The Little Mermaid (PG, 135 minutes)
Verdict: Book now for the half term
While most of Disney’s live-action remakes have met with little success (some never even made it to theaters), the lavish reimagining of the animated classic The Little Mermaid has already garnered a lot of attention.
Flippers outraged Disney’s decision to cast multiracial pop star Halle Bailey as their originally white-skinned mermaid. This decision is more than justified – for the best of reasons. Bailey is absolutely sensational as Ariel. A star Is Born.
The story is the same – a toned down retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s more gruesome fairy tale. Unlike her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem), Ariel develops a forbidden fascination with everything human. This reaches new heights when she rescues the human Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck and, in time-honoured tradition, succumbs to an ill-fated love at first sight.
Make a Faustian pact with her evil Aunt Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), in which Ariel agrees to trade her voice and “siren’s song” for three days on land. If Prince Eric doesn’t pull off true love’s kiss in that time, Ariel is doomed.
It goes without saying that Disney’s animations are great. You’ll see every penny of the advertised budget of $250 million (more than Titanic’s) on screen.
While most of Disney’s live-action remakes have met with little success (some never even made it to theaters), the lavish reimagining of the animated classic The Little Mermaid has already garnered a lot of attention
The story is the same – a toned down retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s more gruesome fairy tale
You have to pinch yourself to remember that the cast aren’t actually swimming around underwater.
Plus, director Rob Marshall (Chicago) knows his way around a big musical number — the Busby Berkeley-inspired Under The Sea is Disney’s best live-action adaptation since 2017’s Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast.
And yet . . . If you watch the 2D cartoon original again, you’ll discover true Disney magic. The 1989 hit was the last Disney feature film to be drawn entirely by hand, but this technologically simpler style generated an inspiring flexibility of imagination and artistry. Compare the wonderfully fluid facial expressions of Sebastian the crab in this film to the new, high-definition, computer-generated Sebastian (voiced by Daveed Diggs).
The latter feels constrained by the urge to portray him as authentically as a crab, but to what end? Does Disney think we flock to these movies because we want to see some meticulously photorealistic fish? No, it’s about warming our cockles from characters we care about.
Luckily, the voices, including Awkwafina (as the dopey Scuttle) and Jacob Tremblay (as Flounder, the not-so-lovely little yellow fish), bring these somewhat cold-eyed computer tanks to life.
Melissa McCarthy’s half-witch, half-octopus hugging Ursula might have you wriggling with delight
However, and perhaps appropriately for a live-action movie, it’s the people who steal the show.
Melissa McCarthy’s half-witch, half-octopus hugging Ursula might have you wriggling with delight. British stage star Noma Dumezweni brings seriousness and a little grown-up acting to the new role of Prince Eric’s adoptive mother.
And Javier Bardem might squeeze a secret man’s tear from the heart of the rockiest male viewer as his king Triton learns to let go of his youngest daughter.
Still, the film belongs to Bailey, who combines an irresistible, natural star presence with an overwhelmingly powerful voice acting. Her hair-raising number ‘Part Of Your World’ drew spontaneous applause at the film’s UK premiere, while Prince Eric’s new number ‘Wild Uncharted Waters’ provided a much-needed bathroom break. A square-jawed Hauer-King might be handsome, but he’s as saggy as his (often wet) white shirt.
The new Little Mermaid isn’t a classic, but it’s a reliable treat for the holidays. . . or rather a feast considering it runs almost an hour longer than the original.
Surely no kid or adult would really want a bloated 135 minutes when a brisk 83 minutes would suffice?
My Name Is Happy (15, 82 mins)
Verdict: A history of remarkable resilience
Evaluation: ***
Many little girls dream of becoming a pop star. For 19-year-old Mutlu Kaya, her reality TV fairytale turned into a nightmare. Torn from her traditional Kurdish community, she made it to the finals of Turkey’s Got Talent’s counterpart, only to be shot in the head by a man whose marriage proposal she had turned down.
This tragic event is heavily foreshadowed in this special documentary which shows how frighteningly common femicides are in Turkey (392 women were killed last year alone), that Mutlu’s own sister was subsequently also shot dead by a jealous ex-boyfriend – an army – and officer was murdered.
However, Mutlu survived – albeit with a bullet to the brain and years of painful rehab ahead of her.
Also, she has (partially and poignantly) regained her voice and is using it to fight for justice. Her name ‘Mutlu’ means ‘happy’ in Turkish – an irony she is well aware of.
There’s no denying that it’s a hard, intimate, and painful observation. Like Mutlu’s own father, who admits he can hardly bear to visit his disabled daughter, there is a great temptation to look the other way.
But filmmakers Nick Read and Ayse Toprak make sure it’s also inspirational and patiently powerful.
Though perhaps immature, Mutlu’s resilience is remarkable. Her recent reinvention as an online sensation with over 2 million followers makes you feel like TikTok is good for at least something.
Sigourney’s garden problems
“Master Gardener” (15, 111 min., rating: **) plays Sigourney Weaver as the imperious lady of a beautiful colonial garden. If the film had been more oriented towards the side story of her character.
Instead, we’re treated to a dark, flawed, and oddly mannered parable of male redemption from Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader.
Joel Edgerton plays an intensely rehearsed role as an emotionally stunted head gardener in the Deep South whose past as a white supremacist is exposed when he forms an (unconvincingly unconvincing) bond with a new, young mixed-race apprentice (Quintessa Swindell).
The atmosphere is enticing at first, but as the violence sets in, the film doesn’t turn out to be the film one would naturally expect or wish for – a stiff, stilted drama.
You might think you dozed off and woke up in the early noughties watching Hypnotic (15.94 mins, **), a ridiculously constructed sci-fi thriller that, to quote Blackadder, feels like a curvy thing twists and turns. Ben Affleck is the cop chasing his young daughter’s kidnapper, William Fichtner is his creepy suspect, and Alice Braga is a sensual tarot reader who offers cryptic insight.
No spoilers for what’s in store for us in this Inception-lite mind-bender, except that the fun of Robert Rodriguez’s smartass captain is in the increasingly tedious chase, not the finish.
Who knew Sisu (15, 88 mins, ****) would be the best of the rest of this week? This tight, highly gory English language film is set in the final days of World War II. As the Nazis retreat from Finland along the scorched earth path, they meet a legendary ex-commander who is persistently trudging (with his dog) in the opposite direction.
To say that bloody action is taking place would be a complete understatement. Imagine John Wick in a ketchup factory shootout.
But when Jorma Tommila’s veteran single-handedly dispatches legions of Nazis, the absurd splatter is executed with such imaginative energy that the experience is almost cathartic.
4 Crackers from Cannes by Brian Viner
The 76th Cannes Film Festival had plenty of goodies in store. I liked “Firebrand” (***), an intense drama about the sick, choleric Henry VIII (Jude Law) and his sixth wife, the pious young Catherine Parr (Alicia Vikander). Tudor scholars will choke on their mead at some cheeky moments of historical revisionism, but this is daring stuff from Brazilian director Karim Ainouz.
In the excellent May-December (****) another age-gap marriage ensues between Gracie (Julianne Moore) and the much younger Joe (Charles Melton). They caused a huge scandal after falling in love when he was 13 and she was 36, prompting her to be jailed as a pedophile.
Based on a real case, director Todd Haynes deftly examines the couple years after the scandal through the eyes of an actress (Natalie Portman) who travels to see what makes Gracie tick before playing her in a movie. It’s very nicely done.
Anatomy Of A Fall (****) is a great thriller that ends like the best Crown Court episode you’ve ever seen. The film, mainly in English, is about a German writer (the brilliant Sandra Huller) who is accused of the murder of her French husband, with her blind son serving as a key witness.
Hull also excels in the best film I’ve seen, the German-language film The Zone Of Interest (*****), about the home life of the Auschwitz commandant. Loosely based on a novel by Martin Amis, and although news of his death broke shortly after screening, it won’t be the mood that will determine whether this brilliant, chilling film from British director Jonathan Glazer wins the coveted Palme d’Or.