Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

The Debt: Mirren, Chastain star in classy spy thriller - 5 stars

 

Classy and exciting, The Debt draws you in until the very last scene. John Madden’s film about an Israeli secret service mission is 2011’s best thriller to date. Excellent acting, screenplay and cinematography combine in this remake of the thriller Hahov (2007).

The arc of story is deepened with both mature and young versions of Mossad agents Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain), David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds and Sam Worthington), and Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson and Marton Csokas).

The story first unfolds in 1997 Tel Aviv. Rachel and Stephan’s daughter Sarah has written a book about her parents’ role in a heroic mission. Concern marks Rachel’s face at a book party and later during a television appearance.

The real action begins in 1965. The agents plan to capture Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen) and bring him to justice. With all the urgency of young patriots seeking to make history, they prepare every detail.

 

Mirren and Chastain provide The Debt’s moral center. Both are stellar and memorable. It is a real treat to see their work in tandem as the film explores truth and honor.

Mirren is precise and soulful as Rachel faces a crisis of conscience. When a shameful secret emerges, she is forced to return to service.

Fear and mourning don’t stop the mother and grandmother Rachel. She’s smart, gutsy and angry. Finally, she has a change of heart. Mirren fascinated me until the very last scene.

Prolific Chastain (excellent in recent notables The Tree of Life and The Help) is intense, passionate and athletic. Soon a love triangle develops as she lives in close quarters with David and Stephan.

Each agent has been damaged by the Holocaust in some way. David lost his entire family.

The team confirms that Vogel has changed his name and is a practicing gynecologist in East Berlin. Young Rachel’s visit to his office is sure to become a classic scene. Later, a huge scar on Rachel’s right cheek seems to symbolize Israel’s search for justice and healing.  

Capturing Vogel in broad daylight is suspenseful, but moving him to Israel proves difficult. With Nazi soldiers on high alert, the team hijacks a truck near a train station. Complications arise.

Young Stephan wants to save face after the botched mission. David goes along. Rachel objects and finally relents. Years later she tells Stephan, “I knew we’d be punished. I knew we’d have to pay.”

Award winners Mirren and Wilkinson set the bar high. Hinds makes the most of his tragic, brief appearance. Csokas brings young Stephan to life with swagger and sex appeal. Worthington (Avatar) sensitively portrays the deeply wounded David.

Called the “surgeon of Birkenau,” Vogel’s character seems to be based on Dr. Josef Mengele. Mengele conducted human experiments during World War II, including changing childrens’ eye color. This caused blindness in many, a fact mentioned in the film.  

The Debt was adapted from the original movie by screenwriters Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan.

Madden (Shakespeare in Love; Proof) does a superb job with sustained suspense and riveting action. His film is intellectually satisfying and heartfelt.

If you like The Debt, you might enjoy:  Hanna; SALT; Incendies.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews.

 

The Debt     2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 51 min 

Cast Overview:  Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jesper Christenson, Marton Csokas, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Romi Aboulafia

Director:  John Madden

Genre:  Thriller, Drama

 

 

Sarah's Key: Kristen Scott Thomas stars in Holocaust drama ****

 
 

An American journalist living in Paris (Kristen Scott Thomas) is obsessed with a Holocaust story. Sarah's Key is a thrilling search for truth about France’s role in the Holocaust seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Sarah (Melusine Mayance). The film is based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel.

French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s film exposes the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup during World War II. Many moviegoers will learn about the incident for the first time here.

In the roundup, thousands of Jews living in Paris’ Marais neighborhood were forced into a sports stadium, torn away from family members, and shipped to concentration camps. Julia Jarmond (Thomas) convinces her editor to let her write a 10-page article documenting the 60^th anniversary of the roundup.

Two parallel stories unfold. Julia pursues leads and interviews witnesses. She discovers that she is personally connected to the Starzinski family, Polish Jews living in Paris during the German occupation.

 

Sarah Starzinski’s story is told in flashbacks. Police arrive one day. Sarah dashes to protect her young brother Michel. She locks him in a closet for safekeeping, sure that she will return soon. Days pass in the crowded stadium. Panic and disease spread. Desperate to return and rescue Michel, Sarah falls ill.

