Category: Nominees – 2000s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk – 2008

This was such a very good movie that everybody I know who has seen it has recommended it to me.  So, I had pretty high expectations.  The problem is that I’m not very political minded.  Political dramas usually bore me.  And while politics was definitely a key element of the narrative, there was also a human drama that was just as important.  His personal life was given a fair amount of screen time.

The movie is about the first openly gay man elected to public office, Harvey Milk, masterfully played by Sean Penn.  In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, homosexuality was widely considered deviant behavior closely associated with rapists, bestiality, and pedophiles.  It was common for police to raid gay bars and bath houses to round up the patrons and put them in jail.  Well-known public figures like Anita Bryant, only shown in news-reel footage, and John Briggs, played by Dennis O’Hare, went out of their way to demonize homosexuality and actively discriminate against the minority group.  And they did it all in the name of religion and protecting the family unit.

But Activist Harvey Milk was brave enough to fight them on their level.  While living in the Castro District of San Francisco in the early 70s, he began to fight back against the deplorable treatment of gays and lesbians, and he did so in a way that raised public awareness and acceptance in a positive way.  Most of the freedoms, equal rights, and liberties that homosexuals take for granted today are enjoyed because of the early pioneers in the gay rights movement like Harvey Milk.

In 1973 and 1975, he ran for the office of City Supervisor, and in 1976 he ran for a seat on the California State Assembly.  Each time he failed, and each time, his devotion to activism and politics was a strain on his partner, Scott Smith, played by James Franco.  When Scott finally leaves him, Harvey finds a new lover, Jack Lira, played by Diego Luna.  But he is emotionally unstable, and commits suicide.

Then, finally, in 1977, Harvey wins a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.  He meets Dan White, fellow Board member and professional colleague, played by Josh Brolin.  At first the two men seem to be allies, but politics is a dangerous game.  Sometimes ones morals or ethics might need to be compromised to accomplish a personal agenda.  In this, Milk was no different than any other politician.  More than once he politically betrayed or embarrassed Dan to fight for gay rights.

You see, Dan white was not portrayed as an evil man.  He was not homophobic.  He was not a bigot.  In fact, I thought he was actually portrayed as a tragic figure.  True, he eventually assassinated both Harvey Milk and the San Francisco Mayor, George Moscone, but it wasn’t because of any anti-gay tirade.  It was revenge, plain and simple, because he got screwed by those who would become his victims.

And just as an interesting note, White turned himself in to the S.F.P.D.  He was convicted of manslaughter instead of murder, based on the claim that he was not in his right mind due to depression.  This became known as the Twinkie Defense because one of the symptoms of his depression was binging on sugary foods.  This determined that the killings could not have been premeditated since he was not in his right mind.  He was given a seven year sentence and was paroled after five.  He then committed suicide within two years.  But before his death, he confessed in an interview that he had actually intended to kill Milk, Moscone, and two other public employees who had politically opposed him.  In light of this confession, the murders were most certainly premeditated, and he should have been convicted of murder.

Sean Penn’s phenomenal performance is what made the movie. He is the kind of actor who really throws himself into a roll.  He seemed to embody the spirit of the politician and really deserved the Oscar he won for his performance.  He never seemed over the top, never made the character comical or farcical.  He was real and believable in every nuance of the part.  He was charismatic and yet there was also a vulnerability that was equally as attractive.  And in addition to all the noble qualities of the character, he also embraced the flaws of the man and the gravitas of someone familiar with hardship, oppression, and discrimination.  Penn was perfect for the role.

Playing Harvey’s aids, Cleve Jones, Ann Kronenberg, Dick Pabitch, Rick Stokes, and Danny Nicoletta, were Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, Joseph Cross, Stephen Sipnella, and Lucas Gabreel, respectively.  I make mention of them all because of something they did at the end of the movie that I really liked.  Not only did the cast of actors do a great job, they were shown next to photos of their real-life counterparts, showing how very much they looked like the people they were portraying.  The likenesses were remarkable, adding even more believability to the realism of the movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frost/Nixon – 2008

This was a good movie.  It was a drama about the famous interviews between celebrity journalist David Frost, played by Michael Sheen, and President Richard Nixon, played by Frank Langella.  Both men gave great performances, but special attention has to be given to Langella’s portrayal of the infamous politician.

We are taken on a journey that began with a little history lesson, showing how Nixon resigned the office of President because of the Watergate Scandal, and how he was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.  We are then introduced to the popular interviewer David Frost as he conceives of an idea to interview Nixon in an attempt to get from him a confession of guilt that, for lack of a trial, the world never received.  It is made clear that in the beginning, Frost was in it for the ratings, nothing more.  Nixon, a man languishing in retirement, agreed to participate in the interview in an effort to exonerate himself.

