Category: blog

The Tourist & I Love You Phillip Morris – What’s with the voices??

I don’t like to talk about two movies in the same post, but I will make exception for The Tourist and I Love You Phillip Morris since they both suffer from the same problem – a totally distracting choice of voice by a lead actor.

The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp is a slow, boring ride. Directed by Henckel von Donnersmarck (say that fast five times), the movie does a lot to show off the city of Venice, but does nothing to propel the story or make its characters come alive. The most annoying thing is Angelina Jolie’s choice of voice for her supposedly tres elegant, mannerly character. The fake British accent is worse than the one she put on for Laura Croft. And her habit of setting her jaw tightly and looking off into the distance, beautifully of course, is becoming really, really old. Her reliance of her dazzling beauty to propel the story forward is a triumphant failure in this film. Unfortunately, Johnny Depp does very little to fix things. Its almost as if he’s recycling the same performance from The Ninth Gate and Secret Window. Perhaps the two were enjoying the Italian sites too much to bring their A-game to the film. Disappointing…incredibly disappointing. What makes the whole thing even more laughable is that both were nominated for Golden Globes – in the musical/comedy category!!!

Really? Hollywood Foreign Press??? Have you been smoking salvia with Miley Cyrus??

Now for I Love You Phillip Morris. Where The Tourist fails, this film succeeds. Steven Russell is a smart, yet slightly demented, con man brilliantly played by Jim Carey (the best performance by the strange funny man in years!) The plot is expertly written and directed with just the right amount twists and turns by the writer-directors Glenn Ficara and John Requa. Based on a true story, Russell is sent to jail and falls in love with a fellow inmate Phillip Morris (no relation to the tobacco company and played by Ewan McGregor).  Phillip Morris is a gentile gay Southern gentleman and the voice that McGregor chooses to use, much like his performance in Big Fish but with grander attempts of softness, sounds like Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. I kept expecting Hoffman to show up in his Tootsie attire and demand McGregor to cease and desist.  It is so distracting, that you are removed from the film a little bit in the scenes where McGregor appears. But don’t let that keep you from seeing it. The long overdue performance from Carey makes it totally worth seeing.

Deathly Hallows Is The Ultimate Adventure

As the wonder of the Harry Potter adventure comes to a close, it is with an excited, yet heavy, heart that I see the first installment of the last book.  What a fantastic ride! Deathly Hallows Part I is the best screen adaptation (thank you, Steve Kloves!) since the first film, Sorcerer’s Stone. The script is concise, action packed, funny and poignant. The dialogue sounds natural and there isn’t any obvious exposition that can drag a script down.  The film is also the best directorial installment by David Yates – his earlier attempts being the last two in the series, Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. This is great news since the last two movies are such a disappointment.

Early on, Yates brags on how he makes Phoenix the shortest movie in the franchise (coming in at a mere 138 minutes ). Right away I’m put on my guard. Doesn’t this guy realize that us diehard Potter fans are more than willing to sit for a almost three hours to see what happens? Doesn’t he get that fans want to see the most accurate adaptation as possible? Apparently, he doesn’t. Order of the Phoenix is a mess put together by a series of montages meant to propel the story forward, but only leaves the watcher wanting to see more action. Some of the same shots are even used twice.  Unfortunately, Half-Blood Prince isn’t any better. It’s sloppy, disjointed. The scenes are choppy and don’t fit with one another. There is no linkage. The beautiful scene transitions of Alfonso Cuaron (Prisoner of Azakaban) and Mike Newell (Goblet of Fire) are badly missing. But the biggest problem of both of the films is that they really underestimate the audience. A damn shame.

But Deathly Hallows Part I does not disappoint! Thank the celluloid gods!  It totally steps it up a notch, and not just one. It is literally a world away from Yates other attempts. It’s almost as if the onetime TV director went to film school and learned how to make a complete movie.  This film is so much better than his past installments you have to wonder if he received extra help. The cinematography (executed brilliantly by Eduardo Serra – Girl with a Pearl Earring) is captivating.  But it’s the editing that sets this movie apart. So much so, it’s hard to believe it’s the same editor from Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, Mark Day. Perhaps, he too got some extra help to transfer his television editing skills to the big screen. But the best thing is that these guys finally got their sh*t together to produce a Harry Potter movie that exceeds fan expectations – all except for the wait. Waiting for July 2011 for the second half will be torture.

Castle Is The New Law & Order

I’m so happy to see Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Serendipity) really come into his own. Starring on the hit show Castle, Fillion manages to make his writer character endearing, but annoying, cute, yet manly and at the same time keep the tension up with policewoman sidekick, Beckett (Stana Katic – who I first remember seeing in the poorly received The Spirit).

