Up Close & Personal: A Review

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

Jessic Savitch was a pioneer in television journalism for women. She was also a highly troubled woman. Her story has been told in the television film Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story. Savitch's story was also the basis for Up Close and Personal, allegedly. It is hard to think that a woman who struggled with chemical dependency and died in a car accident at age 36 was the same figure as that in Up Close and Personal. Glossy to the point of parody, Up Close and Personal may be now best remembered as being one of Diane Warren's seventeen (as of this writing) failed Best Original Song nominations.

Using the framing device of an interview that will feature in things later, we learn the story of Tally Atwater (Michelle Pfeiffer). She started as Sallyanne Atwater from Reno, with dreams of being a broadcast journalist. However, Sallyanne was poor, had no education beyond a few community college courses and no background to speak of. What she had was moxie. Sallyanne made a demo tape and sent it to every station that she could think of.

Only one station in Miami shows even a modicum of interest. With that, our plucky heroine heads off to WMIA to work under Warren Justice (Robert Redford). "Coming, sweetheart?", he tells Sally as she follows him around and learns the ropes of broadcast television news. Sally wants to be on camera, but for now, she serves coffee and answers phones. She finally gets her chance when Sally agrees to don a raincoat and be the station weathergirl. Unfortunately, she gets flustered, nervous and tongue-tied at her debut. She is so high-strung that she mumbles her own name as "Tally". Thus, Tally Atwater begins her climb to being Queen of Miami News.

Her on-air fight with experienced co-anchor Rob Sullivan (Scott Bryce) pushes her to seek greener pastures. That search leads to agent Bucky Terranova (Joe Mantegna). He gets Tally a new job in Philadelphia, which is a bigger market. Tally and Warren for their part finally indulge in the pleasures of the flesh, Because You Loved Me playing all around their romantic idyll. 

Now in Philly, Tally struggles with the new environment. She also struggles with Marcia McGrath (Stockard Channing). Marcia is the Queen of Philadelphia News, and she is not about to have a usurper taking her down. Tally is crumbling, so Warren sweeps in to save her and maintain being her mentor and lover. At last, Tally and Warren marry. Marcia, perhaps seeing the inevitable, moves on and Tally takes over. 

Things, however, come to a head when Tally and her loyal cameraman Ned (Glenn Plummer) go to a prison for a "day in the life" segment. Their interviewee is Fernando Buttanda (Raymond Cruz). He had been previously interviewed by Tally in Miami when his baby mama gave birth to the first baby born in the New Year. Fernando had also been the cause of the Tally/Rob on-air fight. During the recording, a prison riot breaks out, trapping Tally and Ned. Will Tally make it out alive? Will Warren end up living long enough to see Tally be interviewed Up Close and Personal?

Except for Warren's end not coming from suicide, Up Close & Personal might as well be a broadcast news remake of A Star is Born. I do not think that the film ends with her saying, "I am Mrs. Warren Justice", but I wouldn't have put it past screenwriters Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne to have at least thought to do so. The interview that opens and closes the film is, we find, is part of a Warren Justice tribute. In many ways, Up Close & Personal follows the A Star is Born plotline. Eager, young and inexperienced female finds an older, experienced male mentor. They fall in love. Her career rises. He dies.

Granted, Warren's career did not slump unlike the male protagonist in all four A Star is Born versions. Apart from that though, both films veer pretty close to being the same story. We even get Michelle Pfeiffer sing, belting out The Impossible Dream at a high school football field to an amused Warren. As someone who unironically loves Grease 2, I do not object.

Up Close & Personal has almost nothing to make anyone think that it was even "suggested by Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch". In real life, it was Jessica Savitch that met an untimely and tragic end. Here, it is Warren who meets a safely distant end.

I do not mind sappy stories. I mind weak sappy stories. Michelle Pfieffer and Robert Redford are very pretty people. They are also twenty-two years apart in age (Redford was 60 and Pfieffer 38 at the time). I figure audiences at the time did not mind seeing them as a romantic couple. I found the idea that Tally would be enthralled with Warren a bit ludicrous. 

I will say that Michelle Pfieffer came out best given the material she had to work with. She brought a believability to Tally's hesitancy and unsure manner. I do object to how Tally was made into such a klutz that she literally could not pronounce her own name when the camera light hit her. I can also object that, for someone who prided herself on being bilingual, she made a ghastly mistake. When interviewing Fernando, she tells him "I'm short on practice" in Spanish when downplaying her language skills. She says, "Me falta practica". It should be pronounced "Meh falta practica" as the Spanish "E" is what in English would be a short E sound (as in "Bed" or "Red"). 

My guess is that Pfieffer and director Jon Avent read the word which is spelled "me" and pronounced it as they would in English for "myself". In Up Close & Personal, she pronounces it as "me", which is wrong. It is surprising that no one caught that. I figure people were too wrapped up in how beautiful our lovers were. Yet, I digress.

Michelle Pfieffer did well with what she had. Robert Redford frankly looked bored. For how much they were supposed to be in love, I did not see much if any chemistry between them. A particularly bad moment is when Warren goes to Reno to help Tally, who is there to help her sister Luanne (Deedee Pfieffer, Michelle's real-life sister). The drama, as played by Pfieffer and Redford and directed by Avent, was forced. It was like watching them rehearsing to learn their lines rather than being authentic.

Other elements, like Kate Nelligan as Joannan Kennelly, one of the ex-Mrs. Justice, felt added to the already punishing two-hour runtime. Joe Mantegna looked more amused than involved, as if he figured Up Close & Personal was not going to do much for him or his character. 

The big claim to fame that Up Close & Personal has is its love theme. Celine Dion sings Because You Loved Me during Tally and Warren's romantic interlude, which became a number one hit. The song is fine. It has stood the test of time. I am not a Celine Dion fan. However, I have to acknowledge that Because You Love Me works separate from Up Close & Personal. I think the lyrics are a bit grandiose for the story and the trysts the film sets it in. Overall, though, Because You Loved Me works well and I don't fault people for loving it so.

Up Close & Personal was a big hit, with audiences embracing its sappy manner. I found it long, slightly silly. The prison riot sequence looked tacked on to build suspense. It is a lovely coincidence how Fernando, the Florida prisoner whom Rob didn't want to give the layette to because of his background, ended up in a Pennsylvania prison. 

Other elements have not aged it well. One pitched story is how a "cross dresser" (their words) made it to the Miss Florida finals. The WMIA crew finds that story hilarious. Nowadays, that "cross dresser" would be considered a legitimate finalist. 

Up Close & Personal is longer than it needs to be. It is not well acted or written. It is a disservice to make Jessica Savitch's story into a sappy love story just because it stars two beautiful people. "I'm everything I am Because You Loved Me", Dion coos to us. What ultimately Up Close & Personal isn't is good, no matter how much it is loved. 

DECISION: C-

Reminders of Him: A Review

REMINDERS OF HIM

Apart from Regretting You (known in my family as "the adultery movie"), I am unfamiliar with the works of Colleen Hoover. Therefore, I cannot say if Reminders of Him is a good or bad adaptation. Nor can I say that the original novel is good or bad. I judge only what I see on the screen. Reminders of Him is awful. Sappy and insipid, with almost universally awful performances, Reminders of Him should best be forgotten.

Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) has returned to her hometown of Laramie, Wyoming after being gone for six years. Where was she in those years? Up the river, serving time for vehicular manslaughter. She was in a car accident that killed her boyfriend, Scotty Landry (Rudy Pankow). 

Scotty is also her baby daddy. Shortly after his death and her incarceration, Kenna discovers that she got knocked up. She gave birth to her daughter Diem in prison. Diem (Zoe Kosovic), unaware of any of this, has been raised by Scotty's parents Grace (Laura Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford). Diem has also been raised, unofficially, by Scotty's best friend Ledger (Tyriq Withers). He has been devoted to Diem ever since Scotty's death, showering her with all the love and affection any father would have given her.

Let me pause for a moment here to point out that our character's names are Diem and Ledger. I might be the only one who thinks that they are incredibly stupid names. Kenna is barely hanging on in the not-oddball name department. 

Ledger was a Denver Brocos superstar until injuries forced him to leave the NFL. Now, he runs a bar at what used to be Scotty and Kenna's favorite coffeehouse/bookstore hangout. Ledger finds Kenna quite attractive. He also is unaware of who Kenna actually is. Despite being Scotty's BFF, he has seen only a mugshot of Kenna. Kenna, however, realizes who Ledger is when he tells her his name.

Kenna is desperate to see Diem. Grace and Patrick will have none of it. Kenna struggles to find work. Fortunately, grocery store assistant manager Amy Matthews (Lainey Wilson) helps her get a job as a bagger. She also finds an unexpected friend in Lady Diana (Monika Myers), another checkout girl who lives in Kenna's rundown apartment complex and has Down's syndrome.

Ledger struggles with both his growing attraction to Kenna and seeing her as a decent person who made a terrible mistake. Taking pity on her, Ledger gives her a part-time job and does his best to keep Grace and Patrick from finding out about Kenna. Eventually, they do consummate their relationship. The truth about Scotty's accident is revealed. The affair is also discovered. Will everyone be able to heal? Will our poor Diem finally meet her mommy?

Tripe. Reminders of Him is tripe. Do not get me wrong. I could accept some cinematic tripe if the premise or the performances are even halfway decent. Reminders of Him, however, has almost nothing to recommend it. 

As a side note, based just on the plots of both Regretting You and Reminders of Him, Colleen Hoover has an apparent fixation with women getting knocked up, car accidents killing those who knocked up said women and people connected to those killed in said car accidents having sex with each other. Make of that what you will.

Reminders of Him goes beyond the implausible to being ridiculous. Nothing, but nothing will convince me that Ledger had never seen a single photo of Kenna or vice versa. Apparently, Ledger was always too busy with the Denver Broncos to ever meet Scotty's great love. I suppose that Scotty could never text Ledger a photo or selfie of them. I figure that Scotty and Kenna never saw Ledger play on television. Just as Scotty never showed Ledger a single image of Kenna, I suppose that Scotty never showed Kenna a single image of Ledger. I suppose that Kenna was never curious enough to look up Ledger online, with him being a National Football League player. 

I might, might give a bit of leeway that Kenna and Ledger's appearances might have changed in the six years since her incarceration. That, to my mind, is stretching things beyond the plausible. I also know that Reminders of Him follows my Number One Golden Rule of Filmmaking: Something Will Happen if the Plot Requires it To. 

Does the plot, with the screenplay cowritten by Colleen Hoover and Lauren Levine, require that every man Kenna meets fall passionately in love with her? The "meet cute" for Kenna and Scotty is how he keeps buying items at the dollar store she works until she agrees to a date. The "meet cute" for Kenna and Ledger has him all but asking her out when she goes into the bar that first night. Kenna is catnip to all the young, eligible men in this small town. Reminders of Him makes Ledger, quite frankly, into a bit of a stalker.

Somehow, Reminders of Him made almost everyone unlikable, even Diem (which I still think is a simply frightful name). Ledger has no struggles schtupping the woman everyone blames for killing his bestest best friend. Patrick and Grace offer no grace (and part of me thinks that the name choice is meant to be ironic to symbolic). Is Ledger keeping score? Is Diem seizing the opportunity? 

Vanessa Caswill's directing of her actors does not help matters. Tyriq Withers showcased his taut body and no acting range in the horrendous Him. Reminders of Him does less of the former and more of the latter. Tyriq Withers cannot even run the gamut from A to B. It would be an acting miracle if he could show any emotion whatever. He speaks his lines as if almost drugged. No matter what the scene, no matter what the emotion, Withers is consistently comatose. At least he is pretty.

As another side note, I have seen Tyriq Withers in Him and Reminders of Him. Reminders of Him are the last thing that I need while watching Reminders of Him.

Rudy Pankow made Scotty less the lovelorn young man and more the irresponsible dolt who caused his own death. We see in the flashback that he gave Kenna something to make themselves high. As such, she was basically intoxicated thanks to him. While it is terrible that a simple pothole got her to lose control of the vehicle, it did get them to both stop singing Coldplay's Yellow, so there's that.

Both Bradley Whitford and Lauren Graham were one note as Patrick and Grace. I think Graham was miscast. She seemed to have only one expression throughout the film. I kept thinking that maybe Marcia Gay Harden would have been better in the role. Whitford, for his part, spoke his lines with slightly more conviction than Withers.

If anything makes Reminders of Him watchable, it is Maika Monroe. It is not a great performance. However, you can see that Monroe is expressing more of Kenna's conflict. She makes Kenna a flawed but basically decent person. Her anger at not being able to see Diem and slight amusement at Lady Diana's constant retort of "Jerk!" to Ledger make her performance one worth watching. She shows Kenna's regrets, hesitancy, doubts, guilt and genuine desire to improve things where she can. Monika Myers is a delight as Lady Diana. There is something amusing about how blunt she is. Lady Diana has no problem walking in and out of Kenna's apartment, nor any problem saying what she thinks. 

Lainey Wilson is mostly known for her country music. Her role in Reminders of Him is small. However, she acquits herself well as Amy, the compassionate assistant manager who wants to help Kenna back on her feet. 

Apart from Maika Monroe and Monika Myers, the only positives in Reminders of Him is the soundtrack. I enjoyed the use of Lord Huron's The Night We Met. I would get the soundtrack, as the film has many good songs. It does go into a bit of a cliche to have a hip soundtrack underscore the mood. However, I like to find some positives in a film, even one as weak as Reminders of Him.

Sappy, silly, but with a couple of good performances, Reminders of Him will pretty much be forgotten by the time the credits start rolling. 

DECISION: D-

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: A Review

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

I think most if not all of us have had that one love whom we still pine for despite the hurt they caused us. That makes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind relatable despite its whacked-out premise and style. Well-acted, directed and written, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will reward those who watch the film.

It is Valentine's Day, 2004. This, however, is not a joyful day for Joel Barish (Jim Carrey). It is a dark, satanic holiday, as he has no love of his own. Almost on a whim, he opts not to go to work but to take a different train. Here, he meets the very quirky Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet). She seems a bit of a manic pixie dream girl. She is also assertive and aggressive. However, they seem to find themselves drawn to each other. 

