BEST OF THE REST 2004 and a few words about some year end releases.
Anyone of my Best of the Rest could have made my top ten. They are all that good. But of them all “Miracle” ranks at the top of that list.
MIRACLE - “Miracle” opened early in 2004 and seems to have been forgotten in the rush of holiday films. I quite simply loved this movie. If I could have chosen a 10A & a !0B for my ten best it would be there. It is undeniably one of the best films of the year. The following is what I said about “Miracle” when it came out.
The sixties saw the assassinations of President
John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobby and Dr Martin Luther King. The decade had
Kurt Russel plays Herb Brooks the enigmatic hockey coach who lost his chance at Olympic glory before his own career as a player had a chance to get off the ground. His diligence and tenacity to his chosen profession are rewarded when he’s given the opportunity the coach the 1980 US Olympic Team. He’s been studying the Russians for years and he knows how to beat them at their own game. For Herb, it’s not good enough to be a great player. Herb needs individuals who can rise above their ego - he needs team players. Still, he not only needs great team players: he needs great players with endurance. In order to have endurance, his team of twenty great players have to be whipped into shape if they are to have a chance at beating the seasoned Russian team who - according to their own country’s rules and regulations - are hardened pros. Their only purpose in life is to win. In the twilight of Brooks career, his only purpose in life is to beat the undefeated Russians.
I’m not a hockey fan. What little I know about the game comes from “The Mighty Ducks” and all the sequels I’ve sat through with my daughter. I don’t count the occasional field hockey I played in College gym or Nok Hockey from my prepubescent life; but Gavin O’Connor and crew give a puck’s eye view of the action that more than compensated for my ignorance of the game. The outcome of “Miracle” is a given, the visceral excitement in the rink is not. “Miracle” is an exciting, uplifting experience thanks to O’Connor, screenwriter Eric Guggenheim, and a great cast that includes all the players - some pros according to the press releases - Patricia Clarkson as Herb’s wife, Noah Emmerich as Herb’s assistant coach and a performance by Kurt Russell worthy of Oscar gold.
The rest of the Best of the Rest in alphabetical order
BOURNE SUPREMACY - Once again, Matt Damon
has a field day as amnesiac Jason Bourne, the multi-lingual lean mean fighting
machine, a one time assassin for the CIA whose deep seated survival instincts
and murderous skills rose from his unconscious when he blew the cover he didn’t
know he had when he went in search of his identity in “The Bourne Identity.”
In “The Bourne Supremacy” he’s off and running after a Russian hit man(Karl
Urban) recognizes him and kills his lover(Franka Potente) while pursuing him.
Jason’s globe trotting turns fragments of his tormented dreams into stepping
stones into a past that reveals the secret mission that links him to the Russian
gangster and CIA chief Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) who wants him killed. Joan
Allen plays a CIA agent trying to tie up the loose ends of a botched robbery
that ties Jason to the murder of two CIA agents. Once again, Bourne’s survival
instincts are the centerpiece of some of the most exciting action scenes ever
put on film with a hair raising car chase through the streets and tunnels
of
COLLATERAL - Tom Cruise is electrifying as Vincent, a contract killer out to murder five people in one night with the help of an unsuspecting cabby named Max (Jamie Foxx)in “Collateral” - the latest crime thriller from director Michael Mann. The victims are all tied to a high profile drug case that is going to trial the next day. Vincent has a schedule to keep but things go awry when the first victim plunges from a window onto Max’s waiting cab. Fearful for his life, Max is forced to escort Vincent through the night from one hit to the next. Max tries one ruse after another to escape from Vincent’s stranglehold. A daring ploy backfires and Max is forced to impersonate Vincent in a tete- a-tete with the drug kingpin behind the hits. An implausible situation is turned into one of the movie’s highlights thanks to the finesse of director Michael Mann and Jamie Foxx’s ability to reach into the soul of his character and show the game face he needs to survive.
