Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

The Descendants: Clooney braves hell in paradise - 5 stars

Crisis breaks George Clooney’s heart open in The Descendants, a family movie where deepening tragedy is touched by gentle humor and grace.

Hawaii’s no paradise for Matt King (Clooney), a real estate lawyer whose wife Liz (Patricia Hastie) lies in a coma after a waterskiing accident. “Hell, I haven’t been on a surfboard for 15 years,” he gripes.

Matt has been busy earning a living. He also serves as trustee of his family’s 25,000 pristine acres on Kauai’s South Shore.

Clooney is intelligent, vulnerable and charming as “the back-up parent, the understudy” who now must step up for his daughters. Alex (Shailene Woodley) is an angry 17-year-old who finds compassion. Scottie (Amara Miller) is a tender, volatile 10-year-old eager to grow up.

Director Alexander Payne weaves the trouble in paradise theme into a personal journey that embraces family and community. With satisfying plot twists, the story shows Matt, Alex and Scottie begin to live more from the heart, and less from the mind.

When Alex tells her dad that Liz was cheating on him, horror and disbelief are accompanied by upbeat ukulele music. He dons his flip-flops and runs to a neighbor’s house to find out “who my wife was … seeing.”

Elizabeth is never going to wake up, Matt learns. He must transform his own pain and sorrow, and guide his daughters through their impending loss. Sometimes falling flat as a parent, he perseveres. He genuinely loves his girls.

Urging extended family and friends to say goodbye to Liz, Matt hatches a plan. He and Alex track down Elizabeth’s lover, realtor Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard). They discover the unexpected. Matt confronts Brian.

Clooney’s fully dimensional character is wounded but spunky. He reveals our own foibles and makes us laugh at them. It’s an impressive progression for the actor, who played a “termination specialist” in Up in the Air; a repentant assassin in The American, and an escaped con in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Matt presides over motley relatives who vote to sell the family land. Hippie cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges) urges him on. Among the bidders are a ritzy condo chain and a Hawaiian developer. A local mother asks Matt not to move forward with the sale.

Hawaii is a land of natives and newcomers, of privilege and struggle. Matt’s ancestors were among the islands’ first white settlers. Surveying the family photos on his office wall, you realize that his actions reflect on all of them, including a Hawaiian princess by marriage.

Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is memorable as rebellious Alex. Slowly she begins to accept her dad and take better care of herself. Nick Krause is engaging as Alex’s dude friend Sid. Matt must come to terms with Sid and see him as more than a loser. It’s one way he learns to grow as a father.

The excellent cast includes Judy Greer, heart-tugging as Brian’s wronged wife Julie. Robert Forster plays Elizabeth’s belligerent father.

Payne last directed the film Sideways (2004). He’s also known for Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt. His next project is a father-son drama Nebraska.

Payne, along with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, wrote the first-rate script based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel. Cinematography by Phedon Papamichael and editing by Kevin Tent marry drama and comedy. Voiceovers, so easy to overdo, are well executed as Clooney delivers choice observations.

“My family seems exactly like an archipelago, always drifting apart,” Matt observes. By the end of The Descendants, Matt, Alex and Scottie achieve wholeness.

If you like The Descendants, you might enjoy:  Win Win; The American; Up in the Air.

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The Descendants    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 55 min

Cast Overview:  George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel, Patricia Hastie 

Director:  Alexander Payne

Genre:  Dramedy, Drama, Family

 

Janie Jones: Abigail Breslin sings, uplifts band drama - 3 stars

Abigail Breslin can sing. In Janie Jones, Breslin’s voice and fresh, unaffected performance add soul to the road indie. David M. Rosenthal writes and directs the semiautobiographical drama.

Breslin (Oscar nominated for her supporting role in Little Miss Sunshine) is remarkable as Janie, the 13-year-old no one wants. She gets dropped off with her rock singer dad Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola) while her mom Mary Ann Jones (Elisabeth Shue), a former groupie, begins meth rehab.

Ethan didn’t even know he had a daughter. The sensitive chemistry between Breslin and Nivola (an accomplished musician who starred in Junebug) grows as Ethan’s career declines. He drinks heavily. The group begins to break up.

Ethan hears Janie playing and singing a folk-y ballad one day. Cautious at first, he warms to fatherhood.

The duo sings well. Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes wrote the songs performed by Breslin. One of the ballads, Fight For Me, has been released. Eef Barzelay of the band Clem Snide wrote Nivola’s tunes.

