Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

A Better Life ****1/2

 
 

A gang-bound son explores honor with his illegal dad in Chris Weitz’s drama A Better Life. In a rare drama told from the blue collar perspective, Demian Bichir is outstanding as Carlos Galindo, a Mexican illegal in East Los Angeles.

The best actors convey much with their eyes, facial expressions and movements. Bichir (Che; Weeds) paints desperation, patience, wisdom and confusion. From these contradictions emerges a decent and hard-working gardener who lives in the United States illegally. Frequent close-ups of Bichir propel the drama.

In his day-in-the-life existence, Carlos works long hours and sleeps on the couch. He shares a few minutes of quality time with his son Luis (Jose Julian). The man lives to work, scarcely realizing when it’s Saturday. Carlos wears the same jacket throughout the movie, but he is clean. Their meals aren’t homemade, but they are filling. Luis’ mother is gone, but it’s not until late in the film that her absence is explained.

Luis shows growing interest in the gang members he meets at school. His girlfriend Ruthie (Chelsea Rendon) is related to a few of them. Since his father has little money for Luis’ needs, the gangs’ wealth and social standing are enticing. An early death in the streets is sure to come with that wealth. Weitz portrays the gang members as human and even cautious about recruiting Luis.

Julian gives an excellent, understated performance, especially during a scene in a police station where his future seems inevitable. When Luis gets suspended it’s “no biggie,” he tells his father. The boy considers making a wrong choice for the right reasons just as his father did.  

Weitz shows an America of the affluent who are happy to look the other way and employ reasonably priced yard workers (who happen to be uninsured). Carlos and Luis seem invisible in society-at-large. In one scene Carlos rides home from work, surveying many cultures and ages mingling on the L.A. sidewalks. His sense of belonging and his isolation are palpable.

 
 

Contemporary American features often show immigrants in moral struggles.  Ben Kingsley gave a powerhouse performance as an Iranian suburbanite in House of Sand and Fog. In The Godfather, Part II, Robert De Niro plays Vito Corleone, a Sicilian immigrant in New York City’s Little Italy. Ramin Bahrani expertly explores moral complexity. In Man Push Cart, a former rock star from Pakistan becomes a coffee cart vendor in New York City. In Goodbye Solo, a Senegalese immigrant attempts to dissuade an old man intent on jumping to his death.

Prosperity drives these characters. Carlos’ turning point comes when his friend insists that he buy a truck which he cannot afford. Carlos doesn’t even have a driver’s license. A truck is a necessity though. Without it, he must wait for hours in a crowd to compete for day jobs. Carlos finally appeals to his sister, who raids her family’s savings on his promise to make good, succeed and repay her someday.

When the truck is stolen, honor and future are at stake. In one very uneasy scene, Carlos gazes mutely at a police officer, unable to ask for help. The emergency gives father and son a chance to bond. How Carlos pursues the thief demonstrates a gentle fairness. Gabriel Chavarria plays Ramon.

A Better Life is a pleasant surprise coming from Weitz, who is known for mediocre The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Weitz also directed About a Boy with his brother Paul.

The film’s predictable ending gives a sense of “huddled masses,” a seemingly endless stream of people who head to America to improve their chances and their children’s opportunities. Eric Eason wrote the script based on a story by Roger L. Simon.

The socio-political story is simplified here. Weitz sidesteps hot button issues including controversial state measures to punish Mexican illegals. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but Weitz could have reached for even more in this film. Certainly his cast was capable of handling it.

If you like A Better Life, you might enjoy:  Goodbye Solo; Man Push Cart; Welcome.

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A Better Life    2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 38 min

Cast Overview:  Demian Bichir, Jose Julian, Dolores Heredia, Joaquin Cosio, Chelsea Rendon, Nancy Lenehan, Tim Griffin, Gabriel Chavarria

Director:  Chris Weitz

Genre:  Drama

 

Beginners *****

 

He may be late for the party, but Hal celebrates like it’s 1955. Smart and bittersweet, Beginners stars Christopher Plummer as a 75-year-old gay man who has just come out to his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor). Two parallel love stories are told. 

Beginners is masterfully directed and written by Mike Mills, whose own father came out late in life. Explored are the connections between father and son, father and new friends, son and father’s boyfriend, and son and girlfriend. This is a film of visual grace with a sensitive, vulnerable and thoughtful quality.

