This movie begins very strong. A flirtatious conversion online between a young girl and a man. The two decide to meet. We are introduced to young, fresh-faced teenager, Hayley (Ellen Page) and handsome, yet creepy Jeff (Patrick Wilson) as the two chat and flirt in a coffee shop. Jeff appears to be a pedophile on the hunt, Hayley a coy teen who doesn't know what she's getting herself into. The two return to Jeff's home so she can check out his photography.

Director David Slade (30 Days of Night) handles the opening of this film masterfully. It is serious fantastic film making. Every shot is done right, the performances are entrancing, the tension is thick. Beautiful.

Then the two get back to Jeff's and the production begins to slow. Hayley isn't wasn't she appeared to be and the hunter becomes the hunted. The problem is that the stylistic, thoughtful work shown in the opening scenes evaporates and the film turns into a artsy, and relatively bloodless, torture film.

Ellen Page is not a great actress. She is commonly pretty, which is an asset for many roles. She has a pleasing voice. She does not have presence however. She certainly doesn't have the chops to pull off an angry, violent character. In the opening scenes, she is perfectly cast. Page does well as the wide-eyed, flirtatious, yet not stupid, girl (a combo that made her later film Juno work so well). When more complex emotions come into play, she falls into rather trite, amateur acting habits. One can see her pretending to be threatening rather than simply being threatening.

Opposite Page, Patrick Wilson gives a solid performance, or at least as solid as it can be. Jeff begins strong but then becomes a whimpering torture victim. Wilson does well projecting the pain and horror Jeff is exposed to, but isn't given much else to work with once the nasty stuff begins.


What should be a biting psychological duel between two predators ultimately becomes a feminist torture fantasy. There was plenty of material available to delve into some heady concepts of the reaction to victimization, the causes of predatory behavior, the possibility of forgiveness, etc., etc. In the end, the film chooses to go for revenge and cruelty.

The real torture in this production is their choice to slowly suffocate any deeper meaning out of the proceedings in favor of a hollow, pseudo-intellectual promotion of revenge.


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Inception (2010)
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)


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Labels: Ellen Page, film, movie review, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh

Short Review: It's like The Matrix without all the black leather, pliable physics and all of that "There is no spoon" blathering.


Christopher Nolan (The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Memento) has established himself as the best director of his generation with this film. Then again, his generation includes directors like Brett Ratner, Ben Stiller and Ben Affleck, so he probably shouldn't start gripping his lapels too tightly.

This is a great movie. It is a masterful work. This is one of the most fully realized and complicated movies ever made. When I drag out the word "complicated", I mean Nolan tackles a plot with so many moving, interwoven layers that it is a technical marvel his movie is even comprehensible. The fact that one can walk away from the film with a clear understanding of what happened is worthy of an Oscar at the least.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Cobb, a guilt-ridden "extractor". He is a man who has the means, through technology, to enter a person's mind and rob secrets from their subconscious while the subject is in a dream state. Cobb and his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are hired by the infinitely wealthy businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) to reverse their methods. Saito wants the men to not steal a thought from a target, but implant an idea in a man's head. The target? Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy) the troubled heir of a newly dead energy tycoon. The idea? Fischer must have the idea to dismantle his father's massive business empire.

Cobb assembles a crew and gets to work. They knock Fischer out, enter his mind and proceed to drill down into his subconscious. The plot gets complicated when the crew begins to work, not only in Fischer's dreams, but in his dreams inside of his dreams, inside of his dream (and then a little deeper still). You read that correctly.

Nolan has his characters literally working through five different realms of consciousness at the same time and never loses control of his movie. It is logical, visually identifiable and amazingly coherent. This is an amazing feat of storytelling.

If working on all of these levels wasn't a big enough feat, there is the added layer of Cobb's subconscious mind intruding into the the dreams. As with all of Nolan's films, the major element of this story is remorse. Nolan seems obsessed with remorse and guilt. All of his heroes suffer from their pasts, tormented by what they did or did not do. Will Dormer in Insomnia is in anguish over his accidentally shooting his partner, Leonard in Memento is likewise troubled and Bruce Wayne (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) is defined by his shame. Like these men, Cobb is stunted by the tragic suicide of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard).

