@MovieJay Review of My Week With Marilyn

 

"She was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery, street-tough one moment, then lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence."

The success of My Week with Marilyn lies in the gifts of Michelle Williams in her skillful evocation of those words written by Marilyn Monroe's third and final husband, Death of a Salesman playwright Arthur Miller.

It must be difficult to be charged with playing a symbolic, cultural icon. Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino did admirable work in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), but Williams has now set the bar.

I came along a full generation after her passing, so for those like myself we grew up with the legend of Marilyn Monroe. The white dress blowing above her knees above that grate when the subway barrels by underneath. That unforgettable footage of her singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to JFK.

For those who grew up with her, the nostalgia conjured up by the many faces of Monroe that enticed that generation can be sensed in their voices and particularly in their writing, among the historians and by our more mature film critics who know the feeling first hand. In Roger Ebert's review he writes, "In the early 1950s, my friends and I required only one word to express it: marilynmonroe. It wasn't a name. It was a summation of all we yearned and guessed about some kind of womanly ideal." And Rex Reed from the NY Observer lovingly adds, "you feel like you were there" and "supercolossal charisma and appeal".

You know, that kinda makes me jealous. My generation has Madonna and Britney, J. Lo and Lindsay Lohan, one after the other a copy-of-a-copy, the antithesis of enigmatic, perpetuating themselves on our culture much the same way a corporation does. Suppose we'll gleam the way those guys do that long after those ladies are through?

The film is the recollection of Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a 23 yr-old kid who talks himself into a job at Pinewood Studios in England on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl (1956), directed by Laurence Olivier. They're filming an easy-breezy light comedy with Monroe surrounded by a cast of British acting royalty including the aforementioned Olivier (Kenneth Branagh), as well as Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench). Frustrated with being pigeon-hel d as just another airy blonde, it would be Monroe's second film under the tutelage of acting guru Lee Strasberg's second wife, Paula (Zoe Wanamaker).

Olivier becomes an irascible mess on set as Paula's hold over Monroe with all that new "method acting" stuff gets in the way of him being a director. Olivier eschewed the method and saw acting in more practical terms, as something to be worked at like any other job. Of course he finds Monroe totally irresistible, but she's too much trouble for him. Meanwhile, Thorndike empathizes with the 30 yr-old Monroe, giving her a much-needed thespian mentor on set.

The young Colin is third-assistant director, essentially a glorified gopher. He's fancied by a sweet wardrobe girl named Lucy (Emma Watson), but she's no match for the spell that befalls Colin - indeed, all of the men involved with the pic - when Monroe summons him to keep her company at a cottage the week her husband, Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott) flies back state-side. Before this invitation, they will have interacted only a few times on set with Monroe sizing him up immediately as an innocent who she can trust. Colin's in awe of her and in their first scene together we see that beyond the pills and the booze and the many private and public faces, Monroe is a smart person lacking any kind of confidence with an insatiable need for reassurance. She appreciates Clark's kindness and honesty.

Perhaps he reminds her of her lost innocence.

If Colin and Monroe had sex that week, the movie does a good job of only suggesting it after a very lovely scene of the two skinny-dipping when Colin's been summoned back to the cottage where Monroe has locked herself inside her room and won't come out. There's real sweetness in the loneliness of that night as Colin climbs up and into her room through the window, "like Romeo & Juliet", whispers Monroe. The movie shows Colin holding her that night, while the rest is left to our imagination. And that's just perfect, since the overall appeal we have for Michelle Williams in the role is that we find ourselves yearning to hold her, too.

Marilyn Monroe left something to the imagination in a time when that notion was sexy. That idea and how well it's milked to our great satisfaction is what makes My Week with Marilyn one of the very good biopics. It also serves itself well by focusing on a slice of her life instead of the usual ski-slope treatment where biopics tend to find themselves marking every flag down the slope of a celebrity's life.

