EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE : Tuesday 27th April 2021.

I saw 'EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE' earlier this week, and this MA15+ Rated American thriller offering is Directed by Vaughn Stein in only his third film making outing after 2018's 'Terminal' and 2020's 'Inheritance'. This film has been in development since 2012 when Rob Reiner was slated to be Directing this film, and over the years that followed that mantle passed to Christine Jeffs in October 2019 before Vaughn Stein was announced as Director in December of that year. Costing US$10M to produce, the film was released in the US in early April to largely unfavourable Reviews. 

Here our film opens up with a car travelling down some deserted highway in Washington State - a big moon in the corner of the shot. We then cut to inside the vehicle which is being driven by Mum Grace Clark (Michelle Monaghan) and her young son Evan (Brenden Sunderland) in the back seat, the pair swapping jokes. Evan is wearing an ice hockey outfit and holding onto a new pair of ice skates, and clearly somewhat reluctant about his debut game. Then out of nowhere, a pick up truck slams straight into the car being driven by mother and son. For one of them it's fatal - and it's not mother Grace.

We then fast forward three years to a lavish isolated home in the hills. Grace is swimming laps in the outdoor heated lap pool while psychiatrist husband Phillip Clark (Casey Affleck) listens intently and takes copious notes from what his patients reveal to him about the inner most thoughts, anxieties and depressions. We subsequently learn that Evan was Grace's only son by a former marriage, and Phillip has a troubled and angst ridden teenage daughter Lucy (India Eisley) also from a former marriage, who was expelled from high school only one week ago because she snorted a line of cocaine in the laboratory during a class. 

One of Phillip's patients is a young 23 year old woman named Daphne (Emily Alyn Lind), who has a history of psychosis in the family and several failed suicide attempts, on whom he performed radical therapy by sharing things about his own personal life and revealing his thoughts and actions that he never even shared with his own wife. This empathetic behaviour, which is somewhat out of the box for psychiatrist's, is frowned upon by some colleagues, most notably Dr. Vanessa Fanning (Veronica Ferres), Phillip's Dean of Faculty at a local psychiatry institute where he also works. Fanning offers words of caution to Phillip, but he replies that Daphne after nine months of therapy has turned the corner, is off her medication, is happy with her life, is being creative for the first time in a very long time and is now in the throes of writing a book about her journey out of the darkness. The only remaining challenge for her is in trying to wrestle herself away from the overly controlling boyfriend. 

Soon afterwards Phillip receives a phone call while travelling home from Daphne who is distraught, saying that her long term best friend was killed in a hit and run accident. This sends Daphne into a downward spiral, although she commits to seeing Phillip the next day. However, the next day never comes, when Police arrive at their home to say that Daphne listed Phillip as her point of contact in the event of an emergency, and that she is now dead, having jumped off the balcony at home and cracked her skull open on the concrete below. Viewing the scene and identifying the body, her brother James Flagg (Sam Claflin) is understandably beside himself. 

A few days later James swings by Phillip's and Grace's home late in the afternoon to return a book that he had lent Daphne. Grace invites James in for dinner where he is more than charming, explains away his English accent, and that he is a failed first time novelist but is working on a second novel which he has higher hopes for. Lucy sends swooning glances James' way throughout dinner, while Phillip is somewhat wary. 

Over the next few days and weeks James gradually works his way into Lucy's life, and she is more than ready and willing to accept his advances. Meanwhile, James has also recruited Grace, who is also a real estate agent, to handle the sale of his sisters lavish home, and at the same time, begins to come on strong with her too. It seems that Phillip, Grace and Lucy have all retreated into their own little closeted worlds since the death of Evan three years ago with very little by way of communication, emotional support or intimacy to go around. 

At about the midway point Phillip comes to the realisation that James is the one behind a series of complaint letters sent to Dr. Fanning and the Washington State Board of Psychiatry about his alleged malpractices. His client base starts to dry up and pretty soon Phillip has lost the majority of his patients. James has been able to finagle his way into Phillip's life as a result of three years of silence and unprocessed grieving which Phillip opens upto Grace one evening asking for her forgiveness, which she grants him. In the meantime, Lucy has persuaded James to take her with him when he eventually leaves, and to get away to anywhere but here. That day is fast approaching. 

With Phillip's and Grace's fractured relationship seemingly repaired, James goes after Grace. In the passenger seat of his car sits Grace without a seatbelt because it is broken, with James tearing down the road at increasing speed. She begs him to stop, but he is not listening. She calls Phillip, and as James veers the car violently from side to side, Grace is knocked unconscious temporarily. James continues the conversation with Phillip telling him of their location. Phillip catches up just as James is about to drive headlong into a truck which would have resulted in the certain death of both. But seconds before, James veers and brings the car to a grinding halt averting a collision. With Grace safely out of the car and in Phillip's arms, James hurriedly drives off, grinning from ear to ear.

