SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH WALTER: Inspired by Tarek (Haaz Sleiman, right), Walter (Richard Jenkins) tries to drum up enough courage to play in public in The Visitor.
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... (1953). Max Ophuls' adaptation of the book by Louise de Vilmorin has long been championed as one of the screen's great "women's pictures," though such a limiting tag seems a disservice to a film as thematically far-reaching as this one. Danielle Darrieux stars as Countess Louise de... (her last name is never revealed throughout the film, always cut off in one manner or another), a frivolous society woman who, in order to pay off some debts, pawns off the earrings her husband, General Andre de... (Charles Boyer), gave her years earlier as a wedding present. The general learns of her deceit, and, amused, offers them to his departing mistress. Eventually, the baubles find their way into the hands of Baron Fabrizio Donati (Vittorio De Sica), who, as fate would have it, ends up as the Countess' lover. And guess what he gives her a present? The cyclical nature of chance and coincidence takes on epic proportions here, as Ophuls masterfully transforms what initially seems like a borderline bedroom farce into a full-blown tragedy, with the earrings shedding various coats of symbolism as they journey through this hard-hitting melodrama. The picture is notable for a number of staggering sequences, including the opening tracking shot, a ballroom dance between the Countess and the Baron that expertly denotes the passage of time, and the lovely moment when pieces of a torn-up love letter are smoothly replaced by falling snowflakes. All three leads are superb, though I was especially taken by Boyer's portrayal of General de..., whose amusement at his wife's antics fades as he comes to grasp not only the level of his love for her but also the bracing fact that she doesn't love him – his description that their marriage is "only superficially superficial" is achingly poignant.
DVD extras include audio commentary by film scholars Susan White and Gaylyn Studlar; audio commentary on select scenes by There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson; a visual analysis of the film by film scholar Tag Gallagher; and a vintage interview with de Vilmorin. The set also contains a booklet that includes the source story.
Movie: ****
Extras: ***
THE INCREDIBLE HULK (2008). Is it just me, or is anyone else hankering to go out and rent a handful of episodes from the old TV series The Incredible Hulk? Sure, every show pretty much resembled the others, but Bill Bixby was a smart choice to play the smart scientist, and in retrospect, it was downright comforting to have his rampaging alter ego played by an oversized actor spray-painted in green. In this age, moviemakers have opted to keep Dr. Jekyll but do away with Mr. Hyde, replacing him with a CGI creation. The results were disastrous in Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk: A dull flick was made even less appealing by a green giant who looked like a video game blip most of the time and Gumby on steroids the rest of the time. This attempt to save the franchise (new director, new writer, new cast) is clearly a superior follow-up, even if the computers still can't quite capture the misunderstood monster on film. The Hulk looks better here than in the '03 model, but there's still a plasticity about him that removes the behemoth – and, consequently, our rooting interest – from whatever action is occurring on screen. That's a shame, because Edward Norton does his part by providing Bruce Banner with the requisite sense of torn humanity, and the film is filled with imaginative asides for fans of the comic book and/or TV series. The Incredible Hulk is a more-than-serviceable fantasy flick, lacking in the sort of existential angst that propelled the Spider-Man trilogy and Superman Returns but filled with frenetic action that should satisfy the Marvel faithful. But on the scale of superhero flicks, it falls a bit short. In other words, don't expect Iron Man or Batman to be green with envy.
Extras in the three-disc Special Edition include audio commentary by director Louis Leterrier and co-star Tim Roth; over 40 minutes of deleted scenes; an alternate opening; various making-of featurettes; and a digital copy of the film. And speaking of the aforementioned TV series from the late seventies/early eighties, Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just released the DVD box set of the fifth and final season.
Movie: **1/2
Extras: ***
KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL (2008). For its first two-thirds, this motion picture, based on the both the popular doll line and the equally successful book series, is an unexpected delight, precisely because what could have been a rehash of last year's painful Nancy Drew adaptation instead registers as a mature and intelligent drama – in this case, the G rating stands for Grown-ups as much as it stands for General Audiences. It's just a shame that the movie loses its bearings and turns into a Home Alone clone during the final stretch, though even here, I suppose the filmmakers can be partly excused for finally remembering to add some slapstick elements that serve as catnip to the kids. The film is set in Cincinnati during the height of the Great Depression, and preteen Kit (Abigail Breslin) watches as her father (Chris O'Donnell) has to move away to Chicago to look for work and her mother (Julia Ormond) is forced to rent out rooms to boarders. Still, kids will be kids, and although she has to take on more than her share of adult responsibilities, Kit also finds time to dream about becoming a published writer and to make some new friends, including a pair of young hobos (Max Thierot and Willow Smith) who help out around the place. The various plights of the Kittredges, their struggling neighbors, and members of the hobo community add a bracing topicality to the piece: As wealthy conservatives untouched by the Depression rail against (and refuse to help) everyone who's been financially decimated, it's hard not to view this community as a microcosm of today's United States of America, a place where the haves work feverishly to further separate themselves from the have-nots. The weighty themes remain throughout the picture, though they decidedly end up taking a back seat to the buffoonish antics of Joan Cusack (as a clumsy librarian) and a tepid subplot involving a string of burglaries.
