December's Most Anticipated Films
by Brian Eggert
Theaters this December are home to several landmark directors. Not only is Martin Scorsese’s Hugo still gathering crowds, but David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method will be opening wider by Christmastime. But also coming this month, we have two films from Steven Spielberg, a new comedy from Roman Polanski, a thriller from David Fincher, the first live-action film from animation director Brad Bird, and another potent character study by Hunger director Steve McQueen. Not to mention films from Guy Ritchie, David Gordon Green, Cameron Crowe, and Tomas Alfredson. These are all major filmmakers debuting major releases just in time for awards season. This time of year, cinema gives us reason to be thankful.
The below list of films includes this site’s most anticipated releases of December. The choices—based on the quality of actors, director, story, and trailers—are pure guesswork and have no bearing on the inevitable review. For a complete list of upcoming releases and their respective movie trailers, visit the Calendar.
December 2:
Shame (Limited)
At this point, there’s no telling when Shame, director Steve McQueen’s follow-up to Hunger, will arrive in the Midwest, although it’s set to premiere on December 2. Minnesotans have enough trouble getting arthouse titles in our area as it is, but this film’s NC-17 rating won’t help MN audiences see it any faster. A hit on this year’s festival circuit, the film follows Michael Fassbender’s New Yorker Brandon, a sex addict whose indulgences are interrupted when his sister (Carey Mulligan) arrives at his place unannounced for an indefinite stay. Fassbender is getting much acclaim for his fearless (and very nude) performance, while McQueen has reportedly delivered another daring film. Next year, Fassbender and McQueen are teaming once again for Twelve Years a Slave, which also stars Brad Pitt and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Click here for the trailer.
December 9:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Limited)
A collection of the UK’s best character actors have assembled for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, an adaptation of John le Carré’s classic Cold War novel directed by Let the Right One In helmer Tomas Alfredson. The list of actors includes Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Headlining the cast, however, is Gary Oldman in his first leading role in years. Oldman plays veteran spy George Smiley, who’s asked out of retirement to locate a Soviet agent deep within MI6’s ranks. Twists and turns along the way aren’t presented in a typical thriller context with pulse-pounding chases and so forth; instead, expect a heavy spy drama filled with nuanced performances and Le Carré’s signature grasp of humanity and cynicism. Click here for the trailer.
The Sitter
The reason to see The Sitter is to determine whether David Gordon Green—once a prominent arthouse drama auteur who suddenly started making commercial comedies like Pineapple Express—will redeem himself after this year’s monumental dud Your Highness. This R-rated comedy enters into Adventures in Babysitting territory, with Jonah Hill starring as layabout whose reluctant night of babysitting suburban kids leads to a wild night in the city. The kid actors appear to have a lot of personality, which helps, and Hill remains husky for now (watch the trailer for next year’s 21 Jump Street to see Jonah Hill: action hero). Green reteams with his Snow Angels star Sam Rockwell, who plays a nasty drug dealer after Hill and the kids for some reason or another. Could be fun. Click here for the trailer.
December 16:
Carnage (Limited)
In Carnage, the latest from Roman Polanski, two sets of parents convene for an amiable meeting after their sons engage in a schoolyard brawl. The entire film takes place in an apartment. John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster play one couple; Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz play the other. Based on the play Yasmina Reza (which on Broadway featured James Ganolfini, Marcia Gay Hardin, Jeff Daniels, and Hope Davis), Polanski and Reza have updated the screenplay from playwright Christopher Hampton’s European rewrite. All the elements of a great Polanski film are here. A minimum of characters in a confined space, each reeling with varied emotions, and perhaps drinking too much—there’s bound to be a few surprises for those unfamiliar with the play. And could you ask for a better cast? Expect this largely comic, absurdist film to reinforce why the director of The Ghost Writer, one of best films of the last decade, is still a master filmmaker. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t arrive in Minnesota until mid-January, so if this one’s as good as it looks, there may be a late addition to 2011’s Top 10 List. Click here for the trailer.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (IMAX only; opens wide December 21)
Brad Bird, animation director behind The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, makes his live-action debut with the fourth entry into the Mission: Impossible franchise, and it looks like a good one. Tom Cruise returns, fit as ever and running in the exciting way only he can, in a plot that involves a Kremlin bombing and the IMF disbandment. Cruise teams with Simon Pegg and others (no Ving Rhames?) to clear their names. Reportedly, the film acts as a passing-of-the-torch from Cruise to costar Jeremy Renner, who’s slowly building his list of franchises, and will supposedly take over completely in “part 5”. After shooting the film’s wow-inducing action sequences, Bird announced he won’t likely return to animation again. Let’s hope Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is worth missing out on a sequel to The Incredibles. Click here for the trailer.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Guy Ritchie’s sequel to 2009’s entertaining Sherlock Holmes, sub-titled A Game of Shadows, looks like a Hollywood sequel in every way: It’s bigger, it’s louder, and probably a little stupider. Moreover, based on the trailer, there’s the added sigh-factor of characters repeating their funny lines from the first film (Sherlock, “Get that gun out of my face.” Watson, “It’s not in your face; it’s in my hand.”). And then there’s the uninspired casting of Jared Harris as iconic villain Professor Moriarty. He’s a talented actor to be sure, but hardly meets the star power demands of this franchise (Brad Pitt was originally rumored). Harris joins all the original players—Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachael McAdams—as well as the new additions of Noomi Rapace (star of the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Stephen Fry as Holmes’ brother Mycroft. Overall, the trailer looks like this series is voyaging further into action movie territory and away from the true spirit of Doyle’s stories. Let’s hope I’m wrong. Click here for the trailer.
