Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo. are hits

Movie: The Kids are All Right
Director: Lisa Cholodenko (and writer with Stuart Blumberg)
Cast: Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple, Mark Ruffalo as the donor, and Mia Wasikowska (from In Treatment) and Josh Hutcherson as their teenage children.
Language: English
Release Date: July 2010

Should You See it? I am not normally a fan of comedies. But I would definitely go see this. Superb acting, realistic sets, and a sensitive approach to potentially emotionally charged issues.

In a Nutshell:

Bening and Moore are a happily married couple. They have a house in the 'burbs, 2 teenage children, and a healthy outlook on life. Oh, if I forgot to mention it before, Bening and Moore are two women and the couple is a lesbian couple. But, after all, it is 2010. The children seem quite happy--the couple has the usual worries: they don't like the kid the son hangs out with; they are wondering if their daughter is having sex; Moore seems unfulfilled with her role in life; and Bening is busy being a doctor with too many patients.

As the film begins, Laser (the 15 year old son) is pushing Joni (the 18 year old daughter named after Joni Mitchell) to try to learn who the sperm donor is. Of course, they find the clinic, the donor is called and he agrees to meet with them. Cool, he thinks. Cool, they think. The mothers--not too happy about upsetting their perfect little situation. On to the scene appears the character of Ruffalo. He seems to be just the foil for this family--he grows organic veggies, sleeps with various women, and rides a motorcycle. Just the thing any middle class, modern family, wants to enter their life.

You will find yourself laughing at many of the incidents that transpire as the film progresses. But of course, things are not always perfect in the perfect little family. You need to see this film.

So, if you are looking for some refreshing ideas, go to see this. And remember. It is 2010. So you might see some scenes that movies of the past would not show so graphically.

Now, full disclosure. I have a lesbian daughter and a granddaughter who has a sperm donor. She is too young to ask about meeting him right now. But I am open for anything in the future.

Inception

Movie: Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, Ellen Page as his Architect, and Marion Cotillard as his dead wife
Language: English
Release Date: July 2010

Should you see it? I rushed to this film opening day. There had been so much hype about it I thought I should see it. I must confess. I am not a sci-fi fan. However, this film is a knockout in terms of its visuals. From bridges bending upwards and around, skyscrapers coming down on themselves, and other incredibly sensational visual effects, you should enjoy this movie for these reasons only. Now, the plot does not make any sense at all to me. Cobb somehow steals ideas from others dreams and then gathers together a cast of characters to occupy these dreams. I wasn't sure whether they were sent to people through IVs or radio transmission, but somehow people populate these dreams. So, if you love visuals, then go see it. If you care about plot and story line wait for something else to come along.

In A Nutshell: Nolan (of Batman movies fame) works with an incredibly over-ambitious script. Cobb's character is an international thief. In his supposedly last gig, he enters others' dreams in order to steal something. Cobb gathers a team of people to enter the someone else's dream. Page, as the Architect of the dreams, builds elaborate sequences through which the team travels. The plot is even more intricate than this--if you want to follow it in detail you really have to pay attention because you are never quite sure whose dream you are in. And sometimes it seems as though you are in reality.

So I recommend--just sit back and enjoy the filming, the light, the amazing special effects. I predict the film will win awards for these things--but for a meaningful story, don't count on it.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Title: Girl who Played with Fire
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Cast: Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander (of dragon tattoo fame) and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist
Language: Swedish
Release Date: September 2009 (in Denmark) and 2010 in US

Should you see it? I have to say, I was very disappointed in this 2nd in a 3 part series. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was definitely much better. There were the requisite violence and sex scenes. But they seemed formulaic to me. Salander's character was not really developed nor was her relationship with Mickael ever made clear. I know when things aren't going well for me when I catch myself looking at my watch. Film runs just over 2 hours.

