Review: All the King’s Men

UK Release: 27th October 2006

In his role as wily politician Willie Stark, Sean Penn does a lot of shouting and grand gesticulating, but fails to bring this remake of the 1949 Oscar-winning drama to life. Writer/director Steven Zaillian seems overawed by the task of adapting Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which shows Stark (a character inspired by real-life Louisiana governor Huey P Long) gradually being seduced away from his populist ideals by the lure of power.

Jude Law plays Stark’s right-hand man Jack Burden, who tries to avert scandal while battling his own inner demons. Unfortunately, Zaillian’s script becomes so tangled up in numerous subplots — Burden’s relationship with an old flame (Kate Winslet), to name but one — that supposedly significant revelations have little impact, and so Zaillian is forced to rely on endless talky scenes and a ponderous voiceover to explain the story. And the performances of the undeniably A-list cast, which also includes Anthony Hopkins, seem affected thanks to the ostentatious direction.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate 12
Running time 127mins

Review by Stella Papamichael

News: Kate Winslet

Due out on 3rd November, All the King’s Men star Kate Winslet’s performance in Little Children has been earning her fresh Oscar buzz – perhaps it will be fifth time lucky, after nominations for 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, 1997’s Titanic, 2002’s Iris and last year’s The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Playing a married mother who ends up exploring the highs and lows of infidelity, reports from the film festival circuit suggest this is one of her most powerful performances, even if the actress herself has since complained about the graphic nature of the sex scenes, telling reporters “I must remember not to do this ever again”.

She will later crop up doing voice work on the Aardman rat-based animation Flushed Away – out on 1st December – and the animated Shakespeare adaptation Gnomeo and Juliet (due 2008), as well as in the flesh alongside Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Rufus Sewell and Jack Black in The Holiday, due on 8th December this year.

News: Jude Law

While not appearing in the gossip sections of the tabloids over the latest rumours about his relationship with rising starlet Sienna Miller, All the King’s Men’s Law has been a busy boy, having taken most of last year off. First up is The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley director Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering where, alongside Juliet Binoche, Ray Winstone, Martin Freeman and his King’s Men co-star Sean Penn’s wife Robin Wright Penn, Law will play a landscape architect to starts to reassess his life after a run-in with a young burglar.

Next up will be The Holiday, where Law’s King’s Men co-star Kate Winslett plays an unluck-in-love woman who does a house-swap with an equally unfortunate woman, played by Cameron Diaz, in an attempt to turn her life around. Law plays one of the bits of male eye-candy, alongside Rufus Sewell and, somewhat implausibly, scruffy tubster Jack Black.

After a small role in cult Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai’s American road trip movie My Blueberry Nights, hopefully due out in the UK sometime late next year, Law’s most promising – and at the same time most worrying – upcoming project is Sleuth. Starring alongside Michael Caine – who seems to have forgiven Law for destroying his classic character Alfie in the abysmal 2004 remake – this is yet another remake of a British classic, the 1972 flick of the same name in which the younger Caine entered a battle of wits with Laurence Olivier over a marital infidelity. We can but hope that yet more cinematic memories aren’t soiled in the process…

News: Sean Penn

Politically active Penn, playing the populist demagogue Willie Stark in this week’s All the King’s Men, at the start of October again hit the headlines in the US for yet another outspoken attack on President Bush. In a statement read out by his King’s Men co-star Mark Ruffalo at a meeting subtly entitled “World Can’t Wait—Drive Out the Bush Regime”, Penn – who visited Iraq in December 2002, prior to the US-led invasion – lambasted “the arrogant, the misguided, and the cowards [who] argue that an immediate pull-out of our troops from Iraq would inspire lack of confidence and the lost credibility of the United States.” Supporters of Bush were once again, unsurprisingly, a tad miffed.

In terms of film work, Penn has only one acting project in the pipeline. Due out in 2008, In Search of Captain Zero will see him play a surfer and former drug-runner who heads off on a road-trip through Central America to find a long-lost buddy with whom to share his dream of an “endless summer”. Could be a return to Penn’s breakout stoner role in the 80s classic Fast Times at Ridgemount High, but with the Central American setting and Penn’s involvement, it’s pretty much guaranteed there’s going to be some critique of US policy in the region.

Penn is currently trying out his skills behind the camera again with Into the Wild, a self-penned adaptation of a 1997 book based on a true story about a university who suddenly gave up all his possessions, hitchhiked to Alaska and lived in a school bus in the forbidding wilderness. He’s got some decent talent on board, with Lords of Dogtown star Emile Hirsch in the lead role and the likes of Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener in support. Could be worth keeping an eye on.

