Category: trh movie

Perhaps not the best way to stave off impending gloom and doom would be to watch two of the most depressing films I’ve ever seen: Then She Found Me (Helen Hunt’s directorial debut) and Snow Angels. The first finds its 39-year-old heroine finally enjoying a bit of happiness, a new marriage, a quest for a child, and a solid career as a teacher until one night when it all comes tumbling down around her. The only light at the end of the tunnel is a new relationship with a semi-psychotic fellow played by Colin Firth. There’s a lot of yelling and stupid decisions in the film, which isn’t entirely terrible, and I do adore any bit of Bette Midler. When she arrives to inject even more trouble into April’s (Helen Hunt) life, there’s a least a bit of a “light at the end of the tunnel” feeling to the picture. Annnywaaay, it’s a truly sad film, even if it does have a somewhat happy ending. And as EW pointed out, it’s nice to see a woman naturally age on film, even if Hunt’s playing down her looks to accentuate the dowdy, downtrodden nature of her character.

So, let’s add an even sadder chaser to the mix: Snow Angels. Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell play a couple that have seen better times and are now separated. Whether it’s his drinking problem or his truly irritating use of scripture that split them up, it’s irrelevant because no matter how hard he tries, they’re certainly not getting back together. When tragedy (see, similar themes!) strikes, the two fall even further apart until the film comes to its ridiculous conclusion. To be honest, it was a bit too long too, as I kept falling asleep toward the end. And so dire. And dark. And bewildering. And kind of ridiculous.

But goodness, despite great performances all around, I wouldn’t suggest watching these two films in such close proximity to one another while you’re alone for the weekend and can barely make it out of your pajamas. Thank Mother Earth for gardening is all I have to say or I wouldn’t have left the house once all weekend.

We had advance screening passes this week through work, so Zesty and I went to go see Keira Knightley in The Duchess. Based on Amanda Foreman’s biography, The Duchess follows the life of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley). She was married at seventeen to the much older Duke (Ralph Fiennes) and the two were an unlikely match from the beginning. Played at first as a young woman enraptured by the idea of the man actually being in love with her, Georgiana soon realizes that marriage isn’t quite as she imagined. After a period of difficulty (involving the birth of a male heir), her husband’s mistress, Lady Elizabeth Foster (Hayley Atwell; who was once her best friend), Georgiana and the Duke form an awkward and terrifyingly strange trio. The triangle proves to be Georgiana’s undoing. Of equal importance in the film’s portrayal of her life was her politics — both her support of the Whigs and her love affair with Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper).

Keira Knightley does surprisingly well as the Duchess, carrying off her more outrageous attributes to a tee, and has surprising emotional depth in the role. Audiences will surely despise Fiennes as the Duke, not for his acting, but for the nature of the part itself. The costumes are truly outstanding, the score to the film lovely, and on the whole, the picture was much better than I thought it would be after first watching the trailer.

It’s also amazing to get lost in the history that surrounds all the pomp and circumstance of the two families. Georgiana, a Spencer, has infamous relatives (Princess Diana, as the press keeps reminding people) and Lady Caroline Lamb. And then with the Duke of Devonshire’s peerage still in existence, it’s consistently amazing to me how the ancestry of these families is passed down, traded up and titled. I can get lost in tracking it all. Clicking from one Wikipedia entry to the next filling my head with information that has absolutely no relevance to my everyday life.

Annnywaay, it’s an okay film, a solid B, but I’d recommend waiting for it to come out on DVD rather than ponying up for theatre prices.

Our summer hours were a blessing yesterday as I managed to get home after getting my hair cut well before six, which meant we were at the movie theatre in time to buy tickets and then line up for decent seats for a 7 PM show of The Dark Knight. It’s not something we normally do, and I felt a little like a teenager as my RRHB and his friend Nathan went off to pay video games and I held our place in line. (Don’t worry, I had a book, on my Sony eReader, which is AWESOME!).

The film is long but doesn’t feel that way, action-packed without being overwhelmingly violent (although it’s not suitable for the 5-year-olds that were in the audience), and utterly satisfying on every level. There are unavoidable cliches, the romance-that-cannot-be, the stoic-good-guy-cop, the moral dilemmas of a superhero, that could have weighed the whole film down. But what The Dark Knight does that Spider-Man (despite how much I loved the second one) and Iron Man somewhat fail to do, is that it approaches the tedious, necessary plot and/or character developments with an unflinching sense of honesty and commitment that rises above the usual.