First introduced to Fillion in the too short lived Joss Whedon series Firefly (also starring another crush of mine, Adam Baldwin. Love, love , love him in My Bodyguard, Netflix it today!), it’s great to see him in something that lasts more than four shows.  But the storylines on Castle really shows off, Fillion’s comic ability combined with entertaining plots.

It’s not your normal cop show – Law & Order, NCIS, CSI – this one does have a beginning, middle, and an end, but it’s expertly combined with humor, and that is really what is making all the difference. Audiences get a full story about a crime (base on a real crime or not, it doesn’t matter), they get the tension between two incredibly good looking people of the opposite sex, and they get some well written dialogue that does its job to propel the story forward. The show is a great treat on Monday night and there is hardly any blood.

It can even make fun of itself and with Fillion’s added touch of bringing silliness with seriousness, Castle is the new Law & Order.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett – Just Isn’t Brave Enough

Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is an entertaining read centering around three characters living in Jackson Mississippi in the early 1960’s. Skeeter is an awkward, lanky, college graduate bordering on spinsterhood at the age of 23, and is white. Abileen and Minny are both black maids, having spent the majority of their lives raising white children while working in white households and trying to stay invisible.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The maids are really the secret keepers to the goings on in their employers’ households. And Stockett does a really good job of painting a poor picture of the white population of Jackson. This is mainly in the character of Miss Hilly – a bigoted young mother, uber supporter of segregation,  and sorority sister of Skeeter. The woman is such a witch that you hear the famous music from the Wizard of Oz in your head whenever she appears in a scene.

It is a very interesting premise – the idea of telling a tale from the point of view of those who see all and hear all and say nothing.  The story reveals itself in first person using the point of view of the three women. The maids speak in thick dated dialect (Law have mercy) and are really the most interesting. But the story depends upon Skeeter saving the day and I can’t help but wonder if it truly serves the story well – a white woman as the shining beacon of righteousness to the two black maids. It’s a sticky situation. Stockett lightly touches on it with one line from another maid, but any conflict the question might cause is trampled by Abileen. The story starts off being brave, but I think just isn’t brave enough.

Stockett builds her world with lovely narration and beautiful alliteration. It’s a bit jarring however, when more than halfway through the book to have the point of view change to third person in order to propel the story forward. This is an issue a lot of writers face creating works with the first person point of view (Stephanie Meyer and the Twilight books changing all of a sudden to somebody else’s point of view comes to mind). It lasts for one brief section, but it is enough to remove me from the story all together – and I’m not sure if I ever truly get back.

Since the novel has been optioned to film, it will be interested to see how the story is adapted. When dealing with characters that express such internal conflict and from such a personal place – coming from their own voice –  it is extremely difficult to translate that intimate knowledge to a visual medium.

Time will tell.

Sherlock Holmes In the 21st Century

Sometimes I really don’t know what I would do without my local PBS station. No matter where I’ve lived in the country and have had to wait for the cable guy to show up, I’ve been able to pick up the local public television station on rabbit ears (well…used to, before all this confusion conversion nonsense, but that’ another post).

But it’s the British television shows shown on PBS that make me so happy. They are wonderfully put together. The production value is incredible. They are superbly written, wonderfully acted, and simply a joy to watch. Did I mention they are superbly written? There is the standby Masterpiece Theater and all the Jane Austen adaptations – beautifully written by Andrew Davies.  And let’s not forget Masterpiece Mystery with Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect. Exceptional.  And Kenneth Branagh in Wallander. Fantastic.

Now I have a new reason to brag about PBS – Sherlock – a 21st century updated version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective. Sherlock (masterfully played by Benedict Cumberbatch best known in the states from Atonement. Don’t you just love that name? Benedict Cumberbatch – it’s like a character from Dickens. ) is actually called Sherlock, instead of the standard Holmes, in this series and is a high-functioning sociopath fully integrated in modern day technology. He texts and uses a website to attract business. He’s also addicted to Nicotine patches and incredibly hyperactive.

His pal Watson (Martin Freeman, Love Actually and the original The Office)  is a military doctor who served in Afghanistan,  and blogs as a way to address his post-traumatic stress disorder. The two meet in order to become flatmates, but the friendship develops with the realization that Watson is drawn to Holmes because he is a danger junkie just like Holmes.

This is a brilliant series totally worth watching, and I’m totally jealous I didn’t think of it first, instead of the series creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

Watch the new Sherlock. It’s true to the spirit of the original, an arrogant, antisocial man fixated on tiny details and deductive reasoning. It’s also superbly written.  Did I mention it’s superbly written?