News: Anthony Hopkins

Veteran Hopkins may be about to hit his 69th birthday (on 31st December), but he’s certainly not showing his age in terms of workload, with three more films already wrapped since finishing his duties on this week’s All the King’s Men.

The one he’ll be most keen to see do well is Slipstream – largely because not only does he star, but also wrote and directed this surreal psychological exploration of a screenwriter (played by Christian Slater) who starts becoming unable to distinguish between fact and fiction. No release date has yet been set, but then again, it is still in post-production.
Next up, Hopkins looks to be moving back to his most commercially successful role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter. Only it seems that copyright has prevented the producers of Fracture from using that name, so instead Hopkins will be known as the altogether less sinister-sounding Ted, a psycho hounding a young assistant DA. Again, a UK release date has yet to be set, though it is out in the States in the Spring. Another familiar role will be in the recently-announced Harry and the Butler, where Hopkins will – following his acclaimed role in 1993’s The Remains of the Day – play a butler, this time hired by an aging blues man, to be played by Morgan Freeman.

Most promising of all, however, the Welsh national treasure will be cropping up as the beseiged King Hrothgar in Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis’s much-anticipated cinematic adaptation of the ancient epic poem Beowulf. With Ray Winstone in the title role and supported by the likes of John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie, it looks all set to be one of the biggest films of Christmas 2007.

News: James Gandolfini

The man best known as Tony Soprano may have had a break from New Jersey in this week’s All the King’s Men, but as he’s currently filming for the Sopranos computer game, the mob seems never far behind. His next major film project will be starring as infamous writer Ernest Hemmingway in an as yet untitled project looking at the author and journalist’s romance with fellow writer Martha Gellhorn, the inspiration for Hemmingway’s masterpiece, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Lined up to play Gellhorn is none other than Robin Wright Penn, wife of Gandolfini’s co-star Sean Penn from King’s Men, who seems to be making films with pretty much everyone involved with this weeks’ releases…

News: Mark Ruffalo

The steady career rise of this versatile character actor continues with his supporting part in All the King’s Men, and should only rocket after appearing near the top of the billing alongside Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal in Seven director David Fincher’s new serial killer flick Zodiac, out in the UK in March 2007. Next he’ll appear alongside Anna Paquin and Matt Damon in the emotionally-charged bus accident aftermath flick Margaret, and then with Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino in another character-centred piece based around a road accident, Reservation Road. (Well, it worked for last year’s Oscar-winning Crash, so why not, eh?) It’s only a matter of time before he gets his first full-on lead role – not bad for someone who claims to have had to audition more than 800 times over a ten year period before he finally landed his first film role…

News: Steven Zaillian

Though he doesn’t have any more directing projects lined up, the writer/helmer of this week’s political remake All the King’s Men has provided the screenplay for Sir Ridley Scott’s next project after this week’s other big release, A Good Year. A 1970s-set period piece, American Gangster will see Scott’s current favourite leading man, Russell Crowe, starring alongside Denzel Washington as a detective trying to prevent a drug lord from importing heroin into Harlem in the coffins of soldiers killed in Vietnam.

Review: A Good Year

UK Release: 27th October 2006

Neither Russell Crowe nor his Gladiator director Ridley Scott are known for their comic touch, so this airy feel-good movie marks something of a departure for them both.

Crowe stars as Max, a city trader who inherits a vineyard in Provence from his Uncle Henry (Albert Finney, confined to flashbacks). Max hopes to sell it on quickly but his arrival in the French countryside causes him to reassess his life, particularly after a meeting with a lovely but cynical local café owner (Marion Cotillard).

Adapted from Peter Mayle’s novel, this escapist fantasy proves amiably diverting and gives Crowe a rare chance to test his comic mettle. His slapstick antics and French-baiting don’t always convince, but he still manages to produce a performance that’s delightfully good-natured.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 117mins

Review by Jamie Russell

News: Russell Crowe

Hardman Crowe may recently have announced that he’s planning on scaling back on his action roles, but after the drubbing this week’s A Good Year has received form most critics, he must surely be wondering if light comedy is really the right alternative…

Still, for his next three films he’s back on more familiar territory. First is Tenderness, for Swimfan director Jon Polson, where the burly Aussie will play a detective trying to work out if a violent teenager murdered his family – all highly topical in these days of ASBOs and hoodies, although I somehow doubt it’ll be set on the mean streets of Slough.