Under Nazi order, French police arrested 13,000 Jews in July 1942. The prisoners were forced into the Velodrome d’Hiver, an indoor bicycle racing track. With no access to running water or toilets, they slept in their seats or on concrete floors. Families were separated and herded into trains bound for French internment camps.

Thomas (The English Patient; I’ve Loved You So Long) and Mayance play off each other beautifully with moving character studies. Past and present feel immediate and urgent. Thomas is intent and driven as she speaks both French and American English. Her brilliance shines despite a script that often emphasizes the obvious. Mayance is a talent to watch, lively and convincing here.

Julia learns that Sarah escaped from the Beaune-la-Rolande camp in Loiret. She tracks down a farm couple (Niels Arestrup and Dominique Frot) who sheltered the girl from Nazi soldiers. The mystery of Sarah’s life deepens as Julia locates her surviving relatives, including William (Aidan Quinn).

Julia travels abroad to pursue the story. She argues with her French husband Bertrand (Frederic Pierrot) and reassures her teenage daughter Zoe (Karina Hin). In one of the film’s contrived moments, Julia learns that the Starzinski’s apartment was acquired by Bertrand’s family in 1942.

The director relates a powerful chapter of history. Tellingly, it is a French soldier who helps Sarah escape from the camp.

In real life (and beyond the scope of Sarah’s Key), other roundups followed. Prisoners were eventually deported to Auschwitz. In 1959, fire destroyed much of the Vel’ d’Hiver. Apartments and a Ministry of the Interior building stand on the site today.

Julia’s part was over-written and weighs down the narrative. Emphasis on Julia’s pregnancy and failing marriage is distracting. The epilogue feels too neat and becomes trite. Yet Sarah’s Key brings history to life with personal revelation. Paquet-Brenner has made a daring, important film.

If you like Sarah’s Key, you might enjoy:  Winter in Wartime; Of Gods and Men; The King’s Speech.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews.

 

Sarah’s Key     2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 45 min

Cast Overview:  Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique Frot, Gisele Casadesus, Aidan Quinn

Director:  Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Genre:  Drama, History, Books on Film

Languages:  English, French and German with English subtitles

 

The Names of Love ***1/2

 

In a tribute to Woody Allen The Names of Love (Le Nom des Gens) stars a “political whore” who seduces one man at a time to create social change. Director Michel Leclerc’s dark romantic comedy stars Sara Forestier.

Forestier won a Cesar (France’s Oscar) as bawdy Baya in this Annie Hall-like take on love and identity. Baya is the daughter of an Alergian immigrant (Zinedine Soualem) who pours his heart into his paintings, and a former French radical (Carole Franck). Her half-Arab roots are her secret pride. An avid left-winger, she’s out to convert one “fascist” at a time.

Forestier traipses nude as Baya plies her body like a perky, bombastic tool. Wardrobe malfunction moments are oddly amusing and over-the-top. In a memorable performance, Forestier flits bird-like from one lover to the next. Baya was seduced by her piano teacher at age 12.  Since then, she’s never been the same.

Jacques Gamblin stars as straight-arrow Arthur Martin, Baya’s newest love interest. Arthur is a veterinarian who performs necropsies on dead animals. He cautions citizens to guard against the H5N1 virus. Baya bursts into the sound studio in protest while he’s speaking on a radio show.

Arthur’s French Catholic father (Jacques Boudet) runs a nuclear power plant and fought in Algeria. His mother (Michele Moretti) suppresses her Jewish identity and Auschwitz memories. The truth often bursts out, especially when she loses her papers one day.

Arthur travels back in time, but fails to change his parents’ decision to name him Arthur Martin. They masked his half-Jewish heritage by naming him after a line of washing machines. Deadpan Arthur is efficient and reliable, just like the appliances. Everyone he meets says so.  

 

The Names of Love plumbs identity while it weaves dark comedy around two taboos, childhood sexual abuse and The Holocaust. The film's mood is reflective, sad and occasionally amusing.

