TRACKS

 True life drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Mia Wasikowska: 25-year-old Australian naturalist Robyn Davidson

Adam Driver: National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan

Roly Mintuma: Eddy, an aboriginal elder

REVIEW

Based on a true story that took place in the 70’s, it is left to the viewer to decide why someone would undertake such an adventure on their own. Her solo walk across the desert of Australia with four camels and a dog as her only companions will seem to some as a waste of time.

However it is lovely to look at and plays out with very little melodrama, much like a documentary. 

CLASSIFICATION

 for thematic elements, some partial nudity, disturbing images and brief strong language.

THE SOLOIST

Drama
Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Robert Downey Jr.: Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez
Catherine Keener: Mary Weston, the newspaper’s Editior
Jamie Foxx: Nathaniel Ayers Junior, a homeless street musician
Tom Hollander: Graham Claydon, the first chair of the LA Philharmonic
LisaGay Hamilton: Nathaniel’s sister Jennifer Ayers-Moore

REVIEW
Although the film does not turn over any new leaf, it doesn’t have to. Stories about friendships have many variations, this one between two radically different people. Rather than spend a lot of time filling in the character of both, the director has wisely decided to concentrate on Ayers. Good call.

Nicely shot and well-acted, it feels completely real. I can only imagine how much effort it took for Foxx to memorize his lines: the torrent of words is amazing. Trying to catch everything being said is impossible. But there is no need to do so.

It’s almost two hours long and doesn’t have to be since there are more than a few scenes that are either repetitive or simply too long. The film editor should have exercised his prerogative to do something about that.

CLASSIFICATION
for thematic elements, some drug use, and language.

HUNGER

Drama
Based on actual events

F.Y.I.
On December 6, 1922 the entire island of Ireland became the Irish Free State. As such Ireland was granted dominion status within the British Empire equal to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Two days later Northern Ireland opted out of the Irish Free State in order to establish a republican form of government completely independent from Britain.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army took up the struggle to end British rule in Ireland and according to its constitution, "to establish an Irish Socialist Republic, based on the Proclamation of 1916”. By this they sought to end the status of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion. As such the IRA is classified as a terrorist group in the United Kingdom and as an illegal organization in what is today the Republic of Ireland, better known simply as Ireland.

In July 1972 all prisoners convicted of terrorist crimes were granted Special Category status, effectively treating them as a prisoner of war having some of the privileges for POW’s as specified in the Geneva Convention. This meant prisoners did not have to wear prison uniforms nor do prison work, were housed together with their comrades, were allowed extra visits and food parcels. Four years later the British Government rescinded this special status.

The immediate response of the Republican prisoners was the so-called “blanket protest” whereby they refused to wear prison-issue clothing and wore blankets instead. Two years later this escalated into the “dirty protest” with the prisoners refusing to wash themselves and smeared the walls of their cells with their own excrement and spilled their chamber pots under the cell door into the hallway. All uneaten food was dumped into a rotting pile of refuse.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Stuart Graham: Ray Lohan, guard at the Maze Prison
Brian Milligan: IRA member, Davey Gillen
Liam McMahon: his cellmate Gerry Campbell
Michael Fassbender: 27-year-old Bobby Sands
Liam Cunningham: Father Dominic Moran

REVIEW
A well crafted movie has a beginning, a middle and an end. This film has no beginning as such. So unless you are a scholar familiar with the Irish “troubles” (or take the time to read the F.Y.I. above) for quite some while you will be totally lost trying to figure out just what is going on. The absence of any real dialogue for the first half of the movie doesn’t help either so for 45 minutes or so you can only guess at what it is all about.

About mid-way though there is a riveting 20-minute, single-camera, single-take conversation between Sands and a priest during which time he explains that the protests so far have not resulted in bringing attention to the extraordinarily harsh conditions in which he and his fellow prisoners are subject to nor to regain their status as political prisoners. Finally we find out what the movie is all about.

Relying on the visual element more than the spoken word there are extremely long takes of a jail guard methodically brushing away urine from a hallway or watching a fly crawling across a prisoner’s hand. Not having the patience to sit for minutes on end through these episodes several times I was about to leave. Some people did.

