Somewhere In The Middle
Of course, there are a huge number of debuts that neither plumb the depths we’ve just been to, nor scale the heights of the first list, but fall somewhere on the spectrum in the middle. Profile-wise, one of the biggest disappointments, that apparently put him in “director’s jail” for more a decade, was Christopher McQuarrie’s “The Way of the Gun.” It’s hard to believe that any film that starts so promisingly, with Ryan Phillippe full-on punching Sarah Silverman in the mouth, can go so far downhill, but despite its gonzo and engaging opening half hour, the film soon sinks under its own weight, hampered by thin characterization, ludicrous overplotting and a director way, way too much in love with the prose on the page to bother trying to make it sound like dialogue from a human mouth. He kind of redeemed himself with “Jack Reacher,” though. Better, and actually just missing out on the top list was “The Lookout” from Scott Frank (“Out of Sight,” “Minority Report”) a very nicely handled low-key Joseph Gordon-Levitt-starring drama that makes us look forward to his next time at the helm with “A Walk Among the Tombstones.”
All-time great screenwriter Robert Towne made his first foray into direction with “Personal Best” which is still a pretty decent drama set among the women competing for a place on the US athletics Olympics team, even if it’s now become something of a pop-culture byword among men who felt early stirrings at its scenes of hardbodied lesbianism. And superstar “Blade,” “Batman Begins” and “Man of Steel” writer David S.Goyer’s “Zig Zag” has at least one champion among us, but we couldn’t track down a copy in time to watch, while David Koepp’s (“Mission: Impossible,” “Panic Room”) “The Trigger Effect” is an underrated little B-movie thriller documenting relationship and societal breakdown during a power blackout.
“LA Confidential” and “Mystic River” writer Brian Helgeland’s first time in the chair was the pretty tough and nasty Mel Gibson thriller “Payback” (which shares source material with “Point Blank” to give you an idea of the tone) and he recently hit a homerun with “42.”. Glenn Ficarra & John Requa graduated from writing partners on “Bad Santa” and “The Bad News Bears” remake to directing partners on the famously dithered-over-then-not-really-released “I Love You Phillip Morris,” while George Nolfi’s (“Ocean’s Twelve,” “The Bourne Ultimatum”) “The Adjustment Bureau” had terrific elements (we could have watched Matt Damon and Emily Blunt fall in love all day) but also had these dumb guys in hats running around and got really silly in its latter stages. Speaking of Emily Blunt, “The Jane Austen Book Club” was the directorial debut of Robin Swicord, the woman behind scripts for “Matilda,” “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Practical Magic” and it’s unlikely to change anyone’s life, but it’s a pretty decent romantic comedy nonetheless. And Alan Ball, who is probably better known as TV showrunner on “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood” but who of course is behind the screenplay for “American Beauty,” did big-screen directorial duty on “Towelhead” which we’re ashamed to say we haven’t caught up with yet, but we’ve heard some good things about.
At the lower end of the register, Nora Ephron’s first time directing “This Is My Life” is a fine, but forgettable story of a woman forced to choose between family and her stand-up career and nowhere near as good as stuff she’d do later, while Guillermo Arriaga (“Babel,” “Amores Perros” scripts) went back to the old “interconnecting stories” well for his debut “The Burning Plain” but with diminishing returns. “Braveheart” writer Randall Wallace’s take on “The Man With The Iron Mask” was handsomely mounted, competently acted and totally anonymous, directorially speaking. Regular Tim Burton collaborator John August took his first swing with “The Nines,” starring Ryan Reynolds, which tries just a bit too hard to be clever and tricksy without ever quite working out its own trick, but honestly, we’d take it over “Dark Shadows” or “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” any day. Susannah Grant (“Ever After” “Erin Brockovich” “In Her Shoes” sceenplays) directed “Catch and Release” as her debut, about a woman (Jennifer Garner) falling for her deceased fiancee’s best friend but it doesn’t hang together particularly well, despite chemistry between leads Garner and Timothy Olyphant. Finally, a sugary sweet duo for dessert: Zach Helm (“Stranger than Fiction”) tried a bit too hard to instil Awe and Wonder into his “Mr Magorium’s Magic Emporium,” overshot the mark and ended up in schmaltz. As did Mark Steven Johnson, writer of “Grumpy Old Men” who made his debut with “Simon Burch, ” an adaptation of John Irving’s beloved novel “A Prayer for Owen Meany” in which none of the book’s acerbic wit or darker tones remain, leaving a film that cloys and annoys as it tries so very hard to warm your heart. Still, Johnson went on to direct “Ghost Rider” so no harm, no foul.
As a final note we should also mention that we excluded a host of classic directors who may have initially started as screenwriters, but whose subsequent output as director, or writer/director, may have overshadowed their early days, like Federico Fellini (directorial debut — “Variety Lights”), Barry Levinson (“Diner”), Billy Wilder (“Mauvaise Graine”) Lawrence Kasdan (“Body Heat”)and Joseph Mankiewicz (“Backfire”). But of course, despite all this, we’ve missed out a load — tell us who below.