mcdougaller Reviews

Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage (2008)

Christmas Enchantment

[10/10 · 25 November 2008]

The sorts of ready disparagements this movie will attract?Is it too full of swiftly drawn caricatures? Too relentlessly brave? Too syrupy sweet? Too anticipatable? Too small town? May all films be so lucky.

Director Michael Campus, is a humanist. He allows himself to be known for the divine sentimentalist he is on the DVD Special Features and film commentary (joined by the artist of enchantment himself, Thomas Kinkade, whose reminiscences infuse the stuff of real life), all of which should be carefully viewed and heard. I immersed myself in this heartening film like a hot tub!

Charlotte Rae does not appear to be listed in the cast on IMDb - an oversight or am I going blind? She stole every scene she was in! What a trouper, what a mobile face, what a voice! Playing Vesta, the church organist, she is fabulous! Don't miss her Christmas comment in the Special Features section - she radiates the Christmas spirit - and she's Jewish! ;-)

What's so compelling about this film are the outright love, tears and camaraderie out of which it was born. That the story is TRUE makes it, perhaps, awkward to make it all-inclusive of those memories.

I have a Thomas Kinkade print (not an original, of course, since I, too, am on an "early Maryanne budget") of a rainy street scene, which, with a jolt, I thought I recognized in front of the the mother's place of employment. Could this be? Kinkade's early struggles along the way are the grist of this warm-hearted seasonal movie which illuminates the cherished Illuminator in a most moving way.

Jared Padalecki, a gorgeous young actor, carries the film, or, better, soars with this film on youthful wings with so many older, more experienced thespians of obvious renown. Such a nuanced and tender performance! He is bound to become a household word.

Marcia Gay Harden - as Kinkade's mother, Maryanne - is luminous. I have seen such as Juliet Binoche in "Chocolat" playing selfless women, but Marcia Gay is right up there with the Living Saints! This is the way people should treat one another in this world. The real Maryanne, we learn, lives very near her son Thomas today and basks in the successes of both her boys: Patrick (very well-portrayed by the fresh-faced Aaron Ashmore and Thomas. Obviously, all Maryanne's sacrifice and hard work came to grand fruition.

Richard Burgi is commendable and markedly original in his embodiment of the absent Kinkade father, who might have been treated vengefully, since he abandoned the family when the brothers were but small boys. Instead of rancor, this family shows him acceptance and love in later life. Burgi's performance captures,Thomas Kinkade says, the idiosyncrasies of their madcap father. He's a kick.

Peter O'Toole? What can you say? Tried and true, he shines like a Christmas Star in anything he touches. And as Glen Wessels - the generous artist who, as Fate would have it, happens to settle near the Kinkades' rundown cottage - he mentors the young Thomas. Jewels of languid British cadence fall from O'Toole's gifted lips. He offers guidance, wisdom, and, with trembling dignity, rescue. I was moved to tears several times during these remarkable scenes.

Geoffrey Lewis gave such a winning performance as a grief-stricken father who has lost his son in battle. He melts the heart. Lewis's face, so open and guileless, suspends any reservation or disbelief and sustains the movie magic. Chris Elliott, in a Fezziwig topknot, takes and runs with the role of Ernie, the Chamber of Commerce guy who is into publicizing the town via japes, loud ties, and hustle. He is too perfect.

Ed Asner as the agent? Solid as granite and manly as a bull. What a cast, what a cast! How was it gotten together? The work that went into this labor of love - initiated by a chance meeting of the Campuses and Kinkades at a Carmel, California restaurant! Such serendipity makes believers of us all - nice guys CAN finish first.

I can't list all the players (each so perfectly fitted into a glowing Christmas mosaic), my time is up. Try to see this one at Christmastime and linger over it, as I did, so gratefully.

