Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

The Way: Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez heal heartbreak - 5 stars

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez heal a father’s heart and find wholeness in the sensitive drama The Way. Set along the Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago) from France to Spain, the film is directed by Sheen’s son Estevez, who appears as a ghostly muse.

The most powerful movie is sometimes the simplest. Sheen’s deep, rousing performance and Estevez’s minimalist, mood-centered direction fill The Way with meaning. Cinematographer Juanmi Azpiroz captures action along the breathtaking pilgrimage route.

Daniel (Estevez) has died in a freak accident in the Pyrenees, known for unpredictable weather. He was nearly 40 when he decided to postpone doctoral studies and walk the 500-mile-long trek.

Tom Avery (Sheen) just lost his wife a year ago, so losing his son is devastating. The conservative ophthalmologist travels from Ventura, California to identify Daniel and have him cremated.

The Way is the best father-son drama I've seen in years. It's nothing less than a healing for the male heart.

With Daniel’s backpack and provisions, Tom decides to complete his son’s journey. He will walk to the cathedral where the Apostle James is said to be buried. Local police warn him about the dangers. Tom is stoic. He has nothing to lose.

Sheen’s intensity and talent are mesmerizing. A winner of Emmy and Golden Globe awards, he’s played presidents and generals, fathers and coaches. Sheen evokes manhood with strength and sensitivity.

Tom scatters Daniel’s ashes at especially beautiful vistas. He remembers how his son pissed him off. “You don’t choose a life, Dad. You live one,” Daniel once told him. Tom speaks little, but you can feel his brokenness.

Tom sees Daniel wherever he goes. The son becomes father to the man. Tom appreciates the wordless visits. Still peace eludes him.

Empty but determined, Tom surrenders. Three travelers gravitate around the angry American. Numbness gives way to fury for the grieving dad.

Deborah Kara Unger plays Sarah, a sharp-tongued Canadian who wants to quit smoking. Yorick von Wageningen plays Joost, a friendly Dutchman who’s desperate to lose weight but loves regional cuisine. James Nesbitt is engaging as Jack, a bombastic Irishman with writer’s block who begins to chronicle Tom’s story.

His companions irk him, but Tom discovers himself by being around the others. Each traveler has wounds to heal. Finally Tom empathizes. He begins to understand why the journey was so important to Daniel.

Each must resolve personal issues and find truth. Gently insistent spiritual undertones never become overbearing. An encounter with a young gypsy thief (Omar Munoz) and his father (Antonio Gil) is especially moving.

A sense of community grows among the four and extends to others who walk. With references to cell phones, The Way also meditates on how disconnected we have become in the information age.

The Way allowed Sheen and Estevez to explore their Spanish culture and Catholic religion together. Charlie Sheen, the star’s other son, battled publicly with drug addiction as this film was made. The mystical bond between fathers and sons is tempered by real life frustration in this vision quest. 

Estevez has directed a dozen television shows and films. He starred in The Breakfast Club and Young Guns. Estevez and Sheen have made other movies together, including The War at Home and Bobby. 

The Way is a memorable exploration of manhood, heart and healing. Nature’s fearsome beauty unleashes a majestic resolution.

If you like The Way, you might enjoy:  The Music Never Stopped; In a Better World; Beginners; Thor.

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The Way    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 55 min

Cast Overview: Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, Yorick van Wageningen, James Nesbitt

Director:  Emilio Estevez

Genre:  Drama, Independent

Round Ireland with a Fridge: Hawks' excellent adventure - 5 stars

 
 

When comedian Tony Hawks’ career tanks, a pal bets him 100 pounds that he can’t tote a refrigerator around Ireland within one month. Round Ireland with a Fridge stars Hawks and is based on his bestseller of the same name.

Comedy director Ed Bye depicts a creative response to tough times. The light-hearted film starts slowly but gains momentum. Hawks can’t find his groove. Audiences only laugh at his old jokes and sight gags (like tapping a golf ball aloft 20 times in a row).

The Englishman surrenders and goes with the flow as he hitchhikes around the Emerald Isle. Beginning in Dublin, he visits Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Cork and Wexford. The film sends up Irish stereotypes as Hawks trudges along the countryside, visiting pubs and boarding houses.

