Review: Wild (2014)

* * 1/2
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Starring: Reese Witherspoon

When the nominations for the biggest awards started being announced earlier this year, many of the articles that I read which focused on the general lack of diversity in Hollywood storytelling singled out Wild as the sort of great female-driven film that was being ignored and left behind by awarding groups whose membership comprised primarily of white men. Not having seen the film at that point, I didn't really know how valid that criticism was, and having now seen it, I'm somewhat perplexed. Wild is not a great movie, let alone a great movie about women. It's a fine movie and it features a fairly meaty leading role for a woman (in this case Reese Witherspoon, Oscar nominated for it), but it really never rises to the level of greatness as a film, and when it comes to its depiction of women it's never quite as progressive as it seems to want to take credit for, and actually embraces some fairly tired cultural ideas about women and their value within society.

Review: Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

* * *
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner

Like its protagonist, Dallas Buyers Club is all skin and bones, a lean piece of work without any fat to trim. Also like its protagonist, it prefers action to pathos, refusing to wallow in the misery of impending death (no matter how justified such wallowing might be, in the circumstances) and instead focus on those things which make life worth living in the first place. Based on the true story of Ron Woodroof, an electrician turned AIDS activist, the film unfolds in a sharp, unsentimental way, finding its groove in some familiar and comfortable tropes and letting the power of its subject speak for itself with a minimum of fussiness. Dallas Buyers Club is a solidly made film, old fashioned in some respects but definitely effective.

Review: The Young Victoria (2009)

* * *
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend

It’s strange, when you think about it, that the monarch who reigned the longest over the British Empire is so curiously underrepresented in film. She reigned for nearly 64 years and had direct descendants in so many kingdoms that she was called the grandmother of Europe, but when it comes to films she tends to figure in supporting or cameo roles more often that as the subject. Maybe it’s because Victoria’s image is defined by ideas of sexual repression and filmmakers tend to like their biopics with a bit of sex in them to keep things interesting. The Young Victoria is no different in that regard, focusing largely on Victoria’s relationship with Prince Albert, envisioning them as dewey young things in the first blush of love. The decision makes for a surprisingly delightful but unmistakeably lightweight film.

In her first meeting with Albert (Rupert Friend), Victoria (Emily Blunt) describes herself as feeling like a chess piece being moved across a board. Though the statement is a bit of a cliché, there’s really no better way to describe her position. Her uncle King William IV (Jim Broadbent) has no surviving children (well, legitimate children), making her next in line to the British crown. If he dies before she turns 18, a regent must rule in her place – something desperately desired by her mother (Miranda Richardson) and her advisor Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), who have raised her to be essentially dependent on them so that they can wield power through her. Her uncle on the other side of the family is Leopold I (Thomas Kretschmann), the King of Belgium, who wants to influence her as a means of making his somewhat shaky monarchy more secure. His other pawn in this endeavour is his nephew, Albert, who spends his days being tutored in Victoria’s likes and dislikes in order to make a favourable impression on her when they finally meet. Of course, sheltered as she has been by her mother and Conroy, Victoria sees through his coaching and once he starts being himself they develop a natural and friendly rapport.

Though she likes Albert, Victoria has many other things on her mind. Shortly after her eighteenth birthday the King dies and she gains the crown, making the tug of war over her even fiercer. She stands up to Conroy once and for all, cutting him off at the knees even if she can’t cut him out of her mother’s life, and aligns herself with the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany). Though Melbourne becomes a trusted advisor to her, their friendship is problematic because she’s seen as favouring him too much, arousing the jealousy of his political opponents which in turn gets the public against her, resulting in ugly scenes outside of Buckingham Palace. Her friendship with Melbourne also causes strife in her relationship with Albert, particularly after they’ve married and his own marginalization is magnified by the stock she sets in the other man. Raised in virtual seclusion, Victoria is unaware of how to play the game with finesse and believes that her stubbornness is the greatest weapon in her arsenal. She learns some hard lessons, but also learns that she can rely on Albert as a true partner if only she can meet him half way.