Cobb must overcome his guilt, define it, and ultimately reject it, if he is to move forward in his life. In tandem with Cobb, Fischer must likewise resolve his deeply painful issues with his deceased father. The pair of cathartic character arcs work seamlessly together and are thematically interwoven. Each compliments and enhances the other, bringing about an emotionally satisfying and intellectually fulfilling ending to the film. I've been writing reviews for years and trust me when I say, I don't get to use a sentence like that often.

If there is a downside to the film it is that the movie will be hindered by its connection to The Matrix. While this movie is certainly not a derivative of The Matrix, it will remind many of the sci-fi classic. The characters exist within a dream state. This means much of the movie's universe is pliable and weird things can and do happen. Reality is unsettled and it gets hard to know what is real and what is imaginary.

The Matrix is an important film for many technical and cinematic reasons. I do not mean to reduce its place. The fact is that The Matrix stoops to silly fight sequences, slow motion bullet trickery and is loaded down with meaningless philosophical mumbo jumbo. Inception is clearly the smarter film and avoids these thrill-ride gimmicks.


Nolan's film contains some striking special effects, but none of them are out of context nor overdone. He includes the visuals only when it enhances the story. The same goes with his fight sequences. There is a zero-gravity fight at one point. Instead of turning it into a display of "hey, ain't this cool" film making, Nolan has the fight, but keeps his eye on his narrative ball - moving his story forward.

This is a great film. It is as good as you have heard, if not better. It is a complex, moving film and stands as one of the better movies made in the past decade. It is possibly the best film since the turn of the century.*

It is worth seeing on the big screen. It is worth leaving your home, paying too much of your money for a ticket and sitting in a large crowd. That is saying something.


* - It takes more than one viewing to mark something as being the best of anything. Let's see if it holds up over time.




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The Prestige (2006)


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Labels: Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Ellen Page, film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, movie review, Tom Berenger, Tom Hardy

The funny thing is that the girls in the opening of the trailer are the actual rebels, the real "alternatives". Any slack-jaw can get a tattoo and act like an ass, insult their parents and put their fleeting desires over what's actually best for them. Happens all the time.

If you're going to be a rebel, at least do it differently than everyone else. Do it in a way that actually improves your life and the lives of those around you.




Screenwriters: Shauna Cross
Director: Drew Barrymore
Actors: Ellen Page (X-Men: The Last Stand), Marcia Gay Harden (Miller's Crossing), Sarah Habel and Shannon Eagen

Labels: Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, film, Marcia Gay Harden, movie trailer

This is a very pleasant movie about a not so pleasant subject - teenage pregnancy. The titular character portrayed by Ellen Page (X-Men: The Last Stand) is a pregnant sixteen year old who opts to have the baby and give it to a well suburban couple who are more flawed than they first appear. Juno wisecracks her way through the emotional minefield of her unexpected pregnancy with the help of her father Mac (J. K. Simmons).

Much has been made about the film's screenwriter Diablo Cody. No other writer has garnished this much attention since Quinten Tarantino emerged in the early nineties. Former Minnesota stripper breaks into the business makes good copy and its clear the woman knows how to write characters and has a flair for snappy dialog. Her gift is also her curse however. The snappy dialog does grow tiresome after a while. One can watch a sixteen year old fire back perfect comebacks and wiseacre wisdom for only so long. Cody obviously channels herself through Juno's dialog - honestly, what sixteen year old is going to reflexively spew out a Diana Ross reference? Cody's heavy manipulation may have fell hard if not for the likable performance by Page. This film establishes Page's career and announces the arrival of a new matinee presence. She handles the strange duality of this character with an infectious charm - the duality being a confused and scared sixteen year old girl who happens to have the thought process and cynical humor of a former stripper from Minnesota.

The film is far from perfect and has been over-hyped by both critics and pro-life groups. This is an endearing movie that handles a heavy subject with some flair. Its not a great film but it is a darn good one, and in this age of remakes and superhero flicks, it's seems like it reinvents the wheel.


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Labels: Diablo Cody, Ellen Page, film, J K Simmons, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera, movie review

Screenwriters: Marureen Medved
Director: Bruce McDonald (Queer as Folk)
Actor: Ellen Page (Juno)

Labels: Ellen Page, indepdendent film, movie trailer

Labels: comedy, Diablo Cody, Ellen Page, pregnancy, teenage