“Collateral” is a multi-layered character study that explores the psyche of two men on opposites sides of the spectrum. Two men, caught up in a world of their own making, will become unhinged in ways that neither expects. Michael Mann interlaces the action with small symbolic gestures that foreshadow events that occur later in the film. Max surrenders a post card of his idyllic getaway from his cab’s sun visor to a fare, Annie(Jada Pinkett Smith) - an LA prosecutor. The cab loses its imaginary escape hatch and becomes a place Max must escape from. He throws himself into the fray in one of Michael Mann’s finest set pieces. After Max identifies himself as Vincent, an FBI surveillance team (with Bruce McGill) follows him to a night club. The cops (with a very credible Mark Ruffalo) and the FBI crisscross paths, each in pursuit of a different ‘Vincent’ when the real Vincent turns into a killing machine, doggedly mowing down anyone blocking his way to the next contract kill. “Collateral” is one of the best films of its kind and a fine addition to the Michael Mann’s list of great films like “The Insider” with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe from 1999 and“Heat” with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro from 1995.
P.S. Look for Javier Bardem, the star of “The Sea Inside,” as Felix.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS - I was so dizzy from the hand held camera effect at the beginning of “Friday Night Lights” I thought I was going to keel over. The idea is to give the movie the feel of a documentary - to put you in the moment. It took a while, but I finally got caught up in the thrust of director Peter Berg’s look at the lives of the kids from Texas who pin all their hopes for the future on their athletic abilities. The first rate cast includes: Derek Luke(“Antwone Fisher”) as James “Boogie” Miles whose hopes are dashed when his ego gets in the way of his judgment; the unrecognizable country singer Tim McGraw is totally believable as an alcoholic father trying to live out his faded days of glory as a football star through his quarterback son, Lucas Garret Hedlund; and Billy Bob Thornton. He holds both the team and the movie together as Coach Garry Grimes whose all too realistic view of the game is often at odds with his employers.
HERO - Jet Li is a swirling dervish in this martial arts epic about a group of assassins trying to get within killing distance of a tyrannical king. Several different stories are told from different points of view much like Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon.” Li claims to have slain his king’s would be assassin with a story about outwitting a murderous calligrapher(Tony Leung) by discovering the secret of his deadly moves in his art and turning his lover(Maggie Cheung) against him. The king tells Li his version of what he thought really happened. And then the real truth is revealed. Each story is more amazing than the one before it until Li’s true character emerges. “Hero” is visually stunning. Saturated colors evoke the mood of each scene and the emotions of its characters. It has everything that made Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” such a huge hit and then some. It’s action packed choreography is pure visual poetry that dazzles the senses and stokes the desire to see more. And director Zhang Yimou gives more in his follow up “House of Flying Daggers.”
P.S. You might want to check out “The Emperor and The Assassin” made by Chen Kaige from 1999. It’s a much more realistic film that takes place in the same period of history.
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS - Director Zhang Yimou repeats the success of “Hero” with this equally gorgeous looking film about Jin(Takeshi Kaneshiro), an undercover cop in the 9th century who is escorting Mei(Ziyi Zhang), the blind daughter of a renowned resistance fighter, back to her lair - the House of the Flying Daggers of the title - in a hidden mountain retreat. They fall in love giving rise to a sea of mixed emotions with a jealous lover on their trail who, like them, is not what he purports to be. “House of Flying Daggers” is much more romantic than “Hero.” The action is heightened by the whir of deadly arrows, the clash of steel, and the bone crunching sound of hand to hand combat. There are double crosses and triple crosses. Danger lurks behind every bamboo shoot and the tops of every tree. With all this, I thought the most dazzling scene took place in a brothel where Mei entertains the ‘guests’ by dancing in unison to a percussive symphony of stones created by thousands of pebbles rhythmically ricocheting back and forth across the screen at lightning speed.
IN GOOD COMPANY - Topher Grace is nothing less than sensational as the hilarious Carter Duryea, an unseasoned clueless yuppie put in a position of power in a corporate takeover after he has one successful ad campaign under his belt. Dennis Quaid is Dan Foreman, the experienced advertising executive who knows what his clients want, what his sales staff needs, and what’s at stake for his sports magazine company when he is replaced. What he doesn’t expect is for the new guy to keep him on, latch onto his family, romance his daughter, and cling to him as a father figure. Marg Helgenberger plays Quaid’s dutiful wife who holds things together until love and fate put a new - but not altogether unwelcome - financial burden on Dan. To make matters worse, Dan is mortgaged up to his eyeballs. He needs his job.
