Louder Than Bombs (15.)
Directed by Joachim Trier.
Starring Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg, Devin Druid, Amy Ryan and David Strathairn. 107 mins
This small scale American indie offers a variation on the can-of-worms drama about the dysfunctional family meeting up at a funeral and reflecting on their relationships with each other and the deceased. The difference is that there isn't a funeral; two years after the death of a celebrated war zone photographer (Huppert), the surviving family get together to go through her work prior to a gallery holding an exhibition of her work. The father (Byrne) cannot communicate with his withdrawn teenage son (Druid), while his other son (Eisenberg), a lecturer, is struggling to cope with the birth of his first son. Of course, conversations will be had, reconciliations will be sought, but mercifully, shouting is mostly avoided. Trier mixes in dream sequences and flashbacks so that it is more ethereal and serene than than these occasions usually are; it's ever so slightly American Beauty-ish. It's a drama, but the worms are coaxed gently and individually from the can, and are then tastefully presented.
Quite what is achieved by all this though is up for debate. It tinkles with major themes about our engagement with the wider world and the lessening of photojournalism's power to provoke western society. Huppert's war photographer says she isn't like the others who are addicted to the thrill of it, but when she is back home she is restless.
She is perfectly cast as a war photographer: sanctimonious risk taking has been the mainstay of Huppert's career. As the father Byrne remains softly spoken throughout; his character seems to be in retreat from centre stage and he remains oddly peripheral throughout, leaving the film's main focus on the only unknown member of the cast, Devin Druid, who resembles Ed Norton in some scenes. Eisenberg is wholly Eisenbergian, playing the smug lecturer who chooses the birth of his son to cheat on his wife with an old flame. The man is a master of micro aggressions and mini-condescensions. It's in the questions, “And what is this?” or the moment when he observes that his younger brother is eating some sugary cereals for breakfast, “And dad let's you eat that..... interesting.” It's a pity he wasn't this inherently hateful and evil when he was playing Lex Luther.
Directed by Joachim Trier.
Starring Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg, Devin Druid, Amy Ryan and David Strathairn. 107 mins
This small scale American indie offers a variation on the can-of-worms drama about the dysfunctional family meeting up at a funeral and reflecting on their relationships with each other and the deceased. The difference is that there isn't a funeral; two years after the death of a celebrated war zone photographer (Huppert), the surviving family get together to go through her work prior to a gallery holding an exhibition of her work. The father (Byrne) cannot communicate with his withdrawn teenage son (Druid), while his other son (Eisenberg), a lecturer, is struggling to cope with the birth of his first son. Of course, conversations will be had, reconciliations will be sought, but mercifully, shouting is mostly avoided. Trier mixes in dream sequences and flashbacks so that it is more ethereal and serene than than these occasions usually are; it's ever so slightly American Beauty-ish. It's a drama, but the worms are coaxed gently and individually from the can, and are then tastefully presented.
Quite what is achieved by all this though is up for debate. It tinkles with major themes about our engagement with the wider world and the lessening of photojournalism's power to provoke western society. Huppert's war photographer says she isn't like the others who are addicted to the thrill of it, but when she is back home she is restless.
She is perfectly cast as a war photographer: sanctimonious risk taking has been the mainstay of Huppert's career. As the father Byrne remains softly spoken throughout; his character seems to be in retreat from centre stage and he remains oddly peripheral throughout, leaving the film's main focus on the only unknown member of the cast, Devin Druid, who resembles Ed Norton in some scenes. Eisenberg is wholly Eisenbergian, playing the smug lecturer who chooses the birth of his son to cheat on his wife with an old flame. The man is a master of micro aggressions and mini-condescensions. It's in the questions, “And what is this?” or the moment when he observes that his younger brother is eating some sugary cereals for breakfast, “And dad let's you eat that..... interesting.” It's a pity he wasn't this inherently hateful and evil when he was playing Lex Luther.
