Seven Pounds of Doubt on Ben Button's Revolutionary Road

I got a cold Christmas Day. And I was lucky enough to get my mitts on dvds for some just released movies.

Seven Pounds (HUGE SPOILER ALERT HERE!): I actually saw this in the theatre last week with a buddy from film school. I've always been one of those annoying people that can spot holes in a plot a mile off. I'm known to lean over to my movie going partner and whisper, "The butler did it."

I was looking forward to this because there was supposedly some big surprise that would keep me riveted to my seat. There was no surprise; it was not riveting. Maybe if they hadn't told us in the first two minutes that Will Smith's character would commit suicide before the end of the movie, I could have gotten into it. But they did and I didn't.

Within twenty minutes, I was squirming in my seat and had to ask my friend, "You know where this is going?" "Yep." "Bored?" "Yep."

Once there was no mystery, there was nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the acting. Will Smith is tortured in his roll of a man who killed seven people texting while driving...including his beloved wife. Is it his best roll? Not by a mile.

Rosario Dawson was heartbreaking as a heart patient and this the only performance of Woody Harrelson's that I've ever enjoyed.

Smith's character proceeds through the movie checking out the seven people he will leave his organs to - making sure they are "good people." And midway through, you easily figure out how he's going to off himself. But the other huge plot hole for me is - I think they reject organs from a poisoned patient...

Wait for video on this one but, if you are jonesing for a good Will Smith flick, see Six Degrees of Separation. I first saw this movie because I loved the play and adore Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. I thought Smith was surely miscast in his first film role. He stole the show and I came away a die hard fan.

If you would rather see a movie with a less transparent plot and you are one of the seven people on the planet who hasn't seen it, rent The Sixth Sense.

Doubt is the star of all the movies I've seen. The actors are spot on, the scenery is perfect as are the costumes. There is nothing bad to say here. I probably wouldn't have seen this in the theatre - the subject matter of a priest sexually abusing a child is disturbing to me. And yet it is wonderful and definitely worth seeing on the big screen. I usually hate stories with vague endings that let the viewer make up their own mind but this film is just beautiful.

Meryl Streep is simply on fire and certainly deserves another Oscar for this one.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was annoyingly long at almost three hours! Thank goodness I watched in stages from the comfort of my sofa! I can't imagine being in an uncomfortable theatre for that long!

The story is about a baby born an old man who ages backwards, getting younger as time marches on. While Cate Blanchett always brings wonder and depth and honesty to any performance, Brad Pitt's performance was flat. I tried to chalk it up to being born with wisdom - no need to calm down as you age. But there was never any passion or fire in him even when he won his long lost love nor when he had to leave her.

New Orleans serves as a backdrop and it was lovely to see the Old Gal in her glory. But the whole movie feels like some kind of would-be Forrest Gump. I can actually envision the studio pitch session with the lame ass studio executive listening intently: "Yeah man, it's the new Gump, only instead of Alabama, he's from New Orleans. Instead of running across the country and meeting presidents, he'll be a sailor traveling the world meeting interesting people. Instead of being an army hero, his tug boat will get commissioned into the war... Instead of 'life is like a box of chocolates' we've got......" OK, here is where I get lost! The catch phrase we're supposed to take away is COMPLETELY FORGETTABLE! It's along the lines of "You never know what's comin'" I didn't think the end of this movie was comin'.

Button is a CGI (computer generated imagery) wonder and will certainly win awards for that but it is long and tedious and despite the promised tear jerker, I only teared up a bit when he was speaking about what he wanted for his daughter. My advice: wait for video.

Revolutionary Road celebrates the first pairing of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio since Titanic. They do have a chemistry about them. Winslet's character mourns her once hoped for life as an actress, dreams cast aside when she got pregnant. DiCaprio's character is a guy just doing the right thing, working at a job he hates to take care of the family.

The movie rarely shows them in happy times so we have no idea what really binds them together. We just see the ugly, nasty fights which are really sad and mean. And the make-ups are even stranger. After a horrible fight, he will return home or wake up and she's in the kitchen and dressed and cooking and forcing happiness. "Hello dear, how would you like your eggs?"

