Barfi!: Film Review

Chances are, someones already told you to run out and see Barfi!, Anurag Basus tender romantic comedy starring Ranbir Kapoor as a deaf man. The film has opened strong in India, and word of mouth among Indian and diaspora audiences is bound to elevate Barfi!s fortunes still more with repeat viewings. Auds new to Hindi films may find much to like here, as well.

The film -- told mostly without dialogue -- is a refreshingly non-commercial exercise, with Kapoor in a Chaplin-inspired performance; Telugu actress Ileana DCruz adding elegant solemnity as an upper-class woman who falls for the spontaneous Barfi against her parents wishes; and most spectacularly former Miss World Priyanka Chopra, sans makeup, as an autistic girl.

Actors playing differently-abled characters often walk a fine line (cue Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder), and Hindi films are not known for their subtlety as a rule, but here Basu has guided Kapoor and especially Chopra to turn in exceptionally restrained, organic performances.

Barfi was named Murphy by his parents, who spotted the name on an old British radio. Unable to pronounce his own name, he says barfi (ice cream), and the nickname sticks. Barfi and his parents are poor but happy, living in a ramshackle cottage on a hillside in remote Darjeeling, when he meets Shruti (DCruz), who is visiting family there. Immediately smitten by her beauty, Barfi attempts to woo Shruti, and although she is already engaged to a successful businessman, slowly her defenses come down.

At the same time, Barfi befriends Jhilmil (Chopra), the autistic daughter of a wealthy Darjeeling family.

When the helpless Jhilmil disappears, her family turns to the local police inspector (Saurabh Shukla, stellar as a hilariously put-upon small town cop), who pronounces her dead and is tempted to pin the crime on Barfi to placate the family and ensure his own job security. A caper ensues, finding Jhilmil and Barfi on the run to Kolkata, where their shared experiences draw them inexorably closer.

Basu handles the growing attraction between Jhilmil and Barfi with a deceptively light touch, letting it draw viewers in as their relationship gets more serious; and beautifully depicts Shrutis ambivalence about whether to fight for Barfi or watch as he and Jhilmil live out their own story -- as unusual as it may seem on the surface.

In a way, Basus approach to presenting Barfi is not unlike the way the character himself gets by in the world, with a mix of mischief, cleverness and sweetness (Basu even throws in a dash of the bittersweet whimsy of French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet).

The dreamy landscapes around Darjeeling, a city in eastern India, deserve a special mention. Production designer Rajat Poddar evokes the 1970s with myriad simple details, and the gorgeousness of Darjeelings tea plantations, quaint narrow-gauge trains and mist-shrouded hills is captured in some lavish visuals by cinematographer Ravi Varman (who no doubt has been inspired by Santosh Sivan). The films soundtrack (Pritam), enriched by accordion and strings, adds depth as well. Indian VFX house Pixion does seamless work, while costume designers Aki Narula and Shefalina capture the colors of Bengali tradition in Shrutis silk saris and Barfis homespun sweaters and suits.

Anurag Basu, in a welcome change from the typical Bollywood saga, has given us a singular love story and an unforgettable character in Barfi.

Opened: Sept. 14, 2012

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Ileana DCruz, Priyanka Chopra, Saurabh Shukla

Director: Anuraj Basu

Screenwriters: Anurag Basu, Sanjeev Datta

Producers: Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur

Director of photography: Ravi Varman

Costume designers: Aki Narula and Shefalina

VFX: Pixion

Sound designer: Shajith Koyeri

Editor: Akiv Ali

Music: Pritam Chakraborty

Not rated, 120 minutes

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Resident Evil Retribution: Film Review

Its easy by now for film critics to identify with Alice (Milla Jovovich), the badass heroine of the extremely lucrative Resident Evil film franchise. Shes constantly being besieged by a seemingly never-ending series of monsters, and we -- at least every couple of years or so -- are forced to sit through yet another installment of the mind-numbing series.

The film opened without press screenings, which seems an entirely reasonable tactic since only the most video-game obsessed viewers will appreciate the endless battle sequences that do an admittedly terrific job of replicating the games' artificial visuals with live humans and a prodigious amount of CGI effects.