Arthur’s inner teen appears to chat with him about Baya. The adult wants to capture her free spirit for his own, but wonders whether it’s possible or even wise. Arthur’s dead grandparents return, urging him to remember them. In one scene, the son delightfully reimagines his mother’s past as she rides in her father’s taxi.

When Arthur introduces his parents to Baya, their dinner party erupts into near mayhem. Suppressing herself is not Baya’s strong suit. When her parents arrive for dessert, interesting complications arise.

Leclerc, who co-wrote the screenplay with his partner Baya Kasmi, mentions Woody Allen in the dialogue as he adapts the famed director’s “free love” style.

Watching the film can be challenging. White subtitles sometimes appear on a white background. Certain scenes are blurred for effect in a distracting manner.

A cameo by Arthur’s idol Lionel Jospin, a former French prime minister and Socialist presidential candidate, is featured.

The treatment of immigrants and non-Christians in modern-day France was also explored poignantly and tenderly in the romantic drama Welcome.

Baya and Arthur consider the future. How safe is it to be oneself in any culture or country? “We’re half-breeds,” Baya declares. “The day there’s nothing but half-breeds is the day there’ll be peace.”

If you like The Names of Love, you might enjoy: Midnight in Paris; Barney’s Version; 35 Shots of Rum; Welcome.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

The Names of Love (Le Nom des Gens)    2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 42 min

Cast Overview:  Sara Forestier, Jacques Gamblin, Carole Franck, Zinadine Soualem, Michele Moretti, Jacques Boudet

Director:  Michel Leclerc

Genre:  Romantic Comedy, Dark Comedy, Foreign Film

Language:  French with English subtitles

 

Lemon Tree *****

 

A Palestinian widow tends the lemon grove left by her father in the geo-political drama Lemon Tree. When the Israeli Defense Minister moves in next door, Salma (Hiam Abbass) must defend the trees she loves so dearly. The heartbreaking film is based on a true story.

The lemon trees are a bittersweet metaphor for generations of struggle over security and ownership. Director Eran Riklis (The Human Resources Manager; The Syrian Bride) crafts a very human look at the Israeli-Palestinian standoff.

Abbass (The Syrian Bride; Satin Rouge) is mesmerizing as the widow who embodies dignity, loneliness and eroticism. Her daughter is married and her son works as a dishwasher in America. Salma lives simply, caring for the trees, harvesting their fruit, and serving lemonade that thrills her occasional guests. Hers is a bountiful solitude in rhythm with nature.

When defense minister Israel Navon (Doron Tavory) moves into a mansion bordering Salma’s land with his wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael), a watchtower is built and soldiers patrol the area. Salma receives a letter. The Secret Service orders that her trees be cut down for security.

Failing to get any assistance from the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army, Salma meets with a young attorney Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman). Ziad is drawn to beautiful, stoic Salma. While the courts deliberate, the Israelis fence off the lemon grove, preventing Salma from entering. The trees begin to wither. Lemons cover the ground.

Lipaz-Michael is excellent as the minister’s cultured, lonely wife. Mira wrestles with contradictions. While she enjoys privilege, she becomes increasingly upset with the treatment of her neighbor Salma. Her struggle is heightened when she suspects her husband is having an affair. 

Mira and Salma never really meet, except for a tense encounter across the fence. Salma’s anger and Mira’s empathy are evident. Fear transforms into uneasy acceptance and respect. This invisible bond grows as Salma pursues her case all the way to Israel’s Supreme Court. An Israeli journalist also sympathizes with Salma.

 

Lemon Tree imparts wonderful surprises and humor. Tenderness grows between Ziad and Salma. Salma's elderly Arab gardener Hussam declares that trees have souls. Salma endures a neighbor who admonishes her for disrespecting her husband's memory by seeing Ziad. There are humorous moments surrounding her husband's photograph.

Rainer Klausmann achieves plain but vivid cinematography, from Salma’s bold climb over the fence, to the stark wall between Israel and Palestine.

