Jungle Cruise (PG-13)
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt ride the Jungle Cruise, a perfectly enjoyable adaptation of the Disney amusement park ride.
I realize that both by watching this movie and by liking it I’m probably contributing to a world in which this becomes a vast Pirates of the Caribbean-esque universe with a jillion increasingly tiresome sequels. But, for now, for this one film, I’m on board this ride.
It’s 1916 and Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is a would-be explorer in a world that’s not super keen on lady explorers. When she attempts to get support from a London-based exploration society for a new expedition, she sends her brother MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall) to give the big speech, which is both an attempt to play to their anti-female-scientists sentiment and a ploy to give her time to steal an artifact from the society’s labs after they’ve turned MacGregor down.
The artifact is an old arrowhead which is part of a legend about a tree called Tears of the Moon that exists somewhere in the Amazon and has petals that are said to have the power to cure all disease. Lily is determined to find the tree and help to bring this cure-all remedy to the world.
But she’s not the only one seeking it. Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), son of the German kaiser, also wants the tree’s petals so that he can ensure that Germany wins the Great War and so that he personally can rule for generations.
Lily manages to make off with the arrowhead and heads with her brother to Brazil to attempt to locate the tree. She eventually hires Frank (Johnson) and his boat to take her up the river to the spot where she believes she will find the tree. Frank is a jungle cruise operator, famed for having not necessarily the best but definitely the cheapest Amazon day cruise for tourists. He also likes puns and knows how to put on a “wonders of the jungle” show (hired buddies play fierce local warriors; a man-eating hippo is a geographically inaccurate bit of prop-craft). He owes some money to local boat mogul Nilo (Paul Giamatti) and is just down on his luck enough that he agrees to go with Lily and MacGregor on their quest, even though he initially doesn’t think they’ll get all that far in their quest.
Of course, just because Lily was able to get away from Prince Joachim in London doesn’t mean he gave up the search for her or the arrowhead.
Common Sense Media suggests that viewers be 11 years old to ride this ride; I think that’s about right, maybe 11 or 10, depending on the kid. There are some big snakes and some images of people who have been cursed and have become part jungle flora and fauna (sorta in the way that some of the pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean became part sea creatures). But this is basically a wholesome adventure movie with winning personalities and a very cartoonish villain.
Johnson is a fun guy to hang out with generally and here he is in family-movie top form with an ever so slight amount of crustiness in the beginning and just a big blob of gooey loyalty and honor and benevolence underneath. Blunt is also winning at this kind of character — she’s smart and brave and all her flaws double as adorable quirks (and she’s able to sell that without it becoming syrupy). Whitehall, who starts out by being the obligatory character who is horrified by the jungle and longing for a cocktail by a pool, grows into as close as a movie like this can get to a real character with layers.
Jungle Cruise is not reinventing cinema but it is a solid and charming entry into the family-friendly adventure movie genre. B
Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra with a screenplay by Michael Green and Glenn Ficarra & John Requea, Jungle Cruise is two hours and seven minutes long and distributed by Walt Disney Studios. It is in theaters and available on Disney+ (with a subscription and for an additional $29.99).
Stillwater (R)
Matt Damon plays an American father trying to get his daughter out of a French prison in Stillwater, a movie that feels like it was carefully crafted to earn Matt Damon awards consideration.
Maybe not actual awards, but I feel like Damon and others from this movie could fill out critics’ long lists as possible nominees for, like, best actor, best supporting actress and stuff, come award season.
Bill Baker (Damon) is filling his time while waiting to find another job with an oil company in Oklahoma by working construction, specifically working deconstruction at a town that’s recently been hit by a tornado when we meet him. It’s a perhaps too-tidy metaphor for his life, which is him picking up after a disaster: His daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) has been in prison in Marseille, France, for five years after being found guilty of murdering her girlfriend, with whom she’d been having relationship woes. Allison insists on her innocence but it seems that past attempts to reopen or appeal her case have failed. Bill comes to France to visit her and she gives him a letter to take to her lawyer, Leparq (Anne Le Ny). Allison has what she thinks is new information that could help her case but the lawyer tells Bill that Allison needs to make peace with her situation as any attempt to reopen the case is basically hopeless. Bill disagrees.
Allison has heard through a professor where she used to go to school that a fellow student was at a party where a guy claimed that he had once stabbed a woman and gotten away with it. The guy had the same name, Akim, as the guy Allison met at a bar on the night of the murder and who she says stole her purse. Despite not speaking French, Bill charges forth to track down Akim in hopes of getting a DNA sample that can be matched to the unknown DNA found at the scene of the murder.
To help with some of the translating and finding his way around the city, Bill turns to Virginie (Camille Cottin), a woman who was temporarily staying with her daughter, Maya (Lilou Siauvaud), in a hotel room next to Bill’s. Eventually, they become friendly enough that Bill rents a room from her in her new apartment and spends afternoons watching Maya — building a family life as he continues to attempt to help Allison.
This movie features some nice performances and some nuanced details. Breslin does a lot in her relatively few scenes. She shows a believable discomfort-in-her-soul as someone wrestling with her current predicament (prison and an uncertain future but also the death of her girlfriend) and past hurts (we learn that her mother died by suicide and Allison and Bill have had a difficult relationship). In the letter that sets off Bill’s search, Allison describes her father as not being capable. Damon is able to show that Bill is hurt by this criticism but also understands why she feels this way and desperately wants to prove her wrong. Damon does a good job of demonstrating the weight of Bill’s life — his disappointments, his failures and his desire to still salvage something for both him and Allison.
Likewise, Cottin is good in her supporting role as a woman who, as her friend suggests, always likes a cause and Bill is her newest one. Bill seems to be both kind of an exotic creature to her — his Oklahoma accent and Midwestern everything — and a tangible focus for her altruistic impulses. The movie is able to give Virginie these qualities but Cottin keeps from being a total caricature. Or, to the degree that she is a little too good to be true (sure, move in! Watch my small child! I’ll help you interview random people!), she keeps the character from seeming too unrealistic.
The movie does seem to underline its points and character beats a lot — I’m not really sure why it needed to clock in at nearly two and a half hours. And the movie’s final third feels a little … much. But in the mix are nice moments of Bill and Allison sitting by the ocean or Allison and Virginie talking about Bill and Allison’s inner nature or some scene of Bill relating to Maya. It’s all good, above-average completely fine stuff that just doesn’t feel terribly sticky. The result is a movie that I’m not sorry to have watched but that I feel fairly certain I’m going to mostly forget about in a month. B-
Rated R for language, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Directed by Tom McCarthy and written by Tom McCarthy & Marcus Hinchey and Thomas Bidegain & Noé Debré, Stillwater is two hours and 19 minutes long and distributed by Focus Features. It is screening in theaters.
FILM
Venues
Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester;
151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua;
150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com
The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com
Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org
Shows
• Rock of Ages(PG-13, 2012) screening at the Rex Theatre in Manchester on Wednesday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to the Manchester Police Athletic League. Tickets cost $12.
• Jaws(1975, PG-13) screenings at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham Wednesday, Aug 4, through Saturday, Aug. 7, at 7 p.m. plus screenings at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost $4.99.
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ(1925) a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis on Thursday, Aug. 5, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth. Tickets start at $10.
• Ailey (PG-13, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 12:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
• Pig (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 4:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 3:30 p.m.
• In the Heights (PG-13, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 1:15 p.m.
• Matilda (PG, 1996) at the Rex Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 10, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to SEE Science Center. Tickets cost $12.
Featured photo: Jungle Cruise. Courtesy photo.