“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” – Movie Review

 

This weekend in my movie class, we had a bonus screening of “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” starring Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara and Keith Carradine.

Synopsis

When a convict escapes from jail to reunite with his wife and meet the daughter born during his imprisonment, will he be able to see his family before being caught or killed?

Story

Texas couple Bob (Affleck) and Ruth (Mara) see themselves as something of a modern-day Bonnie & Clyde.  Despite the fact that Ruth breaks the news to him that she’s expecting their baby, Bob decides to follow through with his armed robbery plan, risking not only his future, but also that of his wife and unborn child.  After Bob stashes the loot in a beaten-up suitcase buried near their run-down cabin, the law catch up with them and a shootout ensues.  This culminates in the pair being arrested; although Ruth is acquitted, Bob is found guilty of the crime and sentenced to 25 years in prison. 

While Bob is doing his time, he writes frequently to Ruth, who by now has been set up in a new home by Skerritt (Carradine), one of Bob’s former cohorts.  During Bob’s incarceration, Ruth gives birth to their daughter, Sylvie.  Remaining connected to the case throughout the years is Deputy Wheeler (Ben Foster), who was injured during the firefight when the two were apprehended; Wheeler periodically provides Ruth with updates on Bob’s status in prison.  What Ruth eventually figures out, however, is that Wheeler has his own romantic designs on her. 

After several failed attempts over the years, Bob finally escapes from prison.  Carjacking his way across Missouri, he finds his way back to Texas and meets up with an old buddy of his who gives him a temporary hiding place.  While the police are after him, Bob sneaks his way over to Skerritt, who warns him to stay away from Ruth and Sylvie for their safety.  When Skerritt learns that Bob is trying to track down his family, he hires some men to find Bob and kill him before he can locate Ruth.  But will Bob finally be able to meet his daughter before either the police or the killers can catch him?

 

Review

“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” is either reminiscent of or derivative of similar, earlier films from 30 or 40 years ago (the adjective you choose will certainly depend on whether or not you enjoyed the movie).  Despite being eminently watchable, you can’t help but thinking that you’ve seen this exact same story told before.  Its slow pace makes it feel much longer than its hour and a half length.  Although I’m given to understand it won a cinematography award, I found much of the photography a little on the dark side (trying to resonate the mood of the motion picture, perhaps?) and as such, occasionally difficult to follow.  

The main problem I had with this movie has to do with the number of loose ends that are left hanging in the story.  Who are the men that are hired to kill Bob?  How did Skerritt know that he could hire them for the job?  How did Bob get a change of clothes and clean up by the time he reached Texas?  These are just some of the questions that left me more than just a little bit puzzled as well as quite surprised at the high rating the critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”.  Whether these problems come from the screenplay, from the editing or from a tight budget that prevented the filmmaker from shooting certain scenes is hard to say. 

Lastly, this movie has got to have one of the worst titles ever, which certainly doesn’t help matters any.  What does it mean?  Infuriatingly, this is never explained.  To think that no one could’ve dreamed up a better title is really hard to believe.  While this film may be a darling with the critics and get extraordinarily good reviews, I can’t imagine too many people wanting to actually pay money to see “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”.  I wish the best of luck to whomever is responsible for marketing this thing because they sure do have a tough job ahead of them. 

 

7.0/10440 votes

 

“In A World” – Movie Review

 

This week in my movie class, we saw the comedy “In A World”, starring Lake Bell, who also wrote and directed.

Synopsis

When a young woman pursues her father’s career as a voice-over announcer, she finds that the business is reluctant to hire women – but when she’s being considered for a new job, it turns out she’s competing against other industry veterans, including her own father.

Story

At 31, Carol (Bell) is an underachiever and proud of it – working some occasional freelance jobs as a vocal coach, she doesn’t make enough money in order to have her own place, so she is living with her widowed father, Sam (Fred Melamed). Inviting Carol to leave because his girlfriend is going to move in with him, Sam tries to motivate her to start to take her career seriously by following in his footsteps as a voice-over announcer for movie trailers. Carol’s father is regarded as the voice-over king after the passing of the great Don LaFontaine and might be able to get her foot in the door; despite this, she realizes the business has a strong preference toward using men in their advertisements.

Sam is reveling in the fact that as an acknowledged leader in his field, he will be getting a lifetime achievement award at an upcoming ceremony. Realizing that he must soon pass the torch to an up-and-coming voice-over announcer, the logical pick would appear to be his good friend, Gustav (Ken Marino), a younger man who has managed to carve-out a successful career in this field. In celebration of his own success – and to honor his buddy Sam – Gustav throws a party; in addition to bringing his girlfriend, Sam drags Carol along in the hope that she can network herself. Quite by accident, however, this results in Carol and Gustav hooking-up.