If you like Lemon Tree, you might enjoy:  Miral; Ajami; Welcome.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

Lemon Tree   2008  /  NR  /  1 hr, 46 min

Cast Overview:  Hiam Abbass, Ali Suliman, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Doron Tavory, Tarik Copti, Makram J. Khoury, Amos Lavi, Amnon Wolf, Smadar Jaaron

Director:  Eran Riklis

Genres:  Drama, Foreign, True Story

Language:  Israeli and Palestinian with English subtitles

Ajami ****

 

The Israeli drama Ajami reveals what it’s like to live in the Arab-Jewish city of Jaffa today. With a cast of mostly non-professional actors, it immerses us in a frenzy of desperate, heart-breaking episodes. Ajami won Best Picture at the Israeli Ophir Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award.

The Crash-like film’s myriad actors, stories and relationships are often difficult to follow. Writer-directors Yaron Shani (an Israeli from Tel Aviv) and Scandar Copti (a Palestinian from Jaffa) frenetically shift time and perspective. The same events are reenacted from different points of view. Chapter headings are used, but more linearity would have helped. Very late flashbacks clarify the big picture. 

Centuries long Middle Eastern animosities play out as the directors zoom in, initially on Arabs of various socioeconomic backgrounds. To their credit, Shani and Copti show rather than tell the stories. Absent are the maudlin emotions and farfetched coincidences of the American Oscar winner Crash.

Shot with hand-held cameras in medium close-up, Ajami is set in the streets, homes and restaurants of Jaffa.

Ajami is a tragedy. Bickering and animosity fill its dialogue as both sides struggle to exist. Survival dictates every breath. People scurry and hide. No one wants to be snuffed out in the latest shooting or bombing. If a drug lord or powerful family is offended, meetings are held and large fees paid to correct real or imagined offenses.

Family ties become an excuse for violence. Senseless murders happen. Ajami’s beginning and end are sickening and inevitable.

Crime thrives. Arab on Arab violence and exploitation (Muslims by Christians and Palestinians by Israeli Arabs) poisons the community of scarce resources and few options. Poverty is more compelling than racism.

Several major stories emerge. Omar (Shahir Kabaha) is a Muslim Israeli Arab teen whose uncle shot a gangbanger in self-defense. Omar’s neighbor is shot when Bedouin assassins mistake the boy for Omar. Now his family is deeply indebted to a Christian Arab godfather Abu Elias (Youssef Sahwani) for protection.

 

Omar and his artistic kid brother Nasri (Fouad Habash) scramble to raise cash. They steal car parts and sneak into Israel to work as illegals. A profitable drug deal lures them. Omar takes a huge gamble with the help of naïve Malek (Ibrahim Frege), a Palestinian teen who works with him in Abu Elias' kitchen. Malek needs money to pay for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant for his mother.

A dangerous love affair between Omar and Elias’ beautiful daughter Hadir (Ranin Karim) adds even more tension. Meanwhile an affluent Palestinian Binj (played by Copti) yearns to live with his Jewish girlfriend in Tel Aviv.

Dando (ex-policeman Eran Naim) is an exhausted, brutal Tel Aviv cop who’s also a dedicated family man. His soldier brother was kidnapped from an army base. Dando’s search for his brother eventually leads him to a drug bust.

First impressions and unreliable information lead the characters to wrong conclusions. Disastrous decisions are carried out.

Ajami, along with recent Israeli films The Band's Visit, Beaufort and Waltz with Bashir, is notable for its innovation and human perspective on Middle Eastern conflict.

For a region locked in violence, the directors suggest that the new generation, with its internet savvy and willingness to cross racial and religious divides, may hold a key to peace.

If you like Ajami, you might enjoy: Lemon Tree; Miral.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

Ajami    2009 / NR / 2 hours

Cast Overview: Fouad Habash, Nisrine Rihan, Elias Saba, Youssef Sahwani, Abu George Shibli, Ibrahim Frege, Scandar Copti, Shahir Kabaha, Hilal Kabob, Ranin Karim

Director: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani

Genres: Drama, Foreign

Language: Arabic and Israeli with English subtitles

Nora's Will ***

 

A man battles his dead ex-wife in the poignant dramedy Nora’s Will, winner of seven Ariels (Mexico’s Oscar).