In A Nutshell: Stieg Larsson, the ultra-successful Swedish mystery writer (who died a few years ago), tries to shock you wish extremes. Salander--a diminutive figure dressed as a Goth--is on a search for what turns out to be her long lost father. Blomkvist--a writer who works for Millenium Magazine--follows up on the violent killing of a freelance writer and his PhD girlfriend. Both were investigating the sex trade business and apparently were killed for it. Salander and Blomkvist seem to go their separate ways as they try to solve the mystery.

I felt the film had many gratuitous scenes that really didn't make sense in terms of the story. Rather it seemed as though the film was building on the reputation of the first in the series and didn't do much to make the character development or plot very meaningful.

I would save my money and see something else.

Athanasia

Title: Athanasia
Director: Panos Karkanevatos
Cast: Greek (except Manuel, her father, played by an American?)
Language: In Greek with occasional English dialogue (possibly dubbed)
Release Date: December 2008

Should you see it? Perhaps. You will learn a great deal about the culture and the difficulties faced by Greek women who live in a culture dominated by tradition, expectation, and the rule of men.

In A Nutshell:

Delicately weaving the present and past, Karkanevatos tells the story of a young Greek-American woman--Angela--who returns to Greece to search for her true father. But the story is really about her mother--Athanasia--and the trials she has endured growing up on a small Greek island.

The movie begins in New York with scenes of pizza and bagel shops near an overhead train. An middle aged couple--Manuel and Athanasia--are met by their daughter Angela who takes them to their granddaughter's birthday party in a house in the suburbs-- the dream of many immigrant families. You feel the tension in the home and sense that Athanasia is brooding and absorbed in her own inner life. She is not especially happy about her daughter's marriage, but that plot is not taken further.

Shortly thereafter, Manuel (a photographer) meets Angela and shows pictures from the past. He also tells her that someone else is her real father. She seems astounded. I never understood the reason Manuel reveals this information at this point in time, but perhaps I missed something. Almost immediately Angela decides she needs to return to Greece and learn the real story about her father--and of course her mother. Manuel decides to accompany her, leaving Athanasia (played by the beautiful Stavroula Logothettis) home.

There seem to be hints that something is not quite right with Athanasia. In a very strange scene, she comes to pick up her grandchild after school. The child says she is not her grandmother. The administrator cannot find a note saying anyone else would pick up the child. She then calls the mother Angela (who happens to be in Greece) on her cell phone. Angela gives permission. But Athanasia gets lost walking the child home. I think the director/writer was trying to show us Athanasia's confusion but this is not developed either.

The action then moves back and forth between the current time period and some thirty years earlier (the time of Angela's birth). Marina Kalogirou plays the young Athanasia with sensitivity and passion. She is a quiet actress, using facial expressions to show that she has accepted her fate. In a tradition unknown to me, when the eldest child marries, the family gives away the home and surrounding land. This family has next to nothing, but when Athanasia's older sister Georgia marries Hristos, Georgia receives the family home--it is actually a single room built into the rocks of their village. Athanasia and her father trudge through the village, with all their belongings in a small sack carried by the stoic, resigned Athanasia.

Can you guess what happens? The father throws himself into the waters and Athanasia, having no place to go, comes calling at her sister's hut. Well, of course, they take her in. And this can lead to nothing good. Reminiscent of Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire," (Blanche DuBois comes to stay with her sister Stella and Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski, after the ancestral home is lost. Stella is pregnant. Stanley rapes Blanche, etc.), this movie follows an almost identical plot.

I will leave the ending for your movie-going pleasure. But eventually Angela learns the truth and seems to accept it.

Now, this isn't Tennessee Williams. But the insights about the struggles faced by the people of this small village offer some new ideas to mull over. The direction is sensitive, the scenes are realistic, and the two women who play Athanasia are quite strong actors.

So, if you find this film playing in your area, you might give it a try.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

In A Nutshell:

Directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg follow her for some 14 months in the year of her 75th birthday (2008). This movie, a docu-biography, is funny, poignant, and sad. Born of Jewish parents in New York, Joan started to perform stand-up comedy in the 1970s. By the 1980s, she had become the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson. After her husband committed suicide in 1987, her career went into decline. She has had her ups and downs, but strives to continue to perform--even today. She paved the way for such comediennes as Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin. Well, this is the official story.