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For those keeping track, this installment ends precisely where the previous one ended, with a titanic battle sequence aboard a ship where Alice is fighting the multitudinous forces of the evil Umbrella Corporation which is intent on transforming the earths population into flesh-eating zombies.

The action then inexplicably shifts to a placid suburban neighborhood, where Alice is now a blonde housewife who wakes up to a loving husband (Oded Fehr) and an adorable hearing-impaired young daughter (Aryana Engineer). But it isnt long before reality rushes back, in the form of legions of undead who swarm their home.

It all naturally turns out to be a dream sequence, with Alice then reawakening in the corporations confines clad in -- much to the delight of the teenage boy fan base -- some barely concealing towels. But it doesnt take long for her to don her trademark skintight black latex suit and automatic weaponry to once again take battle against a variety of monsters. These include a pair of menacing giants waving what look like meat tenderizers and numerous creatures with enough tentacles bursting out of their mouths to spur hungry theatergoers into craving fried calamari.

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Thats pretty much it for the plot in this particularly action-heavy fifth edition that helpfully includes an introductory narration by Jovovich to bring viewers up to speed. Other story elements are provided by explanatory computer graphics that help clue us in to who exactly is fighting who.

Featuring brief appearances by enough veterans of previous installments to please rabid fans if confuse the uninitiated, the film features man sequences in simulated versions of such cities as Moscow, Tokyo and New York, all of which, not surprisingly, emerge the worse for wear.

Its all pretty much an excuse for the lithe Jovovich to engage in a constant series of gravity-defying fight scenes in a futuristic universe apparently devoid of carbohydrates and most laws of physics. Shes accompanied for much of these violent exercises by a new sidekick, Ada Wong (Li Bingbing), whose dress cut up to the waist makes it convenient for her to access the firepower strapped to her upper thigh.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson stages these sequences with his usual flair, using a variety of elaborate effects that include x-ray visuals in which we get to see the bloody effects of the carnage on bones and organs from an inner as well as outer perspective.

The blas reactions to the violent mayhem from an opening day crowd demonstrated that even the series longtime fans may be reaching their saturation point, although a climactic scene in which one of the characters declares that this is the beginning of the end indicates that at least one more apocalyptic installment will be hitting multiplexes before too long.

Opened Sept. 14 (Screen Gems).

Production: Constantin Films, Davis Films/Impact Pictures.

CAST: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Kevin Durand, Sienna Guillory, Shwan Roberts, Aryana Engineer, Colin Salmon, Johann Urb, Boris Kodjoe, Li Bingbing.

Director/screenwriter: Paul W.S. Anderson.

Producers: Jeremy Bolt, Paul W.S. Anderson, Samuel Hadida, Don Carmody, Robert Kulzer.

Executive producer: Martin Moszkowicz.

Director of photography: Glen MacPherson.

Editor: Niven Howie.

Production designer: Kevin Phipps.

Costume designer: Wendy Partidge.

Music: Tomandandy.

Rated R, 95 min.

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In the House: Toronto Review

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Inch'Allah: Toronto Review

Among the growing number of films coming out of Palestine, one can see the divide opening up between locally made, no-budget documentaries like Emad Burnat and Guy Davidis stirring 5 Broken Cameras and well-financed Western coprods like Denis Villeneuves Oscar nominee Incendies. Squarely in the latter category, the Canadian-French InchAllah has all the right credentials, including writer-director Anais Barbeau-Lavalettes (If I Had a Hat, The Fight) passionate feeling for the region, but lacks the originality to catch fire, or to go beyond an outsiders p.o.v. In the end, it illuminates Western preconceptions more than the motivation behind terrorism. Tackling such a sensitive and controversial topic in a highly obvious way, the drama will have some trouble slipping past the festival wall into commercial arenas, though following its Toronto bow, it will be released in Quebec by Les Films Christal at the end of the month.

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The action opens with a powerful explosion in an Israeli outdoor caf, which will be explained at the end of the film. The whole story unfolds through the unblinking, doe-like eyes of Chloe (Evelyne Brochu), a young Canadian obstetrician who is working in a clinic for pregnant women in a refugee camp in Ramallah, Palestine. Every night she passes through border control on her way back to her Jerusalem apartment. She spends evenings on the town with her drinking buddy Ava (Sivan Levy), an Israeli conscript her own age whose much more expressive eyes convey the horror and despair she feels over her work as an armed border guard.

