"I watch so you don't have to" -- Lisa DeMoraes
April 29, 2010--
"The Red Riding Trilogy"
People have criticized me for liking dark, depressing movies instead of 'heart-warming family films' (aka "The Blind Side"), so I thought I would expand my horizons by going to a feel-good, family-sounding film "The Little Red Riding Hood Trilogy." Except when I got to the Angelika theater in downtown Houston, I realized it was not a 3D, animated retelling of the popular fairy tale from the Disney conglomerate, but a 3-part BBC series based on a real life serial child-killer that terrorized Yorkshire in the 1970s and 80s! And this was on Easter Sunday! Go Figure!
Actually titled "The Red Riding Trilogy" and originally airing on BBC television, I have to say it translates well to the big screen. Not only because of the superior British acting (the scenes between Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Hall are amazing--and not just because they are having sex all the time), but because each installment has its own accomplished director, creating a subtle shift in tone and style from episode to episode Part One, which takes place in the Year of our Lord 1974, is especially authentic in capturing the mood and feel of a 1970s crime drama. Director Julian Jarrold never lets you escape from the cold, rainy, suffocating grip of his mise-en-scene. This is two hours of sheer depravity and violence -- I loved every minute of it!
I loved it not because I love depravity and violence -- I love uncompromising, exceptional filmmaking! But it was so gut-wrenching I couldn't stay for Part Two. I saw the last two installments on succeeding nights, and while interesting, they didn't reach the epic heights of Part One. The other two films (set in 1980 and 1983) continue the story of the corrupt Yorkshire Police Department and how it was finally brought down by one of its own, but they don't pack the emotional wallop of part one (nor does part 3 offer the expiation the audience is entitled to after enduring 6 hours of chasing a depraved pedophile).
So in that sense, an investment in all 3 films leaves one somewhat disappointed (not to mention exhausted). Part One stands on its own as a gut-wrenching, captivating tale of police brutality and corruption, but I defy anyone to stop after just one film.
And now for something completely different -- a serial killer in Sweden!
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Dir: Niels Arden Oplev
Dir: Niels Arden Oplev
The popularity of the Swedish mystery trilogy "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (another trilogy!) has always intrigued me. According to NPR, Americans are defying U.S. law to order the UK edition of the English translation of the third (and final, due to Stieg Larsson's untimely death) installment before it is released here. After watching the film version of Part One, all I can say is: "There are a lot of sick, sick people hanging out at 'Murder By the Book' in Houston!"
Because this movie is two hours of sheer depravity and violence -- I hated it!!
Not because I hate depravity and violence -- au contraire -- I hate pointless, gratuitous depravity and violence (involving Swedes). I won't give away anything (I hope) to say the late-author piled on every sick pathology into his villains (Anti-Semitism, torture, mutilation, incest) -- he even made them Nazis! Swedish Nazis!
Subtlety was not this guy's strong suit.
But what really kills this movie is that, in apparent over-fidelity to the book, IT NEVER ENDS! The audience is forced to endure an extended denouement that is so at odds with the rest of the film, I left the theater not only repulsed but feeling cheated--as if the author sacrificed his main character so he could insert an inauthentic 'twist' to the end of his book.
And I never found out why she got that hellacious dragon tattoo!
