ELITE SQUAD (18) **
DIRECTED BY: JOSÉ PADILHA
STARRING: WAGNER MOURA, ANDRÉ RAMIRO, CAIO JUNQUEIRAEVER since the visually dazzling City of God used Rio's filthy favelas as a furious backdrop for exploring the city's povert
y fuelled crime explosion, the shame of Brazil has become a shorthand way of providing movies with the kind of prurient in-the-gutter thrills lapped up by world cinema audiences and Hollywood blockbuster fans alike. From City of God spin-offs such as the forthcoming City of Men to the opening act of the recent Incredible Hulk movie, Rio's slums seem to equate to instant edge for modern filmmakers. Elite Squad is the latest effort to exploit the city's shantytown conditions for entertainment purposes. It's also the most troublesome. Told from the point of view of the state's black-clad, jack-booted, armed-response unit, known locally as BOPE (translated, the acronym stands for State Police Special Operations Battalion), this debut effort from acclaimed documentary maker José Padilha might think it's an exposé of police brutality and corruption, but the finished film plays more like a fascistic celebration of fighting gunfire with gunfire.
Set in 1997, a Papal visit to Rio de Janeiro provides the backdrop for an empty, amped-up action flick in which the BOPE see themselves as enforcers of justice in a world where snivelling regular cops use poor pay as an excuse to get into bed with the drug dealers. Naturally, then, only the best-of-the-best make it into this special "Elite Squad", the emblem of which – a skull and crossed guns – presumably reflects their head-exploding, shoot-to-kill policies. The narrator and entry point into this world is Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura), a veteran of the force, despite still being a relatively young man. He's under pressure from his wife to quit so he can spend more time with their newborn son, but his sense of duty is compelling him to remain in his job until he can find a suitable replacement. The film cuts between his story and that of his two most promising candidates: Matais, a smart young cop who is also studying law (André Romiro), and Matais's tenacious, hot-headed best friend Neto (Caio Junqueira). Following them as they endure a brutal, Full Metal Jacket-style boot-camp before being thrown on to streets where mistakes cost lives, the film attempts to give us an idea of what it takes to do the job and the effect it has on those who sign up.
That, presumably, was the plan. Unfortunately the film is so poorly constructed and paced it is all but impenetrable. From its opening ghetto shoot-out, it unfurls at a frenetic clip, the thrill of which quickly becomes deadening. Nascimento's voiceover narration is also far too intrusive, with much of it simply reiterating what is unfolding on screen, like a bad DVD commentary. As for the use of genuine locations – sure, it gives Elite Squad an air of authenticity, but when you get right down to it, this is little more than a Brazilian Dirty Harry film with arthouse pretensions.
ALSO RELEASED THIS WEEK
ELEGY (15) *
DIRECTED BY: ISABEL COIXET
STARRING: PENÉLOPE CRUZ, BEN KINGSLEY, DENNIS HOPPERTHIS ghastly meditation on the ageing male libido strikes an oddly macho tone considering Pedro Almodovar protégé Isabel Coixet directed it. Maybe she was just too in awe of her Philip Roth source material (The Dying Animal) to question this cliché-ridden story about a horn-dog academic (Sir Ben Kingsley) who falls in love with one of his students (Penélope Cruz). Their relationship never rings true, but what makes it risible is the way the film's turn towards tragedy results in a hideously manipulative sugar-daddy fantasy of the true meaning of love.
DEATH DEFYING ACTS (PG) **
DIRECTED BY: GILLIAN ARMSTRONG
STARRING: GUY PEARCE, CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, SAOIRSE RONANTHERE'S no escape from tedium in this limp love story inspired by Harry Houdini's visit to Edinburgh in 1926. Directed by Charlotte Gray's Gillian Armstrong, it stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Atonement's Saoirse Ronan as a mother-daughter team of scam artists who plan to con the world– famous escapologist (played by Guy Pearce) when he arrives in the Scottish capital determined to find someone to make contact with his dead mother. Naturally, love complicates matters, but with Pearce and Zeta-Jones generating zero chemistry this plot development quickly sinks what could have been an intriguing film.
MARRIED LIFE (PG) **
DIRECTED BY: IRA SACHS
STARRING: CHRIS COOPER, PATRICIA CLARKSON, PIERCE BROSNANTHE anxieties of America's emotionally buttoned-down middle-classes are the subject at the heart of Married Life, a slight but well-performed period pastiche that plays on the repressed attitudes of its 1949 setting to serve up some black-hearted fun. This mainly revolves around Chris Cooper, who stars as a philandering husband so stricken with guilt after falling for a younger woman that he decides to murder his wife (Patricia Clarkson) rather than put her through the humiliation of a divorce. Plot twists abound as a caddish Pierce Brosnan enters the fray but, while it's handsomely shot, the adherence to old-school melodrama grows a tad stifling.
THE FOX AND THE CHILD (U) ***
DIRECTED BY: LUC JACQUETFROM the makers of the annoying March of the Penguins comes another live-action nature film designed to condition young children into believing all wildlife is cuddly. Narrated by Kate Winslet, this carefully edits together lots of beautifully shot nature footage with scripted action to tell the story of a young girl's attempts to befriend a fox. The animals will likely inspire some awe among its target audience and, though the story itself is little underpowered, at least some effort has been made to offset the film's more worrying anthropomorphic tendencies with a conclusion that shows the dangers of trying to domesticate wild animals.
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR (12A) **
DIRECTED BY: ROB COHEN
STARRING: BRENDAN FRASER, JET LI, MARIA BELLO, MICHELLE YEOHTHIS third instalment in a franchise most Western observers thought dead and buried panders shamelessly to the growing Asian market, packing Brendan Fraser's action-archaeologist off to 1940s Shanghai to battle undead Emperor Jet Li. Maria Bello, replacing Rachel Weisz as Fraser's wife, is terrible, but it's no more distinctive than the first Mummies: a mediocre runaround, stuck with inanely cheerful performances (John Hannah bonds with a vomiting yak) and predictable character arcs.
The producers can keep digging all the way to China, but this tomb now looks very empty indeed.
The full article contains 1107 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
