Murderball

Picture, if you will - young, testosterone laden, professional athletes. Piss and vinegar, ego driven muscle in laser-like pursuit of victory at any cost - ready and willing to lock horns with any buck that gets in the way - the steely gaze along the line, teeth clenched in effort, all mano e mano bravado - and may the best man win. All that's in play in Murderball; I mean we're dealing with rugby here, not some sport for girls. The fact that it's quadriplegic rugby and our rutting male athletes are in wheelchairs just makes it more interesting.

The film follows a number of players as they work toward the 2004 United States Rugby Team and the Paralympics in Athens, Greece, and along the way shines a light into life with disability. All these guys have suffered spinal cord injury or debilitating disease that has left them "incomplete quadriplegics" - they all have some use of upper body but are impaired in all four limbs. Quad rugby is full contact - players move a ball down court to score goals in specially made wheelchairs on steroids that would be Thunderdome appropriate. The opposing team tries to stop you. Any way they can. Padding and helmets are for sissies.

Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry-Alex Rubin have made a gem of a film, focused on a side of life few of us might have the chance to visit. They let the guys tell their stories; about coming to terms with life in a chair, about rivalry and loyalty, about sex (yes, they can!) and finding some dignity. Not every one of these guys is equally likable, but their fortitude and never say die attitude is refreshing in a world that tends to whine... Try watching this film before your next pity party. I double dog dare you. See the website here.

The Fall

And now for something completely different. Perhaps you remember a very odd but forgettable movie back in 2000 starring the equally forgettable Jennifer Lopez but having some very memorable if macabre imagery.... The Cell? Well, chillins, Tarsem Singh is back at it again with some bigtime backers (David Fincher and Spike Jonze) and locations in 18, count them 18! countries. The Fall is again, odd, but it is anything but forgettable. And neither is it's heroine.

Roy (Lee Pace) and 5 year old Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) find themselves with too much time on their hands while recuperating in a hospital in Los Angeles circa 1915. Both have suffered a grievous fall, she picking oranges and he, the result of a movie stunt gone wrong. But Roy has no wish to live, heartsick from losing his girl to the movie star - and to win Alexandria's help to obtain the drugs to take his own life, he spins her tales of fantasy that she visualizes around the people in the hospital. With a child's innocence, she eventually sees the outcome Roy is seeking.

From the exquisite black and white opening sequence, through every rainbow hued frame of the fantasy story the imagery will leave you breathless. Tarsem repeats images Escher-like, draws shadows from smoke, and captures a child's whimsy in vivid color and painstaking detail. The story weaves jerkily in and out of reality, but Tarsem isn't taking himself too seriously this time. Untaru is mesmerizing (she's 9, unbelievable!)- she'll capture your heart and break it- but it is the sheer beauty of film that will hold you. Website here.

The Dark Knight

Before we begin, let me go on the record - Batman Begins was without a doubt the best vision of the comic book superhero ever done. BUT, somewhere between that vision and this mess, Christopher Nolan must have suffered a severe head injury or, perhaps more likely, a near fatal level of toxic ego massage. Of course you are going to sit through all 152 minutes of this thing... it will seem longer... for one excellent reason. Heath Ledger.

Synopsis? Batman (Christian Bale,) DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) are cleaning up Gotham. Enter new bad guy - the Joker. The story wasn't important beyond that. Ledger is mesmerizing as the sociopathic jokester who's only real goal is to mix things up. He's brilliant. In every way. Makes the skin stand up on your neck, scary, brilliant. And for the first couple of hours that was enough to hold my attention. That, and the cool toys and nifty effects.

But then it all started wearing thin. Bale demonstrated the emotional range of cardboard with a speech impediment (I know, I know - so people won't guess he's really Bruce Wayne... right.) Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman aren't given enough material to justify their salaries, and we won't even get into the ridiculous role of Maggie Gyllenhaal - to suffice as appropriately gendered victim and look earnest. The film belongs to Ledger. Sadly, I fail to see how Nolan can follow his Joker with anyone else. But the real tragedy is that we'll never get to see how truly remarkable Heath Ledger was going to be. See the mostly commercial (buy it NOW!) website here.

Chaos Theory

Okay, you know that I'm not that into comedies - given my theory on tasteless vs. mindless a thousand times. Not one to sit still for much cute. Can't abide chick flicks - safe to say you will not see a review of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on this blog. It's a rare one that makes the cut... by virtue of originality, or just plain old silly, or sometimes, like this one, enough reality to bring the funny into pleasant contrast. Chaos Theory starts out like a traditionally mediocre comedy- ohmygod, saw that coming from last week sort of Disney bad - and then morphs into a meaningful, and sweet, little movie. Largely due to Ryan Reynolds.

