Category Archives: drama

“Mr. Holmes,” a Treasure With McKellen and Linney

drama, movies, mystery, , , , ,
Mr. Holmes

Mr. Holmes interested me because it is a movie about the legendary Sherlock Holmes.

My daughter praises the series on cable television, so I wanted to watch it with her. As the opening credits rolled, I noticed the director was Bill Condon. I thought to myself, “That is a familiar name. I recall he has directed some notable movies.”

So, I knew we were in for a treat.

Mr. Holmes is an extraordinary movie about getting old gracefully. We get to meet Sherlock Holmes, played by Ian McKellen, at an age when we probably never saw him. I was quite intrigued by his ability to play the middle-aged Sherlock in flashbacks and the older Sherlock on the edge of senility.  Mrs. Munro, his housekeeper, is played by Laura Linney, a fantastic actress. She did a great job as a homely, uncomfortable, and dissatisfied widow, caring for Mr. Holmes. Though he did not treat her poorly, he came across as harsh and mean.  In the long run, he showed his warmth through her son, which eventually reached her heart as well.

There is a wonderful young actor who plays the housekeeper’s son, Roger, played by Milo Parker. He’s smart, intriguing, and likable. Other characters, such as the bees, add spice to the story. Each character plays an important part in the whole story as it all comes together at the end.

There’s also a mystery in the story, which I really liked. However, in the long run, the mystery is easy to figure out. It could have been better, but I felt as if the movie moved along quite well. At the end of the movie, I felt satisfied.

I felt that everything having to do with the production and direction was wonderful. Bill Condon has a great reputation as a director, having helmed movies such as Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, a couple of Twilight films, and other notable films.

His talent was clearly demonstrated in the movie.  I recommend Mr. Holmes for adults. Though my daughter is 15, she watched it and enjoyed it because she is a fan of the current Sherlock Holmes series.

Christmas Movie “Paper Angels”

drama, holiday, movies, television, , , , ,
paper angels

During the holidays, we will notice Christmas tree displays with paper angels hanging from their boughs. If you look closely, you will see the name of a child. Below the child’s name is a list of items the child wants or needs for Christmas.  The idea is for you to take one and buy the items on the list.  You, then, return the gifts to the location of the Christmas tree display.  The heartwarming tradition has been done for at least a hundred years.

Directed by David Winning, Paper Angels is based on the book of the same name by Jimmy Wayne, a Billboard Top Ten country music artist.  The movie is a gorgeous look at what happens to an abused wife, played by Josie Bissett, who leaves her alcoholic husband and moves with her children to another town.

The story follows her son Thomas, played by Rustin Gresiuk, as his mother tries to build a new life for her and her children.  Thomas sees her experience many of the challenges the whole family faces.  That is where the paper angels come into play. The Salvation Army enables a child to enjoy a blessed Christmas through its traditional paper angel program, which they run every year.  Thomas fills out a paper angel in hopes of making life easier for his mother.

Thomas encounters a disillusioned businessman, played by Mathew Settle, who picked his name from the tree.  As the story unfolds, we see through Thomas that there is more to a person than how they look on the outside.  The story gives us hope, resolve, love, commitment, and thoughtfulness. Sure, Thomas experiences disappointment, hurt, and anger. In the end, it is an uplifting story that highlights the season’s spirituality.

Paper Angels is one of the best Christmas TV movies I have seen in a long time.  It is well worth your time to watch and share with your family and friends.

Theron and Sheridan in “Dark Places”

book, drama, movies, murder, mystery, , , , , , , ,
darkplaces

French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner helmed Dark Places as a drama-mystery about an impoverished Kansas City farming family. All but two members of the family were murdered three decades ago.

The story is told through Libby Day, played by Charlize Theron, as she flashes back to a younger Libby Day, played by Sterling Jerins. Libby and her brother, Ben, played by Corey Stoll, are the two remaining family members from the night of the murders. Ben is serving a life sentence for the murders.

The younger Ben, played by Tye Sheridan, is seen in flashbacks. There are also present circumstances that keep the story interesting. A true crime club that solves crimes and proves those who are wrongly accused innocent. The club is headed by Lyle, played by Nicholas Hoult. The club holds strong evidence that Ben is innocent. It was younger Libby’s testimony that sent younger Ben to prison. Lyle leans heavily on Libby to prove her brother’s innocence. As the movie unfolds, past and present meet and the truth about the night of the murders is unraveled.

