Mortdecai (2015) - Comedic wonder Depp creates mirth in divisive Koepp adaptation

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+ Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 41.12 mil. $ range

 

 

Johnny Depp is lounged on a chaise longue looking foolish beneath a smug Gwyneth Palthrow on this poster for David Koepp's Mortdecai

Charlie Mortdecai is an anachronistic Brit, an art expert and a bon vivant. - But he is getting to be financially seriously on his tail, and so he agrees to help the MI5 in a case concerning lost art.

 

Mortdecai is written by Eric Aronson (On the Line (2002)), adapting the novel Don't Point that Thing at Me (1972) from the Mortdecai novel series by Kyril Bonfiglioli (All the Tea in China (1978)), and directed by David Koepp (The Trigger Effect (1996)).

The plot (and to some degree the film as such) is enormously forgettable, but blast me if I wasn't entertained and had a fun time while Mortdecai was on. Johnny Depp (Rango (2011)) is the affected title character, an occasion for having ingenious fun with more or less antiquated words and idioms from the English language, - paired with slapstick and vulgar elements, which hit the mark often for this reviewer, (if for few others.)

Ewan McGregor (Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)) works well as Mortdecai's 'straight face', and Gwyneth Pathrow (Sylvia (2003)) is a sweet wife to Depp here, while Paul Bettany (Bent (1997)) is a real kick as a clenched-teeth, sex-mad man servant.

Mortdecai is elegantly directed in a laid-back style, which doesn't put the film's action elements in the foreground. Depp is a Peter Sellers-like comedic star here in my opinion.

 

Related post:

 

David Koepp: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie (writer)

 

Watch a trailer for the film here 

 

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: 47.2 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.78 times its cost)

[Mortdecai premiered 21 January (Belgium, France) and runs 107 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, and in California, including Los Angeles, from October 2013 - ?. The film opened #9 to a 4.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it never improved its rank and grossed 7.6 mil. $ (16.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 6.2 mil. $ (13.1 %) and China with 3.5 mil. $ (7.4 %). Koepp returned with You Should Have Left (2020). Depp returned in Black Mass (2015); Palthrow in Nightcap (2016, TV-series) and theatrically in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017); McGregor in Last Days in the Desert (2015). Mortdecai is rotten at 12 % with a 3.50/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Mortdecai?

Miles Ahead (2015) - Cheadle succeeds with jazz biopic passion project

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Star Don Cheadle blurred out in B/W but with colored specks of reflection on a cool poster for his own Miles Ahead

We meet master jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in a creative and personal crisis. In the same period of time a Rolling Stones journalist gets lucky in approaching the legend after a 5 year break from music. Davis demands a lot - too much - of his wife, and he doesn't create in this period.

Miles Ahead is written by Steven Baigelman (Feeling Minnesota (1996)) and debuting co-writer/co-producer/director/star Don Cheadle (Colors (1988)), with Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (Ali (2001, both)) contributing story elements.
It is an unusual depiction of a musical giant, which springs along with creatively free interpretations back and forth in time, with an obviously deeply personally involved Cheadle. He makes a distinguished portrait of Davis, and certainly not a romanticized portrait; SPOILER Davis cheats, is unreasonable, addicted to drugs, unpredictable and dangerous, apparently having lost his gift with a trumpet, - which he seems to regain at the very end.
Miles Ahead is perhaps not as fully rounded as it could have been, but it is a worthy venture in free form jazz filmmaking with nerve.

Related posts:

Don Cheadle: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - Whedon disappoints with less fun, huge, ugly sequel (actor)
Flight (2012) - Character study masterpiece from Zemeckis and Washington (co-star)
The Guard (2011) - J. McDonagh's uproarious crime comedy debut  (co-star)
Iron Man 2 (2010) - Favreau and Theroux's boisterous, entertaining sequel (co-star)
Boogie Nights (1997) - Anderson's irresistable porn 'Casino' (co-star)

Don Cheadle talks about the making of the movie in this 5-minute video

Cost: 8.5 mil. $
Box office: 5.1 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.6 times its cost)
[Miles Ahead premiered 10 October (New York Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. The idea for making the film came around during production of Ali (2001). Relatives to Davis finally got Cheadle involved. Cheadle has stated that Ewan McGregor was cast for his box office appeal. Financing was achieved partly through crowdfunding. Shooting took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. The film opened #32 to a 114k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 527 theaters, grossing 2.6 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 1.7 mil. $ (33.3 %) and the UK with 242k $ (4.7 %). The film won a Grammy. According to The-Numbers the film made 335k $ on the home video market. Cheadle has not directed a feature since, but he has made 4 episodes of House of Lies (2014-16); he returned as an actor in Captain America: Civil War (2016). McGregor returned in Jane Got a Gun (2015). Miles Ahead is fresh at 74 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Miles Ahead?

