The Adventures of Tintin

Spielberg, 2011, 107m

It is a delight to find the great little adventure seeker resurrected from the vaults of memory, this time as a three dimensional film, complete with his retinue of Haddock, Thompsons, Snowy. The backdrops of sea, desert and exotic lands are assembled with abandonment. Tintin, Haddock and the dog are the most convincingly human. The Thompsons are presented as charming marionettes. The character of Tintin has been assembled to add another dimension while preserving the earnest, upright and intrepid persona that we knew once upon a time.  The pace of the film is somewhat hectic compared to the leisurely adventures of the comic series. A highly enjoyable film.

Hugo

2011, Scorcese, 126m

Warm as a christmas carol, this  story about a pair of lovable children is a dickensian painting come to life. The film has a dreamlike, fairytale quality. Not least of the attractions is the wonderful acting. The liquid human face with its melting  expressions is another. The film features an automaton which is more human than humans.

An orphan boy with a genius for repairing clockwork gadgets is being  hounded by a wonderfully characterized policeman. The imagery of clockworks and rotating wheels and meshes of gears pervades the film pehaps as a metaphor for life. Scorcese is a renowned conservator of film and he esconces his own passion for the medium by narrating the history of cinema through the life of one of it's forgotten pioneers, Georges Melier.

The film itself is a complex piece of clockwork and is cinema for cinema's sake and certainly grabs your attention for its span. And surely 3D works fine here because if there is one thing in the universe that is three dimensional, it is a railway station!

A rich gourmet feast of cinema specially for sensitive children and adults.

The Iron Lady

2011, 108m, Meryl Streep

The subject matter of a film is as important as how well it is made, and often determines the viewing decision. This is a biopic about Margaret Thatcher which thoroughly brings to life the persona of this evolved and charismatic individual of character. It gives us a glimpse of the events and tumultuous times when she was in office and also an insight into the system of governance and quality of leadership which has been responsible for the power, influence and achievements of this small country. Meryl Streep, with her monumental talent, has captred her subject in all dimensions, from spirit to mannerism. Cinematically, there may be elements of simplisticism, but cinema, like books, is a medium of education, as much as a pure art form, and this was time usefully spent.

Drive

2011, 100m

This is a superbly crafted, tightly wound, mobster film replete with violence delivered with finesse and decorated with adequate amount of gore. As Francis Ford Cappola said with reference to his Godfather series, murder is such an unpleasant thing that it must be presented in an unusual form to make it interesting. This film may be an accelerated progeny of that illustrious and revered mother of the gangster genre. The cinematography is state of art, with the glittering panoramic spread of a nocturnal metropolis as the dazzling back drop. A roller coaster of a movie.

The Rapture

1991, 100m

The term "Rapture" in Biblical terms refers to the predicted end of the world and the re-appearance of Christ. Sharon is an American woman trying to discover herself through a life of dissipation and pleasure. Then she becomes part of a cult group to whom the imminence of Rapture is being revealed through a shared dream. She is commanded to proceed to the desert along with her daughter where she is to encounter the maker en route to heaven. But things do not exactly turn out as per schedule. Stern questions about faith turn up and the swift momentum of the film sputters to an inconclusive end, neither raising nor answering any deep questions. The film ends on a note of bleak despair, supernatural intervention notwithstanding. Its more relevant in its depiction of the hazards of fundamentalism.