Plummer gives a vintage performance as Hal, a man who married for love in the hope that he could smother other desires within him. Fun-loving yet dignified, he’s diagnosed with cancer. The last few months of Hal’s life are reenacted with whimsy and directness, accompanied by Vaudeville tunes. “I don’t want to just be theoretically gay. I want to do something about it,” Hal says. As friends visit his sunny sickroom, he claims he’s getting better.

 

Patterns, shapes and forms represent life and love. After Hal’s death, Oliver adopts Arthur, a Jack Russell terrier who is more philosophical than most people. As Oliver talks with the dog, Arthur replies in subtitles. Their true friendship weaves low-key humor throughout the film.

Sex. Nature. Images of the sun, the sky and presidents past and present fill the screen. Oliver sketches faces of old girlfriends with captions. When he creates a sketch book for a rock band The Sads, they’re not taken with his images. All they wanted was an album cover. Sadness is unique for everyone. Oliver needs to savor and learn from it.

As Oliver begins seeing French actress Anna (Melanie Laurent, the theater owner in Inglourious Basterds), McGregor reveals insecurity and wisdom. The two meet at a costume party not long after Hal’s death. He’s Sigmund Freud. She’s Charlie Chaplin. He’s depressed. She has laryngitis. Playful and tentative, they explore each other and the world. He tells her about his father. “For the first time I saw him really in love.” 

Goran Visnjic is dark, intense and boyish as Hal’s young lover Andy. Hal must learn some new customs when Andy goes out on a date. “At least I’m the Number One boyfriend,” Hal tells his son wistfully. A scene between Oliver and Andy after Hal’s death is particularly moving.

Simple yet deep, Beginners discovers despair, emptiness and happiness. Deep, reflective characters live in a sweet, sincere film that will merit attention during Oscar season.

If you like Beginners, you might enjoy:  Barney’s Version; The Kids Are All Right.

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Beginners     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 44 min

Cast Overview:  Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller

Director:  Mike Mills

Genre:  Drama, Indie, Romance

 

The Tree of Life *****

 

A family drama interpreted spiritually and artistically, The Tree of Life is a sweeping tale from the beginning to the end of time. Terrence Malick’s epic masterpiece won the Palme d’Or, top prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupery. To fully appreciate Malick’s fifth feature, we must experience it with the heart.

A mother asks why her son is dead, who God is, and why we are here at all. Set in 1950's Texas, the film is all yearning, exploring, imploring. It’s a stark contrast to the loud, violent fare filling modern multiplexes.

After Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) receives news of her 19-year-old son’s death, Malick returns us to our cosmic origins. Galaxies form. Earth develops. A couple meets. A child is born. Hundreds of beautifully composed images shape a quiet, elegant whole. Upheavals, universal and personal, take on a stately grace. The soundscape is lyrical. Even protozoa and dinosaurs demonstrate gentle intelligence.

Malick's sparse dialogue and interior monologues accompany these scenes like poetry. Lush cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and the orchestral score by Alexandre Desplat are a revelation.

 

Mrs. O’Brien teaches her sons two ways through life. The way of grace accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, insulted or injured. The way of nature (i.e., the way of the ego) dominates others, pleases itself and dwells in unhappiness. “Love is smiling through all things,” she says.

The Tree of Life shows the relationship of young Jack (Hunter McCracken in a stirring debut) and his strict, sometimes unhinged father (Brad Pitt in an Oscar-worthy dramatic performance). 

Pitt reveals a complex go-getter in the aerospace industry, a stern father who is an avid fan of Brahms. Yet O’Brien can’t reconcile the strains of a concerto with his family assembled around the dinner table. His sons never show him enough respect or measure up to his machismo.

Young Jack has begun breaking windows, stealing and tormenting small animals. “I’m as bad as you are,” Jack tells his father. Grace touches him one day and he experiences a change of heart. Jack apologizes to the brother (Laramie Eppler) he has hurt. He is kind to a neighborhood boy scarred in a house fire.

“The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by.” As Jack’s mother, Chastain is grace personified. She evokes a woman so gentle that a butterfly lands on her outstretched hand. When she disinfects a child’s cut and blows on it, we can feel her cool breath.  

 

Childhood innocence is gradually worn by the rules of society. “It takes fierce will to get ahead in this world,” Jack’s father tells him. The boy is forbidden to cross the invisible property line of a neighbor’s yard.

