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| By The Sea proves the adage that real-life couples should never plays lovers |
THE LAST time Angelina Jolie Pitt (as she styles herself here) and Brad Pitt starred together was in 2005’s Mr And Mrs Smith shortly before becoming an item.
By The Sea
(18, 122mins)
Director: Angelina Jolie Pitt
Stars: Angelina Jolie Pitt, Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Niels Arestrup
The sparks flew amid the shoot-outs and the result was a hit.
Proving the adage that real-life couples should never plays lovers (see Eyes Wide Shut with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman), By The Sea finds Jolie and Pitt as a married couple whose relationship is in crisis and the result was a box office bomb in America.
They may be two of the biggest and sexiest stars on the planet but no one wants to watch their romantic travails, not least if we are being asked to take it all seriously. And By The Sea wants to be taken very seriously indeed.
Set in the 1970s in a secluded coastal village at the tail end of the summer, the picture deliberately echoes European art house films of that era. In other words it is sombre, slow and preoccupied with sex. And everybody smokes.
Alas, the action on display is not between Jolie and Pitt’s Vanessa and Roland but the hotel guests in the adjoining suite who they spy on through a peep hole in an attempt to galvanise their troubled relationship and get things going in the bedroom.
The couple in question are eager honeymooners Lea (Melanie Laurent) and Francois (Melvil Poupaud) who are as fresh and naively optimistic as Vanessa and Roland are careworn. It might sound vaguely titillating and exciting, enjoyable in a pruriently trashy way, but we are not allowed to have any fun because Vanessa and Roland certainly aren’t.
Directed and written by Jolie, the picture falls into the trap of recreating the misery and ennui of the protagonists for the audience. The result is a film that feels like therapy for Jolie and Pitt, or at least their characters, as they moodily work through their problems while gulping down booze (him) and lying listlessly in bed (her).
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| Angelina and Brad on screen: No one wants to watch their romantic travails |
It may work for them but it doesn’t work for us. This is chiefly because Jolie fails to make the characters and their problems interesting even though her intentions are sincere and in many respects to be celebrated – good for her wanting to make a serious relationship drama when she could have made pots of money doing something much more commercial.
The characters are thinly sketched with Vanessa an uptight artistic clothes horse, chic and cold, while Roland is a good natured writer in a professional and personal trough.
“We were the toast of New York,” he tells widowed bar owner Michel (Niels Arestrup) who becomes his confidante and counsel.
Unfortunately, that’s about it as far as personal information goes, leaving it to the performers and the admittedly lovely scenery (the film was shot in Malta) to hold our attention. Pitt is always watchable and his character exudes a basic decency but there is only so much he can do smoking endless cigarettes and drinking pastis while suffering from writer’s block.
For her part Vanessa is two-dimensional. She is magnificent to look at but standoffish and petulant with little to make us care about her. We just have to take Roland’s word for it that his wife is “downright rude but lovely”, as he tells Michel.
That they are trying to overcome some personal issue is clear but we are not told until the very end what it is and the revelation comes as a notable anti-climax. Yes, it earns our sympathy but it is based on a sad but rather routine fact of life. It makes the picture feel even more like a form of couple’s therapy. You want to say, “Sorry to hear that guys, good luck for the future but please don’t trouble the world with your problems again. Cheers.”
By The Sea feels like a small, personal movie that Jolie had to get out of her system (she wrote the script long before she turned to directing) and fans of both stars may enjoy it as a curio. It isn’t a calamity or toe-curling embarrassment but there is simply no pressing need to see it.
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| Lily Tomlin is terrific as the titular Grandma Elle |
Grandma
(15, 80mins)
Director: Paul Weitz
Stars: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Sam Elliott
On paper Grandma sounds like a parody of an American independent movie: take one bisexual grandparent (Beginners), a pregnant teenager who wants an abortion (Juno) and send them on a road trip (Transamerica), albeit one that takes place on a single day.
That the picture pulls it off is down to the truthful performances and a tart screenplay by writer-director Paul Weitz that gives the characters full rein to vent their bitterness.
Lily Tomlin is terrific as the titular Grandma Elle, a sharp-tongued poet who helps her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) scrabble together the few hundred dollars needed for an abortion by tapping up old friends, her ex-husband (Sam Elliott) and eventually her volcanic-tempered daughter (a scene-stealing Marcia Gay Harden).
The picture touches on several pertinent themes including youth versus experience, love and loss and Lily Tomlin deserves awards recognition but it is never quite funny or powerful enough.
VERDICT: 3/5
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| Sisters: Overlong and a tad repetitive but a hoot |
Sisters
(118mins)
Director: Jason Moore
Stars: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, John Cena, James Brolin
If there was any justice in “awards season” (yawn, yawn) then Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would be giving Cate Blanchett serious competition for their hilarious performances in riotous comedy Sisters from director Jason Moore.
The pair throw caution, dignity and sensible wardrobes to the wind playing disconnected sisters, the responsible and caring Maura (Poehler) and hopeless, impulsive single mother Kate (Fey).
They try and reconnect with their childhoods and each other by throwing a crazed party in the suburban family home just sold, to their horror, by Mum and Dad (a very funny Dianne Wiest and Josh Brolin).
The sisters make Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous look like church wardens as they stage an epic bash peopled by weary grown-ups from their schooldays who unleash their inner teens with a little assistance from a giant narcotic supplier (wrestling star John Cena, a deadpan delight) and Kate’s speech of inspiration that would not have been out of place in Braveheart.
The supporting roles are brilliantly cast and the sharp screenplay by Paula Pell contains some zingers. It is overlong and a tad repetitive but a hoot.
VERDICT: 4/5
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