No. 256 : The End (2024)

 

The End at the IMDb

Here’s another film that I watched for my companion Michael Shannon Blog, but I thought my reader here shouldn’t be left out. The film was overlong and dull, which was a pity as the premise of a family surviving 20 years in a bunker following an environmental disaster sounded interesting, but I have to say I had my doubts when I read it was a musical.

 

The film is set wholly within the wealthy family’s bunker, which was created within a salt mine. The specifics of the disaster are kept somewhat vague, but it’s made pretty clear that Michael Shannon’s character ’Father’ was one of the instigators, given he used to control an oil company. This led to more alarm bells going off – will this be a parable about looking after the environment and pointing fingers at likely polluters? Yes, it is!

 

The film sets its stall out early on with the ‘Son’ character starting a tuneless song in which he’s soon joined with Shannon and ‘Mother’ (Tilda Swinton) together with Captain Darling as the Butler as well as a friend and a doctor. The ‘song’, as it was, was basically just a string of narrative set to a forgettable tune, sung by people who are clearly better actors than they are singers.

 

The son has lived his whole life in the bunker and knows only of the outside world what he learns from his family and their archive of press cuttings and books. Mother claims she used to be a ballerina and curates a large number of classic artworks.

 

Things bump along for a while before a teenage black girl is found in one of the bunker’s tunnels. The group initially try to scare her off but soon she is welcomed into the fold with her wide-eyed interest being the filter through which we can see this world. The film drags on for an interminable two and a half hours as they group carry out safety drills, preform plays, make animal noises and discuss how best to fart.

 

From an interesting premise the film is so dull and fails to be enlivened by the most forgettable set of songs you’ll ever hear. There is no reason why this is a musical, and the plot and character development isn’t helped by people launching into yet another song every ten minutes or so.

 

We learn slightly more about the characters as the film lists along and there is no surprise when the Son and the incomer girl start to bond. They are clearly the last vestige of hope in a shattered world, and we can only hope that their future adventures are undocumented.

 

I tried hard to like this film and stayed stoically to the end. I wasn’t rewarded with anything memorable however, and felt it was just like ‘Fallout’ with all the good elements stripped away by so many scavengers.

 

 

THE Tag Line : Thank God – It’s The End!  35%

No.133 : The Statement (2003)

The Statement @ the IMDb

He makes a lot of Definite Article  movies does Michael Caine and we thank him for that. Still we’ve yet to see ‘The Magus’!

This one opens with some captions to set the scene - it’s 1944 and the Nazis are occupying France with the help of the Vichy government. We cut to some scenes shot in black and white, which is no doubt helpful to people who can’t distinguish between the past and the present day. Anyway a young Frenchmen is helping the Germans round up some Jews who are then shot. This young man sounds like Michael Caine which is helpful as he doesn’t look anything like him. I quite liked this technique - at least it was different to the usual fade into the older version of the character ploy.

We then move to colour as someone types out ‘The Statement’ - a document naming Caine’s character and the reasons why he has been executed by some Jewish revenge seekers. If you doubted their motivation they have went the extra mile by getting a large STATEMENT stamp made which is used to emboss the document in bright red ink. The trick is how to get the document onto Caine’s dead body as the old boy is still kicking - and kicking hard.

We first meet him at a pavement café enjoying a beer. His idyllic lifestyle is soon to hit a few bumps however, as a man with a photo of Caine is eyeing him up. Unfortunately he’s not an autograph hunter and soon gets bumped off by the septuagenarian swastika wearer in a scene that was surprising to the victim, but not to anyone who’d been paying the least amount of attention.

We then move to Paris were a new judge (Tilda Swinton) has been appointed to investigate crimes against humanity - and Caine is top of her list. Strange the French gave this high profile job to a 30 year old Scottish woman but at least she has Jeremy Northam (Cyber) to give her a hand, but little else. The two take an age to make much progress, hampered as they are by the machinations of the catholic church and a shady organisation run by Baron Munchausen.

After the best part of two hours they eventually get close to their quarry - will the STATEMENT be delivered and will those responsible for letting Caine roam free for 40 years be brought to account?

For a film you probably haven’t heard of ‘The Statement’ has a great cast with recognisable names well down the list. Folk like Colin Salmon and Frank Finlay show up for five minutes and are never seen again. I guess shooting in the south of France did appeal!

Caine, who looks like Edward Woodward in ‘Common as Muck’ throughout this film, is pretty good as the conflicted collaborator and murderer. He’s conflicted in the sense he’s a devout catholic but doesn’t mind killing folk and threatening his wife‘s (Charlotte Rampling)  dog (Benni). He clutches his religious medal and prays at the drop of a body but it was hard to take to him despite his nifty shooting and roof running skills. If you don’t like Caine’s character much you don’t get much from the ‘good guys’ with Tilda Swinton and Northam not exactly setting the screen alight. A lot of the film is taken up with arguing and looking through records, and they could have trimmed 20 minutes from the middle third no bother at all.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a decent effort with a couple of exciting scenes and workmanlike, if unspectacular, acting throughout.

Some of it was a bit far fetched though - the Catholic church covering up decades of misdeeds? Surely not!

THE Tag Line - Deserves a Caineing 58%