The Hours: A Review (Review #2090)

THE HOURS

The complicated lives of complex women across the generations are chronicled in The Hours. A film that features strong performances and a surprisingly coherent story despite the three separate time periods, The Hours is a good film if not good entertainment.

The Hours covers three time periods as previously stated though they do eventually tie into each other. They are 1923 Richmond, England, 1951 Los Angeles and 2001 New York City. Each section is connected to the Virginia Woolf novel Mrs. Dalloway. The film weaves each story throughout its runtime.

The 1923 section centers around Mrs. Dalloway authoress Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman). Virginia struggles with mental health issues. For her own safety and supposed peace of mind, her husband Leonard (Stephen Dillane) has moved her and a whole printing press to the London suburb of Richmond. Virginia is somewhat looking forward to her sister Vanessa's (Miranda Richardson) visit for dinner. Vanessa comes far earlier than expected, along with Vanessa's children. After this visit, Virginia attempts to go to London unsupervised. Leonard, alarmed to learn that she is not at home, races to the train station. Here, Virginia states that she is suffocating and needs to live. Virginia makes it clear that while her life is in danger by her own hand, she must be allowed to live it freely.

The 1951 section is on housewife Laura Brown (Julianne Moore). It is her husband Dan's (John C. Reilley) birthday, and she will make a cake. They have a son, Richie (Jack Rovello) and is pregnant with their second child. Things look good on the outside for the Browns. However, Laura is also suffocating in her own way. As she continues reading Mrs. Dalloway, she finds life is beginning to overwhelm her. This is more so when her friend Kitty (Toni Collette) stops by. Kitty is having a medical procedure for a certain women's issue. Kitty attempts to sound optimistic but is quietly terrified. A surprise kiss from Laura startles them both. Laura, having finished a second cake, goes to a posh hotel, leaving Richie in a friend's care. She takes Mrs. Dalloway and several pills with her. Will she follow in Virginia Woolf's steps to suicide?

The 2001 section has Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) prepare for a party. Echoing the plot of Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa wants to have things ready for her friend and one-time romantic partner Richard (Ed Harris). Richard, a poet struggling with AIDS, has been awarded the Carruthers Prize for lifetime achievement. Despite both Richard and Clarissa being gay, they consider their college relationship one of their great loves. Clarissa's current partner Sally (Allison Janney) and daughter Julia (Claire Danes) are quietly supportive. Clarissa has also invited Richard's ex-lover Louis Waters (Jeff Daniels), who has mixed feelings about both Richard and the party. Clarissa loves Richard, but will Richard follow in Virginia Woolf's steps to suicide? In the end, Richard's estranged mother comes, completing the circle in The Hours.

The Hours is what I would call respectable cinema. It is posh, elegant, well-acted and flows surprisingly well despite the three separate time periods. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was impressed enough with The Hours to give the film nine Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Curiously though, it lost in all but one category: Best Actress for Nicole Kidman. More curious, at least to me, is that Kidman is the third billed actress in The Hours after Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, the latter nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

I have not read Michael Cunningham's novel that David Hare adapted in his Oscar-nominated screenplay. As such, I cannot say how close or far The Hours was from book to screen. I do give credit that The Hours, as stated, never felt as if any of the sections collided or jammed their way in. One also does not have to have read the novel to know that 1951's Richie would pop up in 2001. I figured that out right away as soon as Laura called her son "Richie".

I give you one guess to find the connection. Personally, I found it quite obvious and would be surprised if others did not make an immediate connection. Yet, I digress.

The Hours is a strong film. Peter Boyle's Oscar-nominated editing works excellently. There is no sense that one story forces its way into another. Instead, the film flows quite smoothly between 1923, 1951 and 2001. We see each section move chronologically within the overall story. It does not go from the earliest to the latest time period. If it did, I did not notice it enough to let it get me out of the film.

Another remarkable element in The Hours is Philip Glass' Oscar-nominated score. The music is typical Glass, with a lot of repetition. However, Glass creates an elegant and elegiac score. The music set the mood for these interlocking tales of unfulfilled lives. The closing theme is so beautiful that one listens to it in rapt attention, marveling at its elegance.

Two of the three central performances were singled out for Oscar consideration. Julianne Moore is fine as Laura, the highly depressed and suicidal mother drowning (metaphorically and in a dream sequence, literally) in suburban ennui. I did think that Moore was at times a bit too dramatic, almost stilted in her "I'M MISERABLE" manner. I did not think that Moore was terrible. I do wonder if Moore was reverting to her Far from Heaven manner. If Julianne Moore performances are reflective of Eisenhower's America, all white housewives led lives of quiet despair.

Nicole Kidman was singled out for her performance as Virginia Woolf. I am not going to delve into Kidman's prosthetic nose. I find the focus on the nostril rather silly. Instead, let us focus on her acting. It is quite good. Kidman reveals Woolf's mix of frustration, despair and optimistic rage. She is a creative woman, fully aware of both her place in society and the danger her personal health puts her in. Of particular note is when she expresses her frustration at the stifling yet safe world of Richmond. 

Kidman is good here precisely because she isn't raging or ranting. Instead, Kidman is controlled in her anger, frustration and overwhelming sense of despair. Kidman's Virginia Woolf is someone who wants to live life, even if it will lead her to drowning herself. 

Meryl Streep does well as Clarissa, the woman who is close to living out Mrs. Dalloway. Streep has strong moments where we see Clarissa's own despair. Her scene with an equally strong Jeff Daniels reveals a woman who is working to keep things going while aware that things are going awry. Less strong are her scenes with Ed Harris. This is more on Harris' part than on Streep's. Their scenes seemed more stage-set, as if they were in a play than attempting to act out real life. The two twists involving the dying Richard's illness and connection to the overall story were anything but. I knew both who Richard was and what his fate would be. It is to where I wondered if Hare's screenplay or Stephen Daldry's direction intended to make things obvious.

