jormatuominen

Homefront by Chuck Logan isn´t a well known crime novel but Sylvester Stallone obviously saw a lot of potential in it. He worked the story into a no nonsense thriller screenplay and did a real good job of it. As it is, Homefront the movie is all about making choices and taking sides as situations and allegiances shift in the fast moving scenario. This is underlined by the tight directing and some unusually competent acting for what is a pretty straightforward action thriller. Kate Bosworth and Winona Rider really shine as the seriously nasty bad bad Louisiana girls of the film. The only flaw I found in the plot is that Rachelle Lefevre is pretty much wasted as she pops up as a potential romantic interest for the main character only to disappear from the plot as it thickens. Thicken it does and as more enemies of Jason Statham´s character spiral into the Louisiana backwoods there will be surprise twists you did not see coming from long before. Unusually for a recent American film there are no plot holes. The film is shot entirely on location in small rural towns of Louisiana and early scenes in New Orleans. The filmmakers strive for realism rather than sensation and avoid the patronizing attitude and stereotypes one too often senses in Hollywood films made in this area. Having been there myself, I´d say the local color is just about right.

Henry´s Crime is a cleverly written, pleasantly old fashioned film that flirts with many genres and pulls it off with great acting. There are essentially two plots co-existing here, one about a bank heist and the other about making theatre and romance. If you really must classify this piece of work file it under black comedy, that´s pretty close. It is as if the screenwriters started to think about how to improve Chekhov´s classic play the Cherry Orchard by adding a heist subplot which eventually took the whole thing over. It is complicated but the viewer is fed with very good lines of dialogue all along the twisting and turning ride. The screenplay smells of paper with way too many unlikely encounters and incidences to be plausible, but this is a film about pulling it off, and the actors do just that. Keanu Reeves plays the wooden faced but kind hearted lead character of very few words, so he has to act with body language. Vera Farmiga has an even harder role as a cold-hearted and emotionally troubled actress harassed by the great Peter Stormare as the aggressive theatre director. James Caan is supreme as the old time confidence man pulling the strings. Bill Duke is a great sidekick as the security guard. And yes, to stress the point, they all pull it off. This is a non-violent, dialogue driven film and I can see why it would not reach the younger audience. As for people with more experience of life the film can and probably should be watched twice. I´m pretty sure I missed a lot of goodies the first time around and will watch it again as opportunity arises.

I have watched this film at least five times and haven´t still quite gotten enough. It has everything going for it - a cast of stars, cinematic excellence and a script that walks the thin line between plausible and not quite plausible to build a lot of suspense. Shooting locations (no pun intended) include among others the Hagia Sophia and of course the now-legendary seven minute Uzi war in the Guggenheim Museum - surely this is no longer a spoiler! There are many scenes that could be from a Hitchcock film, for example the totally random appearance of a suspect and the resulting trailing to the Museum, suspense building inside the viewer´s head. Wide-eyed and unshaven, Clive Owen as the bewildered and pissed off main character seems straight out of North By Northwest. What´s more, the ghost of Orson Welles is even stronger than that of Hitch. After all Orson´s favorite theme of power corrupting mercilessly it´s users is the essence of Eric Warren Singer´s extremely well thought out script. There is a lot of dialogue and it´s all relevant and intelligent. Naomi Watts has a fairly limited female lead role, but she does it well. The film does not give any verbal hints about the relationship between the lead characters, yet it is obvious from the acting that there is or at least has been one. The lack of romantic nonsense earns an extra star for the International. Believe me, this is not that kind of film. Armin Mueller-Stahl is once again the old guy who actually knows what´s going on, a role he has done many times and he is again absolutely superb in it.