Watchmen
Directed by Zack Snyder. Written by David Hayter and Alex Tse, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. With Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, and Carla Gugino. (R)
For all the hullabaloo about the grit and grimace of the recent slate of Batman movies, they were largely built off a dusty boilerplate: masked avenger saves city from demented supervillain. Watchmen keeps the masks and dispenses with just about everything else.
Based on Alan Moore's (V for Vendetta) seminal comic series—and to get this out of the way early, yes, the film takes some liberties with the story, especially in its ending—this is a superhero story where the heroes aren't that super, and may not even be heroes to begin with. Instead, they're mostly middle-aged people who got caught up in the fervor of "costumed adventuring," which in the alternate reality of the film (Nixon is still in office during the mid-1980s) has a long history.
We're given the CliffsNotes version of that history over the opening credits; as Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" plays, a sepia-tinged photo montage shows us the evolution of crime fighting, as ordinary citizens devised elaborate getups to combat the local hoods. By the time we've reached the '80s, caped crusaders have been outlawed, and one of the most famous—The Comedian, who is anything but—has been defenestrated.
We might feel bad for the retired hero, but for the brutal scenes yet to come in flashback: an attempted rape and the execution of a pregnant woman. But nightmarish as they are, those scenes point up the fact that Watchmen is far more about shades of gray than the black and white ethics of more simplistic do-gooder movies, and is jaded enough to admit that some crime-fighters might simply be in it for the violence.
In the wake of The Comedian's murder, his one-time comrade Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) begins an investigation. A sociopath, but one with a certain code of honor, Rorschach is the heart of the film, even if he can't be its soul. Dressed like Bogart, with a white cloth mask whose shifting blots reflect his name, he alone hasn't given up on the past. While most of the other former Watchmen have traded in their alter-egos for a middle-class anonymity, Rorschach can't: it's the mask that is his true self, not the other way around.
As he uncovers details of the murder, his old teammates begin to stir, remembering the unadulterated joy of their past deeds of derring-do. Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II (both are second iterations of their alter-egos, and Patrick Wilson does a great job of melding Superman and SuperMensch) don the latex again, while Dr. Manhattan, a glowing blue being of pure energy, lurks in the background like a curious (and often naked) God. Once human, he now has the power to stop almost any plot, but almost doesn't care.
Hardcore fans of Moore's work may be disappointed that this isn't a more slavish adaptation—there is a lot missing, some of which is due out as a separate feature on DVD—but the truth is it's one of the better films based on his work. Director Zack Snyder is perhaps a bit too fond of the slow-motion/freeze-frame/sped-up-film school of filmmaking, and some of Moore's lines ("…this awful city, it screams like an abattoir full of retarded children.") sound hopelessly juvenile when actually spoken; one wishes at times that Snyder and his writers hadn't been quite so dedicated to the source material. Yet for all its pulp luridness, its sawed-off arms and fryer-grease disfigurements, it remains one of the better comic adaptations of our time, not only unafraid of real life but ready to embrace it.
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This week also sees the kick-off of the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film and Arts Festival, a sprawling, three-week affair that brings film, theater, concerts and more to towns all across the Valley. Of course, notes festival director Janet Kaplan Bucciarelli, "You don't need to be Jewish to know a great story when you hear one! The themes highlighted in our programs are universal: the search for a home and for identity, the right to love with integrity, the challenge of growing up and handling conflict, the need to follow one's passion—these are not Jewish topics."
What makes the festival unique, she says, is that those universal themes are looked at "through a Jewish lens."
The First Basket gets things going at Pleasant Street Theater. Screening mere minutes from the birthplace of basketball, it looks at the long history of Jewish athletes' involvement in the sport. For the immigrant class, it was an obvious choice; the only gear one needed to buy was the ball ("If you live in a Lower East Side tenement," says director David Vyorst, "you're not going to play polo."). A couple of repurposed ash cans made fine baskets. But beyond the interesting nuggets of bar-bet basketball lore—the first basket scored in the NBA was chalked up by Queens-bred Ossie Schectman—the film explores the deeper role sports played for Jewish Americans in the first half of the 20th century. A way of shattering stereotypes—in the process becoming more "American"—they proved an important ingredient in the melting pot.
In Amherst, A Secret unspools. Claude Miller's 2007 film, the Grand Prix winner at the Montreal World Film Festival, is a stunner. Francois Grimbert (the wonderful French actor Mathieu Amalric) is haunted by the murkiness of his family's past, particularly during the war years of Nazi-occupied France. As he delves into his parents' histories, he uncovers another life, and Miller shifts his focus back in time to sift through the desperate and conflicting emotions of a Jewish family surrounded by its enemies.
The film festival runs through April 5; for a complete schedule, visit www.pvjff.org.
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Slightly further north, the Women's Film Festival takes over downtown Brattleboro. Hosting films in three locations and screening as many as five per day, the WFF offers 27 films, from short documentaries to full-length features, most of which are from female directors. Many of these films will be showing in their only area appearance—a reminder of the difficulty many female filmmakers still face in the industry.
On Saturday night, the documentary Alice Neel comes to the New England Youth Theatre. Neel, one of the last century's most dedicated portrait artists, was also a single mother who struggled against the inequality of the time. A commitment to Communist ideals led to a long period of critical neglect that was reversed when the nascent feminist movement began to champion her vibrant, colorful work. As directed by Neel's grandson Andrew, the story of her life is as intimate as her paintings.
Also screening this weekend is The New World, a French film about a childless couple who find that aging brings the desire for a bigger family. That most normal of impulses, however, is a seeming impossibility for Lucie and Marion—because they are a lesbian couple, France will not let them legally adopt a child or use artificial insemination. There is a third possibility—a male acquaintance offers his services—but it's one that, even if the women choose to consider it, is sure to have lasting consequences for their relationship.
A full schedule of the Women's Film Festival can be found at womensfilmfestival.org.
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Also this week: While Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel may get all the ink—not many hotels get the Leonard Cohen treatment—the film Hotel Gramercy Park makes the case for another downtown landmark's claim to fame, or at least infamy. Director Douglas Keeve goes behind closed doors to reveal the family saga—essentially a string of tragedies on a Kennedy-esque scale—that runs through the hotel's history. Along the way, he touches on the building's eccentric residents both famous and unknown, and wonders if a piece of New York will soon be forgotten, now that the hotel has been bought by hipster hotelier Ian Schrager.
Hotel Gramercy Park screens at MASS MoCA Friday March 13 at 8 p.m. as part of the Working Films Forum, which links non-fiction film to cutting edge activism, screenings, seminars and discussion. All screenings in the series are followed by discussion periods with the filmmakers.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