In the clinic, Chloe becomes close to the pregnant Rand (Sabrina Ouazani) and her militant big brother Faysal (Yousef Sweid.) The poorest of the poor, Rand and her little brother, the autistic Safi, scavenge in a garbage dump along the wall separating the camp from a settlement of Israeli colonists. There are skirmishes. When one character is deliberately crushed under an Israeli army tank, and another is sentenced to 25 years in prison, and another is cruelly denied access to the hospital that would save her baby, the stage is set and the fuse is lit.

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Barbeau-Lavalettes screenplay is too by-the-numbers to convince an audience that reality is this simple. Its portrait of endless misery is unleavened by the joking camaraderie and family warmth that local filmmakers normally inject to lighten the load (Elia Suleiman springs readily to mind.) More importantly, her Canadian protag seems too inert to have ever landed up where she did, making her an untrustworthy witness to all these tragedies.

If Brochu seems permanently depressed and distanced in the lead role, the lively, outspoken Ouazani makes Rand intense and appealing, if unpredictable. Sivan Levy (Polytechnique, Caf de Flore) brings a pleasing psychological complexity to the Israeli character Ava that helps balance the story a little bit.

Tech work is good throughout, while Levon Minassians somber, dirge-like music track underlines the tragedy of the war.

Venue: Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 12, 2012.

Production companies: micro-scope (Canada), ID Unlimited (France) in association with July August Productions (Israel)

Cast: Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani, Sivan Levy, Yousef Sweid, Carlo Brandt, Marie-Therese Fortin
Director: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette

Screenwriter: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette
Producer: Luc Dery, Kim McCraw

Coproducer: Isabelle Dubar

Associate producers: Eilon Ratzovsky, Yochanan Kredo
Director of photography: Philippe Lavalette

Production designer: Andre-Line Beauparlant

Costumes: Sophie Lefebvre

Editor: Sophie Leblond

Music: Levon Minassian

Sales Agent: eOne Entertainment

No rating, 101 minutes.

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Arthur Newman: Toronto Review

TORONTO A man living in quiet desperation and a woman whose suffering is a good deal less inconspicuous try to jettison unwanted identities in Arthur Newman, a road film that (thankfully) has less to do with golf than its synopsis might suggest. Landing leads Colin Firth and Emily Blunt helps the commercial prospects of director Dante Ariola's feature debut, and Firth makes a convincing dive into the title character's psyche; some plot elements may give critics pause, but for a not-quite romance its commercial prospects are solid.

Firth's title character is created before our eyes: Fuddy-duddy Fed Ex employee Wallace Avery, judging his life a failure, stages his death and drives off in a just-bought convertible practicing convincing ways of saying "Hey. I'm Arthur Newman." Having been a promising golfer before choking on his first PGA tour, he intends to start a new life as a golf pro in Terre Haute. Not as romantic as a new identity on a Caribbean beach, perhaps, but it's probably as appealing a fantasy as a Wallace Avery can project.

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At the first motel on his route north, Arthur rescues a woman (Blunt) who has OD'ed on cough syrup after a botched attempt to steal somebody's car. Charlotte Fitzgerald is a mess, and is using her twin Michaela's ID for reasons less concrete than Arthur's: Living her own life simply seems too fraught for her. Needing someone capable of handling daily life, Charlotte decides to accompany Arthur.

Teasingly, Charlotte introduces Arthur to a new game: As they travel, they target happy couples and break into their homes when nobody's around. They play dress up, adopt the residents' identities, and make out. The conceit is an ingenious way around the difference in the characters' ages and backgrounds: Instead of trying to convince us this beautiful young woman would be attracted to a deeply square older man, screenwriter Becky Johnston invents a scenario in which sleeping with him is a kind of rejection of both their unwanted identities.

Ariola brings out the sweetness of the game, though, especially in the first outing: having targeted two senior citizens who have just gotten married, Charlotte affects gently formal Southernisms while asking her imaginary, elderly groom to lie down beside her. Blunt plays the scene beautifully, leaving ample room for ambiguity; at the same time, it's clear that Arthur will be playing this game for real, no matter whose wardrobe he's raiding.

