The Eagle

Posted on February 10, 2011 at 6:13 pm

“The Eagle” is an epic story, lavishly filmed, but empty at the core. Without a reason to care about the quest, it does not matter how skillfully the battle scenes are filmed.

It is based on The Eagle of the Ninth a classic book for kids by Rosemary Sutcliff, inspired by the real-life mystery of the Lost Legion of the Roman Army, a 5000-man fighting force that disappeared without a trace around 117 A.D. This is the story of Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum), the son of that division’s leader, who goes on a journey to recapture its standard, the golden eagle of the title. Accompanying him is his slave, Esca (Jamie Bell of “Billy Elliot”), loyal to Marcus Aquila for saving his life, but with divided allegiance because he is a Briton who despises the Romans. When they cross Hadrian’s Wall into Briton territory to retrieve the golden eagle, which side will Esca be on?

Director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”) lets his enthusiasm for the material show. The settings and the design details show meticulous care and the combat scenes are dynamic and sometimes powerful. The evolving respect and friendship between the two men does not translate well from the page to the screen and the pacing is episodic where it should be epic. While it may be a worn-out cliche to have people in ancient times speaking in modern but formal English with British accents, it is a convention that communicates very effectively on screen. Macdonald’s decision to have the Romans speaking American-style English (even the British Jamie Bell) and have the Britons speak historically inaccurate and for most people indecipherable Gaelic, gives it a sloppy, Cliff’s notes flavor. This is underscored further by Tatum’s very contemporary look and build and the attire of the Britons — covered with clay and wearing a sort of animal skin jegging.

The biggest problem is that we just do not care whether they retrieve the eagle because they never make a compelling case that it stands for honor, either relative or absolute. It is the symbol of a failed invasion that does not represent valor or integrity. The film cannot free itself from the modern sensibility of its makers and its audience and therefore cannot demonize the Britons or otherwise justify the Roman attempt to capture and enslave them. The film tries to portray the warriors as heroes next to the politicians who stay at home fighting with words instead of swords. But it just comes across as another pointless road trip bromance. (more…)

For Colored Girls

Posted on February 9, 2011 at 8:00 am

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for some disturbing violence including a rape, sexual content and language
Profanity:	Very strong and explicit language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, drug references
Violence/ Scariness:	Graphic rape and abortion scenes and tense confrontations
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	November 5, 2010
Date Released to DVD:	February 8, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN:	B003Y5H4ZC

Tyler Perry’s films frustrate critics and commentators, who are bothered by the awkward mash-ups of high melodrama and low humor and by what many people think is an exaggerated and biased portrayal of men as abusive, neglectful, incompetent, and/or disloyal. And yet, their unprecedented success — he has never had a flop — shows that they speak to the audience in a powerful way. His new film, the first based on material from another writer, reflects a more literary ambition but it is likely to create the same divide between those find that it feels true to their experience and those who think it still aims too low and is likely to perpetuate prejudice inside and outside the African-American community.

Ntozake Shange (born Paulette Williams) was only 23 years old when her groundbreaking “choreopoem” called “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” first astonished audiences in 1975. The ferocity and rage of the theatrical experience spoke to generations of women, especially women of color, who felt for the first time that they were seeing themselves and people they knew center stage. There was no Oprah back then. The idea of a black woman speaking honestly about her struggles for respect from others and from herself felt revolutionary.

The play’s characters were symbols, their only names the colors of the clothes they wore. They spoke very frankly about topics seldom addressed publicly, much less on stage, and much, much less from the woman’s side of the experience: rape, molestation, betrayal, and oppression. With dance and poetry they expressed their longing for love and acceptance despite the best efforts of individuals, religious organizations, and society at large to make them feel less than beautiful and less than lovable. This was an era when “the personal is political” was a mantra for women who were beginning to question millennia of traditional notions of what they were and how much potential there was for them.

A great deal has changed since 1975, including the emergence of Perry, one of the choreopoem’s biggest fans and clearly influenced by it, as a major power player in Hollywood. Perry has become an omnimedia mogul with live theater, DVDs, films like “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and “Madea Goes to Jail” and the television series “Meet the Browns” and “House of Payne,” along with the best-seller, Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life. The very power behind and in front of the camera, with nine well-known actresses, provides some counterpoint that puts at risk the unrelenting direness of these characters’ lives.