The three major supporting performances are all Oscar-worthy. Kenneth Branagh is excellent at showing how Olivier practically goes mad on set and is given a wonderful, revealing scene where he shares with Colin the loneliness of feeling older in comparison to the zesty Monroe. Judi Dench wrings some very wise and knowing laughs from the experiences of an actor who has been on many a set. And Eddie Redmayne, so good in The Yellow Handkerchief and Hick, gives his best performance yet as the helplessly-in-love-and-devoted Colin Clark. The rest of the cast shines as well, not least of which Julia Ormond playing Vivien Leigh, Olivier's husband. She's got Colin making sure to report any funny business between her husband and the icon.

But at the center is that inspired performance by Michelle Williams, who indeed brings Marilyn Monroe to life as we've never seen before, capturing in a very tender way the highs and lows, the free-spiritedness and the wonder, the loneliness and troubles that haunted the disturbed young star. Williams is a lock for an Oscar nomination.

Lovely movie. It really does make you feel like you were there.

 

My Week with Marilyn ***1/2 out of 4

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Muppets

It's time to play the music! It's time to light the lights! It's time to get things re-started again with The Muppets, and oh boy, how we missed them so!

Kermit the Frog and the gang are back on the big screen for the first time since Muppets From Space (1999). That one didn't do so well and we weren't sure we were ever going to see them in a big screen movie again. And what with Pixar, 3D, Imax and the age of ironic detachment and foul humor, it appeared that a puppet show was something that would stay forever in the 20th century, never to be seen again.

But here they are.

Wicked, winning, corny, fresh and in a delightfully self-aware musical all set to revitalize their franchise.

singing and dancing down the street in a good old-fashioned number that feels like memories

**Spoiler Alert**

We start in Smalltown, U.S.A. where Gary (Jason Segel) and his best bud Walter grew up and have lived their entire lives. Correction: Walter hasn't grown so much (at all, actually) since he's a muppet, only he doesn't know he's a muppet although he knows he hasn't grown any because he's still not tall enough to ride on the roller coaster at the fair. Gary's girlfriend is Mary (could it be any other name?) and for their 10-year anniversary, Gary has purchased round-trip tickets for all three of them to take a bus ride out to Hollywood so they can tour Muppet studios -- but not before they go singing and dancing down the street in a good old-fashioned number that feels lik e memories. Cameos are staples within the Muppet franchise, and so it's appropriate that Mickey Rooney makes one of the first one in the film's opening sequence.

Mary (Amy Adams) loves Gary (not simply because their names rhyme, that would be shallow) but she wonders about when Gary will finally propose to her and also if they could get some time alone without Walter, who she loves as well, but cheese whiz, he's always around!

Once in Hollywood, the trio discovers that Muppet studios are closed and in another terrific cameo, Alan Arkin plays their tour guide. "That's Kermit's old office", pointing to the dusty old store-front, "you should really come and visit it sometime".

Walter is just too curious at the discovery of the Muppets, who uncannily remind him of himself. He sneaks into Kermit's office, taking in the pictures on the wall through all those cobwebs and dust but quickly hides as a back door opens suddenly with Statler and Waldorf entering the room with millionaire oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper). There's oil under Muppet studios, and Tex wants at it. Statler and Waldorf show him the deed to Muppet studios and (wouldn't you know it) unless the Muppets can come up with $10 million smackeroos by like, next week, it'll belong to Tex.

The problem? The Muppets went their separate ways long ago. Fozzie's with a third-rate Muppets tribute act in Reno called the Moopets; Gonzo's the owner of a highly successful plumbing business; Miss Piggy's in Paris running the plus-sized part of Vogue, (of course); Animal's in anger management with Jack Black; and of course, there's Kermit, who Gary, Mary and Walter search for first in order to tell him about Tex Richman's dastardly plans. Hearing this, Kermit decides to round up the old gang and hold a live telethon on TV in order to raise the money they need to save Muppet studios. Kermit, incidentally, still lives in the big old house he once shared with Piggy, and along with Gonzo they could probably kick in the money that's needed since they appear to be the 1%'ers in the bunch, but nevermind, "it would be a short movie then"!