The film, which is based on a stage play of the same name, became a sparring match between the two men.  Obviously, they each had their own agenda, but they each also had teams of supporters, advisors, and researchers who had their own goals as well.  In Frost’s corner was his producer, John Birt, played by Matthew MacFadyen, as well as Bob Zeinick and James Reston Jr., played by Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell.  James harbored a personal contempt for Nixon, who he felt was a criminal who had dishonored the Office of the Presidency and betrayed the American people.  Not on Frost’s professional team, but supporting him all the same is his girlfriend, Caroline Cushing, played by Rebecca Hall.  In Nixon’s camp was his post resignation chief of staff, Jack Brennan, played by Kevin Bacon, and his publicist, Swifty Lazar, played by Toby Jones.  And in a minor roll, there was Diane Sawyer, played by Kate Jennings.  I thought it interesting to learn that early in her career, the famous journalist and television news anchor was part of Nixon’s White House staff.

The film focused most of its attention on Frost and his team of supporters, the conflicts within their group.  They are almost portrayed as the underdogs.  Their challenge was to force a confession out of Nixon, a task which many thought could not be achieved.  Nixon was too much of a smooth talker, too much of a slippery politician.  Frost was only used to interviewing entertainment celebrities and not accustomed to asking the hard kinds of questions that would get an admission of guilt from “Tricky Dick”.

And finally, about fifty-four minutes into the roughly two hour film, the first of the four interview sessions begins.  To make a long story short, the rest of the movie covers the interviews, with small breaks between the sessions.  The first three are dominated by Nixon who does a fantastic job of making himself look good while discussing his foreign policy achievements and his involvement in the Vietnam conflict.  But in the fourth interview, Frost finally steps up to the plate and corners Nixon with evidence about the Watergate scandal.  Nixon is forced to confess that mistakes were made and a sort of apology to the citizens of American is given, though he never actually admitted to being a criminal.

This movie is a dramatization of the interviews which took place in 1977.  I was only four years old at the time, but I know people who remember the real interviews being televised.  I have been told that for the most part thee film was an accurate portrayal.  However, after doing a little research, I have learned that there were a few critical inaccuracies that were included to increase the dramatic tension.  For example, according to Wikipedia, in the movie, Nixon admitted that he “‘…was involved in a cover-up’ as you call it.”  But the audience can’t hear the ellipsis.  What Nixon actually said was, “You’re wanting me to say that I participated in an illegal cover-up.  No!”  I think that makes it pretty clear that Peter Morgan, the man who drafted the screenplay, had his own agenda in writing the script.

Also, as an interesting little note, I found that the character of Jack Brennan was portrayed as too stern and militant.  According to the real Diane Sawyer, who knew him, Jack was “the funniest guy you ever met in your life, an irreverent, wonderful guy. So there you go. It’s the movies.”

But aside from little things like that, the film was mostly historically accurate.  Add to that some pretty incredible performances from Sheen and Langella, and you have a pretty compelling drama.  I’m generally not interested in politics, but I was able to enjoy the film because the politics of the events were mostly taken out and replaced with the drama of two powerful men facing off from their interview chairs.  In the end, Frost came out the winner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – 2008

This movie was a wonderful magical fairy tale.  It is a film that really spoke to me on a number of levels.  Every now and then I come across a film that I instinctively know I’m going to like, even before I watch it.  Other films in this category are The Lady in the Water from 2006 and Cloud Atlas from 2012.  And while I’m on the subject, I’m predicting that I’m going to love the 2014 Best Picture nominee: The Grand Budapest Hotel.

We start off in a hospital room where a very old woman played by Cate Blanchett is dying.  Her daughter, played by Julia Ormond is there, doing her best to comfort her.  To pass the time, the young woman reads to her mother from a mysterious diary, and the real story of the movie begins.  As the movie progresses, we are frequently brought back to the hospital room, constantly reminding us that the main body of the narrative is a flashback.

The title Character of Benjamin Button was the film’s protagonist, and was played at various stages in his remarkable life by several different people, most notable of whom is Brad Pitt.  He was also played by Robert Towers, Peter Donald Badalamenti II, Tom Everett, Spencer Daniels, Chandler Canterbury, and Charles Henry Wyson.  The amazing thing was that it was only the last three actors who I could tell were different, and that was because the character was portrayed as a child, a toddler, and an infant.  The makeup and digital effects artists did a phenomenal job of making me believe that they were all Brad Pitt.  It was not surprising that the film won the Awards for Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects.

You see, this was the tale of a man who ages backward.  He is born as an old man with all the infirmities of the elderly.  He has the mind of a child but the body of an eighty or ninety year-old man.  As he ages, his body grows younger and his ailments begin to fall away.  He meets a young girl named Daisy Fuller, played by Elle Fanning, with whom he forms the instant bond of a soul-mate.  It is this strange, romantic relationship that is the main focus of the film.  As Daisy ages, passing through actress Madisen Beaty as a ten year-old, and becomes an adult, played by Cate Blanchett, Benjamin ages in reverse, and the two eventually meet in the middle.  It is there that their romance blossoms.

The movie follows Benjamin as he meets people who have a significant influence on him, people like his adoptive mother, Queenie, played by Taraji P. Henson, his first employer, Mike Clark, a tugboat Captain played by Jared Harris, Elizabeth Abbot, his first love affair, played by Tilda Swinton, and Thomas Button, his biological father, played by Jason Flemyng.  They each have a hand, for better or for worse, in shaping him and who, in turn, are shaped by him.

The movie has a theme of exploring how human beings are a collection of experiences and interactions, and how each person we meet becomes part of who we are.  It also expresses how age and time are also significant factors that change us.  And through Benjamin Button’s magical backwards life, we are shown how humans begin and end their journeys in nearly the same helpless position.

This had the effect of making Benjamin’s romance with Daisy fascinating in a remarkably unique way.  As she aged, he grew younger, the importance of which was not lost on either of them.  It was a relationship that was doomed but for that brief window where their ages matched.  After that time was ended, she would become an old woman taking care of an infant.  And when it was time for them to part, Benjamin did the only thing he could have done.  He left without a word and didn’t come back until he was too young to take care of himself.

I have to give special props to the entire cast of actors, all of whom did a great job.  First, it is easy to be distracted by how incredibly handsome Brad Pitt is, and forget that he is also a very skilled actor.  But when you see him in a role like this, there is no denying how good he is.  Blanchett was good, especially, surprisingly enough, as the old lady in the hospital bed.  She had just the right amount of the immobile infirmity of the woman dying of old age.  I also really liked Swinton and Harris.

And finally, I want to acknowledge the cinematography and the musical score, both of which were incredible. They were both nominated for awards at the Oscars, though neither of them won.  Claudio Miranda was responsible for the wonderful cinematography and the beautiful score was written by Alexandre Desplat.  They, along with masterful direction by David Fincher, made the movie into a really engaging piece of film art, a feast for the eyes, the ears, the mind, and the heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There Will Be Blood – 2007

This was a strange movie with a really messed up ending.  I’m not even sure of what it meant.  What were the protagonist’s motivations?  Why did he do what he did, and what did the final cryptic line mean?  I did a little research on the internet, this time even going beyond Wikipedia, and found a reasonably understandable statement that seemed to sum up the movie.  Rob Frank, on his website Film Analysis and Interpretation, says of the film, “The meaning of There Will Be Blood is that pursuit of wealth, without consideration for others, leads to personal downfall.”

That sounds pretty accurate to me.  Daniel Day Lewis played Daniel Plainview, a hard-working oil man in the late 1800s.  He is a terrible human being, a despicable character.  By his own admission, he hates everyone and is perfectly willing to lie, cheat, steal, and murder to get what he wants, all of which he does over the course of the film.  Early on in his career, a single father who is one of his employees, dies on the job.  Daniel takes the child for his own for the sole purpose of being able to use the boy to charm investors and land-owners, calling his oil drilling operations a family business.  The child actor playing his son, H.W., is Dillon Freasier.

As a young boy, H.W. is injured when a drilling operation has an accident.  He suffers total hearing loss.  Unable to communicate with his son, Daniel becomes distant and dismissive, even going so far as to send him away to a school for the deaf, in a most despicable way.  He gets on a train with H.W., then tells him that he needs to speak to the conductor.  Daniel then exits the train and abandons H.W.  He gets in his car and leaves, letting the train carry the frightened boy away alone.  H.W. is eventually recalled when Daniel can use him again.  Eventually, when H.W. grows to a man, and is now played by deaf actor Russell Havard, he gets married and tells his father that he wants to leave home and start an oil drilling business of his own in another state.  A drunk Daniel, through a sign language interpreter, drops the bomb on the boy that he isn’t his son, and that now he is his competition.

But believe it or not, all this is only a subplot.  The movie is about Daniel’s competitive relationship with a religious fanatic.  Fortune drops a virtual ocean of oil in Daniel’s lap.  The owners of the land are Sunday family.  Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano, is the local preacher who is so passionate about his work that he resembles a wild faith healer like the fictional Elmer Gantry.  He delivers fiery sermons, claiming to cast demons out of arthritic hands, and other such miracles.  Daniel swindles the Sunday family into a lease agreement.  He even murders a con man claiming to be his long lost brother, Henry, played by Kevin J. O’Connor.

Daniel and Eli are constantly competing with each other over control of the town and its oil fields.  At one point, in order to use the land of one of Eli’s parishioners, Daniel is forced to join Eli’s church.  Under Eli’s revivalist faith healing theatrics, Daniel humiliates and debases himself in front of the congregation, shouting out his sin of abandoning his son, a confession that almost sounds sincere.

But years later, after Daniel has become wealthy and alone, Eli shows up on his doorstep.  Daniel is drunk and in a stupor after his final confrontation with H.W.  Eli has fallen on hard times and tries to sell Daniel the piece of land that caused him to humiliate himself earlier.  But Daniel turns the tables and forces Eli to humiliate himself by shouting that he is a false prophet and that God is a superstition.  Daniel tells a tearful Eli that the land in question is now worthless because the oil has all been drained.  Then he brutally murders Eli with a bowling pin.  As his butler arrives and sees the dead body, Daniel says, “I’m finished,” and the movie ends.

