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all movies graded out of four stars ( )
New Releases
In Brief
Chocolate (R) 
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Given the dearth of satisfying action offerings in theatres at the moment--and, yes, that is said with the full awareness that Taken is also currently playing--Magnolia Pictures could have been a bit more adventurous with their release plans for the latest kick-ass martial arts extravaganza from Thai director Prachya Pinkaew; a one-weekend run in theatres is being immediately capped with a DVD, Blu-ray, and video on demand release. Like Ong-Bak and The Protector, Pinkaew's two vastly enjoyable collaborations with Tony Jaa, Chocolate boasts a plot that is perfunctory at best: in a nutshell, young autistic girl Zen (Yanin "Jija" Vismistananda) doggedly tries to collect the money owed to her cancer-stricken mother (Ammara Siripong) by various criminal types. They, of course, are less than cooperative, which makes it all the more fortunate that Zen is a savant at martial arts and thus opens numerous cans of whoop-ass on these unsuspecting selfish bastards. Like Jah, Vimistananda is nothing less than an awe-inspiring force of nature whose athletic grace, brutal physical power, and easily likable presence come in equally generous doses, and she alone would redeem the lackluster writing, but then Pinkaew catches up with his gifted star and indeed saves the best for last. The closing half-hour of pure action is energetic, exciting, and truly exhilarating--something truly great to witness on a big screen, and even better with a big crowd; alas, that is largely not to be in the States, but that the film is getting any sort of proper release on these shores in any format is something to be grateful for.
Confessions of a Shopaholic (PG) 
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He's Just Not That Into You (PG-13)
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After further proving her potential with last Valentine's underrated, underseen gem Definitely, Maybe, Isla Fisher finally gets a true solo showcase for her formidable physical comedic chops, timing, and incandescent star quality in this featherweight film, and as far as she's concerned, she passes the test. However, there's only so far even her considerable charm can go in an enterprise otherwise as creaky as this. Fisher plays Rebecca Bloomwood, the shopaholic of the title, who covets landing a position at an überchic fashion magazine, and here's where the first obstacle arises--for someone who fancies herself a journalist, Rebecca comes off as a remarkably dim bulb, not to mention unfocused and easily distracted. But in Movie Land such qualities put you on the fast track to success, which she lands on while creating a sensation with her no-nonsense column at a far less glamorous publication, a consumer and savings magazine. But can she keep up the charade of being a fashionable financial expert while bill collectors stalk her every move, endangering not only her fragile career but possible romance with her remarkably patient editor (Hugh Dancy)? That one has any sliver of caring is all attributable to Fisher as Rebecca as written is as shallowly as her carefree, spend-on-plastic lifestyle--which the film tacitly condemns while never passing up any opportunity to drop an expensive designer name or, better yet, shoot their goods lovingly. This is one of those so-labeled "chick flicks" that shows why that term is so often used as a pejorative.
However, there are such things as good "chick flicks," and leading that charge is director Ken Kwapis, who has really found his niche with female-centered ensemble pieces with interconnected characters in interlocking storylines. Much like his screen version of Ann Brashear's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, his adaptation of Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo's book He's Just Not That Into You boasts a lot of heart, humor, and honesty as it follows the romantic travails of a group of Baltimore singles, marrieds, and otherwise attacheds. The female cast of Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore, and Jennifers Connelly and Aniston is an embarrassment of riches, with Goodwin the effervescently charming breakout as the overeager, ever-unlucky-in-love Gigi (a role that would typically be played by executive producer Barrymore), who gets some hard lessons in relationship wisdom from club owner Alex (Justin Long, also terrific). Aside from the throwaway thread featuring Barrymore's Mary using various impersonal methods to find The One (although it ultimately dovetails with another thread, its sporadic appearance makes it often play like something thrown in just to give Barrymore some type of on-camera involvement), the other storylines also engage: Anna (Johansson), who is in a casual relationship with Conor (Kevin Connolly), falls for Ben (Bradley Cooper), who is seemingly happily married to Janine (Connelly), whose co-worker Beth (Aniston) is not-so-happily unmarried to longtime live-in beau Neil (Ben Affleck). The male side of the cast is a bit uneven, with an only adequate Cooper and Connolly seemingly standing in for better (and bigger-name) actors that would match up with their far better suited cohorts Long and Affleck; and per the norm for this type of film, the individual story threads are not equally involving, with Gigi/Alex striking the best mix of laughs and genuine emotion. The female group-focus and common studio will no doubt lead to analogies to Sex and the City, but this film lacks that scourge's off-putting, hyper-artificial hipper-than-thou air, and as such is more relatable and more effective for it--much like what Kwapis did to the teen flick with his Traveling Pants film.