The two develop camaraderie. “You look like sh-t,” she tells him. “You tell the truth, I like that,” he replies. Ethan decides to go solo. He invites Janie to join him on stage.

As Ethan takes more responsibility for his life, he slowly heals. When he acknowledges Janie as his daughter on stage, it’s a great film moment.

The band drama is a long cliché of swearing, drinking, drugs and one night stands. The first half is especially trite as the action lags. Finesse and originality were needed.

Ethan is arrested one night when he beats up an audience member flirting with Janie. His daughter hocks his guitar to bail him out. Ethan’s manager Sloan (Peter Stormare) remains a trusted friend even after he leaves the singer.

Finally Ethan must visit his mother Lily to ask for a loan. Frances Fisher is great as the Chicago socialite meeting her granddaughter for the first time.

Breslin, now 15, performs with a friend in the pop-rock/retro band CABB. In her next movie, New Year’s Eve, she plays Sarah Jessica Parker’s troubled daughter.

If you like Janie Jones, you might enjoy:  Crazy Heart; Somewhere.

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Janie Jones    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 46 min

 

Cast Overview: Abigail Breslin, Elisabeth Shue, Alessandro Nivola, Brittany Snow, Peter Stormare, Frank Whaley, Frances Fisher

Director:  David M. Rosenthal

Genre:  Indie, Drama, Music

 

 

Our Idiot Brother: Paul Rudd loves mayhem in smart comedy 4/5 stars

 

Ned (Paul Rudd) tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth in Jesse Peretz’s sweet comedy Our Idiot Brother. Rudd’s good-hearted, biodynamic farmer is beset by bad luck in this warm, funny film.

Ned loves others to a fault. Is he really an idiot? Yes and no.

Rudd plays a genial hippie lacking in social judgment. He’s so naïve that he sells pot to a uniformed police officer at the Farmer’s Market one day.

After he is thrown out by his girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Hahn), Ned travels to Brooklyn to crash with each of his three sisters.

Elizabeth Banks (Avery Jessup in 30 Rock) plays Miranda, an ambitious reporter at Vanity Fair. Miranda insists that being an adult means lying and taking advantage of others. The innocent brother can’t relate.

 

Liz (Emily Mortimer) is a mousy, tired wife and mom. She’s unaware of the shenanigans of her film director husband Dylan (Steve Coogan). Ned puts two and two together and spills the beans.

Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) is a club performer who reaches a turning point. Natalie withholds information from her lover Cindy (pep-talking Rashida Jones), and this threatens their relationship. Meanwhile Cindy, who’s a lawyer, helps Ned with his legal problems.

Ned drives his sisters nuts by spilling their personal secrets. This turns their lives upside down. It’s not that he wants to hurt anyone. He just can’t conceive of a world where people hide things from one another.

 

Unfortunately, neither Peretz nor the script coax much depth from the sisters. Pushy Miranda, overwhelmed Liz and flighty Natalie remain one-dimensional.

Finally, Ned’s mom (Shirley Knight, wonderful here) is the one who opens her home to him unconditionally. Mournfully, he accepts.  

Janet’s breakup with Ned is tough love. Living a back-to-the-land lifestyle, she’s a sermonizing spitfire. Ned is heart-broken when she insists on keeping Willie Nelson, his golden retriever and best friend.

The born-again optimist is unable to match any cynical, mean vibes. Ned loses it during a game of charades with his disillusioned siblings. The scene shows how hard it is for him to be in the world.

Trying a new age solution, Ned meets a know-it-all teacher and passes out in a sweat lodge called “The Win Tent.” Although he often seems to fail, the idiot brother occasionally enchants those he meets.

Ned is happiest playing with his 7-year-old nephew River (Matthew Mindler). Liz and Dylan enroll River in dance classes, hell-bent on grooming him for admission to an elite school. What the boy really loves is learning Tae Kwon Do from his uncle and watching Pink Panther past his bed time.

Like Ed Helms in Cedar Rapids, Rudd gives a standout performance as an oddball character for our time. What would the world look like if more people were like Ned? As he shakes things up, lives are transformed and healed.  

Rudd’s raunchiest moment is when Ned tentatively accepts a three-way with an amorous couple. He can’t go through with it. British comedian Coogan is brilliant as Liz’s wayward hubby. His arse-backwards nude scene is terrific.

The smart, funny script was written by Evgenia Peretz (the director’s sister) and her partner Anthony Bregman. Do you like happy endings? Dog lovers will appreciate this silly but positive conclusion.

