Model Twiggy will be making her debut at the Cannes film festival.
Sadie Frost’s documentary feature Twiggy is wrapping production in Cannes.
The UK model is making her debut visit to the festival to film the final scene at Film Soho’s virtual production stage on Wednesday (May 17), which will double up as London’s Carnaby Street in the 1960s.
Twiggy is being produced by UK studio Film Soho, who is teaming up with virtual production specialist Disguise and metaverse company Hadean for the end of shoot.
Twiggy is UK filmmaker Frost’s second documentary as director, following Quant.
Sadie Frost’s documentary feature Twiggy is wrapping production in Cannes.
The UK model is making her debut visit to the festival to film the final scene at Film Soho’s virtual production stage on Wednesday (May 17), which will double up as London’s Carnaby Street in the 1960s.
Twiggy is being produced by UK studio Film Soho, who is teaming up with virtual production specialist Disguise and metaverse company Hadean for the end of shoot.
Twiggy is UK filmmaker Frost’s second documentary as director, following Quant.
- 5/16/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Real-life moments from Twiggy’s career will be recreated using virtual production, with Twiggy playing herself.
UK actor and filmmaker Sadie Frost’s feature documentary Twiggy has commenced production in London, with Studio Soho – part of the Film Soho group – set to release the title theatrically in the UK and Ireland in 2023, and Studio Soho also repping international sales.
Twiggy takes a comprehensive look at the life story of UK model and cultural icon Twiggy, real name Lesley Lawson, whose career kickstarted in the 1960s. It features interviews with Twiggy and her husband Leigh Lawson, as well as commentary from Erin O’Connor,...
UK actor and filmmaker Sadie Frost’s feature documentary Twiggy has commenced production in London, with Studio Soho – part of the Film Soho group – set to release the title theatrically in the UK and Ireland in 2023, and Studio Soho also repping international sales.
Twiggy takes a comprehensive look at the life story of UK model and cultural icon Twiggy, real name Lesley Lawson, whose career kickstarted in the 1960s. It features interviews with Twiggy and her husband Leigh Lawson, as well as commentary from Erin O’Connor,...
- 11/14/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Producer and actor Sadie Frost (“Dracula”), who made her feature directorial debut with a documentary on British fashion designer Mary Quant, is now training her lens on another British cultural icon.
“Twiggy” will be a feature-length documentary on Quant’s contemporary Lesley Lawson, better-known by her nickname Twiggy. It will trace her journey from her working-class childhood in northwest London, through to her international stardom as a celebrity model, and her career as an actor, singer, fashion designer, writer and TV presenter. This will be the first time Twiggy’s story has been told in full and with her support.
Studio Soho’s international sales arm is launching the project for worldwide presales at Cannes. Nick Hamson will produce for Soho Talent, part of the Film Soho group, and Simon Jones for Frost’s new production company Reel Time. Reel Time’s executive producer is Andrew Green.
BBC England has...
“Twiggy” will be a feature-length documentary on Quant’s contemporary Lesley Lawson, better-known by her nickname Twiggy. It will trace her journey from her working-class childhood in northwest London, through to her international stardom as a celebrity model, and her career as an actor, singer, fashion designer, writer and TV presenter. This will be the first time Twiggy’s story has been told in full and with her support.
Studio Soho’s international sales arm is launching the project for worldwide presales at Cannes. Nick Hamson will produce for Soho Talent, part of the Film Soho group, and Simon Jones for Frost’s new production company Reel Time. Reel Time’s executive producer is Andrew Green.
BBC England has...
- 5/20/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Sadie Frost understood to be attached to direct model biopic; Tony Pitts and Sally Phillips to co-direct film about classic car enthusiasts.
UK outfit Studio Soho Distribution has launched pre-sales on two new features at the Cannes film market.
Sadie Frost is understood to be attached to direct Twiggy, about the young woman who came to prominence as a model in London in the 1960s and won two Golden Globes for her performance in Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Boy Friend.
Studio Soho is also selling the dark comedy Classic, to be co-directed by Tony Pitts and Sally Phillips. Set on the North Yorkshire coast,...