While Carol seems to be in no hurry to end her trysts with Gustav, it is really Louis (Demetri Martin) in whom she is most interested – he’s the manager of the recording studio where she works and has made his affection for Carol no great secret. In the meantime, Carol learns that if she is willing to submit an audition tape, she will be considered for a voice-over job in a movie trailer that is bound to have high visibility and the potential for considerable career advancement. But when she discovers that both her father and Gustav are among the more seasoned professionals who are up for the same gig, will Carol have any chance of winning the opportunity?

Review

From strictly a technical standpoint, the screenplay for “In A World” is well-crafted, if not always well-played. It hits all the right notes in terms of act-end turning points and climax as well as sub-plots and well-defined characters. As a comedy, however, it is a bit on the soft side – more mildly amusing than outright funny. Not much in the way of laugh-out-loud jokes, but nevertheless somewhat entertaining in an unthreatening, unchallenging kind of way. While the characters are clearly delineated, I didn’t find them to be terribly sympathetic and some of the scenes were little more than merely movie-convenient contrivances.

Clearly, Bell has called in quite a few favors to some of her colleagues, whose names and/or faces should be immediately familiar to most viewers; there are a number of actors and actresses of some note who at least make an appearance in this movie, if not play significant supporting roles. These include (in no particular order) Jeff Garlin, Geena Davis, Rob Corddry, Nick Offerman and Eva Longoria. So, if you get bored with the film and decide to play “Spot The Celebrity”, this is as good a motion picture to use as just about any other. Of course, the potential danger with these casting decisions is that when you see a star in a movie mostly populated with unknowns (especially in the lead roles), you can tend to get taken out of the story ever so briefly (if not entirely).

One of the things that might be either off-putting or confusing (or both) for some people is the derivation of the movie’s title and its reference to Don LaFontaine. LaFontaine was a real person who was somewhat famous for his ubiquity when it came to performing voice-overs for many movie trailers. One of his more infamous traits was arguably the fact that so many of his voice-overs would start with the phrase, “In a world …”. People unfamiliar with either or both of these facts might find themselves head-scratching throughout much of the film.

  7.1/10169 votes

 

“The Conjuring” – Movie Review

 

This week in my movie class, we saw the horror flick “The Conjuring”, starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.

Synopsis

When a family is haunted by ghosts in their new farmhouse, they call in experts to help them – but once it becomes clear that the ghosts want the entire family dead, can the entire family be saved?

Story

In autumn of 1971, The Perron Family moved into their newly-purchased farmhouse in a remote area of Rhode Island. Shortly after their arrival, however, they started to notice certain oddities: their pet dog refused to enter the house, all of the clocks stopped at 3:07 AM and an unusual rotting aroma permeated various rooms. After finding their dog mysteriously dead, things soon get worse when Carolyn (Lily Taylor), the mother of this five-daughter brood, starts developing bruises throughout her body. Between hearing weird noises and seeing inexplicable visions, they are convinced that their house is haunted and they need help. But to whom can they turn?

The Warrens are a couple of some notoriety as paranormal investigators. Husband Ed (Wilson) is a demonologist and wife Lorraine (Farmiga) a clairvoyant. Together, they have spent years looking into sundry claims of possessions and hauntings; in most instances, they have been able to prove that these events are simple coincidences with rational, reasonable causes behind them. Other times, however, they have been forced to put their lives at great risk in order to either rid a home of spirits or drive out a demon from some human form it has temporarily overtaken.

After attending The Warrens’ speaking engagement at a nearby university, Carolyn meets with them to share her tale and implore them to assist with her family’s situation. Following a cursory inspection of the premises, The Warrens find considerable evidence that Carolyn’s story is neither a hoax nor a coincidence, but in fact a genuine haunting, possibly with an attempted demonic possession. They immediately get to work to record and document the existence of the spirits, but when they discover that a demon wishes to possess Carolyn so she will murder her daughters, can they get Vatican approval for a priest to perform an Exorcism on her before it’s too late?

