`Brooklyn's Finest,' `Crazies,' `Hot Tub Time
Machine' `Last Station,' `Spy' and more...
SEAN LEARY
Reviews of this week's DVDs...

BROOKLYN'S FINEST ISN'T ANYONE'S FINEST WORK

There is sluggishness to the alpha male posing of Brooklyn's Finest the latest in a long
line of troubled cop movies. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke play a three
headed monster of ethically compromised cops in one of the toughest precincts in New
York City. Stop me if you've heard that story before.
Richard Gere plays Eddie in Brooklyn's Finest, a depressed cop seven days from
retirement. An inveterate drunk, Eddie plans on not getting killed in his last week as a
cop and if that means letting a few calls go by so be it. Bad luck for Eddie that he gets
stuck breaking in rookies in a week in which his Brooklyn precinct is all over the
headlines.
A cop has been arrested for robbing what he thought was a drug dealer but turned out
to be an honor student. Meanwhile another cop, Sal (Ethan Hawke) has just murdered
and robbed an informant (Vincent D'Onofrio) and is ready for more robbing and killing as
he looks to move his growing family, 5 kids with twins on the way, out of a rickety row
house.
While Eddie longs for retirement and Sal risks his life in more and more dangerous
fashion, Tango (Don Cheadle) seems safe by comparison, working undercover on the
streets hoping to take down a major drug gang. Sure, he's dealing with deadly thugs on
a daily basis but his cover is so strong he seems impervious to the danger.
In fact, Tango's cover is so good one might wonder which side he's on, especially after
he gets close with Caz (Wesley Snipes) a major drug dealer fresh out of prison. Caz
saved Tango's life when Tango began his undercover stint in prison. Now, as Cas is
getting acclimated to the streets again, Tango questions whether he can take him
down.
There is drama to be found in director Antoine Fuqua's violence fueled narrative but not
much of it resonates beyond what has come before it in other, better cop movies.
Fuqua's own Training Day, with Ethan Hawke no less, is a far more interesting and
daring film in comparison to the well worn path walked by Brooklyn's Finest.
Don Cheadle delivers a standout performance as the least conflicted of the conflicted
cops. Cheadle is a compelling actor whose intense gaze brims with calculating
intelligence. To look at Cheadle is to want to know what he's thinking and follow his
every deliberate move.
Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere are far less successful. Hawke is among the least
convincing Italian cops in movie history putting on accent only when calling out to his
stereotypically named kids Vinnie and Joey. Gere's Eddie is merely pathetic. One can
argue that he is pathetic with a purpose, his redemption will rely on rock bottom
dwelling, but a scene in which he proposes to a hooker is more laughable than sad.
A mixed bag of cop movie clichés, New York stereotypes and the occasional bit of
hardcore violence, Brooklyn's Finest holds promise for fans of Don Cheadle and little
else. One would be better served picking up Cheadle's exceptional performance in Out
of Sight for a similarly smart and more nuanced performance.


THE CRAZIES IS SURPRISINGLY GOOD

In a world of been there, done that, sometimes the best a filmmaker can do is improve
upon the things that have been done before. That is exactly what director Breck Eisner
does with the pseudo-zombie flick The Crazies. Eisner takes the elements we've seen
before from movies like Resident Evil or 28 Days Later or George Romero's oeuvre and
simply does the same thing better or at least with a neat twist.
The result is a smart, atmospheric, fast paced horror flick that entertains from beginning
to end with strong characters and a clever spin on expected scenes.
Something strange is taking place in Ogden Marsh Iowa. In the midst of a High School
baseball game a guy everyone in town knows wanders onto the field carrying a shotgun.
The field is cleared and the man is confronted by the local sheriff, Dave Dutton (Timothy
Olyphant). Dave is eventually forced to shoot and kill the man in front of most of the
population of Ogden Marsh.
Later, another fine, up-standing citizen of Ogden Marsh burns down his house with his
wife and child inside and no indication of a motive. Sheriff Dave, being smarter than
most movie versions of small town sheriffs, quickly surmises something beyond mere
coincidence in these crimes. With his deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) and his wife Judy
(Radha Mitchell), Sheriff Dave discovers the sinister origins of what eventual military
invaders of the town call 'The Crazies.'
To give away too much of the plot would spoil the fun of this clever, quirky and even
humorous film. The humor is subjective and maybe unintentional, but I laughed a few
times at the unique twists and turns of this exceptionally well made genre movie.
Director Breck Eisner takes a highly familiar premise and jazzes it up with odd angles
and nimble inversions of expectations.
Timothy Olyphant is the perfect star for The Crazies. He's handsome with a relaxed,
good ol' boy manner. His toughness was solidified by his role on HBO's beloved
Cowboy series Deadwood and he has a classic John Wayne sort of swagger that
makes him just the guy you want to be behind when the stuff hits the fan.
Radha Mitchell is a slightly esoteric choice to play the sheriff's wife but she has a
number of effective scenes, especially as the damsel in distress late in the film and one
seriously butt kicking scene that will have audiences cheering. A hint about Mitchell's
big scene: keep an eye on the three big redneck hunters who pop up at unexpected
moments.
The Crazies is a genre movie that embraces its genre-ness; takes the conventions head
on and is effective for the minor twists on what is expected. You've seen this type of
movie before but you don't often see it with this much visual wit, skill and savvy. The
Crazies is, quite surprisingly, one of my early favorites of 2010.

TAKE A DIP IN HOT TUB TIME MACHINE

When The Hangover became the break out comedy of 2009 it was inevitable that
movies about 4 overgrown juveniles getting drunk while on vacation for whatever reason
would become a trend or even its own sub-genre. Just watch the DVD shelves, it's
coming. The first of what may be perceived as a Hangover knockoff to arrive in theaters
is Hot Tub Time Machine.
John Cusack stars as Adam an a-hole insurance salesman who has clearly done
something to make his girlfriend leave him; his house has been ravaged by her moving
out. Adam's buddy Nick (Craig Robinson) has it worse, working as a dog groomer with
a wife he knows is cheating on him. Even still, there pal Lou is in worse shape; he may
or may not have tried to kill himself while rocking out to Motley Crue.
As a way of cheering up Lou, Nick and Adam have planned a getaway to the ski resort
where they spent many weekends in their hopeful youth. Tagging along is Adam's
nephew Jacob (Clarke Duke) who has spent far too much time on his computer -his
Second Life character is spending three years in prison- Adam figures he needs some
human contact.
The resort was once a hotspot but now it's a run down dump. On the bright side, after a
call to the front desk, the hot tub starts working. It works so well in fact that it becomes
a time machine and sends all four guys back to 1986. With the time space continuum
at stake, and a physics lesson from the original Terminator movie, the guys agree they
must not alter the past or else.
Hot Tub Time Machine plays like The Hangover with time travel. Rob Corddry, best
known as a correspondent on The Daily Show, plays the Zach Galifianakis character,
replacing creepy childlike naiveté with creepy, intensity and slapstick. Cusack is the
Bradley Cooper character all sharp angry humor and Robinson is the sheepish one
waiting to break out ala Ed Helms.
The characters don't match exactly; Clark Duke gets far more screen time than Justin
Bartha did in The Hangover, but with the binge drinking and wild time schtick the films
are certainly in the same vein. Where The Hangover played something of a comic
mystery plot for big laughs, Hot Tub Time Machine relies on heavy doses of nostalgia
and clever references.
Cusack in and of himself as a reference to multiple 80's classics from Say Anything to
Better off Dead to One Crazy Summer. None of those films get a direct name check but
Cusack does ski in Hot Tub Time Machine, the black diamond, not the K-12
unfortunately, and listen close and you might hear someone shouting for their two
dollars.
Crispin Glover drops in as another self referential 80's joke; Glover was of course
Marty's dad in Back to the Future, a film that earns a few laughs for Hot Tub Time
Machine along with any comedy about skiing. And yet still another walking punch line, I
mean that as a compliment, Chevy Chase pops up in a funny cameo as the Hot Tub
Repairman/time travel guru.
Hot Tub Time Machine then throws in one more fabulous 80's cameo that I don't want to
spoil; I'll just say Cobra Kai and leave it at that. Hot Tub Time Machine bursts with
aching nostalgia that will either delight or invite a nauseous sort of state as one is
reminded just how old they truly are.
Yes, Hot Tub Time Machine is easy to write off as a movie taking advantage of the well
plowed path of The Hangover but that film didn't have time travel. That's certainly enough
of a difference to allow you to forgive the many familiar elements. John Cusack is
excellent as always while the rest of the cast brilliantly has his back.
If I may add a cheesy critic’s one liner to close: Take a dip in the Hot Tub Time
Machine. Ha!

