Paris

I was in for a treat last night when I watched the French-language movie Paris that stars Juliette Binoche and Fabrice Luchini.

Paris is a work of art. Paris takes its material directly from real life. All of the characters, places, situations are living, breathing insights into the human condition, and into life, death, misery, loneliness, love.... There is no main plot. There is no main character (except for the city of Paris), but all the characters and their lives are given such attention, that the audience gets an intimate and full insight. 

What is the principal storyline? Pierre (played by Duris) a nightclub dancer with a thrilling life, learns that he has a potentially fatal heart condition that will require a heart transplant. Pierre is too weak to be totally miserable; thus, he is quietly miserable observing the lives of the people he sees from his flat's balcony.

A second storyline follows his sister, Elise (played by Binoche), who has escaped from a bad marriage. She takes her three children and moves in with Pierre to help him deal with his illness. A third storyline follows a fifty-something history professor who has an eye for an attractive student in his class, but he is too shy to talk to her. This line also includes his younger brother, Philippe, a well respected architect. 

You get the idea. This is a complex movie with these storylines interwoven with each other. This makes Paris an exceptional movie that is worth seeing. I highly recommend seeing this movie.

Fraulein

I wanted to watch a deep drama, and I found it in the film Fraulein, a German language film. In Fraulein we follow three generations of women from Bosnia. The principal character is the young woman, Ana, who lives from day-to-day and seems to be hiding a secret.  Next we meet a a middle-aged lady, Ruza, who is the owner and manager of a restaurant in Zurich. Finally, we are introduced to an older lady, Mila, who is employed by Ruza. Fraulein interweaves the three stories on how these women got to where they are and why. Along the way we learn how these women make do with their lives, and how they deal with the challenges in their lives.

I think that Fraulein is a surprisingly good film. It is very moving. Thus, I recommend you see this intense, stark film.

Then She Found Me

Then She Found Me has some great actors, Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, and Matthew Broderick. This might make you think that this is going to be a good film. It is not. Then She Found Me is somewhat entertaining but this film is lacking in many ways. 

April Epner (Helen Hunt) is married to fellow schoolteacher Ben Green (Matthew Broderick) and longs to have a baby before her advancing age prevents her dream. April was adopted as an infant by a Jewish couple who subsequently gave birth to April's brother Freddy (Ben Shenkman). April's busy life implodes: Ben has decided he doesn't like his life and leaves April, April's mother dies, April meets Frank (Colin Firth) a recently divorced writer and father of two children, and April is contacted by a man who can put April in touch with her birth mother - popular TV talk show hostess Bernice Graves (Bette Midler). And if these turns of events weren't traumatic enough, April discovers that she has become pregnant by Ben and Ben is unsure whether he can handle the restructuring of his life to accommodate April.

This film could be okay for some, but it was not for me. All actors looked really old and decrepit. Never has Helen Hunt looked so tired, her normal slim figure now just skinny, her bland face turning stern. Colin Firth looked fat and old, while Matthew Broderick had white hair and a huge stomach. Who decided on having Salman Rushdie playing April's ob/gym?

I do not recommend this movie. There are many better to watch.

The Deep Blue Sea

I did not know what to expect when I started to watch The Deep Blue Sea, but I did know that it was a British film, which means it will probably develop slowly and not have a resolution. That adequately describes The Deep Blue Sea. So what is this story?

Hester (played by Rachel Weisz) is married to a brutally honest judge named William and though it is not entirely clear when their marriage went sour. Hester embarks on a torrid relationship with William's friend Freddie, a military man who has just returned from World War 2. Somewhere along the line, Hester begins to realize that she might have gone from the frying pan into the fire by putting her secure marriage to her elderly hubby in jeopardy by having an affair with an incredibly childish man. That dilemma is where the film gets its title 'The Deep Blue Sea' from the saying "Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea".

The result is a film so heavy it almost gets crushed under its own weight. Long shots, silence-filled conversations, tormented looks, and outbursts of anger. The first minutes are filled with seemingly unconnected images of the woman in various situations, accompanied by dramatic classical music. I will say no more.

While some may enjoy such a film, I do not recommend this film.

Hemingway's Garden of Eden

Hemingway's Garden of Eden is an adaptation of a Hemingway novel the he began in 1946 but never completed. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1961 and the book was not published until 1986. It is generally considered to be drawn from his own experiences marrying an older woman and moving to Paris.

Jack Huston plays American writer David Bourne (Hemingway-like character) living and writing in Paris. He meets Catherine (Mena Suvari) who is a few years older and very wealthy. Catherine is the type that always seems to get what she wants and is never shy about any situation.

After they quickly marry, David and Catherine go on an extended honeymoon on the Riviera. This is when the fun begins because she likes to experiment with life. For example she and David go to a French hairdresser who turns them into two androgynous bleached blonds. At an outdoor café Catherine meets a lady who loves their hairstyles. Later Catherine goes into Cannes to retrieve this woman and bring her to their rural hotel as a present for her husband. The woman is Italian beauty Caterina Murino as Marita.

