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| Brazil (1985) |
It's rare that I have to do this, but I really need to take this movie act by act in order to properly explain my opinions of it. The opening third of this movie has a very distinct 'Monty Python' feel to it, which is only natural since Terry Gilliam made the film. A lot of the humour feels like it's coming from a very British demeanor, and it generally works. I love the juxtaposition of the mundane with the bizarre, the bureaucracy with the ridiculous. Breaking into someone's home to take them captive and asking their wife to sign for a receipt; stuff like that is really funny to me, and there's a lot of that throughout the film, though it's mostly present in the first half. The world itself is a fairly interesting one; it feels like an absurdist's take on Blade Runner, which is really something I wish more people would try with the dystopian, cyberpunk stories. It's all well and good to have a story set in that kind of world and have it take itself seriously and discuss themes relevant to our reality today like all good sci-fi should do, but every now and then, you need something a little different to spice things up. The film does address themes that are relevant to our society, but it goes about it in a different manner. This is a world where one little bureaucratic error leads to a ridiculous amount of carnage; there's definitely themes there, but it's also hilariously stupid. The film tries to blend these two ideas throughout the entire movie, and when it's done right, it's wonderful. When it's not... well, I'll get there.
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| Jonathan Pryce as Sam Lowry |
In the second act, we get the main bulk of the story: our main character attempting to save someone who gets accidentally caught up in the scandal and branded a terrorist. It's here I'll mention that Jonathan Pryce is absolutely incredible in this movie. He himself has called this role one of his favourites he's ever taken on, and I can certainly see why. He plays the 'everyday man' really well, but can easily flip the switch and play the fish-out-of-water-going-mad when he needs to. You just feel for him; he never had any ambitions out of life, and the film does a good job of not portraying that as a character defect, you just want him to have a quiet life. I particularly love his dynamic with Michael Palin, who, incidentally, is a criminally underrated member of the Monty Python crew. I've always loved the way he plays his characters; he rarely goes too over-the-top, and he plays it incredibly believably: even in this ridiculous world, I can believe someone like that exists. The middle section of the movie is also where the relationship between Lowry and Jill is developed, though not nearly as much as I would have liked. Lowry's obsession I can understand, especially after Jill's life is threatened, but Jill herself jumps onboard way too quickly. She goes from 'You're an asshole' to 'We're in love' almost instantly, and by the end of the movie I genuinely don't think we learned a single thing about who she is as a person.
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| Michael Palin as Jack |
The final act of the movie... I can't even begin to describe it. I won't dare try to tell you what happened, not just because of spoilers, but because I'm not confident in my ability to accurately use my words to sum it all up. I'm sure it makes sense in retrospect, and I think I get it now, but that's the problem. For a solid 30 minutes or more, I was really struggling to keep up with what was going on. It's this insane rollercoaster of... things happening, and especially in a film's climax, you really want your audience to be able to follow it. In that sense, I felt the movie was perhaps 20 minutes too long. I don't know, it's just that everything I've talked about in this paragraph felt like it happened after the film had already wrapped up, which just led to more confusion. Of course, had the movie ended where I thought it was going to, I would have had a problem with that as well, so I don't know; I guess this movie can't win in that regard. It's just a case of now that I know what they were going for I can appreciate it, but it was one of the most confusing movie experiences I've ever had while it was happening. This is what I was talking about earlier with the film not being able to blend its two style effectively enough. Where the movie ends in terms of its tone is significantly different from where the movie began, and because of the segmented nature of the acts, the pacing felt slightly off as a result. It wasn't as seamless as the movie would have liked it to be.
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| Kim Greist as Jill |
I don't want it to sound like I didn't like this movie, because I genuinely do. Like I said, a lot of the issues I have with the movie were resolved in retrospect, even (partly) the nature of the relationship between Lowry and Layton. There's a lot to love about this movie besides. The production value is wonderful, the sets are teeming with detail, and you can really tell this movie inspired a lot of other films that came after. Tim Burton took inspiration from this movie when he was making his original Batman movie, which was the first film I ever reviewed, so I feel like I'm contractually obliged to love this film. The acting across the board is great, even from the minor actors like Jim Broadbent, and Robert De Niro stole the show any time he was on screen. In general, this feels like a movie I would appreciate more on a second viewing, which is a fancy way of saying that this is a very intelligent movie. Amidst all the chaos, there's a great story with great themes and characters, as well as a world that really feels like it was thought out and developed as much as it could have been. It's a mindf*** in places, but the movie itself is very likeable. I liked it.
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| Robert De Niro as Tuttle |
Brazil (1985) is not my favourite movie, but it's far from bad. Far from perfect, as well, but there's too much good stuff in here for me to not recommend it. Just be aware that it's not one of those 'turn your brain off' movies. You'll need your brain for this one.God help you. 8/10.
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