**End Spoiler Alert**

That's the easy peasy plot of it, a clothesline for Muppet hijinks and sweet little musical numbers - new tunes by Bret Mackenzie (Flight of the Conchords) -  like the re-staging of "Rainbow Connection" with Kermit and Piggy that left audience members choking back tears and hugging themselves. Is there a place in today's world for something as corny and delightful as the Muppets?

MAHNA-MAHNA!!!

Of course there is! They're needed now more than ever, and The Muppets succeeds at bridging the divide between old and young, and what a fascinating experience watching this movie was as it introduces itself to a whole new generation while properly tugging at the heart-strings of adult viewers.

Jason Segel and Amy Adams do a great job of being the kind of human characters that fit like a glove in the world of the Muppets. Chris Cooper as Tex chews up the scenery nice and good and I suppose I could complain or make fun of his wild and wacky rap number, but that's small potatoes. Besides, it's a number that young kids will understand and appreciate even if it's as humorously ridiculous as it is.

Amazing, in today's world of CGI and sarcasm how true-to-life our Muppet friends seem to us. They are as we remember them - still hand puppets; still doing wondrous things that make us ask: "How did they do that?" in the same way we remember asking 'how?' when Kermit rode his bicycle in their first movie. Like us, they share the same qualities: they're funny, self-aware, filled with hope, and do their best to rise above, carry on and believe in themselves.

The Muppets is filled with laughter and warmth, some super-sweet cameos that I won't give away here, and now that they're back let's hope they're here to stay.

Filed under  //  Amy Adams   Chris Cooper   Gary   Jason Segel   Kermit   Kermit the Frog   Miss Piggy   Muppet   Walter   film   nerdiness   pop-culture   tumblrize   xavierpop  
Posted

@MovieJay reviews J.Edgar

J. Edgar proves that movies can do more than simply amuse; they can be empathy machines that deepen our experience. By the end of the movie we're surprised by how much we've come to feel sympathy for one of the most complicated and secretive public figures of the 20th century.

What do most people know about J. Edgar Hoover?

Probably that he was the head of the FBI for a number of years and was purported to having files containing the skeletons in the closets of the rich and powerful. For viewers who lived during his time, they might add the gossip that he apparently liked to dress up as women.

The film weaves effortlessly through seven decades, concentrating most of its time during the Depression era and the post-WWII period of American prosperity and change in the late 50's/early 60's. Leonardo DiCaprio is from the outset a curious choice to play the petulant-looking Hoover, but he evolves within the role as seamlessly as the picture moves through the years delivering another Oscar-caliber performance.

J. Edgar Hoover headed the Bureau of Investigation (he was responsible for adding Federal to the designation) for an unprecedented 48 years, from 1924 until he died in '72. He appears to have been born a political creature with the good fortune of having been raised in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. He interned for a popular conservative Senator whose house was bombed and the film is open about his political ideology when he pins it on the usual communist paranoia of the time.

Within a couple of years after the interning stint, he heads the division of the Bureau dealing with illegal immigrants and shortly thereafter becomes Director of the Bureau at the young age of 29. The film does a terrific job showing Hoover re-inventing and expanding the Bureau by securing arms for his agents, the first ever forensics lab and central finger-printing database, and with unprecedented (and unlawful?) warrantless wiretaps. A stickler for details, he culled an entire department of employees that were hand-picked mostly by the cut of their suits and their loyalty to him.

In his role as FBI Director, Hoover portrays a public persona as an earnest hero-in-the-shadows, placing Godliness and duty above all else. In a scene depicting Hoover giving testimony to a congressional hearing, that very persona is called into question when we learn that he hasn't actually ever arrested a single individual but is all too happy to take the credit, lending his "legend" to comic book writers who fashion him a Dick Tracy-type.

