FAREWELL

Spy thriller
In Russian and French with English subtitles
Original title “L'affaire Farewell”
Based on a true story

F.Y.I.
The Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) was created in 1944 as a domestic intelligence agency within the French National Police. Its mandate includes counterespionage, counterterrorism and the security of France against foreign threats and interference, including economic.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Guillaume Canet: Pierre Froment, an engineer working in Moscow
Alexandra Maria Lara: his wife Jessica
Emir Kusturica: Serguei Grigoriev
Ingeborga Dapkunaite: his wife Natasha
Niels Arestrup: J. Vallier, Director of the DST
Philippe Magnan: French President François Mitterand
Fred Ward: President of the United States Ronald Reagan
Willem Dafoe: CIA Director Jack Feeney

REVIEW
Making effective use of archival film to set the scene, it is soon apparent that the Cold War-era made men do unusual things. By taking time to develop the characters, we get some insight as to their thinking and rationalization. Along the way the tension becomes almost palpable.

The acting is uniformly good and the great attention to detail makes it all seem real.

CLASSIFICATION
for some sexuality and violence.

HELEN

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ashley Judd: Helen, a music theory professor
Goran Visnjic: her husband David
Lauren Lee Smith: one of Helen’s students Mathilda
Alexia Fast: Helen’s 12-year-old daughter Julie
Alberta Watson: Dr. Sherman

REVIEW
The main reason for going to this film is to see for yourself the acting by Ashley Judd giving a realistic portrayal of someone dealing with severe depression. But the whole thing is painful to watch and there is not one iota of happiness during the overly long two hours.

CLASSIFICATION
for mature themes and brief disturbing images.

CREATION

Drama

F.Y.I.
Charles Robert Darwin (February 1809 –April 1882) had an early interest in nature. While attending the University of Edinburgh he studied marine invertebrates. Invited to sail on the HMS Beagle his published journal of the five-year voyage made him famous as a popular author. Intrigued by the geographical distribution of wildlife he investigated the transmutation of species. From these studies he developed his theory of natural selection in 1838. Some twenty years later in 1859 he published these in his controversial book entitled On The Origin of Species.

Joseph Dalton Hooker (June 1817 – December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer. For twenty years he was Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew.

Thomas Henry Huxley (May 1825 – June 1895) was an English biologist. He had little formal schooling and taught himself almost everything he knew. His area of expertise was with vertebrates especially the relationship between apes and humans. He concluded that there was an evolutionary connection between the two species.

The Christian evangelical fervour in England during the 1830's and 1840's had many believing that the world was just 6000 years old and that God created the universe, earth and man in only 6 days. They thought that man had not changed biologically since that time. The idea of any evolution from God’s handiwork was totally unacceptable and anyone promoting that idea could have been charged with sedition and blasphemy.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Paul Bettany: English naturalist Charles Darwin
Jennifer Connelly: his wife Emma
Martha West: their eldest daughter 9-year-old Annie
Benedict Cumberbatch: Charles’ best friend and fellow scientist Joseph Hooker
Toby Jones: Charles’ biggest supporter Thomas Huxley
Jeremy Northam: family friend the Reverend John Brodie-Innes

REVIEW
This might have been a biography about one of history’s most famous scientists who proposed one of the most ground-breaking concepts in human history. Instead it is more about Darwin’s relationship with his daughter and to a lesser extent with his wife.

Consequently there are several major shortcomings for those who are not intimately familiar with Darwin and his work:
• instead of showing where he travelled on the Beagle and the discoveries he made we are shown a fanciful snippet of the first encounters with the natives
• not providing sufficient information about the scientific basis for his theories nor explaining why he spent so much time with pigeons
• not setting the scene, giving some idea of the temper of the times
• devoting so much screen time to Annie and so little to Darwin’s peers who played a more significant role in his published work than his daughter did

CLASSIFICATION
for some intense thematic material.

CRAZY HEART

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jeff Bridges: 57-year-old Country and Western singer Bad Blake
Maggie Gyllenhaal: 30-something Jean Craddock, newspaper music critic
Jack Nation: her four-year old son Buddy
James Keane: Bad’s agent
Colin Farrell: Bad’s protégé, superstar Tommy Sweet
Robert Duvall: Bad’s old buddy Wayne Kramer

REVIEW
This character study of someone who has seen better days while struggling to hold on is not all that unusual. What makes this film different from others is the terrific performance by Jeff Bridges, in my opinion his career-best. The supporting cast are all top notch too but he stands above the rest.

With great attention to detail (except for a few minor nitpicks mentioned below) it all rings true. In fact you might find yourself waiting for the end titles to confirm the fact it is based on the true story of so-and-so. I did.

