Made in Dagenham Boasts Equality for Entertainment and Safety

Made in Dagenham (3 out of 5 stars)

Directed by: Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls)

Written by: Billy Ivory

Starring Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, and Rosamund Pike

This story chronicles the the journey of the women who work in Ford's Motor plant in Dagenham, England.  The woman are working for less pay then the men, and they decide to stand up for their rights and walk out of the plant.  The women find a mouthpiece in Rita O'Grady (Hawkins) who is encouraged by her union representative Albert (Hoskins) to keep going further and push for equality for all the women who work in upholster part of the plant.  Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky) is a brilliant actress and just shine in the role of Rita; she is a force to be reckoned with as her character and pushes the limit with her humor, wit, and sincerity in her acting style.

Rita builds a connection with Lisa the wife of the man who is charge of the plant (she doesn't know who Lisa is at the time) and they form a connection because Lisa was educated at Cambridge but has been content with playing the role of the house wife.  Rosamund Pike is turning out to be a wonderful actress; she longs to be more than just a house wife, and Pike conveys such depth in a small role.  Hoskins is always great, and Richardson exudes confidence as government minister Barbara Castle who helps the women in their fight for equality.

This film is the British Norma Rae.  Both films were entertaining, and made you stand up and cheer for women who push the boundaries to get their voice heard.  The difference is that when I watched this film it felt as though the director played it safe, and never let the material of the film go deeper.  Nigel Cole's direction is often simple, and simple can be a good thing, but this film could have been so much more.  I stood up to cheer for the acting, but that's about all.

My Recommendation: It's entertaining and has good acting.  Watch the preview below, if you are moved rent it, if not keep searching Netflix.

Fair Game is Close to the Top of its Game

Fair Game (3 out of 5 stars)

Directed by: Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Go, Swingers)

Written by: Jez Butterworth, John Butterworth

Starring: Naomi Watts and Sean Penn

No, this is not the crappy 1995 film with Cindy Crawford and Billy Baldwin, where we get to see a two obligatory breast shots.This film chronicles the story of husband and wife Valerie Plame (Watts) and Joe Wilson (Penn) and their battle with both the CIA and the Bush administration.  Plame works for the CIA as a covert operative who identity is revealed because her husband reveals after a trip to Niger that Saddam Hussein does not have weapon's of mass destruction (WMDs).  Within the White House Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff leaked to information that Plame was a cover agent with the CIA, and the both Plame and Wilson became a target for countless attacks.

The film uses the procedural well, but sometimes loses the emotional depth of the story lines that surround the revelation of Plame's status.  In the film Plame was working to bring a family home from Iraq who had aided in one of her investigations, but as she loses ability you soon realize the family has lost hope in being saved.  Watts appears stiff and wooden sometimes as opposed to being a tough as nails CIA agent.; she is best when she lets her acting become natural.  Watts scenes are best when she deals with her family and the implications of her exposure.  Penn playing a liberal mouthpiece also did not come across so much as acting, but Sean Penn being Sean Penn.  Although Penn brings to life the real Joe Wilson well.

Liman does however do a good job of weaving a tale, that inter splices news reels and and this couple's story.  The emotional depth comes with the rage at the Bush administration for allowing someone in your administration to force a family to deal with mass scrutiny.  Liman makes this more than a procedural and when you watch Watts and Penn deal with the emotional heft on a family level that's when this political becomes so much more.

My Recommendation: Good solid filmmaking, go out and rent it

Andrew Garfield: From Facebook to Webslinger

Andrew Garfield like most actors started out in television; he then landed a role in a British film Boy A (2007) in which he played the grown up version of young boy who was sent to jail for committing a crime.  Years later he (in the form of Garfield) was released and he tries to to start his life over again, but with one act of heroism it all starts to fall a part.  What a great description from having only seen the preview.  As a big fan of this upcoming actor I will be adding this to my Netflix queue.  To some I think Garfield appears whiny, but I think his acting works splendidly.

In the same year Robert Redford directed and starred in the film Lions for Lambs. Redford gave Garfield a an important role acting opposite him as youth who gave Redford hope.  The film is not one of Redford's crowning achievements, but Garfield's future acting chops were there within this moment I remembered thinking "He is going to be big."

Two years later he was in the film the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (Heath Ledger's last film) which I have not brought myself to watch, partly because this movie looked just awful, and I wanted to remember Heath Ledger in his quality work, but I digress.  Garfield had started working with some of the most famous directors.

In 2010 his career took off even further with two great roles, one as Tommy in Never Let Me Go and Eduardo Saverin one of the inventors of facebook in The Social Network; he is great in both of these films.

Never Let Me Go is the story of three young children Kathy (Mulligan), Tommy (Garfield) and Ruth (Knightley) who attend Halisham boarding school.  While attending this school the children are raised kept away from the outside world in order to carry out a mission without their knowledge of the purpose of the mission.   Garfield's performance as Tommy is heartbreaking as he realizes his love for Katie can never happen you see the hope drain from his face.

