catholiclefty

My first film of 2009, on January 1st, and already a strong contender for strangest mainstream film of the year, The Spirit is an odd, highly stylised and insanely quirky piece that it is quite hard to dislike, even if it doesn't stand up all that well as an entirely coherent piece of cinema. Certainly any film that features Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson dressed as Nazis - for no particularly good reason - and melting kittens, has to come under the category of 'strange'!

Colours here are very strange - very over-saturated, with occasional things being bright and garish - and while that makes for a visually striking film, it also makes it a little difficult to watch. Some effects are done very neatly with this colour-scheme, though I felt perhaps a little more could have been made of it from time to time. The story isn't entirely incomprehensible, though at times feels very confused (who is the angel-of-death woman, and what purpose does she play? Why go to the trouble of making lots of clones of idiots? What's with the Nazis?!) and it is quite easy to feel that this is a triumph of style over substance. I will admit to quite liking the style, however.

Samuel L. Jackson continues to occupy downright odd roles. He's a bit over-the-top quite a lot of the time here, though that is sorta the point. Scarlett Johansson looks lovely, as she more often than not does, but has a rather trimmed role. Eva Mendes is suitably sultry and seductive, and our hero Gabriel Macht is ok but didn't really evoke any strong feelings in me either way.

A very odd film, revelling in its own over-the-top-ness, but nevertheless quite watchable and rarely boring. As so often, I carry no baggage from the previous incarnations of this story or characters (this time in comic book form) so I can see the film for what it is rather than what it isn't. And it is quite an enjoyable romp. 6 out of 10.

So early in 2009, I now have a strong candidate for slowest film of the year. The Man From London is a technically fascinating but agonisingly slow film, where little happens for very long stretches and the basic plot of the film would struggle to fill a paragraph. The interesting technical flourishes from the director, and the at-first-interesting (but then highly repetitive) soundtrack, sustain the first half of this two-and-a-half hour black-and-white film, but technical considerations can only entertain for so long before wanting to get to some real meat, and this doesn't really deliver the main course.

Though the plot is slight, and we have plenty of time to fit in some exposition, it isn't entirely clear what is going on for a good deal of the film, who is involved and why. Actually, I think the answers are all there, but lost in the heel-dragging slowness. Bits of plot, such as the glimpses of family life, go just about nowhere. As do the characters in general - everyone seems to be more or less on auto-pilot here, and only the old guy sent to find a big batch of lost money has a depth, with the impression of dark threat. I have no idea who 'The Man From London' is supposed to be, by the way - I don't think London is mentioned once.

Tilda Swinton turns up briefly just to distract us with some dubbing, whereas the rest of the cast are unknown (to me, at least). The language issue is quite confusing in general, with some stilted (well, slow!) English in places but the rest subtitled, and again I'm sure there was a good reason for what happened when, but it mostly eluded me.

This ends up looking rather self-indulgent, which is rather a shame as I quite liked the opening - in particular, the opening scene with the slow reveal of a ship, which goes on forever but works well. It goes on for far too long though and has less to say than you may hope. 5 out of 10.