KNIGHT OF CUPS. (2015) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY TERENCE MALICK. MUSIC BY HANAN TOWNSHEND. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY EMMANUEL LUBEZKI.
STARRING CHRISTIAN BALE, CATE
BLANCHETT, NATALIE PORTMAN, ANTONIO BANDERAS, IMOGEN POOTS, WES
BENTLEY, ARMIN MUELLER-STAHL, FRIEDA PINT, BRIAN DENNEHY AND BEN
KINGSLEY AS THE NARRATOR.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Wow. This was an interesting one. At
first I didn't have a clue what was happening. This guy, Rick, a
handsome designer-suited Californian movie screenwriter in his
thirties, is wandering around the place doing stuff while some guy
does a solemn, raspy voice-over in the background.
I grew quite irritable while waiting for
the voice-over to shut the hell up and the film to properly begin but
guess what? The voice-over is the
film, haha, and it continues while the action plays out on-screen,
with the main characters talking directly to each other only
occasionally.
The
film's what you call experimental, see,
and if you think you can handle the unconventional format, the
pay-off is actually worth it. Once I'd accepted the fact that the
movie was going to continue in its distinctly oddball vein, I became
quite absorbed in the story.
The film, a
fascinating insight into both the decadence and the emptiness of the
Hollywood lifestyle as lived by a wealthy screenwriter, is divided
into eight chapters, each of which bar one is named after a tarot
card. The film itself is named after a tarot card. I don't go in for all that stuff myself, but for
those of you who dig it the chapters, each taking a look at Rick's
relationship with a different person in his life, are named as
follows:
The Moon; The Hanged Man; The
Hermit; Judgement; The Tower; The High Priestess; Death; Freedom.
Real
fancy and astrological and kind of other-worldly, see? Like I said, I
don't read the cards myself, if that's the correct expression, but if
anyone wants to read mine for me, please make sure that a Christian
Bale lookalike and a barren, meaningless but super-luxurious Hollywood
lifestyle feature in my future, ta.
We follow Rick's relationships with several women, each of
them different but all of them beautiful. There are no fat chicks in
this flick. It's a parade of camera-friendly Sheilas from start to
finish. I liked Della, the first girlfriend. Played by Imogen Poots,
she's gorgeous and kooky and feisty and she and Rick are good in bed
together but alas, she's gone after the first segment. Off to wreck some other poor bloke's head, no doubt.
Elizabeth,
played by Natalie Portman, is a married woman who's not sure if the
child she's carrying is Rick's or her hubby's. Judging by the
discussion we see them having about it, I'm not sure if Rick is going
to be much use to her in her hour of need. Her friend's apparently
already had 'four
procedures' done
(no need for a
translation here) so
is that what Elizabeth's considering...?
By
the way, the naughty, sexy-as-hell Elizabeth likes to play 'footsie,'
but
I'm not sure if anyone's shown her how to do it correctly...!
Cate
Blanchett plays Rick's ex-wife Nancy, a doctor who mourns the end of her
marriage to Rick. There must be something seriously wrong with a guy
who doesn't get down on his knees and worship at the shrine of
Galadriel from THE
LORD OF THE RINGS. Maybe
if she'd put an Elvish-type spell on him, he'd have learned to keep
his equipment under wraps.
As
it is, he's certainly not short of female company.
An array of stunningly beautiful women sashay in and out of his fancy
apartment, each one (maybe) bringing
him a little closer to finding out who he really is.
That's what
he's really after, the greedy little dickens, but I don't know if
he's going to find fulfilment in the loveless beds of the beautiful
models, actresses and strippers who flock around him because he's
good-looking, rich and can put them in a movie if he's so inclined.
Poor Rick, having to sleep with all those stunning-looking broads.
He even has a threesome at one point. It's a dirty job, but someone's
gotta do it, eh...?
Karen
annoyed me. She's one of those so-called 'free spirits,'
which is kind of ironic as she
dances in a cage for a living...! She dances and twirls barefoot
around the place and is in love with everything she sees and,
basically, you just want to put a tack on her chair to see if she'll stop f***ing gushing about how great stuff is for a bit. Get
back in your cage, girlie.
A still trim
Brian Dennehy does a great job as Rick's Dad. He has a troubled
relationship with Rick and Rick's brother, and we're also told that
another brother has died along the way. It's not all roses and
beautiful women, apparently, for this troubled screenwriter whose
mid-life crisis seems to have arrived a little early. Don't you just
hate when that happens, and you without clean sheets on the guest
bed...?
The film is a
treat to look at. The locations are glorious and the interiors of
some of the gaffs would make you want to curl up and die with
jealousy. The music, too, is utterly fabulous and even features stuff
from your man Grieg.
There's
a gorgeous recurring piece of music in particular that I was humming away happily throughout the film. I swore blind that I'd never forget it.
Naturally, by the next day it was gone, to be replaced by an
irritating ad for cheese, of all things. Still, when I watch the film
again, which I will, I'll hear it again and this time I'll never
forget it. Unless the cheese ad
comes on again...
Water is a
recurring motif in the film. The models and actresses are constantly
trailing their hands in water and people are running into the sea
with their clothes every five freakin' minutes on to show how fun and spontaneous they can be.
God, I hate people like that. They can't be having that much fun. It's not natural. And just wait till their mothers see the
state of their trousers afterwards. There'll be skin-and-hair flying
then, I can tell you.
Amidst the
fabulous Jackie Collins-style settings and lifestyle and the
beautiful phoney people talking about what combinations of drugs are
best for maximising their thrills and pleasure, a priest called Fr.
Zeitlinger has an interesting take on suffering which not everyone
will agree with.
Check
it out, and check out the photo shoot too. Talk about
soul-destroying. As comfy and cosy as it might be financially, I'm
not sure I'd be cut out for this I'm-dead-inside kind
of lifestyle. And this is what people go to Hollywood for every day,
to chase that dream which is in fact a double-edged sword. Good luck to 'em, I say, because they're gonna
need it.
This
excellent film has been available for Digital Download since August
15th
2016, and to buy on DVD and Blu-Ray from August 22nd
2016. This splendid act of (near!) philanthropy comes courtesy of the jolly folks at STUDIOCANAL
and if I were you, I'd go
for it.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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