In their supporting roles, Claire Danes and Allison Janney did well in the 2001 section. The aforementioned Jeff Daniels brought a touch of tragedy and regret to his Louis, the man who left Richard. He had essentially one scene, but he made the most of it. Miranda Richardson's Vanessa was effective, showing a loving yet frustrated side to Virginia's sister. John C. Reilley was probably the weakest part. It veered more towards a parody of a stereotypical 1950's husband and father versus a real person.  

The Hours focuses, intentionally or not, less on the similar struggles that women in general have to be free and independent as themselves. Instead, again intentionally or not, The Hours has all three women be lesbians. Virginia Woolf was somewhat closeted in real life. Laura Brown kisses Kitty fully on the lips, confusing both. Clarissa is an open lesbian. I do not know why The Hours had three lesbians as our three female protagonists. Granted, we never saw Virginia Woolf or Laura Brown involved with any woman sexually. Woolf's kiss with her sister Vanessa was a bit curious, though. Laura kissing Kitty pretty much came out of nowhere.

On the whole though, I have to give The Hours credit for achieving its goal of putting these three stories and melding them into one overall story. "The poet will die, the visionary," Kidman's Virginia Woolf is heard to say. One can see that she, metaphorically, is speaking about someone else in the far future. That someone, we learn, is tied to a distraught mother who needed to escape for a life of her own. Yes, it ties in together surprisingly well. The Hours benefits from strong performances and production work that make it good viewing. 

One need not be afraid of this Virginia Woolf. 

DECISION: B+

Hamnet: A Review

HAMNET

Exactly how much of an author/authoress' life they put in their work is never certain. Sometimes, I think people look too deeply in a writer or playwright's work. Such may be the case with Hamnet, the tale of woe when it comes to a great tragedy in the life of William Shakespeare. Decent performances keep the somber to self-serious Hamnet from being a total bore.

A young glover's son (Paul Mescal) is working off his father's debts by being a Latin tutor to a group of the lender's children. Out in the woods is the lender's oldest daughter, Agnes (Jessie Buckley). She is different from other women. Agnes (pronounced Ahn-yes) is a mistress of falconry. She is also rumored to be the daughter of a forest witch. Her herbal skills allow her to heal the glover's son's head wound. Her otherworldliness consumes his lust. While the glover John (David Wilmot) and his wife Mary (Emily Watson) are not pleased, their son and Agnes must marry when he knocks her up. Agnes' brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) is equally displeased.

Nevertheless, Agnes and her now-Husband begin their life together. They have first a daughter, Susanna (Bodi Rai Breathnach). Agnes knows that there will be only two daughters for her. Therefore, she is initially puzzled over why her second child is a boy. She is also extremely upset that, unlike with Susanna, Agnes was both unable and forbidden to sneak off into the forest to give birth. Agnes' confusion grows when she discovers that she actually will have twins. The second child, a girl, appears to be stillborn, but the girl miraculously is revived.

Now Agnes and her Husband are the parents of Susanna and twins Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and Judith (Olivia Lynes). Her husband, a struggling poet and playwright, must pursue his muse in London. As such, Husband is not there when Judith becomes ill with the plague. The bond between Judith and Hamnet is so strong that he transfers his life for hers. Somehow, Hamnet has tricked Death itself, taking him instead of Judith. 

Agnes is grieved beyond herself. She berates her Husband for not being there when he was needed. Husband, who shows no major outward signs of grief, channels his grief and Agnes' reproaches with his newest play. It bears a name similar to that of his late son. The play is Hamlet. Agnes and Bartholomew now go to the Globe Theater, to see if this Hamlet is a mockery or a tribute to a beloved child.

Some films, I find, are fine but dry. Hamnet is such a film. It is not a terrible film. Director Chloe Zhao adapted Hamnet with that novel's author, Maggie O'Farrell. One of Hamnet's greatest strengths is the acting, though from an unexpected source.

Hamnet has the best performances from children that I have seen in some time.  Jacobi Jupe is a standout as the title character. He gives Hamnet a reality, playing him as a slightly mischievous but good-hearted boy. He and Olivia Lynes as Judith are a strong match. In Hamnet, these twins attempt to pass themselves off as the other by switching clothing. The sensible Susanna attempts to persuade both her parents to call them on the obviousness of their drag act. However, Jupe and Lynes play this scene with such natural warmth that it makes Will and Agnes' fake obliviousness delightful.

Jupe will move the viewer when he gets next to a gravely ill Judith, his pleas for Death to take him effective. As he wanders through the fictious netherworld, Hamnet is both well-filmed and well-acted, making the fantasy section work. In a nice touch, Jacobi Jupe's older brother Noah plays the lead role in the Hamlet premiere.

Breathnach's Susanna is equal to Jupe and Lynes. She is sensible and also moving when she sees the children both living and dead.

The children's acting in Hamnet is excellent. The adults, though, are another matter altogether. I cannot say that they were terrible. Emily Watson in particular does well in her scene when discussing the brevity of life. Paul Mescal works well with the children as William Shakespeare, affectionate and protective. His performance as Hamlet's Ghost shows Mescal doing two performances: the Ghost and William Shakespeare. He was fine in the role, especially when he is grieving. I thought well of Joe Alwyn in his brief role of Bartholomew, Agnes' brother who shares a special bond.

Jessie Buckley too was fine as Agnes, the forest witch who enchants the aspiring writer. She has good moments, such as when she revives her seemingly dead daughter. Buckley shows an Agnes who is proud and heartbroken when needed to be. 

Here is the thing. I note that she is "heartbroken when needed to be". I did not say that she is "heartbreaking". As I kept watching Hamnet, I thought that I found the source of why I felt so distant and removed from things. It is because Hamnet is what I would call "stately".  I found everything and everyone save the children very stilted and formal in Hamnet. I figure that this is what Chao and O'Farrell were going for. They wanted something somber to keep within the tragedy of young death and the grief of those left behind. However, things are played so straight and serious that it soon makes one wonder if everyone is a somnambulist. There is such a stillness to Hamnet that it ends up becoming almost dull to sit through. 