There is a fly in the ointment to this budding romance. That would be Patrick (Elijah Wood), the man puzzled to find Joel waiting outside Clementine's apartment. Patrick appears to be Clementine's real boyfriend. However, not everything is as it seems. Joel finds that he and Clementine were involved in the recent past. She has opted to remove him from her memory. Now, Joel has opted to do the same. For that, he turns to the same company that Clementine used: Lacuna, Incorporated.

Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) appears to be a benevolent figure. He needs all of Joel's memories of Clementine to start the removal process. That process will require that Lacuna's operatives go to Joel's apartment at night to remove all those memories. One of the operatives, Stan (Mark Ruffalo) is seeing Dr. Mierzwiak's loyal secretary Mary (Kirsten Dunst). She comes during the procedure for some drinking, drugging and schtupping. Stan's right-hand man seems more interested in keeping his new girlfriend, whom he nicknames "Tangerine" from going off the deep end.

That right-hand man? Patrick. That new girlfriend? Clementine.

While Joel knows that Clementine had her memories of him removed, he is unaware that Patrick has been using them to get his own hands on our manic pixie dream girl. Joel also has a change of heart and wants to keep his memories. That requires a few mind tricks of his own, which the whacked-out Stan cannot figure out how to counter. This will require the personal intervention of Dr. Mierzwiak, who has a few secrets of his own. Will Mary be the key in getting our lovebirds together? Will Joel and Clementine find a tabula rasa for their bad romance? 

The title Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes from a line from the Alexander Pope poem Eloisa to Abelard. Mary, who carries a torch for Dr. Mierzwiak, quotes it to him in an effort to impress her potentially unrequited love. In her efforts to impress, she mistakenly refers to the author as "Pope Alexander", with Dr. Mierzwiak gently correcting her. I mention this because the title Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind now carries what I think was Pope's idea of the beauty of not remembering. It would, perhaps, be bliss. However, it would not be life. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind makes the case that love is not all rainbows and lollipops. It is enduring heartache. It is sadness. True love, however, is in going past that to find what it is about the other that both drew us to them and holds us to them. 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is wildly inventive thanks to director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (with story credit by Gondry, Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth). The film carries a logic to its eccentric story. It trusts the audience to keep up, adding bits of details that will, in the end, make sense. It also carries humor outside the somewhat melancholy love story. That is provided by Stan and Mary. These two, in the throes of a clandestine affair, are delightful oblivious to Joel's plight as he internally rebels against his memory erasure.

The film also has exceptional performances all around. I admit that I am not a Kate Winslet fan. However, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an extremely strong performance from her. Clementine initially appears to be that manic pixie dream girl, quirky and whacky and flighty. However, as the film goes on, we see her as aggressive and assertive. She is not there to fix Joel's problems. She sometimes causes them. Clementine is a fascinating character, one who operates on her own logic yet is vulnerable and searching for love.

Jim Carrey too excels as Joel. This is a change of pace for the manic comic. He is morose and heartbroken. He also, though, carries a curious hope that despite the travails of love, Joel can still find someone. It is a bit of a surprise that while Winslet was singled out for Oscar consideration, Carrey was not. He was a major component of what made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind successful. Joel was a bit of an everyman. He was a bit down on himself. He was hurt and wounded by love. Despite that, he was still something of a romantic. It was as good a performance as Kate Winslet's. 

The rest of the cast was equally strong. Elijah Wood's Patrick, I would argue, technically committed medical malpractice by using Joel's files to use on Clementine. However, his bumbling was amusing. Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst played well against each other. Dunst in particular had a wonderful arc, shifting from efficient and somewhat dismissive of patients to a de facto whistleblower. Tom Wilkinson made the bad doctor's fake sincerity amusing and droll. 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has some arresting visual sequences and an effective Jon Brion score. All the elements blended well in making this bizarre love story surprisingly relatable. 

"Memories may be beautiful and yet, what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget. So it's the laughter, we will remember, whenever we remember The Way We Were". Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind did not quote directly from The Way We Were. However, the lyrics to the Barbra Streisand song sum up what Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about. Memories of love, too painful to remember, can be forgotten if one thinks that the love is worth it. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an eccentric love story. Then again, so many love stories are eccentric to begin with. 

DECISION: B+

The V.I.P.s: A Review

THE V.I.P.S 

The tangled lives of very important people are caught up in a London fog in The V.I.P.s. The second film to feature the tempestuous acting duo of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor gave audiences what it wanted. You had glamourous people in various romantic escapades. Business deals in danger. Dotty old duchesses. The V.I.P.s is a smorgasbord of romance with a hint of tawdriness. 

In other words, it is entertaining if a bit silly.

London's Heathrow Airport is where all our stories collide. The main story is a love triangle. Millionaire businessman Paul Andros believes that his wife, Frances (Elizabeth Taylor) is content in their marriage. She is not. Frances has decided to flee her marriage and run off with her lover, professional gambler Marc Champselle (Louis Jourdan). 

Meanwhile, movie producer Max Buda (Orson Welles) is desperate to get out of the United Kingdom. He will face a heavy tax bill if he is not out of the country by midnight. Buda is taking his protégé, Italian bombshell Gloria Gritti (Elsa Martinelli) with him, vague promises of making her the star of his latest production dangling above her. Australian businessman Les Mangrum (Rod Taylor) thinks he has enough funds to save his company a hostile takeover. Alas, he does not. He too needs to get to New York in a hurry. Mangrum is appreciate of his loyal Girl Friday Miss Mead (Maggie Smith) but is oblivious to her private yearnings for him. 

Into all this is also the Duchess of Brighton (Margaret Rutherford). The financially poor and dotty Duchess is on her way to Florida to work at a hotel. This is the only way to save her home, Thaxmead Hall, from being sold. All of our characters are desperate to leave. All of our characters, however, are forced to stay when a fog grounds all flights. 

Paul, having discovered Frances' farewell letter, takes advantage of the grounding to try and persuade her to stay with him. Easier said than done, as she and Marc are set on leaving for a new life in America. These disparate and desperate people will find themselves in situations amusing and terrifying as they await the fog to lift. Will Max find a curious way out of his financial straits? Will Her Grace save her home? Will Mangrum save his business and find a good woman waiting? Who will Frances ultimately end up with?

The V.I.P.s was the follow-up to Cleopatra, the film that had brought Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor together for the first time. The scandal over the Burton-Taylor liaison sent shockwaves throughout the world to where even the Vatican offered up its view. Here, we get to see our glamourous adulterous duo in all their glamour and mystique. One watches The V.I.P.s not so much for artistic quality as one does for good soap opera machinations. 

Screenwriter Terrence Rattigan is supposed to have been inspired by a true-life incident for our Paul/Frances/Marc triangle. Allegedly, Rattigan knew that British actress Vivien Leigh had planned to run off with her lover, Australian actor Peter Finch, abandoning her husband, Laurence Olivier. Like Frances and Marc, a fog had delayed them at the airport. Olivier then arrived in time to persuade Lady Olivier to return to him.

For good or ill, I think it is this central story that is the most interesting. It is the one that carries the most drama because the stakes seem genuine. Mangrum's efforts to save his company are not unimportant. They just do not have as much interest as this torrid interplay between Paul, Frances and Marc. The other two stories, that of Buda and the Duchess of Brighton, do not seem important at all. The audience at The V.I.P.s are here to see the beautiful people fight it out over love. Seeing this heavyset producer and the dumpty, scatterbrain duchess sort out their financial situations does not hit the viewer much.

