Cinema Catala Hollywood Movie Review

Posts Tagged ‘fantastic mr fox’

Welcome to George Clooney season. Those who find the actor, who has been described by some as a modern day Cary Grant, engaging will have reason to smile as Hollywood begins its annual push toward the Oscars. Clooney will bring his winning personality and high-wattage smile to no fewer than three productions with Academy Award aspirations. Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up in the Air are yet a short distance down the road, but The Men Who Stare at Goats has arrived. Not only does it have the strangest title of the three late 2009 Clooney vehicles, but the storyline is also probably the most bizarre.

That title – The Men Who Stare at Goats – is, in and of itself, an indication that this movie is not directed squarely at mainstream multiplex-goers. It’s hard to imagine an army of 14-year old boys and their dates lining up to see this movie, which is designed with a more sophisticated audience in mind. The film is more than a little odd but it has fun with its offbeat premise and moves along breezily until it gets bogged down in the third act. (Watch out for the appearance of Kevin Spacey – that’s when the momentum starts to flag as a more direct focus on narrative undermines some of the wit and comedy.)

The Men Who Stare at Goats opens with the following caption: “More of this is true than you would believe.” But isn’t truth always said to be stranger than fiction? We are introduced to Ann Arbor journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), who is looking for the story of his life; he wants to impress his wife, who has unceremoniously dumped him. His quest leads him to Kuwait, where he hopes to become embedded with a group of troops entering Iraq. There he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney), an ex-Special Ops military officer who claims to have been part of the “New Earth Army,” a covert group of “psychic spies” who use their “Jedi mind powers” to influence others. Cassady agrees to take Wilton with him on a mission across the border. Along the way, he tells him about the New Earth Army’s history and its commanding officer, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), who ran a very different kind of unit.

The first half of The Men Who Stare at Goats is superior to the second half. For about 45 minutes, the film is content to play with the absurdity of the concept of having a covert group of “psychic spies.” It also works brilliantly as a parody of the military and its rules and structure. Unfortunately, past the midpoint, the movie begins to pay more attention to plot and, when it does this, the humor erodes. The more The Men Who Stare at Goats focuses on developing and advancing the narrative, the less enjoyable it is because Cassady’s “mission” turns out to be rather uninteresting.

The director of The Men Who Stare at Goats is Grant Heslov. This is his feature debut behind the camera, but not his first opportunity to join forces with Clooney. He co-wrote (with Clooney) and produced Good Night and Good Luck and filled similar producing duties for Leatherheads. The two men clearly know each other and work well together, and it shows in the easy way this movie unfolds. Heslov is not performing without a net. Who better than Clooney to lend a helping hand – a man who has learned from Soderbergh and the Coens and directed three films in his own right (two of which he collaborated with Heslov)?

The movie contains one of the best in-jokes of recent times. The psychic spies go by a number of different names, among them the “remote viewers” and the “Jedis.” This allows for multiple references to Star Wars. Of course, it will be lost on no one in the audience that Ewan McGregor played none other than the young Obi-Wan in the prequel trilogy. So this creates a little amusement every time McGregor and Clooney discuss the Jedis and Jedi powers. McGregor provides us with this quote: “What’s a Jedi Warrior?” He then ends up pursuing the path of the Jedi in the end. It would be interesting to know whether Heslov and screenwriter Peter Straughan were aware of McGregor’s pending involvement when those lines were written. If they were, it was an amusing way to work in one of the actor’s most (in)famous roles. If they weren’t, it was a case of an eyebrow-raising coincidence.

Fans of The Big Lebowski, which has achieved a major cult status since its theatrical release, will note similarities between Bill Django and the “The Dude” of the earlier film. Both are played by Jeff Bridges, who has apparently drawn from the same wellspring of inspiration for these laid-back, New Age-y parts.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is enjoyable to watch “in the moment,” but it doesn’t leave a powerful or lasting impact, at least insofar as the comedic elements are concerned. (Re-watching it a second time after initially seeing it a month earlier at the Toronto Film Festival, I was surprised how fresh the humor was – mainly because I didn’t remember most of the jokes.) As entertaining as the production is, however, the fact that it contains a kernel of truth reminds us of one damning truth: This is the kind of thing that American tax dollars are being spent on. The Men Who Stare at Goats is a comedy, and I laughed quite a few times while watching it, but that sobering reality almost makes me want to cry.