PERCY JACKSON NOT BAD FOR A POTTER RIP-OFF

All Percy Jackson needs is a little forehead scar to complete the shadow of Harry
Potter that lurks all throughout this unexceptional effort to craft another teen appeal
sequel machine. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on a
popular series of novels from an author achingly jealous of the millions raked in by J.K
Rowling, even goes so far as to hire former Potter director Chris Columbus just to make
sure you don't miss the connection.
Logan Lerman is the titular Percy Jackson a gap model good looking kid rendered a
nerd for the purpose of making him relatable. As we join the story Percy and his pal
Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) are sitting by the pool waiting for the plot to kick in. When
it finally does, Percy finds out that he is a demi-god, the long abandoned son of the god
Poseidon (Kevin McKidd from TV's Grey's Anatomy).
This is revealed to Percy after one of his teacher’s morphs into a bat winged demon and
tries to kill him for stealing Zeus's lightning bolt. Zeus is played by that master of stern
blandness Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings). Zeus's bolt is the most powerful force in the
universe and somehow he has allowed it to be stolen by a kid who can hardly pass a
10th grade lit class. This does not speak well of the Gods.
The embarrassment and anger is likely to lead to a war of the gods unless Percy,
Grover and Percy's assigned love interest, fellow demi-god Annabeth (Alexandria
Deddario), can find the bolt and the thief and return them to Mt. Olympus which for
tourism purposes is located in the Empire State Building.
At least J.K Rowling had the inventiveness to create her own world from scratch in
Harry Potter, Percy Jackson rips the work of hundreds of years for its remarkably dull
characters. Drawing on centuries of stories about the gods and their offspring, the story
of Percy Jackson as adapted by Craig Titley from Rick Riordan's unexceptional book
series, manages to be dull about characters with unlimited powers and astonishing
back stories.
Then again, this is only the introduction. Percy Jackson is set to be a film series and
thus all that is required here is a primer on Percy and the other lead characters
including the aforementioned gods, best friend, love interest and Pierce Brosnan as,
arguably, the most dignified half-man half horse in film history.
Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on Percy Jackson, the olympians and the lightning thief. It
is, like so many modern studio features, merely a sequel machine meant to pump out
just enough plot for us to come back next time. Why should anyone really ask anymore
from a film with such a limited goal?
Sure, J.K Rowling and her film partners have taken her work and enhanced and
enriched it onscreen with each subsequent film to the point where the film work is as
grand as or even grander than it is on the page. But why should every movie have to
have such aspiration, especially when modern audiences don't seem to require that
much hard work.
Ah, Percy; for a compromised rip-off teen friendly franchise you're not so bad.



Last Station teems with passion

I know little of Leo Tolstoy beyond his most famous works. I have not read War
and Peace or Anna Karenina. Like so many poseur intellectuals I speak of
wanting to read them as a way of improving my standing in conversation.
Tolstoy has been co-opted by many more famous impostors than I. Now,
having experienced The Last Station, a fictionalized account of Tolstoy's last
days, I feel I should attempt a more sincere appreciation.
The Last Station stars Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as his
wife of 48 years Countess Sophia. In another incarnation this film starred
Anthony Hopkins as Tolstoy and Meryl Streep as the Countess. Regardless,
The Last Station in its final form cannot be improved upon.
The relationship between Tolstoy and his wife in the last year of his life is
observed by us through the eyes of Valentin (James McAvoy). Hired to be
Tolstoy's personal secretary, Valentin is really a spy for Tolstoy's long time
acolyte Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), the leader of the so-called Worldwide
Tolstoyan Movement.
Chertkov suspects that the Countess is pushing Tolstoy to sell his great works
to the highest bidder instead of giving them to Chertkov who plans to
distribute them for free as part of the movement. Valentin, a true believe in
the movement, right down to the misguided chastity pledge, which Tolstoy
himself disabuses him of, is trapped right in the middle of a bitter power
struggle.
Valentin's troubles are multiplied when he meets Masha (Kerry Condon).
Among the only women in the movement, Masha definitely never got the
chastity pledge part; she lives the Tolstoy philosophy directly from the books
and not from Chertkov's co-opting of Tolstoy. Masha immediately falls for
Valentin's whose lack of sexual experience makes him both terrified and
bold.
The romance is encouraged by both Tolstoy and the Countess whose own love
affair has run hot and cold for more than 40 years. Chertkov meanwhile, sees
Valentin's love as a betrayal and is concerned that Valentin has been won
over to the side of the Countess.
When Chertkov arrives at the compound after years of house arrest in Moscow
he immediately sets about isolating Tolstoy from the Countess and leaving
Valentin even more trapped amid the struggle for the great man's soul.
Directed by Michael Hoffman (Restoration), The Last Station is a passionate
tale of lifelong love and a devotion to an idea. Tolstoy was desperate to help
the dispossessed a need exploited by Chertkov and loathed by the Countess
who felt he should care for his family above all.
The wedge driven between the love of Tolstoy's life and the ideals he so
passionately defended is a deep and enduring drama driven home in the
wounded soul performance of the great Christopher Plummer. In what can be
fairly called the finest performance in his illustrious career, Christopher
Plummer gives a lively, full breath performance as Tolstoy.
While the great man can fairly called out for being wishy washy over his final
wishes, he is not without passion in both directions and the conflicting
passions are the chafing tension at the heart of The Last Station.
James McAvoy is an excellent stand in for us in the audience. As the innocent
observer he on our behalf witnesses with wide eyes Tolstoy's love for the
Countess and the commitment to care for the poor that was Tolstoy's work.
When McAvoy as Valentin falls for Masha, the film adds another layer of
drama and romance to an already moving and engaging film.
Kerry Condon is radiant as Masha, a free spirit who refuses to be tied down to
any one's idea of life but her own even as she has a soft spot for Tolstoy's
visionary empathy. Helen Mirren and Paul Giamatti round out a fine
ensemble cast as two people who were destined to clash.
The Countess was always a woman of privilege whose status gave Tolstoy free
reign to become the champion of the poor. Chertkov on the other hand was a
peasant and perhaps a charlatan who gained a modest amount of celebrity
status for himself thanks to his access two and eventual guru like control over
Tolstoy.
The Last Station brims with passion, tension, love and deep sadness.
The final scenes, set inside the cottage of a railroad Pullman surrounded by a
coterie of reporters waiting like vultures for the news of Tolstoy's passing, are
moving for being pitched at just the right dramatic level. As the Countess
waits outside in a railroad car, Tolstoy calls out for his love and Valentin's
divided soul, minus Masha, and pulled by Chertkov, radiates with grief. It is a
powerful series of scenes and one you must see and feel for yourself.


Remember Me: Not as bad as you'd think

Call it damning with faint praise but Remember Me isn't as bad as most
critics have said. This Robert Pattinson starring romantic drama is a bit over
the top on soft melodrama and gloomy teen-centric angst, despite the
characters being in their early 20's, but it creates a believable little
alternative universe for its sweet, tortured romantics to exist within and does
so with a minimum of quease inducing moments.
Robert Pattinson stars in Remember Me as Tyler Hawkins a tortured soul,
would be college student busily auditing classes he has little interest in
taking. Tyler is passing time, waiting for fate to give him a purpose while he
mourns the loss of someone close. Living in a little hole in the wall apartment
with his best bud Aiden (Tate Ellington), Tyler is content passing time
smoking, drinking beer and finding an occasional bed partner.
One night when he and Aiden hit the town, Tyler finds trouble in someone
else's fight and ends up in the custody of a hard headed detective (Chris
Cooper). By a very particular coincidence the daughter of the detective, Ally
(Emilie De Ravin), happens to attend the college where Tyler audits classes.
Pushed by Aiden, Tyler pursues Ally in revenge against the cop. Of course he
falls in love instead and they start a nice little courtship until, shock of
shocks, she finds out how they really met.
None of this story is all that original except that usually this plot is played for
laughs first and then turns gooey and becomes High School level tragic
"OMG I can't believe he did that to her." Remember Me plays the idea for
straight drama and the change gives the worn out idea a little juice while
Pattinson and De Ravin establish enough romantic chemistry to let us forget
about rote plot turns lying ahead of their happy romance.
Apart from the romance, Tyler has a whole heck of a lot of familial drama. I
mentioned briefly his loss of someone close; I'll let the movie tell you more
about that. It involves a family member and it has divided Tyler from his high
powered father (Pierce Brosnan) for years. On the bright side, Tyler has a
lovely little sister, Caroline (Ruby Jerins), who is the light of his life. No matter
Tyler's traumas he can't help but smile around Caroline and we get another
interesting side of Tyler's character.
Ally has her own deep familial wound but that I will also leave you to
discover. Remember Me is not a mystery but the story has some twists and
turns that are better for the audience to discover on their own. This especially
applies to what some might call its 'twist' ending. Screenwriter Will Fetters and
Director Allan Coulter play a little shell game with the date, time and
locations of the film that will be controversial to some.
For me, the ending was no more or less crass and exploitative than similar
uses of the same... well; I think we need another forum for that discussion. A
more spoiler heavy review after a few more of you have seen Remember Me
is something to consider. After seeing it I talked to a few strangers in the
lobby and there is a very interesting conversation to have about the ending
of Remember Me.
We won't have that conversation now. I promised friends that I would avoid
spoilers in this review after a few less than forgiving fellow critics went and
blabbed without even the courtesy of a cheesy 'spoiler alert.' Robert Pattinson
has classic movie star good looks and will remind many of classically
tortured dramatists of the past, aping their mannerisms if not their lasting
images. Pattinson is effective in Remember Me because he commits deeply to
his overblown dramatics and whether you think he's being too gloomy or
trying too hard to come off tortured, his act is effective in the context of the
film.
While other critics are delighting in tearing into this wafer thin romantic
drama, I found Remember Me to be effective in its overblown dramatic way.
It's the kind of drama that I remember from being a teenager when my every
emotion seemed to be the most important thing in the world. That's how Tyler
and Ally feel because they are essentially grown up teenagers still locked in
the self fascination phase of life. Cut them some slack and you may find
much to enjoy about their romance in Remember Me.