“In Good Company” uncommonly forges a link between family values and ethics at the work place. Carter Duryea is in a moral limbo trying to figure what who and what he is. He knows what he isn’t. He is not happy. Carter knows how to walk the walk and talk the talk of an up and coming professional but he cannot relate to people and things. He destroys everything he comes in contact with from his marriage to his status symbol sports car. There is a void in his life that he hopes to fill by invading the Foreman homestead. He is like the proverbial houseguest who doesn’t know when to leave. He loves the love he sees in the everyday lives of the Foremans. It’s something he never knew and may never know unless he can worm his way into their hearts. Things get complicated when he falls for Dan’s daughter Alex(Scarlett Johansson) and the office is no longer his home away from home.
Writer/director Paul Weitz has created a heartwarming comedy about family, love, ethics at the work place and greed. Everything in “In Good Company” feels right from the little nods of affection between husband and wife to the animosity of co-workers who feel betrayed by the man who always treated them as family. Even an obvious visual pun like the pet fish that Carter sees as his only friend strike the right balance between pathos and humor. “In Good Company” is a first class film that should be seen by anyone who needs to reaffirm their faith in family values and human nature.
MARIA FULL OF GRACE - Seventeen year old Colombian Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) walks out of a dead end job pulling thorns from roses rather than let herself be badgered by her boss but her miniscule pay helped support a household of women - her mother, grandmother, and sister. Penniless, pregnant and desperate she swallows her pride and succumbs to the wiles of a suave recruiter (John Alex Toro) for a local drug lord. Maria becomes a drug mule.
“Maria Full of Grace” details the step by step training process followed by many of the many women who came before Maria. Her steely resolve belies her strength of character. She sees the task before her as one of survival, not morality. Maria breaks away from her drug wranglers and finds her way to the Colombian neighborhood in Queens New York She finds refuge with the sister of a friend and comfort from the neighborhood’s elder statesman. He is the immigrants’ eyes in the new world, steering them clear of legal entanglements, offering fatherly advice as needed. Once Maria cuts loose from the shackles of her past, “Maria Full of Grace” turns into a thoroughly realistic view of the American Dream. The streets of America are not paved with gold but it is a place where someone like Maria might be able to overcome hardship with a helping hand and have a chance to live with dignity.
Writer director Joshua Marston grounds his characters in the rythymn of everyday life. Nothing is forced. Yet, the actors give “Maria Full of Grace” a sense of urgency that makes their scenes bristle with excitement. A sense of dread hangs over the their every move. Violence is often inferred rather than portrayed. Maria’s story is not necessarily about the drug trade, although it is an integral part of her journey. It is more about the indomitable spirit of a young woman, wise beyond her years, trying to remain true to herself - in a state of grace, as the title implies - while trying to defeat the odds that life has stacked against her. “Maria Full of Grace” is a superb film from a talent worth watching.
THE SEA INSIDE - Javier Bardem is charismatic as the real life quadriplegic Spaniard Ramon Sampedro who fought a a lifelong battle to legally end his life through assisted euthanasia. Crippled in the prime of his life in a swimming accident in the coastal waters of his native Spain, he becomes a writer to give his life meaning. A best selling memoir turned him into a cause celebre and a public figure who fought with church and government over his right to die. He was an inspiration to many and a disappointment to his family who sacrificed the better part of their lives to care for him. Their love pours out of the screen especially when Ramon’s brother talks about the life at sea he gave up. Women fall in love with him especially the lawyer(Belen Rueda) who represents him and a young mother who Ramon comes to see as the daughter he never had.
Director Alejandro Amenabar (“The Others”) travels with Ramon Sampedro into his dreams as he walks to his window and flies out over the same waters he loved throughout his youth, and into the hearts of the people touched by his humanity. “The Sea Inside” is a thought provoking trip into the soul a man who longed to die with dignity on his own terms.