A bit like Hereafter, this Best Film and Original Screenplay winner features more warmth and quiet drama.  Ex-husband Jose (Ariel winner Fernando Lujan) still struggles with willful Nora (Silvia Mariscal) after she successfully takes an overdose of pills.  She had attempted suicide 13 other times throughout her life.

Jose doesn’t question Nora’s life in the hereafter.  What he struggles with is organized religion. To Jose, religion is nothing but a scam with strict, man-made rules.  Born Jewish, he has become an atheist.

Nora had other ideas.  She planned her death fastidiously to coincide with Passover. In the film’s opening, we see her preparing each course for a Passover Seder, carefully labeling each dish as she stocks her refrigerator.  She also writes by hand in a detailed, cloth-bound recipe book for her faithful maid Fabiana (warm, wonderful Angelina Pelaez, another Ariel winner).

Throughout this sequence we do not see Nora’s face, but her devotion to food and family is clear.  In fact Nora even brews a pot of coffee for the man she knows will find her body – Jose.

Jose has lived in an apartment across the street from his ex-wife for years, keeping an eye on unstable Nora even after leaving their marriage.  He does not know that she has watched him through her opera glasses all that time.  Jose also knows little about her life and loves after their divorce.

After he finds Nora’s body, Jose first calls serious, composed Dr. Nurko (wily Juan Carlos Colombo). Next he calls his son Ruben (Ari Brickman), emotive and still resenting the father who moved out but never completely left. 

Stubborn Jose pays for a Catholic burial. Nora’s apartment is filled with floral arrangements, candles and a cross-shaped coffin, much to the chagrin of her spiritual advisor Rabbi Jackowitz (stodgy, hilarious Max Kerlow).

Jose wants to rush the burial, but Ruben insists that they wait until he can return from America with his wife and two daughters.  Meanwhile the rabbi’s assistants prepare Nora’s body for burial, topping it with dry ice for a required three days before it can be removed. Someone must remain with Nora’s body at all times to pray.

Nora’s suicide makes her “unclean” according to Talmudic law, says the rabbi. Outraged, Jose thumbs his nose at the holy man and orders pizza – with ham, bacon and sausage. 

Meanwhile guests begin to arrive for Passover Seder (Nora invited them in advance).  Fabiana prepares gefilte fish, matzo balls and kreplach.

Director Mariana Chenillo (the first woman director to win the Ariel) portrays Mexico’s Jewish community with a feisty array of players.  She directs the eccentrics in uncomfortable situations with good-natured pokes at organized religion. The film’s dark comedy can feel forced and uneven.

Titled Cinco dias sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora) in Mexico, the film was released in the U.S. in 2010.

As Jose learns more about Nora and grapples with her death and burial, his anger and resentment are honed. Finally, he discovers that she wrote him a long goodbye letter.

If you like Nora’s Will, you might enjoy: Hereafter; Get Low; Summer Hours; A Serious Man.

Nora’s Will  2008  /  NR  /  1 hour, 32 min

Cast:  Fernando Lujan, Juan Pablo Medina, Silvia Mariscal, Marina de Tavira, Cecilia Suarez, Ari Brickman, Veronica Langer, Enrique Arreola, Angelina Pelaez

Director:  Mariana Chenillo

Genre:  Foreign Dramedy, Dark Comedy

Language:  Spanish with English subtitles

Barney's Version ****

 

Paul Giamatti brings to life a witty, vain and frustrated romantic in the sardonic comedy Barney’s Version. The actor won a Golden Globe for this performance (Comedy/Musical), but was passed over for an Oscar nomination.

We first meet Barney Panofsky sowing his wild oats in Rome and entering into a shotgun marriage with manic beauty Clara (Rachelle Lefevre in a brief, memorable role). 

In a fast forward to Barney’s middle years in Canada, the antihero makes TV soap operas for Totally Unnecessary Productions.  His first marriage is over. Cranky and exasperated, he works for a paycheck.  Barney’s soap opera is like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, minus any social relevance. 

