Weekend Watch: Jungle Cruise, And Stillwater
Disney wants to take you for a ride and Matt Damon wants to free his daughter
Image Credit: Disney+
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt mess about on the river, and Matt Damon’s not messing about in his quest to free his jailed daughter. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
We can neither thank nor blame the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise for the existence of Jungle Cruise – Disney has been turning theme park rides into films since 1997’s Tower Of Terror (yes, that’s technically a TV movie, but it still counts). And even the odd flop or so (including Tomorrowland, which I personally really enjoyed) hasn’t deterred the company from throwing a dart at a map of Disneyland to decide where to draw from next. But the enormous success of the Pirates series certainly helped spur renewed interest, if not necessarily speed: Jungle Cruise has been slowly chugging towards our screens for a decade or so.
It finally arrives boasting a killer combo of leads – Dwayne Johnson’s blend of charisma and sturdy heroism finding a sparky counterpoint in Emily Blunt’s withering, yet warm put-downs. Johnson is Frank Wolff, who makes a living shuttling gullible tourists around a patch of the Amazon, complete with bad puns and pre-arranged “danger”. Blunt arrives in his corner of the world as adventurer and researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, who is searching for a mysterious (and possibly mythical) plant with amazing healing properties. But because a pleasant trip down a river looking for a tree wouldn’t exactly be enough adventure for a big slab of a movie like this, there are naturally others whose interest in the botanical miracle are in direct opposition to our heroes. For Jungle Cruise, that is Prince Joachim, a man whose European accent could charitably be described as “Germanic pantomime pomp”. He’s played by Jesse Plemons, who has been reliable in everything from Friday Night Lights to Game Night, but here we’re for once on the losing equation of performer fun compared to audience entertainment. In a smaller role, there’s Paul Giamatti as Frank’s competition and occasional financier, but the part is almost non-existent. Oh, and Jack Whitehall is also hanging around as Lily’s fussy brother MacGregor, who is wacky until the script pivots and he’s heartfelt, explaining to Frank about his sexual identity. It’s less progressive than the film acting like a school pupil forced to write an essay on the subject, handing in its work with a begrudging, “will this do?” Elsewhere? Well, that edges into spoiler territory.
Jaume Collet-Serra directs with some flair, seemingly happy to be doing something other than having Liam Neeson scowl and beat people up. But the effects don’t always serve him as well as they might (the artifice, though, perhaps a stealthy nod to the original ride’s cheap and cheerful origins). At least there’s an entertaining big cat, the all-CG Proxima, who steals a couple of scenes.
The biggest issue, though, is making a movie based on a “new” story and cramming it so full of inspirations from other, better productions that it can’t help but suffer in comparison. There are elements here of the aforementioned Pirates franchise The Mummy (the Brendan Fraser/Stephen Sommers era), Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The African Queen, and Romancing The Stone. And not forgetting enough exposition at times to sink a much larger ship than Frank’s little steamer.
It’s really Johnson and Blunt who keep it afloat as the story treads water. Their banter does a lot of heavy lifting, but by the end, even they can’t quite bring it all together. This is certainly more watchable than some of the later Pirates films, but it’s hardly the best that the Mouse House has to offer.
Jungle Cruise will be in UK and US cinemas on Friday. It’ll also be available on Disney+ with the Premier Access charge.
Image Credit: Focus Features
These days, when a father is trying to get his daughter out of trouble overseas, you expect a Taken-style thriller with plenty of anonymous foreign butts being kicked as daddy dearest turns out to have a particular set of skills that make them a nightmare. Tom McCarthy’s Stillwater, however, most definitely is not that. It’s much more what you’d expect from the director behind films including Spotlight, though it never reaches the heights of McCarthy’s Oscar winner.
Stillwater is the story of Bill Baker (Matt Damon), an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin), in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter. Along the way, he strikes up a friendship – and eventually more – with actress Virginie (Camille Cottin), whom he meets via her young daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud). Will Bill be able to overturn an apparent miscarriage of justice? And will this dyed-in-the-wool ‘Merican small-towner learn how to pronounce “theatre” without adding a syllable like he’s impersonating George W. Bush? These questions (okay, the first one) may compel you in the early going, but as Stillwater meanders towards its conclusion, you’ll increasingly wonder why the filmmaking team decided to craft such a long film around a story that can’t quite ever support it.
Damon is, of course, impressive, burly, and quiet-spoken, even if Bill sometimes does come across as a South Park version of an American abroad. He does, at least, have some depths, tortured by past addiction issues and his failure to truly raise Allison after her mother died. Damon does his level best with what the screenplay (by McCarthy, Thomas Bidegain, Marcus Hinchey and Noé Debré) hands him, though as the journey’s road begins to twist and turn, the carefully observed, straightforward film that has been unspooling to that point gets bent out of shape, exasperation on my part overtaking understanding.
Breslin has less to do, but some effective scenes, while Cottin plays off of Damon well. Siauvaud is a young delight, unpretentious and never finding a false note to play, at least until things become more complicated. McCarthy is a great one for low-key drama and building tension when called for, but with Stillwater, his usual sure footing departs once or twice too often. The result is by no means bad, but still a disappointment for someone who has loved his previous work.
Stillwater releases in US cinemas on Friday. It’ll arrive in the UK on 6 August.