Coraline (PG)
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I cannot help but think that Tim Burton's forthcoming take on Alice in Wonderland will feel more than a little redundant after experiencing former Burton associate Henry Selick's truly astonishing, wildly enjoyable stop-motion animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novel, which shares some similarities to that classic story. What's especially impressive about this fantasy in which a bored, lonely young girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) finds a gateway to a parallel, seemingly dream-come-true universe is how it not only embraces the whimsical magic of fairy tales but also their inherent element of very real danger. So while this is a fun ride, it's also an often dark and creepy one, with many touches of macabre humor without catchy songs to soften the scary edges, as was the case with Selick's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Unlike most recent features presented in 3-D, the enhancement feels less a gimmick and more of an organic extension of piece, making the spectacular visual design and the attendant atmospheres, whether dark or light, all the more immersive and awe-inspiring (though they would not be any less dazzling on standard 2-D screens). Between the stunning visual imagination, amusingly oddball and often absurdist sense of humor, terrific voice work (in addition to a fine lead performance by Fanning, Teri Hatcher is also a standout as two opposing visions--neglectful in the real world; nurturing in the fantasy world--of Coraline's mother), memorable characters (Coraline's wildly eccentric upstairs and downstairs neighbors are scene-stealers), and exciting adventure, this is one fantastic entertainment for viewers of any age.
Fanboys (PG-13)
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After months of delays, widely reported studio-mandated re-edits, and general uncertainty about what type of release it would receive, Kyle Newman's comedy about a group of Star Wars fanatics who attempt to break into George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch for an advance glimpse at The Phantom Menace prior to its May 1999 premiere finally sees the inside of theatres--and it really wasn't worth all the outcry by real-life fans who tirelessly campaigned to convince the Weinstein Company to bring it to the big screen. While the existing film undoubtedly has appeal for those who share the characters' passion for all things George Lucas, this is a missed opportunity to make a smart, affectionately witty skewering of obsessive fanboy culture; instead Newman and writers Ernest Cline and Adam F. Goldberg go for obvious gags that are quickly run into the ground (e.g., the rivalry between Star Wars and Star Trek fans) and piles on numerous celebrity cameos (for instance, Seth Rogen, William Shatner, Kevin Smith, and Wars vets Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, and Ray Park) that fail to compensate for a general dearth of laughs. As the fans of the title, Sam Huntington, Kristen Bell, Chris Marquette, and the perpetually anti-funny Dan Fogler do not share much of convincing rapport--not a small problem for a film centering around longtime buddies, much less one that has the terminal illness of one of the characters as a would-be emotional hook.
Friday the 13th (R) 
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If there is an iconic slasher series that really did cry out for reboot/remake/reinvention, it is Friday the 13th. However long-running, prolific, and undeniably influential as it is, it had always been the lesser of the horror franchises, cheap and slapdash where its chief rival, the A Nightmare on Elm Street romps, displayed genuine imagination; nor did it break ground on the level of Halloween or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (though, granted, the historic originals in those cases spawned some truly wretched sequels)--but unlike the one-joke novelty of the Child's Play films, it has a workable scare premise at its core. And so the slick approach of director Marcus Nispel--who in his 2003 take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre gave the picture a polished sheen that ran so antithetical to the original's ragged, unclean, deeply unsettling effect (reflected even in the title, joining "chain" and "saw" into one word)--is actually welcome in this case: here is the first Friday the 13th film (not counting the one-off 2003 Nightmare crossover, Freddy vs. Jason) that actually has some modicum of professional craftsmanship and basic filmmaking competence involved.
