Finding Love (Actually) by Believing in “Yesterday”

‘Tis the season for Richard Curtis. A recent Los Angeles Times article singled out  2003’s Love Actually, written by Curtis and also his debut as a film director, for being essential December viewing. And so it is, if you enjoy British cinema stars (Hugh Grant! Emma Thompson! Bill Nighy! Mr. Bean!) searching for—and finding—love amid snow flurries, Christmas parties, and other holiday merriment. I first fell for Curtis in 1994, when he took the concept of a wedding movie and quadrupled it. Four Weddings and a Funeral had it all: lots of flowers, lots of bridesmaids in poufy dresses, lots of lovelorn singles looking for their special someone. And, of course, there was the funeral, reminding us that, amid all the saccharine happily-ever-after, love sometimes comes to a permanent end.

 Curtis is big on concepts. (Call them gimmicks if you must.) For instance, there’s 1999’s Notting Hill, which posits that a film star at the height of her international fame (Julia Roberts) makes a romantic connection with a shy, quirky London bookshop owner (High Grant).  Inevitably, the paparazzi descend, and  . . .  well, the course of true love never did run smooth. Less of a megahit but equally charming is 2013’s About Time, starring Dombnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, and the invaluable Bill Nighy, in a romantic film that also encompasses family relationships by adding a dash of time travel to the mix. 

 More recently, Curtis has branched into film and TV adaptations and sequels (see Doctor Who, War Horse, as well as several Bridget Jones and Mamma Mia films), without doing much in the way of originals. But he did try something rather new in 2019, although it too is an adapted version of someone else’s concept. Yesterday (2019) is based on a story by TV writer/producer Jack Barth, best known for his work on The Simpsons. (Barth who gets a story credit on Yesterday, apparently has griped that Curtis wrongly claims authorship of some of his own plot devices. But, at age 62, Barth became perhaps the oldest person in Hollywood to see his first screenplay produced, after 25 unsuccessful tries, so I’d say he’s doing all right.)

 So what’s Yesterday about? The title is an homage to the Paul McCartney song we all know and love. But in the world of the film, a young British singer-songwriter who’s recovering from a strange road accident suddenly discovers he’s alone in the universe in having any recollection of the Beatles. This makes it easy for him to claim that the entire Beatles canon is his own work, and fame and fortune soon follow. For a while he enjoys the ride, but he can’t help feeling guilty. And his growing celebrity within the music industry threatens his relationship with the nice young woman who’s loved him for years. You can probably guess the ending.

 Curtis left the directing of Yesterday to the talented Danny Boyle, an Oscar winner for Slumdog Millionaire. Perhaps it was Boyle’s experience in the Indian sub-continent that led him to cast a Brit of Indian descent, Himesh Patel, as his Yesterday leading man, in a film that was not at all about race and ethnicity. A nice bit of diversity, that. The cast also includes pop star Ed Sheeran, nicely playing a version of himself. But the real star is the Beatles’ greatest hits: the rumor is that some $10 million was paid for the right to use classic songs from their catalogue. The Fab Four and their survivors have signaled their love for the film, including a surprise cameo I will not divulge.

 

 

 

 

“The Menu,” Featuring Dishes Best Served Cold

After the lights came up, I went out and ate a cheeseburger, savoring every last bite. Those who’ve seen The Menu will, I’m sure, understand the implications. Let’s just say that The Menu is about fine dining, taken to a degree that’s absurd, even grotesque. It’s a film that will not be to everyone’s taste, but connoisseurs will find it strange, funny, and horrible. Which is why, on a recent evening, the prime screening at my local multiplex was completely sold out. In an era when many film lovers would rather stay home and watch Netflix, The Menu fills the bill for highly original entertainment.

 We all love to eat, and some of us love to cook. Which is why many filmmakers have produced works that focus on the cooking and eating of a meal. One of the earliest I remember is the poignant Babette’s Feast (1987), in which a 19^th century French refugee thanks the Danish villagers who’ve taken her in by way of a spectacular dinner. It took me a while to discover the Japanese Tampopo (1985)  which approaches the preparation and consumption of food in an affectionate but absurdist light. Director Ang Lee, early in his career, made a 1994 Taiwanese film, Eat Drink Man Woman, in which a veteran chef and his three daughters play out the challenges of their daily lives by way of their weekly Sunday meals. Food-making substitutes for love in Mexico’s 1992 Like Water for Chocolate, based on an acclaimed novel. There are many more examples, but I’ll stop with Stanley Tucci’s Big Night (1996), about the emotion that goes into the opening of a family-owned restaurant.

