JOURNEY'S END

Sam  Claflin     Paul Bettany     Asa Butterfield     Stephen Graham

Toby Jones     Tom Sturridge     Robert Glenister

     This is an unusual movie in depicting the fears of troops in war as much as the bravery—which makes sense to me.  It takes place in the spring of 1918, the fourth year of World War I, in northern France.  British Company C is informed that the Germans are about to make a major offensive on March 21. Then, a brigadier general orders an operation a few days before, in which two officers and their soldiers will storm the German forces 60 feet in front of them and capture a German, which would be a huge feather in the cap of the British Forces.

     Before this happens, we’re introduced to a few members of Company C.  Captain Stanhope (Claflin) is in charge, aided by his second, Osborne (Bettany).  Osborne (whom every calls “Uncle”) is a seasoned officer soon to retire, and he has the job of backing up, shoring up Stanhope, who has problems with bravery and leadership that are kept secret.  When a new recruit appears, it presents multiple problems. Raleigh (Butterfield) is the brother of Stanhope’s betrothed, and they were in school together.  Raleigh so admires Stanhope, he has volunteered and used connections to be assigned to his company.  But Stanhope, realizing that he has a drinking problem, fears what Raleigh might say to his sister about him.

     Stanhope is just neurotic enough to dread this intrusion/perceiver threat, and gives Raleigh mixed messages.  Raleigh is a gung-ho new recruit who always looks on the bright side, and he sees nothing about what Stanhope fears.  Then one of those coincidental moments occurs; the colonel orders an operation the night before the expected German raid, and pressures Stanhope to assign Osborne and Raleigh, two men with whom he has emotional connections—with a few other soldiers to the mission, which is to capture a German to gain intelligence.  Stanhope tries, but is unsuccessful in convincing the colonel to have him assign others to the operation.

     This film is not so much about these specific events in WWI as it is about the emotional and personal rigors that men go through during war.  It shows the unaccountable bravery of Captain Stanhope in talking his soldier down from imminent desertion in the face of fear, and then falling apart himself when he is with someone he trusts.  He is a sensitive, artistic type, who is clearly not made for war, but apparently fell into his position because of his intelligence—or something else; we’re not told how he got into military service. Anyway, he did well enough to be made a captain and pays a huge price for it in the trauma and losses he experiences.

     Director Saul Dibb graphically shows the personal, seldom told, experiences of war by men who have joined the military for a myriad of reasons, some with more conscious motivations than others who, in a way, simply find themselves there. All the drama takes place in dark, vulnerable trenches in northern France, which serves to highlight even more the dramas going on inside the soldiers.  It gives equal time to both the fears and the bravery of the men, and is unusually eloquent about the obliviousness of upper level brass in planning major operations and recommending the officers and men to carry them out. Like so many realms in our society, the movers and shakers fail to keep their ears to the ground and stay knowledgeable about fundamental elements, remaining instead in their ivory towers.

     The cast of Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany, Asa Butterfield, Stephen Graham, Toby Jones, and Tom Sturridge is well chosen, and each actor contributes significantly to the authentic feel of this story.  They give life and inspiration to the conception of R. C. Sherriff, the novelist who wrote the original screenplay on which this film is based.  

An unusual account of war, showing the doubts and fears of men, along with the bravery.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

ATOMIC BLONDE

Charlize Theron     James McAvoy     Sofia Boutella      John Goodman     Toby Jones     Eddie Marsan

            Atomic Blonde—an intentional play on the name James Bond—is a spy thriller that takes place toward the end of the Cold War, just before the Berlin Wall is torn down.  But British MI6, with Gray (Jones) in charge has one last puzzle to solve.  One of the MI6 officers had obtained a vital list of double agents who were being smuggled into the west, but he is killed, and no list is found on his body or his belongings.  The CIA (Goodman) is called in to help evaluate the situation by questioning British agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) who was sent in to locate the list.  The Berlin contact she is to collaborate with is David Percival (McAvoy), the established, well-respected British ambassador in West Berlin.  The film is her account of what happened.  She comes in with black eyes and bruises and scrapes all over her body.

            Lorraine is irritated from the get-go, when she is not met at the airport by Percival.  Instead, she is whisked off by some Russians pretending to be British.  The Bond-like blonde immediately grasps what is transpiring and makes quick work of the thugs that involves harrowing combat in a speeding car.  This is just the opening.  Many more astounding feats will follow.

            The bottom line of the movie is the advice Lorraine is given by the experienced Percival at the beginning of her sojourn in Berlin:  Trust no one.  She begins to investigate, starting with the dead agent’s apartment and sleuthing out what the Russians knew of her assignment.  In the process, she encounters a mysterious female French agent (Boutella) whose role is only determined across time.

            David Leitch (stunts for V for Vendetta, 300, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith; producer, John Wick) has directed a thrilling story written by Kurt Johnstad, which was based on a graphic novel series written by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart.  The story is suspenseful, thrilling, and even a little humorous, and the fight scenes are well choreographed—presumably reflecting Leitch’s stunt experience.              

           Theron kicks a--, clearly matching her male predecessors’ acumen and sex appeal.  Women will cheer her role as a major breakthrough for female actors.  I found her fighting skills shown to be far beyond that of even well trained women athletes, but that is often true of male actors in this genre as well.  Most audiences seem to like that fantasy, despite its hyperbole.  McAvoy and Goodman show their fine talent in playing ambiguous characters who must be discovered across time.  Sultry Algerian born French actress Sofia Boutella (Kingsman:  The Secret Service, Star Trek Beyond) is becoming known to American audiences, and clearly displays her talent in this film, where her character is thought to be “beyond her depth”, but ends up providing critical information.

