The major motion picture studios have always enjoyed cramming scads of what they think are promising movies into a couple of weekend play dates between Christmas and New Year's Day. Nothing has changed this holiday season.
So just in case you can't get into "Juno," the wonderful comedy that I raved about in last week's Niagara Falls Reporter (read my review online), here is one terrific first choice and some second and third choices. There's also one no choice. If everything else is sold out, ask if they'll let you in to see "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" for free. Because you should not be paying for it.
The best shall be first, so definitely see "The Savages," a flawless drama with comic overtones about a brainy brother and sister (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) who have to contend with the onset of their father's senility. Philip Bosco is the father. Linney plays an aspiring playwright who lives in Manhattan. Her life is not particularly sparkling; She's in a dumb relationship with a married man and she's having trouble getting grant money. Hoffman is a stuck-in-a-rut professor of theater at a college in Buffalo (yes, our Buffalo). The two go to Sun City, Ariz., to bring dad back home to the Niagara Frontier.
The movie is smartly written and flawlessly directed by Tamara Jenkins, who has a keen ear for the way people, especially siblings, really talk. Hoffman and Linney are terrific at making their hopes for their father believable and their own foibles realistic. The cinematography by W. Mott Hupfel is so good, it's like having another character in the movie. Most of the film is set it the Buffalo area, and it looks perfectly bleak -- cold and rainy, trees without leaves, gray buildings. I liked that the folks behind "The Savages" kept Buffalo real. There's also a scene shot at the edge of the American Falls. This is one of the best movies of 2007, so don't miss it.
"Charlie Wilson's War" is a comedy in the tradition of "Catch-22," but not as good. The material isn't as sharp as that found in Joseph Heller's novel. While I did enjoy the film's breeziness, I wanted much more information and detail than director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin are willing to deliver. Based on a supposed true story -- a wacky chapter in American politics, if you ask me -- in the early 1980s, a low-rent, sleazy, dimwitted, small-town Texas congressman named Charles Wilson hooked up with a very influential and incredibly wealthy Texas socialite, and the two of them, working hand-in-hand with a secretive, lone-wolf CIA operative, helped the rebels in Afghanistan defeat the Soviet Union's mighty military. This, it is implied, led to the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the Soviet empire. Whew. Of course, smart folks like you realize this also led to the fragmentation of the Afghan republic and the rise of the Taliban, a base of power for bin Laden, and to 9/11.
Nichols (who directed the movie version of "Catch-22") and Sorkin (famed for creating television's "The West Wing") don't head in the direction of 9/11. They are willing to let it dangle as they drift along hoping no one will question why they chose to play it all for laughs. Although there are some good comic moments, the subject matter is too serious even for satire, and this isn't great satire.
Tom Hanks is genial, but nothing special, as Wilson, the hot-tub denizen who loves booze and skirt-chasing. I think Julia Roberts really captures the zealotry of the rich Texas woman and I loved her performance. But, and here we go again, Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers his third brilliant performance this year. He's very good in "The Savages," as noted above. The other role is in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." Here he steals the show as the snarky CIA snake. Looking a bit like a young Wilford Brimley, Hoffman energetically captures one man's zest for life. "Charlie Wilson's War" is entertaining, but flawed overall.
"Margot at the Wedding" is one of those quirky comedies about dysfunctional families, but this one isn't interested in happy resolutions. In fact, these are some of the meanest people you'll ever see on film. Nicole Kidman is Margot, a successful writer who goes back to her hometown to attend the wedding of her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Both women are selfish and verbally nasty. Leigh's marrying Jack Black (badly miscast), and he's a rotund slug with so little appeal that we're not really sure why he's able to land Leigh. Kidman has brought along her moody young son. Her attachment to him is clinging. Add some weird neighbors, cheap gossip and misbegotten aspirations, and you've got an interesting little movie about shared experiences, failed dreams and indecisive, unhappy people who seem to enjoy being miserable.
Written and directed by Noah Baumbach ("The Squid and the Whale"), the movie is a lacerating peek at sibling rivalry and base instincts that fits the word "caustic" to a T. One more thing: Depending on your point-of-view, you may be amazed or alarmed at how Kidman, who is certainly getting older, has a face that actually seems to be getting younger.
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is not the Broadway musical carefully transferred to the screen. Some characters have been deleted, some added. Only half of the musical's operatic songs remain. And -- perhaps something that is unpardonable -- the leads Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter can't sing. They try, but the melodic trends and lyrical poetry of Stephen Sondheim's original stage thriller escape them. Those of you familiar with the musical may feel cheated.
For those unfamiliar, here's the story: An English barber (Depp) kills his clients, and then his lady friend (Carter) bakes their flesh into tasty pies. Sounds yummy, no? Directed by Tim Burton (Carter's real-life husband), this "Sweeney Todd" is turned into a circus of horrors. With blood flowing from slashed throats and with the risky voice work of Depp and Carter, it's all incredibly overwrought and manic and loony. To this, add Sasha Baron Cohen ("Borat") as a nutty Italian. Now here's the catch: It's all weirdly engrossing. Maybe it was just disbelief at what I was watching, but I was mesmerized by the madness of it all.
I thoroughly enjoyed "National Treasure," but its offspring, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," is a monumental mess. The former had a clever spirit, some good acting and a few plot surprises. The latter asks us to believe that master treasure-map interpreter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) is willing and able to break into Buckingham Palace, kidnap the president of the United States, and -- shhh -- sneak into the Library of Congress to prove that one of his ancestors was not involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
The very slow concluding sequence takes place in a massive cavern at Mt. Rushmore, but it's not quite Hitchcockian. Cage comes across as too goofy. Also returning are Justin Bartha as his sidekick, Diane Kruger as his gal pal and Harvey Keitel as the law.
The movie is ludicrous to the point of being exasperating, although I will say this, it's fun watching Jon Voight and Helen Mirren, as Cage's parents, chew the scenery.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 28 2007 |