Irish rockers U2 have done it. Veteran singer-songwriter Paul McCartney has done it. And now British act Blur have hopped on the bandwagon as well.
They have all had their concerts streamed live, reaching out to audiences beyond the solid walls of their performance venues.
U2 played to a crowd of close to 100,000 at the Rose Bowl stop of their 360° tour in California in October 2009. They reached almost 10 million more through the free webcast via YouTube. McCartney’s performance at Hollywood’s Capitol Studios was live streamed to iTunes and Apple TV in February 2012 to celebrate his 15th studio album, Kisses On The Bottom (2012).
On a more modest scale, Blur’s concert at Hong Kong’s Convention and Exhibition Centre last Wednesday was broadcast over the Taiwanese streaming service KKBOX. It was an exclusive event available to members in six territories – Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Towards the end of the show, more than 4,500 fans were watching it live on the platform.
While there is much to be said for live streaming, it is not quite, to steal a phrase from U2, even better than the real thing.
But first, the pluses. The biggest one of them is easily this: Without the live streaming, I would not have been able to catch Blur in Hong Kong as it happened. And this was not just any concert by the feted band, but one featuring the complete line-up of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree.
Coxon had left the band in the early stages of the making of Think Tank (2003) and it was not until 2009 that Blur performed as a quartet again. Best of all, they were back on form with their new album, The Magic Whip (2015), which had its genesis in an unscheduled, extended stopover in Hong Kong in 2013.
I have been a fan since their heady Britpop days when they made excellent albums such as Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). Their awesome concert in Philadelphia, where I was studying in 1997, as they toured on the back of their game-changing, self-titled album, Blur (1997), is one of my favourite gigs of all time.
So it was great to have the chance to see them again, performing new material alongside familiar favourites. And I did not have to take a flight or fork out money for a ticket. While the stream was only for KKBOX subscribers, one could easily sign up for a free one-day trial just to watch Blur in action.
What KKBOX gets out of the exercise is greater exposure for its service and it might even gain some new subscribers.
No doubt, there are the conveniences of having a concert right in your home.
It was supposed to start at 8pm, but of course, they never start on the dot. No biggie. I strolled over to the kitchen and snacked on some oranges, called a restaurant to make a reservation and checked in on my laptop screen once in a while.
Unfortunately, I was a little too laidback and should have reloaded the app more often. I ended up missing the start of the show. The thing about this live stream is that you cannot return to an earlier point. What unfolded on screen mirrored what was happening on stage and, if you blinked and missed a moment, that was that.
A live stream means the show has to be filmed and then transmitted. Often, this meant that you got to see a perspective that you normally would not get to enjoy as a member of the audience. One could see the band members up close, right down to Albarn’s glinting gold-capped front tooth. The trade-off is that you do not get to choose where your gaze lingers as the cameraman makes that decision.
Where you get to exercise control is in other areas. You can adjust the volume to whatever level floats your boat (some concerts can get uncomfortably loud), but hopefully, does not rock the boat with your neighbour.
You can sing along, or not, and bounce along like a pogo stick, or not. It is probably easier to belt it out than to bounce up and down like an Energiser bunny home alone but hey, no one is watching or judging you for blocking the view.
Also, toilet breaks are a cinch as you do not have to clamber over annoyed concertgoers in a darkened hall. So yes, score one, or three, for technology.
But since live streaming is a technology, it also means that things can go wrong. The feed for Blur’s Hong Kong gig was slightly laggy occasionally – probably due to my broadband connection speed – but at least there were no major hiccups.
Still, live streaming cannot be a complete substitute for being right in the thick of a concert, inconveniences and all. Sure, you could communicate with other viewers via a message box right next to the stream of the gig, but none of the messages were particularly memorable and nothing beats the electric feeling of communion with a band together with fellow fans in the same physical space.
In cases where it is too expensive or just plain out of reach, a live stream is a great alternative. But if time, distance and money were no obstacles, I would have been at Blur’s Hong Kong show in a heartbeat.
(ST)