I could go on marking historical facts but it would miss the beauty of J. Edgar, which does all of those things well enough on their own. The fascination at the heart of the movie is that Hoover appears to be a mystery even to himself. A fascinating character study of a most private man, J. Edgar reveals more in the way those closest to him regard him: his mother Annie (Judi Dench), his longtime assistant and companion Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer, who played the twins in The Social Network) and Helen Gandy (an almost unrecognizable Naomi Watts), his lifelong secretary.

All three supporting performances are Oscar-worthy.

Clint Eastwood has the patience and the wisdom to understand that the greatest dramas lurk in the shadows and in the long, dark nights of the soul. It embraces the enigmatic qualities of Hoover and those closest to him rather than pronouncing easy judgment over them.

Consider the way DiCaprio as Hoover meets Ms. Gandy in what has got to be one of the more interesting first-dates we've seen in a long time at the movies. With his access, Hoover takes her to the Library of Congress where it's revealed he overhauled the indexing system in order to make it easier to find books. Hoover comes on strong with her and she rescinds his advances telling him her career will come before anything else. Naomi Watts completely disappears in her role.

All three characters share the same repressed energy, marked from a time when men were supposed to be men (Hoover's mother disapproves of men who are "daffodils" in a revealing scene after Hoover announces for the first time publicly that dancing with women just isn't his thing). Armie Hammer delivers a knockout performance as Tolson, with his all-American alpha-looks, but with a mild-mannered grace and soft tone that offsets the sometimes impish, hardened little man that Hoover can be.

A lesser film would have misplayed the notion of sexuality portrayed throughout, labeling Hoover a homosexual and that's that. But the screenplay is written by Dustin Lance Black (Oscar winner for Milk), and it's more grown-up than that and does a masterful job of showing Hoover, Tolson and Gandy as repressed and lonely individuals who suffer private lives that seem much less satisfying than the public lives they lead. And to the film's credit, when Hoover does reveal that he doesn't like dancing with women it has as much to do with how uncomfortable he is in a social world that turns him off or that he's fearful of.

J. Edgar is slow-moving. It doesn't lead to a big speech before Congress. It doesn't make any easy points about the man. Sure, there are terrific sequences showing Hoover and the FBI on the famous John Dillinger case as well as the kidnapping case of the Lindbergh baby and subsequent arrest and prosecution of Bruno Hauptmann. However, those things aren't played out for the usual movie thrills, they are used to illustrate how Hoover sees himself publicly.

Moreover, J. Edgar is an absolutely fascinating character study of a man and those closest around him who are certain of their public roles but are lost and lonely in private lives that leave them feeling disconnected by their virtue of forever living in look-but-don't-touch land. In many ways the themes here are similar to Brokeback Mountain, not so much in terms of sexual repression (although that's a part of it), but in how we witness characters who repress who they truly are and how they actually feel about life -- lost in the expectations of what they have been brought up to become. The film is shot in dark blues and greys and black shadows covering the faces of its leads. We find ourselves peering in to try to see the whole of them, but that's the rub, isn't it? Their sense of duty to their own causes have made them even enigmas to themselves.

J. Edgar is one of the best and quietly involving movies of the year, another achievement in the most impressive twilight of the career of any director I can think of in the cinema with titles over the past decade that include Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, the WWII dramas Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, Changeling, Gran Torino, Invictus, and last year's overlooked masterpiece Hereafter.

Amazing.

Posted

@MovieJay Reviews Margin Call

Fresh off of last year's Oscar-winning doc Inside Job as well as the Washington lobbyist-scandal flick Casino Jack comes Margin Call, the most impressive fiction film to date about the 2008 Wall Street collapse that kicked off what we now know to be 'The Great Recession'.