I think it is because the Paul/Frances/Marc story is the only one not involving finances. It involves romance. Who will Frances choose? Will Paul persuade her to remain at his side? Will Marc use his Continental charm on our beautiful woman? The other stories, while not terrible, feel almost like filler. It is as if Rattigan needed other elements to extend The V.I.P.s runtime.

The irony in all that is that Margaret Rutherford ended up winning Best Supporting Actress for her comic turn as the Duchess of Brighton. She was the film's only Oscar nomination. She was also nominated against three actresses from Tom Jones, which won Best Picture that year. All these factors made Rutherford's win all the more unexpected. Rutherford is a standout in The V.I.P.s. Her dotty Duchess always seems on the edge of humorous collapse. Perpetually unaware of things about her, Rutherford is the comic relief of the film. She is amusing, even charming, as Her Grace the Duchess of Brighton. Every time Margaret Rutherford is on screen, we end up smiling. Rutherford even has a brief scene with her real-life husband Stringer Davis, which was surprisingly dramatic.

Rod Taylor got to speak in his native Australian accent in The V.I.P.s. His Les Magrum was full of bluster, making those moments of weakness and fear more impactful. Maggie Smith has a great scene with Richard Burton when Miss Mead dares approach the multimillionaire businessman for help. Apart from that though, Smith's character had little to do save for looking adoringly at our hunky Aussie. I would not say that neither Taylor nor Smith gave bad performances. They just did not have major parts or characters that would be of interest.

Orson Welles probably fared the worst. His story of the harried Hungarian film producer was the least interesting and probably the most forgettable one. The film does give Welles a chance to ham it up for all its worth. Rattigan even got in a fat joke at Welles' expense. Early in The V.I.P.s, an airport employee tells him, "Aren't you a little overweight?". The employee was referring to Buda's luggage. However, I think audiences would have figured that it was about Welles himself.   

Still, what audiences are here for is for Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as our tortured lovers. Director Anthony Asquith and Rattigan give audiences what they want. Burton is surprisingly calm and restrained as Paul. This is a man who is used to getting what he wants. He negotiates with his wife's lover for her return. Paul is not above offering what he has to anyone. When confronting Frances, Burton continues to maintain an almost eerie calm. That makes the violent moment all the more shocking.

Elizabeth Taylor for her part seems to have decided to be as overly dramatic as she can be. She could be with Burton and be a bit overwrought. She could be with Louis Jourdan and be a bit overwrought. Somehow, I do not find Taylor's almost permanent overwrought performance a hindrance. Far from it, I find it surprisingly entertaining. 

Louis Jourdan oozes charm and sophistication as Marc. He plays Jourdan as a man aware of what he is, which is a gigolo and gambler who may have finally found love. There is an elegance in Jourdan's performance where one can believe that Frances would leave her wealthy husband for this relatively poor ne'er-do-well. 

The V.I.P.s has an interesting opening credit section where we get bits of information about the characters. For example, we see Paul and Frances on a yacht entertaining their guests. He is happy. She looks like she is faking her happiness. 

An added element that makes The V.I.P.s good viewing is Miklos Rozsa's score. It matches the mood of the film: lush and romantic. Rozsa even threw in a nice, cute theme for the Duchess of Brighton, a little light music whenever she came in.

The V.I.P.s is not something that I would call a great film. It is an entertaining film. We see Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in all their grand and glamourous manner. Ultimately, that is what people want to see. As such, The V.I.P.s show that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are Very Important People. 

DECISION: B-

BURTON AND TAYLOR FILMS

Cleopatra

The Sandpiper

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The Taming of the Shrew

The Comedians

Doctor Faustus

Boom!

Under Milk Wood

Hammersmith is Out!

Divorce His, Divorce Hers (Television Miniseries)

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey: A Review

A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY

A good idea can somehow flounder in execution. Such is the case with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. There are as many ideas running around A Big Bold Beautiful Journey as there are random doors in this universe. That is one of the film's many problems.

Single man David Langley (Colin Farrell) is off to a friend's wedding when his car is booted. Conveniently, there is a sign for "The Car Rental Agency" right where David can see it. The two attendants at the almost Kafkaesque facility (Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline) give him the only car available: a 1994 Saturn SL. They also push a GPS on him.

At the wedding, he finds Sarah (Margot Robbie). She and David have a conversation so opaque that it makes the dialogue between Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh in The Manchurian Candidate sound like a Noel Coward comedy. On his way back home, the GPS starts talking to him, asking if he would like to go on "a big bold beautiful journey". David is pretty much pushed into doing so. That leads him to Burger King, where Sarah is also on "a big bold beautiful journey".

From here, David and Sarah travel through many doors, reliving their lives. They go to a Canadian lighthouse where David traveled alone. They go to a museum where Sarah and her late mother would visit after hours once a week. David relives his high school years when he confessed his love to his How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying costar. Sarah recreates an imagined visit to when her mother died while David sees his father (Hamish Linklater) when David was born. 

Things take a turn when they are in an accident and the car explodes. Desiring to go home, both end up in their past homes. David is his own father, Sarah's mother (Lily Rabe) sees her as her 12-year-old daughter. Will they find peace with their pasts and each other in the present?

I figure that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey had the very best of intentions. Seth Reiss' screenplay wanted to be whimsical. It wanted to be metaphysical. It wanted to be deep. It seems almost cruel to point out that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was none of those things. Instead, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey ended up confused about itself. It wants to ground itself in some kind of reality while also being so removed from it. 

Sometimes the end results can be downright loony. Take when Sarah, accompanied by David, goes back in time to the hospital when her mother died. This is the actual dialogue between Sarah and Dr. Vernon (Joyce Guy).

Doctor: How is everything at school?

Sarah: I think at this point I was having an affair with my professor. Can we just get to it?

Doctor: Sure. Your mom passed away about an hour ago.

Sarah: Was she comfortable?

Doctor: She was comfortable.

Sarah: No pain?

Doctor: None.

Sarah: You're f---ing sure?

Doctor: I'm f---ing sure.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey does not initially make clear until after this oddball exchange that this did not happen. At the time of her mother's passing Sarah was bonking her professor, Sarah tells us. The previous time travels, we are led to believe that they occurred as presented (the lighthouse, the museum, David as J. Pierpont Finch). This time, however, it was imagined. Perhaps our first clue should have been when Dr. Vernon does not react to Sarah's startling confession. The entire exchange, however, is so deadpan one wonders if director Kogonada wanted his actors to be so droll at what should be a traumatic moment. It does not make things, which already are taking more offbeat turns, look rational even in this fantasy world.

One cannot blame Kogonada alone for how jumbled and disjointed A Big Bold Beautiful Journey feels. The lion's share should go to Reiss' screenplay. We can be a bit generous in how David's car being booted was the catalyst for getting things started. We can be less generous in how a bizarre GPS that looks like a junior Hal-9000 is giving people directions and orders. Somehow, it makes David and Sarah look weak to be taking orders from the GPS (voiced by Jodie Turner-Smith). Frankly, I would be frightened by such a turn.