UK outfit Studio Soho Distribution has launched pre-sales on two new features at the Cannes film market.
Sadie Frost is understood to be attached to direct Twiggy, about the young woman who came to prominence as a model in London in the 1960s and won two Golden Globes for her performance in Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Boy Friend.
Studio Soho is also selling the dark comedy Classic, to be co-directed by Tony Pitts and Sally Phillips. Set on the North Yorkshire coast,...
- 5/20/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: In Absentia, a feature doc from the six-time Oscar-nominated director of My Left Foot and In America Jim Sheridan, has locked a sales deal with UK outfit Studio Soho.
The project digs into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a French film and TV producer who was killed while at her isolated holiday cottage in West Cork, Ireland, just days before Christmas in 1996.
Sheridan has been researching the story for five years. The case has caused scandal and controversy in Ireland and France. In May this year, the French courts convicted Cork resident Ian Bailey in absentia of the murder and sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment. Bailey has protested his innocence for the past two decades and is living as a free man in Ireland, though remains under threat of extradition to France.
Since 2015, Sheridan has filmed with Sophie’s family and supporters at their homes in West Cork and Paris.
The project digs into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a French film and TV producer who was killed while at her isolated holiday cottage in West Cork, Ireland, just days before Christmas in 1996.
Sheridan has been researching the story for five years. The case has caused scandal and controversy in Ireland and France. In May this year, the French courts convicted Cork resident Ian Bailey in absentia of the murder and sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment. Bailey has protested his innocence for the past two decades and is living as a free man in Ireland, though remains under threat of extradition to France.
Since 2015, Sheridan has filmed with Sophie’s family and supporters at their homes in West Cork and Paris.
- 10/31/2019
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Principle photography is underway on James Dearden’s festive pic.
Studio Soho’s family Christmas feature Surviving Christmas is now shooting with Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey), Gemma Whelan (Game Of Thrones), Joely Richardson (101 Dalmations) and Michael Landes (Burlesque) all on board.
Sally Phillips (I’m Alan Partridge), Ronni Ancona (The Big Impression), Patricia Hodge (The Elephant Man) and James Fox (Thoroughly Modern Millie) round out the cast.
Principle photography on the festive feature commenced on April 3 in Hertfordshire, with the shoot later moving to London.
The film is written and directed by James Dearden (Oscar-nominated for best adapted screenplay for...
Studio Soho’s family Christmas feature Surviving Christmas is now shooting with Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey), Gemma Whelan (Game Of Thrones), Joely Richardson (101 Dalmations) and Michael Landes (Burlesque) all on board.
Sally Phillips (I’m Alan Partridge), Ronni Ancona (The Big Impression), Patricia Hodge (The Elephant Man) and James Fox (Thoroughly Modern Millie) round out the cast.
Principle photography on the festive feature commenced on April 3 in Hertfordshire, with the shoot later moving to London.
The film is written and directed by James Dearden (Oscar-nominated for best adapted screenplay for...
- 4/6/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Drama directed by Niall Johnson is based on a true story.
British drama Mum’s List has begun shooting with stars Rafe Spall (Prometheus) and Emilia Fox (The Pianist).
The film, written and directed by Niall Johnson (White Noise, Keeping Mum), is based on the best-selling book by St John (Singe) Greene.
It centres on Singe and Kate, a couple from North Somerset, whose lives were turned upside down when Kate was diagnosed with an incurable breast cancer. Over her last few days, she created a list: writing her thoughts and memories down, to help Singe create the best life possible for their two sons, after she was gone.
Produced by Nick Hamson (Premonition, St George’s Day) and Studio Soho Films, Mum’s List co-stars Elaine Cassidy and William and Matthew Stagg.
Executive producers are Gareth Jones, who is coordinating UK and international sales for the film, Chris Wood, Niall Johnson and Sarah...
British drama Mum’s List has begun shooting with stars Rafe Spall (Prometheus) and Emilia Fox (The Pianist).
