Doctor Strange

Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange is an above average popcorn picture. The role of the doctor is Sherlock redux for Benedict Cumberbatch: a brilliant and arrogant rationalist (in this case a brain surgeon) who lacks any form of empathy. A car accident robs the Doc of his surgical skills, but a mysterious sage, a perfectly cast Tilda Swinton, gets him in touch with his hidden superpowers. Swinton and Cumberbatch have a good rapport and it is a credit to the film that their relationship and not the CGI is the most exciting thing in it.

Swinton's sage bring the Doc's ego down a notch or twelve, whilst freeing him from the tyranny of Western mind/body dualism. Mads Mikkelsen and Rachel McAdams, superb performers both, are largely wasted as "the villain" and "the girl". Ben Bratt and Chiwetel Ejiofor fare better. Director Derrickson's background is in horror and he keeps the pace brisk. (6/17/17)
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
  • High Time
    Blake Edwards' High Time  is a simple minded Bing Crosby vehicle that Edwards transforms into a pop tone poem of color and music. The st...
  • L'Eclisse
    Monica Vitti listens to the wind rustling through the trees in L'Eclisse Like Last Year at Marienbad , Michelangelo Antonioni's ...
  • The Rain People
    Shirley Knight and James Caan in The Rain People Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People , from  1969,  is a road movie that explores the...
  • Le Bonheur
                            Agnes Varda's Le Bonheur   (happiness or "the Good Hour"), from  1965 , is a skillful and accomplished...
  • Dante's Inferno
                  Henry Lachman's Dante's Inferno  is a structurally saggy vehicle for Spencer Tracy, his last film for Fox, that has so...