And yet, these words and these stories may still resonate with any woman who has struggled to love herself enough to expect and deserve love from others. While the nine main characters in and out of each other’s lives have their own stories, they can be seen as different aspects of one woman, or of all women. Tangie (a sizzling Thandie Newton) is almost feral as a bartender who uses men for sex, thinking it makes her the strong one. Her mother, Alice (Whoopi Goldberg), who thinks she gets strength from religious fervor and judgment. Alice is furious with Tangie but thinks that her other daughter, Nyla (the incandescent Tessa Thompson), is close to perfect. Which is why Nyla can’t tell Alice the truth about how much trouble she is in.

Crystal (Kimberly Elise) thinks she has the strength to care for her children, her demanding employer, and the man in her life who loves her deeply but is mentally unstable following his experience in the military. Juanita (Loretta Devine) does not know if she can trust the man she loves. Jasmine (Anika Noni Rose) does not know that she cannot trust the man who seems so gentlemanly. Kelly (Kerry Washington), a social worker, is the only woman in this film who has a man she can trust and rely on, is so concerned about whether she can conceive (due to abuse from another man) that she neglects one of her clients, with tragic consequences. And Gilda (Phylicia Rashad) sees it all and does her best to warn, to teach, and to help.

Perry just sketches in enough story to provide settings for the poetic monologues and he shows some appealing delicacy in balancing the gritty reality of the women’s lives with the more lyrical qualities of their speeches, beautifully delivered by actresses of great talent and beauty. At its best, it has a dreamlike quality and some of the speeches are beautifully done. The film makes a brave effort to show that the victims of abuse have to take responsibility for acting as enablers. But some of the material seems as outdated as the title, and the unrelenting melodrama gets out of hand near the end with an unfortunate speech about being sorry that does not work, despite the best efforts of Janet Jackson. Perry clearly cherishes all of these women, the performers on screen and the characters they play, and the sincerity of his devotion to them and to the material keeps what is on screen watchable even when it does not work as a film.

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Based on a play Drama Movies -- format

Tamara Drewe

Posted on February 8, 2011 at 8:00 am

You might think that in a movie called “Tamara Drewe,” the character named Tamara Drewe would be the protagonist. She isn’t. You might then think she could be the primary antagonist creating the chaos that has to be straightened out by the protagonist. Not really. And you might think that a movie based on a graphic novel would have some sci-fi or fantasy or at least be set in a big, modern city. Not even close. This film, based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds has a few surprises in store.

Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) does create something of an uproar in the almost-too picturesque English village she returns to after the death of her mother. Her ostensible purpose is to fix up her home so it can be sold. Her real purpose, one with which we all can identify, is to show the folks she left behind that contrary to their impression of her as an awkward teenager dubbed “Beaky” because of her big nose, she is now a very glamorous and successful young writer with a smaller nose who looks very, very good in a pair of jean shorts that are very, very small.

There are two people in particular she would like to get this message. First is the middle-aged married man who hurt her feelings, a very successful writer of mystery novels named Nicholas (the oleaginous Roger Allam). Second is the young man who broke her heart, a handyman named Andy (Luke Evans), who works at the writer’s residence owned by Nicholas and his wife Beth (the superb Tamsin Greig). While Nicholas turns out eight pages a day and basks in the adoration — and sometimes more — of fans, Beth caters to an assortment of would-be writers with home-made cookies, gentle encouragement, and a few shrewd suggestions about plotting and tone. Meanwhile, a pair of teenage girls (the terrific (Charlotte Christie and Jessica Barden) with a crush on a rock star (Dominic Cooper) create all kinds of mischief for everyone, especially after Tamera’s interview with him turns into a romance.

The fun of the film is the way it upends expectations. In a setting that superficially appears to have changed very little since the time of its Thomas Hardy inspiration (especially Far from the Madding Crowd), there are splashes of modernity from lesbian porn to a nose job and a rock band called Swipe. Hardy’s lost letter mix-up is recalled when one of the teenagers sends emails from Tamara’s account. On the surface, too, with its title cards showing the four seasons and Masterpiece Theatre understated rhythms and elegant accents, it seems at first to be a conventionally structured story. But it has a beguilingly episodic nature, based on the book’s multiple narrators and on its origins as a weekly comic, with its leisurely and open-ended story-line, where even the author has not decided on an end point. Some viewers may find that unsettling, but it has some sharply observed moments for those who are willing to meander.