Dark Places is based on the book by Gillian Flynn, who wrote the bestseller Gone Girl and the screenplay for the same-titled movie. Gone Girl did well at the box office and nabbed some award nominations. Even though Dark Places had a limited release, I thought it played better than Gone Girl because the story seems more real in its circumstances and characters. Both stories are intricately folded and twisted, but Dark Places wraps up nicely while Gone Girl leaves a few points and characters entangled.

Theron makes the story believable because she is an outstanding actress.  Like Gone Girl, the film has minor storylines that drew me in. Paquet-Brenner led the cast with honest acting in a very well-paced movie. I am kind of surprised it didn’t have a wide release because it is so good. So, if you see the movie streaming or on the DVD shelf, I suggest you grab it and watch it. You will be entertained.

“Christmas at the Cartwright’s” Charming Hallmark Movie

drama, family, holiday, movies, romance, television, , , , ,
christmascartwright

Like most Hallmark movies, Christmas at Cartwright’s is a charming holiday film that airs each year around Christmas. Cartwright’s is a fine example that Hallmark movies are innocuous, amusing and heartwarming to watch.

Directed by Graeme Campbell, the story follows Nicky Talbot, played by Alicia Witt, who is a single mother and, without prior notice, becomes unemployed.  With Christmas just around the corner, being without a job is going to be tough. Finding a way to earn money to give her daughter, Becky, played by T.J. McGibbon, an engaging and cheerful Christmas with a few gifts.

Nicky learns that a local department store, Cartwright’s, is hiring extra staff for the holiday shopping season. She applies for a position. Nicky is happy because it appears she will have a job, but Fiona Aldrich, played by Gabrielle Miller, a senior executive at the store, puts the kibosh on her plans and turns her down.  Fiona is jealous of Nicky because she has seen her with Fiona’s would-be boyfriend named Bill.  Gabriel Hogan plays Bill, who is the store manager.

Along comes Harry Osbourne, played by Wallace Shawn, who suggests Nicky work as the store Santa. That way, she can keep her identity hidden from the other workers.  We are talking Hallmark magic here on the storyline. It is a little unbelievable for a young woman playing an older man as Santa. It gets funny at times, but still hard to believe.

Christmas at Cartwright’s is a fun movie to watch with the whole family.  All the actors are great. Their roles are believable and engaging. The movie is timeless because it is like a fairy tale, where you have to believe what is happening to get into the holiday magic. Like all fairy tales, the story is worth seeing again every Christmas.

“Chain of Command” With Steve Austin and Michael Jai White

action, drama, military, movies, , , ,
chain

Directed by Kevin Carraway and starring Steve Austin and Michael Jai White, Chain of Command was released on DVD. I am not surprised because the movie is not very good, with nothing original about the plot. It is about a military man, played by White, who works to expose those responsible for his brother’s death because it is his duty and his need to get revenge.

I have seen White in better movies like Black Dynamite. That I highly recommend. Another recent movie, Skin Trade, starring White stars and Tony Jaa, is quite good, too. Watching him in a movie like Chain of Command is painful because it’s so bad.  White is talented, and he should pick better movies where he can let his talent shine on screen.

The movie doesn’t do justice to Austin either. His scenes are lengthy tirades with no substance to back him up.  That adds up to being boring with a big yawn.  All in all, this movie is not worth watching.  It is about Special Operative James Webster. He just returned home from duty, only to witness the brutal slaying of his brother.

Webster immediately tries to retaliate and hunt down the perpetrators, but as he delves deeper into the secret world of corruption and murder, he finds himself at the center of a deadly conspiracy that cuts deep inside the walls of the US Government.  The most ruthless military assassin, played by Austin, is hot on his trail.  Webster must expose the corrupt high-ranking officials before he becomes just another victim of the evil plan to destroy.

“American Heist”

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amercianheist

Directed by Sarik Andreasyan, American Heist is your typical thug movie without anything special to mention. With lines like “It was always me and you against the world.”, originality is lacking big time. Frankie, played by Adrien Brody, is just out of jail. His brother and crime partner, played by Hansen Christensen, is living a clean life after getting his act together while his brother was in jail.  But Frankie doesn’t have any money or a home. He needs his brother’s help to carry out one last heist. The final heist isn’t just for Frankie. Its success will help them both.  Added to the mix are some bad boy rappers, and they don’t really add that much to the movie. Sorry boys.

I wasn’t bored watching the movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good one. There are some points in the movie that I did enjoy, but the story is pretty nonspecific, with Brody carrying the movie on his shoulders by pure talent.  When I see Christensen in a movie, I am looking for the Shatter Glass performance that impressed me so.  Not in this movie, I am still hoping and watching.

