MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (B+) - Joss Whedon serves up a modern take on Shakespeare, with a luscious black-and-white film populated by talented and appealing actors. I spent the first 20 minutes mostly lost trying to decipher Whedon's dialogue, which is faithful to the Bard's original.
The only actor I recognized was Clark Gregg ("Sports Night," "The New Adventures of Old Christine") as Leonato, who is marrying off his daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese). The others are mostly veterans of Whedon's previous projects. (The only thing of Whedon's I've seen is about two seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer.") That includes the irresistible duo of Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof as the squabbling would-be couple Beatrice and Benedick. Finally, the small crowd I was with at the Southwest Film Center laughed at every move of Nathan Fillion (from Whedon's cult hit "Firefly") as Detective Dogberry, as if they were founders of his fan club.
I enjoyed not knowing the cast and instead letting them earn their accolades through the sheer force of their performances. They were in good hands with Whedon. He combines mesmerizing imagery with the Swiss timing of a precision storyteller. The narrative hits every mark, as taught in screenwriting classes, and I'm not sure whether that makes Whedon a hack or a genius. With this film, he proves himself to be a modern-day Orson Welles. At its best, "Much Ado" is about as entertaining as moviemaking gets.
IN THE HOUSE (B+) - Francois Ozon maintains his near-perfect record. I've liked every movie of his that I've seen.* Here, we get less of his mournful side and more of his playful side, with the tale of a bitter high school literature teacher (he calls his students "barbarians") taking one student under his wing only to become engrossed in the real-life serial that the boy crafts with each assignment.
The student, Claude (Ernst Umhauer, suggesting a fresh-faced Ferris Bueller or a Hardy Boy), tutors a dorky classmate, Rapha (a rather Screech-like Bastien Ughetto) in math, mainly as a way to infiltrate his pal's home and hang out with Rapha's goofy father and attractive, impossibly middle class mother (the elegant Emmanuelle Seigner ("The Diving Bell and Butterfly")).
Ozon is nothing if not a master at casting. It's tough to go wrong when you've got Fabrice Luchini ("Intimate Strangers") and Kristen Scott Thomas ("I've Loved You So Long") in the third and fourth spot in your lineup. They play the teacher, Germain, and his patient wife, Jeanne, who is struggling to make an art gallery succeed. (The Pornographic Nazi exhibit is worth the rental alone.) The couple has a casual ease, and when Germain starts reading young Claude's soap opera about the happy suburban family, they're both hooked. They can't wait for the next installment, as each one ends, invariably with "to be continued."
What Claude has created is an old-fashioned serial. And Ozon, the master storyteller, has crafted a clever riff. How much is true? How much is fantasy on the part of motherless Claude? Ozon suggests a twist at the end, but we can't be sure. He lulls you with what seems like a harmless trifle of a movie; but he's really just toying with that idea. No, there's substance here. The fact that you may not notice that is part of Ozon's continued genius. A suivre ...
IN THE FAMILY (B) - This is quite a curiosity. At times it's a film like few others. For starters, I've never seen a movie about a gay Asian Southerner in Tennessee, so right there Patrick Wang has the viewer pleasantly off balance if not intrigued.
Wang wrote, directed and stars as Joey, a craftsman who moves in with his partner, Cody (Trevor St. John from TV's "One Life to Live"), and Cody's son, Chip -- but then has to fight Cody's sister for custody of the boy after Cody dies unexpectedly. Wang's storytelling is shaky at times, but he manages to avoid Hallmark Channel cliches while deepening the narrative with effective flashbacks to the origins of Joey and Cody's relationship.
Wang also is confident as a director. He likes to park the camera at one spot in a room, usually at waist level, and let an entire scene play out from that static perspective. Returning to the same shot is particularly effective when Wang is conveying how stunned Joey is by Cody's death while Chip continues on with the same kitchen routine we saw earlier, during happier times.
Wang is in command for about two hours. Unfortunately, the film runs a hefty 169 minutes. And during those final 49 minutes, it all falls apart. We get a jarring shift in tone, and the Hallmark Channel cliches burst forth. Suddenly it's a completely different movie. And suddenly Wang seems like a maudlin, manipulative hack.
This showed promise of being a surprising indie revelation. And for nearly two hours, it's a fascinating slice of cinema. But in the end, it turns into a saccharine slog.
* BONUS TRACKS
My favorite Francois Ozon films, in order:
- Under the Sand
- Time to Leave
- 5 x 2
- Swimming Pool
- Hideaway
- Ricky
- 8 Women
- See the Sea
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