Funny--you see her perform in various venues around the country--and I think her humor is still as sharp as ever. What seemed shocking some 30 years ago is taken for granted today. She laughs at others as well as herself.

Poignant--here is this woman, rolling in money, who says I need the money, I need to work, why don't I have more engagements. Yet she lives in a large apartment in New York, tries her hand at many things (including designing jewelry for QVC and appearing on the Celebrity Apprentice show with Donald Trump), and having numerous face lifts and other work done on her appearance.

Sad--you get the sense that she is very much alone. Her daughter plays an important role in her life, but the relationship is questionable. She fires her manager after a number of years. She is almost--but not quite--a has-been. She doesn't need the money--she needs the adulation.

So many have said that the only time comedians are happy is when they are performing. I suspect that is true for her as well. This very revealing and intimate look at her life is a reminder to all of us that maybe we need to learn when to "give it up".

Mme. Chambon

In a Nutshell. Mme (Veronique) Chambon, a teacher in a small French town, encounters Jean, the father of one of her students. While you learn early on that he is in construction (a man's man), married, and loving and thoughtful to his family (he gently washes his aging father's feet), you know very little about Mme. Chambon. She is quite regal in bearing with a beautiful long neck, regal features and gently quiet. She apparently moves from town to town taking positions as a substitute teacher. In a seemingly innocent encounter, she asks Jean to help her fix a window in her apartment. The contrast between the two is obvious: she is cultured and he works with his hands; she plays the violin and he is drawn to her music but knows very little; she appears beyond his grasp but he is strongly tempted by her. There are more questions raised than answered, but I think that makes for an interesting time at the cinema. Is she an innocent or a temptress? Is he a solid family man or one who will stray? Why must she move from place to place, never able to settle down? I won't reveal the ending here, but you should not miss this small, beautifully filmed and intimate film. In French with English subtitles.

"I Am Love" Review

In a nutshell. Tilda Swinton, the beautiful Russian wife of a wealthy Milanese family, falls passionately for a lowly chef, a newfound friend of her son Edo. Risking everything, Emma pursues Antonio and engages in several lustful encounters with him. Edo learns of the affair and confronts his mother. They argue and he accidentally falls into the swimming pool at the home, hitting his head on the corner of the pool wall. Tragically he dies. Not knowing of the affair, the husband Tancredi tries to pull the family together after Edo’s death. But Emma is enraptured by Antonio and says to her husband—Yo amo Antonio. Abandoned by all except her daughter, she returns to Antonio. The film ends in a dreamlike sequence when Emma and Antonio are in a cave-like place. Even with wealth, status, and honor, a woman sacrifices everything for her lust and passion. The family is destroyed.

I really expected to love this movie. On a hot summer day and the theater bulging with people, the audience anticipated something wonderful. As did I. My friend said that she really wanted to see this—and I did not object. After all, there was a lot of buzz about it.

The mood is set with the opening. The camera swoops down over a wintry scene of a large mansion in Milan. Snow is falling. Everything looks a dismal grayish white, not the beautiful white of a first snow. Quickly we are taken into the interior of the home. Immediately it is obvious that a family of some stature lives here and they are readying themselves for an event. A Christmas tree can be seen in one of the rooms, but it is not that they are celebrating. Rather the birthday of the patriarch of the family—one Edoardo Recchi. Much is made of readying the home and the food for the dinner that is to come.

Emma Recchi, the mistress of the house, bustles around the kitchen area. She readies the placement of guests for the dinner. A slight move of one or two people because someone’s girlfriend is also coming to the dinner. For some time you are in a mystery about who the people are, how they are connected, and why they are there.