The only DVD extras are trailers for other American Girl films.
Movie: ***
Extras: *
THE THREE STOOGES COLLECTION, VOLUME FOUR (1943-1945). The producers behind other movie and/or TV series hitting DVD would do well to take a lesson from the folks handling the Three Stooges sets. As a couple of examples, it's been nearly two years since the last All in the Family installment, and a year-and-a-half since the most recent Columbo collection. Yet only six weeks divided the releases of the third and fourth volumes in this series, and before that, only a span of three months separated Volumes Two and Three. Some consumers might fret at having to shell out so much dough in such a short amount of time, but most fans will at least be grateful that they can complete their collection as soon as possible. And what a collection, crammed with enough eye gouging, head bopping and foot smashing to satisfy knuckleheads everywhere. This offering collects all 21 shorts made by Moe, Larry and Curly during one of their most fruitful three-year runs; among the gems are several World War II yarns like They Stooge to Conga (in which Moe gets to revive his Adolph Hitler impersonation) and No Dough Boys, and, just in time for Halloween, such works as Spook Louder, Idle Roomers and If a Body Meets a Body.
There are no extras in the collection.
Collection: ***1/2
Extras: *
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958). A genuine masterpiece of cinema, Orson Welles' Touch of Evil opens with one of the longest (and most celebrated) tracking shots in film history: a crossing at the Mexican-American border, culminating with the detonation of a car bomb. Thus the groundwork is set for this fascinating and frequently lurid thriller in which Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston), an honest Mexican narcotics agent, butts heads with Hank Quinlan (Welles), a corrupt American cop, while unwittingly leaving his wife Susan (Janet Leigh) at the mercy of the lowlife inhabitants of a decrepit bordertown. A shrewd look at issues of morality, loyalty and casual racism, this dazzling cinematic achievement has the rare good fortune of being one of those films that somehow seems to improve with each subsequent viewing – the highest compliment indeed, given that it only takes one showing to evaluate its substantial worth. Welles' performance as the portly Quinlan is a stunning tour de force, with the actor-director enhancing the character's moral decay by working under extra padding and a false nose – film scholar Danny Peary once wrote that Quinlan "looks like something the cat refused to drag in," as perfect a description as can be imagined.
This luminous 50th Anniversary Edition includes three versions of the film: the original theatrical print, a preview cut shown before the picture's 1958 release, and the 1998 restored version, which is considered the definitive take since it was constructed based on Welles' 58-page memo in which he detailed his preferences to the studio (which had taken the picture out of his hands and imposed their own changes). The set also includes a reproduction of that memo. Other bonuses include separate audio commentary for each cut of the film (participants include Heston, Leigh, restoration producer Rick Schmidlin, and Welles historian – and retired Chicago Reader critic – Jonathan Rosenbaum); a 20-minute retrospective piece; and a behind-the-scenes look at the restoration.
Movie: ****
Extras: ***1/2
THE VISITOR (2008). Writer-director Thomas McCarthy's first film since 2003's The Station Agent doesn't match the magnificence of its predecessor, but neither does it represent anything resembling a sophomore slump. Certainly, it's as humanistic a movie as The Station Agent, with character actor Richard Jenkins (Step Brothers, Burn After Reading) handed the role of a lifetime in Walter Vale, a Connecticut professor who, in the fine tradition of other recent movie intellectuals (e.g. those played by Ben Kingsley, Dennis Quaid and Frank Langella in Elegy, Smart People and Starting Out in the Evening, respectively), has little use for his students or peers and prefers instead to keep to himself. That changes once he heads to his apartment in New York City and discovers Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian musician, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), Tarek's Senegalese girlfriend, both living there. Rather than throw them out, Walter reluctantly allows them to stay, eventually forming a strong bond with Tarek as the younger man teaches him how to play African drums. Unfortunately, Tarek and Zainab are both illegal immigrants, and an incarceration results in Walter dedicating himself to a greater cause. A surprise sleeper hit among the art-house set, The Visitor is exactly the type of movie the GOP would rather Americans not see, as it individualizes (rather than demonizes) its foreign characters and provides them with a collective voice that demands to be heard.
DVD extras include audio commentary by McCarthy and Jenkins; four deleted scenes; a making-of short; and a piece on playing the djembe (the hand drums employed throughout the film).
Movie: ***
Extras: **1/2
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