THE LODGER (2009)

Simon Baker as mysterious Malcolm

THE LODGER (2009). Writer/director: David Ondaatje. Loosely based on the novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes.

In West Hollywood Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) and her husband (Donal Logue) rent a room to a handsome writer named Malcolm (Simon Baker), whom Ellen is strongly drawn to. Meanwhile Detective Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina of Spider-Man 2) and rookie detective Street Wilkinson (Shane West) investigate grisly slayings of prostitutes which first remind them of the work of a convicted and executed killer who may have been innocent, and then seem to be copycat killings of Jack the Ripper. Oddly, the same year this was released British television came out with the superior Whitechapel: The Ripper Returns which also had a copycat Jack the Ripper. Another similarity is that both of these stories pair a grizzled veteran with a new, much younger cop, whom the veteran assumes is gay but turns out (supposedly) not to be (Wilkinson lets Manning's dumb homophobic remarks just slide). Since there are gay cops it might have been more refreshing if Wilkinson had really been gay, and it makes little sense that he allows the obnoxious Manning to think he is without correcting him. What The Lodger has going for it is that it delivers a couple of unexpected and clever twists at the end, but unfortunately it never really delivers the much-needed tension or suspense due to directorial slackness, and the characters aren't that well developed; Manning is unsympathetic as well. The performances are good, however. Tasmanian actor Baker starred as The Mentalist on CBS for several years.

Verdict: Worth a look for the ending if nothing else. **1/2.

2012

Trying to save the world: Chiwetel Ejioforas Dr. Helmsey

2012 (2009). Director: Roland Emmerich.

Dr. Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a special officer of science and technology who is one of the key men dealing with a planet-wide crisis. Solar eruptions are causing the earth's crust to destabilize, causing massive earthquakes and tidal waves. Some feel this is the fulfillment of an ancient Mayan prophecy saying the world will end in 2012. All of the nations of the world have united (an unlikely development) in coming up with a plan to save as many people as possible, and anyone who endangers this very secret scheme is literally assassinated over Helmsley's objections. His chief opponent is a rather ruthless politician named Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt). In the meantime a divorced writer named Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) tries to get his ex-wife, Kate (Amanda Peet), their two children, and Kate's boyfriend Gordon (Tom McCarthy) to one of the ships that will take the specially-chosen to safety. These turn out not to be spaceships (as in When Worlds Collide) but gargantuan arks. 

A tsunami wipes out India

2012 obviously has a lot of material to cover, and while there are some problems with the human drama, the FX and disaster sequences are quite eye-popping and thrilling: Jackson and company driving pell mell to the airport as the city literally collapses all around them; the plane flight as California shatters and sinks into the ocean far below; the collapse of St. Peter's, destroying the faithful; a battleship smashing into the White House as Washington D.C. is engulfed in a massive, devastating tidal wave; a tsunami obliterating India along with the scientist who first figured out what was going on; and so on. 

John Cusack and Woody Harrelson

The real star of this movie is not John Cusack (whom I've always thought of as competent but strictly minor-league) but Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays the real compassionate hero with strength and dignity. Cusack and the others seem more concerned with survival than with anything else -- not that we can necessarily blame them-- and in fact few characters display the effects of such a traumatic and catastrophic situation. Characters rarely express dismay and compassion over the deaths of millions (but then when heroic Gordon dies a terrible death, he is pretty much forgotten by the end of the movie, making the film's claims about how much we should all care for each other ring a bit hollow). 

Danny Glover as the president

Woody Harrelson offers a flavorful performance as a kind of weird doomsayer who turns out to have been right all along, and Danny Glover (of Switchback) is effective as the American president who elects to stay behind with his doomed constituents. George Segal and Blu Mankuma (playing Helmsley's father) score as two buddies who take one last cruise into oblivion, and Zlatko Buric is fine as the stereotypical Russian billionaire who, surprisingly, makes a supreme sacrifice for one of his little boys. Dean Semier's cinematography is first-rate. Roland Emmerich also directed Moonfall.

Verdict: Imperfect but exciting disaster flick with often stunning effects work. ***. 

CASE 39

Jodelle Ferland and Renee Zellweger

CASE 39 (2009). Director: Christian Alvart.  NOTE: This review gives away some plot points. 

Emily Jenkins (Renee Zellweger) is a social worker who gets involved in the case of two parents who seem to hate their young daughter, Lily (Jodelle Ferland). After the couple literally try to murder their daughter in an oven, they are arrested and Lily is taken away from them. Lily begs Emily to let her live with her even as her parents continue to warn her that the child is evil. And then people start dying ... 

Ian McShane

Case 39 is well-directed and well-acted by Zellweger, an amazing young Ferland, and Ian McShane as a slightly grizzled cop. If there had never been any other horror films with demonic children, it might have been a contender, but to say this is staggeringly unoriginal is a major understatement. While not as "epic" as The Omen and its sequels and imitations, it is basically a rip-off of earlier films (and apparently many consider it a copy of a similar film entitled Orphan, which I have not yet seen). This is too bad, because the film is slick, well-photographed by Hagen Bogdanski, and has some effectively ghoulish sequences, such as when Emily's good-natured friend Doug (Bradley Cooper) is attacked and killed by wasps or hornets. Emily, and especially the hardened detective played by McShane, accept the supernatural explanation for the goings-on much, much too quickly to be believable. 

A more recent and better film entitled The Prodigy featured a devious youngster but that was about a possessed child, not a child who was demonic or Satanic, and it also had some interesting twists to the plot. 

Verdict: Entertaining enough, but you've seen it all before -- many times. **1/4.