CARRIER OPPORTUNITIES
Humankind is handed the job of playing alien-virus host in a thrills-free thriller. Plus, a far less ambitious (and far more entertaining) slasher flick.
AUG 31, 2007 – ITâS GALLING ENOUGH to be force-fed good-for-you messages by a regular movie â and by âregular movie,â? I mean the average, annoyingly earnest, Oscar-bait drama. (Not that using the picture hall as a pulpit is necessarily a bad thing, but my hackles rise when the plot becomes merely an excuse for in-your-face preaching.) But what is one to do when a sci-fi film resorts to the same tricks? Did they go through all the trouble to conjure up alternative, what-if scenarios only to ground them in the same messagey conceits â Human Beings Are Bad Bad Bad; We All Need To Get Along; Group-Hug, Group-Hug; and so on â that weâre already groaning under from the non-sci-fi releases?
Oliver Hirschbiegelâs The Invasion â yet another adaptation of Jack Finneyâs 1955 novel, The Body Snatchers â has a sturdy set-up, that of humans being infected by an alien virus that reduces its victims to near-zombies. (Either that, or a tape of Styxâs Mr. Roboto video wound up in outer space, and its extraterrestrial fans thought theyâd return the favour by turning all of mankind into stiff-jointed automatons.) But the exciting narrative possibilities of this premise are quickly jettisoned for ham-fisted discourses about how civilisation is just an illusion, how we are all just animals, and how man is solely responsible for the sorry state of the world today (thereby implying that things can only get better if warts-and-all humankind were replaced by a homegenised brotherhood of almost-humans).
The only thing worse about The Invasion is that it attempts to achieve these means through projectile vomit. Iâm not kidding. Thatâs how those already infected transmit the virus to the yet-to-be-infected. And yet weâre supposed to take seriously the attempts of psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) to save her son and, subsequently, the rest of the world! Filled with lazy clichés â there are at least two instances of dogs growling at the presence of the mutated humans â and terrible casting (Daniel Craig as a âbest friendâ? to Kidman, a platonic pal who makes pancakes for her at breakfast?), The Invasion is a high-minded snooze that made me wish Iâd stayed home and re-watched Abel Ferraraâs more down-and-dirty take instead. That 1993 version â called Body Snatchers, and set against the backdrop of the military â got all tangled up in allegory too, but at least it didnât forget to creep you out.
ITâS IMPOSSIBLE TO experience Vacancy on screen without simultaneously seeing another film in your head â and that mindâs-eye movie is Psycho. Deserted, in-the-middle-of-nowhere motel? Check. Unsuspecting guests whose car breaks down? Check. Mild-mannered behind-the-desk guy who gets his kicks from voyeurism and murder? Check. Black-comedy work-of-art created by a master of suspense? Ulp, not exactly, but then letâs not burden this B-movie with unrealistic expectations. What Vacancy wants to be is a lean, mean throwback, but not to the Hitchcock masterpiece so much as the slew of assembly-line slasher flicks that were spawned off of it. And that modest ambition is quite effectively realised by director Nimród Antal.
David and Amy Fox (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) are just a signature away from divorce, when they end up in the millennial equivalent of the Bates motel. Soon, their bickering isnât the only sound around. The phone rings, but no oneâs at the other end. They hear loud knocks on the door, but no oneâs outside either. And then â in a plot contrivance that suggests Peeping Tom by way of Caché â they stumble upon you-are-being-watched videotapes that detail the terrifying last moments of the earlier occupants of the room. Can David and Amy escape the grisly fate of the others? And will they rediscover one another in the process? Even if you donât know the answer to the former question, there can be no doubt about the latter. At least in Hollywood, the family that screams together stays together.
Copyright ©2007 The New Indian Express
Lakshmi
September 1, 2007
Waiting to read your post on RGV ki Aag. Please do the honours….:-)
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Anonymous
September 2, 2007
Diwali Kab Hai?
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Padawan
September 2, 2007
Would you be doing the review of RGV Ki Aag or is it going to be another case of reviewing only Hollywood flicks from now on?
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brangan
September 2, 2007
Three comments – and all for a review not yet written. Ah, cruel world 🙂
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KayKay
September 4, 2007
No such comments from me Mr.B. I like your East-West masala mix of reviews.But I do notice a tendency towards brevity when it comes to Western Flicks. A “KISS” command from your editor or a personal choice? No doubt, fare like Vacancy and Invasion don’t lend themselves to thesis length extrapolation but then again I’ve seen you mine sub-text from some of the barrell-scraping dreck that Bolly and Kolly churn out regularly:-)
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brangan
September 7, 2007
KayKay: It’s just the time factor. Sometimes, you have to dash something off in a couple of hours, and that’s what these are.
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Deepauk M
September 7, 2007
Its funny you mention Cache’ in your review. I loved how unapologetic that movie was about not providing closure. Have you reviewed it somewhere earlier? If not you should.
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brangan
September 10, 2007
Deepauk: No, haven’t reviewed Cache. The reviews I do are of films that are either released theatrically or seen at festivals.
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Deepauk M
September 11, 2007
Well then do you take requests? j/k … 🙂 . Love reading your work btw and congrats on the award.
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