All Is Lost: A Review

 

ALL IS LOST

This is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Robert Redford.

It's Man versus Nature in All is Lost, an almost silent film that puts one man against the great sea itself. With a strong performance from Robert Redford, All is Lost may try some viewers patience.

Our Man (Redford) in voiceover expresses regret for what he has failed to do, and then we go back eight days prior to where he's awakened when his sailboat collides with a shipping container. The gash leaves the ship, the Virginia Jean, damaged, including the radio equipment.

Making impromptu repairs, Our Man sails on, unwittingly into a storm that nearly kills him. Even after surviving despite being knocked out, he's forced to abandon the Virginia Jean and into a raft. There is hope in that he's near commercial shipping lanes, but will he be able to attract any passing ship and survive, or will the ocean claim another lost soul?

Writer/director J.C. Chandor does an admirable job in keeping things flowing (no pun intended). There's very little dialogue and only one cast member (Redford), so All is Lost has to rely on how the story moves and how the actor is. Fortunately, both are quite strong.

As Redford has no one to act with and/or little to say, he is forced to act with his face and body. All is Lost is a showcase for his skills in this autumnal role. Our Man reacts to the growing danger, the agony and fear mixed with anger and at times resignation. His worn, weather-beaten face expresses so much of his suffering and will to survive. Redford brings not so much a gravitas but a realism to Our Man, who takes all things as they come and works with what he has.

I would say though that perhaps becomes he has no one to work with or external/internal dialogues to speak, audiences may not find much interest in Our Man's journey. All is Lost does have something of a remoteness, a distance because we know nothing about him. We don't know his name, we don't know his past or his journey physical or metaphysical, so whether Our Man lives or dies may not interest some viewers. As he's a stranger to us, his ultimate fate is not something that some kill care about.

Add to that the length of All is Lost. At about an hour and forty-five minutes one thinks that perhaps this scenario could be shortened (perhaps having only one commercial ship pass by). Despite the simple plot All is Lost feels padded out somewhat.

All is Lost, however, has other positives, in particular Alex Ebert's score. Sparing but elegant, the music is a vital part of the film's overall success.

All is Lost will try some viewers, wondering when it will all end. However, with a strong performance from Robert Redford and a scenario that mostly works, it should engage others. 

DECISION: B-

Respect: A Review (Review #1515)

 

RESPECT

Aretha Franklin has rightfully earned her place as an icon, an innovator and one of the greatest singers of the 20th Century. As such, it's a pity that Respect opted to not just metaphorically hit all the standard biopic notes but make her extraordinary life almost dull.

Covering the entirety of Franklin's career would require a miniseries, so Respect stays from 1952 to 1972, going full circle in the gospel roots. Little Aretha Franklin or Ree to her family is a standout in the Franklin home, entertaining family and friends of her father Reverend C.L. Franklin (Forest Whittaker). As she grows into a woman, Aretha (Jennifer Hudson) struggles under her strict father's thumb.

He pushes Aretha into making jazz records at Columbia, but her exceptional voice can't find a place among the standards that come easily to Franklin family friends like Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington (Mary J. Blige). She needs to find her own voice, metaphorically and literally.

This search is aided by her new love, Ted White (Marlon Wayans), who knows she isn't cut out to be a shadow of Fitzgerald or Washington. Albeit reluctantly, he and Franklin sign with Atlantic Records and to work with a group of white musicians. Here, she finds her own style and takes the first steps to becoming the Queen of Soul.

She also starts disintegrating personally. Ted, abusive towards Aretha, mirrors the controlling nature of C.L. Franklin but with physical force thrown in, and that's long after she was sexually molested as a child to where she had two children before she was 15 (the first pregnancy at 12). Aretha does manage to finally leave Ted, but booze and a growing diva nature take hold. Finally, after embracing all the positives and negatives of her life so far, she returns to the Faith and demonstrates that by recording her first gospel album, Amazing Grace, whose live recording was captured in a documentary as a comprise to get the album recorded. With her now at peace, we learn through text of her exceptional accomplishments post Amazing Grace.

