Possession

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Rating 1 (2 on second viewing)


Directed by Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist

Written by Michael Petroni, based on the film‘Addicted’, written by Byun Won-mi

Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Jessica), Lee Pace (Roman), Michael Landes (Ryan), Tuva Novotny (Casey), Chelah Horsdal (Miranda), Dhirendra (Dr Rajan) and William B Davis (Hypnotist)


Jessica and Ryan are happily married, although Jessica is not as attentive to the marriage as her husband. His troubled younger brother Roman, who has recently been released from prison following a six month conviction for aggravated assault, is temporarily living with them, an arrangement that Jessica finds increasingly difficult. Following a freak automobile accident that leaves both Ryan and Roman in a coma, Roman awakes, now claiming to believe that he is Ryan, leaving Jessica to try to come to terms with her own feelings of guilt and loss.

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‘Possession’ is an American remake of a 2002 South Korean film called ‘Addicted’ (or ‘Jungdok’). The film was first announced in 2006 and originally set for release in February 2008, but when the production company Yari Film Group experienced financial problems it resulted in a number of delays, until finally it was released direct to DVD in March 2010.

The film is a melancholy psychological thriller with supernatural overtones that follows a similar pattern to previous Sarah Michelle Gellar films ‘The Grudge’ and ‘The Return’. However, unlike those two films, it just does not work. There is little suspense or foreboding and there does not appear to be much obvious on-screen chemistry between Gellar and Lee Pace, both of whom are competent actors who give uninvolving performances here. The film is rather threadbare and somewhat botched and quite simply fails in almost every aspect.

I consider myself to be a fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s work and although the last film in which she took a starring role that made any appreciably commercial impact was ‘The Grudge’ in 2004, I think she has made some very worthwhile films since that time, even if she seems not to attract much critical support for her choices. However, ‘Possession’ is very poor, much like ‘Suburban Girl’ in 2007, another rare Gellar film that was, I concluded, somewhat less than inspiring.

Additional: Having watched the film for a second time, some of my previous criticisms no longer apply. It is, I have decided, not as bad as my initial impression of it suggested and both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Lee Pace give better performances than I had at first concluded. However, I do feel that the film fails to fire on all cylinders - it seems largely stuck in second gear and rarely gets any further than third. Perhaps my biggest criticism is that the portrayal of Ryan’s undying love for Jessica in the opening scenes comes across not so much as romantic and inspiring, but overly sentimental and even a little creepy.

Original review posted 7 March 2010 - additional comments added on 10 March 2010


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Infamous

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Rating 3


Written and directed by Douglas McGrath, based on the book by George Plimpton

Starring Toby Jones (Truman Capote), Sandra Bullock (Harper Lee), Daniel Craig (Perry Smith), Lee Pace (Richard Hickock), Sigourney Weaver (Babe Paley), Jeff Daniels (Alvin Dewey), Gwyneth Paltrow (Kitty Dean), Isabella Rossellini (Marella Agnelli), Juliet Stevenson (Diana Vreeland), Michael Panes (Gore Vidal), Hope Davis (Slim Keith), Frank Curcio (William Shawn), John Benjamin Hickey (Jack Dunphy), Bethlyn Gerard (Marie Dewey) and Peter Bogdanovich (Bennett Cerf)


When, in November 1959, the celebrated New York author and wit Truman Capote reads an small report in the New York Times about the murder of a family in Holcomb, Kansas he decides to write an article about the crime and its impact on the local community, travelling to Holcomb with his lifelong friend and confidant, the author Harper “Nellie” Lee. He soon realises he has enough material to write a book, adopting a new approach that he describes as a “non-fiction novel”. As his research and writing continues, he becomes increasingly wrapped up in the life of Perry Smith, one of the two men responsible for the killings.

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‘Infamous’ is based on a 1997 book by the late George Plimpton and deals with the events leading up to the writing of Truman Capote’s book ‘In Cold Blood’, which caused a sensation when it was first published in serial form in the New Yorker magazine in 1965, six years after the killings. The film received a limited theatrical release in October 2006 and dealt with exactly the same subject as ‘Capote’, which had been released in September 2005. That earlier film received much greater attention, including the Academy Award for Best Actor for the performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role.

