DVDs: Trumbo, Hunger Games: Mockingjay #2; The Danish Girl
Posted on March 1, 2016 by bob in DVD
Trumbo (R) 
Dalton Trumbo was one of Hollywood’s leading screenwriters throughout the 1940s. But shortly after WWII, the country morphed into its Cold War mentality, with Communism denounced as the new existential threat before we’d barely had time to catch our breath from defeating the Nazis. Fear led to demagoguery, with some claiming that Commies among us were now the greatest threat to our way of life. That led to the era of McCarthyism, demonizing all who had ever sympathized with or belonged to any form of socialist entity, or been friends with some who had. One result was the blacklisting of scores of Hollywood writers and others in a frenzied paranoid purge that spread to every private and public sector.
Bryan Cranston continues his surge as a dramatic actor in the title role. A number of key figures are presented quite compellingly, adding specifics about the players and their tactics that many who recall or studied the era may not have known. Helen Mirren’s portrayal of influential gossip columnist Hedda Hopper is almost as bone-chillingly malicious as Angela Lansbury’s fanatic mother in The Manchurian Candidate. Period film and TV footage are deftly incorporated, adding gravitas and context to the production.
All the usual cinematic elements would add up to a fine historical account. But the real punch of this one lies in its lamentable degree of current relevance. So much of today’s facile demonizing of “others” within our ranks seems appallingly similar to that era’s manufactured fervor against all who even seemed to brush up against socialist ideas. The sources are the same – the ownership class driving the agenda to hold or increase its power; making everyone fear those who can be identified as different – politics, race, religion –whatever lines they can convince well-intentioned followers to draw; the false sense of self-preservation from persecuting the targeted group(s), all in service of keeping the masses from noticing who’s really thriving at their expense.
It’s yet another reminder of the need to ask who’s jerking our chains, and why might they be doing it, before jumping on those bandwagons. In virtually every TV or movie Western that involved lynch mobs, the “necktie party” frenzy was fueled by the real bad guys who manipulated decent citizens into self-righteous rage just to hide their own guilt. When will we ever learn?
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (PG-13)
If you’re obsessed with this fantasy series, you might have enough patience to find this fourth and final installment worthwhile. It does finish the saga with reasonable outcomes, but the path for our heroes is longer and duller than all we shared with them in the first three films, adding up to a major disappointment. Jennifer Lawrence returns as the inspirational Joan of Arc figure, Katniss (a/k/a The Mockingjay), leading the dystopian districts of Panem in their revolt against The Capital and its Machiavellian president (Donald Sutherland). It’s a metaphor for all colonial conflicts, as well as economic oppression of rich against poor from ancient times to the present. Today’s presidential debates and political commentary come to mind far too easily while watching “escapist” action fare like this.
The film runs well over two hours, and was sorely in need of a firm hand to trim the moping and brooding, and ramp up the action. One of the uprising’s biggest victories occurs briefly in the background. Whatever they saved on the CG budget couldn’t have been enough to brush past that moment only to include more hand-wringing and silent reflections than anyone needed. Good plot; good characters; poor directing. Tedious end to an otherwise compelling series. Katniss and her fans deserved a better send-off.
The Danish Girl (R) 
For those who think gender identity issues are something new, here’s a fact-based drama about Danish Eigar Wegener, whose seemingly happy marriage and success were not enough to keep a lid on his inner persona, Lili. As portrayed by Eddie Redmayne, following last year’s stellar turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, Wegener’s lifelong conflict eventually boiled over, despite staunch condemnation of his tendencies by the social norms of Europe in the 1920s. Alicia Vikander co-stars as the most loving, supportive, understanding wife in the history of our species, submerging her own artistic and personal wants and needs to the baffling forces driving the man she loved.
A decade ago, this film would have been far more shocking than it seems now. Reality has emerged from the shadows, making Wegener’s ordeal more anachronistic, and less relevant to our times. He risked his marriage, career, prison, and some rather horrifying treatment options from that generation of physicians. If born 80 years later, the medical profession would have understood his condition far more clearly; he might have even learned as a child that those feelings he feared and loathed were less aberrant than he assumed. His options for adulthood would have allowed a less traumatic course for all concerned, whatever choices he’d have made.
The acting is superb, though the story drags (no pun intended) far longer than the subject warrants, since we know so much more about the issue. Even though acceptance and assimilation lag far behind that initial acknowledgment, the prolonged course for these characters turns to overkill, undermining the potency of their circumstances and actions. Sets and locations are first-rate, and Vikander’s performance will likely earn as many award nominations as Redmayne’s more obviously arduous role.
Mark Glass
(Ed.’s Note: This month’s reviews are Mark’s final film critiques for Prime. We appreciate his diligent support since our very first issue was published seven years ago. An officer and director of the St. Louis Film Critics Association, we’ll miss Mark’s entertaining and illuminating remarks about recently released movies and the industry that produces them.)
