January Movie Reviews

*****  Exceptional

****    Great

***      OK

**        So So

*          Blah

Beguiled has an all-star cast of outstanding actresses. It's a Civil War movie about a secluded, southern girl's school run by a very proper woman (Nicole Kidman) who is assisted by a very unhappy woman (Kirsten Dunst) teaching a handful of girls who have nowhere to go. One of the younger girls finds a wounded Irish Union soldier (Colin Farrell) out in the woods and they nurse him back to health because it's the Christian thing to do. He seduces all of them with his charm and complimentary personality, but he makes the mistake of getting a little too friendly with the slutty one (Elle Fanning). Let's just say it would have behooved him to keep his dick in his pants.  Women living in a war zone, confronted with daily violence, and determined to survive are ruthless. Go girls! Beautifully filmed with spectacular settings. The costumes were a little too clean.... ****

The Blue Butterfly  Inspired by a true story, this movie is about a terminally-ill ten year old boy with brain cancer who has months to live, love insects, idolizes a renowned entomologist (William Hurt) who he convinces to take him to the rain forest to catch the elusive blue butterfly. Great scenery with great bugs and creepy crawlies. That's where the greatness ends. The dialogue was horrid, performances barely tolerable, way too sappy, and a whole lot of unbelievable scenes that were disappointing. **

Fathers and Daughters is about a young woman (Amanda Seyfried) who's mother died when she was little and the adorable relationship she had with her father (Russell Crowe), a best-selling novelist, who is suffering some kind of neurological illness. When he goes into a hospital for an extended stay, she is sent to live with a wealthy uncle and aunt who then sue him for custody causing all kinds of misery.  After promising his daughter he would never leave her, he dies. She grows up unable to love for fear of abandonment. Very sad. Great performances with all-star cast with Jane Fonda, Octavia Spencer, and Aaron Paul. ****

Frantz is a French/German foreign film about post-WWI. Twenty-three year old German soldier, Frantz, Anna's fiancé, was killed in the war. She lives with his parents in Germany.  A Frenchman, Adrien, shows up weeping at his grave then contacts the family. Frantz's father tells him to get his scummy French butt out of their house until he finds out he's an old friend of Frantz from his school days in Paris. Frantz loved everything French and Adrien reminisces on their time together as students. The family warms up to him as he makes them feel like their son is back. The little German village hates the French for killing their boys.  Lots of themes on the tragedy of war, national identity and alternative truths.  Adrien's story isn't what it seems and he snaps under the pressure. Excellent performances, sets, plot and costumes.  Beautifully filmed in black and white, but every now and then a scene would be in color although it wasn't really clear why...embracing life again? ****

Hairspray LIVE!  This is the NBC live television performance of the musical. Excellent cast, music, performances. Love this show. ****

Imperium is about an FBI agent (Daniel Radcliffe) who goes undercover to infiltrate white supremacists. Toni Colette is his supervisor...both excellent performances. It was a creepy story. A few times the ideology was so sickening I wanted to turn it off. ***

The Innocents is about a French Red Cross doctor at the end of World War II working in Poland. A Polish nun from a convent nearby shows up at her hospital begging for help. One of the nuns is in labor with another seven in advanced stages of pregnancy. First, the invading Nazi soldiers abused and violated these sisters every time they marched through town. Then the Russian soldiers.  The nuns fear retribution from the authorities and the community if their secret is known. Determined to hide their shame they weather all manner of pain and suffering as penance. Some are in denial, some in love, and most scared to death. To make matters worse, the nuns have all taken vows of chastity and are not allowed to be touched making examinations and birth problematic.  It was a beautifully filmed movie especially with all that snow. Exceptional performances with dialogue in Polish and French with English subtitles.  The introductory titles said it was based on a true story...I hope not. The fate of Helena will haunt me for days. The answer to their predicament should have been obvious especially during a war...maybe some Mother Superiors are short-sighted but I hope the stupidity of this one was just for plot development. ****

Love and Other Drugs is about a self-centered pharmaceutical rep (Jake Gyllenhaal) who meets and falls for a woman (Anne Hathaway) with Parkinson's disease who wants nothing to do with a relationship because she doesn't want to be high maintenance. I totally get that. She feels guilty knowing her disease will progress making her dependent on him and not trusting she can trust him to stick around. It's easier to avoid attachment. Excellent performances. It was sweet. Maybe a bit too predictable. ***

A Man Called Ove is a Norwegian movie about a cantankerous old man (Ove) who lives alone in a homeowners' association-type community. He is very particular about making sure everything is in its place and all residents are following rules.  His wife died six months prior and unable to live with his grief he attempts suicide...multiple times. Unfortunately for him, he can't seem to do the deed with the damn neighbors constantly in his business. With each attempt as he's losing consciousness we flashback through his life - a very good life filled with kindness and love.  It was a very heartwarming movie about grief, community, asking for help, and how we can't exist alone - we need people. There were some laugh-out-loud moments. I think killing yourself with car exhaust would be the most gruesome way to go. I can't imagine choking to death from chemicals. It seems slow and painful. Great movie. ****

May in the Summer is about a Palestinian-American woman, May, from New York who goes home to Jordan for a family reunion with her sisters and to marry her Palestinian-American fiancé who is Muslim. Her mother disapproves of the interreligious relationship. Her future mother-in-law is planning and financing the lavish wedding. This also involves reconnection with her divorced American re-married-to-a-woman-half-his-age father who made their lives miserable while married to their mother. It was family stress and dysfunction at its finest. Great performances. There were a couple times I almost turned it off due to boredom but with all her indecision, I wanted to see if she'd go through with the wedding. ***