CLASSIFICATION
for disturbing images, explicit portrayals of violence, full frontal nudity, and language.

FLASH OF GENIUS

Drama
Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Greg Kinnear: college professor and part-time inventor Dr. Robert Kearns
Lauren Graham: his wife Phyllis
Dermot Mulroney: Gil Privick, Kearns' best friend and business associate
Mitch Pileggi: an executive with the Ford Motor Company
Alan Alda: Gregory Lawson, Kearns' lawyer

REVIEW
The producers have wisely chosen to keep it real. As a consequence there is none of the emoting so prevalent in movies about one individual struggling against a large corporation. Even the courtroom proceedings are devoid of the usual bombastic screaming seen so often. How refreshing.

The acting by Kinnear demands of him to play a wide range of emotions and this he does well. Although Alan Alda’s screen time is rather limited he pulls it off beautifully. He’s come a long way from “Mash” and has matured as an actor.

The pacing is fine but things drag on a bit with the result it is almost 2 hours long. Cut out half an hour and they get one more star.

CLASSIFICATION
for brief strong language. They got to be kidding: the only thing I remember hearing that was even remotely “strong language” was when one of the kids says to his sister “you’re a dips _ _ t” and when questioned by his mother if he had said a dirty word the kid lies and says “no…I called her a dipstick”. For that they give it a PG-13?

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 As a gesture of reverence Catholics genuflect when passing in front of the tabernacle. They don’t make a sign of the cross as Bob does. This is done only at the start of saying a prayer.
 Bob drives up the company driveway and stops the car quite some distance from the Ford engineers, I’d say 30 or 40 feet, then walks up to them. When he is asked to turn on the engine seen from the overhead shot the car has conveniently moved closer and now he only has to walk a short distance, about 10 feet.
 While Bob is brushing his teeth Phyllis comes up and stands behind him leaning on the left hand side of the door frame. Bob turns around and goes to her. The point of view changes so we see them from behind but they have magically switched over to the other side of the doorway.

THE COUNTERFEITERS

2008 Best foreign language picture




Fact based drama
In German with English subtitles

F.Y.I.
Collotype is a photographic process used for large volume mechanical printing before the existence of the cheaper and less complicated offset lithography method. The collotype plate is coated with a special dichromated gelatine and set at a controlled temperature then it has to be carefully washed and dried without heat for 24 hours before using it.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Karl Markovics: master forger 45-year-old Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch
Devid Striesow: police superintendent Friedrich Herzog
August Diehl: left-wing activist and collotype specialist Adolf Burger

REVIEW
Some fine acting serves to keep this thriller moving along at a good clip. Shot in monochromatic greys, attention to detail is much in evidence. Unlike most movies about events that took place during World War II, this story is not that well known despite the fact it was the biggest operation of its kind ever. Given that it’s a thiller not too much more need be said.

CLASSIFICATION
for intense violence and some scenes of brief nudity.

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES

Western
Based on a true story

BACKGROUND
Alexander Franklin (Frank) James (b. January 1843) and his brother Jesse (b. September 1847) joined the Cole Younger gang and participated in the robbing of their first bank in 1868. A year later the two brothers formed their own gang and added stagecoaches and trains to their list of victims. Train robberies were typically limited to stealing the contents of the express safe while leaving the passengers untouched. The newspaper accounts fostered their Robin Hood image and soon their escapades were published in comic book novels attracting a huge following.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Brad Pitt: Jesse James
Sam Shepard: his older brother Frank
Casey Affleck: nineteen-year-old Robert Ford, a "wannabe" of the James Gang
Sam Rockwell: Robert’s older brother Charley and gang member
Jeremy Renner: Wood Hite, gang member and Jesse’s cousin
Paul Schneider: gang member Dick Liddil
Garret Dillahunt : another gang member Ed Miller
Mary-Louise Parker: Jesse’s wife Zee

REVIEW
I’m not a fan of long movies. But once in a while one comes along that warrants spending a couple of hours watching it: this is one of them. The unhurried pace allows time for character development and moments for the camera to take in some stunning views of the west.

There are two particularily good performances, one by Brad Pitt (his best effort ever?) and the other by Casey Affleck (so much better than his more famous brother).

