WENDY AND LUCY

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Michelle Williams: twenty-something-year-old Wendy Carroll
Lucy: her travelling companion, a golden retriever
Walter Dalton: security guard for Walgreens Pharmacy
Will Patton: Bill, an auto repair shop owner

REVIEW
This is a modest low-budget film that will appeal to adult audiences. Several things set this apart from other movies about regular people caught up in life’s circumstances:
1. The acting by Williams is so natural and down-to-earth and her appearance is completely in character.
2. Although unhurried the slow pacing fits the situation and needs not go any faster.
3. There is no soundtrack to evoke our emotions, relying instead on the story itself which is straight forward and uncomplicated.

CLASSIFICATION
for language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• After being woken up Wendy opens the car window just partway. When she gets out of the car, the window is almost completely down.
• She is given a form to sign with a State of Washington letterhead although she hasn’t left Portland Oregon.
• Keeping track of her expenses she records the towing cost to be $50 whereas she was told it would be $30.

NEW IN TOWN

Romantic comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Siobhan Fallon Hogan: Blanche Gunderson, Secretary with Munch Inc.
Renée Zellweger: Lucy Hill, corporate executive
Harry Connick Jr.: the local union representative Ted Mitchell
J.K. Simmons: Plant Foreman Stu Kopenhafer

REVIEW
Too often romantic-comedies lack both elements; this is no exception. In addition it is saddled with so many worn-out clichés it almost begs description.

Suspension of disbelief and low expectations are essential to see this one through.

CLASSIFICATION
for brief strong language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• As the “scrappers” sit around a table what looks like a large magnifying glass changes position from one shot to the next without anyone touching it.
• While having dinner at Blanche’s house, Lucy’s wine glass in front of her is half empty until she picks it up and now it’s almost full to the top.
• Ted stops on the highway with only the truck’s headlights on, gets out and when he returns the truck has backed up by itself and also turned on the big lights used when snow plowing.
• With the point of view over Lucy’s shoulder as she leans against the door frame while speaking with Ted we see her reaction to something. When the camera angle reverts to the position behind her she has conveniently slipped around the corner so we get an unobstructed view of Ted.
• The ADR while Ted and Lucy are going out hunting crows is poorly done. Ted's words are not in synchrony with the movement of his mouth.
• Lucy walks about the production floor area without a hairnet, a serious breach of regulations in any food processing plant.

THE CLASS

Drama
In French with English subtitles
Original title: Entre les murs

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
François Bégaudeau: François Marin, 30-something-year-old teacher of French literature
Jean-Michel Simonet: the school principal
Rachel Régulier: Khoumba, one of the bright students
Esméralda Ouertani: outspoken Sandra
Wei Huang: Chinese immigrant Wei
Franck Keïta: Souleymane, from the former French African colony of Mali
and some 20 others

REVIEW
Making use of the cinéma vérité style of filmmaking using hand held cameras the movie seems like a documentary. Virtually all the action is confined to just one classroom of a junior high school in Paris. Following the high energy discussions of these students often results in the speaker being only partially visible which adds to the sense of reality. And there does not seem to be any script per se. Neither is there any apparent costuming: everyone dresses in non-descript well-worn everyday-type of clothing which looks authentic and has that natural look about it.

Some of the dialogue is lost in translation such as when one of the students writes out the conjugated form of the imperfect subjunctive tense and her classmates make verbal jokes of what she’s written. But that does not diminish the overall feeling of being a “fly on the wall” observing a real-life class of 13 and 14-year-old students over the course of one school year.

CLASSIFICATION
for language.

BRIDE WARS

Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Kate Hudson: 26-year-old lawyer Liv
Anne Hathaway: her best friend Emma, a grade school teacher
Candice Bergen: Marion, a famous wedding planner
Steve Howey: Liv’s fiancé Daniel
Chris Pratt: Emma’s fiancé Fletcher
Bryan Greenberg: Liv’s brother Nate

REVIEW
Unless you meet the criteria of the target audience, you best stay away. Geared to those young women who hope one day to get married to a "handsome prince", it will win no awards. Certainly not for acting as both principals are forced to act in a childish manner, yelling at one another to make themselves better understood. They come across as crass young adults rather than the professionals they contend to be.

Just about everybody in the movie seems to be playing this with a “tongue-in-cheek” attitude and not taking it very seriously at all. Nor should we.

CLASSIFICATION
for suggestive content, language and some rude behavior.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• The bride at the Plaza Hotel is holding her flute champagne glass in one hand and her bouquet in the other while berating her best friends (nice way to start to start a movie hey?) She then turns to throw the bouquet but poof! no encumbrance of any glass: it has disappeared.
• While sitting on the sofa with Fletcher, Emma has one leg folded under her, then it is outstretched and finally curled beneath her all without once getting up.
• They girls are told the next available date for a wedding at this location is Saturday June 5, 2012. June 5, 2012 will be a Tuesday.
• Fletcher is about to go to the gym and puts on his hoodie. While talking with Emma the collar has a mind of its own from one shot to another: sometimes laying flat but more often sticking up on the right hand side all rumpled.

