Boy A

Been awhile since I've reviewed, mostly because I haven't seen much worth reviewing, but this little gem deserves your attention. Released in 2008, this brilliant film came to me from the blue... can't remember why I put it in queue, and when I got it I had no idea what it was about. Maybe that was the perfect way to approach the film, so I'll attempt to tease you without letting on too much.

The story opens with Jack (Andrew Garfield) choosing the name Jack. He and Terry (Peter Mullan) are constructing a life for Jack, and at this point we only know that Jack is twentysomething, incredibly innocent, and that Terry (social worker? parole officer?) is really adamant that they must memorize Jack's history and it must be perfect. Set up with a job and a room to live, Jack seems poorly up to the task; he seems so childlike - and flashbacks of his childhood are not happy. As we watch him come of age, finding friends and meeting a girl, we get the feeling something horrible is in his past... and that he won't escape it.

Andrew Garfield has a face that is as transparent as glass - every nuance of emotion is so raw there - that his Jack is heartbreaking. He is mesmerizing even in this rock solid cast. But the story stuck with me for days. This is the kind of film that leaves you full of questions about the morality of modern society and the hypocrisy of the standards by which we judge others. Dare you to watch this and not be changed by it. Dare you. If you want the whole story, see the website here.

My Life Without Me

Oooops, I did it again; finding a little movie that could. This time with a Spanish writer/director (Isabel Coixet,) an American story and a Vancouver, BC, setting. How international can you get without subtitles? The inspiration for this film comes from a short story by Nanci Kincaid, Pretending the Bed is a Raft. And like all my favorite little films My Life Without Me makes me ask myself, "What would I do?"

Ann (a subtle Sarah Polley) is a young mother of two, struggling to make ends meet with a sweet but rarely employed husband (Scott Speedman,) a deeply disappointed mother (Deborah Harry) and little time for introspection. But when a fainting spell sends her to the hospital, her whole perspective changes as she learns that she has only weeks to live. Ann makes the novel decision to tell no one of her diagnosis, but rather to live each day of her life to the fullest. Her decision to go it alone frees her to take every opportunity, including a handsome stranger (Mark Ruffalo,) as a lease on life.

What would you do? This quiet little movie might hang with you for days, as Coixet tells the story with a deft hand - and Polley shines. In the end, this is hardly a tragedy but rather, a parable. See the nicely turned website here.

I've Loved You So Long

Foreign films leave American audiences cold at least in part to their failure to be BIG. They are often quiet little stories about astonishingly unglamorous people, doing ordinary things... like living. This is, of course, the very reason that I enjoy them. I adore a little movie about some regular folks getting by; especially if it gives me a sort of illicit peek into the way someone else manages to do that. If I have to read subtitles to do that, well, so be it.

I've Loved You So Long is a quiet little movie about a quiet woman quietly bearing a terrible secret and a whole lot of pain. It opens as Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) returns to the land of the living after 15 years in prison. She is met by her much younger sister Lea (Elysa Zylberstein)who generously opens her home even though the two women are virtually strangers. Juliette is a sphinx who slowly warms to the new people in her life - her little nieces, her guarded brother-in-law, his silent father. The everyday challenges of life are made harder by the question of her crime - finding a job, dealing with social workers and parole officers - but the harder call is how to rebuild the relationship with her sister.

Kristin Scott Thomas is a fabulous actress in any language. Her eyes say so much despite Juliette's lack of dialogue; the cracks in her armor showing on that expressive face. I'll let it slip that this movie lacks the traditional "it will get worse" storyline and lets Juliette move back into life without any spectacular crisis. But that's what makes it moving. Quietly so. See the website here.