Tom Hanks

Splinter in the Mind’s Eye

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Ugh. Meh. This writer is not nearly as happy as he should be on this Disney+ Day — which normally would be in early November, but if the acceleration of the day is any indication, the studio’s live-action remake of Pinocchio needed much more time in the shop, preferably in the formative stage. Long-gestating under a plethora of directors (Sam Mendes, Paul King, et cetera), each with as impressive a pedigree as the chosen director, Robert Zemeckis (the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Polar Express), it’s mind-boggling how the final result turned out so slipshod and blasé, especially when I was crying tears of joy from seeing the trailer.

The story is changed in all the wrong ways; we gain nothing from being told new facets of Gepetto (the immortal Tom Hanks, undoubtedly the best part of the film) and his past — the first rule of screenwriting is “show, don’t tell” for an awfully good reason — Honest John (Keegan Michael-Key, Key & Peele) is loquacious to the point of tiresome, and the new characters added give nothing to the story. It also feels wholly derivative of better Disney films — yes, films other than Pinocchio — there’s even a tear-healing scene torn straight from the pages of Tangled (…God, I’m glad that at least the days of verb titles are dead) and an action scene pinched from The Incredibles. Yeesh. The songs written by the otherwise immortal Alan Silvestri (Avengers: Endgame) and his frequent collaborator, Glen Ballard (Beowulf, A Christmas Carol) are half-baked and reek of Camp Broadway. Tack on an ending that feels like it was written last weekend and the end result is beneath sub-par.

As Disney live-action remakes go, this is not awful. I mean, it’s not the creme de la crap that was the high pandemic’s Mulan, nor is it as cloyingly condescending as 2017’s Beauty and the Beast (I know, my review gives a wholly other impression; I was wrong as can be) and certainly not as outright cynical as Tim Burton’s Dumbo. That being said, it doesn’t do anything as brilliantly different as Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, nor does it carve (heh heh) its own identity as David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon did, and it falls well short of being a tribute to the classic it inspired, like Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella or Charlie Bean’s Lady and the Tramp — it’s just kind of there. Walt Disney is dead in the corporeal sense, true enough, but his soul remains in cryostasis — the studio could melt our hearts with his vision if they’d only find the courage to turn on the heat.

Fearless

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In making Sully, legendary director Clint Eastwood has created an amazing epic about an event most would deem TV movie fare. True, the movie is the shortest of his career, running at just 95 minutes, but it is nothing short of astounding in every sense of the word, a film that is moving, suspenseful and, in presentation, the first of its kind.

Based on a true story that made international headlines in 2009, the film deals with the human psyche as well as presenting the enduring legacy of its title figure. Tom Hanks (Angels & Demons) brillaintly portrays Captain Chesley Sullenberger as a man thrust into the public eye, all for keeping people safe in a moment of extreme crisis — he is shocked and haunted by what-if scenarios in his mind, and it only gets worse when the airline companies and insurance firms butt in, trying to find some damning evidence to ruin him and his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart, The Dark Knight), all while having to deal by proxy with his wife (Laura Linney, John Adams) and daughters’ stress of being daunted by the press outside their home.

If it sounds as though I’ve downplayed the acting capability of Mr. Eckhart and Ms. Linney, my apologies, for they are fantastic as well, providing a moral compass to guide Sully and keep him resolute in a time of great stress. Just as impressive is the smaller but very necessary focus on a few of the passengers aboard Flight 1549, which could easily have slowed down the film to the dreaded level of boredom most disaster films suffer from. Thankfully, the passengers focused on only help us as viewers to fear for their safety. Believe me, there are moments in this film where, even though you know how the crew and passengers end up, you cling to your seat for dear life and gasp in terror.

As I said before, Sully is the first film of its kind in that it’s filmed almost entirely with IMAX cameras — 95%, according to IMAX Corp., and the difference is staggering. If there is an IMAX theater near you, you are doing yourself a great disservice if you don’t see it in the aforementioned format. The screen fills to the complete 1.90:1 IMAX aspect ratio, and the sound was mixed for IMAX first, so you’re getting the best balance and listening experience here and here alone. However, a format doesn’t guarantee a great film, but you get one here, thanks not just to the innovative octogenarian Eastwood, but his go-to cinematographer Tom Stern (Hereafter, American Sniper) and first-time Eastwood company member Blu Murray as editor. The film, occasionally jumping from event to event, is a seamless, much less coherent, experience.

While the Hollywood intelligentsia and some of the public may not think much of Eastwood now due to his politics, I urge you to put those views of his to the side and enjoy the film as it stands — a salute to heroism under fire, and thus far, the best motion picture of the year.

Rating: 5/5