Blog

New Movies, Old Moves: 3 Classic Hollywood War/Romance Films

           by Sandra Olmsted

Several of the films this spring display an interesting development. As the audience has shifted from solely the 17-34 year old male demographic, filmmakers have adapted Classic Hollywood filmmaking styles to lure other audiences into the theaters. The baby boomers, retirees, and empty nesters go to the movies more, a trend documented in varies trade journals over the past several years. To appeal to this demographic, the best filmmakers have successfully selected a unique combination of strong classic narratives, magical realism, cerebral storytelling, stylish special effects, wide audience appeal, and lofty themes.

Three films fall into this hybrid category are director/star Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner, writer/director Alejandro Monteverde’s Little Boy, and director Lee Toland Krieger’s The Age of Adeline.

Despite the controversy attached to this film regarding the Armenian genocide, The Water Diviner, a Warner Bros. release, never engages in that argument. The film opens after WWI has ended, and Joshua Connor (Crowe) struggles to live without his three sons, Art, Ed, and Henry, all lost at Gallipoli, and to live with his wife who can’t fathom the loss of all her children. Having made her a promise to bring their remains home, Connor sets out for Istanbul.

Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko), an innkeeper and war widow, and her son Orhan (Dylan Georgiades) befriend Connor, and Ayshe struggles to accept her husband’s death and avoid a customary marriage to her brother-in-law. Meanwhile, Major Hasan Bey (Yilmaz Erdogan) and his aide Sergeant Cemal (Cem Yilmaz) arrives to help Lt.Col. Hughes (Jai Courtney) and the British War Graves Unit locate the fallen. Although the British military isn’t thrilled with Connor’s presence, Bey encourages Hughes to let Connor look. Ultimately, Crowe, the director, uses the device of Connor’s dreams and ability to divine to guide him to what happened to his sons. Despite the cultural difference, attraction develops between Ayshe and Connor, but their worlds might be too far apart.

Crowe’s uses magical realism and a mostly linear storyline combined with intelligent editing to keep the story easy to follow without condescending to the audience. An old-fashion romance sedately presented, an international cast, and characters of various ages, so that every moviegoer can relate to some character, appeal to a broad audience. (Rated R for war violence including some disturbing images, 111 minutes.)

   In Little Boy, a Open Road Films release, Pepper Flynt Busbee (Jakob Salvati), the smallest eight-year old in a Northern California coastal town, finds life intolerable without his father James (Michael Rapaport), who was drafted to fight in the Pacific. Bullies, a flat-footed older brother, London (David Henrie), and the uncertainty of wartime compound Pepper’s misery. When a magician makes Pepper believe he can use his will to bring his father home, local priest Fr. Oliver (Tom Wilkinson) gives Pepper a list of good deeds he must do to develop the faith the size of a mustard seed.

The most difficult task assigned is befriending an elderly Japanese-American Hashimoto (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), who is disliked by the townspeople. Pepper’s mother Emma (Emily Watson) epitomizes the home-front wife and mother. Director Monteverde uses magical realism and smart editing to convey psychic flashes that Pepper experiences and the “miracles” he creates. Although this simply-told, faith-based melodrama may not intrigue all viewers, the nostalgia of Little Boy for a time and an innocence that is rarely portrayed in American films today and characters of various ages experiencing WWII from their own perspectives offers a range characters with whom to sympathize. (Rated PG-13 for some mature thematic material and violence, 106 minutes.)

The Lionsgate release The Age of Adeline tells the story of a 29-year-old Adeline (Blake Lively), a young mother and widow, who after a strange alignment of events during a car accident stops aging. During the paranoid post WWII, the 45-year-old Adeline avoid capture by curious government agents and fearfully remains on the run for the next 60 plus years, avoiding relationships and changing her identity every few years. Adeline only remains in touch with her daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn), who is now “older” than her mother. Then Adeline falls in love with Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) and even meets his parents William (Harrison Ford) and Kathy (Kathy Baker). Could there be a safe way to love Ellis? Should she tell him the truth? Krieger appeals to a broad audience by contemplating the paradoxical blessing and curse of immortality and eternal youth and has a cast that includes young adults and more mature stars.

Although The Age of Adeline has a beautiful look and a few well-done special effects, Krieger should have relied on the cerebral storytelling and let the audience figure out the magic and science of Adeline’s transformation rather than condescendingly spelling out the magical realism with a heavy-handed and unnecessary narration provided by Hugh Ross. (Rated PG-13 for a suggestive comment, 112 minutes.)

Like the directors of Woman in Gold and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Russell Crowe, Alejandro Monteverde, and Lee Toland Krieger combine classic Hollywood and modern techniques to reach a wider audience. To varying degrees of success, the directors of The Water Diviner, Little Boy, and The Age of Adeline combine the classic Hollywood elements and romanticism, such as strong stories, wide audience appeal, and lofty themes, and sophisticated storytelling techniques, such as magical realism, cerebral storytelling, and stylish special effects. All three films are all in theaters now.

Although The Age of Adeline has a beautiful look and a few well-done special effects, Krieger should have relied on the cerebral storytelling and let the audience figure out the magic and science of Adeline’s transformation rather than condescendingly spelling out the magical realism with a heavy-handed and unnecessary narration (Rated PG-13 for a suggestive comment, 112 minutes.)

Like the directors of Woman in Gold and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Russell Crowe, Alejandro Monteverde, and Lee Toland Krieger combine classic Hollywood and modern techniques to reach a wider audience.

All three films are now in theaters

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us