The enormous wealth of the owners is obvious. Many staff members, some wearing white gloves, are busying themselves with preparations for this dinner. Is everything ready? Will the service be done properly?

Shot in Italian with English subtitles, I Am Love operates on many layers. It is a story about several generations of an Italian family. You learn that they run a large plant of some type, perhaps making clothing or possibly cloth. Several scenes are interspersed showing the cold mechanical nature of the company. How long it has been in the family is unclear, but the patriarch announces at the dinner (in honor of his birthday) that he is turning the company over to Tancredi (his son) and Edoardo (his older grandson). Frankly I did not realize until somewhat later in the film that there was another son—I don’t even know his name.

Against all these trappings of the rich, the primary plot emerges. Edoardo arrives late at the dinner because he has been in a race (I am not really sure what kind—my friend says it must be autos, but I wonder why they are racing cars in the dead of winter and a snowstorm). The family’s honor is at stake because he apparently has lost the race. But as in so many scenes in this movie, you don’t know the real story—you learn that the race ended in a tie (perhaps). The adversary is Antonio, a chef, who just happens to appear at the mansion late in the day of the dinner with a kind of peace offering—a beautiful cake he has made. You never actually see the cake, but Edo and his mother and the faithful housekeeper Ida ooh and aah over it. Interestingly, it does not come out at the dinner. Rather the old man is toasted with a smallish cake with a single candle on top. No one eats the cake. Now I wonder if the cake that is brought out is the one made by the chef. I think I will need to see the movie again to check the sequence of events. Looks are exchanged between the mother and the chef. Or are they? All very subtle.

After the elaborate dinner sequence, you learn that the elder Recchi has died and the heirs are to take over. They fly to London to negotiate a sale to an Indian American. Meanwhile, Emma, left to her own devices, wanders through her day. She stops at the cleaners to pick up some clothes and the helpful clerk gives her a cd that was left in her daughter’s jacket. (A minor plot surfaces in which Emma learns that her daughter is a lesbian). She visits Mrs. Recchi senior and they exchange chitchat and tea. Both seem very bored.

Now although the men run the family, in many ways so do the women. The elder Recchi’s wife (Marisa Berenson—looking as though she has had too much work done on her face) and Tancredi’s wife (Tilda Swinton—especially gorgeous, blonde, and aloof) are in the shadows. They visit with each other, shop, and make sure the houses run smoothly. A younger daughter plays a somewhat minor role in the film.

Food plays a critical role in the movie. Emma reminisces about a kind of fish soup she learned as a child—a completely clear broth is used. In a final dinner, the soup is served by Antonio and Edo finally confirms that his mother and his friend are having an affair. A number of scenes are set at the dinner table either in the family home or at Antonio’s restaurant in town. Emma’s sensuality is revealed with somewhat obvious camera work as she eats a luscious shrimp—her hair of gold and her dress in red mimic the shrimp’s coloration. Antonio comes to the home with his cake after the race.

But in the end I was disappointed. Why did the director (Luca Guadagnino) feel that he had to use bees and flowers as metaphors for the lovemaking between Emma and Antonio? After all, it is 2010. And Adams’ music punctuated the mood in this scene. What happened to subtlety? Did I miss some elusive reference to movies past (I think of the music when Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift are making love on the shore in A Place in the Sun (based on Dreiser’s An American Tragedy). This felt way too obvious to me. Was Guadagnino trying to imitate the old Hollywood? Was Emma so bereft of pleasure that she grabbed at someone so obviously wrong for her? Was it love or just plain lust? Don’t get me wrong. I am not opposed to lust. But Emma certainly would know that this affair was only fleeting. After all, Antonio was not Jeremy Irons in Harold Pinter’s 1983 “Betrayal” even though his lover’s name was Emma. Or perhaps Guadagnino was thinking of Connie (Lady Chaterley) in Lawrence’s 1928 Lady Chatterley’s Lover (originally printed in Italy and then in the UK in 1960). Connie ran off with Oliver, the gamekeeper on her husband’s estate.