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Cinema reviews: Mississippi Grind & Maya the Bee

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MISSISSIPPI GRIND (15)
4 stars
Lady Luck deals us a winning hand with writer-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s coolly assured character study.

Earlier this year, Mark Wahlberg headlined an ill-conceived remake of James Toback’s seminal 1974 drama The Gambler.

Mississippi Grind shuffles its cards from the same well-thumbed narrative deck and even features a pivotal cameo from Toback in the film’s closing moments, when the fates of battered and bruised players rest on the turn of one card or the roll of a die.

For all its familiarity, Fleck and Boden’s picture executes its characters’ fall from grace with clinical precision, demanding big risks from actors Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds as men who make life-altering decisions on the toss of a coin.

The filmmakers’ gamble pays off handsomely: the two leads deliver unselfconscious and heart-wrenching performances, dripping with the sweat of desperation and self-loathing.

Ryan Reynolds, left, and Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind
Ryan Reynolds, left, and Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind

As Reynolds’ cool-headed chancer correctly remarks: “This story does not have a happy ending.”

That’s not to say that this is a gut-punch of endless misery and gloom.

The script has flashes of comedy and humour, and the actors’ winning onscreen chemistry harks back to a bygone era of Hollywood buddy movies.

Gerry (Mendelsohn) is a loveless and luckless real-estate agent in Dubuque, Iowa, who has borrowed thousands of dollars from a loan shark (Alfre Woodard) to finance his gambling habit.

Debts are spiralling and Gerry desperately needs one big win to keep the wolves from his door.

At a card game, he meets bourbon connoisseur Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), who lacks inhibitions because, in his own words: “I don’t care about winning.”

Curtis’s carefree attitude has a positive effect on Gerry’s fortunes and the gambler proposes that they join forces and head to New Orleans for a high-profile poker tournament that requires a $25,000 initial stake.

“I’ll play; you’ll be my lucky charm,” enthuses Gerry. “We’ll split the winnings, even-Steven.”

Thus the two men hit the road, pit-stopping in St Louis, Memphis and Little Rock to amass the money.

En route, the unlikely buddies cross paths with working girls Simone (Sienna Miller) and Vanessa (Analeigh Tipton) and Gerry blunders into an awkward reunion with his aggrieved ex-wife, Dorothy (Robin Weigert).

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Mississippi Grind achieves its modest ambitions with style and artistry, vividly sketching a modern-day bromance that threatens to come apart at the booze-soaked seams.

The script falls a couple of spins short of hitting an emotional jackpot, but it’s difficult to see how the writer-directors could achieve that kind of crescendo without some clumsy contrivance.

Fleck and Boden place their unerring trust throughout in Mendelsohn and Reynolds, filming pivotal scenes of doubt and despair in uncomfortable close-up, so we have nowhere to hide from the characters’ pain.

Every time they lose and lament, we win.

 

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MAYA THE BEE (U)
3 stars
Based on the German children’s book by Waldemar Bonsels, Maya the Bee is a cutesy and inoffensive romp for preschoolers who have grown up with Dora the Explorer and her animated kin.

Alexs Stadermann’s film – a co-production between Australia, Germany and Belgium – has a lively vocal cast and a palette of retina-searing primary colours that should prevent parents buzzing off for a cheeky power nap.

The quality of the animation is basic and the script follows a linear
path as the eponymous protagonist shows her winged brethren that different species can live in harmony if they just open their hearts to each other.

Sentimentality, as sticky and sweet as the honey gathered by Maya’s swarm, drips from every frame.

Older audiences, hoping for some of the artistry and sophistication of A Bug’s Life, Antz or Bee Movie, will be sorely disappointed.

Fin Edquist and Marcus Sauermann’s script trades heavily in insect puns for chuckles, but does unexpectedly manage one belly laugh with some clever wordplay involving a platoon of marching ants.

Busy Bee 396 – or Maya (voiced by Coco Jack Gillies) as she is christened – bursts into the world and excitedly savours every sight of the hive.

Her teacher at Bee-School, Miss Cassandra (Justine Clarke), encourages her to explore, but some of Maya’s escapades incur the wrath of royal advisor Buzzlina Von Beena (Jacki Weaver).

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It transpires that Buzzlina and her snivelling hench-sect Crawley (Noah Taylor) are plotting to steal the royal jelly that keeps The Queen (Miriam Margolyes) on the throne.

Without this miraculous tonic, the monarch’s health will fail and Buzzlina can seize the throne and declare war on the hornets led by Hank (Andy McPhee).

A chance encounter between The Queen and Maya sets the young stinger on her path to adventure.

“Every bee has a role to play,” counsels the hive leader, inspiring Maya to venture into the surrounding meadow, where she befriends a young hornet called Sting (Joel Franco) and a grasshopper called Flip (Richard Roxburgh).

The great outdoors is viewed with terrible suspicion by the other bees.

“Stay in the hive. Stay alive,” they chant.

However, plucky and spirited Maya shows them that bees can forge alliances with their neighbours, while exposing Buzzlina’s nefarious plot with the help of best friend Willy (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

Maya the Bee doesn’t outstay its welcome at 88 minutes, setting up Buzzlina as a pantomime villainess who must be brought to justice by the end credits.

Nine-year-old Gillies radiates sweetness as the humming heroine, who has “got more spark than a barrel full of lightning bugs”.

Weaver, Margolyes and co offer solid supporting vocal performances, keeping the film airborne when dialogue falls flat.