POMPEII
Cast: Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica Lucas, Jared Harris, Keifer Sutherland, Paz Vega
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
102 min
Halfway through “Pompeii,” which is mostly set around 79 A.D., a group of slaves gather in an arena to practice their fighting skills. Next day the plan is that they will provide the entertainment for 20,000 screaming locals, salivating for these men to die. Top of the bill are Milo and Atticus - a pair of angry protagonists who just happen to be banged up together in the same prison cell but who are destined to fight till the death. Rather than discuss this scenario, they instead decide to batter lumps out of one another – prior to the next day’s doomsday duel. Pompeii has four screenwriters – which was always going to be a recipe for disaster - and this scene is clear evidence of the folly, as the dialogue throughout is dismal in its sheer banality.
As Mount Vesuvius goes through its pre-eruption grumblings, groans and the odd earthquake here and there, Milo (Kit Harington) a slave with a nifty line in swordsmanship, is forced to compete in the arena against Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Prior to this confrontation, he meets Cassia (Emily Browning) and her assistant Ariadne (Jessica Lucas). Be still my beating heart! (he falls in love at first sight with Cassia - and of course she with him). Because Cassia’s wealthy parents (Jared Harris and Carrie-Anne Moss) need a smarmy visiting senator named Corvus (a smirking, 2014-hairstyled cool dude Kiefer Sutherland) to sign off on their development plans, Milo and Cassia haven’t an earthly of getting a room. Add in the fact that the aforementioned Corvus reckons on Cassia becoming his Mrs. in order to seal the deal - and the two lovebirds are up the proverbial gum tree.
The futility of all these problem page dilemmas is apparent to everyone facing towards the screen, but for those on it, they just don’t seem to reckon on the damage that nasty Vesuvius is odds-on to inflict. These people can manoeuver, fall in love and politic all they want, but when a massive volcano is about to burn everything they know to the ground, all that petty personal stuff doesn’t mean very much.
The visual effects vary from average to spectacular which isn’t really acceptable for a film of this supposed scale. The inevitable massive flood is full of tension though, and the huge volcanic fireballs creating destruction all around are fairly spectacular to witness, but the 3D is wholly unnecessary and doesn’t improve matters to any great degree. So in summation, all Pompeii boils down to is merely yet another predictable love story-against the odds-effects-driven historical saga with devastation as its inevitable climax.
The Two Faces of January
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Oscar Isaac
Director:
Hossein Amini
96 mins
With a greying older man, his blonde-haired bride, and a younger man who comes between them, crime and chases in attractive locations, cops and con men, cigarettes, zippo lighters and stylish headwear – here we have a standard old-school globe-trotting romantic thriller, with faint Hitchockian echoes and soundtrack music, evocative of a bygone age.Based on Patricia (Talented Mr Ripley, Strangers On a Train) Highsmith’s novel, The Two Faces of January is an elegant, well-paced but modest thriller set in the early 1960s, featuring Oscar Isaac as Rydal, a laconic American earning a crust as a local tour guide in Athens and moderately successful con artist. He spots the MacFarland couple doing the tourist rounds and immediately marks them out as potential marks for a few extra drachmas.
Viggo Mortensen is Chester MacFarland, with Kirsten Dunst playing his wife, Colette, but as is revealed later, these are nom de plumes for a particularly dodgy pair, who it later transpires, are even bigger swindlers than naïve Rydal could aspire to be. Chester is fond of a tipple, and has quite a history of deceit back in the USA. As Colette, Dunst has a smaller role, but gets by adequately on her sweet demeanour and natural charm. The twist begins when Chester accidentally knocks off a seedy private eye-cum-debt collector who has been on their trail to recoup his clients’ missing funds. The result being that all three, now entangled, hightail it to Crete to avoid being collared.
The twists and turns, although somewhat predictable and relatively pedestrian don’t however derail the pleasure of the film. This is the debut project in the director’s chair from accomplished screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive), and it’s a film full of relaxed, familiar and delightful processes. However the downside is the somewhat flat and underwritten finale, which is just a shade too comfortable in its loose-ends tie-up.
That said however, it doesn’t detract too greatly from what is a very easy on the intellect and eye 96 minutes of screen time.
