Departures

DEPARTURES is a sad, beautiful, well-told tale. It helps to know a little about Japanese culture to enjoy it, but that knowledge isn’t absolutely required. The best stories transcend culture, and DEPARTURES is one of these.

Daigo, a cellist, has lost his job after his orchestra folded. Out of options (the market for cellists being rather saturated), he and his wife move to his hometown and the house his mother left him. Once there, Daigo finds work as an apprentice to a dresser of the dead. A dresser isn’t an undertaker. Rather, he conducts the ceremonial preparation of the body for burial, an exacting, honorable, and precise function for which his years of disciplined practice as a musician has readied him.

But life in the death business has its challenges. It’s socially unacceptable to all but those who, through the loss of a loved one, have benefitted from seeing it done well. Aspects of it are difficult and disgusting. And what musician has mortician in mind as a viable backup plan? For that matter, what musician’s wife has mortician’s wife in mind as a viable backup plan?

DEPARTURES, then, uses Daigo’s journey as an exploration of the nature of dignity, of love, of duty. The credit for its success goes, in no small part, to Masahiro Motoki, the actor who plays him. He’s very Japanese, meaning that he’s a contained man who would view the American practice of wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve with horror. But Motoki brings us into his character’s desperation, his shame, and his ultimate fulfillment with wit and honor.

This is a marvelous story, one well worth your time. I give it my unqualified recommendation.

The Hurt Locker

Guy Pearce works in explosive ordnance disposal.  He’s an E-8, a senior enlisted man, and he goes by the book.  The book’s a good thing in a combat zone like Baghdad in 2004, but there’s no guarantee it’ll keep you alive.

And so we begin with Kathryn Bigelow’s THE HURT LOCKER, a film about combat soldiering in the modern age.  About more than just soldiering, THE HURT LOCKER is about the kind of people who soldier: those who are made for it, those who become made for it, and those who should never step outside the wire.  Made with knowledge, empathy, and skill, THE HURT LOCKER takes us into the lives of people who neutralize bombs for a living and into the hearts of people who have to rocket back and forth between the safety of their Army camp and the hostile uncertainty of urban warfare every single day.

While the movie suffers from feeling more like a series of set pieces than an organic narrative, Bigelow’s directorial style makes us feel that we’re on the ground with these people, ducking for cover with them and trying to manage our emotions with them.  And when (some of them) come home, we feel their confusion with civilian life and understand their need to return to the place they’d so desperately wished to escape.

While I’ve never wanted to be in the Army and I’ve never wanted to play with bombs, THE HURT LOCKER put me in the shoes of those who are and do.  It made me see through their eyes for a time, and I think that’s a worthwhile endeavor.

District 9

Hey, who’s this Sharlto Copley guy?

The actor gives perhaps the best performance of the year as Wikus Van De Merwe, a mid-level office functionary for the lazily named Multi-National United, or MNU. MNU has successfully contracted for authority to run District 9, the refugee camp for the disgusting aliens of the eponymous film, and it has gained the authority to relocate the squalid camp and its inhabitants to a location far away. It falls to the none-too-bright Van De Merwe to manage the program. He’s in over his head.

Let’s back up a minute. The aliens arrived around 1985, hungry and exhausted, when their ship came to a stop in the skies above Johannesburg. They looked horrible, smelled bad, and were both stupid and destructive – it was like having a giant frat house dropped right into the middle of your neighborhood. These beings were not going to integrate into human society, so there was just one thing for them: refugee status. But their foul refugee camp has been stinking up Johannesburg for far too long – it’s time to move them to the desert.

So now we’re back to Van De Merwe, the putz. He’s a jovial guy, happily torching Prawn (as the aliens are called) breeding grounds and kicking down doors, completely unaware of the monstrosity of his actions. Then something goes wrong, and Van De Merwe starts to see the other side of the coin.

That’s when Sharlto Copley begins to shine. We see his character break down, and Copley takes us through every step of the process. We believe his fear, his outrage, his crippling inability to process what’s happening as his world turns inside out. This guy shows us a breathtaking range of emotions and reactions, and never for one minute did I doubt that I was on a journey with a real human being.

The film overall? Oh, yeah, it’s terrific. It does what the best science fiction’s supposed to do: take an ambitious concept and use it to comment on an aspect of contemporary society in a fresh and possibly jarring way. It looks great, sounds great, and seamlessly weaves CGI and practical to create an immersive and believable world.

So see DISTRICT 9 if you like science fiction. See it if you like social commentary. Most of all, see it to enjoy a powerhouse performance from one Sharlto Copley. I can’t wait to see what this guy does next.