There is a rather smart conceit behind this film, which is not really a remake rather than something akin to what Bryan Singer did with Superman Returns; if that film in essence supplanted Superman III as a loose follow-up to the first two films and disregarded anything beyond Superman II, then this is the revisionist Friday the 13th Part 2, as Mrs. Voorhees's original 1980 reign of terror is backstory, given in a nice recreation of that film's climactic beheading scene. But that's about the only bit of inspiration in Damian Shannon and Mark Swift's (who also wrote Freddy vs. Jason) script, as it's back to the tried-and-true formula young people fucking, drinking, and doping in the woods and being made to pay dearly for it by hockey mask-wearing slasher Jason Voorhees. It goes without saying there's not a single character to care about (for the record, the main "story" concern has Jared Padelecki searching for his missing sister, played by Amanda Righetti), and so as with the original films, the viewer just sit back and wait for the kills--and there are some clever ones (particularly in the pre-title sequence), not to mention Nispel has some fun by throwing in homages/references/ripoffs to/of previous Fridays and other, unrelated films, such as Jaws. This Friday is, like the many that came before it, not exactly good, as it follows the archetypal, plot- and character-free old school '80s slasher rubric to the letter, but for all the inherent limitations of the material it's certainly watchable--especially for those like myself who grew up on these films, as nostalgic appeal is this project's one unassailable quality--and is, for the first time, a solo Jason outing without the overbearing stench of slapped-together cheese.
Fuel
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Josh Tickell's documentary, which won the Documentary Audience Award at Sundance in 2008 in a less-up-to-date incarnation titled Fields of Fuel, makes no bones about being a propaganda piece extolling the virtues of non-petroleum-based fuels--namely, biodiesel. But unlike a certain Oscar-winning other eco-minded documentary, this is not a glorified point-and-shoot feature-length PowerPoint presentation rotely delivered by a dry speaker but an actual movie. If some of the animated intertitle cards that mark various sections of the film come off a bit television-like, Tickell (who also serves as on-camera host and narrator) makes up for it with his general sense of visual style as he relates historical points about alternative fuels and the impending, if not already existing crisis, regarding the excessive and destructive consumption of fossil fuels. To Tickell's credit, he does address the arguments against biofuels and the backlash against the movement in recent years, but make no mistake, this is an advocacy piece for the develop of alternative energy sources, and Tickell makes his case in an entertaining and hence all the more effective manner.
The International (R)
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This globe-trotting thriller plays a bit like an audition reel for the James Bond series--no, not for once-reported 007 contender Clive Owen, but director Tom Tykwer. It doesn't appear that way at first; for most of the first half, Tykwer juices up what is a fairly dry piece of material, with his visual invention (not at frenetic Run Lola Run levels, but captivating all the same) and reliable leads Owen (as an Interpol agent) and Naomi Watts (as a New York DA assisting him on a case) being the only things keeping writer Eric Warren Singer's very talky goings-on about a nefarious international bank's shady dealings watchable. But then at around the halfway mark comes one completely game-changing action sequence set at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Brutal, exciting, with bullets and blood flying freely, not only is it a terrifically--and, crucially, coherently--shot and edited extended set piece, it also invaluably services the plot, upping the dramatic ante for the rest of the film and building to a resonant payoff. Nothing else that follows quite matches the jolt that is the central shoot-'em-up sequence, but the smart, if a bit routine and slow to warm, whole indeed proves to be greater than the parts thanks to Tykwer's direction. One cannot help but wonder what Tykwer could do with an even more action-oriented piece, and in showing he can deliver the slam-bang goods while also urgently telling a knotty tale of international intrigue, the Bond series is an ideal fit for his sensibility--so here's hoping he's on the Broccolis and EON Productions' radar for the next installment.
