Catch and Release
One should not be a reviewer of a film in which a colleague has a gig. Richard Roeper (who together with Ebert forms the Chicago Sun-Times film critic team) said that he did not like the film based on the trailer, but came to like it quite a bit. This is chick’s film and not one that Roeper would have praised if his colleague Kevin Smith did play a role (Smith sometimes replaces Roger Ebert in the critic’s seat). Catch and Release has an interesting twist for a romantic comedy. It opens with a tragedy (the fiancé dies just before the wedding and the wedding is turned into the funeral.) If you are female and you are in the mood for a romantic comedy where romance often fails, you might not be disappointed. But I strongly recommend that before seeing the film you read the first chapter on America in Pamela Druckerman’s book Lust in Translation. You will have much deeper understanding of why the characters in the film feel the way they do. For guys Catch and Release is just to slow. If your girl wants to see this film, go to another room and watch instead A heart in the winter (Un Coeur en hiver), an excellent French movie which guys like much more than girls. Every guy I know loved the film and every girl found it depressing!
Bridge to Terabithia
Many people claim that it is harder to make good friends when you are an adult. I am not sure if this is true. Adults, perhaps having been disappointed more than once, may be less open than the average child to let a new person into their lives. The film celebrates the power of friendship and the human imagination. Leslie, the daughter of two writers, has a mind so fertile with imaginary images that she can teach Jesse how to leave behind reality and create their own make-believe. The two become best friends until something tragic happens. It is a great film for children, but it also has some sad moments that might be a bit depressing for too young children.
The Painted Veil
The film starts out slow and seems predictable. But after thirty minutes it takes unexpected turns. Beautiful landscape photos of China and a novel approach to fixing relationship problems give this movie considerable charm. This is the second film version of W. Somerset Maugham novel by the same name. Naomi Watt now has the role that was played by Greta Garbo in the 1934 film.
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The Holidays
Two ladies (Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) suffer romantic disappointments and feel they need to go away for the holidays. The swap their homes (LA and the British countryside) and want to chill out without men. Well, easier said than done… The trailer for this romantic comedy turned me off, but I was pleasantly surprised by The Holidays. Once again I realized that I am in love with Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. Both are so fun to watch and together in the same picture they present a true feast for the eyes. Jack Black is miscast in the role. He can give an Oscar quality performance in a real comedy such as School of Rock but looks weird in a dramatic role.
Heaven
The film reminded me that good art is not artificial. Great art heightens our awareness of reality. Heaven fails because it feels contrived and artificial. Cate Blanchett has one scene in which she unleashes her full acting ability. But she cannot make up for a week script written by Krzysztof Kieslowski, who I admired greatly for the “Three Colors” trilogy. Tom Twyker (the director) covered much more compellingly the idea that love may become more important than life in his splendid The Princess and the Warrior.” The only pleasing feature of the film was the magnificent Italian landscape. But if you want to see a beautiful southern Europe, watch Twyker’s recent movie The Perfume: The story of a murderer which has an amazing plot. The Perfume is a great piece of art.
Miss Potter
Miss Potter portrays the life of the best-selling British children’s book author ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Potter] Beatrix Potter[/url]. Many authors invent fantastic stories while leading relatively boring lives. Mrs. Potter falls into this category. A film about her life has very little drama to work with. Not much happens on the screen. This is the first time I was able to write a report on the plane while watching this film. I guess that is not much a compliment.
Freedom Writers
The film tells the true-life story of Erin Gruwell, a magnificent teacher in Long Beach, California, who turns a class of violent teenagers into successful students, who leave their gang background behind to become published authors. The film has moments that are truly inspiring and moving. But too often banal or cheesy lines creep into the dialogues. The best part of the film is the music that is wonderfully communicates atmosphere violent American ghettos.
Happy Feet
This musical on ice cannot compete with Pixar’s animated films as far as plot is concerned. But some if its Southpole animations can rival what Pixar pulled off in Finding Nemo. The film initially covers similar territory as The March of Penguins but then turns into a fantasy about singing Penguins. One Penguin cannot sing, but he makes up for with his dance abilities. The story is thin but the animations and music keep you engaged.
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
i]Good Bye Lenin turned the collapse of the German “Democratic” Republic into a comedy. There is not a single moment in The Lives of Others you feel like laughing. The film chronicles how an estimated 91,000 full-time employees and 300,000 informants recruited by Ministry for State Security (Stasi) helped the communist party to keep control over society by spying on and neutralizing everyone who seemed to harbor doubts about the regime. If you have ever traveled to East Germany you will recognize immediately that the director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has captured superbly the character and ambiance of this German version of a 20th-century police state. The Lives of Others reminded me that it was simply bad geographic luck that stripped East German of the freedoms that enjoyed by their West German compatriots. I think the film resonates with audiences around the world because of the events after September 11. Now that governments around the world demand more powers to be able to spy on citizens in name of protecting us from terrorist’s threats, we have become sensitive about losing our privacy as the East German did under communist rule. In the western world, it took hundreds of years and countless lives to protect citizens in democratic states from the capricious acts of government. The thought that we might come to live under a regime that recruits your family members and friends to spy on you sends shivers down your spine. The film is a masterpiece because it manages to show the brutality of the East German police state while uncovering the remaining reservoir of humanity that allowed East German’s to overthrow their rulers when the first real opportunity presented itself. At the end of the film, the English-speaking audience in my local cinema spontaneously broke out in applause because it realized that it just watched a great moment in the history of cinema.
Elizabeth
In search of one Cate Blanchett’s great performances, I rented the historical drama Elizabeth. Blanchett received an Oscar nomination for the role but lost out to Gweneth Paltrow who played the object of William Shakespeare’s desire in Shakespeare in Love. I suspect that Paltrow won not because she was more in love than Elizabeth. Paltrow simply had more luck in landing a love story that is cheerful, sassy, and as far as I remember has a romantic ending. Blanchett’s Elizabeth love life starts promising (she is young, her lover is good looking and charming (xx Fiennes plays is the counterpart in both films), but then turns sour and barren. Without Blanchett’s superb acting, Elizabeth would have been rather disappointing. Although Elizabeth repeatedly says that she only wants to do what is best for her people, we never see commoners. The entire film takes place in the social sphere of the court (one exception is a battlefield onto which bodies of average people including a small child are strewn). I would have liked to find out a little bit more how her people lived and reacted to Elizabeth actions.
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