Parents should know that this film has very explicit sexual references and situations, nudity, drinking, drugs, fatal accident with some graphic images, extremely strong language, and bad behavior by teens including smoking and sexual conversation.

Family discussion: How did Tamara’s teenage experiences
influence her adult decisions?
What do you think will happen to the girls?

If you like this, try: the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds

Night Catches Us

Posted on February 3, 2011 at 2:58 pm

Writer-director Tanya Hamilton and two of today’s most gifted actors have produced a sensitive drama with a powerful conclusion. Night Catches Us takes on some of the most complicated and painful issues of the era that saw the struggle for civil rights shift from “We shall overcome” to “Burn, baby, burn.” It is rare that we see those issues portrayed, rarer still that we see them explored with any recognition of complexity and nuance, and just about unheard of that we see how much more complicated and nuanced the issues were for the women.

It is 1976, and the United States is celebrating its 200th birthday. Some Americans are still feeling marginalized, neglected, or locked out.

Marcus (Anthony Mackie) who returns to his home in Philadelphia following the death of his preacher father. He seems rootless and restless. But it is immediately clear when he sees Patricia (another exquisite performance by Kerry Washington), a lawyer and single mother, that they have some history and that he wants to know whether they might have a future.

No one else seems happy to see Marcus, even his brother. It is apparent that the people he left behind feel abandoned and betrayed by him. Everyone seems to think he is the one who gave the police information that led to the death of one of the leaders of the Black Power movement. But it is also clear that he is a good man. Could he be protecting someone?

This is a sincere, thoughtful exploration of complex issues and complicated people. Washington and Mackie, who appeared together in “She Hate Me” give performances of great depth and dignity, spare but endlessly compelling and evocative. The story’s ambitions at times outstrip the ability of first-timer Hamilton, but it is those very ambitions that give the film its exceptional power. At its conclusion, we have to confront our own assumptions to recognize that it is really not Marcus’ story after all, and the whole movie opens up to deepen our appreciation and insight.

Related Tags:

Drama Neglected gem Romance

Conviction

Posted on February 1, 2011 at 8:00 am

Sam Rockwell gives one of the best performances of the year as Kenny Waters, a man wrongly convicted of murder for eighteen years until his sister was able to prove that he was innocent and get him released. Betty Ann (Hillary Swank) and Kenny were two of nine children from seven fathers raised in a succession of foster homes. She was a high school dropout and new mother when he went to prison. She went back to school, graduated from college and law school, passed the bar, and with the help of Cardozo Law School’s Innocence Project, was able to prove through DNA evidence that the blood found at the crime scene was not his.

Rockwell is mesmerizing as a man whose kind heart and family loyalty sometimes suffer from his impulsively confrontational behavior. He conveys at every stage the weight of his experience in prison as we see him over the 18-year period. His frustration, longing, despair, his fear of hoping too much mingled with his unquenchable pride in his sister are all heartbreakingly evident. He shows us why he was one of the local police department’s favorite “usual suspects” but he also shows us why someone would spend her life working on his behalf, even after everyone tells her to move on.

Director Tony Goldwyn and screenwriter Pamela Gray do a fine job of shaping the material, giving us a sense of the characters’ past experiences, the strength of their connection, and the press of time. The cast includes the reliable support of Minnie Driver as Betty Ann’s law school classmate and loyal friend and Juliette Lewis, outstanding as a recanting witness.

Swank, who co-produced, is sincere and dedicated if not ideal casting for this role. She has gravitated lately to a series of heroic characters, though her best work has been in more damaged or fragile roles. A high school dropout in real life, she is drawn to characters who exemplify education and achievement. But she gives us no sense of school as anything but an obstacle course. Her learning is not tied in any way to expanded understanding; she seems to have no curiosity about the law and no passion for anything but freeing her brother. We see the impact of her single-mindedness on her husband and sons but not how their reactions affect her. The story is one of triumph that cannot help but move us, but as a real-life character who gives everything, Swank does not give us enough.