01/04 - RAG Magazine

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: The Curse of the Black PearlJohnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira KnightleyDirected by: Gore VerbinskiDVDBuena Vista Home VideoJust in case you are still nursing that recent bout of amnesia, we just wanted to take this moment to remind you that Disney has released anotherDVD for the masses (otherwise known as Johnny Depp fans):The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. A quick peek at 2003’s boxofficegame of numbers reveals that most of us have already seen this smartass, swashbuckling masterpiece (and some have seen it more thanonce or twice (um, guilty). Alas! Fellow pirates! We now have the power to place Depp and Bloom on continuous loop in every room of our homes.As I declared in my summer review, this is a pirate movie that has finally defeated the pirate movie curse and to go a step further, one of the mostperfectly cast movies to grace a movie screen in ages. Orlando Bloom as Will Turner is nothing short of fantastic; Geoffrey Rush is simplyastonishing as Captain Barbossa and Keira Knightley slips in perfectly as the fiercely independent Elizabeth Swann. But let’s call a spade a spade,or say a pirate a pirate: no actor, period, could have played the eccentric Sparrow with more believable conviction and zany looneyness, than Mr.Depp. In all his perfectly smudged eyeliner glory, Depp is so utterly outstanding and so earnestly convincing in his role of quirky pirate Jack Sparrow,that not only did he deserve a major award nomination, he got one: a golden globe. So while we wait for Depp’s high-seas adventures to continueon in the scheduled sequel, let’s all hope the Oscar voters see him the same way we do: as the deserving captain of his own golden statue.THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS - DVDHOUSE OF SAND & FOGJennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron EldardDirected by: Vadim PerelmanDreamworks, R, 126 minAuthor Andre Dubus’ emotional exploration, House of Sandand Fog, began as a riveting and powerful piece of literarygenius and now it’s been reborn as an even-more rivetingand powerful motion picture. House of Sand and Fog demonstrateswhat striking organic art Hollywood can producewhen the right ingredients are selected. This is moviemakingglee in its highest form, with not one missing link tobe unearthed. This is also what happens when you takeone part superb material and add three equally essentialparts of complex characters (collectively embodied by BenKingsley, Jennifer Connelly, and Shohreh Aghdashloo) andthen top it off with the outstanding direction by VadimPerelman. If this last name sounds unfamiliar to the moviegoingpublic, there’s a good reason, it’s his motion picturedebut. Yes, his d-e-b-u-t. It’s a glorious premiere that hasgot to be one of, if not the most, articulated introductionsever created in cinema. Without a doubt, I see Kingsleymost-definitely accepting an armload of accolades for hisexceptionally magnificent portrayal of Behrani. Kudos aremost certainly in order for Jennifer Connelly, especiallysince she could have taken the easy way out and goneShia LaBeouf, Elden Henson, Amy SmartDirected by: Kyle Rankin & Efrom PotelleBuena Vista Home VideoWhile the future of Miramax’s Project Greenlight may be up in the air, there are three individual destinies thatI can most certainly report on. For starters, everything that has been said and printed about Shia LaBeoufhas been an understatement: this kid is going to be a movie star. What LaBeouf was able to accomplish withhis role of Kelly (the antagonistic focal point of The Battle of Shaker Heights) is nothing short of a miracle,especially if the viewer is consciously aware of what personal battles LaBeouf, himself, had to deal with:Chris Moore, the bumbling directors, minimal budget, zero prep time, scheduling difficulties, no costars castuntil 5 minutes before filming. Exactly how Shia still manages to come out smelling like the blossoming rosethat he is, is beyond me. Up and comer Amy Smart is particularly effective as Tabby, Kelly’s undying crush.And since Smart has built a career out of being extremely good in bit parts, here’s to hoping that January’srelease of The Butterfly Effect will see her star finally vault to the next level. And that leaves us with onelast stand-out performance: Elden Henson as the Ivy-leaguer-in-the-making Bart. Henson essentially providesLaBeouf with a fantastic avenue in which to bounce off of, and his execution is so brilliantly subtleyou almost fail to realize he’s that good. Therefore, The Battle of Shaker Heights concludes with more thanone winner in its acting category; but the amateurish editing, however, proves to be a casualty of war.over-the-top so many times and she doesn’t. In fact, her performance isso wrought with emotion (both internal and external) that as a viewer,you begin to expect her to be so genuinely good in every scene she’s in—and she is –to the point that her delivery is almost taken for granted;though the same could be said about Aghdashloo’s elocution (Kingsley’son-screen wife Nadi) in this stirring example of intersecting lives.Perelman has created an event that takesits shape within the beginning innocenceof a new day, and eloquently translates itfrom sheer moment to moment, into a pulseracing,breath-by-breath, life-changingset of events. As if this wasn’t enoughcheerleading on my part, Roger Deakins’cinematography could be categorized assome of the most imaginative and movingI’ve seen on screen in years. There’sbeauty at its core that is both soothingand devastating at the same time. Ultimately,House of Sand and Fog has itscharacters addressing their personal,once unrelated, chain of events which thenbrutally come together to reveal a story ofunrelenting human tragedies; and if thisfilm doesn’t sum up how real people’sreal-life coexists within the real world,then I don’t know what could. All I know isthat whoever first uttered the metaphor,“your home is your castle,” could not everhave imagined it would come to this.