The film, written and directed by Niall Johnson (White Noise, Keeping Mum), is based on the best-selling book by St John (Singe) Greene.
It centres on Singe and Kate, a couple from North Somerset, whose lives were turned upside down when Kate was diagnosed with an incurable breast cancer. Over her last few days, she created a list: writing her thoughts and memories down, to help Singe create the best life possible for their two sons, after she was gone.
Produced by Nick Hamson (Premonition, St George’s Day) and Studio Soho Films, Mum’s List co-stars Elaine Cassidy and William and Matthew Stagg.
Executive producers are Gareth Jones, who is coordinating UK and international sales for the film, Chris Wood, Niall Johnson and Sarah...
- 10/19/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
In case you haven’t heard, Craig Fairbrass is a certified cinematic badass. Know why? Because he’s Craig Fairbrass. Even if he wasn’t a badass, he’d still be Craig Fairbrass. And if he wasn’t Craig Fairbrass, he’d still be a certified badass. Wrap your head around that one for a second. Then readily admit that you’re a lesser human being. All kidding aside, the guy is going to have a lot on his plate in 2014. Fairbrass recently signed a multi-picture deal with Stealth Media Group’s Adrenaline label. The company is focusing on action flicks with international appeal, so expect good guys punching bad guys while things blow up. As someone who lives and breathes this stuff, I’m all for it. Fairbrass is producing these flicks through Impact Entertainment. He’ll also get some assistance from the boys and girls at Stealth and Nick Hamson’s Studio Soho.
- 11/26/2013
- by Todd Rigney
- Beyond Hollywood
News from Universe Films, Intandem, Global Screen, Studio 100, Jinga, Stealth, Roar Entertainment and more.
Us deal for Run & Jump
Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights from UTA to Run & Jump, Steph Green’s directorial debut sold internationally by Global Screen. The cast features Maxine Peake, Sharon Horgan and Will Forte.
Intandem adopts Dog
Intandem Films has come on board for sales of Martin Kemp’s Top Dog, a gang story currently shooting in London with a cast led by Leo Gregory.
Hansel & Gretel travel for Jinga
Jinga Films has sold Hansel And Gretel & The 4:20 Witch to Adler Entertainment for Italy, Flashstar for Latin America and Thanks & Love for Korea. The cast features Lara Flynn Boyle, Cary Elwes, Molly Quinn and Michael Welch. Previous deals for the film include Peppermint for Germany, Pinnacle for Australia and Tribeca for North America, where the film was released under the title Hansel & Gretel Get Baked.
Buyers spark to...
Us deal for Run & Jump
Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights from UTA to Run & Jump, Steph Green’s directorial debut sold internationally by Global Screen. The cast features Maxine Peake, Sharon Horgan and Will Forte.
Intandem adopts Dog
Intandem Films has come on board for sales of Martin Kemp’s Top Dog, a gang story currently shooting in London with a cast led by Leo Gregory.
Hansel & Gretel travel for Jinga
Jinga Films has sold Hansel And Gretel & The 4:20 Witch to Adler Entertainment for Italy, Flashstar for Latin America and Thanks & Love for Korea. The cast features Lara Flynn Boyle, Cary Elwes, Molly Quinn and Michael Welch. Previous deals for the film include Peppermint for Germany, Pinnacle for Australia and Tribeca for North America, where the film was released under the title Hansel & Gretel Get Baked.
Buyers spark to...
- 11/8/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell) andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
News from Universe Films, Intandem, Global Screen, Studio 100, Jinga, Stealth, Roar Entertainment and more.
Us deal for Run & Jump
Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights from UTA to Run & Jump, Steph Green’s directorial debut sold internationally by Global Screen. The cast features Maxine Peake, Sharon Horgan and Will Forte.
Intandem adopts Dog
Intandem Films has come on board for sales of Martin Kemp’s Top Dog, a gang story currently shooting in London with a cast led by Leo Gregory.
