Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - US theater's second-greatest salesman play fueled by magnetic performers

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A businessman doing a high wire act against a dramatic blue sky is the motif on this eye-catching poster for James Foley's Glengarry Glen Ross

A real estate office gets threatened by imminent lay-offs, and the small staff are pushed to deliver results - or find another place of work.

Glengarry Glen Ross is written by David Mamet (Hannibal (2001)), based on his own same-titled 1983 play, and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker James Foley (Reckless (1984)).

It is a really excellent film with an eminent ensemble: Jack Lemmon (It Happened to Jane (1959)) and Al Pacino (Two for the Money (2005)) deserve high-lighting, but really the whole lot are sublime. It is a sassy and compelling adaptation, which only brings the best with it from the stage version.

Glengarry Glen Ross works on many levels; it ends a bit suddenly, and the title, which refers to two different real estate developments that the office try to sell, is a bit opaque.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 12.5 mil. $

Box office: 10.7 mil. $ (North America only)

= Uncertain but likely a big flop (returned 0.85 times its cost domestically)

[Glengarry Glen Ross premiered 30 August (Edinburgh International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Mamet was paid 1 mil. $ for the rights to, as well as adapting his play. The stars took reduced salaries to get the film made: Pacino 1.5 mil. $, Lemmon 1 mil. $, Alec Baldwin 250k $. Shooting took place for 39 days from August - October 1991 in New York. The stars reportedly showed up also on days they did not have scenes, to watch their colleagues' performances. The producers sued each other during production. The film opened #8 to a 2.1 mil. $ first weekend in 416 theaters in North America, where it diminished from there and grossed 10.7 mil. $. Regrettably the international numbers are not reported. If the film ended up with a realistic 15 mil. $ gross, it would rank as big flop. It was nominated for 1 Oscar; Best Supporting Actor (Pacino), lost to Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won 2 National Board of Review awards and 2 prizes at the Venice Film Festival, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Foley returned with Two Bits (1995). Pacino returned in Scent of a Woman (1992); Lemmon in The Wild West (1993, miniseries) and theatrically in Short Cuts (1993). Glengarry Glen Ross is certified fresh at 95 minutes with a 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Glengarry Glen Ross?

The Wife (2017) - Strong acting tethers complex marrital drama

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The two stars, dressed for gala, send tense, loathsome looks on this poster for Björn Runge's The Wife

An American novelist is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, and together with wife and son, the three make the daunting journey across the pond, as old resentment and a major secret surface.

The Wife is written by Jane Anderson (Mad Men (2008, TV-series), adapting the same-titled 2003 novel by Meg Wolitzer (Surrender, Dorothy (1998)), and directed by Björn Runge (Harry och Sonja (1996)). It is a tense and fraught marital drama with Bermanesque tones, (especially since it is mostly set in Sweden), which is powered by sharp performances, especially from leads Jonathan Pryce (Leatherheads (2008)) as the Grand Man author husband, whom Glenn Close's (Hoodwinked! (2005, voice)) complex wife character has just about had enough of finally.
Christian Slater (Breaking In (2011-12)) is solid as a bio-writer, who is sympathetic while at the same time circles the couple with a vulture-like hunger; Max Irons (Dorian Gray (2009)) seems a little old to be the son who lives in his father's shadow, badly needing his approval, but he plays well in the climactic fight and denouement scenes. Harry Lloyd (The Iron Lady (2011)) and Annie Starke (Albert Nobbs (2011)) are very good and credible as young versions of the marrieds, SPOILER who lay the groundwork for the constellation of a Great Writer husband and a secretly ghost-writing missus, which is tearing their marriage apart half a century later.
The Wife is generally a fine drama and a great occasion for Pryce and Close to shine in fleshy roles, which they both fill out very satisfyingly.
It annoys that characters more than once smoke indoors in contemporary Swedish establishments, which is simply unthinkable and has been for more than a decade, important VIP guest or not. Lazy writing, honestly, because what modern people light up cigarettes in fancy locations today?
And then there are small psychological things that nag: SPOILER After decades of such self-discipline, why exactly does Close's character have to explode so impulsively when at the plush gala, seated right next to Swedish royalties? The ending has her indicating that she will write another book under her own name, implying that her deceitful nature now turns to self-deceit, as she must imagine that she'll be able to publish without the world realizing her secret as a decades-long ghost writer.
SPOILER It doesn't seem to be intentional from the creators, but the many decades of diligently churning out novels without demanding credit by Close's character in my eyes blocks an exculpation of her now as her husband takes the world' arguably highest literary honor. She is no victimized innocence but someone who has entered a marriage for self-serving purposes (publication), just as her husband did (to attain her gift for writing.)
The Wife serves well as a debate-starting picture about deceit, equality and the basis of relationships.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 14.2 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain
[The Wife premiered premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario) and runs 100 minutes. Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman and Logan Lerman were pursued to star in the film. Shooting took place in Stockholm, Sweden and in Scotland, including Glasgow, ending in October 2016. The film opened #35 to a 108k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it has peaked at #14 and in 541 cinemas and grossed 7.6 mil. $ to date. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are Australia with 2 mil. $ and the UK with 1.9 mil. $ but the film is still playing. It will open in Russia 22 Nov., Norway 23 Nov. and in Japan on 26 Jan. 2019. It is rumored that Close is up for a Best Actress Oscar nomination, which would give the film another push in North America and globally. If the film is made for a likely 8-10 mil. $, it still has quite a distance before becoming a theatrical success. Runge is announced to next helm US drama Remember Me. Close returned in Crooked House (2017), Pryce in The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017). The Wife is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of The Wife?