I'll walk that back a bit in that I would already have been frightened by "The Car Rental Agency" (as awful a name as has been created for film). Phoebe Waller-Bridges for reasons no one may ever understand spoke with a bizarre German accent and dropped F-Bombs with abandon. That usually led to "Female Cashier" laughing at her own wittiness. Kevin Kline was quite unrecognizable as "The Mechanic", but not in a good way. His sole scene was when he was at the "Timely Inn", where he looked disheveled and even confused. Creepy was the term that I wrote.

I think the "Timely Inn" is why A Big Bold Beautiful Journey ultimately flopped for me. It was far too on-the-nose to take even the eccentric premise seriously. The Timely Inn is a literal hotel where people whose cars have burned and their phones failed can stay. In other words, people who are in the middle of their Big Bold Beautiful Journeys. There seemed to be other guests here. That might have been an interesting subject to explore. 

That is the big thing with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. There is an interesting idea or set of ideas coursing their way through. However, it is like they were all thrown in together to see where it would go. David, for example, both interacts with his father and ends up as his own father. The first is when David was born (his father terrified about a heart condition that David was born with). The second is when he ends up "home". The film is unclear whether or not David was even aware that he had this heart condition. It was something that was introduced here, late in the film, and not brought up again. 

I want to say that Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie gave it their all to sell the characters. I will give them a little leeway in that there was not much in the material that they could use. However, more often than not, both looked downright bored. The only time that there seemed to be any spark was when they ended up performing a number from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It looked odd but at least it gave both the actors and characters a bit of pep. 

Other scenes, like how they ended up dumping their separate lovers at the same restaurant, came across poorly. It felt gimmicky and unrealistic, even in what is meant as a fantasy. The faux-cutesy Joe Hisaishi music did not help matters throughout.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is everything but big bold and beautiful. 

DECISION: D-

Tiefland: A Review (Review #2130)

TIEFLAND

Tiefland (Lowlands) is the final film from Leni Riefenstahl. Now damned for her work during the Nazi era, Tiefland gives viewers a glimpse of what could have been Riefenstahl's cinematic output if not for her now-notorious connection to the Third Reich. Visually rich if melodramatic, Tiefland will almost never be judged on its own merits for good or bad. 

There could be no more two different men than Pedro and Don Sebastian, Marquis of Roccabruna. Pedro (Franz Eichberger) is a simple shepherd living in the mountains. He cares only for his sheep and his flute. Don Sebastian (Bernhard Minetti) is haughty, arrogant and powerful. He cares only for his prized bulls. Don Sebastian cares so much for his prized bulls that he redirects the water from the villagers to his cattle. As Pedro lives in the mountains, this does not affect him. 

It does affect the villagers and has an unintended consequence. Don Sebastian depends on the villagers bringing in good crops so he can make money off them. However, because he is taking up all the water for his cattle, which he oddly does not sell, he ends up creating the financial situation that he is facing. Creditors are starting to come after him. In desperation, the Marquis turns to Dona Amelia (Maria Koppenhoffer), the Mayor's wealthy daughter. Amelia would like to be a Marchioness, but she and Sebastian loath each other.

Enter into this maelstrom the mysterious traveling dancer Martha (director Leni Riefenstahl). She entrances the innocent, virginal Pedro and the dastardly sexually voracious Don Sebastian. The former returns to the mountains. The latter orders her to his castle and forces Martha to become his mistress. The Marquis' financial straits increase, and he comes up with a dastardly scheme. He will marry Amelia while keeping our Gypsy queen as his mistress. Martha, who has tried to help the peasants, runs away after a brutal beating and flees to the mountains. Pedro is again enchanted by this beauty. She is eventually found and returned to Don Sebastian. Now, circumstances bring Pedro and Martha into a forced marriage. Will Sebastian get his cake and eat it too? Who will triumph for Martha's love? 

I do not know if Tiefland will ever truly be judged for itself. It will always have much outside negative elements that will make it hard viewing. Just having Leni Riefenstahl as director, screenwriter and lead is a bridge too far for many given her role in directing the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will. No project of hers will ever be seen separate from her involvement in the Third Reich. 

Then there is the question of the film's extras. The peasants, especially children, were Roma (then known as Gypsies). They were brought in from concentration camps. Exactly what Riefenstahl knew about both where Tiefland's extras came from or what their fate was is still, per my understanding, a subject of fierce debate. Knowing that the working conditions on  Tiefland for some of the extras was the result of war crimes makes viewing a hard thing. 

I think only someone who has no prior knowledge of Riefenstahl and the extent of the Gypsie persecution would be able to fully judge the film on its own merits. 

I will do my best to judge Tiefland on those merits. There is much to admire in the film in terms of its visuals. Riefenstahl is a mistress of the visual art of filmmaking. Some sequences and scenes are impressive to look at. Of note is when Pedro sees Martha in the clouds. This is quite a clever shot that catches the viewers' attention. The montage of the melting mountain ice to a gushing waterfall is equally impressive. The last shot too is very poetic. 

Riefenstahl loved moving the camera. There was a great deal of flow in Tiefland, as if she were averse to keeping things still. There was a great effort to keep things moving, to create a sweeping manner in the film. 

In terms of its look, Tiefland has much to be admired. In terms of acting and story, Tiefland is a little weak. Granted, Riefenstahl adapted the film from an older opera and play. Therefore, there was something a bit old fashioned to the narrative. One also has to consider that Tiefland began work in 1940 but by its release in 1954 there had been many hurdles in its production. The war and post-war eras had prevented Riefenstahl from working on the film in a straightforward manner. 

The best thing that one can say about the acting is that it kept to Tiefland's melodramatic manner. Leni Riefenstahl, I suspect, let her vanity get the best of her. It is interesting seeing her dance again on film. She had started out as a dancer, and Tiefland gives her that opportunity to showcase her dancing. However, she was 38 when Tiefland began filming. It is a terrible thing to say, even to someone as notorious as Leni Riefenstahl. However, she was too old for the part of this temptress.  

That aside, I thought Riefenstahl handled herself well as the sympathetic Martha. She has a soft voice that fits the character. She gave a mostly credible performance. She also directed her cast quite well. Minetti was short a mustache to twirl as the evil Marquis. He was, I found, appropriately melodramatic without going over the top. Franz Eichberger made Pedro into a believable innocent. He was capable of battle, especially in the final confrontation with the Marquis.

Tiefland loved going into symbolism. We start with a ten-minute dialogue-free sequence, where all we hear is the beautiful music and the shepherd fighting off a wolf. That makes Pedro's climatic declaration to the Marquis, "You are the wolf", all the more on-the-nose. 

It will be a long time before Tiefland can be judged separate from Leni Riefenstahl's notorious legacy. Visually impressive if a bit dull in story, Tiefland can be appreciated in its overall look. The film is mercifully short, so one can watch without feeling drained at the end. 

Would people think better of Tiefland if perhaps another director had filmed it? I think so. Leni Riefenstahl had a great eye for visual splendor. Whether that artistic eye could or should have been used for moral clarity is something only the viewer can answer for him/herself. 

DECISION: C+

Regretting You: A Review

REGRETTING YOU

When my family wanted to watch Regretting You, we could not remember the title. We had an idea about its plot. This is why we kept referring to Regretting You as "the adultery movie". Regretting You is not as bad as I was led to believe. It is not particularly good. It is serviceable.