As I watched Respect, for a good chunk of it I thought to myself, "Aretha Franklin's life couldn't have been that boring". A major flaw is Tracey Scott Wilson's script, which is filled with leaden dialogue and at times a jumbled set of plot points.

"Music will save your life," young Aretha is told, which is one of those "this is deep foreshadowing" lines that comes across as bad dialogue. One of the worst moments is when Aretha attempts to honor Washington at a performance early in her career. Washington is a surprise guest at Aretha's jazz performance, and Franklin points out she will sing a Washington standard in her honor. I don't think Franklin got through two notes before a comically enraged Blige turns up her table.

"BITCH! Don't you EVER sing the Queen's song when the Queen is in front of you!" she screams in full fury, sending Aretha fleeing the stage in tears. Immediately afterwards, Washington is offering Franklin advise on how she should follow her own music.

The whole scene is unintentionally hilarious for a variety of reasons. There's the silly dialogue. There's the oddball setup (Franklin made clear she was going to do a cover, so why Washington went bonkers is irrational). I'm not even sure what song Franklin covered, as she couldn't have gotten through perhaps even the first line before Washington turned psycho.

Then add the overtly "you need to be yourself" moments and you think how could people have looked at all this and thought any of it was good.

Somehow, despite a great subject, Respect managed to come across as almost parody which blended What's Love Got to Do With It and Ray. You had the abusive husband from the former and the dead parent coming back in a vision from the latter. One could even see a little Bohemian Rhapsody in Respect when it comes to both "this is how we created XYZ song" and a parental reconciliation before triumphing with a spectacular performance: Amazing Grace instead of Live Aid.

Other elements, like Franklin's fierce political activism, just came and went whenever the story needed some kind of jolt. The more seamy elements of child abuse also popped up in a freewheeling style, but it seemed to have little effect on Franklin save for serving as a plot device.

In the veering close to parody department there's such things as Franklin falling drunkenly off the stage or her screaming about how she has to do everything under a portrait of herself. I'd argue director Liesl Tommy could have pulled back on the obvious metaphor.

What works in Respect though is some of the performances. Hudson captures Franklin's voice both singing and speaking, and it's pretty hard not to move when you hear the power of the various songs. It is unfortunate though that Hudson when giving the dramatic moments just couldn't quite get there. She was out-acted by Wayans as the abusive, controlling Ted. The Ike to her Tina, Wayans changes both his voice and persona to create a more complicated character. Granted, he doesn't do much other than express rage but he does it well.

Whitaker also alters his voice for C.L. Franklin, and one wonders if his own character was softened a bit (the film makes no mention of his own inability to walk in the Spirit due to his own indiscretions). It's almost shameful that Audra McDonald was shunted off as Aretha's mother Barbara, though it is wonderful to hear her voice albeit briefly.

The final trouble with Respect that it is too respectful to Aretha Franklin, not allowing the full measure of this extraordinary woman to emerge. The Queen of Soul deserved better, but what we got is not bad but not as good as the subject herself.

1942-2018

     

DECISION: C-

The Bride Wore Red: A Review

 

THE BRIDE WORE RED

This review is in conjunction with the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Robert Young.

The Bride Wore Red is not well-remembered, which is surprising given how the overall plot is quite familiar. With surprising turns from some of its cast The Bride Wore Red works well both for its time and for these times.

Believing that good fortune both financially and generally is the result of luck, wealthy Count Armalia (George Zukor) bets his young protégé Rudi (Robert Young) that with enough money a peasant can pass him/herself off as a person of class. To test out his theory, he finds chanteuse Anni (Joan Crawford) in a dive and offers to pay for a two-week stay at a swanky Swiss resort for her.  The only condition is that she not reveal the Count is footing the bill.

