Time to get of my lazy ass and make an entry. (Hello AussieJim!). This one comes riding off a wave of horror and sheer disbelief at the film Equilibrium with Batman Begins/American Psycho/Machinist star Christian Bale and highly acclaimed acress Emily Watson of Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves.
So - where to start? IMDB, why hast thou forsaken me? 7.7 stars out of 10? Viewer reviews with comments like brilliantly stated philosophical question, high concept material, and stellar acting, it should have rung warning bells. Too good to be true?
Set in a fascist society where emotion-reducing drugs are mandatory. Bale is an elite member of a government force who hunt any deviants not taking their medication.
Unfortunately, released a good two years after The Matrix, the slick and rather funky fight scenes are almost identical. From the slo-mo choreography, the locations, the full length Nehru Jackets, the impossible backflips and the posturing two-gun shenanigans. Nicely done, but a rip-off.
Scenes are slow and overlong. Interaction between the characters is drawn out, and consists of meaningful glances more than anything else. When they do speak the dialog is delivered with an intensity which suggests the script was revered as some kind of 1984 classic, to be performed with all due weight. Which it isn’t. This is BraveNewWorld-meets-Farenheit451-meets-THX1138 acted by the 6th formers’ (USA equiv. escapes me) theatre club. In a small provincial town. In Wales.
Emily Watson does a valiant job of bring a wild eyed freedom fighter to the story but it’s lost on a character we see too little of to connect with. Christian Bale’s performance is embarassingly funny rather than sympathetic as he wrestles with his withdrawal from the drugs and the system. I was laughing out loud. Which almost redeemed it. Almost.
And - oh. The puppy scene. A modern classic in unintentional hilarity.
After coming off the medication, in the mist of emerging feelings Bale’s character intrudes on a bust of some “sense offenders” with an illegal stash of pets, including one adorable puppy he’s supposed to kill. The armed police conducting the search are confused at the reluctance of the senior enforcer and point their guns at him, almost announcing step away from the puppy. Between tense, almost teary eyed exchanges between pup and enforcer, he can’t do it, and stashes the merry animal in the trunk of his car.
Brilliant.