The Crazy Ones
R.chord Hsieh
The Chinese title of the album is Don’t Have To Pretend To Be Good and that is something that Taiwanese singer-songwriter R.chord Hsieh has never done.
Indeed, his tabloid fodder exploits – from his drug-taking and feud with rapper Soft Lipa, to him accusing showbusiness veterans of cheating young women – have overshadowed his music at times.
It is a pity because there is no question that Hsieh is talented. His debut album, Nothing But A Chord (2009), was fresh and inventive and the follow-up, So After I’ve Grown Up (2011), included the touching duet with Lala Hsu, Under The Willow Tree.
After four years in the musical wilderness, he is back with a new record, The Crazy Ones, on a new label, Warner Music.
True to form, he does not shy away from his complicated history and bad-boy persona.
Girl Do You Know pours sexual desire into a poppy number: “I want to kiss you all over/From head to feet, I want to eat you up in big bites.”
The act of eating is less salacious in the bouncy duet Feel Good featuring Kimberley Chen as he professes: “I want to eat away your loneliness, your sorrows.”
Some of the posturing comes across as bravado. At other times, he seems to be unabashedly personal and painfully honest.
Album closer Embracing Failure is a naked mea culpa: “I can’t go back, can only go forward/All the regrets over my past mistakes are useless/I’ve already hurt the family and friends who love me.”
It ends poignantly in Minnan: “I want to make my dreams anew, realise from this point/Live again and learn to cherish.”
Self-knowledge is not a bad place to start.
(ST)

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
The story: In this fifth instalment, the Impossible Missions Force is faced with the bleak fate of getting shut down. That means Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has to bring down the powerful and shadowy Syndicate even as the Central Intelligence Agency’s Hunley (Alec Baldwin) is out to nail him. Good thing the rest of the IMF team – Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames) – have Ethan’s back while the beautiful and skilled Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) appears to be both friend and foe.

The penchant for death-defying stunts, the disregard for personal safety and the need to one-up himself with each new film. The signs are there: Cruise is becoming the Jackie Chan of Hollywood.
For Mission: Impossible 5, he is actually strapped to the outside of an airborne plane. His feet are dangling away as he is flung back by the sheer force of the wind and he is clinging on fiercely with his hands for dear life. He does it, not once, not twice, but eight times.
The making-of stunt featurette is probably the best trailer for the film and has already been viewed more than seven million times on YouTube.
It says something about director Christopher McQuarrie’s confidence that this stunt opens the movie instead of being kept for the finale.
There are plenty of other action sequences – or wanton acts of mayhem, as the CIA puts it – to get into. There is a high-speed metal- crunching vehicular chase through the narrow streets of Morocco, a tense assassination attempt at an opera and, for the piece de resistance, a power station with so many layers of security that it involves a heroic act of breath-holding in order to access an underwater chamber.
I am still not sure why a power station would need this level of protection but, then again, the movie needs these ludicrously convoluted set-ups to justify the IMF.
Remember the Adidas slogan Impossible Is Nothing? It could work equally well as a motto for this franchise series. The word
“impossible” is like catnip to super agent Ethan Hunt.
McQuarrie, best known for writing the script for the acclaimed thriller The Usual Suspects (1995), keeps the story moving along, though there is a whiff of familiarity about the proceedings. In the previous instalment Ghost Protocol (2011), Hunt had to go rogue as well and operate without official approval.
Adding a welcome touch of humour as always is Pegg (Man Up, 2015), who reprises his role as the loyal techie Benji.
The film is also on top of the latest cinematic trend.
Swedish actresses are officially the hottest thing in film at the moment, with Alicia Vikander lighting up the screen in Ex Machina (2015) and, now, Ferguson as the mysterious Ilsa Faust.
For all the thrilling action and gee-whiz spycraft on display, the takeaway message is a surprisingly prosaic one: Always back-up your files.
(ST)

Jolin Tsai 2015 Play World Tour – Singapore
Singapore Indoor Stadium/
Last Saturday

