A month has past since the last movie review set, so it’s time to take stock of movies seen lately. Some quite excellent movies found their way to this round, although I’m quite amazed that there was time for this many movies..
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Crash follows the lives of several people over 24 hours. These people, from all walks of life, go about their business and over the day, their lives become connected in various ways – sometimes this meeting of lives becomes more of a crash. I’m usually not a big fan of movies where there are a million different intertwined stories, but Crash pulls it off well. One of the key themes is racism, which is looked at from a number of angles. All in all, the characters are mostly believable, the story is well written and thought-provoking showing that there is potential for good in even “bad” people – and vice versa.
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Definately deserving of the 3 Oscars it won and one of the best movies I’ve seen; 4½ out of 5.
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Most people, I believe, are familiar with Peter Pan. Finding Neverland looks at the time before and during the creation of the story, telling the story of the somewhat unconventional relationship of J.M. Barrie with the family that inspired him to create Peter Pan. Some people are not quite happy with the way the relationship with the family – four boys and a widow – is developing. These include Barrie’s wife and the mother of the widow. The movie is more drama than I beforehand thought it would be and deals with a bit deeper themes and issues than could be thought regarding the subject. While quite different than my expectations were, Finding Neverland was a very good movie that I would highly recommend. 4+ out of 5.
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A German movie about Turkish immigrants with some, well, “issues”. Cahit (Birol Ünel) has, apparently since the death of his wife, lost his will to live. After semi-attempting suicide, he bumps into Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) who also attempted suicide but for very different reasons. The two end up getting married but for reasons very different than normally. Problems relating to the turkish culture and personal problems are rife in their unconventional relationship, which develops into something more than just being indifferent roommates that they started as. How can both get their lives back together? Can they help each other or are they just hurting each other? Gegen die Wand can by no means be considered a happy movie, but it is not without hope – all in all a very positive surprise; 4 out of 5.
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The Travis family, we come to see, is not exactly functioning very well. The father is obsessed with his other son, who is doing great in sports. Or, well, was, until he killed himself. That leads to us discovering that the entire family, as well as some of the neighbors, are to some extent fucked up and lost. The movie has its moments, but they can be counted with the fingers of one hand. The plot development is strange, some of the things happening just don’t seem to fit together. Rather strange and a clear disappointment, 2 out of 5.
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Telling the story of Johnny Cash, starting from when he was young and chronicling his way to fame, with bumps and all – and there were more than enough of the bumps. Joaquin Phoenix is great in the leading role and Reese Witherspoon certainly deserved her Oscar for her lead supporting role – most of the other performances are also brilliant. The plot, if spelled out, probably wouldn’t sound all that special but the story is very well told and lots of good music doesn’t hurt either. Highly recommended at 4½ out of 5, even if you’re not a fan of the music.
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Anxiety over being single makes Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) figure out an alternative companion for her sister’s wedding – she hires a date. What happens next is quite predictable, but romantic comedies aren’t supposed to be unpredictable so that’s not a showstopper as such. However, where is the emotion with the lead characters? It’s competely lacking and without that, the story is just flat and somewhat boring, despite attempts at spicing it up. Kat’s and her date’s relationship is not developed at all, and just like that they supposedly go from complete disinterest to being deeply in love. That transition is just not played out well at all. A workable idea ruined by the lack of story development and downright bad acting (or, rather, no acting). 1½ out of 5.
- As opposed to the movie above, here we have a romantic comedy that has all the ingredients that Wedding Date lacked. Alex “Hitch” Hitchens (Will Smith) runs a comfortable business helping men woo the women they’re interested in – to land (and excel at) a date. Then he meets Sara (Eva Mendes), a gossip columnist highly skeptical of all men – but does Hitch’s advice work for himself? I had some serious doubts about this movie, but luckily they turned out to be wrong. The movie doesn’t go overboard (too often) and actually turns out to be very nice – basically good, clean fun. A perfect romantic comedy at 4 out of 5.
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Rafi is a recently divorced 37-year-old who is seeing a therapist to help her get over the divorce and on with her life. And she does get on with her life quite soon, when she finds Dave, a talented 23-year-old artist. In addition to worrying about the age difference, there’s another issue – Dave is Rafi’s therapist’s son. And comes from a very strictly Jewish family. How long does it take til the therapist finds out who Rafi is actually dating? And after initially encouraging her to throw herself into the relationship, does the realization have some minor affect on her advice when she finds that out..? Prime is romantic comedy/drama that is a little bit less rosy than many other films; there are problems that are sometimes irreconcilable. In that sense, one could call it realistic. The tone of the movie is sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes dramatic, but the end result is just average. I’d say 3- out of 5.
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Another (in addition to Finding Neverland and Walk the Line in this set) movie based on real events; Samuel Jackson plays a basketball coach, accepting the job of coaching a bottom rung high school basketball team. The team, in short, has sucked for a long time – and yet, excelling in sports is the only ticket to College for some of the boys. Carter is determined to turn things around and trains the team hard and in unconventional ways – for one, one of the things he wants is for the boys to actually do well in class, too, not just in basketball. The other school faculty doesn’t appreciate all of his methods (nor do some of the parents), and even though the intentions are good, trouble ensues – eventually attracting national media attention. Although I’m usually not a big fan of sports-movies, I really liked this. And the extras on the DVD with interviews with the real Coach Carter and some other “real-life” characters were also very nice, and I get the feeling the movie fairly faithfully depicts what actually happaned. 3½ out of 5.