What the heck did that mean?  The research I did went very deeply into how the movie was a metaphor of how blind ambition and heartless greed are turning Americans into killers.  While this might have some truth to it, I tend to take a simpler look at it.  It is the story of a man that shows us how pursuit of wealth, without consideration for others, leads to personal downfall.  For me, it wasn’t about how corporate greed is killing religion.  It was about a murderer getting revenge on someone for having stood in the way of his greed and humiliating him.

And what did “I’m Finished” mean?  Did it mean, “You’ve caught me in the act of murder and my career is over.”?  Or did it mean, “I’ve finally gotten the revenge I’ve longed for.  I won.”?  Or maybe it meant something else entirely.  And the line was delivered with a tone of happiness, making it even more cryptic.  Who knows?  Either way, both Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano turned in some powerful performances, making this an interesting film to watch, no matter how you interpret its moral and philosophical ambiguities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Clayton – 2007

This was a good movie, but it wasn’t as good as it thinks it was.  What I mean by that is that it was a suspense thriller that tried to portray itself as a deep and hard-hitting drama.  But really, it was just an average suspense thriller.  It was alright, but I didn’t see what put it above any other movie of its genre.  What was it about Michael Clayton that got it nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards when other films like 1993’s The Firm or The Pelican Brief, also from 1993, were not?  In my mind there was nothing about this film that warranted the nomination.

But that’s not to say it was a bad movie.  It was just an average example of a corporate drama.  There was no real suspense, no daring plot twists, no dangerous action, and no bold emotional content.  The acting was competent, but the story just wasn’t very deep or intense.

George Clooney played the title character of Michael Clayton.  He is a corporate janitor, a man who does what he has to in order to keep the clients of a prestigious law firm happy and out of trouble.  When an idiot client jeopardizes a case by breaking the law or hitting someone with his car, Michael swoops in and uses his extensive knowledge of how the criminal justice system works to keep the client out of jail.  Right near the beginning of the film, we see him counseling such a client.  As he leaves, he is visibly upset.  Then, he stops the car and gets out to look at some grazing horses.  As he is looking at the animals, his car blows up.

Cut to four months earlier.  Clayton is called for a case.  Apparently, one of his co-workers went off the deep end.  Arthur Edens, played by Tom Wilkinson, lost his marbles during a deposition with U-North, an agricultural products conglomerate.  For some reason, Arthur stripped naked during the deposition and ran through the streets.  Michael bails him out of jail and does his best to find out what is going on.

You see, Arthur knows that U-North makes a product that is extremely toxic, causing major, and sometimes lethal health problems in customers.  Arthur has been giving legal aid to U-North for six years, and has proof of the product’s poisonous nature.  Arthur begins to make plans to go public with what he knows.  But the U-North General Council, Karen Crowder, played by Tilda Swinton, is an evil woman.  To protect U-North, she hires hitmen to murder Arthur, and eventually Michael Clayton as he begins to learn why Arthur had his episode.

Add to that the fact that the character of Michael Clayton is established as having a history of gambling addiction, and is currently in debt to a loan-shark for eighty thousand dollars.  However, the debt is not because of gambling, but because of a legitimate business deal turned bad because of his brother’s drug problem.

And that’s it.  As usual, Wilkinson did a good job.  I also liked Swinton in her role as the bad guy.  Clooney was also competent.  The whole cast did just fine, but something was lacking.  I’m having trouble putting my finger on exactly what is was, but for me, there just wasn’t enough intensity.  Maybe it was the script, the dialogue, or the directing.  I’m not exactly sure.

And the ending felt a little unbelievable.  So Clayton, having survived the hit, surprises Karen Crowder as she is about to agreeably settle the class action law suit that the murdered Arthur was attempting to derail.  He has the incriminating report that says that she and U-North knew all about the lethally toxic nature of their product.  He confronts Crowder outside the meeting room and threatens to expose her, also letting her know that he is aware of the part she played in Arthur’s death and the attempt on his own life.  He badgers her into offering him $10 million for his silence.  But he turns the tables on her and pulls a live cell phone out of his coat pocket.  Police suddenly arrive to arrest her.

Maybe I don’t know much about how the criminal justice system works, but unless the conversation was recorded through the cell phone, couldn’t the conversation be denied?  And even if it was recorded, is that the kind of evidence that would hold up in a court of law?  And is the fact that Crowder allowed herself to be pressured into paying the $10 million as good as an admission of her guilt?  Maybe it was all realistic, but it didn’t feel like it.  I just don’t know.

Now, all that being said, I liked that even though the first half of the film was a little confusing, by the end, all the pieces seemed to fit into place.  There was an intelligence about the drama that was also appealing.  All in all, Michael Clayton was a good enough movie.  I just don’t understand why everyone seems to think it was better than I do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juno – 2007

This was a strange little movie.  It was an independent movie, having no backing or support from any major film studio, and it felt like it.  It was a film that had honesty without pretension, heart without melodrama, and brains without smugness.  The casting was good, the pacing was engaging, and the music was interesting.  The characters were real and likeable.

