New Releases
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS / PERSEPOLIS This year’s Academy Awards race may be over, but expect the controversy surrounding the group’s Best Foreign Language Film category to continue. After a record 63 countries each submitted a picture for consideration in this year’s contest, the members of the Academy’s foreign language film committee – mainly, older and more conservative voters who have time to watch all these movies – pared the list down to nine, from which the five nominees were selected. Astonishingly, that list of nine didn’t include two highly praised titles: Romania’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and France’s Persepolis (which did manage to snag a Best Animated Feature nod). Perhaps the finalists were all better than either movie – it’s impossible to say at this point, considering none have played Charlotte – but given the Academy’s absurd, decades-stretching rules governing this category – nonsensical guidelines that have kept such gems as Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, Claude Berri’s Jean de Florette and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Trois Couleurs trilogy out of the running – that’s hardly a given. At any rate, Academy heads promise an investigation of the current process. As for this neglected pair, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a dark drama about an unexpected pregnancy that flies in the face of far sunnier pictures like Juno and Knocked Up; set in Romania during the 1980s, it centers on the efforts of a woman (Anamaria Marinca) to help her friend (Laura Vasiliu) secure an illegal abortion. The animated Persepolis, meanwhile, charts the exploits of a young girl as she comes of age in Iran in the years surrounding the revolution (out with the Shah, in with the Ayatollah Khomeini). Both films focus on women coping with unimaginable hardships while living under oppressive regimes, and both are comparably memorable. Both films: ***
Current Releases
THE BUCKET LIST If Morgan Freeman and Judi Dench ever made a film together, would the world simply explode? After all, Freeman always plays the smartest character in his movies and Dench always plays the wisest character in her pictures, so wouldn’t this fall under some sort of “irresistible force meets immovable object” scenario? At any rate, it’s an idea more worthy of discussion than any of the pseudo-weighty nonsense on view in The Bucket List, an interminable film about terminal patients who learn important life lessons before, yes, kicking the bucket. Freeman plays Carter Chambers, an auto mechanic with an IQ equal to that of Stephen Hawking. Dying of cancer, he shares a hospital room with the filthy rich Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson), who’s beginning to realize that money can buy everything except an extended lease on life. With each man facing less than a year to live, they both elect to go out in a blaze (or at least daze) of glory, by dutifully performing tasks on their self-penned “bucket list” of activities they’ve always wanted to do. The list includes such items as “go skydiving” and “laugh until I cry”; unfortunately, “entertain audiences who pay to see this Bucket of you-know-what” is nowhere to be found. A lazy and condescending package from top to bottom (with uninspired efforts put forth by director Rob Reiner and scripter Justin Zackham), The Bucket List isn’t nearly as torturous as the similar, “laughing in the face of death” Patch Adams; then again, neither is a broken back. *1/2
DEFINITELY, MAYBE When it comes to a worthy romantic comedy, Definitely, Maybe certainly isn’t fool’s gold (or Fool’s Gold) – on the contrary, it’s the real deal, a diamond in the rough that could use some polishing but overall sparkles with warmth and wit. Little Miss Sunshine‘s Abigail Breslin (suddenly more overexposed than fellow moppet Dakota Fanning) plays Maya Hayes, a precocious child whose parents are getting divorced. While staying with her father Will (Ryan Reynolds), Maya begs to hear how he and her mother met, so he turns the bedtime story into a mystery, changing all the names and leaving Maya to guess which of the women from his past ended up becoming his wife. As he details his escapades during the early 1990s – as a fledgling political consultant for the Clinton campaign – he presents three possibilities: his college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), his campaign co-worker April (Isla Fisher), and his reporter friend Summer (Rachel Weisz). By casting three comparably drop-dead-gorgeous actresses in sympathetic and intelligent roles, writer-director Adam Brooks keeps the mystery going longer than might be expected; still, the focus isn’t on the identity of Mom as much as it’s on Will’s romantic travails as he keeps sorting out his shifting feelings for these women as they repeatedly enter his life over the years. Affable Reynolds manages to keep pace with his gifted leading ladies, while an unbilled Kevin Kline makes a welcome appearance as a literary boozehound with an eye for young college girls. ***
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY The apex to The Bucket List‘s nadir, this French effort from director Julian Schnabel takes a comparable blueprint – how a person moves forward with life after his body fails him – and makes it come alive via a startling visual style, knotty characterizations and a terrific central performance. Based on a true story, the film centers on Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the cocky editor of the French Elle magazine who suffers a stroke at the age of 43 and thereafter finds himself in a paralyzed state. The only part of his body he can move is one eye, but while wags may want to dismiss this as My Left Eye, Bauby’s story and Schnabel’s approach turn this into a different type of biopic than the Daniel Day-Lewis Oscar winner My Left Foot. Propelled by Ronald Harwood’s delicate script (which gives us access to Bauby’s inner monologues in a crisp and believable manner) and camerawork (courtesy of Saving Private Ryan lenser Janusz Kaminski) that allows the film to break away from the tale’s inherently claustrophobic atmosphere, this steadfastly avoids reducing the notions of perseverance and heroism to convenient catchphrases. Amalric is excellent in a tricky role, and there are further stellar contributions by Emmanuelle Seigner as his devoted wife and especially Max von Sydow as his father – the latter’s two scenes are the emotional high points of the film. ***1/2