 In most of these movies, the cooking and serving of food becomes a way of showing love. Which makes The Menu a film with a difference. If revenge is a dish best served cold, the chill here is palpable, but there’s some flaming emotion as well. Not that this is obvious from the get-go, when a group of 12 beautiful people board a launch that will take them to a tiny island for the meal of a lifetime. Their host is fabled chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), who introduces each exquisite dish in loving detail, but also rules his open kitchen like a drill sergeant. Some of the offerings are perversely humorous, like the bread plate that consists solely of tiny dabs of oils and sauces, with no bread in sight. Other courses . . .  well, it wouldn’t be fair to say.

 Part of what animates The Menu, aside from a desire to tell a helluva good story, is a disdain for the absurdities of today’s fine dining scene, in which small numbers of diners pay exorbitant sums to feast on the rare and the exotic. Some of the targets of the film’s very dark jokes are snobbish restaurant critics, roistering investment bros, burned-out Hollywood celebrities (John Leguizamo at his slimiest), elitist big-spenders, and foodies who live for moments of gustatory bliss. Chef Slowik clearly resents all those who have elevated his culinary reputation by luring him away from simple food, lovingly cooked. In the role, Ralph Fiennes is a marvel as both genius and madman, capable of both utter coldness and surprising warmth. His opposite number is the restaurant’s one unexpected guest, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Her unusual saucer-eyed beauty seems to make her well-suited to parts in eerie projects like The Witch, Last Night in Soho, and TV’s The Queen’s Gambit. In The Menu she plays a gal who’s more than she seems, and her role here is, well, a whopper.

 

 

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No Weeping for the Return of “Willow”

 Disney+ is kicking off the holiday season with Willow, a new series, based on an old movie. Back in 1988 (which I’m tempted to refer to as “olden times”), George Lucas persuaded a new young director named Ron Howard to  make a fantasy film with a little person at its core. Lucas had, while directing Return of the Jedi, been impressed by tiny WarwickDavis, a three-foot-four-inch bundle of energy who played Wicket the Ewok, among other roles. It was Lucas’s idea to star someone like Davis in a period adventure saga.

 But since Lucas was a shy man who lacked an easy rapport with actors, he  had gradually moved into the producer’s role. Howard at that time was still fairly new to movie-making on a grand scale: his Splash(1984) and Cocoon (195) had been mainstream hits, but Willow’s $50 million budget and sizable special effects demands gave him pause. Still, he was eager to work with the tech wizards at Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic. Moreover, he reasoned that his five-year-old daughter Bryce and his toddler twins (not to mention the little boy on the way) would soon be the perfect age to appreciate big-screen fantasy.

 Despite Lucas’s enthusiasm, Warwick Davis was not a shoo-in for the leading role of Willow Ufgood, who is forced by circumstance to journey far from his home among the Nelwyns, a race of little people under four feet tall. A farmer who dreams of becoming a magician, Willow suddenly finds himself entrusted with a full-sized (or “Dakini”) baby. This baby is none other than Elora Danan, whose survival spells doom for the evil Dakini queen, Bavmorda (Jean Marsh). In the course of his travels to return the infant princess to her rightful home, Willow encounters all manner of unlikely creatures: vicious deathdogs, frightening trolls, beautiful fairies, a sorceress trapped in the body of a rodent, and pugnacious brownies nine inches high who make the three-foot four-inch Willow seem like a giant. There are battles and breathless escapes aplenty before Willow uses his budding magic skills, along with his native wit, to defeat Bavmorda and restore the forces of good.

 When I spoke to Warwick Davis for my Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon . . . and Beyond, he told me he was somewhat daunted by the demands of the title role. Despite all his experience on Star Wars films, here he would be without a mask and a creature suit, and the range of his emotions within the film would be huge. Howard too was worried about Davis’s suitability, because he was a mere seventeen years old. Not only did the part of Willow call for him to interact with a baby, but his character was supposed to be a loving husband and the father of two young children. Once he won the role, Davis, who had never before lifted a baby, was put through an informal training course on how to care for an infant, diaper-changing and all. Howard also arranged lessons in diction, horsemanship., and sleight-of-hand.

 Happily, Disney’s new series returns Davis to the title role. Now a 52-year-old with a long filmography to his credit, he occupies a world in which baby Elora Danan has become a grown woman and a queen, but still relies on Willow’s talents to help her fight off evil.. Long ago I wrote that the original film “is an uneasy blend of life-or-death adventure, heartfelt sentiment, golly-gee wizardry, and comic riffs.” Still, it found many young fans on video, and the well-regarded new series should bring in more.