Monday, February 27, 2012
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Long, grey, confusing and yet somehow intriguing! If you don't fall asleep you'll be riveted to the screen. Cast amazing, Gary Oldman Oscar worthy and Colin Firth always brilliant. "I know who he is."
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The Iron Lady
"The Iron Lady" is a portrait of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to become the Leader of the Conservative Party, a party which does not believe all men are created equal, but rather men--and women--are created to achieve, and achieve she does. Thatcher's "Just get up and do" ethic is evident to a fault as she leads England through a tumultuous time of union strikes, IRA bombings, a downturn in manufacturing, and mortgage defaults (sound familiar?).
The story swings chaotically between her humble beginnings as a grocer's daughter and Oxford graduate to head of Britain, and her later years filled with paranoia and hallucinations. Meryl Streep is dramatic and full of costumes & make-up as "MT". Yet, it all seems somewhat shrill, staged, and stiff, as if we are watching a wax figure from Madame Tussauds. You never loose Meryl in Margaret. The movie has no substance other than endless newsreels of Britain burning and/or warring in the Faulklands. The men who surround Margaret are one-dimensional, and terribly English, stiff, cold, and remote.
Meryl plays Thatcher's sad descent into Alzheimer's with a mix strength and courage, yet it all seems horribly forced. Jim Broadbent, who is usually brilliant given a meaningful screen play, appears silly and foolish as Dennis Thatcher, her pompous husband. The performances are an effort rather than a gift. This was not Meryl's best role and the movie is a dud.
The story swings chaotically between her humble beginnings as a grocer's daughter and Oxford graduate to head of Britain, and her later years filled with paranoia and hallucinations. Meryl Streep is dramatic and full of costumes & make-up as "MT". Yet, it all seems somewhat shrill, staged, and stiff, as if we are watching a wax figure from Madame Tussauds. You never loose Meryl in Margaret. The movie has no substance other than endless newsreels of Britain burning and/or warring in the Faulklands. The men who surround Margaret are one-dimensional, and terribly English, stiff, cold, and remote.
Meryl plays Thatcher's sad descent into Alzheimer's with a mix strength and courage, yet it all seems horribly forced. Jim Broadbent, who is usually brilliant given a meaningful screen play, appears silly and foolish as Dennis Thatcher, her pompous husband. The performances are an effort rather than a gift. This was not Meryl's best role and the movie is a dud.
HUGO
Best said by the late Amy Winehouse, "They tried to make me go to HUGO and I said, no, no, no." Unfortunately, the good press on Martin Scorsese's fantasy piece, HUGO, drew me in. What is this movie about? Inventions, clocks, trains, movies? How likely is it that two kids will meet and both be orphans? Does it really snow that much in Paris?
Living in the walls of a 1930's Paris train station, which might actually be the present day D'Orsay, thirteen year old Hugo is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton. An automawhat?
Fantasy is not my preferred genre. Ben Kingsley was wasted, Sasha Baron Cohen was ridiculous, only the doberman seemed real. I think I'd prefer rehab!
Living in the walls of a 1930's Paris train station, which might actually be the present day D'Orsay, thirteen year old Hugo is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton. An automawhat?
Fantasy is not my preferred genre. Ben Kingsley was wasted, Sasha Baron Cohen was ridiculous, only the doberman seemed real. I think I'd prefer rehab!
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