Category Archives: movies

Travolta in The Forger

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forgeJohn Travolta is a fine actor. His repertoire includes musicals, drama, comedy, Broadway and even television.  He is a wonderful human being, who has help hundreds of people all over the world with successful and workable solutions.  His latest DVD/Blu-Ray release is The Forger. Travolta surrounds himself with a stellar cast, crew and storyline.

Directed modestly by Philip Martin and filmed in Boston, he sketches a heartfelt movie, unlike the usual tough-guy action smash hit.  Sure. The story has bad guys, who are gritty and creepy, but the three main characters face something even more vital. The real story is about relationships and family.  They come face to face with each other resolving issues that are hard to confront.  It is almost agonizing because they have their own grit and ugliness to conquer.

Travolta’s tour de force performance is like a rare painting that captures you like watching the layers of colors come to life. He plays a father named Raymond Cutter. His son, played honestly by Tye Sheridan, has an unsolvable situation, which carries the story to the end.  The ever so talented Christopher Plummer plays Will’s grandfather.

Like a tight spring, all three gradually come to terms as their relationships come undone and are redefined. They face the issues and decide the next best thing to do is a museum heist because it is an adventure where everybody wins. Sure. There are bad guys and cops, but if they pull it off – what a great prize. Not just because they might get caught. It’s because they want to be a team, a unit, a family.

Watching Plummer play the comic relief cannot go unwatched. His scenes alone are good reasons to see the movie.  Such talent as Plummer opens a bottle of beer, dupes a security guard, tricks a gangster and then dances on an exotic island.

Martin’s action scenes are so simple and unpretentious. What a joy to see a story unfold without a lot of violence and expletive words.  The most violent scene is when Travolta’s character uses a baseball bat and backlashes at three thugs. Martin filmed the entire scene as a master shot from start to finish without insert or harsh cutaways.  It is hilarious. Did I mention there is comedy in this drama?

I don’t want to give away too much of the storyline. The ending is a little empty, but it is truthful. I don’t think I could have thought of a better way to end a story about a family with a problem that is unsolvable.

https://youtu.be/x2NEDOVDXoc

Serena

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serenaDirected by Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier, who is known for taking on big and complicated stories, took a wrong turn with Serena.  The movie is beautifully shot by Morten Søborg, but that is about as far as it goes, which makes this blog a little tough for me to write since I like to keep them positive.

Serena is a well-known book by Ron Rash and was adapted for the screen by Christopher Kyle. The movie has a stellar cast, beautiful backdrop. Yet, the production company had the movie in the can and on the shelf for two years before it ever premiered in the movie theaters. A sure sign something is amiss. Yet, the book is very popular with rave reviews on Amazon.

I watched the movie, and it’s a hodgepodge scenes that ends terribly. I was left empty for spending nearly two hours watching a beautifully shot movie, not caring about the characters in a story not worth watching.

Skilled adaption of a popular book is hard to fine.

The story takes place around the time of the Great Depression where we see classic automobiles and new empires being built from the bottom up with dedicated hard working individuals.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Serena, a beautiful and poignant young woman, who has a suspicious past involving her family’s lumber company in Colorado. Bradley Cooper plays George Pemberton, a logging magnate in Northern Carolina’s Smokey Mountains.  The time is before the infamous stock market crash in 1929, which causes his ability to get a loan in peril. He also has to ward off a humane push to turn his land into a national park. That much is clear, but what is not clear is Serena’s role in his life. Sure. They love each other dearly, but what is the real story that caused Rash’s book to be so popular. What was left out of the movie or not explained in the movie that caused it to sit on the shelf for 2 years?

Serena becomes Bradley’s wife and partner of his lumber company. She does a dam good job.  They both share a goal of moving to Brazil after they cash in on the Smokey Mountain timbers.  One thing that I found ambiguous was Serena.  She is a remarkable woman, who can out shoot and out ride any man, but she is neurotic or borderline psychotic.  Her parents ran a logging company and were killed in a fire along with other members of the company. Serena was the sole survivor, and there is a hint she had something to do with the tragic fire.

Another unclear point is where Rachel, the mother of George’s illegitimate son, is put on the by George after her saves Rachel and his son from murder. She tells him she is going to meet up with Jacob, who will take care of her now.  Who is Jacob? How come we didn’t see her and Jacob together before this scene?

I wish Bier made these plot points clear-cut.  At the end of the movie the Serena’s suspicion becomes somewhat clearer. Yet, it means nothing because I am bored. The story is confusing and has a sad ending.

 

Song One

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SongOneThe story begins with Henry (Ben Rosenfield), a street singer in New York City, getting disastrously hit by a car. Franny, (Oscar winner Anne Hathaway), Henry’s sister, is in Morocco working on her anthropology project. She receives the news and immediately returns home.  Her brother is now in a coma with their mother (Mary Steenburgen) coping as best she can.  As a family, I sense they were once very close, but Henry left college to become a singer. Franny disapproved and wedged the family apart. Being the responsible one, while her mother and brother are more informal and unconventional artists, Franny struggles with the life her brother follows, wants to understand his choice, wake him up from his coma and apologize.

Franny discovers Henry’s journal that depicts his life as a street singer.  She hopes to find meaning to his world and draw him out of his coma. She learns about his favorite haunts and notes his idol, James Forester (Johnny Flynn), a street singing celebrity.

Franny follows her brother’s foot sets according to his journal entries. Franny meets James and they become friends and romantically involved. Together they help each other solve their problems through companionship. Franny trying to draw Henry out of his coma with familiarity of sounds and smells in hopes of rekindling their relationship.  James hasn’t written a new song in over five years, and his tour is coming to an end. He needs new material for his recording session scheduled in Germany.

Written and directed by Kate Barker-Froyland (her feature debut), Song One strolls along with endearing moments and poignant music, but I kept waiting for the inevitable in Franny and James relationship, still it never happened. Sure. The acting is brilliant, but the overall meaning of the story never comes full circle with Franny and James, mother and daughter or brother and sister. Barker-Froyland leaves us void at the end, wondering what was the point of the story.  Sure.  I sense both Franny and James problems were solved, yet they had started a relationship without an end. Song One may seem like a romantic story, but it is more about differences in culture or lifestyle is not an excuse to divide relationships.

Seeing both ends of being a street singer, James success and Henry’s struggle to find his voice, the movie fondled the life of New York City street performers. With great music and talent, an eerie presence under my skin, I feel compelled, like Franny, to understand the culture so new to me.