While it might be a stretch to claim that Fantastic Mr. Fox is “fantastic,” it’s easily among the year’s best animated features. If there’s an argument against the film (and, admittedly, it’s not much of an argument), it’s that the movie may not be suitably childish to appeal to younger viewers. The screenplay, adapted from the novel by Roald Dahl, is too literate to hold the attention of the littlest ones. Fantastic Mr. Fox, which lacks the kind of hyperkinetic action scenes that resemble video game extracts, seems to have been designed more with adults and mature kids in mind. Plus, while the old school stop-motion animation is beautiful in its own way, some viewers will find it primitive in comparison with the slickness that can be achieved with the computer generated variety.

Mr. Fox (voice of George Clooney), an animal of the expected species, is an ex-thief who now earns his living as a newspaper columnist. Bored with living in a hole, he decides to buy a house in a tree and moves in with his wife, Felicity (Meryl Streep), and son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman). They are soon joined by Mr. Fox’s nephew, Kristofferson (Eric Anderson), who is staying with them while his father recuperates from double pneumonia. The tree house is close to the farms of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, and the lure of easy loot proves too tempting for Mr. Fox to ignore, despite a two-year old promise to his wife never to steal again. So, with his faithful sidekick, Kylie the opossum (Wally Wolodarsky), in tow, he sets out to steal chickens from Boggis, ducks and geese from Bunce, and alcoholic cider from Bean. He succeeds, but the farmers aren’t happy and decide to use every means at their disposal to remove the blight of Mr. Fox from their little corner of the world.

Anderson’s adaptation of the Dahl novel is so smooth and effortless that I’m tempted to say he has unearthed his calling. For the most part, I have found his live-action films (which are generally much beloved by critics) to be intelligent-yet-pompous (consider, for example, The Darjeeling Limited), but Fantastic Mr. Fox, perhaps because it is envisioned as being family-friendly, is just plain smart. For the most part, Anderson keeps his proclivity for pretentiousness in check, although there are times when the assembled animals sound like lost members of The Royal Tenenbaums. The humor is often subtle, but that doesn’t rob it of its ability to provoke smiles and laughter. And the animated nature of the production robs some of the more mean-spirited elements of their sting. Fantastic Mr. Fox may not get PETA’s stamp of approval (some birds meet gruesome fates) but the MPAA saw it as worthy of nothing more restrictive than a mild PG.

Dahl purists may complain that the movie doesn’t end the same way the book does, but Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach reportedly uncovered an alternative ending devised by Dahl that didn’t make it into print, and this was used to inform the conclusion. Whether or not this is true, the pieces of the movie that do not replicate aspects of the novel are nevertheless faithful to the spirit of the source material. I’d place this alongside Matilda as a motion picture that “gets” the book and transforms its essence to the screen.

The voice work is superlative. George Clooney brings the right mix of bravado and self-deprecation to the part of Mr. Fox. Often, using an immediately recognizable voice for an animated character can be a problem, but Clooney is so charismatic that he manages to overcome the hurdle. Meryl Streep, who has been branching into new areas recently (first Mamma Mia!, now this), is effectively subtle. Anderson “regulars” Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray (possibly atoning for Garfield) provide support, as does Willem Dafoe as the dastardly Rat, who seems to have learned his moves from watching West Side Story a few too many times. Michael Gambon uses his rumbling bass to good effect as the dastardly Bean. So this is life after Dumbledore…

It’s a curious fact that most films based on Dahl stories have become more highly regarded with the passage of time than they are when released. This has been the case with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (although not necessarily the Tim Burton re-telling of the story), James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda. Henry Selick clearly has a love for Dahl. He was the director of James and the Giant Peach and was originally attached with Anderson for this film (he left to helm Coraline). Anderson has proceeded as Selick might have and the stop-motion style is in keeping with what Selick would likely have achieved. (The group of animators were the same.) In addition to recalling James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox reminded me of the Aardman movies, especially Chicken Run. Not only is the “look” similar but the philosophy of voice characterization is the same (with the unmistakable vocal stylings of Mel Gibson front-and-center). Both films also boast screenplays whose sophistication belies their format.

Are there kids who will enjoy the hell out of Fantastic Mr. Fox? Sure. But I suspect that in many cases, this is one animated offering where the parents will get more out of it than their offspring.