As you can see the story becomes intense as the three become lovers. 

I think this is a really involved movie with a lot more than the sex and beautiful scenery. It has the simplistic style of complexity that is associated with Hemingway. I recommend this flick.

The Flats

I have been enjoying watching less popular but excellent Indy films. The Flats is one such movie.  It stars Chad Lindberg, who was in October Sky, The Fast and the Furious, and The Rookie. He plays the the alcoholic Harper. Sean Christensen plays Harper's best friend, Luke, and Judy Herrera plays Paige, the young woman that rocks their friendship. The story begins as Harper returns home on the eve of a court date which could send him to jail. Self-destructive and unwilling to show any crack in his armor, Harper decides to make the most of the few days of freedom he has remaining. Living with his close friends that zealously protect him yet cannot begin to offer a haven for his vulnerability, Harper finds unexpected comfort in Lukes new girlfriend, Paige, who has returned to the area to claim a fishing boat left to her by a Native American relative. 

The Flats develops into a very interesting movie that I would recommend.

The Burning Plain

The Burning Plain was the second Charlize Theron movie that I have seen in a week. The Burning Plain is a complex, well-acted movie. I really enjoyed this movie. 

The Burning Plain stands out for having three women at the center of things: Sylvia (Charlize Theron) is a restaurant owner who, despite what appears to be a relationship with one of her employees (John Corbett), is deeply unsatisfied and spends all of her free time smoking cigarettes and sleeping with other men; Gina (Kim Basinger) is your typical housewife, except she's survived breast cancer and is cheating on her husband (Brett Cullen) with a Mexican man named Nick (Joaquim de Almeida); Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence), Gina's daughter, is probably the most messed up of the three, especially after she starts dating Nick's son Santiago. And finally, remaining on the female front, there's also a little girl, Maria, who travels from Mexico to the United States with a family friend to find her long lost mother.

Are you confused? Well you will have to watch about two-thirds of this excellent movie to see the connections between these women. I highly recommend this movie.

The Romantics

Well my run on good movies came to an end last night when I watched The Romantics staring  Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin, and Josh Duhamel. Normally I like Katie Holmes' acting, but she was not up to her usual high-quality work in this poorly done film.

So what is the storyline in The Romantics? Five former college friends travel to the wedding of the wealthy Lila Hayes (Anna Paquin) with Tom McDevon (Josh Duhamel) at her family's beach house. The maid of honor Laura Rosen (Katie Holmes) was the roommate of Lila in the college and the groom Tom was her long-term boyfriend. Laura still misses Tom and the groom is not sure that he shall marry Lila. Along the eve of the wedding day, they have a dinner rehearsal and drink a lot of booze, and Tom and Laura get close to each other and rekindle their interest in each other. Enough said about this slow, uninteresting flick. I recommend not watching this movie.

Young Adult

Young Adult stars  Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson,  and Patton Oswalt. The main reason I watched this film is Charlize Theron, an actress that I really like. Theron brilliantly plays Mavis, a very self-centered character who is a borderline stalker. 

Mavis lived the high school dream being beautiful, popular, plus dating the high school most desirable stud, Buddy. At the beginning of the movie she wakes up to a mass email in which she finds out that Buddy is now happily married with a newborn infant. Upon considering her pathetic alcoholic life, Mavis decides to return home to win back Buddy. 

During her quest to win back Buddy, she meets meets Matt (Patton), an old classmate who was a victim of a hate crime in high school leaving him partially disabled. Matt tries to convince her what she's doing is ridiculous, and sees her for what she really is, crazy. Still Matt stays along for the ride and the two meet up for nightly alcoholic binges. Though Mavis was the popular girl and Matt was the "homosexual" geek in their past lives, they find themselves being two alone people, together. 

I will say no more, but I think you can see that this is an interesting movie worth watching. It also shows that "you can never go back home!"

Skyfall

I always enjoy watching the latest James Bond flick, and Skyfall was one of the best Bond movies that I have seen even though many critics did not like this film. Much of this movie revolves around a mature James Bond fitting into the modern world of espionage. For example when Bond meets the new Q, he sees a nerdy guy who gives him a small case with only a gun and tracker. This Q was nothing like the white-lab coated Q of the past. 

Skyfall stars  Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Naomie Harris, a very good group of actors. I personally think that Daniel Craig is the best James Bond ever because he fits my image of James Bond.

What then is the storyline? After a mission goes wrong in Istanbul, MI6 loses a hard drive containing a list of all NATO agents within terrorist cells, and James Bond (Daniel Craig) is presumed killed in action. M's (Judi Dench) competence is questioned and the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) plans to replace her. Making matters worse, a cyber-terrorist targets MI6 and M personally, getting a hold of the list and causing an explosion within MI6's headquarters. An older, more damaged Bond then returns to duty to serve Queen and Country, having to prove he is in shape before going on the search to find the terrorist.

Skyfall is not a great movie, even though it won two Academy Awards, but is a fun one to watch.