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THE BOOK OF ELI
(**)
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Movie Review by:
Jim "Good Old JR" Rutkowski
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Directed by:
Albert Hughes & Allen Hughes |
Written by:
Gary Whitta, with additional material by Tony Peckham, Albert Hughes,
Denzel Washington, Allen Hughes |
Starring:
Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis |
Running time:
118 minutes
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Released:
01/15/10 |
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Rated R
for some brutal violence
and language. |
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"...there is nothing on display here that hasn’t been seen before in
countless other post-apocalyptic melodramas..."
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A few months ago the good people at the Weinstein
Company, were faced with the challenge of promoting the ultra-grim drama “The
Road”. They chose to put together a trailer that featured virtually every single
one of the film’s few action beats in the hopes of convincing audiences that it
was a thrill-a-minute epic featuring fights, chases, creepy villains and a
fabulous-looking babe and not an exceptionally dour melodrama about a man and
his son wandering the blasted-out landscape while slowly starving to death?
Those annoyed by that chicanery will be pleased, at least for a few minutes to
know that “The Book of Eli” is more or less the film that was promised by that
trailer in that it is about a lone man trekking across the ruins of America that
prefers to wallow in cartoonish action than in abject misery. The trouble is
that the film as a whole is largely one trip to the poisoned post-apocalyptic
well too many and both the crushing familiarity of the material and the
oppressively self-serious approach taken by filmmakers Allen & Albert Hughes
(making their first feature since 2001’s “From Hell”) wind up overwhelming the
few bright spots scattered about the terrain.
Thirty years after a cataclysmic event that destroyed most of civilization and
transformed many of the survivors into filthy and illiterate scavengers reduced
to murder and cannibalism in order to survive, a lone man, Eli (Denzel
Washington), is walking west on a mission, laid out for him by voices in his
head, to transport what may be the last Bible on Earth (the rest having been
destroyed years earlier when it was blamed for the apocalypse--alas, “The Da
Vinci Code” managed to survive) to some unknown destination. The intimation is
that he is on a mission from God and that certainly seems to be the case
whenever he winds up battling a large group of scuzzballs--he is able to
dispatch all of them single-handedly with only a few flicks of his trusty sword
and enough camera tricks and quick edits to disguise when his stunt man takes
over. Eventually, Eli winds up in a small town run by the ironically-named
Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man whose iron-clad rule is based only on his
knowledge of a precious nearby water source and who also yearns to acquire a
Bible in the hopes that its words will allow him to fully control the people and
expand his empire--though the exact details of how he plans to do this are never
quite explained. When Carnegie discovers what Eli has in his possession, he
tries to convince him by any means necessary to turn it over and when that
doesn’t work out, he and his remaining gang go off in pursuit of Eli, who is now
joined on his trip by Solara (Mila Kunis), Carnegie’s rebellious stepdaughter
and a gal who refuses to let the end of the world get in the way of looking as
fashionable as possible.
The essential problem with “The Book of Eli” is that there is nothing on display
here that hasn’t been seen before in countless other post-apocalyptic melodramas
stretching back to the numerous variations on the theme that Charlton Heston
used to crank out like clockwork back in the day. The Hughes Brothers and
debuting screenwriter Gary Whitta are clearly familiar with this particular
sub-genre--the film is filled with references and allusions to past films of
this type--but they are merely content to repeat what they (and everyone else)
have seen before rather than try to make their own unique mark. The film looks
like every 80's post-apocalyptic movie ever made. During that decade, this genre
was plentiful because it was cheap. Shooting in the desert meant that virtually
no sets had to be constructed. Unfortunately, The Book Of Eli, has this exact
same shoddy look. Also, as a side bar, why do all the principle actors in these
films have pearly white teeth, but the supporting cast are afflicted with
gingivitis?
The storyline is just as flat and colorless as the visual style but nowhere near
as striking and what is especially disappointing and frustrating is that it
keeps offering suggestions of how it could have been improved and then refuses
to heed any of them. It is established early on that very few of the survivors
remember what the world was like “before” and since both Eli and Carnegie are
among them and share similar goals, you expect that the screenplay might play up
the two-sides-of-the-same-coin aspect and develop more of a relationship between
them. Instead, the script loses its sense of nerve and ambition and just turns
into one long chase scene punctuated by fight scenes that are so overly stylized
that viewers will be more impressed by the skills of the editing team than of
the stunt performers.
Another key flaw to the film is its relentlessly grim approach to the
material--despite the fact that it is essentially a pulp comic book come to
life, it takes itself way too seriously for its own good and the few points
where it does go for a lighter touch only serve to highlight just how
oppressively dour the rest of it is. This is most evident during the final
scenes in which we are treated to the inevitable ironic twist meant to blow our
minds a la “Planet of the Apes.” Actually, the twist here is reasonably inspired
in theory but it hasn’t been executed particularly well and viewers are left
with a scene that should have been an instant classic but which just misses the
target.
Speaking of missing the target, that is also what Denzel Washington does with
his performance as Eli. An innately charming and charismatic actor, even when
playing otherwise unlikable characters, he tries to dial back on those aspects
in order to play a character more along the taciturn ranks of The Man With No
Name or Mad Max (to cite two of the most obvious examples) but it just doesn’t
quite work and the result is a performance that is so closed-in and self-serious
that his character quickly crosses the line from “mysterious loner” to
“unlikable jerk” and it becomes virtually impossible to work up any rooting
interest for him. (It is ironic that a character who is essentially charged with
rescuing humanity should display so little of it himself.) Luckily, some of the
supporting players manage to pick up some of the slack and invest the film with
its few sparks of genuine life. Gary Oldman, for example, seems to understand
that the film, for all its pretensions, is essentially a big bucket of cheese
and therefore turns in an agreeably over-the-top bit of scenery chewing, an
approach that is all the more impressive when you consider that there is hardly
any scenery around to chew. The down-side to Oldman's performance is, that for
all of it's hamminess, the character never seem to be a threat. As the
proprietor of one of the last remaining stores in existence, the inimitable Tom
Waits blesses the film with his brand of holy cool and even manages to lure
Washington out of his shell to play in a scene that is the highlight of the
entire thing because it is the only real example of actors playing off of each
other instead of taking turns reciting portentous dialogue. Later in the
proceedings, there is a hilarious appearance by Michael Gambon and Frances de la
Tour as a weirdo couple living in the middle of nowhere that provides a jolt of
energy at just the moment when it is needed most. And while she doesn’t really
have much of anything to do, the mere presence of Jennifer Beals as Oldman’s
wife and Kunis’ mother is more than welcome. Now that I think of it, any
post-apocalyptic scenario that includes the presence of both Tom Waits and
Jennifer Beals is enough to take a lot of the sting out of the whole
end-of-the-world thing.
“The Book of Eli” isn’t a bad film as much as it is a dead one. Plenty of time,
talent and money has clearly been lavished on it and while it may more or less
work on a technical level, it lacks the kind of spark needed to fully bring it
to life. If only the filmmakers had figured out a way to put a new spin on the
material or, barring that, if they had managed to put it out at a time when
there wasn’t such a glut on films of this sort, it might have somehow worked. As
it is, “The Book of Eli” may be about the end of the world as we know it but
most viewers will be more interested in getting to the end of the film instead. |
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THE BOOK OF ELI ©
2010 Warner Bros
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2010 Alternate Reality, Inc.
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