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Film REVIEWS
ANIMATION/DRAMA/FAMILY ARRIETTY (U) 94min ●●●●●
Over three decades, the Studio Ghibli brand of animated storytelling has become a worldwide phenomenon through beloved classics My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and the recent Ponyo. Although not directed by the studio’s co- founder Hayao Miyazaki, their latest effort, Arrietty, belongs firmly in the higher echelons of the studio’s output. Fourteen-year-old Arrietty (voiced by Mirai Shida) and the
tiny Clock family live under the floorboards of a suburban home, where they quietly go about their business, exploring and borrowing from the human world above them, and dodging the cats and birds that might see them as prey. Sho (Ryûnosuke Kamiki), a young boy bedridden by illness, arrives to live in the house and quickly forms a bond with Arrietty, but their connection is put to the test when the Clock family face discovery. The inspiration for Arrietty will be familiar to many in the
West as Mary Norton’s children’s classic The Borrowers, updated by first-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi to 21st century Tokyo. Ghibli’s previous attempt to adapt a British classic, Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle, felt somewhat culturally compromised to fit in with the studio’s style, but after entertaining the dream of filming Norton’s story for some 40 years, producer Miyazaki makes sure that Yonebayashi delivers a much more faithful job here.
Arrietty may not have the ageless, universal scope of the studio’s earliest works, but the result is a beautifully realised small-scale drama that can turn the theft of a humble sugar-cube into a visually spectacular adventure. And as often is the case with Ghibli films, it’s a haunting score, this time by composer Cécile Corbel, which sticks in the mind like the warmest of childhood memories. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Selected release from Fri 29 Jul.
ANIMATION/COMEDY/ADVENTURE CARS 2 (U) 112min ●●●●● COMEDY HORRIBLE BOSSES (15) 97min ●●●●●
DRAMA POETRY (12A) 139min ●●●●●
After 25 years of animation production and a run of critical and commercial smash-hits, the super-smooth Pixar production line finally blows a gasket with Cars 2, a colourful but overstuffed, noisy and heartless sequel that feels like a toy commercial. John Lasseter’s 2006 original was a warm
celebration of the laid-back lifestyle of the four- wheeled denizens of Radiator Falls, but Cars 2 shifts abruptly in tone and content as it pitches racer Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and his idiotic tow- truck pal Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) into an elaborate three-race competition.
Co-directed by Brad Lewis, Lasseter’s charmless sequel replaces the homespun values of the original with impressive racetrack backdrops (Porto, Tokyo and London), violent guns-and-missile action, and juvenile comedy from the belching, flatulent Mater. A mechanical slew of pop-culture gags on the level of ‘Is the Popemobile a Catholic?’ indicate a considerable drop in the level of invention from Finding Nemo or Up and, worst of all, there’s none of the artful pathos that’s consistently infused every other Pixar productions to date. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 22 Jul.
Dr Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) is a sex predator dentist determined to have her way with mousey aspirator Dale Arbus (Charlie Day). Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell) is the coke-snorting inheritor of the business empire of his ailing father Jack (Donald Sutherland), while the hard-working Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) is unfairly passed over. And Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) is the archly manipulative master of the temporarily downtrodden Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis). After setting its mild-mannered protagonists on the path of murder, Horrible Bosses is less about tension than the kind of masculine knockabout comedy best exemplified by The Hangover and its sequel.
There’s a smattering of blackly comic lines and situations in Horrible Bosses that keep it watchable, with Aniston shedding her good girl image, and her clothes, in a shockingly foul-mouthed turn, and an amusing cameo from Jamie Foxx, who sends up his tough-guy image as an ineffective hit man. Foxx’s Miami Vice co-star Farrell also displays comic chops as a substance-addicted gimp with a comb-over. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 22 Jul.
The quest to write a single poem becomes a heroic act in Poetry, a poignant, intricately plotted melodrama from Secret Sunshine director Lee Chang-dong. Poetry won Best Screenplay at Cannes, but it is the central performance from veteran actress Yun Jung-hie that lends the film its heart and stature. Emerging from a lengthy period of retirement, Jung-hie plays Yang Mija, an elegant 66-year-old constantly confronted by the harshness of a world that she no longer recognises. A trip to Mija’s doctor confirms the early signs of dementia. Her commitment to creating a poem for her local arts centre class and her desire to do the right thing make her an increasingly admirable, isolated figure. Set in a rural backwater of South Korea, Poetry
has the gentle compassion and lyrical humanism of a film from the Italian neo-realist era like De Sica’s Umberto D and also calls to mind Kurosawa’s Ikiru (Living). It allies those traditional elements to a stern critique of the evident fault lines in a male dominated, imperfect society. Slow-moving, but also deeply moving and satisfying. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 29 July.
21 Jul–4 Aug 2011 THE LIST 53