Green Zone is too little too late

It's tempting to say 'too little, too late' about the politics of the new thriller
Green Zone. I was just getting started in talk radio in 2002 and 2003 when the
march to war in Iraq began and I was wondering at the time where
Hollywood or anyone other than me and a coterie of liberal groups were with
some serious questions about why we were going to war in a country that had
not attacked us and did not have any weapons of mass destruction.
Joe Wilson told us that the intelligence was faulty while others told the true
tale of the Bush Administrations wanting a war against Saddam, a chance to
finish the job left undone by the first gulf war. This information was readily
available at the time but Hollywood like so many others allowed themselves
to be cowed by administration goons screaming about a lack of patriotism in
those who opposed war.
In the years since the decision was made Hollywood has become slightly less
timid. Sure, there was always Michael Moore but he's not Hollywood, he's
never been cowed by anyone but the occasional untruth. No, the filmmakers
timidly attempted telling human stories, soldier stories but avoided really
taking on the central issues of the war in Iraq and the war on terror.
It wasn't until last year when the boldest critique of Bush administration policy
arrived in James Cameron's Avatar. Yes, though some loathe admitting it, not
wanting to spoil the brain free fun of the film's fantastic visuals, the most
successful film of all time is an anti-war tract scoring points against
pre-emptive war, occupying armies and how the war on terror has been
fought.
I have issues with the heavy handed points that the ultra-liberal James
Cameron makes in Avatar but mostly I was irritated that it came so late to the
game. We needed a movie like Avatar 6 years ago when the topic was bold,
fresh and there was an impact to be made. That same feeling clouds my
appreciation of Matt Damon's new thriller Green Zone, arguably the boldest
direct criticism of the war in Iraq Hollywood has yet delivered.
Matt Damon stars as Chief Warrant Office Roy Miller leader of a squad
searching for WMD in the days immediately following the invasion of Iraq.
Roy is growing frustrated quickly. Each site his team raids come up empty
and looks to have been empty for a very long time. When Miller questions the
intel that keeps sending him to empty sites he is told not to ask questions, just
follow orders.
Miller's questions however catch the ear of a CIA Agent, Martin Brown
(Brenden Gleeson), who encourages Miller to keep asking questions and if he
turns up something useful, call him. Miller soon does turn up something
interesting and it is something that some very powerful people will do
anything to keep quiet. Greg Kinnear plays a shady White House official who
opposes Miller and Brown.
Green Zone boldly tackles the Bush Administration's main justification for war
in Iraq, the need to secure Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass
destruction. We know now, really we knew then, that Saddam had no
weapons and hadn't had weapons since the first gulf war. The futile search for
weapons they knew weren't there cost far too many innocent lives, though
Green Zone doesn't pause too long to ponder that, the point is made in brief.
The film goes further in other avenues of the war however, wading into the
strategy of the administration's post war policy. In disbanding the Iraqi army
the Bush Administration missed an important opportunity to shorten the war
by keeping the guys with the guns employed and on our side as opposed to
unemployed, armed and desperate. Keeping some of the Baathists in power
would have been controversial but it also would have saved lives.
Now, I am making Green Zone out to be heavier than it is. Trust me; this is an
action thriller at its heart. Directed by Paul Greengrass, the director of two of
the Jason Bourne blockbusters, Green Zone starts fast and is relentless in its
pulse pounding action and suspense. The political points are scored on the
edges while the action and suspense dominate the foreground.
Green Zone features bold politics and bad ass action and yet, like Avatar, it
comes far too late to the party. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have my
opinions reiterated with the force of pop culture behind them but I was
making these points about the war at the time. I know Hollywood can't make
movies quickly but seven years late is a little much.
For those not invested in an anti-war stance as I was and am, Green Zone still
offers the pleasure of being a seriously butt kicking action flick with realism,
violence and chest tightening, pulse pounding suspense. I may still be
lamenting the war in Iraq but Green Zone moves so quickly that lament will
be the last thing most will feel while watching.


She's Out Of My League worth your time

Anyone who thinks actor Jay Baruchel is an unlikely star of a major
mainstream comedy must have never seen him on the brilliant and
unfortunately brief TV series Undeclared. Baruchel was a natural comic lead,
sympathetic, self deprecating and very funny. He brings that same mix of
vulnerability, angst and good humor to She's out of My League and while it's
no Undeclared, it is a modestly funny distraction worth the price of a rental.
Kirk (Baruchel) works in airport security with his three closest pals, Stainer (TJ
Miller), Devon (Nate Torrence) and Jack (Mike Vogel) because he really can't
think of anything better to do. He wants to be a pilot but lacks the ambition to
pursue a pilot's license, content to hang out with his friends.
Kirk's life gets a jolt when he catches the eye of Molly (Alice Eve) a smoking
hot blonde who accidentally leaves her phone at Kirk's security post. She
repays him with a date and then another date before Kirk finally understands
that she is honestly, romantically interested in him.
Thanks to years of low self esteem and his friend's inability to have his back,
Kirk has an impossible time believing a woman as beautiful and successful
as Molly could really be interested in him. For her part, Molly admits to her
friend Patty (Krysten Ritter) that Kirk is a safe choice because he is unlikely to
break her heart.
The conflict is believable and while it plays for laughs it works as a strong
roadblock for Kirk and Molly's romance. Baruchel and Alice Eve have a
strong chemistry playing first the mismatch and eventually settling into a
strong romantic vibe. The strength of She's out of My League is Baruchel and
Eve's ability to make us care about them while the film whirls from one
lowbrow gag to the next.
Playing Kirk's best friend Stainer, T.J Miller tries a little too hard to be the
missing member of the Knocked Up supporting cast. That said, Miller has a
few strong moments, especially when he's playing in his awesome cover
band "Adult Education." If you don't know what the band is covering, you
aren't trying hard enough. Stainer is pivotal to the film's finish but I could
have done without much of his act.
Not all of She's out of My League works but what does is very strong. Jay
Baruchel has strong comic instincts and the film plays well to his strengths,
vulnerability and a strong sense of who he is. Alice Eve is beautiful and
rounds out the character with honesty and self awareness. The romance has
depth beyond the wild gags, as the best of this kind of comedy does, and
that make She's out of My League worth your time at the theater.


`Book of Eli' is gritty and terrific

I would characterize myself as an agnostic. I don't believe in a higher power but I am
open to the idea that I myself am not all-knowing. How does my lack of faith inform my
criticism? It doesn't really. The fact is Hollywood gives so little consideration to religion
that it rarely comes up in a review.
The new post-apocalyptic thriller The Book of Eli is, arguably, the most religious and
faithful movie I have seen since I have been a critic. Rarely has religion been so
unquestioningly treated in a movie and in of all places, a big budget, ultra-violent,
Denzel Washington thriller.
In The Book of Eli Denzel Washington plays the Eli of the title. Sometime in the distant
future the world is a wasteland and Eli is simply walking. He knows where he is
headed, west, but what he intends to find at the end of his journey, even he doesn't
know. Eli is protecting a book that he is convinced can save what is left of humanity.
Eli's travels take him through the tiny, barely civilized fiefdom of a man named Carnegie
(Gary Oldman). Having discovered a rare source of clean water, Carnegie has used it as
a way to create a small kingdom that he protects with roving gangs of motorcycle riding
henchmen.
The henchmen are searching for a book that Carnegie is desperate to get his hands on
and wouldn't you know it, it's the same book that Eli is desperate to carry west. These
two were destined to meet and fight and surely one or both of them will die. Standing
between the two is Carnegie's daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) who is drawn to Eli's quiet
purpose driven life but also wants to protect her mother (Jennifer Beals) from her father's
violent tendencies. She joins up with Eli in hope that he will teach her the fighting skill
he uses to protect the book.
Directed by the brilliant brother duo Albert and Allen Hughes, The Book of Eli is gritty
yet stylish in its post-apocalypse. The Hughes Brothers are masters of atmosphere and
tense showdowns and when Denzel backs up under a shadowy overpass to fight off
some cannibalistic bad guys, the flash of his super-cool sword cutting body after body
is an awesome sight.
Denzel Washington is perfectly cast as Eli, a man of devout faith who prays nightly and
knows the bible by heart. In this future the bible has been all but destroyed and Eli is a
last man of faith. Carnegie too seems a man of faith but is really a charlatan who hopes
to use faith as Roman Emperors did to control a weak minded populace. This tension
drives the conflict as does the book Eli is carrying is a classic MacGuffin with a strong
pay off.
Though I am not a believer, religion in movies doesn't bother me. In fact, I am more often
irritated with movies that pretend religion doesn't exist. Characters in horror films rarely
seem to pray when faced with certain death. Sci-fi too often belittles the millions of
people of faith in favor of technology as a pseudo-religion.
It is terribly unrealistic for movies to ignore the millions of earnest believers who attend
dutifully to their faith. The Book of Eli is the rare movie that takes religion and faith
deathly seriously and while the hardcore violence may not exactly be Christ-like, it is in
service of a character who is serious about his faith in God.
The Book of Eli is an intense and violent but also devout and earnest about Eli's faith.
Religious folk may be turned off by the grit and violence but they will no doubt
appreciate the Hughes Brothers straight forward portrayal of Eli as a solemn, faithful
soldier in service of God.
If the God stuff makes you uncomfortable, you can still appreciate the very cool ways in
which the Hughes Brothers frame Denzel Washington slicing and dicing bad guys.
Whether it's the stellar overpass scene or a Tarentino-esque bar fight scene, The
Hughes Brother and Denzel know how to get their violence on.
The Book of Eli is gritty, bloody, tense and faithful all in one terrific movie.



`When In Rome,' don't see this movie!