It’s one hell of a good movie. The story is complex, riveting and engaging. The acting is superb. And the action is, well, really good without all kinds of CGI that sometimes turns other superhero films into cartoonish parodies of themselves. Christian Bale, as Jesse Wente said yesterday morning, might just be the best actor to ever have played Batman. But considering a) I never read the comics and b) I actually kind of enjoyed George Clooney, Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer each in their own ways, I think it’s more than him being ‘the best.’

He takes the role to a whole other place. He takes the character to a whole other place. He’s just as believable as the playboy as he is the superhero. And there’s a brilliant scene that I won’t spoil between he and Gary Oldman (who I think is the undersung star of the film) toward the end that exemplifies both their skills. What’s impossible, as well, is not knowing the tragic circumstances around this being Ledger’s last role, and have that not be on your mind the entire time you’re watching his tour de force performance. And man, is he absolutely frightening, entirely brilliant and not in the least bit hammy (Lords of Dogtown, that’s all I’m going to say).

The movie picks up almost right where Batman Begins left off. With the caped crusader cleaning up the streets of Gotham, the citizens have never been so safe. Add to that the appearance of the new D.A., Harvey Dent (played to perfection, as well, by Aaron Eckhart), and crime might just be on its way to extinction. Enter the Joker (Ledger) whose particular brand of menace can’t be understood. In short, he doesn’t act like a regular criminal, but more like a terrorist. And he’s holding all of Gotham hostage. Now the Batman, Dent and Gordon have more to contend with than an angry bunch of criminals — they have one utterly unpredictable one who doesn’t quite play by the rules. The battle between good and evil, right and wrong, sways all kinds of definitive lines, and the end result is a superhero film that’s evolved to finally meet the times in which its playing.

That said, the only problem with so many of these movies is the tragically misused ‘love’ interest trope of a character. Rachel Dawes is no different. Sure, she’s a lawyer and fighting for her own brand of justice, but like Gywneth in Iron Man and Liv in Incredible Hulk, their lives are there simply to be put in danger as impetus for the hero to either act or not act. Would it be that difficult to write a less contrived female character? What a waste of talent in all of those women to be playing such one-sided roles. It’s almost as if the writers have worked so hard to update the male characters and bring them securely into this century and have simply left the women behind. Sure, they dress them up in pretty heels and give them jobs, but they’re not really doing anything.

Regardless, The Dark Knight not only lives up to the promise of the first film, but utterly surpasses it. It could very well be the best film of the summer. I’m just sayin’…

The TRH movie reviews have been lax as of late. I’m not reviewing any films for anyone professionally right now so I haven’t had any screening passes. Are reviews still valuable when the films have already been out for weeks? Perhaps, because they’ll still be coming out on DVD, right?

Wanted
We decided at the last minute yesterday not to go to the cottage because my RRHB didn’t feel like driving, which was fine with me because I’ve been on the move a lot lately and, as much as I adore the cottage, it might be good to spend a weekend at home too. For some reason, we have no bedsheets. They’ve all simply disappeared. How does that happen? Annnywaaay, we went out for dinner yesterday afternoon and then drove out to the Queensway to see Wanted. It’s a rare movie, one that both my RRHB and I want to see, and so he didn’t need much convincing, as he kept telling our friends we met on the street, “It’s got Angeline Jolie for me and James McAvoy for her; it’s perfect.”

But the movie was just okay. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but the plot and/or story was so utterly implausible (um, Loom of Fate anyone?) that it kind of made the good parts of the film, the first half, which was really funny feel kind of out of joint. James McAvoy stars as a dreary cubicle drone who hates his life, knows his girlfriend is cheating on him, and has massive panic attacks. So when Angeline Jolie shows up at the pharmacy to tear him out of a dangerous situation (his father, whom he hasn’t seen since he was seven days old, which means, um, he’s never really seen him) and gives him the chance to join a secret fraternity of assassins, well, he does so, and takes many, many wicked beatings in the process. See, silly, right? There’s a lot of mumbo jumbo about who killed his father and is it his real father and who’s lying to whom, but it’s all just set up for some pretty spectacular special effects and the whole bullet bending thing. Both McAvoy and Jolie are excellent, and like I said, even though it has a goofy premise, there are some truly comedic parts to the film that had us both laughing, and the action, whew, my shoulders are still sore from clutching them up around my ears.