As a side note, he is not referred to as "Shakespeare" or "William Shakespeare" until over an hour and a half into Hamnet. The film stubbornly will not use any variation of either "William" or "Shakespeare" until apparently absolutely necessary. One pretty much knows that it is William Shakespeare with little hints. He is "the glover's son". He is seen speaking and writing out lines for Romeo and Juliet fifteen minutes into Hamnet. I do not know why exactly Hamnet wanted to delay the obvious for as long as it did. It will not come as a surprise to the audience that "the glover's son" and "Husband" is indeed William Shakespeare. Why Hamnet played it as though it is meant to be one, I cannot guess at.

Hamnet does have some good qualities. The Hamlet recreations at the Globe Theater are interesting and entertaining. Max Richter's score also works well, keeping to Hamnet's somber if not overly serious manner. 

Hamnet, I think, will try some viewers' patience with its very serious, stately tone. It is not a bad film. It has good qualities in its acting and some of its technical aspects. However, this play is not the thing. 

DECISION: C+

Klute: A Review

KLUTE

I find it surprising that 1970 cinema had a lot of paranoia around it. Surveillance, hidden recordings, the threat of crime everywhere. It might be an aftereffect of the trauma that Watergate created. Klute, the crime thriller about call girls and the men who use and abuse them, is one of the best in this subgenre. Standout performances and a strong style are some of Klute's best qualities.

Pennsylvania business Tom Grunemann is missing. After six months, his friend John Klute (Donald Sutherland) agrees to investigate. Klute's best clue is an obscene letter found in Grunemann's office addressed to a Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda). Bree is a struggling model and actress in New York City, where Tom was last seen.

Bree is also a call girl who by her own admission turns anywhere from 600 to 700 tricks a year. Bree considers these encounters something of an acting job. She has to feign interest, cater to a john's preferences and fake being someone else. Bree is well-paid for her charms, but she is also in therapy for her various personal issues.

Bree is also in danger. Could Tom Grunemann be the client that had roughed up Bree two years earlier? Bree has gone through so many men that she cannot recognize Tom by his picture. She agrees, reluctantly, to help Klute in his investigation. This requires Bree to metaphorically go into her past. The Grunemann case is connected to Bree's former pimp Frank Ligourin (Roy Scheider), who was the pimp to two other call girls connected to Grunemann. One is an apparent suicide. The other, Arlyn Page (Dorothy Tristan) is an addict.

Bree and Klute begin a personal relationship. For Klute, it is closer to genuine affection. For Bree, it is more complicated, a mix of genuine affection and manipulation for self-preservation. As Klute keeps digging, he finds that Grunemann himself may have been the fall guy to a multiple murderer. Arlyn herself is another apparent suicide. Could Bree Daniels herself be the next person on this hit list? Who is behind two to three murders? Klute, having zeroed in on his suspect, does crack the case. However, will Bree emerge from "the life"?

It is interesting that while the film is titled Klute, the focus is actually not on Klute. Instead, Klute is more about Bree. Jane Fonda in her Best Actress Oscar-winning performance is excellent as Bree Daniels. Fonda has to, in a sense, play several roles. There is Bree Daniels, the actual person who faces unwitting danger. She also has to play the various versions of male fantasies to her clients. In one scene, she tells a client a fantastical story about having just returned from Cannes while performing a strip show for him. The seemingly casual, flirtatious, cooing manner mask the deep self-loathing and fear that Bree has. Bree as portrayed by Fonda is pleasant, polite and seemingly in control. At one point, she is even able to make wisecracks in an amused manner. When John Klute gives her the taped recordings of some of her encounters, she quips that dirty messages were just what she wanted.

However, she is also troubled and slightly paranoid. Some of Fonda's best scenes are surprisingly not when she is interacting with others. Instead, it is when Fonda is monologuing to the therapist. We see the troubled, complex and disappointed woman. She fears that with Klute, she is doing something that she has not done or let herself do before. She fears that she is letting herself feel. Can someone genuinely love her, Bree Daniels, instead of the version that Bree presents to her clients?

Of particular note is when Bree is forced to listen to her friend's brutal murder that the murderer recorded. In a quiet, still sequence well-directed by Alan Pakula, we focus mostly on Fonda's face as she hears her friend live out her last moments of life. Bree does not openly react. There is no big, dramatic expression. There is no open sense of shock or even terror. Instead, Bree begins to softly cry. She is crying for her friend. She is also, I think, crying for herself. She may be crying because she fears that her life is about to come to an end. However, I think she is also crying for all that could have been, and, in those moments, she thinks will never be. It is a deeply moving moment so well-directed by Pakula and well-acted by Fonda.

Donald Sutherland is more capable of matching Fonda as the lead character. He brings a quiet manner to John Klute. Sutherland never rages or has a big, dramatic moment. In fact, John Klute is a very quiet man. Even his lovemaking is soft. Klute is polite, professional, calm and controlled. That makes when he roughs up Frank Ligourin a startling moment. Even in this scene, Sutherland does not show Klute to be brutal. He makes Klute into a passionate figure, but one who is forceful only when needed. 

Klute has outstanding work from Roy Scheider in an early role as the arrogant and sleazy pimp. It is a small role, but he makes the most of his screentime. The same goes for Charles Cioffi as Frank Cable, Tom's fellow Pennsylvania businessman who may know more than he admits.

Klute has a strong visual style, full of darkness courtesy of cinematographer Gordon Willis. We see sometimes a sole candlelight dominate the otherwise dark room, perhaps a metaphor for the dark world Klute is. Michael Smalls' score feels closer to something out of a horror film than a thriller. However, like the cinematography, it adds to the sense of dread and paranoia that Klute has. Andy and Dave Lewis' Oscar-nominated screenplay holds the viewers' attention and has good, logical turns. It also allows the viewer to be ahead of the characters, building up the tension. 

