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IRON MAN
Arms or the Man
Reviewed by John P. McCarthy
The summer movie season launches with a sophisticated
superhero movie that doesn't pander to the sensibility
usually associated with the genre. The downside: "Iron
Man" doesn't exhilarate or take hold of the imagination.
More emphasis is placed on character than action, a
probable -- though not inevitable or uniformly positive
-- result of casting Robert Downey, Jr. as playboy
industrialist Tony Stark. Personality and effects-driven
wows aren't mutually exclusive of course. Yet by tipping
toward the former, this rendering of the Marvel Comic
introduced in 1963 remains a tad dry. The dumb teenager
in me was grateful he wasn't being talked down to, but
he wasn't blown away either.
Possessing Dick Cheney's political outlook, Hugh
Hefner's lifestyle and knack for self-promotion, Bill
Gates' ruthless entrepreneurial spirit, and the
scientific and engineering prowess of an MIT professor,
arms merchant Stark is considered by his detractors to
be the biggest mass murderer in U.S. history. A suavely
avaricious, hard-partying bachelor billionaire --
orphaned like his fellows Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne
-- he invents and then supplies the world with weapons.
In the opening scene, we see the Scotch-on-the-rocks
he's holding before we glimpse Stark riding in a US
military Humvee in Afghanistan. He's there to unveil
Stark Industry's latest creation, the Jericho missile;
and as he's teasing the admiring soldiers escorting him,
we know the light, jocular atmosphere will soon be
interrupted. What we don't realize is that it will never
be dispelled entirely.
The convoy is attacked and Stark severely wounded. He
wakes up in a cave with a car battery connected to a
hole in his chest. According to the Afghani physician
(Shaun Toub) who saved his life, it will prevent the
shrapnel discharged by one of his own bombs from
traveling to his heart. When the terrorists holding them
order Stark to make missiles, he builds a mini nuclear
reactor to replace the device the doctor has rigged up.
This neat piece of technology will keep him alive and
lead to the birth of Iron Man.
Instead of a conventional missile, Stark and the doctor
construct an armored suit that enables him to escape
after three months in captivity. The experience triggers
an epiphany. Much to the chagrin of his business
associate Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), Stark devotes
himself to promoting peace and leaving an honorable
personal legacy. This puts Stark Industries at risk and
eventually entails destroying some of his own weaponry
in the field.
Becoming the do-gooder in the diving bell does enhance
Stark's stature in the eyes of his priggishly loyal
assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). And he
suddenly realizes that she's fetching in more ways than
one. It's not clear who is more enamored of Stark, his
leggy major domo or his admiring friend and liaison to
the U.S. Military, an Air Force officer named Rhodey
(Terrence Howard).
As Stark subverts the efforts of his company, one of the
coziest relationships in the history of the military
industrial complex is threatened. Rhodey doesn't seem to
mind, for now at least. His dormant jealously might be
incorporated into subsequent scenarios (and may already
have been, since many drafts of the sequel must already
exist). The overtly priapic essence of this and every
other superhero saga is upheld when Stark faces off
against his mentor Stane. Casting Bridges, who looks
like a textbook Mephistopheles with a bald pate and
bushy beard, heightens the sense "Iron Man" is more
about character development than special effects.
Downey acquits himself well enough during the action
sequences, there just aren't enough of them and the
existing ones could use a boost. There's a relatively
dull middle stretch of thirty minutes or so when Stark
is hunkered down in his Malibu pad perfecting his
invention. The climactic clash of the Gigantors Stark
and Stane is a bit skimpy.
Few actors can exude as much distinctive personality,
vocally or physically, while hidden beneath a suit of
gold titanium alloy. Downey's offhand charm and wry,
understated delivery (particularly in the banter between
Stark and Pepper and the computers that assist him) are
enjoyable and certainly unusual in this domain. Yet it's
unclear how far this energy can propel the franchise.
Tony Stark is heroic because of what he stops doing more
than for what he actually does over the course of the
movie. The resulting imbalance suggests the filmmakers
are biding time until the second installment. There's a
difference between overdoing the special effects and
enjoying them. To the movie's benefit and detriment,
director Jon Favreau and company have more fun with the
man than the machine. (PG-13) FAIR ACTION-DRAMA Dir-Jon
Favreau Lead-Robert Downey, Jr. RT-126 mins.
