Spirited
Away
by Chris Dashiell
I have often maintained that children's movies tend to
show disrespect for the intelligence of their audience. Lately I've
begun to think that this is merely an extension of the lack of respect
for intelligence in general. In other words, if we view adults as passive
pea-brained idiots, then kids will be seen only as smaller versions
of that model. As we market, so we are: people do seem to like spoon-fed
pap. I still have hope, however, for the less conditioned minds of children,
especially since we have the work of Hayao Miyazaki, whose latest animated
film, Spirited Away, stands practically alone as an example
of excellence in the genre.
Chihiro,
a 10-year-old girl, is apprehensive about her parents' move to the suburbs.
On the way to their new home, her father takes a wrong turn, and they
get out of the car and wander down a dirt road into what looks like
an abandoned theme park. When the hungry, clueless parents find a restaraunt
filled with food but no people, they sit down and start eating. It turns
out that the food was meant for ghosts - the parents are turned into
pigs because of their greed, and the daughter is trapped in a sort of
hotel for the spirits that is run by a powerful witch, where she must
go through a series of wild adventures in order to free her mother and
father from the spell and return to the human world.
Miyazaki
has created an astounding universe, filled with weird and outlandish
beings, some with huge heads or many arms and legs, others in the form
of dragons and other animals, or in the case of one amazing creature,
a pile of oozing sludge. There is nothing cute about any of this. Chihiro
is treated with a great deal of hostility by her captors, and Miyazaki
is not afraid to depict frightening, bewildering, or even disgusting
situations. These are all feelings and experiences that real children
face - not just humor and adventure, which most children's films confine
themselves to, although these elements are in Spirited Away as
well.
The
animation is spectacular - fluid, radiantly colorful, full of inventive
detail. The English dubbing - directed by veteran Disney producer Kirk
Wise - is unusally good. The vocal rhythms and inflections come close
to the Japanese manner rather than clashing with it - Daveigh Chase
handles the main role with a show of considerable range, and Suzanne
Pleshette is a stand-out as the witch Yubaba - ill-tempered yet wryly
amusing.
The
picture's dreamlike imagination - with odd new characters and developments
bubbling up to the surface as if from the unconscious, and always challenging
the logic of ordinary life - reminds me a great deal of Lewis Carroll's
Alice books. (In fact, Yubaba looks a lot like Tenniel's version of
Wonderland's Duchess). 
My
only serious problem is that the adventure goes on just a tad too long
- so much happens that astonishment begins to give way to exhaustion.
On the other hand, the kids at the screening I attended were silent,
except for the parts when they were laughing, during the entire two
hours - no crying, whining or fidgeting at all. How often does that
happen?
With its jaw-dropping imagery and surreal sensibility,
the movie is fun for adults as well. In short, this is one of the strangest,
most delightful fantasies I've seen in a long time.
*****
Food
equals love, or so I've heard. But in Mostly Martha, a
romantic film from Germany, the cooking mastery displayed by the proud
female chef Martha (Martina Gedeck) is contrasted with the emotional
isolation in her personal life. When her sister dies in a car accident,
Martha takes in her traumatized eight-year-old niece (Maxime Foerste),
but finds herself not quite up to the task. At the same time she is
resentful of the new Italian cook (Sergio Castellito) who has been hired
by the restaurant for which she is head chef.
There
are few surprises in this scenario. We know that Martha will need to
open up and become vulnerable in order to make it through her ordeal.
Although director Sandra Nettelbeck tries to throw us off the scent,
we know that the charming Castellito is meant to be the love interest
who will play a big part in thawing Martha out. Worse, Nettelbeck has
the unfortunate habit of slapping light jazz on the soundtrack and using
montage interludes in order to convey feeling, instead of taking the
trouble to develop the characters through action and dialogue. The movie
also employs a stereotypical patient-talking-to-the-psychiatrist motif,
surely one of the most tired narrative devices in film.
On
the positive side, Gedeck is good at conveying her character's conflicted
personality and emotional diffidence, and Foerste plays the little girl
with all of the seriousness you would expect in a confused, grieving
child. The film's willingness to get into the more difficult aspects
of life and relationships, and to stay with them rather than sugaring
them over, saves it from mediocrity and makes it worth a look.
Trailer trash:
Frida looks like standard hagiography - hard for
me to buy Salma Hayek as an artist - but oh my, the production design
looks nice.
I had the misfortune of seeing the trailer for Roger
Dodger three times. The film comes off as the worst kind of smirking,
self-satisfied comic tripe, although I know that judging from a preview
isn't always accurate.
Speaking of which, I don't know why P.T. Anderson's movies
don't translate into good trailers. Magnolia,
for instance, looked like crap in the preview, but I ended up loving
the film. I haven't seen Punch-Drunk Love yet - and the trailer
certainly doesn't make me want to. But, judging from past experience,
I should go anyway.
The Two Towers - what can I say? The thing looks
spectacular. I gave the first part a middling grade, but I'll still
get my butt in the seat for the next one.
©2002 Chris Dashiell
CineScene