Keane (2004)

Subways, Buses, McDonald's, No-Star Hotels & Nutty Thou

[1/10 · 2 August 2007]

You could roll in a field of poison ivy and possibly have more fun than you will seeing this picture. Or you might try taking your video cam on a city stroll and pairing up with somebody who's agitated and talking to himself. This should give you a fair idea of "Keane" in a NUTshell. Damian Lewis, the star, does a creditable job portraying a churning, distracted mind; he'd be admitted to any psych ward in record time. But what I rent films for, ordinarily, is satisfaction and entertainment, so this did not serve my particular purpose. If you enjoy watching a guy rocking with what may be tardive dyskinesia and trying to drown out auditory hallucinations with loud music, this will be your cuppa. I would like to see this rather fine actor in something more appealing, as someone other than the heavy or a person of questionable mental or moral faculties.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

Sniff, Sniff, Sniffey Sniff Sniff

[1/10 · 26 July 2007]

From his grisly birth on the fish market stones among the maggots and entrails to his evisceration and destruction upon those same stones, the warped protagonist Grenouille of this bleak but beautifully filmed movie never fails to disenchant the viewer with his obsessive sniffing. Sniffing and capturing scent is his raison d'etre. Alan Rickman keeps his wits about him longest and infuses this mad bouquet with his sturdy sanity and wise protectiveness of his lovely daughter. Dustin Hoffman prettily plays a vain and avaricious perfumer, past his glory days, who uses Grenouille for his own monetary ends. But when Grenouille spends most of the film thwacking lovely young women on the head and covering them with animal fat, scraping it off, and simmering it to produce their essences, well, as far as I was concerned, Grenouille could meet his demise with a similar thwack at any time, the sooner the better. Such a miserable and creepy person. This film will delight abnormals everywhere to whom Grenouille can be a touchstone, his fame bringing similar sickos encouragement. For there *is* that what-if surge at the denouement. A man, however devoid of normal human impulses, could with such seductive skills rule the world!

Rumor Has It... (2005)

Went for MacLaine; Wish I Had the Money They Wasted on This Film

[2/10 · 6 January 2006]

My friend and I went to "Rumor Has It" because Shirley MacLaine is in it. Period. We don't get Jennifer Aniston. Her charm and talent just don't reach us. We don't buy the way she spoke and behaved and did not find it perky or cute. When she suddenly jumps up in the jet and pulls her boyfriend into the weensie john to eviscerate him in the bathroom bowl, it's insulting to the viewer. Makes no sense and is visual trivia. She announced to Costner: "I have to pee." Wow. Isn't this hilarious? Nope, it fell flat and it wasn't real and it did not transport us into another reality like a really good movie does, where you lose yourself and your very circulation changes and when you leave the theater you breathe and walk differently! Shirley MacLaine is being wasted in these roles where she struts about cockily as the older woman, wearing nifty suits, seeming impervious, cracking one-liners. I am so angry at the roles she's put in. She is capable of doing transcendent acting and her intelligence will, with the right script, lift us all into the nether regions and we could soar! And what do they use her for? These wisecracking grandma roles. Kevin Costner is very watchable, but, hey, the romance between him and Aniston develops practically in minutes and isn't likely, given the circumstances and the onus of possible incest, come on! I wanted to stifle the little sister Annie (Mena Suvari) who was getting married at the film's beginning, all that jumping and squealing, yech! Richard Jenkins is ALWAYS fine, always true blue in the acting dept. Mark Ruffalo rang true as the boyfriend, he's very good, we liked him.The highlight that gave the movie a mammoth boost was the few minutes of KATHY BATES - why didn't she have a key role? She's tops. But why all this fuss about Aniston? She had an out-of-sorts irritated look for most of the film and it is tiring to watch this pointless saga unfold! We felt we wasted our time. Sorry.

Cause célèbre (1987 TV Movie)

Wham, Bam, Bye Bye, Rats!

[8/10 · 20 November 2005]