Sean Penn plays Jack as an angry, disillusioned man still grappling with his difficult father. Every year he lights a candle to commemorate his “true, kind” brother. Best Actor Penn delivers strong supporting work as he looks to the celestial skyscrapers of Houston for solace. They are a kind of postmodern church for Jack.

An asteroid strikes, causing massive tsunamis. Jack wanders a beach afterwards, filled with awe and wonder. It is a new beginning.

If we are open to it, The Tree of Life imparts a direct, mystical encounter between God and humans. Malick uses Christian references as the family attends church in Waco, Texas. The tree of life is an ancient symbol of heaven and earth in many religions.

The director continues his fascination with nature and the manmade world. The fields and forests of Jack’s childhood are a respite from searing inner conflicts. A universal perspective helps Jack heal years later. 

Douglas Trumbull’s special effects are natural and imaginative, resonant with the film’s ordered harmony. Superb editing is accomplished by Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber and Mark Yoshikawa. 

Malick makes films with great care and thought. After studying philosophy at Harvard, he directed four films over four decades, The New World, The Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven and Badlands.

"He is working within a Hollywood system, but in a unique and personal way, much the same as Kubrick did," according to Hannah Patterson, author of The Cinema of Terrence Malick: Poetic Visions of America. "There is that level of mystery that comes from not doing interviews and not being in the public eye,” she said. Malick allows his films to speak for themselves.

Three years in the making, The Tree of Life is the director’s most epic and spiritual film to date. It reveals civilization as an experiment, a tiny shard of all that is.

Malick’s newest project stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Rachel Weisz. It is scheduled for release in 2012.

 If you like The Tree of Life, you might enjoy: Of Gods and Men; I Am; 127 Hours.

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The Tree of Life     2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, Irene Bedard, Jessica Fuselier, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan 

Director:  Terrence Malick

Genre:  Drama, Indie, Period Piece

 
 

Incendies *****

 

A daughter investigates her mother’s life and her own roots in the Oscar-nominated mystery Incendies. Denis Villeneuve writes and directs this suspenseful family drama that intertwines the daughter’s journey with scenes from her mother’s traumatic early years in the Middle East.

When their mother dies, grown twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) arrive for the reading of her will. They are stunned when Jean Lebel (Remy Girard), a notary public and their mother’s former boss, hands them two envelopes. Jeanne is asked to deliver a letter to their father. Simon is asked to deliver a letter to their brother.

Jeanne and Simon had no idea that their father was alive. They never knew they had a brother. Nawal Marwan (played by talented Belgian actress Lubna Azabal) had been quiet, and worked as a secretary. Bewildered, Jeanne tries to make sense of her mother’s words. If the twins deliver these messages, “the silence will be broken, a promise kept.”

Simon balks and remains in Montreal. He does not want to delve into the past. He’d rather abandon his family history and any unseemly details. The strain of his mother’s nervous illnesses has been enough for him. Simon urges Jeanne not to go.

A graduate student in mathematics, Jeanne seeks the advice of a professor. He compares mathematics to her complex relationship with her mother: “Now, you enter an entirely different adventure. The subject will be intractable problems that always lead to other problems, just as intractable. People around you will repeatedly say that your struggles are in vain. You’ll have no argument to defend yourself, for the work will be exhausting and complex. Welcome to pure mathematics, the land of loneliness.”

Jeanne insists on going alone if she must, compelled to hunt down the truth so her heart can be at peace. She sets out for the unnamed Middle Eastern country.

We witness the daughter following each clue, talking to people who knew Nawal, or knew of her. A group of village women is cruel and judgmental. Desormeaux-Poulin (Taking the Plunge) gives an intense but nuanced performance, filled with insatiable curiosity and growing dread. Much later when she faces danger, Simon rushes to her side to help complete the search. Gaudette (Polytechnique) conveys the male heart with pitch perfect acting.

Renowned Canadian actor Girard crafts a memorable character in Lebel, who guides and protects the twins. He assures them that their mother was of sound mind, but indelibly marked by her early years.

 

Nawal was beset by tragedy from early girlhood through the horrors of her country’s civil war. Key scenes from Nawal’s life are shown as Jeanne walks the same streets her mother once did. Azabal (Body of Lies) evokes great dignity which explodes into anger as she struggles to overcome unimaginably painful personal ordeals.

