November | 2014 | Keith & the Movies

It would be easy to lump “Ender’s Game” in with the current trend of science-fiction films centered around young people. These movies seem to be popular now and modern Hollywood has shown it will milk popular trends dry. But while “Ender’s Game” has several elements that puts it in this category, it also does somethings that sets it apart. It is a movie with a thinly-veiled message, but it’s also a fun bit of science fiction that doesn’t always feel original but still works as a whole.

Asa Butterfield, who I loved as the wide-eyed title character in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”, plays a young prodigy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggin. After months of observation, he is sent to an advanced battle school by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford). The school is the first step in preparing the kids for war with an alien species known as the Formics. 50 years earlier the Formics attacked Earth but were finally repelled by the heroic and sacrificial acts of a now iconic soldier named Mazer Rackham. The military believes another alien attack is inevitable so they plan to strike before the aliens do.

The film follows Ender and a number of other kids through various stages of Battle School. You see apparently these video game savvy youth have acquired a better skill set for the video game-like combat of the future. As Ender advances he encounters an assortment of new kids, some of which are characters we’ve seen in movies a hundred times before. For example, there is an adolescent “Top Gun” rivalry that was just too corny to buy into. All of this is going on under the watchful eye of the cold, businesslike Colonel Graff and his counterpoint Major Anderson (Viola Davis) who is more interested in the children’s emotional well-being.

The story builds and builds towards the seemingly inevitable war to come. Ender develops a few close relationships with fellow cadets including an outgoing girl named Petra. She’s played by Hailee Steinfeld, one of my favorite young actresses in Hollywood. Ben Kingsley also pops up in the second half of the film with an interesting role and a face full of tattoos. The performances from all who I’ve mentioned are solid. I’m really impressed with Butterfield and Steinfeld, both of whom know how to handle themselves in front of the camera. Some of the other young actors, not so much.

While I liked the story of “Ender’s Game” as a whole it does run into a wall about two-thirds of the way through. It begins to feel as if it is repeating itself (with slight advancements of the plot) at certain junctures. I eventually found myself ready to move past Ender’s training and get to the big finale. It certainly does come with some big special effects and a few rather disorienting twists that took a minute or two to soak in. Some interesting ramifications and personal conflicts follow which I thought was a neat way to end the story.

Maybe I shouldn’t say “end the story” because “Ender’s Game” is clearly set up with a franchise in mind. The final scene leaves no doubt about that. I would check out another chapter of this story although I’m not sure how compelling the new direction might be. As for this first installment, it is a fairly satisfying bit of science fiction that walks the tricky line of trying to appeal to youth and adults alike. For the most part it succeeds. It’s not a movie I would rush to see again, but it is a film I can appreciate.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

There’s an intriguing, poignant, and fairly bizarre idea at the center of the 2010 Spanish drama “Amador”. Marcela (Magaly Solier) is a woman struggling to find an ounce of happiness in her life. Her husband Nelson (Pietro Sibille) has promised her the world including owning her own flower shop. But he seems content with running a second-hand flower business out of their tiny apartment. He sends out cheap laborers to get discarded flowers from dumpsters. He then picks out the salvageable ones, prunes them, sprays them with floral air freshener, then sells them on the street. It’s quite a concept but its far from what Marcela wants.

One day Marcela packs her suitcase and leaves a note for Nelson telling him she’s leaving. But while waiting at the bus stop she collapses. It turns out she’s pregnant. Knowing she can’t handle a baby on her own, she heads back home before Nelson arrives. She never tells Nelson her initial plans and even more, she doesn’t tell him she’s pregnant. This gets into one aspect of this movie that drove me crazy. Marcela never tells anyone anything! This leads to several predicaments that could have been avoided with better judgement and better communication.

Things get tougher when the couple’s refrigerator goes out leaving them with no way to refrigerate their flowers. With no money for a new one, Marcela is forced to take on another job as a caregiver for a sick, bedridden elderly man named Amador (Celso Bugallo). She’s hired by Amador’s daughter who seems to see her father as a burden. She leaves a phone number and medication instructions then leaves. Marcela cooks Amador’s meals, gives him his pills, does his laundry, and eventually forms a connection with him, something he grows to appreciate. But Amador’s declining health soon leads to several decisions that carry all sorts of moral implications.

There are many things that this film does right. Unfortunately there are several stumbling blocks that keeps me from being able to fully embrace it. It’s hard to get into one of my problems without wandering into spoiler territory. I’m not going to do that, but let me just say there are some breaks from logic that were tough for me to get past. There’s a big turning point midway through the movie that effects the rest of the story and adds an interesting dynamic to what we’ve seen so far. But with it comes some head-scratching questions that the film tries to but never adequately deals with. I spent a lot of the second half of the film focusing more on these gaping illogical holes than on the actual story.

Another problem is with the handling of the Marcela character from writer and director Fernando León de Aranoa. She is incredibly passive when it comes to her situations and decision making. It’s another movie example of how a little communication could solve a lot of the problems that come her way. We also spend a lot of time just watching Marcela think, stare, and look concerned. And trust me, I mean A LOT of time and it ends up bogging the movie down a tad. Now I can’t really fault Solier’s performance. She’s very good here. But de Aranoa chooses to keep his camera in her face for long stretches and directs her to be slow and deliberate with almost everything she does. This did eventually slow things down a little too much for me.

If you can wade through the intentional deliberate pacing and forgive a couple of obvious plot holes, there is a lot to like with “Amador”. There’s such a great concept at the heart of this stor. I also think Marcela is a fascinating character and I particularly enjoyed her candid and often times amusing conversations with Amador. With a little better direction and a sharper script it could have been even better.