An explanation: In the past I have been accused of being too hard on kid’s movies while
going easy on cheesy romantic comedies. This is not inconsistency or hypocrisy. The
fact is that children with their still forming brains in desperate need of development in
the area of critical thinking must be protected. Teens and adults, the audiences for
cheesy romance, need no such protection.
Fully aware of the dopey clichés of the romantic comedy, the teen and adult audience
can safely view even the lamest examples of the genre with little damage. Occasionally,
some of these overly familiar, simpleminded romances are so simple and so aware of
their limitations that our lowered standards are appropriate and fair ways to judge them.
Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel's When in Rome is a perfect example. Dull witted with
terrible supporting characters, the film has charms for the forgiving audience.
In When in Rome Kristen Bell stars as Beth a museum curator who is shocked when
her little sister Joan (Alexis Dziena) shows up at her door engaged to be married. Joan
is getting married to man she met on a plane and has known for about two weeks. He's
from Rome and the wedding will be there forcing Beth to drop everything, including an
important bit of work, to run off for two days.
At the wedding Beth meets Nick (Josh Duhamel), the Best Man. The two have a couple
of charming romantic and funny moments. With Beth flubbing a couple wedding
traditions and Nick's penchant for stumbling about, these two bond quickly with each
other and we with them.
Naturally, it is too early in the film for them to be together. Thus, Director Mark Steven
Johnson separates the two with a typical misunderstanding, this one leaving Beth
drunkenly dancing in the Fountain De Amore, the Fountain of Love, where she steals
some coins tossed by men searching for love. The coins are enchanted and the men
will follow her back to New York to try to win her heart. So will Nick, but is one of the
coins his?
Yes, the plot is lame and worse yet, several of the supporting performances are
abysmal. Jon Heder plays a terribly unfunny street magician. Will Arnett wears a
ridiculous wig and an even more ridiculous Italian accent as a wannabe artist. Dax
Shepard is an offensively self involved male model who though enchanted struggles to
like Beth as much as he likes himself.
Danny Devito is the only one among the group to salvage any dignity as a sausage
magnate tries to impress Beth with gifts of meat. Devito gets a nice moment late in the
film explaining the motivation behind his coin in the fountain; it's all that keeps him from
being as humiliated as Heder, Arnett and Shepard.
The supporting players are, aside from Devito, pretty terrible but thankfully not so bad
that they sink the whole film. That is because Kristen Bell, in her first starring role, and
Josh Duhamel have such great chemistry. The two former TV stars, she on Veronica
Mars, he opposite James Caan on Las Vegas, are just so darn cute together.
Bell has an edgy almost angry energy that is leavened by a great smile and ability to
roll with the punches as the humiliations pile up. Duhamel undercuts his
handsomeness with some good solid slapstick. Nick stumbles, walks into walls and
drops down shafts and Duhamel plays the pain well. His back story as a former College
Football star famous for one shocking moment on the field plays to his clumsiness.

Do not be mistaken, When in Rome is far from great. The film requires a great deal of
patience and willingness to suspend judgment but for the willing Bell and Duhamel
make a charming and great looking pair. While she smiles and takes her many
humiliations in stride, he just stumbles about and they never stop being likable. That
was enough for me to recommend When in Rome.

`From Paris With Love': A mediocre movie

With so much butt kicking and bullets fired one still must marvel at the fact that what
most people cannot get around in the new action flick From Paris with Love is John
Travolta's bald dome. The shaven skull of Mr. Travolta is the big buzz topic when
anyone talks about From Paris with Love. This despite the fact that it is the follow up
from director Pierre Morel whose Taken was one of 2009's most popular films.
Travolta's dome is indeed a bit of a distraction but thanks to a solid turn by Jonathan
Rhys Meyers and Pierre Morel's furtive action movie direction; it's not too hard to get
around John Travolta's ham and cheese performance and bullet head.
James Reese (Meyers) is a handsome kid who seems like he should be more than just
a glorified bureaucrat's secretary at the American Embassy in Paris. It turns out; he is
more, though not much more. Reese is also a secret agent but his career thus far has
been mostly the busywork, laying foundations for real spies.
Reese gets his big break when a bombastic American spy, Charlie Wax (John
Travolta), arrives in Paris. Though enlisted as Charlie's driver, James insinuates himself
as Charlie's partner only to find himself desperately in over his head. Wax is a wildcard
whose methods and motives are more than questionable.
Soon Reese is a little high on some high end cocaine, as is Wax, and his long suffering
girlfriend Caroline (Kasia Smutniak) is beginning to suspect something about his job
that he's not telling her. She has an important secret of her own, one that director Pierre
Morel writer Adi Hasek use to strong dramatic effect.
From Paris with Love lacks the intensity and drive of director Pierre Morel’s Taken. Liam
Neeson's frightening determination gave Taken an unpredictable and dangerous quality
that kept audiences on the edge of their seats. From Paris with Love is much more of a
classic, bombastic action film in the vein of the Rush Hour films, minus the intentional
comic relief.
Don't get me wrong, there is humor in From Paris with Love but only some of it seems
intended. John Travolta chews the furniture, the scenery, his fellow actors, anything in
his path in his most outlandish performance since Face/Off. Mostly, Travolta is
entertaining. Occasionally, Travolta is so hammy and over the top it's embarrassing. It's
a tough act to balance and when it doesn't work From Paris with Love doesn't work.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers is well cast as the fish out of water wannabe spy. You have to
love how game he is to follow Travolta and Morel's flights of bullet riddled fancy but his
best work comes in giving From Paris with Love grounding in some sort of movie
universe reality. When the film arrives at its dramatic conclusion it can only work with
Meyers because Travolta lacks any pretense of believability in this universe or any
universe.
There is plenty of fun to be had in From Paris with Love, especially if you are a fan of
Travolta at his most balls out goofy. If however, you are looking for action and suspense
along the lines of Taken, a relationship that TV ads are eager to sew in your mind, you
will find yourself disappointed. From Paris with Love just isn't in Taken's league.

`Shutter Island' disappointing Scorcese

This is one of the most difficult reviews I have ever had to write. Martin Scorsese is,
arguably, the finest filmmaker I have written about in my lifetime. I have an unending
amount of respect and even awe for the man and his movies. Seeing one of his films is
about as close as I come to a religious experience.
So, seeing one of his films and feeling that film come up short of my expectations is not
easy. It's not that Shutter Island is a bad movie but rather that I expect so much more
from a filmmaker as great as Martin Scorsese. To watch as he steps into one of the
biggest movie potholes in history is a little devastating for me.
Shutter Island stars Scorsese's most frequent, recent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio
as a Federal Marshall named Teddy Daniels. Teddy with his new partner Chuck Aule
(Mark Ruffalo) has been dispatched to a place called Shutter Island, a mental institute
for the criminally insane, where a patient/inmate has gone missing.
There is no possible way that the patient, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), actually
escaped. Shutter Island is an actual island several chilly miles off the coast of
Massachusetts. Installed on what used to be a Civil War base, Shutter Island is a
forbidding structure that getting into is hard enough, getting out is unthinkable.
And yet, Rachel Solando is missing and no one seems to know how she got out. Why
a Federal Marshall is needed for this case is a question never asked. Rachel didn't get
off the island and is dead if she did. The hospital has a staff of ex-military and police
officers for security who are searching for Rachel when the Marshalls arrive.
Teddy has a secret of his own related to the island but I will leave you to discover that.
There are a number of nimble twists and turns to Scorsese's storytelling in Shutter
Island. The screenplay was adapted by Laeta Kalogridis from a novel by Dennis Lehane
whose novels Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone have previously been adapted into
excellent movies. Ms. Kalogridis had an exceptionally daunting task in adapting Dennis
Lehane's novel for a script by Martin Scorsese and that may be where the film's biggest
problems lie.
The cinematic touches of Shutter Island are remarkable. Scorsese's eye is perfectly
intact as he and cinematographer Robert Richardson pay homage to Hitchcock, noir
detective stories and The Twilight Zone. Especially effective are Teddy's artful
nightmares which contain stirring and terrifying imagery. For the visuals alone I could
recommend Shutter Island.
The cast is solid as well as we continue to watch the evolution of Leonardo DiCaprio
through the eyes of Martin Scorsese. In his non-Scorsese work DiCaprio's boyishness
always seems to get played up. His pudgy cheeks and wet eyes were the central
image of the failed Revolutionary Road. Scorsese pushes DiCaprio to be a man on
screen and DiCaprio rises to each challenge.
The rest of the cast is well populated with figures of menace and intrigue. Ben Kingsley
and Max Von Sydow seem as if they have played the roles of the menacing doctor's at
Shutter Island before. Mark Ruffalo perfectly balances insistent camaraderie with his
new partner with enough skepticism to keep Teddy from suspecting him.

Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson play two halves of a whole character and could
not be better at getting under DiCaprio's skin. Michelle Williams rounds out the cast as
Teddy's late wife and the less said about her the better. It's a very strong performance
but so key to the plot that I don't want to spoil it with detail.

The final moments of Shutter Island are a massive disappointment. I cannot go into
detail because you might see the movie and disagree with my assessment. I don't want
to rob you of the chance to find the ending satisfying. I didn't find it satisfying, indeed I
found it insulting, especially after the exhausting and exciting journey to get there.
Honestly, I predicted Teddy's fate from the first trailer I saw for Shutter Island several
months ago. I have not read Dennis Lehane's novel, choosing to avoid it and avoid
spoiling the film. Yet, I was able to predict what would happen at the end of Shutter
Island. I hoped Scorsese might find a way to surprise or come up with a way to get the
same conclusion in a less predictable fashion. Instead, the structure of the plot makes
the ending all the more painfully predictable and irritatingly unsatisfying when it
comes.Shutter Island is exceptionally well crafted and everything that leads up to the
final moments is spectacular in its cinematic detail. Sadly, the final moments are such
a disappointment that recommending the film is difficult if not impossible. I guess I can’t
say don’t see it; there is too much good work not to. Just be prepared for a
disappointing end and the rare occasion of being disappointed by Martin Scorsese.