Anni eagerly takes the gig, and now as elegant Signorina Vivaldi, she enters the world of the idle rich. Quickly falling in with a group of wealthy resort guests, including Rudi, Anni finds life at the top quite enchanting. What she doesn't find enchanting is Giulio (Franchot Tone), the local postmaster who is content with his relatively humble life. Anni starts to fall for Rudi, and the fact that he's rich doesn't hurt. What does is his engagement to Maddelena (Lynne Carver), a sweet girl whose friend the Countess (Billie Burke) thinks there's something suspicious about the Signorina.

Now Anni finds that life at the top isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially as the Count has forgotten about her. With only her friend, chambermaid Maria (Mary Philips) to help her, Anni now must decide for a life at the top or a life of love.

You can see shades of such films as Trading Places, My Fair Lady and Pretty Woman in The Bride Wore Red, making the story feel familiar. It's a genuine surprise that The Bride Wore Red hasn't been officially remade. I'd say that it's a film that lends itself easily for a remake. Despite this being based on an unproduced play The Bride Wore Red is quite familiar.  As such, I think people will enjoy the film as it hits what should be familiar notes.

The Bride Wore Red gives many in the cast a chance to show a surprising range outside their normal screen personas. Crawford's main variation is in her song Who Wants Love?, for she wasn't held as a singer. Crawford did a good job as the chanteuse though no rival in the music department to say a Dietrich. However, Crawford's forte of "the shopgirl done good" works for her here, as she portrays an innocence in how this "rich" woman perceives the more rustic world. Crawford blends this with a world weariness, even aggressiveness, in wanting out of her poverty life and into the glamorous one. It's a strong performance from her.

It is surprising to see the normally avuncular Young playing essentially a hell as the duplicitous Rudi, but it shows that he had greater range than perhaps given credit for. He shows a menace and arrogance that belie the Continental charm of this wealthy young man. The most startling performance is of Billie Burke, best remembered as Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Usually playing fluttery, featherbrained doyennes, here she is darker, more cynical and cold. 

Tone was fine if a bit stiff as the more jolly postmaster, more a figure than a person. On the whole though, the film's acting and visual style show that director Dorothy Arzner could more than handle a romance with a bit of an edge.

The Bride Wore Red is at times a bit absurd (Maddelena comes across as so sugary and sacrificial that even Gone With the Wind's Melanie Wilkes would think her an idiot). Despite its short running time it also did feel a bit of a drag and I don't know if the foreign location was needed. 

"Better to be happy than to be rich" seems to be the message The Bride Wore Red promotes. Throughout the film we don't see the wealthy as particularly happy though neither as particularly evil. It does perhaps romanticize the peasantry but I found The Bride Wore Red ambitious and well-made. 

DECISION: B-

Ziegfeld Girl: A Review

 

ZIEGFELD GIRL

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Judy Garland.

Despite the title, Ziegfeld Girl features three showgirls as they navigate the ups and downs of their careers and lives. Each of our beauties goes through their year in the Ziegfeld Follies with varying degrees of success.

We learn that to be a Ziegfeld girl can have one of three results: your name up in lights, a husband and children, or the gutter. Our three, perhaps unsurprisingly, reflect each result.

Ziegfeld Girl gives the lion's share of attention to Sheila Regan (Lana Turner), an elevator girl from Flatbush desperately in love with working-class trucker Gil (James Stewart) but who knows being in the Ziegfeld Follies is a chance to move up in the world. Now as Sheila Hale, she becomes the toast of high society, squired by wealthy Stage Door Johnny Geoffrey Collins (Ian Hunter), who keeps her well but doesn't get the whole of her. 

Hoofer Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland) may not be the glamour girl most often associated with the Follies, but her voice and eagerness is a positive sign. While her turn in the Follies may lead to romance with Sheila's brother Jerry (Jackie Cooper), it does mean leaving breaking up the act she's had with her Pop (Charles Winninger), a vaudeville star of the very old school. 

Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) has no interest in being a Ziegfeld Girl, but her natural beauty makes her a natural. Her career however causes a rift with her husband Franz (Philip Dorn) and may also damage the marriage of Ziegfeld Follies star Frank Merton (Tony Martin), with whom she holds a purely platonic relationship but whom Frank wants it to escalate.

