Posts Tagged ‘Eve Hewson’

Disclosure Day

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Elizabeth Marvel, Tommy Martinez

Running Time: 2 hours and 25 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp collaborates again with Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) in his new film Disclosure Day which is a strange mix of a 1980’s action movie and a weird throwback to Spielberg’s earlier 1977 alien film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

On one level, Disclosure Day is extremely well made with beautiful cinematography with long-time collaborator Oscar winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) and features some extraordinary scenes particularly the train sequence when the two main leads Margaret Fairchild brilliantly played by Oscar nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) and Dr Daniel Kellner played by Josh O’Connor (Challengers, God’s Own Country) are escaping some gun tottering government agents.

In Disclosure Day, the aliens are not out there in the galaxy but they have already arrived on earth and they have two human emissaries: the weather girl from Kansas City, Margaret and the young and hot headed Daniel Kellner. British actor Josh O’Connor does well in a big budget blockbuster as the male lead and has sufficient screen time with Emily Blunt and his former co-star Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) who he starred in together in the British period drama Mothering Sunday back in 2021.

Firth plays Noah Scanlon, the leader of a shady organization with links to the government who is intent on keeping the alien existence secret from the rest of the world.

Luckily the headstrong Margaret, a feisty weather girl from Kansas City who suddenly develops telepathic powers and dumps her guitar loving blonde boyfriend Jackson played by Wyatt Russell, son of Hollywood stars Golden Hawn and Kurt Russell, as she goes on a mission to meet up with Daniel and his girlfriend Jane played by Irish actress Eve Hewson (Bridge of Spies, Robin Hood).

As Daniel and Margaret rush to the location of Hugo Wakefield played by Oscar nominee Colman Domingo (Rustin, Sing Sing), who is committed to exposing the truth about the existence of extraterritorial life forms, Scanlon and his private army try to eliminate the couple before the imminent disclosure.

Audiences must remember that this is all set in the Midwest – Missouri to be exact in a film featuring mostly a British cast. Disclosure Day starts off exceptionally promising with the usual Spielberg flourishes which made such films as War of the Worlds and Minority Report so brilliant.

Unfortunately, David Koepp’s script goes off the reservation when the actual moment of disclosure occurs in a world filled with instant news. The critical moment of Margaret telling the world about the existence of aliens lacks the profundity required to make Disclosure Day memorable.

The narrative becomes weird and characters start falling off the screenplay never to be seen again. There is even deer, wolves and aliens that appear in strange wheelchairs….

Disclosure Day has a great director, an adequate cast but the narrative is clunky and unsubtle. It becomes too literal and obvious which is done to appease an American audience.

Disclosure Day gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is an enjoyable film but not ground-breaking. Spielberg needed a better scriptwriter and a more American cast if the entire film is set in the Mid-West.

It’s not believable that a weather girl from Kansas City would become the chosen one for representatives of E.T. Recommended viewing but not essential.

Robin Hood

Director: Otto Bathurst

Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Jamie Dornan, Paul Anderson, Tim Minchin, F. Murray Abraham, Scot Greenan

A revisionist retelling of Robin Hood for the Instagram generation gets a thrilling thumbs up.

With the gorgeous Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Eddie the Eagle) as Robin, Lord of Loxley teaming up with Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (Ray) as Little John, director Otto Bathurst sets Robin Hood at the time of the crusades when Robin Hood is conscripted to fight in the holy wars in Arabia leaving his young girlfriend Marian behind.

Marian is played with panache and feisty femininity by Irish actress Eve Hewson (Bridge of Spies). While Robin is away fighting the crusades Marian meets the equally dashing but politically ambitious Will Scarlet played by Jamie Dornan (The 9^th Life of Louis Drax, Fifty Shades of Grey).

Heavily influenced by Little John, Robin of Loxley with assisted training by the hunky Moor is roped into stealing from the rich to give to the poor. In this case the rich are represented by the evil Sheriff of Nottingham played with suitable menace by Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One, A Star Wars Story).

