Date Night

Date Night is a 2009 film that stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey as average working couple Phil and Claire Foster, who put aside a certain day for 'Date Night's', where they go out together to the same restaurant and talk about pretty much the same thing. Spurred by the news that their close friends (Kristin Wiig & Mark Ruffalo) are getting a divorce, Phil and Claire decide to take a break from the norm and attempt to get into the upmarket restaurant Claw. In order to get a table, they steal another couple's reservation and soon get involved in a mafia blackmail plot.

It's an okay film. It was by no means brilliant, and with Carell and Fey both involved I did expect to laugh more than I did. A lot of the humour came from the set-up part of the film; the parts that show the average life of the Foster's, with book clubs and children running around everywhere. Once the action starts the humour somewhat dies down, although the action is most definitely tongue-in-cheek. The one scene that made me almost want to fast forward was when Claire and Phil pose as strippers in order to access the person that is being blackmailed; for me the scene wasn't funny-it was just cringeworthy

Carell and Fey have good chemistry in the lead roles, and are believable as their characters. The other cast members are all pretty underused; Mark Wahlberg appears as a James Bond-type security expert but does little other than not wear a shirt, Mark Ruffalo has just about three lines in the film, James Franco as the real Tripplehorn also appears for about a scene; the only cameo performances that make much impact are Mila Kunis as the real Mrs Tripplehorn who proves that she can do some acting and Ray Liotta as the mafia boss (who appears to be wearing purple eyeliner).

All in all, Date Night is an okay film. I wouldn't rush out and buy it on DVD, but it's pretty short, less than 90 minutes, so it would be worth watching if it came up on television or something.

Black Swan

Wow. Darren Aronofsky's film Black Swan grabs the viewer, and hits them over the head with one of the most powerful films I've ever watched. Which is also probably my first (and certainly not my last) psychodrama.

The film follows Nina (Natalie Portman), a ballerina at Lincoln Centre, whose life is consumed by ballet. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother (Barbara Hershey) who wraps her up in a pink, toy filled bedroom, and almost controls the day-to-day life of her 'sweet girl'. Meanwhile, the company's old prima ballerina, Beth (Winona Ryder) is retiring and so the director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) announces his search for a replacement to dance the role of the Swan Queen, Odette, as well as the Black Swan, Odile in a new version of Swan Lake. Whilst he picks Nina, channelling the role's darker part causes her to become more and more obsessed with perfection, and her paranoia surrounding new soloist Lily (Mila Kunis) threaten to consume her wholly.

I'd been looking forward to watching this film since it was first announced, and it did not disappoint. The performances are all fantastic. Portman thoroughly deserves all the accolades she has achieved and should and hopefully will sweep the Leading Actress categories this year. Hershey as the terrifyingly overbearing mother was also strong, and Cassel brought a weirdly charming, creepiness to the role of Thomas, who seems to revel in his power over multitudes of young women. Kunis doesn't really have to do that much, other than be good-looking, and the polar opposite to Nina, but her character of Lily is hugely important. Lily comes to represent part of Nina; the part she is keen to repress, and the part that threatens to eat her whole by the end.

The plot is pretty clear to any one who is familiar with the plot of Swan Lake, with further exploration of the idea of a duel personality. However, the way that Aronofsky delivers it is incredibly powerful. Nina begins having an eating disorder and problems self-harming, but it all seems (relatively) controlled. Yet it is not long before she begins thinking she's seeing doppelgangers in the street (normally dressed in black), her reflection moving differently to her, her reflection even doing the self-harming to her, and her face in place of Lily's and in place of Beth's. The fact that the whole film is from her perspective, the viewer almost feels a sense of self-doubt when it's finished-I know I began to question whether or not certain scenes were actually real or whether they were just figments of Nina's imagination.

The sound design was also phenomenal, it was the only time I really thoroughly noticed it and it added so much the film. The use of feathers, of swan noise of the music from both Swan Lake and newly composed and the accentuated sounds (especially the clicking of toes and feet), all build up alongside the jumpy visuals to create a truly wonderful film.

I'd advise you to go see this.