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.

War/Dance

Uganda is one of those countries in Africa that has been at war longer than most of it's residents have been alive. So this might have been just another documentary about Africa... the violence, the poverty, the inhumanity that just seems to ravage that continent like an airborne virus out of control. But War/Dance is a different documentary about Africa, and perhaps that is why it won so many awards including a nomination for an Oscar. War/Dance is a documentary about hope.

War/Dance tells the story of three Ugandan children and their remarkable journey from the Patongo refugee camp to the National Music Competition - where 20,000 schools compete to be the best of the best in music and dance. We meet Rose, Dominic and Nancy - all teenagers who have never known a life without war - all with a tragic story to tell of lost childhood and violence - and all with a passion for making music. As the kids prepare for the music festival, without instruments, without uniforms and costumes, the real underdogs going into the competition, their individual stories unfold. These stories may break your heart, but the kids will bring new meaning to the term "survivor."

Directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine made a documentary of amazing beauty; the cinematography and editing give a dreamy quality to the film that is hard to resist. The music is breathtaking. But the kids... well, what is there to say. I cried. But it will leave you in awe of the human spirit. See the excellent website here.

Beyond the Sea

Okay, okay, okay - I'll be right upfront and admit that I adore Kevin Spacey. There's not anything he can't do - from scary, evil villain (think Seven) to ridiculous, deadpan comedy (The Ref.) He's proven his ever so serious acting skills over and over (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects etc. etc. etc.) You're getting the adoration, here? I love him in a 'wanna take him home and keep him' sort of way. But everyone has his limits, right? And a musical? How many decent musicals have been made since... I dunno... 1956?

I'm here to tell you that - to date - Kevin hasn't found any limits. Not only can he sing, and dance(!) but this little musical is charming. Simply charming. Beyond the Sea is, of course, the Bobby Darrin story - which in and of itself is so Hollywood a tale as to out Hollywood Hollywood. Poor boy, raised by his Mama, nearly dies of rheumatic fever, not supposed to live very long - goes on to fame, fortune and Sandra Dee. Does it get any sweeter? Bobby defined the lounge singer better than any of the Rat Pack - in point of fact, Sammy Davis Jr. once opined that he would never be willing to follow Bobby Darin. And to give it the proper Hollywood ending, he did indeed die relatively young.

Spacey is delightful, and manages to look much younger than he should. Add an amazing cast who more than carry their own - Kate Bosworth as Sandra, John Goodman, Bob Hoskins!!! Holy cow! We have a winner! Pop some popcorn and be entertained.
See the lousy (can't have everything,) website here.

The Air I Breathe

Here I go again. It's good that no one will sue me for having eclectic taste; perhaps I'm just looking for something that the typical film 'critic' isn't... because usually the films that make my socks go up and down are thought provoking. That's the big criteria. Does it get me thinking... does it linger in the back room of my mind for days... do I find myself returning to a scene... and most importantly, does it make me glimpse yet another facet of the ever fascinating human condition? The Air I Breathe did just those things... so I'm unmoved that virtually every paid critic hated it. I found it thought provoking.

Four main characters, representing the four emotional cornerstones of human existence, Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow and Love, are linked together by luck? destiny? and a really evil crime boss who goes by the name of Fingers (Andy Garcia.) The characters have no names - a fact that only registered with me after it was over - they are archetypes. Happiness (Forest Whitaker) risks everything in an effort to simply have something extraordinary happen. Life is a burden to Pleasure (Brendan Fraser) until his gift of precognition desserts him. Sorrow (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a sad victim of circumstance who discovers the strength to finally live when Love (Kevin Bacon) offers her the chance to save a life. Their stories are woven together (think Babel or Crash,) and presented in vignettes that are chronologically uneven, but you'll get the point. Two will make it. Two won't.

You'll figure out how an unknown director got this cast in a minute - this is an actors film and they all do a fine job. Andy Garcia is chilling, Whitaker and Gellar take fear and pain to new levels and Fraser stays complicated. It's a violent story well done without going over the top, and I personally enjoyed the fact that the observer is asked to read between the obvious lines. Is the outcome predictable? Perhaps. Was it thought provoking? Definitely. See the (not so great) website here.

