Reviews

Films

In the Valley of Elah

Directed by Paul Haggis, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Jason Patric, Susan Sarandon

Whether or not it wins Oscars, this certainly marks a new and resonant low in relations between Hollywood and the outgoing presidential incumbent.

Written and directed by Paul Haggis - a winner for his multi-stranded 2004 drama Crash - it is a procedural thriller starring Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Deerfield, a retired military-police officer who is informed by the US army that the body of his son Mike, a serving soldier, has been recovered from scrubland around his base in Fort Rudd, New Mexico. Both Hank and civilian cop Detective Emily Sanders, played by Charlize Theron, suspect a military cover-up and determine to get at the truth, which may stem from an unspecified "incident" involving Mike's unit during its final tour in Iraq, fragments of which appear to have been filmed on Mike's mobile phone. Thus far, almost every single mainstream Hollywood movie about politics or the war on terror, however notionally critical or satirical, has been defanged and auto-castrated at the outset by its own terror of being thought unpatriotic. Whatever its faults, that certainly doesn't apply to Haggis's film, which finishes with a boldly challenging and even blasphemous shot of the star-spangled banner.

This is an exciting and well-acted film, with a poignant and plausibly platonic crush-friendship between Hank and Emily. Haggis' movie, in its denouement, gestures at the idea of an insidious corruption and spiritual debasement that the war has engendered in soldiers who might in other circumstances be entirely decent. Having said this, Haggis's rhetoric and pacing are always sure-footed; unlike Crash, there is never a moment where anything rings false. It is a powerful, muscular film, and there is real anger and fear at its heart. The Guardian

The Bodyguard

Directed by Mick Jackson, starring Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston

A female friend of a friend was adamant that a scene in The Bodyguard, featuring a samurai sword and a scarf, was highly erotic. I have to admit, erotic is never a word I had associated with Whitney Houston, a singer with a squeaky clean repertoire. And while the scene in question didn't make my knees tremble, it did highlight something about the overall film. That is, that this romantic thriller needn't have been a thriller at all. It would have been far more interesting to further investigate the unique relationship that is at the center of the story.

Houston plays Rachel Marron, a recording artist who is just as rich and famous as Houston is in real life. Crude death threat letters start arriving in the post and as a precaution, Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) is hired to protect the diva. She initially objects to his stern security demands but after a while the two develop a bond that results in Frank breaking his own don't-make-sweet-love-to-the-client rule. Meanwhile, dark forces loom in the background and it seems likely that Frank will face more than one threat that he must contain.

Lawrence Kasdan, the director of The Big Chill and Silverado, penned the script and you can see what attracted him to the idea. The two leads are polar opposites - one craves the limelight and wants to be adored, the other remains in the shadows and deals with adoration gone wrong. An examination of why sparks fly between the pair could throw up all sorts of psychological conundrums. Instead, The Bodyguard chooses the cheap thriller route and forgoes its chance to really put the lovers under the microscope.

Ben Davey

(China Daily 01/29/2008 page20)