M&M: Bastille Day

Bastille Day is a movie from the year 2016. Bastille Day is referring to July, 14^th, the national holiday in France. On July, 14^th 1789 the Bastille was stormed. The movie is set in contemporary Paris a few days before this national holiday. Michael Mason (played by Richard Madden) picks pockets and is unwillingly involved in a bomb attack, when he steals a woman's bag, in which she hid a bomb. Mason checks the bag quickly and decides that there's nothing interesting in it for him and leaves it. As he walks away, the bomb explodes. The CIA hears of the incident and starts looking for Mason, who they believe to be a terrorist after identifying him through cameras around the buildings where the explosion took place. Sean Briar (played by Idris Elba) is ordered to look for Mason. Briar is from the CIA, but not necessarily a guy playing by the rules himself. Initially both men naturally don't trust each other, but then Briar is willing to work with Mason to find the woman, who had the bag first so they can find out more about the reason for the bomb attack.

Richard Madden is initially shown picking pockets. According to the trivia section on imdb.com for this movie, he actually trained to do this for real.

The movie was released in cinemas on July, 13^th 2016 and on July, 14^th the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nizza followed. StudioCanal removed all digital advertisements of this movie in Paris and let theatres decide for themselves, if they wanted to keep the movie in their program or not.

The story of the movie, as described above, may at first read like a simple movie at most described as “action movie“. Yes, it is a movie with lots of action, starting with the pursuit when Briar finds Mason, who runs up to the rooftop and on to other rooftops of Paris. To me however the movie is more than just an action movie. When I saw it the first time, it was on tv at around 10 at night and I was fairly tired already. I wanted to just have a quick look into it, to see what this movie was like, that had the French national holiday as a title. That night I didn't just have a quick look into it, I watched the whole movie to the end, because the story was captivating enough for me to make me curious what the reasons for the attack were and how the story would end for both Briar and Mason. I liked the characters. It's not just about the attack. With Mason we have someone innocent, picking pockets, who suddenly has to prove his innocence when everyone else is looking for him, thinking he wanted to execute the attack. The fact that I'm somewhat interested in magic may have helped making Mason more sympathetic for me.

As I watched the movie, I did however ask myself one question repeatedly: The CIA is not a French organisation, Briar is not a Frenchmen, neither is Mason, but the movie is set in Paris, the capital of France, around the French national holiday. Couldn't they have made the movie “fully” French, instead of just using the date of the French national holiday and making the story take place in Paris? That's not at all critisising the acting abilities of Richard Madden, Idris Elba or anyone else in this movie. I'm just thinking that as much as the frame work of the movie is French, why not use French actors for the main characters and some French organisation instead of the CIA? That's a bit sad all in all, nevertheless I liked the characters of Mason and Briar enough to be interested in a “Bastille Day 2” kind of sequel with the two. The movie does have a good and reasonable ending, but especially the future for Mason after all the events of the movie are questionable and I'd have liked to see how things went on for him specifically. I'm not aware that any sequel is even planned though and I doubt that a sequel with those characters will ever come.

M&M: Passengers

The 2008 movie Passengers tells the story of the psychotherapist Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway), who gets called to help the five sole survivors of a plane crash. Eric (Patrick Wilson) is one of the survivors and unusually happy to euphoric after the crash. He refuses to go to the group meetings and confirms to Claire several times that he's not a patient. He completely refuses a therapy. Claire and Eric get closer to each other through the “house calls” anyway. Meanwhile the other survivors start to vanish. Eric hinted already during the first meeting with Claire that she should get in contact with her sister. But she doesn't answer calls and when Claire visits her, she's not at home. She does however meet an airline official, who asserts that all the passengers have died and the pilot had caused the disaster. The man leaves a pilot's case standing there. In it Claire finds a passenger list. On that list is also her own name.

The movie is overall pretty calm without huge action scenes. I personally mostly liked the relationship between Claire and Eric and the interactions of the actors off each other. Claire strives to help Eric, on his terms, and doesn't push him to the meetings with the others. Eric on the other hand seems sympathic, at least to me, despite (or because of?) his positive, reckless, euphoric way.

The revelation of what the deal is with the passengers at the end is probably not very surprising and similar to other known movies. In the end the movie, for me, isn't so much a mystery-thriller or drama, although it could be seen as that. For me, the movie is maily about relationships to other people and about people concerned for other people. Claire is concerned for the passengers and her neighbour (played by Dianne Wiest) and others are for her. It's obvious only at the end just how much and why they truly are.

When I watched the movie for the first time, I inevitably thought of a certain well known tv series. The end of that series and with that the revelation of what's going on with the characters there disappointed a lot of people. I myself didn't make it past the end of the first season of that series. As well known as the revelation of Passengers may be in the end, I think the way Passengers is told and constructed is way better and fairer for the viewer than the series was.

With all the relationships and care for other people, will there be a chance for the relationship between Clare and her obviously estranged sister? You'll have to see it for yourself.

This movie isn't set around Christmas, not even in winter. Defining for me to pick it for a review on December was a remark made by Eric, “That crash. It's like being born again.” Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus (although not his re-birth) and is, more than other Christian holidays a holiday about relationships.

M&M: Stay

Dear reader,

in 2005 the movie “Stay” came out, one of my favourite movies. The story is somewhat dark and the ending is frustratingly open. What I like most though are the visual elements: the use of colours and transitions from one scene to another. Also I like Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling, who are both playing the lead roles in this movie.

Ryan Gosling is playing Henry Letham, a young man, who we see driving a car at the beginning. Then a tire blows and an accident happens. Cut. He's sitting on the street and as the camera moves away from him allowing us a wider view of the scene, we see the car burning behind him. He stands up and just walks along the street.

The psychiatrist Dr. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) had a bad night and overslept. But this should only be the beginning of a couple of very strange days for him. On the university campus he meets his friend and teacher Lila (Naomi Watts), who asks him what's wrong. The neighbours baby kept him awake. Lila is confused. The neighbours are 80 years old. Sam takes over for a sick colleague, among her patients is also Henry. He doesn't like the fact that suddenly someone else is his therapist. Is his therapist unable to cope with him and let that other one take over? But eventually Henry opens up and tells about his plan: “Saturday. Midnight.” That's when he's going to kill himself. On his 21^st birthday.

Over the course of this movie, we see Henry and others driving in a car. Those scenes in the car are from a different time or indeed a different world(?) than the rest and in fact most part of the movie. I think I don't anticipate too much, when I write, that Henry in fact was badly injured during the car accident and is about to die. The psychiatrist “story” is all in his head and is his way of thinking whether he wants to live or die. He wants to live really. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone to Sam for help, who is in reality the driver of another car and now is giving first aid. Another woman, who Henry in his mind makes to be Sam's girlfriend, checks the car and tells him that the others are dead. Many things and people in the movie are twisted in Henry's head and used for the reality in his mind. Finding those things, what is used and how and finding what's reality, makes the movie fun and interesting for me. Henry's full name is Henry Letham. Letham being an anagram for Hamlet. A young woman, who served Henry a couple of times in a diner and could maybe help Henry is also actually rehearsing for a Hamlet play.

Some wonder about the ending and what Henry's choice was in the end. Because we never actually see whether he is dead or alive. Many are certain that his decision is obvious however. Watch the movie and make your own decision about that. For those of you who like rather calm soundtracks “Stay” might be one for you. It was written and played by Asche & Spencer.

Until next blog,

sarah