Channing Tatum's abs star in lame `Dear John'

Dear John is a romance starring actor Channing Tatum's abs and actress Amanda
Seyfried's eyes. As he takes his shirt off to reveal his ripples her wide, deep eyes travel
the lengths of his musculature and boom you have a movie. This will be enough to
satisfy the depraved teenage girls whose eyes will also travel the full length of Mr.
Tatum's tummy again and again.
For the rest of us however, those not inclined to stare longingly at Mr. Tatum's Playgirl
centerfold audition, Dear John is a dreary bore of romantic cliché and moony
mawkishness.
I already described the plot, he takes his shirt off, she stares, the end, but I am sure
some of you would like a little more detail. After all, Dear John did not begin life as an
adaptation of Jergen De Mey's bestseller The Action Hero Body but rather as an
adaptation of one of Nicholas Sparks's astonishing series of simpleminded romance
hits.
Dear John tells the story of John, how inventive right. John is a soldier who while home
on leave in early 2001 meets cute with Savannah (Seyfried) when she loses her purse in
the ocean and he dives in to save it. She's with a boy when this happens but he has a
shirt on, John doesn't and his glistening, rippling self is all it takes for that guy to go
away, hell I can't even remember who he was.
John joins Savannah for a party at her home and an introduction to the special needs
child she spends time with seals their fate as lifetime lovers. The love birds spend the
summer together, her appreciating his repeated shirtlessness, he staring longingly if
emptily into her wide pool-like eyes. Things are said but nothing is more important than
their respective beauty.
Then John has to ship out and since this story is set in 2001 there is a pretty big twist
coming up, wink wink. Yes, 9/11 is a plot point in this dopey romance and as the film
manages to make sex, romance, mental illness, war and death trivial even the deadliest
terror attack in American history can be rendered inferior when compared to the
romance of two extraordinarily self important beautiful people.
What is supposed to be dramatic and romantic is captured by director Lasse Hallstrom
in his typically vacant, pretty postcard style. It's a style that is relatively well placed in a
film about two pretty people being pretty and for those who watch with the sound off, the
style may enhance the experience.
This is not an option of course for most theatergoers who will have to endure dialogue
so benign and simple you can hear the breeze emanating in the characters ears as
they speak. Cheesy platitudes meet at the intersection exposition and bland pop music
scoring to create a mind numbing throb of vapidity.
An ode to the ab workout, Dear John succeeds in providing fantasy material for those
inclined toward Channing Tatum's rippling-ness. Otherwise, the film is one massive bore
that manages to trivialize war, sex, autism and yes even 9/11. It's really rather
remarkable that a film could be so offensive in such a forgettable fashion. Dear John is
so dull that I can hardly muster the bile to be offended by it.


The Road is a depressing slog

I had to suffer through The Road on two separate occasions just to reach the end.
Director John Hillcoat's bleak vision of the end of the world is so overwrought, ugly and
cynical that the first time I had to walk out and get some air. The second time I suffered
the whole of The Road and then needed a long shower to forget it.
In some unspecified future the world simply begins to consume itself. Whether what
happened was environmental, nuclear war or some kind of biblical apocalypse we are
not to know. What we do know is that inhabiting this world are The Man (Viggo
Mortenson) and The Boy (Codi Smit McPhee).
Together they are making their way to the coast where rumors of a colony, of some
kind, near the ocean give them some kind of hope for the future. More likely, however, is
the idea that The Man has invented this idea to give them something to do so that The
Boy won't lose hope.
That is pretty well it for plot. The film is more a series of dank, gloomy scenes of
sadness and degrading landscape. Things are so awful that even the trees seem to
take a sentient stance and decide to simply topple to the ground. The journey along the
road for The Man and The Boy is a slow, repetitive journey toward death.
Is The Road well realized? Yes, Director John Hillcoat can certainly suck the life out of
landscape and star Viggo Mortenson is exceptional at becoming the physical
embodiment of decay but don't ask either what the point of it all is. I tried imagining that
the point of The Road was to have no point at all, that went nowhere and I was left really
not caring.
I have not read Cormac McCarthy's much praised novel on which the film is based but I
am familiar enough with McCarthy and have read enough about the novel to know that
the point in McCarthy is as much about his words as it about anything else. It seems
The Road the novel was more about the way McCarthy wrote it than about any vision of
the apocalypse.
What may have been at the heart of the movie The Road is a misunderstanding.
Director Hillcoat and screenwriter Joe Penhall assumed that McCarthy was offering
judgment on humanity and offering a vision of the end of the world. The reality may be,
again not having read the book, that McCarthy was working in prose and this is where
his vision and wordplay took him.
However the movie The Road came about, whether it is true to McCarthy's vision or not,
it is far too depressing, vile and gloomy for me to recommend. Again, I respect the
technical work of John Hillcoat who could suck the life out of even the most scenic
locales and the work of Mr. Mortenson who immerses himself wonderfully in every role. I
just cannot abide such a dark vision without some point. I don't want to live in a world
where I cannot find meaning somewhere. There seems to be no meaning, point or
purpose anywhere in the ugly cynicism of The Road.



`Valentine's Day' insipid crap. And the movie's bad too!

Garry Marshall, how do I loathe thee, let me count the ways. I have loathed every inch
of film you have ever cut and print. Every word on the page of one of your scripts has
been like a dagger in my chest. Your magnum opus Pretty Woman is one of the most
loathsome, irresponsible and despicable fantasies ever crafted.
I still have nightmares of your attempt to make an S & M themed romantic comedy
starring Dan Akroyd and Rosie O'Donnell. In all seriousness, which concentric circle of
hell did you escape from? Mr. Marshall's latest bit of awfulness is arguably his most
banal, rendered so by having so much star power you may be to blind to realize how
you're being terrorized.
Valentine's Day is ostensibly about love and its many complications played out over the
hallmark crafted Holiday. 20 or some odd number of characters each has an
interconnected part to play in this series of failed single romantic comedies wrapped
into one massive failure.
Among the glitterati to loan there sheen to Mr. Marshall's failed vision of comic romance
are Ashton Kutcher as a flower shop owner and Jennifer Garner as, prepare for the
surprising twist, the best friend he's always loved but didn't know it. He's just become
engaged to Morley (Jessica Alba) who is carrying on an affair with her blackberry.
Meanwhile the best friend is sleeping with a married man (Patrick Dempsey).
Don't worry, like all despicable married men in romantic comedies, he's leaving his
fabulously wealthy wife and children to be with his poor school teacher mistress. I must
say, I did marvel at Mr. Marshall's ability to cram that many well wrung clichés into one
storyline.
There are several thousand other stars in Valentine's Day including Oscar winners (Julia
Roberts, Shirley MacLaine), Oscar nominees (Anne Hathaway, Queen Latifah), TV
stars (Eric Dane and Dempsey both from Grey's Anatomy, Kutcher and Topher Grace
from That 70's Show) and even pop stars and Twilighters (Taylor Swift and Taylor
Lautner as the most vapid characters in an entirely vapid movie).
There are still countless other well known people in Valentine's Day but who really
cares. At some point we in the audience belong to some weird version of Hollywood
census takers, right down to the questions of demography as many characters are
defined by their race in the most statistical of fashion.
To count the ways that Valentine's Day is offensive would actually take longer than my
list of reasons for hating director Garry Marshall. The film isn't merely a recycling dump
of romantic clichés; it's also a garbage dump of racial and sexual stereotypes. Oh. And
don't even ask about sex because despite the theme, sex is purely something that
exists the night before Valentine's Day and not the day of.
Ludicrously awful, Valentine's Day attempts to mask the odor of it's inanity with a traffic
jam of celebrity. The pretty people wandering in and out of the 50 or so failed movies
jammed into this one movie fails to distract from the sheer brainless insipidity of
Valentine's Day.



`Spy Next Door' horribly dorky

It is far too easy to rip a movie like The Spy Next Door. The plot is dimwitted and
derivative, star Jackie Chan has far too little mastery of the English language to be given
this many lines and the supporting cast is a minefield of overacting and over-arching
cuteness. Way too easy.
The harder thing to do is admit that despite all the garbage in The Spy Next Door, there
are a few modest pleasures and even a couple of smiles to be had.
The Spy Next Door is an accidental re-imagining of Vin Diesel's Disney flick The
Pacifier. Take the world's greatest super-spy and leave him in charge of some
precocious pre-teens and wait for wacky stuff to happen. The only difference is where
Diesel seems terribly uncomfortable; Jackie Chan seems right at home playing with the
kids.
Chan is secret agent Bob Ho, a spy on loan to the CIA from Chinese Intelligence. He is
tracking a Russian bad guy named Poldark (Magnus Scheving) and his evil gal friday,
Creel (Katherine Boecher) as they seek to destroy the world supply of oil. Helping Bob
are a pair of CIA agents, Glaze (George Lopez) and Colton (Billy Ray Cyrus).
Meanwhile, Bob is looking to wrap up his spy career so that he can marry his next door
neighbor Gillian (Amber Valletta) who does not know that Bob is really a spy. Even
bigger than that obstacle however is getting in good with Gillian's three kids. Farren
(Madeline Carroll) is a severely moody oldest daughter who nastily calls her mom
Gillian. Ian (Will Shadley) is the middle child and a power nerd who, though only 9,
reads physics for fun. And finally 4 year Nora (Alina Foley) who is convinced that Bob is
what Ian calls a ‘cyborg.’ Together the siblings look to get rid of boring Bob before he
can marry mommy.
Yes, the plot is exceedingly dopey and condescendingly simple. But, you know that
when you buy the ticket. Given that knowledge going in makes it easier to appreciate
the few charms that The Spy Next Door has. Jackie Chan is now 50 years old and
years of daring stunt work have taken their toll. Nevertheless, Chan gives it a go in The
Spy Next Door and his brand of martial arts crossed with Buster Keaton style slapstick
hasn't been this much fun in a while.
The kids in kid’s movies can be terribly irritating, either too precious or too grating. They
are at times both in The Spy Next Door. That said each of the child actors has a good
moment or two, especially young Alina Foley. It's cheating to have a sweet little four
year old whisper 'I love you bob' as he sings her to sleep with a Chinese lullaby, but it's
hard to deny how cute the scene is.
The Spy Next Door is not 'cinema.' This is not a great movie but it never pretends to be.
The Spy Next Door is briskly paced, breezy and goofy and over before you really tire of
its idiot plot. By the lowered standards of kid’s entertainment this qualifies as
something I can recommend. Kids won't be harmed by it and mom and dad may
actually stay awake during it. What more can you ask.


