Veronika Decides to Die

...

Rating 3


Directed by Emily Young

Written by Roberta Hanley and Larry Gross, based on the novel by Paulo Coelho

Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Veronika Deklava), Jonathan Tucker (Edward), David Thewlis (Dr Blake), Melissa Leo (Mari), Erika Christensen (Claire), Florencia Lozano (Dr Thompson), Erika Gimpel (Nurse White), Rena Owen (Nurse Josephine), Victor Steinbach (Veronika’s father) and Barbara Sukowa (Veronika’s mother)


Veronika attempts suicide by taking a large quantity of prescription pills mixed with alcohol. She wakes up from a coma two weeks later to discover that she is in a privately funded psychiatric hospital, paid for by her parents. She is told that the effect of the pills has caused irreparable damage to her heart and she only has weeks left to live. Her first reaction is anger and a second attempt at suicide, but then she becomes increasingly drawn towards another patient, Edward, who is very remote and never speaks, but who seems to have paid particular notice of her arrival.

...


‘Veronika Decides to Die’, directed by the British film director Emily Young, the daughter of the late political journalist Hugo Young, is based on a successful novel by the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho, which was first published in 1998 and has previously been adapted for the theatre several times. The 2005 Japanese film ‘Veronika wa shinu koto ni shita’ is also based on the book, which I have not read.

I approached the film with a degree of bias. I am very fond of the actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, partly because of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, but more so because I like her acting and I like many of her previous films, despite widespread opinion that her film career has so far failed to impress. It has often been claimed that she has done little more than appear in a succession of horror films, although in fact she has made comparatively few of these. ‘Veronika Decides to Die’ is attractively made, with some really rather good opening scenes to set the tone.

Veronika’s anger perhaps didn’t always come across as strongly as I felt it might have done and her subsequent realisation that with no future to hold her back she could do anything without the fear of consequences, at which point she began to find a reason to live, wasn’t as profound as it needed to be to avoid becoming a tab glib. The unorthodox methods of the hospital’s chief psychiatrist Dr Blake were presented in a such a subtle manner (the denouement aside) that it almost became undercooked, but David Thewlis made it work with a finely judged performance. The significance of the letter Veronika wrote after taking the pills almost seeped away without fully making its point, much like the anger she felt towards her parents and the anger she directed at herself for feeling anger towards them. Likewise, the comparisons we were invited to make between the situations of Veronika, Edward and Claire. This decidedly quiet approach to the subject almost escaped me at first, but was ultimately rather attractive and appealing.

What perhaps was lacking to some degree was a clear enough motivation for Veronika to became so quickly drawn towards Edward and he towards her, the central thrust of the story. We can, however, surmise the affinity she initially felt towards him because he had deliberately shut himself off from the world around him. She, in turn, gave him something finally to want and need, bringing him back to a point where human contact became important, but this aspect of the narrative sometimes seemed a little unfocused. Veronika’s bleak and entrenched belief that life was not worth living was, I am inclined to say, too easily changed.

The film possibly needed a bit more substance. However, my only real gripe is that I quickly guessed where the story was headed and how it would conclude and I didn’t find it an entirely satisfying end on this first viewing. Perhaps it works better in the novel.

Sarah Michelle Gellar has not had much luck since the 2004 box office hit ‘The Grudge’, making interesting choices that have failed to match the success of that film. ‘Veronika Decides to Die’ is no exception and despite being a very good film it has not so far found a distributor (or, at least, a release date) in either the US or in Britain.

The original music for the film is by Murray Gold, whose name has become familiar in recent years because of the huge success of the revived BBC television series ‘Doctor Who’. David Thewlis has had a long and successful career in films and in theatre. His partner Anna Friel recently had a lead role in the ABC Network series ‘Pushing Daisies’.

Review posted 5 December 2009


...

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

...

Rating 2¾


Directed by Alfonso Cuarón

Written by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J K Rowling

Starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), David Thewis (Remus Lupin), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge), Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon), Pam Ferris (Aunt Marge), Fiona Shaw (Aunt Petunia), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley), Julie Walters (Mrs Molly Weasley), Mark Williams (Mr Arthur Wesley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Warwick Davies (Filius Flitwick), Dawn French (Fat Lady), James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Oliver Phelps (George Weasley), Emma Thompson (Sybil Trelawney), Julie Christie (Madame Rosmerta) and Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew)


Harry Potter is spending a miserable summer with his Uncle Vernan and Aunt Petunia. When he uses magic outside school, he runs away, fearing punishment. He is picked up by the Knight Bus, a magical triple-decker bus, and taken to the Leaky Cauldron, where Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, tells him he will not, as he had feared, be expelled. Harry also learns that Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban. Reunited with his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, Harry boards the Hogwarts Express. During the train journey he encounters a Dementer, a soulless wraith-like creature that is searching for Sirius Black, but it is driven away by Remus Lupin, a new professor joining the school. During the first assembly at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore announces that the Dementers will be guarding the school. Harry also discovers that Sirius Black was implicated in the deaths of his parents and is heading for the school, seemingly intent on killing him.

...

I have never read a ‘Harry Potter’ book and do not expect to do so. I have also only previously seen one film, the first, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, which I found slightly underwhelming. The same would have to be said of ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, the third film (and the third book) in the sequence. However, I did enjoy this one more, enough so to be interested in watching the other films.

‘Harry Potter’ is a phenomenon. The seven books, written by the British author J K Rowling (Joanne Murray), starting with ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’, which was first published in June 1997, have sold in excess of 400 million copies. Likewise, the films (five to date, with the sixth just about to be released into cinemas) have been hugely successful. ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’, which had a production budget of $120 million and was released into cinemas starting in June 2004, has a worldwide box office gross in excess of $795 million, with DVD and television broadcast revenue likely to have been at least that much again.

The film races along at a breakneck pace, although strangely it often seems as if not much is happening. The special effects are state-of-the-art, but I cannot help but think that these do sometimes take away some of the magic. In the famous 1967 Jonathan Miller adaptation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, made for the BBC, Alice enters the surreal wonderland through a narrow tunnel, used by Miller because no special effects were available to show Alice disappear down the rabbit hole. It works perfectly and that imagery has always stayed with me. I was just nine years old when ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was broadcast and tunnels continue to have something magical and slightly unsettling about them for me, just as old wardrobes do because of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. The ‘Harry Potter’ books are, to some degree, this generation’s ‘Chronicles of Narnia’, insomuch that they have succeeded in capturing the imaginations of children. I have no time whatsoever for the claims that the books are anti-religious and promote witchcraft.

There has been some criticism of the acting of the three young leads, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – Radcliffe in particular. All three came to the series with little or no previous professional acting experience. None of them are exceptional, in the way that, say, Dakota Fanning acts with a degree of skill and confidence well beyond her years, but all three are perfectly likeable and competent in their roles. Each film has a wealth of British acting talent on display.

‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ is a good family film, if perhaps a little violent at times for very young children. It’s a rollercoaster ride that is probably tremendous fun for anyone who has grown up with the books. I feel a little bit divorced from it and from my outsider’s perspective it does all seems a little clichéd, cobbling together lots of pre-existing themes and stories that are already familiar to me. That said, it’s enormous popularity speaks volumes.

‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ has an 89% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 225 reviews.

Review posted 12 July 2009



...