A friendly salesman (Sean Hughes) gives Tony a lift, and alerts national radio host Dylan Dale (uproarious Irish comedian Ed Byrne). Dale roasts Tony publicly as he tracks his progress. Soon, Tony is hailed by strangers and new friends.

Hawks meets a pretty, wisecracking reporter Roisin (Valerie O’Connor, with snarky-good delivery). Although Tony makes a disastrous first impression, she is still attracted to the amiable bumbler.

Roisin is convinced that her being a single mom will turn Tony off. Fulfilling her own prophecy, she snubs him before he can reject her. Winning Roisin’s heart becomes his quest.

 

When life looks bleak, Tony talks to his fridge. Round Ireland with a Fridge becomes an existential gem, a heartfelt response to loneliness.

Hawks dubs the fridge Saoirse, the Gaelic word for freedom. She is autographed by well-wishers, becoming a “work of art.” In some of the funniest scenes, Saoirse goes surfing, and is “christened” by a couple of nuns.

Round Ireland with a Fridge reminds me of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s impromptu comedy The Trip.

“Hitchhiking is a rather noble pursuit,” the “Fridge Man” tells Roisin. “You set your ego to one side, plop yourself by the side of the road and wait for someone to come along and help you. And you know what? People do. ‘Cause they’re quite nice.”

Bye captures the feeling of a safe and trusting world for 90 minutes. Genuine human connection, warmth, and jolly mayhem prevail.

Hawks will star in the 2012 dramedy Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, which he also wrote, co-directed and produced. According to Wikipedia, Hawks lists The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle as “the book he would take with him to a desert island.”

If you like Round Ireland with a Fridge, you might enjoy: Cedar Rapids; Our Idiot Brother; The Trip.

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Round Ireland with a Fridge     2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Tony Hawks, Ed Byrne, Josie Lawence, Sean Hughes, Valerie O’Connor, John Burke

Director: Ed Bye

Genre:  Comedy

  

The Trip: British comedians battle egos over dinner ****1/2

 

British comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon battle in a rollicking road trip through northern England in The Trip. Michael Winterbottom’s comedy is a lighthearted adventure that meditates on family, career and what really matters.

The Trip is irresistible as divorcee Steve convinces family man Rob to join him for a week-long road trip to visit England’s best restaurants in Yorkshire and The Lake District. Steve is writing celebrity restaurant reviews for The Observer, who will pick up their tab.

Coogan and Brydon (who also matched wits in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) share great chemistry. Before we know it we’re hooked on where they’re going, what they’re eating and which actor they’ll send up next. The film engages our imaginations despite a bare-bones plot (Steve has a decision to make).

Laugh-out-loud adventurous and easygoing, this is a thoughtful comedy more sophisticated than the average mockumentary. It’s all improv, originally shot as a BBC mini-series. Winterbottom and editors Mags Arnold and Paul Monaghan earn high praise for adapting it to the big screen.

Fame is fickle for the friendly rivals, who compete in real life. Coogan (24 Hour Party People) has pursued Hollywood roles (Around the World in 80 Days) with less acclaim. Brydon enjoys great popularity in England. He’s renowned for one routine seen here: “Help me! I’m a small man stuck in a box!”

Coogan fusses and fumes. He’s pulled in several directions as he phones his elusive girlfriend Mischa (Margo Stilley), his American agent (Kerry Shale) and his wayward son. Hurting, he mimics Brydon’s “small man” in the mirror.

 
 

Meanwhile Brydon coasts along, confident. The banter turns philosophical as they sing and play “what if." Coogan drives. The Trip is fanciful and endearing when compared with darker, moodier Sideways (2004).

Scrumptious and beautifully designed cuisine becomes the focal point as the insults roll. We glimpse behind-the-scenes food preparation in some of England’s best restaurants. Scallops, duck, pigeon and micro greens are served. The two visit Hipping Hall, L’Enclume and The Yorke Arms.

At their most side-splitting, Coogan and Brydon compete with dueling impressions of famous Brits like Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton. Woody Allen, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are mimicked. Observing Best Actor Colin Firth’s success, the two ponder just how far they would go to win an Oscar.

