Review: Unbroken (UK Cert 15)

Louis Zamperini, who passed away in July at the age of 97, had an incredible life. From tearaway child to track star, he competed in the 1936 Olympics before serving his country in the Second World War. He was downed at sea, surviving over 45 days in an inflatable dinghy, before being captured by the Japanese and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp. He survived that ordeal and returned to America, becoming involved with Billy Graham and becoming a man of God. His story is truly inspiring. 

Perhaps a documentary about the man and his life would better serve his story than this muddled, messy, middle-of-the-road, by-the-numbers biopic. Unbroken has an over-reliance on trite movie cliches, which dilute the base story and turn it into a bunch of contrived vignettes instead of a gripping tale of survival and forgiveness.

Angelina Jolie's direction is workmanlike, solid but nothing special or spectacular. Some of the make-up and visual effects when Louis is adrift at sea look amateurish and cheap which undercuts the tension. That said, Roger Deakins' cinematography is- as usual- excellent.

As the adult Louis, Jack O'Connell ('71, Starred Up) makes a good fist of it. You empathise with Louis as he goes from one disaster to another and O'Connell's symapthetic portrayal is probably the best thing in the film. Other actors, such as Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund, Jai Courtney and Finn Wittrock, are wasted; good actors in flimsily-written roles. The performance by Takamasa Ishihara as Mutsuhiro Watanabe, Zamperini's chief tormentor in the camps, lurches from trying-to-be-sinister-but-just-coming-off-as-creepy and wide-eyed foaming lunatic with very little in between. Frankly, it doesn't make for interesting viewing. 

My major bugbear with the film is the script. Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson have adapted Laura Hillenbrand's memoir but have comprehensively botched it. It's badly structured, jumping around to flashbacks at odd moments, rather than following the linear story of Zamperini's life. It also has the rare quality of turning what was no doubt stirring advice- 'if you can take it, you can make it' and 'One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory'- into leaden platitudes which is a monumental insult. There's also a massive infodump at the end of the film, detailing Zamperini's life once he returned. Whilst it's edifying to read, the details provide an intriguing story which we're just told rather than shown. 

They say that life is often stranger than fiction and that you couldn't write what happens in some people's lives as nobody would believe it. This is very much true of Zamperini's life. His is an incredible story but Unbroken really doesn't do it justice. Read Hillenbrand's book instead. 

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Tez

Review: '71 (UK Cert: 15)

It’s 1971. Fresh out of army training, Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell) is given Belfast as his first tour. During what is supposed to be a routine search of a largely Republican neighbourhood, Hook is left stranded by his naïve Lieutenant. Alone and wounded, Hook has to somehow survive and find his way back to the safety of the barracks.

Right from the off, you know where ’71 is going: shots of the squad going through tough-as-hell training; being briefed on their operation, where The Powers That Be describe Belfast as “Just another part of the UK;” the troops nervously walking along terraced streets. What sets director Yaan Demange’s first feature film apart from most heart-pounding thrillers is just how unflinchingly violent and visceral it is. This is a dirt-under-its-chipped-fingernails depiction of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Shot largely using handheld cameras (with sometimes uncomfortably close close-ups), Anthony Radcliffe’s cinematography makes you feel like you’re watching a documentary, creating an agonising amount of tension. The sound design is also impressively handled; you will jump whilst watching ’71. Explosions, gunshots, knives sinking into flesh, they all follow moments of calm silence, all sounding like they’re happening right in front of you.

Darling of British film and TV right now, Jack O’Connell (Eden Lake, Skins, Starred Up) has virtually no dialogue in ’71, instead we watch him hesitate as he is given orders, cower in dark alleyways, or psych himself up, knowing the only way out is to kill a Provisional who’s got him cornered. O’Connell has the task of carrying the film, and he does an outstanding job. You forget you’re watching an actor and instead end up completely immersed, convinced you’re seeing a terrified, ordinary young man doing all he can to stay alive.

Sean Harris has made a career out of playing murky, complex roles, explaining his character with a glance or an expression, rather than reams of dialogue (Channel 4’s Red Riding and Southcliffe), doing the same here as the captain of a group of undercover soldiers, trying to flare up the hostility between the old-guard IRA and the radical Provisionals. As the quietly simmering Sandy Browning, Harris’s scowls are possibly more frightening than the Provisionals who stalk Hook. Browning has his own corrupt agenda; he works for the British army, but he’s not on anyone’s side.

Sam Reid (The Railway Man, The Riot Club) is given the Hopeless Man in Charge role as Lieutenant Armitage, but Reid manages to make Armitage more than just a war film cliché. Armitage is a kind man, who makes all the wrong choices. He doesn’t want his men in riot gear, as he wants the officers to look approachable; a decision he soon ends up regretting when he walks Belfast’s streets. Armitage is distraught when he realises he left one of his men behind, doing everything in his power to get Hook back, only to be obstructed by his superior, Browning.

A special mention has to go to Corey McKinley as a Loyalist child who comes to Hook’s aid. McKinley is a cynical old man trapped in a young boy’s body, lightening the mood with his constant swearing. Both O’Connell and McKinnley are terrific, but McKinley runs away with it whenever the two actors are onscreen together.

The only criticism you could have with ’71 is that it doesn’t delve too deeply into The Troubles. With the exception of O’Connell and Reid, the English are made out to be callous and violent, making more enemies instead of keeping the peace, but that’s as much insight as you get into the height of the Northern Ireland conflict. Demange uses Belfast as the location for a homage to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and that’s it.

’71 is one of this year’s best British films. Very few thrillers manage to turn audiences into emotional wrecks, yet Demange handles the onslaught of action like he’s already one of cinema’s greats, throwing you head first into the frightening world that was early seventies Belfast. You’re right there with O’Connell as he’s chased, shot at, or hiding. You absolutely want him to make it back alive.

4 out of 5