Both films deal with Capote’s motivation for writing the book, which he researched in considerable detail, interviewing many of the people connected with the case, including the two convicted killers, and eventually amassing more than 8,000 pages of notes. He did not tape record any of the interviews he conducted, instead transcribing them from memory, and it has been claimed that he deliberately changed some of the detail to suit his own purposes in creating this new style of non-fiction work. He was particularly fascinated by Perry Smith and it has long been rumoured that the two shared a romantic or even sexual relationship during Capote’s visits to the prison where Smith was held, although there is no real evidence to support this.

I had initially avoided watching ‘Infamous’, having already seen the excellent ‘Capote’ and deciding that I did not need to watch two films that dealt with the same subject matter in such a short space of time. However, a friend recommended it to me, making mention of the performance of Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee, whose acclaimed novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was published in July 1960. Lee was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel in 1961. I like Sandra Bullock very much and believe she is a much better actress than many of her film choices and has genuine screen presence. Her performance here is quietly impressive and is, for me, the highlight of the film, although the central focus is on Toby Jones as Truman Capote and Daniel Craig as Perry Smith and the relationship of these two pivotal characters. Harper Lee, who has never published another novel after ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, said in 2007, when asked to address an audience at a ceremony she attended, “It’s better to be silent than to be a fool.”

‘Infamous’ makes a distinction between the small community of Holcomb and the impact it (and Perry Smith) has on Truman Capote and his celebrity lifestyle in New York and the society circles he moves in. We see him with the socialite and style icon Babe Paley, of which he once wrote, “Babe Paley had only one fault, she was perfect. Otherwise, she was perfect.” Paley was one of Capote’s “swans”, as were Marella Agnelli and Slim Keith, both of whom feature in the film. Paley and Keith were the inspiration for Capote’s posthumous novel ‘Answered Prayers’, which when some work-in-progress chapters were published in Esquire magazine in 1975 and 1976, resulted in Capote being ostracised by several friends led by Paley.

The scenes set in New York are somewhat stylised, but I imagine this is deliberate to create a juxtaposition with the reality of Holcomb and the real lives of real people that Capote encounters there. His friends in New York seem like caricatures, but that is what they are, jet set socialites and style icons playing a role. I don’t think the film quite manages to make this mix work entirely successfully, but I can see what it set out to do.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays a nightclub singer called Kitty Dean. The original intention had been that she would portray the singer Peggy Lee and the scene in the film when she goes into a kind of trance during her performance of a song to a nightclub audience, including Capote, is based on a genuine performance by the nightclub singer and Broadway musical actress Barbara Cook.

The film boosts a very impressive cast and there are some very good performances. Toby Jones, in particular, manages to avoid turning Capote into a caricature, even though that is what he was in many ways, and perhaps even more so than Philip Seymour Hoffman the previous year, he creates a real person who found himself identifying with Perry Smith. Capote’s childhood was a long way removed from the circles he moved in later on after his successful writing career was established and both films reference this as a motivator for the strange attraction of the contemplative but explosively violent Smith.

‘Infamous’ has a 71% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 135 reviews. It had a production budget estimated to have been in the region of $13 million and grossed $2.6 million at the box office worldwide.

Review posted 11 June 2009



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Wonderfalls

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Created by Bryan Fuller and Todd Holland

Written by Bryan Fuller, Todd Holland, Tim Minear, Liz W Garcia, Krista Vernoff and others

Starring Caroline Dhavernas, Tracie Thoms, Tyron Leitso, Katie Finneran, Lee Pace, Diana Scarwid, William Sadler, Neil Grayston, Jewel Staite and Kari Matchett


“Just look at them. They all work really hard every day and they’re dissatisfied. I mean, I can be dissatisfied without hardly working at all.”

Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas) is a highly intelligent graduate of Brown University whose cynical view of life leads her to choose a path of least expectation, taking a dead end job in a souvenir shop next to Niagara Falls. While her older siblings Sharon (Katie Finneran) and Aaron (Lee Pace) still live at home, Jaye chooses to live in a trailer park, away from her parents. Her best friend Mahandra McGinty (Tracie Thoms) works in a local restaurant, and Eric Gotts (Tyron Leitso), who she falls in love with, ends up working behind the bar when his new marriage to Heidi (Jewel Staite) crumbles during their honeymoon. Jaye’s life become complicated and begins to take unexpected turns when inanimate objects start giving her instructions to help people around her, often people she doesn’t know or doesn’t like.

The basic premise of ‘Wonderfalls’ is noticeably similar to the slightly earlier and superior ‘Joan of Arcadia’, although without the religious overtone (Joan’s instructions come directly from God, while here there is no hint of divine intervention). There were even plans, had the show survived, to have Jaye sent for psychiatric evaluation and be diagnosed as suffering from “Joan of Arc Syndrome”, something explored in ‘Joan of Arcadia’ at the end of the first season.

‘Wonderfalls’ premiered on the Fox network in America on 12 March 2004, although it was originally intended to have premiered much earlier, at the start of the “fall” season in 2003. It survived for just four episodes before being cancelled by a network that seemed to be particularly trigger-happy at that time, although it does seem that the nature of American television means that most shows are condemned to an early death. A total of 13 episodes had been made and these were released on DVD in 2005.

Bryan Fuller, who co-created the show, first made a breakthrough writing episodes of ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ and ‘Star Trek: Voyager’. He had previously created the acclaimed ‘Dead Like Me’, a show that ran for two seasons on Showtime before being cancelled. Todd Holland was previously associated with shows like ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ and ‘The Larry Sanders Show’. Tim Minear, the third executive producer, but not one of the creators of the show, had previously worked with Joss Whedon on ‘Angel’ and ‘Firefly’ – but not on Whedon’s signature show, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

‘Wonderfalls’ is not as good as the wonderful ‘Dead Like Me’ and, as I have already mentioned, I do not think it is as good as ‘Joan of Arcadia’. I enjoyed watching it very much and I will watch it again, but it never quite managed to grip me the same way as my favourite American television shows of recent years, be it something like ‘Buffy’ or ‘Point Pleasant’. Equally, I am not sure I enjoyed it as much as shows like ‘Cold Case’, which I am happy to catch as and when, without becoming dedicated to watching them come what may.

The cast is very good. Some of the actors I was already familiar with, others were new to me. I had not previously come across the French-Canadian actress Caroline Dhavernas. Her performance is interesting. Jaye is a slightly brittle character, not particularly sympathetic, and Dhavernas certainly doesn’t seem to be doing anything to add warmth to her. In fact, the Tyler family in general, including the parents, Karin (Diana Scarwid) and Darrin (William Sadler), are not especially likeable, although I am rather fond of the constantly neurotic and put-upon Sharon, the lesbian lawyer older sister.

Most of the episodes are very good, although I don’t recall any that were exceptional – episodes that really stood out and made me take notice. On the other hand, one, ‘Totem Mole’, the penultimate episode, was noticeably disappointing. Despite some nice touches, I thought it was very trite. It was also one of the episodes that reminded me most of ‘Northern Exposure’, a show that ‘Wonderfalls’ in general put me in mind of.

Although it may not seem to be of any great importance, the most disappointing thing about ‘Wonderfalls’ proved to be the various objects that talked to Jaye. They had a purpose and I suppose they fulfilled that purpose, but there was nothing appealing or interesting about any of them. Instead of drawing me into the fantasy aspect of the show, they did the exact opposite, pulling me out of the story.

In the end, I would recommend the show, with a few minor reservations, to anyone who thinks the premise sounds interesting.

Bryan Fuller later worked on ‘Heroes’ and subsequently created ‘Pushing Daisies’, a show that has gone into a second season as I write this. Lee Pace, who plays Jaye’s brother in ‘Wonderfalls’, has the lead role in this new Bryan Fuller show.



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Pushing Daisies: The First Episode

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Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

Written by Bryan Fuller

Starring Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz : Narrated by Jim Dale


“Some people may mistake all this for some kind of literariness. I think it’s just really irritating. And twee. And doesn’t mean anything – puns for puns’ sake, super-speedy so people think it’s clever.”

