By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Following “Ex Machina,” writer/director Alex Garland delivers “Annihilation,” an ominous sci-fi thriller drenched with a pervasive sense of foreboding and dread.
It begins as a professor of cellular biology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Lena (Natalie Portman), is interrogated by Lomax (Benedict Wong) in a hazmat suit. Displaying no emotion, she calmly explains how her military husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac), was dispatched on a secret mission and disappeared.
Almost a year passes before he returns, looking bizarrely catatonic and experiencing convulsions. When Lena summons an ambulance, she’s mysteriously kidnapped along with her now-comatose, dying husband, who is placed in quarantine by federal authorities.
According to psychologist Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), after a meteorite strike, the swampland around a lighthouse on the Florida coastline has been surrounded by a glistening, inexplicable force field called the Shimmer, which is rapidly expanding. Although other teams have been sent in, Kane is the only one who ever emerged.
Suspecting some kind of alien abduction/extra-terrestrial intervention, Lena, who has Army experience, joins an expedition of intrepid female scientists (Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny) who are determined to reach the symbolic lighthouse and find out what’s really going on.
Equipped with assault weapons, they infiltrate the luminescent Shimmer, encountering a horrifying series of violent, mutated creatures, like a shark-toothed alligator and screaming bear. Needless to say, many of them do not survive.
Based on the first book on Jeff VanderMeer’s best-selling “Southern Reach” trilogy, it’s compelling, even if what passes for a complicated, metaphysical plot is often incoherent.
Working with production designer Mark Digby, cinematographer Rob Hardy, visual effects wizard Andrew Whitehurst, and utilizing Glenn Freemantle’s soundscape, Alex Garland has created a weirdly cerebral dome, a confounding biosphere filled with bizarre vegetation, crystalline trees and iridescent, metallic clones.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Annihilation” is a sinister, shimmering 6, challenging audiences with cosmic molecular science.
On the 15:17 to Paris on August 21, 2015, three brave Americans intercepted a terrorist who was determined to kill as many passengers on the train as possible.
Their spontaneous heroism inspired Clint Eastwood not only to film their story but also to cast Spencer Stone, Alex Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler as themselves.
Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone and Oregon National Guardsman Alex Skarlatos were vacationing in Europe with their childhood friend Anthony Sadler, who was studying for a kinesiology degree from Cal State, when a heavily armed gunman opened fire on their high-speed train.
With the help of French businessman Mark Moogalian, they subdued and disarmed 22-year-old Ayoub El Khazzani (Ray Corasini), the Lebanese assailant. The Frenchman and three Americans subsequently received the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, from President Hollande at the Elysee Palace.
Following “Sully” about pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger and “American Sniper” about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, this marks the third film in a row in which Clint Eastwood has depicted real-life events, honoring ordinary people who have greatness thrust upon them.
Screenwriter Dorothy Blyskal had already adapted their inspirational story, when Eastwood asked the men to play themselves, a concept that’s not unique. Jackie Robinson played the lead in “The Jackie Robinson Story” (1950) and World War II veteran Audie Murphy starred in “To Hell and Back” (1955).
Although they’d never taken acting lessons, all three immediately agreed, co-starring with experienced pros like Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer. Now, they’re eagerly pursing further acting jobs.
But there’s little to the script beyond basic exposition — just adolescent flashbacks to fill out back story or motivation of each of the participants. Before the terrorism, they’d traveled to Rome, Venice and Berlin, roaming bars and discos, before deciding to go to Amsterdam, instead of Spain.
On the Granger Gauge, “The 15:17 to Paris” is a re-enacted 5, history ripped from the headlines.
Supposedly “inspired by actual events,” this Gothic ghost story “Winchester” revolves around widowed Sarah Lockwood Winchester (Helen Mirren), who inherited a vast fortune from her husband, William, whose family founded the fabled Winchester Repeating Arms in New Haven, Connecticut.
From 1864 until her death in 1922, reclusive Sarah supervised construction of an elaborate estate In San Jose, California, a project supposedly instigated by a New England seer to delay her own demise and, perhaps, calm the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles.
Deeply superstitious, Sarah disappeared each night to her “séance” room where spirits guided her to design new spaces. Eventually, there were 161 rooms with circular staircases leading nowhere, doors leading to sheer drops and other architectural oddities. Despite her peculiarities, Sarah’s construction crew adored her; many were paid triple their ordinary salary to insure their absolute loyalty.
Meanwhile, there’s a Winchester power struggle, so Sarah agrees to submit to a psychiatric assessment done by laudanum-addicted Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke), who’s bribed to declare her mentally unfit.
Sketchily written and directed by Australian twin brothers Michael and Peter Spierig (“Jigsaw,” “Predestination”), it lacks tension and suspense, turning out to be more eerie than horrifying.
Curiously, Sarah Winchester’s true story is even more controversial, according to biographer Mary Jo Ignoffo (“Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester: Heiress to the Rifle Fortune”).
While Sarah came from a long line of woodworkers and believed in spiritualists, there was never any ‘gun guilt.’ “Nobody felt guilty about guns at the turn of the 20th century. Everybody used them and needed them,” Ignoffo maintains. “The fundamental lie is that the building of the house went on 24/7. Mrs. Winchester didn’t even live in the house for the last 15 years of her life.”
On the Granger Gauge, “Winchester” is a tedious 3, a misfire.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
