Month: November 2019

You’ll Find Enchantment Here

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The much-awaited Disney+ launched yesterday, and with it, a slew of exclusive films and shows – tucked among them is a live-action remake of 1955’s Lady and the Tramp — I know what you’re thinking; the inundation of live-action Disney remakes continues, but lest we forget, the original was a personal favorite of Walt Disney himself, and even among the herd of the unnecessary remakes (don’t see also: Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin, Jon Favreau’s The Lion King), this one’s a keeper, but not for the reasons you may expect.

Here is where I’d regurgitate the story in capsule form, but why bother when this is familiar territory? The fact of the matter is that there is very little new in this take on Lady and the Tramp, and the truth is, that’s wonderful. Too many of the Disney remakes have made pathetic attempts to overemphasize “modern qualities” in their characters (don’t see also: Emma Watson and/or Josh Gad in Beauty and the Beast), whereas in two of their best, The Jungle Book and Cinderella, it’s as much about honoring the past as it is looking to the future — rather like Walt’s vision, no?

Director Charlie Bean (The LEGO Ninjago Movie) makes his live-action debut with this film, playing it as straight as Sir Kenneth Branagh did with Cinderella, not once making fun of the film’s innocence and delight, and rather expounding on the emotion it brings the audience. His knowledge of CG animation also helps in the digital additions to the real animals portraying such characters — this isn’t like Tim Burton’s Dumbo (I know, I reviewed it well. I was wrong.); the animals in question look adorably natural to the viewer. Performances reflect that, too — Tessa Thompson (Avengers: Endgame) plays Lady warmly and to her own strengths, rather than either impersonating prior actress Barbara Luddy or trying to fix what isn’t broken. Justin Theroux (Wanderlust) does the same; he’s charming as Tramp, but also gives him a longing soul in his characterization. Additional canine cast members feature the note-perfectly cast Sam Elliot (A Star Is Born) as bumbling bloodhound Trusty and Janelle Monáe (Hidden Figures) taking up where Peggy Lee left off as Peg — she of the song He’s A Tramp. Rewritten as a girl is Scottish terrier Jock (now short for Jacqueline), aptly played by Scottish comedienne Ashley Jensen (After Life), and while it’s a needless change, it still works, and quite well. An additional animal character is Bull, played by Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange), finally getting to use his natural English accent — appropriately, as an English bulldog!

Human characters are in fine form, too — blind casting doesn’t work well, in my eyes, for period pieces, so it comes off a little bit Once Upon A Time for me to see it here, but the actors behind them are putting their hearts full of love into this, and that sells their performance, so such an argument is basically invalid. Lady’s owners, Jim Dear (Thomas Mann, The Highwaymen) and Darling (Kiersey Clemons, Hearts Beat Loud) are adorable as a couple who never stop falling in love with each other, while minor villain Aunt Sarah (Yvette Nicole Brown, Community) does the atypical crazy cat lady/dog hater to a T. The real lynchpin of the equation, though, comes from Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus), not as a villain, but as Tony, the serenading owner of the iconic Italian restaurant where the classic “Bella Notte” scene takes place. It brought a genuine tear to my eye, as it will for anyone else viewing it!

As said previously, while the movie doesn’t deviate from the core storyline or the 1890’s setting, what changes are made are largely welcome in my eyes — among them (without spoiling), giving Tramp a backstory, just enough not to overstay its welcome and still explain, adding a definite villain (of sorts) and giving a lovely twist at the end of the second act that only fuels the lead-in to the conclusion. One change is a little perplexing to me; the reworking of Aunt Sarah’s villainous cats — how is it less offensive for them to be voiced by and performed as African American rather than Asian? It’s just mind-boggling to me; who stands to gain by such a change?

Still, with all being said, this version of Lady and the Tramp is wonderful fun and a loving reminder of simpler times. I know, it’s nothing new, but it’s kindly and charming; just the kind of tonic needed right now, and a lovely way to open up Disney+. I look forward to all the service has to offer now and in the future.

Rating: 4/5

The Lonely Man

jamesdstringer Recent Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

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Edward Norton has been on something of a career resurgence lately. Almost a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his then-pompous nature resulted in his dismissal from the franchise, to say nothing of being confined to a host of straight-to-video films for a few years. Now, in 2019, he brings himself back to the silver screen in front of and behind the camera for the first time since his brilliant 2000 debut, Keeping The Faith, with an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s noir novel Motherless Brooklyn, one that is a proud success, but not without a key misgiving.

In 1950’s New York, a Tourette’s-stricken man, Lionel Essrog (Norton), orphaned at a young age and a victim of abuse, is now a partner in a detective agency. The roof, such as it is, comes falling down on himself and his comrades when the leader of the pack, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis, Red) is murdered while on the hunt of a major case. Despite having little to go on, Lionel makes it his prerogative to bring Frank’s killers to justice, which entails a massively corrupt politician (Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross), a victim of a housing crisis (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Belle), a mysterious informant (Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse) and a story that will blow the city’s darkest secrets wide-open.

While the credits say this film is adapted from Lethem’s novel, Norton’s screenplay takes one major liberty with the text — that of resetting the time in which the story is set. The book is a product of the time it was written in, the 1990s, so the change from then to the 50s is quite baffling, to say the least; it almost renders the film a generic clone of films like Chinatown, but just almost. Norton delivers on his vision both as director and actor — he portrays Lionel not as a tragedy deserving of pity, but as a brilliant mind unrecognized in his time, and he plays his disability with respect and accuracy, as evidenced by the fact he actually consulted the Tourette’s Association of America for instruction and their blessing on the project. He clearly isn’t in this project for a hammy grab at an Oscar. As director, Norton moves the film at a brisk, clipping pace, stopping to muse only where necessary, keeping the film moving tautly, even at a 2 hour 28 minutes runtime. One could also argue (and I will) that relocating the movie to the 1950s requires more work to recreate the time and is a harder route to take than a 1990s setting, and Norton’s crew goes above and beyond in their delivery of that – from time-accurate subway cars to a recreation of how Penn Station used to look, this is an eye-candy binge of the best caliber, far beyond just vintage clothing styles and historical vehicles.

The supporting cast is in as fine a form as ever — Dafoe continues to prove his worth to the acting profession in his character’s strength and duplicity; you’re never really sure of who or what he is, and too many great actors still can’t get duplicity right in their characterization. Baldwin plays villainous Moses Randolph as a sick sadist with no care for his fellow men — autobiographical, no?

Willis, another vastly underrated quantity of an actor, while not entirely present in the flesh in this film, is the driving force behind this story — what time he has on the screen is as a principled man who functions as Lionel’s moral compass; when he goes, Lionel has next to nothing to go on, both in emotions and his work, and when Ms. Mbatha-Raw appears as activist Laura Rose, he finds greater purpose in his growing love for her — Mbatha-Raw plays Laura as one of the few shining lights of truth in a dark, uncaring world, and far from either an atypical damsel in distress or femme fatale that plague noir films.

Motherless Brooklyn may not please fans of the novel owing to its time displacement, and its anti-sensationalist performances won’t get it any Oscar nods, but I feel its embellishments and changes bring it right between my two favorite freely adapted films — David Lean’s Great Expectations and Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz. Further, I can safely say as a person with Asperger Syndrome who’s seen his fair share of ghoulish portrayals of disabilities (don’t see also: Cuba Gooding Jr., Radio; Jacob Tremblay, Wonder), this is probably the most respectful portrayal of a disabled person since Rain Man, and like that film, this doesn’t fall prey to tired tropes about such conditions. Bravo, Mr. Norton; your return is most welcome.

Rating: 5/5