Dolphin Tale 2

Posted on September 11, 2014 at 5:59 pm

Copyright Warner Brothers 2014
Copyright Warner Brothers 2014

The warmest, wisest, most pleasurable live-action family film of the year is “Dolphin Tale 2,” even better than the 2011 original. This really is that rare movie for the whole family.

The first film was inspired by the true story of Winter, a rescued dolphin who was able to thrive in Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium after an innovative new prosthetic tail helped to protect her spine and allow her to swim. She has been an inspiration to millions of visitors in person and via webcam, especially to wounded veterans and other adults and children with disabilities. In the original, directed by Charles Martin Smith (Terry the Toad in “American Graffiti” and Farley Mowat in Never Cry Wolf, a sensitive loner named Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) bonds first with the wounded dolphin and then with the staff who care for the marine animals, especially aquarium head Clay (Harry Connick, Jr.) and his pretty daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff). Ashley Judd played Sawyer’s mother, Kris Kristofferson played Clay’s houseboat-dwelling dad, and Morgan Freeman played crusty Dr. McCarthy, who figures out how to make the prosthetic comfortable and stable.

Everyone returns for this follow-up, and this time Charles Martin Smith does triple duty as writer, director, and actor, appearing as a strict but not unsympathetic USDA official responsible for making sure the facility meets federal standards in caring for the animals.   He may refer to Winter at CMA1108, but he is trying to do what is best for her.

The kids have gone from middle school to high school. They are now experienced marine animal specialists, and spend most of their time at the aquarium, much of that in the water. We see how capable and knowledgeable they are when they assist in the rescue of an injured dolphin they name Mandy and a sea turtle ensnared in fishing line they dub Mavis. And we see how deeply they care for the animals when the veteran of their dolphin population, a 40-year-old deaf dolphin who is “paired” with Winter, dies suddenly. This is more than a sad loss. Dolphins are deeply social creatures. If Winter cannot or is not willing to be be paired with another dolphin, she will die.  The USDA inspector says that if they cannot find a friend for Winter in 30 days, she will have to be moved.

Mandy’s arrival seems providential. But then the best thing happens, which is also the worst thing. They are able to restore Mandy to health.  But that means that she can no longer remain in captivity, which is just for animals who can no longer take care of themselves.  The motto of the facility is three words: rescue, rehabilitate, release.  “You didn’t build this place to keep animals,” Clay’s father reminds him.  “You built it to heal them and let them go.”  The wrenching task of weighing those competing considerations is sensitively presented as a moral issue, an economic issue, and as a part of growing up that Hazel and Sawyer must understand.  It is an issue of more complexity than we normally get to see in family films, and it is presented with exceptional insight.  A scene where Hazel follows Sawyer’s mother’s advice to speak to Clay the way she would like to be spoken to is a small gem that got some appreciative laughs of recognition from the audience. Smith knows his audience, though, and expertly seasons the storyline with cute animals, especially Rufus the pelican, who is back for more comic relief. Even with Rufus, though, the slapstick moments are just part of the story.  His protective concern for Mavis is genuinely touching.

A storyline about whether Sawyer will accept an opportunity to take a special semester at sea is less intriguing.  But Gamble’s quietly sincere and thoughtful performance grounds the film, with Zuehlsdorff (who provides a sweet song over the closing credits) more ebullient, but never less than completely real and in the moment. The completely natural performances of the two leads perfectly matches the sun-drenched naturalism of the setting, utterly at home in the water, interacting with the dolphins, or struggling to grow up. When Dr. McCarthy sits down next to the conflicted Sawyer to hand him a family heirloom, Sawyer says knowingly, “I’m about to get a lesson here, aren’t I?” He is, and we are, too, but it is a good lesson and it goes down easy. So does the film, ambitious in scope but light in presentation. And it is no disrespect to the movie to say that the best part is the closing credits, where we see Wounded Warriors and other people with disabilities coming to visit Winter and Hope for inspiration and, somehow, a sense that they are being understood and cared for.

Parents should know that this film includes mild peril, some scenes of animal and human injuries and a sad animal death.

Family discussion: What was the lesson of the watch? What were the best reasons for releasing Mandy? For keeping her? Did they make the right decision?