FOOL’S GOLD Lord, what fools these Hollywood mortals be! Here they further denigrate the standing of the romantic comedy by presenting this waterlogged flick about bickering ex-spouses on the prowl for sunken treasure off the Florida Keys. In a reunion that no one was exactly clamoring for, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson play Finn and Tess; he’s an irresponsible beach bum who’s skilled at running up debts, while she’s a level-headed lass who’s forced to take a job on the yacht of millionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland). Despite finalizing their divorce mere hours earlier, Finn talks Tess into joining him once again on his never-ending quest for 18th century Spanish booty; they persuade Honeycutt to finance their endeavor, but they’re working against the clock since murderous rapper-turned-mobster Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) also has designs on the riches. Eye candy abounds in Fool’s Gold: Many women will enjoy the sight of McConaughey taking off his shirt at regular intervals, some men will gaze at the bronzed Hudson sporting teeny bikinis, and ocean lovers (that would include me) can ignore the lame plot at the forefront in favor of concentrating on the shimmering beauty of the water (a modest saving grace also found in After the Sunset and Into the Blue). But the direction (by Hitch‘s Andy Tennant) is uninspired, the script is bubbleheaded, and the bland leads continue to disprove the notion that some measure of movie-star charisma is required to make it as a romantic draw. Old pro Sutherland provides some lift, but the real spark comes from Alexis Dziena as Honeycutt’s trust-fund daughter; she takes the tired character of the young ditz and miraculously makes her funny. *1/2
JUMPER This fantasy flick may be based on the novel by Steven Gould, but while watching it, I felt like I had jumped back in time to 1986 and was again catching Highlander during its original theatrical run. Jumper is Highlander for a new generation: a cheesy, globetrotting film certain to be savaged by most critics, but also a mindlessly entertaining yarn likely to lead to a string of sequels and/or TV adaptations. Hayden Christensen, still struggling with that wooden aspect of his acting, plays David Rice, a kid who discovers he has the ability to “jump” to any location on the planet in a matter of seconds. In a nice if cynical twist, David doesn’t use his powers to benefit mankind; instead, he’s too busy robbing banks to finance a lifestyle generally reserved for the rich and famous. But his partying days come to an end once he encounters Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), a member of a secret society (“Paladins”) which has spent centuries trying to wipe out all jumpers. David receives some helpful pointers from a more seasoned jumper (Sean Connery’s regal Highlander role, here re-imagined as a surly punk played by Jamie Bell), but they may not be enough to prevent Roland from drawing David’s innocent girlfriend (Rachel Bilson) into the fray. As a heady piece of sci-fi philosophy, Jumper burrows no deeper than the ends of the eyelashes, as director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) and scripters David S. Goyer, Jim Uhls and Simon Kinberg are content to make a movie that offers little more than surface thrills. But on that level, Jumper is a fairly effective action tale, with some nifty effects and enough international locales to power a few Bond installments. **1/2
JUNO Ellen Page (Hard Candy) is pure perfection as the title character, a spunky and verbose teen who finds herself pregnant after a dalliance with sweet classmate Paulie Bleeker (Superbad‘s Michael Cera). After careful research, she decides on the adoptive parents: Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), a tightly wound businesswoman who wants a child in the worst way, and Mark (Jason Bateman), a TV jingle composer who tends to live in the past. But Juno’s idea of how everything should proceed doesn’t exactly pan out, and her sarcastic front falters in the face of fear and uncertainty, revealing the child underneath. Perhaps because it’s written by a woman – and a former stripper at that – Juno is already receiving the sort of knee-jerk backlash that tellingly was never foisted upon Judd Apatow’s similarly themed Knocked Up. Yet Diablo Cody’s script is more balanced than Apatow’s: The laughs are plentiful in both, but Cody places more emphasis on the emotional fallout, with Juno and Bleeker awkwardly trying to express their feelings for each other and Vanessa’s anxiety almost palpable as she worries that Juno might change her mind about handing over the baby (Garner is excellent in her best film role to date). Cody’s dialogue may not always be believable (how many 16-year-old girls reference Dario Argento, let alone Soupy Sales and Seabiscuit?), but its intelligence and quirky humor qualify as music to the ears of moviegoers tired of witless banter. And speaking of music, the soundtrack is a keeper as well, with eccentric tunes that complement the action. Kicking up a fuss (much like Juno’s unborn child), this is one of the year’s best releases. ***1/2
THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES Another movie season, another attempt to jump-start a film franchise aimed at family audiences. Yet The Spiderwick Chronicles, based on the books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, is one of the better adaptations in this field, which has taken some severe body blows lately with the dismal failures of the cluttered The Golden Compass and the dreadful The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising. Smoothly directed by Mark Waters, the miracle worker responsible for Lindsay Lohan’s two best performances (Freaky Friday and Mean Girls), Spiderwick displays a lighter touch than other fantasy films of this nature, meaning that its thrills are all the more unexpected – and effective. Freddie Highmore, the talented young star of Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, essays the roles of twin brothers Jared (troublemaker) and Simon (bookworm), who, along