Sisters Morgan (Allison Williams) and Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald) have a tight bond in high school. Morgan also has a tight bond with Jenny's boyfriend Jonah (Dave Franco). It is painfully obvious to any outsider that Jonah is deeply in love with Morgan. It is painfully obvious that Morgan and Jenny are oblivious to the obvious. Morgan does not have much time to ponder much, as she confides to Jonah that her boyfriend Chris (Scott Eastwood) just knocked her up.

We move up seventeen years. Chris and Morgan are raising their daughter Clara (McKenna Grace). Jonah has recently returned to their hometown, reconnected with Jenny and now are in a state of permanent engagement. They also share a child, Elijah. Clara delights in this tightknit group of adults, with Jonah being a teacher at her high school. She also delights in Miller (Mason Thames), the not-so-bad-boy she spies moving a city limits sign while on her way to her mother's birthday party. Miller is moving the sign so that his favorite pizza parlor can deliver to his rural home, as they do not deliver outside the city limits.

Clara is very close to Aunt Jenny, so much so that she confides to her that she finds Miller attractive despite him having a girlfriend. However, tragedy hits our foursome when Chris and Jenny are killed in a car accident. Clara never asks why her father and aunt were together when they died. She also angrily wonders why her mother Morgan did not give Jenny and Chris a joint funeral. In her grief, she turns to Miller, who has dumped his girlfriend. 

Morgan and Jonah do not wonder why Jenny and Chris were together at death. It soon becomes clear: Jenny and Chris were having an affair. The repercussions of both their liaison and their deaths go on throughout Regretting You. Jonah temporarily abandons Elijah, convinced that Chris is the biological father. Clara plays hot and cold with Miller, using him to get back at Morgan for her apparent lack of grief. This cold war continues as Morgan eagerly looks to go to college outside her hometown. Eventually, our two couples realize how much they do love each other. There is reconciliation, peace and a surprising amount of wealth thanks to Miller's grandfather (Clancy Brown) and his air rights.

"Where do I begin, to tell the story of how great a love can be?". This is the opening line to (Where Do I Begin?) Love Story, the theme song from the film Love Story. In a similar vein, I can ask, "Where do I begin, to tell how dumb the film Regretting You can be?". 

Regretting You relies on much stupidity from the characters. Morgan and Jonah are clearly attracted to each other right from the beginning. In fact, I initially thought while watching that Jonah had knocked Morgan up and she just thought that Chris was the father. For most of the film, I expected Clara to discover that Jonah and not Chris was her biological father. I was genuinely surprised when it turned out not to be true.

Then again, she did get knocked up by Chris, who ended up screwing her sister and potentially knocking her up, so there is that. Come to think of it, Chris, despite being very attractive, is actually rather repulsive. Isaiah is Clara's cousin and half-brother? I also have to wonder why Jenny willingly schtupped her sister's husband. Or why/how she passed off Isaiah as Jonah's child when she probably knew that he wasn't. What awful people. Yet I digress.

Regretting You, as stated, relies on the collective stupidity of many people. It also relies on a lot of deception. Miller, we find in the end, has always wanted Clara, down to having the city limit sign bit be in part a way to win her attention. You had Clara never wondering anything, except about why Miller followed and unfollowed her on Instagram. Despite an almost two-hour runtime, Regretting You does not have much of a buildup. Our loathsome adulterers are dumped rather quickly. That means both Scott Eastwood and Willa Fitzgerald have little to do. Eastwood is the one who suffers the most, as he was just there to look pretty. Fitzgerald's Jenny had interactions with Clara and Morgan. In retrospect, she is pretty much a monster.

Our two new couples are no better. Perhaps I can say that both Williams & Franco and Grace and Thames did their best. It wasn't very good. Mason Thames was pretty, I suppose. He was pretty blank as Miller, who was the nicest bad boy that I have come across. It was not a good performance, but it was a performance. Same for Franco, who is total milquetoast as Jonah. I have no objection to sensitive men. I have objection to wimps.

Williams as the mother and Grace as the daughter also, I presume, give it their all. They came across as whiny, both of them.

I do not hate Regretting You. It's bland and forgettable, a bit dull and not very interesting. It is just there. I won't say that people will regret seeing Regretting You. They will just keep forgetting they saw it to begin with.  

DECISION: C-

Moonstruck: A Review

MOONSTRUCK

The words "lunacy" and "lunatic" stem from the Latin word for "moon" (luna). "Luna" is still the word for "moon" in Spanish and Italian. Being in love is a bit like being insane, I suppose. The lunacy of love is delightfully captured in Moonstruck, a charming romantic comedy with standout performances all around.

Italian American widow Loretta Castorini Clark (Cher) is a mistress of bookkeeping but at 37 figures that she will never love nor marry again. The Castorinis are a superstitious lot, convinced that good or bad luck follows them. Loretta agrees to marry her nebbish, bumbling boyfriend Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello). She is not in love with Johnny but thinks that this is for the best.

Loretta's engagement is not welcome news to her father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia). He balks at her getting married again and especially at paying for the wedding, tradition or no tradition. Loretta's mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis) is not enthusiastic either but quietly accepting. Johnny has left for Palermo to see his dying mother and has asked Loretta to invite his estranged brother, Ronny. Her initial efforts are rebuffed, but determined to see it through, she goes to Ronny's bakery. 

Despite her common sense, Loretta does more than mend fences with Ronny (Nicolas Cage). She goes to bed with him. He now declares his love for, to which she responds by slapping him and yelling, "SNAP OUT OF IT!". Cosmo and Rose, unaware of any of this, continue believing that Loretta and Johnny will be married a month from now. Rose's brother Raymond Cappomaggi (Louis Gus) and sister-in-law Rita (Julie Bosavvo) recall when Raymond claims to have seen a giant Moon when Cosmo was courting Rose. To almost everyone's surprise, "Cosmo's Moon" has returned.

Cosmo is the only one not to see it. More than likely, it is because he has a mistress, Mona (Anita Gillette). Loretta agrees to go with Ronny to the Metropolitan Opera to see La Boheme, his other great passion, on condition that he drop any romantic ideas and go to her upcoming wedding. The romantic entanglements continue when both Loretta & Ronny and Cosmo & Mona end up at the Met. Rose, meanwhile, has dinner alone until she invites jilted professor Perry (John Mahoney) to join her. Rose suspects that Cosmo is cheating on her, unaware that Loretta has inadvertently confirmed her mother's suspicions. Things come to a head when Johnny unexpectedly returns, his mother having made a "miraculous" recovery. How will these tangled romances end? 

Moonstruck is a love letter to love in all its crazy, charming and confusing forms. Screenwriter John Patrick Shanley in his Oscar-winning screenplay builds a logic to the increasingly eccentric situations. He builds up the story slowly, allowing for both the characters and their predicaments to flow. Moonstruck does a masterful job in showing how the various characters evolve and how they see the world. 

For example, early on we see Loretta appear to dismiss someone ordering roses, commenting on how so much money is spent on something that will be tossed into the trash. However, when the florist that she is working the books for presents her with a single rose, we see Loretta genuinely charmed and moved by the gesture. This reveals that despite the "bad luck" that got her husband killed by a bus, Loretta at heart still believes in love. 

