Tag Archives: Ethan Hawke

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Being in Love Means Never Having to Say “Slow Down!”

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by Richard Ades

 

Just days after the events depicted in Before Midnight, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is still smarting from the emasculating attack he endured at the hands of Celine (Julie Delpy), the increasingly bitter love of his life. He returns to their Parisian home and is surprised to find it empty and in a state of disarray.

The phone rings. A strangely accented voice tells him he must steal a souped-up Mustang and perform a series of dangerous tasks if he ever wants to see Celine again.

There’s a long pause. “Well?” the voice asks.

“I’m thinking,” Jesse replies.

Obviously, that is not how Getaway begins. A flick that hopes to attract fans of Gone in Sixty Seconds and similar car-chase epics has no time for complicated relationships. It doesn’t even have time for exposition. Instead, director Courtney Solomon dives into the gear-gnashing, tire-squealing action before the opening credits even roll.

Via flashbacks and spare bits of dialogue, we learn that Brent Magna (Hawke) is a washed-up American racecar driver now living in Sofia, Bulgaria. We also learn that his Bulgarian wife (Rebecca Budig) has been abducted by a mysterious man (Jon Voight) who communicates with Brent through the car’s phone and threatens to kill her unless his instructions are followed to the letter.

Soon joined by the Mustang’s angry owner, a young woman known only as the Kid (Selena Gomez), Brent is ordered to perform tasks that mostly involve evading the police and always put the general public at risk. And because it’s the Christmas season, there’s a lot of general public around to be put at risk.

All of this could be entertaining if it weren’t for a couple of problems.

First, the movie suffers from unfortunate timing. In an early scene, Brent is told to drive at full speed through thick crowds of holiday revelers. Though he miraculously avoids hitting anyone, it’s an uncomfortable reminder of the Dodge-driving maniac who killed a bride and injured 16 others while plowing through a Los Angeles boardwalk crowd in early August.

More importantly, co-screenwriter and third-time director Solomon (An American Haunting) seems to have no knack for this kind of thing. The action is nearly nonstop and the destruction is massive, but frantic editing lowers the excitement level.

We see a tiny Bulgarian police car, and a split second later, it crashes. Where’s the fun in that? A last-minute chase, in which Solomon adopts the driver’s-view strategy pioneered by Bullitt (1968), offers one of the flick’s few heart-pounding moments.

Solomon’s attempts at humor also fall flat. They mostly call on the Kid to hurl insults at Brent, such as calling him a “shitty” driver—which is incongruous, considering he’s performing moves that could only be completed by someone who’s spent his life racing on Sundays and studying stunt driving the rest of the week.

In general, the talented Hawke and likable Gomez are limited to yelling at each other in the midst of all the mayhem, except during the rare quiet moments when the Kid uses her technological savvy in an attempt to figure out their tormenter’s motive. And he has one, of course, but don’t think about it too hard or you’ll start asking questions.

Getaway is designed to be mindless entertainment, after all. It’s just too bad that the mindlessness began before the first pedal was pressed to the metal.

 

More reviews and stories by Richard Ades can be found on his theater blog, columbustheater.org, and in the new weekly version of the Columbus Free Press, which launches Sept. 5.

 

 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM7BB16PkAw

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Because After Midnight, They’re Gonna Let It All Hang Down

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Before Midnight

by Hope Madden

The third installment of what may be the most understated trilogy in cinematic history, Before Midnight catches up with Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) – American writer and French muse – almost twenty years after their first meeting on that train.

Those two romantic kids Richard Linklater followed around Vienna back in 1994’s Before Sunrise, then again through Paris in 2004’s Before Sunset, are now a timeworn couple with kids on vacation in Greece. If nothing else, the pair does visit lovely spots.

For all the similarities in the three films, though, Linklater and his two leads/co-writers take the story in a very natural yet risky direction. The first two installments are among the most unabashedly romantic indie films ever made.

Before Midnight, on the other hand, is far more of a meditation on relationships – the compromises, selfishness, joys, tedium. This is untrod ground in Hollywood, where films find inspiration in either the beginning or the end of a romance. That long slog in the middle, though, that’s hidden from view.

As Celine and Jesse struggle with the consequences of their youthful decisions and wrestle against the weight of middle age, they take some time to examine their lives, flaws and desires. They talk it out.

This is certainly the talkiest film released this weekend, as it relies entirely on conversation to tell its story. There are times when the dialogue feels self-serving. At other times, it gives the film too pretentious an air. On the whole, though, these characters are recognizable in a way that is rarely achieved in film.

Delpy’s performance is particularly courageous, as she’s willing to be unlikeable in the way we all are when we’re feeling particularly bitter and put-upon. Hawke equals her performance, allowing Jesse’s entire demeanor to change in relation to Celine’s mood; after years together, he can predict what’s coming and maneuver to calm the storm. Their unerring take on couplehood is often unsettling, and it brings authenticity to every scene.

Warts and all, Before Midnight is a sort of miracle. It revisits beloved characters with subversive honesty, embraces mid-life without pretending it to be something other than what it is, and finds value in the struggle to remain inspired by your own love.

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A Bumpy Night

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by George Wolf

 

In less than ten years, America will be a land full of jobs and free of crime, with citizens reciting a pledge to the “new founding fathers.” The catch? Once a year, all laws are lifted for a twelve hour free-for-all, as Americans are encouraged to cleanse their souls of rage.

That’s the premise of The Purge, and it’s a pretty solid one, with deep roots easily traced to  The Hunger Games, A Clockwork Orange, and classic short stories such as The Most Dangerous Game and The Lottery.

There are countless other film examples, and no surprise,  a visionary director is usually the difference the good (Straw Dogs) and the bad (Hostel).

The Purge falls somewhere in the middle. Writer/director James DeMonaco sets a firm hook, as security system salesman James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) comes home to his family in an upper crust neighborhood. He bids his friends and neighbors a “safe night,” puts flowers on the lawn to show his public support for the purge, and battens down the family hatches, hoping to survive the night.

DeMonaco isn’t subtle with the message of the haves feeding off the have-nots. Give him credit, though, for weaving liberal guilt, right-wing rage, racial tensions, paranoia, national security and more into the mix, creating a tense, subversive clash of moral ambiguities.

Of course, it does turn out to be a bumpy night for the Sandins, and when the film shifts into home-invasion standoff mode, trouble comes a-knockin’.

The intruders are modeled heavily on the killers from both The Strangers and Funny Games, there are cliches and lapses in plausibility, but still, DeMonaco finds ways keep you interested. Nifty camera work, a quick pace and some good playoffs do much to overcome the flaws. You get the feeling DeMonaco wrote the script and the storyboard together, letting his director side step in when doubts arose, reassuring his writer side that they could make it work.

In a way, they were both right. The screenwriter has much on his mind, but after a solid start, boxes himself in and chooses the easy way out. The director takes it from there, finding some stylishly resourceful ways to make The Purge worth a look.

 

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