Jack and I were quite entertained by this story of a guy balking against supernatural forces trying to control his destiny, and by its attractive stars, beautiful New York photography, lush sets, and music by one of my favorite screen composers, Thomas Newman. Matt Damon (after I wrote about him in The Informant! he's been in Invictus, Hereafter, to which this movie has occult similarities but much more humor, a series arc on 30 Rock, and True Grit), handsome as ever, plays David, a passionate politician who meets cute with ballet dancer Elise, played by Emily Blunt (I wrote about her in Sunshine Cleaning and then said she was luminous in The Young Victoria). This comes so close after Black Swan that I believe it's a coincidence that they both have ballet themes. Another difference is that Emily Blunt had no dance training before shooting this, and, according to imdb, her dance double is clearly shown in one pivotal scene (we didn't spot it). The script, adapted by the director George Nolfi from a short story by Philip K. Dick (whose works were also the bases for Blade Runner (1982), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and more) (I saw Blade Runner in the year of its release a few weeks after moving to L.A., and was depressed for days at its seedy depiction of my new home, but got over it). Speaking of 1980s movie connections, just having thought about Wings of Desire (1987) when I wrote about Bruno Ganz in Unknown, the "Adjuster" Harry, played by Anthony Mackie (I wrote about him in both Notorious and The Hurt Locker), made me think more than a little about the angels in Wings of Desire--flawed, with human qualities. I was also reminded of my first semester of film school, also that year, when the head of the program said that love stories need conflict. This one certainly had it!
This is Nolfi's directorial debut after writing the sequels Ocean's Twelve (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and an assured debut it is. Cinematographer John Toll (Oscars for Legends of the Fall (1994) and Braveheart (1995), also shot The Last Samurai (2003) and Tropic Thunder, among many) deserves accolades for the gorgeous establishing and panoramic shots of NYC, albeit somewhat hampered by noticeable damage to the screen in theatre #14 at the multiplex near the university (clearly not Toll's fault!). To read about the choice of locations, check out the production notes and go directly to page 20 to avoid spoilers. Many commenters on imdb have complained about another screening problem: boom microphones in shots, which some say are the fault of the projectionist (I was taught that the person behind the camera is entirely responsible for keeping the boom out of the shot and is encouraged to cut the action to adjust it). In any case, we saw no booms at the top of any frames. In addition to the cinematography we loved the art direction, decorating many scenes with marble and polished wood.
Here's some of Thomas Newman's (son of composer Alfred Newman (no E.), nephew of Lionel, cousin of Randy, and more) predictably great music from the movie (I can't vouch for the images being spoiler-free, because I'm listening while typing in another window and not looking at them). After seeing Unstrung Heroes (1995), which earned Newman his third Oscar nomination (after Little Women and Shawshank Redemption (both 1994)) I immediately bought the CD, and also have in my iTunes full or partial soundtracks for American Beauty (1999-nominated), Pay it Forward (2000), Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events (2004-nominated), Little Children (2006), Towelhead, and Wall-E (nominated). Never having won an Oscar, he was also nominated for Road to Perdition (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), and The Good German (2006). As I look at his long resumé I want to check out many of his other soundtracks.
We recommend this.
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