KING KONG This reviewer's expectations were high for a remake produced 72 years after the much-loved original was released. This KING KONG does not disappoint. The film sneaks up, grabs the viewer in the palm of it's hand and proceeds to alternate between shaking one senseless and presenting genuinely tender moments. KING KONG encapsulates our cultures obsession with: money; the spectacle, vicarious thrills and photogenic violence that distract us from the struggle of daily existence; the manifest shining of spotlights on every dark place on the map and world-paving ambition; and our appalling exploitation and lack of respect for non-human creatures. The film opens in depression era New York, 1933, at the Central Park Zoo in winter, where the nearby shantytown's human inhabitant's lives are nearly as bad as those of the zoo itself. The zoo animal's misery, and their collision with New York's harsh climate and cold concrete foreshadow Kong's (Andy Serkis) own. Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is a struggling vaudeville performer with dreams of legitimate theater, illustrated by her great admiration of playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody). When the theater she works at goes out of business and she fails to be cast in Driscoll's current production, she takes the casting director's advice and goes to check on a job in burlesque. Film director Carl Denham (Jack Black) finds out from his latest producers that his unfinished film has lost it's financing, his footage will be sold as stock, and his lead female actor has quit. Rushing to the same burlesque theater that Ann has to replace his actor, he witnesses Ann's rejection of a career in stripping and convinces her to star in his Jack Driscoll written film project. Coercing his hired ship's captain into an early departure Carl steals his footage, kidnaps his writer, and takes his cast and crew to sea on the pretext of a location shoot in Singapore. Producing a map to the mysterious Skull Island, he agrees to pay extra for a change of course. When the ship's Captain Engelhorn (Thomas Kretschmann) learns that Carl is wanted by the authorities he refuses to go further, but is thwarted by fog, which surrounds Skull Island, and the ship runs aground on the rocks surrounding it's coast. Ann and Jack have by now started a tentative relationship which is interrupted when the film's cast and crew are attacked by the islands human inhabitant's, who have been driven brutal and insane by their awful existence caught between the harsh rocky island coast and the viscous prehistoric creatures which populate most of the island. Jackson attempts to avoid racist accusations by depicting the islanders as a ethnic mish mash, leading one to assume that the descendants of the original inhabitants have been mixed with other stranded peoples. Ann is eventually kidnapped by the islanders and is offered up for sacrifice to their living god Kong, an enormous gorilla, in the continued hope that he will not slaughter the entire community. Kong takes Ann and disappears into the jungle. Braving a wide variety of terrifying beasts, Ann's rescue party suffers great loss of life and Carl loses all of the footage he has filmed on the island as well as his movie camera. Ann meanwhile uses her skills as a stage comedian and acrobat to distract Kong and eventually wins his love, and herself develops a deep affection for her new protector. Now on his own, Jack manages to rescue Ann and makes for the ship. When Kong follows, he is drugged and captured, despite Ann's objections, creating a deep rift between her and both Jack and Carl. Kong is taken to New York where Carl puts him on display as the star of a Broadway musical. Coming out of his stupor, Kong is enraged to find a stand in for Ann being presented to him and escapes into the city night, leaving a path of destruction in his search for her. After seizing and discarding several blonde-haired girls that he mistakes for Ann, Kong recognizes Jack on the street, crushes his car, and renders him unconscious. At that moment, Ann appears, distracting Kong and saving Jack's life. Kong takes her and they have a quite moment bonding on an ice pond before the military begins to attack them. Kong takes her to the highest perch in sight, the Empire State Building where bi-planes shoot him to death in front of a horrified Ann. Jack appears and a distraught Ann falls into his arms, Kong falls to the street, and New York is supplied with several years worth of hamburger meat and fur coats. Naomi Watts (Ann Darrow) and Andy Serkis (King Kong and Lumpy the cook) are the backbone of the film and provide it's emotional core. Watts provides a stunning performance, conveying simultaneously qualities of vulnerability, strength, resourcefulness and inner beauty. Serkis gives Kong a believably sympathetic animal persona, only lapsing into too human-like behavior when the storyline's forward motion demands it, but never in a forced or unconvincing manner. Serkis' performance