Bryce Zabel's MOVIE SMACKDOWN!

The Reader (2008) -vs- Doubt (2008)

We Care About These People Why?

The Smackdown.  This is not only the season to be jolly but out here in Hollywood it's the season of awards campaigns kicking into gear. As a member of both the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild, I've received a good share of the DVD screeners that show up at the door from UPS and, over the last two nights, watched two films back-to-back that I'd never imagined Smacking down together. Both "The Reader" and "Doubt" feature lead characters that either are or probably are having sex with underage boys. If you're looking to find the rooting value in either of these films, you will have to look pretty hard yet both of them are being touted as the best of the best this year. They've already received their share of awards nominations from other organizations and the Oscars are beckoning. Because they're both out simultaneously, there is no "challenger" or "champion" designation. So before you get hyped out where you are, here's a report from the front lines.

In This Corner. In director Stephen Daldry's and screenwriter David Hare's adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's novel, it's 1958, Berlin, and a sad woman named Hanna (Kate Winslet) starts up a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy Michael Berg (German actor David Kross). The life experience head-start he gets comes with a price. She wants him to read to her. That's right. She wants him to bring his school books and read out loud to her. At first the reading comes before the sex but, soon, the reading comes first, then the sex. About half-way through the film, things change a lot more than the sex/reading order, secrets are revealed and we are, basically, into an entirely different film that spans many decades into the future. And not joyfully different, mind you. Daldry and Hare are the same people who brought us the lost and depressing film, "The Hours."

The Wrestler (2008) -vs- Rocky Balboa (2006)

Taking a Last Shot at Glory 

The Smackdown.  It's a classic underdog story (and Smackdown) we have before us. Other than boxer George Foreman it almost never happens in real life but we love the very idea of an aging champ who gets up off the canvas (comes out of retirement) to claim his former glory in a final burst of passion and daring. A couple of years ago nearly everybody was shocked to see that there was even an ounce of life left in the Rocky franchise when, in its sixth installment, "Rocky Balboa" got off the cinematic mat and gave audiences the best experience with the boxer from Philly since the bicentennial. This year there's all kinds of buzz about Mickey Rourke's stellar performance in "The Wrestler."  Ladies and Gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble because Randy (the Ram) Robinson has just stepped in the ring with Rocky Balboa!

The Challenger. The hype over this film is split about 50/50 between the poignancy of the story and world of director Darren Aronofsky's fourth feature and the fact that it mirrors in content a comeback story in real life featuring Mickey Rourke. There's no question that Rourke has had an erratic career, built on bad choices and oddball behavior in public so there's a dramatic resonance when he plays Randy (the Ram) Robinson, a battered hulk of a professional wrestler who should stay down but keeps getting up. "The Wrestler" actually won the Venice Film Festival this year in its depiction of the real, hard-edged world of pro wrestling. We all know it's faked but that doesn't mean that people don't get hurt and feel pain, and that the pain can be emotional as much as physical. It's twenty years after the Ram's hey-day in this film and instead of Madison Square Garden, he's playing some pretty awful venues. It's so bad he can't even make the rent on his trailer but the physical demands of getting in the ring make it a worse place to make a living with every passing day.

Revolutionary Road (2008) -vs- American Beauty (1999)

Lives of Not-So-Quiet Desperation

The Smackdown.  The hype around "Revolutionary Road," of course, centers around the fact that it re-unites Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) for the first time since the mega-super blockbuster "Titanic."  But smacking "Revolutionary Road" against "Titanic" would be like comparing apples and sailboats.  The real competition is between the family dysfunction of the 1999 Oscar winning "American Beauty" and the latest "Revolutionary Road" portrayal, both filmed by British director Sam Mendes.  If Jack had survived and he and Rose had gone on to settle into the suburbs, they might have ended up like Frank and April Wheeler.  Whether that couple would be as compelling to view as Lester and Carolyn Burnam, there's the battle ahead.

