In Good Company

Grade: B+

A power lunch. The new young executive upstart orders sushi, and attempts to get his older well-established colleague to try a piece. After scarfing down the smallest thing on the plate he can find, the recently demoted company veteran mutters “it’s raw” under his breathe, and returns to eating his teriyaki, most likely the only thing he could find to order off the damn menu in the first place.

Like I’ve always said, never trust a sushi eater. In the corporate world, it is indeed us against them. Meat against raw fish.

Dennis Quaid is – as always – bloody marvelous. The man can do no wrong. With indefatigable charm, abundant good humor and an inherent sweetness, a simple doubletake can make one laugh out loud, a wounded glance can touch the heart. As a man in his 50s dealing with the ego slamming ramifications of a corporate takeover, his dignity and decency is never in question even if his future employment status is. A husband and father with responsibilities, a belief and commitment to his work, he tows the line but never sells his soul.

Favorite line of the year, on marriage: “Figure out who you want to be in the foxhole with, and keep your dick in your pants when you’re not there in it.”

Topher Grace breaks the money/power corrupted pissant stereotype with an affability and insecure neediness that tickles the heart. As a man in his 20’s attempting to lord over people far beyond his league and experience, he is smart enough to know he has much to learn and kind enough not to completely swallow the corporate gospel he attempts to mimic. He wears his life and leadership as a boy wearing a suit to his Bar Mitzvah, never properly tailored and more than a little itchy, but nevertheless adorable and rather poignant to look at. He is truly trying to become a man, and there is as much paternal chemistry between these two individuals as there is disbelieving hostility. As the daughter/girlfriend who is the apple of both men’s eyes, Scarlett Johansson is warmly understated, a young woman with both a heart and a brain who is not afraid to use either.

In an age of PowerPoint presentations akin to fieldtrips to the planetarium, revolving door employment, ten minute workouts and faceless corporate pricks, how nice it is to see a bit of humor and humanness – with a sprinkle of Frank Capra for good measure – return to the office environment.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0385267/

Hotel Rwanda

Grade: B+

Don Cheadle ably assists a devastating story overcome an unnecessarily preachy and occasionally suspect screenplay. A hotel manager with involuntary greatness thrust upon him, the tale of a man rescuing more than 1,200 refugees from certain genocide through the sheer strength of his beguiling wits is as harrowing and upsetting as it is moving and inspirational.

A resort oasis in the midst of a nation at civil war, ignored and abandoned by the rest of the world, this is a tale of ethnic cleansing and international racism. As all the white people in the film (including Joaquin Phoenix as a noble reporter and Nick Nolte as an impotent U.N. military representative) simplistically pontificate about how the white world doesn’t care about black people, the tale is at its most gripping as a personal tale of survival and heroism. Against images of massacred bodies and evacuating tourists, Cheadle is the essence of calm calculation, rarely permitting his own emotional agony to undermine his increasingly insurmountable and hopeless duty to those in his care. His breathless ability to manipulate and maneuver wealthy hotel owners, arrogant military officers, faithful and disloyal staff, and blood thirsty insurgents alike is a Machiavellian lesson in humanity. If his rescues too consistently and repetitively occur mere seconds before the machete falls on his dependents’ heads, and if the Rwandan political backdrop is not terribly well illuminated, one cannot help but weep at this true story of such unplanned courage amidst such sudden and insane evil. Sophie Okonedo beautifully creates the other half of a very real marriage filled with affection, confrontation, mutual support, antagonism and teamwork. Cara Seymour as a Red Cross employee is one of the film’s few Caucasians that detours from cardboard cutout and creates genuine empathy.

It is to our staggering shame that our national perspective is such that the slaughter of a million human beings a mere ten years ago is nary a footnote in our public consciousness.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0395169/

The Phantom of the Opera

Grade: C+

Sumptuous production values and a stellar cast only serve to highlight the mediocrity of the original material. Try and name two songs from “Phantom of the Opera.” “Music of the Night.” One. “Music of the…” Hmmmmm. Wait, what is that song Michael Crawford made famous by holding the final high note for so long? That would be “Music of the Night.” Okay, okay – truth be told, there are a couple of other pleasant arias, all reprised ad nauseum during this overly drawn out spectacle. The rest is a whole lot of recitative.

