At Cinemas: Jesus – that was a bad move

Dec 11, 2014

Poor old Jim Caviezel. Playing Jesus didn’t seem to hurt Willem Dafoe’s career, but Jim hasn’t had a theatrical hit since Mel Gibson’s questionably overwrought The Passion of the Christ ten years ago – and When The Game Stands Tall, a biopic of a legendary American football coach, is sadly no exception.

Also on general release this week is Words & Pictures, a romcom that, with director Fred Schepsi (Roxanne, Last Orders) at the helm and Juliet Binoche playing opposite Clive Owen, might be great – but going by criticism, should be retitled ‘Scribbles & Sketches’.

Force Majeure follows a Swedish family holidaying in the Alps who find themselves in the midst of an avalanche (dialogue is English, French and Swedish with Danish subs). The photography looks stunning and advance word is excellent.

Finally, this week you’ll find my review for Peter Jackson’s concluding chapter to The Hobbit Trilogy and his gargantuan six-film journey through Middle Earth that he started a decade and a half ago …

Over at Cinemateket (dfi.dk/Filmhuset) this week, you’ll find nothing if not diversity. They’ve got classic Disney films such as (my personal favourite) Robin Hood at 14:15 on Saturday alongside darker fare in the Dennis Hopper season. The Last Movie is playing on Saturday at 21:15.

There’s also a rare chance to see Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s eerily prophetic 1970s cyber-thriller World On A Wire, which is playing on Tuesday at 19:30 from a restored print. My big recommendation for the week is Ted Kotcheff’s recently reappraised, restored and reloved Wake In Fright (1971), a teacher’s haunting journey through the sweating drunken stink of Australia’s underbelly. It’s … amazing.

This week’s Danish On A Sunday offers a chance to see The Salvation, a Danish western (first for everything) directed by Kristian Levring and starring Mads Mikkelsen (with spoken English). It starts at 14:15 and an extra 40kr will get you coffee and pastry.

Over at Huset this week there’s no Rocky Horror – but if gender-bending is your bag, you might consider this less musical option. The annual Transgender Film Festival selects the best films from Germany’s Kiel Transgender Fest and runs from next Wednesday through to Thursday. (MW)