The hired boy's daddy was strict, but he didn't mind loaning out his mallet to love-crazed young George (played by David Morrissey who, perhaps scarred by this very film, went on to marry Sigmund Freud's great-granddaughter in real life) who thought Alma (Helen Mirren) was "living with" (slang for engaging in marital relations with) her elderly, ill husband "Rats" (the late great Harry Andrews)just after having several weeks of mad "living" with young George and declaring mutually sudden eternal love. The besotted young handyman took the mallet(three thwacks)to old Rats's non-threatening, dozing dome and finished him off nattily, sending both shellshocked-but-innocent Alma and his unrepentant self to court. Alma, wife and mother of two young sons,has marched to her own drummer and deemed the mad, impetuous fling to commence when Houseboy George, washing her bedroom window, sees a pair of those full, loose, glossy satin '30's undies (green with beige lace)lying on her unoccupied bed and enters the room, picks the seductive undergarment up, cuddles it, sits down on the bed and begins to tremble fitfully, until Alma conveniently enters and assesses the lust-o'ercome state of her personally chosen hired boy (tall, muscular, sexually viable). Alma begins to stroke his shivering frame and ignites the affair, ignoring signs of extreme jealousy and instability in her ardent young swain. She dresses divinely, takes him on a spree to a London hotel, and seems impervious to their extra-marital romps and tiffs (born of George's increasing jealousy) taking place within easy earshot of both ill-fated husband "Rats" and the stoic, uncritical mother's helper, Irene. David Suchet, as Alma's canny barrister (quite good-looking he is sans Poirot mustache), has the job of crafting a defense for a woman who wants none. George is determined to pay the price for this "great love," and all his fine barrister (played by Oliver Ford Davies, the marvelous character actor of many a suspenseful production)can do is play on his youth and corruptibility in the grip of female wiles. I shall not spoil the very (bitter) end to this rather odd-but-true drama, except to say the three strikes causing an additional death do seem impossibly brought about. How could she do it THREE TIMES? I shall leave you with that. This is finely acted dramatic fare - better than anything you'll see on your tube now in these lean dramatic days.

Face (2000)

Knock Down, Drag Out

[5/10 · 15 October 2005]

Misako, the fleeing main character who inadvertently kills her own sister directly after their overworked mother drops dead, struck me as mentally challenged right from the start. She is not "right." Even her walk is unstable. Psychologists would have a field day with her lack of self-esteem and poor self-image. She seems to have been the family dummy from the word Go. Yet, she is toiling dutifully away as the movie opens, sewing endless seams on zoo-ey fabric covered with jungle animals among whom she picnics in her imagination. Misako's demeanor is roughshod and instinctual, and her outcries are in such a low register, from the diaphragm, that it spelled mental illness to this viewer at least. Why, on two occasions, when unwelcome men press sexual demands upon her, does Misako encourage them once they wain by saying "My body is on fire!"? I had a difficult time following the various supporting characters,especially the men. Who was whom? From whence did they come?They confused me completely. If you enjoy watching a hard-pressed Japanese woman, who strangled her sister, running for her life through various gritty areas of Japan, colliding on her wobbly bicycle with strangers, remaining mute in circumstances that seem to require speech, pratfalling flat-out upon the ground several times in awkward flailings about, doing swimming motions on dry land like a maniac - then by all means rent this confusing flick. The only good thing is the realism imparted by the evidently well-respected Japanese actress Naomi Fujiyama.

A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery: Have His Carcase: Episode One (1987) Season 1, Episode 4

Four Hours of Absorption in British Mystery - A Vacation!

[8/10 · 6 October 2005]

I am not sure if I am watching the Petherbridge/Walter series in the correct order. Perhaps "Strong Poison" or "Gaudy Night" go first. I will be renting the bloody lot - and "...Carcase" was certainly bloody! Having watched Ian Carmichael's buoyant '70s series, I was rather brought up short by the less ebullient Wimsey of Petherbridge, not as jollifying and ingratiating as Carmichael's. But there's plenty of room for differences! Petherbridge's preoccupation with Harriet, his consuming passion, this is a switch. Carmichael bounded about with such satisfied zest and interest in other mysterious matters, houseman Bunter perfecting his Lord's environmental whimsies, and, when amour reared a merry tendril, Lord Peter would simply plop his elbows on a couch behind, say, Phyllida Law, and jauntily demand, "NOW what shall we do?" and Phyllida's eyes would POP! Not so Petherbridge's wooing of Harriet Vane. He is her love captive and she - for reasons I could not determine in this episode - does not wish to be dependent upon him or anyone and she resists him mightily, sending him off with limp spirits and dashed hopes on successive occasions. But his valiant repartee is so convivial and his banter so droll, Harriet succumbs to laughter if not kisses. Petherbridge has a marvelous mouth, sort of Cupid's bow, and an arch proboscis that marks his aristocracy. This is a great series for mystery lovers and I plan to see them all,from the archives. BBC knew how to present fabulous fare! I was compelled to view all four episodes in one heady sitting and then leapt into the car to drive, in rush hour traffic, to a friend's home, leaving the DVD with her, who sports an ankle cast from a recent accident, that she might, although deaf (and unfortunately, these older TV masterpieces are not captioned!), sit and lipread what she can and drink in the scenery and costuming and demeanor of the sterling cast! See them all. There are not enough of these, both Carmichael's and Petherbridge's. One of life's glories! Correction: my deaf friend did indeed have captions for this program! Good news. Her TV set was set to provide them and it worked! Even later addendum: Recently I have seen "Strong Poison" and "Gaudy Night." And now I can say that this Lord Peter Wimsey is irresistible and definitive. This series is seductive "Strong Poison!" "Gaudy Night" is cerebral - how will the captions capture all that rich pedantic dialogue? And to think, I have yet to read Dorothy L. Sayers! THAT will be remedied because one wants more, more, MORE!

