Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Snow Flower never blooms in women's friendship tale 2.5/5

 

A woman’s bound foot is a knarled mass of black and blue. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan reveals this metaphor for women’s suffering. Bound feet were called “golden lilies” in ancient China. The soft bones of young feet were broken, making girls highly prized as wives. “Only through pain will you find beauty,” Snow Flower is told. Misery is just beginning for two pairs of friends in this uneven drama.

Snow Flower reveals Chinese tradition and modernity with respect. It’s filled with beautiful scenery and costuming. Still it never captures the depth that women’s friendships must have had then and now. The laotong – “old sames” who enter an arranged friendship and vow eternal devotion – hobble on impossibly tiny, misshapen feet. They communicate in a secret language called nu shu, writing messages in the folds of silk fans.

Unnecessarily complicating Amy See’s novel of the same name, director Wayne Wang (Chan Is Missing; The Joy Luck Club; Maid in Manhattan) adds a second set of friends in modern day Shanghai. He then forces a comparison between modern and ancient friends. Attempting to cover too much ground, the movie jumps back and forth in time. Finally the historic tale is more developed and intriguing.

 

Bingbing Li plays Lily, a bank executive. Gianna Jun stars as Sophia, a writer. As soon as we meet the two best friends forever, we are transported to 19^th century Hunan province. There, Li and Jun play Nina and Snow Flower respectively. The film cuts quickly back and forth to various points in the parallel stories.

Nina and Snow Flower enter arranged marriages and have children. Snow Flower’s husband (Jiang Wu) beats her, but she will not leave him. Typhus wipes out family members. Bands of rebels invade villages.

Under Shanghai’s modern, dim cityscape, Sophia rides her bike in traffic. She collides with a taxi. As Sophia clings to life in a hospital bed, Lily investigates her friend, hoping to find why they have drifted apart. Lily visits a modern art exhibit about foot binding. Images of disfigured feet line a wall. A pop art sign declares: (N)EVER BIND.

When Wang experiments with different cameras for the two eras, this adds to the unevenness. The comparison between past and present is strained.

Good acting by all cannot overcome the film’s awkward structure. In a distracting thread, Hugh Jackman appears briefly as Arthur, Sophia’s Australian lover and club owner. It isn’t the best role for talented Jackman, although he does sing in Mandarin.  

The eroticism of two women deeply devoted to each other is only hinted at in long looks and a near-kiss. Perhaps Wang believed it was not necessary to include lesbian love here. Acknowledging the characters’ desires more openly would have helped illumine these relationships.

Snow Flower ends too neatly with a message that misses the point. These suffering women don’t yet love themselves. True empowerment comes from within.

If you like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, you might enjoy:  Queen to Play; Incendies; Mother and Child.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Gianna Jun, Bingbing Li, Vivian Wu, Jiang Wu, Russell Wong, Archie Kao and Hugh Jackman

Director:  Wayne Wang

Genre:  Drama, Foreign Film, Movies Based on the Book

Languages:  Chinese and English with English subtitles

 

 

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.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

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

 

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.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

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

 

Queen to Play *****

 

A sensual encounter over a chessboard inspires a hotel chambermaid to shine in Queen to Play, a soulful dramedy where a working class woman transcends personal and social limits.

When Helene (Sandrine Bonnaire) spies a couple (Jennifer Beals and Dominic Gould) playing chess on the balcony of a room she is cleaning, she cannot look away. Their connection is intimate and playful. Obviously in love, they match wits hungrily. Playing chess is a continuation of their lovemaking. Helene is hooked.

As travelers with fascinating lives visit the lovely island of Corsica, Helene has watched them. Can the quiet, modest wife and mother conjure adventures of her own? She begins to explore chess. The beauty of the carved wooden pieces, the strategy behind the moves and the power of the Queen fascinate her. Chess becomes Helene’s inspiration and path to empowerment in Caroline Bottaro’s impressive feature film debut.

Resolved to embrace more of life, Helene buys her husband Ange (Francis Renaud) an electronic chess board for his birthday. The problem is he doesn’t play. “Maybe you will learn,” she suggests. Hard-working Ange is too tired to listen to his wife. When Helene wears a silk negligee to bed, he doesn’t even notice.

Sleepless Helene plays chess in the middle of the night. As she plans her moves, she sees new possibilities in life. Then she reaches a plateau. She now needs a coach to help her master the game.

People talk. When reclusive American widower Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline) agrees to teach chess to his part-time house cleaner, Helene spends more and more time at his home. She returns home late, leaving Ange and her 15-year-old Lisa (Alexandra Gentil) to prepare their own dinner.

