Film Review: Hancock
I saw this film when it came out and just watched it again. It's as good as I remember. I made the mistake of going to Rotten Tomatoes and some other websites to see what the general consensus was and was horrified to discover it got panned.
I...don't think they were watching the same film as me.
Perhaps it's the fact that the trailer paints it as a disgusting screwball comedy take on superheroes when it's actually a portrait of loneliness, apathy, loss and most of all love. And how damn refreshing it is that the love story - the epic, huge lovestory about soulmates - is an argument against them. Or at least, an argument against limiting love to these cliches.
There were a few times toward the beginning of the film where I thought the physical comedy and cheesy sarcastic lines were a little overdone. I think it's a sad state of affairs when most of the reviews laud the first half and complain about the "confused" second half. It's the second half that makes the first half more than an uninspired pisstake.
But this is an environment where Iron Man gets lauded as deep. Don't get me wrong, I think Iron Man is a fantastic movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for the next one. I don't think it's stupid or purile, but I also don't think that we can call it "deep". It's about as deep as any other "Weapons and Terrorism is bad, m'kay?" or "You're only an asshole because you're lonely," soundbytes can be. It's a good film and these are good messages, but their presence makes the film not-shallow, it doesn't provide it with great amounts of substance.
It's weird, isn't it? If he'd been bitten by a radioactive spider, or had come from another planet as an infant, or had been the subject of secret government experiments, or had accidentally made himself indestructable one night in his secret lab, and that was the big midfilm revelation about his origin, it wouldn't have been original, but the critics would probably have checked off another box in the "adorkable pisstake" box and moved on.
But reveal that he's one of a race of near extinct immortals created in pairs, who slowly becomes mortal when near his opposite number, and OH NO, YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR. Because that's just weird.
Wow, you know, I think I'm actually angry about the way this film's been marginalised and panned. And it's frustrating my ability to convey my feelings about it.
I guess my feelings are that if you go with it - if you accept this mythology of dying gods with no more answers than you have - this film is remarkable. I can't boil the message down to a nice bite-sized slogan, though, and that's probably the problem.
I like it when films change all the rules halfway through. I like it when screwball comedies suddenly become deadly serious. I thought the way Will Smith and Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman played their scenes gave remarkable and understated power to this bizarre love-triangle, and as someone who hates love triangles, well, I loved it.
Because it was the opposite of the usual thing. It wasn't, "We're soul mates, so on your bike Mr Normal Interloper Who Can't Possibly Make My Sparkly Destined Girlfriend Happy."
I've never seen a film where the most emotionally triumphant moment of the story is the lead male running the hell away from the lead female. Broken, battered, brave and desperately running through the rain-soaked streets though he can barely stand, because literally and metaphorically, that's the key to the happy ending: get away.
And it's so loving. They all save each other. They all give fate the middle finger and make a choice. And they are all heroes. And the "normal" guy doesn't get shafted, or belittled, or made fun of. His every day heroism isn't on the scale of superpowered punch-ups but it's never quite the consolation prize it usually is in these situations. It's indicated at the end that he's well on the way to changing the world in as profound a way as Hancock, albeit a different way.
I think the real problem is that this isn't a comedy superhero film. It's not a superhero film at all, really. It's an epic love story that repeats and repeats and repeats throughout history, and we at once see all of it through this single instance, and almost none. It's beauty is that it's epic at the same time it's about a few weeks out of three thousand years. It's about people who can fly and stop bullets and toy with the lives of people like Ray and it gets reduced down to a shoot out in a hospital where no one is special anymore, and they're all just as likely to die.
Mary tells us, Hancock's story always ends the same way: not special, just dying.
Sure we don't get every detail about Hancock and Mary's past or genesis, but it wouldn't be as wonderful if we did. It's why I like that the film is short. They could have padded it out with another half hour of kewl action sequences, but they didn't and it's the right choice. It's short because it's a short chapter of their lives: a moment in time like every other time Hancock and Mary meet and almost die, and separate, and also...not like any of them because each one is unique.
Ray symbolises that. He's not a part of this wider, repeating epic, but he is never, ever treated as trivial or not worth fighting for.
In sum, this film is awesome. Really, really awesome if you're willing to go with it. And I really don't understand why everyone seems to put the mediocre comedy the trailer advertised ahead of this quiet, concentrated character piece. I don't think there's really an overarching message to it. It's just a story that's full of acceptance, optimism and love.
