Film Club: Best Laid Plans (1999)

A modern noir story with early career performances from Josh Brolin and Reese Witherspoon, the film has it’s flaws, in particular some of the dialogue is a bit hackneyed, but it’s really interestingly structured as it twists and turns.

Opening on a night out gone wrong the film takes us back to show us how we’ve got to this point. The shifts in timeframe are smartly highlighted by the different colour palettes used, one a washed out spectrum of strong colours the other a clearer more naturalistic feel. It’s a neat device that also helps develop atmosphere of the film and events in progress.

It’s hard to talk too much about the plotting of the film without giving away moments that help drive film but there are clues present that not all might be as it is initially presented with background clues and small things like how characters react to ringing phones. Things that take on different meanings when you look back on them.

Brolin’s Bryce is a unlikeable show-off who finds himself crumbling under pressure, it’s a character that’s written not to be liked so it’s interesting that towards the end Brolin does make you feel some sympathy for him.

Alessandro Nivola doesn’t quite do enough to really bring the better sides of his character Nick, which does work against the film as you end questioning one of the key relationships in the film.

Meanwhile Reese Witherspoon shows here why she went on to forge a strong career (1999 also saw her excel in Election following turns in Cruel Intentions and Pleasantville), taking the most difficult part in the film to make work and doing an excellent job. She conveys a lot without speaking especially moving into the final third of the film.

After a couple of turns in it’s opening third the film does settle down but again as it comes to close throws in some surprising shifts that lead to a bitter sweet conclusion that I suspect will divide people on how well it works.

Aside from the colour usage the direction feels a bit like a TV drama rather than a feel apart from a few nicely framed sequences and it does have a bit of a habit of having conversation start in once location to cut to them being finished in another.

However another strong aspect is the soundtrack, both the choice of songs and the original score which from the outset sets an unsettling tone whilst also at times bringing out the sense of loss and listlessness which is at the heart of the story.

So this is Best Laid Plans, it does feel of it’s time quite strongly these days (you can imagine one key element of the story being worked differently these days) but it’s worth watch. Try not to second guess it too much and hopefully it’s surprise. The sort of smaller scale thriller you don’t see reach the cinema often anymore.

It’s on Amazon Video, Microsoft Store and iTunes (I also have a DVD a can lend out) if you want to watch it and let me know what you thought in the comments. (Definitely one easing to discuss in depth once watched!)

Logan

Last year Deadpool was held up as being something different and daring in the comic book movie genre. It used it's higher certification to ladle on the violence, nudity and crude humour but underneath that it was basically comic book film by numbers, failing totally to do anything interesting with world of possibility it's source material gave it.

Now with have Logan, another Wolverine story, another story about one of the most seen X-Men characters. Logan too has a higher certificate than the majority of comic book movies. Crucially Logan does do something different, something new with the genre.

What we have here is essentially a revisionist modern day western with a comic book background. It certainly shares elements (and even some dialogue) with the film's title it echoes, Shane. It's the tale of a reluctant fighter trying to leave a life behind but being drawn back to the violence he's trying to escape.

In amongst it there's a comedy-drama about the relationship between two men (Logan and Xavier) struggling with the realisation that their best days are behind them, in this there are echoes of the likes of Unforgiven whilst the determination to do one last thing right (and the Mexican border setting) echo the vastly under-rated The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

Crucially unlike Deadpool's ultra violence for the sake of it the much bloodier take on Logan's world serves a purpose. It's quite startling the first time we seen a claw clearly through a head and a limb severed but it helps to really bring home why Logan is the broken man he is. Haunted by years of this he's become a hollow man just trying to hang together long enough to get Charles somewhere away from anyone he could accidentally harm during seizures that shake the world.

A legacy that Logan has to try his best to help young Laura avoid if he can. This is sombre stuff.

Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart both do their best work as in these roles in the series and indeed both put in very strong performances all around from across their careers. Both mixing ably moments of levity in amongst introspection. One notable scene sees Jackman move from the physical comedy of unleashing his frustrations on a car, Basil Faulty style, to packing an emotional punch as you realise what's truly behind his outburst.

Likewise young Dafne Keen excels as Laura building a real sense of a child haunted by abuse but still wide eyed at a world she's not seen who slowly becomes attached to her travelling companions despite being mostly mute for a large part of the run time.

You could argue that Boyd Holbrook and Richard E. Grant's antagonists are under-developed but this is a film centered on the emotional journey of it's three leads more that it is on the tale of comic book conflict.  But you do find yourself caring about a family introduced in an interluding chapter as Charles tries to show Logan what he should be striving for.

The film is beautifully shot, a mix of scorched landscapes along the border, dusty ageing interiors, washed out greys and hazy sunlight is used in the final act as the metaphor of a day coming to end comes towards it's conclusion. Sharpe contrasts, clear images bring a feeling that this is the real world not the high reality of typical comic book fare.

There is imagination in the action (and as mentioned it all serves a purpose; one scene of Logan killing paralysed & stranded men underlying where he is mentally and how desperate things are) but the heart of the film lies in the drama surrounding it.

Deadpool was labelled comic book film making for adults. It wasn't. Logan is.

Leon

Coming before the patented Besson film-o-matic conveyor belt of identikit action thrillers Leon (known as The Professional in the States) in 1994 cemented Luc Besson as filmmaker to watch.

His first American outing after a trio of accomplished cult films (Subway, The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita) it's a great action thriller and at the same time a drama based around the growing relationship between an orphaned girl and the emotionally cut off man who comes to be her carer

The film centers around Jean Reno's "Cleaner" character who cameo'd in La Femme Nikita (although this is a different version of the same character rather than literally being the same), a professional hit-man who lives alone with his handler being the only person he knows.

He ends up taking in the girl, Mathilda (Natalie Portman) who lives down the hall after her family are killed by corrupt cops. She discovers how he makes a living and eventually convinces him to let her learn from him so she can avenger her baby brother.

The pair slowly grow closer as adopted father and daughter. Giving him the personal connection he's never had and her the caring father figure she has never had.

With strong performances all round, from Reno's stoic title character who loves musicals, Gary Oldman's unhinged corrupt DEA officer and of course Natalie Portman's startling debut performance. Showing a range well beyond her then 13 years.

Besson's style perfectly suits the film, zooms (with some great use of depth of field) and tracking shots work to emphasize moments of action & tension as well moments of reflection and emotion.Whilst the framing brings the feel of the French new wave of the 80s from which he emerged and is almost comic book styled at times.

In short a thriller that is guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye at the end. Just don't watch the trailer first, it gives basically everything away.