Paranoid Park

Gus Van Sant is a weird dude. Okay, that's unfair - he's just not a Hollywood dude and I should add that I don't think that is a bad thing. He just refuses to be categorized. Big time Director with a capital D - sure - think Good Will Hunting, To Die For, Milk. Independent film maker with an eye for teen angst - you bet - My Own Private Idaho, Elephant and Paranoid Park. Likes to thumb his nose at studios and Big Money - well let's remake Psycho... exactly like the original, cheesy dialogue and all but in color. hmmmm.

Paranoid Park is based on a novel by Blake Nelson and is set in a real skatepark in Van Sant's native Portland. Perhaps that is what drew him to the material. The story revolves around Alex (Gabe Nevins) who's disaffection draws him methodically through his days, until the accidental death of a security guard seems to give him a reason to breathe. The skaters, the oblivious adults and the urban blight seem to coalesce into... not much. It's hard not to watch though, lovingly filmed and framed - and Nevins is so pretty.

Sooo, I don't know. Verdict is still out on how Van Sant keeps getting money (even small amounts) to make these sort of ego driven visual cotton candy movies. All shiny and no substance? I have to admit that his fascination with his star is founded (Nevins is a natural, most of the other teens in the film are stilted) if a little creepy in its dedication. But long moments of the camera lingering hungrily on Nevins walking, or skating, or taking off his shirt??? hmmm. Another review here.

Reservation Road

Terry George displayed a gift for handling difficult subject matter with Hotel Rwanda. That was a big story with big implications and Reservation Road is a more subtle thing. Again, with the difficult subject matter, but this time George endeavors to show us both sides of the story - walking a careful line and reserving judgement for the viewer. It is both deft and heartbreaking, and aided (as was Hotel) by some incredibly talented actors.

The story starts with two families wrapping up their weekends. Ethan and Grace (Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly) are driving the kids home from a lakeside concert. Dwight (Mark Ruffalo) is racing home late from taking his son to the ball game - an extra innings, angry ex-wife sort of desperation about him. Dwight bolts in fear from the accident that leaves Ethan's son dead on the side of the road. What follows is a sort of descent into hell - Ethan from grief and Dwight from guilt.

This could have been another overdone vigilante film, but it isn't. Ruffalo brings such human vulnerability to Dwight, showing a depth of pain and desperation that easily matches the anger and frustration of Phoenix. The two men show a range of emotion often alien from films with men as protagonists, and the women of the film get to demonstrate some rarely seen female rationality. The ending is just about pitch perfect. Worth the watch... see another review here.

Fugitive Pieces

It is the rare film that stays with you. You know what I mean. The type of thing that haunts your head with images and words that linger and slide past your defenses; snapshots that stick around and crop up in unexpected places. Fugitive Pieces is such a film, so lyrical and lovely and ripe with human experience that I found myself thinking of it as poetry. This is my favorite type of film - one that takes you to another facet of our humanity - and takes you there with all your senses.

Told largely in the fragmentary flashbacks of memory, this is the story of Jakob (Stephen Dillane)who at seven years old watches in terror as his parents are murdered by Nazis in occupied Poland. Jakob escapes to the woods where he is rescued by Athos (Rade Serbedzija)who successfully smuggles him out of Poland to Greece. Jakob is haunted by images of his sister being dragged away, but the war comes to an end and Athos packs them off to live in Canada - far from memories. Despite the love and dedication of his 'godfather' Jakob grows into a brilliant writer but a deeply lonely man as "living with ghosts requires solitude." But through the love of friends, themselves all in some ways victims of the war, Jakob finally makes peace with his ghosts and learns to love, and live, again.

Jeremy Podeswa delivers a masterful adaptation of Anne Michael's novel - beautifully framed and lovingly filmed. The acting is superb and subtle as well; I was particularly smitten with Serbedzija and his expressive eyes. This lovely film may well break your heart, but it demonstrates the ever remarkable ability of the human heart to heal. See more here.