Real Women Have Curves (2002)

Young Women! See This Movie!

[8/10 · 1 October 2005]

This is a good story. The close-knit Latino family is opened to our eyes so that we are like a peeping mousie in their household. Ana (America Ferrera) is so wise and wonderful at 18, in her perception of love and young men, well, this is a revelation to those who were brought up clinging and helpless-seeming. Ana has a few insecurities about weight, no doubt inculcated with a trip hammer by her relentless mother, superbly played by Lupe Ontiveros, whom many will recall as the eagle-eyed mother-in-law of Gabrielle on "Desperate Housewives," but Ana knows that she is so much more than poundage. She knows her worth. Ana is not a perfect teen. She "shows herself," as they used to call pouting and glum expressions on the young!, and quite often is resentful and disapproving (sometimes rightly) of her elders and their errors, which she can see but they cannot. But her heart is in the right place. The men in this movie (particularly Jorge Cervera, Jr. as Ana's father and Felipe de Alba as the grandfather) are kind and understanding, never contentious testosterone-bearers. These men seem to submit to the women characters while still retaining their machismo. They have a chivalry and sensitivity about them, but they are not weepy or weak. Ana's boyfriend (Brian Sites) is a real love! He is never licentious or libidinous (in an offensive way). Their first-ever sexual encounter is good-humored, trusting, planned carefully by Ana who bravely purchases the condoms, and, when it's over, she has this valiant capability of detaching from romantic mush and unrealistic expectations, facing the young man's departure for college as a signal that time and events will inevitably separate them and she does not require him to make sappy pledges of fidelity or eternal love. Ana was magnificent. She did tell him he'd probably end up with a skinny girl, but maybe she was just being statistically accurate and not self-condemning. I liked this girl and rooted for her to claim that scholarship and get that education, knowing that she would then be able better to help her struggling family, including her exemplary older sister, touchingly and winningly portrayed by Ingrid Oliu. I never had the least fear that going away to Columbia University on scholarship would sever Ana's ties to her loving family or to the problematic mother, whose own life experiences made her the way she was, the way many mothers are when their daughters are about to make novel choices that will take them beyond where their mothers got to go. Love is very much warp and woof for this family. The character I liked less, because of her evident avarice and heartlessness, was the dress company rep, whose bottom line was her only line. Teenagers would be wise to see this one, especially girls. They might be inspired to like their appearances more because of Ana's fearless mien! You don't have to be size 2! And girls might try to find a boyfriend like Ana's Jimmy. What a sweet duo they were. Would that all young people, bent on losing their virginities, did it in such gentle, safe, and trusted circumstances as these two youngsters did it. This movie is a nice slice of life. Very well done. (I hate those dress companies that sell for $600 and give those sweating seamstresses $18/dress! What piggish tyrants exist in the business world! Down with unfair sweatshops and up with these good people!)

The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

What A Cast! What Glorious Settings!

