Latest English Movies at Chamonix Cinema Vox
Playing at Chamonix's Cinema Vox this week are Inception, The Killer Inside Me, Tamara Drewe, and Chatroom playing in original language English (V/O) with French subtitles until 19th September – check www.cinemavox-chamonix.com for showtimes.
INCEPTION
Spy-for-hire Dom Cobb (Leonardo Dicaprio) steals ideas in dreams for corporate espionage. Then he's hired to achieve the “impossible” of planting an idea in the mind of a target, an “inception.”
This film is about life and death and what might be there in between. It's a huge-event film that is also about grief, faith, and the desire for an after-life so that we can be reunited with those we love and have lost. But Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) doesn't tell us exactly what this film is about and this isn't a sombre meditation on existentialism. Once again Nolan manages to combine an incredibly cerebral and imaginative concept with blazing gun battles, zero-gravity-fist-fights, and sexy stars.
Like any truly convincing science-fiction, there are rules and boundaries that can't be broken – but in this film, the boundaries are expansive, as they're the limits of each character's imagination. Dicaprio is amazing in this role - he shows a depth of feeling here that appears effortless and entirely anchors the whole film. You're not aware of Dicaprio the actor, you believe him as the character of Cobb.
This film is gigantic in scale and style – you're on the edge of your seat for the entire 2.5 hours. The themes are there to be explored (pay attention), but you can just as well sit back and enjoy the glorious spectacle of this thunderous action-packed, heart-wringing original of a film. (Certificate 12A)
THE KILLER INSIDE ME
Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is a respected member of his community even as he's also a shrewd and sadistic sociopath. However, after the son of a local mogul is found dead with the beaten body of a local prostitute, suspicion falls on Ford.
The film, which takes place in Texas 1952, is adapted from Jim Thompson's great psycho-noir novel of the same title. Fifty years after the book was written, this portrait of small-town America is still shocking, with its depiction of violence against women deeply unsettling. Ford's Southern manners, baby face, and bland homilies are the epitome of evil, and Casey Affleck as sociopath Ford is unsettlingly convincing.
The ensemble cast, from Casey Affleck's Ford, to Jessica Alba's sad, complex and compelling role as witness, to Kate Hudson's profoundly moving performance as Ford's girlfriend, are excellent. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, this is a darkly disturbing film in which the graphic violence is not for entertainment, but to reflect the brutal destruction of sympathetic life. This isn't a film for everyone, but it is nonetheless a very good film. (Certificate 18)
TAMARA DREWE
A young newspaper columnist returns to her hometown in the English countryside, where her childhood home is being prepared for sale, and causes a stir with her flirtatious ways.
Tamara Drewe is based on Posy Simmonds' comic strip, which was inspired by Thomas Hardy's book Far from the Madding Crowd, ran in The Guardian from 2005-2007 before being collected into a graphic novel. And this was a pure graphic novel in the sense that the text, which gently satirizes the English middle class, was given equal footing with Simmonds' illustrations.
Director Stephen Frears' (The Queen, High Fidelity) film is fond and humorous, and an excellent showcase for Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, St. Trinian's 1 & 2), who brings poise to larger films and acting ability to smaller films such as this. (Certificate 15)
CHATROOM
William, 17, is a solitary figure who spends most of his time on the Internet. He opens up a discussion forum for teenagers in his town and is joined by four troubled adolescents. As William manipulates the others into sharing their deepest secrets and feelings and to take some action in their lives, it gradually becomes apparent that William's sociopathic tendencies are the result of a very unhappy home.
The script attempts to explore the sinister side of social networking by using as its basis the ever-increasing volumes of news stories about people who have committed suicide after being cyber-bullied. The most interesting element of this film is the production design – the film unfolds the story in two worlds: a stage-set virtual realm which looks like a shabby hotel that's brightly-coloured and intense where the characters meet when they're online, and a “real” world using London as the locale. (Certificate 12A)