Hansel & Gretel travel for Jinga
Jinga Films has sold Hansel And Gretel & The 4:20 Witch to Adler Entertainment for Italy, Flashstar for Latin America and Thanks & Love for Korea. The cast features Lara Flynn Boyle, Cary Elwes, Molly Quinn and Michael Welch. Previous deals for the film include Peppermint for Germany, Pinnacle for Australia and Tribeca for North America, where the film was released under the title Hansel & Gretel Get Baked.
Buyers spark to...
Us deal for Run & Jump
Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights from UTA to Run & Jump, Steph Green’s directorial debut sold internationally by Global Screen. The cast features Maxine Peake, Sharon Horgan and Will Forte.
Intandem adopts Dog
Intandem Films has come on board for sales of Martin Kemp’s Top Dog, a gang story currently shooting in London with a cast led by Leo Gregory.
Hansel & Gretel travel for Jinga
Jinga Films has sold Hansel And Gretel & The 4:20 Witch to Adler Entertainment for Italy, Flashstar for Latin America and Thanks & Love for Korea. The cast features Lara Flynn Boyle, Cary Elwes, Molly Quinn and Michael Welch. Previous deals for the film include Peppermint for Germany, Pinnacle for Australia and Tribeca for North America, where the film was released under the title Hansel & Gretel Get Baked.
Buyers spark to...
- 11/8/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell) andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
News from Universe Films, Intandem, Global Screen, Studio 100, Jinga, Stealth, Roar Entertainment and more.
Us deal for Run & Jump
Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights from UTA to Run & Jump, Steph Green’s directorial debut sold internationally by Global Screen. The cast features Maxine Peake, Sharon Horgan and Will Forte.
Intandem adopts Dog
Intandem Films has come on board for sales of Martin Kemp’s Top Dog, a gang story currently shooting in London with a cast led by Leo Gregory.
Hansel & Gretel travel for Jinga
Jinga Films has sold Hansel And Gretel & The 4:20 Witch to Adler Entertainment for Italy, Flashstar for Latin America and Thanks & Love for Korea. The cast features Lara Flynn Boyle, Cary Elwes, Molly Quinn and Michael Welch. Previous deals for the film include Peppermint for Germany, Pinnacle for Australia and Tribeca for North America, where the film was released under the title Hansel & Gretel Get Baked.
Buyers spark to...
Us deal for Run & Jump
Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights from UTA to Run & Jump, Steph Green’s directorial debut sold internationally by Global Screen. The cast features Maxine Peake, Sharon Horgan and Will Forte.
Intandem adopts Dog
Intandem Films has come on board for sales of Martin Kemp’s Top Dog, a gang story currently shooting in London with a cast led by Leo Gregory.
Hansel & Gretel travel for Jinga
Jinga Films has sold Hansel And Gretel & The 4:20 Witch to Adler Entertainment for Italy, Flashstar for Latin America and Thanks & Love for Korea. The cast features Lara Flynn Boyle, Cary Elwes, Molly Quinn and Michael Welch. Previous deals for the film include Peppermint for Germany, Pinnacle for Australia and Tribeca for North America, where the film was released under the title Hansel & Gretel Get Baked.
Buyers spark to...
- 11/8/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell) andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
NEW YORK -- Crime rates might be dropping nationwide, but you wouldn't know from the new wave of vigilante-themed films that has inexplicably begun. Beating the Jodie Foster starrer The Brave One by a couple of weeks, James Wan's Death Sentence demonstrates that first is not necessarily best.
This effort starring Kevin Bacon bears more than a slight connection to the landmark of the genre, 1974's Death Wish, starring Charles Bronson. It is based on novelist Brian Garfield's sequel to his original book, though any resemblance is tenuous at best.
Bacon plays Nick Hume, a family man with a loving wife (Kelly Preston) and two kids who, in the screenplay's obvious attempt at irony, works at an insurance company where he must constantly compute the odds for catastrophe. His own life comes crashing down late one night when, stopping at a gas station in an unsafe neighborhood, his eldest son (Stuart Lafferty) is brutally murdered by Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary), a young hoodlum undergoing a gang initiation.
