Florence Foster Jenkins

British director Stephen Frears is well known for his heavily dramatic movies like The Queen and Philomena. Even the comedies he has directed tend to be on the heavier side. Because of that inclination, a conventional comedy like Florence Foster Jenkins seems like an odd choice for him. Combine that with the fact that the story isn't that interesting, makes it an even more confusing choice.

In 1944 New York, Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) and her husband St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) are patrons of the music scene in the city, putting on many concerts at The Verdi Club, a concert hall that they founded. Florence decides soon that she wants to put on a concert of her own to display to the public her singing skills. St. Clair hires pianist Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helberg) to accompany her, but he soon discovers that she is an awful singer. Despite this, Florence wants to play Carnegie Hall, a dream she has had since she was a child.

It seems odd that this story has been made as a comedy (well I thought it was one) because it's quite a sad story. It almost seems as though we are making fun of Florence because she was completely unaware of her terrible singing voice. The jokes also don't come from the fact that she has a terrible voice, but rather the reactions from people who are hearing her for the first time. The first joke that I did find funny was the tension that was built up when we hear Florence sing for the first time, being interrupted by this or that. I feel like the decision to make this movie was based very heavily on the fact that a French film called Marguerite was made last year and their needed to be an English language version of the story made. Again, I have no idea why, it's not a very interesting story.

Method actor Meryl Streep has gone a bit overboard here. Since she is well known for immersing herself entirely in her roles, Streep has done the same here but to no real effect. In her portrayal of Florence, she just becomes bland because the character has no room to be interested, thus boxing Streep in. Luckily, the other performances are a tad more engaging. Hugh Grant has aged very quickly I've noticed. One day he was young and now he just looks a lot older. And it really helps him in this movie as he's playing a more sedate mature character. He works really well as the emotional core of the movie. Simon Helberg is pretty funny as Cosmé and shows a real departure from other characters he has played. Rebecca Ferguson appears as St. Clair's girlfriend, but way too briefly for my liking.

Florence Foster Jenkins is an unexpected movie. Not in a way that you're surprised at how good it is or how funny it is. The feeling is more one of "Oh, I didn't expect that."

Into The Woods

Stephen Sondheim's award-winning Broadway musical seems like it would be perfect for a big screen adaptation. The scope of the stage production with it's big sets, many characters and magical elements would make a stage feel packed, like there was too much action going. But somehow, on the screen this story seems like it's spread a little too thin.

The story combines all of the most famous fairy tales into one big adventure and gives origin to some of the more popular ones. A childless baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) want to have a family, but are unable to do so due to a curse laid upon the house by the witch (Meryl Streep), who lives next door. She is willing to reverse the curse if they retrieve four items for her; a milky white cow, a blood red cape, a golden slipper and some blonde hair. These of course are all items belong to Jack (Daniel Huddlestone), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy).

With this being a musical, there is more singing than actual dialogue. However, most of these songs are mostly forgettable besides from a couple. The Wolf (played by Johnny Depp) sings an incredibly predatory song to Little Red Riding Hood, which implies that he wishes to do something entirely than eating her. The Charming princes (Chris Pine and Billy Magnusson) have a rather humourous song where they try to one-up each other in the pain that they feel by not having their respective fairytale romances. Chris Pine has another fun song where he seduces Emily Blunt. Sadly, three songs do not make up for the number of songs that I don't even remember.

The majority of the leads give solid performances. James Corden's singing experience carries him along nicely and Emily Blunt is a partner in their duets. Anna Kendrick also brings her experience from the Pitch Perfect movies. Both Daniel Huddlestone and Lilla Crawford are great young actors who will go places. Chris Pine offers some much needed comic relief. It is with Meryl Streep that I have the most problems. Her character isn't seen too much (thankfully) and when she is on the screen, she tries to steal the scenes from the other actors, all who are much more capable than her.

Verdict: While it has it's charms, Into The Woods proves to be forgettable in the department it will rely most heavily upon: it's music.

War Movie Month: The Deer Hunter (1978)

Post traumatic stress disorder is one of the side effects of war that can destroy people's lives (that's not including death, destruction of property and pure terror that are also products of war). Michael Cimino's war drama The Deer Hunter is a film that succinctly looks at the trauma (albeit fictional) that soldiers go through to end up with PTSD.

The movie follows three Russian-American men, Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken) and Steve (John Savage), all from the same small West Pennsylvania steel mining town, who go off to fight in the Vietnam War. Whilst there, they are captured and made to play Russian Roulette. They escape and Michael returns to America to find that Steve has been terribly injured and Nick is nowhere to be seen.

