Jan Komasa dazzles with tale of faith, sacrifice in Corpus Christi
Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi reached the final five in this year’s Oscars race and is a significant and impressive piece of work.
Corpus Christi (Boze cialo) (MA15+)
Limited release (outside Victoria)
★★★★
The name of Jan Komasa must be added to the list of talented film directors to have emerged from Poland. Komasa, born in 1981, came to international attention with his confronting first feature Suicide Room (2011); a sequel, The Hater, is currently screening on Netflix and warrants checking out. In between these two grim but powerful movies, Komasa’s Corpus Christi, which reached the final five in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race earlier this year, seems even more impressive.
The plot itself is not particularly original — in fact, the current American thriller, The Quarry, is in some respects similar — but Komasa and his screenwriter, Mateusz Pacewicz, breathe fresh life into the material. 20-year-old Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia), a tough, steely-eyed delinquent, has been serving time in a juvenile prison. We don’t know much about his background, but clearly it’s been tough and he’s had to fight a great many battles. Despite this, he is a good Catholic and has been on friendly terms with the prison chaplain, Father Tomasz (Lukasz Simlat), who advises him that his violent background rules out any thought he might have had about entering the priesthood.
When paroled he’s ordered to work at a sawmill on the other side of the country, though first he celebrates his freedom with a night of booze, drugs and sex. He seems afraid that his past will catch up with him, that the sawmill might employ other parolees, some of whom might be looking for revenge. So, on an impulse, he avoids the mill and instead goes to the local church where, with the help of a stolen dog collar, he is able to convince Lidia (Aleksandra Konieczna), the church caretaker, and her daughter, Marta (Eliza Rycembel), that he is a priest. As it happens the elderly resident priest (Zdzislaw Wardejn) is unwell and he is very happy for ‘Father Daniel’ to replace him while he’s hospitalised.
The impersonation seems to work well enough, with the local people apparently cheered by the presence of a ‘progressive’ young priest in contrast to their aged vicar. But the village also holds some secrets, secrets involving the deaths of six teenagers in a car accident. Bielenia gives a very powerful, physical performance in the leading role; you can’t take your eyes off him, and the film skilfully succeeds in placing the viewer firmly in his corner. Good, too, is Rycembel as the lonely Marta, and there’s an effective performance by Leszek Lichota as the village mayor. There is, inevitably, a strongly religious element to the drama, with its themes of redemption and sacrifice; but Komasa goes beyond theological arguments and also explores some of the elements of nationalism that appear to be dominating Polish society today. Corpus Christi is a significant and impressive piece of work.
-
Honest Thief (M)
Limited release (outside Victoria)
★★★
The title of Liam Neeson’s new tough guy thriller, Honest Thief, isn’t really accurate. Neeson, ex-Marine Tom Dolan, is far from honest, though he certainly is a thief. He’s been breaking into banks, stealing from safes and has amassed a stash of $9m which he keeps hidden in boxes in a self-storage facility. He’s been nicknamed ‘The In and Out Bandit’, a description he doesn’t much like.
After a many years as a successful criminal, Tom decides to go straight, thanks to his relationship with Annie (Kate Walsh), who manages the storage facility, but it’s not so easy. He makes contact with the FBI to tell them he’s the man they’re after for the safe cracking jobs, but his contacts, Agents Baker (Robert Patrick) and Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) don’t believe him; it seems that a lot of cranks phone the bureau admitting to having committed crimes. A pair of more junior agents, Nivens (Australian actor Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos), are sent to see if this crazy guy is on the level, and they find he is: but just one look at those millions in cash is enough to make Nivens decide to take the loot for himself.
What follows is a pretty suspenseful affair in which the quick-thinking Tom has to make some life-and-death decisions to save himself and Annie from the ruthless Nivens. Though none too plausible, the film at least plays fair with the audience and if you enjoy Neeson’s tough guy persona — is he the thinking person’s Dwayne Johnson? — Honest Thief, directed by Mark Williams, is easy to take.
It’s also good to see that for once the female lead isn’t played by a young actress half the age of the leading man. Walsh, playing a somewhat jaded divorcee, brings a mature vulnerability to the role of the woman with whom this eccentric bank robber falls in love at first sight.
-
Never Too Late (M)
National release (outside Victoria)
★★★½
Never Too Late is an Australian comedy feature film. That’s not necessarily a recommendation in itself; too many locally made comedies have been painfully unfunny. But the good news is that this one works rather well, thanks to several splendid performances from a cast of older actors.
The setting is a retirement home in Adelaide. Fifty years after he spent time as a POW during the Vietnam War, ex-Special Forces soldier Jack Bronson (James Cromwell, best known to Australian audiences as the farmer in Babe) wants to reconnect with his youthful sweetheart, Norma (Jacki Weaver). The problem is that Norma is now a resident in the Hogan Hills retirement home and, in order to get in to see her, Jack has to pretend to be senile. No sooner has he succeeded in being placed in the home than Norma is transferred to another facility, and Jack finds himself virtually a prisoner.
Fortunately for him, three of his former comrades are also residents in Hogan Hills, a happy coincidence because back then the quartet, known as the Chain Breakers, had escaped from a North Vietnamese prison camp. Now they’re a bit doddery. Jeremiah (Dennis Waterman) just wants to get back aboard his yacht; Angus (Jack Thompson), is so forgetful that he sometimes parades around without his trousers; and Wendell (Roy Billing), who is confined to a wheelchair, would dearly love to see his son, Bruce (Shane Jacobson), once again. The four old-timers muster all their resources to escape from this different kind of confinement.
Luke Preston’s script is riddled with coincidences and contrivances, but thanks to the brisk, efficient direction of Mark Lamprell, and the practised professionalism of the fine cast of actors, the film is rather delightful. It’s even laugh-out-loud funny in places. The supporting cast includes a lovely cameo from another veteran, Max Cullen, as one of the residents of the very authoritarian retirement home.
“Happy endings are better,” someone says at one point, and this small but engaging movie certainly has one of those.