I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) - Carrey/McGregor are pure magic in incredible true story romcom

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+ Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Best Romance of the Year

Love can be found in the strangest places, as one song puts it. An infectiously happy poster for Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's I Love You Phillip Morris

Con artist Steve Russell leaves his wife and child after a near-death experience, deciding against spending more years as an unhappy closeted homosexual. His cons brings him to incarceration, where he finds true love in fellow inmate Phillip Morris.

Ewan McGregor (Angels & Demons (2009)) gives a tender performance as Morris, and Jim Carrey (Me, Myself & Irene (2000)) is simply grand as Russell in this incredible romcom biopic. Carrey's authenticity does veer a bit in some of the very emotionally charged moments in the film, but this is not necessarily a fault in the performance; it may rather be a sign of the character's trickster personality. - When someone makes it a cardinal point in their lives to con and delude, they may find it difficult to be sincere - and appear sincere - even when they try to be so.
I Love You Phillip Morris is a highly unusual film based on a wild true story, which is both life-affirming and very funny.
It is the directing debut of great writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Focus (2015), both), who previously wrote and produced features and TV-series, based on Steve McVicker's non-ficion book I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks.

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a panel board interview with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in support of the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: 21 mil. $
= Big flop
[I Love You Phillip Morris premiered 18 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. Filming took place from April 2008 - ? in Miami, Florida, Los Angeles, California and in Louisiana, including in New Orleans and in Louisiana State Penitentiary aka Angola. While most of the events in the film seem to be true, the timeline has been altered. The film's distribution was fraught with problems, as distributors objected to gay sexual material, there were legal troubles and downsizing of the strategy; the film didn't see general releases until 2010 and didn't begin its limited North American release until December 2010, (when it had already generated 18 mil. $ at foreign box offices.) It opened #27 to a 112k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #23 and in 100 theaters (different weeks) and grossed a paltry 2 mil. $ (9.5 % of the total gross), making it only the film's 4th biggest market, which is what slayed the film's prospects of turning profitable theatrically. The 3 biggest were the UK with 3.4 mil. $ (16.2 %), France with 2.9 mil. $ (13.8 %) and Italy with 2.7 mil. $ (12.9 %). The film was nominated for 2 Cannes awards. I Love You Phillip Morris is certified fresh at 72 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Love You Phillip Morris?

August: Osage County (2013) or, A Shot of the Oklahoma Family Blues

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+ Best Ensemble of the Year: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Margo Martindale, Juliette Lewis, Chris Cooper, Misty Upham, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard

Matriarch Meryl Streep goes down on the poster for John Wells' August: Osage County

John Wells (The Company Men (2010)) has directed this adaptation of Tracy Letts' (Killer Joe (2011)) 2007 play of the same title, adapted by Letts himself. August is a plush ensemble piece:

The Weston family gathers in the home of their pill-addicted matriarch, as her husband Beverly has gone missing, and old resentments quickly dense the air.

Oklahoma is the flat, seemingly endless, unbearably hot setting, at times seeming like a backdrop devoid of real dimensions, in August, which has pressure cooker similarities to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), another play adaptation.
The dinner scene of the film is particularly great, and the star-studded cast glitters: Meryl Streep (Heartburn (1986)) and Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman (1990)), Oscar-nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, act together for the first time here, (losing to Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine (2013) and Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave (2013), respectively); also Ewan McGregor (I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)), Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)), Margo Martindale (Heaven Is for Real (2014)), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers (1994)), - who is outstanding and tragically funny in the film, - and Chris Cooper (The Muppets (2011)) and Misty Upham (Frozen River (2008)) are all terrific. Upham's relatively young life ended sadly as a real life tragedy, as she disappeared and was found dead at age 32 in 2014.
August seems like an homage to the depressing family gathering and bleakness in general. - With such good forces involved, some good music choices to boot, from a great play, such a shot of pessimism (containing some laughs as well) is highly welcome, and I repay it with generous 5 ♥.

