Hellish tale in Sarajevo

IRISH writer-director Juanita Wilson’s As If I Am Not There (Ireland/16/109 mins) is a harrowing tale of one woman’s degradation during the Bosnian war.

Seconded to a rural village, Sarajevo schoolteacher Samira (Natasa Petrovic) is rounded up by Serb forces and subjected, along with her fellow prisoners, to repeated torture in a so-called ‘rape room’. The subject matter is horrifying, but Wilson — who won Best Director, Best Script and Best Film at the recent IFTAs — has crafted a sublimely nuanced testament to the human spirit. The tone is bleak, certainly, but Tim Fleming’s masterful camerawork plays its part in contrasting the women’s hellish experience with haunting moments of beauty.

Wilson, whose short film The Door was nominated for an Oscar last year, directs her first feature with an assured touch, never flinching from exposing the horrors Samira encounters without ever sensationalising the dramatic elements. Petrovic, also making her feature-length debut, turns in a mesmerising performance of grace under pressure that ultimately transforms the traumatic events of As If I Am Not There into an uplifting experience.

IT’S sci-fi, Jim, but not as we know it. Set in contemporary New York, The Adjustment Bureau (US/12A/105 mins) stars Matt Damon as David Norris, an aspiring politician who falls for the vivacious Elise (Emily Blunt) after a chance encounter. The romance is stymied, however, by an ‘adjustment team’, agents of Fate led by Thompson (Terence Stamp), whose job it is to ensure the universe runs smoothly and according to an established plan.

Based on a short story by Philip K Dick, George Nolfi’s movie grafts sci-fi elements onto a romantic drama to explore the metaphysical conundrum of free will. “All I have are the choices I make,” declares a defiant Norris when he is given a peek behind the curtain of what we believe to be reality, “and I chose her”. It’s a fascinating conceit, although an absence of real threat from the ‘adjustment team’ undermines the tension, particularly when Nolfi, helming his debut feature, ups the pace for the final reel. Nevertheless, a believable chemistry between Damon and Blunt ensures that audience sympathy is with the star-crossed lovers from out the outset, and both contribute hugely to an unusually thoughtful thriller.

HOT on the heels of the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit comes Rango (US/PG/107 mins), an animated parody-homage to the classic Western. It stars Johnny Depp as the voice of the eponymous hero, a chameleon with ambitions to become a hero who discovers that becoming a sheriff in the lawless Wild West demands rather more than the capacity to blend in.

Gore Verbinski’s movie shamelessly steals the plot of Chinatown (1974) and blends it with iconic Western moments, not least among them a ‘cameo’ from a cigar-chomping Spirit of the West, who looks suspiciously like Clint Eastwood.

Chock-a-block with the inevitable cinematic in-jokes, Rango gallops along at full tilt, delivering laughs and action in equal measure, the highlight being an extended escape sequence that manages to blend The Wizard of Oz (1939), Star Wars (1977) and Indiana Jones in a hilariously frenetic five minutes. As a bonus, Depp’s deadpan delivery is a delight throughout.

INVOLVED in a car accident while visiting Berlin, Dr Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) wakes from a coma to discover that his identity has been stolen. Unknown (US/15A/112 mins) is a thriller in the classic conspiracy thriller mould — on checking himself out of hospital, Harris is disowned by his wife (January Jones), who appears to have taken up with another Dr Martin Harris (Aidan Quinn).

Neeson is in enjoyable watchable form as he shambles around Berlin like a wounded bear, aided by illegal immigrant Gina (Diane Kruger), whose taxi-driving skills are the minimum required to veer around many of the large plot-holes that flash past at regular intervals. That said, Unknown is entirely acceptable hokum best consumed with a hefty pinch of salt on your popcorn, especially in the final third, when Harris’s true identity is revealed and Neeson cuts loose and vents his frustration.

IRONCLAD (UK/US/16/120 mins) stars James Purefoy as Marshall, a Knight Templar who incurs the wrath of King John (Paul Giamatti) by holing up in the strategically important Rochester Castle, and thus preventing King John from retaking England from the barons who forced him to sign the Magna Carta.

Jonathan English’s film offers a gritty take on the swashbuckling epic, albeit one which is curiously uneven in tone. “Only the weak believe that what they do in battle makes them the men they are,” Marshall declares at one point, yet the film only truly comes alive during the frequent and bloody assaults by John’s men. In essence it’s The Magnificent Seven (1960) with swords, although the shallowness of Purefoy’s brooding presence is revealed when measured against the performances of his co-stars, which include Giamatti, Charles Dance, Brian Cox and Derek Jacobi.