CLASSIFICATION
for some strong violence and brief sexual references.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Try as I might, sometimes nothing pans out. There were four potential nitpicks:
1. Is one person a safe load on blue ice only 3 to 4 inches thick?
2. Was the Penny Farthing bike invented prior to 1881?
3. Was April 3, 1882 a Monday?
4. When was the song “Oh! Susanna” written?

In each instance the producers have done their homework and there were no inaccuracies. Woe is me.

P.S.
The great cinemaphotography is not all that surprising given the fact that the film’s Director of Photography, Roger Deakins, has been granted membership both in the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and the British version (BSC). That says a lot about his talent.

Torquay, Devon is a town of about 100, 000 on the eastern coast of England yet Roger Deakins, Agatha Christie and 16 other well-known people in the arts were born here: must be something in the water.

SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL

True war drama
Some dialogue in French with English subtitles

BACKGROUND
On July 1, 1962, Belgium granted full independence to Rwanda as a republic governed by the Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement. Rwanda thus became a Hutu-dominated one-party state. Following a coup in 1973, Juvénal Habyariman was inaugurated as president. For 20 years his Hutu military government ruled with an iron-fist policy against both Tutsis and any Hutus who opposed him. Habyariman resisted calls for free elections and was opposed to long-running demands by Rwandan Tutsi refugees for their right to return.

On April 6, 1994 his plane was shot down above Kigali airport. Within hours, a campaign of violence spread from the capital throughout the country and did not subside until three months later. Between April and June 1994 in the space of 100 days an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed . Most of the dead were Tutsis.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Roy Dupuis: Canadian Armed Forces General Roméo Dallaire
James Gallanders: his aide-de-camp Major Brent Beardsley
Owen Sejake: Major-General Anyidoho, United Nations Chief of Staff
Odile Katesi Gakire: Prime Minister of Rwanda
Deborah Kara Unger: American Reporter Emma

REVIEW
Told from the perspective of the man in charge of protecting the lives of innocent people, this is not simply a retelling of the horrors of the Rwanda genocide. Shot on location and with acting that is first rate (especially by Dupuis) the Rwanda part of it looks and feels authentic. The flashbacks less so.

Perhaps a little long, it is never boring. Some of the scenes are unsettling but manageable by all but the more squeamish.

CLASSIFICATION
for disturbing images, violence.

P.S.
Not to be confused with the Emmy-winning 2004 documentary film based on the book entitled Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire.

THE HOAX

Drama, true story

BACKGROUND
Howard Hughes was born in 1905. His father made his fortune by designing a special drill bit that enabled speculators to reach the large pockets of oil lying beneath hard rock. The Hughes Tool Company held the patent for the new drill bit and leased them to oil drillers.

When Hughes Jr. was just 18-years old, his father passed away. He received 75% of his father's million-dollar estate; the other 25% went to relatives. Hughes soon disagreed with his relatives over the running of the company. But being only 18-years old, he could not do anything about it because he was not considered legally an adult. Frustrated but determined, Hughes went to court and got a judge to grant him legal adulthood status even though he was not yet 21. He then bought out his relatives' shares of the company. Consequently, even though still a teenager, Hughes became full owner of The Hughes Tool Company.

He went on to become a pioneering aviator, engineer, playboy and film producer. Unfortunately during this time he contracted syphilis and much of the strange behaviour at the end of his life — his well-documented aversion to handshaking, for example — has been attributed to the tertiary stage of that disease. He became very much a recluse during the last ten years of his life. He died in 1976, aboard an airplane, while travelling from Acapulco, Mexico to Houston, Texas.

The term “Watergate scandal” refers to a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel, Washington, D.C. by members of Richard Nixon’s administration. The cover up lasted two years but the court ordered release in August 1974 of the so-called “smoking gun” tape brought with it the prospect of certain impeachment. Nixon resigned four days later making him the only U.S. President to have resigned from office.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Richard Gere: Clifford Irving, author of several novels and one biography
Marcia Gay Harden: his wife Edith, a Swiss/German artist
Alfred Molina: Clifford’s partner Dick Suskind
Hope Davis: Andrea Tate, Editor with McGraw-Hill Publishers
Stanley Tucci: Shelton Fisher, President of McGraw-Hill

REVIEW
A successful hoax can only thrive on the gullibility of others. And when that gullibility is laced with greed the outcome is often quite spectacular.