Jolin Tsai is ready to have some fun.
Taking its cue from the title of her 2014 album, the Taiwanese singer’s world tour is titled Play.
And it has inspired an enjoyable concert staged with flair and imagination, playing to her strength as a sexy dancing diva.
The pint-sized dynamo made quite a statement with her entrance, performing the song Medusa with a headpiece of silvery, slithery snakes – yes, they moved. Like the Gorgon of myth, she challenged you to tear your eyes away from her.
Point made, off came the headpiece and on came the slinky moves as she worked the four-sided stage tirelessly.
She commanded: “Move your a**”, and soon had the crowd of around 7,500 up on their feet.
And we had yet to even hit the first costume change.
One of the highlights was seeing Tsai in a 1920s flapper get-up, incorporating dance moves from the era into her choreography.
It certainly helped that her posse of sexy and statuesque dancers looked like they just came from an audition for the musical Chicago. The sly subversion of gender roles added a playful edge as some of the men danced in high heels.
While the 34-year-old has made her reputation on high-octane, energetic numbers, the singer can hold her own as a vocalist as well, at more moderate tempos.
When she performed hit ballads Rewind and The Smell Of Lemongrass on a slowly revolving dais, the stage was cleverly transformed into a cosy jazz club as the dancers sat at tables in groups of twos and threes and listened.
To keep things fresh, some of the songs were given a new twist.
The triumphant dance track The Great Artist, the 2013 Golden Melody Award winner for best song of the year, had its tempo slowed down and then revved back up again.
And the ballad Sky was presented as a mash-up with Singapore singer Stefanie Sun’s Encounter.
The controversial We’re All Different, Yet The Same, banned from Singapore’s radio and television for its homosexual content, was presented as a broader anthem of inclusion and acceptance as it was preceded by a video clip about a wheelchair-bound young woman.
It was clear that attention to detail had been paid to every aspect of the show, from the music to the engaging staging, which drew on everything from high art to mass-market pop culture.
One prop resembled a giant version of British artist Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull sculpture, while in another segment, Tsai was a Barbie doll who came to life and broke out of her box.
In another beautiful set-up, the stage morphed into an underwater palace and she reigned from a raised platform which looked as though it was surrounded by glass seaweed.
For the most part, she kept her patter to a minimum, perhaps to conserve energy for the demanding dance routines.
She opened up towards the end of the three-hour show though, sharing that local musicians, brothers Paul and Peter Lee, were her earliest producers.
Turning back the clock to 1999, she performed her first single, Living With The World.
Since that debut track, the artist has grown in maturity and confidence and it came through over the course of the show and in her assured interaction with her devoted fans.
Be it taking selfies with the crowd or pumping up the energy level, Tsai was always in control and she made it look as easy as child’s play.
(ST)

Herstory With Mayday
Various artists
Popular Taiwanese band Mayday are right there in the title but you will not hear them sing on this concept album.
Instead, 10 diverse female music acts take on 10 of the all-male quintet’s songs.
As the rockers have always worn their hearts on their sleeves in their music, that emotional directness is something that a singer can readily tap into, regardless of gender.
Indeed, the band members have written for many women singers as well, including balladeer Fish Leong, girl group S.H.E and power vocalist Jia Jia. Incidentally, all three appear here.
The results here are sometimes surprising, often moving, and offer some pithy lessons on how to record a cover.
One way to go is to venture as far from the original as possible. That is exactly what diva Sandy Lam, indie darling Waa Wei and veteran Kay Huang have done.
Eternal Summer is now a shimmering slice of indie electropop as Lam insists: “I won’t turn, I won’t turn, I won’t turn, I won’t turn.” Mayday’s portrait of headstrong and restless youth is now a declaration of womanly strength.
Blistering rocker Viva Love is completely unrecognisable as it is skittery and mysterious, with Wei’s hushed vocals draped over it. Huang’s The Yet Unbroken Part Of My Heart swings lightly and jazzily.
Alternatively, one could pare the arrangements to a minimum and let the beauty of the song shine through. In this case, it helps if one has the vocal chops to do the heavy lifting.
Prime exhibits include Qu Wanting’s moving and heartfelt take on Life Has A Kind Of Certainty, Lala Hsu’s quietly compelling reading of Suddenly Miss You So Much and Eve Ai’s beguiling Like Smoke.
In the successful covers – G.E.M.’s power pop ballad rendition of You’re Not Truly Happy and Jia Jia’s gently heartbreaking I Don’t Want You To Be Alone – the essence of Mayday remains even as the song becomes undeniably the singer’s.
Regrettably, S.H.E’s Jump comes across as perfunctory and Leong’s Tenderness, ironically, feels blanched of emotion. Neither cover seems necessary.
(ST)

Own Categories
A-fu
From the title of her third solo album, it is clear that Taiwanese singer-songwriter A-fu does not want to be pigeonholed. Instead of offering sappy sweetness, she is happy to mix in plenty of kook with her cute.
On Teng Da-fu Is A Cat, she imagines herself as a tom cat, gender change included (A-fu’s surname is Teng).
Against a lightly jazzy accompaniment, she sings: “Da-fu’s greatest love/Is to narrow his eyes and accompany girls.”
In the electro-pop number Black Sheep, she turns the title on its head by urging in English: “You can fly, you can fight, you can be the light of the dark side/There’s no one can hurt you anymore.”
There are some radio-friendly numbers here, such as Stop At The Crossing Ahead, the above-average R&B duet with Hsiao Yu that has already climbed to the top of the UFO Mandarin Pop Chart in Taiwan.
But, sometimes, the quirkiness veers off-course. On the light-hearted Super Pig Head, she gets tangled in a love-hate relationship.
While the lyric booklet coyly prints it as “x.o”, it clearly sounds like “a**hole”. And it just sounds wrong when she chirps: “You are my super a**hole.”
Well, at least no one can accuse A-fu of being predictable.
(ST)