I...don't think they were watching the same film as me.
Perhaps it's the fact that the trailer paints it as a disgusting screwball comedy take on superheroes when it's actually a portrait of loneliness, apathy, loss and most of all love. And how damn refreshing it is that the love story - the epic, huge lovestory about soulmates - is an argument against them. Or at least, an argument against limiting love to these cliches.
There were a few times toward the beginning of the film where I thought the physical comedy and cheesy sarcastic lines were a little overdone. I think it's a sad state of affairs when most of the reviews laud the first half and complain about the "confused" second half. It's the second half that makes the first half more than an uninspired pisstake.
But this is an environment where Iron Man gets lauded as deep. Don't get me wrong, I think Iron Man is a fantastic movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for the next one. I don't think it's stupid or purile, but I also don't think that we can call it "deep". It's about as deep as any other "Weapons and Terrorism is bad, m'kay?" or "You're only an asshole because you're lonely," soundbytes can be. It's a good film and these are good messages, but their presence makes the film not-shallow, it doesn't provide it with great amounts of substance.
It's weird, isn't it? If he'd been bitten by a radioactive spider, or had come from another planet as an infant, or had been the subject of secret government experiments, or had accidentally made himself indestructable one night in his secret lab, and that was the big midfilm revelation about his origin, it wouldn't have been original, but the critics would probably have checked off another box in the "adorkable pisstake" box and moved on.
But reveal that he's one of a race of near extinct immortals created in pairs, who slowly becomes mortal when near his opposite number, and OH NO, YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR. Because that's just weird.
Wow, you know, I think I'm actually angry about the way this film's been marginalised and panned. And it's frustrating my ability to convey my feelings about it.
I guess my feelings are that if you go with it - if you accept this mythology of dying gods with no more answers than you have - this film is remarkable. I can't boil the message down to a nice bite-sized slogan, though, and that's probably the problem.
I like it when films change all the rules halfway through. I like it when screwball comedies suddenly become deadly serious. I thought the way Will Smith and Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman played their scenes gave remarkable and understated power to this bizarre love-triangle, and as someone who hates love triangles, well, I loved it.
Because it was the opposite of the usual thing. It wasn't, "We're soul mates, so on your bike Mr Normal Interloper Who Can't Possibly Make My Sparkly Destined Girlfriend Happy."
I've never seen a film where the most emotionally triumphant moment of the story is the lead male running the hell away from the lead female. Broken, battered, brave and desperately running through the rain-soaked streets though he can barely stand, because literally and metaphorically, that's the key to the happy ending: get away.
And it's so loving. They all save each other. They all give fate the middle finger and make a choice. And they are all heroes. And the "normal" guy doesn't get shafted, or belittled, or made fun of. His every day heroism isn't on the scale of superpowered punch-ups but it's never quite the consolation prize it usually is in these situations. It's indicated at the end that he's well on the way to changing the world in as profound a way as Hancock, albeit a different way.
I think the real problem is that this isn't a comedy superhero film. It's not a superhero film at all, really. It's an epic love story that repeats and repeats and repeats throughout history, and we at once see all of it through this single instance, and almost none. It's beauty is that it's epic at the same time it's about a few weeks out of three thousand years. It's about people who can fly and stop bullets and toy with the lives of people like Ray and it gets reduced down to a shoot out in a hospital where no one is special anymore, and they're all just as likely to die.
Mary tells us, Hancock's story always ends the same way: not special, just dying.
Sure we don't get every detail about Hancock and Mary's past or genesis, but it wouldn't be as wonderful if we did. It's why I like that the film is short. They could have padded it out with another half hour of kewl action sequences, but they didn't and it's the right choice. It's short because it's a short chapter of their lives: a moment in time like every other time Hancock and Mary meet and almost die, and separate, and also...not like any of them because each one is unique.
Ray symbolises that. He's not a part of this wider, repeating epic, but he is never, ever treated as trivial or not worth fighting for.
In sum, this film is awesome. Really, really awesome if you're willing to go with it. And I really don't understand why everyone seems to put the mediocre comedy the trailer advertised ahead of this quiet, concentrated character piece. I don't think there's really an overarching message to it. It's just a story that's full of acceptance, optimism and love.