A great story that keeps pretty much to the facts combined with excellent acting and crisp editing make this a very entertaining movie. Some would say it’s great just because Richare Gere is in it. That too.

CLASSIFICATION
rating just for language: maybe the Rating Board was looking the other way when Nina shows up?

AMAZING GRACE

Historical drama, true story

BACKGROUND
Triangular trade is a historical term denoting trade between three ports or regions. They have tended to evolve where a region had an export commodity that was not required in the same region where its major imports entered the country. Typically from a British port supplies such as copper, cloth, guns and ammunition would be shipped to a port in Africa and sold in exchange for slaves. For the second leg of the triangle the ship would then make the ten-week journey to the New World and the slaves, having to endure horrific conditions while tightly packed like any other cargo, were sold for a good profit. The ships were then purposely sunk to get them thoroughly clean, refloated, drained of water then loaded for a return voyage to their home port. From the West Indies the main cargo was sugar, rum, and molasses; from Virginia, it was tobacco and hemp. The ship then returned to Britain to complete the triangle.

Thomas Clarkson (1760 –1846) in 1785 while at Cambridge entered an essay competition on the question “Is it lawful to enslave the unconsenting?” He read everything he could on the subject and was appalled by what he discovered. He became a leading campaigner against England’s involvement in the slave trade. The movement had been gathering strength for some years, having been founded by Quakers who submitted the first petition against the slave trade to the British Parliament in 1783.

John Newton (1725 –1807) at one time had been a master of a slave trading ship. Returning to England in 1748, the ship encountered a severe Atlantic storm. As the vessel filled with water he prayed for God’s mercy. That marked the beginning of his conversion to Christianity. He later went on to become the leading Anglican clergyman of the day and Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth church. He is best known as the author of the hymn Amazing Grace.

William Wilberforce (1759 –1833) in 1787 was introduced to Thomas Clarkson and the growing group campaigning against the slave trade. As a Member of Parliament, he was persuaded to become leader of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

William Pitt (1759 –1806) served as British Prime Minister from 1783 to 1801 under the reign of George III. During his prime ministerial tenure the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars dominated the world scene.

Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 –1797) at the age of eleven was sold to white slave traders and taken to the New World. He was bought by a British naval captain and was afforded naval training. His master sent him to school to learn how to read and write. He was then sold to a Quaker merchant in Philadelphia. With his literacy and seamanship skills, he was too valuable for plantation labour so was set to work in the merchant’s office. In his early twenties, Equiano succeeded in buying his freedom for £40.

Definition:
appeasement is a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance, usually at the sacrifice of principles.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced YO-an GRIFF-ith): William Wilberforce (Wilber to his friends)
Romola Garai: his future wife Barbara Spooner

Benedict Cumberbatch: William Pitt, Wilberforce’s friend
Rufus Sewell: Thomas Clarkson
Albert Finney: John Newton

REVIEW
This biographical recounting of the legislative battle to abolish the slave trade in Britain makes for fascinating viewing if you are into that kind of thing. With first-class production values throughout (Cinematography, Production Design, Set Decoration, Costume Design) it looks and feels real (even to the point it’s raining in 75% of the exterior shots).

The acting is uniformly excellent although with so many people on the screen at one time during the debates sometimes that’s not easy to discern.

CLASSIFICATION
for thematic material involving slavery and some mild language.

P.S.
The title refers to the well-known Christian hymn Amazing Grace. It was written c. 1772 by John Newton. As with other hymns of this period, the words were sung to a number of different tunes before it became linked to the current one when it appeared in American hymnbooks in the 1830’s. The melody is believed to be Scottish or Irish in origin; it is frequently performed on bagpipes and has become associated with that instrument.

ZODIAC

True story crime drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jake Gyllenhaal: Robert Graysmith, editorial cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle
Robert Downey Jr.: Paul Avery, crime reporter for the same newspaper
Mark Ruffalo: LAPD Detective Dave Toschi
Anthony Edwards: his partner Bill Armstrong
John Carroll Lynch: suspect Arthur Leigh (Lee) Allen
Brian Cox: famous attorney Melvin Belli

REVIEW
Had they edited it down somewhat, this would have been a really great movie. As it stands though, 2 hours and 43 minutes is far too long and requires a great deal of patience to sit through to the very end.