Nawal is rebuked by her Christian family when she falls in love with a Muslim. Her brothers track the lovers down in an orchard and murder her beloved. Later her grandmother helps her deliver a baby boy, who is quickly given up for adoption to save the family from shame. The grandmother tattoos three dots on the baby’s heel, an identifying mark. “I’ll find you again one day,” Nawal promises him.

Nawal is sent away to live with relatives. She becomes a student and political activist. Deciding to search for her son, she sets off on a bus filled with Muslims. When Christian extremists detain the group, Nawal pretends she is still a Christian to save herself. Helplessly, she watches as all aboard are massacred, flames exploding in the middle of the desert.

Rage takes over as Nawal joins an extremist group, assassinating a Christian leader while posing as a tutor. She is sentenced to 15 years in prison, where she is tortured and raped. Nawal survives by singing in solitary confinement. This enrages her captors. Jeanne and Simon eventually meet a midwife who worked at the prison. She remembers Nawal fondly as “The Woman Who Sings.”

Villeneuve defines the title Incendies as an inferno, “something totally destroyed, totally transformed . . . destruction that you cannot change afterwards.” Filmed in Montreal and Jordan, it is based on the play of the same name by the Lebanese-born writer Wajdi Mouawad. The scars that violence leaves, and its senselessness, are stark in Incendies’ explosive conclusion.

Beautiful and devastating, the film features wrenching imagery and ominous sound. As it opens, young Muslim boys are having their heads shaved, apparently being prepared for terrorist training. The eyes of one boy stare back into the camera, bottomless, empty.

“Death is never the end of the story,” Lebel reminds us. “There are always details.”

If you like Incendies, you might enjoy:  Nora’s Will; A Prophet; Lemon Tree.

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Incendies     2010  /  R  /  2 hours, 10 min

Cast Overview:  Lubna Azabal, Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Remy Girard, Abdelghafour Elaaziz, Allen Altman, Mohamed Majd, Nabil Sawalha, Baya Belal 

Director:  Denis Villeneuve

Genre:  Drama, Mystery, War, Foreign, Drama Based on the Play

Languages: French and Arabic with English subtitles

 

 

Everything Must Go *****

 

Nick Halsey is getting fired. It doesn’t matter that he’s been top dog in his sales district. His brawl with an important customer, and arrest for a DUI, show that he’s lost his grip. Will Ferrell stars in the deadpan comedy Everything Must Go.

Nick’s day gets worse. He arrives home to find all his possessions – clothes, old records, trophies – dumped on the front lawn.  His wife is gone. The locks have been changed. Nick leaves a message on her voicemail. “Can’t this happen another day?”

Based on the Raymond Carver short story Why Don’t You Dance?, the film develops beautifully the modern day loneliness of Carver’s characters. Ferrell (Stranger Than Fiction) nails it with an open, vulnerable performance. Writer director Dan Rush keeps it unsentimental, following Nick’s plodding and occasionally delightful progress.

Marooned on his front yard, his car repossessed and bank account frozen, Nick is forced to take stock and embark on an odyssey. Luckily it seldom rains in Phoenix (although there are lawn sprinklers to contend with). He settles back in his leather easy chair, gulping his way through two six packs. An unexpected ally Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace of Notorious) shows up, riding his bike, asking questions.

Kenny is a chubby neighborhood kid, smart, enterprising and fatherless. Samantha (Rebecca Hall of The Town) is Nick’s pretty, pregnant new neighbor, a good listener who’s waiting for her husband to arrive from across the country. Delilah (dynamic Laura Dern), with her exquisitely pained smile, is the soulful, empathetic high school friend who signed Nick’s yearbook.

 

Nick’s A.A. sponsor Frank Garcia (Michael Pena), a police detective, can keep him out of jail for five days as long as Nick calls his situation a yard sale. He’s losing patience with his friend’s on-again, off-again sobriety.

Nick consoles himself by breaking into his own back yard and pissing in his wife’s fishpond of Japanese koi. He watches home movies outdoors. His father was a mean drunk. His mother did love him. Nick bumps into his kinky neighbor (Stephen Root, hilarious) and his ex-boss (Glenn Howerton, textbook obnoxious).

Are we friends? Nick’s turning point is teaching Kenny baseball, embracing “a little less me and a little more we.” Eventually he faces the truth: he’s got to let go of his possessions, the debris of his life. He hires Kenny to help him with the yard sale.

“Give the customers what they want,” Nick coaches Kenny. “Make it easy for them to buy.” It turns out that Kenny has a knack for people pleasing and making sales. Soon he’s reading The Sales Bible, negotiating the best deals and slowly clearing the front yard.

