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."

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.

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!

The Descendants

The Descendants is a wry, somewhat moving, slightly entertaining snapshot of hell in paradise. The Hawaii of this movie is at times idyllic, at others a mirror of American society in distress. George Clooney adeptly plays the distant father coping with two daughters, while Mom lays in a coma from which she never recovers. (If you've lost someone you loved in the past year, this may not be the movie for you.) There is some funny dialogue as well as poignant moments along the path of sorrow, illness, old age, and adultery, while Dad and his girls find their way back to each other. Overall the supporting cast may be better than George, though best actor nominations will surely come his way.

The Artist

From the stylized opening credits to the last tap, The Artist is thoroughly clever, completely enjoyable, and tearfully touching. A smartly played black and white film about silent films, The Artist pays homage to cinema's golden age. This film may turn out to be the best movie of the year, while 2011 boiled over with hangovers, bridesmaids, girls with tattoos, twilights, and horses. The Artist is more imaginative than nearly every other entry. Don't be put off by the lack of sound and color, plenty of laughs and emotions are on hand, free from anything other than a delightful soundtrack and handsome shades of black and white. Step out for a lively rendezvous with the past, the older you are, the more you'll enjoy it!

War Horse

War Horse is the story of a young farmer-boy, Albert, and his beloved horse, Joey. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during World War I, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between the horse and Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are unfortunately parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets--British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter--before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of no man's land, the trenches of The Great War.


If you put "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Black Beauty" and "Saving Private Ryan", in a blender, and threw in some Gone-with-the-Wind-size landscapes, you've got War Horse. Remember to suspend disbelief, it's an animal movie, and gallop along with Steven Spielberg and the grandiose John Williams score to a resounding good cry at the end. 

MONEYBALL

Mickey Mantle once said, “It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve been playing all your life.” Was he referring to baseball as a metaphor for the game of life? Is wining what counts or how you play the game? Moneyball doesn’t answer the big questions, but it’s a hell of a 9 innings.

Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, Oakland A’s GM, in Moneyball which begins on 10/15/01 with their loss to the NY Yankees and ends with the A’s ALDS loss to the Minnesota Twins. The low budget A’s are gutted by the big spending Yankees and Bambino chasing Red Sox.  Beane enlists Yale economics major Pete Brand, quietly played by Jonah Hill, and the science of numbers to build a winning team.

Beane hardballs his staff and puts together a group of misfits and injury laden has-beens who go on to a record-breaking 20 game winning streak that no one can quite explain. Even if you don’t know the story, the A’s 2002 season is a home run. But it’s Pitt’s real life acting which makes this movie a solid hit. Why does the movie work? Because it’s damn good! 

When the “Beane counter” comes to Fenway on a $12.5 mil GM offer from Sox owner John Henry, the scenes of Yawkey Way and our beloved park are simply magical. We all know how it turned out. We’ve exorcised our “curse”, while Beane remained in the wasteland which is Oakland. The A’s have not yet won the only game which really counts in baseball, the last game of the season. Pitt’s Beane captures the romantic notion of baseball while questioning what is all means. Pitt is simply “pitch” perfect. At the end, Beane is still enjoying the show and so will you.

Baseball is a game of numbers yet played with emotion.  We all have our most memorable baseball moments. Here in Boston it’s coming back to beat the Yankee’s after going down 3, the year after we lost an October game to them we should have won because of a hitter named Boone.  Most recently I was lucky enough to be at Fenway when Jacoby Ellsbury hit an inside the park homerun, yet the Sox lost 3 out of 4 to Baltimore and are in jeopardy of not making the playoffs. No matter which team you root for, you’ll enjoy the story, acting, and MLB footage of Moneyball.

P.S. My thanks to KL and my three sons for teaching me to love the game.