FUGITIVE PIECES
Adapted from Anne Michaels' novel, this
resonant film tells of a Polish Jew who,
at the age of nine, saw his parents
killed and his sister abducted by the
Nazis. As an adult, Jakob Beer (Dillane)
is obsessed with the Holocaust and
unable to find peace, a condition
writer-director Jeremy Podeswa treats
with a lyrical reticence and
sensitivity. The movie drifts back in
time whenever Beer's memory does,
offering snippets of sorrow the audience
cannot fully share. Jakob's wife (Rosamund
Pike) is unable to bear it, but when he
finds redemption via his writing and a
new relationship, the catharsis is ours
as well. (R) GOOD DRAMA Dir-Jeremy
Podeswa Lead-Stephen Dillane RT-104 mins.
MADE OF HONOR
"When Harry Met Sally" collides with "My
Best Friend's Wedding" in a padded
romantic-comedy whose degree of
insipidness will depend on how much one
considers Patrick Dempsey worthy of
sex-symbol status. He plays a womanizer
who realizes he belongs with his best
friend (Michelle Monaghan) just when she
gets engaged to a slab of royal Scottish
beefcake. So many fake obstacles to the
rightful union arise that when the story
moves to Scotland you wouldn't be
surprised if Mel Gibson jumped out of
the heather wielding an axe. Dempsey and
Monaghan click but the derivative effort
still amounts to a less-than-dreamy hack
job. (PG-13) BORING ROMANTIC-COMEDY
Dir-Paul Weiland Lead-Patrick Dempsey
RT-101 mins.
MISTER LONELY
In Paris, a Michael Jackson impersonator
(Luna) meets a faux Marilyn Monroe
(Samantha Morton) and follows her to a
commune in Scotland where everybody
pretends to be someone they're not --
Charlie Chaplin, Abraham Lincoln, the
Pope, and Sammy Davis, Jr. to name a
few. In the jungles of Latin America
meanwhile, missionary nuns learn how to
fly, literally and to the delight of an
inebriated priest (Werner Herzog).
Comprised of beautifully arresting
images set to saccharine pop songs, this
study of misfit melancholia, from a
moviemaker known for the bizarre, has a
simple splendor. Whether it's simplistic
is in the eye of the beholder. (N/R)
GOOD COMEDY-DRAMA Dir-Harmony Korine
Lead-Diego Luna RT-112 mins.
REDBELT
Starting out in riveting, muscular
fashion, this story about a jiu-jitsu
teacher (the superb Chiwetel Ejiofor)
goes soft during the middle rounds.
Writer-director David Mamet is unable to
score enough original points as his
equally stoic and sensitive hero gets
kicked by corruption and mendacity from
every corner. Linked to the emerging
sport of Mixed Martial Arts through his
Brazilian wife (Alice Braga), the noble
non-fighter's rescue of a Hollywood star
(Tim Allen) leads to tragedy and
compromised principles. An attorney
(Emily Mortimer) who triggered part of
his predicament offers counsel and
comfort, and there are too many other
boxing movie conventions to overcome.
(R) FAIR DRAMA Dir-David Mamet Lead-Chiwetel
Ejiofor RT-95 mins.
SON OF RAMBOW
"Make Believe Not War" is the tagline
for this winsomely raucous dramedy about
friendship, faith and cinephilia. Set in
England during the early 1980s, it
follows a lad raised in a strict
religious sect and the school
troublemaker when they join forces to
make a movie inspired by Sylvester
Stallone's screen fighting machine. As
befits the project's homemade spirit,
the pacing is choppy and there are some
standard coming-of-age plot points. But
any weaknesses are trumped by a
sharp-eyed nostalgia for the period and
an anarchic sensibility that reflects
how boys often veer between tender
emotion and the bellicose behavior Rambo
represents. (PG-13) GOOD COMEDY-DRAMA
Dir-Garth Jennings Lead-Bill Milner
RT-96 mins. |
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