`The Messenger' is hopeful, nervy

There are many jobs to be done in the American military and it is likely a great movie
could be made about any of those jobs. Writer-director Oren Moverman and co-writer
Alessandro Camon have chosen a particularly difficult job and crafted a great movie
from its many emotional and professional complications.
The Messenger tells the story of Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), a recently injured
soldier home from Iraq. Though Will is desperate to get back to the war his injuries
need more time to heal and his commanding officer (Eamonn Walker) has a temporary
job for him to do while he heals.
Will is assigned to work with Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) in the Casualty
Notification Service. It is Captain Stone's duty to inform the families of soldiers who are
killed in battle. Captain Stone has been at this job a very long time and has some hard
and fast rules for Staff Sgt. Montgomery to live by.
The first and most important rule is being professional. Do not engage emotionally with
the family. Stick to the script which informs the family that the Department of Defense
is sorry to inform them of the death of their loved one. Never touch the victim's family,
no physical or emotional attachments are essential to performing this task.
The rules are practical to military standards but also provide a distance for the men of
the casualty service who need the rules to keep the sadness and despair at the heart of
the job at bay. Montgomery understands but cannot resist a natural tendency toward
helping people. In battle he was often the first to rush to help a downed soldier, and in
his new duty keeping his distance from the wounded is difficult.
It was inevitable then that one of the victim's families would get through Montgomery’s
shell of professionalism. The wife of a late soldier, Olivia (Samantha Morton), strikes
something deep within Montgomery and he cannot help but engage with her, eventually
beginning to fall in love with her all the while trying to keep Tony from knowing about his
breech of conduct.
Of course, Tony is well aware of what is happening and seeing the young man make
this mistake leads Tony to his own breech of conduct when he returns to drinking as a
way of coping with the job. As these two men bond and battle the story takes on a
tornado swirl of emotions.
Director Oren Moverman and co-writer Alessandro Camon structure the story of The
Messenger as a series of vignettes strung together with scenes of male bonding
through alcohol and immature sexuality. There is an inherent disconnect from emotion
in this structure, one that actually plays very well to the overall story.
By structuring the film as a series of beginning middle and end encounters with victims
families followed by scenes of Montgomery and Stone getting to know each other off
the job, we get the disconnected feeling that Stone urges as the most important part of
the job. This makes it even more effective when Montgomery begins to allow the job to
bleed over out of the vignette and into the other portions of the story.
By the end, the wall that Stone so carefully crafted as a means of distancing himself
from the tragedy of his job is nearly destroyed and nearly destroys him. Montgomery
meanwhile finds himself again through the despair and heartache and finds a renewed
purpose that gives the film a hopeful yet nervy end.


`Invictus' one of the best of the year

In 1994 the world heralded the ascendancy of Nelson Mandela to the Presidency of
South Africa, just 3 years after his release from Robben Island Prison where he was a
politcal prisoner for nearly 30 years. Mandela and the man who freed him, then
President F.W De Klerk were awarded jointly the Nobel Peace Prize as the political
system called Apartheid was brought to an end.
Outsiders were aware that Mandela's election was not without strife but how close
Mandela came to losing his country to racial, civil war is a story stirringly brought to
light for the first time on the big screen in Clint Eastwood's Invictus. On the surface you
might assume Invictus is a sports movie, rugby after all takes a major role, but the real
story is about a leader, a politician and a legend.
The Rugby World Cup was less than a decade old when it came to South Africa for the
first time. It wasn't really to be all that notable for the South African national team
known as Springboks, the team wasn't supposed to go far. Then something
extraordinary happened. One afternoon the captain of the team, Francois Pienaar (Matt
Damon) received an invitation to tea with President Mandela.
It was at tea in the Presidential palace that Mandela asked for Pienaar's help in uniting
the country. How could he do that? Win the Rugby World Cup. From there these two
very different men were bound on a journey neither could have expected with Rugby
becoming a unifying cause in a country on the verge of being torn apart forever.
Is that dramatic enough for you? Director Clint Eastwood's great achievement in Invictus
is giving weight to Mandela's decision to make Rugby a political cause. In 1993-1994
Rugby remained a sport beloved only to whites. Mandela made the calculated decision
to relate to the white population through Springboks, a decision not at all welcomed by
black South Africans who had hoped the team and its green and yellow colors would be
banished to history.
Pienaar's challenge is no less dramatic. Mandela made quite clear to Pienaar all that
was at stake in this victory and what might happen if their gambit failed. Damon plays
the conflict with humble determination. It's wonderfully subtle yet powerful work from the
chameleonic Damon whose last role was a pudgy corn company executive.
As one might expect, Morgan Freeman perfectly embodies the man he has been
destined to play, Nelson Mandela. As Roger Ebert and numerous others have pointed
out, Freeman has been linked to a number of Mandela biopics over the years. Freeman
has met and befriended Mandela and that pays off in Invictus. Freeman loses himself in
Mandela's accent and manner from moment one, easily conveying the charm, savvy
and cool of Mandela.
The real challenge for both Freeman and director Eastwood was not deifying Mandela.
That has been the tendency of the handful of previois Mandela movies and they have
mostly failed for it. Audiences generally agree with Mandela's greatness, his
achievements speak for themselves, but the overly reverent approach puts audiences to
sleep.
Freeman's take and Eastwood's direction focus on Mandela's humane charms. The soft
voice, his frail health, Mandela suffered from exhaustion amongst other ailments from
day one of his Presidency, his warm smile. These are not the outsized traits of a deity
but the feel of a real, if exceptional, human being. Freeman's performance is so clever
and charming that it may seem too small for some, especially those expecting
something more sweeping and dramatic.
Sweeping, epic drama is not what you get in Invictus. This is not a film that pauses to
marvel at its own dramatic importance. Invictus deepens and becomes important when
we consider what Mandela and Pienaar accomplished. Invictus works by letting us
weigh the historic importance while the movie focuses on the story at hand. It’s a
remarkable work from a remarkable group of filmmakers and one of the best films of
2009.



Ford's still got `it' in `Extraordinary Measures'

Harrison Ford reminds me of a great athlete in the late portion of a career. Not as
embarrassing or sad as Joe Naimath with the Rams or Willie Mays with the Mets, but
Joe Montana with the Chiefs is a good comparison. Like Montana in that late stage,
Ford has lost a step but there are flashes of the old mastery of the game.
Extraordinary Measures has moments when the Harrison Ford we love shines through.
Sadly, Ford is shuffled off screen far too often in favor of a turgid family melodrama that
would be more at home on the ABC Family Channel than on the big screen.
Brenden Fraser is the star of Extraordinary Measures as John Crowley a father of 3
kids, 2 of whom were born with a rare genetic disorder known as Pompe. The disease
will take the kids lives very young which presents John with a very difficult choice. John
can spend as much time with his kids, alongside his wife Aileen (Keri Russell), or he
can search for a miracle.
The search will involve flying half way across the country to Nebraska where a scientist,
Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) has a theory that could be a cure. All that stands in
there way is cash, a lot of cash, and Dr. Stonehill's cantankerous, off-putting nature.
Can they raise the money, work together and cure the kids or has John made the wrong
choice?
If you cannot answer that question then clearly you don't see many movies. This isn't a
spoiler, the movie is based on a true story. Reporter Geeta Anand wrote the
extraordinary non-fiction book The Cure about the real John and Aileen Crowley who did
indeed risk everything to save their kids and the historic medical breakthroughs that risk
lead to.
There was no Dr. Stonehill however; he is one of many dramatic contrivances made by
director Scott Vaughan. Extraordinary Measures is a movie built on melodramatic
contrivances from Dr. Stonehill being based on 2 or 3 different brilliant doctors to the
odd choice to change the ages of John and Aileen Crowley's children from babies to
precocious pre-tweens.
In reality John and Aileen Crowley's children were 5 months and 17 months old
respectively. In the film the kids are 7 and 9 and Megan Crowley, played by Mereditch
Droeger, is a precocious little plot device used with saccharine glee to push and
manipulate audiences with her cuteness.
The story as written by Geeta Anand in The Cure did not need such melodramatic
embellishment. The Cure is told with a journalistic urgency that is a rush to read. It's
dramatic because the story is inherently dramatic, heart-rending and moving. The movie
goes for a sappy movie-ness that compromises the urgent drama in favor of faux uplift
and the jerking of tears.
Brenden Fraser is an actor I have liked a lot over the years but he is all wrong in
Extraordinary Measures. With his big wet eyes and doughy physique, Fraser seems to
mistake his physicality for dramatic acting. Keri Russell is capable of far more than she
is given to work with here. Shuffled aside for the male bonding of Fraser and Ford,
Russell cries on cue, comforts the children and is supportive and that is the extent of
the role.
Harrison Ford is not great at playing second fiddle. Though he has aged he remains
compelling and charismatic, more so than the younger Mr. Fraser. The scenes they
share, Ford is the more interesting actor with the more complex and interesting
character and Fraser suffers in comparison.
Returning to my earlier point about Ford compared to a great athlete, there was a night
in Joe Montana's final year when he threw for over 300 yards and won a game in
overtime on Monday Night Football. It was Montana's last great game. Harrison Ford, I
believe has that one last great game in him but Extraordinary Measures is not it.
There are flashes here of the roguish, grumpy charmer that we came to love all those
years ago from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Working Girl and Regarding Henry. His
late career has become something of a caricature, Ford barking a line or two and going
through the motions. Extraordinary Measures is one of those performances but the
flashes give you hope. That one big game is still out there for Ford. Let's hope it arrives
soon.