Next he snags a sexy, rich Jewish beauty (Minnie Driver like we’ve never seen her, marvelous and shrill). Barney’s wise-cracking Dad, retired cop Izzy Panofsky, congratulates him on his choice. Dustin Hoffman’s Izzy is side-splitting as he accompanies his boychick to dinner with the new fiancée and her parents.

 

The downward spiral of the second Mrs. Panofsky from pre- to post-wedding is sharp. Barney knows he is in for a rough patch once again. Drinking heavily at the reception, he steals off to watch a hockey championship with his buddies, including Boogie (Scott Speedman). Izzy urges Barney to be smart and hang on to his wealthy new mate.

In a great comedic turning point, Barney sets eyes on Miriam (soulful realist Rosamund Pike) at his own wedding reception. He introduces himself. She’s smart, honest and witty. He can’t believe his luck. He’s finally met the woman of his dreams.

Giamatti makes the most of the unlikely discovery.  Barney flees his own wedding. He finds Miriam in her seat moments before her train leaves for New York City.  Giamatti is superb in his romantic declaration. 

The rest of Barney’s Version unfolds with realism, warmth and satisfying plot twists.  Barney can be crass and blistering, sexist yet vulnerable. Giamatti renders him lovable, especially as the mature character looks back on his life. Finally, he’s a better man than his actions reveal.

Barney is a lovingly created prototype of Jewish Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler and Saul Bellow’s Moses Herzog. Richler’s excellent novel Barney's Version paints a more rollicking, in-your-face character than Giamatti’s introspective drinker.

Director Richard J. Lewis and writer Michael Konyves have crafted an admirable screenplay, although a subplot about a murder investigation is distracting and unneeded on film.

Canadian new wave filmmakers Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg and Denys Arcand add depth and whimsy in cameo appearances. Director Lewis appears briefly as a pathologist.

If you liked Barney’s Version, you might enjoy: A Serious Man; Greenberg; Crazy Heart.

Barney’s Version  2010  /  R  /  2 hours, 12 min

Cast Overview:  Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Rachelle Lefevre, Scott Speedman, Bruce Greenwood 

Director:  Richard J. Lewis

Genres:  Comedy, Romance, Comedy Based on the Book

A Serious Man ****

 
 
 
The Coen brothers have created their darkest comedy yet in A Serious Man, where hero Larry Gopnik (Golden Globe nominee Michael Stuhlbarg) faces non-stop spiritual desolation.

Drawing on their Jewish roots in a 1967 Minnesota suburb, Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, Burn After Reading) cast Stuhlbarg as a physics professor and victim of fate. His life is a farce directly out of the Book of Job.

His wife (Sari Lennick) announces that she's leaving him for the nervy Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed, a dead ringer for beat poet Allen Ginsberg). Larry's tenure seems uncertain. A failing student blackmails him. His brother-in-law (Richard Kind) hogs the family bathroom, and is arrested for risqué behavior. Larry's son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is a stoner owing money to a bully, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) wants a nose job. The two are so indifferent to Larry, they seem like strangers.

Up on the roof one day Larry adjusts the antenna so Danny can watch F Troop. For a precious moment, he's above it all, surveying the neighborhood. Just then he spies neighbor Mrs. Samsky (Amy Landecker) sunbathing topless. Here is the ultimate temptation.

Why all the bad luck? In a foreboding prologue, a Yiddish couple accidentally invites into their home a dybbuk (the wandering soul of a dead man). The resulting curse is meant to explain Larry's present-day misfortunes.

Larry seeks answers. He consults his doctor and two lawyers. But who better to help than his rabbi? Larry meets with two holy men, one young and one mature. They are wonderful philosophers, but have no answer for the seeker.

The senior Rabbi Marshak (Alan Mandell), seeming like God himself, refuses to meet with Larry. Claudia Wilkens is superb as Marhsak's portly, foreboding secretary. Like the shekinah (female face of God), she's a gatekeeper in the tradition of Kali (goddess of death and transformation).

While A Serious Man sends up Jewish culture with references to goys (non-Jews) and a painfully funny soup slurping scene, its statement is universal. Larry is a good man who must go God-direct to meet Source.