The Salvation (2014) - Classic western yarn meets Danish dynamite

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'Bad Men Will Bleed' is the tagline of the poster for Kristian Levring's The Salvation

Besides some rather ridiculous earlier attempts, the so-called 'potato westerns', Denmark has never made a real western. - Until now.

Danish post-1864 Denmark/Germany war US settler Jon and his brother Peter are finally met by Jon's beautiful, Danish wife and son after 7 years on different continents. But tragedy immediately strikes in the new, dangerous world, and Jon's revenge is swift. But there follows a bloodshed, which forces him to get more entangled in the small town, ripe with cowardice and bubbling oil ...

The solid script and direction is by Kristian Levring (The King Is Alive (2000)) and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen (The Green Butchers (2003)). The America that is presented here is a uniformly tough place, where greed, cruelty and self-regard reigns, in-line with Danish master filmmaker Lars Von Trier's notoriously America-critical Dogville (2003), (not to speak of follow-up Manderlay (2005) and his musical Dancer in the Dark (2000)), and in this strict focus The Salvation loses a central color of the western, that of the good American. But this is truly an outsider western, more accurately a Euro-western shot in South Africa! It is like a spaghetti western-inspired horse opera, shot digitally and stylistically infused with Sin City (2005) affinity.
Salvation is visually impressive, with cool cinematography by Jens Schlosser (The One and Only/Den Eneste Ene (1999)). From the dusty railroad beginning and the following, exciting stage coach scenes, we see classic, well-made western settings. And later the cindered town of the film's gang leader tyrant Delarue is brought to good use as an atmospheric setting more than once. The style is that of a digitally heightened reality, fresh, sharp, simple and handsomely achieved.
Complicating the story, - and making for a richer experience, - are some rich secondary characters; Delarue's mute woman played intensely by Eva Green (White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)); Jon's sympathetic, helpful brother Peter played by Mikael Persbrandt (In a Better World (2010)), who seems to be a bit preoccupied with getting his Swedish tongue to sound alternately Danish and Danish-American; and the town's 'yellow' mayor/undertaker, played beautifully by Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)). The Salvation's exciting cast also includes former Manchester United soccer star Eric Cantona as our heavy's right hand man, and Danish popstar Nanna Øland Fabricius, - better known as Oh Land, - who plays Jon's ill-fated wife. Lastly, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Possession (2012)) is good as the self-righteous Delarue. - He liked the movie so much, he's had a tattoo made on his arm of his character's favorite weapon in it!
I sort-of understand, because Salvation is a solid good western. The tale is arch-typical and has been done before, yet it still it seems fresh; the Danish settler angle and music (by Kasper Winding (Me and Charly/Mig og Charly (1978)) is different, as is some of the visuals. Though it's shot in South Africa, it looks like the American West. The production is good, and the pacing modern yet graceful.
If you are a western-lover, this may very well be your favorite movie this year, however unlikely, it is a Danish western. Rough, violent, with some dark humor and a strong hero in Mads Mikkelsen's (The Hunt (2012)) Jon, who tries to avoid conflict for as long as he can, and is different than any American western hero I can recall, if only because of his look and heritage.
SPOILER The title seems to refer to Mikkelsen and Green's outsider renegade characters finding each other and forging a new alliance in their young adopted country (America), which the ending implies will strengthen its people's moral hollowness in extreme wealth (arriving in the form of oil.) - Go see this one!

Mads Mikkelsen as Jon in Kristian Levring's The Salvation

Mads Mikkelsen, co-writer/director Kristian Levring and Eva Green on the set of The Salvation

Budget: 10.5 mil. euros
Box office: Not known yet
= Still unknown

What do you think of The Salvation?
Any recent western/s that you want to recommend?