In fact, I think that was one of the things I liked about the movie.  There were no really unlikeable characters.  There were no bad guys, no villains.  Theey were just simple, real, and understandable.  The movie is about Juno, played by Ellen Page, a sixteen year-old girl who makes a conscious decision to have sex with her friend Paulie, played by Michael Cera.

Juno gets pregnant, but takes full responsibility for her situation.  She doesn’t blame Paulie.  She doesn’t get mad at the world in a fit of teenage angst.  She makes the decision to have the baby and give it up for adoption, fully realizing that she isn’t ready to keep and care for a child.  She bravely holds her head up to face the stigma, and of course the stares, of being pregnant in high school.  And best of all, she doesn’t change her mind and want to keep the baby when it is born.

And the character of Paulie is interesting as well.  He is a likeable little nerd who loves Juno, even though it is clear that she only thinks of him as a friend.  When she tells him of her pregnancy, he doesn’t get defensive and he doesn’t run away.  He is fully willing to accept responsibility for his part in the situation.  Juno first tells him that she wants an abortion, and he supports her.  Then she changes her mind and decides on adoption, and Paulie continues to support her.

Juno’s father, Mac, played by J. K. Simmons, and her step-mother, Bren, played by Allison Janney, while not happy about the situation, don’t blow up at her, they don’t yell at her, and they don’t disown her.  They don’t even shame her.  Instead, they recognize that she is doing her best to take responsibility for the unplanned pregnancy, and do what they can to help her through it.

Now, all that being said, if the movie had any flaw, I would call it a minor one.  Everything seemed too easy.  It almost made unplanned teen pregnancy seem like something that was safe and even fun.  I get the feeling it downplayed the seriousness of reality.  They don’t show her going through morning sickness.  They don’t show her being ostracized by her friends.  And they don’t show her as receiving anything but loving and caring support from her family.  Nice to watch, but maybe a little unrealistic.

The final characters in the film are the prospective adoptive parents, Vanessa and Mark Loring, played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman.  She is an anal retentive woman whose deepest desire is to become a mother, though she cannot have a child of her own.  Mark is a man who is unsure about his decision to adopt a baby and who feels smothered in his marriage.

Juno just wants to get through the pregnancy and give the child away so she can get back to her life.  But when Mark’s insecurities cause him to leave his wife, Juno’s simple plan begins to fall apart.  In the end, after shedding a few tears, she gives the child to Vanessa who becomes a single adoptive mother.  It was appropriate.  And while I’m on the subject, I liked how the movie didn’t turn the baby obsessed Vanessa into the bad guy.  Her desire to be a mother was genuine, and was greater than her need to stay married to Mark.  And Mark wasn’t portrayed as a bad guy either.  Just a nice guy who was in the wrong relationship.

As far as the cast went, Page was the clear stand-out, but I also liked Simmons.  He did a good job as the caring father.  And you can never go wrong with Allison Janney, who is always good.  Even Juno’s cheerleader friend, Leah, played by Olivia Thirby, was easy to watch.  Cera was almost adorable, playing the timid young man in love with Juno, and Bateman’s performance was easy and honest.

Like many movies do, Juno was addressing a social issue in an entertaining way.  Maybe it took the subject matter a little lightly, but what do you expect?  The movie was a romantic comedy.  Throughout the movie the idea that Juno is an unconventional girl is repeated several times.  And in the end, we see just how much.  Most people fall in love and have a baby.  But she did it backwards.  She had a baby, and in the process, learned that she actually loved Paulie in return.  See?  Everybody ends up happy.  No harm, no foul.  Right?  Except… I’m guessing reality is generally more complicated than that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atonement – 2007

This was a good movie.  It was a tragic romance, but you don’t know it until the last few minutes of the film.  I mean, it was a romance, but you don’t get the tragedy until the end.  It starred James McAvoy and Keira Knightly as the star-crossed lovers, Robbie Turner, and Cecilia Tallis.  She was a high-born girl in England in 1935.  He was the well-educated son of her family’s housekeeper.  But in reality neither of them is the film’s main protagonist.

That role is filled by Cecilia’s 13 year-old sister, Briony, wonderfully played by Saoirse Ronan.  She is a precocious young girl with dreams of becoming a famous author.  She is secretly in love with Robbie.  But everything goes awry when Robbie writes Cecilia an erotic letter which Briony reads.  She also catches Robbie and Cecilia making love, and believes him to be a sex maniac.  The situation goes from bad to worse when Briony also catches a man raping her fifteen year-old cousin Lola, played by Juno Temple.  In an act of childish petulance, she tells the police that Robbie is the rapist, even though she knows it was a friend of the family, Paul Marshall, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

The innocent Robbie is taken to jail where he is incarcerated for four years.  He is only released on the condition that he joins the army to fight in WWII.  Cecilia, having never believed in his guilt, is only able to see him for a few minutes before he must leave for France.  Before he goes, the two declare their love for each other and promise to marry after the war is over.  Robbie is physically and emotionally traumatized by the war.  But he survives and makes it to the beaches of Dunkirk where he waits to be evacuated.

