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Starring Heath Ledger: Three Films To Remember Him By

January 25th, 2008 by Scott Marks

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10 Things I Hate About You / Gil Junger (1999)

Heath Ledger had small roles in a handful of Australian movies and TV shows, but this was the film that put him on the map.

10 Things… is a teen comedy for people that normally want nothing to do with teen comedies. In this case, effete snobs aren’t ashamed to admit seeing, let alone liking it, based solely on the Shakespeare connection. (It’s loosely adapted from Taming of the Shrew.)

The rules in the Stratford household clearly state that the pretty, popular sister Larisa Oleynik) can start dating only when her rebellious, unpopular sibling (Julia Stiles) agrees to acknowledge the existence of boys.

Ledger plays an even more rebellious, chain-smoking teen who is paid by her sister’s boyfriend to romance Stiles. The first thing that registered was Ledger’s voice. How did a kid this young get such a sotto delivery? The gynecologist must have spanked him on the butt and slapped a Pall Mall red in his mouth at birth.

In a genre known for championing talentless beauties, it was quite remarkable to watch the chemistry between Ledger and Ms. Stiles. The screening I attended was packed with high school girls and one could practically hear them falling in love when Ledger serenaded Stiles with Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.

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Brokeback Mountain / Ang Lee (2005)

Whatever reasons I have for disliking Brokeback Mountain have nothing to do with Heath Ledger who gives the best performance in the ensemble.

Rodeo clown Jake Gyllenhaal and ranch-hand Heath Ledger sign on as herders hired to “sleep with the sheep” in the isolated majesty of Brokeback Mountain As beautiful as these introductory man-against-nature passages are, travelogues soon come to mind. It seems a waste to employ natural splendor for picture postcard effects. Make it a third character instead! If only Lee had used the rugged topography as a visual externalization of and/or commentary on his characters’ emotional states, but this is a far cry from the Anthony Mann/Jimmy Stewart cycle.

We all know why we plunked down ten bucks and with the exception of one soft-focus background shot of a naked Ledger (Jake discreetly averts his eyes), it takes a full two reels before any free-range love ensues. While sleeping, Gyllenhaal dreamily wraps Ledger’s arm around him. As in any quality porno film from the seventies, Ledger resists for about three seconds before flipping over his fellow cowpoke. Blame it on a full moon

Why their romantic longings survive time is never fully understood. More passionate exchanges were in order and those expecting bareback mountings are sure to be disappointed. This is all the more regrettable when one considers how genuine and tender their intimate scenes together are. Lee wisely plays his box office cards by minimizing sexual contact. Had the film chosen to follow a less traditional, more erotic plotline it would not be gathering all these pre-Oscar accolades.

If over the years our duo pursued men while separated all these years, this truly would qualify as Hollywood’s first gay western. As is, there is more female than male nudity on display. Those topless shots of Ms. Williams and Ms. Hathaway are a wife’s insurance that her homophobic hubby won’t let her go it alone.

While the aging process is laughable (fresh-faced Anne Hathaway with a Dolly Parton wig and Lee press-on nails will never pass for forty), the acting is anything but. The New York Times ranked Ledger’s performance right up there with Brando’s best. Nobody is that good and while superb, a little less of a Sling Blade mumble would have helped. The last third dissolves into predictable melodrama, and just when you think the point of no return has been crossed, the film’s heartfelt conclusion does an about face and drives you into your seat. Not exactly a gay clarion call, but a quantum leap over of Arthur Hiller’s seventies debacle, Making Love nonetheless.

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The Brothers Grimm / Terry Gilliam (2005)

The Brothers Grimm was Terry Gilliam’s first completed film since 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam reportedly tinkered for two years while Miramax repeatedly shuffled opening dates. When the film finally opened in 2005 I wrote, “The Brothers Grimm is a visually dazzling Byzantine blockbuster of a thrill ride aimed at, joy of joys, adult minds.

Finally, a contemporary fantasy film that shuns the Hollywood notion that action and adventure must solely be geared for teenage boys. Given their similarities and dark underlying preoccupations, Walt Disney is likely to be applauding horizontally in his cryogenic chamber.

There are three types of people in this world: those who do not believe in magic beans, those who do, and the Studio Heads who capitalize on those who do. Not unlike their contemporary Hollywood counterparts, Nineteenth-Century hucksters Wilhelm (Matt Damon) and Jacob Grimm (Heath Ledger) track local villages selling counterfeit action tales (with great advance word of mouth) that climax in a bunch of slick special effects. They weave tales of non-existent monsters then offer to exterminate them for a hefty fee. Business is booming until the curse of a three-hundred-year-old queen (Monica Belucci) turns out to be the real deal.

Not since Warner Bros. animator Tex Avery’s screwball classic Little Red Walking Hood, in which Cinderella telephones Red from the Three Bears’ cottage to alert her of the Big Bad Wolf’s pending arrival, has a film had so much fun mixing and matching fairy tales. Cindy, Red, Snow White, Rapunzel, you name them and they’re in the pages of horror writer Ehren Kruger’s (Arlington Road, the Americanized The Ring and it’s sequel) gets-better-as-it-progresses screenplay.

Damon and Ledger, with an emphasis on the quirky latter, bring a suitable second-rate thirties comedy team sensibility to the caterwauling siblings. Shemp and Larry minus Moe, but it works.”

Watching it again, I was reminded of how much I admired Ledger’s flair for physical comedy

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THE BROTHERS GRIMM / Terry Gilliam (2005)

July 8th, 2005 by Scott Marks

Heath Ledger & Matt Damon in Terry Gilliam’s THE BROTHERS GRIMM (2005)

The Brothers Grimm (2005)

Directed by: Terry Gilliam

Written by: Ehren Kruger

Cast: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Headey, Peter Stomare, Monica Bellucci, Petr Ratimec, Jonathan Pryce, Barbora Lukesová, Anna Rust, Jeremy Robson, Radim Kalvoda, Martin Hofman, Martin Hofmann, Josef Pepa Nos, Harry Gilliam, Miroslav Táborský, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Marika Sarah Procházková, Mackenzie Crook

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Running Tme: 118 min.

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller

Rating: ★★★½☆

Don’t expect the obligatory studio-damning follow-up documentary. For a change, over the top (and frequently over budget) director Terry Gilliam received final cut.

His first completed film since 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam reportedly tinkered for two years while Miramax repeatedly shuffled opening dates. In wide release at last, The Brothers Grimm is a visually dazzling Byzantine blockbuster of a thrill ride aimed at, joy of joys, adult minds.

Finally, a contemporary fantasy film that shuns the Hollywood notion that action and adventure must solely be geared for teenage boys. Given their similarities and dark underlying preoccupations, Walt Disney is likely to be applauding horizontally in his cryogenic chamber.

Continue reading THE BROTHERS GRIMM / Terry Gilliam (2005)

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