THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
David Duchovny: Brian Burke, a successful architectural designer
Halle Berry: his wife Audrey
Alexis Llewellyn: their 10-year-old daughter Harper (aka Harp)
Micah Berry: their 6-year-old son Dony
Benicio Del Toro: Jerry Sunborne, Brian’s oldest friend
John Carroll Lynch: Howard Glassman, Brian’s neighbour
Omar Benson Miller: Audrey’s younger brother Neal

REVIEW
Embracing several of life’s tribulations this film is geared for the mature audience. Due to the nature of the subject material, it is not a light-hearted outing. Although a tad too long (despite two people being credited with the editing) there is not a lot that could be eliminated without some loss to the story.

Halle Berry gives a fine performance but is outdone by Benicio Del Toro who turns in perhaps his best effort ever.

Couple points of contention: the frequent extreme close-ups get to be a bit annoying after a while and the situation with Jerry helping Audrey deal with her insomnia does not ring true and detracts somewhat from the overall sense of reality.


CLASSIFICATION
for drug content and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Jerry reaches over to turn out the bedside lamp but it goes out before he even gets a good grip of the pull chain.

When Audrey calls on apartment 33 we hear the knock a fraction of a second before her knuckle actually strikes the door.

Brian and Audrey embrace while she is working on a window frame and her white gloves are smeared with paint. When Brian leaves she waves goodbye but now her gloves are hardly smudged.

P.S.
Apparently Micah Berry is no relation to the female lead. Could have fooled me.

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.

LUST, CAUTION

Original title: Se jie
In Mandarin with English subtitles

BACKGROUND
Imperial Japan invaded China in July 1937. The Japanese had neither the intention nor the capability to directly administer China. Their goal was to create a friendly puppet government favourable to Japanese interests. From these actions Japan would obtain a secured supply of raw materials and a market to ensure the prosperity of the Japanese home islands. However, the atrocities committed by the Japanese army made the governments that were set up very unpopular.

In conjunction with its military campaign in World War II, Japan invaded Hong Kong the day after the Pearl Harbour attack of December 7, 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with the British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of the colony to Japan on Christmas day, December 25. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong civilians suffered from widespread food shortages caused by imposed rations and hyperinflation due to the forced exchange of their Chinese currency for military notes.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Tang Wei: Wang Jiazhi, the wife of Mr. Mak, a wealthy Hong Kong businessman
Tony Leung: Mr. Yee, security head of the puppet Chinese government Wang Leehom: Kuang Yumin, young leader of a resistance group

REVIEW
The one thing you need to see this one through is patience. It is long, way too long at 2 hours and 40 minutes. Case in point: the first half-hour is devoted primarily to watching four ladies play mah-jongg while they rattle on about the world around them at such a rate it’s hard to keep up with the subtitles flashing by. Good editing would cut this down to a couple of minutes to include the telling glance Wang Jiazhi gives Mr. Lee. That’s the essence of it. There is no need to drag it out for 30 minutes, when 3 minutes will suffice.

Having set the pace, it continues to advance ever so slowly including lengthy scenes from a student play and a couple of musical interludes that really have nothing to do with the plot. They serve no purpose other than to showcase the talent of these people. But that’s not what we came to see.

Buried in all this is some fine acting, a lot of which is non-verbal. But the overall impression is one of being too long and too weighty.

CLASSIFICATION
for several explicit, graphic, prolonged sexual encounters, the hallmark of hardcore pornography.

P.S.
Some viewers will find it difficult to watch the extended sequence of the knifing about three-quarters of the way through.

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Maria Bello: Jocelyn, a spinster who breeds dogs
Kathy Baker: Bernadette, the founder of the group
Amy Brenneman: Sylvia, recently seperated
Jimmy Smits: her ex-husband Daniel
Maggie Grace: their daughter Allegra
Emily Blunt: Prudie, a young high school French teacher
Marc Blucas: her husband Dean
Hugh Dancy: a sci-fi fan Grigg

REVIEW
It is pretty heavy going having to deal with pithy excerpts such as “Is not general incivility the very essence of love?” and then try to keep up with the rapid-fire views of the six club members as they express their divergent opinions about the quote. It makes my head hurt.

There’s nothing exceptional about the acting nor the story line in general but it does seem to go on forever (just short of two hours) and comes across very much like a soap opera.

CLASSIFICATION
for mature thematic material, sexual content, brief strong language and some drug use.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Shots from directly in front of Bernadette sitting with the others on the porch have a strong shadow behind her right shoulder. Side-angle shots do not.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED

Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Bill Murray: not sure who he is
Owen Wilson: Francis, the oldest (and bossiest) of the three brothers
Adrien Brody: Peter, his brother
Jason Schwartzman: Jack, the third brother
...plus other cast members I didn't get to see

REVIEW
I read somewhere that “Director Wes Anderson's films are an acquired taste.”
Obviously I have yet to attain that level of appreciation since I walked out after half an hour of what I consider to be absolute drivel.

Perhaps it got better but I have little patience with a comedy that goes nowhere (inside joke since virtually all the action at that point in time takes place on a train going somewhere in India). Other types of movies often build slowly but not a comedy: the funny stuff as to be there right off the bat or what’s the point?

At the risk of giving away the plot, perhaps I have a rather strange perception of what constitutes comedy but frankly I did not find any of the following funny at all:
 Bill Murray’s character runs after his train as it leaves the station but can’t catch up to it but Peter does
 In the restaurant car, Francis orders the meals for himself and his two brothers; they sit there demurely without comment
 Jack remarks that Peter is wearing his father’s glasses and “his prescription was not even the same as yours”

CLASSIFICATION
for language. That's a misake. It should be rated
F for Fergetaboutit!

DEATH AT A FUNERAL

Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Matthew Macfadyen: Daniel
Keeley Hawes: his wife Jane
Daisy Donovan: Daniel’s cousin Martha
Alan Tudyk: her fiancé Simon
Kris Marshall: Martha's brother Troy
Peter Egan: Martha’s father
Andy Nyman: friend of the family Howard
Ewan Bremmer: Martha’s wanna-be suitor Justin
Peter Vaughan: crotchy old Uncle Alfie
Rupert Graves: Daniel's brother Robert

REVIEW
Is it too much to expect a film promoted as a comedy to be funny? The first smile (not even a laugh mind you) came 55 minutes into the film. Not surprising when you look again at the title: like what is funny about a funeral anyway?
Right from the get-go it is apparent this is no knee-slapper. And it just gets worst from that point onwards despite the inclusion of rude, vulgar potty-humour, attempts at slapstick and pratfalls that are supposed to make you laugh. Well they don’t.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and drug content.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Troy puts a bottle of pills on the kitchen table just beside another one. Even though no one approaches the table until Martha does, 6” or more now separates the two pill bottles.

QUEBEC SUR ORDONNANCE

Documentary
In French with English subtitles

REVIEW
Paul Arcand as Quebec’s answer to Michael Moore he takes a hard look at the province’s medical system and the preponderance of too many doctors to over-prescribing drugs without regard to the consequences.

However as a documentary it is more a recap of what is generally known with little in the way of new insights that warrant spending an hour and a half watching it. Perhaps to bolster our interest Arcand tries hard to make the situation seem worst than it is.

For example showing us how easy it is for teenagers to buy a couple packages of off-the-shelf products without being questioned by the clerk is of itself not a crime, as he would like us to believe. What is a crime is taking those medications and using elaborate methods to transform these pills into “street drugs” such as crack. I think the bad guys don’t need to resort to sending kids into drugstores to obtain their raw material.

CLASSIFICATION