Tanglin
Channel 5
Tanglin is Channel 5’s first long- running drama series. More than $1 million was spent on big custom- built sets and the episodes are nicely lit and shot.
It features a sprawling cast and the return of Wee Soon Hui from the nostalgia drama Growing Up (1996-2002). She plays widowed matriarch, Li Yan, of the Tong family, a nurturing mother to her five children and the friendly boss of Tanglin Coffee House.
With 199 episodes commissioned, there are plenty of characters to introduce in order for enough storylines to play out.
Li Yan’s brood include nice-guy Ben (Darryl Yong), twins Diana (Jae Liew) and Christopher (James Seah), and the youngest, Eddie (Charlie Goh). The eldest, laidback Adam (Adam Chen), is married to career-minded Xue Ling (Constance Song) from the Lim family. Her father (Richard Low) heads the stodgy KS Foods.
Adding to the racial diversity are the Rahman and Bhaskar families. Bubbly Salmah (Masturah Ahmad) is Li Yan’s friend and her two daughters are complete opposites in temperament. Bhaskar Ram (Mathialagan) is the neighbourhood doctor with a bachelor son Arjun (James Kumar) and a daughter Shruti (Eswari Gunasagar) in junior college.
Many of the initial episodes were spent on establishing who’s who and their relationships with one another.
After five episodes, though, it feels like Tanglin is can-see TV rather than a must-see. It plays too much like a low-key, genteel series. And that is not enough to keep viewers hooked in the long run.
While possible arenas of conflict and likely romance arcs have already been sketched out, at the moment, there seems to be little danger of getting sucked into the stories.
A clash is brewing at KS Foods between stick-with-tradition chief executive officer Lim Kwong San and his time-for-a-change daughter. But it is the overly familiar plotline that needs an overhaul.
Meanwhile, Shruti’s attempts to ingratiate herself with the in-crowd at school is a tired retread of the Mean Girls (2004) playbook. And why does a tame prank of giving wrong directions to the principal’s office warrant parents getting summoned to school? It feels like a clumsy way of getting a few characters into the same room.
More promising are the relationships in the process of getting tangled and secret histories which are slowly being revealed.
Li Yan’s tomboyish daughter Diana is constantly bickering with the new chef Jay (Nat Ho) at the coffee house. At the same time, Arjun finds himself drawn to the feisty Diana even as his mother tries to make a match for him.
Complicating things is the long- buried relationship between Li Yan and Bhaskar Ram. But I am not convinced that a woman who had five children with her husband would carry around a keychain with another man’s initials on it.
Intriguingly, the age gap between Li Yan and her eldest son Adam is a shocking 14 years, according to the official media kit. Either he was adopted or the show is venturing into teenage pregnancy territory. Regardless, there seems to be an interesting backstory there.
Still, a single episode of the recently concluded mega Taiwanese soap Night Market Life mustered more thrills and spills than Tanglin has managed to rustle up so far. Of course, not everything has to be a melodramatic roller- coaster ride, but this home-grown series needs to turn the dial up on the drama.
(ST)

Hollywood Adventures
Timothy Kendall
The story: After getting dumped over the telephone, the straight-laced Xiaoming (Huang Xiaoming) sets off for Los Angeles to win back his ex-girlfriend. He ends up on a Hollywood Adventures honeymoon package, together with the insistently chatty Dawei (Tong Dawei) on a tour led by the resourceful Wei Wei (Vicki Zhao Wei). Something is not quite right, though, and Xiaoming is soon in the thick of his own adventures involving weaselly criminal Manny (Sung Kang), Hollywood star Gary Buesheimer (Rhys Coiro) and the trafficking of rhino horn powder.

