Third Star (2010, UK)
"Third Star" is the taxing journey of three friends as they accompany the cancer-eaten James (Cumberbatch) on one last bonding trip to Barafundle Bay, the beautiful shoreline that James longs to see before his supposed period of bed rest. These four fundamentally damaged characters with enough friendship baggage to fill a few airline carriers aren't going this entire way just for kicks. James, who is pain-stricken and so barely functional that he needs assistance just to stand up long enough to urinate, has a deeply personal reason for visiting this place. He didn't exactly buy a return ticket for himself, you see. He asks quite a lot of his very good friends in the end, and maybe more than they were ever willing to really give... They ultimately do help him find relief from his shell of a lifestyle, and you get the sense that this is the event that finally cements their remaining bonds and helps them to put away whatever petty issues they feuded with each other over during the course of their last trip together. It feels more or less like watching a film already in progress, so it's hard to relate to them for most of the movie, generally until the very end when things only just start coming together a bit.
Wreckers (2011, UK)
Eerie movie. You don't really come out feeling all too sorry for any of the characters, because they're all very maladjusted and have their own personal problems that clearly need sorting out before they're allowed to interact with anyone, let alone each other. Long story short, David (Cumberbatch) and his wife Dawn (played by Claire Foy) buy a house out in the country of David's old village to refurbish and turn into a home for themselves. They're both young and unsuccessfully trying for a child, clearly quite hopeful for their future...but then David's brother comes along to stay with them after military service and fucks everything up three ways til Sunday with his presence. He strains things between the couple and him being around ultimately brings up a lot of stuff that probably should have remained buried in the past. Even him leaving doesn't solve much, as somewhere within this madness Dawn cheats on David with one of his friends and ends up fathering his friend's child. (David doesn't seem to care all that much, mostly because he's impotent and really really wants a kid.)
The impression I got from the final few moments of the film may not be what happened--it's left intentionally vague, so viewers can really make up their own minds--but it would appear that David kills his own brother for supposedly impregnating his wife, only to later find, after taking a close look at his friend versus the child he's raising as his own, that his brother probably wasn't guilty after all. Oops, that's a bit awkward.
It's admittedly really hard to feel anything for the characters. Not just because they all have some clearly fucked up issues, but also because the movie didn't tell us quite enough about them and their pasts for me to care very much about their development. We simply aren't given enough information on why certain characters--namely David and his brother--act the way that they do to really find it fascinating to see how their backgrounds factor into their current or future actions. Sometimes a background context isn't necessary for a good and interesting character, but in a movie heavily reliant on the idea of inescapable pasts and the forces coming back to dredge them up, it really would have helped. It may have been well acted, but sometimes even a good cast can't help a weak narrative. The overall point of the film seems to be that you should never marry any character portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, because he rarely plays someone not creepy. And if it seems like he's not creepy, then just wait a bit, because he's probably hiding something.
"Third Star" is the taxing journey of three friends as they accompany the cancer-eaten James (Cumberbatch) on one last bonding trip to Barafundle Bay, the beautiful shoreline that James longs to see before his supposed period of bed rest. These four fundamentally damaged characters with enough friendship baggage to fill a few airline carriers aren't going this entire way just for kicks. James, who is pain-stricken and so barely functional that he needs assistance just to stand up long enough to urinate, has a deeply personal reason for visiting this place. He didn't exactly buy a return ticket for himself, you see. He asks quite a lot of his very good friends in the end, and maybe more than they were ever willing to really give... They ultimately do help him find relief from his shell of a lifestyle, and you get the sense that this is the event that finally cements their remaining bonds and helps them to put away whatever petty issues they feuded with each other over during the course of their last trip together. It feels more or less like watching a film already in progress, so it's hard to relate to them for most of the movie, generally until the very end when things only just start coming together a bit.
Wreckers (2011, UK)
Eerie movie. You don't really come out feeling all too sorry for any of the characters, because they're all very maladjusted and have their own personal problems that clearly need sorting out before they're allowed to interact with anyone, let alone each other. Long story short, David (Cumberbatch) and his wife Dawn (played by Claire Foy) buy a house out in the country of David's old village to refurbish and turn into a home for themselves. They're both young and unsuccessfully trying for a child, clearly quite hopeful for their future...but then David's brother comes along to stay with them after military service and fucks everything up three ways til Sunday with his presence. He strains things between the couple and him being around ultimately brings up a lot of stuff that probably should have remained buried in the past. Even him leaving doesn't solve much, as somewhere within this madness Dawn cheats on David with one of his friends and ends up fathering his friend's child. (David doesn't seem to care all that much, mostly because he's impotent and really really wants a kid.)
The impression I got from the final few moments of the film may not be what happened--it's left intentionally vague, so viewers can really make up their own minds--but it would appear that David kills his own brother for supposedly impregnating his wife, only to later find, after taking a close look at his friend versus the child he's raising as his own, that his brother probably wasn't guilty after all. Oops, that's a bit awkward.
It's admittedly really hard to feel anything for the characters. Not just because they all have some clearly fucked up issues, but also because the movie didn't tell us quite enough about them and their pasts for me to care very much about their development. We simply aren't given enough information on why certain characters--namely David and his brother--act the way that they do to really find it fascinating to see how their backgrounds factor into their current or future actions. Sometimes a background context isn't necessary for a good and interesting character, but in a movie heavily reliant on the idea of inescapable pasts and the forces coming back to dredge them up, it really would have helped. It may have been well acted, but sometimes even a good cast can't help a weak narrative. The overall point of the film seems to be that you should never marry any character portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, because he rarely plays someone not creepy. And if it seems like he's not creepy, then just wait a bit, because he's probably hiding something.
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