Storm
2/4
Starring: Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane, Rolf Lassgard, Alexander Fehling, Kresimir Mikic, Drazen Kuhn
Not Rated (Probably PG-13 for Material involving War Crimes)
"Storm," which was distributed by Film Movement, an organization dedicated to art films, is essentially a Hollywood courtroom drama dressed up in art and sexed up with terms like "war crimes." And unfortunately, it's not a very good one. Every plot development is predictable (and at times confusing), the characters are cliches, and by and large the acting is flat.
Hannah Maynard (Fox) is a prosecutor in the Hague Criminal Court who has just been passed over for promotion. Instead, the job went to her co-worker Keith Haywood (Dillane), who gives her the task of closing a relatively open and shut case. A Serbian commander named Goran Duric (Kuhn) is on trial for war crimes. All Hannah has to do is lead the witness through his testimony and close the case. But the witness, a shy and soft-spoken man named Alen Hajdarevic (Mikic), is lying about his testimony and after being confronted with the lies, commits suicide. Now Hannah and her assistant Patrick (Fehling) have to find new evidence within the week or else Duric walks free forever. Luck comes their way when they realize the one person who can tell the truth is Alen's sister, Mira Arendt (Marinca). But getting her into the courtroom isn't going to be easy.
The story has promise. Little enough attention has been paid to the Bosnian War (morbid as this sounds) that it gives the story a fresh setting, or at least a sense of it. But the story is so bogged down by cliches that it becomes predictable and boring. The stubborn prosecutor who grows a conscience, the important witness who's in danger, the boss who's only concern is politics, the traitorous friend, etc; it's all here. The longer the story goes on, the more convinced I was of what was going to happen.
The acting is for the most part, uninspired. Hannah Maynard, whose only claim to fame is being in Danny Boyle's debut film, "Shallow Grave," is flat. The only thing worth mentioning about her performance is that there's no attempt to make her look sexy like they do in Hollywood. Her co-star, Anamaria Marinca, can actually act (she had the lead in the Romanian thriller "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days"), but she's saddled with limp material. She does the best that she can with it; her revelation about what happened to her is heartbreaking. Stephen Dillane's only decent performance was in the HBO miniseries "John Adams," and his work in "Storm" doesn't change that. He's boring. Rolf Lassgard is good as Hannah's lover, except for the fact that it's often hard to understand what he's saying, particularly in his last scene (which is really important). Also worth mentioning is Kresimir Mikic, who is good as Amir.
Although "Storm" isn't as pretentious as some arthouse movies are, co-writer and director Hans-Christian Schmid should have recognized that he didn't have anything special on his hands. The film is the Emperor's New Clothes; change a few details and it would be a John Grisham thriller. Had he taken things less seriously (the grainy look of the film and constant handheld shots give it an air of heavy drama that the film doesn't earn), this could have been a bit more fun.
Like most 2/4 movies, "Storm" isn't a bad film. It is watchable and somewhat compelling. It just doesn't offer more than any other courtroom drama, despite what the director hopes.
Starring: Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane, Rolf Lassgard, Alexander Fehling, Kresimir Mikic, Drazen Kuhn
Not Rated (Probably PG-13 for Material involving War Crimes)
"Storm," which was distributed by Film Movement, an organization dedicated to art films, is essentially a Hollywood courtroom drama dressed up in art and sexed up with terms like "war crimes." And unfortunately, it's not a very good one. Every plot development is predictable (and at times confusing), the characters are cliches, and by and large the acting is flat.
Hannah Maynard (Fox) is a prosecutor in the Hague Criminal Court who has just been passed over for promotion. Instead, the job went to her co-worker Keith Haywood (Dillane), who gives her the task of closing a relatively open and shut case. A Serbian commander named Goran Duric (Kuhn) is on trial for war crimes. All Hannah has to do is lead the witness through his testimony and close the case. But the witness, a shy and soft-spoken man named Alen Hajdarevic (Mikic), is lying about his testimony and after being confronted with the lies, commits suicide. Now Hannah and her assistant Patrick (Fehling) have to find new evidence within the week or else Duric walks free forever. Luck comes their way when they realize the one person who can tell the truth is Alen's sister, Mira Arendt (Marinca). But getting her into the courtroom isn't going to be easy.
The story has promise. Little enough attention has been paid to the Bosnian War (morbid as this sounds) that it gives the story a fresh setting, or at least a sense of it. But the story is so bogged down by cliches that it becomes predictable and boring. The stubborn prosecutor who grows a conscience, the important witness who's in danger, the boss who's only concern is politics, the traitorous friend, etc; it's all here. The longer the story goes on, the more convinced I was of what was going to happen.
The acting is for the most part, uninspired. Hannah Maynard, whose only claim to fame is being in Danny Boyle's debut film, "Shallow Grave," is flat. The only thing worth mentioning about her performance is that there's no attempt to make her look sexy like they do in Hollywood. Her co-star, Anamaria Marinca, can actually act (she had the lead in the Romanian thriller "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days"), but she's saddled with limp material. She does the best that she can with it; her revelation about what happened to her is heartbreaking. Stephen Dillane's only decent performance was in the HBO miniseries "John Adams," and his work in "Storm" doesn't change that. He's boring. Rolf Lassgard is good as Hannah's lover, except for the fact that it's often hard to understand what he's saying, particularly in his last scene (which is really important). Also worth mentioning is Kresimir Mikic, who is good as Amir.
Although "Storm" isn't as pretentious as some arthouse movies are, co-writer and director Hans-Christian Schmid should have recognized that he didn't have anything special on his hands. The film is the Emperor's New Clothes; change a few details and it would be a John Grisham thriller. Had he taken things less seriously (the grainy look of the film and constant handheld shots give it an air of heavy drama that the film doesn't earn), this could have been a bit more fun.
Like most 2/4 movies, "Storm" isn't a bad film. It is watchable and somewhat compelling. It just doesn't offer more than any other courtroom drama, despite what the director hopes.
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