Three years later, would you say you're any clearer about what a 'credit default swap' is? How about 'derivatives'? Inside Job did a great service in how it visualized these things for us and to the best of my ability, I will communicate it here. What essentially happened to cause the financial meltdown of September 2008 was this: Powerful corporate interests with the help of their lobbying muscle in Washington eviscerated the rules and regulations that had held since the Great Depression preventing speculators on Wall St. from gambling away the nation's treasure as well as the savings of millions of people on things that held no value. Take away the regulations and once again they bet on thin air, propping up value to mostly mortgage-backed securities. The resulting action is that it sent regular folks to buy up stocks and use their homes as leverage in the marketplace only to be left holding a bag filled with hot, steaming poop after the speculators had bet against the fact that we weren't actually holding anything.

One of the important things to know about Margin Call is that the characters in the film know exactly how this works while the rest of us don't, which only adds to the fascination of watching them all fall to pieces in their own specific ways as word climbs up the corporate hierarchy of their huge banking institution (very loosely based upon the first big collapse of a too-big-to-fail outfit in 2008, Lehman Brothers) about how the bubble is about a week past-due from bursting.

As Margin Call opens, the good times on Wall St. appear to be coming to an end as the unnamed firm in the film is in the process of laying off 80% of it's employees. One of them is a senior risk analyst named Eric, played by Stanley Tucci, who on his way out the door hands a USB flash drive to one of his staff containing the last big project he was working on, warning them to "be careful". He's lead to an office where two hired hands play out exactly how the narrative of his firing and compensation package will work out and we feel the dread along with the Tucci character of a life that appears to be figuratively dumped in the recycle bin like an old computer file is.

From that point in the film, the gathering storm of what is to come moves up the executive ladder of the firm beginning with Peter and Seth, two of Eric's former employees. As they work out the rest of Eric's equations, they are left with the reality that the potential stock losses at the firm will be greater than the value of the firm itself as the market is trembling on the verge of collapse. They contact their supervisor Will (Paul Bettany), who immediately brings in his boss, Sam (Kevin Spacey) for an all-night emergency session at the firm that eventually leads to a helicopter swooping in in the middle of the night with the firm's CEO, John Tuld (a small tip of the hat no doubt to Lehman CEO Richard Fuld) played by the astute Jeremy Irons. When he repeats the line "Speak to me in plain English", at first we think it's for comic effect until it dawns on us that he only understands the ownership part of his relationship to the firm and not what it is they actually do.

What he does (and what was enacted in many huge financial institutions in the fall of 2008) is to make a "margin call", meaning, to dump all of the stock that was made worthless by them in shady deals where they benefited from gambling against their own shareholders, reaping massive profits. The large cast, which also includes Demi Moore and Simon Baker (The Wire), do a fantastic job of making all this confounding business sound interesting and urgent.

Cinematographer Frank G. De Marco, whose previous credits include the interior drama Rabbit Hole and the dramedy Delirious, once again does quietly impressive work here in the way he's able to capture antiseptic, enclosed spaces, this time turning that cold office building of the firm into a dark, indifferent, sinister character that casts a pall on the film. The characters are framed in wonderfully intimate moments of soul-searching in front of bright computer screens, bathroom mirrors and worrisome reflections in office tower windows.

Margin Call depicts the last night on Wall Street before bad times were ushered in, but what it's really about are characters who are ultimately more loyal to their corporations than to a greater good. Writer-director J.C. Chandor does an excellent job of showing his characters, allowing us to sympathize with them despite the fact of their misdeeds. In between the cold, efficient dialogue are many close-ups that quietly study their faces, watching them fall inside with the knowledge that their livelihoods are being rendered meaningless and that they're each doing their part in making it so.

This is one of the most important movies of the year.

Posted

@MovieJay Reviews Margin Call

Fresh off of last year's Oscar-winning doc Inside Job as well as the Washington lobbyist-scandal flick Casino Jack comes Margin Call, the most impressive fiction film to date about the 2008 Wall Street collapse that kicked off what we now know to be 'The Great Recession'.

