20 August 2003
Is this the most unlikely match-up of the year? Quite probably. On Monday I took in both Whale Rider and Igby Goes Down at a local cinema, for the knock-down price of £7.
Whale Rider first. I was expecting big things from this, not unlike Rabbit-Proof Fence . And not unlike that worthy but lacking effort, Whale Rider takes a good topic with incredible emotional charge and manages to almost completely dissipate it. Some excellent performances and the stunning Australian scenery saved Rabbit-Proof Fence, and nothing initially suggests that Whale Rider will be any different.
So let’s get this out of the way: it’s not bad, Keisha Castle-Hughes shows promise, and the visuals are decent. The whole thing is fine, there’s nothing drastically wrong with it, no sudden melodrama, no pointless set-pieces, no gratuitous landscape shots to fill time. Yet it could have been so much better.
And it’s so hard to explain where. It’s simply that each component of the film is almost there but not quite, and so when they are put together you get jarring, ropey moments happening all over the shop. A film where just, say, the soundtrack is at fault is easy to deal with (although I didn’t find it so for the Lord of the Rings films — but that’s a huge other rant), but when off-key notes are coming at you from all directions, from the script, the soundtrack, the editing, the acting, the cinematography…then any attempt at a truly flowing narrative is lost.
Similarly, Igby Goes Down doesn’t exactly resonate emotionally. This sort-of modern Catcher in the Rye has other attributes, though, such as a wicked sense of humour and a strong cast. Susan Sarandon steals the show as the haggard, drug-addled (but then isn’t everyone in this film?) matriarch. She’s called Mimi, Igby explains, because ‘Heinous One was too cumbersome and Medea was already taken.’ That’s an often-quoted line, and for a reason.
To be honest, I should have hated this film, because I normally can’t stand such self-conscious, look-at-my-impressive-vocabulary humour. That and the director’s ‘credentials’ are, um, the script for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .
But I can’t hate it; it’s just too damn funny. Opportunities for me to identify with the characters came few and far between, mostly because I like to think I’m not that self-absorbed. When they do swing around, though, they’re competently handled, and there’s certainly no reason to think that Kieran Culkin is going to follow his older brother’s unfortunate career path.
In short: see Whale Rider if you want to boost your worthiness-factor for the year; see Igby Goes Down if you feel like you can handle pretentious, dissatisfied rich kids.