Paul Greengrass's latest film is a western, set in 1870, about a man named Captain Kidd (Tom Hanks), who rides from town to town, charging far-flung settlers a dime to hear the news read. One day he comes across an upturned wagon and a blonde girl named Johanna (Helena Zengel), who speaks only Kiowa. She was abducted and raised by Indians, and now needs to be transported back to her surviving relatives. Johanna is not keen on this idea, and despite Kidd's repeated attempts to pass her off into the care of others, he finds himself pressed into the role of her temporary guardian. The journey is an eventful one, and the pair face many dangers on their way.
"News of the World" is a fantastic looking film, shot by Dariusz Wolski. Frontier towns, lonely homesteads, and an endless expanse of rough country have been painstakingly recreated. The elements are out in full force, including pouring cloudbursts and a dust storm in the third act. Greengrass keeps the pace brisk and the central odd couple moving from one exciting event to the next. As modern westerns go, the story is fairly sentimental and uplifting. You have two lost souls making their way together through a hostile world together, trying to recover from tragedy. The material is often sobering, acknowledging the bleaker, harsher realities of life in this era, and alluding to much worse. What's actually onscreen, however, is strictly PG-13 and fairly action-oriented. The narrative is really a bunch of larger-than-life vignettes strung together, where Captain Kidd and Johanna make it out of various scrapes through their combined wits, luck, and daring.
The performances are good, and Helena Zengel is an especially strong, energetic presence. Her wild child antics are easily the most entertaining element of the film, and I like how it's so sympathetic to her situation. Much of her dialogue is in Kiowa, and she's constantly doing very physical things - running away, fighting people twice her size, and loudly protesting against whatever civilized nonsense someone is trying to force upon her. Tom Hanks is dependably solid here, but he's essentially playing a variation on the same character he's been playing for the last twenty years. Nobody is breaking any new ground here, but it's a charming film, well made, and an audience pleaser in a season that needs them more than ever. I'd put this first on the list of recent movies safe to watch with my parents, and that's not a long list these days.
Far more ambitious and interesting is "The White Tiger," written and directed by Ramin Bahrani, who I've long associated with tiny American indie films like "Chop Shop" and "99 Homes." This is his first film set in India, that deals with Indian society and social issues. And he tackles the material with a ferocity that is very exciting. "The White Tiger" adapts the novel by Arvind Adiga, following the rise of a young man named Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) from a life of poverty in a rural village to success as a self-described entrepreneur in a quickly globalizing India. Balram narrates the story for us through a letter he is writing to visiting Chinese premiere Wen Jiabao, explaining how he was able to escape the "rooster coop" of Indian social customs.
The primary relationship explored by the film is that of the master and servant. Balram is shrewd enough to get himself hired as a driver for a young man named Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and his wife Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas). Both are American educated and progressive minded, but are caught up in the bribery schemes of Ashok's father (Mahesh Manjrekar) and brother Mukesh (Vijay Maurya). As Balram gains the trust of his employers, he sees more and more of their faults and vices, and learns how expendable he is to them. Adarsh Gourav does a fantastic job of carrying the film, embodying Balram's conflicting loyalties and his growing dissatisfaction with his place in life. The tone of the film is similar to off-kilter crime thrillers like "Filth" and "Nightcrawler," making good use of black comedy and bitter social commentary. There's something very Travis Bickle about Balram, who is able to justify the unthinkable to himself through perceptive critiques of the system.
I also love the look of the film, which takes us from the poorest villages to the luxury hotels of New Delhi. The cinematography often highlights the absurd juxtaposition of India's richest and poorest, and all the little ways that the hierarchy is enforced. Balram is often expected to behave in an unnervingly subservient way to Ashok and his family, and never complain about his abuse or exploitation. "The White Tiger" also touches on the hypocrisy and complicity of the more enlightened new generation, through Ashok and Pinky. One of my favorite minor characters is a social reformer politician, dubbed The Great Socialist (Swaroop Sampat), who is a champion of the poor, but participates in the political bribery system with alarming gusto.
It feels like Ramin Bahrani has been building up the "The White Tiger" for much of his career, after so many films about the working poor and dispossessed. I certainly hope he gets to make more like it.
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