To be fair, I do not understand some of the terminology in Klute. When rattling off some potential kinks that Klute might be into, Bree asks if he's "a button freak". Maybe I'm just naive, but I've no idea what that could possibly entail.

I like to think of Klute as the dark side to Butterfield 8 or even Anora. All three films had women who sold their virtue who ended up falling for a particular man. All three also won their leading ladies a Best Actress Oscar. However, the latter two did not give their call girls anything close to a happy ending. Klute, despite the darkness it lived in, ends with just a glimmer of hope. Perhaps there can be life after sex work. Excellent acting and a taut story make Klute worthy of investigating. 

DECISION: A-

Merrily We Roll Along: The 2023 Broadway Revival

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

"Here's to us. Who's like us? Damn few". 

The fall and rise of a friendship and collaboration is given the musical treatment in Merrily We Roll Along. When the musical premiered in 1981, it met with almost vicious reviews and closed after only 16 official performances. This was a stunning turnaround for the creative team behind Merrily We Roll Along. Its composer was Stephen Sondheim. Its director was Harold Prince. These were two Broadway titans. To have any show of theirs flop in such spectacular fashion was almost unheard of. However, Merrily We Roll Along slowly started getting reevaluated. Eventually, it was brought back for a 2023 revival. The show that became one of Sondheim's most notorious disasters returned in triumph, winning four Tony Awards out of seven nominations. Now the filmed version of the Broadway musical has brought Merrily We Roll Along to a wider audience. With some wonderful performances and a good songbook, Merrily We Roll Along should please Sondheim fans and most general audiences, though I can see why some audiences might not embrace it.

Merrily We Roll Along chronicles in reverse order the various lives and collaborations of three individuals, staring in 1976 and ending in 1957. Franklin "Frank" Shepard (Jonathan Groff) is at the top of the Hollywood game. His newest film, an adaptation of Musical Husbands, is the toast of the West Coast. That Frank, everyone says. While married to Broadway diva Gussie Carnegie (Krystal Joy Brown), he is giving great attention to the film's ingenue, Meg (Talia Robinson). Frank's quippy friend Mary Flynn (Lindsay Mendez) can only drunkenly comment on how Frank is not the same man who loved music and musical theater. A ghost from the past is revived when someone mentions Frank's former musical partner, Charlie Kringas. They had a falling out in 1973.

Here, Charlie (Daniel Ratcliffe) is shocked to discover that Frank has more than optioned their big Broadway hit Musical Husbands for film. Charlie, already bitter and upset about that, is more bitter and upset when he learns that Frank has a three-picture deal. It is not so much that Charlie has been cut out of the process as he has no interest in film. It is that he learned about it just before a live joint interview. Charlie openly humiliates Frank in Franklin Shepard, Inc. Frank, understandably enraged at being humiliated so openly, cuts Charlie out of his life forever. As time goes back, we see that Frank and Charlie had a good working relationship, starry-eyed dreamers who with Mary recognize the specialness of Old Friends. Frank, unlike Charlie, is struggling with the aftereffects of his divorce caused by his affair with Musical Husbands star Gussie. 

That divorce from Beth (Katie Rose Clark) cost him more than a happy marriage. It cost him a closer relationship with Frankie, Jr. However, the divorce may be the best thing that ever could have happened, as Now You Know. What they do know in 1964 is that Musical Husbands is a surprise hit for Franklin Shepard and Charles Kringas, their generation's Rodgers & Hammerstein. They can now turn to their passion project, Take a Left, their Leftist political musical. Musical Husbands producer and Gussie's husband Joe (Reg Rogers) urges them to wait on Take a Left until they are more established. 

In 1960, the trio of music by Frank Shepard, lyrics by Charlie Kringas, and up-and-coming singer Beth do a cheerful revue of the incoming Kennedy Administration. The revue delights Broadway producer Joe, who is squiring his secretary and aspiring Broadway diva Gussie Carnegie (not her real name). Frank is too excited and distracted by his impending marriage to Beth, whom he knocked up, to care much about anything other than a chance to write for Joe with his bestie Charlie by his side. At last, our trio of Frank, Charlie and Mary meet up on the roof in 1957. They see in Sputnik a new beginning both for the world and for themselves. Mary compliments Frank's music. A casual comment from him about "having met the girl he's going to marry" prompts a lifetime of unrequited love and devotion. For them, this is Our Time.

Having some familiarity with Sondheim, I found Merrily We Roll Along to fit within his style musically and thematically. The title alone is quite ironic as there is nothing merry about the Frank, Charlie and Mary triumvirate. I have found that Stephen Sondheim loves two things in music: irony and a rapid-fire patter in the lyrics. Two strong examples of his penchant for both are in Franklin Shepard, Inc. and Now You Know. In the former, you have Daniel Ratcliffe's Charlie almost rush through the lyrics, pouring out Charlie's anger to rage at how Frank is focusing on business deals instead of creating. If one merely reads the lyrics of Franklin Shepard, Inc., one wonders when anyone singing it (or sing-talking it) can find time to breathe. In the latter, you have a good number of the surprisingly small cast advise Frank about how this divorce might be ultimately for good. Now You Know has that rhyming pattern that Sondheim so loves.

"I mean 'big SUPRISE'/People love you and tell you LIES/Bricks can tumble from clear blue SKIES", Mendez's Mary sings rapidly (emphasis mine). I have found that Sondheim has many songs where rhyming words flow at an almost frenetic pace. The ultimate example is Company's Getting Married Today. Merrily We Roll Along, however, does have quite a few songs where this rapid-fire manner appears. A case in point is the 1960 revue, where we are treated to Bobby and Jackie and Jack, a celebration of John F. Kennedy's election and upcoming Administration. Here, Ratcliffe, Jonathan Graff's Frank and Katie Rose Clarke's Beth cram in every member of the Kennedy family. Sondheim even manages to have Charlie, Frank and Beth struggle and stumble over "Sargent Schriver", constantly guessing different military ranks until they stumble on "Sargent". 

