The Two Faces of January

The Two Faces of January

Directed by Hossein Amini

96 minutes

Screenwriter for such films as Drive (Nicholas Wilding Refn 2011), Snow White and the Huntsmen (Rupert Sanders 2012) and 47 Ronin (Carl Rinsch 2013), this time Hossein Amini makes his directorial debut in the Hitchcockian thriller The Two Faces of January. He does so with charm and style and as a result suffers from looking so good.

The Two Faces of January is located in Athens and Istanbul. Main protagonist Rydal (Oscar Isaac) lives in Greece as a tour guide. He makes his money out of scamming tourists and reciting poetry to his swooning fans. The narrative becomes mysterious when Rydal is drawn to a well groomed and elegantly dressed couple Chester (Viggo Mortenson) and Colette MacFarland (Kirsten Dunst). Rydal sees the couple again while on a date with Lauren (Daisy Bevan) and the couple notice him.  Collette and Rydal meet, they have a friendly conversation and reports on her interactions to Chester. The couple are intrigued with Rydal and go on a double date with him and Lauren.

All is happy until the MacFarland’s return back to their hotel room and have a mysterious visit from Paul (David Warshofsky), a man with a badly scarred face. Paul is armed and reveals Chester is involved in fraudulent activities in the stock market. He pulls out a gun but Chester is able to knock him out. The scene cuts back to Rydal and Lauren in the cab. Rydal finds Collette left her bracelet in the cab and goes to return it to the MacFarland’s.Both these sub scenes are beautiful stirring as they cross cut between characters. Chester is shown dragging Paul’s body into the foyer, and we know that at any time Rydal could interrupt the scene and find out the truth. Rydal does interrupt the scene and his fate is inevitable through his involvement with the MacFarland’s and the misfortune when they find out Paul is dead.

The Two Faces of January, concentrates on being a web of suspicion as the characters flee Athens together. There’s certainly no denying The Faces of January is thrilling and has a few unexpected moments. However, besides this and a potential for much more the film doesn’t deliver. I can mainly suggest this is from the sublime cinematography and legitimate 60s costuming that I found myself detached to the narrative. This was accompanied with an excessive Hitchcockian film’s score that had by no means allowed us to think outside the box. The acoustics prepared us for every twist and turn that unfortunately some scenes came as no shock.  Equally anxieties the characters had with each other is skimmed. It would have been interesting and perhaps beneficial to have delved deeper and given a justifiable reason for their tensions. Rather than relying on cliché’s like masculinities issues or a lack of a father figure. What’s more, it didn’t feel right to use a Hitchcockian trope like an ‘icy blonde’ and not make Collette part of the narrative or at least a femme fatale.  Collette came across as a highly motivated character like Phyllis (Barbara Stanwick) in Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder 1944), that a passive victim. This was a shame as Collette displayed potential, but portrayed as a sexualised character.

Besides the fact that I have look at The Two Faces of January on my exterior experience, there were some enjoyable moments enhanced through its general mood. It was unfortunate to witness a narrative and strong cast that could have been so much more, especially when it metaphorically used elements of a Greek tragedy, only it went astray.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Directed by Matt Reeves

130 minutes

Like Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Whatt 2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves 2014) is an immersive experience. If you haven’t already seen the previous film, you might be thrown in the deep end as the narrative lacks in exploring the subtext between the apes and humans, or why there is tension between the two. But if you’re seen the first, then you’ll be ok with the narrative jumping the gun.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes begins in the apes new homeland lead by Caesar (Andy Serkis), who now has a wife, son and baby. When a brawl takes place with a bear and Caesar’s son, the apes come to his aid and demonstrate they are tight. Adjacent to this, is the humans, the clear ‘bad’ guys of the narrative.  Centering their narrative is an unclear, virus outbreak. Their aim is getting the town’s power supply rebooted which is situated in the ape’s terrain. But when the deliberately annoying character Craver (kirk Acevedo), and his posse shoot an ape, it dulls their chance of obtaining their objective.  The apes are outraged and threaten the humans to leave. The humans report back to the ever so comical tyrant Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) who insists on going to war, but it’s the film’s weightier character Malcolm (Jason Clarke), who adds warmth to the narrative and wants both parties to work together. Of course, this doesn’t occur when human hating ape Koba (Toby Kebbell), manipulates the apes into war and turning against Caesar reign.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is definitely a roller coaster experience. At times, it uses Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993) techniques like sub narratives between characters and situations that are returned to later, to heighten its tension. It is also visually an awe factor, watching apes in the natural habitat is quite breathtaking and remarkable to say the least. However, some of the battle scenes seemed a little Lord of the Rings, became the film’s weaker point. Watching Koba declare war whilst on a horse with two guns was pretty unbelievable but at the same time did make me laugh. I mean, how did he learn to use a gun so quickly and accurately? This seemed to dumb down the subtext of the narrative and is quite farcical when you compare Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to its previous instalment and its nuances.

Koba the previous imprisoned lab experiment definitely has anger issues, but it would have seemed strange to the viewer if they had not seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes and understood why he didn’t trust humans. But in this film, his anger needed to be toned down, or at least shown conflict by going against Caesar and allowing fellow apes to be killed. It was also hard watching the usually good Gary Oldman and justifying why Dreyfus is so pro war. His character was on the same level as a Disney villain, flat.  Except, maybe that one scene when he looks at a photo album of two boys and starts crying, presuming that are or where his sons? It does matter, Dreyfus closes the album and is mean, again.

If, at any point during Dawn of the Planet of the Apes you come out of its world, and start to compare it to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, you may have a problem. However, if you are so immersed, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an enjoyable and breathtaking experience.  If that’s all you want, then you’ll be fine.