Spoiler Alert!  If you don’t want major plot points revealed to you don’t read any further! 

Whiteout

If you read comic books, then you probably know who Greg Rucka is.  Rucka is a superstar writer in the comic world.  He’s written for several different characters and publishers, but his breakout work was Whiteout.  It was this that the movie starring Kate Beckinsale was based on.

Kate Beckinsale in Whiteout

U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) is posted on a remote base in Antarctica.  The population is small and made up almost exclusively of scientists and service personnel.  Stetko is ready to resign as two years in the nothingness and cold of Antarctica has finally done her in.

She had herself transferred there when her last assignment saw her betrayed by her partner.  Fellow officer type partner.  Not the other kind.  Anyway, she was forced to cap him and that fact as well as her inability to successfully judge character, led her to the great white void.

Tom Skerritt plays her best buddy “Doc.” Skerritt simply phones in a role that didn’t give him much to work with anyway.  Well, a highly unlikely murder occurs and Stetko must stay on to find the culprit.  The drama continues and eventually comes to a head after more and more people die.

I won’t give away the end, but it’s rather predictable.  My expectations for the film were quite low.  Typically when this happens, I end up not having such a bad time.  And, sadly, I didn’t.  I actually had fun watching this film, knowing full-well that it wasn’t really that good.  That’s not to say that I necessarily endorse the film, but I will probably, no, I know that I will watch it again when it shows on cable late at night someday.  Yes, I am a little ashamed of myself.

Inglorious Basterds

I am rather certain that given the advertising and press preceding this movie, I don’t need to give a recap as to what it is about.  Very simply, it is about murdering and brutalizing Nazis.  Most people don’t have a problem with this, and for obvious reasons.  Nazis don’t generally register with folks as humans.  I understand this.  Nazi Germany seems like such a surreal place that it is difficult to comprehend in terms of our known reality.  This is especially the case the further away from that period of time we get.

Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds

But if we stop and think about it, we just don’t get very far from cruelty.  Keep in mind that crime has been on a downward trend in the U.S. over the last several years.  Plus, it seems that violence in general has been on the downslide as the world tends towards greater civilization.  So I think that we are on the right path.  Sort of.  However, violence, cruelty, and malice are still a very serious part our society.

What separates us from Nazi Germany is not as much as we think.  Not as a whole.  Such a remarkable set of circumstances are not likely to happen again to create the effect.  Yet, as individuals or as small groups, the divide is not great.  Because of this, the impetus to engage in violent fantasy, even of those whom we most righteously despise, is not something to be encouraged.

That’s not to say that to do so does not offer some cathartic relief, but habitual, pleasureful fantasy of the infliction of pain and misery is exactly that.  And I don’t think that it serves any purpose.  Were it not for the smart, poignant and wrenching moments in between these senseless and silly acts, I would categorize this movie as Gore-Porn along the likes of Saw movies and Hostel.

Yet, somehow, the gravity of the seemingly overly-long, expository, and indulgent conversations between the characters bring these acts into a dense well of expressively complex human sadness.

Tarantino’s comic scenes of blood, guts, and scalping always linger a moment too long.  This seems a bit grotesque at first and unnecessary.  After thinking on it some, though, the real affect became an uncomfortableness for me.  I’m going to give Tarantino the benefit of the doubt here and say this effect was intentional and served a subtle ironic purpose.  Was this a condemnation of revenge violence?  Maybe.  I’m not certain at this point, but will give my official recommendation for the movie.  I will definitely be watching this one again.

The Invention of Lying

Of the three that I reviewed here, the last is the one that I enjoyed the most.  Ricky Gervais makes his big-screen directorial debut in a comedy about a fairy-tale place where no one can tell a lie.  The idea is given the exploration that it deserves in the shocking utterances of everyone’s inner selves.  It lasts only long enough to establish the now obvious unfairness, sadness, and misery of most of the world.

Ricky Gervais in the Invention of Lying

Gervais is Mark Bellison, a screenwriter for a production company that televises historical readings of various time periods.  Bellison is assigned the thirteenth century and is fired for writing unlikable scripts such as “The Black Plague”.  When attempting to withdraw money from his account after being evicted, he is able to tell history’s first lie.  He goes on a hilarious lying spree from there.

Eventually, this spirals out of control when, in emotional anguish over his mother’s imminent death, he mentions that death isn’t the end.  Oops!  Hospital personnel overhear and are intrigued by this place they never knew of or heard about before.  Gervais, a self announced atheist, takes this to hilarious heights and doesn’t let up.

The best part is that the movie highlights quite effectively the epistemological arguement.  That is, when explaining that he knows about the great place that people go to after death, he speaks of the “big man in the sky” who controls everything and who made such a place.  An intrigued crowd reacts innocently, but shrewdly.  In doing so, one person asks simply, “how do you know about these things?”  Bellison replies easily that the big man in the sky speaks to him directly. And only him.

Epistemology is the study of how we “know” things.  Clearly, we obtain information by light, sound, touch, and chemical reactions in our noses and mouths.  In the world where there are no lies, this is taken for granted.  Gervais makes the arguement, as many have done before him, that taking information that is completely unverifiable or unknowable by means that cannot be observed or repeated is as ludicrous as the events in his movie.

Needless to say, religious groups that rely on this method of information gathering to make their greatest claims will not be pleased with the film.

Gervais is a surprisingly good actor.  Garner was okay, but charming as hell, like always.  Her character is a little shallow as are most.  Perhaps that’s just a function of being unable to lie to others as well as the self.  I enjoyed the film a great deal and highly recommend it to anyone who likes insightful comedy.