Nang
Nak
Simple tale,
somewhat sad I think you'll agree. It illustrates some of the basic hopes
and fears of mankind are universal and not just relegated to this end of
millenium angst that everyone is pretending to have to be deep. No, sometimes
the simplest stories really do illustrate the most. So here goes. I went
to see Being John Malkovitch. I queued for an hour, only to find out that
it was completely sold out, so I went to see a Thai film called Nang Nak
instead, which was also playing as part of the London Film Festival. And
the moral to this sad and sorry tale. Always get a ticket in advance to
the biggest movie of the festival.
Nang Nak
is also a simple story, based on an old Thai folk tale. I knew this in
advance because it did happen to be one of the films which had caught my
eye in the programme. I work at the School of Oriental and African Studies
(the SOAS bit in the web address) and I wrote a short piece previewing
the LFF, trying to highlight in particular some of the world cinema on
offer. From a rather large selection, Nang Nak caught my eye, being extremely
popular in Thailand, yet being based on an old tale that everyone knew.
This had set me about thinking, folk tales, fairy stories rarely get remade
these days, because cinema is about novelty. Yet - conversely - cinema
itself has its own conventions, its own stories which it endlessly recycles
(I'm thinking romantic comedies, I'm thinking the sports movie). So what
intrigued me - and remember I was talking myself into wanting to see Nang
Nak - is how a film made for people who already know the plot, plays to
an ignoramus like myself.
Answer is,
rather better than I expected. It is however relatively disappointing for
someone with my stated aim, as Nang Nak is actually rather a Western film.
In some ways it employs the worst of Hollywood's techniques to get across
its story, is fabulously melodramatic and has a score which is louder than
The Breakfast Club and The Third Man's put together. Mix this with some
rather good special effects and all you have is a flashy ghost story with
subtitles. However the strength of the story rescues it, there is a reason
why this folk tale has lasted the test of time, and that is because it
is a good old fashioned yarn.
Mak goes
off to war, leaving his pregnant wife Nak. (If you are even going to like
this film you have to put up with much wailing, gnashing of teeth and the
standard conversation being Nak....Mak....Nak....Mak). He is severely injured,
and returns much later to his wife and new son. However the other river
dwellers are acting odd towards him, and this is soon revealed to be because
Nak actually died in childbirth. Mak is actually living with the ghost
of his wife and son, who due to the strength of her love tries to remain
with him. A lovely sweet story, which has a dark side, as to stop Mak from
finding out, Nak employs somewhat murderous ghostly tactics. As he slowly
discovers the truth we end with a rain swept chase, dead rising from the
grave and some both gory and spiritual endings. All accompanied with excellent
cinematography of the simple countryside, and this racous soundtrack.
It is not
difficult to see why Nang Nak did so much business in Thailand. In a lot
of ways it is like Titanic, king of the Box Office in the States. Everyone
knows what is going to happen, but there is interest to see how it is done
on screen. The special effects are not over-used, but are very good when
they surface. Equally the actors are pretty, and there is a very clever
use of flashback to explain much of the story and Mak's horrors of war.
In the end, everyone knows what they will get, and there is a lovely spiritual
affirmation of Buddhism. However the film also plays surprisingly well
to an outsider - due to its story being such an archetype - yet an archetype
I had never seen before.
Nang Nak
is a typical childs bedtime horror story. Whilst there is the supernatural
element, the fear of living with ghosts, the underlying messsage is one
of hope. That the dead can stay around if they love the living enough.
Such a mythical tale is coupled with a highly mythical way of telling,
using bombast and every story telling trick in the book to make it work.
An interesting find, and a film I was glad to see, Nang Nak whiled away
an afternoon nicely - with only a couple of Mak....Nak.....Mak.....Nak....Mak's
to spoil it.(7)
IF THIS
FILM WERE A CAR CRASH: Ever After - A Cinderella Story with Kundun. Well,
its worth a try.