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In addition to the growing possibility that Arthur will get his heart broken, there's the issue of the cash -- the bag full of money he's funding this self-reinvention with, and which Charlotte spots early on in their time together. Having introduced her as a thief, the film isn't too heavy-handed with hints that she might run off with the bag, though the danger never fades.

The movie doesn't even care where all that dough came from, and is better off that way. If Arthur had stolen it from work, say, we'd have to deal with police on the couple's trail and the constant worry that getting caught having sex in a stranger's bed might lead to more than a red face and a trespassing charge. For the hero of Arthur Newman, who's already carrying the weight of a failed career, marriage, and fatherhood, the stakes are high enough already.

Production Company: Cross Creek Pictures
Cast: Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Anne Heche, M. Emmet Walsh, David Andrews, Kristin Lehman
Director: Dante Ariola
Screenwriter: Becky Johnston
Producers: Alisa Tager, Becky Johnston, Mac Cappuccino, Brian Oliver
Executive producers: Helen Cappuccino, Andrew Cappuccino, Lisa Bruce, Natalie G. Hill, James Holt, Eric Greenfeld
Director of photography: Eduard Grau
Production designer: Christopher Glass
Music: Nick Urata
Costume designer: Nancy Steiner
Editor: Olivier Bugge Coutte
Sales: UTA, CAA
No rating, 100 minutes

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Painless (Insensibles): Toronto Review

TORONTO -- The wounds inflicted by Spains long and violent history of Fascism are given a powerful allegorical remedy in Painless (Insensibles), an impressive and absorbing debut feature from writer-director Juan Carlos Medina.

Taking cues from Guillermo Del Toros The Devils Backbone and Pans Labyrinth, the film convincingly lifts elements from the dark decades of Francisco Francos extensive reign, blending them into a phantasmagorical suspense story involving children who are mysteriously resistant to physical pain, even if they remain all too human. Cleverly constructed in a series of successive flashbacks and guided by a steady directorial hand, this Toronto Vanguard premiere should see mucho fest and arthouse play, sealing Medinas reputation as a talent to watch.

A haunting opening scene set in 1931 shows a little girl, Ines (Liah OPrey), setting herself on fire and hardly batting an eyelash. Cut to the present day, where hard-working neurosurgeon, David (Alex Brendemuhl), gets in a terrible car accident, his wife instantly killed but his 6-month-old unborn child miraculously surviving.

The script (co-written with Luiso Berdejo, [Rec]) maintains this crosscutting structure up to the very last sequence, oscillating between scenes set before, during and after the Second World War, and ones of David digging into his familys shady backstoryan act prompted by the revelation that he has a fatal form of Lymphoma requiring an immediate bone marrow transplant. While the back and forth initially feels systematic, the dueling plots are elaborately enough intertwined to keep things compelling, with the past and present eventually melding together as David uncovers the truth about his origins.

If the contemporary sequences move along in the swift manner of an icy Euro thriller, the flashbacks have the creepy, unsettling spirit of a gothic fable: Along with several other children from her Catalonian village, Ines is rounded up and sent to a secluded hilltop asylum, where a doctor (Roman Fontsere) keeps each child isolated in a separate cell. There Ines meets the troubled introvert, Benigno (Ilias Stothart), whos first seen casually chewing on his own flesh, but eventually transforms into a skilled and thoughtful student under the guise of Professor Holzman (Derek de Lint), a German-Jewish scientist seeking refuge from the Nazi regime.

Its during these asylum scenes that Painless truly comes into its own, drawing numerous parallels between the self-anesthetising capabilities of the children and the domination of the Fascists over a period that stretched from the Spanish Civil War to the 1960s, when Francos dictatorship was comfortably installed in power. While certain gorier momentsincluding a childs worst nightmare: the dissection of a puppyhave a stomach-turning quality to them, whats much more disturbing is the idea that insensitive kids like Ines or Benigno could become the ideal puppets for a regime that was hell-bent on staying in power.

Cinematographer Alejando Martinez (Blackout) captures such scenes in eerie, sepia-toned compositions, while the modern-day parts are filled with cold colors and minimalist interiors that reflect Davids own inscrutable persona. Indeed, while its often hard to read what the man is feeling (which is no fault of the well-cast Brendemuhl), its only when the walls (literally) come down during the films emotionally-charged finale that what at first seemed to be a story of cold-blooded survival delivers another message entirely: Even the painless are not immune from suffering.