That patter fixation of Sondheim's does allow for the slower songs to stand out. I think the one song that has filtered through from Merrily We Roll Along is Old Friends. The song appears twice. The second time it is a more upbeat rendition, reflecting how despite their growing distances they still value each other. The first one though is slower, more reflective. It is mostly Mary with Charlie, attempting to smooth the fraying relationship between Charlie and Frank. Unlike other Stephen Sondheim songs, Old Friends is dare I say more optimistic. It does reflect how this trio has a bond that they do genuinely want to hold.  

Another standout is Not a Day Goes By. Like Old Friends, it is sung twice. The first time is a solo from Beth, the second a duet by Beth and Frank, with Mary joining in off to the side. Not a Day Goes By is first a deep song of lament as Beth sees her marriage end. The second time around, it has a tinge of optimism for a new life as a married couple, while Mary recognizes that she has lost her secret love. 

Two of Merrily We Roll Along's three nominated players won Tonys for their performances. Jonathan Graff in his Tony-winning role is a standout as Frank. The play allows us to see that Franklin is not a bad man. He just makes bad choices, over and over again. Graff gives him a solid transformation because he shows Frank's moments of regret. Graff makes Frank sympathetic even as he goes upstairs to sleep with Gussie. Vocally, Jonathan Graff is strong, keeping a firm grasp on Sondheim's music.

Daniel Ratcliffe won Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his Charlie Kringas. His voice is higher, and I think a bit thinner, than Graff. However, it worked for the character, whom I found slightly nebbish. A standout section for Radcliffe is Franklin Shepard, Inc., where he has to not just go through Sondheim's patter number but also add vocalization and physicality. He does a strong job as well.

Lindsay Mendez was the only Merrily We Roll Along cast member who lost her nomination (the musical also losing in the Directing and Sound Design categories). I thought she was fine as Mary Flynn, the quippy former teetotaler who is in love with the unaware Frank. I do not know though if Mary ever really fit into the overall story. I felt that she was just there. I simply never understood why she wasted her time with Frank. Yes, he's attractive. However, I never saw a great bond between Mary and Frank that justified her hanging around.  

I would have substituted Krystal Joy Brown's Gussie for Lindsay Mendez's Mary for a Tony nomination. As this Broadway diva who starts out as a secretary, Brown was delightfully over-the-top when needed, alluring when needed, even meek when needed. She also has a standout number in Act Two Opening. Slinky, coquettish and amusing, I found myself impressed by Brown's number and her massive high kick.

I think that Merrily We Roll Along please a bit of Stephen Sondheim's ego on his self-perception. I can picture him imagining both It's a Hit and Opening Doors speak to him about himself. That creative process in Opening Doors, down to how people found his songbook "not hummable. The triumph of It's a Hit both struck me as how Stephen Sondheim struggled to get numbers to the general public and would want all his shows to be hits. That Merrily We Roll Along was an initial disaster must have been a strange irony for him given those two songs.

I do not understand why Merrily We Roll Along was so hated at its premiere, though this version may not be what 1981 audiences saw. This revival is pleasant, with strong performances from the cast. The structure of reverse storytelling might still put people off. The fact that despite the optimism of the conclusion Merrily We Roll Along is still a bit of a downer might also put people off. On the whole though, Merrily We Roll Along is both a good revival and a good way to introduce people to Stephen Sondheim, both his melodic mannerisms and lyrical quirks. 

8/10

Song Sung Blue: A Review

SONG SUNG BLUE

"You are the words, I am the tune, Play Me" is one of the many well-known songs from singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. Song Sung Blue is another. The film with that title, itself based on a documentary, tells its story in a curious way. It may be based on a true story. It may be with the best and sincerest of intentions. It ends up playing like two movies in one, which is one of Song Sung Blue's many issues.

Recovering alcoholic and veteran Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) sees himself as "Lightning", the greatest musical impersonator in all Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His skills do have limits, as he finds the idea of performing as Don Ho idiotic. His frenemy, Mark Shurilla (Michael Imperioli) insists he fulfill his last-minute booking at the Wisconsin State Fair despite the oddness of it all.

While Lightning ultimate skips out, he does see and catch the eye of Claire Stengl (Kate Hudson). She is an upbeat, enthusiastic Patsy Cline impersonator. Quickly, and despite the misgivings of Claire's kids Rachel (Ella Anderson) and Dana (Hudson Hensley) they begin a relationship. Mike's daughter Angelina (King Princess) also has qualms about this. However, Mike and Claire seem an ideal match. Eventually, Claire convinces Mike to make them a duet where they can perform Neil Diamond songs. 

Now as Lightning and Thunder: A Neil Diamond Experience, Mike and Claire begin making waves in the area. They have support from Mike's manager Dave Watson (Fisher Stevens), who is also his dentist. They also get an agent, Tom D'Amato (James Belushi), who is also a tour bus driver. There are a few stumbles, such as a gig playing at a biker reunion that Tom had mistook for a home realtor convention. On the whole, the now-married Mike and Claire are living a surprisingly charmed life. They even open for Pearl Jam, down to having Eddie Vedder (John Beckwith) join them in Forever in Blue Jeans.

That Mike has no idea what a "Pearl Jam" is doesn't matter.

In the blink of an eye, though, tragedy (and a car) hits Lightning and Thunder. Claire is left physically and emotionally spent. Mike too falls into a depression. He ends up hosting karaoke at a Thai restaurant. Fortunately, the owner loves Neil Diamond. Will Mike and Claire recover to rebuild their America dreams? Will they find that now they have Love on the Rocks? Will Lightning and Thunder strike again? 