Lashing out at sweet Samantha one day, Nick realizes how difficult he can be. Still he yearns to win back his wife, who we never meet. Visiting Delilah, Nick sees her making the best of raising two kids on her own. “You have a good heart, Nicholas. That doesn’t change,” she tells him.

There’s no grand epiphany in Everything Must Go. Change is ongoing, sometimes maddeningly slow. Friends can help.  

If you like Everything Must Go, you might enjoy:  Solitary Man; Barney’s Version; A Serious Man.

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Everything Must Go     2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 36 min

Cast Overview:  Will Ferrell, Rebecca Hall, Michael Pena, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Glenn Howerton, Stephen Root, Laura Dern 

Director:  Dan Rush

Genre:  Indie Drama, Dramedy, Dark Comedy

 

The Beaver *****

 

Mel Gibson bares his demons in The Beaver, the dark family drama about Walter Black’s unusual route to redemption from depression. Gibson’s friend Jodie Foster directs and co-stars as his wife Meredith.

Gibson’s alcoholism has been marked by bigoted rants and assaults on a former girlfriend. The film’s release was delayed to allow public outrage to cool. But there’s another Gibson: the actor who delivered raw, poignant performances in The Man Without a Face and Conspiracy Theory, and the gifted director of the much darker Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto.

Gibson’s contrition is tangible as self-conscious, shambling Walter finds a ratty hand puppet in a dumpster. The use of The Beaver is bizarre and clever. Walter dubs him a “prescription puppet” who speaks to and for him in a cockney accent while the man comes to life. “I’m The Beaver, Walter, and I’m here to save your goddamned life.” Walter’s inner child is the only one who can save him.

Walter is a husband, father and toy company CEO who has checked out. Plagued by alcoholism and suicidal depression, his illness is generational. Gibson runs the gamut as Walter – vulnerable, withdrawn, submissive loser; effective CEO and sexual tiger; and raw, violent masochist. Like John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, Walter exorcises his illness in his own way. He seems to battle his father’s demon too, hoping to spare his own sons a living hell.

The Beaver marks a return to the profound dramas (The Accused; Little Man Tate; Nell) that Oscar winner and director Foster is known for. She conveys grim dignity here, a muted, nervous mom unlike her espresso-driven characters in Panic Room and The Brave One.

Following her success in Taxi Driver, the legendary Foster won Best Actress for both The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs. She also received a Saturn Award for the sci-fi drama Contact. Foster, who has two sons, directed Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays, recently starring in Nim’s Island.

 “I make personal films,” the director said in a recent interview with indieWIRE. “When you know that you’re going to be on something for two years and it’s going to be the story of your life and you have to wake up at three in the morning and have ideas…it’s an obsession. In order to be obsessed with something, it has to be something that speaks from an incredibly primal place.”

It was brave to make a film so sunk in everyday darkness and despair. Walter eschews self-help books, therapy and drugs. He stopped seeing his shrink a year ago. Only his youngest son Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart) shares a pure, open connection with his Dad. It’s he who gives Walter a toy brain.

 

Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov in the 2009 Star Trek, and a repentant serial killer in Criminal Minds) plays cynical Porter Black who openly loathes his father. Porter sells term papers with great empathy. “I’m much better on paper,” he tells his friend Norah (Jennifer Lawrence). Oscar-nominated Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) plays a sensual cheerleader and 4.0 student who needs Porter to ghost her valedictorian’s speech.

Norah has a secret passion – tagging. “I like to do it big and fast,” she says of her graffiti art. Like so many artists, she paints from a cloud of tragedy and loss. Vulnerable and honest, both teens embrace grief. “Crazy is pretending to be happy,” says Porter.

The Beaver tackles big issues – mental illness; life meaning, and honoring our weirdness to become who we truly are. Walter is even willing to leave his family in the quest for self-love. When The Beaver is no longer needed, Walter must realize that he is not alone.

Gibson was "the first person I thought of" to play Walter Black, Foster told The New York Times. His turmoils gave him great insight into the character. Gibson "has a very, very rare quality to have lightness, to maintain charm but still go to a darker place.”

Foster just completed her part in Roman Polanski’s Carnage, and is about to start work on Elysium, a sci-fi thriller where she stars with Matt Damon. 

