Icon commenting on my topic, not my life
So I went in with reservations, obviously. I also, however, went in with a serious jones for Daniel Craig, so those two things may have canceled each other out.'>
Okay, so last night I watched this movie, The Invasion. It's a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, one of my favorite movies, a movie that already got one of the best remakes out there in the 70s with Donald Sutherland and his Amazing 'Stache of Doom.
So I went in with reservations, obviously. I also, however, went in with a serious jones for Daniel Craig, so those two things may have canceled each other out.
The movie is surprisingly good, I've got to say. It's a very effective thriller, though the action finale goes on a bit long for my taste, and there are certainly problems.
The pod people are a little bit too alien, for the most part -- they're too easy to tell from the humans right off the bat. Some of them are better than others, too -- Carol's secretary is a nice is-she-or-isn't-she moment, but most of the aliens, you find yourself wondering, how do they get through even two or three days without everyone around them suspecting them of being either Coneheads or quaalude addicts?
In addition to the many little references and in-jokes, this version also recalls the original in having its ending monkeyed around with by the studio. I don't know that for a fact, but good lord. I rolled my eyes so hard I almost fell over.
Nicole Kidman has really remarkable chemistry with the child actor they have playing her son. It's good, because she has zero chemistry with Daniel Craig, sadly. It kind of makes me think that their relationship was probably less platonic in the original cut, and then somebody with sense got ahold of it and was like, "No." I mean, the movie sorta sells it, but really only on the amazing charisma of Daniel Craig. You believe the relationship mostly because he's lovely and you identify with her, so presto, it's lurve.
Jeffrey Wright, despite being saddled with selling The Deus Ex Machina What Ate Pittsburgh, is marvelous. He should be in everything. Which is good, because I've noticed lately that he kind of is.
Roger Rees should also be in everything and isn't, and that's a problem for me. But he's in this, and he gets to VO the last line, because if nothing else, Roger Rees should VO the last line of every movie. And if we can't even manage that, at the very least he should narrate my life, because if he did it would be far more interesting and cleverly written. He can do that, you see -- everything that comes out of his mouth is cleverly written, even when it's dreck.
Speaking of things coming out of people's mouths, I could have done without all the vomiting. Euch. And yet, while the convincing vomiting grossed me out, the unconvincing vomiting by the crowd on the train, while still kinda gross just on the strength of its volume, was the least convincing vomiting since Linda Blair's stand-in spat pea soup all over Father Karras. They may have used the same Dick Smith rig from The Exorcist for all the train people, actually, because you could almost see the little nozzle between their jaws, just like you can in The Exorcist.
The whole concept of infectious disease spreading pod-iness -- there aren't technically any pod people here, since there aren't pods anymore, but "pod people" now means more than just "dopplegangers grown in pods" -- I liked it, actually. Frankly, partly because "pod people" is such a part of our vocabulary, it seems vaguely ridiculous when you see it in the original movie, the actual plant pods growing people. (In the 70s remake it's way gross. Way gross. And thus avoids being ridiculous.) The idea of the replacement as an infection, and as something that can be spread like an infection -- the mass vaccinations are especially chilling -- this seems like a nice updating.
That said, there's a trifle too much goofy science going on. It's a hard balance to strike: you need to have just enough science to let people not feel stupid believing in pod people, but not so much that everyone who's taken AP Biology starts going, "But that's horseshit." They tip a little too far in that direction here, I feel.
I liked the little call-backs to previous versions. Both the prior movies had a scene where someone runs in front of the protagonist's car yelling about how "they're here!" and then later in the film, the protagonist is in the same position. I loved how Veronica Cartwright (the first to be aware of the pod people in the 70s remake and -- spoiler alert -- the only survivor at the end) was also in a very similar position here. And calling the protagonist Carol Bennell -- the original love interest Becky Driscoll becomes Ben Driscoll -- very nice.
The gender swap actually works particularly well, I thought. Carol is connected to everyone in her life in ways that the male protagonists never were, and I don't know if that's just a gender thing or what, but it keeps the emotional stakes higher, I think.
I also like the evolution of professions. In the original, Miles is a doctor and Becky is a... girl. In the sequel, Matthew is a health inspector and the girl is... well, a girl again. But also the villain (Leonard Nimoy!) is a psychiatrist. Here, Carol is a psychiatrist, and Ben is a doctor. Each is a subtle comment on authority and science in daily life.
I love movies shot on location, I really do. Especially when they're shot on location where I actually live.
I said a lot more about the problems, I know, but it is really a decent little movie with some nice scares. Nicole Kidman's actually really good, Daniel Craig is excellent, Jeremy Northam's creepy as hell.
I ought to say something about what the pod people are this time around -- Communists, new agers, they've always been something -- but honestly, I'm still trying to decide what that deeper comment here is, if there is one. I mean there's an obvious "emotions, bad and good, are what make us human" message, but that's so horrifically obvious, it would be a shame to waste An Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake, using one of the greatest ready-made open metaphors out there on something like that.