Director Joel Schumacher does what he can here, although he often suffers the same fate of other non-musical directors, including some poor staging, close-ups that should be master shots, and some very choppy editing. The sets, however, are lavish and elegant, from the eerily stunning opera house to the Phantom’s tomblike lair. Some additional layers have been added to the storyline, including an atmospheric series of black & white flash-forwards that initially dissolve into a theatrical Technicolor explosion on screen and later add much needed pathos in the film’s epilogue.

The cast is first rate, especially newcomer Emmy Rossum who has a glow about her that spells stardom. If Gerald Butler’s singing feels a tad processed in the mixing room, and personal fave Patrick Wilson is a bit bland in the thankless role of the third wheel, they are both more than attractive enough to make up for any deficiencies. If the Phantom makeup is both underterrifying (with a body and face like Butler’s, I’m not sure what looks more like a bad sunburn than a frightening deformity would really get in the way. Just keep the mask on, and it’s all good) and inconsistent (when the mask is on, the Phantom has a full mop of flowing Fabio hair, that vanishes off one side of his head when the mask is removed) Butler nonetheless does well by the tragic, tormented, romantic figure. And just when it all takes itself too seriously, Minnie Driver is a hoot and a half as a diva opera star replete with outlandish Italian accent.

None of this, however, makes a one hit song melodrama into a musical worthy of such opulent treatment. At 2½ hours, one longs for something – anything – to hum while walking out of the theater. The pounding organ music is thrilling momentarily, but it’s no “Memory” from “Cats” to be sure. Now THAT was an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with multiple hits. What was that amazing song Betty Buckley and Barbara Streisand sang, anyway?

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0293508/

The Aviator

Grade: B

Sumptuously produced, gloriously photographed, beautifully acted Howard Hughes biopic, that always fascinates yet somehow never soars.

Director Martin Scorsese has recreated both Hollywood’s glory days and filmmaking style, larger than life and eminently glossy. Red carpet flashbulbs explode, big band crooners gesticulate, people begin talking on the silver screen. Gorgeous to look at, the film has a sheen that is difficult to penetrate, never really permitting one close enough to feel either the entrepreneurial awe nor the heartbreaking empathy Hughes should inspire. At just under three hours, there is definitely a sense of the epic if not quite the sense of wonder.

While somewhat lacking the machismo gravitas to move mountains, conquer the sky, and bed everything in sight, Leonardo DiCaprio is still at his best here, capturing the twitching torment hidden just barely beneath Hughes’ bravado – he knows when his grip on reality is slipping away, and he is as grandiose in his anguish as he is in his megalomania. Cate Blanchett is a true starlet throwback as Katherine Hepburn, capturing that singular voice while never falling into caricature, and Alan Alda has become his generation’s Jack Lemmon, with a bemused inflection and slight of hand gesture that is recognizably his and his alone.

The screenplay has some brilliantly conceived scenes (including a lunchtime psychological chess game as maniacal Alda attempts to derail DiCaprio’s mental stability) and some melodramatically flawed ones (including the same duo sparring during a hearing on Capitol Hill, the Senatorial accuser losing all control of the proceedings and allowing himself to become the accused). Yet the film belongs to Scorsese, and it both benefits from his extraordinary lens and suffers from his overly dramatic flourishes. Scenes of air flight are paintings in motion, the skies bluer, the clouds foggier, takeoffs and crashes more vibrant than captured reality. Scenes of Hughes’ obsessive compulsions often dissolve into camera theatrics, however, stage spotlighting and split screens forcing us to take greater notice of the director than the character. A little more whimsy, a little more editing, and just a tad less serious intensity please?

After the excruciatingly pretentious “Gangs of New York” (my 2002 worst picture of the year selection), it is nice to see Marty and Leo working together on a film worthy of their considerable talents. Still, methinks it would do you both some good to play in someone else’s sandbox next time around.

