Laurel Canyon
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Movie Reviews of Laurel Canyon
Movie Review: beautifully acted drama
Summary: 3 Stars
***1/2 "Laurel Canyon" is an intriguing character-driven drama, written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko and featuring first-rate performances by Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Alessandro Nivola and Natascha McElhone. Sam (Bale) and Alex (Beckinsale) are recent Harvard med school grads who move to Southern California to begin a new phase in their lives, he as a resident in a psychiatric ward and she as a genetics researcher working on her PhD. While there, the young couple moves in with Sam's mother, Jane (McDormand), an aging, hard-living but highly successful music producer who owns a gorgeous residence (in Hollywood's posh Laurel Canyon) that also doubles as a recording studio. Sam, an earnest, rigid, almost prudish young man, has long rejected the free-wheeling lifestyle of his mother whom he considers more of an embarrassment than anything else. The brainy Alex, on the other hand, who graduated first in their highly competitive class, has led a more "sheltered" existence and she finds herself strangely drawn to the hedonistic atmosphere she finds here. Another factor pulling the couple apart is the growing relationship between Sam and Sara (McElhone), the beautiful young resident who works with him at the hospital. The fifth element in the mix is Ian (Nivola), a smooth-talking, cocky young singer who, though officially attached to the much-older Jane, plays a primary role in getting Alex to loosen up, shed her inhibitions, and come join their little "party."
"Laurel Canyon" plays out like a "civilized" power struggle, with the various characters jockeying for position, staking out their territory, and attempting to pull certain key individuals into their own respective corners. Alex, with her air of naïve innocence, is clearly the main "prize" here, but Sam also feels a noticeable tug from Sara, who senses in her co-worker a kindred spirit she would like to get to know better. These are people playing with fire - Jane and Ian in particular - and one of the messages of "Laurel Canyon" seems to be that a life conducted without a clear moral code will end up in disaster for all concerned. However, Cholodenko does not seem exactly enamored of Sam's provincialism either, seeing it as a wall he has constructed in order to hide from the truth of his own nature.
McDormand makes an indelible impression as the intriguing but somewhat pathetic Jane, a woman who's failed as a mother primarily because she's never been able to grow up and accept adult responsibility. The few encounters we are privy to between mother and son are searing in their intensity, but "Laurel Canyon" keeps its confrontation scenes to a minimum, choosing instead to find its meaning in the things that are NOT said rather than in the things that are. That's a risky strategy that generally pays off, though some in the audience may find the subtlety and lack of a clear-cut resolution unsatisfying and even frustrating in the long run. The plotting is sometimes a bit too clear-cut and neat for its own good and the parallelism (i.e. the simultaneous drifting apart of Sam and Alex due to their respective "temptations") sometimes feels forced and obvious. The parallelism is less obtrusive in the case of Sam's patient, a 16-year old boy whose drug addiction is placed in stark opposition to the "casual, recreational" drug use of Jane and her music-making cohorts. Moreover, having Sam and Alex be a married couple rather than just boyfriend and girlfriend might have intensified some of the moral complexities and dilemmas faced by the characters. Still, the caliber of both the acting and the writing keeps us involved for the duration of the film.
"Laurel Canyon" spins a unique tale in a relatively unfamiliar setting and provides five fine actors an opportunity to display the perfection of their craft.
Movie Review: Mixed feelings, really...
Summary: 3 Stars
There is a certain undeniable pleasure in watching bad films, the failed attempts, and then going eloquent about that. It's like reconfirming the codes we all share, feeling yourself to be a one of the species, a member of the quality control board where all the discerning moviegoers are welcome. It's fascinating to read dozens of critics' reviews which tell you why's this new production falls short of perfection or is no good at all despite all the effort invested - and agree. If you're not going to remember this film as a great - or at least satisfying - cinematic experience you can get your kicks from looking at it from above. Which is also endearing sometimes.All the failings of Laurel Canyon are self-evident: the plot is ultimately formulaic, everything is so predictable, the antagonisms and temptations are so clichéd, the depictions of "opposing" lifestyles are unintentional parody. The director's agenda "appears to be a lesbian-positive theme of openness to experimentation and its accompanying emotional costs", the tired conflict of hip and square with the only nuance in making the mother a rock'n'roll libertine and the son an uptight conservator. Frances McDormand has to do her best and look convincingly alive and witty with a gems like that:
Alex: We just hadn't planned on a change of plan.
Jane: Well who plans on a change of plan? I mean, that would be sorta paranoid, don't you think?
Most of the time she succeeds - no thanks to the self-important scriptwriting studded with helpless witticisms of the movie's director Ms. Cholodenko.