If you like Our Idiot Brother, you might enjoy: The Trip; Barney’s Version; Cedar Rapids.

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Our Idiot Brother     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, Kathryn Hahn, Rashida Jones, Shirley Knight, T.J. Miller, Matthew Mindler

Director: Jesse Peretz

Genre:  Comedy

 

 

Terri: John C. Reilly feeds teen's big, hungry heart ****

 

Terri stands apart from The Art of Getting By and Submarine for one reason: John C. Reilly. The coming-of-age dramedy hinges on Reilly’s Mr. Fitzgerald, a vice principal who cares about kids in trouble. Jacob Wysocki stars as Terri, a huge oddball with a confused, hungry heart.

Reilly’s straightforward, unforgettable character walks his talk. He owns his own disappointments and shortcomings. Mr. Fitzgerald doesn’t pretend to have it all together, but he knows enough to share his homespun philosophy. When obese Terri lands in his office for daily tardiness, he sets up a weekly meeting to mentor the pajama-clad, good-hearted teen.

Terri’s inner monster is big, odd and misunderstood. He lives in a messy old house with Uncle James (The Office’s Creed Bratton, very good here) who’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Terri takes care of his uncle tenderly.

Trapping mice in the attic is necessary and gives Terri something to do. Glum and bored, he loiters in the woods each morning, watching his offering of dead mice on a log. When a raptor arrives, Terri yelps with excitement. It’s the first revelation of the big boy’s spirit.

An encounter with the bird of prey also sets this movie apart. The raptor is said to symbolize vision, power and guardianship. Connecting with nature is another way the boy heals. Mr. Fitzgerald suggests a new life perspective: “I like this person. I look forward to these days.”

Wysocki is extraordinary, an actor of imagination and warmth. Terri makes slow and painful progress. He aches, stumbles and has wise insights. He wants to fit in as he struggles to be himself. Patrick Dewitt’s understated dialogue rings perfectly. “The feeling is no feeling,” Terri tells his mentor.

 

Terri hangs out with two other outcasts, publicly shamed Heather (Olivia Crocicchia) and hair-pulling misanthrope Chad (Bridger Zadina). The trio reveals risky delight, a weird foray into friendship and experimentation. All three succeed with plain-spoken honesty. Director Azazel Jacobs captures odd beauty in this and other scenes.

Mr. Fitzgerald talks about life and possibilities from his heart and his gut. Reilly makes the character unique as a caring, competent man who admits his own shortcomings. The unapologetically odd vice principal grows on us throughout the film.

Terri finds Mr. Fitzgerald passed out in his car one Sunday morning in the school parking lot. He’s had another fight with his wife. The two share quality time, raiding aspirin from the nurse’s office and shooting hoops. The school’s motto towers above them in the gym: Pride. Tradition. Excellence.

In The Art of Getting By and Submarine, mentors are marginal and never fully developed. Here youth and age are both honored. Mr. Fitzgerald throws Terri a lifeline, and the teen gives him the opportunity to practice his life’s calling. There’s a boy within the man, and a man within the boy.

When Fitzgerald betrays the boy’s trust it’s devastating. He transforms the moment by apologizing. “Life’s a mess, dude, but we’re all just doing the best we can.”

In an imperfect world, Terri ends with a quiet, transcendent moment. This is not a feel-good movie, but one that celebrates flawed humanity and hope.

If you like Terri, you might enjoy:  The Art of Getting By; Submarine; Cedar Rapids.

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Terri     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 27 min

Cast Overview:  Jacob Wysocki, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Bridger Zadina, John C. Reilly

Director:  Azazel Jacobs

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy

 

Captain America: The First Avenger ***

 

Imagine a stirring marvel comics movie where a violent bully breaks away from his boss Hitler and threatens the entire free world. A scrawny, heroic American boy risks his life in a secret experiment. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) emerges a muscular Mr. Universe with superhero powers. His mission: to track down the demonic Red Skull (Hugo Weaving).

Now imagine watching the entire movie wearing dark shades. Captain America: The First Avenger, sets up next year’s comic book feature The Avengers.

The story is exciting at first. World War II is underway. Hitler wins victory after victory. Rogers, a gaunt asthmatic with a brave spirit, is turned down by the Army. He applies again and again. When research scientist and former Nazi Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci, fascinating here) spies Rogers at the World’s Fair in Queens, New York, he sees great potential.

