takes this tourist trail with enthusiasm while Ray (Colin Farrell) maintains throughout that “Bruge is a shithole”. He dismisses sight seeing as just going around looking at things and history as just stuff that has already happened.

The movie is sharply scripted and ably directed by Martin McDonagh who has made his name in theatre before this, his first full length feature. The story is highly contrived and is weighed down a bit by the honour among hoodlums subtext but the lines are good enough to enable you to suspend disbelief without too much hardship.

Ralph Fiennes as the bad mouthing boss ,Harry, is terrific. I loved the scene where he’s angrily smashing up a phone. His wife comes in and says “It’s an inanimate object!” to which he replies “You’re a fucking inanimate object!”.

Brendan Gleeson is the best reason for watching this, though. His is the most rounded character and he plays it with economy and panache. It’s never explained how someone so cultured and humane wound up as a hit man a but then again it’s only a movie and it doesn’t always do to ask such questions.

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