The Challenger.  "Revolutionary Road" tells the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a couple of once-free spirits who have moved into the suburbs of 1950s America and are slowly dying inside.  The problem appears to be that neither one of them are the people they once were and neither one of them likes who they've become or who their partner has become.  This is a tough spot for any couple with two children but in the America of that time where sexism is rampant, everybody smokes and drinks, and nobody says what they mean, it can be deadly.  The film is not full of event, it's full of small details of daily life and decaying marriage, realized with a spot-on intensity.  It feels so true to human nature than whenever you see anything that even remotely reminds you of yourself or your own marriage, all you can do is cringe.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) -vs- The Kite Runner (2007)

Rising Above Expectations

The Smackdown.  Childhood friendships can last a lifetime and have profound consequences. Both "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Kite Runner" tell sweeping stories in the lives of two boys -- a set of brothers in the former and a set of friends who act like brothers in the latter. They use narratives that cut back-and-forth across time, forcing them to use multiple sets of actors to portray their characters as boys turn to men. The contemporary storylines are deepened by the children's experiences we see in flashback.  Both films started as novels, force viewers (English-speaking ones anyway) to read a few sub-titles and share settings -- India and Afghanistan -- that have been scarred by terrorism as deeply as the United States. And even though "Slumdog Millionaire" is probably going to get an Oscar nomination this year, it's still going to have to hold off "The Kite Runner" to win this Smackdown...

The Challenger.  "Slumdog Millionaire" feels like it's giving you an authentic slice of life in the real India.  As directed by Danny Boyle from a screenplay by Simon Bradley based on a novel by Vikas Swarup, it tells the story of Jamel, an impoverished orphan from the slums of Mumbai who, as the film begins, is amazingly winning on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" against all the odds.  He's being accused of cheating because nobody can believe a petty thief with his background could possibly know what he knows.  And there's the cheat which isn't a cheat at all.  Flashbacks reveal exactly how hard-won the knowledge is that is allowing him to become a sensation.  His story is embellished by his on-going relationship with his equally adept survivor brother Salim and the improbable romance with a girl named Latika.

Gran Torino (2008) -vs- The Shootist (1976)

Does Who You've Killed Make You Who You Are?

The Smackdown. Rumor has it that "Gran Torino" will be the last film that Clint Eastwood acts in.  In it, he basically plays a version of his tough-guy screen characters (think Harry Callahan) who, at the end of his life, has to deal with the fact that so much of who he is derives from who he's killed.  Thirty-two years ago, another tough guy -- John Wayne -- acted in his last film, "The Shootist," where he also played a character who, at the end of his life, had to deal with the violence that had surrounded his days on Earth.  Both of these legendary tough-guys are portrayed as being brought down by disease, having cheated the bloody ravages they've inflicted on others, as they close out their screen personas in projects that say as much about their full careers as the actual films of the moment.  Lending weight to the efforts is that added fact that both of these films parallel the goodbye to these iconic characters by playing them out against times that are changing:  Detroit for Eastwood and the Wild West for Wayne. 

 

The Challenger.  In what may be his swan song to acting, Clint Eastwood directs himself in "Gran Torino."  He plays Walt Kowalski, a tormented Korean War vet and a character with a lot of relevance today, given that he's also a retired auto plant worker, still living in Detroit and wondering where and when it was that the whole thing fell apart.  After his wife dies, it's just Walt, the family he really doesn't connect with, and the next door neighbors who are all Hmong immigrants.  The story was written, not by some A-lister, but by Nick Schenk, a Minnesota wannabe who wrote the whole thing with pen and paper sitting in a bar, and then had Eastwood pretty much shoot every damn word of it.  Part of what attracted Eastwood, no doubt, is how beautifully it allows him to give us a reprise of the Dirty Harry character, but wrap it in a bloody bow of human redemption at the same time.  The narrative has Walt at his peevish best, hurling insults at the neighbors and his family, only to find himself in an odd-friendship with the Hmong kid next door who he catches trying to steal his prized Gran Torino, a car he himself had a hand in making back in the day when Detroit ruled the world.  Yet violence and gangs prevent the film from being just a sweet or comic story of friendship:  this is Clint's farewell to a character-type and he needs to go out in a way that pays off how he got in this world in the first place.  I'll say no more on that score...