Bear Flag Blog

The Ghost Writer - 7/10

Roman Polanski's previous film, The Ninth Gate, is one of my favorite films. I like Polanski's film direction a great deal - it doesn't hit you over the head with gimmickry or flash, it's just quietly effective, too dramatic to be understated but never overwhelming. Like a good author's prose, you only realize after the story is finished how good the writing was.

The Ghost Writer is a good film. But, probably by the very nature of the story it tells, it's not a terribly memorable one. The performances are excellent, the story interesting, and New England by the seaside is a cold and bleak place in winter. I enjoyed watching the events unfold. But as I walked by Embarcadero Cinema on my way to work a week later, my reaction to the movie poster was "Oh right, I saw that."

The film's coda, I have to add, is crap. But other than that, a fine film, but not an exceptional one.

Alice in Wonderland - 8/10

Tim Burton, on the other hand, is a director about as far from "understated" as it is possible to be. Bringing together his hallucinogenic style with the abiding strangeness of Alice in Wonderland is a natural combination, and it works quite well. The movie is a visual feast, from the oddly distorted yet utterly credible Knave and Queen of Hearts to the smoke of the Cheshire Cat's disappearance.

The story is nothing to write home about, although it does decent service to the theme of the reluctant hero. This is not a straight translation of Alice in Wonderland by any stretch; it draws heavily on The Hunting of the Snark and makes up other plot threads from whole cloth, e.g. the treatment of the Mad Hatter. But if not a great story it's certainly good enough, and coupled with the visuals the movie is a real treat.

Also, Anne Hathaway is awesome.