The Incredible Hulk
We went to see The Incredible Hulk when we were in New York with my RRILs. To be perfectly honest, it was much, much better than I expected it to be mainly because Ed Norton does such a great job as Bruce Banner. I might be one of the few people on earth who actually enjoyed the Ang Lee version, but I also appreciate how they took care of the heady stuff, how he becomes the Hulk, at the very beginning of the movie, which opens the picture up to the dealing with the consequences of his actions. When we first see Bruce Banner, he’s hiding out in Brazil working a menial job in a menial pop factory. Of course, the military chases him; of course, he’s got the whole love interest thing hanging of his head; and of course, there’s that little trouble with controlling his temper. But Norton does such a nice job of playing the guy on the run, that man whose whole life is turned upside down, and the push-pull between him and the military, run by William Hurt (who employs a super soldier, a super-scary, Tim Roth, to track him down) is effective.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I adore the Indiana Jones movies. My mom and dad would take my brother and I to see them at the old Runnymede theatre (where we also saw Raiders of the Lost Ark) when we were little and it wasn’t a Chapters. So it’s no wonder that my RRHB and did something we never do and went to go see a film on a week night (it was our only opportunity!) when we both had work the next day. I wasn’t entirely disappointed, and it was great to see the characters again, but on the whole I felt as if the story needed a little bit more. Again with the implausibility, with that forced feeling when the filmmaker wants to go somewhere but has to get the characters there, and parts just didn’t work for me (like Shia’s whole “greaser” persona). That said, like Wanted, I still enjoyed the film immensely overall, but it’s not my favourite of the series.

Sex and the City
Goodness, it took Sam and I about three times to find the one night we could see Sex and the City. By now, everyone’s seen it at least twice (except me!) and all I’m going to say is that the trouble with the film is that it’s an entire season of episodes crammed into one rather long movie. You can feel the half-hour bits as it progresses and the story doesn’t flow as naturally as you’d expect if it were a film and not a film based on a television show. However, it’s Sex and the City, and even if the movie was terrible, I’d probably still see it three or four times (by the time it gets to DVD) because I love the characters so much.

We also went to see Iron Man on opening weekend, but that was months ago, and I can barely remember what the movie was about, I just remember thinking that they couldn’t find Gwyneth some shoes she could actually walk in?

So, we’re barely into the beginning of summer and it feels like an pretty spectacular summer in terms of the overall quality of the movies out there (all solid Bs, I think). But what’s missing is that dramatic Oscar-bait-type film, that counter-programming, that gives Entertainment Weekly something to talk about while reviewing all the popcorn-sellers. Oh, and we need more girlie movies Hollywood — can’t you see that? Women are going to see Sex and the City two and three times because there’s nothing else out there for us. Nothing. What are you all going to see in the multiplexes this summer?

We managed to actually get outside yesterday, having to head down to Queen and Augusta to the flooring place to finally decide on a stain. Halfway through the walk, with the wind blowing in our faces and my RRHB walking a full block in front of me as I trudged along, he said, “Maybe we should have gone another day.”

By the time we got home we were both exhausted, and every couple of hours or so, one of us would go to the window and exclaim, “it’s still coming down!” We were supposed to go and see Zesty’s play last night but a) we couldn’t have got the car out, b) the transit was wholly unpredictable, and c) the weather made it impossible to even walk a few steps without being in utter agony. After spending close to 2.5 hours walking a few blocks that would have normally taken half that time, we gave up on doing anything social, had a glass of wine or two, and watched a crap load of movies:

Beowulf: Not impressed at all by how they changed the story, how they sexed it up completely, but the special effects were really quite something and man was it gory.

Dan in Real Life: What an utterly charming film, from the envious huge family that gathers at the incredible summer house on Rhode Island to the sweet love story at the centre of it all, I have to admit that I cried, a lot. I can forgive the cliches, and even Dane Cook, who seemed woefully out of place, and even the dance scene didn’t make me cringe as it once would, so thumbs up.

The Darjeeling Limited: Good grief I loved everything about this film, the whimsical storytelling, the delicious colour palette, the utterly truthful way the three brothers related to each other, the utterly unbelievable circumstances they find themselves in, the excellent performances, Wes Anderson’s deft comedy, all of it.