THE WOODSMAN - First time director Nicole Kasser makes an auspicious debut with Kevin Bacon giving one of his greatest performances as a pedophile out on parole. He is despicable in every way, but Kevin gets under the skin of Walter to show a human side that most people may not want to see. The plot is simple, the characters are not. Kevin gets his old job back. The tough as nails co-worker - played by Kevin’s real life wife Kyra Sedgwicke - falls in love with him. A parole officer(Mos Def) hounds him. A bother-in-law(Benjamin Bratt) is there to help and patch up the splintered relationship between Walter and his sister. And then there’s this pedophile repeatedly trying to lure a boy into to his car in front of the school across from Walter’s apartment. Things really get creepy when Walter befriends a girl. The tug of war going on with Walter’s conscience is seen in the subtle contortions of Kevin Bacon’s face. The summation of Kevin Bacon’s career and Walter’s character is wrapped up in this one moment of cinematic time. “The Woodsman” should not be missed.
VERA DRAKE - British character actress Imelda Staunton (“Shakespeare in Love”) has the title role as an everyday English housewife and mother who cleans other people’s houses in the early 1950s. One would never know by her calm and chatty demeanor that she is also an abortionist. She performs her duties with the same casualness she exhibits at home talking about the day to day with her family. She sees herself as an angel of mercy helping young single girls who don’t want to be in the family way. Vera asks no compensation for herself, but others profit from her misdeeds. When an abortion goes bad and a girl almost dies, the coppers come knocking on her door.
Writer/director Mike Leigh’s “Vera Drake” is not just the story of an abortionist. It’s a look back to a time when the stain of an abortion had as much to say about class distinction as it did about England’s criminal justice system. It’s also about the resiliency of the English family. The Drakes survived WWII and were happy just to stay home and discuss the niceties of the day. Vera’s husband(Phil Davis) sits in the living room reading the newspaper and listening to the radio with not much to say. When Vera walks in she brightens up the room with her life force. Watching “Vera Drake” is like staring through a microscope to observe subtleties of character. When Vera’s criminal activity is discovered, her daughter’s suitor sympathetically talks about having grown up hungry in a large family. His simple confession opens up a whole new area of discovery about the abortion controversy that is sympathetic to Vera’s plight. Surprisingly, “Vera Drake,” reinforces the durability of the institution of marriage when two people are really committed to each other. Like many of Mike Leigh’s movies, “Vera Drake” is made up of tidbits of personality that come through simple words and gestures. Each moment acts as a building block that supports new information that follows. As the story builds, brick by emotional brick, it is impossible to ignore the powerhouse of feeling that accrues for Vera Drake as well as her husband and daughter. “Vera Drake” may be slow going but it is an absorbing character study and a remarkably distilled dissection of a bygone era.
Some year end releases worth seeing.
THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON - Sean Penn is compelling as Sam Bicke, a furniture salesman with a grudge against the world. Bicke is a born loser who can’t keep a job, hold onto his wife (a very sympathetic Naomi Watts), or earn the respect of his successful businessman brother (an unrecognizable Michael Wincott). His attitude puts him on the outs with everyone he comes in contact with. Even Bicke’s best friend (Don Cheadle) is having reservations about going into business with him because of his irrational behavior. In an idea that may seem ridiculous on paper, Bicke tries to join the Black Panthers. Penn is so sincere in his pitch to identify with the disenfranchised that it is simultaneously frightening and pitiable. When he has trouble getting a federally sponsored small business loan from the Federal Government, President Richard M. Nixon becomes the focus of his rage. Like most of his ideas, Bicke can never come up with a workable plan. “The Assassination of Richard Nixon” from director Neils Mueller is a character study to the nth degree. Sean Penn is in every scene. He slowly brings Bicke’s slow simmer to a boil that scalds everyone in his path. When he fires his first shot at some innocents, Penn has the surprised look of a young kid who utters his first curse word and then keeps on cursing. The outcome of “The Assassination of Richard Nixon” is inevitable, but the mixed emotions Penn generates for Sam Bicke is anything but predictable.
BAD EDUCATION - Pedro Almodavar’s “Bad Education” is a story within a story within a story. You’re never sure which one you’re watching. Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal from “Y Tu Mama Tambien” & “Motorcycle Diaries”) shows up at a filmmaker’s house to make a movie out of a short story called “The Visitor.” That story unfurls on screen. It’s about a priest molesting a 10 year old boy. The filmmaker turns out to have been a friend of Ignacio at the time of the molestation, and doubts the visitor’s dentity, although the story is true enough. Then the story of the movie as it’s being made unfolds on the screen (or was the making of the movie unfolding as the telling of the story by Ignacio?) Before you know it, you’re not sure what story is on the screen. Then the actual story comes into play when the characters on whom “The Visitor” is based on take over in the present. Their story is even seedier than anything in “The Visitor.”
