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

Review No.149: Hollywoo

As a fan of the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s I'm always skeptical when somebody tries to reinvigorate the genre as generally it doesn't really work. After watching French film Hollywoo I'm convinced that directors Frédéric Berthe and Pascal Serieis are trying to recreate a screwball in their film which features a mismatched pair of French outcasts coming together through a series of misadventures in LA. The film stars   Florence Foresti as Jeanne an actress who specialises in re-dubbing American TV star Jennifer Marshall for a French audience so she is horrified when Marshall quits acting and the show as this means she is out of a job. After several failed auditions Jeanne travels to Hollywood in the attempt to confront Jennifer and convince her to return to the show in order for her to work once again. Initially she fails to get a meeting with either Jennifer or her agent but she does meet Jamel Debbouze's Farres another foreigner who has been in LA for several years now ducking and diving while in addition he tries to get into as many parties as he can in order to rub shoulders with the rich and glamorous. It is at one of these parties where Jeanne finally tracks down Jennifer Marshall but instead of revealing her true identity she poses as someone from the fashion world after the actress goes potty over the comfortable shoes that she is wearing. Farres helps Jeanne become close to Jennifer by posing as her driver while Jeanne discovers that the reason the show went off the air is that Jennifer discovered that her ex-boyfriend and co-star Mike was cheating on her while in addition he is planning to sell the sex tape that the two made. Though Farres continues to befriend Jeanne there is an ulterior motive behind this as he and his friend realise that they could make serious money if they themselves got their hands on the sex tape. As Jeanne and Jennifer become even more friendly the former wrestles with her conscience and tries to decide whether she should reveal her true identity as she eventually realises that it might not be the best idea if Jennifer does in fact return to the show. 

I wasn't expecting to like Hollywoo as, from the brief plot description that I read, it didn't sound like my sort of film however I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Part of the reason that the film works so well is due to Foresti who is a brilliant physical comedienne and is able to portray the fish out of water role superbly. Throughout the film watching her interact with some of the American characters, including a rather rough looking gang, was a joy and her friendship with Nikki Deloach's Hollywood starlet was both endearing and fairly amusing. I also enjoyed watching Jeanne's various misadventures in the fleapit motel that she had been staying in due to it being the only accommodation that she could afford especially her relationship with the establishment's apologetic owner. Debbouze also shines as the chancer Farres constantly on the run from somebody he excels in the scenes in which he poses as a member of the upper classes and tries to compete with an old rich gentleman at a charity auction in order to win over a very attractive woman. The main problem I had with the film is that I didn't believe that Jeanne and Farres could ever be a romantic couple and while I could see the pair forming a friendship the fact that both actors had to portray a love story seemed to be fairly uncomfortable for them. In addition I found some of the scenes were purely there because somebody thought that situation would be funny rather than them being there in order to advance the plot. The greatest offender is the scene in which Farres and Jeanne sit atop the Hollywood sign before disaster falls as I think it only exits in order to come up with the title. Overall though Hollywoo had enough laughs to make the 100 minute run time fly by due to its two central actors' comic timing throughout though as there was no attraction between the pair this can never be compared to the screwball comedies of old. 

Verdict: Two likeable and amusing leads are let down by an uninvolving romantic subplot and some scenes that really didn't need to be in the film so for that reason I will award it 6/10