Timothée Chalamet seems oddly weedy as Paul Atreides, but that’s presumably the point. He’s young and naive but carrying the potential of greatness, and he grows in stature as the film progresses. Better is Rebecca Ferguson as his mother and Oscar Isaacson as his father. Josh Brolin and Charlotte Rampling have small, but important parts, but seem somewhat underused.
The second part will be released in 2024.
1978. Three young friends, Kathy, Tommy and Ruth, are at a mysterious boarding school called Hailsham. One day, a teacher tells them that they only exist to be organ donors. They will “complete” (i.e., die) in early adulthood when they are no longer strong enough to donate further organs. The film is split between their childhood at Hailsham and their adulthood – in 1985, and then in 1994 – once the donor process begins. Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield star.
What makes it work is that the plot functions as a romantic love triangle, but it’s set against an extremely subtle dystopian backdrop. There’s a lot that isn’t explained – such as why they barely seem to resist or even question their destiny. Is that because of brainwashing or did the film just avoid the most obvious issues? As it stands, their resigned behaviour just adds to the sense of grim fatalism, which is probably intentional.
The bleakness comes from the way it’s shot as well as the overall message. It leaves you almost no glimmer of hope. In its own it's way quite brilliant, but ultimately I regretted watching it.
Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is a dull, socially withdrawn accountant who befriends Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman), a charismatic lawyer. Bose introduces McQuarry to “The List”, a secret club for people who crave the excitements of “intimacy without intricacy”. But it turns out that McQuarry is being scammed, and soon finds himself a murder suspect. Meanwhile, he falls for a mysterious woman (Michelle Williams) who goes missing.
It’s tense and keeps you guessing. There’s a distinct Hitchcock influence to the plot, especially in the way we see McQuarry learn that everything he thought he knew was just an illusion devised to trick him.
The three leads are all strong and McGregor performs better than usual, with more presence and a more believable character. The only thing that doesn’t quite convince is his character transformation. He’s too easily turned into a different kind of person for the final part of the story, which makes the ending seem a little silly. It’s also a shame that the plot thread about the investigating detective (Lisa Gay Hamilton) isn’t better developed.
Manipulated by her evil uncle in the SVR (Matthias Schoenaerts), a former ballerina for the Bolshoi (JennIfer Lawrence) becomes embroiled in Russian intelligence and is assigned to entrap a CIA operative (an underwhelming Joel Edgerton) via methods of “sexpionage”.
The plot is complicated, with countless twists, but just about hangs together if you don’t ask too many questions. What makes the film overwrought and even embarrassing to watch is the excessive violence, torture and rape. It seems to revel in all those things. Yet, incredibly, it’s still a “15” certificate.
Jennifer Lawrence is unable to make much of her character because the part is so cold and robotic. The sections set in Sparrow School, with Charlotte Rampling as the Matron, border on the ridiculous and farcical – with a gratuitously pervy quality. It makes you wonder why an actress as well-established as Lawrence would have chosen to be associated with the film.
Pierre Brossard (Michael Caine) was a Nazi collaborator, and has been at large in France for nearly 50 years. He has been protected by loyal Catholics and others, but when a lawyer (Tilda Swinton) and a colonel in the National Gendarmerie (Jeremy Northam) start to pursue him he’s forced to take more extreme measures.
Caine is absolutely excellent as a man plagued by guilt and wracked with psychic pain, yet someone who is also still a self-interested racist bigot. I could totally believe his character as he lurches – with his fervent faith and his heart problems – from one crisis to another.
The narrative works well, with some fairly dramatic moments. The only unsatisfying element is that it’s never quite explained why so many people go to such lengths to defend the indefensible. Yes, the various priests were worried that their own crimes might be revealed, but how does that apply in a wider sense? It seems like there’s a joined-up conspiracy to protect him, involving the Church, members of the police force and government officials, some of whom have little connection to the events of 1944.
The diverse cast also includes Alan Bates, Ciarán Hinds, John Neville and Charlotte Rampling.
