If we are to be frank, no one anywhere was crying out for a sequel to the 2006 film Step Up. But sometimes people just don’t know what’s good for them, which is why there is a special brand of people called the ‘movie executive’. They are here to make all the tough necessary choices. One of those choices that the world apparently couldn’t do without was to bankroll Step Up 2 the Streets.
For those above the age of 13 that will admit to having seen it, Step Up was a guilty pleasure. It had neat choreography, charismatic leads and little plot. It all culminated in ‘the dance’, the one everyone has been building towards for the length of the movie, and happy endings all round.
Step Up 2 the Streets is exactly the same… minus the charisma. Also, if it is possible, I would go so far to say it has even less plot. I do in fact believe that before throwing together the five pages that must have been the script, writers Toni Ann Johnson and Karen Barna first listed the soundtrack – it does have more dialogue than any individual character.
That, of course, is why people will see this. Pretty people dancing well to hip-shaking music. The dancing is certainly of the highest quality, more impressive than the first movie.
The ludicrously white bread Andie (brought to us by Briana Evigan) is getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. To remove her from all the crime and violent dance outbursts she is sent to an elite school of the arts (upon the suggestion of Channing Tatum from the original flick, dropping in long enough to establish the one tenuous link of continuity, before disappearing to beat up Ryan Phillippe in some war movie). At the school she forms a dance crew with other outcasts, finds love and competes in The Streets, an illegal dance competition (inexplicably illegal, the last time anyone tried to make dancing seem dangerous was in Footloose).
Now add a dance sequence between every word of the above sentence and you have yourself a movie.
While the dancing will strike awe into the hearts of many (myself included), the acting may cause even more to cringe for the length of the film. At least it’s not the worst, most ill-advised sequel to a dance happy movie. That honour goes to Grease 2 (Save the Last Dance 2 does exist and is stupid, but no one really knows about its existence – a saving grace).
For all the Hollywood blockbusters that Australian audiences lap up over the years and all the ‘worthy’ films poking our current global crises (there are too many to highlight one) with a stick, it is a Swedish movie that holds a record no others have come near. As It Is In Heaven has entered its 69th record week at the Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne, Sydney. It is the longest running film in the country and recently passed the $1 million mark in gross box office at this cinema.
Which begs the question, why?
For some time I was strangely averse to joining the continuing steady stream to check this flick out. Something about the manic wide eyed devotion of the friends who had told me I must see it had the opposite effect. That level of devotion, and the movie they described, made the whole thing sound corny as hell. Perhaps more disturbingly, many of these people were also repeat offenders. I had flashbacks to all those women proudly claiming to have paid to see Titanic over ten times, something I am sure they would all like to forget.
Daniel Daréus (Michael Nyqvist), a world renowned conductor, suffers a heart attack and is told his condition remains weak. In order to recover he goes to live in the village where he was bullied through his childhood. The locals, awestruck by his celebrity, convince him to coach the church choir. It’s not long before he is opening their lives to the possibility of music, and they in turn open his life to the possibility of love.
In the hands of Hollywood what would follow is the kind of predictable saccharine crap proudly brought to you by the sequel of Mr Holland’s Opus (watch this shuddering, horrified space, because you all no that is not out of the question).
I have decided the key to this movie’s success is the way it skates around the schmaltz only occasionally dipping its toe in. The various conundrums facing members of the choir are not predictable, but honest and highly possible. One woman is in an abusive relationship which cannot be neatly solved, while another struggles to find warmth in her husband who is also the local minister. Darius’ romance with sweet natured Lena (played quite brilliantly by Frida Hallgren) is littered with obstacles, but instead of a series of contrived barriers (like writing an article about trying to lose a guy in 10 days, or discovering your lover is a spy), the problems reside within the characters and their own emotional limitations.
The ending is a master class in delivering satisfaction and the requisite uplift, while encasing it with a light coating of regret and sadness. Director Kay Pollack, who turns 70 this year, has done marvels with a strong script.
My biggest complaint is that the whole thing is too long. It drags into something nearing repetition in the back third. If that is my biggest complaint, then what are my others? Just one – I don’t get it. At the risk of sounding like a spoilsport, while I enjoyed this film and certainly see its merits, I cannot for a second imagine what is driving the devotion of the return viewers. Believe me, there are still plenty of them. At the recent screening I went to it was a full house, and at the end some of them seemed to be singing along (people probably did that at the end of Titanic as well).
I won’t be going back, but nor am I going to attempt to dissuade others from seeing it. If you’re interested in saving money, then you can always rent it. On the other hand, the soundtrack can benefit from a cinema delivery to give it that extra oomph. I also suspect that seeing it while surrounded by devotees can help with the uplift.
Bodice-heaving, history-making, monarch-breeding and incest are all on ripe display in The Other Boleyn Girl. The film charts the rise and fall of the much maligned Anne Boleyn, and her sweet (and therefore often forgotten) sister Mary in the court of King Henry the eighth.
Imaginative detail and smudging of historical fact are all to be expected in this adaptation from the novel of the same name by Philippa Gregory. Through the machinations of the sister’s father Henry takes Mary as his mistress, but a jealous Anne is soon turning his head and demanding more than mild Mary would have ever considered. Break with the Pope, form your own church and disavow your perfectly legitimate current Queen are among Anne’s requirements.
Nathalie Portman plays Anne Boleyn, and owns every frame of film (including the ones she is not in). She is scheming, ambitious and yet complex and somehow fragile. Anne comes across as her father’s creation, as desperate for power as he is, but much more intelligent. She is also the villain of the piece, but with Portman’s performance one can’t help but feel she is simply on the receiving end of some severe sexism which seems to imply that with ambition comes beheading.
Of course, Mary is proudly brought to you by Scarlett Johansson. She plays against type, for perhaps the first time in her entire career, as the sweet-natured victim of her family’s plots. Here it becomes apparent that being meek and accommodating is what makes a woman truly attractive. I am not the biggest fan of ScarJo, but I must say that her scenes with Portman carry a lot of chemistry and she really seems to be pushing herself (I normally find her one note, overrated, leading with her lips and followed closely by a husky whisper). She doesn't push herself too far from the norm however and comparisons might make one inclined to rename the movie The Other Portman Girl... if ScarJo changed her name. Her timid character is less charismatic but certainly sympathetic.
Eric Bana as Henry is the most underwritten. He is believable and ultimately unlikable as a result of his actions. I still find myself quite disturbed watching him in sex scenes, ever since Munich. Kristin Scott Thomas, Jim Sturgess and Ana Torrent are the other notable players, shining with minor roles.
The movie is unflinching in it’s representation of the way nobles used their children as pawns, and lives were cheaply ended. The brutality of the end, while unsurprising for those who know the history, is still shocking. Perhaps a complete lack of knowledge would make it all the more effective; the demise of a certain character might become a shock twist.
If what you want is a good, old fashioned costume romp then this is your film. It lacks a little something in the delivery that might make it award winning, something in the script fails to bring the oomph, but the performances shine through and the intrigue becomes more involving as the plot gathers pace.
Of some note is the odd use of closing title cards that explain everyone’s fate. It seems strangely full of pomp and aimed at historical credibility for a film that essentially buys into the ‘Anne as ambitious wench who got what she deserved’ mythology (most of the accusations have been proven to be false). It also seems to be setting itself up as some sort of prequel to a truly great historical film. Don’t want to give anything away, but we all know Portman’s history with prequels and playing the royal tragic mother. Look closely and Portman and Cate Blanchett next time you see them – you might spot the family resemblance.
Michael Lown
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