Review

I’m tempted to say that the recipe for “The Conjuring” would be to add one part of “Amityville Horror” to one part of “The Exorcist”, run it on high in a blender, then pour generous servings of this concoction over ice and serve. While I suppose such a remark might be a facile description with which to characterize this rather well-made movie, that certainly doesn’t make it any less apt. For people who are fans of this genre (not I), this cocktail of spooks and devils will be sure to hit the spot – especially now, since there tends to be something of a dearth of horror films during the summer months.

One of the reservations I have about “The Conjuring” is the fact that the filmmakers try to cram in too much within this nearly two hour long movie. Besides the story lines of The Perrons and The Warrens, there are also way too many ghosts inhabiting the story – and they all have their own story line, too. This makes things a little confusing and hard to follow at times. It may have been better to focus on one or two of these supernatural beings than to overcomplicate the story to the point that we wind up forgetting who’s doing what and why. Given the fact that “The Conjuring” is supposedly based on actual people, they may have fallen into the trap of trying to stick a little too closely to actual incidents to the point that the film’s quality is compromised.

Director James Wan – perhaps best known for “Saw” – manages to hit all of the right notes throughout “The Conjuring” that should make horror fans jump and squeal in their seat and generate the kind of physiological reaction in their system to which they seem to have become addicted. For me, arguably the scariest part of this movie isn’t the ghosts or the demons, but rather the emphasis of how religion – specifically, Catholicism – is seen as the cure-all. Seriously, would it be possible for an atheist to either be haunted by ghosts, possessed by demons or work as a paranormal investigator? Perhaps – but then you’d really be called upon to suspend your disbelief even more so.

  7.7/101,550 votes

“Still Mine” – Movie Review

 

This week, the 2nd half of the summer semester for my movie class began and we saw the drama “Still Mine”, starring James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold.

Synopsis

When an elderly farmer tries to build a new house on his land to better care for his wife suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, he falls victim to his town’s bureaucracy – but will he be able to complete his project or will it be bulldozed before he can finish?

Story

Octogenarians Craig (Cromwell) and Irene (Bujold) have spent the decades carving out a living for themselves the hard way – as a couple of Canadian farmers who have raised seven children.  Unfortunately, old age is creeping up on them and soon, Craig finds his wife is experiencing increasingly frequent incidents of senility.  When Irene almost accidentally burns down their house, Craig realizes something must be done immediately.

After discussing the situation with his children, he quickly dismisses any consideration of putting his wife in a home and instead decides that he can better care for her himself if they lived in a smaller house – with that, Craig decides to build a cottage on a tiny stretch of the 2,000 acres of farmland he owns.  However, in the many years since he built his current house, he finds the local government in the town in which he lives has enacted many new rules, regulations and fees.  Confused and frustrated by all of red tape, he proceeds with construction anyway because he realizes that time is of the essence, given that Irene’s condition is gradually deteriorating, putting her well being at great risk. 

When Craig ignores the town’s Stop Work Order on his new home, that’s when the lawyers are brought in and things get increasingly complicated – not to mention expensive.  Having to meet with the lawyers takes away from time he could be spending finishing the new house.  Meanwhile, Irene is getting substantially worse – after various episodes, she suffers a bad fall and winds up in the hospital with a broken hip, which will result in a long stay followed by weeks of physical therapy as she is trained in the use of a walker.  During this time, Craig’s case makes the town’s newspapers; despite all of the media attention, the town’s building department brings him to court anyway.  Will the judge allow him to finish construction or will the new house be demolished?

Review

A delicate, fragile movie, “Still Mine” can be seen as either a humanistic or political drama – if not both – depending on your perspective.  Humanistic in the sense that it is about dealing with one of life’s many great indignities – aging and the associated resulting problems.  Political in the sense that it is a story about the individual versus the big, unwieldy and uncaring government.  At its core, however, it is above all a love story about a long-time married couple that have grown old together and are still very much dedicated to taking good care of each other.   

That said, some might find a couple of scenes slightly uncomfortable to view – for one thing, Cromwell is briefly nude when entering an outdoor shower; also, husband and wife have a sex scene that could make certain people squirm just a bit (thankfully, however, it’s neither long nor graphic).  But then again, hey, if you’re open minded and aren’t turned off to geezer love, then you likely won’t have any issues with this.  I also found “Still Mine” to be an excellent choice for a title because after seeing the film, you realize it can refer to a great many things that the lead characters would insist are “still mine” – my spouse, my life, my land, my dignity … you get the idea…

Following the screening, our instructor interviewed one of the film’s stars, the great James Cromwell.  If you ever get the chance to hear Cromwell speak or be interviewed, by all means, go for it – he happens to be one of the all-time spellbinding raconteurs, sharing many fascinating stories from his life both in an out of acting.  Cromwell said he was very thankful to Norman Lear, creator of the legendary television situation-comedy “All In The Family”.  Lear gave Cromwell his big break, casting him as Archie Bunker’s co-worker, Stretch Cunningham.  He said that the casting came about as a result of a salary dispute between Lear and the show’s star Carroll O’Connor (who played Archie Bunker); upon reaching something of an impasse, Lear notified O’Connor that they were going to kill off Archie and replace him with a character played by Cromwell – shortly thereafter, there was a resolution.  O’Connor returned to work, but Cromwell still appeared in a number of episodes as his co-worker Cunningham.