Nick impulsively recants his witness testimony at a pretrial hearing, setting the stage for him to achieve vengeance on his own. He follows the culprit to a deserted location the next night and winds up stabbing him to death after an intense struggle. It doesn't take long before the gang's leader, Billy (Garrett Hedlund), who also happens to be Joe's brother, figures out who did it, leading to a series of ever-escalating violent confrontations between Nick and the gang members.
While it certainly was an exploitation picture, Death Wish was highly effective because it always stayed grounded in reality. Director Wan ("Saw") inevitably goes for a more heightened approach. The gang members look like something out of Mad Max; Nick almost is instantly transformed from a mild-mannered insurance executive to a rampaging action hero, ultimately resembling a cross between Rambo and Travis Bickle; and the highly stylized visuals are luridly gothic. The nearly constant violence, too, is of the highly graphic variety, with endless amounts of blood spurting, exploding body parts and severed limbs. What makes the proceedings even more ludicrous is the screenplay's half-hearted attempt to infuse depth into its depiction of Nick's transformation.
The one truly effective sequence is a thrilling foot chase in which Bacon is pursued by the gang through streets, alleyways, buildings and an open-air parking garage, a good part of which was filmed by Wan and his team of cameramen in a virtuosic single take.
Bacon goes through his frequently athletic paces with the requisite intensity; Hedlund makes a formidably scary villain, and John Goodman has a terrifically pungent cameo as a skuzzy gun dealer. Aisha Tyler plays a concerned police detective; judging by the plethora of beautiful young black detectives onscreen these days, our nation's police forces must have effective equal-hiring practices.
DEATH SENTENCE
20th Century Fox
A 20th Century Fox and Hyde Park Entertainment presentation
Ashok Amritraj/Baldwin Entertainment Group
Credits:
Director: James Wan: Screenwriter: Ian Mackenzie Jeffers
Producers: Ashok Amritraj, Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin
Executive producers
Andrew Sugerman, Nick Morton, Nick Hamson, Lars Sylvest
Director of photography
John R. Leonetti
Production designer: Julie Berghoff
Music: Charlie Clouser
Co-producer: Eric Mitchell
Costume designer: Kristin M. Burke
Editor: Michael N. Knue
Cast:
Nick Hume: Kevin Bacon
Billy Darley: Garrett Hedlund
Helen Hume: Kelly Preston
Detective Wallis: Aisha Tyler
Bones Darley: John Goodman
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
This effort starring Kevin Bacon bears more than a slight connection to the landmark of the genre, 1974's Death Wish, starring Charles Bronson. It is based on novelist Brian Garfield's sequel to his original book, though any resemblance is tenuous at best.
Bacon plays Nick Hume, a family man with a loving wife (Kelly Preston) and two kids who, in the screenplay's obvious attempt at irony, works at an insurance company where he must constantly compute the odds for catastrophe. His own life comes crashing down late one night when, stopping at a gas station in an unsafe neighborhood, his eldest son (Stuart Lafferty) is brutally murdered by Joe Darley (Matt O'Leary), a young hoodlum undergoing a gang initiation.
Nick impulsively recants his witness testimony at a pretrial hearing, setting the stage for him to achieve vengeance on his own. He follows the culprit to a deserted location the next night and winds up stabbing him to death after an intense struggle. It doesn't take long before the gang's leader, Billy (Garrett Hedlund), who also happens to be Joe's brother, figures out who did it, leading to a series of ever-escalating violent confrontations between Nick and the gang members.
While it certainly was an exploitation picture, Death Wish was highly effective because it always stayed grounded in reality. Director Wan ("Saw") inevitably goes for a more heightened approach. The gang members look like something out of Mad Max; Nick almost is instantly transformed from a mild-mannered insurance executive to a rampaging action hero, ultimately resembling a cross between Rambo and Travis Bickle; and the highly stylized visuals are luridly gothic. The nearly constant violence, too, is of the highly graphic variety, with endless amounts of blood spurting, exploding body parts and severed limbs. What makes the proceedings even more ludicrous is the screenplay's half-hearted attempt to infuse depth into its depiction of Nick's transformation.