The Social Network is the movie about the founding of facebook, and Garfield plays the former best friend of billionaire genius Mark Zukerberg.  Garfield's innocence and vulnerability are the strengths in his acting; he never sells the character short.  This should have been his first of many Academy Award nominations, but like most young male actors he lost out.

Garfield has proven his acting talent, but in 2012 is where he will gain his star power taking over the role of Peter Parker aka Spiderman in The Amazing Spiderman.  This is a reboot of the series and it seems as though it will actually be better than the original (or that is my hope).  As Garfield finishes filming this movie look for him to become a big superstar in years to come.

When Good Books Become Bad Movies: Part One When You Have Great Material Don't Assume Your Point of View Makes it Better

When I was in 9th grade we read the classic book The Great Gatsby.  After reading that book that put me in the "roaring 20's"  with the days of prosperity and bootlegging.  The Great Gatsby also filled my head my romantic ideals as I envisioned myself starring off longlingly towards that green light, and its representation of true love.  The book is poetic, and sparked my interest in reading even more.  The characters were complex and as a young reader I was able to put my imagination to work.

Cut to a few weeks later when my teacher had us watch the movie in class after we had finished the book.  We watched the older version with Robert Redford in the role of J. Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy.  Redford was a great choice for Gatsby; he is charismatic and charming, but I guess I have never been convinced of his acting ability.  Farrow's Daisy was not what I pictured at all, she pulls off the innocent somehwta well, but she didn't take on the role as i envisioned it.  The film was  written by Franics Ford Coppola, but his talented writing skills could not save this adaptation.  The problem with the translation from book to film is that sometimes the power of the word gets lost on the screen and it loses the emotional context of the original film.  Thus began my long  treck to dissapointment.  I would read books, get excited about them in movie form, and then sit in the theatre sad that the film just did not capture the essence of the book.

Years later in college I read Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors in about 3 days.  The book was unique and autobiographical tale about son who was essentially abandoned by his alcoholic father crazy mother who has her son live with her shrink.  Augusten's mother sends him to live with her therapist and his crazy family for his adolescence and well let's just say there are some vivid descrpitions that would give someone a altered perception of life-read it!  The Ryan Murphy (Glee, Nip/Tuck) became the director of the film adaptation, and I was ecstatic a gay male director taking on the story of another gay male author.  The cast had Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Joseph Fiennes, Biran Cox, Gwyenth Paltrow, Evan Rachel Wood, Jill Clayburgh, Gabrielle Union, Kristin Chenowith, and newcomer Joseph Cross. What could go wrong?  Well the film was terrible and the subject matter was watered down.  There is some vivid shocking imagry in the book, and all of it was left out the film.  The book has such a queer identity, but my guess is producers were scared it would prevent mainstream America from showing up so they altered things.  This ultimately ruined this movie for the fans of the book and the public.

I came to The Lovely Bones late. I read the book the summer before the films release.  The premise was intriguing and at that point I knew Peter Jackson was going to direct the movie version and I enjoyed what he did with the movie Heavenly Creatures, so I began my jounrey with this book.  The book was tough the read for me, after every chapter I would put the book down because I was so emotionally spent.  I felt the pain and hardship as Susie who was brutally raped and murdered watch her family suffer as they tried to put their life together.  As the reader you become Susie and you take on her emotions you feel her loss, her families anguish, anger that she missed out so much that you have been able to enjoy in life.  When I finished the book I felt like an intruder into intimate family moments that I should have never seen.  Opening night of the movie (in northwest Ohio) I sat in my seat prepared for this intense journey as was sadly dissapointed.  This was another situation where the subject matter was watered down and the audience was given Law and Order: Lovely Bones Unit.  This film was procedural and did not tackle the deep emotional material well at all.  They missed the ball on the family struggle.  Mark Wahlberg was miscast as Susie's father and Rachel Weisz phoned it in as Susie's mother.  Stanley Tucci captured Susie's killer perfect down to every creepy twitch, but not enough to save this wonderful book from becoming a bad film.

How do bad book to film translations happen?  The studios get their hands on a script, and re-work good things.  Maybe the the director's vision is off (Watchmen-that will be talked about next time).  The author may not understand the complexity of the source material.  Reading a book is interpretive, and the way I vision one story is different from the way others may envision a story, so creating the perfect adaptation is impossible, but they do happen.  My advice is honor the material and find where the passion and heart is within the story, or some books like Catcher in the Rye are just not meant to be movies.

Scream 4 Rocked it Out!

So after another midnight showing, which can be hit and miss because of the anticipation. I was happy with the way Scream 4 turned out.  As Sidney Prescott returns home to Woodsborro people start dying all over again.  With a truly modern opening Scream 4 took the franchise a whole different level, and played with the modern horror cliches.