7.1/10165 votes 

“Petunia” – Movie Review

 

In the final meeting of the June session of my movie class, we saw the comedy-drama “Petunia”, starring Thora Birch, David Rasche and Christine Lahti.

Synopsis

When members of a highly dysfunctional New York City family simultaneously encounter personal crises, can they somehow find a way to keep the family unit together or will everything completely unravel?

Story

Charlie Petunia (Tobias Segal) is a gay man who is sexually shy; at his brother Michael’s wedding reception, his new sister-in-law Vivian (Birch) introduces him to George (Michael Urie), whom she happens to know is also gay. The two seem to hit it off and begin something of a relationship once they discover both men live in the same Manhattan apartment building. Meanwhile, Percy (Rasche) and Felicia (Lahti) – the groom’s parents – appear to be on the verge of creating a scene with their ongoing bickering. Following the reception, Vivian is starting to express some misgivings about her brand new marriage to Michael (Eddie Kaye Thomas), causing him immense concern about their future together.

Meanwhile, their other brother Adrian (Jimmy Heck) has entered therapy in order to deal with his own issues: he’s a sex addict and now that Vivian is married to Michael, he desperately wants to sleep with her. As a doting mother, Felicia meets with George in order to convince him to relieve Charlie of his virginity, which he then sets out to try to do, despite Charlie’s resistance. Another problem with this is that it turns out George is currently married to Robin (Brittany Snow), who permits her husband’s homosexual extramarital affairs at the sacrifice of her own sexual needs.

Speaking of sexual needs, Felicia is feeling rather frustrated these days herself. Fearing that Percy’s lack of interest may be due to the fact that she is aging, she has cosmetic surgery performed in the hope that it will spark his interest. Percy, however, confesses to Adrian that his own aging process has caused him to considerably slow down in that department, forcing him to seek prescription medication in order to get things back in working order and hopefully save his marriage. Vivian suddenly reveals that she’s now pregnant – but is Michael the father? Even if he is, will she have an abortion despite Percy and Felicia begging her to give them a grandchild?

Review

Possibly the most painful thing about watching “Petunia” is seeing it strain to try to be funny, which it fails to do with alarming frequency. It shoots for funny and misses, occasionally reaching mildly amusing. This is a movie that’s more annoying than it is entertaining; its menagerie of characters alternate between obnoxious, creepy and infuriating, resulting in a story without a clear protagonist for whom to root as well as a film seeming excruciatingly long. Given the cast, one might understandably expect “Petunia” to have a considerable amount of promise, but it fails – or perhaps it is more accurate to say “refuses” – to deliver.

Although it seems as though Charlie is supposed to be the character in whose story the audience is to be more invested, he’s not exactly the most sympathetic character ever recorded on film. In fact, I found him to be such a milquetoast that it’s something of a challenge to care about his predicament or root for him by the end of the movie. To a large extent, he is his own worst enemy and isn’t someone who can get out of his own way. None of the characters appear particularly heroic – including and especially Charlie. Ultimately, he succeeds in spite of himself, not so much because of any particular action he has taken.

In the class, our instructor interviewed cast members Christine Lahti and Tobias Segal as well as director/co-writer Ash Christian and one of its many producers Jordan Yale Levine. Christian and Levine were pretty tight-lipped when it came to discussing the film’s budget, but Levine noted that the way he thanked/repaid investors was to give them a Producer credit in the movie – so, if you watch the credits and count the long number of people with a Producer/Executive Producer credit, chances are good that they probably put up some money to fund the film’s production.

  7.6/1071 votes

“Stuck In Love” – Movie Review

 

This weekend in my movie class, we saw a bonus screening of the new romantic-comedy/drama, “Stuck In Love”, starring Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly.

Synopsis

When a divorced writer tries to win back his ex-wife, his efforts appear thwarted when complications develop with their teenage children – but can they still reunite even if they somehow manage to overcome these difficulties?

