Review No.165: 360

The first time I saw Fernando Meirelles' stunning City of God I was transfixed by this study of Brazilian gang life and the movie ended up being crowned my favourite of less decade. Meirelles followed this up by helming The Constant Gardener which saw Rachel Weisz scoop a Supporting Actress Oscar and now he reunites with the actress for new multi-lingual drama 360. The film, which is written by Peter Morgan of The Queen and Frost/Nixon fame, sees Weisz play an unhappy housewife to Jude Law's businessman with her cheating on him while he considers spending the night with a high class prostitute. Laura the wife of Weisz's lover leaves him when she finds out about him and decides travel back to America where on the plane she meets Anthony Hopkins' recovering alcoholic who is desperately searching for his daughter who ran away from home years ago. Also on the plane is Ben Foster's recently released convict who was arrested as a sex offender and catches the eye of Laura as their plane is grounded due to heavy snow the two almost have an illicit encounter but he brushes her off. We also see that Law's prostitute is getting into deep water with a known Mafia crime lord who hires her for a night while her sister and his henchman Sergei meet and fall for each other. Finally we find Sergei's wife Valentina falling out of love with him as she catches the eye of her dentist boss but as he's a devout Muslim the two are destined not to end up together a problem she vocalises at an AA meeting that Hopkins' character just happens to attend.

Watching 360 I felt that Alejandro González Iñárritu had to be involved in some capacity as the film reminded me strongly of his back catalogue especially Babel and Amores Perros. At least those films though kept all of their plot strands equal throughout the course of the film because in the case of 360 you pretty much only get to spend twenty or so minutes with one character and its on to the next one. That's not too bad when it involves the very disinteresting marital rifts between Law and Weisz's married couple however Anthony Hopkins' character, simply known as Older Man, is an intriguing creation who deserves a lot more time on screen given the calibre of the actor that is playing him. Similarly Ben Foster, who has mastered the art of playing the creepy loner, is great as a sex offender trying to make amends for his past crimes but is tempted in while in airport full of families. The problem with the majority of the characters is that Morgan never really brings them to life and seems far more obsessed with pointing out the stories that connect all of us across the globe rather than giving us any reason to care about them. The piece is universally well acted,  as well as Hopkins and Foster I enjoyed Jamel Debbouze as the Algerian dentist, however the cast are fighting a losing battle in a film that essentially calls for them to say their lines before exiting stage left. Morgan and Meirelles try desperately to keep all their plates spinning at once but ultimately there's porcelain all over the floor by the time the end credits roll. There's no denying that the acting in 360 is top notch but everything else leads a lot to be desired which is a shame seeing as this is from the man who bought me my film of the last decade but I can safely say that at the end of the 2010s his latest movie will not feature in my list at all.

Verdict: Incredibly well-acted but lacking in all the other areas 360's cast try their best with the material they're given but ultimately there's too much going on so I can only award this 5/10