Self-awareness in a movie can be sharp and witty, like in the Scream horror-comedy series (1996-2011). It could also land with a thud, like in Last Action Hero (1993).
Happily, director Timothy Kendall makes it work in his energetic debut feature, which winks at cliched Chinese perceptions of Los Angeles and American pop culture while gleefully playing into the idea that anything can happen in Hollywood.
In the process, he also pokes fun at La-La land with its petty egos, oversized mansions and inflated sense of self-importance.
His able top-drawer cast of Chinese cinema stars is owed thanks.
Tong, in particular, demonstrates a natural flair for comedy as the earnestly droll Dawei, a walking encyclopaedia of all things movie- related who comments on the action and on his own role as a sidekick.
When the craziness starts piling up – he witnesses costumed mascots in a gunfight, shares a drive into the desert with a pig, stumbles into a redneck bar – he accepts it all with equanimity.
After all, anything can happen in Hollywood.
Even as the proceedings get increasingly outlandish, the film is anchored in the relationships among the characters, portrayed by the leads who have an easy camaraderie most likely as a result of their shared history.
Huang and Tong were in the drama American Dreams In China (2013). Tong and Zhao played a couple in the television series Tiger Mom (2015) and Zhao and Huang were classmates at the Beijing Film Academy.
Adding to the revelry are cameos and supporting turns from recognisable actors such as Sung who plays street racer Han in The Fast And The Furious franchise, and a deadpan Robert Patrick gamely takes a dig at his T-1000 villain in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
Throw in car stunts, a superhero segue and a fabulous pink party, and you wind up with a madcap adventure that is quite a ride.
(ST)

My Way To Love
Eric Chou
He just turned 20 last month, but you would never guess it from Taiwanese singer-songwriter Eric Chou’s accomplished debut disc. The opening title track is a lush ballad which showcases his beautiful voice – soothing, warm and altogether like a pool of comforting sunshine.
While the lyrics suggest youthfulness, they also point to a mature attitude towards love: “Cause you are my love/I’ll slowly learn to be brave/Learn to be honest, learn gentleness, learn reliance.”
His falsetto is gentle and delicate and used to moving effect on tracks such as The Distance Of Love, a ballad from the idol drama The Way We Were. It was written after he was turned down by a high school classmate. He is not the first teenager to be jilted, but precious few turn that experience into a hit track.
Much of the record comprises ballads and mid-tempo tracks, a wise choice as they give Chou’s voice the space to shine.
However, he also flirts with other tempos, pulling off the dance track Shutter In Love and rap on Romance Movie.
The talented newcomer had a hand in crafting all the songs and is equally at home in Mandarin as he is in English. The piano-backed Come Out Your Way is performed in two versions and both languages work.
Chou’s musical flair reminds me of another Taiwanese singer- songwriter’s excellent debut, Yen-j’s Thank You For Your Greatness (2010). The two share similarities in their background. Both were born and raised in Taiwan, spent their formative teen years in the United States and returned home to carve a career in music.
While Yen-j started off with a sound that was heavily influenced by jazz, he has moved towards the mainstream with subsequent releases.
Chou’s opening salvo is decidedly commercial and it will be interesting to see how his style evolves. No less an authority than famed producer Jonathan Lee has predicted that Chou would be the next star on the music scene. With his boyish looks, gorgeous pipes and assured songwriting, that seems as sure a bet as anything.
(ST)

Ted 2
1Seth MacFarlane
The story: In this sequel to the 2012 hit comedy, magically alive teddy bear Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) ties the knot with his girlfriend Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth). When they try to adopt a child, they plunge straight into a bureaucratic nightmare: Ted is not legally recognised as a person. His best buddy John (Mark Wahlberg) offers outrage and emotional support, while newbie lawyer Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) fights for his rights in court.

Both Ted (2012) and Kick-Ass (2010) shared a similar premise that was a stroke of genius: Put a potty mouth that would make a grown man blush on a pint-sized cutie and let the laughs rip.
A follow-up is a trickier beast, given that audiences are already familiar with the concept and the shock value is much diminished.
The first Ted balanced the crude laughs with a sweet friendship between a man-child and his teddy bear. And that insane fight between full-grown man and furry stuffed animal was flat-out hilarious.
Ted 2 tries to top that by taking things in a more serious direction, with pointed comments about Ted being denied his rights because he is a minority and parallels drawn to slavery and gay rights.
But it does not quite work. The movie has grossed a disappointing US$32.9 million (S$44.3 million) in its opening weekend in the United States, compared with US$54.4 million for the first movie in 2012.
Not only do the somewhat tedious court proceedings take up too much time, the more mature themes also sit oddly with the juvenile humour.
There are jokes involving pornography, bodily fluids and sex acts, including a hare-brained scheme to artificially inseminate Tami-Lynn with a “contribution” from star footballer Tom Brady collected while he is asleep.
The stream of celebrity cameos – including Brady’s and those from action star Liam Neeson and former talk-show host Jay Leno – cannot make up for a script that is less sharp than its predecessor’s.
At least, director and co-writer Seth MacFarlane (creator of animated series Family Guy) spares viewers the image of human-toy copulation, courtesy of the fact that Ted is a regular, anatomically inaccurate stuffed animal. The song segments here feel more perfunctory as well – nothing comes close to the Thunder Buddies song, an awesome track that was robbed of an Oscar nomination.
What the movie does achieve is this: Thanks to a game and committed cast and MacFarlane’s voice acting, there is no doubt that Ted is a living and breathing being. Maybe he should get a better agent.
(ST)