At Danny's Bar Mitzvah, Larry finds solace, even a moment of pride. He takes comfort in the ceremony and ritual of his worship community. To his credit, Larry moves beyond despair.

 
 

Desolation breaks Larry's heart open, makes him even more sweet and forgiving. Oy vey, he even forgives Sy Abelman! As the Dalai Lama says, "If people have compassion, naturally that's something they can count on."

A Serious Man brings to mind the spiritual desolation of the Coens' masterpiece No Country for Old Men. It delves into the anguish of the void to arrive at our very soul. Nominated for numerous prizes including Best Motion Picture, A Serious Man received Spirit Awards for Best Cinematography and the Robert Altman Award.

If you like A Serious Man, you might enjoy: Barney's Version; Greenberg; Win Win; Please Give.

A Serious Man / 2009 / R / 1 hr, 46 min

Cast Overview: Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Peter Breitmayer, Adam Arkin, David Kang

Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Genres: Comedy, Dark Comedy

Casino Jack ***

 

Kevin Spacey’s one man show as lobbyist Jack Abramoff makes Casino Jack a vivid if depressing leap into pay-to-play politics and governance in the United States. Spacey earned a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for the role.

Spacey’s megalomaniac Abramoff is so larger than life that every character around him fades, save for Barry Pepper as his sidekick Michael Scanlon. Even their partners (Kelly Preston as Jack’s conscience-ridden wife and Rachelle Lefevre as Scanlon’s revenge-driven fiancee) seem little more than greedy hangers-on.  Who could blame them?

The perks and woes of wealth are many for Abramoff and Scanlon. Jack buys a new school for his kids (he’s dissatisfied with the quality of their private schools).  He splurges on mansions, private jets, and a political junket to the Marianas even as his home mortgage payments go delinquent. To support their lifestyles, the pair begin to bend laws and ethical guidelines, charging exorbitant fees to their Indian casino clients.

The structure of the film reflects Abramoff’s world view.  He’s the star, surrounded by a society of mediocre drones who work 40 hours a week and just scrape by. Not him.  He’s a smart visionary whose job is to influence politicians. “I will not allow my family to be slaves!” he shouts at the mirror during his daily pep talk.

Despite a plot that gets bogged down in complex dealings, Spacey soars as a superlobbyist who thinks he’s a vital cog in Washington’s machinery. Lobbyists research, inform and guide elected officials, he says. They make sure pols vote “correctly” (according to the wishes of mega-bucks corporations and conglomerates). 

When Abramoff opens the only kosher restaurant in D.C., it seems more a ruse to hook new clients and get his picture on the front page of the business section rather than a reflection of goodwill. Jack does have a few redeeming virtues.  He’s a family man (for brief snatches of time) and an observant Jew.  He loves movies. Spacey delivers dead-on impersonations of Ronald Reagan and Al Pacino.

 
Abramoff’s grilling before John McCain’s Indian Affairs Committee becomes a montage of factual retelling and the scene that could have been.  Senators behind the microphones are cast as compromised buffoons who wheedle on the same level as the man they’re scapegoating. Several members of the House (including Tom DeLay) were convicted in the wake of the investigations.

When Scanlon sells him out for a lighter sentence, Abramoff tells his partner in sleaze he’ll miss him over a final game of racquet. It’s predictable that prisoner Abramoff expounds on political affairs, typing frenzied letters to U.S. presidents. He lectures fellow inmates on the Torah as illustrated in movie themes.  

Jon Lovitz delivers a comedic take on Abramoff’s frontman Adam Kidan afloat on a rollicking casino ship. Graham Greene plays a determined Saginaw Chippewa tribal council leader.

Director George Hickenlooper died several months after Casino Jack’s filming.  Abramoff recently completed his four year sentence for fraud, corruption and conspiracy.  

If you like Casino Jack, you might enjoy: Fair Game; Greenberg; Please Give.