Luck by Chance
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Joya Akhtar's debut as writer-director may not be up to the level of her brother Farhan's wildly successful and influential first film, 2001's Dil Chahta Hai (The Heart Desires), but it still announces her as a fresh, intelligent young voice in Indian cinema. Coming from a showbiz family (in addition to brother Farhan, her mother is writer/drector Honey Irani, and her father is writer/lyricist Javed Akhtar, who did the latter duties on this film), Akhtar's scenario sounds like a recipe for indulgence: an inside Bollywood story focusing on two up-and-coming actors Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Vikram (Farhan Akhtar, in his second acting role) attempting to carve out successful careers. But unlike the paths most commercial Hindi films would travel, this is neither a feel-good wish fulfillment fantasy nor a shallowly sensational cautionary tale; instead, Akhtar achieves a more realistic and hence more appealing middle ground. She has obvious fun sending up some of the industry's excesses and bad habits, enlisting luminaries such as Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, and director Karan Johar to play themselves, plus Hrithik Roshan to send up his image in a featured supporting role as a (fictional) screen superstar. But the journey of the focal pair is the film's involving core, with Sen Sharma especially affecting as the idealistic, perennial bit player still holding out for her one big lead break; unfortunately, Sona is not the true central role but Vikram, who has the more expected and predictable "innocence corrupted while pursuing fame at whatever cost" arc. Farhan Akhtar is capable in front of the camera, but his relative inexperience in this area gives short shrift to Vikram's darker and more intriguing qualities, which is made all the more noticeable as Sen Sharma disappears for long stretches post-intermission as the film evolves into more exclusively the Vikram story. But Sen Sharma and Farhan Akhtar's chemistry goes a long way toward making the story connect emotionally, and Joya Akhtar makes her points about the film industry and celebrity with impressive, intelligent dramatic restraint and subtlety.
The Pink Panther 2 (PG) 
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An Altman-level assembly of international acting talent--John Cleese, Alfred Molina, Andy Garcia, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Lily Tomlin, and even Jeremy Irons joining the returning Steve Martin, Jean Reno, and Emily Mortimer--somehow came together for Harold Zwart's wasteful, unneeded sequel to Shawn Levy's already unnecessary 2006 remake/series reboot. But, of course, that film was a hit, and so follow the talents in search of an easy paycheck while spending time on location in Paris. No one is well-served or challenged at all, here by the silly, slapstick heavy-motions as the ever-bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Martin) joins an international "dream team" of investigators (Garcia, Molina, and Yuki Matsuzaki) in finding The Tornado, the elusive culprit behind the theft of priceless artifacts around the globe. The mystery is easy to call from the start, making the painfully unfunny proceedings all the more tedious to sit through as the larger mystery--that of how so much talent can come together and amount to so little at all, much less in the way of laughs--takes larger hold with each painful second.
Push (PG-13)
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There is a fairly interesting, if derivative, basic mythology at work in Paul McGuigan's sci-fi action thriller: "watchers" (clairvoyants), "movers" (telekinetics), "pushers" (telepaths), and other paranormally-powered types are being pursued by a shady government Division that wants to use them as weapons. However, the follow-through by writer David Bourla leaves much to be desired. Action takes a back seat to exposition and a most unconvincing romantic angle (between mover Chris Evans and on-the-run pusher Camila Belle); the climax is of the decidedly "anti-" variety; and the film falls into the clumsy trap of being the presumptive first installment of a franchise, leaving behind too many loose ends and various unexplained happenings to be terribly satisfying on its own self-contained story. It's a bit a shame, as McGuigan directs with style and urgency (the slightly two-hour-plus run time goes by swiftly), and the cast (which also includes Dakota Fanning as Evans's watcher sidekick and a nicely menacing Djimon Hounsou as a Division pusher/hunter) is more than game.
In Current Release
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Special Edition Catalog Titles
Friday the 13th Uncut Deluxe Edition
Disc:
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Friday the 13th Part 2 Deluxe Edition (R)
Disc:
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| DVD Set!
| DVD!
| VHS!
| Movie Book (1)!