Three years later, would you say you're any clearer about what a 'credit default swap' is? How about 'derivatives'? Inside Job did a great service in how it visualized these things for us and to the best of my ability, I will communicate it here. What essentially happened to cause the financial meltdown of September 2008 was this: Powerful corporate interests with the help of their lobbying muscle in Washington eviscerated the rules and regulations that had held since the Great Depression preventing speculators on Wall St. from gambling away the nation's treasure as well as the savings of millions of people on things that held no value. Take away the regulations and once again they bet on thin air, propping up value to mostly mortgage-backed securities. The resulting action is that it sent regular folks to buy up stocks and use their homes as leverage in the marketplace only to be left holding a bag filled with hot, steaming poop after the speculators had bet against the fact that we weren't actually holding anything.

One of the important things to know about Margin Call is that the characters in the film know exactly how this works while the rest of us don't, which only adds to the fascination of watching them all fall to pieces in their own specific ways as word climbs up the corporate hierarchy of their huge banking institution (very loosely based upon the first big collapse of a too-big-to-fail outfit in 2008, Lehman Brothers) about how the bubble is about a week past-due from bursting.

As Margin Call opens, the good times on Wall St. appear to be coming to an end as the unnamed firm in the film is in the process of laying off 80% of it's employees. One of them is a senior risk analyst named Eric, played by Stanley Tucci, who on his way out the door hands a USB flash drive to one of his staff containing the last big project he was working on, warning them to "be careful". He's lead to an office where two hired hands play out exactly how the narrative of his firing and compensation package will work out and we feel the dread along with the Tucci character of a life that appears to be figuratively dumped in the recycle bin like an old computer file is.

From that point in the film, the gathering storm of what is to come moves up the executive ladder of the firm beginning with Peter and Seth, two of Eric's former employees. As they work out the rest of Eric's equations, they are left with the reality that the potential stock losses at the firm will be greater than the value of the firm itself as the market is trembling on the verge of collapse. They contact their supervisor Will (Paul Bettany), who immediately brings in his boss, Sam (Kevin Spacey) for an all-night emergency session at the firm that eventually leads to a helicopter swooping in in the middle of the night with the firm's CEO, John Tuld (a small tip of the hat no doubt to Lehman CEO Richard Fuld) played by the astute Jeremy Irons. When he repeats the line "Speak to me in plain English", at first we think it's for comic effect until it dawns on us that he only understands the ownership part of his relationship to the firm and not what it is they actually do.

What he does (and what was enacted in many huge financial institutions in the fall of 2008) is to make a "margin call", meaning, to dump all of the stock that was made worthless by them in shady deals where they benefited from gambling against their own shareholders, reaping massive profits. The large cast, which also includes Demi Moore and Simon Baker (The Wire), do a fantastic job of making all this confounding business sound interesting and urgent.

Cinematographer Frank G. De Marco, whose previous credits include the interior drama Rabbit Hole and the dramedy Delirious, once again does quietly impressive work here in the way he's able to capture antiseptic, enclosed spaces, this time turning that cold office building of the firm into a dark, indifferent, sinister character that casts a pall on the film. The characters are framed in wonderfully intimate moments of soul-searching in front of bright computer screens, bathroom mirrors and worrisome reflections in office tower windows.

Margin Call depicts the last night on Wall Street before bad times were ushered in, but what it's really about are characters who are ultimately more loyal to their corporations than to a greater good. Writer-director J.C. Chandor does an excellent job of showing his characters, allowing us to sympathize with them despite the fact of their misdeeds. In between the cold, efficient dialogue are many close-ups that quietly study their faces, watching them fall inside with the knowledge that their livelihoods are being rendered meaningless and that they're each doing their part in making it so.

This is one of the most important movies of the year.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  a thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster, who has one of the strongest supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  a thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  A thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  A thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted

@MovieJay's Review of The Descendants

With Sideways, About Schmidt, and now with The Descendants, Alexander Payne (also of Election fame) solidifies his place as the James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) of our time -- a torch-carrying heavyweight of the modern dramedy that specializes in making you laugh and smile while leaving a lump in your throat all at the same time.