First-time screenwriter Kyle Killen develops his fresh idea and approach while challenging audiences to grow. Spot-on editing and beautiful production values make an enduring film that embraces the dark monsters we work so hard to flee.

If you like The Beaver, you might enjoy:  Win Win; City Island; In a Better World.

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The Beaver     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 39 min

Cast Overview:  Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Cherry Jones, Riley Thomas Stewart

Director:  Jodie Foster

Genre:  Drama

 

In a Better World *****

 

 

A father becomes a peacemaker in the Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning drama In a Better World.

Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier explores violence, courage and responsibility in this rich, mature drama, her tenth feature. She’s known for complex, well made films including Open Hearts (2002), Brothers (2004) and After the Wedding (2006).

Mikael Persbrandt (Everlasting Moments) stars as Anton, a surgeon working in a Kenyan field hospital. While he treats refugees, he’s interrupted by bloody emergencies as a local thug, Big Man, butchers pregnant women for sport.

Anton struggles to rescue his marriage to Marianne (Trine Dyrholm), also a doctor, who lives in Denmark with their two sons. Often away from home, Anton spends quality time whenever possible with 10-year-old Elias (Markus Rygaard), a gentle boy who wears braces.

Elias is viciously bullied at school by Sofus (Simon Maagaard Holm) and his followers, who make anti-Swedish comments. School officials misread the dangerous situation and seem unable to take effective action. Anton urges his son to ignore Sofus. Fighting would accomplish nothing except to lower him to the bully’s level, he says.

Elias is befriended by Christian (William Johnk Nielsen), a quiet, intense boy who moves to the area after his mother dies of cancer. Christian advises Elias to fight back so others won’t dare pick on him.

Christian corners Sofus in a school bathroom one day, beating him with a bicycle pump and holding a knife to his throat. Horrified Elias looks on. Police are called, but charges are dropped when they are unable to find the knife.

It’s attack or be attacked, Christian tells his father Claus (Ulrich Thomsen). He accuses the man of wanting his mother to die. Claus tries to explain his complex emotions during his wife’s painful decline.

 

At the park one day, Anton breaks up a fight between a boy and his youngest son as Elias and Christian watch.   Suddenly Anton is insulted and slapped by the boy’s father Lars (Kim Bodnia).

Anton walks away and attempts to forgive. He swims off his anger later in the cold lake of his summer home. Elias asks his dad why he is such a wimp. Anton next tries to craft a teachable moment, revisiting Lars with the boys.  He speaks out and is slapped again.

Christian builds a pipe bomb using internet instructions, planning to blow up Lars’ van. Outwardly calm and serious, he urges Elias to accompany him. The explosion will happen early Sunday and no one will be hurt, he promises. Reluctantly, Elias agrees.

Back in Kenya, Big Man has been seriously wounded and is brought to the hospital.  The warlord orders Anton to save his leg, and offers him a bribe. The surgeon treats him because he must. When villagers take matters into their own hands, Anton is a helpless witness.

A flawed man struggling to live his truth, Anton chooses peace and surrenders the satisfaction of being right. He can’t change the world, but he can be present and loving. In a Better World suggests that all children belong to us.

Bier skillfully manages many story elements to craft a majestic film. Morton Soborg provides stunning camerawork. Screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen, composer Johan Soderqvist and editor Pernille Bech Christensen lend their talents.

If you like In a Better World, you might enjoy:  Win Win; The Kids Are All Right; Precious.

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In a Better World     2010  /  R  /     1 hour, 53 min

Cast Overview:  Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Markus Rygaard, William Johnk Nielsen, Bodil Jorgensen, Elsebeth Steentoft, Martin Buch, Anette Stovlebaek, Kim Bodnia

Director:  Susanne Bier

Genre:  Drama, Thriller, World Cinema

Language:  Danish and Swedish with English subtitles

 

 

Letters to Father Jacob *****

 

 

Mysteriously pardoned after serving part of a life sentence, Leila (Kaarina Hazard) is angry. She was perfectly content. Who has dared interrupt her punishment?

With nowhere else to go, Leila is corralled into a job as a personal assistant to a blind priest who lives alone at a rundown parish, Father Jacob (Heikki Nousiainen).

Jacob greets Leila wholeheartedly, pouring tea and inviting her to dine with him on hearty bread.  He seems to know her.  She’s not planning to stay long, she tells him. She won’t do any menial labor.

