Film
In My Kingdom, Don Boyd offers us his version of Shakespeare's King Lear. The scene is a present-day Merseyside underworld where Sandeman (a crumbling Richard Harris) once reigned supreme. Boyd's cinematographer captures a bleakness in the landscape which provides a promising backdrop for a tale of such tragic dimensions. As in Michael Winterbottom's The Claim (based on Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge), My Kingdom pitches its characters against an immense, inhuman environment, providing a glimpse of just how powerful cinema can be in exploring the tragic elements of human experience.
There are some outstanding cinematic moments in which Boyd creates a sense of Sandeman/Lear's abandonment as his presence is transformed from that of formidable mobster to a minute black figure tracing his way through the no-man's-land of Liverpool's docklands. However, Boyd is ultimately let down by his own lack of conviction. Is he exploring the implications of King Lear or the codes of other 'gangster flicks' such as The Godfather?
This tension is present from the outset. We are introduced to a very self-conscious 'Shakespeare Adaptation': as the Sandeman family poses for a Christmas photograph, at the centre is Sandeman himself trussed up as a very self-conscious king. Another awkward device has previously been used, however, which places Sandeman in his office surrounded by television screens relaying images from old outlaw and gangster films. The problem seems to be that Boyd does not know what to do with these two strains, the result being a film which operates largely through clichés, thwarting itself at every turn.
For example, at Mrs. Sandeman's (Lynn Redgrave) funeral, Boyd cooks up a brilliant version of Goneril and Regan's speeches. As Cath (Louise Lombard as of House of Elliot fame) works herself up singing her father's praises over the microphone, she is upstaged by Sandeman's other scheming daughter who quite literally sings, crooning her way through a karaoke catalogue of her father's greatness. Just as I was beginning to enjoy this, however, Boyd began cutting to a brutal Pulp Fiction-esque torture scene.
And thus it continues. I could barely contain my groans (although I needn't have bothered as I was the only one in the cinema apart from the reel man) as the King Lear connection was occasionally rammed home through such lines as "I'd rather pluck my eyes out than have you as my daughter." This coupled with Harris' persistent Brando mumble (sorry Mr. Harris if you're up there), made me wish I'd rented The Godfather instead.
I once read something about Kenneth Brannagh's Hamlet where Brannagh was decribed as an 'arse-licker.' This seems a pretty accurate description of this filmmaker. Shakespeare's work is not sacred and I only hope My Kingdom does not deter future British adaptations. Boyd's film has at least the credit of only being two hours long. But, with only one extra hour of viewing time, I suggest you do rent The Godfather, where there is, at least, some real family tension.
What do you get when you pit Ben Affleck, Armageddon's world-saving hero, CIA hard-man in the Sum of All Fears, against that King of Ass-Kicking Cool, Samuel L. Jackson? Not the speedy thriller you'd expect from Roger Michell's Changing Lanes, but instead a moral combat in this modern fable.
The action takes place on one wretched day in New York City: hot shot lawyer Gavin Banek (Affleck) accidentally smashes his Mercedes into the car of recovering alcoholic father Doyle Gipson (Jackson) when he's, yes that's right, changing lanes, and this chance encounter sends both their lives spinning off the freeway.
Stranded by his steaming wreck of a car, Gipson misses his children's custody hearing, and loses his right to see them; crushed, he rages at the man who made him late. Having picked up the vital file Banek left behind at the scene of the accident, this broken man directs his well of uncontrollable anger from the only point of power he has: the file Gipson holds is a smoking gun, which threatens Banek's reputation, his marriage and, not only his job, but his entire law firm with obliteration.
This kicks off an intense power-play between the two men. Affleck sinks further into the depths of the crooked dealings he's already embroiled in with his law firm, employing underworld 'fixer' (played with exquisite creepiness by William Hurt) to counter-blackmail Gipson; Gipson is tempted by his demons, drink and rage and, succumbing to his furious temper, his violence teeters on the brink of homicidal insanity. The vicious friction of the conflict builds to an uncomfortable crescendo of tension.
But there is no explosion in this film. Neither the literal, nor the proverbial hatchet is ever really buried in its unsatisfying conclusion, and the macho pair back off from one another in somewhat girlie fashion. Bear-baiting viewers will be left frustrated, and the heavy dosage of moral fibre, handed out in place of a violent denouement, would be more wholesome were it in any way convincing.
Despite capable performances, and a well-shot modern portrait of a jagged, unforgiving New York City, Changing Lanes is ultimately unfulfilling; close, but no cigar.
Dir: Jake Kasdan; Starring: Colin Hanks, Schuyler Fisk
Tom Hanks' son stars with Sissy Spacek's daughter in this family affair; a mildly above-par Californian-set teen-comedy
RELEASED: 8th November
Dir: Phillip Noyce; Starring: Kenneth Branagh
Based on a true story, this film bravely tackles the treatment of Aboriginal citizens by the Australian government in the 1930s.
RELEASED: 8th November
Made fifty years apart, these stunningly original student-made films are shown back-to-back in an OUFF celebration of Oxford film-making
SHOWING: 8th November
7th Nov 2002