Far from the Madding Crowd

by George Wolf

Did we need another film adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd? Despite its status as a romantic classic, Thomas Hardy’s 1874 novel travels some tedious, predictable ground. The last big screen version followed suit but, to be fair, that was in the late 60s. Can a skillful director, an insightful writer and a sublime cast blow the dust off after nearly five decades?

Um, yes.

It starts at the top, with the effortlessly good Carey Mulligan as independent heroine Bathsheba Everdene, who inherits her uncle’s vast estate in the English countryside. She attracts admirers on both extremes of society, but rebuffs marriage proposals from poor, earnest sheep herder Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts) and the village’s most eligible bachelor, wealthy William Boldwood (Michael Sheen).

Bathsheba’s passions are finally stirred by the arrogantly douchy Sgt. Troy (Tom Sturridge) but not long after their impetuous marriage, regret comes calling.

It’s an extremely old fashioned love triangle, pared down considerably by director Thomas Vinterberg and screenwriter David Nicholls. Nicholls has experience adapting classics such as Great Expectations and Tess of the D’Ubervilles, and sharp instincts for cutting fat. The story is leaner, with less chance to bog down in melodrama.

Vinterberg, who helmed the gripping drama The Hunt in 2012, delivers sweeping, gorgeous landscapes befitting such a period piece, and frames his able actors with frequent closeups that never go to waste.

Mulligan gives Bathsheba the layers needed to make her human, and Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) makes Gabriel’s strong, silent act easy to root for. But it’s Sheen, even with limited screen time, who steals the show, wringing Boldwood’s repressed emotion from every pore.

Whatever the motivation for revisiting this old standard, Far from the Madding Crowd is a testament to sheer talent uplifting the source material. It may not be most memorable present on the table, but these gift wrappers sure make a good impression.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

by Hope Madden

Glorious ridiculousness thrives in Joss Whedon’s Marvel universe, a place so vivid, witty, emotional, exuberantly paced and generally epic that you’re too busy trying to keep up to notice how overpopulated it is.

Here’s what matters: the band is back together! But is it a reunion tour or a retirement tour? Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr. – duh) looks like he might be ready to hang it up, hoping there is a bigger, better, more certain solution for Earth’s safety. Meanwhile, there’s a romance abloom, and it’s not between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans). Damn it!

The mad scientists of the group (Stark and Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner) keep toying with AI, even though their experiments sometimes develop a God-complex and snarky personality (thanks to a wonderfully realized turn from James Spader, who relishes Whedon’s quotation-happy dialog).

Spader’s Ultron adopts some freaky twins from another segment of the Marvel universe, there’s a birth of sorts, and more fight sequences, tossed vehicles, imploded buildings, and general chaos than can safely fit on a normal sized screen. That’s why they went IMAX, baby.

As with its predecessor and the best of the individual Avenger flicks, this adventure is loaded with visual style, but the film is at its best when it lets its characters become personalities. Whedon’s writing is so far superior to that of other superhero scribes – more naturally comedic and rich with opportunities for his cast to create characters – that the film cannot help but entertain. And beyond the funny one-liners, this Avengers explores some dark corners to undercover questionable moralities.

Still, there is a lot of icing on this cake. The film throws extra screen time and added layers toward some of the less-appreciated Avengers, nearly doubles the size of the team, and throws in so many super hero cameos it feels less like Age of Ultron and more like Avengers and Friends. There is so much going on that, to a certain degree, not much happens.

It’s huge, fast, colorful and fun. It’s smartly written and capably, enjoyable performed. It lacks the resonance and visual articulation of Captain America: The Winter Solder, and even when Ultron sings bitterly of Pinocchio, no villain in the Marvel universe has been able to hold a candle to Loki.

The thing is, it’s just cool to hang with these guys. Maybe it’s not their best album, but the live show is always fun.

True Story

by George Wolf

If you see the names James Franco and Jonah Hill together on a marquee and think “comedy,” you’re not alone. But remember, they have Oscar nominations for dramatic turns, and True Story pits them against one another in a deadly serious game of wits.

The film is based on the memoir of the same name by Michael Finkel, a former journalist with the New York Times. After playing loose with some facts in his Times expose on modern day slavery, Finkel was fired in disgrace. After heading back home to Montana and his wife Jill (Felicity Jomes), a strange call from a fellow reporter turned Finkel’s life upside down.

A man named Christian Longo, a fugitive wanted for the murder of his wife and 3 children, was captured in Mexico and found to be using Finkel’s identity.

Finkel follows the story and begins a relationship with the accused killer, each man viewing the other with curiosity and hopes for exploitation. Finkel sees the twist of fate as his ticket back to the big time while Longo wants his new friend to tell his side of the tragic events.

True Story marks the feature debut for director and co-writer Rupert Goold, a veteran of both stage and TV work. He displays a fine sense for big screen visuals, creating effective atmospherics for the frequent jail and courtroom settings, and contrasting them nicely with Finkel’s home base in Montana.

As Longo, Franco gives a finely nuanced performance that keeps you off balance, making it easier to understand how quickly his character forms a bond with Finkel. Hill is not far behind, giving depth to Finkel’s disgrace, and nice subtly to the unintended consequences of his quest for redemption.

Jones is the wild card here. For too long, you’re wondering what her role truly is, and then Jill’s face to face meeting with Longo instantly becomes the film’s emotional high point. The irony is, it is a meeting that didn’t really happen, and that underscores the pesky trouble of True Story.

The film is the sum of interesting parts and often skillfully told, perhaps to its own detriment. The gripping payoff you’re expecting never comes, and you realize sometimes fiction is just more compelling.

Cut Bank

by George Wolf

Pulpy from the get go, Cut Bank is an oddly interesting crime drama, seemingly inspired by several recent genre classics and held together by a well-seasoned cast having fun with some classic film noir archetypes.

It starts with the restless Dwayne (Liam Hemsworth) and his spunky girlfriend Cassandra (Teresa Palmer), who are out standing in a Cut Bank, Montana field with a camcorder. She’s practicing her speech for the upcoming Miss Cut Bank pageant and he’s filming it when suddenly, Dwayne also captures the murder of longtime town mailman Georgie (Bruce Dern).

Wouldn’t you know it, there’s a big reward for evidence in the murder of any postal worker, and Cassandra’s surly father (Billy Bob Thorton) sniffs out the plan right quick. So does local recluse Derby Milton (Michael Stuhlbarg, stealing the film), who really wants a certain package that is still in Georgie’s stolen mail truck. From there, things begin unraveling in an increasingly bloody fashion, much to chagrin of the folksy Sheriff Vogel (John Malkovich).

Both director Matt Shakman and writer Robert Patino are television vets moving to the big screen, and it’s easy to imagine their film springing from notes taken while watching Fargo, A Simple Plan, No Country for Old Men or even Sling Blade. Those are some high aspirations to be sure, and it would have been advisable to make the homages a little less transparent.

Even the cast provides an ironic catch-22. The charisma-free Hemsworth aside, these are veteran talents going toe to toe and it’s a kick to watch, so that’s good. But collectively they provide very few degrees of separation from any of the films Cut Bank resembles, making it even harder for the film to measure up.

Still, it might have beaten the odds had Shakman been able to find a consistent tone. Though always watchable, it isn’t clear if Cut Bank wants to be a dark comedy or a true noir thriller, so it’s never urgent enough to be compelling. Solid footing always seems just out of reach, leaving the film in that murky middle that is seldom satisfying.