Story

Despite being an award-winning novelist, Bill (Kinnear) has been dolefully unhappy with his life for the last couple of years since his wife Erica (Connelly) divorced him.  So desperate is he that every Thanksgiving, he reserves a place for her at his dinner table even though his teenaged children Samantha (Lily Collins) and her younger brother Rusty (Nat Wolff) both know she will never show up.  Undeterred, Bill remains hopeful that someday Erica will eventually come to her senses and eventually return to him one day. 

Both Sam and Rusty are trying to follow in their noted father’s footsteps by pursuing a writing career.  Sam, however, seems to have an advantage on her younger brother – not just by virtue of the fact that she’s a college sophomore while he’s still stuck in high school, but because she’s just had her first novel published.  Considering herself very much the literary intellectual, Sam looks condescendingly upon Rusty’s main influence – the commercially successful Stephen King.  She also appears to be a step ahead of him in another regard:  she leads a rather promiscuous lifestyle while he’s still a virgin. 

Suddenly, Sam and Rusty soon find themselves entangled in their own romantic relationships – she with a fellow student whose mother is dying of a brain tumor and he with a classmate who has a most severe substance abuse problem.  Although both Sam and Rusty appear to be on good terms with their father, Sam resents her mother for dumping him and refuses to speak to her.  When Erica implores Bill to help her reconcile with their daughter, he sees this as an opportunity to get Erica back in his life as well – but when both offspring wind up encountering romantic conflicts of their own, will this prevent Bill and Erica from restoring their family unit? 

Review

In many movie reviews, the word “confection” is frequently used to describe films such as “Stuck In Love” – however, when pulled out of context, it may be difficult to ascertain whether or not it is being used in the pejorative form.  Without a doubt, “Stuck In Love” is most definitely a confection – but whether or not you buy into some of the dramatic conceits may determine your interpreting this term as an insult or not.  While the cast’s performances do frequently rise above the material, painfully obvious convenient moments dropping in merely to move the story forward might be what some would consider “cringeworthy”.      

Gorgeous Kristin Bell seems to try to make the most of what appears to be a throw-away role of Tricia, Bill’s f*-buddy, who ultimately plays something of a cheerleader in trying to get him out of his romantic lethargy.  More striking to me was Lily Collins, who seemed in this movie to be the spitting image of Connelly – although she sometimes comes across more like Erica’s younger sister than her adolescent daughter.  Ultimately, the failure of “Stuck In Love” also comes in the difficulty of being able to root for its protagonist, Bill, who seems to be narcissistically trying to push both of his children into his own profession simply in order to validate his own life – perhaps its source being a mid-life crisis arising from the divorce, but the film never explores this. 

Should you see this movie?  Well, my misgivings aside, it’s not a complete waste of time – the gentle humor skews towards weak jokes, so don’t expect anything about “Stuck In Love” to be a cutting edge comedy.  If something comfortable, familiar and unchallenging is what you crave, then this might just be your film.  This is more of an airplane movie than something you want to run out to theaters and stand on line to see; should it show up on cable during one rainy day, “Stuck In Love” would probably be as good a choice as just about anything else. 

6.8/10526 votes

 

“The Attack” – Movie Review

 

This week in my movie class, we saw the drama, “The Attack”, a foreign film featuring actors mostly unknown here in the United States.

Synopsis

When an Arab physician working in Israel learns his wife has died in an explosion, the police inform him she was the suicide bomber causing that apparent terrorist attack – but when he tries to find out the truth, will it cost him his own life as well?

Story

Amin is a noted surgeon practicing at a hospital in Tel Aviv when he becomes the first Arab to win a coveted award from a prestigious medical society – the only sour note on that evening is that his beloved wife, Siham, cannot accompany him as she is out of town visiting family. The next day at the hospital, he is met with congratulatory greetings from colleagues – but everyone’s serene lunch break is brutally interrupted when a nearby explosion is heard off in the distance. Within minutes, the injured are arriving at the emergency room of Amin’s hospital, where he must try to save as many lives as possible.

Hours after his shift, Amin receives an emergency call to return to the hospital immediately – it turns out a body recovered from the explosion may be that of his wife and he must confirm it is indeed Siham. Upon positively identifying her remains, the police proceed to interrogate Amin, informing him that they suspect Siham was the suicide bomber who caused the explosion in this apparent terrorist attack. Initially, Amin is in total denial about his late wife’s culpability in a bombing which resulted in the death of 17 innocent people at a restaurant – but when he obtains proof that Siham was in fact directly involved in this attack, he immediately sets out on his own personal mission to investigate how this could have occurred.

It turns out that Siham never actually got to Nazareth to see her grandfather and instead, took a detour to Nablus where other family resided. Going there, Amin learns that Siham is being hailed as a hero for her martyrdom as a result of this highly-publicized terrorist attack. Discovering that a controversial sheik who promotes terrorism is located at a nearby mosque, Amin sets out to try to meet with him so he can understand more about how Siham was recruited and why she chose to go this route. But when the terrorist group feels threatened by Amin’s presence, will he be able to survive in his quest to obtain the answers he seeks?

Review

Who are terrorists? Why do they do what they do? How can someone who has enjoyed the privileges of a free and open lifestyle then turn against that same society in such a violent and horrific way? These are among the questions that are posed in director Ziad Doueiri’s “The Attack”, an excellent film that explores the complexities behind what compels a person to become a mass murderer on behalf of their devout religious beliefs. Combining a love story with suspense and political thriller, Doueiri succeeds in telling a gripping tale; despite the complex details of the story, he lays out everything in a comprehensible way, judiciously tossing in flashbacks to fill in the gaps when needed.

One of the things that makes “The Attack” so good is its even-handedness – despite originally being from Lebanon, Doueiri presents valid points from both the Palestinians and the Israelis for why things are as they are. Terrorists and Tel Aviv police alike voice reasonable outrage for their current situation. Exploration of the question of how someone seemingly normal is turned into a terrorist is especially germane in light of the recent Boston Marathon bombing. Doueiri does an outstanding job of maintaining the tension throughout the movie; examples include the particularly gruesome scene where Amin must identify Siham’s remains, followed shortly thereafter by Amin’s rather intense police interrogation, as well as the times when Amin confronts the terrorists in Nablus.

Following the screening, our instructor interviewed director Ziad Doueiri, who also co-wrote the screenplay for “The Attack”, which was based on a novel. Almost as fascinating as the movie itself is its back-story with respect to financing. Originally, an outfit in Qatar had provided a significant amount of money, supplemented by French and Belgium investors. However, after the film was completed, the Qatar group took in a viewing and subsequently requested to have its name removed from the credits – generously offering to pay a sum of money in order to have this done. Their reason for this was due to the fact that they didn’t want to be associated with the motion picture because of its subject matter. Why did they even get involved in it in the first place? At the time, the recommendation to help fund in “The Attack” came from their paid script reader – an Australian woman, who was considerably less sensitive to the Arab-Israeli conflict than the wealthy Qatar businessmen.

    6.4/10289 votes

 

“Unfinished Song” – Movie Review

 

This week in my movie class, we had a bonus screening of the British comedy-drama, “Unfinished Song”, starring Terence Stamp, Gemma Arterton and Vanessa Redgrave

Synopsis

When a grumpy widower joins the chorus group to which his late wife belonged, he suddenly finds that he’s making new friends – but when they get a chance to participate in a singing competition, can they rely on him to perform his solo or will he completely dismiss them?

Story

Old age is catching up to Arthur (Stamp) and his long-time wife Marion (Redgrave) – and in the case of sickly Marion, at least, it appears that old age is winning. Arthur’s life now focuses on caring for Marion, who is a member of a chorus group comprised of other elderly people and led by a youthful and vivacious Elizabeth (Arterton). Eventually, all of the rehearsals for an upcoming audition take their toll on an exhausted Marion, putting her back in the hospital. Unfortunately, after an extensive work-up by the doctors, Marion is informed that her cancer has resurfaced and that she doesn’t have much time left.

Bitter about losing his companion, Arthur takes out his anger on both the choir and his estranged son, James (Christopher Eccleston). To the best of her ability, Marion tries to continue participating in her choir because she enjoys her friendships and finds the experience somewhat therapeutic. Provided with a solo, Marion performs at the audition and shortly thereafter, the group learns that they are invited to be among the competitors in a singing contest. Sadly, as the group prepares for the competition, Marion passes away; following the funeral, Arthur takes this opportunity to tell James that he wants nothing more to do with him.

