Category Archives: 2007

2007, Suspense

Shattered (2007)

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From NetFlix:

When their little girl is abducted by a kidnapper (Pierce Brosnan) with
an elaborate scheme, Neil (Gerard Butler) and Abby’s (Maria Bello)
perfect life is instantly turned upside down. With the clock ticking on
their daughter’s life, the couple is forced to comply with the whims of
a madman. Directed by Mike Barker (A Good Woman, Best Laid Plans), this
white-knuckled thriller will have you on the edge of your seat.

What kept me watching were the really clever and unexpected plot twists. Let me know if you
guess anything significant while you are watching. I haven’t seen this plot before, so call it
original. I gave the movie a B because I wasn’t sure how good the acting was. Let me know
if you have an opinion in this matter.

Not the worst way to waste the time it takes to watch.

2007, Not Feel Good, TV Series

Mad Men (2007)

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From NetFlix:

It’s 1960, and ad executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm) rules the roost at
New York’s Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency in this Emmy winner for
Best Drama Series. Living a glamorous existence of never-ending cocktail
hours, worry-free smoking and ego-stroking power, ladies’ man Draper makes
numerous conquests both at work and in his personal life. But the world is
beginning to change, and Draper will have to use all his smarts to stay one
step ahead of the game.

I have just finished devouring Season 1 of “Mad Men” which is certainly one of the best Soap Operas I have ever seen. The great thing about getting the season on 4 DVDs is that you don’t have to wait until next week to continue.

I was a child of the 50’s and 60’s. The re-creation of that era is as I remember as regards the clothing, music, and above all the SMOKING!!!! It is really disconcerting to see a beautiful woman lying on a psychiatrist’s couch smoking. I wonder if all the actors will eventually die of lung cancer. Maybe they “never inhaled”. It is just plain fun watching the ad men try to get around the dangers of smoking.

I never worked in an environment in which the male employees spent the majority of their time seducing the female employees, but I could have been naive. Still the openly macho atmosphere came as a shock.

Was it planned that among the men, only Don Draper and his boss are handsome alpha males whereas the other men are overweight or weak-looking ? Was it planned that among the women Don’s secretary Peggy is the least attractive and most capable ?

Season One ends in a manner that demands Season Two. I can hardly wait for Season Two to come out on DVD.

2007, Not Feel Good

When Did You Last See Your Father (2007)

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From NetFlix:

When his father (Jim Broadbent) becomes terminally ill, Blake
Morrison (Colin Firth) struggles to come to terms with the charming
but duplicitous man he really was, reliving the memories that shaped
their relationship through a series of flashbacks. As Blake travels
between his wife and two children in London and his childhood home,
his emotional difficulty is mirrored in the agony his father
confronts as he succumbs to the cancer.

The NetFlix fails to mention that the mother was played by Juliet Stevenson.
All three British actors (Broadbent, Firth, Stevenson) are accomplished and
well-known. It is not a feel-good movie until possibly the very end. The
father was not a monster, but he was extremely hard to live with. So the
film is basically the love-hate relation between father and son. Most of
the movie deals with the son’s resentful memories of the father. As much
as anything, the film is about forgiveness on the part of son and wife.
I do NOT rave about this movie.

Almost ho-hum.

2007, Feel Good Not For Children

The Edge of Heaven (2007)

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From NetFlix:

When his father (Tuncel Kurtiz) accidentally kills a prostitute
(Nursel Koese), Nejat (Baki Davrak) seeks out the woman’s 27-year-old
daughter, Ayten (Nurgul Yesilcay), to make amends. Nejat focuses his
search in Turkey, but Ayten, part of a closely scrutinized activist
group , has already fled to Germany. Lives intersect in unexpected ways
in writer-director Fatih Akin’s multilayered drama, which won Best
Screenplay at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Because the film’s philosophy is that most people are forgiving and loving, I have classified this film as “Feel-good but not for children”. I am learning from my Spanish (Joaquín) and Italian (Vincenzo) teachers that we Americans are much more prudish than other countries. I was taken aback when two of the women characters fell in love with one another. Joaquín says the gay culture is taken for granted in Mexico City. At any rate, not for children.

When the dialog is not English (i.e. German or Turkish) there are subtitles. The action takes place in Germany (Bremen ?) and Istanbul. I enjoyed getting a view of narrow German streets, and what Istanbul looks like.

As with all these films that intermingle several stories, the coincidences can sometimes seem forced. I agonized over the ending which leaves unresolved a discovery that the characters must make. If this were a Hollywood film, that discovery would be made and the violins would play. I nearly flipped when the final screen credits rolled without the resolution I was dying to see.

The film is slower than a Hollywood romp. But it held my attention.

2007, Musical, Revenge, Unusual, Violent

Sweeny Todd (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Johnny Depp (in an Oscar-nominated role) reteams with director
Tim Burton for this adaptation of the hit Broadway musical
about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Depp plays Sweeney
Todd, a man who becomes a deranged murderer seeking revenge
after being falsely imprisoned. To add to the macabre nature
of his crimes, he enlists the help of his lover, Mrs. Lovett
(Helena Bonham Carter), who disposes of the victims by baking
them into meat pies — sought after by all of London.

