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THE BRIDGE - SEASON 3 Column: The Word on DVDs | Date Published: Wednesday, 8 June 16 | Author: Catherine Woods | 1 week, 6 days ago Like Be the first of your friends to like this.
[Madman]
The Bridge is a tried-and-tested series that has been reproduced (not-soauthentically) by the US and France. Introducing the troubled but deeply relatable Sara Noren in the first series, she is back for series three with a new partner. From episode one, the grisly and seemingly politically-motivated murder of a prominent LGBT advocate drives the narrative and plot. Gradually, as usual, personal stories intertwine. There’s the new detective’s membership at a horny singles club (which he gleefully tells his wife about each night), and the reappearance of Sara’s mother after 20 years. The scenes where Sara and her mother face each other and a lifetime of hurt, death and conflict are devastatingly real. It takes some time for the audience to engage with the pill-popping, singles-club hopping new detective, but his obvious desire to add Sara to his bedpost notches creates an interesting drama in itself. Who IS this creepy guy and what on earth is behind his bizarre behaviour? The Bridge has the slightly washed out, blue-and-grey based hues of most Nordic crime series, but is no less dramatic, brutal and beautiful for it. In fact, it probably established much of the look and standard of intelligent crime drama that has followed. Sara is a heroine without being at all heroic – as all flawed and lovable detectives are. She inspired the character played by Diane Kruger in the US series, which did an admirable job of recreating the series but couldn’t meet the genuine class of the original. As a crime drama, beyond any of the personal conflict and character back-stories, it is top notch. The red herrings are many and yet, strategic and interesting. The police, witnesses and victims are all fascinating – no character is merely a cliché or an after-thought. This is smart, engaging crime drama for those who are allergic to grisly, in-your-face grit and misery like churned-out sewerage CSI and SVU. CAT WOODS
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Deadpool: [20th Century Fox]
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In a saturated market for comic book/superhero film adaptations, Deadpool stands out. Financially, it’s one of the highest grossing R-rated films of all time. But why? The plot is pretty standard, origin story, boiler plate stuff; medical experiment goes wrong, man gets Be the first ofsuperpowers, man seeks revenge. It hits all the beats you’d expect and doesn’t rearrange or further them in any dramatic fashion. Action sequences are well choreographed and there are plenty of quips. Indeed, almost every line of dialogue is structured around a wisecrack. So far, so standard. What this film has in spades – something so lacking in these adaptations – is heart and commitment. Something no impressive looking, city-destroying set piece can ever really achieve. Ryan Reynolds fought hard for many years to get this film made and it shows. He believed in Deadpool, spearheading the campaign to get studio support and leading an incredible viral marketing campaign; he sold the film the way the film was made – irreverent and fully in character. He appeared in the Honest Movie Trailer clip as Deadpool, mocking Deadpool. He consistently breaks the ‘fourth wall’ – faithful to its origin but a cheap gag that fails in less assured hands. Commitment is the only way to pull this sort of meta off. And it’s also
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why a major studio film agreed to fund a film so loaded with violent imagery and explicit language, thereby severely limiting its potential audience. If anything, Deadpool started a few hundred metres behind the starting line. The character didn’t exactly have broad recognition and this film takes place well outside the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe over at Disney. The only link to an existing cinematic world – the X-Men – is referenced through a very brief visit to X Mansion, and Colossus being a sidekick. Despite these handicaps, Deadpool succeeds because you feel everyone involved really wanted this film to exist and backed it to the hilt. A rarity, as it turns out. JUSTIN HOOK
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Spotlight: [Entertainment One]
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Spotlight is set in 2001, prior to the major international catastrophe for the Catholic Church, the revelation that priests worldwide had been molesting children and the church had not only been fully aware, but complicit in disguising the abuse, and in some cases, paying victims to keep Be the first ofquiet. The Boston Globe has just employed a new editor, Marty (Liev Schreiber), who achieves instant outsider status. Nonetheless, he can’t understand why the Spotlight editorial team are not investigating recent allegations against priests that seemingly have evidence worth following. To his great credit, and the publishers, he is allowed to take the Catholic Church to court to have vital documents released to the media. This is a compelling story, and even more powerful for coming out when we are so aware, in Australia as well as the US and UK especially, that church authorities were complicit in hiding the abuse of children and in moving priests interstate and overseas to avoid prosecution and public shaming. In this light, observing the interviews of adults who were molested as children makes for seat-squirming discomfort and gut-churning fury. A first time father unwittingly reveals an inner arm pock-marked with needle scars and Rachel McAdams interrogates a fidgeting, overweight man-child, who admits he spent much of his life between now and childhood drinking to escape the memories of being abused by a priest as a child. Tom McCarthy quite rightly deserved his Academy Award for Direction in 2015. Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo and John Slattery (who will always be Mad Men alum for me) give their all, and are gold standard both as individuals and playing off each other. Having said that, the trajectory and the pace get a little lost towards the final quarter and it doesn’t have the same momentum or impact as the initial discovery of how big and how devastating this case is. Still, when the material is so strong, it is absolutely worthy of being seen and discussed. Spotlight is out now on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital. CAT WOODS
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