We see the characters in all their delightful eccentricity throughout Moonstruck. It is when Cosmo hoodwinks a couple into spending more money on plumbing. We see it when Rose is awakened to be told Loretta's news. "Who's dead?", Rose asks in a quizzical but deadpan manner. It is in their insistence that some other force controls both the positive and negative events in their lives.

One thing that I do not think people have focused on is a key moment. After Raymond tells the story of Cosmo and his Moon, we see all the characters react when a massive moon appears to them. Loretta looks on this "love moon" with wistfulness, soon joined by Ronny who asks her to come back to bed. Raymond gets frisky with Rita, who delights in the renewed attention. Cosmo's father or Pop (Feodor Chaliapin) encourages his dogs to howl with delight. Rose looks at it with longing and sadness, underscoring how Cosmo has strayed. It is telling that Cosmo, passed out drunk, is the only one not to see it. I think it suggests that Cosmo is the only one not in love anymore. He is blind to true love, something that everyone else is not.

Moonstruck has excellent performances from the entire cast. Both Cher and Olympia Dukakis won Oscars for their performances, with Gardenia receiving a Supporting Actor nomination. Cher has a strong manner to her Loretta Castorini. Blunt, sometimes exasperated, Loretta is also a woman emerging into her own. She is resigned to things, to a settled life. Once she encounters the wild Ronny, it is as if Loretta has allowed herself to come out and embrace life. 

Cher has wonderful comedic timing with her castmates. She can bemoan her father's obstinacy and Ronny's brutish and self-pitying manner. She can also show compassion and tenderness. Her disbelief that Cosmo could be stepping out on Rose, coupled with her shock and disappointment when she discovered Cosmo's infidelity, showcases Cher's acting strengths. While most people remember her "SNAP OUT OF IT!" reaction, there are other moments that showcase Cher's strong performance. A quiet moment is when she returns home after the opera. Just by kicking a can down the street, we see Loretta contemplating all that she has gone through and wondering if her luck has finally turned.

Dukakis is wise and loving as Rose, the Italian mother who knows more than she lets on. Her continued search to find why men chase women is comic gold. However, we also see the genuine love and pain she feels about Cosmo. She loves him and knows that love hurts. Beneath Rose's wisdom, there is warmth, compassion and understanding. Dukakis balances humor and heart. 

As a side note, it is curious that despite neither of them being of Italian heritage, Cher and Dukakis are so perfect in their roles as these Italian Americans.

The actual Italian Americans in Moonstruck also do wonderful work. Danny Aiello is hilarious as Johnny, the weak, bumbling and befuddled beau. I would use nebbish, a good Yiddish term, to describe Johnny. Vincent Gardenia is wonderful as Cosmo, the man who lost love and ultimately found it again. We see that, at heart, he does love his wife and daughter, even if he has to struggle with his fear of death to show that love. 

Nicolas Cage makes Ronny's crazed manner almost rational. He is a bit cartoonish, but I think that is how Ronny is. A great bit of directing, either from Cage or director Norman Jewison, is when Ronny scratches his face while Loretta calls him "a wolf". It is a sly nod to Loretta's perception and Ronny's true nature. 

It would be unfair to not mention John Mahoney, the only non-Italian character in Moonstruck. His role is small, but it is important. It serves as a counterpoint to the various romantic entanglements of the Castorinis. While they pursue love, the non-Italian Perry pursues affirmation. Yet, in his own way, Perry also has a little bit of moon magic. While reflecting on his life with Rose, he expresses a belief that love is like "moonlight in a martini". 

Moonstruck is a charming and logical story, even if its logic is broad. That, I suppose, is how love is: charming and with its own curious logic. Love has never been so amusing and delightful as it is when one is Moonstruck.

DECISION: A+

Children of a Lesser God: A Review

 CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD

The sound of silence is penetrated in Children of a Lesser God, the adaptation of Mark Medoff's play. With strong performances from the cast, Children of a Lesser God gives us an intelligent view of the struggles not just of deafness itself but of within that world.

Idealistic and enthusiastic teacher James Leeds (William Hurt) has come to teach at a school for the deaf. His unorthodox methods are looked on with suspicion by school head Curtis Franklin (Philip Bosco). James believes that the deaf should attempt to speak as much as possible. 

One deaf person who is firmly against such a thing is Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin). A former student turned janitor, Sarah is highly intelligent but also highly hostile. She is particularly hostile to the hearing but more open with the deaf at the school, both students and teachers. James is convinced that Sarah can eventually speak despite being totally deaf. He is met with an intense opposition from Sarah, who will not speak.

James finds himself attracted to Sarah separate from his savior complex. For her part, Sarah finds herself slowly drawn to James too. He also wants there to be a reconciliation between Sarah and Mrs. Norman (Piper Laurie). He learns that it was not Mrs. Norman who cut off the relationship. He also learns that prior to going to the school for deaf, Sarah was treated no different than her sister Ruth. However, Sarah was also sexually active, more than likely in a way to fit into the hearing world.

Eventually, Sarah and James become lovers. Despite their romance, Sarah is enraged that James got his students to use their voices at a Christmas pageant. The ups and down of their romance leads to Sarah leaving her employment and moving in with James. For once, James finds himself the odd man out when he accompanies Sarah to meet her sociopolitical idol, who like her is also totally deaf and only signs. Will these two lovers bridge the divide between their different views on speaking or not?

If Children of a Lesser God is remembered today, it is because Marlee Matlin had two historic records with her Best Actress Oscar win. At twenty-one, she is of this writing the youngest Best Actress Oscar winner. She is also the first deaf actress to win an Academy Award (Troy Kotsur being the second and first man to win for CODA, which costarred Matlin). Any suggestion that Matlin won for anything outside of her performance is wrong.

Matlin is strong as Sarah. She is angry, defensive but also in her own way free. Matlin has a hard act to pull off in Children of a Lesser God. In another actor's hands, Sarah might have come across as merely sullen. Matlin though, gives her a pained vulnerability behind that abrasive exterior. There is a scene when she talks about how she let herself get used by her sister's male friends. Obviously not speaking but signing her dialogue (with William Hurt speaking her words), Matlin nonetheless manages to move the viewer.

In the scene where she storms off after seeing James' students sing, we are left to wonder where her anger is directed. Is she angry that the students used their voices, going against her belief that deafness is nothing to be "cured" of? Is she angry that she, whether by inability or by choice, will not be able to do as the students do? It is, I think, left open to interpretation.

Matlin also has a wonderful moment with Laurie when she finally goes to see her. Matlin is able to more than hold her own against a veteran like Laurie as well as William Hurt. That speaks to Matlin's skill as an actress. Near the end of the film, we do hear Matlin speak in a roundabout way. Her pained shrieks of "I'M NOT AFRAID! HEAR MY WORDS! HEAR MY VOICE!" shake the viewer with their raw emotion. Finally breaking her longstanding vow not to speak, we see just how much she has within her that cry out to come out but come out on her terms with her hands. 

It is not just Matlin who excels in the scene where she tries to not bring up the past. Laurie, who was nominated for her small role, is equally moving as she admits mistakes and asks for forgiveness. They manage to not only heal the wounds of the past but become friends. It was a wise decision by director Randa Haines and screenwriters Madoff and Hesper Anderson (the former co-adapting his stage play of the same name) to let their relationship build over time. You do see the evolution of Sarah and Mrs. Norman from regret to genuine love.