[6/10 · 24 September 2005]

How many of us have fantasies about English country villages and cottages therein? This movie will take you directly into such things and your eyes will be delighted with the settings. How cozy it all is - no wonder they call light-hearted mysteries "cozies." I was struck by Angela Lansbury's height. Either she is a tall woman or the ceilings in these adorable cottages are quite low. Angela is Miss Marple, of course, and she begins the flick by demonstrating, at a public screening of a movie murder mystery, how quickly she can solve a complicated crime. Elizabeth Taylor is queenly and is married to the scrumptious Rock Hudson who, although he dallies with a strenuously self-adoring Kim Novak, appears to love her dearly. Edward Fox, a much-enjoyed actor whom I loved in '95's "A Month by the Lake" with Vanessa Redgrave, is so fresh and youthful here! Tony Curtis as the brash producer strikes not one false note - (or else they are all somewhat false as befits his role as wheeler-dealer!) My girlfriends and I may study and duplicate Miss Marple's cottage decor in our own homes after ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the famous sleuth's movie digs! Note: Angela Lansbury proves in this film that she can chop and dice with the best chefs. And she uses a very long, sharp blade, worthy of a Maven of Murder!

Ambulance Girl (2005 TV Movie)

Kathy Bates Any Time, Any Thing!

[6/10 · 24 September 2005]

I have always felt that when Kathy Bates appears on screen, the whole medium lights up. She has the Midas touch in films. "Ambulance Girl" may not be the most serious subject matter in the world, it tries to cross genres and be both serious and funny, but it works and I went with the funny. Kathy has a scene where she's trying on Ebay-purchased EMT gear, wreathed in delight, and dancing to James Brown music, I think it was. HILARIOUS! She must be quite a person to know up close and personal. I liked the fact that, for once, weight was not an issue. How refreshing, how free! Kathy looks adorable in her flannel pajamas, her robe and slippers, even in her supposedly serious bout with anxiety attacks and depression. I loved seeing her slumped on the couch, falling off absentmindedly! Also enjoyable was her self-help on the airliner when, afflicted with a numbing panic attack, she escaped her own symptoms by coming to the aid of a young diabetic passenger who had hit a low and who needed Kathy's sugar fix. I could watch Kathy Bates forever, just going through a normal day and doing what she does. It is a tribute to her magnetism that so many others feel this way, too. May her future hold many more roles, both funny and powerful. She is a great dramatic actress. Her range has never been fully explored in the cinema. Let us see what more she can do - and do magnificently! More Oscars for Kathy!

To Live (1994)

Heartwarming! Humorous! Historical!

[8/10 · 17 August 2005]

The first and only other review, so far, of this movie says it all eloquently, but I had to second this enthusiastically. I viewed the film last evening and many times cried out, as it was progressing, either in horror or humor or just gasps and sighs of contentment and approbation! It is wonderful. I just love the Chinese people and their goodness and their politeness and gentle care for family, for their elderly, for their children and friends. It is a process for peace and unity among men, to see this film. It brings us all together, all nations and nationalities, in a better understanding and community. I cannot praise the movie enough for the character depictions. I am going to be guilty of just blathering on in the same vein if I don't just quit now, with my seal of approval imprinted on this page! If you read the first review, it says it all and with great care and diligence and style. I second those views expressed! What an art form! Hail, Movies!

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Friendship Between Two Rascally Rogues

[9/10 · 24 July 2005]

