CHASING MADOFF

Documentary

REVIEW
Although Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is at the heart of it, this is a film about one man’s 10-year struggle to be heard.

Harry Markopoulos, a portfolio manager in a Boston options-trading firm along with his colleague Frank Casey tried repeatedly to warn the authorities of Madoff’s malfeasance. They even approached the Wall Street Journal and other reputable news outlets with their story.

How these agencies handled the information provided them is to gain an insight into what prompts people in power to wilfully ignore the facts.

The main shortcoming of this documentary is not having an on-screen interview of any of these individuals and no mention that such an attempt was made.

CLASSIFICATION

THE DEBT

Mostly in English with subtitles as required

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Helen Mirren: retired Mossad secret agent Rachel Singer
Romi Aboulafia: her daughter Sarah
Tom Wilkinson: former Mossad agent Stefan Gold
Ciarán Hinds: former Mossad agent David Peretz
Jessica Chastain: 25-year-old Rachel
Marton Csokas: the young Stefan
Sam Worthington: the young David
Jesper Christensen: Dr. Dieter Vogel

REVIEW
Skipping back and forth between events in 1965 and 1997 in telling the story about an intelligence operation serves only to confuse the issue. In part because the older men look so unlike the younger versions and their relationship with Rachel is poorly defined. But the main problem is that most of the 1997 segments add nothing to the main storyline so why include them?

The acting is excellent across-the-board with several really difficult roles handled superbly.

CLASSIFICATION

for some violence, language.

CONTAGION

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Gwyneth Paltrow: Executive Director Beth Emhoff
Matt Damon: her husband Mitch
Jude Law: freelance journalist and blogger Alan Krumwiede
Laurence Fishburne: CDC Deputy Director Dr. Ellis Cheever
Kate Winslet: CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officer Dr. Erin Mears
Jennifer Ehle: epidemiologist Dr. Ally Hextall
Marion Cotillard: Dr. Leonora Orantes, investigator with the World Health Organization
Anna Jacoby-Heron: Mitch’s teenage daughter Jory

REVIEW
Following the evolution of a new strain of virus is not something new so most of what we get to see is somewhat predictable. Definitely closer to the truth than earlier versions it presents a realistic picture of the situation without the usual over-the-top big time disaster scenes.

Given the complexity of the story it is fairly easy to follow although there are a few too many storylines and not all are well developed.

As this is a world-wide problem as a bonus we get a mini-travelogue along with some fine performances by Winslet and Fishburne. The jarring soundtrack can be annoying at times.


CLASSIFICATION

for disturbing content and some language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Beth phones the hotel front desk and says she’s “calling from room 812” which conventionally would be on the 8th floor but moments later she looks out the window and at best she’s on the 4th floor.

ONE DAY

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Anne Hathaway: Emma Morley
Jim Sturgess: Dexter Mayhew
Patricia Clarkson: Dexter’s mother Alison
Ken Stott: Dexter’s father
Rafe Spall: Emma’s boyfriend Ian
Romola Garai: Dex’s girlfriend Sylvie

REVIEW
By showing snippets of two people’s lives on the same day each year over two decades, the basic premise virtually guarantees failure because there is no real story. Instead we get to see what Emma and Dex were doing that day, sometimes together, often apart. It soon becomes very predictable and frankly a bit boring because as one movie goer put it “the whole thing goes nowhere.”

Furthermore it stretches the imagination that a randy young man like Dex would act in the manner he did the first night together with a stunning sexy woman like Emma and then again on several other occasions later such as in the swimming pool. In a word, I don’t believe it for a moment. It does not ring true!

In fact, that could be said for the entire movie.


CLASSIFICATION

for sexual content, partial nudity, language, some violence and substance abuse.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Comic book superhero

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Chris Evans: Steve Rogers
Sebastian Stan: Steve’s best friend Bucky Barnes
Tommy Lee Jones: Captain America’s commanding officer Col. Chester Phillips
Hayley Atwell: British Agent Peggy Carter
Stanley Tucci: former German scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine
Hugo Weaving: renegade evil Nazi Johann Schmidt
Toby Jones: his assistant Dr. Arnim Zola

REVIEW
“The best movie I’ve ever seen, ever”.

This comment by a 11-year-old boy attests to the fact that this edition of a comic book superhero hits the mark with the target demographic profile. For the rest of us this tedious World War II action drama overstays its welcome by at least 30 minutes, is too repetitive (the fight scenes go on forever) and has no redeeming values apart from great CGI work.

At the risk of giving away the ending the only thing I’ll say is it’s the wimpiest grand finale of any action movie I’ve ever seen. Totally out of context to the rest of the story and a real cop out given that there are several better endings if they had only given it some thought instead of calling it a day and leaving things hanging like that.

CLASSIFICATION

intense sequences of violence and action.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
During World War II the 4-F classification was assigned to registrants having severe physical problems, mental deficiency and/or syphilis. Steve had none of these: his medical conditions were limiting but not disabling so he would have been classified as 1-Y and therefore available for military service when he first applied.

THE HELP

84th Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role


Drama

F.Y.I.
The Civil Rights Movement which started in 1955 and continued until 1968 refers to the efforts in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring their voting rights in the Southern states.

According to its mission statement the Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. is “an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable."

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Emma Stone: aspiring writer Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan
Allison Janney: Skeeter’s mother Charlotte
Viola Davis: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American maid
Ahna O'Reilly: Skeeter’s friend Elizabeth Leefolt
Bryce Dallas Howard: Hilly Holbrook, president of the local Junior League
Octavia Spencer: Aibileen’s best friend and fellow domestic Minny Jackson
Aunjanue Ellis: Minny's replacement Yule Mae Davis
Jessica Chastain: Celia Foote, Johnny’s wife and Minny’s new employer
Mike Vogel: Celia’s husband Johnny
Sissy Spacek: Hilly’s mother Missus Walters
Mary Steenburgen: New York publisher Elain Stein
Chris Lowell: Skeeter's boyfriend Stuart Whitworth

REVIEW
Set in Mississippi in 1962 right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, this story of how white people viewed their black domestic help is insightful. At times it is touching, frequently funny, often inspirational.

With great attention to detail the costumes, hair, makeup and sets are all bang on. The acting is uniformly good but Viola Davis excels with her performance: she steals every scene she’s in. Her role is pivotal to the storyline and she pulls it off beautifully.

It’s a tad too long for my liking, coming in at just under two-and-a-half hours, but there’s a lot to be said and little that could be edited out.

CLASSIFICATION

for thematic material.

PAGE ONE

Documentary

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
David Carr: Media columnist
Bruce Headlam: Media editor
Richard Perez-Pena: Media reporter
Tim Arango: Media reporter
Brian Stelter: Media reporter
Andrew Ross Sorkin: Financial columnist
Bill Keller: Executive editor

REVIEW
Given that the Internet is surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers everywhere are going bankrupt this film is very timely particularly with its promise to tell it like it is. Certainly this is a worthwhile project to show how The New York Times is trying to survive in this day of changing readership habits. But it is too ambitious: there are a dozen stories that are touched upon, about half only briefly.

However the viewer of necessity must have the background knowledge to fill in the blanks that are sadly missing in these snippets. It’s very frustrating when you’re left wondering “Now what was that all about?” or thinking “What has Watergate got to do with today’s’ situation?”.

By trying to cover too much ground and hopping around from one subject to another we are left to sort out this puzzlingly jumble of story lines. That shouldn’t be: someone needs to edit out the tangential bits and come up with a movie that stays on track. That’s what the editors of The New York Times would have done.

CLASSIFICATION

for language.