By Ed Koch
Volume 75, Number 16 | September 07 – 13, 2005
Koch On Film
“Red Eye” (+)
This is a well-done, Grade-B movie except for one great flaw which I cannot divulge. The actors, all unknown to me, perform their roles superbly.
A Florida hotel desk clerk, Lisa (Rachel McAdams), is waiting at an airport in Texas for her return flight to Florida. At the airport she meets Jackson (Cillian Murphy) whom, she discovers, is on the same flight to Florida. Jackson is part of a terrorist plot to kill the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia). He seeks Lisa’s involuntary assistance to change the hotel arrangements of Keefe and his family in order to make them vulnerable to an attack. How Jackson seeks to get her compliance, using a threat to kill her father (Brian Cox) at home alone in Florida, is the centrality of the plot.
The best part of the film takes place on the airplane, and the plot weakens when the plane lands. There are numerous chase scenes at the airport and elsewhere, some of which are ridiculous and devoid of common sense. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the action. The director, Wes Craven, has a reputation for doing these creepy B-movies well, and he scores again with “Red Eye. If you are in the mood to see a thriller that requires no expenditure of brainpower on your part, this one fills the bill.
“Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” (-)
My experience with Korean films has not been good. I did not like “Oldboy” which was touted as an exceptional film nor did I enjoy “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” which was hailed by some critics. It is too gross, too brutal, and too violent. It turned my stomach, and I hoped it would end as quickly as possible.
Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun) is a deaf-mute. He works with machines in a factory, and because of his physical impairment, I was constantly on edge that something would go dramatically wrong. Ryu lives with his sister (Lim Ji-eun) who is dying of kidney disease. He is not a suitable kidney donor because of his blood type so he seeks to buy one on the black market by selling one of his own. That experience sets the film’s level of violence.
A decision is made to kidnap Yu-sun (Han Bo-bae) the daughter of Ryu’s former employer, Park (Song Kang-ho). The violence increases once again with everyone avenging one another. Ryu’s girlfriend, Youngmi (Bae Du-na), looks just like his sister so occasionally I thought he was committing incest. Fortunately he was not; nevertheless, the sex with his girlfriend was coarse and without sensuality. The script also involves a political aspect with a terrorist organization seeking revenge for the torture of one of its members.
All in all it was torture of a different kind to sit through this movie, and it was a very uncomfortable two hours for me. (In Korean with English subtitles.)
“Junebug” (+)
I didn’t think I would enjoy this film so I avoided seeing it. After hearing favorable comments from a reviewer unknown to me, I decided to go, and I’m glad that I did.
George (Alessandro Nivola) has been married to Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) for about one year. She owns an art gallery and decides to go to North Carolina to view the paintings of a little-known artist. George accompanies her to North Carolina where they spend a few days with his family whom she has never met.
In North Carolina, Madeleine meets her domineering mother-in-law, Peg (Celia Weston); the quiet and henpecked father-in law, Eugene (Scott Wilson); her beautiful and guileless sister-in-law Ashley (Amy Adams) who is nine-months pregnant; and brother-in-law Johnny (Benjamin McKenzie). Johnny reminded me of Marlon Brando with a little bit of James Dean thrown in. He is working on his GED diploma and clearly resents the success of his brother, George. All of the actors give terrific performances.
At first I thought Madeleine had married into a Tobacco Road family, but that is not true. The interpersonal family relations depicted throughout the film are what make this movie so special. During her trip, Madeline does manage to meet with the artist, David (Frank Hoyt Taylor), who paints Civil War pictures with lots of exposed scrotums. One of his paintings depicts blacks with white faces. When asked why they are white, he explains that he has never seen a black person.
The movie sings with joy and sadness which, after all, is what life is all about.
–Ed Koch
