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05 Jan

The Women

Grade: C

The Women is a re-make of the 1939 movie, and it’s updated by Diane English.  Meg Ryan plays Mary, a working mom who discovers that her husband is having an affair with the perfume counter girl at Sax Fifth Avenue.  Eva Mendes is the perfume girl.  Annette Bening is Mary’s best friend, an aging magazine editor who sees her vision of an innovative women’s magazine slipping away into tabloid territory.  Debra Messing is the other friend, a kind of earth mother who keeps having kids.  And Jada Pinkett Smith is their author friend, who happens to be gay.  Candice Bergen is Mary’s advice-giving mother.  The cast is stellar, and they obviously have a great time together.

Even though I love Diane English, I think the weak spot in the movie is the writing.  It is so cliche. When Jada comes in to Mary’s party, it’s obvious she’s gay, and yet another character has to address her as “my gay friend.”  We get it already!  Mary confronts the other woman when they’re both decked out in lingerie, and the other woman is literally up on a pedestal.  When Mary decides to get her life together, she straightens her hair, and that does it, she’s a new woman!

I wanted to love this movie, but it was just okay.  It is predictible, and sometimes silly.  The women play catty and and each character fits into her mold, which is obvious and stereo-typed.  But the actresses are fun, and the clothes are beautiful.  Definitely a chick flick.  Not a man in one frame of the movie until the very end!
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05 Jan

The Wolf of Wall Street

Grade: C-

You’d think from the title that The Wolf of Wall Street would be about Wall Street – but the world of finance is just a backdrop.  The focus of the movie is the real-life story of how Jordan Belfort schemed and lied his way up the ranks of stockbrokers to become a drug-addicted, sexoholic. Leonardo DiCaprio, who has become somewhat used to playing crazy rich men, has the lead role, and he is thoroughly convincing.  Jonah Hill is the side-kick who idolizes him.  Martin Scorsese directs. Well made movie – but it should have been rated NC-17. Way too many scenes of sex and drug use. Degrading to women.
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05 Jan

The Wedding Date

Grade: D+

I thought this looked like a cute romantic comedy. I was disappointed. Debra Messing is darling – she’s pretty much doing a character similar to Grace from Will and Grace, but with straight hair – she looks great! And Dermot Mulroney is a looker, that’s for sure. But the premise� didn’t buy it. Not for one minute. He’s a hooker, she hires him to take her to her sister’s wedding in England because her ex-fiance is the best man and she wants everyone to think everything in her life is hunky-dorey. Somewhere along the way – and this must have wound up on the cutting room floor, because I didn’t see it! – the two fall in love. Hmmmm� the whole thing is just so questionable. I mean, he’s a hooker for crying out loud, and she falls into bed with him while she’s drunk, with no thought to “protection?” This is not an intelligent working woman. The movie is just 1 hour and 15 minutes long. I don’t feel like I got my money’s worth. Just plain dumb.
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05 Jan

The Waterhorse

Grade: B+

Set in Loch Ness, Scotland, this is the story of the Loch Ness Monster, or one man’s interpretation of the events that happened around the time of the famous photo of it.  It’s the story of a boy and his pet, really.  A love story, one of loyalty and friendship.  The boy finds an egg, discovers the creature inside, and they bond.  Set amidst war, this relationship is complicated by the various people who impose themselves into the boy’s home.  The sad mother, with her husband lost in battle, doesn’t know how to comfort the boy.  The Waterhorse, as he is identified by the groundskeeper, brings the boy out of his own shell, and allows him to conquer his fears.  In the process, the family grows together once again.  A beautiful movie for the whole family.  Some scenes may be scary for younger viewers – when the waterhorse is in danger and gets angry.
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05 Jan

The Warrior’s Way

Grade: C-

The Warrior’s Way stars Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush and Don-gun Jang.  Set in the wild west, I’m not sure how to classify this movie.  It’s a western, but it’s also got a bunch of ninjas, and it’s kind of like a video game come to life in a lot of ways.  A warrior/assassin hides out in a small circus-type town after he refuses an assignment.  He takes with him a little baby that he rescued. The baby is totally adorable!  The warrior teaches Kate how to fight, so that she can get revenge on the bad guy who killed her parents.

