The Ticket
The Ticket, a thought-provoking look at one of the central tensions of modern life, is an unassuming film whose moral and spiritual elements simmer underneath the action in the first half before rising to the surface in the affecting conclusion. James Harvey (Dan Stevens) is a blind man who lives contentedly and simply with his wife (Malin Akerman) and son, until his sight is restored. With vision, James develops a competitive, materialist streak that isolates him from his family and best friend (Oliver Platt) as he becomes wealthy and successful, but pride comes before a fall. Usually it behooves a film to provide detail, but here director Ido Fluk keeps the story somewhat abstract, giving The Ticket a fable-like quality, allowing James to be a symbol of anyone blinded by materialism. Fluk makes some counter-intuitive directorial choices that pay off, from an ethereal electronic score to some beautifully unexpected scene stagings, such as Harvey swimming with his son. Stevens deserves credit for a raw performance that takes him from meek to arrogant while always showing what is driving him subconsciously.
Lavender
Despite a strong lead performance from Abbie Cornish and a keenly evoked rural setting, Lavender struggles to make an impact through an over-reliance on thriller/horror gimmicks such as amnesia, mysteriously appearing presents, and visions of creepy children. Jane (Cornish) suffers a car accident that reawakens the suppressed memory of the farmhouse massacre that claimed her family and must return to the house to discover the truth of what happened. The film is shot well and has many individual moments that work, but the overall premise strains credulity at the onset and throws it out the window by the end – even if you accept that a girl might suppress the murder of her entire family, how could she possibly live in the same small town for thirty years and never be told about it? An overbearing sound design and unsatisfying Scooby-Doo conclusion ruin whatever goodwill Lavender accrues at the beginning.
The Fixer
Though set in the present, The Fixer feels like a '70s film in several ways, from its shaggy narrative to the countercultural milieu it explores in Humboldt County and the theme of the chickens of America’s adventures abroad coming home to roost. Dominic Rains gives a charismatic lead performance as Osman, an Afghan “fixer” whose friendship with an American journalist lands him in the redwood forests of California living with the American’s mother (Melissa Leo). Osman finds work writing the local paper’s police blotter, work that brings him into contact with the local eccentrics and criminals (James Franco, Tim Kniffin, Thomas Jay Ryan). Ultimately, The Fixer oversells its mystery aspects for a plot where little is resolved, but the film is worthwhile for its strong sense of setting and the cross-cultural aspects of Osman’s introduction to America, where he's continually surprised by both the differences and similarities to Afghanistan.
Detour
It’s difficult to see how a film with such a talented young cast and an exciting noir premise could go so wrong, but Detour finds a way. Detour stars Tye Sheridan as Harper, a law student with a comatose mother who drunkenly puts a hit on his stepfather who may have been responsible for his mother’s injury. Emory Cohen stars as Johnny Ray, the loose cannon who accepts the offer even once Harper changes his mind, and Bel Powley is Cherry, Johnny’s prostitute girlfriend. A series of events takes the three from Los Angeles to Las Vegas with a body or two in the trunk and some gangsters in pursuit. Detour wears its classic noir influences on its sleeve, from obtrusively placed movie posters to a derivative visual style, but instead of integrating these influences convincingly into its modern setting, the two combine to form a hollow simulacrum of the milieu it's aspiring to. Shot in South Africa, the movie never remotely feels like California and the characters are so inauthentic and contrived that it’s impossible to ascribe an inner life to any of them. Sans any interesting characters, the film relies on a split screen gimmick and simply tricking the audience for narrative tension, in ways that undermine any moral underpinnings to the story. Detour has some energy and some pretty shots, but it’s a hollow, unsatisfying experience.
The Family Fang
Jason Bateman’s second film as a director finds him and Nicole Kidman as the grown children of the art world-famous Caleb and Camille Fang, performance artists who integrated their children in chaotic performance pieces designed to disrupt ordinary life. As adults, Annie and Baxter have both achieved some renown acting and writing respectively, but are also deeply dysfunctional and the family finds itself reunited after an injury to Baxter, only for Caleb and Camille (Christopher Walken, Maryann Plunkett) to disappear. Were they murdered or is this their greatest piece of art yet? Annie and Baxter must unite to find out. Bateman strips away much of the whimsy from the source novel to achieve a darker portrayal of parental abandonment and how childhood complexes affect adults. This approach might sacrifice a few laughs, but it greatly increases the emotional impact. Kidman gets her best role in years as an actress who was rewarded for bad behavior, up to a point, and she and Bateman provide a lived-in intimacy to their brother-sister relationship. The Family Fang nails a difficult to capture tone in a film about the sacrifices of art and returning home in order to grow up.