Now everyone say “show me all the blueprints” twenty times fast while blinking uncontrollably. It’s not all that easy, is it?

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0212720/

Million Dollar Baby

Grade: A

I honestly didn’t know he had it in him. Clint Eastwood gives the performance of a lifetime. Literally. It is the kind of performance that only an actor who has lived long and acted often could even hope to be capable of. Guttural of voice and bleary in the eyes, Eastwood astonishes. Astonishes.

I absolutely loathe the so-called “sport” of boxing. I was also the lone man in the wilderness who admired “Mystic River” yet did not believe it was the second coming of moviemaking. This one comes much, much closer. Here, Director/Actor Eastwood has found his heart. And a sweet, kind, surprisingly gentle heart it is.

Boxing is ever in the foreground and central to the plot, yet this is not a film about boxing. Guilt that consumes one’s destiny. Mistakes gone unforgiven. Hopes and dreams of escaping an empty life. Friendships forged through a lifetime of things unspoken. Through one of the year’s best screenplays – filled with gravitas, quiet moments and gentle humor – we soak up people’s lives with few moments of lecturing exposition or “strike a pose” backstory. People interact and we come to know who they are, what’s important to them, and why. Not everything is revealed, and the film ends with much unstated, unlearned, and in shadow. Yet what is hidden makes the journey even more profoundly moving, as we become not simply spectators at a sporting event, but witnesses to unhealed and unspoken wounds motivating every moment. Reminiscent in tone if not in storyline to “The Shawshank Redemption,” individuals cleanse their souls simply by tenderly and quietly looking out for one other.

Morgan Freeman deserves to join Eastwood on the Oscar podium, with a voice resonant with many lifetimes, and Hillary Swank proves that “Boys Don’t Cry” was not a fluke, holding her own round after round with a couple of masters. Clichés take on new meaning, as an oft performed play rediscovered and retold for the first time. Even the perennial voiceover, filled with boiler plate declarations about the athlete being stripped bare to begin anew, takes on new and precious purpose.

One will cheer punches thrown and knockouts made to be sure, but the film’s courage lies not in its athleticism, but in its surprising stillness.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0405159/

Closer

Grade: B+

What must have been one exhilaratingly brutal evening of theater on film often feels somewhat stagy and written. The things that come out of characters’ mouths are alternatively voyeuristically honest and forced with falseness, yet there is still much to recommend this very adult (we're talking the kind of film NC17 should have been created for in the first place), vitriolic expose on relationships and a quartet of individuals who should never, ever, be permitted to have them.

A cast of four actors perform at the top of their game (some reach greater heights than others, it must be admitted) in a cycle of point/counterpoint that is vicious and vindictive, self-centered and self-justifying, pathetic yet oddly empathetic. No one is able to maintain a healthy relationship here, as self-destructive mechanisms spring into action the moment any glint of happily ever after dares rear its ugly head. Shown in one pivotal scene of infatuation, passion, breakup, reconciliation, dissolution after another, there are no mundane moments of everyday normalcy or mental stability for one to grasp on to. Director Mike Nichols creates a level of unrelenting intensity at arm's length – we never truly get to know this pathetic cadre, yet we have all experienced the flare-ups of doubt, insecurity and selfishness that lead people to betray one another so mercilessly and profoundly.

Jude Law ("People Magazine” is so right) sizzles, finding the vulnerability (and sexiness) within the pathetic, but the real surprise is Natalie Portman, sweetly and seemingly naively going through life while stripping for a living and manipulating everyone around her. Clive Owen is perhaps the least likable of characters, yet he is also among the most honest, and we respect him if we never, ever want to meet him. Only Julia Roberts falls a bit short, a slightly weak link in a cast whose talents simultaneously grip, titillate and mortify. A jaw dropping dénouement simply astounds.

While the words sometimes feel of the page more than of the moment, they are great words brilliantly delivered nonetheless.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0376541/