Free Willy (1993)
Directed by Simon Wincer
When maladjusted orphan Jesse vandalizes a theme park, he is placed with foster parents and must work at the park to make amends. There he meets Willy, a young Orca whale who has been separated from his family. Sensing kinship, they form a bond and, with the help of kindly whale trainer Rae Lindley, develop a routine of tricks. However, greedy park owner Dial soon catches wind of the duo and makes plans to profit from them.
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What critics compared Free Willy to
There’s no use pretending that the story has any purpose except to link the chase-ems-and-shoot-ems, but director Marc Forster (previously associated with semi-arty films “Monster’s Ball,” “Finding Neverland”) borrows heavily from the Bourne movies, racing through jagged close-ups that thrust you in the middle, gasping.
The director is Marc Forster who, you may recall, made a modest, unexpectedly touching drama, Monster’s Ball , with Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton (cost: $4 million) a dozen years ago.
Director Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball") takes a situation that is truly horrible, and by playing it straight, lands it in a zone of real disturbance and unease.
And with a huge budget (reportedly in the $200 million range), blockbuster looks (who can forget the swarming zombie shots featured in the Super Bowl ads) and a name director (Marc Forster who brought us "Quantum of Solace," "Finding Neverland," "Monster's Ball," etc.) orchestrating all of it, what could go wrong?
I have gravely mixed feelings about every movie on Marc Forster’s résumé, from “Monster’s Ball” to “Stranger Than Fiction” to “The Kite Runner” to the 2008 Bond film “Quantum of Solace,” but the guy is undeniably a stylistic virtuoso with a Michael Winterbottom-like ability to jump around from one genre to another.
But director Marc Forster, who has clearly left intimate dramas like "Monster's Ball" behind, keeps things moving at a frantic enough pace that they fly quickly by.
But Marc Forster, director of such character-based films as "The Kite Runner," "Finding Neverland" and "Monster's Ball," and the Bond film "Quantum of Solace," never reconciles these two approaches.
Something about the family doesn't quite click, either, despite some capable actors: Aja and co-writer Grégory Levasseur milk their six protagonists, especially the parents, for some quick jabs at libertarianism, gun worship, and religious fervor, assembling the kind of parodic "American" microcosm familiar from other European-helmed dramas like Monster's Ball and Manderlay, and with a corresponding failure to convince us that these stereotypes and figureheads constitute a plausible family.
Berry gives it her all, reminding you why she’s risen to greatness in better material (“Monster’s Ball”) and remains so watchable even in dreck like this.
My guess is Berry’s (Oscar-winning) participation in Monster’s Ball was the result of a paperwork mix-up.
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A provisional list of examples might include "Monster's Ball," "House of Sand and Fog" and "21 Grams."