By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
If you saw Franklin Schaffner’s 1973 Steve McQueen/Dustin Hoffman adaptation of Henri Charriere’s best-selling autobiography “Papillon,” you’d feel acute disappointment within the first 10 minutes of this decidedly mediocre version.
In Paris in 1933, Henri Charriere (Charlie Hunan) is a reckless safecracker who’s framed for murder and shipped off to a the notorious penal colony on the remote island of French Guiana, located on the north Atlantic coast of South America. It was established by the French emperor Napoleon III in 1852.
Leaving Marseilles, he offers to ‘protect’ delicate, diminutive currency counterfeiter Louis Dega (Rami Malek), who has money stashed away.
Called ‘Papillon’ for the butterfly tattooed on his chest, Charrier repeatedly plots their escape, despite repeated warnings by sadistic Warden Barrot (Yorick Van Wageningen) and eventual incarceration on the former leper settlement known as Devil’s Island. Stubbornly determined, he eventually succeeds after surviving years in silent, solitary confinement.
More than 80,000 imprisoned there were never seen again. Escape from the rocky, disease-infested island was considered impossible, since the surrounding sea was infested with piranhas and sharks.
Based on Charriere’s grim memoir and the Dalton Trumbo/Lorenzo Sample Jr. screenplay, it’s been adapted by Aaron Guzikowski and helmed by Danish director Michael Noer with the two leading roles re-created by Charlie Hunnam (TV’s “Sons of Anarchy”) and Rami Malek (TV’s “Mr. Robot”).
Despite suffering a starvation diet and lack of medical/dental care, Hunnam’s teeth remain sparkling bright, his body perfectly toned and his haircut barbershop-fresh — it’s a laughable inconsistency.
FYI: After 1938, France stopped sending prisoners and, in 1952, the prison was closed permanently. Now, the Salvation Islands (Isles du Salut) — of which Devil’s Island is a part — is used for studying space launches. More than 50,000 tourists visit annually to walk through the prison grounds.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Papillon” falls flat with a 4. For real drama, see the original.
Set in Europe more than 20,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, “Alpha” is an ‘origin’ fable about how a cave man first bonded with a wolf.
Preparing for the annual Great Hunt, Chief Tau (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) is particularly concerned about his sensitive teenage son, Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who hasn’t quite mastered all the necessary skills. As his mother Rho (Natassia Malthe) says, “Keda leads with his heart, not his spear.”
Joining other tribesmen, they stampede a bison herd, driving them over a cliff. The carcasses will be butchered and hauled back as food for the winter.
But one beast turns back to rush his attackers, catching Keda on its horns and tossing him into the air. Knocked unconscious, Keda lands on a narrow ledge that’s too steep for a rescue. When Keda regains consciousness, there’s a flash flood, enabling him to swim to safety, only to be attacked by wolves.
After stabbing the leader of the pack, dubbed Alpha, Keda takes pity on the injured animal. Carefully binding its jaws, Keda nurses Alpha’s wound with maggots. Then he offers a bowl of water. Yet, when he kills and eats a rabbit, Keda firmly establishes dominance, insisting, “You have to wait your turn.”
Wandering through the vast wilderness, Keda and Alpha encounter many perils and predators, becoming codependent as they trek home through blizzards, relying on Keda’s hand tattoo of the Big Dipper constellation to point them in the right direction.
Scripted by Daniel Sebastian Weidenhaupt from an adventure story by director Albert Hughes, it’s magnificent photographed by Martin Gschlacht and unusually quiet — with minimal dialogue.
FYI: Alpha is a Czechoslovakian wolfdog. And there’s “no animals were harmed during the making of this film” tag because — for the skinning/hide-removal scene — four bison were ‘dispatched humanely’ by Longview Beef Jerky staff.
On the Granger Gauge, “Alpha” is a survivalist 7 — and not just for dog lovers.
“Mile 22” marks the fourth collaboration between rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg, so perhaps they should re-evaluate their macho ‘bromance’.
Wahlberg plays brooding James “Jimmy” Silva, a grim, angry, senior CIA officer who is part of an ultra-elite, high-tech paramilitary unit that includes Alice Kerr (Lauren Cohan), Sam Snow (Ronda Rousey) and William “Dougie” Douglas III (Carlo Alban). Their derring-do is computer-monitored from a remote control center by James Bishop (John Malkovich), known by the code-name “Mother.”
The opening sequence shows the ‘Overwatch’ team bursting into an innocuous suburban East Coast home that’s really a Russian safe house. It’s a botched raid but it demonstrates their penchant for lethal, excessively bloody violence.
Skip ahead to the theft of radioactive Cesium 139 and the mysterious appearance of Li Noor (Indonesian martial artist/actor Iko Uwais), a police officer who tells officials at the American Embassy in (fictional) Indocarr that he knows where to find the stolen shipment of “fear powder.”
Noor has the information on a locked disc which will decompose in eight hours unless Jimmy and his secret-ops commandos safely transport him through a 22-mile obstacle course to an airfield for extraction from Southeast Asia and asylum in the United States. That’s easier said than done since lots of local thugs are relentlessly determined to stop them.
Working from first-time screenwriter Kea Carpenter’s monologue-heavy adaptation of a pulpy story she co-wrote with Graham Roland, Peter Berg substitutes quirks (like Jimmy snapping a rubber band against his wrist) for character development, chooses quick-cuts over compelling action and favors chaos over coherence.
FYI: Previous Walberg/Berg collaborations include “Lone Survivor,” “Deepwater Horizon” and “Patriot’s Day” which were based on true events. They obviously counted on this film to ignite a future franchise.
On the Granger Gauge, “Mile 22” is a talky, treacherous 2. It’s hollow gung-ho!
(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.)