As the season shifts from Broadway to Palm Beach and back, our three Ziegfeld girls go through alcoholism, doubts and marital troubles until one literally crashes on stage, one makes it big and one finds love with the right man.

I think one of Ziegfeld Girl's greatest flaw is its two-hour-plus length. Whole scenes could have been cut that make the film feel even longer. Two scenes sadly involve Garland's Susie: one where she's talking to Geoff as a way to delay his entering Sheila's bath and Susie rehearing I'm Always Chasing Rainbows with Pop. The main reason they could be removed is that they essentially repeat information that comes later. For example in the latter, we see her belting out the song in a rapid-fire, upbeat manner of vaudeville that Pop favors. Later, we see Pop and Susie go through what we the audience have already seen, then a better, more heartfelt rendition when she sings I'm Always Chasing Rainbows in a more contemplative manner.

I think the film would have worked better if we had skipped the rehearsal altogether. While unnecessary scenes are one issue that Ziegfeld Girl has, the other is in its sometimes odd musical numbers. The Minnie From Trinidad number in itself is great, but the flamenco dance in the middle of it is horned in. Also, flamenco in a musical number for the West Indies island? 

If all that wasn't enough, Ziegfeld Girl recycles musical numbers from The Great Ziegfeld in its finale, which would probably go over most viewers heads but for those who've seen The Great Ziegfeld it looks crazy. Whether it was a cost-cutting measure or a clever use of already shot material I can't say, merely that it doesn't enhance the film.

Ziegfeld Girl is an interesting look at actors in early roles. It's perhaps unsurprising that the film focused on Turner, who is beautiful as Sheila. To her credit she did a pretty respectable job as this girl from the wrong side of the tracks trying to make good. While she'd already done films before this one, she still seems unable to control her big dramatic moments to something slightly more natural.

That's a sharp difference from Lamarr, who like her character seems uninterested in the goings-on. Her face is breathtaking, but she oftentimes has a hard face, very rigid to almost angry about things. 

Garland, though smaller in role compared to these two glamour girls, is the most natural and pleasant on camera, her mix of innocence and experience a delight to see. She out-acts everyone, including Stewart, though it's interesting to see him play both angry and a criminal, far from his usual forte of nice guys. You even have a small role for Eve Arden, playing a wisecracking mother hen to the chorus line.

Ziegfeld Girl is hampered primarily by its length, and the musical numbers are not particularly grand although pleasant enough. Perhaps if it had been in color so as to indulge in those beautiful costumes, but this somewhat cautionary tale could have been more.

DECISION: C+

Old Gringo: A Review

OLD GRINGO

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Gregory Peck.

I have vague memories of Old Gringo in that I think my Mom took me with her when she went to see it. I also remember Old Gringo being the punchline to a joke on Cheers. Woody Harrelson's character admitted to not having slept with his girlfriend, unless they counted when they fell asleep together while watching Old Gringo. A failed effort at "sweeping epic", Old Gringo could have been the grand film it was clearly aiming for if it only had gotten out of its own way.

Spinster Harriet Winslow (Jane Fonda) is tired of living a constricted life, and especially of mourning a father she knows was not killed in the Spanish-American War and taking the pension that comes with said death. Rather than continue the charade, Harriet goes to Mexico, where the wealthy Miranda family had hired her to be governess and teacher to their children.

Harriet could not have chosen a worse time and place to liberate herself, for she comes as the Mexican Revolution is in full swing. She finds herself duped into going to the Miranda hacienda only to find herself caught up in the fierce fighting between the revolutionaries and the government. Now as a de facto prisoner, she is caught between two polar opposite men.