Like all of Almodocar’s films, their are junkies, male hustlers and transvestites. In his last few films, the imaginary line that separates reality from fantasy fades away with the onslaught of pure emotion. The imaginary lines in “Bad Education” that separate one story line from the next interlock like a three dimensional puzzle with different points of view. Eventually it all comes together to form a complete picture but “Bad Education” lacks the emotional hooks that characterize the best of Almodovar. It is still a first rate brain teaser.
BEYOND THE SEA - I love the sheer audacity of Kevin Spacey! He’sKevin Spacey writer, producer, actor, singer, and director of “Beyond the Sea,” a musical fantasy on the life of Bobby Darin. He may be too old for the part but he captures the energy of the performer and his music. Spacey nails his mannerisms down to a tee. Shot like a cheesy 60’s style teen comedy, the movie is pure kitsch. Kate Bosworth is thoroughly convincing as teen heartthrob Sandra Dee who met her husband to be while making “Come September,” a Rock Hudson comedy. Bobby’s infatuation with her is turned into a 60’s style Music Video of the title song. There are a few scenes on his Hollywood years and his political activism, but none of them have the force of the musical numbers in each phase of Darin’s career. “Beyond the Sea” is to the movies as “Beatlemania” was to Broadway. If anything, “Beyond the Sea” sent me back to my Bobby Darin collection to hear the real deal. I think Kevin would like that. This may not be a great movie, but I thought “Beyond the Sea” was thoroughly entertaining.
A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE - First time writer
director John Deery attempts to tackle a subject that is on the minds of many
Catholics these days second to the pedophilia charges against the priesthood.
More specifically, “A Conspiracy of Silence” is about homosexuality and AIDS
in the priesthood. A local reporter gets more than he bargained for when the
head of a local seminary conceals the facts about the suicide of a popular
priest. The truth comes out when a dedicated seminarian gets the boot and
another priest comes out of the closet as the suicide victim’s lover. When
the Church takes an active part in a cover up, “A Conspiracy of Silence” takes
on the mantle of a thriller in the vain of “All the President’s Men.” Lives
are threatened and victims of the Catholic Church’s abuse fall to the wayside.
The finale takes place in a public forum when a major news organization gets
wind of the story too controversial for the local press to handle. One of
the issues raised in the film is the desire for priests to marry. At times,
“A Conspiracy of Silence” takes on more issues and one too many subplots,
but it nonetheless entertaining and thought provoking.
FINDING NEVERLAND - The beginning of director Marc Foster’s “Finding Neverland” is so laid back I thought I was going to fall off my seat. It took a while for the movie to cast its spell with Johnny Depp, as playwright J.M. Barrie, slowly working his way in the good graces of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies(Kate Winslet). Barrie suffers from a melancholia brought on by the death of his brother in childhood. The creation of Neverland became the place he escaped to where children never die. Sylvia and her family of four young boys become the inspiration for the characters that bring his imaginary land of make believe to life through Peter Pan. They take flight in fantasy sequences that are both whimsical and autobiographical. “Finding Neverland” is above all about the creative process.
“Finding Neverland”s finest moment belongs to Julie Christie as Winslet’s mother, Emma Du Maurier. She has been incensed over her daughter’s relationship with Barrie and his with the children from the outset. It is depicted as purely platonic and above board. With Sylvia’s health ailing, Barrie puts on a production of his hit play at her house using her gardens as a backdrop. The famous Tinkerbell death scene is taken to heart as Emma cheers for her resurrection with tears in her eyes. She is as riveted and moved as the orphans were that attended Peter Pan’s opening night. It is apparent that Tinkerbell represents the light in Barrie’s life, and her resurrection the memory that her sons will carry for their mother for the rest of their lives. The finale was worth the wait.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG - John Travolta is the title character in this evocation of the sun drenched literary South of bungalows and booze. He’s a has been English professor with a secret that ties him to his one time student aid - now roommate - Lawson Pines(Steven Macht) who aspires to write Long’s biography. They live in the home of a deceased singer named Lorraine whose daughter Pursy(Scarlett Johansson) comes knocking on their front door to claim what’s left of the memory of a mother she never knew. Long and Pines riff on each other quoting famous lines from novels and poems too numerous to mention. They attempt to make Pursy over into their lost image by taking her into their hearts as payback to the woman who gave them a place to live when nobody else would. Pursy’s mother becomes more real to her with each new revelation from her self appointed guardians and the local musicians who play in the clubs at night and gather to reminisce in the trailer parks and bungalow villages on the fringes of New Orleans by day. “A Love Song for Bobby Long” predictably takes its time getting to the obvious but what was not easily foreseeable was the amount of genuine feeling director Shainee Gabel stirs up by the end of her tale. I really liked this movie.