Related posts:

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) or, He's GAY, Ya Get It?!?

 Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 74.1 mil. $
= Box office success
[Filming took place from October-December 2012 in Oklahoma and LA. It premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, opened limited in the end of December and wide on January 10 to a 7.1 mil. $ first domestic weekend and mixed reviews, as many critics reacted against the darkness of the film. It grossed 37.7 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross) in North America.]

What do you think of August: Osage County?

Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-constructed but inconsequential English cul-de-sac

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The slick poster for Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream

QUICK REVIEW:

Two brothers in London get a request for help from their rich uncle: Kill a man, and I will give you the money that you need. They murder the man, and for the one brother, things go well from there ...
Writer-director master Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) knows his craft, and there is no formal bumps in the road: Cassandra's Dream's great men; Tom Wilkinson (Valkyrie (2008)), Colin Farrell (Minority Report (2002)) and Ewan McGregor (The Impossible (2012)) are class actors, although the latter two seem a bit old for their characters.
The problem is that Allen just doesn't work as a storyteller of this kind of Anglo-Saxon ode of Men and Guilt. The way he teases us about the murder is top stuff, but as a the morality tale that the film aims to be, it is a misfire. And after the recent, painfully bad To Rome With Love (2012), Cassandra's Dream is probably Allen's least successful movie quality-wise, (which says a lot about how high the quality of his many films generally is.) Bottom-line; save this film for almost last, if you are delving into Allen's wonderful body of work.

Related review:

Woody Allen: To Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy 
Celebrity (1988) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart 
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer 
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)

Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor are just brothers (unfortunately) in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 22.5 mil. $
= Flop
[An original Philip Glass score, - which is rare for Allen, who hadn't commissioned an original score since Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), didn't help attract enough audiences to this almost dull movie.]

What do you think of Cassandra's Dream?
Who, on the other hand, tells a good, Anglo-Saxon morality tale?

The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever

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+ Best Spanish movie of the Year
+ Best Disaster Movie of the Year 

Naomi Watts in one of the staggeringly realistic moments of J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

The true story of a family's survival during the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Naomi Watts in one of her best performances yet, as the mother in J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

Ewan McGregor (I Love You Philip Morris (2009)) and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive (2001)), who was Oscar-nominated for her performance, both turn in incredible work in this the definitive movie about the 'impossible' mega-catastrophe that killed more than 230,000 people across several nations.
With a fascinating visual side that recreates the disaster in uncanny realism, subdued use of music and brutal reality in terms of the survival on the South-Thai island in the after-wake, the audience is made into sobbing participants in the struggle for unity and survival for the family that we follow. 
Only the first 20 minutes of the movie could perhaps stand a bit stronger.

Tom Holland and Naomi Watts on a poster for J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

The Impossible is a beautiful, healing film, and the child actors Oaklee Pendergast (Wer (2013)), Samuel Joslin (Paddington (2014)) and Tom Holland (Heart of the Sea (2015)) as the bigger son all play incredibly as well. I have seen the film both in a jam-packed Copenhagen cinema and with Thais in Northern Thailand, and I can attest to its strength across peoples, cultures and borders of all kind. The Impossible is a transcendent, incredible film.
The Spanish director J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage (2007)) has now also directed a few episodes of Penny Dreadful (2014-) and is also attached to A Monster Calls (2016) and World War Z 2.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Watch the trailer here, devastating in its beauty and tragedy just as the movie is

Budget: 45 mil. $
Box office: 198 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Impossible?
If you have any personal stories about the film, please go ahead and share here

The Ghost Writer/The Ghost (2010) - A master at work

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3 Film Excess nominations:

Best Screenplay: Robert Harris, Roman Polanski (lost to Christopher Nolan for Inception)
Best Music: Alexandre Desplat (lost to Treme S1)
Best Production Design: Albert Konrad (lost to Boardwalk Empire S1)

+ Best Thriller of the Year

A poster for Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer is based on a novel by Robert Harris (Enigma (2001)), and its script was co-written by Harris and the writer-director, great Polish-French Roman Polanski (Chinatown (1974)).
The story revolves around the unnamed protagonist, who is a ghost writer, - a writer who pens memoirs for the rich and famous without being publicly acknowledged, - as he gets his biggest assignment yet: The memoir of the British ex-PM Adam Lang. Meeting with Lang, his subject, on a hostile little American island, the writer learns that his predecessor died, and that a foul secret lies behind the persona he is employed to portray with 'heart'.