Neighborhood gossip reaches Ange. Suspecting the worst, he follows Helene to Kroger’s home.  What he spies through the window stuns him.

Helene is not having an affair, but she is sharing her mind and spirit. Ange reels with resentment. Life imitates chess as Helene and Ange begin to redefine their relationship. They think, consider and move differently, especially in an encounter at the kitchen table.

Bottaro’s chess-like plot and character growth fascinate. In an emblematic scene, Helene comes to life as she mops the hotel floor, becoming the Queen on a huge chessboard. The film observes class and feminism delicately, never losing personal relevance and vibrancy. Watching her mother take risks, Lisa finds new respect for her.

 

Bonnaire (Vagabond) achieves sensitive ardor in an exquisite performance. She plays perfectly off Oscar winner Kevin Kline in his first French-speaking role. As Kroger becomes Helene’s mentor and friend, Kline bristles with wry humor, masculinity and unpredictability. Chess, like anything else, reveals insight into self and others.

Telepathy grows between teacher and student. In an intriguing scene, Kroger and Helene play a sly, verbal game of chess. With just the hint of a caress, the two appreciate each other as man and woman.

Helene wins game after game, so Kroger encourages her to enter a local amateur tournament. The professor remains involved and irascible. “When you take a risk you may lose,” he tells her. “When you don’t take a risk you always lose.”

With undertones of feminism, Queen to Play never preaches. Bottaro keeps it real and honest. The filmmaker co-wrote the script with Caroline May.

As Helene learns to believe in herself, she finds her true voice. Queen to Play is based on Bertina Henrichs’ novel La Joueuse d’echec (The Chess Player).

If you like Queen to Play, you might enjoy: An Education; Shopgirl; Mademoiselle Chambon.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

Queen to Play    2009  /  NR  /  1 hour, 36 min

Cast Overview:  Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline, Francis Renaud, Jennifer Beals, Dominic Gould, Valerie Lagrange, Alexandra Gentil

Director:  Caroline Bottaro

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy, Foreign Film

Language: French 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

 

Forks Over Knives ****

 

More energy, weight loss, longer lifespan and lower risk factors for heart attack, stroke and cancer are the benefits of a vegetarian diet according to Forks Over Knives.

Lee Fulkerson writes and directs the film which advocates empowering ourselves by taking a preventative dietary approach to health.  Skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, heart attack, stroke and cancer in the U.S., despite a huge investment in healthcare, point to the effectiveness of dietary change.

Nutritional scientist and former dairy farmer T. Colin Campbell believes that health care costs in the United States could be cut by billions if Americans switched to a whole foods, plant-based diet.

 

Campbell authored The China Study, where comprehensive research reveals that “degenerative diseases like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented — and in many cases reversed — by adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet.”

A renowned surgeon who heads the Breast Cancer Task Force at the Cleveland Clinic, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., found that “many of the diseases he routinely treated were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed.”

Fulkerson plays guinea pig as he consults the team of Matthew Ledderman M.D. and Alona Pulde M.D.  After just a few months on their whole foods, plant-based diet, Fulkerson saw tremendous improvement in his test measures of good and bad cholesterol, blood vessel inflammation (associated with heart attack and stroke risk), and blood pressure.

Several inspiring case studies are featured. Ruth Heidrich (then in her 40’s) successfully reversed her breast cancer (which had metastasized) by joining John McDougall, M.D.’s clinical study and going on a low-fat vegan diet.  She continued aerobic and weight-bearing exercise. Today the 70-something athlete competes, writes and teaches.

San’Dera Brantley-Nation, a mother diagnosed with diabetes, works with Esselstyn and his wife to change her diet. Keeping a journal, Nation achieves impressive weight loss and reverses her diabetes.  Ironically, she works in an endocrinology office and faces the skepticism of her own medication-centered physician.

Processed foods, touted in the U.S. since the 1950’s, act as a “pleasure trap” that only partly fills one’s stomach. Triggering the body’s sensors with natural and artificial stimulants, they induce a low-grade addiction, according to Terry Mason M.D., a Chicago urologist and, until recently, Chief Medical Officer of the Cook County Health and Hospital System. Eating natural foods which are much higher in bulk would alleviate these effects, he added.

An added benefit of the vegetarian way is a significantly lighter footprint on the earth’s environment.  The clearing of much of the Amazon forest to make way for cattle grazing is shown as a case in point.

While some criticize such plant-based diets as too extreme, Forks Over Knives can be seen as too conservative.  For instance, the differences between organic and conventional food supplies are not detailed. If one is eating pesticide-treated vegetables in abundance, wouldn’t that increase one’s risk for cancer?