The Things I Lost in the Fire: Both Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro give impressive performances and I didn’t even mind the story that EW called “mawkish” (what a great word; a widow takes in the drug addicted best friend of her late husband and they both try to heal). It’s sad, but I like that sometimes, but I would have liked maybe just a bit less of the heavy-handedness of the direction (how many eyeball close-ups are necessary? Really? How many? Yawn).

I Could Never Be Your Woman: I always wish that Michelle Pfieffer would make more movies. She’s lovely, sweet, gorgeous, determined and a whole host of other adjectives in this film. But I have to say that it’s far more Loser than Clueless, so I was a little disappointed. And man, was Paul Rudd a hambone, and I thought he was actually quite unbelievable and kind of miscast, which is hard for me to admit because I usually think he saves just about every movie he’s in… Anyway. Saoirse Ronan plays Pfieffer’s daughter and she’s deliciously precocious in just the way teenagers on TV can be, and there are really quite a few cute moments, but certainly not enough to bridge the gap between glaring cliches.

So, yeah, lots of movies. And now just to punish me, I think my iTunes shuffle is stuck in the early 90s, so far this afternoon I’ve heard “Linger,” “Dirty Boots,” some old U2, and UB40. I’ve reshuffled to mix it up a bit, and now it’s landed on “Bang,” so at least we’re moving in the right direction.

Starter for 10, which was on this week on TMN, that I watched last night when I couldn’t sleep because the meds were making my stomach so upset.

Becoming Jane, which I’m watching as we speak.

Penelope, which I saw a trailer for by accident the other day.

Atonement.

And some upcoming film with Angelina Jolie that Zesty and I saw advertised before we watched American Gangster.

I mean, that’s not a bad thing, obviously.

Goodness. Note to self: should only see scary movies with RRHB to grab on to because poor Zesty and I were quite beside ourselves by the end of the 101 minutes. Overall, I really enjoyed I Am Legend. It reminded me a lot of 28 Days Later, just like Charidy from work said, and Children of Men (my favourite film of 2006). In some ways, I think the marketing for the film might be doing it a disservice, positioning the film as some sort of Will Smith post-apocalyptic situation, man vs. environment kind of thing, but the movie runs deeper than the trailer or posters might have you think.

Smith plays Dr. Robert Neville, a Lt. Col. who remains in New York to battle the human disaster inflicted by a cure for cancer that goes awry — devolving people into zombie/vampire-like creatures that cluster in hives and feed. Once the virus goes “airborne” the entire population of the Earth is almost wiped out, save the 1% who are curiously immune to the virus, and those who have managed to stay alive despite now becoming food for the “nightstalkers”. His motivation for staying behind is noble — modern science created the situation, and he’s looking for a cure, which he believes can only exist at Ground Zero. But there are emotional reasons for his actions as well, many of which come to light during flashbacks to the moment when the government closed off “the island” of NYC from the rest of the country.

Like Children of Men, what scares me most about films like this is how rooted they are not necessarily in fact, but in the very near distant future. It’s the ease with which humanity as we know it can be destroyed that stays with me and makes me think about how tenuous the grasp of civilization is on society in general. It’s all very philosophical, I know.

But in a sense, I heartily disagree with Owen Gleiberman, who said, “Let’s be honest: The peril of infectious disease, while quite real, is hardly the anxiety of the moment.” In that I don’t think the point of the film is to comment necessarily on the peril of infectious diseases, but the pace in which the modern world wants to tinker with nature and take it to an edge, thinking that we’ll inevitably win. That our actions have no consequences, and in dealing with those actions, there’s a responsibility to find the parts worth saving and hang on to them. If we look at it that way, there’s no doubt that the themes of the movie are incredibly relevant to the global conversations of today about cloning, pandemics, environmentalism and a whole host of other socio-political debates.

Annywaay, back to the movie. Smith’s performance is solid, even heartbreaking in parts, and the movie was paced well enough that boredom in the form of the Tom Hanks-type in Cast Away never sets in. The special effects, beyond the fairly typical looking CGI creatures, are truly magnificent in terms of the look and feel of an the accidental wilderness of the reclaimed New York City. Some of it’s a bit over the top, but I appreciated it none the less (and I’m thinking of just one scene in particular that I won’t spoil here). Completely worthy of gift certificates on a Saturday afternoon.