The Descendants, starring George Clooney in another amazing performance, focuses on the role of modern men and is another in a series of movies from Payne that have specialized in men taking stock of themselves. Here Clooney sheds the crisp suits, slick hair and shoeshines of Michael Clayton and Up In the Air and trades them for tropical shirts, sandals, and hair that needs to be cut like a week and a half ago and turns in a performance more physically resembling his dishevelled CIA agent in Syriana (though not as pudgy). He plays Matt King, a man whose lost touch with his family in what appears to coincide with him losing touch with the land he is from and the traditions it represents.

If Matt seems a square and an absentee father, than his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) is the yin to his yang -  A thrill-seeking, free-spirited type who opens the film in a boating misadventure that leaves her in a coma. On his side of the family, Matt's a descendant of one of the first white land-owning families in Hawaii and holds, by a slim majority, the controlling-share of a piece of untouched land on neighboring Kuaui Island that he is having to decide whether to sell to condo and resort developers.

If Matt has been taking care of his family's estate, it has been Elizabeth taking care of the rest of his family at home, including two daughters: the boarding-school teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and the younger Scottie (Amara Miller). Now that mom is in a coma, it forces Alexandra home from school where she must help with Scottie as dad both takes care of work as well as dealing with friends and extended family in a new reality where he must now lead his own family instead of losing time to caretaking his family's affairs.

Things get complicated when Alexandra reveals to him that mom was having an affair with local real estate agent Brian Speer, played by Matthew Lillard. Lillard is surprisingly effective in this role that announces him as a real man with no trace of the cartoonish and anxious young guy traits we have grown familiar with from the Scream and Scooby-Doo franchises.

Alexander Payne does a great job of continuing the tradition of his other intelligent, accessible Hollywood films. The idea of presenting us a story with a strong and complicated lead character surrounded by an equally strong supporting cast who are all given their moments behind the wheel is his staple and he delivers it in spades.. And like his other films, The Descendants feels uncannily like life from one true scene to the next where plot is secondary to character, allowing scenes to be as serious as they are light.

Consider Robert Forster here, as the handsome, grizzled, angry Mr. Thorson and father to Elizabeth. It's a testament to how great he is for this role that we sense so much beyond the words that are spoken in the very few scenes he's in. Mr. Thorson doesn't respect Matt, finds him weak, and in one agonizing scene when close family and friends are invited to say their goodbyes to Elizabeth (who has expressed in a living will her wish to be taken off of life support in such an instance), Thorson implies that had Matt been a better husband and stronger man that maybe she wouldn't have been seeking thrills out in the ocean and would still be with them today.

Other strong supporting roles include that of Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh, an affable, well-liked, salt-of-the-earth sort to all that know him. Privately  he plays the foil to Matt, who is on the fence about selling their ancestral land. As I mentioned earlier, Matthew Lillard really brings it in a character that ought to be the bad guy instead of Cousin Hugh, but who we come to find a great deal of empathy with.

Come Oscar time, George Clooney will find himself with a best actor nod, without a doubt, however huge shout-outs belong to Shailene Woodley as the teen daughter who faces down the family crisis with a reserve of grace and strength that bode well for her as adulthood approaches. Also Robert Forster who has one of the stronger supporting roles ever rendered with that little amount of screen time, (which is punctuated hilariously by a moment of comic-violence between him and Alexandra's whoa-dude-spaced-out pseudo-boyfriend Sid).

Based on the novel by the same title by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants no doubt works as well as it does because of her years growing up in Hawaii, infused particularly in the characters of the two daughters in the film.

The Descendants is one of the best movies of the year above all for its performances (Sid even gets his moments of depth in there) but also in the strength of its screenplay, which does a tremendous job of fitting Elizabeth in a coma, the land deal, along with the Mr. Mom as well as the coming-of-age stuff all in one story and telling it as seamlessly as it does with charm, humor and depth.

Posted