Reviews

Major spoilers alert.

This film is great escapist fun that also satirizes the our bizarrely extreme cultural divide. It is refreshing to be able to bring gonzo humor and over the top gore as a way to step back from the mindless anger and group think. On top of that, Betty Gilpin's brilliantly played Crystal Creasy is something unique to film. While ostensibly written as a familiar Mary Sue able to kick any ass and beat down any threat, Crystal is a sardonic participant in a mad mad world. Highly intelligent yet without affectations, she really does not give a damn why everyone is trying to kill her. She is also the one character in the movie who does not comfortably fit into the extreme left or right stereotypes in spite of all the superficial appearances to the contrary.

I also credit the writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof for being willing to subversively skewer their own. Their sharpest barbs are reserved for their fellow Elites while the Deplorables are mostly just one dimensional cartoonish characters rarely provided with more depth than the aptly hilariously named Yoga Pants or Shut Up Gary.

On the other hand, the elite hunters characters are fleshed out with many little details and conceits familiar to those who travel in similar circles. Athena babbles on tritely and unoriginally about the singular importance of cutting tomatoes with a bread knife and using Gruyere in her grilled cheese sandwich speech which takes place in the mansion she keeps insisting is NOT A MANOR! She and her compatriots toss off Animal Farm Snowball references as a sort of intellectual adornment, insult, and shibboleth while revealing that they understand next to nothing about a book they were probably once forced to read in some boring English class.

The film's conflict originates with one of the Elite characters being found out sleeping with his wife's oncologist which leads to his dismissal from his charitable foundation. Another talks about his dubious devotion to a peasant lover he has inconveniently knocked up. They all look down on the hired hand Sargent Dale who is only allowed the smallest modicum of respect for having a small part in the Bruce Willis movie Tears of the Sun - "why is the sun crying?". Even the choice of having the action set in Croatia in something of a inside joke as that has recently been a preferred destination for the fashionable set seeking to avoid the common company of the hoi polloi.

The movie starts with a turtle and ends with a hare mirroring the awesomely twisted and violent bedtime story that Crystal says her mother used to tell her. That story serves as a sort of explanation of her uniquely detached outlook and her singular ability to spot deadly threats based on the smallest of tells.

At the film's conclusion, Crystal echos the story arc of the Napoleon Animal Farm character. She transforms from her deplorable self by donning Athena's signature red bottomed stiletto pumps, slipping into her stylish black dress, commandeering her plane, while tossing back Athena's prized champagne and caviar.

Why it's a Cinderella story!

Highly recommended if you have a sense of humor and can enjoy a stupid fun movie.

I think this is my favorite Christmas movie – one that I would love to see become classic for Christians. The film is much too understated for that to ever be likely. It is from the film's restraint and realism that much of its power flows. Mike Rich (writer) and Catherine Hardwicke (director) assume their audience is both intelligent and very familiar with the story. This allows them to often portray major plot points and character developments with great subtly. They are able to eschew much of the heavy handed techniques so often used to pummel the audience into knowing exactly who are the good and the bad, and what to fear and what to hope for. It is jarring, for instance, to contrast the understated approach this film uses to tell of the start of Christ's life with the overbearing approach used in the Passion of the Christ to tell the story of His death.

The handling of the character Joseph is a good example of the film's craft. This is probably the only film I have seen where his character all but outshines that of Mary. The film does an amazing job of revealing his remarkable character. After all God did not only carefully select the mother of the Messiah but also the man who would act as His earthly father. Joseph is handed an impossibly crushing situation when he discovers that his beloved and pure wife is pregnant. He handles this torment with great grace choosing a course that will save both the life of his seemingly unfaithful wife and her unborn child. Throughout the story Joseph is shown coming to the aid of others often at considerable personal cost while avoiding credit for his good works. His intelligence also shines in the deft way that he foils a pair of crafty thieves who prey upon the unsophisticated and exhausted country travelers arriving in the big city of Jerusalem. The film wonderfully portrays how his very young and uncertain wife comes to fully appreciate the man she was told she must marry. In the process Mary falls deeply in love with him.

There is a prevailing sense of kindness to this film. While the three Magi are used for some comical relief, there is also a clear sense of the depth of love these men hold for each other. This is shown by the initially grudging support Balthasar and Gaspar accord Melchoir for the year long quest he devised based upon his largely inscrutable readings of astrological signs and prophesies. All are overjoyed and overcome to be present at the birth of the Messiah, but Balthasar and Gaspar are also shown having a deep appreciation for what this glory means to their beloved friend.

There is also the touching story of the very old, solitary, and kindly shepherd who shares his fire with Mary and Joseph telling them how his father said "We are all given something, a gift. Your gift is what your carry inside." Mary asks him "what was your gift?". "Nothing" he responds sorrowfully. Not long after the shepherd is present when the angel Gabriel announces the birth of the Messiah telling him to "rejoice – I bring you good tiding of great joy….". Mary encourages him to lay his hand on her newborn baby. In this way the filmmakers use this humble shepherd to represent all of mankind. His role helps to underline that Christ is a gift to us all.

The 8MM film reel appears to be twice the width of an actual 8MM reel. The projected movies show a degree of grain that is much more consistent with 16MM film. It is distracting to the point of being goofy for the title of this film to be so obviously wrong.

I did not buy the motivations for many of the central characters. For instance, the elderly widow seemed to not even know her deceased husband's nature after countless years of marriage. She acted as though she had lived a very sheltered innocent life free of real world dealings, yet had no trouble sleuthing out her husbands hidden financial transactions. She disdained cash, yet had not trouble coming up with something like $2 million hard cold one in a very short period of time. She relentlessly pressed on in a cause that could yield nothing good for herself or anyone else. After her death, her man servant did not seem the least bit concerned that he along with all his fellow workers were suddenly unemployed.

Many of the other characters behaved in equally hollow plot driven ways. Count me unimpressed.