“Do you want to kill Nazis?” Erskine asks Rogers. “I don’t want to kill anyone,” Rogers replies. “I don’t like bullies.” The scientist recruits him for a top-secret training program. Rogers will become the first of a new breed of super soldiers. “Why me?” Rogers asks. A weak man knows compassion, Erskine tells him. Skeptical Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones, very good here) must admit that lightweight Rogers has loads of bravery and character.

A gray pall covers the entire 2-D version of Captain America. The movie is so visually dull that its story grows lackluster. Reviewers who saw the 3-D version have complained about an even darker effect. Too bad director Joe Johnston didn’t take a cue from Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), who married noir with occasional daylight. Johnston’s film isn’t noir, though. It’s just gray.

 

Transformation is overshadowed by special effects. Captain America loses energy in its second half. Repetitive action, stiff formality and a disconnected feeling among cast members don’t help. Oh, for the heart and pizzazz of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man! Absent is the rich character and interpersonal sparring of the X-Men: First Class!

Johnston (Jumanji; Jurassic Park III; October Sky) could have filmed Captain America in black and white. This would have been more interesting and lively. He does capture beautiful 1940’s detail here.

In emphasizing period detail and computer-generated effects, the director neglects character development. Often lacking are the complexities of authentic interpersonal tension (achieved so well in X-Men: First Class). The rapport between Evans and his love interest, training officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), feels forced and underdeveloped.

Evans creates a strong, brave, soft-spoken hero (combining shades of Superman and Clark Kent). Sebastian Stan plays his best friend Bucky Barnes. Weaving (Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy) is fun to watch as dastardly Red Skull, a power-hungry villain almost incoherent with hatred.

Red Skull is backed by an army of robo-soldiers who make up the Nazi research group Hydra. “Hail, Hydra!” they cry. “If you cut off one head, many will grow it its place,” a dying spy warns Captain America.        

A twisted reference to the tree of life symbol (a tree that joins heaven and earth) is shown as an invasive, sinister “Tree of the World” emblem for Hydra.

Why mask the red, white and blue with unrelenting gray? The choice reflects America’s widespread national cynicism. A languishing economy, natural disasters and terrorist acts have made such cynicism popular. Captain America is doing extremely well at the box office.

Promising inspiration, Captain America doesn’t deliver. Thankfully, this marvel comics movie ends with a dash of hope. Samuel L. Jackson reminds us that this tale merely sets up the future adventures of The Avengers (2012). Starring will be Evans, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Jackson as Nick Fury, and many more. The Avengers is being directed by Joss Whedon.

If you like Captain America, you might enjoy:  X-Men: First Class; Thor; Iron Man 2.

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Captain America     2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 4 min

Cast Overview:  Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Ken Choi, Stanley Tucci

Director:  Joe Johnston 

Genre:  Comic Book, Adventure, Fantasy

 

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

 
 

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

Of Gods and Men *****

 
 

Seven French monks face death as civil war sweeps through a mountain village in Of Gods and Men.

Xavier Beauvois directs the true life drama which won Best Film at the Cesar Awards (France’s Oscars) and the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2010.

The Trappist monks offer compassionate service in the rural Algerian highlands. They raise crops and sell honey. Elderly Brother Luc (Cesar winner Michael Lonsdale) gives medical care to the poor.  When a child’s shoes are worn, he provides a new pair.

Extremists slit the throats of Croatian highway workers one day. Villagers run to tell the brothers. Tensions rise between Islamist insurgents and a corrupt government. France’s colonization of Algeria, years after the country regained independence, still rankles. Foreigners are not trusted.  

In this can’t-look-away film, Beauvois focuses on the inner and outer lives of the monks, who were kidnapped during the 1996 civil war and later executed.  No group admitted to the slayings.

Love and devotion are genuine. Cinematographer Caroline Champetier (also a Cesar winner) captures the monks’ emotion, movement and conversation close up in the beautiful, meditative mountains. The film was made in Morocco.

As violence spreads, the government orders the monks to leave the country. The men debate their fate. They have long accepted their Islamic brothers and sisters.

The monks are radicals too, believing that reconciliation is possible. Daily service, prayer and devotion fill their days. The community’s prior Christian (Lambert Wilson) reads both the Koran and the Bible.

Ego is almost completely subdued among the brothers.  Chatter doesn’t fill their dinner hour. Instead, they listen to scripture readings as they eat in silence.

Wilson told The New York Times that the actors went on retreat in the French Alps to prepare for their roles. "We spent a few days observing the monks, eating in silence with the other people who were going on the retreat, and then we started singing. And that was really the best preparation. We learned Gregorian chanting. We learned liturgical singing as a group. This is really what got this group of French actors together."