As Marion’s last request, Arthur joins her choir after her passing. Elizabeth not only welcomes him, but encourages Arthur as well; when she discovers that Arthur can actually carry a bit of a tune, she has him perform the solo that Marion was originally scheduled to sing. While spending more time with the group, Arthur’s heart begins to soften somewhat and he attempts reconciliation with James but is rebuffed. Come the day of the competition, Arthur is nowhere to be seen; panicking, Elizabeth gathers the rest of the group and heads off, scrambling to rearrange their scheduled performance at the last minute. Can Arthur put his personal disappointments aside and join his newfound friends at the competition or will he simply revert to his reclusiveness and ultimately let them down the way he has let down James?

Review

Terence Stamp has had a long and distinguished career but for me, Stamp will always be General Zod. The “original” one. Sorry, but I just can’t disassociate him from that role. It’s one of my many limitations. And speaking of limitations … Paul Andrew Williams – writer/director of “Unfinished Song” – seems to have found his limitations with this film. While I’m not overly-familiar with his work, I’m given to understand that Williams’ track record is comprised of grittier stuff. In trying to create a touchy-feely comedy/drama about life and aging, he may be out of his depth.

What is it about the British and their obsession with producing so many “coming-of-old-age” movies? “Marigold Hotel” and “Quartet” are just a couple of relatively recent ones that come immediately to mind – also, there’s “Calendar Girls”, which is a bit less recent but significantly better than either of those or “Unfinished Song”, for that matter. My main problem with this film is that it falls straight out of a sentimental tree and manages to hit just about every clichéd branch on its way down. Neither all that funny nor all that touching, it comes across as very formulaic and contrived in its attempts to evoke any degree of emotion from the audience.

Clearly, the filmmakers are hoping to hook into the same audience that made the above – referenced “Marigold Hotel” such a big hit. Whether they will be able to do so or not remains to be seen. “Marigold Hotel” at least had a bit of a clever twist in terms of its situation. As was accurately pointed out by another member of the class, the twist in “Unfinished Song” was actually borrowed from the documentary “Young@Heart”, which was also shown in this same class several years ago. If you have never seen that particular documentary, I highly recommend you do so – it’s a much better film than “Unfinished Song”, not to mention the fact that as a documentary, it’s a true story.

  6.9/10737 votes

 

“Breakup At A Wedding” – Movie Review

 

This week in my movie class, we saw the new comedy “Breakup At A Wedding”.

Synopsis

When a videographer is hired to record a couple’s wedding, he decides to include all the events leading up to the wedding itself and release it as a documentary – but after the bride informs the groom she’s got cold feet the day before the wedding, they decide to conduct the ceremony without actually getting married.

Story

When Phil & Alison become engaged, they hire Victor as their videographer; fancying himself as the next great documentary filmmaker, Victor decides that instead of merely videotaping the wedding ceremony itself, he will also shoot a considerable amount of behind the scenes footage as well – the bachelor/bachelorette party, rehearsals and private moments between the couple.  Confident he can pull together enough compelling material, he will then try to market it as documentary in order to embark on a new and even more successful career. 

Victor’s video cameras triumphantly manage to capture all of the stress, chaos and panic that inherently lead up to any and every wedding, until something quite unexpected happens.  The night before the actual wedding, Alison confesses to Phil that she really doesn’t want to get married to him at all.  In fact, she wants to break up with him altogether.  Of course, the problem they both face at this point is that it’s far too late to cancel the wedding.  So, they agree to proceed with the ceremony, but won’t sign the marriage certificate so that technically, they won’t be married. 

Crestfallen by Alison’s abrupt reversal, Phil decides to step up his game and use the opportunity of the wedding to convince her that they should indeed be married.  To this end, Phil plans a surprise that he chooses to spring on Alison at the reception, in the hope and expectation that this grand gesture will cause her to snap out of her funk and come to her senses, prompting the epiphany that these two belong together for the rest of their lives.  But when the wedding day arrives and everything that can go wrong does go wrong (and then some), does Phil still have any chance at winning over Alison?

Review

While a noble attempt at an independent comedy, “Breakup At A Wedding” is at least 15 years too late to its own wedding party.  A mockumentary in the spirit of films such as “Spinal Tap” or “Borat” (and television shows like “The Office” and – perhaps to a lesser extent – “Arrested Development”), I believe audiences may have seen this format enough times that unless it either has some kind of twist or unbelievable content, it can just be something of a yawn.   Given that the overwhelming majority of the jokes in “Breakup At A Wedding” are not exactly knock-you-on-your-ass funny, that leaves the film being rather flat.