The one truly effective sequence is a thrilling foot chase in which Bacon is pursued by the gang through streets, alleyways, buildings and an open-air parking garage, a good part of which was filmed by Wan and his team of cameramen in a virtuosic single take.
Bacon goes through his frequently athletic paces with the requisite intensity; Hedlund makes a formidably scary villain, and John Goodman has a terrifically pungent cameo as a skuzzy gun dealer. Aisha Tyler plays a concerned police detective; judging by the plethora of beautiful young black detectives onscreen these days, our nation's police forces must have effective equal-hiring practices.
DEATH SENTENCE
20th Century Fox
A 20th Century Fox and Hyde Park Entertainment presentation
Ashok Amritraj/Baldwin Entertainment Group
Credits:
Director: James Wan: Screenwriter: Ian Mackenzie Jeffers
Producers: Ashok Amritraj, Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin
Executive producers
Andrew Sugerman, Nick Morton, Nick Hamson, Lars Sylvest
Director of photography
John R. Leonetti
Production designer: Julie Berghoff
Music: Charlie Clouser
Co-producer: Eric Mitchell
Costume designer: Kristin M. Burke
Editor: Michael N. Knue
Cast:
Nick Hume: Kevin Bacon
Billy Darley: Garrett Hedlund
Helen Hume: Kelly Preston
Detective Wallis: Aisha Tyler
Bones Darley: John Goodman
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/31/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- Based on a horrific expose of an international sex slave network, "Trade" is an earnest attempt to dramatize the network of Internet sex "tunnels." Unfortunately, the film's horrific and important subject matter is distilled into a lackluster lump of generic buddy-movie/road-picture components. "Trade" certainly will incite early boxoffice based on its provocative subject matter, but this humdrum film does little justice to the young girls who are prey to these bands of international slime.
Plotting along from the squalor of Mexico City, where brigands capture girls for delivery to New Jersey where they will be auctioned off on an Internet site, "Trade" lumbers along a plot course that, basically, explicates what a good documentary filmmaker could do in half the time and with considerably more of an emotional wallop.
The narrative centers on the cruel abduction of a Polish girl (Alicja Bachleda)and a 13-year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) whose combative brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), sets off on a trans-America trail to find his younger sister. Careening into the U.S., Jorge runs smack dab into a U.S. lawman, Ray (Kevin Kline), who is on some sort of "insurance" case. Further down the road a piece, we learn Ray is an emotionally wounded cop on a personal mission.
While Kline bravely undertakes the role of lawman with a vendetta, walking as stiff as Dirty Harry and emoting as minimally as Chuck Norris, he never gets a handle on the role. Bathetic phone calls to his wife about their cat convince Jorge that he's dealing with a candy-ass gringo. At this juncture, "Trade" careens into battling-buddy territory as the macho Jorge and the stoic lawman trade barbs, complain about the other's music and eventually bond.
Unfortunately, screenwriter Jose Rivera's banter and dialogue is as leaden as his drab expositional structuring. The dialogue is so uninspired it's as if listening to someone reading subtitles. Similarly, Marco Kreuzpaintner's slow-footed direction never puts the pedal to the metal; in essence, this "important" road picture/chase/buddy movie is devoid of visual accelerants. It is further slowed by editor Hansjorg Weissbrich's tentative braking -- car driving and other padding consistently defuse the story line.
The musical score by Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum is in sync with the film's overall lackluster aesthetics: The music is dreary and listless, more apt as a midwinter Scandinavian overture to the tundra than a torrid expose of international sex slavery.
On the plus side, Ramos' charismatic and charged portrayal of the avenging brother is the film's highlight: Ramos packs energy and fire, combustions that this subject matter deserves. Plaudits also to Gaitan as the waifish Mexican girl who endures unspeakable degradations, as well as Bachleda for her sympathetic and steely performance as the abducted Polish beauty.
Unfortunately, Ray's cat cannot overcome the filmmaker's sloppy cutesiness, and we're left with a final, comic fillip that seems writ from "Walker, Texas Ranger".