The widely reported tainting of U.S. wheat, corn, soybeans and canola with pesticides and genetic modification are not mentioned at all here. One eye-opening claim that is offered: erectile dysfunction signals the “first early warning sign” of vascular disease.

Future films in this genre could address the social pressures facing healthy eaters. How does one gracefully bow out while most indulge in the pizzas, birthday cakes and drinks after work that are so integral to our social traditions?

First Lady Michelle Obama is shown speaking about the childhood obesity epidemic. More of a “wow” factor could have been achieved by including cameos of the many movie stars who espouse vegetarian, vegan and/or whole foods diets. For instance, Russell Brand, President Bill Clinton, Steve-O and Anne Hathaway are now finalists for  PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities List of 2011. Demi Moore, Madonna, Clint Eastwood and The Beach Boys all drink an organic apple cider vinegar (ACV) drink, according to the website of author and educator Patricia Bragg, N.D., Ph.D.

Forks Over Knives can inspire viewers to renew their commitment to a healthy diet, and even begin the shift to vegetarianism. This documentary joins a number of recent films on whole foods and diet, including Food, Inc.; Food Matters and The Beautiful Truth.

If you like Forks Over Knives, you might enjoy:  The Beautiful Truth; Happy; I Am.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

Forks Over Knives     2011  /  PG  /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Lee Fulkerson, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr.

Director:  Lee Fulkerson

Genre:  Documentary, Health, Mind and Body

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.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

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

 
 

The Double Hour ****

 

When a hotel maid sees a guest leap to her death, her own identity fractures in the romantic thriller The Double Hour (La Doppia Ora). Giuseppe Capotondi's first feature film flashes back and forward with shadowy twists and genuine passions that dovetail perfectly.

Known for his music videos, Capotondi expertly crafts intrigue in the tradition of Hitchcock, Scorsese and Polanski. He’s a director to watch as he joins a new generation of psychological thrill-weavers including the Coen brothers, Christopher Nolan, Juan Jose Campanella and David Fincher.

A robbery. A coma. An old priest. A red bedspread. The action unfolds in Turin, Italy, yet it’s already happened. The future is uncertain – or is it? The director creates a landscape of furtive glances, secrets, lies and surprises. Vivid recollections may be real – or not. There is violence, but the film does not rely on it. Suspense is based firmly on direction, acting and editing. By the final scene, it all makes sense.

Russian actress Ksenia Rappoport achingly portrays Sonia, the hotel maid who goes speed-dating to forget the grisly suicide she witnessed. Guido (Filippo Timi of Vincere), a widowed, former cop now running security at a secluded mansion, is the last man she meets that night. He’s handsome, soft-spoken and honest, a far cry from the others. The two continue their conversation in an evening stroll along the riverfront. Both Rappoport and Timi won awards at the 2009 Venice Film Festival for their stirring, enigmatic performances.

 

A double hour, Guido tells Sonia, is the moment when hour and minute are identical. When a digital clock at the opulent mansion displays 23:23, Guido praises that magical time when wishes can be made and granted. As the plot unravels, several double hours mark turning points for the pair.

Capotondi cleverly manipulates man-made and naturalistic details to build suspense. Guido shows Sonia the long-distance mic that he uses to detect intruders. He has recorded afternoons of bird song at the estate too. Guido offers to create a relaxing, sensuous DVD just for Sonia.

Lending fascination are Antonia Truppo as Sonia’s co-worker and friend Margherita; Giorgio Colangeli as the old priest; Gaetano Bruno as the thug Riccardo, and Michele Di Mauro as persistent detective Dante.

The Double Hour was filmed on location in Carmagnola, Turin and the Piedmont region of Italy.

Outstanding writing by the team of Alessandro Fabbri, Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo makes The Double Hour a modest gem where everyday life holds drama and yearning. Guido Notari contributes superb editing.

If you like The Double Hour, you might enjoy:  Shutter Island; The Ghost Writer; The Secret in Their Eyes.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

The Double Hour     2009  /  NR  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Ksenia Rappoport, Filippo Timi, Antonia Truppo, Gaetano Bruno, Fausto Russo Alesi, Michele Di Mauro, Lucia Poli, Giorgio Colangeli

Director:  Giuseppe Capotondi

Genre:  Thriller, Crime Thriller, Romance, Mystery, Foreign Film

Language: Italian with English subtitles

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.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

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

 

 

The First Grader ***1/2

 
 

Controversy erupts when 84-year-old Maruge enrolls in a rural elementary school with a simple request: “I want to learn to read.”  The unusual student spurs furious debate among parents, school administrators and the media in the drama based on a true story, The First Grader.