If they don't lose you with the opening dumb pre-nuptial of his daughter mess, let's get to the real story ... it goes like this: Frank is an efficiency expert with a lovely wife, a beautiful daughter and a career about to take off when a series of highly unlikely, but seriously funny accidents lands him in the doghouse - lovely wife (Emily Mortimer) thinking he's been leading a double life complete with baby. In an effort to convince lovely wife of his fidelity, Frank learns that he is in fact sterile, and always has been, leaving lovely wife with some explaining to do.

What follows is some soul searching that is tenderly handled by Reynolds - his moment of falling apart will go down in my head as one of those rare moments of watching an actor cry so believably that I do too. Mortimer is equally adept at working with complicated emotion and her character is multidimensional and believable as well. Parts of Chaos Theory are predictable, parts are silly, some of it is deep and clear and true. A lot of it is really funny. See the website here.

The Visitor

I loved "The Station Agent." That said, I was really glad to see that Tom McCarthy is off and running with more original, and meaningful, material. A subtle director who tells heartbreaking stories with wit and grace - go figure. He's never going to make any money in Hollywood. But he sure is going to have my attention.

The Visitor follows Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins,) an aging, insufferably dull economics professor on the verge of simply fading into nonexistence - Walter is so pointedly colorless that you feel the need to take a pulse. But Walter is unwillingly shipped off to Manhattan to present a paper he didn't write, and when he unlocks his long unused city apartment, he finds it terribly occupied by the very colorful Tarek and Zainab. The couple has been scammed into renting his apartment, and Walter, on a very un-Walter like whim, let's them stay until they can sort things out. What follows is a kind of coming of age film, where Walter grows a soul through a deepening friendship with Tarek, a passionate musician from Syria.

Tarek and Zainab are illegal aliens (you know there are some who aren't from south of the border,) and when a very predictable misunderstanding brings Tarek to the brink of deportation, Walter gets a life. Richard Jenkins is positively brilliant, taking Walter from walking corpse to a man of passion so gently that you can record the changes in nanoseconds. The supporting cast is splendid and the film is a quiet reminder that there are people all around us who may not be citizens per se, but are Americans just the same. Hope Oscar notices this sleeper.... website here.

Transsiberian

Truth be told, this was one of those films that my husband picked out at our local video store. He doesn't have a good track record. Left to his own devices, he has the ability to singlehandedly find the worst films ever made... some straight to DVD nightmares starring no one with skills above a novice porn star. It's uncanny, really, how he can avoid every studio film in the store and hone in like a laser on crap. With the occasional exception. This was one of the latter.

Transsiberian (of the unfortunate title) is an original bit of a thriller. Two Americans (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer,) typically green to the ways of the world at large, are traveling from Beijing to Moscow aboard the infamous TransSiberian railway. Their relationship is a little rocky, their bunk mates are a little sinister, they get separated, things go very, very wrong. Enter the local KGB style narcotics cop (played ominously by Sir Ben Kingsley,) who is sure that these Yanks are up to no good, and things get worse.

Although it's slow to get started, this little film had my nerves shot by midway in. Loaded with misdirection and some plot twists that I didn't see coming (and an obvious one that I did,) it's well written and well acted. Woody Harrelson can still pull off the 'wet behind the ears' simplicity he made his own all those seasons on Cheers, Emily Mortimer surprises and Sir Ben is, well, Sir Ben. Always impeccable. Soooo, I guess my husband did okay. This once. Check out the website here.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

It's been a long time since Sidney Lumet was considered a master of crime drama, since back when he was Pacino's ticket with Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico. Good to know that he hasn't lost his touch. Lumet drew us into the creepy hysteria of a robbery gone wrong in Dog Day and he manages to draw us in yet again in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (as in the Irish blessing, 'May you be in heaven half an hour....)

Picture this: Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman,) a seemingly successful accountant has been cooking the books to feed a drug habit. His schmuck of a baby brother Hank (Ethan Hawke,) hasn't paid his child support in a month of Sundays. Out of financial desperation they hatch a simple plan, to rob a Mom and Pop jewelry store - a victimless crime, they figure, as insurance will pick up the tab. The Mom and Pop just happen to be theirs. The crime doesn't end up victimless. And when Mom ends up dead, Pop (Albert Finney) is pissed.

Devil spins a tale of woe that Shakespeare would envy - every imaginable complication, people behaving very badly, abominable luck. It is further enriched by an amazing cast doing some fine acting; in particular, Hoffman who's a marvel at breathing life into really awful characters. It does a lot of time jumping a 'la Pulp Fiction, where you end up watching the same scene play out from different perspectives - effective but sometimes annoying. However, it will keep you biting your nails to the bitter, bitter end. Read another review here.