with mom Helen Grace (Mary-Louise Parker) and older sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger), take up residence in an ancestral home that harbors some interesting inhabitants. And living in the woods beyond the house are a murderous ogre (voiced by, of all people, Nick Nolte) and his goblin minions, all hell-bent on obtaining a book (presently in Jared’s possession) that would wreak havoc both on our world and the one inhabited by fairies and other mystical creatures. The CGI characters (including ones voiced by Martin Short and Seth Rogen) are sure to delight the kids, but for older viewers, they represent the least memorable aspects of this movie; far more affecting (and reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s earliest blockbusters) are the sequences that center on the relationships between the Graces – all struggling to cope with Helen’s impending divorce – and how the notion of family directly plays into their interactions with the fantasy world in their backyard. ***
THERE WILL BE BLOOD I’m not sure Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance represents the best acting of 2007, but it certainly represents the most acting of the past year. Then again, his oversized turn is right in line with Paul Thomas Anderson’s oversized ambitions in creating a modern-day masterpiece, a movie so audacious that it flagrantly apes Citizen Kane and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at various points. But Anderson’s latest isn’t even up to the standards of what I consider his real masterpiece, the dazzling, dizzying Boogie Nights, though there’s enough here to please adventurous moviegoers. Based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil! this centers on Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis), a powerful oilman who has an adopted son in young H.W. (Dillon Freasier) and a nemesis in unctuous preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). There Will Be Blood, therefore, is a story about the feud between Plainview and Eli that doubles as the battle between bald capitalism and insincere spirituality (in that respect, the movie could be set today), as well as a more personal tale involving Plainview and his adopted boy. That the former plotline is more interesting than the latter throws the film off balance, a flaw accentuated by the fact that no attempt to understand Plainview provides the film with a hollow center that separates it from the likes of Citizen Kane and Sierra Madre (wherein we cared about their protagonists even after they took leave of their senses). Still, the picture is a beauty to behold, and there are individual sequences so staggering that a second viewing will hardly be a chore. ***
27 DRESSES 27 Dresses is the filmic equivalent of a baby: cute, pampered, craving attention, and somewhat smelly thanks to all the formula passing through it. A rom-com that dutifully follows down the genre’s preordained path rather than ever take off on its own, this casts Katherine Heigl as Jane, a perpetual bridesmaid who (as the title hints) has attended 27 weddings in that capacity. Jane feels that it’s payback time – that she should land her own man and her own wedding – and she’s long been pining over her boss George (Edward Burns). But he’s never shown any interest outside of their business relationship, and once her perky, irresponsible supermodel sister (Malin Akerman) breezes into town, George is hopelessly smitten. Nice-girl Jane refuses to interfere, even though she knows her sister and her boss aren’t right for each other, and she’s frequently distracted by the unwanted advances of the cynical Kevin (James Marsden), who she knows to be a writer but doesn’t realize that – get this – he’s the one who writes the heartwarming newspaper wedding columns that she clips out with religious devotion. Director Anne Fletcher and writer Aline Brosh McKenna offer a couple of modest examples of plot tweaking, but for the most part, this is so clichéd that it even includes the standard scene in which our drunken leads persuade an entire bar of people to join them in singing along to a pop hit. In this case, the tune being played is Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets,” but a more apt selection would have been The Four Tops’ “It’s the Same Old Song.” **
VANTAGE POINT Imagine the TV hit 24 crossed with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, and you’ll get some idea of what to expect from Vantage Point, a dizzying thriller that relates the same catastrophic event from several different POVs. In Salamanca, Spain, U.S. President Ashton (William Hurt), on the verge of making a speech concerning the War on Terror, becomes the target of an assassination attempt, and various occurrences that take place immediately before and after the shooting are filtered through the actions of several participants and witnesses. Chief among these characters are Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), who stopped an assassin’s bullet during a prior attempt on the president’s life; Barnes’ fellow bodyguard, Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox); Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), an American tourist who catches some startling images with his camcorder; and Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), a TV producer whose own newsreel footage might help Barnes crack the case. By splintering the material in such a fashion, writer Barry Levy has added some snap, crackle and pop to what would otherwise be a routine action film had it been presented in chronological order. Even so, director Pete Travis can’t keep the momentum going for the entire 90 minutes, with the final act marred by a ludicrous plot twist as well as an endless car chase that drains away much of the narrative tension. **1/2
OPENS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29:
CITY OF MEN: Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha.
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS: Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu.
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL: Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson.
PENELOPE: Christina Ricci, Reese Witherspoon.
SEMI-PRO: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson.
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 4, 2008.