December 21:
The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn
Although wildly successful in Europe, specifically France where the tale originated, the Steven Spielberg-directed stop-motion animation film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn already has a sequel in the works, called Prisoners of the Sun, to be directed by Peter Jackson after he’s finished with The Hobbit films. Whether or not this series will make a splash in the States remains to be seen, although given the lack of family-friendly releases this Christmas season, it may become a hot commodity for families of moviegoers. The story follows young investigator Tintin (voice of Jamie Bell) searching for a treasure on a sunken ship, but of course he’s not the only party searching for the treasure. The trailer looks atmospheric, exciting, and its use of mo-cap technology doesn’t appear to have delved into the Uncanny Valley. I'm sold. Click here for the trailer.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Swedish versions of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy didn’t appeal to me for a number of reasons; namely, their direction lacked finesse and the plots were filled with a problematic mix of feminist and sexually exploitative scenes. Fortunately, Noomi Rapace’s incredible performances made them bearable. And yet, watching the trailers for the English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I find my interest piqued. All of those elements that seemed humdrum or vague in the Swedish version look realized with Fincher’s signature craftsmanship. Even the book’s muddled feminist intentions appear clearer, as Daniel Craig’s journalist Mikael Blomkvist asks Rooney Mara’s Lisbeth Salander for her help to catch “a killer of women.” Cut to Salander, intrigued. Fincher’s version is reportedly 3-hours long, although the studio wants it trimmed down. But that’s the mistake made by the Swedish version—they were cut down and removed much of Lisbeth’s motivations. Let’s hope that like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fincher wins his battle against the studio on this, “The Feel Bad Movie of Christmas”. Click here for the trailer.
December 25:
War Horse
Spielberg’s second film due around Christmas is War Horse, a WWI epic whose sweeping visuals on display in the trailer are jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, which was also adapted into a Broadway play in which the central horse was played by actors in a horse suit, Spielberg has opted against that approach for his film, instead delivering a production that looks like his biggest in scope since Saving Private Ryan. The story follows a young boy, Albert (Jeremy Irvine), who takes to the trenches to find his horse, Joey, who has been commission into the cavalry. Spielberg’s cast is made up of some fine British character actors (David Thewlis, Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston, Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan), but the real performance here looks to be the lensing by Spielberg’s longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. Click here for the trailer.
December 30:
The Iron Lady
Meryl Streep probably began writing her Oscar acceptance speech as soon as she agreed to reteam with her Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd for The Iron Lady, a biopic about Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the UK. It’s not impossible for Streep to win her third Oscar, although her umpteenth nomination for her work here is all but set in stone. The film opens in very limited release on December 30, just in time to make awards consideration, and then opens everywhere on January 13, 2012, and so technically this won’t be a “December release”. No doubt, distributors at The Weinstein Company planned it that way to mirror the last-minute success of The King’s Speech over earlier 2010 releases like Inception and The Social Network. Click here for the trailer.
One Film You Shouldn't See
December 16:
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked
Jason Lee returns as Dave alongside computer-generated furballs in Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked, part of a terrorist plot by Twentieth Century Fox to make your children stupider. Along with this year’s The Smurfs, Hollywood has devious plans to numb the brains of your children and turn them into mindless consumer zombies. Did you ever see Romero’s Dawn of the Dead? Before long, your children will look like that, walking around a mall with an expressionless limp, unable to communicate without making some kind of pop-culture reference and accessing some “ap” on their iPhone. Don’t let this happen. Imbue your kids with a little culture. Rent Rango, or better yet take them to see Hugo. Hell, Arthur Christmas would do. Just don’t subject your children to this mindless commercial-of-a-movie. Click here for the trailer.