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Friday the 13th Part III 3-D Deluxe Edition (R)
Disc:
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(Spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen these films before...)
While most people's first moviegoing memory as a child is of seeing something like a Walt Disney animated classic, mine is when, at the age of 4, my mother took me and my brother to see... the original Friday the 13th. In the time between that viewing and my first revisit to the film some ten years after that, I cannot say I retained much memory of the film save for one image seared forever into my brain: that of bone fragments sticking out from Mrs. Voorhees's headless neck after she was decapitated by the Final Girl. But subsequent viewings of the film over the years have revealed such gore effects work by Tom Savini to be perhaps the only point of actual merit in Sean S. Cunningham's 1980 original. As Cunningham and writer Victor Miller have readily admitted over the years (and in the supplements on this latest DVD release), the film was never meant to be more than a quick, easy cash-grab ripoff of Halloween, except set at a camp known as Crystal Lake. The slapdash quality shows, from the tediously talky scenes setting up the one-dimensional characters that will be picked off one by one to the poorly constructed "mystery," which doesn't play fair as the culprit is someone introduced out of nowhere in the final reel. That someone, of course, is Mrs. Voorhees, mother of the drowned Jason Voorhees, and Betsy Palmer's amusingly hambone performance is the film's lone sign of life in the acting department, however laughable as she is--though not as comical as her showdown with lone survivor Alice (Adrienne King), which features some of the most hilariously sloppy fight "choreography" ever committed to film (my favorite moment: King putting up her arm for no apparent reason other than so Palmer can bite it).
As slapped together as the original was, that film is a model of thought and planning compared to the sequels that were cranked out on a near-annual basis throughout the '80s. 1981's Part 2 found Jason picking up where his mother left off (quite literally, as makes her rotted, severed head the center of a morbid shrine), making quick work of Alice in the opening scene (and just starting what would be a convention picked up by other horror films--doing away with the previous film's survivor right at the top). But aside from a different killer, this is basically the same film as the first, with another group of young people going up to the Camp Crystal Lake area to indulge in all sorts of unsupervised debauchery, with one survivor left behind. With Jason having already been installed as the recurring "star" in the previous film, 1982's Part III is even more "lather, rinse, repeat," but it is notable for a trio of reasons: (1) it was one of the short-lived wave of early 1980s 3-D releases; (2) Jason truly becomes the fully-formed pop culture as he dons a hockey mask for the first time; and (3) the infectiously cheesetastic disco title theme, which somehow manages to incorporate the signature "ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" sound effect into its dance groove.
To coincide with Marcus Nispel's updated Friday the 13th, Paramount has reissued these first three films on "deluxe edition" DVD's, but only the new edition of the first really lives up to the moniker, even if it still falls short as any sort of definitive release. The disc marks the first time the film's original uncut version (restoring 10 seconds of gore) has been released in the States, but the included commentary track (previously released overseas, as it dates itself whith a statement that Freddy vs. Jason was "currently" in pre-production) is a cut and paste job of non-scene-specific soundbites by Cunningham, Miller, Palmer, King, composer Harry Manfredini, editor Bill Freda, assistant editor Jay Keuper, and Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th author Peter M. Bracke (who also serves as host). Since the commentary was culled from other interviews, there is a lot of information overlap with the remaining documentary supplements. "A Friday the 13th Reunion" is a discussion panel from a horror convention featuring Miller, Palmer, King, Savini, Manfredini, and Ari Lehman, who plays Jason in the film's shock ending; obviously shot at the same convention was "Fresh Cuts: New Tales from Friday the 13th," which is more or less the same players (with the addition of Robbie Morgan, who played Annie, the film's first non-flashback victim) relating their anecdotes to an off-camera interviewer. "The Man Behind the Legacy" is a nice visit with the elusive Cunningham at his "house that Jason built"; his candor about approaching filmmaking as strictly a commercial venture is rather refreshing. The theatrical trailer is the only remaining relevant extra; rounding out the disc is the first in the completely needless, completely un-Friday related original horror short series "Lost Tales from Camp Blood," directed by Andrew Ceperley.