Juno ¡uno!
Juno Lin

Jacky Chew Eponymous EP
Jacky Chew

Juno Lin and Jacky Chew are two new home-grown male singer- songwriters who have released polished debuts, adding some excitement to the Singapore Mandopop scene.
Even better, their vocals remind one of other Singapore artists who have made a mark regionally.
Lin’s lightly raspy pipes sound like Huang Yida’s, particularly on the ballads Anyway, It’s Love and Survival Of The Fittest.
He conjures up a sci-fi scenario on Survival Of The Fittest, a number about holding on to your dreams: “Dreamt of a time machine, no manual can explain/Need to rely yourself to travel through time.”
He also dabbles in electronica and rap, flirting with falsetto on Poison and gets pumped up with patriotism on War referencing Count On Me, Singapore with the English lines: “There was a time when people said it/That we were never gonna make it.”
The lyrics were written by Lin while the music was composed by label-mate Chew, who takes a somewhat different route on his own record, even though War is on it as well.
There are radio-friendly ballads on Chew’s eponymous EP that would not be out of place on a JJ Lin album.
He croons convincingly on It’s My Bad: “I won’t, don’t want to, put an end to this/Can’t pretend, can’t fool, still need/Your goodness.”
R&B rules on tracks such as Live Your Dream, a different take on going after one’s dreams.
Defiance is palatably cloaked under a steady swinging beat: “Can you give me one more second/Can there be silence with no interruptions/Can you listen to me sing this song/Can you support the heartbeat of my dream.”
Those are the key questions that Chew and Lin are throwing out there.
(ST)

Dark Places
Gilles Paquet-Brenner
The story: Libby’s (Charlize Theron) mother (Christina Hendricks) and sisters were killed one horrific night when she was eight. As a result of her testimony, her brother Ben (Corey Stoll) is jailed for their murders. Twenty-five years later, Libby reluctantly meets a group of amateur investigators who call themselves The Kill Club. Lyle (Nicholas Hoult), one of its members, wants her to help prove that Ben is innocent. Based on Gillian Flynn’s 2009 novel of the same name.

Would Dark Places have been made without the success of the previous Gillian Flynn adaptation Gone Girl (2014)? Probably. But it would not be attracting the same level of attention.
David Fincher’s assured handling of a genre-crossing dark tale turned Gone Girl into a critical and commercial hit, along with lead actress Rosamund Pike winning accolades and several Best Actress awards.
Dark Places has managed to attract a top-drawer cast as well, including Oscar-winner Theron, Hendricks from television’s Mad Men (2007 - 2015) and hot, young stars Hoult and Chloe Grace Moretz, who plays teenaged Ben’s wild girlfriend.
Instead of Flynn adapting her novel for the big screen, like she did for Gone Girl, French film-maker Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Sarah’s Key, 2010) pulls double duty as screenwriter and director. This is why Dark Places stumbles a little.
The story throws up some intriguing questions: Did Libby lie or was she just a scared little girl? If Ben was innocent, why has he remained silent all these years? Who is he protecting? And perhaps the biggest mystery of them all: If not Ben, then who committed the murders?
But the dots are connected a little too easily and conveniently here, even though Paquet-Brenner tries to build tension by cutting back and forth between the past and present.
As the adult Libby, Theron gives a sense of her pain and vulnerability. She dresses like someone who wants to disappear into the crowd – with a cap pulled low, a nondescript jacket and ratty jeans. She wants to leave behind a dark past which insists on haunting her.
Moretz grabs your attention as an out-of-control daddy’s girl, while Hoult has little to work with as a geekish-looking advocate for Ben’s innocence.
There is some satisfaction in seeing how the truth comes to light. And learning that, sometimes, the darkest places are of our own imagining.
(ST)