Monday at the Movies - September 23, 2013

Welcome to another edition of “Monday at the Movies.”  I’ve been doing an annotated bibliography on the novel and awaiting details about the third entry in the trilogy of adaptations, so this week we present a review that really ought to have gone up on September 2.

Atlas Shrugged: Part II (2012) – I’m on record as being an admirer of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus, an 1100-page treatise on railroads and free-market capitalism.  And I even liked the first film adaptation, marred by a low budget and poor marketing though it undeniably was.  With a full cast overhaul for Part II, I wasn’t optimistic, but perhaps as a result I ended up enjoying this one more than I expected.  Make no mistake, though; this isn’t a full movie but rather quite clearly a middle entry in a six-hour three-part narrative, so don’t come in looking for a one-and-done.  As heroic Dagny Taggart, one of the last holdouts in a crumbling dystopia, Samantha Mathis is capable, though she lacks that snarky edge that Taylor Schilling brought to the role in Part I.  Similarly, Jason Beghe’s Hank Rearden is gruffer and more of a heavy than Grant Bowler in the first (who I contend was perfect casting).  But as Francisco d’Anconia, Esai Morales is head over heels a better choice than Jsu Garcia, giving the role all the mystique and theatricality it deserves; d’Anconia is essentially Rand’s Bruce Wayne, and Morales plays the character’s apparent contradictions to the hilt.  (But remember, “Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises.”)  These movies have been hampered by low budgets, though the inclusion of more character actors from TV (like Ray Wise, Paul McCrane, and Diedrich Bader) has given us some great casting for Part II.  While these films likely only hold the attention of the converted, let’s hope Part III ends on the high note the novel deserves.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!