`Legion' is a dopey, recycled cliche factory

When a movie's opening voiceover narration intones that God lost faith in humanity
because 'he got tired of all the bullshit' you have to lower your expectations.
Unfortunately, there just are not expectations low enough for a post-apocalyptic thriller
as dopey as Legion.
Paul Bettany, one of my favorite actors, stars in Legion as the archangel Michael, a
General in God's Army. As God has lost faith in humanity, God sends Michael to earth
with a mission. Michael however, is not going to obey orders. Seems God has ordered
Michael to exterminate humanity.
Instead Michael travels to a diner in the middle of nowhere New Mexico where a
disparate group of people sits patiently waiting for the plot to kick in. Among them are
the diner's owner Bob (Dennis Quaid), his son Jeep (Lucas Black), Bob's old army
buddy Percy (Charles S. Dutton), A WASP couple (Jon Tenney and Kate Walsh) and
their bitchy daughter (Willa Holland).
Most important in this group is Charlie (Adrianne Palicki) who is with child from some
anonymous hook up but by some luck happens to be the savior of all mankind. As
Michael informs Charlie, and us, if the baby is born he will lead humanity out of the
darkness. Before the baby comes they must fight off God's Army of Angels lead by
Michael's long time friend and fellow Angel Gabriel (Kevin Durand).
The Archangel Michael is mentioned only once in the Hebrew Bible. It is said that he
will stand for the people of Israel at the end of days. Not that the movie Legion gives a
crap about the biblical arcana from which its main character came from. Director and
co-writer Scott Stewart merely uses Angels and Archangels as a device for apocalypse.
Legion exists only to place Paul Bettany in fetish wear, long leather coat, bandoleer,
and lots and lots of guns, and watch him shoot people. He and the cast pile up a few
bodies and then die in a particular order until the screen time runs out. Nothing much of
interest happens and certainly nothing you cannot anticipate without seeing the movie.
Dennis Quaid continues a sad, pathetic career decline. It's hard to recall the last time
Quaid was in a film worth watching. In Legion the most notable aspect of Quaid's
performance is his dopey lopsided haircut. Yes, he gets a big moment near the end but
by then you won't really care.




`Edge of Darkness' a welcome return for Mel Gibson

No one is likely to forget Mel Gibson's off-screen issues anytime soon. From his
disturbing 'Passion' to his arrest and subsequent bashing of the Jewish people, Mel
Gibson's private life has become very public and it affects everything the public
perceives about him. All of this is part of what makes his performance in the thriller
Edge of Darkness so remarkable.
Less than 10 to 15 minutes into what you are expecting to be a rather generic thriller,
based on the somewhat innocuous title and vacuous TV campaign, Mel Gibson and
director Martin Campbell make you forget, if only briefly, about Mel Gibson's character
issues, focus on his movie character and the snaky, violent plot in front of him.
In Edge of Darkness Mel Gibson is Boston police detective Tommy Craven. He has just
welcomed home his only child, Emma (Bojana Novakovic) and brought her home. The
welcome is short-lived as Emma falls ill and Tommy rushes her to the hospital. That
was the plan anyway, just as Craven opens the door to his home a man calls out his
name and a shotgun blast blows Emma right back through the doorway.
The violence in this scene is quick and merciless and sets the tone for the rest of the
picture. Naturally, Tommy will conduct his own investigation of his daughter's murder.
From here you may expect Edge of Darkness to become predictable and fall into
typical thriller beats. It does not, in fact Gibson and Director Campbell forcefully make
moves in this plot to avoid the typical and drive toward a narrative filled with surprise and
suspense.
Lost in all of Mel Gibson's off-screen issues is the fact that he has always been
exceptionally talented. His intensity, his physicality, his self effacing humor have all
played a role in defining him as an actor capable of moving audiences in many different
ways. He makes use of all of his gifts in Edge of Darkness and crafts his best
performance since Braveheart.
Director Martin Campbell is a rising star. He was the director who re-launched the Bond
series with the adrenalin fueled Casino Royale. Campbell has always been a strong
action director but in Edge of Darkness he takes great care to deliver a directorial style
that is free of the typical action beats and gets right to point of each scene.
There is very little wasted effort in Edge of Darkness. Take a scene where Craven is
kidnapped. We've been here before, we know what to expect. All of sudden the scene is
over and we are back into the plot. No talking killer, very little dialogue at all. It's a minor
tweak of what is expected but it seems any departure from the expected can be a
welcome change in this day and age.
Edge of Darkness does not reinvent the thriller, it's just made better. Better
performances, better direction and most importantly, better Mel Gibson. After wandering
off the path of stardom with his unfortunate behavior, Mel Gibson is poised for a strong
career third act. Let's hope that his off-screen stuff is behind him and more films with
the quality and excitement of Edge of Darkness are ahead.




`Daybreakers' such a disappointment

It's such a disappointment. The first 70 minutes or so of Daybreakers is a quite
compelling Vampire thriller. The last 20 minutes, give or take a few, are such a massive
wrong turn that they make me wretch at the thought. I was set to recommend
Daybreakers but the ending is such a poor decision, such a disastrous wrong turn that
Daybreakers becomes an early worst of the year candidate.
Ethan Hawke stars in Daybreakers as Vampire Hematologist Edward Dalton. Edward
lives in a future, 2017, in which vampires are the majority and humans are hunted and
farmed for blood. Unfortunately, the demand for blood is soon to exceed the supply. It is
Edward's job, at the behest of his demanding boss (Sam Neill) is too invent a viable
blood substitute.
Elvis (Willem Dafoe) has a better idea, he has a cure. Through some remarkable
accident Elvis has regained his humanity and he thinks that with Edward's help he can
figure out exactly what cured him and begin to return the human race to dominance.
Elvis and his partner Audrey (Claudia Karvan) kidnap Edward and he is more than
willing to help. Unfortunately, he is being tracked by his brother Frankie (Michael
Dorman) a member of the military human hunters.
As Edward seeks the cure and his brother and boss come together to plot against him
there is an effective thriller with strong stakes and strong characters. Approaching the
finale the film has great momentum all it needs is a satisfying end to cap the whole
thing and make a pretty terrific genre thriller.
Sadly, all that co-directors Michael and Peter Spierig is a gore-laden, special effects
finale that undermines Daybreakers' thriller tension in favor of splatter movie ugliness. I
don't mind gore, early on in Daybreakers a minor character explodes and the scene is
quite effective. The ending unfortunately takes the gore to far, using it as a means to
finish the movie as if they just couldn't think of anything else.
The bloody finale is a trapdoor, an easy escape for filmmakers without the imagination
or talent to come up with something better. What a shame, there is a pretty solid thriller
under all of the viscera in Daybreakers.

`Leap Year' is a feminist nightmare

The women's liberation movement in the universe of film consists of empowering women
economically; they all get fabulous jobs in fashion or real estate or owning uncommonly
successful restaurants. The liberation stops however once they have found a man. Such
is the case of the new romantic comedy Leap Year starring the plucky Amy Adams.
Adams stars in Leap Year as Anna whose job is setting up apartments for sale. She
doesn't sell the apartments; she merely dresses them for sale and makes fabulous
amounts of money doing it. In a rare twist, Anna has already met a man, Jeremy (Adam
Scott), who shares her love of status symbols and just the right apartment.
Anna and Jeremy have been together four years and just before he leaves for Ireland on
a business trip Anna gets in her head that he is finally going to propose to her, so
convinced that she and a friend actually practice being surprised when he asks. No
surprise to anyone whose seen the film's trailer, Jeremy doesn't ask and Anna is briefly
devastated.
After Jeremy's left a plan is hatched, Anna will fly to Ireland just in time for Leap Day,
February 29th, a day in Irish tradition when a woman can ask a man to marry her. Now,
the liberated woman of today might ask why a holiday is needed for a woman to ask a
man to marry her. The makers of Leap Year ladies are unconcerned with such
questions.
The leap day thing is merely a device to propel Anna on a madcap dash to Dublin. First
her plane is diverted to Scotland then she gets stranded in an Irish village called Dingle
where she seeks a ride from one of the locals. The only driver available is also the local
pub and hotelier, Declan (Matthew Goode).
Surprise, surprise, Anna and Declan immediately choose to dislike each other. She's a
shrewish, entitled bitch and he's easygoing, handsome charmer with a secret reason for
not trusting women. If your eyes weren't rolling through the back of your head as you
read that you have more self control than I.
So, off they go on a trip across the Irish countryside arguing and uh-oh falling in love
with all of the requisite dopey rom-com roadblocks checked off like a shopping list at a
cliché outlet. No surprise then to learn, the script comes from the makers of Made of
Honor and Josie and the Pussycats.
We all know how this will end, anyone who’s seen the trailer for Leap Year knows how
it will end. It's a romantic comedy and experience tells us that it is the journey and not
the destination when it comes to the modern rom-com. Sadly, the journey in Leap Year
is mostly tedious.
I say mostly tedious because along the way, though all the predictable beats are there,
somehow a few grace notes sneak in. A script polish by Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy
likely brought the scene where Anna and Declan clash at a wedding and then share a
romantic walk in Dublin before she meets up with Jeremy.
These few good scenes however cannot make up for the inept series of clichés that
precede them. Add to that the anti-feminist vibe of the whole thing. In the end, after all
of the predictable crap plays out Anna throws everything away, the job she loved, the
things she worked hard for just so that she can live the life of a doting wife. Yes, she's
in love but why does that require her to give up all that she was.
Leap Year is yet another movie that affirms that all that really matters to women is
getting married and adapting her life to the traditional role of the wife set forth by years
of oppression. Choosing to be a wife and mother is as feminist as getting into the rat
race but Anna giving up herself to adapt to what is expected of her is as anti-feminist a
message as any movie of the past decades.
I realize that I am not supposed to care. I get that the filmmakers don't want to talk
about this but the ignorance of these facts is a plague that infects far too many modern
so-called romances. Leap Year is just the latest symptom of said plague.