The Midwife is a French film with English subtitles about a midwife (Catherine Frot). When she was a teenager her father's self-centered, flighty girl friend deserted them and her father committed suicide. The ex-girfriend (Catherine Deneuve) contacts her forty years later when she finds out she is dying from brain cancer hoping to reconnect with her true love not realizing he died many years ago. She doesn't have any family or friends, is a little crazy, drinks too much, gambles her money away, tells everyone her ex-boyfriend's daughter is her daughter and keeps saying how she wants to leave her money or jewels as if this will fix everything (even though she has no money). Great story about relationships. Excellent performances. Catherine Frot is very likeable. ***

Misconduct is about a lawyer (Josh Duhamel) who does sleazy things to win cases. An insane ex-girlfriend from college reconnects with him to funnel illegally obtained evidence against her boyfriend-boss-pharmaceutical corporate-head (Anthony Hopkins) and he begins a class-action lawsuit overseen by his own sleazy boss (Al Pacino). The whole thing was sleazy but then Josh gets messed up in sleaze over his head because they are all using him to get what they want. His wife is a little crazy, too. Julia Stiles was the private detective. The filming was really, really strange with bizarre panning techniques. It also utilized odd flashbacks and flash forwards making the film sequencing difficult to follow. Great performances, great story, but I didn't care for the attempts at creativity and I'm not really into corporate sleaze movies.  ***

The Mountain Between Us  Exceptional movie with two outstanding actors: Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. It's about two strangers who are stranded at an airport in Idaho. Both needing to be somewhere in the morning, they charter a plane. The pilot, Beau Bridges, has a stroke or heart attack or something and crashes the plane atop a very cold and snowy mountain. She's badly injured. They wait for a rescue for a few days but the pilot didn't file a flight plan and they are running out of food. After much deliberation and argument they head off slowly down the mountain, both believing they won't make it. Excellent story, outstanding special effects, and perfect performances. Beautiful scenery. Loved it . ****

Mr. Church is about a young girl (Britt Robertson) whose mother (Natasha McElhone) is dying from cancer and is given six months to live. The mother's dead-wealthy-married-ex-boyfriend bequeaths her a cook (Eddie Murphy), Mr. Church, to take care of her for the rest of her days. He's very private but is wrestling with his own demons. Excellent story about human relationships. Outstanding performances. Rarely does one see Murphy in a dramatic role and he was superb. Loved it. ****

The 9th Life of Louis Drax is about a nine-year old boy who since birth has been accident prone. He falls off a cliff during a family picnic. His mother implies his father became violent with her during an argument, but the father has disappeared. Louis is now in the coma ward being cared for by his doctor (Jamie Dornan) who specializes in research about coma patient communication. Lots of flashbacks to support the story which were well done: scenes with his mother (Sarah Gadon) and father (Aaron Paul), his therapist (Oliver Platt). He's a very strange, psychotic boy who kills his hamsters by smashing them under medical dictionaries. His comatose brain begins to communicate with his doctor through dreams. Very good and suspenseful. All great performances. Very sad story. ****

Sarah's Key  OH MY GOD this was heartbreaking. It's a story about an American journalist (Kristin Scott Thomas) who has recently taken possession of her in-laws' Paris apartment with her French husband and daughter. She is researching and writing a magazine article about the French government round-up and deportation of the Jews during World War II. She finds out her husband's family obtained their apartment after a Jewish family was taken away. Parallel to the modern story is the story of the little Jewish girl who lived in the apartment. The journalist is on a mission to find out what happened to the little girl. SO INCREDIBLY SAD AND TRAUMATIC as most Holocaust movies are. Beautifully filmed and outstanding performances. *****

Séraphine is the true story of Séraphine Louis a French housekeeper/laundress who works odd jobs during the day and paints by night. Believing she is guided by her guardian angel who has told her she must paint, she spends what free time she has collecting supplies for paint ingredients, praying at church while she steals the hot wax from the devotional candles, gathering herbs from fields,  mud from creeks, or siphoning blood off a liver at the butcher where she works preparing for the day she presents her works to the angels. She spends what little money she makes on other art supplies and suffers abuse and judgmental rudeness from towns people.  Painting is a spiritual process and she sings church hymns (loudly in the middle of the night) while in the throes of creation.  She is discovered by German art critic Wilhelm Uhde around 1912 while he was staying in France before WWI and he rediscovers her after the war.  It was an amazing, inspirational story, although very sad. Loved the main character - outstanding performance. French with English subtitles. ****

Victoria and Abdul was a sweet movie about the relationship between Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and Abdul, a Muslim from India. Great performances. Nice story. Nothing inspiring or ground breaking, just nice and sweet. ***

Le Week-end is about an older English couple on the cusp of retirement who go to Paris for the weekend to celebrate their 30th anniversary.  Their relationship is old, maybe boring, contentious. She wants change, a new direction, a new life and he just wants things to stay the same with more sex which, like her, I found irritating. It was interesting. A little depressing at times. ***

Yosemite was incredibly boring.  It features three fifth grade boys and their incredibly drab lives. I kept thinking with each kid something would go wrong creating a little interest. The first kid in the first scene is on a hike with his father and little brother in Yosemite. They  get lost in the woods and I think something will go very wrong, but then ended up back at the hotel. That was it for the reference  to Yosemite. Stupid title. The next kid befriends an adult living in the far side of town. Weird guy. I thought this can't be good and for sure he was a child molester which might add some plot interest. Nope. Third kid finds a gun and the three take off into the fields to search for a mountain lion. At one point I turned it off, read the DVD cover which claimed it was reminiscent of Stand By Me so I thought hmmm...maybe it actually gets interesting later. Nope.  Poorly written, poorly executed, zero interest. It had absolutely no point...and a really stupid title. *