Here's Jennifer Connelly's shot at gaining a place in the illustrious final of the FA Cup of Actors. I'm quite glad that this came up as it's something that I'd fancied seeing for a while. I saw the original version some time ago and thought that it was suitably creepy and generally okay. Let's see what I make of this American remake of Dark Water (or to give it its title in Yorkshire: Dark Watter).
Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) is splitting up from her husband (Dougray Scott) and taking her little girl Ceci (Ariel Gade of Some Guy Who Kills Peoplefame) with her to a new apartment. It's a shame that a dodgy estate agent (John C. Reilly) convinces her to rent an apartment in an entirely dubious location and it is run down in the extreme. It would be an understatement to say that damp is a problem. As things get worse for Dahlia, both in the flat and in her personal relationships, lawyer Jeff Platzer (Tim Roth) is on hand to advise.
This is one long slow burn of a film; think House of the Devil long burn. I quite like it for that alone. Not having any kind of attention disorder, I can cope with things gradually unfolding. Eventually slow burners need to reach a point where something great or shocking happens but like the aforementioned film, Dark Water doesn't get to that point.
The most potentially interesting relationship in the film is between Dahlia and her lawyer. Platzer's office is his car and he goes to the cinema on his own to see films like a real saddo. (You wouldn't catch me doing things like that. Not this week anyway. There's nothing on.) Yet he is a real professional and does a great job of sorting Dahlia's problems out. This was the most engaging thing for me but their relationship never gets resolved; Platzer just seems to drop out of the film in the final stages.
Jennifer Connelly does a good job of being a paranoid migraine sufferer. She doesn't quite go as deep as her role in Requiem for a Dream but you feel for her as her world falls apart. Her relationship with her daughter Ceci is also convincing. It doesn't harm things that she looks as though she could be Ariel Gade's real-life mother.
The less said about Pete Postlethwaite's accent the better.
The question for a large portion of the film is whether the spooky goings on are supernatural or psychological. At one point in my life I'd have been desperate for the ghosts to charge out and slime everyone, but now I quite like the idea of it being more ambiguous, with clues littered throughout the film. I won't tell you which route Dark Water goes down.
I half enjoyed this film but be warned, it is very grim. To get a feel for Dark Water go and live in Hull for a month and experience the never-ending rain, the smell of drains and the overwhelming greyness. (I lived in Hull for a few years and loved it despite it's grimness. It's got a shopping centre that is vaguely reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon. What more could you want?) If the ending had been better, it probably would have bumped this up to a six or even seven. But as it stands Connelly just doesn't quite have the attacking power that Page possesses. So Ellen Page is through to the final. 5/10 evlkeith If you like this you could also try: Dark Water (2002), The Ring.
Jennifer Connelly vs. Rutger Hauer in this first round match in the FA Cup of Actors. And it's up to Connelly to kick off with this little film that I'd never heard of before now. I don't really feel that qualified to review it as it is massively out of my comfort zone. Being used to horror, anime, and general B-movie rubbish this came as a bit of a shock. Inventing the Abbots involves lots of chatting, family matters and emotional issues. I'm a lot more at home with people smacking each other in the faces with frying pans.
Doug (Joaquin Phoenix) and Jacey (Billy Crudup) are two brothers living in a small Illinois town in the greasy fifties. They come from a poor family who may or may not have been wronged by Lloyd Abbott, the father of a local posh family. Lloyd is a rich fellow and has three lovely daughters: Pamela (Liv Tyler), Eleanor (Jennifer Connelly) and Alice (Joanna Going). The two brothers find the Abbott girls distinctly alluring, yet they're not quite sure which they fancy the most...
Be warned that this is a tricky film to watch if you struggle recognising people. The two brothers look very similar, as do the three sisters. Also it can be hard work keeping track of which characters are winking/clicking at each other, are holding hands or have slept together. It's all quite involved. It's as if they've packed a full year's worth of Eastenders style relationship twists and turns into one film.
Seeing as though this is Jennifer Connolly's shot at goal she's hardly in Inventing the Abbotts. Although she didn't get the main starring role, she's well up there in the billing. That's why I thought it would be acceptable to have this as her entry. Nevertheless she makes a sizeable impact. I've never seen her playing a sultry sauce machine before and she manages it very well indeed. Despite her absence from a large portion of the film her presence is felt in many scenes.
The main acting duties fall to Joaquin Phoenix and Liv Tyler. I've never been that sure about Phoenix and I'm still not entirely convinced now. I liked him in Signs but I generally disliked everything about Gladiator. He's likeable enough in this - especially when he uses a black marker pen to draw on some Elvis style mutton chops and then proceeds to go to a swanky party - and maybe his performance is just enough for me to give him another chance by watching another of his offerings and reevaluate what I think about him. With Liv Tyler I feel that I shouldn't like her, for some irrational reason, yet I can't help warming to her. She has a couple of quite touching scenes with Phoenix that warm even an old cynical gorehound's heart.
Billy Crudup is a completely different story. For starters, his name sounds like a lad called Billy has a severely messed up digestive system that has started backing up and causes the unfortunate lad to start throwing up turds. Infantile jibes aside, he's way too miserable and sulky in this. I can't remember him cracking a smile, however miniscule. All the time he mopes around and broods (despite getting a large portion of hanky panky from Jennifer Connelly). It's telling that he was also cast as Dr Manhattan in Watchmen.
Surprisingly enough I quite enjoyed Inventing the Abbotts. It's a definite change from what I'm used to and it was quite refreshing (at least it wasn't another useless low budget zombie film). If you like this kind of thing you'd probably get a lot more enjoyment from it than I did. Saying that, it's not the strongest film in Connelly's arsenal so let's see how she fares against Hauer's offering. 5/10 evlkeith If you like this you could also try: Stealing Beauty, Two Lovers.