Nurse
Betty
There have
possibly been cornier taglines to films, but the one running across the
posters for Neil La Bute’s latest is pretty bad “She needs to see a doctor”.
It has a wacky funsterism to it which is admittedly not wholly at odds
with the rest of the film. This is Neil La Bute’s first movie not based
on his own caustic and rather black writing, and it’s a very odd change
of pace for him. To go from something a dark and misogenistic as In The
Company Of Men, via the wholly down on humanity ensemble piece of Your
Friends And Neighbours – to what is a pretty low key, inoffensive screwball
farce is an odd transition.
Nurse Betty
will not please lovers of La Bute’s previous films with their hearts of
darkness, though it does itself have at least a ventricle of darkness.
It is an odd choice, but as a film its nowhere near as odd as it might
think it is. Nurse Betty is pretty much what has happened to the independent
movie over the last five years. There is nothing independent about it,
yet it uses a lot of the trapping of quirky low budget flicks to win us
over with what in the past would have been a pretty straightforward screwball
comedy. Of course Hollywood doesn't make the screwball genre any more,
so faux-indie film it is instead.
An awful
lot could have gone wrong with Nurse Betty, and it is by no means a perfect
film. The plot, concerning a downtrodden housewife’s obsession, and post
traumatic stress pursuit of a soap star could have been awfully patronising.
If this is combined with that most half-arsed of plot devices: that of
the bumbling, chasing hitmen, then you could have been left with an needlessly
violent road movie without any levity, humour or theme. As it is the film
trips over its number of possible themes and ends up leaving the theatre
with only the simplest of its potential morals intact – hey – all you need
is yourself.
So how does
Nurse Betty work at all? Its an odd combination of La Bute’s direction
and Renee Zellweger’s Betty. La Bute plays the film with a surprisingly
light touch, despite some excessive and perhaps over played violence in
the first reel. Since it is post traumatic stress which sets Betty off
into her delusions of actually being an ex-girlfriend of a fictional character,
it is only right that La Bute shows us how horrific this event is. Nevertheless
it is combined with too much apparently comic banter for it to be wholly
comfortable. After this scene La Bute slips into a much more folksie style,
more befitting the film – which he follows up with much more properly comic
violence at the end. The rest of the film he juggles quite nicely with
the various suspensions of disbelief you need in a film like this (though
the period where the actor who plays the object of Betty’s obsession humours
her would stretch anyone’s credulity). That said, if La Bute’s point was
that he could direct an ordinary piece of light entertainment, he has suceeded.
The only
reason the film works at all though is due to Renee Zellweger’s turn as
Betty. Though she is handicapped by playing the whole film with a couple
of sizeable dewey reservoirs in each eye. It is through her gentle characterisation
that Betty is as believable as she is. After all you have on the one side
a hugely resourceful individual who is delusional and yet very personable
– suffering huge traumatic stress. Zellweger manages to convey all of this,
whilst being extremely watchable and funny. She more than makes up for
Morgan Freeman’s wholly unconvincing turn as the hitman who is obsessed
with her. Chris Rock and Freeman have little chemistry between them, and
since Freeman’s character is equally mad he is difficult to sympathise
with. Greg Kinnear just replays his Captain Amazing from Mystery Men and
is wholly serviceable. This is Zellweger’s movie though, and she should
be pleased that she has completely won it over.
Nurse Betty
is entertaining, but appears to promise a lot more. As a satire of soap
opera’s it is mercifully useless. As a satire on small lives, on people
without very wide horizons it is equally lousy. As a fun screwball comedy
its not that bad. It is an odd film for Neil La Bute to make, but it is
by no means a bad one. That said it is certainly less than the sum of its
parts, those parts being an intriguingly daft plot and one tremendous performance.
(7)
IF THIS
FILM WERE A CAR CRASH: Soapdish meets Mad Love, perhaps with a touch –
but only the lightest touch mind of The Red Squirrel.