What a treat to unearth this film, made around 30 years ago, and to think both male stars, Connery and Caine, are very much still in business, although dear Michael Caine seemed to have a bit of a limp in "Bewitched." More power to them both. They are great actors and we lap them up on screen. Funny, though, I rented this because Saeed Jaffrey was in it playing "Billy Fish." I enjoyed watching Saeed in the Merchant-Ivory pictures and in the British thriller "Killing Kind," and in the new pyx w/ Burt Reynolds set in Amsterdam called "Snapshots." These guys have such appealing chutzpah together and twinkle along with preposterous schemes and grandiose impulses, and they have a kind of honor about friendship and loyalty. Guided by a lot of luck, they do manage to take over leadership of a small, devout country that accepts the Masonic emblem as proof of Connery's Divinity! What a comedic romp this becomes. And Sean, at first Solomon-like in his wisdom,soon becomes tarnished and, with veiled lasciviousness, decides to wed. That sets off the old Dudes who were the Guiding Gurus before Connery got there. Michael Caine should not have stuck around for the wedding. Caine was ready to split because he couldn't stomach the direction Connery was going in, with the Kingship Routine and the hedonism. But Caine DID stick around and when the wedding day dawned, and when the bride BIT Connery and he BLED, well, the Old Dude Gurus gave the go-ahead for the mob of citizenry to give Connery 'what fer.' And they managed to do this. Caine lived thru it all to come back and regale Kipling (what a terrific, never-before-seen job of underplaying a role Chrisopher Plummer did here - he was simply magnificent and I did not recognize the actor in any way/shape/form as accustomed to him by his later roles)with the entire story. This is an original tale. The photography was luscious. It makes you appreciate John Huston's work all the more. Some movie people you just don't wanna see age. And that applies to Caine, Connery, Huston, Plummer, and certainly not the fine Saheed Jaffrey, whose cultured speaking intonations are thrilling to hear and who has aged to perfection, now around 76. I hope the movie-makers will utilize this gentleman in good roles of grace and meaning until he is too old to memorize dialogue! This is a great film for younger people to go back and see. It will remind them of their own fragile humanity and give them an idea of the passage of time and the parade of viable and gifted humans who inhabit our earth.

Hide and Seek (2005)

"EMILY? EMILY? EM'? EMILY!!!!!!" (creak, creak)

[4/10 · 21 July 2005]

I have to confess. I began laughing at some point in the film. Not at Amy Irving's delicately dark portrayal of a woman trapped in God-knows-what misery. This odd concoction kept my interest, but, God help me, kept getting funnier and funnier. I was never invested in these characters so the suspense didn't kill me when they were in jeopardy. I was laughing and saying, "Take them all away to the loony bin! They're all nuts!" Everything was laden with psychiatric geegaws, like the whole cast was from the Day Room at Psych 2! Elizabeth Shue's wardrobe, on all three separate occasions she appears, was so low-cut I'm surprised De Niro didn't offer to treat her for a breast fetish. The kid moped and was silent. There were so many dead stops where she doesn't answer questions or greetings that you wish people would just quit talking to her! Everybody was pussyfooting around treating her so gently, that I hoped somebody would scream, "STOP IT, EMILY! SNAP OUT OF IT!" It isn't until the end that we realize WHY she clams up, poor devil, with her hyper-fervid eyes protruding out of her head and her penchant for morbid drawings of herself and her invisible maniac friend "Charlie." You'll enjoy this movie if you like to see a bonkers kid get tucked into bed a dozen times with identical pillow talk from three different adults who must have been raised in the same Group Nuthatch. You'll like it if you wanna play hide-and-seek and hear De Niro incessantly calling, "Emily? Emily? Em?" with doors squeaking and winds ululating. It's a long, languid fright in the night, especially at 2:06 a.m.. I don't see how the De Niro Clan could go to the bathroom in that house. Nights, the bathroom door is bathed in light and critters, human and non, keep croaking in his tub. If you enjoy seeing a look of consternation embed itself on De Niro's face, this film is your baby. (Maybe he is just constipated.) He proclaims he's going to be a full-time Dad to his near-catatonic daughter and what does he do? He takes her to a strange new manse in the country, where she wanders around like a wraith while he plasters a headset on his ears and plays jazz so loudly he can't hear the kid or people knocking and walking in! He keeps fooling with a TELESCOPE, a very good one, brought from the city where, what?, he used it to track his voyeur clients? In the boonies, he uses it to observe his sorrowing neighbors. De Niro, supposedly, is a psychologist, counselor to all manner of troubled folk for many years, given his age! Have a cathartic laugh. The swarms of psychiatric personnel are inundated with their own psychoses and blind spots in this movie. That is one reason I liked it - seeing the Behavior Police overwhelm and suffer! There is a "good" psychologist/colleague of De Niro's, Famke Janssen, who is so sweet, she should be canonized. She's evidently been working cheek-by-jowl with De Niro for years and has NEVER picked up anything at all strange about him. But she finds lots of neuroses in the spooky child, who is so eerie with those bulging orbs the janitor could diagnose trouble. This movie is a psychiatric hoot. The neighbor lady, Melissa Leo, is a real doll and the movie's only normal human being, and is handling the recent death of her little girl with grace. Her husband, said to be goofy with grief, appears to be just fine. To these people, De Niro shows no warmth except when he thinks to advance his crumbling perceptions in this wooded Community from Hell and goes next door to fraternize, briefly. The canny neighbor woman WISELY refuses his attempt to give them counsel. He'd certainly have brought them CLOSURE! Haha. Her instincts, unlike the saintly lady shrink's and Elizabeth "Decollete" Shue's, are true! I have never seen glass and a window frame break so quickly, and catapult a woman effortlessly thru a window in the little girl's bedroom, with Bug-Eyes looking on. "Em? Emily? Emily? Em' Em'?" Soggy cat, crimson bath waters, bloody printed expostulations worthy of a demented kindergartner on the tub surround, swinging metal lamps that squeak in the night, light bulbs on strings in basement a la "Psycho", with empty cot at the ready - a perfect John Wayne Gacey sublet - this movie has something for everyone. But, above all, it tickled my funny bone! I loved the end, where the Wacko Arch-Villain, in that special inflatable yellow jacket, dies in the dingy, dank, dark drink of a convenient nearby cavern. The defunct Villain was kept afloat, amid a sea of mutilated baby dolls, so a great profile could be shot. The last scene of the movie foreshadows future psychiatric eruptions for the Saintly Lady Colleague to handle. It doesn't look good. But we somehow know that if this Dr. is dispatched by the "Evil Eye" progeny she has chosen to mother, she WILL go to Psychiatric Heaven with Freud, Jung, De Niro (he wasn't responsible for his actions, after all) and Dr. Spock. At long last,in "Hide and Seek," the shrinks and psychologists are outed! This is one cathartic anti-Diagnostic & Statistical Manual movie. How about a sequel featuring that lovely neighbor lady writing a self-help book entitled, "Baked Goods Are Better Than Half-Baked Therapies?"