MEET THE FOCKERS - This sequel to “Meet the Parents” may not be its equal but there are enough laughs to please fans of the stars. Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand are thrown into the mix as Bernie and Roz Focker, Ben Stiller’s parents. They’re aging liberal hippies who are not afraid to speak their mind, mouth off and brag about there sex life. He’s a happy husband and she’s a sex therapist. Roz wants people her age to enjoy the same good sex she does. They are the complete opposites of the uptight ex-FBI agent Jack Burns(Robert De Niro) who Roz sees as her next challenge. Hopefully his wife (Blythe Danner) will be the recipient of her efforts to unhinge Jack. He’s the kind of guy who could have spied on them during their protest days. Most of the hilarity comes from the two sets of parents playing off each other.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE - Al Pacino made a movie called “Looking for Richard” that mixed the acting out of Shakespeare’s Richard III with the actors dissecting the play in present day. Seeing the movie was a heady experience that tried to make Shaespeare more relevant to modern audiences and hopefully stir an interest in Shakespeare in the MTV generation. Pacino’s interest in Shakespeare is reinforced here with his mesmerizing performance of Shylock. He turns a character who seemed more of a caricature when I read “The Merchant of Venice” in high school umteen years ago into a sympathetic character wounded by the anti-Semitism of his times - Renaissance Italy. Director Michael Radford vividly creates those times with all its splendor and squalor. The middle class surroundings of Antonio(Jeremy Irons) who borrows money from Shylock and aristocratic Portia(Lynn Collins), stand in direct contrast to Shylock’s hovel and the market place where courtesans display their physical wares around the canals of Venice. One of the highlights is the famous “…do we not bleed” speech by Pacino that turns a once reviled character into all too human one. The movie climaxes with the famous court scene where Shylock demands his pound of flesh from Antonio who cannot pay the money he owes to Shylock. It has a resonance not found in a reading of the play turning Shylock into a much more sympathetic character. He loses his money and daughter in one fell sweep. This is good Shakespeare!
POLAR EXPRESS - Unfortunately I never got to see “The Polar Express” in its 3-D Imax format. The movie cries out for 3-D at with every dip and turn of the famous train that takes non-believing kids to the North Pole to turn them into believers in Santa Claus. State of the art digital technology makes the train ride itself more realistic than the kids, elves and conductor - Tom Hanks - who inhabit director Robert Zemeckis; story book world. The movie’s a smash hit but as an artistic endeavor, I think the movie is too scary for any kid under the age of nine and not sophisticated enough for anyone over the age of thirteen. As for the adults? Anyone - child or parent - who fell in love with the book by Chris Van Allsburgian I will take it to heart. I’m hoping that when “The Polar Express” is released on DVD it will be in 3-D like the third “Spy Kids” movie. We’ll see.
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT - Audrey Tatou plays twenty year old Mathilde whose optimism takes her all over Europe looking for Manech her betrothed who is believed to have been killed in the trenches at the end of WWI. Jean-Pierre Juneut’s epic is a whimsical love story sparked by the adventurous Mathilde who doesn’t know how to take ‘no’ for an answer. She hires a detective to search for Manech despite rumors and hearsay about his demise. Survivors of the war each have a different story about five men who were to be executed but died in the trenches. Each eyewitness to Manech’s position during the fighting has a different tale to tell. “A Very Long Engagement” turns into a Rashomon-like story with each version of events more detailed, and sometimes more absurd than the last. Likewise, Mathilde’s detective keeps coming up with alternate points of view about the soldiers who shared their fate with Menach.. While this may not be an unusual approach to telling a story, anyone familiar with director Juneut’s films (“Delicatessen” and “Amelie” also with Audrey Tatou) know his work has a unique look and feel unlike any other filmmaker. The movie is saturated with color. The scenes look like oil paintings that have come to life. Imagine Goya as a cinematographer. The direction has a jaunty style similar to “Amelie” which in some way is a forebear to this tale. That too was about a young woman in search of her true love. Instead of the boulevards of Paris, this movie’s heroine seeks out her true love in the far corners of her native land. So, if you liked “Amelie,’ you will surely like “A Very Long Engagement.” I liked “Amelie.”
