Film provokes difficult moral questions (From Droitwich Advertiser)

Film provokes difficult moral questions

6:50am Saturday 4th July 2009

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GRAN Torino (Cert 15, 111 mins, Warner Home Video, Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £27.99) Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley, Doua Moua, Brian Haley, Brian Howe.

Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) is consumed by grief over the death of his wife and harbours resentment towards his two sons, Mitch (Haley) and Steve (Howe), who want to ship him off to a care home.

The old coot has no interest in the sermons of local priest, Father Janovich (Carley), and even less time for the Asian next-door neighbours he labels "swamp rats".

When Hmong gang-banger Spider (Moua) and his four-strong posse scrap with neighbour's son Thao (Vang) on his lawn, Walt intervenes with a rifle. Spider and co flee the scene and Thao's older sister Sue (Her) shows her gratitude by strengthening ties between the two households.

Against the odds, Walt finds himself warming to his neighbours and he takes Thao under his wing. Gran Torino is another beautifully crafted, deeply compassionate and timely humanist drama from Eastwood, which provokes difficult, moral questions about personal responsibility and sacrifice in a world riven by gang violence and peer pressure.

In what reportedly is his final appearance in front of a camera, the veteran leading man is mesmerising as a curmudgeon who chews on political correctness and spits out the bones, dismissing Sue's heartfelt thanks for saving Thao by growling, "All I did was get a bunch of jabbering gooks off my lawn".

The strength of the performance is Eastwood's ability to chip away at Walt's steely facade and reveal the rage and despair within. Newcomers Vang and Her pale in comparison, particularly in the heart-wrenching final act when Walt proves that love truly has no limits.

DVD Extras: "Manning The Wheel As Reflected In American Car Culture" featurette, "Gran Torino: More Than A Car" featurette; Blu-ray: "The Eastwood Way" featurette, "Manning The Wheel As Reflected In American Car Culture" featurette, "Gran Torino: More Than A Car" featurette.

Rating: Four out of five.

Confessions Of A Shopaholic (Cert PG, 100 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £23.99) Starring: Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, John Goodman, Joan Cusack, Kristin Scott Thomas, Leslie Bibb, Robert Stanton.

Rebecca Bloomwood (Fisher) is a journalist with a dream: to work for fashion bible Alette and its ultra-stylish French editor, Alette Naylor (Thomas).

Unfortunately, the job she wants is nabbed by bitchy staffer Alicia Billington (Bibb) so Rebecca decides to climb the corporate ladder by landing a job at sister magazine, Successful Saving, under the direction of charismatic new editor Luke Brandon (Dancy).

Rebecca's quirky interpretation of financial journalism in a column entitled The Girl With The Green Scarf is a breath of fresh air and the magazine's stagnant sales sky rocket.

However, there is a dark secret which Rebecca keeps from Luke, her colleagues and even her parents (Goodman, Cusack): she is a shopaholic and has maxed out all of her credit cards.

Confessions Of A Shopaholic is the right film in the right place at the wrong time. With credit well and truly crunched and our belts tightened to the point of cutting off the nation's monetary circulation, it's hard to muster sympathy for a spend-happy, romantic comedy heroine who is undone by her passion for shopping.

Fisher is luminous in the lead role, oozing sweetness and charm and demonstrating impeccable comic timing in a dancefloor sequence with a handheld fan.

Dancy bumbles and blusters his way through a role that would fit Hugh Grant like a snug, cashmere glove while Cusack and Goodman bring an eccentricity and warmth to their caring parents.

PJ Hogan's film doesn't outstay its welcome, and as long as Fisher is on-screen we're happy to be sold this cheap and cheerful fantasy.

DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, Bloopers Of A Shopaholic, "Stuck With Each Other", featurette, Shontelle featuring Akon music video; Blu-ray: "Behind The Fashion: Wardrobe By Patricia Field" featurette, "Temple Of Shopping" featurette, "The Green Scarf" featurette, "New York: Fashion Central" featurette, "Sample Sale: Madness" featurette, deleted scenes, Bloopers Of A Shopaholic, "Stuck With Each Other", featurette, Shontelle featuring Akon music video.

Rating: Three out of five.

Revolutionary Road (Cert 15, 114 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99) Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates, Richard Easton, David Harbour, Zoe Kazan.

Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) and aspiring actress April Johnson (Winslet) meet at a Greenwich Village cocktail party, fall in love and marry. They move into a pretty, little house on Revolutionary Road, raise two children and forge ambitious plans to move to Paris, where she can take a well-paid secretarial position at a government agency and he can decide what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

Nosy neighbour Mrs Givings (Bates) and her husband (Easton) don't understand Frank and April's desire to abandon America. Indeed, the only person who shares their worldview is the Givings' emotionally-damaged son John (Shannon).

Dreams of the French capital crumble when Frank sleeps with a secretary (Kazan), and an increasingly unhappy April encourages the advances of married neighbour Shep (Harbour).

If you feel a chill in the air, it's just Sam Mendes's beautifully-crafted yet emotionally cold adaptation of the novel by Richard Yates.

Set in 1950s suburban Connecticut, where white picket fences and impeccably-mown lawns project an image of suburban bliss to mask the betrayal and regret, Revolutionary Road doesn't move us at all during the opening hour.

The film is technically polished, including flawless production design and Roger Deakin's cinematography. Performances are electrifying too with DiCaprio and Winslet verbally tearing strips off each other, in stark contrast to the last time they shared the screen in Titanic, and Shannon is heartbreaking as a man shattered by electroshock therapy.

Yet we struggle to emotionally connect to Frank and April, misery tumbling from their mouths and sadness etched in every furrow of their brows.

DVD Extras: Director and screenwriter commentary, "Lives Of Quiet Desperation: The Making Of Revolutionary Road" featurette, deleted scenes; Blu-ray: director and screenwriter commentary, "Lives Of Quiet Desperation: The Making Of Revolutionary Road" featurette, "Richard Yates: The Wages Of Truth" featurette, deleted scenes with optional director and screenwriter commentary, theatrical trailer.

Rating: Three out of five.

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