Somewhere in the overlong “Golden Slumber” is an involving conspiracy thriller that could still be excavated for an international version. As it stands, Yoshihiro Nakamura’s adaptation of Kotaro Isaka’s novel dawdles so much during its first 100 minutes that, when the momentum starts to click, many auds will have given up the chase with the pic’s luckless hero. Late January release took a handsome $11 million in its first five weeks, but will doze outside Nippon.
Nakamura’s previous adaptation of an Isaka novel (“Fish Story”) managed to translate the author’s multicharacter leanings into a finally cohesive movie. But “Slumber,” with its Hitchcockian slant of an ordinary Joe, Aoyaga (Masato Sakai), unwittingly cast as the patsy in a high-up assassination of Japan’s prime minister, demands greater rigor on the bigscreen. As Aoyaga goes on the run, his ex-g.f. Haruko (Yuko Takeuchi), as well as an old cop and a hospital patient among others, help him turn the tables on his all-seeing pursuers, prior to a clever finale. En route, however, the humor isn’t quirky enough — a hooded serial killer is also on the loose — and pacing is slack. Tech package is fine.
Golden Slumber
Japan
Production:
A Toho Co. release of an Amuse Soft Entertainment, Toho, CJ Entertainment, Yahoo Japan, DY, KDDI production. (International sales: CJ, Seoul.) Produced by Yasushi Utagawa, Hitoshi Endo, Hisashi Usui. Executive producers, Tomoaki Harada, Minami Ichikawa. Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura. Screenplay, Nakamura, Tamio Hayashi, based on the novel by Kotaro Isaka.
Crew:
Camera (color), Takashi Komatsu; editor, Hirohide Abe; music, Kazuyoshi Saito; art director, Toshihiro Isomi; costume designer, Miwako Kobayashi. Reviewed at CinemaxX Potsdamer Platz 10, Berlin, Jan. 23, 2010. (In Berlin Film Festival -- Panorama; Hong Kong Film Festival.) Running time: 140 MIN.
Still looking for the latest and greatest movie, TV series or book to finish before the year is out? Why not ask the folks behind Hollywood’s favorite hits, what they’re reading and viewing this 2018. We reached out to the stars and creators behind the things you love (including Barry Jenkins, Steven Canals and Dan Levy) to [...]
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are starring in the independent historical drama “Ammonite,” a story inspired by the life of fossil hunter Mary Anning. The story is set in 1840s England, when Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever. Anning is [...]
BUENOS AIRES — “The Good Intentions,” the first feature of Argentina’s Argentina’s Ana García Blaya, won two industry prizes, including the top European Vision Prize, at the 2018 10th Ventana Sur, which wraps Dec. 14 in Buenos Aires. It shared a third. The award sweep, for a title in pix-in-pose section Primer Corte, was always [...]
The Shubert Theatre in New York City last was filled on Thursday night with Oscar winners, media titans, and, of course, Broadway legends who came out for the opening of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The starry guest list included Oprah Winfrey, Barry Diller, “Les Misérables” co-stars Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Gayle King, [...]
Desert playgrounds of the Coachella Velley beckon attendees of the upcoming Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival, getting under way Jan. 3. Veteran festgoers will notice some changes around town: the Hard Rock Hotel is again the Hotel Zoso, the Camelot Theaters now function under the auspices of the Palm Springs Cultural Center and there are [...]
Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns,” a sequel decades in the making, opens Dec. 19. Even before the 1964 original, Hollywood made several attempts to adapt P.L. Travers’ books, with Samuel Goldwyn and Katharine Hepburn among those involved in the chase. But aside from a one-hour 1949 CBS television version, they all hit a dead-end. The first [...]
In January, the Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival will celebrate its 30th birthday. It’s a celebration that came very close to never happening. Founded by then-mayor of Palm Springs Sonny Bono in 1989, the festival was launched the following year to boost post-holiday business and help put the desert enclave on the map as a [...]