Only Stephen Sondheim could write a musical about slitting people’s throats. This is one literally bloody film with an R rating. If any of you out there are under 17 then you will have to have your mommy or daddy accompany you to see this slaughter. I felt compelled to put this film in the “not for everyone” category.

If you can divorce yourself from appropriate squeamishness, all the very positive reviews of this film are justified. Everything about the film is electrifying.

My daughter Kate tells me that Johnny Depp after making this film vowed never to make another musical. And while we are on the topic of music, I offer you this challenge: After watching the film, can you remember and sing even one song from the film ? No fair taking notes during the watching.

2007, Not Feel Good

The Counterfeiters (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Facing an ethical quandary, Jewish master forger Salomon
Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) must choose between abetting
the Nazis and saving his skin in this taut Oscar-nominated
drama based on a true story. Assembled at a death camp,
a cadre of printers, artists and chiselers — led by the
opportunistic Sorowitsch — is tasked with counterfeiting
currencies to weaken Allied economies. But will Sorowitsch’s
conscience begin to gnaw at him as the war draws to a close?

Again not for the squeamish. The concentration camp scenes are difficult to watch. Great ensemble acting. Satisfying end. Not feel-good and again not for children.

2007, Feel Good Not For Children

P.S. I Love You (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Holly Kennedy (Hilary Swank), a young widow living in New
York, has just lost her beloved husband Gerry (Gerard Butler)
to a brain tumor. Inconsolable, Holly finds that Gerry left
for her a series of letters to help cope with the grief. As
months pass, Holly discovers new messages from Gerry encouraging
her to go on living. And while Holly’s friends fear the letters
will mire her in the past, they, in fact, give her strength
for the future.

Even my date (she of the picky picky movie tastes) loved this movie as she sat silently weeping toward the end. Do not be put off by the argument that starts the film. It actually relates to the rest of the film. The ensemble of Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Kathy Bates, and Harry Connick Jr. works well. The plot is very tightly constructed (and calls for some suspension of disbelief). At certain points the film comes perilously close to a B movie (but who doesn’t enjoy a little sentimentality ?) The scenes of Ireland were so beautiful that I really must visit Ireland before I die. The sex scenes were so genuinely loving (and discrete) that I would probably recommend it for teenagers.

2007, Several languages, Unusual

The Band’s Visit (2007)

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From NetFlix:

When an Egyptian police brass band travels to Israel to
play at the opening of an Arab arts center, they wind up
abandoned and lost in a remote desert town in this charming
cross -cultural comedy. Defying expectations, the tiny Israeli
community embraces the musicians, and both the Egyptians and
the locals learn a few things about one another — and
themselves — in this witty winner of the Cannes Film Festival
Un Certain Regard prize.

This movie is in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. There are subtitles. Wife Kathy loved this film (and that is really saying something!). It is a slow (should I say almost deadly) film with an indie flavor. But the slowness fits perfectly with the stark, and for me frightening, loneliness of the Israeli desert town. I could not imagine being in such a flat, hot, almost uninhabited place. Beneath the deadpan lifelessness of the members of the band (except for the new young recruit), lies some sorrow to be revealed. Kathy did not even fall asleep once. This film might not be for everyone. Some sex, possibly not for children.

2007, Sci-Fi

I Am Legend (2007)

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From NetFlix:

A terrible virus has spread across the planet and turned the human
race into bloodthirsty monsters. Mankind’s only hope for survival
is scientist Robert Neville (Will Smith), the one person left
unaffected by the epidemic. When he’s not fighting for his life
against the hordes of the infected, Neville searches for a cure
to reverse the virus’s effects — all the while battling his own
doubt and despair as he spends every day alone.

In 1954 Richared Matheson wrote the book “I Am Legend”. It has been made into a film three times: “The Last Man on Earth”, “The Omega Man”, and “I Am Legend”. It explored the notion of vampirism as a disease.

OK, OK. Yes, it sounds like a high-school film. And yes, I was ready to chuck it after 10 minutes. You have to like apocalyptic science fiction to enjoy this. It starts out slowly. But wait … the tension really builds (what is that lurking just around the corner ?). Will Smith gives a terrific performance as a very very very lonely man (his dog Samantha means everything to him). Maybe it’s an anti-SciFi predjudice, but I have to give this film a B.

2007, DO NOT MISS, Not Feel Good

The Visitor (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Widowed professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) discovers an immigrant
couple, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira), squatting in
his Manhattan flat and becomes wrapped up in their lives when Tarek is
thrown into a detention center. A wonderful Hiam Abbass co-stars as
Tarek’s mother, who forges an unlikely connection with Walter.
Director Thomas McCarthy’s follow-up to his indie hit The Station
Agent premiered at Sundance in 2008.

Kathy and I saw this at the Embassy in Waltham. It’s an eye-opener into the world of immigration detention centers (nothing harsh, just the utter bureaucratic hopelessness). The acting, especially Richard Jenkins (the father in “Six Feet Under”), is superb. In other words, don’t miss it.

Immediately after the film, Kathy and I were driving in the car when we were stopped by an extremely polite police officer who informed us that our car was no longer registered. Upon inspecting my valid registration, plates, sticker, and license, he decided that the RMV had made a mistake and he would therefore not have our car towed. However, I did have to have a court appearance. I spent the morning at the RMV having them correct their mistake. At least we were not thrown into a detention center and made non-existent.

But the movie was really good.