Män som hatar kvinnor (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009)

If they'd kept the original Swedish title ('Men Who Hate Women') of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it might have aptly summarised the heart of the matter in Stieg Larsson's blockbusting crime novel, but with hindsight would probably have been commercial suicide.
Nevertheless, particularly as time constraints have clearly forced the film to do away with much of the novel's corporate intrigues, a lot of woman-hating is what we get. Initially, it's against the person of Lisbeth Salander, a punky computer hacker who's very damaged goods, and then in a wider sense against a wider swathe of the Swedish female populace, as a serial killer story unfolds.
This might otherwise be another Von Trieresque piece, with a male Scandinavian director showing his empathy for women by having society shit mercilessly on them. What makes it more palatable is that Lisbeth refuses to be a victim, and the momentum for her revenge on her persecutors becomes inexorable. It helps a lot that Noomi Rapace proves a strong choice for the role, and that the location choices in particular are immaculate, and if Larsson's clear casting of himself as the middle-aged male lead Mikael Blomkvist, the writer thereby having his cake and eating it, survives through a tad too intact from the source, it's still an easy 2½ hours, boding well for the equally hefty sequels.

7/10

Alice in den Städten (Wim Wenders, 1974)

Alice in the Cities dates to Wenders's German period in his decades-long fixation with the road movie, and reminds us that while he's never got to grips with structure - there's always at least one scene in which the dialogue loses focus and meanders stagily, looking for something deep to say - there's always been a concomitant emotional warmth in his gentle explorations. Here, after a shakily philosophising start, the story gets some impetus behind it as Rüdiger Vogler, a journalist down to his last dollars and out of inspiration, is stuck with a 9-year-old girl whose mother does a runner just before their return to Germany from the States. He's then left as a reluctant father figure to the girl, making their way through various German towns in search of her relatives. This could be unbearably cute in the wrong hands, but there's a saving understatement in their odd-couple relationship that provides some quite affecting moments. Like its protagonists, it never really ends up anywhere, but the scenery on the way is pleasant enough.

6/10

Gegen die Wand (Fatih Akin, 2004)

Head On starts as a romance of severely dysfunctional, suicidal characters, Turks attempting to break out from their cultural niche in modern-day Germany, who enter a marriage of mutual convenience, and then find that their dislocation from their feelings can't hold out against the enforced proximity to a kindred soul.
The leads, Birol Ünel and Sibel Kekilli, are so captivatingly impassioned that most of the story passes until it becomes apparent that Akin doesn't know how to finish his parable, except as the universal fallback of the auteur too proud to take advice, the open-ended denouement. It's a great shame, as there's so much vitality on show for most of their saga. Still, it's mature work, and should in no way prejudice anyone against such a potentially insightful artisan.

6/10

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Gavin Hood, 2009)

By all rights, this should have been a catastrophe on the scale of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Not only shackled by having to stretch out a back story that has already been adequately explained, but stuck with the necessity to bridge a continuity gap to an increasingly wobbly moneyspinner on the strength of Hugh Jackman's admittedly impressive pecs and glower alone. So it comes as quite a revelation that a decent director actually took this on. If you haven't seen Hood's township crime drama Tsotsi, do. He's managed to invest a bogstandard torrent of superhero hack-and-slash script with enough wit that it's not only not painful, but probably because of lowered expectations, quite entertaining. Plus Liev Schreiber is maybe one of the most charismatic heroes or villains that Hollywood has to give us, now that the likes of Jack Palance are gone.

5/10

Terminator Salvation (McG, 2009)

...in which the remaining life gets squeezed out of a franchise which already seemed to be DOA, by a director whose name you'd be forgiven for doing a double-take on. Surely it can only be an Alan Smithee-type pseudonym? No, this one really exists and it's no surprise that pop videos are pretty much the extent of his oeuvre. This turns out as a lot of directionless sound and fury, which manages to divert just by virtue of its relentless pace, but will infuriate anyone wishing for plot continuity or any other purpose as to why it was made. Granite-jawed Ben Affleck-a-like Sam Worthington wakes up in the nightmare future and is rather upset to find out he's not wholly human any more. Christian Bale scowls a lot. The past gets rewritten once again. And that's about all.

4/10

Mon Meilleur Ami (Patrice Leconte, 2006)

My Best Friend lets permafixture of French cinema of the last twenty years, Daniel Auteuil, exercise his harassed hangdog character to the full as antisocial Paris antique dealer Francois Coste, who's challenged by his business partner to come up with proof of having at least one friend. His path eventually crosses that of a quizshow-obsessive taxi driver (Dany Boon) who agrees to take him under his wing to give him pointers on how to avoid scaring people off.
All the ingredients for a light comedy, then, in the mould of Le Dîner de Cons, but this is Patrice Leconte and the closest he ever gets to comedy is something like the combat of acid wit of 1996's Ridicule. The intent here is clearly social comment on loneliness, but the point gets lost amidst Coste's circle of accusers all coming across as lacking human warmth far more than the accused, whereas he should have started out truly unlikeable to pack some emotional welly into his inevitable Damascene conversion. Still, a dependably Auteuilistic turn and an endearing one from Boon pull us through the briars.

6/10