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Cinema
Releases - March 2, 2001
Chocolat
**
Certificate 12. 121 minutes. Directed by Lasse
Hallström. Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs, from the novel by Joanne
Harris. Starring Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Alfred
Molina, Peter Stormare, Carrie-Anne Moss.
The Legend of Bagger
Vance
***
Certificate PG. 126 minutes. Directed by Robert
Redford. Written by Jeremy Leven, from the novel by Steven Pressfield. Starring
Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Bruce McGill, Joel
Gretsch.
Anyone who's seen "Big Night" or "Tampopo" will
know how hungry the great food movies make us, and bearing that in mind,
I brought a lovely 125-gram bar of Dairy Milk to
"Chocolat". Of course I ate it -- I had been up since the early
hours of the morning without food, I love choc, and I had to get rid of it
quickly because I was self-conscious about how the other critics might react
to my foil rustling -- but I could have gone without. You know a movie about
chocolate is in trouble when it doesn't make you crave the
stuff.
This is a sappy and obvious and patronising film,
based on a novel by Joanne Harris that I am told is just as sappy and obvious,
but directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the Danish filmmaker whose last picture
was that wonderful Dickensian drama "The Cider House Rules", and who could
have made something of this one if he'd tried.
The story involves a rebellious single mother
played by Juliette Binoche entering a small, staunchly Christian French village,
and setting up a chocolaterie during lent. From the opening scenes we can
predict all developments -- the pious town mayor (Alfred Molina) will oppose
her, there will be a lot of sermonising and shaking of heads, slowly and
gently Binoche and her chocolate delights will win over the town and bring
smiles to everyone's faces, and then there will be a nice resolution, with
even Molina loosening up a little.
I do not have a problem with fables, or even with
the employment of simplistic devices to highlight their fairytale qualities.
What I do have a problem with is when already obvious stories are explained
to us step by step with more elucidation than a Children's ITV show.
Disastrously, screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs has chosen to frame the action
with a voice-over from Binoche's daughter, grown up and looking back at the
film's events, and pointing out to us what we can quite plainly see to such
an egregious degree that we get unbearably irritated and insulted. "It was
a town where everybody went to church!" we're told in the introduction, as
we see everybody go into church. "That meant it was very
religious!"
The most amazingly awful example of the voice-over's
interference comes near the end of the picture, when Binoche's romantic interest,
played by Johnny Depp, returns to the chocolaterie. You know in movies when
a character making a graceful return winks a cute little reference to a running
joke from earlier on? Well, Depp does that here, marking his unexpected
homecoming with the charming little line "Just making sure your door wasn't
squeaking any more." But before we get a chance to smile, the voice-over
interrupts with "We both knew he wasn't there to fix the
door!"
There are cute moments -- subtle little things
such as when the fasting Molina slides a picture frame across his desk to
cover up a tempting croissant, or when an abusive husband played by Peter
Stormare is punished with enrolment in a Sunday school class, and we see
him sitting with meek face, struggling to fit into a miniscule desk like
those of the toddlers around him. Binoche's performance is also worth noting
-- yes, her character gets tiresome because she's painted as a perfectly
serene and benevolent goddess of liberal humanity; but look at the small
physical details of her acting, even insignificant things like the timing
of winks, and you'll notice that she has made the best possible attempt to
bring charm, wit and life to her role.
Ultimately, though, so what? That voice-over is
a deadening, depressing influence over the whole enterprise, letting us know
the filmmakers have no respect for our intelligence and making us a whole
lot less receptive to their heavy-handed symbolism. There are people who
think "Pleasantville" was obvious; perhaps if they saw "Chocolat" they'd
understand just how subtle that movie was at making the same sort of points.
Furthermore -- Depp is embarrassing, an American actor showing up in a movie
set in France and speaking in a shoddy Irish accent; Judi Dench sleepwalks
her way through the clichéd part of a sullen old lady who begins to
enjoy life again; and hey, come on, I didn't even crave
chocolate.
.
Robert Redford's "The Legend of Bagger
Vance" is another fable with a tender voice-over, but this time it
works. It is not the director's best work -- Redford usually handles stories
of high emotion or urgency and puts his energy into the characterisations;
this time he's made a simpler and gentler tale, but put a lot of effort into
his style, and gives us a picture of exquisite ambience.
Matt Damon stars as a once-great young golfer
named Rannulph Junuh, who comes back to Savannah from the Great War with
big mental scars and drifts into alcoholic solitude. A few years later, when
the Depression hits, his former fiancée (Charlize Theron) sees her
family golf course under threat from the bank, and to raise money she sets
up a tournament, with Junuh lined up against legendary real-life players
Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch) and Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill).
Into the movie drifts Bagger Vance (Will Smith),
a strange, calm figure with an almost supernatural quality, who encourages
Junuh to play, decides to caddy for him, and over the course of the movie
shows a knack for knowing exactly how to word things in a way that will challenge
Junuh and help him find the right paths.
"The Legend of Bagger Vance" is about how a bitter
man reclaims his dignity by returning to the top of his form, but it's also
about dry wit, poetic dialogue and structure, the way the sun shines onto
grass and into oak-panelled rooms, and the wisest way to approach life ("This
is a game you come to play, not win," Bagger tells Junuh). Redford has
photographed and paced this piece with a classical, thoughtful quality that
gets under your skin even when nothing much is happening, and stays with
you as a fond memory after it's over.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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