P.S.
Not my usual choice of movie I agree but I was intrigued having been a professional wedding photographers for some years and was curious to see how things have changed since then. I should have stayed home and read a book instead.

DEFIANCE

War drama
Based on a true story
Some dialogue in Russian and Polish with English subtitles.

BACKGROUND
On August 23, 1939 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany. On September 1, 1939 the Germans invaded Poland from the west and two weeks later the Red Army invaded from the east. The Soviet government annexed the territory and declared that the 13 million Polish living there were now Soviet citizens of the newly expanded Belorussia.

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union that commenced on June 22, 1941. Over 4 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR including newly occupied territories along a 1,800 mile front. Within days the 2nd Panzer group met its principal objective, the taking of Minsk, the capital city of Belorussia. The Nazis immediately implemented their genocidal policies.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Liev Schreiber: Alexander Zisel "Zus” Bielski
Jamie Bell: his younger brother Asael
Daniel Craig: their older brother 35-year-old Tuvia
Mia Wasikowska: one of the refugees 20-something-year-old Chaya
Alexa Davalos: Lilka, another camp refugee

REVIEW
By choosing a dramatic beginning rather than a more prosaic approach it takes some time to figure out what is going on unless you are very familiar with World War II history (or get to read the Background notes above). A brief on-screen one-liner indicating the name of the forest area is totally inadequate. Unless it is a well-known historical event the producers need to set the scene, to give us the big picture so we can then appreciate what is going on.

The second problem is a question of running time: it does not require 2 hours and 17 minutes to tell this story. A big chunk of time is spent showing the repetitive process of having to relocate from one area to another, setting up a new camp, getting settled in then starting the process over. Once is enough.

It’s too bad because it is a story worth telling. The acting is uniformly excellent and the overall look of the movie convincing enough.

CLASSIFICATION
for violence and brief language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• To deal with the outbreak of typhus a small group sets out to find some Ampicillin. Trouble is this drug was not developed until 1961, some 20 years after these events took place.
• As Tuvia and Isaac emerge from the forest the turret of the German tank begins turning towards them. After a brief shot of their reaction the scene shifts again to the tank only to show that the turret has reverted to the starting position and once more begins to traverse in the direction of its target.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR

Documentary
Original title: Vals im Bashir
In Hebrew with English subtitles

BACKGROUND
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is an umbrella organization of all Palestinian resistance groups opposed to the Israeli state.

The Sabra and Shitila refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut are the two largest in Lebanon with approximately 12,000 people in each.

In the spring of 1982 Yasser Arafat (Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and Commander in Chief of all PLO military forces) was instrumental in having a base set up in Southern Lebanon. From there the PLO fired Katyusha rockets at civilian targets in Israel's northern Galilee region.

On June 6, 1982 Israel Defense Forces under the direction of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invaded southern Lebanon. Israel's publicly stated objective was to push PLO forces back 40 kilometers to the north. Tyre and Sidon, major cities in the region, were heavily damaged and the Lebanese capital Beirut was shelled for ten weeks.

On August 23, 1982 Bashir Gemayel was elected president of Lebanon. Although he did not cooperate with the Israelis publicly, his long history of alleged collaboration with Israel counted against him in the eyes of many Lebanese Muslims.

On September 14, 1982 nine days before he was due to take office, Gemayel was assassinated.

PRINCIPAL VOICES
Ari Folman, former Israeli soldier
Boaz Rein-Buskila, Ronny Dayag and Shmuel Frenkel old Army buddies
Ori Sivan, a psychiatrist
Ron Ben-Yishai, a war correspondent

REVIEW
In an effort to find out what really happened during his tour of duty as a soldier in the war with Lebanon, Ari Folman interviewed those who were there too. He has chosen to tell his story using animation, not of the cartoon variety but the more realistic sort. In so doing he easily incorporates dream sequences that prompted him to begin this odyssey in the first place.

CLASSIFICATION
for some disturbing images of atrocities, strong violence, brief nudity and a scene of graphic sexual content.

QUIET CHAOS

Original title: Caos Calmo
In Italian with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Nanni Moretti: Pietro Paladin, a successful executive
Blu Yoshimi Di Martino: his 10-year old daughter Claudia
plus others no doubt

REVIEW
For reasons known only to him after Pietro drops Claudia off at school he calls his secretary to tell her he’s not coming in to work. Instead he says he wants to wait in the park opposite the school to be there when she comes out.
On day two he calls his secretary again and once more spends a boring day in the park.
On day three when he calls his secretary I got up and left. Enough is enough.

CLASSIFICATION
for brief nudity.

P.S.
I was not the first to walk out: I hung in for 35 minutes while four people preceeded me out leaving just a handful in the theatre after I was gone.