The stunning vistas of the south-western United States have been beautifully captured and fans of C&W will love the soundtrack. I did.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and brief sexuality.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• Early on if you look carefully you can see Bad’s reflection in the camera lens as he is talking outside the bar he’s booked to play.
• Bad’s agent while talking on the phone has a newspaper tucked under his arm. Sometimes the fold is up, sometimes down even though he does not touch it.
• Santa Fe, New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona are 525 miles apart and it would take 8 to 10 hours to drive the distance rather than the “3 to 4 hours” Bad tells Jean it will take him.

P.S.
For some reason Colin Farrel’s is an uncredited performance. Strange.

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES

Drama
Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Brendan Fraser: John Crowley, marketing executive with Bristol-Myers Squibb
Keri Russell: his wife Aileen
Meredith Droeger: their seven-year-old daughter Megan
Diego Velazquez: their five-year-old son Patrick
Sam M. Hall: Megan and Patrick's older brother John Jr.
Harrison Ford: Dr. Robert Stonehill, University of Nebraska researcher
Jared Harris: Dr. Kent Webber, executive with Zymagen

REVIEW
There is not much that sets this one apart except for the story: the efforts to develop a drug for children affected by a terrible disease. The production values (acting, music, etc.) are uniformly good, not great.

Although there are a couple of gaping holes with respect to John’s personal finances these are easily overlooked as is one out of place line uttered by Dr. Stonehill.

CLASSIFICATION
for thematic material, language and a mild suggestive moment.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• Amongst the pile of books John has, the title of one with a purplish cover begins with POM. He refers to his notes written on a yellow legal pad and then glances back at his reference material without touching it and now the POM title is completely hidden by the pamphlet on top of it that moved all by itself.
• This is a common nitpick, the product placement rotating bottle. From one shot to the next the bottle rotates without being touched so that the label is clearly seen. In this instance all this takes place while John and Bob are having dinner in the local bar while drinking Budweiser.

THE LOVELY BONES

Drama\Fantasy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Saoirse Ronan: 14-year-old Susie Salmon
Mark Wahlberg: her father Jack
Rachel Weisz: her mother Abigail
Rose McIver: Susie’s younger sister Lindsey
Christian Ashdale: Susie’s younger brother Buckley
Susan Sarandon: Susie’s grandmother Lynn
Reece Ritchie: Susie’s boyfriend Ray Singh
Stanley Tucci: the Salmon’s next door neighbour George Harvey
Michael Imperioli: Police Detective Len Fenerman
Nikki SooHoo: 7-year-old Holly

REVIEW
First, the good things about this film:
1. Stanley Tucci really nails the role as George Harvey.
2. The special effects are first-rate.

Now, the not so good stuff:
1. The running time is two hours and 15 minutes but doesn’t have to be since there are quite a few scenes that are either repetitive or simply go on forever. Although the film editor might have exercised his prerogative and done something about that, the fact that Peter Jackson as Director, Producer and Screenwriter no doubt had a lot to say about what got cut, if anything.
2. Some of the performances lack credibility, notably by Susan Saradon.
3. The principal focus is not on the down to earth storyline but on some fanciful place. Just when things get going, there is an interlude of visual images that puts a stop to the narrative. Very disconcerting.

CLASSIFICATION
for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language.

THE BOOK OF ELI

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Denzel Washington: Eli
Tom Waits: a pawnshop owner
Gary Oldman: Carnegie, the town boss
Jennifer Beals: his mistress Claudia
Mila Kunis: her daughter Solara
Ray Stevenson: Carnegie’s right-hand man Redridge
Michael Gambon: homeowner George
Frances de la Tour: his wife Martha

REVIEW
The bleakness and devastation of a post-apocalyptic world is a suitable setting for a lone walker “heading west”. Along the way he encounters people out to do him harm giving him ample opportunity to demonstrate his skill in Kung Fu fighting.

The acting is fine throughout and there are enough holes in the plot to keep you guessing.

Even though it is not an entirely original idea, it is nevertheless entertaining enough but a tad too long at almost 2 hours.

CLASSIFICATION
for brutal violence and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• When Carnegie confronts Eli outside in front of the saloon strong shadows are falling across the width of the street; when Eli turns and walks down the street the sun has done a 90° change in direction and now the shadows are along the length of the street.
• Without reloading Eli fires off 28 shots with his pistol. The largest magazine of any handgun (a Glock Model 22) holds a mere 15 bullets.
• Two bad guys are killed and lay somewhere in the middle of a 15’ long cement storm sewer. When Eli approaches them they have conveniently moved closer to the end of it so he does not have to go in it.
• After a barroom fight Eli has a fairly large blood stain on the right hand side of his grungy old sweater. Later when sitting around a campfire we can see the stain has completely disappeared and in fact the sweater looks perfectly new.
• Eli says the lyrics he just quoted are from Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues; they are not.
• Again the sun plays tricks on us: the long shadows when Eli meets up with Carnegie and his gang outside the old house are those of late afternoon. When they leave in their van the overhead shot shows the shadows to be directly beneath the vehicle, which would be around noon.