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  Film: Nell Schofield previews The Happening and Mongol June 15, 2008 Reporter :Nell Schofield  Watch our reviewFilm: Nell Schofield previews The Happening and Mongol There's trouble brewing at the movies this week with a vengeful warrior on the warpath in Twelfth Century Mongolia and a deadly disease descending on modern day New York. For his eighth feature film, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has concocted a post 9/11 paranoia pic centred on an innocent young couple who flee their home in Philadelphia ahead of some mysterious suicidal tendency. Yes, that lovely lady does stab her hair pin right through the side of her neck. And all those frozen people in Central Park also take their lives in a variety of unusual ways. But why? Is it biological terrorism? Nuclear fallout? Or some strange neuro-toxin that's being released by plants to save themselves from us beastly humans? Mark Wahlberg is Elliot Moore, a science teacher who leaves his classroom with a quote on the blackboard about bees dying out leaving mankind with only four years of life. It plants the first seed of fear that nature has indeed turned on humanity. And as the story progresses, this theory becomes stronger until Elliot finds himself talking to indoor foliage in an attempt to placate it. John Leguizamo is his friend Julian, a maths teacher at the same school who optimistically calculates a 67% chance of surviving a trip back to find his missing wife. In the meantime, he entrusts his daughter Jess to Elliot and his wide, blue-eyed wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel). But can they survive the onslaught of the all pervasive airborne death trap? Unfortunately, Shyamalan misses the mark by quite a long shot with The Happening. It's his first R-rated film but it's not all that scary despite shots of construction workers falling like rain from tall building sites and zoo keepers willingly feeding their arms to ravenous lions. It's all a bit laughable really, especially when the lead characters start going all mushy over a mood ring in the midst of all the turmoil. The end result is that you feel pretty much unmoved by the plight of these characters. Which is not the case with a dramatic new Russian epic about the early years of the legendary Mongol leader Ghengis Khan. Filmed in some truly spectacular locations in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, Mongol paints a very different picture of the man who ruled the largest empire the world has ever known. Far from being a savage monster, this Khan – played by Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu – is a serious romantic at heart. Smitten at just nine years old by the feisty Borte, the young Temudgin – as he was called - chooses her as his wife. It's a tricky match and he endures many hardships over the years to keep her by his side. However, with the beautiful Mongolian newcomer Khulan Chuluun in the role, you can understand his devotion. When Borte is kidnapped by a rival clan, Temudgin seeks the assistance of his blood brother Jamukha – wonderfully realised by Chinese actor Honglei Sun. But after winning her back and heading off on his merry way, Jamukha’s real brother is killed, an accident that forces the two men to pit themselves against each other for supremacy. This bloody battle sequence is a magnificent display of horsemanship and cinematography. It was shot by Sergey Trofimov who filmed the high tech Russian thrillers Night Watch and Day Watch. Dutch DOP Rogier Stoffers was responsible for the first half of this epic tale and Zach Staenberg, the editor of the Matrix movies, cut it all together seamlessly. It’s a mighty big vision from writer/director Sergei Bodrov who based his story on a book by Russian historian Lev Gumilev. And as Ghengis Khan lived for another couple of decades there’s plenty more material to plunder. In fact, Bodrov envisages this as the first in a trilogy. With its fabulous costumes, production design and wild modern day Mongolian folk-rock music, Mongol is a very accessible portal to an almost lost world. |
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