I think Hurt, who like Matlin and Laurie was nominated for his performance, had a slightly harder task. One might think that because Hurt is not deaf, he would have an easier job communicating. In reality, he has to metaphorically translate what Matlin is saying without making it sound like literal translation. I think that the majority of audiences are not deaf and do not have an understanding of American Sign Language. As such, we would not understand what Matlin or the other deaf performers are saying. Hurt is the only one who can fill us in.

This is a tall order for anyone to fill: to make speaking American Sign Language out loud sound natural. Hurt does not miss in Children of a Lesser God. He maintains that balance between his own performance and serving as the voice for the deaf performers. His James Leeds is caring but also carrying something of a savior complex. He never questions the rightness of whether the deaf should try to speak. Perhaps he, as a hearing person, figures that speaking would be better for them. Sarah does not agree. That makes up part of their conflict in Children of a Lesser God. 

The romance is another part of their conflict. I found the pool scene where they consummate their passion lovely to look at, if a bit too poetic for my taste. These are not just rivals but lovers, and both Hurt and Matlin carry the characters' troubled romance well.

Philip Bosco was equally strong as the somewhat sneering but well-meaning school head. He was a voice of negativity, but he did genuinely care for Sarah and did not want her hurt in any way.

Viewers should not ignore that Marlee Matlin is deaf, but they should also not focus on it. Children of a Lesser God has good performances and an interesting story. I think it does start feeling longer than the one hour forty-five-minute runtime it has. On the whole though, that is a minor flaw. Children of a Lesser God is worth seeing, its tale of a distinct love affair capturing the viewers' attention.

DECISION: B-

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. A Review

 

DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS

I think that one can enjoy a film that is not good. Such is the case with Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. I was expecting a disaster, yet Havana Nights ended up being pleasant. I did not say good. I did not say Havana Nights is anywhere close to the original Dirty Dancing. I said, "pleasant", which is in the end works at least for me.

It is November 1958. Katey Miller (Romola Garai) is unhappy about having to move to Cuba. She is there because her father Bert (John Slattery) is working there. As such, the entire Miller family has to move to the tropical paradise: Katey, Bert, his wife Jeannie (Sela Ward) and Katey's younger sister Susie (Mika Boorem). Susie easily fits into the other young American expatriates like James Phelps (Jonathan Jackson), whose father is Bert's boss. Katey, more intellectual, does not mix well in this circle. She especially does not fit in with mean girl Eve (January Jones). 

Katey does have an easier time with hotel waiter Javier Suarez (Diego Luna). They meet when she accidentally knocks out his tray and gets berated for "his" clumsiness". Javier, who does speak English, is the son of an opponent to the current Batista regime. Javier's brother Carlos (Rene Lavan) is a supporter of Fidel Castro and the revolution. Javier is nominally sympathetic, but he would rather be at La Rosa Negra, where he can free himself in sultry Latin dancing.

As Bert and Jeannie were once skilled dancers themselves, Katey has some background in the art of movement. She also finds Javier's world more exciting than the WASPish world people like James and Eve live in. A dance competition piques her interest, especially with a chance for the winners to go to America. Taking the advice of the hotel dance instructor (Patrick Swayze), Katey eventually talks the now-fired Javier into being her partner.

How much of a partner will the erotic Latino become? Will the Millers find the prospect of a Cuban boy squiring their daughter a pleasant one? Will the impending revolution upend all their lives? Will Katey and Javier win the dance contest?

As I reflect on Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, I think that Boaz Yakin and Victoria Arch's screenplay (from a story by Kate Gunzinger and Peter Sagal) pretty much drew from the original Dirty Dancing. It is almost a surprise that Javier didn't go up to the Miller table and say, "Nadie pone Bebe en una esquina". You have the opening voiceover. You have the parents and two sisters, one bookish, one flirtatious. You have the luxurious hotel setting. You have the guy from the wrong side of the tracks with the moves. You have the young man that the parents would prefer for their older, bookish daughter. You have a dance rehearsal montage. You have a climatic dance.

Granted, there are some differences: you did not have revolutionaries attempting to kill people at Kellerman's Resort. Overall, though, Havana Nights is a bit of a Dirty Dancing clone. 

Things get more complicated when you see Patrick Swayze in Havana Nights. Technically speaking, he is not recreating his role as Johnny Castle. He is not billed as "Johnny Castle" but as "Dance Class Instructor". He appears briefly in the film, giving Katey a pep talk and cheers our dancers on the sidelines. I think people assume that Swayze is playing Johnny Castle, but he is strictly speaking not. I do not know exactly why Swayze could not be Johnny Castle. He could have served as a mentor to both Javier and Katey. Instead, his character, whatever he was, was just there and could have been cut out.

In terms of performances, Havana Nights does not ask much from our cast. Romola Garai makes a valiant effort, but sometimes her British accent slips through. It would have been easier to have made her an American who grew up in Britain with her family having lived there before being transferred to Cuba. That way, she could speak in her natural voice versus trying to sound like an American. To be fair, Garai's American accent was serviceable, though not always convincing. She was fine as the hesitant young girl who discovers the rhythm of the island. 

I cannot say that Garai and Diego Luna had chemistry, but they were fine with each other. I find it slightly amusing to see Luna in something like Havana Nights. I do not know if in retrospect, he is particular about being a Mexican playing a Cuban. He was fine in the part of this working-class man who found freedom in the steamy Havana clubs. I think he did as well as he could with what he was given. 

Both Jonathan Jackson and January Jones early in their careers were all right in their roles. I think it might have been better if Jackson's James had not taken a particular action against Katey and been more a dupe than a semi-villain. Jones' efforts to be the mean girl were again, fine, but she was not given much to do.

The real crime is against Sela Ward. She is a talented and beautiful actress who somehow just did not become the star that she I think could have and should have been. While she has done well on television, Ward has never fully broken into film. Havana Nights misused her. I would not go so far as to say that she is miscast. I will say that her efforts to be snobbish and hostile towards Javier and Katey fell a bit flat. It is as if Ward was trying too hard to be harsh. Slattery looked slightly sleepy in the role, but in fairness when he and Ward take to the dance floor, they do look nice.

A major compliment that I can hand Havana Nights is in its soundtrack, full of good Latin music. I cannot extend that to the dance sequences. Guy Ferland filmed some of them poorly, using many midlevel shots and spins, sometimes cutting excessively. While we did get some good numbers, the training montage felt choppy. Worse, we did not get Garai and Luna in full-form shots.  

I did find the ending curious. It is ostensibly a happy ending, with everyone going to La Rosa Negra shortly after Batista flees. Are we supposed to believe that everyone is celebrating Castro's takeover of Cuba? Maybe Luna in real life thinks this is a wonderful thing. I would have thought it would be more realistic to think that the Millers would have fled in terror versus hitting the clubs.

I did not end up hating Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. It is inoffensive. Yes, it has no reason for being, coasting on the Dirty Dancing name and being a prequel in name only. Still, if you go into Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, you could end up Havana good time.

Sorry, I could not resist. 

DECISION: C+