Maggie Noodle Review - The Book of Eli

A man walks across a treeless, mostly monochromatic and ravaged landscape. Mostly in slow motion, but walk across it he does. The Book of Eli continues the recent trend of Hollywood movies that show the US in the future as a post-apocalyptic disaster zone where plants do not exist, barren deserts are the norm, and everyone wears as many leather-bound clothes as they can lay their grubby hands on. Personal hygiene is a way of distinguishing the good guys from the bad (except for the main bad guy who always manages to be above the mess he deals with). In this barren zone there are pockets of humanity spread far enough apart so as to provide set pieces of action sequences to keep the story going. You'd think that a band of people struggling to survive would try to pool together as many resources as they could. But that is a story not meant for this movie.

Denzel Washington portrays a man on a mission. A mission to head towards the West where he has to deliver a book. He has been walking for 30 years and has not reached the west coast yet. (You'd think 30 years would be enough to head across the continent but let's disregard that for now). On the way he comes across bandits hell-bent on ignoring his wishes to be left alone. Bad things happen to them when they try to force Eli to give up his possessions. Bad things, yes, but in a stylish ninja-fighting-cool kind of way.

All Eli wants to do is read the book and head west. Along the way he bumps into Carnegie, a book-burning lover of books, a contradiction that Gary Oldman makes believable by chewing and slithering his acting chops into the role. He wants Eli to work for him, Eli naturally refuses. Carnegie dangles some bait in the form of Solara (Mila Kunis). Eli demurs. Carnegie goes to Plan B (which was Plan A all along) - snatch the book from Eli by force.

After this the movie settles into a paint-by-the-numbers series of action sequences, setting up the payoff at the end. Then the directors (the Hughes brothers) stun you with a gobsmacking surprise. I refuse to tell you what the surprise is and if you have any intention of seeing the movie please don't talk to anyone who may tell you what it is. Going into the movie, I knew that there was a surprise twist at the end. I watched carefully for it and it still hit me with full force. When the movie is done, you continue to think about it, dissecting all that went on in light of the revelation. A fun way to leave the theater, I promise.

Apart from that surprise, two things stood out for me. Denzel Washington can make any character seem serious and respected by just being himself and a new star is looming on the Hollywood horizon - Mila Kunis. Mila is mostly known for playing the airhead girlfriend of Ashton Kutcher on the TV sitcom That 70's Show but in this movie she holds her own against Washington and comes out strong. She is impressive and I shall be following her career closely to see if she justifies my praise.

In the end, The Book of Eli delivers what it promises in the preview and contains enough intrigue to make it worth you while to spend a couple of hours peering at the screen. Also, I'm not giving anything away when I say that the the twist at the end gives you a perfectly good reason for why it has taken Eli 30 years to walk across the continent. Or has it?

Here's the really cool preview of the movie: