AWAY WE GO

Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
John Krasinski: 34-year-old insurance salesman Burt Farlander
Maya Rudolph: his girlfriend Verona De Tessant, a medical illustrator
Catherine O’Hara: Burt’s mother Gloria
Jeff Daniels: Burt’s father Jerry
Allison Janney: Verona’s former boss Lily
Carmen Ejogo: Verona’s younger sister Grace
Maggie Gyllenhaal: Burt’s childhood friend university professor Ellen (aka LN)
Melanie Lynskey: Munch, an old friend from college
Chris Messina: her husband Tom
Paul Schneider: Burt’s brother Courtney

REVIEW
There are few opening scenes to match this one: the explicit depiction of cunninglingus. This sets the tone and might be enough for some to leave the theatre right there and then. I wish I had.

Ostensibly a road trip to find a place to bring up their soon-to-be-born baby, Burt and Verona meet up with the largest collection of people whose behaviour is either inappropriate or bizarre. Sometimes both. Either way it’s difficult to watch and not at all funny.

I left when I could take no more.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and some sexual content.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• Bert is nursing his drink (one of those cocktails with an umbrella in it) and gets about half way through before leaving to take a call on his cellphone. With the change in camera angle looking back at his table, we can see that the drink had refilled itself and his glass once more is completely full.
• Upon their arrival in Montreal Bert and Verona take a taxi to their friends house. It’s black and orange; Montreal taxis are anything but.
• While driving down the street they pass several signs indicting parking restrictions which are entirely in English whereas in Monteal these would be in French.
• Remo’s Restaurant is located in Toronto, Ontario not in Montreal.

P.S.
I was sorely tempted to walk out earlier but I knew that Montreal was on their itinerary and was hoping I could pick up a few Nitpicks when they got there. As you can see my patience was rewarded.

IL DIVO

Drama
In Italian with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Toni Servillo: Italian parliamentarian Giulio Andreotti
Anna Bonaiuto: his wife Livia
and dozens of others but I don’t know who they are

REVIEW
Full disclosure: I did not research the subject material before seeing the movie. Consequently I got completely lost in the maze of unfamiliar events and personages. Even by paying close attention to the subtitles that remain on the screen only briefly, I was unable to truly appreciate what was going on except for three things:
• Servillo is one heckuva actor and his monologue halfway through is a dandy
• the music, an eclectic mix of classical and modern rhythm, fits beautifully with the screen action
• the cinemaphotography is first class

CLASSIFICATION
for disturbing images and explicit portrayals of violence.

P.S.
I read the following comment that might have helped had I known about this before going to see the movie:
“in the first half of the movie we see the events that took place in Italy during Andreotti's reign from his point of view: in the second half we see the same events again but more objectively”

THE BROTHERS BLOOM

Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mark Ruffalo: thirty-something Stephen Bloom (I think that’s his name)
Adrien Brody: Bloom, his younger brother (who has no first name?)
Rinko Kikuchi: Stephen's girlfriend Bang Bang
Rachel Weisz: wealthy heiress Penelope Stamp
Robbie Coltrane: Melville
Maximilian Schell: Diamond Dog

REVIEW
We get a premonition of things to come when as kids Stephen draws out on paper an elaborate, complicated, convoluted diagram of their next con. Yet even with the “one picture is worth a thousand words” it’s virtually impossible to keep track of what is going on.

And it doesn’t get any easier when they set about to do one last con job some 25 years later as adults. As expected with any caper movie things are not always what they seem . But the writer and \or director don’t know when to stop; just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, something else comes up. Constantly having the rug pulled out from under you soon becomes annoying. And it goes on far too long: almost two hours of non-stop twists and turns will test the patience of many.

CLASSIFICATION
for violence, some sensuality and brief strong language.

O’HORTEN

Drama
In Norwegian with English subtitles

F.Y.I.
The Holmenkollen ski jump located just outside Oslo, Norway was opened in 1892. It was host to the 1952 Winter Olympic ski jump competition and has served as the venue for many world championships, the next one scheduled for 2011.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Bård Owe: 67-year-old Odd Horten, a railroad engineer
Ghita Nørby: Svea Thøgersen, owner of a small B&B in Bergen
Bjørn Floberg: Flo, one of Odd’s old acquaintances
Henny Moan: a tobacconist
Espen Skjønberg: Trygve Sissener, one of Odd’s new acquaintances
Kai Remlov: his brother Steiner

REVIEW
A low key, small budget film with probably the thinnest plot line ever: seemingly random events in the life of one man over a period of a couple of days to illustrate the fact that life in retirement can be very unstructured.

With the deadpan delivery by the principal character and the unusual situations he finds himself in, it is mildly amusing. The result are smiles rather than belly-laughs.

The main criticism I have is the writing: more than once a quick cut from the scene before its climax leaves us with the feeling “What happened? What was that all about?”. These loose ends are oddly baffling; why include them if they do not advance the story?

However that is not all that surprising: any movie produced, directed and written by the same person generally has major flaws with it. Lacking independent judgment of the film elements almost guarantees this will happen.

Not bad enough to walk out of, I was relieved when the end credits appeared.

CLASSIFICATION
for brief nudity.

SUMMER HOURS

In French with English subtitles
Original title: L'heure d'été

F.Y.I.
Camille Corot (July 1796 – February 1875) was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century. He was the first to promote the idea that artists should “submit to the first impression" of what they saw. This was the beginning of the Impressionist school that included among others Cézanne, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Monet and Manet.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Edith Scob: 75-year-old Hélène, the family matriarch
Charles Berling: her oldest son Frédéric, a university economics professor
Dominique Reymond: his wife Lisa
Juliette Binoche: Frédéric’s younger sister Adrienne, a designer working in New York City
Jérémie Renier: Frédéric’s younger brother Jérémie, an executive working in China
Valérie Bonneton: his wife Angela
Isabelle Sadoyan: Hélène’s long-time housekeeper Éloïse

REVIEW
A thoughtful drama without any of the usual histrionics so prevalent in movies of this type so it rings true. Ostensibly about the disposition of their mother’s estate it brings to mind the change in values of objects over the years, from one generation to the next.

The acting is uniformly very good and despite the plethora of words, the editing moves things along at a fair clip. Which is a good thing because truth be told, not a lot happens during the one hour forty-five minutes running time.

CLASSIFICATION


FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Adrienne carefully removes everything from the silver plate on the table, putting the bunch of grapes to her left. After examining the plate she then puts everything back in place but the grapes have moved without being touched and she picks them up from the right hand side of the table.

THE HANGOVER

Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Justin Bartha: Groom-to-be Doug Billings
Zach Galifianakis: Doug’s future brother-in-law Alan Garner
Sasha Barrese: Doug’s fiancée Tracy
Bradley Cooper: their buddy Phil Wenneck, a high school teacher
Ed Helms: another friend Stu Price, a dentist
Rachel Harris: his girlfriend Melissa

REVIEW
Based on the reaction of the target audience (young 18 + males) this is one heckuv good movie. For everyone else it can best be described as raunchy, gross, crude guy humour with the requisite scenes of projectile vomiting, shots to the groin area, unmistakeable sexual hand movements, foul language, lots of action/bedlam and pretty girls with skimpy outfits.

In fact some of the slapstick is downright painful to watch…and they call that comedy? I don’t.

CLASSIFICATION
for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
1. The steak ordered from room service is very soft and floppy when on the plate. But when Alan offers it to the tiger it is as stiff as a board, presumably a prop so the tiger doesn’t leap for it.
2. Alan said he put 5 pills in the steak; in fact it was only 3.
3. Alan's face shows no marks where the Taser probes hit him.
4. The damage to the car keeps changing throughout the movie.

P.S.
Normally I skip movies like this for obvious reasons but while reading People Magazine I saw they gave it a 3 out of 4 star rating so I figured I’d go see it. In future I won’t rely on People Magazine when deciding which movies to go to.

TWO LOVERS

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Joaquin Phoenix: 30-something-year old Leonard Kraditor
Isabella Rossellini: his mother Ruth
Moni Moshonov: his father Reuben, owner of a NYC dry cleaning store
Bob Ari: Michael Cohen, Reuben's new business partner
Vinessa Shaw: his daughter Sandra
Gwyneth Paltrow: the Kraditor’s new neighbour Michelle
Elias Koteas: Ronald Blatt, partner in a law firm

REVIEW
Love is never easy. But it should not be this difficult. Nor should it take so many words; the dialog goes on forever just like a soap opera filling up the time between commercials while advancing the plot only incrementally.

But then when things finally do start moving, they do so at an incredulous breakneck speed (relation-wise I mean) because too much time has been frittered away up to that point. It needs a rewrite with more balance.

Which is a shame because there are some fine performances but it all seems wasted.

CLASSIFICATION
for language, some sexuality and brief drug use.