More plane films: Jack the Giant Slayer; Hitchcock; The Impossible; Sinister

It’s time for film report! The first plane had some nice new films for the week, but sadly the 777, while having a far better interactive system – in fact, the best of all four flights – had not been updated, so it was the same selection as on our outgoing journey. Oh well, the selection was very wide – so I was not left bored.

First, for schlocky entertainment value, I watched Jack the Giant Slayer. A pretty by-the-numbers modern-day sort-of-gritty but still very silly adaptation of a fairy tale, it tried to make the twee old story epic by having not one giant with a sensitive nose stalking about his castle, but a race of giants who had invaded the lands below before but been kept in check only by a magical crown forged from one of their hearts. When Jack accidentally plants his beans, the motivation to climb is not golden eggs but rescuing a princess, and people will die grisly deaths on the way – as long as they don’t have character shields, of course. With About a Boy/Skins kid putting in a performance so dull and listless that it made his turn as a zombie boy seem energetic and Ewan McGreggor basically doing what struck me as an extended Kenneth Brannagh piss-take. There’s some good clever CG in the beanstalks, the cleverly-skirting-the-realistic-and-the-grotesque faces of the giants and the big action setpieces, but unfortunately Jack is dull, the royals are unlikeable and the ending falls totally flat. A flop.

Next I went for the more artsy Hitchcock, with Anthony Hopkins in the title role, Helen Mirren excelling at showing how strong and influential Alma was, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel looking very fine as glamorous ladies of the 50s and Toni Collette still instantly recognisable to me even in a small role – which is quite different from the fine edgy turn from Ralph Macchio as Joseph Stefano, not that I knew until the credits. Anthony Hopkins’ face is rather friendlier than the real Hitch’s and this is clearly a biopic made to make the old brute look human, vulnerable, childishly impetuous and charming, but getting the audience on his side is why this works.

I started to watch Phil Spector, about the murder trial of the legendary producer, but just as I was growing to accept Helen Mirren’s surprisingly dreadful American accent (after such a good turn in Hitchcock) and Pacino was making his appearance, it was time to change trains…and the second one didn’t have the rest of the film. Oh well.

Instead I opted for The Impossible, and I’m glad I did. Based on true events, it shows a family torn apart by a tsunami hitting their beach resort in Thailand. While the main characters seemed a little too immune to danger because of the set-up and the real impact of the death all around them never quite attained the right enormity, it was a haunting and highly compelling film with strong performances from Ewan McGreggor and Naomi Watts underpinning a brutally realistic story. It was Billy Eliot (musical version) star Tom Holland as Lucas, however, who really managed to capture the hopelessness, panic, fear, bravery, hope and grief of the situation, though (with several other outstanding younger child actors). This may sound a little weird, but if I could spend all eternity being Lucas, running around the hospital trying to help others, experiencing the full gamut of emotions and growing wise beyond his years…well, I would. Oddly, I’d very much like that. And I’d like to see another film from the Thai perspective.

Finally, a bit of silly horror in the form of Sinister. Much like Insidious, it suffered the problem of being able to do the unseen threat and suspense style of horror well, but then falling totally flat once it revealed its supernatural elements and focused on them. The glimpsed or the half-seen is always going to be better than actors in heavy makeup. The ending is also the lazy way out, with everything seeming to build up to a possible comprehension, understanding and counterstrike, or at least escape, only for what we all knew was going to happen from about 25 minutes into the film forming an unsatisfactory climax. A shame. Still, Ethan Hawke managed to make the central character and his obsessions interesting.