Sam Wollaston of The Guardian reviewed ‘Pie-lette’, the opening episode of the American series ‘Pushing Daisies’, following its broadcast on ITV1 and he wasn’t impressed. I can see his reasoning for much of what he writes, except that I am obviously in the 5% of “clinically insane” men who are not in love with Anna Friel. However, I enjoyed the episode enormously and now look forward to watching more. Perhaps I have mistaken the failings of the show for “some kind of literariness.”

Lee Pace plays Ned, a pie maker and owner of ‘The Pie Hole’, who has the gift of bringing the dead back to life with a single touch. However, this gift comes with a curse. After one minute another living person must die to redress the balance and if he ever again touches the person he brought back to life that person dies and stays dead this time.

He helps private eye Emerson Cod (an amusing deadpan performance by Chi McBride) solve murder cases where a reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the killer. He does so by bringing the victim back to life just long enough to reveal the name of the guilty party.

Everything changes when his childhood crush Charlotte ‘Chuck’ Charles is murdered during an ocean cruise. He brings her back to life, but does not touch her again to end her extra one-minute of life. The premise is now established. Ned and Chuck fall in love, but can never have any physical contact. She finds out about Ned and Emerson’s scheme and becomes a third partner. The first case they investigate is her murder.

Other regular characters introduced include Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth, previously seen in ‘The West Wing’), a waitress at The Pie Hole who harbours unrequited love for Ned, and Chuck’s two eccentric cheese-loving aunts Vivian (Ellen Greene) and Lily (Swoosie Kurtz).

‘Pushing Daisies’ was created by Bryan Fuller, who previously created the critically acclaimed ‘Dead Like Me’ and co-created ‘Wonderfalls’. Anyone familiar with either of those shows should already have an idea what to expect here – the three shows share many common themes. Fuller also previously wrote episodes for two Star Trek off-shoots, ‘Voyager’ and ‘Deep Space Nine’, and more recently for ‘Heroes’.

Sam Wollaston correctly identifies visual stylings in ‘Pushing Daisies’ that are reminiscent of Tim Burton. He also references “Amélie kookiness”. He does not make mention of the very obvious influence of ‘Desperate Housewives’, particularly in the use of background music (also reminiscent of ‘Amélie’) and the distinctly arch narration. The narrator here is Jim Dale. Americans know him for the hugely successful ‘Harry Potter’ audio books. I know him as a stalwart of the old ‘Carry On’ films.

‘Pushing Daisies’ has been a success so far in America. The nine episodes completed prior to the WGA writers’ strike averaged a little under 10 million viewers per episode and a second season has been commissioned. Both Lee Pace and Anna Friel were nominated for Golden Globes, as was the show itself.

The only thing I knew about Lee Pace prior to this was that he co-stars with Sarah Michelle Gellar in a film called ‘Possession’ that is due into cinemas later in 2008, although he was also in the aforementioned ‘Wonderfalls’. He is certainly very personable in the opening episode of ‘Pushing Daisies’.

I have not previously been fond of Anna Friel as an actor. I can remember her from the TV soap opera ‘Brookside’ back in the early 1990s. She made a big splash in that, largely because of the “novelty” of a storyline involving lesbianism, but her performances in films like ‘The Land Girls’ and ‘Mad Cow’ niggled with me, as did her television advertisements for various products.

There is no particular reason for this aversion; at least not one I could put my finger on. It is just one of those anomalous things. There is nothing different about her in ‘Pushing Daisies’, apart from an American accent, but instead of being irritated in any way I actually thought she inhabited the role really well. I suspect her character exists on that fine line between engaging and annoying, which is also probably the line I stand on the other side of to Sam Wollaston in relation to the show in general, but time will tell which way she eventually falls.

‘Pie-lette’ was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, an executive producer on the show. Sonnenfeld is the director of several big screen box-office hits, including ‘The Addams Family’, ‘Get Shorty’ and ‘Men in Black’.

For reasons best known to themselves, ITV have decided to skip episode two and broadcast episode three next. I cannot bring to mind any sensible reason for doing this, but perhaps it is something for further comment on at a later date.


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