Movie Review: KING KONG (2005)
King Kong (2005)–****
Wow. Just when you thought the effects blockbuster was dead, here comes Peter Jackson with a remake of a classic film and nailing each of the film’s 187 minutes. King Kong, may or may not be considered a fantasy, but it certainly is fantastic. I loved this film not only because it is a massive epic of an adventure film, but also because Jackson has returned at least partially to his roots with the monster movie to end all monster movies.
What does an overly ambitious director do when his investors pull out and tell him to stop making his film? He jumps on board a ship headed to an unexplored island to finish it anyway. At least that’s what a filmmaker like Carl Denham (Jack Black) would do. With the female lead dropping out of the production, the fast-talking director manages to find a quick replacement in the out-of-work Vaudvillian Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and gets her on board the ship before it leaves port.
Denham solves his script problems (you know, not having one) by conning the writer Jack Driscoll into coming on the ship long enough for it to set sail with Driscoll aboard. Doing his best work as a con-man, Denham fools most of the film and ship crew into thinking they are going to Singapore. When everyone finds out they are going to a place called Skull Island things get hairy for Denham.
It’s too late to turn back, though. The crew finds this out rather quickly when the ship gets stuck among the rocks of Skull Island. The ship’s crew tries to free the boat so they can turn back, but the ever-ambitious Denham hauls his filmmaking team to the shores of Skull Island to shoot his epic romance. Things get hairy again when the team discovers a large rock wall and are to be attacked by native islanders. People die and the natives take a liking to Miss Darrow, but the crew makes it back to the ship.
Darrow, however, doesn’t stay long. She is kidnapped and taken back to island where she is served up as a sacrifice to the giant ape Kong that resides behind the wall. The crew of course goes to rescue her (Denhem goes to finish his film), but not before Darrow and the great ape find a connection that sticks with them until their tragic parting.
In the 1933 King Kong, the Darrow/Kong connection is a mere plot point in a hokey, but historic film. In the 1976 version, the relationship comes uncomfortably close to bestiality. In 2005, Peter Jackson tells the story honing in on the heartbreaking tragedy of the beauty meets beast saga and makes one hell of an adventure film while doing it.
Maybe that’s why I loved this film so much. Unlike George Lucas or James Cameron, Jackson is able to tell a love story amid a grand adventure. He found the heart of this story like Spielberg would have had he remade the film. Jackson mixed that heart with a De Mille-sized epic to create what will undoubtedly become a classic.
Much can be said about the visual effects, but once again, one character actor is the real star of a Peter Jackson film. Andy Serkis, the man who gave Kong his movements like he did Gollum inThe Lord of the Rings, turns what is normally just an ape into a man-beast, with the emphasis on the man. There’s an emotional weight carried in the way Serkis performs as the CGI Kong. It’s really not a surprise after watching him play Gollum, but it certainly is a wonder to watch him perform. Mr. Jackson, if you’re smart, you might just give Serkis a try at playing Mr. Harvey in you’re next film The Lovely Bones. It’s a character to which a man with his talents could do justice.
Playing opposite Serkis’ great ape is Naomi Watts. Watts is a marvel in this film, playing Ann Darrow with the longing of a woman in need of a true companion. Yes, she does fall in love with Jack Driscoll, but there’s a part of her that is with Kong. While I don’t want to reduce her relationship with Kong, there is a sense that it isn’t a love that can be reproduced with Driscoll, like the love of a long time friend. Jealous at times at loosing her to a guy or to distance or the powers that be, Kong still found Darrow at the time when Darrow needed to find Kong. That type of relationship, my friends, will last a lifetime.
Kong’s life isn’t long and anyone familiar with the other two films knows how this film is going to end. In the case of the Peter Jackson version, the ending is accompanied by tears. It’s unusual to find a blockbuster with an emotional core as strong as King Kong‘s. Maybe it has more of an Old Yeller effect than a Titanic effect, but I’d challenge you to prove that the Old Yeller heartbreak isn’t more honest than that of Titanic.
King Kong isn’t a challenging film like I expect most great film’s to be, but it is a film that succeeds in an old-Hollywood, ego and craft over dollars and cents, sort of way. Jackson here melded his own eccentric styles (the maggots with fangs in his pit sequence!) with grand filmmaking of yesteryear. And he did it with the power and know how of a true master of the medium.
I’m starting to gush now so I’ll just end with this. King Kong is a masterpiece, pure and simple. It’s a film that no one asked to for and now everyone should be glad they received it. Jackson took a film that he loved so much (and I love so much) and made it into something beyond what even Merian C. Cooper could have envisioned. He took his Tarantino-esque love and knowledge of a film and turned it into the grandest spectacle of 2005, and maybe even the decade (yes that includes The Lord of the Rings). Thank you, Mr. Jackson for this film. Thank you.
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