Review #1,436: 'Loving Vincent' (2017)

There have been many attempts over the years to comprehend the genius of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, from 1956's Lust for Life, to 1990's ambitious Vincent & Theo. While some of these movies are unquestionably good - perhaps none more masterful than Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh - the man himself remains an enigma, so filmmakers have now been forced to take more experimental measures when attempting to understand the painter who, while now regarded as one of art's most influential figures, only managed to sell one painting out of a rumoured 900 during his lifetime. Much focus is placed on the infamous ear-slicing incident, and this is where we began in Loving Vincent, a joint Polish and UK film that employed 125 painters to painstakingly recreate van Gogh's style over footage shot with actors in front of a green screen.

A year after van Gogh's suicide, postmaster and close friend of the troubled artist Joseph Roulin (Chris O'Dowd) tasks his street-fighting son Armand (Douglas Booth) with delivering van Gogh's final letter to his brother Theo. With questions surrounding the suicide still up in the air, Joseph finds van Gogh's sudden demise as suspicious, especially since the painter was in high spirits in the days leading up to the tragedy. It's a feeling that will eventually be shared by Joseph as he embarks on his journey, meeting faces familiar to us from van Gogh's portraits, including the likes of art dealer Pere Tanguy (John Sessions), cafe owner Adeline Ravoux (Eleanor Tomlinson) and close friend Doctor Gachet (Jerome Flynn). As Joseph learns of van Gogh's day-to-day life and his rocky relationship with Gachet and his daughter Marguerite (Saoirse Ronan), this may not be a cut-and-dry suicide carried out by an ear-chopping madman as previously thought.

By turning the subject of van Gogh into a dime-store detective story, Loving Vincent frequently runs the risk of tipping over into TV movie territory. What ultimately prevents this from happening is the time, care and love etched into every frame by directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman and the tireless artists, who took approximately 6 years to recreate the likes of Starry Night, At Eternity's Gate and Bank of the Oise at Auvers, and weave these scenes into a convincing narrative. There's also great work by the ensemble cast, each bringing to life the portraits they're based on without feeling staged, and each character offering a unique viewpoint of van Gogh himself, and how he was treated by those around him. It's a fresh take on van Gogh's life, mixing traditional narrative with flashbacks and interpretations in the hope of understanding this mysterious figure or seeing him from a different angle. The man himself is here also, played by Robert Gulaczyk, but his actions and behaviours still remain a mystery. While the true crime slant is somewhat pulpy, Loving Vincent is a treat for fans of van Gogh's work, and undeniably crafted with tenderness and a genuine love of its subject.


Directed by: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
Starring: Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Saoirse Ronan, Helen McCrory, Chris O'Dowd, John Sessions, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aidan Turner
Country: Poland/UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,255: 'The Limehouse Golem' (2016)

The Limehouse Golem, adapted from the novel by Peter Ackroyd, has lingered in development hell for years, being passed between various directors and actors (Alan Rickman pulled out at the last minute due to his failing health), before finally getting the green light in the hands of rookie filmmaker Juan Carlos Medina and screenwriter Jane Goldman. Boasting a terrific cast, a blood-drenched, smog-filled atmosphere, and a murder mystery that is as grisly as it is engaging, the film has sadly struggled to find an audience. With a measly number of ratings just shy of 4,000 on IMDb, its failure is truly unfortunate. The Limehouse Golem is, at its heart, a Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery set in a pre-Jack the Ripper London, complete with a frustrated detective, a handful of red herrings, a small band of colourful suspects. But dig a little deeper, and there's an interesting feminist work at play.

Beginning, as charismatic music hall performer Dan Leno (Douglas Booth) announces, at the end, Medina introduces to this eternally grey world with the death-by-poison of wannabe playwright John Cree (Sam Reid). His wife Lizzie (Olivia Cooke) is distraught, but her conniving maid Aveline (Maria Valverde) - whose role in the story becomes clearer through flashbacks - drops the hint to police that Lizzie is the one to make his nightcaps, and insisted on doing so the night the husband she wasn't very fond of died. The beginning, at we come to learn, is more like the middle, as this opening scene not only sets in motion Lizzie's story (she is arrested and faces the noose is found guilty), but may also hold the key to the identity of a brutal killer who has terrified the community of Limehouse with a series of nasty slayings - The Limehouse Golem.

