On the docket for this installment of “Monday at the Movies,” we have reviews of the three Christopher Nolan films not yet covered on this site; we also have links to coverage of films we’ve already reviewed so you can see our assessment of each film in context. Happy reading!
Following (1998)
– I was in disbelief that I’d never seen Christopher Nolan’s first film,
recognizing that it was high time I patch that hole in my cinematic CV. Following
introduces many of the classic Nolan characteristics – nonlinear smart
writing which plays with the audience’s expectation and understanding, obsessed
characters who dress stylishly, moral ambiguity – and uses them without the
disappointing incapacity of an underdeveloped filmmaker. Bill (Jeremy Theobald) is an aspiring writer
who begins following pedestrians for inspiration, but the game is turned when
he follows Cobb (Alex Haw, of no relation to Dom Cobb from Inception), a burglar who enlists Bill’s help in a few
break-ins. In classic Nolan fashion, the
film functions much like a puzzle box, with at least three distinct timeframes
narrated simultaneously and disorienting the viewer. The film begins somewhat slowly, with
Theobald’s narration a bit less than inspiring (though still leagues better
than Kevin Costner’s in Dances with Wolves),
but once Cobb enters the picture things become vastly more interesting, in part
because Haw is both charismatic and enigmatic and because many of the twists in
Nolan’s screenplay revolve around Cobb’s real motivations. The film is, unfortunately, very short (69
minutes, including credits), and I can’t help feeling that the film would have
been stronger with 20 more minutes; while the structure is similar to that of Memento, the final twist ending has none
of the weight of Memento’s, mostly
because the film answers all our questions.
The ending may be neater than we’ve come to expect, but Following is one of the strongest first
films I’ve ever seen, sharp and slender.
Memento (2000)
Insomnia (2002) –
Christopher Nolan’s only remake and only directorial outing for which he didn’t
also write the screenplay, Insomnia
is also the least Nolan-esque Nolan film, but if it’s the least successful film
on today’s list it’s still far and away better than a lot of what Hollywood has
to offer. But let’s be clear – Insomnia is not a bad movie; it’s a taut
psychological thriller grounded in strong performances. But I’m having trouble seeing it as a
Christopher Nolan film. There are no
Nolan regulars here – Al Pacino stars as Detective Will Dormer, a homicide
expert investigating an Alaskan murder with the help of Hilary Swank, while the
killer (Robin Williams in classic creepy form) taunts him from afar. The film, like every Nolan film, is about
obsession, both the killer’s obsession with his victim and Dormer’s obsession
with closing the case; the Alaskan setting, however, becomes the focus of the
film as it begins to weigh on Dormer’s psyche, impairing his ability to sleep
and ultimately function as a human being.
Rather than utilize a structure which forces the audience into a
character’s shoes, Insomnia opts to
represent as starkly as possible Dormer’s deteriorating consciousness; it’s a
fine distinction, to be sure, but it proves how deft a filmmaker Nolan really
is. It’s comparably easier to confuse an
audience while a character is confused, but it’s a bit more difficult to craft
a film in such a way that we feel Dormer’s insomnia without staying up for five
nights in a row. And Nolan does what few
have been able to do in the last decade – elicit a solid performance from
Pacino.
Batman Begins (2005)
The Prestige (2006) –
Before Inception, this was the film
that made me think the hardest, and it’s guaranteed to leave you scratching
your noodle. Hugh Jackman and Christian
Bale play rival magicians bound up in a cycle of revenge and one-upsmanship with
the women in their lives (Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, and Scarlett Johansson) and
their mutual assistant (the ever-avuncular Michael Caine) caught in the middle. With The
Prestige, Nolan returns to interwoven chronologies in a story that warns
you in advance to be on guard for a twist – “the prestige,” the moment in a
magic act when the magician performs the unexpected. But what the film doesn’t tell you (and it
won’t be spoiling anything to do so) is that there are multiple prestiges in
the film, at least one for each of the three acts of the film with several
right at the end. It’s ingenious storytelling,
regardless of what you think of the story itself; while some complained that
the twists were “unfair” or “unintelligible,” Nolan continually reinvents the
film to prevent us the filmgoers from ever getting too far ahead of the protagonists. In this way, Nolan proves himself a master of
“movie magic” (whatever that is), expertly controlling what we see and don’t see,
leaving us to puzzle out not “who” and “why” like most thrillers but instead
forcing us to wonder “how” – how the magician does his trick, how the story
will end, and how two hours can whiz by so quickly.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Inception (2010)
That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week for more brief reviews, but don’t forget to stick around for tomorrow’s debut installment of an exciting new series – “Armrest Reviews” – in which we’ll reassess Batman Begins on the eve of the trilogy’s final installment. Stay tuned!
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