It's an astounding juxtaposition and made me wonder if she was bi-polar or just one of those many 1950's housewives who "needed" barbiturates.

The couple comes up with a plan to recapture some of the glory of their youth, before the kids and the house in the burbs. Then an unexpected pregnancy derails it. I found myself wondering about how many people must have their lives, hopes and dreams dashed in this way.

The movie is a sad commentary on marriage but all of the performances were wonderful. The most annoying part, aside from the downer of a plot, was Winslet's wardrobe. While the other women were dressed in the 1950's, Winslet's character didn't seem to know from whence decade she came. It made me wonder if the wardrobe department or director Sam Mendes (Winslet's real life hubby) gave the actress a little too much say in the costumes.

If you can handle a depressing plot during the most depressing time of the year, this movie is worth a trip to the mega-plex for the acting alone. Kathy Bates is also terrific in her role as a neighbor and realtor.

First published on Creekhiker 12/28/08

Movie Review: Milk

The night I got the stomach flu, I was out with a friend to see a preview of Milk, starring Sean Penn. The movie is so amazing and I need to issue a Spoiler Alert for the simple reason, I doubt this movie will even get the play time it so deserves in middle America.

The Gus Van Sant helmed film about the life of seventies gay activist Harvey Milk is an incredible and surprisingly timely story. The casting is uncanny: all three major characters (Milk, Councilman Dan White and Mayor Moscone) are played by dead ringer actors (Penn, Josh Brolin and my favorite song and dance man, Victor Garber respectively).

The movie opens as Harvey Milk, living in the closet in New York picks up a younger man, played by James Franco. The two end up moving to San Fransisco and starting a business Castro Camera.

At first, conservative Southern Belle that I am, I was a bit concerned about the sex scenes... this was San Fransisco in the seventies: pre-AIDS, let's sleep with everybody, freewheeling seventies. And Van Sant is not known for his discretion. But they were really pretty mild. There is one tender moment early in the movie with Fraco's Scott Smith character sitting on a ledge in front of the camera store. Sean Penn as Milk was squatting on the ground and the two were making out. It felt so tender and personal that I felt as like I was some voyeur watching a very private moment.

While the Castro was quickly becoming a mostly gay community, homosexuals were still regularly beaten and even barred from some businesses. Milk quickly organized the gay community. They would boycott businesses that refused to do business with them. Even business owners who initially shunned homosexuals could not deny the power of their dollars.

Milk started running for public office by approaching groups who lacked representation: gays, hippies in the Height and the elderly. Still he lost several times. All the while, he has clearly become a leader in Castro and gay community thanks to a fight against Prop 6 and Anita Bryant. Prop 6 made firing of gay teachers mandatory. Even if you weren't gay but supported them, you could be fired.

How timely that the gay community is fighting a similar battle with Prop 8 here in California and in other states that refuse to give them the right to marry...even though a marriage provides different rights than a civil union would.

After one such loss, Milk gathers his inner circle and asks them if they are out. Most nod in agreement.

Then he asks again: Are you out to your parents, your siblings, your friends, co-workers, neighbors, your boss? Are you out to everyone you know? The room grows quiet. He hands a phone to one man and says, "If they know one of us, they vote with us.

I can't go into the ending and Milk's murder...I got ill and missed the last twenty minutes and will the see the movie again for that. But what I saw was beautiful and amazing.

Mr. Milk, I know many of you. I care about my friends and I love them deeply. I'm proud to stand beside you and vote for equal rights for ALL!

Written for Creekhiker

"Cinderella" Story on DVD

"Cinderella Man"
Director: Ron Howard
Features: Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger
5 out of 5 stars

"Cinderella Man," back in theaters and new on DVD this week, is worthy in any format. It is one of those rare, moving, true stories - if submitted in a non-fiction writing class, it would get an F for being unbelievable. The film is certainly worthy of the price of theater admission and the DVD has some really outstanding features.

"Cinderella Man" is the life story of '30s boxer James J. "Gentleman Jim" Braddock and his wife Mae, passionately portrayed by Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger. Braddock had some success in the late 1920s, but after the stock market crash, the family - the couple had three children - fell on difficult times. Braddock's bad luck followed him into the ring. He lost his boxing license and struggled to find work to feed the family and keep the heat on during those frigid New Jersey winters.