Known for his performances in the Matrix trilogy, Wilson usually plays romantic and lighthearted characters.

After a terse showdown with Christian on Christmas evening, a terrorist leader designates the abbey as protected. To Beauvois’ credit he transcends stereotypes.

When a wounded jihadist is brought in, Luc treats him as he would anyone else.  The act of charity must be kept secret or the group risks government retaliation.  

Each monk must decide whether to stay or leave.  Christophe (Olivier Rabourdin) struggles with fear and anger more than the rest. 

The men don’t want to be martyrs, they decide. But where else will they go when they are so needed here?  “It is mad to stay, like it is mad to become a monk,” says Christian.

 

 

In one of the best scenes, the group stands during morning prayer and sings loudly as a military helicopter hovers overhead, filling the monastery with a terrifying racket.

Towards the end, Luc breaks out two bottles of wine for dinner.  Wordlessly, he plays a tape of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.  The monks smile, tears glistening. The music swells as does their passion to follow Christ in selfless service.

Of Gods and Men is worth seeing twice for its nuance.  It is the best movie exploration yet of silent devotion in a complex world. Beauvois, who co-wrote the script, captures simple sanctity and dramatic tension. Films covering similar territory include Silent Light, Into Great Silence and Hadewijch.

The film is loosely based on The Monks of Tibhirine by John Kiser.

If you like Of Gods and Men, you might enjoy:  Get Low; 127 Hours; The King’s Speech.

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Of Gods and Men   2010  /  PG-13  /  2 hours

Cast:  Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin, Philippe Laudenbach, Jacques Herlin, Loic Pichon, Jean-Marie Laudenbach

Director:  Xavier Beauvois

Genre:  Drama, Historical Drama, Foreign Film, True Stories, Movie Based on the Book

Languages:  French and Arabic with English subtitles

 

 

Cedar Rapids ****

 

The Daily Show’s Ed Helms plays a naïve Midwestern insurance salesman in the raunchy 
comedy with heart Cedar Rapids.

Helms plays delightfully guileless Tim Lippe, who after the mysterious suicide of Brown Valley Insurance’s top salesman, is appointed to represent his firm at an annual insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Tim is an idealist who reveres the insurance man who took care of him after he lost his parents.

Tim is that rare businessman who genuinely cares about his customers. They love him for it. As he ventures onto his first plane ride and touches down in Iowa, everyone he meets is changed by him.

With an innocent sense of wonder that few have, Tim appreciates the little things in life (the hotel pool and hot tub). He’s friendly and ready to open his heart, even when faced with new experiences (like meeting an “Afro-American.”)   

The coveted Two Diamond Award is on the line as Tim gamely networks and joins in business rituals. For the first time he drinks cream sherry, sings karaoke and snorts white powder. Tim even hangs out with irresistible party guy Dean Ziegler (artfully played by boisterous John C. Reilly), the very salesman that his uptight boss Bill (Stephen Root) warned him to stay away from.

Married convention-goer Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche) seeks to lure Tim into her annual one-night stand at the hotel. Tim pledges his commitment to his lover Macy (Sigourney Weaver, superb as Tim’s newly divorced seventh grade teacher). Calling Macy every few hours, Tim declares that they are “pre-engaged” even though she’s sending him mixed signals.

Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Washington Jr. of The Wire) plays the voice of reason as Tim’s black roommate. The hero’s greatest challenge awaits when he meets one-on-one with Orin Helgesson (Kurtwood Smith), the insurance association’s morally challenged president.

 

In this very genuine-feeling tale written by Wisconsin native Phil Johnston, each main character becomes fully dimensional.  Dean’s wild façade hides his anguish after his wife left him. Joan advises her hubby on the phone about how to handle the kids. Ronald admits he’s a square who enjoys watching HBO.

Alia Shawkat plays a hotel hooker who is charmed by Tim’s decency.

Tim wants to please so much that he has trouble saying no. Finally, friendship and loyalty are the greatest gifts he takes away from Cedar Rapids.

While Miguel Arteta’s film genially pokes fun at the Midwest, it takes aim at the insurance industry and religious double standards as well.

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

Cedar Rapids  2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 27 min

Cast:  Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Stephen Root, Kurtwood Smith, Alia Shawkat, Thomas Lennon, Sigourney Weaver

Director:  Miguel Arteta

Genre:  Comedy