What a shame because it is finely acted with some nice cinematography and several chilling moments.

CLASSIFICATION
for some strong violence, language, drug use and brief sexual images.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Although the producers have gone to great length to accurately recreate the ambience of the time (smoking at your workplace, people wearing plastic pocket protectors, IBM computers with huge tape drives, Rolodex files etc) a couple of mistakes got past them:

The calendar posted on one of the pillars in the newsroom changes to match the different time periods except when it gets to be July 1972 and the 1971 calendar is still on display.

When Robert slams down the receiver on the green telephone, the curly wire is draped across the numbers. His wife comes in the room and they talk briefly. When she leaves we can see the wire has been put right although neither of them came near the phone.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

War
In Japanese with English sub-titles

BACKGROUND
Iwo Jima is a tiny, barren, desolate, volcanic island located about 550 miles south of Tokyo and was the last remaining outpost of the homeland. To the US, the island’s importance lay in its location, midway between Japan and American bomber bases in the Marianas. Beginning in the summer of 1944, the Japanese home islands had been hit by strikes carried out by long-range B-29 bombers. However, the Americans had no fighters with enough range to escort these big superfortresses so many aircraft were lost to Japanese fighter-interceptor attacks.

Iwo Jima, with its three airfields, was ideally located as a fighter-escort station and as a sanctuary for crippled bombers returning from bombing raids over Japan. Both the Empire of Japan and the United States of America wanted control of Iwo Jima, but for entirely different reasons.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ken Watanabe: Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, garrison commander
Tsuyoshi Ninomiya: Baron Nishi, former Olympic equestrian medalist
Kazunari Ninomiya: Private Saigo, conscripted former baker
Ryo Kase: Private? Shimizu, latest arrival and a bit of a loner

REVIEW
There have been few war movies seen from the enemy’s perspective. And there have been even fewer that have the air of realism to it (Das Boot comes to mind) but this one combines that with believable acting entirely in their language, not in poorly spoken English.

Unlike a lot of movies about international conflict, this one does not have an anti-war message about it. In fact it has no hidden agenda; simply showing us a group of people who are not all one-dimensional as the propaganda would have us believe.

The attention to detail is remarkable. For example the dimly lit caves and the muffled background noise of machines on the move recreates the situation to the point we almost can feel it ourselves. Despite the fact it is lengthy (2 hours and 20 minutes) it is compelling viewing and does not seem that long.

CLASSIFICATION
for graphic war violence.

P.S.
The Mark-II hand grenades used by the allies were primed to explode by releasing the safety lever in the process of throwing the ordinance. By contrast the Japanese Type 91 hand grenades were armed by striking the firing pin against an hard object, frequently the soldier’s helmet, which set off the primer and ignited the delay mechanism.

BREACH

Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Chris Cooper: Senior F.B.I. Special Agent Robert Hanssen
Ryan Phillippe: his aide, probationary Special Agent Eric O'Neill
Laura Linney: Eric’s “handler” and mentor Kate Burroughs
Caroline Dhavernas: Eric’s wife Juliana

REVIEW
It’s refreshing to go to a spy movie that you can actually follow and not get totally confused with sub-plots, red herrings and all the other ruses so often employed by filmmakers.

Right at the beginning the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft tells us the outcome so this is not a thriller-type movie. Waiting to find out what happens is not what keeps us in our seats. Instead, it is good solid acting coupled with excellent writing that fleshes out the principal characters as real people. The absence of heroics makes it all that more believable.

CLASSIFICATION
for profanity, sexual material and drug content.

ALPHA DOG

= zero stars


Drama based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Bruce Willis: Sonny Truelove
Emile Hirsch: his son Johnny, a teenage drug lord
Justin Timberlake: Frankie, one of Johnny’s gang
Shawn Hatosy: Elvis, Johnny’s gofer
Ben Foster: Jake Mazursky, a neo-Nazi skinhead
David Thornton: his 15 year-old brother Butch
Anton Yelchin: their father Zack
Sharon Stone: their step-mother Olivia


REVIEW
The acting is terrible, the dialogue is infantile and replete with the f-word, the sex is rampant and the violence is graphic. The group’s attitude towards women as merely sex objects is reprehensible. And the tough guy (Johnny) looks like a 10-year old choirboy and completely unbelievable as a ruthless drug dealer who is supposed to inspire fear and dread. What a laugh.

