Short Takes: "The Ides of March" and "Rampart".

Oren Moverman was clever enough to cast his The Messenger star Woody Harrelson in Rampart: a character study that seems more obsessed with turning Woody's character into an iconic movie villain, than to actually study his character...

Set in 1999, just after the Rampart controversy sent the LAPD down a hole, the film has Harrelson play Dave Brown; a corrupt cop who has his way regardless of who he has to step on. This makes him a true movie monster and presents Harrelson with the difficult task of adding a human layer to a character that could easily become caricature. This he does beautifully; whether he's sucking on a woman's foot, beating a handicapped man or stealing from thieves, he adds a certain something that gives us a better idea of who this man might be and why he's struggling so much to preserve his decadent lifestyle.

What he doesn't give us, and this might be the screenplay's fault, is a look at what might've turned him into such a despicable creature. It's obviously not necessary to have something like this spelled out to you in a movie, but every character in Rampart feels like it was created specifically for the scenes they're in.

Woody does his best to elevate the movie from being a scenery-chewing fest but the truth is that all the rage in Dave results more frustrating than compelling.

One has to wonder why did George Clooney decide to direct and star in The Ides of March when he could've easily just ran for office. This film adaptation of Beau Willimon's Farragut North (which itself had been loosely inspired by Howard Dean's 200a campaign) works on an almost superficial level because it has a clear agenda, which doesn't allow its viewers to "think".
Clooney stars as Mike Morris, a Democratic candidate in the middle of a primary election that could have him become the next presidential candidate. Ryan Gosling plays Stephen Meyers, his loyal and cinematically idealistic junior campaign manager. When Meyers learns that Morris has a dark secret involving - of all things - an intern (played by Evan Rachel Wood) he has to decide whether to be loyal to his employer or to his morality. Which one wins isn't really important as much as it is to see Clooney execute a fine campaign ad for himself by reminding us that he will be the kind of man who, as his character says, believes in the religion of the US constitution.
By making his "villain" a Democrat, Clooney reassures us that no political affiliations will stand in the way of the common good and it's obvious that he feels best identified with Meyers (if he'd been younger he probably would've played him). Even if the film is extremely dull, Clooney has some truly inspired directorial moments (stylistic bookends, clever visual tricks, superb casting, you must see Marisa Tomei giving a delicious star turn here!) but more often than not he foregoes them to chase clichés that would work best in the insipid All the King's Men remake from a few years back, too bad he let his political interest come between him and the religion of filmmaking.

Grades:
Rampart **
The Ides of March **

The Hangover Part II *

Director: Todd Phillips

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis

Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Jeffrey Tambor, Jamie Chung

Paul Giamatti, Mason Lee

It's not that The Hangover Part II is bad (it is) but it's just how unnecessary it feels what makes such a waste of time. Essentially, in order to capitalize on modern audience's needs for lazy writing, the people behind this film have remade the first movie and changed a few bits.

Instead of Las Vegas, the action moves to Thailand, instead of a cute baby for Galifianakis to obsess about, we get a drug dealing monkey and instead of having Justin Bartha's character getting married, now we have Ed Helms' doing it.

If you had a blast watching people reduced to stereotypes in the first one and love the way in which bromance has become the new rom-com, then this movie might still treat you to a fine time. However for those seeking their entertainment without condescendingly chauvinistic winks at how masculinity only comes to happen if you get shot, make fun of gays, think about getting laid all day long, have no regard for societal rules etc. then this film will be a massive waste of time.

Perhaps the perfect analogy to describe this movie is that it does feel like a lesson not learnt. Watching it and realizing how preposterous it can get, might remind you of a hangover you got the week after you promised yourself not to drink any more.

Any seemingly meta explorations of human behavior found in the previous statement, which might make the movie sound any better, are pure coincidence.

Duplicity ***

Director: Tony Gilroy
Cast: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen
Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti, Denis O'Hare
Thomas McCarthy, Carrie Preston