Some of the year end releases listed below were critical favorites. Others were panned by some and hits with the public. They each had something going for them but I found them disappointing for the most par.
BRIDGET JONES:THE EDGE OF REASON- Rene Zellweger reprises her role as the ditzy but lovable Bridget Jones. She’s now living with the love of her life, Mark Darcy(Colin Firth) and doing light news segments for the local telly. Things go sour and she renews her fervor for Daniel Cleaver(Hugh Grant) but as usual things don’t go according to plan and Bridget ends up in an Asian jail for drug trafficking. Before you know it she wins over her fellow prisoners with her Martha Stewart ways. “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” is pure sitcom. It has some great slapstick moments and anything that comes out of Rene Zellweger’s mouth is a hoot, but it pales in comparison to “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”
CLOSER - If words were razors, the characters in “Closer” would be cut to shreds. It’s a sado/masochistic exercise in emotional turpitude. Not one character has a socially redeeming quality. Mike Nichols is the director so comparisons to his virgin effort “Who’s Afraid of Virginian Woolf” seem inevitable but the rapier wit and verbal swordplay in Edward Albee’s play is far more entertaining than the in-your-face verbal assaults in “Closer.” I wasn’t crazy about “Closer” but it is a great showcase for the fours principals. Julia Roberts is less than her glamorous self as Ann, a photographer who develops a thing for novelist Dan (Jude Law). Dan is a guy who gets into relationships, then sets about to destroy them in the name of truth. He sets up a bogus date via the internet using crude and overt sexual language to lure the unsuspecting sexually voracious dermatologist Larry (Clive Owen) into a bogus date with Roberts. Enter the mysterious (Alice) Natalie Portman, a lap dancer/stripper who is hit by a car and helped by Law who woos her. Clive finds out about Law’s part in the set up with Roberts and sets out to get revenge with Roberts as the prize. What follows is a lot of sexually explicit language with each male trying to outdo the other. After a while the proceedings become tedious but there is one nice surprise touch at the end that has to do with the name of one of the characters.
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX - Dennis Quaid is the pilot of a doomed aircraft that crashes during a desert storm in the Middle East. Giovanni Ribisi is the mysterious aeronautical engineer who comes up with the idea to rebuild the aircraft from spare parts to escape from the middle of nowhere. A cultural cross section of personalities fight each other, Arab cutthroats and the elements in this desert adventure. “Flight of the Phoenix” is a remake of James Stewart movie directed by Robert Aldrich back in the 60’s. If this version had been released in the summer, seeing it would have been a nice way to get out of the sun or the rain. But it’s year end release gave it little chance to find an audience. Quaid and Ribisi are always good and there’s a nice quirky twist in the plot that really works. It concerns Rabisi’s character. ‘Nuff said. It will definitely be worth the price of a rental when it comes out on video.
LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS - Based on the best selling children’s books, I thought this adaptation of three Snicket tales was an insult to any self respecting kid. Emily Browning and Liam Aiken give suitable performances as the orphaned Violet and Klaus Baudelaire kids who stand to inherit a fortune when their homestead is burnt to the ground. The funniest scenes have their baby sister Sunny (alternating twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman) biting her way through the movie on things like table legs. The kids naturalism is often at odds with the caricatures of the film’s guest stars. Jim Carey is Uncle Olaf, the legal guardian who hopes to get their inheritance after their demise. He dons several disguises throughout the kids’ adventures only to be outdone by them every time. Meryl Streep seems to be having too good a time as the doughty Aunt Josephine. Her hang ups get in the way of her stewardship of the children. Only Billy Connolly comes away unscathed as an adventurous uncle who makes more promises than he can deliver. He plays it broad without straining for credibility.