But that alone was not the reason I walked out: I simply do not want to be in any way associated with people like that.

CLASSIFICATION
for really strong language, nudity, drug use, extreme violence.

P.S.
Alpha: First letter of the Greek alphabet often used to describe the highest ranked or most dominant individual of the group particularly the ranking of social animals (chimpanzees, lions, wolves etc). Example, “the alpha male of the wolf pack.”

FREEDOM WRITERS

Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Hilary Swank: Erin Gruwell, freshman English teacher at Wilson High (aka Ms. G)
Imelda Staunton: her Department Head Margaret Campbell
Patrick Dempsey: Erin’s husband Scott
Scott Glenn: her father Steve, a successful attorney
April Lee Hernandez: Eva, one of Erin’s outspoken students
Mario: another student André
Deance Wyatt: Jamal, the class-clown

REVIEW
Perhaps because it’s based on a true story and some great acting by Swank as the teacher, the movie has an authentic look and feel about it. There are a couple of really touching moments as well as a few humorous situations.

CLASSIFICATION
for violent content, some thematic material and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
When Erin and a colleague, the “honors” course instructor are having a discussion, the amount of orange drink remaining in the bottle changes depending upon whose perspective it is viewed from.

P.S.
Since graduation some of the students have created a website at http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2259975/k.BF19/Home.htm

WE ARE MARSHALL

Sports drama, based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Anthony Mackie: Nate Ruffin, Captain of the Thundering Herd football team
David Strathairn: Marshall University President Donald Dedmon
Ian McShane: Paul Geffen, prominent citizen and MU Board member
Matthew McConaughey: the new Head Coach Jack Lengyel
Matthew Fox: Assistant Coach Red Dawson
Kate Mara: Annie, a waitress in a local diner

REVIEW
Where have all the Film Editors gone? Seems virtually every movie nowadays has to be at least two hours long. Most, if not all, need not be so lengthy. Such is the case for this one.

Having said that, this is a good story about dealing with tragedy but with a twist in that not everyone is in agreement regarding what action should be taken. Football fans will enjoy the on-field activity and we can all relate to coping with setbacks.

CLASSIFICATION
for emotional thematic material, a crash scene, and mild language.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

Drama based on a true story

BACKGROUND
Rubik's Cube is a mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by a Hungarian professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube by its inventor, it was renamed Rubik's Cube when it made its international debut at the Toy Fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg and New York in January/February, 1980. When the puzzle is solved, each side of the Cube is a solid colour. It is said to be the world's best-selling toy, with some 300,000,000 sold worldwide.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Will Smith: Chris Gardner, self-employed salesman of portable bone density scanners
Thandie Newton: his wife Linda
Jaden Smith: their 5-year-old son Christopher
Brian Howe: Jay Twistle, the head of the internship program at a stock brokerage firm
James Karen: one of the company executives Martin Frohm

REVIEW
Stories about people who struggle and make it are worthwhile subjects. But to drag it out for almost two hours takes away a lot of the sympathy one has for the person who’s doing the struggling. And then to sit through such a meagre “pay-off” only adds insult to injury. If it were not for the soaring full orchestra score most of us would have missed it.

One more thing: you really have to question the claim the film is based on a true story when it seems there is such blatant liberty taken with the truth in more than a few instances. For example,
 Chris having a down-and-out-hippie watch over his scanner
 what transpired when Chris set off to the meeting with his first real big potential client
 and what happened when they finally met
 spotting one of his “missing” scanners in a city of what, one million people?

CLASSIFICATION
for some language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Chris approachs the door to his son’s day care carrying one of the scanners in his left hand. When the scene shifts to the interior, he’s now holding it in his right.

I think San Franciso needs more cabs:
Chris and Jay share a ride in cab number 248; later when Mr. Frohm gets out a cab and asks Chris to lend him $5, once more it’s cab number 248.