Review of Around the World in 80 Days (2004) by Gg J — 24 Mar 2009

[B]The Diving Bell and the Butterfly[/B].

?The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? is the true story of the late ?Elle? editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a catastrophic health crisis that left him completely paralyzed from head to toe, except for his eye lids. It also left his mind in perfect form.

A witty, brilliant, womanizing star of French culture circa 1990s, Bauby is reduced to a captive of his own body. He can think clearly, joke, cry and ruminate on his unimaginable sentence from God (or fate, or whatever) inside his head. Just as the film comes within a hair of being repetitive, Bauby snaps out of his self-loathing funk and decides to author a book about his life. He communicates by blinking ?yes? or ?no? to a series of letters read to him from his nurse, and then an assistant.

Directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Mathieu Amalric (?Quantum of Solace?) this is a fantastic film, deeply felt and wonderfully acted. Much of the film is from Bauby?s eye view, so Amalric does not get much actual screen time ? but his on-screen time is phenomenal, from the flashbacks of his womanizing fast life to being a dying man/vegetable. Amalric?s left eye becomes the focal point of his performance, as his remaining body is lifeless.

The man has spent his life moving so fast he never noticed its joy until he was made still. The film climaxes with the attack that left Bauby in his state, and it?s an emotional, slowly unfolding and dangerous scene.

Max Von Sydow, for so long skating by in crap such as ?Rush Hour 3?, is heartbreaking as Bauby?s dying father who painfully, tearfully, helplessly will outlive the son of whom he?s so proud. Most impressive of the film is the way Schnabel?s camera captures the view of Bauby from bed, from light flashes and hallucinations to bored hours watching TV and having people stare you in the face, all bleeding across his eye. Schnabel brings the audience into the mind of this man, and for a brief two hours, lets us feel his pain. Another fantastic film from 2007, a really good year in film.

[B]Pan's Labyrinth[/B].

I can?t say enough about ?Pan?s Labyrinth? (?El Laberinto del fauno?) ? it?s one of my all-time favorites, and not just because I caught a late-night show in NYC upon its initial release. (Is there a better city in the world to see a film then walk out into the night? Hell, no.).

Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, it follows Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) the child of a dead tailor and a hugely pregnant, horribly ill mother (Ariadna Gil) now married to a sadistic fascist colonel (Sergi Lopez) in the Spanish army circa 1940s.The country is still under mass civil war and disorder.

Ofelia comes to live with the colonel (?He?s not my father?) at a house in the middle of the rural woods. Behind this house is an ancient labyrinth. To all, it?s a simple maze with pretty stone workmanship. To Ofelia, it is the portal to her real world, where she is the princess of a God-like king and queen, her parents.

Her only contact, the only way into this heaven, is a faun. The faun tells Ofelia she must prove herself worthy to regain her throne, under her parents. She must take a key from a fat, disgusting frog, then take that key and enter the dining hall of a demon and open a cabinet to take a knife. Then must let her new brother (the prince) bleed by the knife.

Del Toro?s film is so complex and layered, so rich with strong religious over tones, one can watch the film a dozen time and pick up on new themes, messages and feelings. Indeed, as Spain and Ofelia?s new family?s house/army base sinks further into savage violence, so does the girl?s secret world.

Is the faun becoming a sadist, like the colonel, or is he testing Ofelia?s good will, her Christ-like love? The most important question at the end of the film: Did Ofelia imagine her world of fauns, demons, a king and queen? I change my mind every time as the blood-soaked ending is wonderfully, eternally debatable.

I never waver, though, on how much I love this film ? its look, the intricate plot, the magic, the demon in that dining hall with eyes in his palms and skin melting off his twig body, and the blood. I love the film?s refusal to be sentimental, to paint violence with an uncensored brush that is shocking to watch even after a dozen views.

From the very opening scene, del Toro promises a grim but fantastic journey, and he delivers. Baquero gives one of the best child performances I can remember. Lopez is mesmerizingly evil as the depraved colonel hell bent on dying violently, and as the faun and the demon, Doug Jones should have gotten some type of Oscar. What, I can?t say. But his every movement and twitch is brilliant. He plays Abe in the ?Hellboy? films, also directed by del Toro.

My favorite film of the current decade.

[B]French Kiss[/B].

In ?French Kiss,? Meg Ryan plays another cutesy, unlucky in love woman who must learn that happiness in life cannot be built upon the approval and existence of a man. She realizes this while roaming around Paris and the French countryside with a con artist lug (Kevin Kline) who constantly lies to her.

She then cashes in her life savings and focuses her entire happiness around Kline?s borderline criminal/dreamer. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, this folly makes ?You?ve Got Mail? and ?Sleepless in Seattle? seem grim while giving a left hook to feminism. Did Ryan?s character even have a job?

[B]Around the World in 80 Days[/B].

I?ve not read the Jules Verne?s ?Around the World in 80 Days,? but I know enough about it to realize that this 2004 adaptation pisses on the original?s intent. It tries to be everything ? slapstick comedy, martial arts flick (!?!) and wink-wink nudge-nudge Hollywood spectacle ? and fails at every turn.

Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) is played as a loony twit who can?t figure out his French servant, Passepartout (Jackie Chan), is Chinese. The gravest sin: There?s a man traveling the world during a time when such actions were considered fantasy.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, among the guest stars, embarrasses himself as a Turkish prince. Jim Broadbent, the best actor of the bunch, acts wildly as a fascist scientist.