Passionate to learn, Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge enrolled in a rural Kenyan grade school in 2003. He felt entitled when the country enacted universal free education. This led to widespread resentment. Why spend scarce educational resources on an old man? A Mau Mau veteran, Maruge swore an oath of allegiance to a free Kenya, leading to his torture and imprisonment. The Republic of Kenya was formed in 1964.

Oliver Litondo plays the farmer and Kikuyu tribesman with dignity and warmth. Tragedy haunts him. As Maruge meets resistance on all sides, he digs in his heels. Fashioning his own school uniform, he stands outside the school gate with his walking stick. Finally, one teacher cannot resist his determination.

What Maruge’s detractors missed was his innate value as a Kenyan elder and a citizen who passionately wanted to improve himself. Making an executive decision, Teacher Jane (Naomie Harris) names him her teaching assistant. Maruge’s delight in learning and helping his young classmates is clear. When he begins to share his patriotic beliefs during recess, the teachers become nervous.

Harris (Miami Vice; Pirates of the Caribbean) has created a potent symbol of the inspiring teacher who first believed in us. “Learning is about having fun,” she tells her class. This is a revolutionary statement about education in any culture or language. Anyone lucky enough to have had such a teacher remembers him or her right away. That teacher saw something special within us. Renewing our self-confidence, they suggested a life direction. They may even have changed our lives.

Harris is memorable as Jane Obinchu, a resourceful, caring principal and teacher. It’s remarkable how much excitement and zest she brings to her sparse classroom each day. Forget computers and PDAs. These children have nothing more than a sharp pencil a blank composition book. Teacher Jane’s arsenal includes a blackboard and some chalk. Still she engages each student. Challenging and praising them, and seems to genuinely love each one.

In an interview with Collider.com, Harris describes the making of The First Grader. "In a little movie like this, there are only seven of us that flew from England, and the rest were all local hires. We really felt like we were immersing ourselves in the culture and the community, and we were much more collaborative." Many of the child actors here had never seen a movie in their lives.

The First Grader loses focus with excessive flashbacks about Kenya’s fight against British colonial rule and Maruge’s torture as a prisoner of war. Justin Chadwick’s film lurches between learning and politics so often that its adult literacy theme stalls.

This National Geographic production feels Disney-like at times with social tensions simplified and resolved too easily. When students demand the return of Teacher Jane, her replacement suddenly turns tail and drives off into the dust. If only social change were this easy. 

Maruge’s visit to a Nairobi high school evokes the troubled, urban classrooms of Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds. He flees the rowdy school and barges into a meeting of national school administrators, insisting that he be heard. They listen.

Rob Hardy’s cinematography reveals rural beauty and urban social change. The trees of the bush symbolize Kenya as well as grisled Maruge and the idealistic young teacher who stands up to bureaucracy and personal threats.

Tony Kgoroge plays Jane’s husband Charles Obinchu, an education official who’s threatened by his wife’s notoriety.  Mumbi Kaigwa (The Constant Gardener) stars as the Secretary of Education.

 

Literacy is "the ability to read, write, compute, and use technology at a level that enables an individual to reach his or her full potential as a parent, employee, and community member," according to the international group ProLiteracy.

The right to literacy at any age seems to be the primary theme. ProLiteracy reports that, in the United States, 14 percent of those age 16 or older do not have the reading and comprehension skills needed to complete a job application. First Lady Laura Bush has championed family and women’s literacy worldwide.

This film also suggests the vast, often untapped wealth of knowledge and experience held by older citizens. Maruge exemplifies the student as teacher when he devises flash cards to help students who have trouble with word sounds and meanings.

The First Grader ends with satisfying irony. The media’s kneejerk reactions to those on the forefront of social change can run icy cold one day and warmly enthusiastic the next.

Eventually Maruge was invited to address the United Nations in New York City, becoming a source of pride for Kenyans. He was named to the Guinness World Records as the oldest person to begin primary school in 2004. Maruge died in 2009.

If you like The First Grader, you might enjoy:  Man Push Cart; Precious; The Blind Side.

Subscribe to Secret Agent Gal Reviews.

 

The First Grader     2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 43 min

Cast Overview:  Naomie Harris, Oliver Musila Litondo, Lwander Jawar, Tony Kgoroge, Alfred Munyua, Shki Mokgapa, Vusumuzi Michael Kunene, Mubi Kaigwa

Director:  Justin Chadwick

Genre:  Drama, Foreign Film