Jacob reassures the rotund, frowning woman.  He only needs her help to read his letters. Requests for prayer arrive each day, delivered by a jovial postman (Jukka Keinonen). The letter carrier has heard all about Leila’s crime. Privately he warns her: she had better not harm the saintly cleric.

Contemptuous Leila suspects that Father Jacob engineered her release. Still she can’t help respect him. Clearly Jacob has a gift. He knows who is writing even if Leila doesn’t share the sender’s name.  People from all over are sick or troubled. Students struggle at school.

Seeing into the heart of each request, Jacob directs Leila to look up Bible passages (most of which he knows by heart). He prays. He asks her to write brief replies. The letters are then hoarded under his bed with a thousand others.

Beautifully acted and engaging from start to finish, Letters to Father Jacob asks us to consider why we do what we do. Klaus Haro (Mother of Mine) directs this deeply felt inquiry into ego, faith and transformative love. Tuomo Hutri’s cinematography adds to its quiet power, as does the unassuming script by Jaana Makkonen.

When the letters stop arriving, Jacob tortures himself. How selfless has his service been? He no longer feels needed or important.

Jacob and Leila each drop into a world of pain and doubt. Finally Leila asks for forgiveness. Grace imparts quiet miracles, unearned and unexpected. 

If you like Letters to Father Jacob, you might enjoy:  Of Gods and Men; Winter in Wartime; Win Win.

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Letters to Father Jacob     2009  /  NR  /  1 hour, 14 min

Cast Overview:  Kaarina Hazard, Jukka Keinonen, Heikki Nousiainen, Esko Roine

Director:  Klaus Haro

Genre:  Drama, Foreign

Language: Finnish with English subtitles

The Music Never Stopped ****

 
 
An ode to music, memory and healing, indie drama The Music Never Stopped features songs of The Grateful Dead and other classic rockers within a father-son reunion tale.

Jim Kohlberg’s directorial debut is a moving, timely exploration of how the human brain affects our lives and experiences. With a tiny budget, he captures the essence of a man emerging from a severe neurological handicap.

Living in the now is the only option for Gabriel Sawyer (Lou Taylor Pucci), a young man whose brain tumor leaves him in a coma in 1986. When he wakes after surgery, his memories are erased.  

Music is the key to engaging Gabriel, but not just any tune will do. Music therapist Dianne Daly (Julia Ormond) discovers that only 1960s rock rouses him.

Every song unlocks a different piece of Gabriel’s past. With brio he walks, talks and gestures. As soon as a song ends Gabriel withdraws into his usual silence, his expression mask-like.

Pucci (Carriers; The Horsemen) is edgy and sweet, more like Robert De Niro’s guru-ish Leonard Lowe than Daniel Day Lewis’ smoldering Christy Brown. Over time Gabriel is able to engage with others and even flirt with lovely cafeteria worker Celia (Mia Maestro). Hearing the music of his favorite band The Grateful Dead brings tears of joy and wonderment.

Based on Oliver Sacks' essay The Last Hippie, the film is pensive, exuberant and occasionally cliche.  Neurologist-author Sacks drew on real-life case studies in his writing, which also inspired the film Awakenings (1990) starring De Niro and Robin Williams.

Henry and Helen Sawyer (J.K. Simmons and Cara Seymour) visit the sleeping man who is their little boy. They haven’t seen him in 20 years. When Gabriel wakes up, Henry learns that his son fears him as a cruel authoritarian. Henry must face his shadow and take responsibility for his part in their estrangement.

Master character actor Simmons (Spider-Man; Juno; The Closer) plays a cranky square who never understood why Gabriel doesn’t revere the big bands. Now he wishes that new memories could be created in his son’s mind. That’s impossible, Daly tells him.

Henry grows forgetful and disengaged. When he’s fired from his engineering job, he can’t avoid visiting Gabriel and becoming involved in his rehab. The two gradually connect. There’s a renewal of Henry’s mental clarity and zest. Scenes where he temporarily rebels against Gabriel’s musical preferences stumble.

 

Seymour is refreshing as open minded, matter-of-fact Helen. Becoming the family breadwinner doesn’t diminish her empathy for son and husband alike.

Gabriel yearns to attend his first Dead concert.  Henry exchanges his records for modern ones, letting Gabriel teach him to appreciate a new generation’s vibes.

When Henry wins Dead concert tickets, father and son don love beads and tie died t-shirts for the event.  The concert scene is awkwardly beautiful and moving despite clumsy staging.