The casting is reason enough to see this cinema school excercize and not have any regrets afterwards. I like to watch Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone and Alessandro Nivola walk and talk no matter how inferior is the script and directing. These are very beautiful and intelligent people and as an actors they're in a more or less the same category - underrated.
As much as I agree with the Laurel Canyon's more ardent critics there's a sequence that redeems for me that almost-a-film. The movie's promotional review written for the Cannes festival tells that ""Laurel Canyon" is a witty film that takes fascinating turns yet contains an unfortunate I-can't-make-up-my-mind-how-to-finish-this ending." Well, this ending, these finishing minutes when the director\scriptwriter thankfully dropped her pretense of being in control are one of these thrilling surprises you can sometimes encounter even in the ultimately moderate and uninspired productions.
Everything is kind of resolved, the apologies are accepted, the temptations are withstood, Christian Bale's character sheds the excess vigor swimming in the villa's pool, looking great - and wasted. That's when he gets a call from an Israeli doctor played by the sultry Natascha McElhone.
He had already closed the door on her. But hearing her voice he realizes there are no closed doors in this life and it's the moment of a very acute inner clarity, he submerges, putting the transparent mass of water between himself and the world above, the music plays and I get in a trancelike state of amazement that has nothing to do with any unhealthy substances readily available these days, it's the pure enjoyment of art, that can emerge for a couple minutes even from the most helpless drivel.
P.S. As a sucker for quirky details I was greatly amused by the Kate Beckinsale's Alex who - after kissing his boyfriend's mother so lustily in the pool - sports the AC/DC T-shirt during her next morning jog - like a repentant Medieval sinner would wear the robe woven of hair as a sign of the painful regret and a signal to the others to stay back from her doomed self.
Was that intentional?
Movie Review: The siren song of the Low Road
Summary: 3 Stars
LAUREL CANYON, a drama, is more than just a little reminiscent of 1994's SIRENS, a comedy. In the latter, Hugh Grant plays a newly-minted Anglican cleric of the Victorain era posted to Australia, where his bishop assigns him the task of prevailing upon a celebrated local artist (Sam Neill) to elevate his canvasses out of the gutter by leaving out the bare-naked ladies. Arriving at the artist's tropical residence, the minister finds the sultry lushness of the surroundings exceeded only by that of several nude models, one of whom is Elle Macpherson. While the cleric valiantly keeps a stiff upper lip in the face of so much nubile flesh, his sexually repressed wife (Tara Fitzgerald) is soon seduced by the sensual atmosphere that pervades the place and is presided over by the Neill character, a sort of benignly detached Hugh Hefner type.In this film, Dr. Sam, M.D. (Christian Bale) and his fiancee, Dr. Alex, M.D. (Kate Beckinsale), both graduates of Harvard Med, travel to Los Angeles to temporarily take up abode in the vacant residence of the former's mother, Jane (Frances McDormand), while Alex does a First Year Resident gig in the psychiatric unit of a local hospital and Alex finishes up her Ph.D. dissertation on the genomics of fruit flies. However, upon arriving at the home in LAUREL CANYON, the two find the place still occupied. Jane, a record producer and aging Flower Child, is using the location to put together a new disc with a British rock band. Uptight Sam, who describes his Mom as dysfunctional, is not overly surprised to find her presiding over an environment of marijuana, casual sex, and rock 'n' roll - the traditional California dangers (according to traditional mothers everywhere) to virtue and clean living. But there's nothing Sam can do on a daily basis but go off to do his shrink stuff, during which he becomes attracted to Second Year Resident Dr. Sara (Natascha McElhone), while leaving Alex at home to cope with the corrosive hedonism of surroundings so unlike those of her hoity-toity Eastern upbringing.
For me, the only reason to see LAUREL CANYON is the talented Frances McDormand, who proves that she, as an older actress, can be awfully sexy. Of the female roles in the film, world weary and wise Jane is the only one who promises a Good Time not subject to guilty post-coital introspection. Since none of the other characters captured my interest or sympathy, the quality of the acting involved in their portrayal is irrelevant. Ian (Alessandro Nivola), the leader of the rock group, is just obnoxious as Jane's 20-year-younger, Bad Boy lover. Sara is vapid as the seductress of the one she should be professionally mentoring, and who should know better. The admittedly lovely Alex is like a deer caught in the headlights of temptation, and Sam is too neurotic to be an appealing persona. And the very last scene of the film left my wife and I saying "Huh?".
If you have a choice between LAUREL CANYON and SIRENS, choose the latter. As an adult fairy tale and/or morality play, it's much more fun and entertaining.
Movie Review: McDormand is on fire in Cholodenko's uneven sophomore film.
