Film Reviews: 300, East of Havana

THE NAMESAKE See film feature (Showtimes)

NISHABD Writer-director Ram Gopal Varma’s scandalously anticipated new film was preceded by shrewd tactical whispers to the effect that it was a Bollywood remake of Lolita, with the 64-year-old masculine icon Amitabh Bachchan (think Eastwood or Newman) becoming enamored of a slinky 18-year-old. But Nishabd (The Silence) turns out to be an undeniably stylish, if also dizzyingly uneven, mixed bag, deeply affecting one minute and ludicrous the next; the fetishistic slow-motion shots of ingénue Jiah Khan cooling herself with a garden hose would not be out of place on a Playboy DVD. The sleek Khan is certainly a von Sternberg–worthy object of obsession, but Varma is locked into presenting her as an emblem of free-spirited modern youth, which for him seems to be synonymous with callow and rude and almost pathologically self-absorbed. For Jiah, Bachchan’s solid and self-contained Vijay is a prize she’s fixed on with a whim of iron, and if Varma had pushed her manipulations a bit further, the movie would be more interesting. In fact, our interest picks up considerably after the halfway point, when the movie teeters on turning into a thriller with the arrival of Jiah’s bouncy young college boyfriend, who hides out on the premises to surprise her unbeknownst to anyone but Vijay. No Hitchcock movie ever had a better setup for a stalk-and-kill finale, but Varma is after a bigger, more slippery fish — the “fear of aging and death” that draws the old man to the young girl. Varma’s honesty and seriousness are impressive, if not his showmanship. (Naz 8) (David Chute)

Don’t say a word. (Zeitgeist Films)

Related Content

• From Danny Boyle to The Big Bang Theory: Your Weekly Movie To-Do List
  March 6, 2013
• Five Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week, Including 'The Happiness Show'
  March 13, 2013
• Cuba at the Getty! Cuba at Track 16! Cuba at Kopeikin! What's With All These Cuba Exhibits?
  July 13, 2011
• Gatsby Is Sometimes Great But Not Always Good
  May 9, 2013
• From Highland Park to Venice Beach, Our New Columnist Finds That the Cocktail Moment Has Become a Movement
  May 3, 2012

More About

• Havana
• Philip Groning
• Nathan Lee
• Ram Gopal Varma
• Hip-Hop and Rap

THE ULTIMATE GIFT In the latest release from the faith-based division of 20th Century Fox, an oil-rich billionaire (James Garner) kicks the bucket and leaves a special bequest for his trust-fund-suckling grandson (Drew Fuller) — a gauntlet of hard work and hardship designed to give the boy an appreciation for the true value of a greenback. Among the tasks: toughing it out as a Texas ranch hand; living as a homeless person; and showing some genuine compassion for a debt-addled single mom (Ali Hillis) and her leukemia-stricken daughter (Abigail Breslin). If he succeeds, the “ultimate gift” of the movie’s title will be his — which, in case you haven’t figured it out, is one of those things you can’t buy with a MasterCard. Directed with accomplished impersonality by Michael O. Sajbel (One Night With the King), The Ultimate Gift means well and has a few surprises in store — this is not a movie you expect to climax in a tense jungle standoff with Ecuadorian drug runners — but too often feels like yet another self-flagellating Hollywood exercise about the corrosive power of wealth and the restorative benefits of getting down with the real soul people. It’s The Pursuit of Happyness made from the ivory tower looking down, instead of from the street looking up. (Selected theaters) (Scott Foundas)