By Govindini Murty. • There’s been a lot of interesting news today, so let’s dive right in. At the weekend box office, The Help continued its impressive run, becoming the #1 film in America this past weekend with a $20 million gross that brings its twelve-day total up to an excellent $71.3 million. I’m delighted, because The Help is a warm, humanistic drama with a terrific cast of strong actresses that shows that you don’t have to rely on computer-animated creatures to draw in audiences during the summer. Of course, that isn’t true of the second-place film, Rise of Planet of the Apes, which very much prefers its computer-animated apes to its human characters. Its $16.1 million take shows that for a certain segment of the audience, misanthropic themes are always in. (Perhaps the film was also aided by its recent endorsement by PETA?)
However, the Conan remake, which made a terrible $10 million, and Fright Night (starring Colin Farrell), which only made $8.1 million, were major box office disappointments. I’m surprised these both did so poorly, since it seemed that they both had a certain built-in genre audience. Fright Night even got reasonably good reviews. Perhaps people are just tired of ’80s remakes?
Also under performing was Anne Hathaway’s romantic drama One Day, which made only $5.1 million (though on half the number of screens as Conan and Fright Night). I have to tell you, I saw the problems with One Day coming a mile away, even though I’m a big fan of romantic dramas. The problem from the trailer was that you couldn’t tell what the story was really about and Jim Sturgess’ character came across as a complete cad. It was hard to understand what Anne Hathaway’s character would see in him. That’s a problem because for any good love story to work, you have to fall a bit in love with the characters yourself. That just didn’t seem possible with One Day.
• In other important news that I know will greatly interest our Libertas readers, Kim Kardashian got married over the weekend. There’s apparently been a lot of controversy both over her dress and her hairstyle. Did Kim play it dowdy and safe, or does she look va-va-voom? You be the judge.
• Turning now to another brunette siren, someone has written yet another article claiming that Angelina Jolie is thinking of retiring from the movies and devoting herself to humanitarian activities. That’s wonderful, but isn’t it also a humanitarian activity to make good movies? Jolie has acted in a lot of well-made films, but she’s yet to make a truly great film. She should take the time now to search around for good scripts and try to make at least one unforgettable film so that her legacy is secure before she retires – if she really does intend to retire, that is.
• Then, there’s movie news about a truly great lady – one whose fame is not based on something as fleeting as being a Hollywood movie star, but on her work as a courageous democracy activist suffering under one of the most brutally repressive regimes on earth. I’m referring to the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Despite the fact that the party she leads, the National League for Democracy, won 59% of the national vote in Burma’s last open national elections in 1990, Suu Kyi has spent fifteen of the past twenty-one years under house arrest by that country’s ruling military junta. Aung San Suu Kyi has long been a personal heroine of mine. I admire strong, principled women like her who are willing to risk everything to stand up for freedom.
Now it seems that Luc Besson has taken a break from his usual action movie fare to make a movie about Aung San Suu Kyi titled The Lady. The film stars Michelle Yeoh and will be screening at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. I think Yeoh is an excellent choice to play Suu Kyi. Yeoh is a striking physical match for her, and she also conveys the grace, strength, and intelligence that have characterized Suu Kyi’s conduct through her multi-decade ordeal on behalf of democracy. If The Lady has the kind of pro-democracy message we hope it will, then we’ll be strongly promoting the film here at Libertas.
• Finally, for our sci-fi nuts, it was announced recently that the eccentric Wachowski siblings (of the Matrix films and V for Vendetta) and German director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) are teaming up to make a film out of the historical/sci-fi novel Cloud Atlas. Apparently it’s going to be filmed at Germany’s famed Babelsburg studios (where the great UFA studios made so many German classics in the 1920s), and will be one of the most expensive German-backed productions in years.
Cloud Atlas consists of six stories that take place over a period of hundreds of years, starting in the 19th century and ending in the distant post-apocalyptic future. The 2004 novel revolves around the theme of reincarnation, with an implied political critique of environmental degradation and the evils of capitalism. Frankly, this thing looks to me like an expensive disaster – a carbon copy of Darren Aronofsky’s self-indulgent The Fountain. The problem with these multi-generational sci-fi novels is that it’s hard to create a central group of characters that you care about, because pretty soon the narrative moves on and they’re gone. Even sprawling historical films like D.W. Griffith’s 1916 epic Intolerance (which wove together four historical stories, from the fall of Babylon to the story of an early twentieth century mother and child) or Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1921 film Leaves from Satan’s Book (which told four historical stories ranging from Christ’s Crucifixion to the Russian Revolution) have trouble capturing audiences because the overall concept of the film becomes more important than the individual characters in the story.
Cloud Atlas is set to begin shooting in September with an all-star cast that includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent. Apparently the Wachowskis and Tykwer will be shooting with two parallel crews, so we’ll see if they’ll be able to weave all this together into a compelling whole.
Posted on August 22nd, 2011 at 10:20pm.
The Wachowski’s should be doing the segment on the evils of capitalism. After pushing the craptastic “Speed Racer” on the audience at $10 a pop I’d say they were the experts in that department.
Ha ha – quite true K. How ironic that they have to go to Germany (the most capitalistic country in Europe) in order to get financing for their next film – because none of their pals in Hollywood are willing to risk hundreds of millions on this project. I guess the Germans are the last people in Europe with the money to put into this kind of film – I just hope they don’t mind too much losing it. Tykwer is a capable director and might be able to save some of this movie, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to counteract the Wachowskis and their personal manias.
I thought The Help was great too. Viola Davis was really excellent and will probably be nominated for an Oscar. As for Kim Kardashian’s wedding, I still don’t understand why she’s a celebrity. I tried watching her show and turned it off after five minutes.
I think the dearth of good movies and programming for women is one of the reasons “The Help” has done so well, and even why reality shows featuring women like the Kardashians are popular. Of course, “The Help” is also just a well-made film, and that kind of good craftsmanship is what has allowed it to reach such a large audience.
Couldn’t resist sharing this tweet I stumbled upon a few days ago:
“Just saw The Help. It is very different from the original. There are no songs and the Beatles are played by black women.”