Review of Push (2009) by Chads. — 08 Feb 2009
Fish heads explode, but no human ones, when a mover shatters glass tanks like one of Phillip Kaufman's body snatchers at an outdoor market, much to the disappointment of David Cronenburg fans everywhere, who delight in a little brain matter with their telekinesis.
"Push" has watchers, movers, pushers, but alas, no scanners. Cassie(Dakota Fanning) is a watcher; she spends most of her time drawing a future that she and Nick(Chris Evans) are trying to change.
When Kira(Camilla Belle) joins their makeshift family, the future changes, for the worse. For awhile, the local color offered by the eastern setting lends "Push" an atmosphere that offsets the banality of the story's premise.
Two factions, an American outfit and a Chinese outfit, are fighting over a suitcase that contains a psychic steroid that will boost a pusher's ability. Too bad Cassie, nor her Chinese counterpart with daddy issues, can't write.
Fanning, who at thirteen, is a child actor in transition, just as Jodie Foster was when she appeared in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver", around the same age. In "Push", the tweener gets to be a taxi rider, as she tries her best to ground this obtuse sci-fi/action film with the same brio she brings to every role; this time, as an artist who plies her gift like an artisan.
Her aesthetics is functionality. What modest pleasures that the Hong Kong locales offer in ways of diversion, are soon negated by Nick's nonsensical plan to thwart the watcher with daddy issues. He confuses Pop Girl(Lu Lu), and he confuses the audience.
The plan is diffuse, not clever nor intricate, and it kills the story's momentum. "Push" turns into a game of follow the luggage.
This review of Push (2009) was written by Chads. on 08 Feb 2009.
Push has generally received mixed reviews.
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