As I watched Song Sung Blue, I did something that I do not do often. I literally covered my eyes. I did that at least twice. The first is early on, when Hugh Jackman was attempting to do Neil Diamond at home. I think the song was, I Am I Said and he was attempting to get Diamond's moves and vocals. The latter was, to be fair, not bad. It is only when he tries some big kick and ends up hurting his knee that I winced. I figure that this was done as comedy. It ended up looking forced.

The second was almost always when James Belushi came on the screen. His Tom was so utterly bad that I thought he was making the already exaggerated tone Song Sung Blue had into worse forced farce.

A lot of Craig Brewer's writing and directing came across as forced. This is particularly true with Hugh Jackman's Mike. He did not come across as an upbeat, optimistic fellow. He came across as an idiot, sometimes egotistical and clueless. Song Sung Blue opens with a close-up of Jackman, reciting some strange monologue about his musical talents. He referred to himself as a "superhero of rock and roll", saying that as his alter ego Lightning, he was "like Chuck Berry, Barry Manilow and the Beatles all rolled into one". 

I don't know, the mix of Chuck Berry and Barry Manilow just sounds rather oddball to me. It was almost as if Mike or Brewer's screenplay just settled on these two names because they share the "Berry/Barry" homophone. He could have chosen Barry White, which somehow does not stick out as much. In the end, we find that Mike/Lightning says this to his AA meeting, where he has a tradition of performing Song Sung Blue to the other members on his sober birthday. Later in the film, we go back to this curious tradition when we see Dana record his stepdad's rendition to send to the AA meeting because he'll be on tour. The film ends with footage that Mike recorded on what would have been his 22nd sober birthday.

If that were not enough, the first recording has him performing Song Sung Blue in his underwear. When Dana asks if he would like to put pants on, Mike casually dismisses it, telling him to shoot him from the waist up (he was wearing a shirt). 

This, I think is why Song Sung Blue failed for me. For at least the first hour of this two-hour eleven-minute film, Song Sung Blue played almost like an exaggerated comedy. How does one not laugh at the scenes where Mike and Dr. Watson are discussing Mike's dentistry and potential bookings? How does one not laugh at Mike's persistence and insistence that Neil Diamond has more to offer than Sweet Caroline? How does one not laugh at Mike's stubbornness over keeping the song set as is to the bikers? He is adamant that they open the set with Soolaimon, refusing to so much as alter it to something perhaps more potentially palatable like America or opting to let Claire sing Patsy Cline instead. When one of the bikers dares to shout that Neil Diamond sucks, this enrages Mike enough for him to start a bar fight.

Again, all of this may have happened, as Song Sung Blue is based on a documentary by that same name. It doesn't, however, change that it plays like a comedy. That makes the wild turn into a depressing drama all the more jarring. The sudden turn comes as a total surprise, but in the initial part, it keeps to a less serious tone. Claire has been rushed to the hospital, hovering between life and death. Her children are naturally terrified and confused. Mike appears to start to comfort Rachel. However, he soon starts rambling about "George" from the television show that Rachel likes. Quickly establishing that he means George Clooney from ER, Mike tells her that he soon will experience a medical emergency of his own. He starts the defibrillator in an empty hospital room but falls before he can complete his instructions. Rachel is left holding the device pads, terrified, screaming, but using them anyway.

I am astounded that Craig Brewster or anyone else in Song Sung Blue did not think that this would play as almost a joke. It is compounded by some poor editing choices. After this chaotic scene where one or two of our characters might die, we see Claire suddenly wake up. That leads the viewer to think the whole thing was just a wild dream. Right after that, though, it is clear that it was not a dream. 

Song Sung Blue, having been a bit lighthearted for the first half, then shifts to almost depressing drama in the second. The tonal shift is jarring, and I do not think that the film ever finds its footing again (no pun intended). The problem is that since Song Sung Blue played like a comedy for so long, its turn to drama feels wild and fake. It does not help that Brewster put in another semi-dream sequence that looks more oddball. In that scene, Claire goes onstage to sing Patsy Cline's Sweet Dreams. During her admittedly beautiful rendition, Mike comes and tells her she needs to get off the stage. We then find that somehow, despite her physical limitations, she managed to get to her front lawn and live out her Sweet Dreams.

It is a bit strange the way it was all set up. It is as if Song Sung Blue struggled to find if it was a comedy of two dreamers who became the biggest impersonators in Milwaukee or a drama of recovering from strange circumstances. 

In the cast, the standout is Kate Hudson. She managed to keep the lighthearted and dramatic elements to her character. In the first half, Hudson made Claire a peppy, upbeat and positive figure. She was fun and flirtatious while still being rational in how she struggled to get her kids to respond to her new boyfriend and eventual second husband. In the second half, Hudson brought Claire's struggles to recover in strong, even at times moving form.

And then there is Hugh Jackman. This is a Tony winner, so one would expect him to carry the songs well. To his credit, there were times when he did look like Neil Diamond, if not sound like him. However, he did not look his best. He struggled to find if Song Sung Blue was a comedy or drama. He played Mike as someone one could not take seriously. He was not charming or amusing. He was moronic. Even at times when he should have been serious, Jackman made him anything but. 

The only time that I did chuckle with Hugh Jackman was when Rachel, looking for him, asked, "Papa, you all right?" (he wasn't, having had a sudden heart issue and knocking his head on the bathroom sink). I wasn't laughing at that, though it did play a bit like a comedy skit. I was smiling because all I could now hear was Papa, Can You Hear Me? in my mind. 

The rest of the cast played it like a comedy, even after the second hour. This film does not need to be over two hours. For example, we start with Lightning's recitation to the AA meeting. Later, there is a scene where Mike tells Claire about his sober birthday. I think it would have worked better if Brewster had cut Jackman's monologue to let Claire (and by extension, the audience) find out about Mike's struggle with alcohol. 