The funnymen meet literary tradition when they visit Dove Cottage where William Wordsworth lived. Touring Samuel Coleridge’s home nearby, they recall his opium addiction. “I’d rather have moments of genius than a lifetime of mediocrity,” Brydon declares.

Northern England is beautifully filmed, mirroring the travelers’ psyches with rolling hills, meadows and ancient limestone outcroppings. Man’s eternal quest ranges from primordial to modern days.

There’s a quiet, reflective moment when Coogan arrives at a limestone bluff. He savors the awesome landscape and its natural sounds. Although it's soon interrupted, the moment is like a deep breath. That intimacy between man and nature is rarely captured on film.

Coogan sows his wild oats, seducing several ladies during their overnight stays. He calls himself a British Don Quixote. “Women are my windmills. I tilt at them,” he quips.

At an old cemetery Coogan delivers Brydon’s eulogy, but quickly leaves before his friend can reciprocate. On their way home, they visit Coogan’s parents. It’s a heartwarming interlude, but one that the son is eager to flee.

Being human can be funny, sad, frustrating and occasionally transcendent. The Trip is an allegory for life that honors England and creative artists everywhere. Assuming a modest place in history, Coogan and Brydon take life – and themselves – lightly.

If you like The Trip, you might enjoy: Midnight in Paris; Barney’s Version; Cedar Rapids.

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The Trip     2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 51 min

Cast Overview:  Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Claire Keelan, Margo Stilley, Rebecca Johnson, Dolya Gavanski, Kerry Shale

Director:  Michael Winterbottom

Genre:  Mockumentary, Comedy

 

Midnight in Paris *****

 

Woody Allen’s magic is back. A charming, erudite frolic through Paris and the heart of an idealistic Hollywood screenwriter, Midnight in Paris lightheartedly explores past and present.

Midnight in Paris savors life and literature in the City of Light. Allen’s newest film looks and feels like Woody at his eternally searching, meditative best. Opening with shots of Paris by day and night, in sun and rain, he romances the vibrant hub of culture and romance.

Allen serves a visual and emotional feast as he did in Manhattan. He incorporates a hint of his legendary zaniness (Bananas, Sleeper) with mellow, “what if” curiosity. The director, 76, watches these characters fuss and fight with less anxiety and more insight, as if he’s been there, done that. He reimagines his best, creative work here.

As characters struggle inwardly and with one another, Midnight in Paris echoes The Purple Rose of Cairo with a nod to literature buffs. Allen seems less neurotic and more trusting in his latest film, a delightful culmination of his prolific career so far. Allen has written and directed a movie a year for over 40 years.

Delightful surprises after the clock strikes twelve are best left for viewers to discover. Owen Wilson is Allen’s on-screen persona Gil Pender, a shambling, successful screenwriter who daydreams about finishing his novel, fleeing Malibu and moving to Paris. “Paris in the spring in the rain!” is Gil’s refrain. “You’re in love with a fantasy,” carps his gold digger fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams).

Inez and her parents (Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy) become more agitated as Gil grows more enchanted with Paris’ Golden Age, where “every street, every boulevard is its own art form.” Marion Cotillard is perfect as earnest femme fatale Adriana who loves Paris as much as Gil does.

It’s a career-changing role for Wilson (Wedding Crashers; The Royal Tenenbaums), who as artistic everyman is writing a novel set in a nostalgia shop. Gil explores the charisma of the past as he seeks to satisfy inner yearnings. Meanwhile McAdams (The Notebook, Morning Glory) plays the Woody Allen type of a shrill, controlling female.

Know-it-all intellectual Paul (Michael Sheen) flirts with Inez as he basks in her admiration. “Nostalgia is denial of a painful present,” he tells Gil. The windbag has the gall to confront a museum guide (beautifully played by France’s first lady Carla Bruni) over Rodin’s love life.

 
 
Fascinating actors contribute gems of performance as the story unfolds. Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Tom Hiddleston, Alison Pill and Corey Stoll add delight.

Filled with memorable Allenisms, the film’s best one-liners include: “No subject is terrible if the story is true and if the prose is clean and honest.” “You’ll never write well if you fear dying.”

In an interview with LA Weekly, Allen spoke about some dialogue he wrote for this film, that the artist’s job is “to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.”  "I don't know if I believe that myself," he said. "One could make a case for that – that the job of the artist is to show why life, despite all its horror and brutality, is worth living and is a valuable thing.”

