'The Fourth Angel' and 'Stranger in You'
Last night I did watch 'The Fourth Angel', which I have seen once before a year or two ago. It has Jeremy Irons in lead and as I like the style of Irons and had a notion that it was a decent movie it was my choice.
The film deals with revenge. Partly coincidental and at the end quite planned and willfully executed. This man Elgon has a wife and three children, two girls and youngest a boy. They are going to Goa in a bit conflicting circumstances. The plane has to land to Limassol, Cyprus, due to malfunction that turns out to be arranged. There a group of terrorists enter the plane and hijack it on the airport. Due to early alarm the plane is unable to rise and the situation bursts to open fire and some fifteen casualties, among Elgon's wife and two daughters, that are shot dead in front of his eyes and burned by the kerosene fed fire.
Elgin, the boy and granny continue existing. He is an editor in The Economist and through his work gets to know all kinds of things. The terrorists were caught but are released without further consequences, which enrages Elgin. In the plane there was a man with a briefcase and Elgin saw how he was shot dead. His name is not in the list of casualties. Why? Something odd is creeping round this drama. A CIA man offers hints...
Elgin goes to a printing establishment ran by serbs and from a man there he gets an address. To this address he enters by breaking in through a roof window leaving his bike outside. There is no-one but the lights are on. He takes some papers and there are a lot of guns, machine guns lying around. Then he hears noises: men are coming. He takes a gun and tries to creep out but is noticed. In the following fight he manages to kill three men - all of whom are terrorists. He gets out unharmed and drives home. The incident is in papers next day as a gang fight.
A black american investigator Jules Bernard opens a new line of investigation: the survivors of the hijacking who lost someone. And that is how they meet with Jack Elgin. Something in Elgin - indifference, eccentricity? - starts dig him and he doesn't want to let go. Meanwhile Elgin kills another of the terrorists - this time intentionally and with a detailed plan.
Bernard has also other suspicions and he takes some illegal procedures to pursue them getting clear results. More shooting to come and grande finale with hus-hus-agreements. And Elgin relaxes with his son on a sailboat... He is in peace with the past.
There is this other film I saw a couple of times some years ago on Canal Digital, 'Stranger in You', That tells about a woman in love with a guy, dark, tender, sensual guy. The woman is played by Jody Foster and she is a radio journalist. One night they are walking the dog when a gang hits them. The guy dies, she is injured and the dog taken. Someone of the gang takes the whole thing on video with a phone.
She gets better but can't rid the sights, memories of that night. No one is caught, arrested, not even questioned. She meets the police responsible of the investigation, a black guy. And then she buys a gun. A hand gun kind of for safety. With this gun she shoots a guy in metro - there was some incident... I don't remember - maybe there were more boys and they teased someone... Anyway she just shots them and walks away. Nobody noticed. The same black cop is assigned to investigate these metro shootings. Yes, more kills happen... random kills...
Until she gets the video made of the mugging that killed her boyfriend. The guys guilty are identifiable and she starts to pursue them. Meanwhile he somehow senses that something is going on in her and suspects... and of course there is the great crescendo when the bad guys die and the cop teams with her lending her his gun...
Two films with similarities - yes, differences too. Revenge after violence... seems to be violent. And it seems to be spontaneous... Loss gives a right to act. The Angel is classified 'thriller, drama, action' in IMDb getting 5,5, and Stranger as 'crime, drama, thriller' and 6,8 points. This is interesting. Drama means that someone dies. Thriller means a bit quicker rhythm or tempo, not so much talking but editing. And crime - yes, they had some talk about justice and judgement, guilt etc in Stranger, and no speculation of guilt in The Angel, so maybe that makes it action. Of the points 5,5 and 6,8 I just wonder - how is it that the more sweat and shit a movie contains the better it is supposed to be? I think it is just because the critics (whoever they are) are just too lazy: stuffy thinking is so easy... But the fact is I never liked Dostojevski or Kafka. The Angel has surroundings and more air but of course the persons are socially more middle class. As if middle class would mean less feelings. I always did like Antonioni and his way to use scenery...
I think a character is built by using all possible means - the actor as person, way of speech and gestures, hair, clothes, room, apartment, car, places etc everything. Not only the words. Misleading to use text as a bible because in reality - that the films are supposed to mirror in a metaphorical way - people act not only by words but because of other incentive - not everything happens in our head. Some people are more visual and some more auditive, some even may be sensual...
What about me and my number? I did like them both. There are visuals in Angel that I like a lot. On the other hand there also are some gross stupidities and shortcuts. On the other hand too precise storytelling does not give the audience a chance to breathe or think and exercise their intelligence... Suspense is not only agonizing but also challenging - at it's best. And too subjective is not always interesting. Stranger is more everyday with neighbors and street violence. Angel has politics and international terrorism compared with family life. Ok, Stranger is more believable, but does a film have to be believable? Bah!
6,5 for both... is it too much? Always doubting... Maybe it is too little!
Facts:
The Fourth Angel, 2001
96 min
Dir. John Irvin
Jeremy Irons, Forest Whitaker, Charlotte Rampling
Stranger in You, 2007
122 min
dir. Neil Jordan
Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews
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