Later that night James hands himself into the authorities and is immediately sent to a psychiatric hospital for assessment. He demands to see Phillip as he is the only one he will speak with. Reluctantly Phillip attends an interview with James with Dr. Fanning and a consulting medical physician Dr. Toth (Hiro Kanagawa) in attendance. James comes clean, but clearly is showing signs of being mentally unhinged. Later that night over dinner with Dr. Fanning and her husband Stuart (Vincent Gale), Stuart presents Phillip with James' first novel which he had asked to procure. Turning to the back cover to read the bio of the author James Flagg, the photo of the author is not of the James Flagg that they know. Immediately alarm bells begin to ring. 

Phillip then attempts to call Lucy at home having deduced that James Flagg is a fake and he is in reality Daphne's over controlling boyfriend who threw the girl off the balcony and killed her. Phillip then calls the facility in which James is being held and warns Dr. Toth that there is an imminent danger and to go check on him. In so doing Toth discovers a dead orderly in James' room and no sign of James. While attempting to call Lucy, James has already rocked up to the Clark household, warmly embraced Lucy and told her to go and collect her things, they're leaving tonight. As Lucy goes to collect her bag, James enters the house after her, bolting the door locked from the inside behind him. He grabs Lucy violently and drags her kicking and screaming by the hair up the stairs and into a room with a balcony. By this time Phillip and Grace have arrived, gain easy access to the house, and immediately hear Lucy screaming upstairs. Phillip jumps on James and a fist fight breaks out with each raining down punches on to the other. Lucy and Grace both get thrown across the room, and with James straddling Phillip with his hands clenched tightly around Phillips neck, Grace renders two blows to James's back with Evan's brand new and unused ice skates, and when he reels in pain onto his back she lands another two blows to his chest. James crawls out of the room onto the balcony, rolls over on to his back and dies, just as Police sirens approach. 

'Every Breath You Take' has three fine Actors helming Director Stein's third feature film outing, and each give a solid enough performance, but that said this alone is not enough to lift this all too familiar predictable revenge thriller that offers little by way of surprises and the plot twists and turns you can see coming from a mile away. There is nothing new to see here that hasn't been done before, and better, in countless other similar pot boiling psychological thrillers, and when the end finally comes it all seems almost hurried and underdone, and, left me thinking of Russell Crowe's eventual demise in last years 'Unhinged'. 

'Every Breath You Take' warrants two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 22nd April 2021.

The 73rd Directors Guild of America Awards were held on 10th April this year to honour the outstanding Directorial achievement in feature films, documentary, television and commercials of 2020. 

This years winners and nominees in the film category are as given below :-

Feature Film

* Awarded to CHLOE ZHAO for 'NOMADLAND', beating out Lee Isaac Chung for 'Minari', Emerald Fennell for 'Promising Young Woman', David Fincher for 'Mank' and Aaron Sorkin for 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'.

Documentaries

* Awarded to MICHAEL DWECK and GREGORY KERSHAW for 'THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS', beating out Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed for 'My Octopus Teacher', David France for 'Welcome to Chechnya', Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss for 'Boys State' and Benjamin Ree for 'The Painter and the Thief'.

First-Time Feature Film

* Awarded to DARIUS MARDER for 'SOUND OF METAL', beating out Radha Blank for 'The 40-Year-Old Version', Fernando Frias de la Parra for 'I'm No Longer Here', Regina King for 'One Night in Miami...' and Florian Zeller for 'The Father'.

For the full run down on the television and commercials awards too as presented at this years 73rd annual DGA Awards, you can go to the official website at : https://www.dga.org

