By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
In Laika animation studio’s comedy-adventure “Missing Link,” Hugh Jackman voices eccentric, egotistic explorer Sir Lionel Frost. Plus there’s Zach Galifianakis as a charming, 8-foot tall, 630-pound Sasquatch named Susan, perhaps a distant cousin of Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue.”
The prologue involves a hilarious sequence in which Frost fails to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster because of a broken camera. Undaunted, he’s soon summoned to the woods of America’s Pacific Northwest in search of the titular “missing link” — aka Sasquatch, otherwise known as Bigfoot.
Snobbish, social-climbing Frost is determined to make a pivotal discovery that will qualify him for membership in London’s Victorian-era Optimates Club, an exclusive society of adventurers.
As it happens, he was contacted by Mr. Link himself, a lonely simian who hopes Frost will accompany him and, later, edgy Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana) on an arduous journey to find his long-lost relatives, the Yetis, in the legendary Himalayan valley of Shangri-La, where they encounter an acerbic Elder (Emma Thompson).
What the trio of travelers don’t realize is that pompous Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry), a stubborn anti-evolutionary, has hired an assassin, Willard Stenk (Timothy Olyphant), to stop them.
While this story lacks the quirky depth of Laika’s “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” “Boxtrolls,” and “Kubo and the Two Strings” and is far too talky, the bright, bold stop-motion animation is stunning.
Based in Portland, Oregon, Laika has developed high-speed, 3D-printing technology, allowing them to move models and puppets to incorporate 106,000 expressions.
This arduous process involves a computer animator, utilizing Maya software, building a customized facial performance for each character, while repeatedly consulting with writer/director Chris Butler. So stick around for a memorable mid-credits moment.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Missing Link” is a silly, sweet 7. Sasquatch lives at the multiplex.
Set in 1945, immediately after World War II, “The Aftermath” delineates a love triangle involving a stiff-upper-lip English couple and the anguished German architect whose palatial home on the banks of the Elbe River the British Army has requisitioned.
Conscientious Colonel Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke), who plays an integral part in bombed-out Hamburg’s postwar rebuilding effort, is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his wife, Rachael (Keira Knightley), from England during a bitterly cold winter.
But Rachael is stunned to discover that her altruistic husband has refused to evict the previous owner, courteous widower Stefan Lubert (Alexander Skarsgard) and his troubled teenage daughter, Freda (Flora Thiemann), allowing them to take up residence in the attic.
Since the death of their 11-year-old son in the London blitz, Rachael has loathed all Germans and there’s a great deal of unspoken tension between her and silent, stoic Lewis, whose complex assignment involves “denazification,” determining which Germans were Nazi sympathizers and which were not.
Inevitably, given her uptight husband’s long absences and Stefan’s compassionate nature, vulnerable, isolated Rachael turns to sensitive Stefan for companionship and comfort as their stealthy, adulterous sexual tension mounts.
Adapting Rhidian Brook’s 2013 best-seller with Joe Schrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, director James Kent has simplified or eliminated many of the secondary characters that enriched the story and the dialogue is ridiculously simplistic. A contrived subplot involving displaced Nazi youth during the British occupation lacks the necessary intensity.
It’s disappointing particularly since James Kent’s debut feature, “Testament of Youth,” was so much more effective, also tackling the subject of love-during-wartime. Yet cinematographer Franz Lustig takes full advantage of the authentic atmospheric details: period production design and elegant costumes.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Aftermath” is a stiff, soapy 6. But so much potential is squandered.
Although “The Best of Enemies” is based on a true story, it’s all-too-reminiscent of “Green Book” (2018), exploring yet another instance of racial reconciliation.
In 1971 in Durham, North Carolina, the elementary school that served the segregated black community suffered irreparable damage. So the question arose: how do the displaced black students get educated?
Attending another nearby school would constitute integration, still a highly controversial concept even after the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
That’s what volatile, African-American community organizer Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson) wants. But she’s vehemently opposed by C.P. Ellis (Sam Rockwell), the Exalted Cyclops of the local klavern of the United Klans of America. He’s an avowed white supremacist, so bigoted that he refuses to serve black folk who make the mistake of trying to fill-up at his gas station.
Enter urbane, soft-spoken Bill Riddick (Babou Ceesay), who arrives from Raleigh to conduct a 10-day series of mandated meetings called a charrette, which will prepare citizens to vote on school integration. Miraculously, Riddick convinces Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis to participate. His hope is that — after spending time together — they’ll learn to compromise.
Both remain steadfast in their beliefs but, when Ann helps C.P.’s institutionalized, Down syndrome-afflicted son, the freeze between them thaws a bit — particularly when C.P.’s wife Mary (Anne Heche) visits Ann’s home to thank her for her kindness. “It’s what I do,” Ann replies.
Working from a 1996 book by Osha Gray Davidson, first-time writer/director Robin Bissell is a bit heavy-handed with his contrived, reformed racist melodrama, shortchanging Ann Atwater’s character development. Watching the archival footage during the credits is far more illuminating.
FYI: If you want to know more, find Diane Bloom’s short documentary, “An Unlikely Friendship” (2002).
On the Granger Gauge, “The Best of Enemies” is a sturdy, if oversimplified 6, delivering a maudlin, feel-good message.
(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.)