The pickings are slim and slimmer on the discs for the next two films. Part 2 's best feature is the nearly half-hour "Jason Forever," a discussion panel from a horror connection (not the same as the one featured on the first film's disc) featuring four actors who have played Mr. Voorhees: Lehman, Warrington Gillette (Part 2), C.J. Graham (Part VI), and fan favorite Kane Hodder (VII, VIII, Jason Goes to Hell, and Jason X). Even if this isn't a new featurette (it was previously issued on a Best Buy exclusive bonus disc), it's a nice inclusion with the film that marked Jason's official debut. The other two documentary features are short, somewhat enlightening, and don't outstay their welcome: "Inside Crystal Lake Memories" is a brief chat with Bracke about his book, which is considered the definitive tome on the franchise; "Friday's Legacy: Horror Conventions" is yet another visit to the convention so prominently featured on the first film's disc, the 2008 Scare Fest. The film's theatrical trailer and Ceperley's second installment of his still-superfluous "Lost Tales from Camp Blood" short film series.
The new release of Part III marks the domestic home video premiere of the 3-D version, and apparently Paramount thought that would be enough of an extra as that, the long-available 2-D version, and the theatrical trailer would be enough (not even one of those "Lost Tales from Camp Blood" vignettes is here). It seems like it would be, but it isn't, as the transition from the original polarized format to the anaglyph (red and blue lenses) format for television is crude at best. It's disappointing that there isn't even a brief featurette on the filming of this installment, as the peculiarities filming in 3-D--especially back in the '80s--would no doubt have given director Steve Miner a lot of fodder to discuss. Maybe Paramount is reserving something like that for the inevitable Blu-ray Disc release down the road.
Friday the 13th specifications: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen; English 5.1 Surround; English, French, and Spanish mono; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; English closed captioning. Part 2 specifications: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen; English 5.1 Surround; English, French, and Spanish mono; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; English closed captioning. Part III specifications: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen; English 5.1 Surround; English, French, and Spanish mono; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; English closed captioning. (Paramount Home Entertainment)
Oliver & Company 20th Anniversary Edition (G)
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In one of the supplements featured on this release of the amiable, if slight, 1988 Disney animated feature, Walt Disney Pictures chairman Dick Cook credits this animal-populated variation on Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist as truly paving the way for the animation renaissance that would begin in earnest the following year with The Little Mermaid. Based on the rather pathetic anniversary edition the Mouse has given the film, that statement is even harder to believe. That this release hit shelves a number of months after the true 20th anniversary of its theatrical release, not to mention the film's out-of-print soundtrack did not get a fresh pressing (as no-brainer a tie-in cash grab opportunity as any), further confirms that this is one property not held in particularly high esteem at the studio. Basically, this is more or less the exact special edition DVD Buena Vista released back in 2002 with only one new extra that will not be of much use to many over the age of 7: a new set-top game, "Oliver's Big City Challenge."
The supplements that have been ported from that 2002 release do have some interest, but they hardly fulfill any expectations for a commemorative edition. The most intriguing is "The Making of Oliver & Company," but not so much for its information on the production--it is, after all, what appears to be an electronic press kit featurette, lasting all of five minutes and change--but the selling point angles they used back in 1988, which rather intriguingly point up some interesting xenophobic and racial attitudes: the announcer repeatedly takes great pains in insisting this film is "all-American" despite being based on a British novel; and voice actor Cheech Marin is said to be bringing his "unmistakable Hispanic spice" to the project. Otherwise, though, the extras are dismayingly routine, especially for what is supposed to be an anniversary release: trailers for the original 1998 release and 1996 theatrical reissue; a TV spot from '88; a much more politically correct EPK featurette for the '96 rerelease (in which Cook makes the aforementioned comment); a pretty disorganized gallery of stills and production art; plain text screens with various trivia factoids about the film; and two vintage shorts starring Pluto, 1941's Oscar-winning "Lend a Paw" (which also features Mickey's goldfish Bianca--which I find to be a really strange name to give such an animal) and 1949's "Puss Cafe." If this were just a standard DVD release--as this was already, more or less, in 2002--this disc would be fine; as a so-labeled "anniversary edition," however, it's beyond a letdown, especially for a film that already gets little attention or respect as it is.
