Love & Friendship

With an unexpected amount of satire and snark, Whit Stillman's Love & Friendship impresses audiences with a fresh take on some classic Jane Austen literature (no zombies needed for this one). Love & Friendship is a romantic comedy disguised as a pre-Victorian drama, with the structure and atmosphere of the movie mirroring that of a theatre play. Mixing quick witted dialogue with old-timey English speech in a game of sociopolitical chess creates an enjoyable and unique cinema experience for all viewers of this movie.

In the late 18th century, flirtatious widow Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale) finds herself in a social trough following the death of her husband. In a calm struggle for power, she looks to win the heart of young bachelor Reginald De Courcy (Xavier Samuel), while at the same time solidifying control over her highly contested daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark). With the powers of various highborn families of England at play, Love & Friendship displays a layered sociopolitical conflict hidden calmly under the guise of one-upmanship in seemingly respectful and proper public affairs, with comedic value often found in these displays throughout the film.

Kate Beckinsale is the clear star of the show, with her portrayal of Lady Susan being both elegant and proper as a woman of stature, as well snappy and sharp-witted as a social player. Beckinsale proves both her flexibility and experience as an actress and creates a strong base performance for the rest of the cast to build off. While some background characters aren't entirely as convincing, the supporting cast does well to build off Beckinsale's lead and impress across the board. Notable performances come from  Chloë Savigny as Lady Susan's amiable yet equally manipulative American friend Alicia Johnson, as well as a surprisingly enjoyable showing from Tom Bennett, who plays an incompetent and socially inept bachelor. While the performances are solid, the real praise should go to the screenplay of Whit Stillman, for creating a Mean Girls-esque vibe of snappiness and banter that we can only hope really existed in these historical times.

As aforementioned, Love & Friendship views somewhat as a theatre play, with character introductions, title cards and musical transitions. The actual scenes of the film are void of any musical score, with authentic classical pieces only accompanying these transitions between different scenes or locations. The simple editing, both musical and otherwise, create a genuine feel to the film, with believable costumes and location adding to this feeling. In all aspects, the movie feels like a bona fide classical English story, while also managing to incorporate the wit and dynamism of modern day.

While at first glimpse Love & Friendship may seem like a standard and possibly boring classical English movie, in practice it is anything but. Combining romance with wit and comedy in a historical setting results in this film feeling both authentic and accurate as well as strangely familiar and modern, and audiences can expect to come out of a viewing with a pleasant feeling of satisfaction, whether they are a fan of the historical genre or not.

Alice Through The Looking Glass

As an avid Alice In Wonderland fan (no seriously), this was a bit of a hit and miss for me.

The sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 hit adaptation, ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ follows Alice into Wonderland for another adventure. When the Hatter (Johnny Depp) begins to exhibit some strange and worrisome behaviour, Alice (Australian actress Mia Wasikoska) is called upon by her friends to try and help him, only to be told the answer lies in a seemingly impossible journey. From here, it is a literal race against Time (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) as Alice is catapulted to the past to try and save her friend’s future (with the help of some strange and wonderful creatures, of course).

The positives: Once again, Mia Wasikowska’s performance as Alice is entertaining and definitely a stand out. Her portrayal of the headstrong and hardy Alice is a refresher from the ‘damsel in distress’ archetypes we see frequently in films as Alice’s fearlessness helps to drive the film forward. Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance as Time was another standout, with his charm and charisma helping to create some of the comedic relief alongside his band of home-made robot friends. As well as this, the visuals are once again stunning: vibrant and eye catching, the use of CGI really immerses the audience into Wonderland without the scenery feeling overly fake or staged.

The negatives: One of the big issues I had with this film was the pacing. I feel there were just too many locations and not enough time for the audience to gain a connection to any of them before being moved somewhere else. This made the film feel out of balance and began to get distracting by the time we reached the middle. Also, I feel as though director James Bobin failed to strike the delicate balance between ‘quirkiness’ and ‘tackiness’ that was done by Tim Burton in the first film. We’ve had clear evidence that the actors in this film certainly have talent (Anne Hathaway in 2012’s ‘Les Miserables’, Helena Bonham-Carter in the 2010 drama ‘The King’s Speech’ to name a few), but it seems as though each of them felt the need to overact their parts, which led to a lack of continuity from the first film and ultimately started to become jarring.

Although kids will certainly enjoy this film, if you are an avid fan of the franchise (or the books!) you may come away disappointed. Wonderland needs just a touch of darkness and fear of the unknown, and although its beauty and imagery is amazing, this film had much more potential.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Opening where the second film left off, Smaug’s attack on Laketown, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the last (as far as we know) of Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth fantasy films. The Second in the series of incredibly long names (with running times to match), The Desolation of Smaug, was infinitely better than the first (despite the unnecessarily-long barrel sequence) but stretching an epic trilogy out of a book shorter than any of the Lord of the Rings novels has always been a concern. Now, with the blockbuster release of the third Hobbit, it’s up to Jackson to tie it all together. 

Jumping straight into the action, the dragon, Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) inflicts brutal destruction on Laketown as the residents flee, with only Bard (Luke Evans) left to fight the beast. Up at the Lonely Mountain, the leader of the dwarves, Thorin (Richard Armitage) is inflicted with Smaug's "dragon sickness", a powerful urge to find the Arkenstone, which is affecting his sanity. Bilbo (Martin Freeman), who is aware of Thorin’s state, continues to hide the Arkenstone from him. Gandalf (Ian McKellen) remains imprisoned by the Necromancer (Also Benedict Cumberbatch) in Dol Guldur, until Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), with help from Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Saruman (Christopher Lee), frees Gandalf. Whilst others are gathering their forces to raid the Lonely Mountain, Gandalf rushes back to warn of the approaching Orc army. The battle for Smaug's lair of gold is about to begin.

Epic in visual scope, The Battle of the Five Armies is, as the name would suggest, brimming with action. The battle sequences which dominate the second half of the film are impeccably choreographed and are exceedingly stunning, with effects-heavy visuals that justify the $250 million budget. However, whilst these sequences do try to draw some points about the lives lost in the useless battle for gold, they are basically just excessive battles. This is where the flaws of the trilogy format slide through the cracks. What could have been two very solid movies, have been extended to three, and whilst the running time of this third instalment is blissfully shorter at a not-unreasonable 144-minutes, there doesn't seem to be enough plot left to justify a full movie. This sees much of the second-half of The Battle of the Five Armies stretched out into an unnecessary display of mindless battling, only marginally justified by the strong first half of the film.

Whilst the already well-established characters don't exactly require much more development, the strained story would certainly benefit from it. Thorin is the only one that really evolves in any way, inhibited by his changing states of sanity. However it must be said that the performances certainly stand up to the calibre of the first films (as well as the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the characters that appear in both). Freeman is very good as Bilbo, although he doesn't get as much screen-time as I would have liked. Richard Armitage shines as Thorin, and it's always fun to see the 75-year old Ian McKellen and 92-year old Christopher Lee involved in some battles. The only real issue with the characters is in the various death scenes (which you ought to expect in the final instalment), which are heavily clichéd, with slow motion and somber music that somewhat undermines the emotions that are being put forth. 

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies finally wraps up a trilogy that should really have been concluded in two films, and hence there are certainly some issues with stretching it out into a third. But it does seem, in many ways, a fitting conclusion for the series, with big-budget action and strong performances. I'm sure that long time fans will enjoy this film.