Flick of The Day: Blood & Wine

Director Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson have had a career long partnership, resulting in two of the best films to come out of the '70s generation, Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens. Rafelson has said that this film, acts an unofficial finale to a trilogy started with the above.

Blood and Wine

Alex Gates, a dark and increasingly haggard Jack Nicholson, is a well to do wine merchant, whose business and marriage are quickly floundering in the Miami sunshine. His prescription drug addicted wife is resentful and suspicious of where he spends his nights, quite rightly too as it turns out. His step-son, a very young Stephen Dorff, has little but contempt for him. Meanwhile he is plotting with an ageing terminally ill Michael Caine to steal a million dollar diamond from a wealthy client. Add to this maelstrom, Jennifer Lopez as a scheming Cuban immigrant and you have a classic film noir setup.

Caine and Nicholson play well off each other, playing grotesque versions of themselves. Caine is excellent as old con getting more desperate as he gets closer to his reckoning. Nicholson is equally adept as a man reaching the end of his tether, largely due to his own mistakes. If there is one problem with all this, its that none of the characters are particularly likeable, and consequently you don't find yourself rooting for anyone as the double and triple crosses take hold as we head toward a denouement. Only Dorff comes out with any credit, as the strangely sullen son, who has no apparent interest in the wealth the diamond might bring.

Jennifer Lopez, deserves credit for making more of a role that otherwise would have faded into the background. Ultimately the film leads to a dissatisfying ending for all concerned but its interesting all the same, for the interplay between Nicholson & Caine, who have never worked together before. Like all film noir you get dragged into the tale and want to see where it goes, this one doesn't go where you want it.

Flick of The Day: Somewhere

Parenthood. Its one of those core themes that is at the centre of films as diverse as To Kill a Mockingbird and As Good as It Gets. It is also the subject of today's film, the latest film from Sofia Coppola, Somewhere. 

Somewhere

In an unexpectedly strong performance given his career thus far, Stephen Dorff stars as a washed up action star called Johnny Marco hiding out in the legendary Chateau Marmont Hotel in West Hollywood. The film opens with Johnny driving round and round a circular race track in his Ferrari. He is going in circles much as he is in life, spending his days lounging around the Hotel, drinking, smoking and moving from one meaningless tryst to the next. That is until his daughter, the delightful Elle Fanning turns up on his doorstep and he is forced to be a father.

Lost in Translation

This is Coppola's fourth film as a director and it returns to the familiar territory of Lost In Translation after 2006's bubblegum history flick Marie Antoinette. All of the themes are there: A washed up Hollywood star, Loneliness in a large hotel, and a depressed character who finds redemption in a new relationship. That's not to say that this film is a derivative of her earlier work. It stands in its own right and Coppola is a master at such themes.

In truth, Elle Fanning is not overly tested as Johnny's daughter Cleo, though there are a number of scenes where Cleo almost intrudes upon Johnny's drinking and debauchery, she never actually does so. I would suppose the point being made is that Cleo is fine, She has her Dad and doesn't need anything more then him to be there so the real emotional breakthroughs of the film are Dorff's. He is the centre of the film.

Marie Antoinette

Of course, Johnny realizes eventually that the hollow nature of his lifestyle is the source of his despair and that he gets more enjoyment from simply hanging by the pool with his daughter then living the vapid Hollywood lifestyle. The film ends with Johnny driving his Ferrari. Somewhere.