We learn of the Golem's activities through John Kildare (Bill Nighy), a disliked Scotland Yard investigator brought in as a scapegoat when previous investigations have led to dead ends. Upright and quietly-spoken, Kildare is known as "not the marrying type," and has therefore found himself dumped in menial department ushered away in some dark corner, despite his obvious skills in the field. To help navigate the filthy slums, he procures the help of highly competent copper George Flood (Daniel Mays). Yet Kildare's hunt for the killer is made even more desperate by the ticking-clock that is Lizzie's trial, and saving her from the gallows becomes as equally important as preventing another murder victim. Man's urge to rescue a 'woman in need' is a prime focus of Medina's film, and Lizzie seems to find one at every turn. A victim of childhood abuse, she is also doted over by Cree, a nice guy on the face of it, but one driven by the need to sweep a girl away from nothing and into his handsome, middle-class arms.

Kildare quickly learns that Lizzie doesn't need to be, or even want to be, saved. Nighy may have received top billing, but this is very much Cooke's film. She has the most screen time, and handles Lizzie's development from a strong-willed working-class girl, into a star of the music hall, and eventually into a possible murderer, astonishingly well. As Leno, Booth plays the role like a big-toothed and less annoying version of Russell Brand, and shows remarkable restraint and skill in avoiding stumbling into caricature. But much praise must also be lavished on Medina and Goldman, who both manage to juggle the thrills and intrigue of a Victorian whodunit with a character piece that reveals far more layers than you would expect. When it does delve deeper into the mystery, Medina relishes the squalor, employing different characters to monologue the killer's diary as Kildare lines up the suspects, and delivering some surprisingly gory moments. Surely a film destined to enjoy cult success later in life, The Limehouse Golem is a truly unexpected delight.


Directed by: Juan Carlos Medina
Starring: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth, Daniel Mays, María Valverde, Eddie Marsan, Sam Reid
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #891: 'Jupiter Ascending' (2015)

Ever since 1999's The Matrix have people been waiting for the Wachowski siblings to live up their potential. Although it can be said that their breakthrough hit borrowed heavily from other sources, it was without question unlike anything before seen in mainstream cinema, weaving philosophy and mysticism into a sci-fi loaded with gunplay and kung-fu. Four critical (and two financial) flops later, and we're still waiting. Their latest, Jupiter Ascending, is an intriguing tale of a young Earthling girl caught up in a tug-of-war between three intergalactic royals, but once again the Wachowskis have sacrificed everything in favour of aesthetic, creating a film so devoid of character and logic that you have to wonder if any producer will put faith in them again.

Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) is a young Russian girl living in America, who scrubs the toilets of her wealthy neighbours for a living. We feel sorry for her because her father was killed before she was born, and she is currently living in the same house as her stereotypical Russian family. Whilst undergoing an operation to remove her eggs to make some quick cash in a money-making scheme with her brother, she is attacked by a group of extra-terrestrial's called 'Keepers'. However, she is saved by the hulking half-man half-wolf soldier Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), who whisks her away to safety and takes her to the home of his former comrade Stinger Apini (Sean Bean).

Stinger informs Jupiter that she is indeed royalty, and that she shares the exact genetic make-up of a long-dead matriarch of the powerful Abrasax alien dynasty. Her existence has three siblings - Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Titus (Douglas Booth) and Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) - squabbling over Jupiter, as she unwittingly holds the rights to a huge chunk of space real estate that each of the three feel is their birthright. Earth happens to be a pot of gold to the Abrasax's, as the planet has reached overpopulation and the human race is ripe for harvesting in order to extract a powerful elixir that prolongs the lives of the elite class.

For a film that spends so much time delivering exposition, the movie fails to explain itself very well. From start to finish, it feels as if the Wachowski's are spoon-feeding us the hardly complicated plot while building up the familiar messiah subtext and delivering extended CGI action scenes. It's also strange that the two director's, who are capable of writing strong female roles (see 1996's Bound), have written their female protagonist as existing solely to be sent screaming off a cliff, into outer space etc., only to be rescued at the last minute by Wise, the goatee'd, pointy-eared superhero. This happens time and time again to the point that it became laughable, especially in today's age.

The cast try their best. Bean somehow comes out of it completely unscathed, and Redmayne - Oscar-winner for The Theory of Everything (2014) - at least stands out, hamming it up to quite ludicrous levels and delivering his sinister lines with a whisper. Tatum is clearly capable of more, but is given little to work with, but Kunis is completely miscast. Her heroine is terribly written, but she looks awkward as a leading lady and unconvincing as a 'chosen one'. It's an empty, boring experience, with the Wachowski's demonstrating little care with the script ("Bee's don't lie," - one character says with a straight face), and even less with avoiding lazy plot-holes (it takes one crashed ship to bring down a planetary base?). It will take something special for the Wachowski's to recover from their work over the last 16 years.


Directed by: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Starring: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton
Country: USA/UK

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie