When I went back from my 1 day meeting trip to KL, I flew using Malindo Air managed by Lion Group. I am not a big fan of Lion Air but since it was the only flight available at 8.30 PM, we had to choose this one. Unfortunately, my colleague and I were very disappointed in our first ever experience, as the flight was delayed for 2.5 hours due to "technical" problem which till the time we finally took off, it was never cleared what problem they had. Luckily however, despite being a medium class budget airline, it provided inflight entertainment as well (though not as many as Garuda having). So the good thing is while waiting for the matter to be resolved, I was able to watch a movie completely without worrying not able to complete it. As there were not a lot of option, I chose to watch this one which I had never seen before. So let's find out what the movie is all about.
Brief Story Line
A New York Times journalist named Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill - 21 Jump Street, The Wolf of Wallstreet etc) was well known for reporting great humanitarian news and have been putting good articles in the cover of New York Times magazine. However, in his last article about slavery, there was a complaint that the character he featured was not the person being abused. After being confronted by his editors and unable to prove his innocence, Finkel was fired from his office and had to return back to his hometown and stay with his wife Jill (Felicity Jones - A Monster Calls, Inferno etc).
Meanwhile, a man was trying to hit on a girl in Mexico and introduced himself as New York Time journalist Michael Finkel. This man (played by James Franco - Spider-man trilogy, Pineapple Express and many others) was obviously not the real Finkel. He was later on captured by the police for a suspicion of murdering his wife and 3 children and revealed to be Christian Longo.
As Finkel was having difficulty in acquiring jobs due to his name was damaged since fired by New York Times, he was called by a reporter for Oregon newspaper about his view on Longo's capture and the reason for his use of Finkel's name. Finding out about this had intrigued Finkel. He immediately arrange to meet Longo. During their first meet up, Longo then told Finkel that he wanted to share all his background and story only to Finkel as long as Finkel would only share the story after his conviction. The other thing that Longo request was for Finkel to teach him how to write, since he was amazed and inspired by Finkel's writing abilities.
After agreeing to these 2 terms, Finkel started to visit Longo for many months to gather the complete info. He also got agreement with a publisher that he would write a book instead of just article about Longo. While gathering all the information from everywhere about Longo's character and background, a detective named Greg Ganley (Robert John Burke - Safe, 2 Guns etc) approached Finkel to share his notes so police & justice department can ensure Longo was punished for his crime.
So did Longo really commit the murder of all his family? Or was there some other reasons? Would Finkel be sharing his data and stop writing the book, or he would actually complete the book? Find them all till the end of the movie. Of course if you already know the actual story, you would know the ending to this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
At first I thought after reading the brief synopsis, this movie would be a suspenseful thriller. I did not know at the beginning that the movie was based or inspired by true events. Apparently this movie was more like a biography of the Finkel and Longo relationship as well as a dramatization of the events. Since it was this case, the movie was going slow, and there was no suspense or anything that would spark the tone of the film. The only time I was surprised was during the court hearing. But the rest of them were just rather plain/flat.
I rather regretted choosing this movie to watch during my flight as I might have been more entertained if I watch a comedy movie or even re-watching Mad Max Fury Road (available in the inflight entertainment as well). Despite the good appearance of Jonah Hill and especially James Franco, I feel that the movie can actually be made into a more suspenseful type (the events leading to the capture of Longo might be interesting, rather than just like a note that he was captured).
So if you happen to be sitting in Malindo air this month (though I would not recommend it) and you have the chance to watch films, then perhaps you can watch other ones. Unless if you are a fan of this genre of drama with true events. However be warned though that there were no touching moments which usually exist when you watch true story movies.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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