`Tooth Fairy' is mindless fun

Dwayne Johnson's unique, to say the least, career path; from professional wrestling to
honest to goodness movie star is relatively improbable on the surface. On closer
inspection however there is a good deal of calculation to how the man once known as
The Rock; OK still more or less known as The Rock, has crafted his movie stardom.
A balance of high concept comedy and low weight action pics that always play to the
strengths of the handsome, hardbodied Johnson make for the perfect mix to make a
guy a star in relatively quick succession. “Tooth Fairy” fits perfectly in The Rock's
canon. This high concept comedy plays to his strong ability to poke fun at himself while
leaving just enough room to display his physicality.
The Rock stars in “Tooth Fairy” as Derek 'The Tooth Fairy' Thompson a hockey thug
known for knocking opponent’s teeth out. Derek is beginning to near the end of his
career as a new young superstar is quick to point out early in the film. In Derek's
personal life he has even more trouble on his hands. Things are good with his girlfriend
Carly (Ashley Judd) but when he almost tells Carly's daughter that there is no tooth
fairy, of the mythic kind, Carly is ticked.
Someone else is even more cheesed off and that is the head of the real tooth fairy
operation. Yes, the tooth fairy is real and it turns out is run like a tooth collecting
corporation by Lily (Julie Andrews). When she hears of Derek's attempted myth killing
she summons him to tooth fairy headquarters for punishment and while Derek thinks he
is having a psychotic break, the reality is he is being made a tooth fairy until he learns
the value of childish myths.
”Tooth Fairy” is a dopey, high concept, family comedy that aspires to be nothing more.
As directed by mainstream film carpenter Michael Lembeck the film is assembled from
recycled materials, hammered into place with thudding, groaning laughs and smoothed
over with soporific clichés about families, acceptance and growing up.
If there is any reason to see “Tooth Fairy” it is the appeal of Dwayne Johnson. While
this is not The Rock at his best, the guy has enough star power and charisma to carry
off even the cheesiest of cheeseball gags. Dressed in a tutu or in hockey gear, Johnson
has the exceptional ability to make himself the subject of the joke without losing his
cool. It's a deftness that only those with real star power can pull off.
I can't give “Tooth Fairy” a forceful recommendation; the film is far too mindless for an
audience with discerning standards. But, for those in the mood for mindless or for kids
who don't yet know any better you could do worse than the dippy simulacrum that is
“Tooth Fairy.”




`The Lovely Bones' is powerful, poignant

I have a general detachment from emotion. It's a guard against a young child version of
me who was too invested in his emotions and was known to burst into tears at
unfortunate moments. Other kids reactions to my outbursts drove me inward to the man
I am today. I am not cold hearted, just well controlled, guarded. Peter Jackson's The
Lovely Bones is the rare film that broke through my guards and tapped the well of that
emotional young man I was.
The story of Susie Salmon (Oscar nominee Saorise Ronan, Atonement) begins with her
narration explaining first her name is Salmon, like the fish communicating her
innocence, eager to please nature answering a question no one asked. She then stops
you in your tracks with a matter of fact statement "I was 14 years old when I was
murdered on December 6th 1973.
From that moment on The Lovely Bones unfolds a story of murder, sadness and
heartbreaking purity. After revealing her murderer as a neighbor named George Harvey
(Stanley Tucci) Susie narrates her story from a place called The In-Between, a place
between heaven and earth constructed from Susie's imagination.
Peter Jackson animates Susie's heaven with artistry absent from even his Lord of the
Rings movies. For the first time in his career Jackson makes use of film tech to deepen
his subject, not merely to animate it. The stunning landscapes of Susie's In-Between
are eye popping and reveal aspects of her nature, her innocence, her longings and
unfulfilled desires. A crumbling gazebo holds a particular emotional attachment that I
will leave you to discover.
From her In-Between Susie watches how her death impacts her family. Her father Jack
becomes so consumed with catching her killer that he barely notices his wife Abigail
(Rachel Weisz) is drifting away. It's not until her cab leaves for the airport that Jack
realizes she is gone.
Susie also watches her killer, George Harvey. He has a past filled with other murders
but for some reason Susie's murder has a particular hold on his conscience. He spends
hours alone seeming to re-live each moment, moments thankfully unseen by us in the
audience. The choice to leave the cruel details to our imagination is a controversial one;
the book by Alice Sebold went into obsessive detail.
For me, leaving Susie's suffering to the imagination was the right call; I doubt that I
could have endured watching the effervescent Ms. Ronan suffering as described in the
book. We are given enough detail to construct the horror for ourselves and that is more
than enough.
Transformed by makeup Stanley Tucci crafts a killer of remarkable repugnance. Today,
George Harvey would be the poster boy for creepy. He looks like the picture of
someone who murders children. A mumbling, ill at-ease creep, George Harvey sets off
alarm bells for his simple lack of social skills. In the 1973 of the film however, he's just
a slightly off shut-in, on the surface.
Once he becomes suspect number one for for Jack and daughter Lindsey (Rose McIver)
who joins her dad's obsessive crusade, the film takes on a pseudo murder mystery feel
that enlivens the middle portion of the film. We know he did it, they think he did it and
we become desperately involved in trying to will the characters to the clues we know
are there.
This clever bit of populist narrative is just one of Peter Jackson's wise choices. Jackson
has made an art film crossed it with a thriller and topped it all with a deeply emotional
story of coming of age. It's almost too much for one film to hold, changing scenes as
this does from Susie's gorgeous art-scape to George Harvey's dark chambers to the
Salmon house consumed by grief and the urgent search for justice.
Only a director as bold and daring as Peter Jackson could pull off such a trick. His
experience with the Lord of the Rings informs a good deal of The Lovely Bones. In LOTR
Jackson used technology as a construction device. In The Lovely Bones that
construction device becomes a painters brush and the technology melts into the
subconscious aiding as much in storytelling as in craftsmanship.
Unlike George Lucas or James Cameron for whom CGI remains a carpenters tool,
Jackson see's technology in The Lovely Bones as something to be woven into the fabric
of storytelling. Susie's In-Between is never merely a place; it's the state of her soul
where her imagination and desires take a physical hold.
Technology, story and character unite in The Lovely Bones to create a deeply emotional
experience that transports you into the sadness of a little girl gone before her time. An
examination of grief, unfulfilled desires, love and death, The Lovely Bones is one of the
most daring and original works in years and one of the best films of the last year.

`Young Victoria' is a queen of a film

"Queen Victoria, one of our more frumpy Queens. They're all frumpy aren't they?
Because it's a bad idea when cousins marry." Eddie Izzard "Dressed to Kill"

That quote was all I could think when I sat to watch The Young Victoria. Eddie Izzard's
pointedly funny takedown of royal lineage threatened, early on, to affect my ability to
enjoy this take on Queen Victoria's rise to power. What a welcome surprise it was then
that star Emily Blunt made me forget all about Mr. Izzard, at least till the film was over,
and with the great aid of an exceptional script by Oscar winner Julian Fellowes, made
me love this movie.
The Young Victoria tells the story of Queen Victoria from the time just before she
became Queen through her struggle with parliament and marriage to Prince Albert
(Rupert Friend). We learn that as a young woman Victoria was kept from the world at
large by her dour mother, the Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson) and her mother's
consort Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong).
Both pressured the teenage heir to King William's (Jim Broadbent) throne to make them
her Royal Regent, essentially ceding them the power over the monarchy. She refused,
meanwhile the King himself conspired to win her favor with the help of the Prime
Minister, Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), and the King's brother in law, and the ruler of
Belgium, King Leopold (Thomas Kretschmann) maneuvered to move his bloodline into
power through his nephew Albert.
For his part, Albert proved to be more than just another pawn in another power play.
Over the course of Victoria's rise to power he is a trusted friend, confidante and
eventually a husband and lover. It is in this relationship between Emily Blunt’s
precocious yet savvy Victoria and Friend's stolid yet loving Albert that The Young
Victoria gets it's romantic drive.
Emily Blunt is a powerhouse in The Young Victoria. Sure, she looks nothing like what
is known of Victoria, ('one of our more frumpy Queens') but as she has told reviewers,
you want realistic, watch the history channel. This is a Victoria for pop culture
consumption and as such it works. Blunt's Victoria is sexy and smart, winsome and
powerful.
Ms. Blunt has remarkable chemistry not just with Mr. Friend, who is only just her equal,
but also with the exceptionally cunning Paul Bettany and the always welcome Jim
Broadbent, in a terrific cameo. The rest of the cast, minus the Snidely Whiplash-esque
Mark Strong as the villain of the piece, is uniformly excellent.
Adding to the power of Ms. Blunt's performance is an exceptionally smart, witty and
concise script by Oscar winner Julian Fellowes. Mr. Fellowes takes a sprawling story of
high court conspirators boils them down to their essences and keeps the audience in
firm grasp of the various plots, machinations and maneuvers going on around our
Victoria all while creating a hot house atmosphere of Victorian Era intrigue.
So often period pieces like The Young Victoria can seem like inaccessible museum
pieces all stuffy and puffed up. Fellowes and director Jean Marc Vallee deftly introduce
a little soapy daytime drama into the mix without losing their air of cinematic
importance. This is high minded drama but with a sense of the modern culture, hence
the choice of a sexy Queen and lithesome, Edward Cullen-esque, leading man.
The Young Victoria is tart and smart and features a star-making performance from
Emily Blunt who should have been an Oscar nominee.







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