Meanwhile, Briony, now 18 and played by Romola Garai, has been wracked with guilt over her lie which ruined not only Robbie’s life but her sister’s chance at love and happiness.  She becomes a nurse in London in an attempt to contribute to society in a positive way.  Her efforts to get in touch with Cecilia are all refused.  Eventually, she seeks out her sister and finds her in a tiny apartment where, to Briony’s surprise, she finds Robbie as well.  Robbie yells at her and makes her promise to tell both the Tallis family and the police the truth, and then leave him and Cecilia alone forever.  Briony tearfully agrees to do as he demands.

Then we cut to Briony as an old lady, played by Vanessa Redgrave.  She has achieved her goal of being a famous novelist and is giving an interview for her latest book which is called Atonement.  It is an autobiography which tells the story of her sister and her lover, and of her own involvement in their tragedy.  Tragedy?  Well, in the interview, Briony reveals that their happy ending was the books only falsehood.  In reality, Robbie died at Dunkirk of septicemia, and Cecilia was drowned in the Balham tube station bombing during The Blitz.  They were only ever reunited in the fictional ending to Briony’s novel.

The movie’s ending was so well crafted that I was completely taken in by the twist.  But it was easy to be fooled.  Throughout the entire narrative of the film, especially in the first half of the movie which took place when Briony was thirteen, events were shown out of sequence and from different perspectives.

The performances were all good, but I have to give special props to the three women who played Briony.  Ronan and Garai were both stand-outs, and you can rarely go wrong with Vanessa Redgrave.  The fictional scene in which she apologizes to the lovers was touching and Garai did a great job.  The three women all worked with the same vocal coach to be convincing as the same girl.

Now, I have to mention a specific sequence that was very impressive to watch.  It was Robbie’s arrival at Dunkirk.  It was a single shot that lasted over five minutes.  It was an incredibly emotional scene where Robbie and his two mates, Tommy and Frank, played by Daniel Mays and Nonso Anozie, wander around the beach in a surrealistic nightmare.  It seemed like there were hundreds of extras scattered over the beach, many with terrible wounds, many in stupors of shock and dismay.  This is where the beautiful score by Dario Marianelli was really given a chance to shine.

And speaking of the music, it is important to note that Marianelli took home the film’s only Oscar for his efforts.  Throughout the movie I was impressed with something he did that I have never seen done before.  He used sounds from the story and blended them into his score in an amazing way.  For example when Robbie was being taken away to jail, his mother began pounding on the hood of the police car.  The sound of that pounding was incorporated into the music.  Really, it was a stroke of genius and a wonderful little way to help tell the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Queen – 2006

I liked this movie.  I’ve never been a huge follower of the British Royal Family, but I know who most of them are.  And I know that Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II was sheer perfection.  She was perfectly cast and absolutely did the role justice.  I’m not in the least surprised that she took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.  She was just phenomenal.

The movie was not about the life of the Queen, but about how she and the Royal Family reacted to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, or to put it more accurately, the death of Diana Spencer.  You see, the film made a good point in that Diana and Prince Charles were divorced when she died.  She was no longer a member of the Royal Family.  According to people who know the Queen, the film was pretty accurate.  When Diana died, Queen Elizabeth did not think it was appropriate to give her a royal funeral.  And therein lay the drama of the film.

The problem was that the Queen was old fashioned in her way of thinking.  She thought she knew the hearts of the British people.  She thought that a private funeral handled by the Spencer family would be more appropriate than a public funeral.  But she grossly underestimated Diana’s popularity, not just with the British people, but with the world.  But in steps newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, played by Michael Sheen.  He understands that the monarchy will be severely damaged if Queen Elizabeth refuses to acknowledge Diana as royalty.  Blair tries to to convince Elizabeth to address the people and give them the funeral they wanted.

And Elizabeth received no support from either her husband, Prince Philip, played by James Cromwell, or the Queen Mother, played by Sylvia Syms.  They continually advised her to ignore the grieving crowds, never understanding that even though the Royal Family didn’t particularly like Diana for all her wild behavior, the people loved her all the more for it.  The Queen’s personal secretary, Robin Janvrin, played by Roger Allam, did his best to remain a loyal servant of the Monarchy, but even he began to side with Blair.  And then there was Prince Charles, played by Alex Jennings.  He seemed to be portrayed as self-serving and slightly paranoid, making him an almost unlikeable character.

In all, the movie had some good, if slow, drama.  And it had a very satisfying ending.  Eventually, after seeing notes from her subjects that seemed to shame her for not publicly praising the brazen Diana, she began to understand that Blair was right when he called Diana a Princess of the People.  She began to see just how popular she had been and how much the British citizenry loved her.  And she gave in.  She did everything that Blair advised her to do.  It hurt her pride, but she did her duty.  In the end, she lets Blair know that bowing to his advice helped his popularity and damaged hers, but that it was the right thing to do.  She knows that the role of the British Monarchy is no longer what it used to be, and that she and her family needed to be able to change with the times.