Michael feels distant and removed from the town he has come back to. This is something that a lot of soldiers have reported feeling once they return from a warzone. This is nothing compared to how the character of Steven feels. Not only is he mentally scarred from the torture that he went through, but he is ashamed of the injuries that he sustained during the war; the loss of both legs, and refuses to see his wife. Nick becomes so unstable that he is unable to recognise Michael when he finds him in an illegal betting ring where the contestants play Russian Roulette.

One of the most remarkable things about this movie is that it was shot all on location. The small mining community of Clairton is comprised of many mining communities in the US and the Vietnam scenes were shot in Thailand, the first movie to shoot a Vietnam War film in that country. Probably one of the most amazing set pieces is the first act of the film, which is Steve's wedding. This was shot in St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church using an actual priest. This first act goes for an hour and does an amazing job at setting up the characters.

Robert De Niro is as exceptional as you would think in this movie, being on top of his game in the 70s. But his performance is hardly the most captivating. Christopher Walken winning an Academy Award might seem a strange and humourous idea for modern audiences, especially when all you can picture is his strange and signature style of talking, but back in 1978 he didn't really speak like he does now, well not as much. He gives a haunting performance as Nick (short for Nikonar) and is truly deserving of the award he won. The film features a young Meryl Streep who is nearly unrecognisable and this is John Cazale's (The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon) final film before succumbing to cancer, which he had during shooting.

Verdict: The Deer Hunter is a long slog of a movie, but is very rewarding in many ways. Fantastic performances from both De Niro and Walken.

The Giver

As with other teenage dystopian books converted to movies, fans of The Giver (written by Lois Lowry) were worried about how Phillip Noyce's film adaptation of the same name would turn out. But hey, it has Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges in it, so it can't be that bad right? Can it?

In 2048, after a damaging war, society has placed itself in a controlled environment, devoid of colours and emotions, and with the citizens' memories from before this new society erased, in an attempt to prevent history repeating itself. The Societies' Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) is assigning roles to young adults as they mature, but Jonas is not selected. However, as it turns out, Jonas has a special ability that has seen him assigned to the position of Receiver of Memory.

As Receiver of Memory, he will be the only one to hold the memories of the past and must use these to advise the elders. But first he must be trained by the current Receiver of Memory (Jeff Bridges). It is during this training process that he receives the truth about society.

I have never read the book, but the plot, whilst convoluted, was at least a change from some of the more generic tales of dystopic societies. However, it never quite evolves into anything that challenges its characters or proves particularly thought-provoking. For a movie about the removal of memories and manipulation of emotions, its attempt to illicit an emotional response from us through the flashback of memories, whilst cinematically stunning, feels a bit too superficial.

However, there were also some serious faults with the acting. Bridges and Streep are both fine, but this is hardly up there with either of their best performances, and the three younger actors playing Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan) were pretty appalling, although they vastly improved as the film went on.

The most interesting part of the film for me, was its significant and select use of colour, utilised not just as a visual motif but as a plot-point. Beginning in black & white, colours slowly bleach in and out throughout the story, emerging with increasing contrast and intensity. The colourists have done a fantastic job with this film.

However, interesting cinematic elements aside, this film fell flat for me. It's certainly not a terrible movie but, although it did improve a fair bit towards the end, it was just too little, too late. It's a shame to see a film that clearly had potential become, for want of a better word, pedestrian.

August: Osage County

Over the years, I have always wanted to see a classic film when it first arrived at cinemas, be it Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver or Casablanca. With the release of August: Osage County, I feel as though I have had that opportunity. With a fantastic cast, extremely well written script and superb direction, I find it hard to fault this film.

It follows a family from Oklahoma who have come together for the first time in years because their father Beverly (Sam Shepard) has gone missing. Their mother, Violet (Meryl Streep), is an abrasive woman who is addicted to prescription medication. The three daughters, Barbara, Ivy and Karen (Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis, respectively), each with their own problems, come together to try and comfort their mother.

For a film with a lot going on in terms of story and sub-plots, everything is presented quite clearly and this comes down to Tracy Letts' brilliant script (he also wrote the award-winning play on which the film is based). It's never hard to keep track of everyone's story and every plot element is resolved without being dismissed too quickly.

John Wells direction is also very evocative. He brings out stellar performances from his entire cast and shoots each scene in an extremely planned way. One of the major scenes in the film revolves around a family dinner and it is shot in such a way that the audience is gripped for the entire duration.

The two standout performances come from both Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Streep is amazingly witty, yet at the same time sharp-tounged, as the matriarch of the family. It is definitely a standout role for her in her recent career (even though her recent career has been full of those). Julia Roberts has come a long way from the roles that she played early on (both Runaway Bride and Pretty Woman were terrible in my book). She is excellent as a long suffering daughter who just wants to be done with her family.

Verdict: A fantastic family drama that is surprisingly funny. Stellar performances from both Streep and Roberts.