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Independent, The (London), Apr 4, 2008 by Anthony Quinn
Awake (15)
Joby Harold
*
Boy, this is ripe. Hayden Christensen plays a hotshot tycoon with a dodgy ticker and even dodgier friends. He goes under the knife for a heart-transplant op but remains fully conscious under the anaesthetic, thus exposing an elaborate scheme to murder him and inherit his billions. Two women fight for his soul - a Medea-like mother named Lilith (Lena Olin), and a kittenish new wife (Jessica Alba) - though the real danger seems to reside in the surgeons tending to his heart. "Live your life - you might not have much of it left," one tells him. Writer-director Joby Harold himself makes a wrong diagnosis: what Christensen needs is a charisma transplant.
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My Brother is an Only Child (15)
Daniele Luchetti
***
Daniele Luchetti's film traces the social and political upheavals of Italy in the Sixties and Seventies through the story of two conflicted brothers. Raised in a small town near Rome, Accio (Elio Germano) is a loose cannon who initially sides with the fascisti, while his older brother Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) becomes a leftist revolutionary. But they unwittingly find common ground in their love for the same woman (Diane Fleri).
In outlining the failure of political extremism, Luchetti avoids heavy rhetoric, preferring to focus on the charm of his two leads and the comedy of the Italian male's operatic displays of emotion. Melodrama goes head to head with romance, and, following a struggle, calls a truce. Fleri, as the woman between the brothers, could be a star in the making.
Son of Rambow (12A)
Garth Jennings
***
Following on from Starter for Ten, this gives the Eighties another affectionate salute via its story of fledgling film-makers. In the summer of 1982, dreamy 10-year-old Will (Bill Milner) is sprung from his unworldly cocoon when he sees a pirate video of First Blood. He joins forces with tearaway Lee (Will Poulter) to make a low-budget sequel, which they plan to enter in the BBC's Screen Test competition. Garth Jennings' rites-of-passage picture has wit and warmth to start, tracing an Artful Dodger/Oliver relationship between the boys and identifying in both an absent father. It becomes rather lost halfway, though, when a cool French exchange student (Jules Sitruk) arrives, and a debate about brotherly love and loyalty is clunkingly set up.
How She Move (12A)
Ian Iqbal Rashid
**
Yet another aspirational dance movie, this time from Canada, which compensates for the paltriness of its script through the verve of its cast. Rutina Wesley plays bright high-school student Raya, returning to the crime-ridden neighbourhood where her junkie sister has recently died. Steered by a mother ambitious for her academic success, Raya is drawn instead to the sexy athleticism of "step" and the possibility of winning a major dance contest. Wesley and co- star Tre Armstrong are especially good, and the step sequences relieve the banality of the plotting.
Never Back Down (15)
Jeff Wadlow
*
The world of mixed martial arts apparently involves bare-chested jocks knocking seven bells out of one another, and in Florida, young Sean Faris is the latest initiate. Grieving his late father, he tends to lash out until his pugnacity is marshalled by fight instructor Djimon Hounsou. "Your son is a natural fighter," he says to Faris's mom. "The words every mother wants to hear," she deadpans (Leslie Hope gives a performance the film barely deserves).
I'm a Cyborg (15)
Park Chan-Wook
**
The tale of a young woman (Lim Soo-jung) admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Her problem? She thinks she's a cyborg, chatting to the vending machines and firing imaginary bullets from her fingers. As delusional worlds go, it's mildly entertaining.
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