Specifications: 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen; English, French, and Spanish 5.1 Surround; English, French, and Spanish subtitles. (Walt Disney Home Entertainment)
Not New
Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tomorrow May Never Come) 
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There is a Hindi film directed by Nikhil Advani that is perfectly suited to take advantage of the Slumdog Millionaire-fueled interest in Indian popular cinema, but it is not the one opening on screens around the world this week; rather, it is his 2003 directorial debut, the New York City-set and (mostly) -shot love story Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tomorrow May Never Come). A half-decade has passed since I first raved about the film in this space (Movie Report #408, dated January 16, 2004), but the film has not only not lost any of its fresh energy and heartfelt poignance, but many viewings since have revealed just what a terrifically crafted and executed entertainment it truly is--and one that has already stood the test of time and proven to speak to an audience beyond the established Bollywood fan base.
On that latter note, KHNH has been a trailblazer of sorts on the global marketplace, opening up territories that had previously not been so receptive to Indian film fare--most notably, Germany, where this film's massive success established a major market there for Bollywood, which has now become a bit of a mainstream entertainment staple there. Look no further than KHNH's IMDb page, which displays an image of a Shahrukh Khan DVD box set that was released there, for support; also, the numerous tribute videos to the film over on YouTube in languages ranging from English to German to Spanish to French to Polish to Arabic speak to the film's rather wide-reaching appeal. I have experienced something similar on a much smaller scale, for when I give friends and other associates my standard introductory "mini-festival" of Hindi popular cinema, the title that consistently connects the strongest is this film--which initially surprised me, considering it's as undiluted an example as any of the very un-Hollywood masala formula: broad, often silly comedy mixed with earnest, tear-jerking sentiment, all peppered with the occasional song and dance over the course of a typically lengthy run time of just over three hours.
At face value KHNH does indeed have a fairly rote Hindi film set-up with three central players: Naina Catherine Kapur (Preity Zinta), a sullen twentysomething whose life and household has been in disarray since a devastating family tragedy; her best friend Rohit Patel (Saif Ali Khan), would-be slick ladies' man but all-around good guy; and Aman Mathur (Shahrukh Khan), Naina's freshly-arrived neighbor, whose upbeat and generous nature will come to affect the lives of all he encounters in his new community, not least of which Rohit and especially Naina. The three do inevitably form a triangle, but the visually stylish and briskly efficient manner in which Advani and writer-producer Karan Johar introduce the characters in the opening minutes foreshadows how skillfully and intelligently the standard trappings are deployed here--which becomes fully clear once the first full-blown musical number takes place, when Aman's first glimpse of Naina's sad face prompts him to break into a rousing Hindi-language, Bhangra-inflected cover of... "Pretty Woman." Not only is this an energetically choreographed and edited scene, it is an effective and endearing introduction to Aman's exuberant personality and how it affects others, plus a slick expression of the film's east-meets-west aesthetic. For the Bollywood newcomer, the use of a recognizable tune make what for some is an alienating Indian film convention that much easier to accept.