is a groundbreaking one, combining use of computer interpreted motion capture technology and on set call and response with Watts. Together they create an on screen chemistry that outshines the (deliberately) lower-watt spark between Watts and Adrien Brody (Jack Driscoll) and indeed the purely human relationships in many lesser motion pictures. Jack Black (Carl Denham), reportedly modeled his performance after the adventurer and producer of the original 1933 KING KONG Merian C. Cooper, the physicality of director Orson Wells, and perhaps even Peter Jackson himself. Black brings chutzpa and comic energy to his role, pitching his performance a half step above reality and providing the main thrust of the story's action. Brody give a slouching, suitably low-key performance as a playwright who must rise to the occasion and save the day. His finely controlled acting helps to bring reality to a fantastic storyline. Thomas Kretschmann (Captain Engelhorn) also gives a reality pitched performance conveying the necessary straight-backed strength and skepticism needed to provide a foil to Black's manic performance. Colin Hanks (Preston) as Carl Denham's young assistant also provides a counterpoint to Black's energy, growing from astonished naiveté to jaded man of the world. Peter Jackson's masterful direction conveys the full scope of experience necessary to the grand canvas of this story arc. From the quietest moment to the largest action set piece, Jackson never missteps, helping his actors believably place themselves in the fantastic milieu which for the most part could not have existed physically for them at the time of filming. The cameras, real and virtual, perfectly capture both the small and large moments. Calm and still initially, then suitability lurching for the motion-sickness inducing sea peril, sweeping across and thorough the primordial jungles of Skull Island and concrete jungles of New York, and culminating in non-stop movement for the stunning and vertiginous climax through the streets of the city and atop the Empire State Building. Making frequent and humorous reference to the original, Jackson manages to both pay homage to and update the story for a modern audience unused to the visual lack of color and leisurely pace of films from cinema's early days. His insistence on creating as believable a world as possible in which to set the fantasy well serves the story. Setting the film in 1933 was perhaps his most important decision, as this was the last era in which it would be believable that there might be unexplored places in the world. He also wisely avoids turning up the heat too soon on the Ann/Jack relationship, knowing that this would get in the way of Ann's eventual enchantment by Kong. The visual creation of location, flora, and fauna in the film is a stunning achievement. Jackson helps you believe that the creatures are actually the descendants of prehistoric animals, which have benefited from millions of years of continued evolution. These are presented with fanged and drooling reality, their breath rushing loud and frightening. Everything from the largest Tyrannosaur, down to the blood-sucking mosquitoes is lovingly and expertly rendered. The background music provides the right touch throughout, swelling to enormous proportions then down to single note understatement, supporting the story points admirably without ever drawing unnecessary attention to itself. While this monster movie is mainly aimed at teen-aged boys (Jackson has stated publicly the he made this film for his inner nine year old, the person deeply effected originally by the 1933 KING KONG), the exotic adventure and beautifully realized love triangle should appeal to young girls and adults of both sexes. The film successfully recreates the excitement of the original, while providing a stronger and more resourceful female character and a wider cinematic scope. The films many excessive flaws could be forgiven, after all, this is a love letter from a nine year old boy trapped in a grown man's body, and love letters are given to hormonal exaggerations. In one case, the mainly commendable inclination towards rounding out and giving depth to the characters works against the movie when Denham is given two separate moments of honest and guilty regret, once at the island chasm and one in the ruined theater, but they are too brief, compared to the great harm his ambitions have caused and beg for greater emotional distress. This was completely side stepped in the original, as Denham had no guilt whatsoever there. (At least not until SON OF KONG when within the first three minutes of the film he lays out his guilt and bemoans the fact that three-quarters of New York is suing him!) The film is rated PG-13 for frightening adventure violence and some disturbing images. This film is not for small children, and this viewer was dismayed at the amount of parents with young ones at the screening attended.
Joe Dean 12/22/05
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