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU - I’m a big fan of Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore” with Bill Murray’s going to war with a high schooler who has a crush on the woman Murray hopes to claim for himself. It was a nice follow up to his debut feature “Bottle Rocket” that introduced his collaborator, the zany Owen Wilson to the world along with his brother Luke. In order to understand the genesis of “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” I think it’s important to see take a look at this first feature.
In “Bottle Rocket,” Owen Wilson’s character escapes from a mental hospital. He is met by his best friend, played by Luke, who asks why he is escaping on the day he is to be let out. Simply put, Owen says it’s an adventure. Then we learn that he admitted himself into the mental ward so he probably could have left any time he wanted to. The key word is adventure. Everything the two friends do is an acting out of an adventure. Eventually they get mixed up with a real scam artist played by James Caan. Still they act out. Think of Owen’s character grown up making adventure movies for adults told from the point of view of someone whose mental faculties have not been fully developed. Think of the lead as a washed up Jacques Cousteau wannabe getting mixed up with pirates, a legendary killer fish, another entrepreneurial voyager trying to scam him (much like Caan in “Bottle Rocket”), a female reporter who wants to tell it like it is, a long lost son who may not be your son and a wife who controls what’s left of your corporate empire and more. Throw them all into a mix of a wide eyed child’s view of their adult world to the tune of Mission Impossible. Director Wes Anderson’s style is everything. It overpowers any social commentary it might have about Zissou’s life. The most amusing oddity in the movie are the David Bowie songs sung in Portuguese.
The star studded cast who give their all in “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” includes
Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Bud Cort, Kate Blanchett, and Anjelica Huston. The most amusing oddity in the move
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - I don’t get it. The music’s great, the sets are fabulous, and some of the special effects are truly miraculous. I particularly like the transition from the black and white ‘present’ to its glorious Technicolor past. So why is this movie so dull? The silent classic with Lon Chaney still has an air of mystery that this musical version never comes close to. “Phantom of the Opera” lacks the passion and drama you would normally associate with the work of director Joel Schumacher. Patrick Wilson who plays the hero clearly has the best voice. Gerard Butler - the Phantom - has a grating voice that never reveals the tortured soul behind the mask. Emmy Rossum may have the voice of an angel but her one song at the beginning of “Song Catcher” a few years ago is better than anything she sings in this movie
SPANGLISH - Adam Sandler may be the star of “Spanglish” but this is not an Adam Sandler movie. It is a James L. Brooks film. “Spanglish” is a mixed bag. It has moments of real affection and others that have a forced sitcom quality that just don’t play well on the big screen.
Sandler is John Chasky, a master chef who likes to keep a low profile. All he wants is to hide his nice neighborhood restaurant from the glare of professional food critics. He wants a quiet place where everyday folk can gather for a good meal. He’s a quiet and forgiving kind of guy who is also trying to keep things together at home. His wife Deb is a loose cannon with a great capacity to unintentionally insult people. She is loud and crude, the daughter of a retired singer(Cloris Leachman) who was anything but a model mother. John’s daughter Bernice(Sarah Steele) is an overweight teenager, subject to her mother’s taunts but the recipient of her father’s open hearted affection. Deb hires a beautiful Mexican woman, Flor Mureno(Paz Vega) as a housekeeper and bulldozes her way into her daughter Cristina’s life.
“Spanglish” actually starts with Cristina narrating an essay about role models and the part her mother’s dignity has played in her life. “Spanglish” is all about role models. Deb is a poor one for her daughter. Deb’s alcoholic mother was a poor one for her. The amiable John is too much of a good guy, letting things get occasionally out of control. Deb tries to steal Flor’s thunder by showering Cristina with gifts Flor sees as bribery for her affection. “Spanglish” becomes a battle of the wills to see who will win out over the welfare of Cristina. Will she go to the good schools at Deb’s beckoning or will she return to her mother’s fold? This is after all a James L. Brooks film. The performances are, for the most part pitch perfect but the movie has the feeling of a set-up. You always know where it’s going. There are very few surprises. And by starting off with Cristina’s narrative essay, you know exactly where it’s going to end up.
Copyright 2005