House of Sand and Fog (2003)

A Masterpiece for All Concerned

[10/10 · 28 May 2005]

This collaborative effort works for everyone who is involved. An unconventional plot to drive a movie - a house, a battle over a house. But, oh my, the way everyone meshes - the director's genius, the author of the original book's innate sense that this director could do justice to his conception - the performances of the actors, not to mention the visceral reaction of audiences to what unfolds before their rapt eyes. As a simple, private viewer looking for various inspirational, energizing components which movies are so good at giving viewers, lifting them up, enlarging their scope, I can only say that the inside view of this Iranian family and their ways enveloped my sympathies. I was not too given to sympathy for Kathy, the alcoholic, smoking depressive who did not open her mail and under whose careless management the house declined. I did not go for this Kathy who so guiltlessly entered into a relationship with a married policeman and father of two whom she thought could help her reclaim her home. From the first sight of the unopened mail and disheveled house, I knew this was a bird with a broken wing. Or wings. Ben Kingsley, as the Iranian colonel who worked and slaved at two menial jobs so that he could marry his daughter into a 'good family,' had a spine of steel and so much devotion to his family that it hurt to see it. The love that was there and the fidelity to home and family. They seemed to embody the true American virtues more than the feckless, down in the dumps Americans around them. The boy who plays Kingsley's son is simply wonderful and endearing. The mother has a tender, voracious face, capable of anything in the realm of emotion. What a company of actors! The policeman's role is handled so well, but it elicits the least sympathy of all because of the pain this man's choices brings down on the heads of the innocent. I did not have patience with Kathy, either, the house's original owner before she let the taxes slide into overtime. I was more drawn to the strength of Kingsley as he held himself with dignity through so many indignities and managed to provide an oasis of comfort and affluence for his family by stretching himself to the breaking point working. So much tenderness and so much love and selflessness exist in these fantastic Iranians, so much devotion to God and to godly principles! I admire them so! I think of the war going on over in that region with a very heavy heart, knowing that similar beautiful dark-eyed, loving, loyal families are being ripped asunder from their traditions and vested interests. Why must life deal such horrible blows to the good and innocent people of this world? This movie tore my heart out. Deep sorrow, deep tragedy, but overall, triumphal beauty of the human soul. Kingsley imparts an example of strength, courage, dignity, and fearlessness. What a perfect film. What a directorial debut. What a book. It is an honor to have watched it. It is that kind of film - one is simply honored to view it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Confusion Reigns in This Goofy Flick