The first is General Tomas Arroyo (Jimmy Smits), illegitimate son of Senor Miranda. The other is "the old gringo", an elderly American who calls himself "Bitter" but whom eventually Harriet realizes is legendary American writer Ambrose Bierce (Gregory Peck). Bierce has come to Mexico disillusioned by his failure to change American thought through his writings with the dual hopes of observing the Revolution and dying. Soon, the push-and-pull between the body and mind takes a toll on all three of them. Arroyo won't join Pancho Villa (Pedro Armendariz, Jr.) over his obsession with his past, paralyzing his troops and the women who follow them. Ultimately, while it leads to death, Harriet can only speak of her time in Mexico as she brings her "father" home.

Wrong Harriet Winslow

For all the bashing Jane Fonda has received for her "comeback" in Monster-in-Law, people forget how awful her performance in Old Gringo was held to be. This is her only Razzie nomination for Worst Actress, and it took Heather Locklear's performance in The Return of the Swamp Thing to beat her for this dubious honor. It should be remembered that The Return of the Swamp Thing wasn't aiming to be this classy production as Old Gringo was; as such, to be put up for Worst Actress for a film that probably was aiming at Best Actress says to how much Old Gringo was loathed. 

As I look at it now I think the reputation Old Gringo has as one of Fonda's worst performances holds true. There is a blankness throughout it, as if she thought Harriet was essentially an idiot. Harriet encounters massive amounts of violence and death on arriving at the Miranda hacienda, down to having her driver shot next to her and his blood splattering her clothes. Yet despite what would be for many a series of traumatic events, she seems none the worse for wear.

The incessant voiceovers where she tells us what we already know do not help. Voiceovers are a bane of my cinematic experience: they can be done well, but most often just are a lazy storytelling device. Old Gringo should have cut Fonda's voiceover altogether.

An even worse decision by Fonda and director Luis Puenzo was in Fonda's lighting. No matter how terrible Harriet's plights are, what dangers she faces, Fonda is impressively, almost comically lit. It's to where it slips into parody, a real vanity project. For a film named Old Gringo, it is the Middle-Aged Gringa who is the focus of it. Even when Bierce ostensibly has his introductory scene Puenzo appears to have been directed to have Fonda clearly in the background. Why this is so when it have worked without her presence I don't know.

Perhaps Old Gringo's biggest flaw is in its efforts to be sweeping and grand when in actually it lurches from one scene to another with very little to hold our attention. A case in point is the massive Miranda hacienda, which seems to be about the same size as the Czar's Winter Palace. It is very impressive but it also looks like a massive set, down to the large canvas that is meant to be the sky but just looks like a large canvas.

There's also strange bits of logic here. They revolutionaries have stormed the hacienda, but we are somehow led to believe they never actually set foot inside until Arroyo shows them around much later in this two-hour film. It boggles the mind to imagine no one outside Bierce, Winslow or Arroyo went to look at how the other half lived.

Old Gringo is also not well-acted. Fonda doesn't completely embarrass herself as this spinster who discovers hot Latino warlords, but she comes close. Peck coming close to the end of his career, at times seems to wildly overact as if he's thrashing for his life. I don't know if death scenes are meant to be funny, but his was. Why anyone would care who "Bitter" was, let alone care what happened to him, the film can't apparently be bothered with as it attempts to be lush and romantic, sweeping and grand.

To be fair this is just as easily Puenzo's fault in how he shot it (no pun intended) as it is the fault of Puenzo's cowriter Aida Bortnick. One always got the sense that bits of story were missing, as if we were watching a miniseries that had been trimmed to try and make a feature film. Characters flowed in and out with little sense of drama, and strange logic took hold.

One moment Harriet is all but screaming to get out of Mexico, the next she declines an offer to go with an American reporter when given the chance. 

Smits probably did best as Arroyo, though he had more of a character to play than "frustrated spinster" or "random old man wandering around". 

The mystery of what happened to Ambrose Bierce will probably never be solved. Old Gringo may be speculative but one imagines the truth must have been better. 

1842-Circa 1914

DECISION: D+

Monster-in-Law: A Review

MONSTER-IN-LAW

This review is for the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Jane Fonda.

It's J-Lo versus J-Fo in Monster-in-Law, an admittedly dumb comedy that despite both itself and myself manages to entertain.