TRADE
Lionsgate
A Centropolis Entertainment and VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Producers: Roland Emmerich, Rosilyn Heller
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Screenwriter: Jose Rivera
Story: Peter Landesman, Jose Rivera
Based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Girls Next Door" by: Peter Landesman
Executive producers: Ashok Amritraj, Robert Leger, Tom Ortenberg, Michael Wimer, Nick Hamson, Peter Landesman, Lars Sylvest
Director of photography: Daniel Gottschalk
Production designer: Bernt Capra
Editor: Hansjorg Weissbrich
Music: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Cast:
Ray: Kevin Kline
Jorge: Cesar Ramos
Veronica: Alicja Bachleda
Adriana: Paulina Gaitan
Manuelo: Marco Perez
Laura: Kate del Castillo
Hank Jefferson: Tim Reid
Vadim Youchenko: Pasha Lynchnikoff
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Plotting along from the squalor of Mexico City, where brigands capture girls for delivery to New Jersey where they will be auctioned off on an Internet site, "Trade" lumbers along a plot course that, basically, explicates what a good documentary filmmaker could do in half the time and with considerably more of an emotional wallop.
The narrative centers on the cruel abduction of a Polish girl (Alicja Bachleda)and a 13-year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) whose combative brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), sets off on a trans-America trail to find his younger sister. Careening into the U.S., Jorge runs smack dab into a U.S. lawman, Ray (Kevin Kline), who is on some sort of "insurance" case. Further down the road a piece, we learn Ray is an emotionally wounded cop on a personal mission.
While Kline bravely undertakes the role of lawman with a vendetta, walking as stiff as Dirty Harry and emoting as minimally as Chuck Norris, he never gets a handle on the role. Bathetic phone calls to his wife about their cat convince Jorge that he's dealing with a candy-ass gringo. At this juncture, "Trade" careens into battling-buddy territory as the macho Jorge and the stoic lawman trade barbs, complain about the other's music and eventually bond.
Unfortunately, screenwriter Jose Rivera's banter and dialogue is as leaden as his drab expositional structuring. The dialogue is so uninspired it's as if listening to someone reading subtitles. Similarly, Marco Kreuzpaintner's slow-footed direction never puts the pedal to the metal; in essence, this "important" road picture/chase/buddy movie is devoid of visual accelerants. It is further slowed by editor Hansjorg Weissbrich's tentative braking -- car driving and other padding consistently defuse the story line.
The musical score by Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum is in sync with the film's overall lackluster aesthetics: The music is dreary and listless, more apt as a midwinter Scandinavian overture to the tundra than a torrid expose of international sex slavery.
On the plus side, Ramos' charismatic and charged portrayal of the avenging brother is the film's highlight: Ramos packs energy and fire, combustions that this subject matter deserves. Plaudits also to Gaitan as the waifish Mexican girl who endures unspeakable degradations, as well as Bachleda for her sympathetic and steely performance as the abducted Polish beauty.
Unfortunately, Ray's cat cannot overcome the filmmaker's sloppy cutesiness, and we're left with a final, comic fillip that seems writ from "Walker, Texas Ranger".
TRADE
Lionsgate
A Centropolis Entertainment and VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Producers: Roland Emmerich, Rosilyn Heller
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Screenwriter: Jose Rivera
Story: Peter Landesman, Jose Rivera
Based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Girls Next Door" by: Peter Landesman
Executive producers: Ashok Amritraj, Robert Leger, Tom Ortenberg, Michael Wimer, Nick Hamson, Peter Landesman, Lars Sylvest
Director of photography: Daniel Gottschalk
Production designer: Bernt Capra
Editor: Hansjorg Weissbrich
Music: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Cast:
Ray: Kevin Kline
Jorge: Cesar Ramos
Veronica: Alicja Bachleda
Adriana: Paulina Gaitan
Manuelo: Marco Perez
Laura: Kate del Castillo
Hank Jefferson: Tim Reid
Vadim Youchenko: Pasha Lynchnikoff
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 1/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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