[1/10 · 15 May 2005]

I have just dragged back from a friend's home after suffering thru this "Eternal Monsoon of the Addlepated Cerebellum." I feel goofy from watching it. You don't so much watch it as suffer through it. Perhaps this is the vogue nowadays to have jerky sequences signifying nothing much at all but a morass of frenetic activity pass as avant-garde film-making, but it's lost on me. I read a review by a famous Chicago reviewer who claims there's emotional involvement of the viewer with the main characters. Well, not with my friend and me. We were put off by these two sad cases - Jim Carrey a subdued and lonely, rather conservative man, and Kate Winslet as a hoyden given to obscuring her beauteous charms under flagrantly dyed hair ranging in shades of Day Glo orange to Mood Indigo Blue. What a waste of this fine actress. The only good thing I saw was the welcome tamping down of Carrey's normal ebullience to a rather more approachable and assimilable sort of male creature, albeit shot through with insecurities and given to impulses only made understandable by watching the flick through. But who wants or needs to see what happens to either of these (again let me use the adjective)GOOFY characters? Not we! I chose this film on the basis of the awards it has both been nominated for and has garnered, the crown jewel being Winslet's nomination for the Academy Award! Who nominated her for this schlock? I rather think she should put a bag over her head! Try to hide this one from her resume! What is to be happy about in a role so chaotic and obscure? I know nothing about this flighty, maddening woman, having watched this film! Who would want to hitch their wagon to Winslet in this movie? A lunatic! I would like Lacuna Corp. to erase the memory of having seen this film from my brain, even with the threat of the Lacuna employees bouncing on either side of me on my bed of tortured electrodes while they clean house and do a clean sweep of my cranium! These tormented employees seem to be full of frantic actions as well as the crazed "heroine." Kirsten Dunst proves she has not an ounce of fat as she hops about prior to copulation with wild-haired Mark Ruffalo and then, unsated, begins an immediate seduction of her boss, the grand suave Doctor of this mad Lacuna outfit. What a GOOFY group these people make and what a dingbat dunce-cap of a movie they inhabit! I am loony from watching it and I am going to bed now and try to sleep it off. I hope I don't have flashbacks! Oh, welcome Senility! I want no short-term memory of this wild, manic, episodic Endurance Contest to darken my dreams!

Being Julia (2004)

For Women Unceremoniously Dumped

[9/10 · 24 April 2005]

"Being Julia" is nothing short of an INFUSION of attitude for all women who have been led down the garden path or who hurt and hurt and hurt because the man got away, the man left them hanging, the man partook and forsook. "Being Julia" will provide wicked, healing relief in those circumstances and just plain entertainment to all others.In fact, what women need is being Julias. User comments have nicely covered plot and actors, but, oh, what the film will do for a shattered female! "Being Julia," for under-appreciated women, is a resurrection to the withered spirit. Better than face cream, lettuce, exercise bicycles, or corsetry. The cast - and I crown Michael Gambon, Julia's acting teacher, as the pivotal delight - augments superbly the eponymous Julia whose many layers of subterfuge must be onionesque because so many real and felonious tears are shed in the process. Women who enter drooping will march out laughing, healed and ready to go on.

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

Ending Tore My Heart w/ Surprise

[8/10 · 11 April 2005]

Since I am over 65, this is not the sort of film I would usually rent to 'get away from it all.' And I had no idea WHO it was about. It was like stepping into the Americas and having an inside tour. I donned another skin, watching this journey unfold. The nobility and sensitivity evinced by "Che" caused my heart to swell with admiration for the boy's pure instinct toward the Good and the Noble. But at the very end, when they unveiled - to those ignorant of the entire purpose of the film! like me! - that this boy would be CHE GUEVERA, well, I sat there thunderstruck for quite a time, on the verge of weeping. Those dear boys! I watched the special feature interview of the surviving "boy," now an old man, and was especially moved. My heart is permanently softened on the subject of Che Guevera, thanks to this fine film. And my love for the Americas and their people smolders within. Now that's quite a nice mother-lode to take away from any flick, isn't it?