THE EXCEPTION Movie Clip -

THE EXCEPTION Movie Clip - They Know (2017) Jai Courtney Christopher Plummer War Drama HD

The Exception (2016)

A German soldier tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the home of Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman during his investigation.
Director: David Leveaux
Writers: Simon Burke (screenplay), Alan Judd (novel)
Stars: Christopher Plummer, Lily James, Jai Courtney, Eddie Marsan

Christopher Plummer in Remember (2015, film)

Christopher Plummer stars as a man suffering from dementia and living in a nursing home in a frequent state of confusion. He is reminded by another resident that the two of them have concocted a plan. It’s one that sees him breaking out and on the road, as he hunts down a man who killed his family during the holocaust. But his unreliable memory and unclear plan make it a difficult journey.

There’s something rather uneasy about Remember. The lead character’s dementia is used as a thriller mechanic, rather like Guy Pearce’s short term memory loss in Memento. Whenever he wakes, he forgets what his objective is and must look at a letter to remind himself of his grisly revenge plan. It cheapens the disease and the film has zero interest in exploring the devastation it causes but rather how it can ramp up the suspense, of which there is very little of anyway.

The inept script, which sees Plummer’s geriatric character escape a nursing home with Liam Neeson ease and bump into precociously curious kids along his trip (“What’s a Naz-ee?”), makes for a perfect bedfellow with Egoyan’s flat TV movie direction and an overwrought score that sounds like a drunk impression of Bernard Herrmann. Despite a sensitive subject matter, this film is as subtle as a swastika. 

The plot is so bare bones that Plummer’s revenge tour of America and Canada slowly turns him into Goldilocks, searching for just the right elderly German man. Too Jewish! Too busy at the time! Too gay to be a Nazi! It’s predictably, repetitively silly and nothing more than entirely unconvincing. However, it’s easy to see what would attract Plummer to the role. It’s a screen-hogging turn and gives an actor in his 80s the chance to do more than just be a grandfather. But, despite his best efforts, his performance does little to elevate proceedings. It just makes it all even more depressing to see a fine actor such as him involved in dross like this. 

The second world war and its effects on those who survived is extremely well-worn territory. Remember wants to use this torment for cheap thrills and successfully trivialises a devastating lowpoint in history for a misfiring potboiler. As the dumb and manipulative last gasp twist is revealed, you’ll have difficulty remembering anything that came before it.

Canadian actor, and Companion of the Order of Canada, Christopher Plummer greets fans as he arrives on the red carpet at the gala for the film Remember.

Christopher Plummer in the movie HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS

SCREEN LEGEND CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER ON 

HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS

Hector and the Search for Happiness is a sweet, slightly familiar, slice-of-life story from Funny Bonesand Hear My Song director Peter Chelsom starring screen legend Christopher Plummer. We spoke with the Academy Award winning actor about his role in the film adaptation and his thoughts on happiness.

Christopher Plummer has been working in cinema for decades and joins both Jean Reno and Stellan Skarsgård in small but memorable roles in his latest film. While Simon Pegg’s Hector is on a search for what he thinks is happiness, Plummer’s “mad” scientist character Professor Coreman is there to set him straight on the science of the emotion and put Hector to the test with an emotionally revealing experiment. Playing Professor Coreman turned out to be a role that was, as Plummer revealed, both thrilling and challenging at the same time.

Of his character, Plummer told Nerdist, “He’s sort of a mad Stephen Hawking, this man, isn’t he? I mean, he’s an extraordinary kind of creature who is experimenting with a word that really doesn’t exist. ‘Happiness’ does not exist, as we all know. The word ‘joy’ is a better word because we can take great joy in what we do sometimes and what we don’t do and what we love, that’s joy. Happiness is a word that belongs to a Walt Disney cartoon. It’s too cute for words and as a kid I remember all of us youngsters tried to run away from it and pretend that it doesn’t exist. We thought it was sissy to be happy, we were going to be dark and evil and have joy and all of that but happiness, we don’t know what that means. So this wonderful old character has that behind it too, he has all of those qualities behind it as well as is sort of spiel he uses in his lectures to get attention. I love the character. He’s a phony, false old scientist.”

Plummer continued his thoughts on “happiness” saying, “‘The pursuit of happiness;’ if you pursue happiness, you’re insane. You’re going to waste an awful lot of time when you could be doing other far more creative things.” When I asked him how he felt about working with co-stars Simon Pegg and Toni Collette, Plummer had nothing but kind things to say. “I think that Simon is a terribly talented writer as well as being a terrific comedian and I think that he couldn’t be more ideal as that creature. I think, insane as it is, he’s trying desperately to find some joy in the world even though he misunderstands the word.” Plummer continued to sing the praises of his co-stars, saying, “Toni [Collette], I think she’s such a versatile wonderful actress, I had such fun with her and Simon both. I didn’t have enough with Simon really, we didn’t have an awful lot together but for what we did have, I liked him enormously.”

Hector and the Pursuit of Happiness, starring Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette and Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer at TIFF 2014

Christopher Plummer's praise for the young actors of today

Christopher Plummer poked fun at a 'Gone With the Wind' child actor Friday, saying young actors have improved over the years. The acting legend appears alongside teen Tye Sheridan in 'The Forger,' screening at the Toronto film fest.

Veteran Canadian thespian Christopher Plummer, who plays Travolta’s ornery dad in the film The Forger about the Boston  Museum of Fine Arts at TIFF 2014