The powerful Sheriff answers to an equally corrupt cardinal played with vigour by Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus).

Robin Hood is an ideal escapist action adventure film with some brilliant fight sequences and excellent special effects held together by some incisive editing and a catchy score. Produced by Leonardo di Caprio, this Robin Hood perfectly played by Taron Egerton looks like there could be a franchise in the making.

Peaky Blinders star Paul Anderson plays the ruthless sidekick to the Sheriff, Guy of Gisbourne, who feels nothing at executing prisoners of war or burning down the commoner’s dwellings.

Robin Hood is a fun filled action adventure film quite slim on storyline and historical accuracy but definitely catering for the 21^st century audience that is not too worried about authenticity as long as there is sufficient action.

Certainly entertaining, Robin Hood gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and scores an extra point for the really cool graphics that appear in the closing credits. Recommended viewing for light holiday fare.

Bridge of Spies

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Jesse Plemons, Austin Stowell, Sebastian Koch, Will Rogers, Billy Magnussen, Eve Hewson

The opening shot of Bridge of Spies features a suspected spy painting a self portrait of himself in a dingy Brooklyn flat, symbolic of a reflective look at the characters involved in the Cold War and the complicity of the two superpowers whose distrust of each other ripened over four subsequent decades.

Oscar Winner Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forest Gump) plays insurance lawyer turned defence attorney in the Steven Spielberg directed Cold War thriller, Bridge of Spies, which despite its length is an absorbing and fascinating film set amidst 1950’s paranoia, propaganda and old fashioned espionage.

With a script by the Coen brothers and Matt Charman, Bridge of Spies raises the profile of British actor Mark Rylance, Emmy nominated for his superb portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in the BBC series Wolf Hall, as suspected spy Rudolf Abel who is arrested in his Brooklyn apartment by American government agents for espionage.

Tom Hanks in one of his most likable performances to date since his brilliant turn in Captain Philips, plays James B. Donovan who at the request of his law firm is asked to give Abel a fair trial despite public opinion being considerably stacked against him. This is 1957 America, a country in the grip of McCarthyism and Cold War paranoia. The Russians are building a wall to divide Berlin in half and each super power is suspected of stockpiling a nuclear arsenal sufficient enough to repeat the horrors of Hiroshima, which ended World War II in 1945.

As the intricate narrative arc of Bridge of Spies unfolds, complete with period production design and gritty cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, it is apparent that Donovan realizes the potential of keeping Abel alive in case for whatever reason the Americans need to use him as a trade for one of their citizens that could potentially be captured behind enemy lines.

This prediction happens sooner than expected when an American pilot, sanctioned by the CIA, Francis Powers, played by Austin Stowell (Whiplash) is shot down and captured in Soviet territory and duly interrogated by the Russians about the spy plane he was flying. To add to the mix, as Berlin is being divided in half by the infamous wall, an American economics student Frederic Pryor played by Will Rogers is captured by the East Germans and who want to use him as a means for these two super powers to recognize the sovereignty of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) German Democratic Republic.

Oscar winning veteran director Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Munich and Saving Private Ryan) skilfully weaves a very complex espionage tale in which his two main leads Hanks and Rylance have sufficient screen time to paint a portrait of an unusual relationship between attorney and client surpassing the perceived notion of a lawyer defending a suspected spy.

This public conception of Abel’s guilt and Donovan’s sympathy towards his clients is brilliantly portrayed in an affecting scene on the New York subway where commuters all stare at Donovan with disdain after reading press coverage of the trial in the morning newspapers.

Bridge of Spies is an absorbing historical drama about the Cold War, yet at 141 minutes, the film could have been edited although Rylance and Hanks are terrific in their roles as Abel and Donovan. The supporting cast includes Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Jesse Plemons and Sebastian Koch. Highly recommended viewing for those that relish a vintage spy drama, something which is rarely seen in this digital age.