That those moments, and the film as a whole, register so strongly directly derives from the simple core of the lead trio, and how Advani and Johar not only draw them so distinctly and realistically, but also flesh out each one's unique relation to the others: the affectionate comfort between Naina and Rohit; the more impetuous passion between Naina and Aman; the "bromance" between Aman and Rohit; and the playful cameraderie when all three are together. Whether navigating through some sillier gags (such as one recurring joke where Aman and Rohit are thought to be more than friends by the latter's housekeeper) or the more maudlin melodrama, one remains involved with the characters thanks to the writing and the performances. On initial release, the lion's share of praise went to Zinta and Ali Khan, and understandably so. The former proved that she had chops far deeper than her famously "bubbly" image, and her abilities were then further tested a year later, again opposite Shahrukh Khan, in an even more intensely dramatic role in Yash Chopra's Indo-Pak "love legend" Veer-Zaara; and she has since continued to challenge herself--and triumph--in more ambitious projects such as Deepa Mehta's harrowing Canada-set domestic abuse tale Heaven on Earth (which should reach U.S. screens sometime this year). Ali Khan, a perennial comic second banana, vaulted to his own starring vehicles following this film's success and never looked back, becoming one of the more bankable leading men in Indian cinema. Khan, superstar icon that he is, is so easily taken for granted, and playing a charming rogue who can ultimately wring tears from the audience is pretty much old hat for him. But subsequent viewings of the film reveal how carefully throught through Aman's arc is, as he clings onto his happy-go-lucky persona as a suit of armor from his own emotions with increasing desperation as the story progresses. This is not better illustrated than by a scene I consider to be cinematic perfection: with the sweeping instrumental melody of the title song playing, he stubbornly makes a verbal denial of his feelings that really isn't so much for another's benefit than his own, as cinematographer Anil Mehta captures via a stunning crane shot two embracing figures as the Brooklyn Bridge and the hulking metropolis of Manhattan lurk behind them--reinforcing another theme of the film, that of strong connections somehow being made within the hustling, bustling hordes of the big city. (That latter point also shows how the recurring sight of billboards for the Broadway musical Rent--whose tagline, "no day but today," is not only fairly synonymous with this film's title, but whose plot also centers around life-changing interpersonal bonds forged in the isolating environment of NYC--to be another sly, savvy detail.)
And that just shows how KHNH has a lot more going on than most masala entertainers. It's one thing to be a story about someone who is optimistic and generous, but what happens once someone so programmed to directing all of his energies toward giving to others unexpectedly discovers something for himself? (This issue was also explored in its own uniquely sensitive way in the undervalued Seven Pounds.) It's one thing to be story about a romantic triangle, but what about one where there is no clear or comfortable result for all three incredibly likable people involved? It's one thing to be about love, and entirely another to be one not just about romantic love, but all types of love--also love between friends, within a family (as illustrated in a subplot involving Naina's bickering mother and grandmother, which nicely supports the main story), and its power to inspire people to act beyond themselves. (Not for nothing has the film been released in some countries as, simply, Indian Love Story, as that's exactly what this is.) Admittedly, this film is not for every taste as it heart-on-sleeve sentimentality requires one to check all cynicism at the door, and there is also the matter of the music numbers and the broader bits of comedy, but I suspect those moved by Slumdog Millionaire (which, as I always stress to anyone, is not at all a "Bollywood" film but a British film that happens to tell a story set in India) and craving for a similarly satisfying roller coaster of an emotional journey--but in truer, more traditional Indian cinema terms--will find what they're looking for in Kal Ho Naa Ho.
When Yash Raj's two-disc DVD was originally released in the spring of 2004, it was the first Bollywood film with a running feature commentary track, here delivered by Advani. While he does drop a lot of choice tidbits about the peculiarities and difficulties shooting this Indian production mostly on location in New York (Toronto filled in some blanks, but while some traces remain--most prominently in the "Kuch To Hua Hai" number--most of that footage was trashed and reshot in the real deal), he's a bit too deferential to Johar. While Advani's films since, Salaam-e-Ishq (Love's Sweet Salute) and Chandni Chowk to China, have disappointed to an extent, Johar's subsequent work, in particular his 2006 return to the director's chair Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Never Say Goodbye), has also underachieved, showing that Advani is just as much responsible for this film's success. A selection of deleted scenes, viewable with Advani commentary, include a most wisely jettisoned subplot in which Indian and Pakistani seniors in a community center learn to get along; it plays even more heavy-handedly than it sounds. Trailers, TV spots, and a Johar-hosted making-of documentary (in which Advani is curiously absent) round out the rich assortment of supplements.
Specifications: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen; Hindi 5.1 Surround; English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Malay, and Dutch subtitles. (Yash Raj Films Home Entertainment)
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