DREAM HORSE

 Toni Collette     Damian Lewis     Owen Teale          Joanna Page

            This film is just what you hope it will be; an inspiring story of a horse and its owners coming into their own through a bit—or perhaps a considerable amount—of trauma.  Additionally, it’s based on a true story.  I like the way the movie opens with Jan (Collette), a middle-class woman in Wales, working several low-level jobs, trying to get her older husband Brian (Teale) out of the TV chair at home, and taking care of her parents. When suddenly she gets inspired.  It seems there are a number of citizens who could use more zest in their lives.

            Jan had won awards as an animal trainer in her earlier days, and when she came across an advertisement for a mare, something inspired her to look ahead and realize her vision of a racehorse.  She works in a grocery store as well as in the local bar, so she is well acquainted with the townspeople.  When a new person shows up, a certain Howard Davies (Lewis), the owner of the bar fills her in on his shady past (including considerable debt in betting on horse races), she makes note.  As she takes his order, they have a cryptic conversation, but something clicks between them, and when he hears later of her purchase of the mare, he engages her.

            That encounter leads to their formation of a syndicate of townspeople to buy stakes in the offspring of the mare who is expected to breed with a sire of racehorse pedigree.  The filmmakers present us with colorful townspeople who buy into the project, as well as vignettes about Jan and her husband and Howard and his wife.  I could, however, have done without the scenes of an older man having trouble getting his clothes on and keeping them straight—an attempt at some comedy, I suppose, that just didn’t succeed.

            Eric Wilson’s cinematography and Jamie Pearson’s editing work together with the story to present a thrilling tale of tight horseraces being held in vista-like settings with windmills often a part of the picture.  Toni Collette is inevitably a fine actress showing all kinds of emotions with her face and her body and stepping up to be assertive when need be.  Damian Lewis strays from his usual fare of British dramas and political thrillers to play an upper-class stock trader comfortably hobnobbing with the small-town group.  

            

Townspeople banding together in a heartwarming tale of a shrewd woman’s keen eye in looking for a winner.

 

Grade:  B                              By Donna R. Copeland

QUEEN OF THE DESERT

Nicole Kidman   James Franco   Damian Lewis   Robert Pattinson

     Celebrated filmmaker Werner Herzog takes us on a journey with Gertrude Bell, a remarkable British woman who in the early part of the 20th Century took it upon herself to explore the Middle East on her own with a small staff.  She was a writer, archeologist, explorer, mapmaker, and political advisor to the British Empire, wielding considerable influence on how boundaries were drawn in the area following WWI.  She developed a keen interest in the Bedouin tribes of Saudi Arabia, fearlessly walking into their settlements and requesting meetings with the reigning sheiks, which was apparently always granted.  Many of these men believed that she had a better understanding of them than anyone else in the West. 

     Educated at Oxford, Bell (beautifully played by Nicole Kidman) was very intelligent, but unlike most women in that age, was determined to navigate her own life as she pleased.  She single-mindedly pursued her goals, bristling at any male attempts to rein her in.  She could easily be an inspiration to women everywhere even today. 

     It appears that Herzog as writer and director of the film needed to add very little to the script that was not based on facts gathered from Bell’s books and personal correspondence.  Her written observations of the people she met, her photography, and her varied experiences provide rich information for the screenwriter and cinematographer.  Herzog has used Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger for many of his movies, and the man has once again proved his worth with photography that is eloquent in its palette and the camera’s curious eye in navigating the terrain outdoors in the desert, within the tribal settlements, and in the cultured drawing rooms of British aristocracy.

     I found this to be a fascinating journey, particularly in light of current conditions in the Middle East and certainly in presenting the rare woman who could navigate her way in some of the most masculine-dominant situations.  Was she just lucky?  I think not.  There were far too many risky encounters for it to be that; she was canny, honest, forthright, and a skilled negotiator in getting what she wanted, while still maintaining respect for whoever was on the other side of the negotiation.