Charlie (Jennifer Lopez) has dreams of being a fashion designer but is happy as a temp for various businesses (dog walker, doctor's office). That is until she spots Dr. Kevin Fields (Michael Vartan), a hunky man who is equally enraptured by Charlie's beauty. A whirlwind romance begins, but there's a stumbling block.

That block is Viola Fields (Fonda), a broadcasting legend whose recent firing led to an on-air meltdown. Having just returned from a stint at a treatment center, Viola wants nothing more than to spend her free time with her son. Charlie, unfortunately, does not fit into the picture. 

Viola decides the best way to break up Kevin and Charlie's engagement is to be the future mother-in-law from Hell, one so awful that Charlie will flee to the mountains in terror. Despite warnings from her assistant Ruby (Wanda Sykes), Viola has Charlie investigated, keeps her up at all hours, and generally torments her until Charlie gets wise to Viola's scheme. Now it's time for Charlie to get some payback, with both battling it out until the wedding day itself.

Monster-in-Law was Jane Fonda's comeback after walking away from films fifteen years earlier. I know many bash the film as so much tawdry trash, and I am not about to marshal a defense of Monster-in-Law as a great or even good film. However, I will vouch for Monster-in-Law being an entertaining film in that it is fully aware of its own idiocy. 

Everything from Anya Kochoff's script to Robert Luketic's directing pushed Monster-in-Law to be broad and dumb, but nothing in either suggested they were going for any wit. Instead, through the clichés and stereotypes they presented, it is clear that Monster-in-Law was not going for anything above B-level sitcom. I can't fault a film for succeeding in its low aims.

The fun of Monster-in-Law is in seeing these two divas battle it out in increasingly idiotic, even murderous ways. If one thinks about it, both Viola and Charlie attempted to kill the other. I think Fonda is a good enough and talented enough actress to know Viola Fields is a paper-thin character, forever at odds with reality. To her infinite credit she manages to make such things as referring to Charlie as "that dog-walking slut" sound funny. Monster-in-Law allows Fonda the chance to be totally unhinged, not caring that she is looking foolish whether lunging at a poor Britney Spears-type pop star on live television or frantically stuffing gravy with nuts to serve the unsuspecting nuts allergic Charlie. 

Lopez is more blank as Charlie, as if she's aware that the whole thing is stupid but unsure whether to play it straight or not. Fonda embraced the silliness of it all, going broad to the Nth degree. Lopez, conversely, didn't, so her halfhearted efforts to make Charlie realistic look more out-of-place in something so over-the-top as this film.

Both however were miles ahead of Vartan, who was there as a plot device to get these two together. He was there just to look pretty, which he did. However, there was no performance there, but whether this is because Vartan cannot actually act or Vartan can but found nothing to act with is unclear. 

The standout is Sykes as Ruby, forever able to insult Viola and rattle off a quip with the greatest of ease. She can tell off Viola by mentioning her stay at "a loony bin" or mentioning how Charlie has had fewer lovers in her lifetime than Viola had at Woodstock. Gleefully insulting even when attempting to comfort Viola (such as when she suggest Viola marry another gay guy to take her mind off her troubles), Sykes is able to cut loose with her broadsides at our broad Viola. She and Fonda make for a great double-act to where you'd want to see a film centered around them prior to the events of Monster-in-Law. 

How either tolerated the other is a mystery, but they work so well together it manages to elevate the material despite the illogic of sensible Ruby and haughty Viola finding any common ground. 

I admit to having a special fondness for Monster-in-Law, as terrible as it may be. Predictable, in many ways stupid, I still find Monster-in-Law a weirdly enjoyable romp. I firmly believe a film should be judged by what it is trying to do. With that mindset, Monster-in-Law succeeds at being a low-level sitcom made into a feature film. Maybe it's a guilty pleasure, but if you go into it with the knowledge that in many ways it's a bad film, you can find entertainment with Monster-in-Law.

