Reel Thoughts: East Berlin Stories

History is written by the victors. That quote informs the new morality thriller The Debt, starring Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington and breakout star Jessica Chastain (Celia Foote in The Help). Set in 1997, but mostly told in flashback in the late sixties, The Debt tells the story of a trio of Israeli Mossad agents (Chastain, Worthington and Martin Csokas) who were charged with finding and bringing to justice an infamous Nazi called the "Surgeon of Birkenau", believed to be living in East Berlin. In 1997, the three agents’ bravery in dealing with the evil sadist has brought them thirty years of acclaim, especially for Rachel (Mirren). Her daughter Sarah has even written a book about her mother’s role in killing the monster, even while she was wounded. Of course, that is the history the Israelis needed to hear, but the reality turns out to be something different, a secret the agents tightly guarded all these years.

Director John Madden made a splash with Shakespeare in Love, and The Debt is sure to draw Oscar attention next year, at least for acting. Most of the action takes place in the past, giving Chastain, Worthington and Csokas bigger roles than Mirren, Tom Wilkinson or Ciaran Hinds. The only jarring casting is that Csokas looks just like Hinds, and Worthington looks similar to Wilkinson, yet the younger men’s parts are reversed. It takes constant reminding to realize who is who in the flashbacks.

The Debt manages an exciting balance between the morality tale of tracking Dieter Vogel and how the agents struggle to treat their captive beast humanely, the growing emotional bond between Rachel and the two men, and the espionage action as the agents try to smuggle their prisoner out of Communist East Berlin without being caught or shot. The story echoes the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound and the present day mystery is reminiscent of the Pat Tillman “friendly fire” cover-up. The ending cheapens the film with a finale that was a little too Fatal Attraction for me, but it gave The Debt the big closure some audiences need.

Israel’s quest to bring the Nazi war criminals to justice is always fascinating, and The Debt is respectful of the subject matter. Wilkinson, Mirren and Hinds ground the story and give it the weight it needs. The Debt is a great, mature thriller to help say goodbye to summer and to get ready for the high prestige films of the fall.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reel Thoughts: Nothing to Fear

How can a movie get every single element in place and yet manage to ruin them all? You’ll have to watch Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark to see how spectacularly a horror movie can fail by squandering fantastic sets, a game cast of talented actors, genuinely creepy creatures, a fascinating mythology and its well-loved but cheesy TV movie source material.

Guillermo Del Toro’s name is all over the film, and he was reportedly terrified of the 1973 Kim Darby film about a couple that moves into an old mansion and discovers that they aren’t alone. However, other than his Pan’s Labyrinth-inspired creatures and secret gardens, his contribution as writer is less an homage than an insult to the original. Those unfamiliar with just about every other haunted house movie ever made will be suitably scared by director Troy Nixey’s heavy reliance on gotcha scares, but the rest of the audience will be scratching their heads over how Del Toro could mess up this badly.

Set in a gloriously ornate Tudor mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark opens in the 19th century with a back story of the first owner, a renowned nature illustrator like John Audubon who disappeared along with his young child after killing a chambermaid in some sort of bizarre sacrifice. This scene reveals too much about what is in the basement, and establishes the film’s habit of making the absolute worst choices in storytelling.

In the present, the mansion has fallen into disrepair and is being meticulously restored by Alex Hurst (Guy Pearce), who apparently didn’t look closely enough at his labor of love to see a barely concealed basement with a huge glass atrium. His sullen daughter Sally (Bailee Madison) gets shipped to him and soon opens up a tightly sealed ash pit in the basement, because that’s what little girls do. Soon a mini-army of tiny ghouls are raising hell and plotting to drag Sally to hell, or at least down the basement ash pit. It has something to do with them craving kiddie teeth. No one believes Sally, and then they do, but still they stay in the devil house. What are they waiting for? "Trollmageddon", of course, and the little invaders don’t disappoint.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark has one of the sloppiest scripts in recent memory. Major events are dropped from scene to scene, including a party scene where one of the creatures gets squished, losing an arm on the floor and no one notices. If you’re looking for a good remake of an old horror movie, make it a Fright Night instead.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reel Thoughts: Happy Labor Day

As a boy from Civil Rights era Alabama, I really hoped that The Help would capture the best and worst of the South during that volatile period. The film is a warm, touching tribute to the great black women who devoted their lives to caring for the children of white families. Based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel and directed by her childhood friend Tate Taylor, The Help gets everything right about the genteel, casually racist Jackson, Mississippi setting, with a fantastic cast of women who couldn’t be any better.

