The Short Take: Bytowne Edition

When I have either little to say or little time in which to say it, a short take is called for.

London to Brighton (2006)

True story: Emily and I were inspired, in part, by our very own London to Brighton train trip this past April. The movie's trip was much different than ours. Two women, one 30-ish (Lorraine Stanley), one 12-ish (Georgia Stanley), slam into a washroom at a train station in London. They're in rough shape. They cobble together enough money to take the train to Brighton. As they go forward, we go backward to how they got to that train. Thank goodness I found out that this is writer-director Paul Andrew Williams' first feature length movie because it certainly seems like one. Not in that "look at all my cool transitions! I went to film school, you guys!" way but in that "that's gritty, bitches! I don't pull no punches" way. It's a way, frankly, that I could do without. There were too many scenes that were thrown in for no other purpose than to be gritty: they didn't advance the plot, didn't reveal anything about the characters, didn't provide any momentary relief. They just . . . were. If this filler had been removed, Williams would have had a much better movie on his hands. As it was, he brings promise to a shopworn story. Maybe next time. B-

My Brother Is An Only Child (2007)

More true stories: I don't know about Em, but I was at least partially inspired to see this one because of all the posters we saw for it in London. It's a London-riffic Short Take today, no? Anyway, two brothers: one older, better looking, favoured by his parents (Riccardo Scamarcio); one younger, less good looking, forever on the outs with his entire family (Elio Germano). Sounds familiar, right? Except one little thing: Manrico's (Scamarcio) a communist, and Accio's (Germano) a fascist. Best part? Accio's the protagonist in this sharp, insightful take on political unrest and family ties in small town Italy in the 60s and 70s. Director and co-writer Daniele Luchetti's interpretation of Antonio Pennacchi's novel is as funny as it is dark, and its character driven plot has an oddball charm that masks how deadly it can be. Scamarcio may be the dreamy one with his curly mop and striking green eyes, but Germano steals the show as the more truly politically motivated of the two. B+

Mongol (2007)

Would that every epic were half as beautiful and half as sure of its motivations as this one. The first part of a planned trilogy about the life of Genghis Khan (Odnyam Odsuren as a child; Tadanobu Asano as an adult) that focuses, astonishingly, on his relationship with his wife, Börte (Khulan Chulunn), as his motivation for, well, pretty much everything. No matter what happens, it's all, "Send word to my wife!" His rules are simple and inclusive, and he wants to build the Mongols back up after decades of unrest and civil war. While director and co-writer Sergei Bodrov and cinematographers Rogier Stoffers and Sergei Trofimov have given us a view of the mountains and steppes that make the area vast, empty, and beautiful, they also have a tendency to let it it run on a little too long. Actually, it's not even that long at 126 minutes, but it feels long. If they avoid that problem in the next installment but keep every other glorious element, we'll near perfection. A-