"A Grateful Dead concert had a way of setting you up with a koan or an aphorism and then opening up an improvisational musical space in which to ponder it,” writes author David Gans. “Lives were changed at Dead shows; decisions were made; creativity was inspired.”

Gabriel not only gets by and survives, but moves beyond A Touch of Grey.

If you like The Music Never Stopped, you might enjoy: The Soloist; Two Lovers; Win Win; Up in the Air.

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The Music Never Stopped   2010  /  PG  /  1 hour, 45 min 

Cast Overview:   J.K. Simmons, Lou Taylor Pucci, Cara Seymour, Julia Ormond, Tammy Blanchard, Mia Maestro, Scott Adsit, James Urbaniak

Director:  Jim Kohlberg

Genre:  Indie Drama, Drama Based on Real Life, Music

 

Win Win *****

 

Win Win’s comedy reminds us of The Blind Side minus the melodrama.  Paul Giamatti plays a struggling storefront lawyer and wrestling coach who learns about honesty from a teen sports prodigy.

Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) crosses a moral gray area early in the film. It happens so quickly that it goes unnoticed. Weighing the demands of home and family, Mike chooses a compromise. Being the breadwinner has become dicey in a changing economy.

Mike takes guardianship of elderly Leo (veteran actor Burt Young, touching and emotive). This will garner $1500 a month for his family.  Caring for Leo, who is in the early stages of dementia, will not be easy. Mike sucks on a single cigarette behind a dumpster each day, throwing away the rest of the pack.

Golden Globe winner Giamatti is known for his characters who live through their own private hells. In his breakthrough role as comic book artist Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, Giamatti explored despair. The Yale drama grad brought his earnestness to more transcendent performances in Barney’s Version and John Adams.

In his impressive acting debut, Alex Shaffer is perfect as Kyle, a deadpan runaway whose mother is in drug rehab.  After a few beatings from his mom’s boyfriend, he flees to see Leo, the grandfather he’s never met.

Kyle reveals nothing about his past. His mellow façade covers anger on a slow boil. He’s an innately good, even sweet kid who might set a new course after Mike finds him on Leo’s doorstep.  

In real life, Shaffer was New Jersey’s high school champion wrestler in the 119 pound class. Kyle is a champion who suddenly disappeared from the headlines. Mike can’t believe his luck as Kyle decides to join the local team while he’s in transition

Director Tom McCarthy and boyhood friend Joe Tiboni wrote the script together, drawing on their own less than stellar high school wrestling days. Win Win is infused with the excitement of high school sports.

“Cool mom” Jackie Flaherty comes to life thanks to talented Amy Ryan. Jackie has mixed feelings about bringing an outsider into their home. When Kyle arrives, she sits him down for some straight talk. Ryan beautifully evokes the New Jersey homemaker and caregiver with a Jon Bon Jovi tattoo. She’s the first one Kyle opens up to.

 

Melanie Lynskey plays Kyle’s mom. Vulnerable but decent, she rediscovers her love for her son even while she grasps at anything to turn her life around. Cindy reunites with her father Leo after a lifelong combative relationship. She seeks forgiveness from Jackie Flaherty and everyone she meets, but most of all from Kyle.

Bobby Cannavale adds comedic flash as Mike’s wild card, divorced best friend Terry. The boyish trio of Giamatti, Cannavale and Jeffrey Tambor (as assistant coach) will have audiences laughing while they wince.

David Thompson treats us to true blue Stemler, Kyle’s friend on the wrestling team.

“It’s complicated,” Flaherty says when Kyle confronts him. The film’s turning point is bitter. Kyle, his mother and the Flahertys all arrive at a crossroads in this skillfully balanced story.  

In The Station Agent and The Visitor, McCarthy honed his fine power to mold fully realized characters. Every performance in Win Win shows his mastery.  Watching a McCarthy film, like reading a good novel, draws us in. He discovers shimmering light in the stuff of everyday lives.

McCarthy is also an actor who has appeared in films as diverse as 2012 and Fair Game.

The word “love” isn’t used until late in the movie, but when we hear it we believe it.  Win Win’s ending is redemptive but not sentimental. 

If you like Win Win, you might enjoy:  The Kids Are All Right; Barney’s Version; The Blind Side.

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Win Win   2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 46 min 

Cast Overview:   Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Shaffer, Margo Martindale, David Thompson

Director:  Tom McCarthy

Genre:  Comedy, Sports Comedy