Jun 20, 2011
If the Shoe fits, wear it, is the attitude of Cameron Diaz as Maggie, the trampy-drunken-party-girl-sister to Toni Colette’s straight-laced Rose, when Maggie crashes at Rose’s apartment stealing both money and her Jimmy Choos. Based on the book by Jennifer Weiner and directed by Curtis Hanson (who’s all over the map from “L A Confidential” to Eminem’s “8 Mile” to this) seems to know his quirky and strained relationships, even when it comes to women. But while this one is a sure chick flick, it goes much deeper, analyzing the blood that binds in family. Afterall, we can pick our friends and lovers, but we’re stuck with our relatives. So, when “scrunchie” wearing Rose the vanilla-attorney-sister-by-day, throws her unemployed-partying-little-sister out, it’s the beginning of the evolvement of Maggie’s character and the movie’s true direction. Maggie, Amtraks it to Florida in search of her long lost Grandma (Shirley MacLaine), Grandma’s pocketbook and a couch to crash on. Instead, she finds evolvement in life’s deeper meaning, shedding her self-absorption at just the right pace. The movie takes us “Cocoon’ style through the world where senior citizens can impress a lost girl, thus the addition of MacLaine’s character, will help the film skew well with a variety of women. While Diaz as the family black sheep is not a likable character, we love her performance, which is a stretch away from her usual ditzy cute choices. This intelligent role could take her career in a new direction. Three Crowns.
Jun 20, 2011
There’s only one problem with this flawless film: it’s really smart. And was released just days too late, to be considered for Best Picture of 2004. From the director/writer Paul Weitz (“About A Boy”) father always knows best when Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid), a middle-aged dad, finds himself suddenly answering to his new boss, Carter (Topher Grace) a twenty-six year old hot-shot, whose firm has just taken over the company. And if that isn’t enough, Carter is about to fall for Alex (Scarlett Johansson) Dan’s daughter, cursed with a functional family. Like his disarming, underdog role in “The Rookie”, Quaid tackles this well-balanced story of age-clash to perfection. While Quaid’s character Dan is dealing with second mortgages and tuition payments, Carter is dealing with smashing his new Porsche. One man tries to embrace life, while one man tries to escape it, neglecting to stop and smell the baked ziti. And in the end we learn what older people know all along – all the MBA’s and Rolex watches don’t compare to life’s experience at home or in the work place. Johansson is her usual charming and engaging self, which newcomer Topher Grace has the qualities of a Tobey Maguire. A really brilliant movie that will make you laugh and make you stand to applaud, when the credits role.
Jun 20, 2011
(rated R)
This little-gem-of-a-movie-out-of-nowhere opens with a hopeful family of Irish immigrants cruising through the Lincoln Tunnel full of bright lights, before landing in their new ‘haunted house” – a crack house they’ll call home, someplace in the Bronx. Penniless but not desperate, through two little girl’s eyes nothing is as bad as it seems. Their biggest concern is “can we keep the pigeons?” that fly through the broken glass windows of their dilapidated apartment. Jim Sheridan who brought us movies like “In The Name Of The Father” and “My Left Foot” now tackles a more uplifting and sensitive story (that he wrote with real life daughters Naomi and Kirsten) of a young Irish immigrant family with tones of his own personal past. Paddy Considine plays the haunted and determined father with a dream of becoming an actor and coming to terms with a tragedy best left in Ireland. Samantha Morton plays his supportive, American-dream chasing wife, while their daughters are played by real life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger, who could just be America’s hottest and most adorable Hollywood actresses, delivering a natural performances that usual child actors can’t. Their tenement house is also shared with a tormented yet commanding artist (Dijimon Hounsou) who eventually proves not to be as fearsome as we once believed, when he befriends the small girls and their love for life. The movie works because it’s layered with so many elements. We love these characters – their drive where most of us would fail, their feeling of appreciation and their lack of laziness in a world that we as Americans take for granted. And yet all pulled off without sentimental Hollywood mush.
Jun 20, 2011
(rated PG-13, 96 mins.)
The opening is confusing, but one thing is clear, it’s the year 2079. Spence Olham (Gary Sinise) is a scientist in love with Doctor Maya (Madline Stowe). Olham has been told that although he’s an upstanding citizen and genius, he’s also a cloned alien-type with a bomb in his heart. Major Hathaway (Vincent D’Onofrio) who spends much of his time running around in some Euro-trash navy suit and shouting orders, is determined to put an end to Olham. D’Onofrio is luke warm in his role, Stowe is underused and Sinise gives a performance that is Oscar caliber in this straight to video movie. Based on Philip K. Dick’s book, it’s flavor is similar to his past “Total Recall” and “Blade Runner” however this particular high-concept, futuristic action of can-you-catch-me, eventually gets caught up — in nothing.
Jun 20, 2011
Imaginary Heroes
Matt Travis was a legendary swimmer at age 15. He was his dad (Jeff Daniels) pride and joy. But we never meet Matt because the movie opens with his suicide. Yet Matt’s memory is kept very much alive by a father who refuses to acknowledge his lesser son, Tim (Emile Hirsch) walking through life like it’s a bad dream. This dysfunctional family’s mother (Sigourney Weaver) turns to marijuana and partying with all the sarcasm she can muster. And in the midst of their turmoil, lies a secret that slowly builds to the surface and threatens to tear the family apart. But, we don’t seem to care because they don’t. Their turmoil never includes one ounce of dialog about the dead son. If the death of a child is the worst fate of all, one would never know it in watching these narcissistic people focusing on their own inner demons. Instead they escape by one police induced escapade to another, without ever examining their character’s emotions. By the time a colleague woke me up in the last five minutes of the movie, I discovered the final plot twist to be neither stunning nor interesting in validating the suicide. I had hoped for a genre similar to the brilliant “Ice Storm” or “Ordinary People”. What I got was neither. No wonder Matt Travis killed himself. That was validation enough.
