Posts Tagged ‘Jacob Tremblay’

The Little Mermaid

Director: Rob Marshall

Cast: Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem, Melissa McCarthy, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Akwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Daveed Diggs

Running Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Oscar nominated director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns, Memoirs of a Geisha) returns with another Disney classic live action musical The Little Mermaid  featuring the gorgeous and talented Halle Bailey as the mermaid that causes all the trouble.

Ariel lives down in the Ocean but is constantly fascinated by the humans above sea level collecting items off their ships that sink to the cavenous ocean’s floor. Banished by her overbearing father, King Triton, God of the seas, played by Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) from going to the land, Ariel willingly defies her father when she makes a dangerous deal with her aunt, the evil sea witch Ursula superbly played by Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Bridesmaids) to trade in her fins for legs so she can approach land.

Ariel is desperate to meet up with a handsome prince because this is Disney, and there is always a handsome prince lurking about! In this case Prince Eric is played by Jonah Hauer-King (Little Women) who defies his own mother, the Queen played by Noma Dumezweni (Dirty Pretty Things) and is keen to see the beautiful mermaid that saved him during a storm which shipwrecked his vessel.

Ariel is unaware that Ursula has cast a spell when she arrives on land and is generously taken in by Eric except she cannot talk and her only assistance are a crab voiced by Daveed Diggs, a fish could Flounder voiced by Jacob Tremblay and Scuttle voiced by Awkwafina.

The Little Mermaid is pure Disney fantasy assisted by some amazing songs and brilliant special effects particularly the underwater sequences of which there are many. If audiences suspend their disbelief then The Little Mermaid will be a delightful film to be enjoyed by the whole family.

Despite lavish sets and production design, Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid lacks pace in certain aspects of the storyline and the film could have been edited properly, shaving at least twenty minutes off the running time.

The real treat of the film is Melissa McCarthy as Ursula who is suitably villainous and camp as the evil witch complete with pearls and a dreadful hairdo. Javier Bardem’s acting talents are underutilized in a film which his character does not feature prominently. There are also some issues with questionable casting but if audiences focus on the fantasy narrative then they will find this film enjoyable.

Halle Bailey holds her own in the title role although Jonah Hauer-King could have been more masculine as the Prince. His performance comes off as boyish and naïve.

If audiences love a Disney musical, then go and watch The Little Mermaid, it will either infuriate or dazzle the viewers. Unfortunately not as brilliant as one expected, The Little Mermaid gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. It’s as light as a mermaid staring at an idyllic sunset.

Room

Director: Lenny Abrahamson

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson, Cas Anvar

Brie Larson gives an Oscar-winning performance in director Lenny Abrahamson’s claustrophobic film Room about captivity, sexual slavery and the perceptions of children. Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, director Abrahamson whose previous credit includes the bizarre Michael Fassbender film Frank, delves deep into the emotional and psychological trauma of those affected by a harrowing experience set in suburban Akron, Ohio.

This experience is the abduction of Joy Newsome, known as Ma who is sexually abused from the age of 17 and kept in a garden shed, which becomes the room of the title and stays there for seven years. During her incarceration she gives birth to a son Jack who becomes her world. Cleverly Room does not dwell on the horrors of captivity or sexual slavery, but fluidly follows the perceptions of this enclosed world formed by the 5 year old Jack wonderfully played by newcomer Jacob Tremblay, who really is the emotional centre of the film and certainly should have won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Joy Newsome known as Ma, is superbly played by relative newcomer Brie Larson (The Gambler, Don Jon) in a stunning performance which has scooped every Best Actress award in 2016 from the Golden Globes to the Bafta’s to The Oscars.

The exceptional depth of Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay’s talent is displayed in the first half of Room, which is entirely occupied by Ma and Jack as they eventually hatch a plan to escape when Ma realizes that Old Nick, played by Canadian actor Sean Bridgers, cannot really afford to keep them locked up forever.

That escape and eventual discovery of Joy Newsome is thanks to the bravery of young Jack who must unwittingly go into a world he has never experienced and escape, find the police and alert them of their disappearance and capture. Brilliant shot, Abrahamson keeps the tension of the first half of the film and Brie Larson is extraordinary as she must know convince her young son, Jack that the world comprising Room is not the Real World and he must shift his expectation from fantasy to an altered reality of what the real world actually is.

Audiences expecting a neatly tied up dramatic end to Room will be thoroughly disappointed as the second half of the film after their release dwells more on the emotional and psychological consequences of the mother and son’s shared trauma than on any legal or criminal investigation into their prolonged captivity.

Joy’s estranged parents Nancy and Robert played by Joan Allen (The Contender, The Crucible) and William H. Macy (Fargo, The Sessions) are suitably good in a nuanced underplayed way, especially as Robert cannot bear to look at the product of sexual abuse, his grandson Jack.

Room is essentially a parable about a mother’s bond with her child in a cruel and vicious world where each of them are confined by their own perceptions of the world and the roles they are meant to occupy as parent and child.

Room is a thought-provoking and harrowing tale of survival which will keep audiences talking for years, held together by brilliant performances by Larson and Tremblay. Recommended viewing for those that enjoy an intelligent and emotional family drama.

2015 Toronto International

Film Festival Winners

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) takes place every year in September in Toronto, Canada.

Films which premiere at Toronto are often nominated for Academy Awards the following year.

TIFF does not hand out individual prizes for Best Actor or Actress but focuses on amongst others the following awards:
People’s Choice Award & Best Canadian Feature Film

Opening Night Film: Demotion directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper

People’s Choice Award: Room directed by Lenny Abrahamson starring Brie Larson, Joan Allen, William H. Macy and Jacob Tremblay

Best Canadian Feature Film: Closet Monster directed by Stephen Dunn starring Connor Jessup, Isabella Rosselini, Joanne Kelly and Aaron Abrahams

Source: 2015 Toronto Film Festival