Production companies: Les Films dAntoine, Tobina Film, Roxbury Pictures, Fado Filmes, A Contracorriente Films, in association with Backup Films
Cast: Alex Brendemuhl, Tomas Lemarquis, Ilias Stothart, Mot Stothart, Derek de Lint, Ramon Fonstere, Silvia Bel, Bea Segura, Lia OPrey
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Screenwriters: Juan Carlos Medina, Luiso Berdejo, based on an original idea by Juan Carlos Medina
Producers: Antoine Simkine, Francois Cognard, Miguel A. Faura
Executive producers: Manuel Monzon, Isaac Torras, Goncalo Galvao Teles
Director of photography: Alejando Martinez
Production designer: Inigo Navarro
Costume designer: Ariadna Papio
Music: Johan Soderqvist
Editor: Pedro Reibeiro
Visual effects: Luis Tinoco
Sales: Elle Driver
No rating, 101 minutes.

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A Special Day (Un Giorno speciale): Venice Review

Roman Holiday meets Before Sunrise in Francesca Comencinis slight but charming A Special Day (Un Giorno speciale), at heart a brisk two-hander for youthful, likeable leads Giulia Valentini and Filippo Schiccitano. Debuting quietly in Venices Competition three years after Comencinis older-skewing The White Space scooped five unofficial awards on the Lido, it should recoup what must have been a pretty modest budget when released in Italy on Oct. 4. Festivals and small-screen buyers seeking accessible romantic fare should give it a look, as Comencinis eye for social detail gives her fluffy story an unexpected and welcome gritty edge.

A resident in a scruffy Roman suburb, 19-year-old TV addict Gina (Valentini) aspires to a showbiz career and is willing to scale the ladder by means of "porn films, naked photos" and "escort" work if necessary. Shes granted an audience with a high-ranking politician in his city-center office and is picked up by an official limo driven by twentyish Marco (Schiccitano) on what turns out to be the lads first day at work. When Ginas appointment is delayed, Gina and Marco have to kill time together and initial frictions give way to more intimate and tender exchanges.

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Working from 2010 novella The Sky with a Finger by actor/writer Claudio Bigagli -- a star of 1992's Foreign Language Oscar-winner Mediterraneo -- Comencini and her co-scripwriters arent exactly reinventing the wheel here with their dialogue-heavy exploration of how passion buds over a limited time-frame.

But newcomer Valentini and Schiccitano, building on his debut in Francesco Brunis well-received Easy! (Scialla!) from last year, are easy on the eye and the ear, and manage to find that crucial element of chemistry to ensure audiences root for them both individually and as a potential couple.

With his Tom Cruise-ish looks -- black hair, dark eyes, and an easy, toothy grin -- Schiccitano displays a genial charisma that bodes very well for his future prospects. The screenplay places a rather greater burden on his co-star, especially in the latter stages as the brassy but vulnerable Gina finally gets to meet the sleazy, string-pulling Congressman (Antonio Zavatteri) and Valentini capably belies her inexperience.

Essentially a showcase for the two leads, A Special Day certainly displays the duo to best advantage thanks to cinematography by Paolo Sorrentinos usual DP, Luca Bignazzi. Eschewing the eyepopping operatics associated with Sorrentinos flashy enterprises, Bignazzi gets up close and personal here with lightweight digital cameras that yield slick widescreen images. In a project where few supporting players get much of a look-in, well-chosen Roman locations ranging from run-down peripheral projects to the magnificent ruins of the Forum do more than their share of silent scene-stealing.

Venue: Venice Film Festival (Competition), September 8, 2012.

Production company: Palomar
Cast: Filippo Schiccitano, Giulia Valentini, Antonio Zavatteri, Roberto Infascelli, Danielle Del Priore, Rocco Miglionico
Director: Francesca Comencini
Screenwriters: Francesca Comencini, Giulia Calenda, Davide Lantieri, based on the novel The Sky with a Finger by Claudio Bigagli
Producer: Carlo Degli Espositi
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Comencini
Costume designer: Ursula Patzak
Music: Ratchev & Carratello
Editors: Massimo Fiocchi, Chiara Vullo

Sales agent: Rai Trade, Rome
No MPAA rating, 83 minutes

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