Song Sung Blue, I suppose, has its heart in the right place. It did not work for me, given that I was shouting, "FALL OFF THE STAGE!" at Lightning and Thunder's big comeback when Lightning was performing. Neil Diamond has a wonderful songbook that I enjoy. Neil Diamond in film, however, can't seem to catch a break. At least Diamond's The Jazz Singer had some great songs to make it tolerable. Song Sung Blue has only cover versions. 

DECISION: F

Becket: A Review

BECKET

Losing a friend can always be difficult. Accidentally or perhaps deliberately having him murdered does seem a bit extreme. Becket chronicles the collapse of a friendship, but one with great historic and religious consequences that reverberated for centuries.

Lusty English King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) is aided and abetted in his drinking and whoring by his Saxon BFF, Thomas Becket (Richard Burton). Despite being Norman, Henry holds Thomas above all other men in the realm. This displeases his Norman barons, who see Becket and his fellow Saxons as inferiors. Henry's Queen Eleanor (Pamela Brown) and his mother, Empress Matilda (Martita Hunt) also detest this Saxon upstart. However, there is nothing anyone can do about Henry naming Becket Chancellor of England.

Thomas Becket is a capable man, steady, sober and intelligent. These are three qualities that his friend and Sire does not have. Henry also does not have Becket's morals. He does not shrink from taking Becket's beloved Gwendolen (Sian Philips), a Welshwoman in exchange for a Saxon wench that Becket had saved from Henry's clutches. Gwendolen, the only woman Becket seems to genuinely love, kills herself rather than submit to Henry's desires.

This is a minor wedge between the friends. Becket serves Henry loyally, helping him reconquer his French possessions with little actual warfare. Young Saxon monk John (David Weston) sees Becket as a traitor to his people. Despite an assassination attempt by the hotheaded friar, Becket takes Brother John under his wing when Henry uses his position to appoint Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Henry thinks that with his best friend as the head of both the temporal and spiritual English governments, he can do as he wishes. Henry, however, did not count on Becket having a spiritual awakening. He has embraced Christianity and will not stand by as one of Henry's Norman barons has a priest murdered. The priest may have been a criminal, but that should have been decided by the ecclesiastical courts, not by Norman whims. This clash between friends now becomes a battle royale. Both men use the tools of their authority to get what they want. Becket is at one point forced to flee to the Continent, taking temporary refuge with France's King Louis VII (John Gielgud). 

Eventually, a rapprochement brings the two men together. However, the wily but hurt Henry asks his barons, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?". Whether the question was literal or rhetorical is unimportant. It leads to a blasphemous act, one so shocking that all Christendom is outraged. Henry II must humble and humiliate himself to save his kingdom from a dead man.

Becket holds an interesting place in the annals of Academy Award history. It has one of the lowest nominations to wins ratio. Becket received 12 nominations yet walked away with only 1 Oscar for Edward Anhalt's adaptation of Jean Anouilh's play. Had Becket lost Best Adapted Screenplay, it would have gone down in history as the film with the most nominations without a single win (The Turning Point and The Color Purple both currently tied for that dubious honor having gone 0-11 nominations). Becket is also one of the seven and eight failed nominations for Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole respectively. Both actors were nominated for their performances in Becket, both of which were warranted in my view.

We see a curious double-act with Burton and O'Toole in Becket. The former is mostly calm, cool and collected as Thomas Becket. The latter is mostly wild and raging as King Henry II. The film is a showcase for both Burton and O'Toole, the latter interestingly enough reprising his role as Henry II in The Lion in Winter. Burton and O'Toole balance each other well, allowing his fellow actor's manner to work for both actors.

Richard Burton is quite calm and contemplative as Thomas Becket. Even when assisting Henry as they galivant through various British beds, there is something serene and contemplative within him. Burton's standout point is when he prays to Christ after his appointment as Archbishop. His voice is steady as well as melodious, Thomas' sincerity and conversion deeply affecting. He has another strong scene while living in a French monastery. Here, he talks to God and wonders whether the joy he feels is too easy a burden. Burton does an excellent job in showing a man transformed by faith to follow his conscience whatever cost personal or professional.

Peter O'Toole is in top form as Henry II. He rages with abandon and with glee. He also has some of the sharpest lines in the Oscar-winning screenplay. As he berates his wife and children for being awful, Queen Eleanor chides him for being a bully. Henry is having none of it. He points out that she would love to be Regent to an upstart Henry III.  "No wonder I shun your bed. It's not amusing to make love to one's own widow!". When conspiring with the Bishop of London (Donald Wolfit) to frame Becket for embezzlement, Henry becomes enraged when Bishop Foliot speaks against this "Saxon guttersnipe". Henry begins strangling the startled cleric. "All I confided to you was my hate, not my love", an angry and conflicted Henry tells him. 

It is a credit to director Peter Glenville that he drew strong performances out of all his cast. He managed to make the differing manners of O'Toole/Henry II and Burton/Becket work together as opposed to clashing with each other. He also kept Becket moving in a surprisingly steady pace. Despite being almost two and a half hours long, I never felt Becket ran long.

The film is also sumptuous in its art direction, costumes and cinematography, all of which were also Oscar-nominated. Laurence Rosenthal's score, which too received Oscar recognition, is appropriately grand but also amusing when needed. 

Becket does have a few issues that I think hold it back from true greatness. John Gielgud received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his Louis VII. I found it a strange choice given how brief his screentime is. He was fine in the role. I just wonder why Gielgud was singled out for one scene. Yes, technically two scenes, but he was so insignificant to Becket that he could have been trimmed or cut out altogether without it being much of a problem. David Weston's Brother John was fine, but his death scene was a bit overdramatic to almost comical. Both O'Toole and Burton had one slightly off moment (Becket's death scene, O'Toole's shock at Gwendolen's death) that might have cost them the Best Actor Oscar. 

That discussion, however, is for another day.

Becket does have some awful rear-screen projection sequences that I think would have been laughed at in 1964, let alone now. 