My advice is go see this movie because its fun and its scary, there is nothing better than a movie that can bring out every emotion.  Fans of the franchise will love it, and if you haven't seen the movie and love film then jump on board.  The Scream franchise likes to pay homage to the horror genre and film.  The movie never takes itself too seriously and has created great legacy characters like Gale, Dewey, and Sidney.

With a movie like this playing critic is tough, because as a fan you often have a hard time being mean to something you love-so I won't.  I also will not be giving out any plot details because the fun in this movie is the surprise.  I just hope the I-Phone never gets an app that has that voice on it!

Never Let Me Go Makes it Hard to Let Go of the Emotional Struggle

Never Let Me Go (3 1/2 stars out of 5)

Directed by Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and Written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later)
Starring: Carrie Mulligan, Andrew Garfield,  and Keira Knightley

Never Let Me Go is the story of three young children Kathy (Mulligan), Tommy (Garfield) and Ruth (Knightley) who attend Halisham boarding school.  While attending this school the children are raised kept away from the outside world in order to carry out a mission without their knowledge of the purpose of the mission.  Kathy narrates the story from her perspective in the present day and shows the viewer their world while they attend Hailsham then leave that when they get older and are sent to another place called The Cottages to further prepare them for their life's mission.

Mulligan's performance is so quiet and telling as she narrates her need to follow the rules set out by their headmistress (Charlotte Rampling).  Kathy believes in their mission and trust the process, but as she falls for Tommy at young age; she rarely questions the thought that there may be more to her life than Hailsham is allowing.  As Tommy realizes the truth behind  his love for Kathy you feel the his pain and Garfield is brilliant.  Yet Knightley's Ruth was the one who stole the film for me; she is hauting in her portrayal of Ruth someone who is so afraid of being alone that she isolates and creates a divide amongst her friends.

Mark Romanek's direction creates this beautiful portrait of their world, where we are able to feel every emotion, and understand that this mission has such a dark and twisted fate for our three main characters.  The cinematography conveys the elements of this dark and depressing tone.The flaws are the pacing there were moments where Romanek needed more life, to keep me hooked.   The characters are often cold and dispondant.  Dispondency may make for a lack of connection and the viewer could lose their connection to the characters and the film.  However the characters' worlds are filled with uncertainty  and the film never let's you that go.

My Reccomendation: Rent if you like British Period Pieces-If you don't, this may no be for you-this is currently out to rent and is no longer in the theatres.

Country Strong is only Heavy in the Melodrama

So most of my blogs so far have been about aspects of film but here come the reviews and my first one is a doozy.

Country Strong (1 1/2 stars out of 5)

Written and Directed by Shana Feste
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, and Leighton Meister

This film chronicles the journey of Kelly Canter (Paltrow) as she battles getting out of rehab, and tries to make a comeback from doing some pretty crazy things with alcohol on stage at a Dallas concert.  Kelly's husband James Canter (McGraw) comes to take out Kelly when she has one month left in rehab.  While in rehab Kelly meets Beau (Hedlund) whom she forms a realtionship with and she implores her husband to bring him on tour with them.  James Canter has different ideas and wants to bring Chiles Stanton (Meister) instead a Taylor Swift wannabe who unlike Kelly is more pop country.  James sees Beau save Chiles as freezes on stage and they end up doing a duet; he decides to bring both Beau and Chiles on the road with Kelly and the melodrama begins.

The worst part about this film is the writing and the directing.  The plot and direction of the film were so contrived and cliche that I felt as if I were involved in one big big long country song that would not end.  Now I like some country music, but not all of it is this whiny and melodramatic.  As the story unfolds without giving more of the plot away, you can see every story angle coming from a mile away, except maybe the ending (although the ending is the most overblown aspect of the story).  The last part of the film is just one big concert where you get to watch Gwyneth strut her stuff and she is talented and the music is decent, but with the most recent trend good music can't save bad writing.Country Strong only left me feeling heavy from melodrama, and lacked solid emotional stability.

To my surprise to most talented actor in the cast is Tim McGraw; he really sold the story the best and hit every emotion.  McGraw has grown as an actor.  Paltrow pulled off the performances and the drugged up crazy country singer well enough, but not enough to carry the film.  While Hedlund and Meister are attractive and potentially good singers their acting is the weakest of the foursome, especially Meister.  Meister's country accent just didn't cut it.

Overall this movie was lacking spirit and spark for me to make any connection with the story and the characters.  There were brief glimpses of hope like when Gwyneth Paltrow meets a young boy from the Make a Wish Foundation, but you would have to be made of stone not to feel emotions here.  The music is solid country music, and that helps, but again not enough.  Like with Burlesque a film needs more than just its music behind it.

My recommendation: Avoid it