One could argue that “it's not the job of the artist to do anything at all -- just to make the best art that he can, because art gives pleasure and pleasure gives distraction, and distraction is the only thing that gets us by, really,” Allen said.

Cinematographer Darius Khondji evokes gorgeous Paris from the opening scenes through the finale on a stately bridge between past and present.

If you like Midnight in Paris, you might enjoy:  Barney’s Version; Love & Other Drugs; Just Go With It.

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Midnight in Paris     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 34 min 

Cast Overview:  Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson, Tom Hiddleston, Alison Pill, Marcial Di Fonzo Bo, Corey Stoll, Kurt Fuller, Mimi Kennedy, Lea Seydoux

Director:  Woody Allen

Genre:  Romantic Comedy, Romance

 

 

Eat Pray Love ****1/2

 
 
 

Julia Roberts finds herself - and we rediscover her considerable talents -  in a rare “movie-is-better-than-the-book” travel adventure, Eat Pray Love.

Screenplay by director Ryan Murphy and Jennifer Salt redeems the navel-gazing memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert. Revealing an inner adventure that drags at first, the film soon falls into natural rhythm as a world traveler faces her inner demons and searches for love.

Best of all, Eat Pray Love stars a Julia Roberts who shows up in nearly every scene. Abundant screen time allows Roberts to inhabit her character Liz, weave us into her anger and frustration, and reveal a radiant, smiling beauty. There’s no trace of the tight-assed Anna of Closer or Tess of Ocean’s Eleven. Instead we could be watching Mystic Pizza’s Daisy Arujo all grown up.

Roberts seems to be playing herself in the film which avoids becoming preachy or too New Agey. Instead Liz meets an array of honest, memorable characters as she learns to love herself during trips to Italy, India and Bali.

“Ruin is the path to transformation,” Liz finds. After a bitter divorce from sarcastic dreamer Stephen (perfectly played by Billy Crudup), she leaves a rebound-relationship with actor David (James Franco). Tarrying too long in New York City with her literary agent (Viola Davis), Liz finally she sets out, broke and alone.

The film’s rich atmosphere and scenery in all three countries is pleasurable. How big the world is, and how it puts our personal struggles into perspective.

In Italy, Liz indulges in food and abstains from sex. It’s her time to be in relationship with herself. She ruminates about her romantic failures while wolfing down Pizza Margherita in Napoli and enjoying prosciutto topped melon with a motley crew of natives and expatriates. The philosophical group, including new friend Sofi (Tuva Novotny), share interesting times, including a morning-after Thanksgiving turkey with extended family. What Liz takes away from her stay is gratitude – for her friends and for life.

A few pounds heavier, she heads to India and the ashram of David’s guru. Plunging herself into a regimen of chanting, vegetarian meals and 4:00 a.m. meditations, she meets Richard from Texas (raw, honest Richard Jenkins, a likely nominee for Best Supporting Actor). Filled with fear and skepticism, Liz is shown meditating just enough to give us the idea: accept whatever happens, and move on. Rushita Singh is memorable as a teenager who’s being forced into an arranged marriage.

Bali is where Liz reunites with a wise, eccentric shaman Ketut (irresistible Hadi Subiyanto) and befriends a healer Wayan (soulful Christine Hakim). It isn’t long before warm-hearted divorcee Felipe (Javier Bardem) nearly collides with the soul searcher. Roberts and Bardem are magical together onscreen.

Eat Pray Love is part of a new Hollywood tradition: the blockbuster film about self-discovery. The screenplay reportedly struck a chord with Roberts. The film’s team of producers includes Brad Pitt (Seven Years in Tibet; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).

Eat Pray Love reveals an authentic side of Julia Roberts while it shows us how the real can become sublime.

If you like Eat Pray Love, you might enjoy: I Am Love; Wild Grass; Another Year.

Eat Pray Love 2010 / PG-13 / 2 hours, 15 minutes

Cast Overview: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, Viola Davis, Billy Crudup, Richard Jenkins, James Franco, Luca Spaghetti

Director: Ryan Murphy

Genres: Self-Discovery, Adventure, Travel, Romance