I think Becket is a strong historical epic. It moves relatively fast (though I would have cut or trimmed some scenes). It has strong performances from Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. The film is grand in its telling. It also has a strong story of how good friends can grow apart. Becket is worth seeking out.

Circa 1119-1170

DECISION: B+

Rental Family: A Review (Review #2085)

RENTAL FAMILY

Acting is a fraught profession. I imagine it is more fraught when you have to do it in a foreign language. It becomes more complicated when you have to role play instead of performing for an audience. Rental Family takes a unique aspect of a different culture and gives us a universal story of the importance of human connection.  

American actor Philip Vanderploeg (Brendan Fraser) is really big in Japan (no, that is not a Brendan Fraser fat joke). He did a toothpaste commercial that made him somewhat known to Japanese audiences. Since then, though, he has struggled to move his career forward as the token white guy in Japanese and Korean film and television productions. He gets a last-minute call for a job, one that requires him to have a black suit. Puzzled but grateful, he is taken by surprise to find himself at a funeral. He is more surprised to downright startled to see the corpse rise from the coffin after given a beautiful eulogy.

Unbeknownst to him, Philip has been hired by Rental Family, which provides "perfect happiness" to its clients. He discovers that Rental Family, headed by Shinji (Takehiro Hira) is a company that hires people to be stand-ins for family and friends of their clients. Philip has qualms about all this. However, a job is a job, and he agrees to be a fake husband to a woman who fakes a wedding to please her family. In reality, the "bride" is leaving for Canada with her lesbian partner. However, rather than reveal this to her parents, she goes through the charade of a wedding to a white man.

Philip, both to keep income coming in and in a sincere effort to help, agrees to take on two jobs. The major job is that of a fake father to Mia (Shannon Gordon), the biracial daughter of Hitomi (Shino Shinosaki). Mia has faced bullying because of both her heritage and the absence of her father. Philip is not well-received by an understandably angry Mia. However, as time goes on, "father and daughter" begin to slowly bond. Philip's minor job is to pose as a reporter interviewing retired actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto). Kikuo fears that he has been forgotten by audiences. He is also suffering from bouts of dementia, which his daughter Masami (Sei Matubo) has been doing her best to watch over. 

As Philip begins bonding with both Mia and Kikuo, he starts finding it hard to not get involved to help. Shinji and his main Rental Family employee Aiko (Mari Yamamoto), who specializes in posing as married men's mistresses who offer apologies to their wives, are not pleased by this interloper going above and beyond the job description. Eventually, things start going sideways with Mia and Kikuo. However, everyone involved comes to terms with life, death and what comes from living.

Rental Family gives us an insight into something that I think few Westerners are aware of. The film balances humor and heart, having moments of culture clash while also investing its characters with universal struggles. Brendan Fraser does fine work as our not-so-ugly American. He is respectful of Japanese culture and customs, even if he sometimes finds them frustrating. When Kikuo takes him to his childhood home, Philip is frustrated at having to visit yet another Shinto temple. "Japan has more gods than vending machines", he says to himself. The payoff comes at the end, however, when Philip has changed for the better. Fraser shows us that Philip is at heart a good man, though at times a bit of a bumbler. 

He balances the humor with the more serious elements in Rental Family effectively. We smile when Philip finds himself at a funeral. Once the dead man comes up smiling, Fraser's startled reaction makes one laugh. We get amusing moments in Rental Family, even when the situation should be a bit more serious. One of these for example is at the fake wedding. In Philip's near panic attack, Fraser makes Philip's hesitation and slight confusion amusing. When he and Kikuo go off on their adventure, however, we see both amusement and genuine affection.

The best moments are with Gorman as Mia. She is a sweet delight in Rental Family. Gorman handles Mia's understandable anger and hostility towards her "father". However, as the film continues, we see her sweetness, innocence and growing affection for her parent. This is not to suggest that Masami is cruel or uncaring. Far from it, as Masami does want the best for her daughter. However, we see in the differing views of Philip and Masami that there can be a balance between what her mother thinks is best for Mia and what might benefit Mia.

Director and cowriter Hikari (writing with Stephen Blahut) treats Philip's situation logically. The film does not make Philip a total fish-out-of-water. He has been living in Japan for I think five years and has built up something of a career there. The clip of his toothpaste commercial is amusing in its cheesy manner. We also hear from his agent about a Korean series that he ultimately opts to turn down to keep his promise to Mia. Mia, in turn, discovers the deception when she stumbles onto a television movie that features her "father". 

Rental Family balances not just the humorous and heartfelt moments. It also balances the use of Japanese and English in the film. Again, the moments when characters speak in either language is logical and/or never feel forced. There are moments of unexpected amusement. At one point, both Aiko and her fellow Rental Family coworker Kota (Kimura Bun) attempt to use their skills to help Philip from potential deportation. We get a good twist in this moment with Shinji.

Shinji is also part of a genuine surprise in Rental Family when it comes to his own family. It was a twist that did take me by surprise. However, it was also logical and gave greater insight to his character.

Rental Family is exceptionally well-acted by the entire cast. The aforementioned Gorman is delightful as Mia. Akira Emoto is excellent as Kikuo, the actor who is looking back on his life and career. Takehiro Hira gives nuance to Shinji. He is not a heartless businessman taking advantage of people. In his way, he does want what's best for his clients. He also, however, does not see the damage that his business can do to people. Mari Yamamoto's Aiko can be seen as the moral conscience of Rental Family. Her character, also well played, is a balance between Shinji's efficiency and Philip's caring. 

In some ways, I think that Rental Family does well in presenting and balancing the Mia and Kikuo stories. We have the young and old represented, one at the beginning of her life, one at the end. That idea of the importance of people no matter what stage of life is a vital one. It is a lesson that sometimes we need reminding of.

Rental Family is a delightful film. It is also a moving one. The film will charm and touch the viewer. Our families are not perfect. Rental Family is not perfect either; like all families though, Rental Family grows on you.

DECISION: B+