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Film REVIEWS

DRAMA SISTER (TBC) 100min ●●●●●

Swiss-French filmmaker Ursula Meier follows her feature debut, domestic drama Home, with another leftfield story about a family in dysfunction. In this case, it’s 12-year-old Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein, who appeared in Home and for whom Meier wrote the part) and his older sister, Louise (Léa Seydoux), who share a grotty apartment below a luxury ski resort. With Louise unable and/or unwilling to hold down a job, it falls to Simon to make ends meet, and this he does through daily trips to the top of the mountain, where he steals sporting equipment from the moneyed holidaymakers, which he sells on in the valley below.

Meier’s film is both an intimate story about fractured family relationships and a social realist drama that looks at how class differences affect young lives. Despite becoming a reasonably accomplished vagabond, the sly Simon remains emotionally vulnerable. Teaming up with a dishonest Scottish cook (Martin Compston), Simon soon finds himself out of his depth. But it’s with his sister, however, that Simon is at his most sensitive, the reason for which is revealed through a striking plot twist in the second half of this utterly absorbing film. (Miles Fielder) Selected release from Fri 26 Oct.

MUSICAL DRAMA THE SAPPHIRES (PG) 103mins ●●●●●

It’s no surprise that Wayne Blair’s The Sapphires was based on a stage play. Scripted by playwright Tony Briggs, this tale of four Aboriginal girls in the late 1960s who become a soul quartet entertaining the troops in Vietnam has an innate theatricality to it. Big songs, bigger personalities . . . it’s not hard to imagine this going down a storm Down Under. So quite why Blair’s screen version never quite hits the high notes is something of a mystery. If the pitch is ‘Dreamgirls meets The Commitments’, The Sapphires doesn’t match either. The story follows three sisters, Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell) and Julie (Jessica Mauboy) who are spotted in their local town’s talent contest by the show’s whiskey-soaked Irish host Dave Lovelace (Chris O’Dowd).

A former Australian Idol star, Mauboy is the

stand-out performer and if The Sapphires is worth the ticket price, then it’s to hear her shimmering renditions of numerous soul standards. As for the comic relief, O’Dowd is right in his wheelhouse and doesn’t disappoint, though even he comes unstuck in the second half, as the wayward plot tries a little tenderness. (James Mottram) Selected release from Fri 7 Nov.

ANIMATION MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED (PG) 93min ●●●●●

The naughty animals from Central Park Zoo return in this new animation from Dreamworks, and the third time proves lucky for Alex the lion and his chums, with Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted offering superb entertainment.

After the lacklustre Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa left the animals to an uncertain future, Alex (voiced by Ben Stiller), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock) and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) are pining for the Big Apple. Their flight from Africa takes them to Europe, where they join forces for a casino heist with some old friends: the mischievous but industrious penguins, the continuously cheeky monkeys and the amorous lemur King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) who is still identified by his signature tune ‘I Like To Move It’. Easily the best family film of 2012 so far, directors Tom McGrath, Eric Darnell and Conrad Vernon pull off several dazzling 3D set pieces and with scene- stealer King Julien relegated to a supporting romantic role, Madagascar 3 feels like a more focused ensemble piece, with Darnell and Noah Baumbach’s script satisfyingly rounding out the character arcs of the trilogy. (Eddie Harrison) General release from Fri 19 Oct.

THRILLER ARGO (15) 120min ●●●●●

There are times when Ben Affleck’s Argo feels like it’s ready to career violently off the rails. That it doesn’t is down to the film’s unswerving belief in its ‘truth-is- stranger-than-fiction’ story. His third film as director, following Gone Baby Gone and The Town, Affleck turns the clock back to 1979, when Islamist militants took control of the US Embassy in Iran. While 52 Americans were held hostage for over a year, six escaped and took refuge in the Canadian Embassy.

Enter Affleck’s CIA suit Tony Mendez, who is

charged with the task of bringing this sextet home safely. The plan? To pose as a film producer, pretend his charges are his crew on a location scout, and fly them right out of Iran under the noses of the guards.

This oddball mix of political thriller and showbiz satire is not always a particularly comfortable juxtaposition. One minute, we’re watching The Bourne Identity, the next Get Shorty, as we bounce from a tension-filled Tehran to sun-kissed California. What goes in favour of the film is the authenticity with which Affleck captures events. Though if anything irritates, it’s the rather ‘Hollywood ending’ that takes quite a few liberties. A shame, because until this final reel, this is one truly taut experience. (James Mottram) General release from Wed 7 Nov.

18 Oct–15 Nov 2012 THE LIST 69