An ape-pealing love story

MANILA, Philippines - We were torn between two movies: Rise of the Planet of the Apes and One Day (or another love story whose title escapes me now). The first is a reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise while the second is a romantic weepie based on the best-selling book by David Nicholls.

Rise won hands down, or should I say, paws down. (I watched One Day the following week.) We were there on the fourth day of the blockbuster movie’s run in the theaters all over Ontario, Canada. I love love stories, so I was happy I was able to watch both. While One Day is a love story which spans 20 years, Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a love story with a different ape-peal. I was fumbling for the Kleenex in my handbag in the final scene of the movie when lead ape Caesar was saying goodbye to his former master with whom he had formed an enduring friendship like no other, but that’s getting ahead of our story.

Once more with feeling: James Franco and Andy Serkis (playing Caesar) in this year’s reboot of Planet of the Apes

The story starts after a chimp experiment fizzles out and Will Rodman (played by James Franco), a San Francisco disease researcher in search of a brain serum to cure his father’s Alzheimer’s, brings home baby Caesar, orphaned offspring of a genetically engineered primate, and decides to keep him. Welcoming little Caesar with open arms is Will’s ailing father Charles (played by John Lithgow) who nurses and nurtures him like his own son. Caesar even gets to eat at the dining table with the Rodmans. They dress him up and take him out for a walk in the park. Just like a pampered member of the family!

But little did Will know that from a house pet, Caesar would turn into a house pest. He turns an attic room into a virtual jungle  give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s! Having inherited the chemically induced high IQ of his mother, Caesar (played by the inimitable Andy Serkis) gets even smarter as he grows older. Fact is, in this movie, the simians outsmart the humans.

Chimp thrill: Will Rodman and girlfriend Caroline (Freida Pinto) take Caesar (Andy Serkis) for a walk in the park.

But soon, a nosey neighbor discovers that the Rodmans are coddling a chimp and after an unfortunate neighborhood incident, Will is forced to put Caesar in protective custody in an ape facility run by a supposed animal lover and his son (played by Brian Cox and Tom Felton of Harry Potter fame). However, this supposed ape sanctuary turns out to be a torture chamber  attention, animal rights advocates! Thus, an evolution ends in a revolution.

But amid the seemingly endless uproar and mayhem, the intense bond between Caesar and Will survives. As the credits were rolling, I felt a tear or two roll down my cheeks. The audience in the packed moviehouse couldn’t help but put their hands together in cheerful rounds of applause. Clearly, it was worth every kernel of popcorn we consumed during the off-the-edge-of-your-seat suspenseful 105 minutes!

Later, my nephew Josef Paul Yorro tells me, “What I really enjoyed about this recent reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise was that the film explored the origin of how the apes rose to power, and that it was mankind’s own selfish pursuits which served as its impetus.  The movie touched on several socio-cultural issues which led the viewers to decide for themselves the answers to questions such as: Can man play God? Should man play God? Nature or nurture?  Humane medical testing in the pursuit of science or animal cruelty? The moral ambiguity posed by the movie may turn off some, but I found it refreshing, especially when juxtaposed to this year’s other popcorn blockbusters. No teen vampires here, just a movie with actual substance.”

No monkeying around, no monkey business here.

Animal ape-peal: Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.

Of Andy Serkis, who brilliantly apes Caesar, Josef Paul says, “He’s the messianic ape of the film. Any CGI artist can make an actor look like a chimpanzee on the big screen, but it takes a special actor to make sure that the audience doesn’t look away. I thought that he portrayed Caesar’s transformation from slave to savior so believably. Throughout the movie, you could feel Caesar’s growing pains, his anger, his vengeance, and ultimately, his vindication. No surprise there, given that Serkis was the same actor behind the obsessive, bipolar Gollum in the Lord of the Rings.”  

The question is: Who’s aping whom?

This movie surely has a lot of animal ape-peal!