|
How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 3 March 2013
This article is a review of THE NECESSARY DEATH OF CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN.
|
“I sure didn’t mean for you to be running out on death scenes,” His mother to Charlie
A jolting first image: Shia LaBeouf’s titular protagonist is bruised and bloody, hanging upside down like the Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT. Mads Mikkelsen’s Nigel is pointing a gun at him. John Hurt as narrator is talking over proceedings. The latter is one of the bum notes, along with the title. Hurt is too ubiquitous as a rent-a-voice-over. As mellifluous as his tones are, enough already. Also, the sub-poetic platitudes he is forced to read out add nothing to what we are watching, and just grate. Same again goes for the title. Anyway, the start intrigued. And for any non-fan of Shia, his battered mug may please. He has got a lot of sh*t for the TRANSFORMERS franchise and KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, but LaBeouf has great timing, and I personally enjoy his shtick – see A GUIDE TO RECOGNISING YOUR SAINTS and SURF’S UP.
A jolting first image: Shia LaBeouf’s titular protagonist is bruised and bloody, hanging upside down like the Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT. Mads Mikkelsen’s Nigel is pointing a gun at him. John Hurt as narrator is talking over proceedings. The latter is one of the bum notes, along with the title. Hurt is too ubiquitous as a rent-a-voice-over. As mellifluous as his tones are, enough already. Also, the sub-poetic platitudes he is forced to read out add nothing to what we are watching, and just grate. Same again goes for the title. Anyway, the start intrigued. And for any non-fan of Shia, his battered mug may please. He has got a lot of sh*t for the TRANSFORMERS franchise and KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, but LaBeouf has great timing, and I personally enjoy his shtick – see A GUIDE TO RECOGNISING YOUR SAINTS and SURF’S UP.
|
|
|
|
|
Then we rewind and get Vincent D'Onofrio’s Bill, his step-father, drinking sambuca out of a coffee flask while driving Charlie to the hospital to visit his mother (Melissa Leo). They are there for the traumatic decision to turn off her life support. We see her soul leaving, and Charlie daydreams a conversation with her, where she tells him to go to Bucharest, but doesn’t know why. Thus begins his story. And we get given a ludicrous, joyous adventure in a European city hardly visited by Hollywood. THE NECESSARY DEATH OF CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN had no business being in competition at the Berlinale 2013, but as a slice of Friday/Saturday night entertainment, this is where it delivers, and I had a blast.
On the plane from Chicago to Rumania’s capital, Charlie meets Victor Ibanescu, where they bond. Victor dies and in a daydream gives our hero a message to be delivered to his daughter Gabi. At the airport Charlie is tasered by some security douche bags. And sets the template for his humorous pummelling throughout the runtime. He immediately gives the message to Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood), but of course instantaneously falls in love with her. They both have generous hearts, and share the grief of a beloved parent. The talk of such a parent being their home, and not bricks and mortar, is moving, and an idea infrequently mentioned in cinema.
Love stories have to have hurdles. And the biggest comes in the form of Gabi’s ex, Nigel (Mikkelsen), a heartbroken psychopathic drug dealer. Energetic hijinks ensue, in a GROSSE POINT BLANK kind of way. Shia runs around in slow-mo. The cinematography and direction are super-slick. All accompanied by a foot-tapping soundtrack. There’s pleasure to be had here.
Mortality and hallucinations in a comedy-tourist-thriller, an unusual beast.
|
|
