Movie reviews: Jodie Foster impresses as civil rights lawyer in The Mauritanian
Shailene Woodley as Teri Duncan, Jodie Foster as Nancy Hollander.
Based on true events, (16s) opens in 2001, with Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim) being arrested in his native Mauritius and taken away ‘to talk with the Americans’. Fast-forward to 2005, when we learn that Slahi is incarcerated at Guantanamo Prison; although suspected of masterminding the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, he has yet to be charged with any specific crime by the US government.
Enter Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster), a hard-bitten civil rights lawyer with a reputation for ‘fighting the government since Vietnam’. Determined that the rule of law should be upheld, and largely unconcerned as to Slahi’s guilt or innocence, Nancy goes head-to-head with Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), a prosecutor with a personal interest in seeing that Slahi gets the death penalty.
Adapted from Slahi’s Guantanamo Diary, and directed by Kevin Macdonald, The Mauritanian is a complex and unorthodox courtroom drama, in part because the story’s central thrust is concerned with ensuring that the accused party actually gets to engage with the legal process. A gripping story contrasts high-minded principles with the dehumanising effects of relentless torture as Macdonald explores the fallacy at the heart of America’s self-styled ‘War on Terror’. It’s a story that could very easily have lapsed into pontificating, but the superb performances ensure that the film is as emotionally absorbing as it is intellectually demanding.
Tahar Rahim excels as the brutalised Slahi, who somehow manages to retain a kernel of his humanity amidst the institutionalised degradation, and who finds hope in the instinctive compassion of Nancy’s assistant Teri (Shailene Woodley). Elsewhere, Benedict Cumberbatch puts in a strong turn as the conflicted Colonel Couch, although it’s Jodie Foster who steals the show as the flinty, bloodless Nancy Hollander, a woman who raises cynicism to an art form. (Amazon Prime)
Viewers craving a nostalgic giggle (and who isn’t, these days?) will thoroughly enjoy (PG), a live-action movie featuring the cartoon foes who first appeared in 1940. The plot, not that it matters very much, opens with Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) blagging her way into hosting the society wedding of the year at a swanky New York hotel, only for her scheme to be scuppered when Jerry — or Jerome Mouse, to be precise — takes up residence and gives rise to rumours of a rodent infestation.
When she employs Tom to rid the hotel of Jerry, Kayla believes it’s mission accomplished; but soon the incorrigible duo are wreaking their inimitable brand of mayhem and causing the very hotel to shudder to its foundations. Written by Kevin Costello and directed by Tim Story, delivers a meticulously drawn version of the beloved Hanna & Barbera characters, inserting them into a contemporary live-action scenario with the minimum of fuss.
Tom and Jerry aren’t the only animated characters: we also get the bulldog Spike, a tiger, a small flock of peacocks, and a couple of elephants, all of which, as the viewer will easily conceive, are destined to become embroiled in the mother of all donnybrooks by movie’s end. The human actors play their part, of course, with Chloë Grace Moretz in charming form as the disingenuous Kayla, and Michael Peña providing plenty of deadpan comedy as the villainous assistant manager, but, for the most part, this movie is a raucous celebration of Tom and Jerry’s timeless appeal as they segue from one scene of chaotic cartoon violence with a refreshing disregard for health and safety. (digital release)
The physics of it all doesn’t bear too much scrutiny, of course, but (12A) is an old-fashioned adventure romp that owes a considerable debt to . Last encountered as an ally of humanity, the primeval monster Godzilla appears to go rogue when it attacks mainland Florida.
Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and Dr Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) hatch a plan to send King Kong back to his ancestral home at the Earth’s core, where they hope to tap into an energy source powerful enough to allow humankind defeat Godzilla, but the sinister Apex Cybernetics, headed by Walter Simmons (Damián Bechir), has other plans for Kong.
More than any other movie, perhaps, will prove a test of Warners’ decision to deliver its 2021 slate on digital release: if any movie this year requires a big screen to maximise its spectacle, it’s this.
That said, the story works just fine on the smaller screen: the story unfolds at a cracking pace, the CGI is top drawer, and the slug-fests between the ‘Alpha Titans’ are as ludicrously destructive as any Godzilla/Kong enthusiast might hope as director Adam Wingard delivers dystopian sci-fi fantasy on an operatic scale.
