Saturday, December 22, 2007
National Wild: Into the Secrets
Several of my favorite blogs have gone on holiday hiatus, but the Conical Glass is here for you throughout the Xmas season, to entertain and/or annoy. I've planned an exhaustive schedule of moviegoing, and my annual best of the year lists are coming up.

A few days ago, I declared my intention of seeing "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" at the local mortuary-turned-theater, and I was so eager that I attended the Friday afternoon showing. This movie totally lived up to my expectations of being cheeserific. It's like a cross between The DaVinci Code and the Hardy Boys. For instance: the Nic Cage character, Ben Gates, is wanted by the Secret Service and the entire Washington, D.C. police force for kidnapping the president (just for a few minutes, though, so the prez could give him some information about the eponymous book). He's on the run in D.C., being driven around in his girlfriend's huge, conspicuous SUV -- and somehow they are able to elude all the law enforcement. Next thing you know, they're all in South Dakota!

Also: Ben and on-again, off-again gal pal Abigail enter Buckingham Palace as tourists, then manage to make it all the way to the Queen's personal study to search for a clue, thanks to computer genius pal Riley, who hacks into Palace security by means of an iPod, a cell phone and a laptop. In a nice touch, the Queen's desk has a framed photo of a corgi sitting atop it.

The movie is so implausible that it verges on the witless -- every time Ben is presented with a puzzle, he solves it correctly the first time -- and somehow, I enjoyed it. It's certainly well made and the cast is top-notch. Helen Mirren plays Ben's mom with so much gusto that you actually believe she took the role because she felt it would be fun to star in a big American blockbuster, and not just for a paycheck. Maybe Laura Linney or Cate Blanchett could show up in NT3 as Ben's long-lost sister. You know there's gotta be another sequel, since NT2 seems to be making tons of money.

Since I have a weird obsession with staying through movies' closing credits, no matter how long they are, I'm going to start a new feature called I Sit Through The Credits So You Don't Have To (ISTTCSYDHT). Sometimes, after, all, movies have "credit cookies," i.e. extra scenes that come at the very, very end of the credits. "National Treasure" has none, just lots and lots of names (not surprising, considering all the stunt work and special effects that went into making this mega-production).

Today, Joe and I decided to catch up with some older releases at the second-run Cerrito Theater. He saw "No Country For Old Men," which I had worried would be too violent for me (he said afterwards that he was pretty sure I had been correct in that assessment), and I saw the Sean Penn-directed drop-out-of-society pic "Into the Wild." Based on the Jon Krakauer book, "Wild" tells the story of a young man named Christopher McCandless who, after graduating from college, decides he's fed up with society and his parents, man, and sets off on a long, long journey. If you're my age chances are you'll identify more with Chris's parents, who are, understandably, extremely worried about him when he disappears without a trace; even if his mom & dad weren't exactly the Cleavers, there's really no good justification offered for why he never even sent word to his beloved sister after hitting the road. Penn obviously has a certain affinity for Chris but the character is portrayed as multi-dimensional, an extremely intelligent and charismatic young man who nevertheless overestimates his own wilderness survival skills and winds up making some really regrettable mistakes.

Chris (who adopts the rather silly moniker Alexander Supertramp when he hits the road) is beautifully portrayed by Emile Hirsch, who obviously gave everything he had to the role -- he is onscreen through virtually the entire two and a half hour running time and never fails to hold our attention; at the end of the movie, when Chris is starving to death in the Alaskan wilderness, Hirsch is frighteningly gaunt-looking (he reportedly lost 40 pounds for these scenes, and never used a stuntman). The only problem I had with the film is that it just feels too long. Penn and his cinematographer, Eric Gautier, capture some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen, but after a while, I'd had my fill of Chris hitchhiking through a beautiful landscape/meeting colorful character who becomes completely entranced by him/tearful parting. I began wondering how Krakauer managed to track down all the people who encountered Chris on his journey, which is what he apparently did; it must have been a superhuman feat of research. (I wasn't able to find any interviews on the web explaining his process; if anyone knows of one, tell me.) "Into the Wild" will be out on DVD in a couple months and may play better over the course of a couple nights than in one giant-sized helping.

ISTTCSYDHT: Amusing credit: Bart the Bear as The Bear. Otherwise, just an Eddie Vedder song.
posted by 125records @ 8:33 PM  
4 Comments:
  • At 10:13 PM, Blogger yellojkt said…

    We also saw NT:BOS and loved it as long as you don't try to figure out the plot at all. What a giant Olmec temple is doing is South Dakota still baffles me.

    I will vouch for the authenticity of the Library of Congress stacks. The back rooms where the public aren't allowed do look like that. I've even been up on the mezzanine overlooking the main reading room.

     
  • At 11:02 PM, Blogger 125records said…

    Hey yellojkt, back in my research assistant days, I spent tons of time at the LoC and it was obvious that they really filmed there -- something that was borne out by the acknowledgment in the closing credits. The Oval Office and the Queen of England's study... OK, those were probably replicas.

     
  • At 10:17 PM, Anonymous neal said…

    I just saw "Into the Wild" today and found it an interesting and powerful movie. While a touch long, there were really only a few scenes where I felt that. I too was curious about Krakauer's process, but couldn't find anything. I did find this though, which is an interesting read to go with the film:

    http://tifilms.com/cw-sub/debunked.htm

     
  • At 6:52 PM, Anonymous James said…

    By the way, if you go to see WALK HARD, definitely stay through the credits. I have been informed that there are several more scenes tucked in there. Much as I would like to vouch for that personally, at the screening I went to the projector abruptly shut off just as the "Directed by Jake Kasdan" credit hit the screen. Oddly enough, I just got back from a screening of 27 DRESSES and the projector malfunctioned during the end credits there as well: Because it was 35mm film (the box office cashier actually apologized that the presentation wasn't going to be digital!), I actually got to see something I haven'y seen in ages: The film scorched and bubbled, which got a big "ooooh!" from the audience.

     
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