DECISION: C+

Black Widow (2021): A Review (Review #1510)

 

BLACK WIDOW

For far too long, the Marvel character of Natasha Romanoff has been left without a standalone film. Despite wild acclaim for her first appearance in Iron-Man 2 back in 2010, it has taken a decade (and the character's death) for her to at last have a film where she is the star. Black Widow is sequel, prequel and set-up for a television series. It's also unoriginal and apart from one or two performance not particularly great.

1995 Ohio finds what appears to be a typical American family having to flee to the safety of Cuba. Why? Because they are actually deep cover moles for the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the mother Melina (Rachel Weisz) is injured and the father Alexei (David Harbour) must sacrifice his daughters Natasha and Yelena to the State so they can be the professional assassins Mother Russia needs.

Move twenty-one years later and Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), still carrying guilt over accidentally killing the daughter of her boss General Draykov (Ray Winstone) is a fugitive, one of those Avengers avoiding the UN due to the Sokovia Accords which she is not in compliance with. Only her friend Mason (O-T Fagbenle) helps her avoid authorities. Circumstances draw her out after a fierce battle with a mysterious figure to reunite with Yelena (Florence Pugh), who is like Natasha free from the Black Widow mind control.

Seeing a way to free the other female assassins, they join forces and bring back their ad hoc family together. That means breaking their "father" Alexei aka Red Guardian out of prison, and finding Mama Melina on a remote farm. Things, however, are not as they appear, as there are betrayals and double-crosses on all sides until leading to an epic confrontation between Natasha and the villain known as Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

In the requisite post-credit scene, Yelena mourns at Natasha's grave where she's visited by a mysterious yet oddly comic woman (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who tells Yelena that a particular man is responsible for Natasha's death. This woman then shows her a picture of Clint Barton/Hawkeye. 

I must be honest in that while it has been about two to three weeks since I saw Black Widow, I can barely remember anything from it. What I do remember for the most part isn't positive. The biggest takeaway from Black Widow is that for reasons unknown Eric Pearson's screenplay (from a story by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson) decided to crib from the FX television show The Americans. I'm not well-versed enough in comic book lore to know if these really are Natasha's origins, but for those who have seen The Americans the parallels are simply too hard to ignore.

Moreover, I did wonder why despite speaking with perfectly flawless American accents once they fled to Cuba the faux-family opted to keep these really thick Russian accents that seemed wildly comical. Only Johansson opted to not adopt the accent, which is a reason why her performance wasn't as silly as everyone else.

Perhaps that was the point: to have comedy through bad Russian accents. At least that was the result, particularly with Harbour's blustery Red Guardian. As a side note, given how he is presented (perhaps real, perhaps not) as the Soviet Union's version of Captain America, it's curious how he was discarded and sent to prison where apparently he is strong enough to break entire arms in arm-wrestling contests but not strong or smart enough to break out of prison.

Pugh is the standout as the cynical, sarcastic yet wounded Yelena. She has more of a chance to show a dramatic range when she recalls her lost youth. It's a credit to her talent she can do both action and drama with equal ability.

I find that Black Widow though is pretty paint-by-numbers. The action scenes fine but not particularly exciting (especially since I know Natasha is going to live to die another day). It's almost expected, and somehow the most jolting moment is Natasha smashing her own nose to allow her to attack a major villain seems a mix of weird and funny.

Again to be fair I have pretty much lost interest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and don't have any vested interest to remember what the Sokovia Accords are, let alone try and keep track of what it is or who is who. Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine comes the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and here is where my primary issue is with both the MCU in general and Black Widow in particular.

The franchise is so tightly tied in to itself that those of us who don't watch things like WandaVision or Falcon and the Winter Soldier won't know the who or what of future MCU films. It's become a niche franchise, so with the Countess' appearance, what Black Widow ends up becoming is a trailer for Hawkeye. 

Black Widow is fine, something one watches and forgets. More for hardcore MCU fans to complete the collection, I wish the character of Black Widow had gotten a more fitting film than what we ended up with.

Next Marvel Cinematic Universe Film: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

DECISION: C-