Hollywood heist movies are very popular if done right. Movies such as Ocean Eleven, Reservoir Dogs, and The Usual Suspects are fine examples of films that use elements that set them apart from parallel stories.  American Heist is not unique in that sense, which is its downfall. It is a typical movie that needs some panache in order to be good and worth watching.

Cusack and Dano Play Brian Wilson in “Love & Mercy”

drama, legend, movies, music, romance, true story, , , , , , , , ,
L&M_bdskew

Love & Mercy delves into the part of the entertainment industry where evil people lurk. Such people control and manipulate the artist while feeding off the artist’s life force, creativity, energy force or whatever you want to call it. There are not a lot of these life suckers, but the few that are there can wreak havoc. This movie answers the questions of what happened to Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Robin Williams and so forth. Luckily, Brian Wilson meets a woman who has the tenacity to help him and save his life.

The movie, directed by Bill Pohlad, his second film as a director, takes a refreshing and almost clandestine approach to the story about Beach Boys co-founder and songwriter Brian Wilson. Two very talented actors play Wilson in different stages of his life. Paul Dano is the younger Brian. Here we see him with his cousin and a good friend; together, they launched the Beach Boys musical group in the early 1960’s. John Cusack is Brian in the 1980’s while under the control of his ingenious and vicious psychologist, Dr. Eugene Landy, played truthfully by Paul Giamatti.

The story flashes forward and back while twisting the lives of both the young Brian and the old Brian. Watching young Brian create memorable music, we see a whiz kid. He starts with “surfer” music and moves to more complex studio-produced music. During this time, we hear some great music by the young Brian Wilson. He is a unique soul, creating hit song after hit song.

He did have problems to face, such as not wanting to fly in an airplane or being on the road with the Beach Boys. So, he refused to go on the road and instead worked in the studio. He also took popular recreational drugs at the time, which probably caused all his problems. Some may label him, while others would say he did have demons, but psychiatric treatment is not the answer.

Dano is great as the young Wilson. His performance captures Wilson and his various mood swings and eccentricities. Here, the viewer must not mistake this for mental illness. He is a genius while conversing about the mind and spirit. The older Wilson is constantly under the psychotherapy of Landy’s 24-hour surveillance and over-medication, and misdiagnosis. He blatantly manipulates Wilson, guising help with a colorized screen of undermining half-truths, invalidation and total lies.

The older Wilson decides he wants a new Cadillac and meets a saleswoman, and his champion, Melinda Ledbetter, played brilliantly by Elizabeth Banks. They fall for each other and begin dating, supervised by Landy and his associates. History will prove that Landy had other interests in Wilson besides his mental health, as Melinda touches on when she confronts the ill-intentioned psychologist.

At first, the flashbacks are a little annoying because the younger Wilson and the older Wilson are two very different people. After a while, it all makes sense. Both the young and old versions are hard to watch, yet Melinda proposes a breath of hope. And when she confronts Landy, I cheer her on. She does the right thing and doesn’t smack him in his demented face as he shrinks back from her absolutely determined smile. She saves Wilson and flourishes.

Blake Lively in “The Age of Adaline”

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ageadaline

The Age of Adaline appears to have everything a movie needs to be in order to be a really good movie, so it seems.  Two main elements are missing – a really good script and a seasoned director.  Nevertheless, it is the number one romance movie at Amazon as I write this review.  The wave of potential has carried over to On Demand, Blu-ray and DVD because of the astounding cast and cinematography.

The Age of Adaline tells the story of Adaline Bowman, played very well by Blake Lively (Gossip Girl). She is a woman born in 1906, and she looks like she is in her late twenties when we meet her in 2014. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would know the big part of the story is that she will never age another day.

In a series of flashbacks, the movie narrates while showing how Adaline was given the baffling curse of never aging past the age she was at the time of the curse. The narration is where both the writer and the director made their big mistake. Any filmmaker will tell you to let the story unfold. Don’t tell us. Show us.  The imagery worked just fine, but the narration is used unnecessarily twice. The narration made it all seem so hokey. As if the director had to convince us that this transformation really happened to Adaline. The narration isn’t needed because her curse is so believable throughout the movie. It’s like a fairy tale. Lively is convincing, and her talent held my attention throughout the movie. Along with a very talented ensemble of co-stars kept me hoping for a better story.

What is fun about the movie is the story shifts through history with some hitches along the way. Adaline worries she will be recognized as a curiosity and is terrified that she will be used as a guinea pig for governmental experimentation.  Adaline decides to live on the run, changing identities and locations in a timely manner. Until she encounters Ellis Jones, played charmingly by Michiel Huisman, he is a man beguiled by her inscrutability and decides to woo her with her own medicine – history. He captures her heart, but not without a disquieting concern. It just so happens that another Jones family member, Ellis’ father (played by Harrison Ford), might have a stronger connection to Adaline than anyone knows.  Ford is great, as always, and I just love watching him in this movie.