Then will come the remake of the 1957 Western 3:10 to Yuma, with Crowe taking on the Glenn Ford role of an outlaw betrayed by his gang, with Christian Bale now confirmed as the rancher forced to help him out of trouble. Fleshing out the cast are the likes of Peter Fonda and Gretchen Mol and, with Walk the Line director James Mangold overseeing things from behind the camera, it should be one to look forward to when it comes out towards the end of 2007.

Finally, filming has just started in New York for Crowe and A Good Year director Ridley Scott’s next project, American Gangster. Crowe will be up against Denzel Washington in this 1970s-set crime thriller which, so far, sounds a lot more promising than their most recent film to hit the box office…

Review: Step Up

UK Release: 27th October 2006

Love blooms between unlikely dance partners in this teen romance from choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher, but the moves are achingly predictable. Co-writer Duane Adler lazily reworks his 2000 film Save the Last Dance here, with Jenna Dewan (Take The Lead) playing a privileged ballet dancer opposite Channing Tatum (She’s The Man) as a hip-hopping petty criminal.

You’re guaranteed to always be ten steps ahead of the plot, even in the closing scenes when the story takes a clumsy swerve into Boyz N the Hood territory. Despite the gunplay, Fletcher is unable to bring any tension to the mix, and the same goes for the leading couple. Dewan and Tatum may be full of energy on the dance floor, but their intimate scenes together are awkward and stiff.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 103mins

Review by Stella Papamichael

Review: Marie Antoinette

UK Release: 20th October 2006

Director Sofia Coppola’s modernist take on the life of the infamous 18th-century monarch who said “let them eat cake” plays like an extended 1980s pop video.

Although based on Antonia Fraser’s respected biography, hard fact gives way to a stylised portrait of the naive 14-year-old Austrian princess (a coquettish Kirsten Dunst) as she heads to Versailles to marry the shy Dauphin (a blank Jason Schwartzman). The seven years it took before the consummation of her marriage meant navigating ruthless court protocol, manners and diplomacy, and it’s the pressures of privilege that interest Coppola more than any revolutionary incident.

Historical authenticity is undercut further by bursts of anachronistic pop music (including a masked rave to Siouxsie and the Banshees’s Hong Kong Garden). The film is ravishing to look at, thanks to the production team’s unprecedented access to Versailles, but its frothy charm eventually wears thin.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 122mins

Review by Alan Jones

News: Jason Schwartzman

Whether appearing as decadent King Louis XVI in his cousin Sophia Coppolla’s latest movie will boost his career is hard to tell. He is, however, in talks to appear in the Wes Anderson-directed feature-length take on Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr Fox, due out sometime next year.

This would mark a welcome re-teaming of the actor and director following their successful partnership on Anderson’s breakout 1998 flick Rushmore. Whether other Anderson favourites Bill Murray and Owen Wilson will also appear is unclear, but The Life Aquatic and The Royal Tennenbaums co-star Angelica Houston is also in talks.

News: Kirsten Dunst

From playing Marie Antoinette, the most famous Queen Consort in history, in a second team-up with director Sophia Coppolla following their work together on 1999’s The Virgin Suicides, Dunst has decided to take a break from filmmaking after appearing in more than 30 movies in just 15 years.  The 24-year-old is set to head off to study art – though few other details are known.

We can still expect to see her on our screens again, however, with her return as Mary-Jane Watson in Spider-Man 3, due to hit our screens early in May next year. Whether she will appear in any subsequent sequels remains unclear, as does the status of the as-yet untitled project in which she was set to star about Marla Ruzicka, a relief worker who advocated for Iraqis and Afghanis in the wake of the recent US-led invasions who was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad last year at the age of 28.

News: Steve Coogan

The comedian still best known as Alan Partridge continues to find interesting film roles. Following his experimental turn in director Michael Winterbottom’s A Cock and Bull Story earlier this year and his supporting role in this week’s Marie Antoinette, Coogan has signed on to play the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, in a Winterbottom-directed adaptation of his memoirs, Murder in Samarkand. Detailing Murray’s efforts to expose alleged British involvement in the torture of terror suspects and other human rights abuses, it will be an interesting departure for the comic.

Also in the pipeline for Coogan is a feature-length movie based around his Alan Partridge character, Alan Partridge: The Movie, although the production is currently on hold. Meanwhile, he will be appearing in the Ben Stiller vehicle Night at the Museum alongside the likes of Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Ricky Gervais – due to hit our screens on Boxing Day.

Coogan will also appear in a cameo role in Hot Fuzz – the British police comedy from the team behind cult favourite Shawn of the Dead – and is currently attached in the Roger Moore role alongside Ben Stiller in a movie version of 60s TV classic The Persuaders.