Ewan McGregor in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer

Ghost is a very smart film; it is inspired by British ex-PM Tony Blair and his relations to the American Bush administration, but it never becomes an angry political movie as such. More so, Ghost Writer is like a detective story, with the writer as the detective. 
Ewan McGregor (The Impossible (2012)) proves perfect in the role, (which had previously been cast with Nicholas Cage, who wouldn't have fit it nearly as well), and we never really question his primary decision to take on the job. In several other parts, Ghost flashes its impressive, perfect cast: In substantial supporting roles, Pierce Brosnan (Love's All You Need (2012)) is the perfect Lang; Olivia Williams (Rushmore (1998)) exudes intelligence and danger as Mrs. Lang, and Kim Cattrall (Big Trouble in Little China (1986)) is a believable assistant-mistress; I wish I saw her in more good parts like this one, which she can obviously pull off. In minor parts, Ghost also holds several gems; Eli Wallach (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)) has a delightful little scene; Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People (1980)) can be seen in a very small part; American comedian James Belushi (Red Heat (1988)) goes bald as an editorial executive, and is hilarious; and finally Tom Wilkinson (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) is grand as a viper-like distinguished professor.
The Ghost Writer is a marvelous thriller from master-director Polanski; with a perfect, dark, disillusioned Polanski-type ending and numerous turns and delicious ingredients along the way.

Roman Polanski directs Pierce Brosnan in The Ghost Writer

Ghost also holds a masterful thriller score by Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech (2010)), brilliantly elegant photography and very intelligent set design with many very nice touches, by Albrecht Konrad (When Pigs Have Wings (2011)); the central house is a very unnatural, unpleasant, cold, modern environment, which subtly speaks volumes about its inhabitants.
Much can be read out of most of auteur-director Polanski's movies. In this case, the lesson might be that life is a struggle, and that truth gets lost along the way.
Polanski, for better or worse, seems to invite an autobiographical reading of his works, as parts of his extraordinary life seems to correlate with some of his movies: Losing his mother to Auschwitz in WWII, (and seeing his father and sister marched off to camps as well, (which they survived)), - witnessing the horrors of the war and being a child Jew in the Krakow ghetto, Polanski's first films, shorts like Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958) and his first feature Knife in the Water (1962) shows flair for and, a mind bend on, the absurd. Later in life, Polanski made a strong film about WWII, The Pianist (2002). Following Polanski's mainstream breakthrough in America with Rosemary's Baby (1968), a film about a woman who gets impregnated by the devil, Polanski's real-life pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered along with four other victims in Hollywood by members of the evil Manson family. Polanski was in London. In 1978, Polanski fled America after pleading guilty to having had sex with a 13 year-old girl. Post-production of Ghost was put on hold when Polanski was arrested by Swiss police in 2009 due to the 30 year-old case; Polanski finished Ghost, - which involved PM Lang, a fugitive from justice himself, - from house arrest in Switzerland.
Though much can be said and written of all the controversies in Polanski's life, often autobiographical readings don't hold up under scrutiny, as is also the case here; Polanski has made many other films that do not have overt connections to his own life, and even the ones that seem to have such are arguable. The myth is merely a man, in other words, but a very fascinating one at that.
His most recent film stars Emmanuelle Seigner and Matheiu Amalric, is about film-making and is entitled Venus in Fur.

Related posts: 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Olivia Williams in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer

Watch the trailer for the film here

Budget: 45 mil. $
Box office: 60.2 mil. $
= Lukewarm commercial reception

What do you think of The Ghost Writer?
Any comments about Roman Polanski are welcomed