Summary: 3 Stars
Lisa Cholodenko's "Laurel Canyon" is an exploration of several subjects scandalous: sex, drugs, psychiatry, whiny rock music. Aspiring to a lot, accomplishing very little, it nevertheless reaffirms that Frances McDormand is chameleonic, feisty actress. In a year thin of dynamic female roles, she might even earn an Academy Award nomination. McDormand is Jane, a 40ish hippie record producer holed up in of those fabulously overgrown villas tucked into the Los Angeles hills, toking bongs and whiskey sours while putting her latest LP to bed. Somewhere in the myriad of short flings she produced a straight-laced son Sam (Christian Bale), a Harvard Med grad with a perky little genius for a fiancée in Alex (Kate Beckinsdale).
Predictably, Sam and Alex's routines get rattled when they move in with Jane and her band, fronted by a cocky punk named Ian (Alessandro Nivola). Writer/director Cholodenko immediately places seductive distractions in front of the newly engaged couple; Alex, the (apparent) reigning super-achiever, drops her dissertation, and everything else, to hang in the recording studio and get stoned, while Sam warms to a sweetly aggressive Israeli colleague (Natascha McElhone).
Because "Laurel Canyon" never takes the time to cement Sam and Alex's romance beyond a Scrabble game and some uncomfortable sex, there is surprisingly little at risk; both seem better suited to their new friends and surroundings than a stodgy relationship where they talk past one another. Beckinsdale might be the soup du jour, but she's a blank beauty, and McElhone presents a far more fetching, stimulating catch.
As does McDormand, who's got some mileage in those eyes, but a lot more spark, too. Jane is bursting with contradictions, and seems to suffer affairs long past their sell-by date for nuture's sake. When we discover, for example, just why it is she gets up so early every morning, we get a glimpse of how co-opted a supposedly "free and clear" existence can become. Essentially a comic role, McDormand infuses the performance with a startling amount of maternal instinct. It's just not for her son.
Bale is McDormand's equal as the sullen prodigy trying hard to deny he has the same roaming tendencies as his mother. Nivola is spot on as the affable creep. The soundtrack is worth owning if you go for British rock pop.
Cholodenko, as writer/director, knows her way around a hotel, a car, and a pool. While the scenes themselves never add up to a cohesive film - the movie is simply too didactic and point-driven - several are sharp on their own. And McDormand simply is her character. After water toting performances in "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "City By The Sea," she returns to "Laurel Canyon" brassy and keyed up, and it's like watching a lioness stalk the plains.
Movie Review: A Stellar McDormand Soars Over an Oh-So-El-Lay Social Dramedy
Summary: 3 Stars
It's good to see Frances McDormand dominate this 2003 movie rather than steal scenes in other stars' vehicles like "Something's Gotta Give" and "North Country". With her piercing intelligence and insouciant manner, she is in top form as Jane, a successful, proudly bohemian record producer who lends her Hollywood Hills house to her estranged son Sam and his equally conservative fiancee Alex to occupy while he starts a residency in the psychiatric ward of an LA hospital. Alex and Jane have never met because he is embarrassed by his hippie mother. Much to his consternation and despite Alex's initial need to work on her genomics dissertation on the reproductive habits of fruit flies, the two women start to bond bolstered by the presence of Jane's sixteen-years-younger rocker boyfriend Ian whose record Jane is producing. Meanwhile, Sam finds unexpected chemistry with fellow resident Sara who pursues him with a becalming fervor. The standard romantic complications ensue amid a lot of LA-style partying and the inevitable conflicts that occur between parents and children. Even though the movie has a veneer of appropriate hip-coolness mostly due to Wally Pfister's deft cinematography, the story feels very by-the-numbers with plot developments telegraphed pretty much from the outset and an ending that saps the energy out of the whole venture.
Directed and written by Lisa Cholodenko, the film has lots of vivid images but not enough of a melding between audacity and credibility to make it exceptional. The most far-fetched, underdeveloped element is Alex, as embodied literally by a tentative Kate Beckinsale, who seems ludicrously naive for someone who graduated top of her class at Harvard Medical School and looks like an aspiring supermodel. Luckily the other actors fare better with Christian Bale effectively uptight and unforgiving as Sam, the striking Natascha McElhone using an Israeli accent to much too alluring effect as Sara, and Alessandro Nivola (bearing a certain physical resemblance to Coldplay's Chris Martin) constantly threatening to steal the picture as the hedonistic Ian. Nivola also sings quite credibly as the band's front man. But it's McDormand who conquers the film's potential cliches and predictable story turns with her sexy, free-spirited performance. The DVD is short on extras - Cholodenko's earnest commentary, a few trailers and a twenty-minute making-of featurette that is really just an interview with Cholodenko, who reveals she was inspired to make the film by Joni Mitchell's classic 1970 "Ladies of the Canyon" album.