After the endless labyrinthine mind games of "Michael Clayton", anyone would've guessed writer/director Tony Gilroy was in for something a bit lighter. On the surface "Duplicity" seems to be just that, but look closer and you will find an even more twisted, character driven film that's absolutely relentless with the audience and even harder on itself.
It opens in Dubai where MI6 agent Ray Koval (Owen) seduces Claire Stenwick (Roberts) at a party. He ignores that she is CIA and wakes up eighteen hours later with a headache and some classified documents gone.
Upong finding her years later he melancholically reveals "the last thing I remember before passing out was thinking how much I liked you.".
Apparently she sorta feels the same and they reluctantly begin an affair (their trust issues rival the ones the actors shared in "Closer") . Flash forward a couple more years later, they both have quit their national agencies and have started working in corporate espionage.
They infiltrate rival cosmetic companies fighting for the release of a mysterious, revolutionary product, with the plan of getting the formula for themselves, selling it to the highest bidder and retire to a life of luxury.
With this basic premise Gilroy unfolds a complex, sometimes slightly confusing, game between the companies and the leads.
He exploits every single character and actor to the max, giving them some amazing dialogue and providing even the most conniving of them with a distinctive kind of swagger. Giamatti, all introverted cockiness and Wilkinson, pure evil corporate Zen, are perfect as the company tycoons who despise each other; and in one scene Carrie Preston almost steals the film from Julia herself as a horny travel agent.
But the best is obviously saved for Julia and Clive, who have undeniable sexual chemistry and bring to the screen an overwhelming sexiness tied with mistrust that makes the film worth the ticket.
Owen is all James Bond (with a bit of Clooney) as he follows this woman around in order to have her for himself, while dealing with the fact that he can't forget what he did to him.
Roberts, whose mere presence nowadays is enough of an event, does her character a la "Julia": all playfulness and awkward sensuality, but this time let's slip a lil' something extra (gasps! a flash of boob!) along with a more mature approach to acting.
In a wonderful scene as Claire rehearses a meeting with Ray, she teasingly asks "so you're directing me now?", in one of those postmodernist moments her image has become part of, we don't know if she's giving her character a nuance, or actually stating that she is Julia Roberts.
The same goes for the film which is so full of twists and turns that we don't really know what exactly is it trying to say.
Can it be about the troubles of consumerism? The danger/wonder of corporate evolution? Truth is that what Gilroy does best, besides messing up with your head, is conceal an ultimate truth in something that appears to be everything but. As with "Michael Clayton", which was arguably about the search for one's self in the midst of mid-life crisis, "Duplicity" is about the complicated nature of romantic relationships and what they're built upon.
Claire and Ray are essentially figuring out what they are in the midst of corporate wars, even the way the rival companies exaggerate their strategies is a metaphor of how couples tend to over dramatize everything, especially when it comes to trust.
Throughout the film it is suggested that Claire and Ray end up in these games because perhaps subcosnciously they want their relationship to fail and stick to what they know how to do best: their jobs.
Gilroy's Hitchcockian ability to layer a specific concept with genre conventions makes "Duplicity" the equivalent of a Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant romantic comedy as if done by J.J. Abrams.
Unfortunately Gilroy screws the MacGuffin and by revealing something that remains fascinating only when unsaid, goes way over his head, as if trying to find the essence of what makes love what it is. He forgets that half the thrills are within the search.

Watch or Die.

Turns out the best filmmaking so far in 2008 isn't playing in any multiplex or art house near you. It's not even on DVD yet, instead it's airing on HBO.

The fact that the life of John Adams, second president and underrated founding father of the United States of America, is so fascinating, engaging and thrilling should be as hard to believe as the idea that there was actually a time when the country was being mishandled, attacked and abused as it now does to other countries.

This miniseries however proves just that. Spread in seven magnificent parts, each one more intense and absorbing than the previous, "John Adams" is the kind of filmmaking that reminds us of the times when movies were deemed as "events".

With a scope that's both epic and personal, the miniseries covers the life of Adams and through his eyes examines the first fifty years of actual American history; from the Boston Massacre, passing through the signing of the Declaration of Independence (the scene where it's edited to have the appropriate words is brilliant), the first inauguration ceremony (which invites to patriotic fervor regardless of your nationality) and even the construction of Washington D.C. (which leads to a bittersweet observation on who its builders were).

Paul Giamatti leads the flawless ensemble playing Adams like a man who just wants to do good, but not the kind that ought to get you canonized or praised, but one that emerges from a deeper global consciousness. Suddenly it's not so curious why Adams has been so disregarded by history.

The glorious Laura Linney plays his wife Abigail, providing her with such a strength that you wonder how didn't the actual Abby live to be two hundred years old. Linney and Giamatti have a special kind of chemistry that makes their respect for each other the foundation of the real love between the Adams'.

They call each other "friend" which surprisingly makes for a beautifully romantic gesture that moves anyone to tears.

The extense supporting cast includes the always brilliant Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Dillane (who is fantastic!) as Thomas Jefferson and Sarah Polley as John's daughter Abby.

Directed by Tom Hooper the film is painstakingly detailed, but never selfconsciously painful.

And while praising the miniseries for its technical achievements, ensemble and crew might be enough, the driving force behind it (obviously powered by the aforementioned) is its fiery, emancipating spirit.

To find the present in the past should be more than enough to invite change into a decaying world that crumbles under its actions, but fails to acknowledge its mistakes and finally understand that history does repeat itself.

That a film strives to create historical conscience is as admirable and brave as you can get in any art form nowadays.

"Posterity you will never know how much it cost us to preserve your freedom" says Adams, before adding "I hope you'll make a good use of it, if you don't I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it".

More a bittersweet reminder than an angered accusation, "John Adams" makes us believe in a time when the USA had actual reasons to call itself the greatest country in the world.