Across the River and Into the Trees
Beginning with the disarming lead actor is the relatively unsung Liev Schreiber, who is the cornerstone of Paula Ortiz’s delicate and elegant adaptation of one of Ernest Hemingway’s last stories titled “Across the River and Into the Trees.” Schreiber is such an actor who easily captures the attention of his audience I got caught up with his portrayal after years of watching recaps of “Ray Donovan” and he does it again here by what he doesn’t do instead of all the cliché-driven character constructs. Schreiber’s work integrates well with the storyline of a film that incorporates what many people would call one of the most perfect settings. This is a cliché and a tired one at that, nevertheless the place of action ‘Across the River, Only to the East’ is indeed a character in its own right. Ortiz and her personnel do not ignore the principles of the Venetian atmosphere and the many slices of Italy through the use of available light and hand-held shooting, which depict the city so full of beginnings and endings in a quite unique fashion.
Ortiz’s film is especially concerned with the last factor. Schreiber plays Richard Cantwell, an American Army Colonel who comes back to the land after World War ll, in the process of dying from an undefined sickness. He’s only gone for a trip to hunt ducks, yet his mind is seeking closure about the land that once caused him deep anguish so he employs a chauffeur (the slightly miscast Josh Hutcherson), only to abandon him soon to explore the city and meet a charming lass named Renata (Matilda De Angelis). In the novel, the intimacy between Richard and Renata is more pronounced, but here Ortiz steers clear of the “one last dash” missteps which Opperman’s work is less about any typical romance and more focused on the requirements of both characters, rather than the conventional archetype of an aged man and a young woman.
For this reason, most of the time in “Across the River and Into the Trees” is creative time, devoted to walk-and-talks between Schreiber and De Angelis whose personalities are diverse enough to be interesting to each other. BAFTA Winning and multi award nominated Peter Flannery continued quite successfully pulling the right strings between a rough Hemingway and a more soft spoken Mesopotamia. Certainly, cliches like “I have death sewn into the lining of my clothes, son,” stink of cliches. But more importantly, it is that type of Hemingway cliche that really a movie and a character like this one calls for. In a way, Richard should be, and arguably is, an anachronism, an outsider in the only country that transformed him eternally during the ‘greatest journey in history’ the war. Once again, so many versions of this film exist, that one of the most common themes is the theme of grumpy, old Americans being grumpy and old. Somehow, at least in this regard, Flannery, Ortiz and Schreiber are able to avoid almost all of them.
On a common ground with Ortiz, she still prefers a style that does not appeal to me, she shot the entire film in the 4:3 aspect ratio and went for a wider shot only in intercut flashbacks. Assuming that the intention is to convey a message that the world has grown narrower and denser space, somewhere imbued with the her traumatic experience, it is thematically appropriate but also a disservice to the beautiful cinematographic work by Javier Aguirresarobe in the picture, and, more importantly, seems to be overdone rather too often, thus shattering the subtleties of a very hypnotic piece of work.
Even though immersing oneself into the hustle and bustle of one of the gorgeous cities is appealing, one should focus on this particular content primarily thanks to the remarkable performance of Liev Schreiber. He’s always had more ability than most people think, although the reality is that he is at his best when portraying vulnerable powerful figures (like Ray D.), so he’s ideal for Hemingway. Once more, I was imagining the much clumsier version of this in which Richard’s redemption story was much more painted in broad strokes and much less artfully than it is made to be here. A man who has experienced and continues to experience beauty and hurt in more often the same place, the same gaze, the same voice, the same gestures.
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