I also have to give special notice to Michael Sheen as Tony Blair.  He seemed to have an eagerness about him that was infectious, an enthusiasm that made him very likeable.  He portrayed the youth and earnest nature of the politician perfectly. I liked him from the start, and when everyone around him, including his top aid, Alistair Campbell, played by Mark Bazeley, and his wife, Cherie Blair, played by Helen McCrory, had nothing be negative things to say about the Queen, I loved how he righteously defended her, her unpopular attitudes, and the Monarchy as a whole.

This movie was a bit of an education for me as well.  I was unaware of the controversy surrounding the Royal Family and Diana’s death.  And I was given a little bit of insight into the daily lives of the British Royal Family.  Because the Queen is, after all, just a woman.  She had duties and responsibilities, but she also has days where she is free from those demands.  She drives by herself, she watches television, she goes for walks, she argues with her husband, and she takes care of her family.  But she is also a very private woman who does, doing her best to remain out of the spotlight unless it is necessary.

And as a final thought, I have to mention the film’s innate emotional content.  Yes, the movie was about Queen Elizabeth II, but watching the scene which depicted Diana’s death tugged at my heart.  Many people who lived through 1963 can answer the question, where were you when you learned that JFK had been shot?  For my generation, I can answer the similar question, where were you when you learned that Diana had died? I was in shock.  It was almost surreal.  And now I wonder, how much more surreal must it all have been for the British people, the Royal Family, and the Queen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Miss Sunshine – 2006

This was a hilarious black comedy that was very well executed, well-acted, and marvelously scripted.  It was perfectly cast, and expertly directed.  But it had the feel of a small independent film.  There were no special effects, no A-list names, and a pretty small budget.  It tells the story of a dysfunctional family that is on the verge of imploding.  But the dream of the young daughter acts as a catalyst to bring them all together in a way that none of them expect.

Wikipedia sums up the main characters perfectly, saying, “Sheryl Hoover, played by Toni Collette, is an overworked mother of two living in Albuquerque.  Her brother, Frank, played by Steve Carell, who is gay and a scholar of Proust, is temporarily living at home with the family after having attempted suicide. Sheryl’s husband Richard, played by Greg Kinnear, is a Type-A personality striving to build a career as a motivational speaker and life-coach. Dwayne, played by Paul Dano, Sheryl’s son from a previous marriage, is a Nietzsche-reading teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dream of becoming a test pilot.  Richard’s foulmouthed father, Edwin, played by Alan Arkin, recently evicted from a retirement home for snorting heroin, lives with the family. Olive, played by Abigale Breslin, the daughter of Richard and Sheryl and the youngest of the Hoover family, is an aspiring beauty queen who is coached by Edwin.”

So there’s the set-up.  Each character was well-developed and real.  The main thrust of the plot begins when Olive learns that she has qualified for a child beauty pageant being held in Redondo Beach, California.  The family has two days in which to get her there.  Each character goes through major changes along the journey so that by the time they are ready to return to Albuquerque, nobody is quite the same as when they started.  In fact, Edwin dies and never actually goes back home.

Now, as a comedy, there were a number of laugh-out-loud moments in the film and a climax was a study in awkward hilarity.  Remember, Edwin, the dirty old man, was the one coaching Olive in her dance routine for the beauty pageant.  So neither Sheryl nor Richard knew what kind of dance their six-year-old daughter would be doing.  Apparently it was an adult-style strip-tease, choreographed to the song Super Freak by Rick James.  Kind of sick and incredibly inappropriate, right?

Which naturally brings me to the subject of child beauty pageants.  They are sick and incredibly inappropriate, and Little Miss Sunshine lampoons them wonderfully, showing how ridiculous they can be!  Yes, Olive’s routine was over the top and ludicrous, but the other eleven contestants were just as obscene and nauseating, maybe even more so, because they represented a true depiction of reality.  The way young girls are dressed up as living dolls in real child beauty pageants, slathered in makeup, and displayed as sexy children is profoundly disturbing.  If you see a 7 year old girl in a bikini with the big hair and heavy makeup of an adult sex goddess, something is very, very wrong.  OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Anyway, for me, the stand-outs among the cast were Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear.  Carrell was known for his comedic participation in Comedy Central’s Daily Show with John Stewart, but not for his acting.  But as the gay, suicidal Frank, he really showed audiences a serious side that nobody was expecting.  And then as he grew closer to the family and learned to become a part of it, he had a real kind of gravitas that made me appreciate his contribution to that family.  Richard started out as a real jerk who was so obsessed with being a winner that I just wanted to reach into the screen and punch him.  But as his entire self-empowering belief system broke down and destroyed his self-confidence, he found a strength in letting go of himself and supporting his daughter.  Kinnear played it all perfectly.