In the lead role Blunt renders a spirited and engaging performance that is matched note for note by Friend as the two move through the grades of Victoria and Albert’s relationship. Their attraction to each other is more or less immediate but the road isn’t smooth for them even after they’ve married. Victoria is out to prove herself and assert her independence and in doing so relegates Albert to the sidelines, making it necessary for her to find a way to balance her role as the Queen with Albert’s need to be more than just “the Queen’s husband.” As a result, some of the fiercest conflicts in the story are between the newlyweds as they try to negotiate their unique position. Much of the credit for the film's success is due to Blunt and Friend, who have great chemistry and bring a surprising amount of humor to their roles even when their characters are at odds. The more I see of Friend's work, the more I like him as an actor, and as far as Blunt goes, this is easily the most mature performance of her career. She excels here as a woman trying to find her own voice and make others hear it.

Written by Julian Fellows (Gosford Park) and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y.), the film is lively and moves gracefully but, as I said before, it’s lightweight. It touches on some of the social reforms and patronage of the arts that would mark Victoria’s reign, but it’s main concern is the love story and the effect that that relationship had on the other alliances in Victoria’s life. It all looks good – the cinematography, art direction and costume design are all top notch – but it doesn’t run particularly deep and when it came to an end my first thought was “That’s it?” Still, for what it is, it’s quite enjoyable and if you’re like me and most of the movies you’ve seen lately have depressed the hell out of you, this one is a really nice change of pace.

Canadian Film Review: C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)

* * * 1/2
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Marc-André Grodin, Michel Coté, Danielle Proulx

C.R.A.Z.Y. is a film that I wanted to like a lot more than I actually did. The central performance by Marc-André Grodin is fantastic, and the film itself has moments of greatness, but ultimately Jean-Marc Vallée’s coming-of-age drama is somewhat lacking in focus, making for a film that wants to be more than it actually is.

Grodin plays Zach, the fourth son of Gervais (Michael Coté) and Laurianne (Danielle Proulx), and one who suffers the misfortune of being born on Christmas Eve (a circumstance with which I completely sympathize, having been a Christmas Eve baby myself). Much of the film is concerned with Zach’s emerging homosexuality and the attempts by both himself and his father to come to terms with it. The film is at its best when it explores the relationship between these two characters, both of whom recognize Zach’s burgeoning sexuality and go out of their way to avoid acknowledging it, as if by doing so it will resolve itself and simply go away. One of the film’s most powerful moments comes early, when Gervais walks in on young Zach trying on his mother’s clothes, and his voice-over informs us sadly that in this moment, he unwittingly declared war on his father. In scenes like this one, where the film deals directly and sincerely with this relationship that seems to become more fraught every day, it hits upon a truth that makes it incredibly compelling.

However, this is only part of the story that the film wants to tell, and a great deal of time is focused on Raymond (Pierre-Luc Brillant), one of Zach’s brothers, an addict whose troubles with drugs and the law more or less hold his family hostage until his inevitable death. This section of the film is strong in and of itself, but putting it together with Zach’s story makes for a narrative that can occasionally feel overloaded, like two films that have been smashed together into one.

The four main performances are all fantastic, especially that of Grodin, who delivers a well-rounded and engaging performance as someone who longs for his father’s acceptance even as he’s rejecting everything that his father represents. As Raymond, Brillant delivers a high energy performance, tearing through the family like a tornado. He doesn’t do much that doesn’t cause the family pain, but there are little moments that make you understand why the family continues to give him chance after chance. As the parents, Proulx and Coté are great, with Laurianne acting as the glue trying to hold the fragile family together, and Gervais struggling with the fact that the family hasn’t turned out the way he had planned. That he isn’t presented to us as a villain attests to the strength of the film and the performance. This is a very real character, one who struggles to understand the men that his sons have become and who often reacts in ways that are hurtful, but he isn’t a monster. He’s just a man coming to terms with the fact that he can’t be in control of everything.

There’s a lot that this film gets really right – particularly the little details inherent in being part of a family, perfectly capturing the way that family traditions can be at once absolutely mortifying but also incredibly comforting – but it’s like too much of a good thing. As good as the individual elements of C.R.A.Z.Y. are, it doesn’t blend all of these elements cohesively. When, at the close of the film we realize that the title refers to the five brothers, it feels a little like a cheat - we only ever get to know two of brothers while the other three occupy the very edges of the story, as minor as characters can possibly be. In no way is C.R.A.Z.Y. a bad film, but it is a frustrating film in many ways because every frame reveals how great it could have been if only it were a little more tightly focused.