The movie is all over the place – from one big fight scene to the next.  Lots of violence, blood, swordplay. I think teen boys might get into it, but that’s a pretty narrow audience.
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05 Jan

The Visitor

Grade: B

Richard Jenkins stars as a lonely and bored college professor named Walter.  Since his wife passed away a few years ago, Walter hasn’t had much going on in his life.  He moves through almost on auto-pilot, somehow knowing that there must be some music playing for him somewhere.  When he is sent to New York to present a paper at a conference, he finds a young immigrant couple living in his apartment.  Rather than kicking them out, he offers to let them stay, and develops a friendship with them.  Tarek, the young man from Syria, helps Walter to get his groove back when he teaches him to play the drum.  But then, Tarek is arrested, and as an illegal alien, he faces deportment.  Tarek’s mother arrives on Walter’s doorstep wanting to know what happened to her son, and Walter opens his heart to this woman’s plight.

I loved so much about this movie.  It’s a sweet story, a wonderful glimpse at an aspect of life we are rarely privy to.  But it’s also sad.  It’s sad that our system is so ineffective, and that it is so difficult for good people to catch a break.
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05 Jan

The Ultimate Gift

Grade: B-

The Ultimate Gift features mostly unknown actors, with brief appearances by Lee Meriweather, James Garner, and Brian Dennehy.  But the draw, and what got me in to see it, is our recent academy award nominee (for Little Miss Sunshine) Abigail Breslin.

The story is corny, and sweet.  It is something that would have been right at home on Lifetime Television or The Hallmark Channel.  Rich, spoiled slacker is offered an undisclosed inheritance, if he can pass a series of challenges.  Each challenge ends up being a gift – something the young man is supposed to learn to make him a better person, someone worthy of this undisclosed inheritance.  The guy is reluctant to get involved, but his curiosity gets the best of him and he goes along with it.

When it comes to the gift of friendship, he meets Emily (our cute Abigail!) and her young, single mother.  At first he things he can just use them, but as he learns more about their lives, he gets drawn in, and starts to care.  These two women end up changing his life, his attitude, and his perspective.

Drama, sadness, lessons learned and the requisite happy ending prevail.  A little preachy, but if you like an extra lump of sugar this just might be your cup of tea.
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05 Jan

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

Grade: B

We’ve been lucky to see some really good documentaries this year. “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” is another one. I like that we get a history lesson, a biography and some really great music with this movie. John Lennon may be British, but he is an American icon – he is part of our culture for so many reasons. We get to see how he lived, and learn more about how he thought. He was definitely an original, clearly a genius. I was left wondering what John Lennon would be singing today if he were alive.
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05 Jan

The Town

Grade: B+

Ben Affleck directs and stars in “The Town” based on the novel “Prince of Thieves.” A group of guys who all grew up together in a small town just outside of Boston have figured out how to rob banks and get away with it.  But how long will this last?  Jon Hamm is the police detective on the case.  His star witness, the beautiful and gifted Rebecca Hall, was taken hostage after the last job, and though she was blindfolded, she has evidence.  So Ben takes it upon himself to figure out what she knows – and falls in love in the process.  He wants to be good, to quit, but he’s in too deep with his buddies.   Great cast, good script, compelling movie.  Rated R for gun violence.
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05 Jan

The Tourist

Grade: B

The Tourist is a fun, light, date movie.  Stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie are beautiful to look at, as is the incredible scenery in Venice.  The story is interesting, even if the characters are not very deep.  Even though it’s a spy thriller, there’s not a whole lot of violence, and there’s really just a couple of kissing scenes, nothing more than that.  Love the jewelry, and the clothes!  A nice distraction from some of the heavier fare out this time of year.
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