Another wonderfully emotional scene is the one in which Dwayne discovers that he is color blind and thus ineligible to pursue his dream and become a test pilot.  His teenage meltdown was almost frightening to watch, and Dano played it well.  It vaguely reminded me of some of the hormonally messed up emotions I felt during that awkward time in my own life, though maybe mine were not quite so intense.

I feel like a lot of the film can be summed up in a quote delivered by Alan Arkin as he is speaking to Olive who is afraid of being a loser in her father’s eyes.  He says, “You know what a loser is?  A real loser is somebody that’s so afraid of not winning they don’t even try.”  Now how true is that?  And while I’m talking about that scene, I have to say that Breslin was fantastic.  A few tears, but not too many.  Real emotion doesn’t have to be exaggerated, and she did a great job.

In fact, Breslin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, though she did not win.  However, Little Miss Sunshine did win two other awards.  It took home an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and Arkin took one home for Best Supporting Actor.  Not bad for the directorial debut of husband and wife team, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.  Well done, everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letters from Iwo Jima – 2006

This was a really good movie.  It was a war film about the battle for the Japanese Island of Iwo Jima during WWII.  But what I loved about it was that the entire movie was told from a Japanese perspective.  Nearly all the dialogue was in Japanese with English subtitles.  The cast was made up of Japanese actors.  Never-mind that it was directed by a famous American director, Clint Eastwood.  It was filmed just after Eastwood’s companion piece, Flags of Our Fathers, which told the story of the same battle from the American point of view.  Now I want to see that movie, even though it wasn’t nominated for the Best Picture award.

This war movie was unique in the way in which it was told.  By that, I mean that I’ve never before seen a war film that begins its tale long before the fighting ever starts.  The Japanese soldiers are seen digging trenches on an untouched beach, but think about it.  Whenever you see a war movie, you see a bunch of soldiers in bunkers or caves in the cliff-side.  But who dug out those caves and trenches?  What was the feeling in the company as they were preparing the island for the impending enemy assault?  Who were the lowly laborers who did all the work to make the island ready for battle?  Who were the officers who decided where bunkers needed to be build and where the soldiers and weaponry would be positioned?  Why were they there?  Where had they come from?  Who were they?

The first half of the movie introduces us to some of these men.  The film seemed to be an ensemble piece, but one man stood out as a bit of a lead.  Private First Class Saigo, played by Kanzunari Ninomiya, was a baker who had been drafted into the military.  Much of the story is told from his perspective, and he is pretty much the only soldier to survive the entire film.  It is he who is responsible for saving the letters which are the driving force behind the entire movie, though this is not revealed until the last few seconds of the film.

But nearly as important was Ken Watanabe playing Saigo’s newly arrived commanding officer, General Tadamichi Kuribayachi.  He is a career military man who had spent time living in California, and whose ideas about how the island should be defended are in direct contrast with several of the men under his command.  He has a gentler and more compassionate style of command, which makes him popular with the low-level troops, but unpopular with the mid-level officers who believe in strict and unwavering loyalty to the Imperial Empire, putting honor and sacrifice before personal safety, and enforcing discipline through harsh words and beatings.  The only officer who supports him is his friend Colonel Baron Nishi, played by Ryo Kase.

We follow the two men, and are regularly treated to voice-overs as they write letters to their loved ones, Saigo to his wife, and Kuribayachi to his.  As the film’s title suggests, it is these letters that propel the film.  You see, the narrative is bookended by a modern team of Japanese researchers as they explore the old caves and find a buried package.  We then cut to Saigo and his friends, Private Kashiwara, played by Takashi Yamaguchi, and Private Nozaki, played by Yuki Matsuzaki, both of whom die before the end of the film.  Kishiwara dies of dysentery while Nozaki, at the command of Captain Tanida, played by Takumi Bando, is driven to ritual suicide along with the last survivors of his company, by pulling the pins on grenades and waiting for them to explode.

During the final sequence of the film, after the few remaining soldiers have all gone through an unbelievable hell of blood and death, Kuribayachi orders Saigo to stay behind to destroy all of his documents and letters.  But Saigo takes the General’s letters and buries them in the cave.  After Kuribayachi‘s death, Saigo is eventually captured as a prisoner of war.  And of course, it is these letters that we see the modern researchers unearthing right before the end credits begin to roll.

When I think of Clint Eastwood, my mind usually leaps directly to the hard boiled tough guy persona that made him famous, playing characters like Blondi from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, or Harry Callahan from the Dirty Harry franchise.  He just seems to perfectly personify that really iconic tough guy look.  But it is easy to forget that he also directed other great chick-flicks like The Bridges of Madison County.  He has a softer and more emotional side that he really knows how to use.

And he really did a fantastic job with Letters from Iwo Jima.  He was able to create real characters that I cared about, even though I knew that most of them were doomed to die.  I cared enough to be annoyed with the end of the film, when a single question was left unanswered.  Was Saigo ever reunited with his wife?  Personally, I’d like to think he was.