            Audiences who are drawn to action spy thrillers are likely to relish Atomic Blonde and cheer on the move toward making more women action heroes.

If you’re wishing for a female James Bond, you will love this film.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

ANTHROPOID

Cillian Murphy     Jamie Dornan     Toby Jones     Marcin Dorocinski     Charlotte Le Bon     Anna Geislerova     Jirí Simek

          Anthropoid is a ghastly account based on the Allies’ secret plan in World War II to assassinate the “Butcher of Prague”, Reinhard Heydrich (Detlef Bothe), who was the leader of the Nazi forces occupying Czechoslovakia in the early days of the war.  Hedrich was Adolf Hitler’s third in command who had designed the Final Solution meant to complete the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people.  Self-exiled Czech and Slovak soldiers Josef Gabcik (Murphy) and Jan Kubis (Dornan) were charged by the British government and the exiled Czech government officials in London to carry out the assassination. 

           It’s an extremely dangerous mission since the Nazis had all but wiped out the Czech resistance, but Gabcik and Kubis were able to connect with two who were still operating, Uncle Hajsky (Jones) and Ladislav Vanek (Dorocinski).  Vanek was openly against the mission from the beginning, and tried numerous times to get Gabcik and Kubis to abandon the plan. Two others initially opposed, but who ultimately helped were two women, Marie (Le Bon) and Lenka (Geislerová).  They were asked to pair with the men when they went out, to lessen the suspicion that a lone man would arouse. 

          The men were given a room in the Moravec household and carefully mapped out the habits of Hedrich, who was to be killed on his way from home to the Prague Castle in a Mercedes convertible.  He liked to ride with the top down to make a statement about the successfulness of the German occupation.  Gabcik was to jump into the street to shoot him when the car slowed to make a curve, and Kubis would be ready with hand grenades for backup.  Karel Curda (Simek) another resistance operative was to be further backup, but he turned out to be unreliable.

         The film shows the operation in vivid detail, as well as the horrendous aftermath, which the Nazis were so enraged about, they wiped out two villages (wrongly tied to the operation) and killed or sent to concentration camps over 5,000 men, women and children.  The final standoff takes place in a church that was harboring Gabcik and Kubis and a number of other parachutists needing protection, with the Czechs showing uncommon bravery in trying to fight off an army of Nazi soldiers storming the church after a tip from a traitor.

        Anthropoid, co-written with Anthony Fresin by director Sean Ellis presents a very graphic account of a bloody, torturous time during the war, which reminds us of how plans hatched far away from the battle scene can have far-reaching, perhaps unpredictable, consequences.  It also reminds us of how bravely men can fight when the stakes are so high our basic freedoms are jeopardized.

        Murphy and Dornan carry the bulk of the show with their excellent acting skills, showing all the emotions and thought that can roil inside a person under such circumstances.  Le Bon, Geislerová, Jones, Dorocinski, and Simek provide quality support in their roles.  Another shout-out is deserved by Ellis, who served as cinematographer of the film, along with his other roles as writer and director.  Chaotic battle scenes are clear and easy to follow visually, and there’s a nice balance between black and white and vivid colors.

A brutal account of a dark time in Czechoslovakia during WWII.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

TALE OF TALES

Salma Hayek     Vincent Cassel     Toby Jones     John C. Reilly     Shirley Henderson     Christian Lees     Jonah Lees

           This could be one of those fairy tales that doesn’t turn out happy ever after…except maybe sometimes.  Matteo Garrone, director and his fellow writers (Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Chiti, Massimo Gaudiso) based their production on an Italian folklorist (Giambattista Basile) who wrote 50 tales, and this is three of them.  (Basile pre-dated the Grimm brothers in Germany.)  

    Garrone (Gomorrah), who is known for weaving in the fantastical with the mythical/psychological, does so again here inTale of Tales.  The tales all involve kings who embody the human condition of chasing after the elusive, being thwarted by fate/magic, and being ultimately undone (or not). 

       The three kingdoms of the kings are Longtrellis, Highhills, and Strongcliff.  The first king, played by John C. Reilly, has a barren wife, and in deference to her, is willing to do anything to produce an heir.  They are visited by a seer who says, “You want a child?  Every new life is cause for a life to be lost.”  Heedless of the caveat, they say they will do anything.  Little do they know what costs will be extracted from them and that the twins, born to different mothers, have an extraordinary connection to one another.  This will be significant in that one twin’s mother is the queen, but the other one’s is a scullery maid.  (More than a touch of magic here.)

         The second king, played by Vincent Cassel, expecting any woman he has a yen for to succumb to him, is bested by deceit and duly horrified.  But soon, he thinks he has found his true love.  Only…he doesn’t know how that love came to be. 

        The third king, played by Toby Jones, has a beautiful daughter whom he dotes upon, but in getting preoccupied by a flea and tending to it, he loses track of priorities and puts her at great risk.

        Themes running through Tale of Tales are meaningful (thoughtless parenting, sibling rivalry, bargains with the devil, obsession, and the main one, narcissism), but they are presented as more of a curious look at human behavior than illustrating moral principles.  That conclusion is left up to the viewer. 

         I did enjoy humorous aspects of the film (a woman thrown out of a castle window being caught up in tree limbs with her lover’s crimson bedsheet still around her, a flea turning into an exotic beast as a result of the king’s fascination, a woman desperate for regaining her youth willing to do anything), but the lack of integration among the three stories and the absence of any obvious moral principle made the film seem less important.

         Cinematography by Peter Suschitzky and music by Alexandre Desplat more than made up for this drawback.  Hayek, Cassel, Jones, and Reilly were regal figures with very human qualities; they can be considered masters of acting.

Retelling three ancient fairy tales.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland