Movie Recommendations, Rants and Ruminations
moviegourmet 
This iconic 1939 Western was John Ford’s first Western sound film and the first of the seven that he shot in Monument Valley. It’s a conventional Western plot, exquisitely executed with a young and vital John Wayne leading an outstanding cast. Watch for stuntman Yakima Canutt jumping from horse to horse in front of the runaway stagecoach. Plays on TCM on Saturday, December 18
For other great movie choices on TV, see my Movies on TV.
Let’s see if you can help a Hollywood studio with a marketing problem. Suppose you have made a highbrow, smart, quirky film about a man who emerges from a disabling depression by communicating only through a beaver hand puppet. And the film is titled The Beaver.
Now suppose that the guy’s wife is played by the eminently respectable, sympathetic and likable Jodie Foster, who also directs the film. Everybody always likes Jodie Foster, right?
With me so far? Wonder what the marketing problem is? Well, the problem is that the audience must sympathize with the husband and root for him to learn how to express his feelings appropriately. And that husband is played by Mel Gibson.
See the problem?
To make things worse for poor Jodie Foster, her film was already in the can and awaiting a Fall 2010 release when the tapes of Mel threatening his real life ex were splattered across the global media.
The Beaver reportedly had a $19 million budget and finished shooting in November 2009. The release date is now the vague “2011”. But, never fear, the trailer is here!
I’ve updated the Movies I’m Looking Forward To page to add trailers and descriptions of some key December releases.
This weekend brings us Black Swan with Natalie Portman and I Love You, Phillip Morris with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.
December 17 may be the best opening weekend for quality films all year. I’ve already seen the exquisite drama Rabbit Hole, with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhardt. We can also see Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter, Julie Taymor’s version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, The Company Men and the sci fi TRON 2: Legacy.
And later in the month will come Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, the Coen Brothers’ True Grit, Javier Bardem in Biutiful and Kevin Spacey in Casino Jack. Just in time to qualify for Oscars, Master Director Mike Leigh will release Another Year, and Peter Weir will showcase The Way Back.
The year’s final release will be the offbeat romance Blue Valentine, with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.
See my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page for descriptions, image and trailers.
Here’s the trailer for Rabbit Hole.
The best of the recent films is Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Morning Glory is a passable comedy, as is Love and Other Drugs.
There are some Must See films still kicking around in theaters this week: Inside Job, The Social Network and Hereafter. All three are already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.
The Town is hanging around theaters and, without strongly recommending it, I can say that it is a satisfying Hollywood thriller. If you’ve seen the first two Lisbeth Salander movies from Sweden, then you should complete the trilogy with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
I have not yet seen Black Swan or I Love You, Phillip Morris, opening this weekend. You can see the trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD of the Week is Mademoiselle Chambon, the year’s best romance. My top two American films of the year are now available on DVD – the indie Winter’s Bone and Pixar’s Toy Story 3. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.
Movies on TV include The Caine Mutiny, Annie Hall, Easy Rider and Stagecoach on TCM.
Ripped from the headlines, this is the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. We already knew the story of Joe Wilson exposing the Bush Administration’s false WMD pretext for the Iraq war, and the White House striking back by outing an American covert intelligence operative – Wilson’s wife, Plame. But this film adds two more dimensions to the story.
First, this screenplay is based on Plame’s book, and the first act chronicles Plame’s exploits as a CIA officer. She indeed ran undercover operations. The depiction of real life, contemporary spycraft is even more thrilling than a fictional spy movie.
Second, the story also explores the excruciating pressure on the Plame/Wilson marriage. Joe is an able and principled guy with a little too much testosterone. His short fuse leads him to act impulsively to pick a fight that has even more severe consequences for his wife. In principle, Joe is right, but Valerie’s career is ruined, her family’s safety is threatened and her social life is shattered; she is both scared and resentful. And at the moment that they are under the most unbearable stress, each of them wants to react by moving in an opposite direction. Will the relationship survive? This dimension – a study of an adult relationship – makes this film much more than a typical history.
Love and Other Drugs has the advantage of two winning leads and lots of sex. Anne Hathaway gives a profoundly deep and textured performance as a smart and horny woman urgently living life to the fullest in a desperate race with Parkinson’s Disease. Jake Gyllenhaal nails the role of a charismatic and relentless serial seducer. And the two of them have lots of sex. Fully naked sex.
Unfortunately, Love and Other Drugs peters out into a Disease-of-the-Week movie, albeit pretty good for that forlorn genre.
One moment in particular illustrates how much better this film could have been. Hathaway emerges from a Parkinson’s support group uplifted and empowered, while Gyllenhaal has just received an unvarnished description of living with Parkinson’s from the husband of a later stage patient. We see what she doesn’t – that the two are no longer on the same page. Peter Friedman plays the patient’s husband with an authenticity that will be recognized by anyone who has experienced caregiver fatigue. It’s a great scene – but then the movie turns sappy.
Sadly, the overly broad comic relief attempted by Josh Gad as Gyllenhaal’s little brother merely distracts from the story. So does the sappy score – beware soulful piano in the third act. And when a movie climaxes by having the boy race to catch the girl in the nick of time, it’s as much of a cliché to catch up to the bus as it is to pant up to an airport loading gate.
The year’s best romance, Mademoiselle Chambon is available on DVD this week. Finding one’s soul mate in middle age, when one may have serious commitments, can be heartbreaking. Here, the two people are not looking for romance or even for a fling. He is a happily married construction worker. She is his son’s teacher. They meet (not cute) and do not fall in love (or lust) at first sight. He is unexpectedly touched by something she does, and she is touched that he is touched. Despite their wariness, they fall in love.
The lovers are beautifully acted by Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlaine in two of the very finest performances of the year.
For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.
Billy Wilder’s 1957 Sweet Smell of Success contains Tony Curtis’ most subtly acted role. Curtis is a Broadway press agent who is completely at the mercy of Burt Lancaster’s sadistically nasty columnist. Many of us have experienced being vulnerable to the caprice of an extremely mean person – Curtis perfectly captures the dread and humiliation of being in that position. Plays December 6 on TCM.
“I’m suggesting Mr President, there’s a military plot to take over the Government of these United States, next Sunday…”
John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) is a master of the thriller, and his 1964 Seven Days in May is a masterpiece of the paranoid political thriller subgenre. Edmond O’Brien’s performance is best among outstanding turns by Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Frederic March and Whit Bissell. Plays November 25 on TCM.
For other great movie choices on TV, see my Movies on TV.
If you’re looking for a light comedy with an appealing lead, then Morning Glory with Rachel McAdams will work for you. McAdams is funny, cute and sympathetic. There is promise in the setting – the achingly insipid world of morning television shows. And Diane Keaton nails her supporting role as a jaded but desperate TV anchor.
But Morning Glory would have been more successful if it trusted its source material and performers and didn’t TRY so hard to be funny. Harrison Ford plays a wooden character woodenly. There is no electricity in the thread about McAdams’ love interest with Patrick Wilson. And – here’s a pet peeve of mine – there are two utterly random musical interludes.