Casino Jack  2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 48 min

Cast Overview:  Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, Jon Lovitz, Graham Greene, Rachelle Lefevre, Kelly Preston, Hannah Endicott-Douglas, John Robinson, Spencer Garrett, Jeffrey R. Smith, Christian Campbell

Director:  George Hickenlooper

Genres:  Biopic, Docudrama, Drama

 

The Other Woman ***1/2

 

Natalie Portman sinks her teeth into everyone around her in The Other Woman, an indie exploration of birth, death and rebirth.  Made in 2009, it was released just in time for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards where Portman won Best Actress.

As gorgeous Emilia, Portman plays a newly hired, up-and-coming attorney who brags about her judge father, from whom she is estranged.  Soon she sets her gaga gazes on married Jack (Scott Cohen), a partner at the firm.

Emilia’s interest seems one sided. Suddenly Jack asks her to join him on an out-of-town case.  The two make their way to her room. Jack’s decision to leave his physician wife (alluring, vicious Lisa Kudrow) seems too abrupt. The lovers’ chemistry is never fully realized in rushed flashbacks and awkward dialogue from director and screenwriter Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex).

Tragedy gives the film traction. The Other Woman is anchored in Portman’s powerful turn as new wife and mother to a neurotic, eight-year-old stepson William (remarkably good Charlie Tahan). In order for the marriage to work, she realizes, she’s got to win over the kid.

The SIDS death of baby Isabelle leaves the new family reeling.  Teary tirades follow.  Emilia tries too hard, urging precocious William to enjoy an ice cream sundae even though his mother has pronounced him lactose intolerant.  Jack warms up to Emilia only as William gradually lets her into his world.  

Emilia shows genuine motherly skill as she ignores the boy’s tone-deaf comments and listens to what is beneath them. She sees the world through his eyes.  One gets the sense that Portman (currently expecting with her fiancée Benjamin Millepied) will be a great mom in real life.

Kudrow’s Carolyn certainly doesn’t want Emilia to succeed, seizing every opportunity to cut the legs off her young competitor. Via William, she lets Emilia know that Isabelle “wasn’t a real person under Jewish law.”  Carolyn’s icy insistence on having William apply to prestigious Ivy League-track schools are for his own good, she’s convinced.

Emilia helps William more than she helps herself.  Secretly he reads a book from her about Central Park, here a metaphor for life.  Like Lyle the Crocodile, he learns to maneuver, adapt and trust.

Denying her own pain, Emilia scoffs at the urgings of her friend Mindy (excellent Lauren Ambrose) to “take an active role in your own grief.”  Mindy too is a survivor of infant loss. Emilia is good at lashing out, but not so good at going within.

 

Suddenly Jack insists that they participate in a Memory Walk in Central Park with other grieving families. Cohen lives inside his character Jack only fleetingly, and is so withdrawn that he never seems fully committed to the role.  Reluctantly Emilia lets herself be dragged along on the silent walk. Pink, blue and white balloons waft overhead.

When her father Sheldon (Michael Cristofer) shows up at the ceremony, Emilia explodes.  She’s never forgiven him for his dalliance with a Russian stripper. It galls her that her mother (Debra Monk) has invited him back.  She rips William away from him, angry at herself and everyone else.

Finally it’s Carolyn and Sheldon who help Emilia come to terms with Isabelle’s death. “She just stopped being,” Sheldon proclaims. Life comes, life goes.   

The Other Woman slithers through mud and among thorns.  For Portman, this definitely seems like a training run for her stellar work in Black Swan.

The film is based on the book Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman.

As William sails his model boat at the Conservatory Pond, he seeks to make sense of his sister’s brief life. “I’m gonna be a Buddhist,” he proclaims.  Emilia doesn’t believe in reincarnation, she tells him, but if Isabelle ever does return, she wants to know. 

If you like The Other Woman, you might enjoy:  Rabbit Hole; Black Swan; Greenberg.

The Other Woman  2009 /  R   /  1 hour, 43 minutes

Cast Overview:  Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen, Charlie Tahan, Lauren Ambrose, Lisa Kudrow, Michael Cristofer, Debra Monk, Mona Lerche, Anthony Rapp, Kendra Kassebaum

Director:  Don Roos

Genres:  Indie, Drama