Scottsdale native Emma Stone plays the unfortunately-named Skeeter Phelan, a late bloomer who returns to her family’s plantation to find that her beloved housekeeper Constantine (Cicely Tyson) has left. She also discovers that the girls she grew up with have become cruel bigots who abuse their help while letting them take over raising their kids. Viola Davis almost seethes with unreleased power as Aibileen, a maid who is caring for a young girl after her own son was killed. This is Davis’ finest work since Doubt, and it is sure to garner her another Oscar nomination.

Octavia Spencer plays too-sassy-for-her-own-good Minnie, a pie-making maid who runs afoul of town queen bee Hilly Holbrook, played to bitchy perfection by Bryce Dallas Howard. Foul about describes Minnie’s act of retribution after Hilly fires her and blacklists her from getting work anywhere else, but it is hilarious as well.

Much Sturm and Drang has been published about how The Help diminishes what African-Americans were doing to lead the way on their own struggle for equality, but the truth is that there were also white people (my parents included) who saw the injustice and fought in small and large ways for change. Stone gives a great performance in a bad perm, as does Allison Janney as her cancer-stricken mother and Sissy Spacek as Hilly’s plain-spoken but memory-impaired mother. Jessica Chastain is a marvel as town outcast Celia Foote, who just wants to be liked by the women of Jackson.

People may disagree with the cinematic world that The Help recreates, but it is a heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, look back at history that will definitely strike a nerve with you. It is one of the best films of the year so far.

Reel Thougths Rating: A

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reverend's Reviews: Faithfully Yours?

The US Marine Corps prides itself on being the most devoted of all military branches and of taking care of its own. This makes it doubly surprising to learn, while watching the riveting new documentary Semper Fi: Always Faithful (now playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles), that approximately one million Marines and their family members stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from 1957-1987 were exposed to water contaminated with a variety of toxic chemicals. Many deaths and congressional hearings later, the Marine Corps has yet to acknowledge its negligence in this incident.

One courageous retired Marine, Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger, has led the charge against the Corps leaders' cover-up since his 9-year-old daughter died of a rare form of leukemia in 1985. As Ensminger heartbreakingly recounts in Semper Fi, his dying daughter refused pain medication until he was offered some as well since, as she told her doctor, "My daddy's hurting, too."

Filmmakers Rachel Libert (Beyond Conviction) and Tony Hardmon (a veteran cinematographer on such acclaimed docs as The Boys of Baraka, Sicko and Jesus Camp making his directorial debut) follow not only Ensminger but several other former residents of Camp Lejeune. These include Major Tom Townsend, whose son died at six weeks of age; Mike Partain, who was born at Camp Lejeune and was diagnosed as an adult with rare, male breast cancer (as were an unusually high number of other men); and Denita McCall, a former Marine and resident at the camp who passed away during production of Semper Fi.

The first congressional hearing on Marines' claims of illness related to the since-discovered water contamination at Camp Lejeuene wasn't held until 2007. Much of the hearing is preserved here, including Major General Eugene Payne denying any connection between the site's dirty water and residents' health problems. Cinematic and journalistic exposes of military and government cover-ups are fairly routine nowadays, but Semper Fi documents blatant lies in such detail that it truly infuriates.

Having won significant awards at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, Semper Fi: Always Faithful is more than worth an investment of time and money on the part of both military personnel and civilians.

Reverend's Rating: A

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.