Lively is gorgeous in personality and body.  Yet, while watching the movie, I kept feeling that she didn’t get along with the director, Lee Toland Krieger, or he didn’t know how to bring her over the top as the star of the movie and let the story be told. He just placed her in the scene, hoping something would happen.  What she did was fantastic. Kriegerm just didn’t know who to capture it. The reason I say this is that the seasoned actors like Harrison Ford were true to form. Kathy Baker and Ellen Burstyn had minor roles, but I had a great time watching them in the movie.  They knew what to do with an inept story and director.

Being number one on Amazon merits a mention, as the movie has its qualities. The overall story is engaging because of the concepts it explores, such as love at first sight, lasting love, growing old, becoming wiser, and finding old friends and family. They are magical, endearing through Adaline.

“Camilla Dickinson,” a Love Story

book, drama, history, indie, movies, romance, , , , , , ,
camilla

Camilla Dickinson caught my eye because my daughter enjoyed reading A Wrinkle in Time by the same author, Madeleine L’Engle, who authored Camilla, which the movie is based.

Co-written and directed by L’Engle’s goddaughter, Cornelia Duryée Moore, the movie is refreshing and a reminder that films can be simple and poignant without the box-office bonanza. We so often see movies encased with special effects and evil villains out to destroy the world – not the case with Moore’s feature film debut.

Moore was primed to direct this movie with a resume that includes quite a bit of writing, acting and theatrical familiarity. She even co-founded the Seattle Shakespeare Company.

Adelaide Clemens plays the daughter of an affluent family in 1948 Manhattan. At first, she seems shy and withdrawn because her mother, played by Samantha Mathis, is being romanced by a Frenchman. She can’t tell her dad, played by Cary Elwes, because he is stoic and feels his wife is too emotional and immature to confront the issue.

camilla2

Camilla meets her best friend’s brother, Frank, played by Gregg Sulkin. They begin an innocent courtship that is true enough to reinstate her trust in true love.  Like any story, complications crop up and keep the plot moving along, but never really hinder Camilla’s newfound independence.  Her independence is nurtured through Frank, his friends and music.  Camilla shares her desire to be an astronomer and study celestial bodies. Frank encourages her, and her confidence grows.

The whole cast is very good, but the movie is a bit too long and could use some trimming, especially where scenes start too soon and end too late. Still, I enjoyed the movie since it is a believable story of the 1950’s.

The period look is attractive and adds to the era’s story. It is an interesting tale, considering that the author, later in life, wrote wonderful, inspired stories with women as central characters.

“While We’re Young” Driver, Seyfried, Stiller and Watts

comedy, drama, indie, movies, , , , , , ,
while you young

Director and writer Noah Baumbach is known for intriguing movies like Francis Ha and Greenberg. His movies take the bite out of seriousness by intoxicating them with a light humor.

In While We’re Young, we meet Josh, played brilliantly by Ben Stiller, who is teaching a class on documentary filmmaking.  He is a successful documentary filmmaker, yet he has an unfinished documentary film that he has been working on for a decade. He is unwilling to accept help from the most talented people in his life – his wife and father-in-law – in completing his film, which is his downfall.

He is befriended by a 20-something couple after class and is swindled into having dinner with them, and his wife, Cornelia, played lovingly by Naomi Watts.  Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) become fast friends with Josh and Cornelia.

So, here we have a couple in their forties and a couple in their twenties becoming best friends. The older couple is set in their careers as filmmakers, while the younger couple is not quite clear. We know Jamie wants to be a filmmaker, but Darby’s role is unclear, which should be a hint to the older couple that all is not up and up with the younger couple.

Jamie begins feeding off Josh in hopes of using him to rise to the status of celebrated documentary filmmaker. Josh slowly figures out what Jamie is doing, but it is too late, and all hell breaks loose when Josh and Cornelia come to terms with Jamie’s machination plan.

Charles Grodin plays Cornelia’s father as a celebrated filmmaker in his own right. I am impressed with Grodin’s underplaying the part and enjoyed his moments in the movie.

We are fortunate to have some name droppers for the secondary characters. Dree Hemingway, who is the great-granddaughter of Ernest, plays Jamie and Darby’s roommate and production assistant. Beasty Boy, Adam Horovitz plays Josh’s best friend Fletcher, while Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary plays an interview subject for the documentaries.

The humor in Baumbach’s movie is problematic and gross.  The most impressive part of his movie is the issues of ethics, morality, and friendship within the film industry.