I hadn't intended to watch two movies starring my beauty icon (that garbage-bag and Dallas-hair Oscar look notwithstanding) two days in a row, but it just happened that way. So from mid-September, we have quick looks at Sleepwalking (seen Sept. 18 on DVD) and Battle in Seattle (seen Sept. 19 at the Angelika, with a Q&A afterward featuring Stuart Townsend, Martin Henderson and Charlize herself).
Is it sad that I'll be caught up with September reviews - I have one left to write - before August ones?
Charlize Theron takes on mommyhood in two indie flicks, relentlessly bleak Sleepwalking and earnest docudrama Battle in Seattle.
In the former, Theron’s selfish Joleen abandons her 11-year-old daughter (AnnaSophia Robb) with her brother, James (Nick Stahl), and then disappears for much of the movie. While Theron’s character certainly won’t win any Mother of the Year awards, Sleepwalking needs the actress’ natural spark to keep us from sleepily stumbling away. Otherwise, we’re left with a road trip across a landscape drained of color, filled with lengthy silences that director William Maher and screenwriter Zac Stanford want to imbue with significance. Instead, they contribute to Sleepwalking’s already-glacial nature. Dennis Hopper, as James and Joleen’s father, burns volcanic, in a Daddy Dearest kind of way.
Theron joins an ensemble in boyfriend Stuart Townsend’s writing and directing debut, Battle in Seattle, which re-creates the riots surrounding the 1999 World Trade Organization talks. Theron said she believes her Ella - first-time mom-to-be, cop’s wife (to Woody Harrelson), shopping blindly before tragedy - represents those who were unaware, and this arc clicks thanks to Theron’s and Harrelson’s performances. Otherwise, the protestors intrigue when they discuss organization and motivation, bore when Townsend pushes an affair between leader Jay (Martin Henderson) and rebel Lou (Michelle Rodriguez), and the awakened-journalist (Connie Nielsen) angle lacks development. Townsend said recently that while he knew his film wasn’t perfect, he wanted to enlighten people unfamiliar with the riots. In that respect, protestor Django (Andre Benjamin) sums up Battle in Seattle best: “People still may not know exactly what the WTO is, but they know that it’s bad.”
In evaluating Theron’s recent flicks, the “good mother” movie wins.
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