Turning back to this weeks five latest release new films coming to your local Odeon, we kick off with the third instalment in a martial arts fantasy offering based on a hugely popular video game, that sees an MMA fighter join forces with the greatest warriors in a high stakes battle for the universe. Next up is a story of a psychiatrist whose life gets turned upside down when a patient takes her own life and he introduces her brother to his own family. This is followed by a film set seventeen days before WWII, when an English teacher and his camera disappear on a coastal boarding school with twenty German teenage girls, and six days later, an agent posing as a teacher secretly attempts to find out what happened. Then we have a biographical drama film concerning the Federal Bureau of Narcotics who launch an undercover sting operation against famed jazz singer Billie Holiday during the 1940's. And we close out the week with a documentary about a Washington Post journalist who disappeared in Istanbul, with his fiancee and dissidents around the world piecing together the clues to a murder and expose a global cover up.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'MORTAL KOMBAT' (Rated R18+) - is an American martial arts fantasy film directed by Simon McQuoid, in his feature film making debut, from a screenplay by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham and a story by Oren Uziel and Russo. It is based on the video game franchise of the same name created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, serving as a reboot to the 'Mortal Kombat' film series which first launched with 'Mortal Kombat' in 1995 and Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and 'Mortal Kombat : Annihilation' in 1997 Directed by John R. Leonetti. This third instalment in the franchise languished in development hell for almost twenty years before James Wan was announced as a Producer in August 2015 and McQuoid was hired to Direct in November 2016. Production took place at Adelaide Studios in Adelaide and at other locations in South Australia during the last three months of 2019. The film saw its international release in early April, in the US and Australia from this week, has so far taken US$20M off the back of a production budget somewhere between US$50 and $95M and has generated mixed Reviews.

And so, here MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), is accustomed to taking a beating for money, but is unaware of his heritage, or why Outworld's Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family's safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) at the direction of Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang, Kung Lao and rogue mercenary Kano (Ludi Lin, Max Huang and Josh Lawson respectively), as he prepares to stand with Earth's greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock the immense power from within his soul, in time to save not only his family, but to stop Outworld once and for all?

'EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE' (Rated MA15+) - this American thriller offering is Directed by Vaughn Stein in only his third film making outing after 2018's 'Terminal' and 2020's 'Inheritance'. And so here we have psychiatrist Phillip (Casey Affleck), whose career is thrown into jeopardy when his patient takes her own life. When he invites his patient's surviving brother James (Sam Claflin) into his home to meet his wife Grace (Michelle Monaghan) and daughter, his family life is suddenly torn apart. The film was released in the US earlier this month to largely unfavourable Reviews.

'SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT' (Rated M) - here we have a British WWII drama film Directed by Andy Goddard in his third feature film offering following 2014's 'Set Fire to the Stars' and 2016's 'A Kind of Murder', and over the last twenty years or so he has directed numerous TV shows including 'Taggart', 'Torchwood', 'Law & Order : UK', 'Downton Abbey', 'Daredevil', 'Luke Cage', 'The Punisher' and 'Altered Carbon'. This film is based on a screenplay by Goddard, Eddie Izzard and Celyn Jones. In the summer of 1939, influential families in Nazi Germany have sent their daughters to a finishing school in an English seaside town to learn the language and be ambassadors for a future looking National Socialist. The establishment is under surveillance by the British secret service, with a British agent Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard), masquerading as a school teacher,  who is looking to uncover a plot to repatriate the pupils and discover what happened to his predecessor, who has disappeared. He also sees what is coming and is trying to raise the alarm, but the authorities believe he is the problem. Also starring Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, James D'Arcy and David Schofield. Released in the UK in late March, the film has so far grossed US$362K and has generated mixed or average Reviews so far. 

'THE UNITED STATES vs. BILLIE HOLIDAY' (Rated MA15+) - is an American biographical film based on the 2015 book 'Chasing the Scream : The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs' by Johann Hari, and is Directed and Co-Produced by Lee Daniels whose prior film making credits take in 2005's 'Shadowboxer', 2009's 'Precious', 2012's 'The Paperboy' and 2013's 'Lee Daniels' The Butler'. The legendary Billie Holiday (Andra Day), one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, spent much of her career being adored by fans across the globe. During the 1940's the Federal Department of Narcotics targeted her with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), with whom she had a tumultuous affair, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial song 'Strange Fruit'. Inspired by her life story, the film intimately examines her struggles with addiction, fame and heartbreaking love. This film was released Stateside in late February, has so far collected six award wins and another twenty nominations including an Oscar nod for Andra Day for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, and has garnered mixed or average Reviews. 

'THE DISSIDENT' (Rated M) - this American documentary film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Bryan Fogel who also performed the same three roles on his previous two features 2012's comedy romance 'Jewtopia' and 2017's doco 'Icarus'. The film follows the assassination of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in early October 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Saudi Arabia's effort to control international dissent. Central to the documentary is the story of the Saudi activist and video blogger, Omar Abdulaziz. While a CIA report released by the Biden administration implicated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the death of Khashoggi, the Director believes the prince will never face an Interpol arrest warrant or formal investigation considering the vast amount of wealth he owns. This film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2020, was released in the US at Christmas 2020 and now gets a limited showing in Australia having taken just US$62K at the Box Office but has received widespread critical acclaim. It has also picked up four award wins and another ten nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

With five new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the coming week, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-