Another problem I had with “Breakup At A Wedding” was its pacing.  As both a comedy and a documentary (of sorts), it has an appropriate length of an hour and a half.  However, it starts at a somewhat manic pace and tries to maintain that rather frantic level of activity all throughout the movie.  Unfortunately, this results in emotionally wearing down the audience who might be making a valiant attempt to keep up in a race they not only can’t win, but probably won’t even have enough stamina to finish.  When you’re going to make a comedy that’s essentially a faux documentary, it’s the jokes that need to keep you engaged and sadly, they’re not able to keep up with this end of the bargain.

Prior to the screening, our instructor interviewed the filmmakers, director Victor Quinaz and screenwriter Anna Martemucci; following the screening, he interviewed one of its stars, Philip Quinaz, who played the groom (Phil). “Breakup At A Wedding” is very much an all-in-the-family venture – Victor and Anna are husband and wife and they were inspired to make this movie as a result of their own wedding.  Philip, primarily a musician, is Victor’s bother.  Since the movie isn’t going to get a wide release in theaters, you might want to watch for it in the Video-On-Demand section of your cable TV service, or order it online from its Web site by clicking here:  Breakup At A Wedding.   

“A Hijacking” – Movie Review

 

This weekend, my movie class had a bonus screening of a new Danish thriller by Tobias Lindholm (writer of “The Killing” on the AMC television network) called “A Hijacking”.

Synopsis

When a cargo ship is hijacked by a gang of Somali Pirates, will the crew survive even if a ransom is paid?

Story

Mikkel is the cook on The Rozen, a Danish cargo ship headed for Mumbai, and he’s getting a little itchy to return home to his wife and young daughter after a long time at sea.  Suddenly, in the midst of The Indian Ocean, the ship is overtaken by a group of Somali Pirates who hold the entire seven – man crew hostage and demand $15 million in ransom from the shipping company for which the crew work.    With the pirates’ delay in contacting the shipping company, the crew members are concerned that they may not go home for a long time – if ever. 

Peter, the CEO of the Copenhagen – based shipping company responsible for the Rozen, is immediately alerted to the fact that the ship has ceased communicating and has instead sounded an alarm, indicating they are in distress.  Once they are contacted by Omar, a translator – negotiator for the Somali Pirates, they realize that the Rozen’s crew have been taken hostage; Peter hires Connor, a security expert experienced in dealing with the pirates.  Connor recommends that they bring in a specialist with expertise in hostage negotiations, but Peter – known to be a shrewd negotiator himself – dismisses this idea and assumes responsibility for negotiating with Omar. 

The negotiations progress slowly as the two sides are far apart; with the shipping company gaining increasingly poor public relations in the media, its board of directors grows impatient with Peter when the crisis reaches the four month mark and informs him that if he has not resolved the conflict within the next month, they will bring in an outside negotiator to settle the matter.  With tensions aboard ship becoming increasingly strained and both the crew and pirates turning desperate once supplies run out, can an agreement be reached or will the hostages lives become further endangered?    

Review

With excellent word of mouth based on critics’ feedback on Rotten Tomatoes, I was prepared for quite a movie going experience – and that’s what I got, but “A Hijacking” is far from a perfect film.  While coming in at well under two hours, the motion picture feels as though it is much longer.  Is this due to its pacing?  Perhaps so, at least in part.  But there’s definitely more to it than merely that.  The picture is not easy to watch due to the fact that the viewers very much feel the stress level of both sides – the hostages onboard the ship and the executives desperately trying to negotiate a deal as soon as possible.  The fact that the hostage situation drags out for over four months certainly does not help matters at all either.

But it may very well be that the movie is being criticized for the very thing that makes it so effective in the first place:  its screenplay.  “A Hijacking” is a well – crafted thriller that keeps tension at its highest possible level all throughout the film and that is perhaps why the experience of watching the film is so emotionally draining on its audience.  While the threat of violence is always pervasive, the motion picture is not replete with on-screen violence – perhaps the main difference between American filmmaking techniques versus those of The Danes.  Other great aspects that display the craftsmanship with which the screenplay was executed include the way the main characters were set up and developed throughout the story.  Foreshadowing is also used extensively and to maximum effect. 

Can “A Hijacking” find an audience here in The United States?  The movie alternates between English and Danish with subtitles, which may prove frustrating for some viewers.    Also, the ending, while realistic, may not be very satisfying to an American audience; therefore, while a well-made film, “A Hijacking” may encounter great difficulty reaching success in this country – which is quite unfortunate since it’s rather good.  For U.S. audiences with chronic Attention Deficit Disorder and craving plenty of unrelenting explosions, the subtlety of “A Hijacking” may be lost on many.   

7.0/101,689 votes