NACHO LIBRE: 2 STARS

Some of the most popular Mexican films from the early 1950s through to the late 1970s featured flamboyant athletes in colorful costumes who fought evil, whether it was a crime boss or something more sinister like vampires and mad scientists. Even though they wore masks they weren’t superheroes like Batman or Superman. No, they were wrestlers who felled their opponents with flying drop kicks and moves like the Guillotina, a kind of fighting known in Mexico as “lucha libre.” These films made superstars of characters like Santo, “the Man in the Silver Mask,” but since the late 70s they have faded from view.

The new Jack Black film, Nacho Libre attempts to bring back the glory days of the luchador but Santo may not want to take his mask off mothballs just yet. Nacho Libre from the creators of Napoleon Dynamite and the writer of The School of Rock stretches its one joke as thin as a tortilla shell.

Jack Black stars as Ignacio (friends call him Nacho), a cook by day in a Mexican orphanage, who moonlights as a lucha libre wrestler to raise money for the orphans. Black will stop at nothing to make us laugh, but having no shame isn’t the same as being truly hilarious. His deadpan performance has its moments, but all too often we are expected to simply find the sight of his shirtless jiggling round torso funny. When we do laugh, we’re laughing at him, not with him.

Nacho Libre is a comedy that confuses silly with funny. It’s a skit that runs ninety minutes. The best thing I can say is that Jack Black is funnier here than he was in King Kong… but just barely.

NANNY McPHEE: 3 STARS

If Mary Poppins and the Supernanny had a love child it would be Nanny McPhee.

Actress Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay—adapted from the book series Nurse Matilda—and plays the title character, an intimidating nanny who tames the seven wild children of Mr. Brown, a widowed undertaker played by Colin Firth.    

Emma Thompson may have her name above the title in Nanny McPhee, and she is very good, but the real stars here are the kids. Each of the brood of unruly kids are good performers in an unprecocious way and lend the movie much of its charm.

Then there is the Nanny. Without explanation she arrives—much like Mary Poppins without the spoonful of sugar—in a mysterious cloud, covered in warts and carrying a big stick that seems to contain the answers to the children’s discipline problems. No, she doesn’t beat the kids with it, but stamping it on the floor unleashes magical spells that teach the kids valuable life lessons. Thompson is perfect as the stern mistress, anchoring the film with a still performance that appears to consist entirely of long disapproving stares.

Nanny McPhee is an intelligent, unpretentious modern fairy tale with a plot that would make Roald Dahl proud and a cast that thoroughly enjoys themselves. It should keep the younger kids busy until the next Harry Potter movie hits the theatres.
 
 
The New World

Watching The New World is akin to experiencing a dream on screen or seeing a poem come to life. Dreamy, visually sophisticated and nonlinear The New World isn’t for everyone, but there are great rewards for viewers who stick with the film. Terence Malick, the film’s director who has made only four films in a thirty-two year career, uses film as a canvas to tell the story of Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher), the Native American princess who fell head over heels for Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell), was exiled by her father, and became the devoted wife of a tobacconist played by Batman Begins star Christian Bale.

The film has several scenes that are unforgettable. Malick excels when he uses pictures to tell the story and the film’s best bits are non-verbal. For example, the first meeting between the Native-Americans and the Europeans is beautiful and strange and sticks hard and fast to the first rule of filmmaking—show me don’t tell me. In one beautifully directed sequence with no dialogue we learn all we need to know about the fear and curiosity that the natives felt towards the strangely dressed visitors from Europe.

This isn’t a traditional film, and certainly if you are a fan of the animated Disney version of Pocahontas you may find The New World a little frustrating. There are no talking lions or giant apes, just lyrical storytelling and compelling characters.

NORTH COUNTRY: 4 STARS

With the release of North Country the Oscar Avalanche has officially begun. It’s the time of year when the studios release a torrent of thought-provoking films with high-minded themes and actors with very serious expressions on their faces. North Country’s most obvious Oscar bait is Charlize Theron as Josie Aimes, a northern Minnesota iron-mine worker who launched a sexual harassment suit against her company. The Monster award winner delivers a finely modulated performance that portrays the frustrations of a person who, though scarred by injustice, wants to rise above it and make a better life for herself and her kids. I assume she’ll wear something more glamorous than her movie costume of work overalls to walk the red carpet on Oscar night.

This is a throwback to the women in industrial peril films like Silkwood and Norma Rae of the late 70s, early 80s and features good performances from its core cast. As Theron’s mother Sissy Spacek is in that particular phase of her career where she has morphed from playing The Coal Miner’s Daughter to the supporting role of a miner’s wife and mother. Frances McDormand fans will happily note that she resurrects her accent from Fargo for her role as a Minnesotan miner with Lou Gherig’s Disease and I was pleased to see Sean Bean taking a break from the patented Euro-trash villain roles he has been doing lately to explore a quiet, gentle character. Look for some supporting acting Oscar nods here.

North Country is loosely based on a true story, and if I have any quibble with the film it lies in playing fast and loose with the facts. The movie is set in the late eighties and while most of the details are correct Theron would need a time traveling television to be able to watch Anita Hill accuse Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, which happened in 1991. An old saying goes that the devil is in the details, and while this is a small detail, it briefly took me out of the story.
 
At the end of its two-hour running time North Country was a finely acted, nicely directed film that I didn’t completely connect with. It’s a film I admired more than liked.

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