     Kidman seems just right for the role, and her playful flirtations with Henry (Franco), a character patterned after someone else Bell was involved with, add a little fun and romance to the story.  Bell’s later involvement with British officer Wylie (Lewis) doesn’t have the same chemistry, but is still entertaining.  Her interactions with archeologist T. E. Lawrence (Pattinson) capture well their mutual cynicism about British government decisions.

     Queen of the Desert presents a necessarily abbreviated but empathic account of a phenomenal woman in the beginning of the 20^th Century who forged a path that is unique for women. Going where few or no others had dared to tread, Gertrude Bell came to know herself and what was important to her in her isolated travels in the Arabian Desert, which might seem secondary to the valuable connections she was making and information she was gathering about a mysterious culture.  In the history of women, however, it is groundbreaking.

     It could be criticized for skimping on the political information and negotiations Bell conducted, but I think that is in favor of the cinematic photographic sweep and focusing on Bell’s personality.  It’s classic Werner Herzog.

A delight to see a woman of action being so successful.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

OUR KIND OF TRAITOR

Ewan McGregor   Damian Lewis   Stellan Skarsgärd   Anomie Harris   Mark Gatiss   Jeremy Northam

          This is a thriller with all the assets of a John le Carré novel—complexity, ambiguity, sharp sleuthing, and heroism—Our Kind of Traitor will keep you on the edge of your seat and make you want to take breaks to relieve the gripping tension.  It begins mysteriously in Moscow at the Bolshoi Ballet (featuring former Houston Ballet dancer, Carlos Acosta), cutting away from time to time to elsewhere where a sober man is seen signing papers under the watchful eyes of a team of sinister men, then he and his friend rejoin their wives and head home.  However, they will never make it.

           The setting then switches to Marrakesh in Morocco where Perry (McGregor) and his wife Gail (Harris) are on holiday, when by chance Perry meets a gregarious Russian named Dima (Skarsgärd) who takes him to a wild party with fellow Russians.  Dima seems to be taken with Perry, and invites him to play tennis the next day at his club where they meet each other’s wives, and Perry meets Dima’s children, an older girl and younger twins.  Unbeknownst to him, Perry is in deeper than he would ever imagine.  He is a fairly typical young English professor of poetics, far removed from Dima’s circles in the Russian mafia.

        The plot involves the British intelligence service when Dima’s underlying motive for friendship with Perry emerges:  Fearing for his life, knowing he is the target of the Russian boss’s threat, Dima wants to defect with his family to London in exchange for giving MI6 incriminating information about high level officials in the British government.  Hector (Lewis), an MI6 agent, is willing to run with it, but his superior sees it as “You have no proof”, and more as a personal vendetta on Hector’s part to go after his rival Aubrey (Northam), another agent, so advises against it.

          The director of the film, Susanna White, keeps the action of the story at a pace similar to one’s sense in reading a le Carré novel—fast and steady with spikes of intrigue and fear.  The fine casting of McGregor, Lewis, Skarsgärd, and Northam in the principal roles contribute much to its quality, complemented by the engaging music of Marcelo Zarvos and intelligent and beautiful cinematography of Anthony Dod Mantle.  I like the way the Perry character is shown at first to be kind of wimpy and easily led on, but as the story proceeds and he gets more and more attached to the fatherly Dima, he transitions into something resembling heroic.  Despite his being a mafia figure, we’re made to admire Dima’s hutzpa, likeableness, devotion to family, and strength in combat, beautifully evinced by the talented Skarsgärd.  Lewis is at home playing a shrewd agent with a moral compass that compels him to seek justice for corrupt individuals.  Naomie Harris as Perry’s girlfriend/wife and a lawyer is valuable as a support and advisor.

         In the past I have not been a Le Carré fan—I find his plots very dense, tedious, and sometimes hard to follow (except for the TV adaptation of The Night Manager, which I loved), but Hossein Amini’s screenplay maps the plot very clearly while maintaining ambiguity and excitement.  I liked it as much as I did The Night Manager.

Another John Le Carré thriller.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland