EIFF 2011

EIFF 2011: Project Nim Movie Review 0 561

Documentary fans will undoubtedly be highly anticipating the new film from director James Marsh, who brought us the fascinating Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire a few years back. And thankfully Marsh doesn’t disappoint with Project Nim, an absolutely fascinating look at a unique experiment into human/animal communication.

The documentary chronicles an experiment which took place in the ‘70s where scientists attempted to raise a baby chimpanzee (cutely named “Nim”) as if it were a normal child, including living in a normal home as part of a large family, allowing it to sleep in a normal bed and basically treating it no differently than any other child. The goal being to see if a chimpanzee is raised as a human can it naturally start to communicate with language (if not with speech then by sign language, in proper sentences) the same way as we do?

Straight away the experiment the film focuses on raises some major ethical and moral questions, at least when it comes to what will become of the animal when the scientists are done. As one of the scientists explains, at the age of five chimpanzees don’t know they’re own strength and generally aren’t suitable to live with other humans all the time. What may have seemed like a good – some may even say novelty – idea at the beginning turns out to be something of a disaster.

Marsh has already proven himself with the compelling Man On Wire that he is an expert documentarian and he continues to prove that with Project Nim. He manages to wring laughs and heartache (and everything else in between) out of this bizarre tale, without getting needlessly sentimental or preachy. That’s a tough thing to pull off in a documentary.

Deftly exploring the question of nature versus nurture (although I personally would have liked to have seen the issue of what happened to Nim’s mother after he was taken away from her explored a little more), Project Nim is a fascinating insight into the ways of an animal so close to that of humans and yet so different at the same time, skillyfully telling both sides of the story. And ultimately, in interesting ways, it explores the idea that tampering with their natural way of life is surely not a good thing. This has audience pleaser written all over it.

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I'm a freelance film reviewer and blogger with over 10 years of experience writing for various different reputable online and print publications. In addition to my running, editing and writing for Thoughts On Film, I am also the film critic for The National, the newspaper that supports an independent Scotland, covering the weekly film releases, film festivals and film-related features. I have a passion for all types of cinema, and have a particular love for foreign language film, especially South Korean and Japanese cinema. Favourite films include The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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The Muppets (2011) Movie Review 0 910

The Muppets movie review

It’s been more than a decade since The Muppets last appeared on the big-screen. Enough time that they’re not at the forefront of people’s minds but not too long that people have completely forgotten about them.

The brilliant set-up for the new movie, co-written by and starring Jason Segel, is that The Muppets aren’t actually together anymore and the world has moved on from their old, wholesome family entertainment style that once saw them globally popular. With the help of Walter, a huge fan of them, his “brother” Gary (Segel), and Gary’s girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams), they attempt to reunite the whole gang in order to save their old iconic theatre from destruction by an oil tycoon (Chris Cooper).

The Muppets does a couple of things quite brilliantly. First off, it does a great job of appealing to those people who (fondly) remember them from years past, infusing every scene with plenty of love and most importantly nostalgia for the characters and the overall happy vibe they give off. But at the same time it is fully aware that there will be people out there who either don’t have any idea who The Muppets are or barely remember them (whether it was before their time or they just weren’t exposed to them etc.). In the same way as J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, it keeps the original fans in mind while still making it appealing to a fresh audience. No mean feat – they pull it off with admirable aplomb.

The other thing this modern-day Muppets tale does is it appeals to audiences of all ages. Several generations of one family could all go and all laugh at the same scene. It has the silly slapstick stuff, the toilet humour and, of course, the funny-looking main characters themselves that will appeal to kids (and adults, for that matter!) but there’s also plenty of knowing and self-reflective humour that the adults can appreciate too. So whether it’s Fozzie Bear wearing “fart shoes” or Jason Segel making a knowing comment about travelling to another location “by map,” there’s something in there for everyone to laugh at.

A special mention must go to the music. Overseen by Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords, there is a plethora of hilarious, catchy, and often flat-out genius songs that expands on that mix of joyfulness and astute humour found elsewhere in the film. While you’re bobbing your head and tapping your toes to the songs – from “Life’s a Happy Song” to “Man or Muppet” – if you listen specifically to the lyrics there’s some very clever stuff going on. Often the music is done in a similar style to Flight of the Conchords, where it would almost seem made up on the spot by the characters at hand if it weren’t so polished.

Judging The Muppets as an overall film narrative it may not hang together as well as it should, and there’s never really any unpredictability to be found as far as the actual plot goes. But when there’s such a feeling of love, happiness and pure joy oozing from every seam it’s hard to care about any of the cracks. Charming and genuinely funny, with well cast human characters (including a wealth of surprise cameos), and many-an-awesome song, The Muppets is an utter delight to sit through. You’d have to be pretty hard-hearted not to fall for it.

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This review was previously published at Blog Critics.

Man on a Ledge Movie Review 0 749

Man on a Ledge movie review

With a title as blunt and, quite frankly, stupid as Asger Leth’s Man on a Ledge, it’s right not to expect all that much. I wasn’t looking for an awards-worthy thriller with great acting or insanely witty dialogue. But I also wasn’t expecting it to mess up its quite brilliantly simple premise.

The film at least starts off well enough, delivering a premise that while outlandish is not totally unbelievable. We have a mysterious man (Sam Worthington) who appears to want to kill himself by jumping off a building. However, as we can easily guess, there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

We have a man… on a ledge… who is he? why does he want to kill himself? Why does he appear to be stalling for time?… The trouble with Man on a Ledge is it starts well, at a competently intelligent level but as the thread is pulled more and more and the real story behind the false front is revealed it becomes increasingly ridiculous until any semblance of believability or relatability is thrown out the window (so to speak…). And the way it attempts to weasel its way into being an emotional story with a purpose makes it all the worse.

The film fails to merge together two duel, related storylines into an enjoyable complete package. The stuff with Worthington on the ledge, with Elizabeth Banks as the negotiator, is far more interesting and engaging than the Ocean’s Eleven wannabe antics happening elsewhere.

A cast of talented actors including Worthington, Banks, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, Anthony Mackie, Kyra Sedgwick and Titus Welliver is practically wasted here on half-hearted characterization, preposterous plot twists and trite, cliché-ridden character motivations. All this distracts from the already overly convoluted plot to the point where it’s hard to really care about anyone, even the guy who’s threatening to jump. Like the spectators below, I almost wished he would just do it and get it over with!

Minute-by-minute you can practically see the film’s IQ drop lower and lower until it finally descends into one of the most absurd, nonsensical endings to hit the screen in quite some time. And to add insult to injury it ultimately ties everything up far too conveniently for its own good, fumbling and stumbling on its way there, leaving an aftertaste of smugness in spite of its stupidity.

As a whole Man on a Ledge is not entirely devoid of entertainment as it at least keeps you guessing, even if one answer is as ridiculous as the last. Those willing to completely shut their brain off might get some dumb enjoyment out of it. But when you set everything up with an intriguing premise like this it’s all the more disappointing to see it turn out as dumb as you feared.

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This review was previously published at Blog Critics.