That's where the story took its Cinderella-like turn. In 1934, a last-minute cancellation on an undercard fight gave Braddock an unexpected chance. And to everyone's surprise, he won and kept on winning, eventually facing the much-feared Max Baer for the title.

The movie provides a look into the life of a man who publicly rose to greatness but was driven by far simpler motivations: the love of his wife and family and the need to keep them together and fed. Directed by Ron Howard ("A Beautiful Mind," "The Missing"), "Cinderella Man" truly gives the viewer a sense of the desperate times this country faced in the Great Depression.

The film is back in theaters, presumably to give Howard, Crowe, Zellweger and company a run at the Oscars. When the movie was first released earlier this year, Universal Studios took the unusual step of offering a money-back guarantee to viewers as a show of faith in the movie.

The DVD is loaded with extras. There are three voiceover commentaries from Howard, and one by each of the writers. Howard's is the most relevant; it would have made sense to combine the two writers' tracks into one. The DVD also features a descriptive visual service (DVS) audio track for the blind.

On the flip side of the disc, there is a deleted scenes section - a must see. Often these scenes were left on the cutting room floor for a good reason. Not so with these. Each deleted scene gives even more insight into these characters as well as the actors' performances.

There are also several documentaries included. They cover casting, making the film, boxing history, and the real-life family of Braddock.

Boxing fans will enjoy the boxing history feature with Angelo Dundee, trainer of Muhammad Ali, who has a small role in the movie. Everyone will enjoy the interviews with the Braddock family. Their pride in the accomplishments of their father and grandfather as well as their love for the man comes shining through.

James Braddock was a rock-solid, good and decent man. "Cinderella Man" beautifully portrays his life and times.

First published 12/14/05 in the Valley Life Section of the L.A. Valley Star.

"Jarhead" Provides Jarring Look at War

4 out of 5 stars

"Jarhead," based on the acclaimed book by Anthony Swofford, provides a fresh and unsettling look at the first Gulf War, which was packaged so antiseptically by the armed forces and news media. The title refers to the nickname Marines give themselves because their newly shaven heads resemble jars.

We follow "Swoff," beautifully played by Jake Gyllenhaal ("Moonlight Mile," "Day After Tomorrow"), as a third-generation enlistee from boot camp to active duty as a sniper. We experience it all: the hazing by fellow troops, a friendly fire killing of a fellow trainee, Swoff's demotion for drinking on Christmas Eve, which led to a fire in the camp, and his punishment - burning the crap from the latrines.

Throughout, Gyllenhaal provides a voice-over check list for every detail of his hurry-up-and-wait life: "Things a marine needs to burn [the contents] of a latrine: five gallons of diesel, a long metal pole and an incendiary device."

The cast is rounded out by Peter Sarsgaard ("Flightplan," "Skeleton Key") as a fellow sniper, Academy Award-winners Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper ("Adaptation"), and the always-reliable Dennis Haysbert ("Far From Heaven"). Sam Mendes ("American Beauty," "Road to Perdition") helmed.

The movie is a beautifully shot, no-holds-barred look at Marine life that takes us along on the roller coaster of emotions faced by this group. We fear for Swoff and company as they take fire from both Iraqis and Americans. We feel their anguish as they realize wives and girlfriends have moved on with their lives stateside. Shock fills the theater as the viewer realizes how all the watchful waiting wears on Swoff.

Time is the most important element of the film. The Marine's naiveté at just how long it will take them to "kick Iraqi [butt]" and end this war- two days. The long, drawn out waiting in the Saudi Arabian desert for combat to begin - 175 days, 14 hours and five minutes. The length of Swoff's actual war.

Early in the film, Swoff explains that, to him, the nickname Jarhead is not only literal - the way the Marines look - it also implies that they are empty vessels waiting to be filled. Each Jarhead takes away experiences that will last their lifetimes. "Jarhead" will have a lasting impact on the viewer as well.

First published 11/09/05 in the Valley Life section of the L.A. Valley Star.