If you like this, try: The original film — and watch Hope and Winter online

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Animals and Nature Environment/Green For the Whole Family Inspired by a true story Scene After the Credits Series/Sequel Stories About Kids

Walking With the Enemy

Posted on April 24, 2014 at 6:00 pm

Why do we keep making movies about the Holocaust?

Because we are still trying to understand one of the most shocking, inhumane tragedies in history. Because it is the essence of heightened, dramatic storylines, with the most depraved real-life villains, the bravest heroes, and the direst moral dilemmas, the most devastating sacrifices. Because we have to ask ourselves, “What would I do?”

And because there are still stories left to tell. “Walking With the Enemy” is inspired by the true story of Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum, a Hungarian student who escaped from a labor camp to help the “Glass House” workers forging Swiss citizenship papers to get Jews out of the country. He impersonated an SS officer to rescue Jews they were about to execute.

This first movie from the brand new Liberty Studios and first-time director Mark Schmidt is a tense and exciting story of a part of the Holocaust not widely known.  Because Hungary’s Regent (played by Sir Ben Kingsley) made an alliance with Germany, the Nazis did not interfere with the country or its Jewish citizens for the first years of World War II.  “I aligned Hungary with what I thought was the lesser of two evils.”  walking with the enemy

But then, as Germany started to be hemmed in by the Allied forces, it took over Hungary and began to send Jews to labor camps and concentration camps.  A heroic Swiss diplomat named Carl Lutz (played by William Hope) was given permission to issue 8000 passes to Hungarian Jews with family in Switzerland.  He managed to get those passes to tens of thousands, who were able to escape the Nazis.

Handsome and likeable Jonas Armstrong (television’s “Robin Hood”) plays Elek Cohen, a character based on Rosenbaum.  While his uncle worked with Lutz in the “Glass House” (called that because it had been a glass factory), helping to hide Jews, Elek wore a Nazi uniform to infiltrate Nazi offices and operations to free Jews about to be sent away or killed.  Over and over, he takes terrible risks, knowing that even if he survives, he will fail more than he succeeds.  “Why does it have to be you?” someone asks.  “Because I have one thing left.”

The first-time director wisely worked with experienced filmmakers, especially cinematographer Dean Cundey (“Apollo 13,” “Jurassic Park”) and a capable cast of top British actors.  The film is ably scripted, shot, and edited.  The sound effects are exceptional; I don’t remember ever hearing gunshot sounds so sharp and directed.  The story is very affecting.  One oddly sterile note is that for a story about Jews, there is very little Jewish activity other than a blessing over a family dinner.  Reminiscences of the Holocaust include many stories of Jews praying together and doing their best to observe rituals and worship, reciting the Shema as they were led to the gas chambers.  Here, even those about to be shot by a firing squad do not say a prayer, an odd oversight in a story that is about those who were trying to preserve their right to maintain their religion and their community.

Parents should know that this is a WWII movie depicting events of the Holocaust.  There are many scenes of wartime and anti-Semitic violence and many characters are injured and killed.

Family discussion: What was Elek’s toughest decision?  Is it hard to help, knowing how much more cannot be fixed?  What can we learn from Elek and Lutz?  Who is most like them today?

If you like this, try: “Schindler’s List” and “Conspiracy”

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Drama Epic/Historical Inspired by a true story War

Pompeii

Posted on February 20, 2014 at 6:00 pm

pompeii posterIn 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted, wiping out the city of Pompeii. Director Paul W.S. Anderson, who gave us movie versions of “Resident Evil” and “Mortal Kombat,” presents the story as a video game. If what you are looking for is special effects and well-staged action, or even buff bodies, you’re all set.  But those who are looking for history, meaningful drama, character development, or good dialog — well, they weren’t paying attention a moment ago when I mentioned the director of game console-to-movie theater movies and Paul W.S. Anderson.  It is basically “The Legend of Hercules” with a volcano.

“Game of Thrones'” Kit Harington plays Milo, who as a child saw his entire community brutally slaughtered by the vicious and corrupt Roman soldier Corvus (an imperious Kiefer Sutherland).  Milo escaped by hiding in a pile of dead bodies.  He is later captured and sold into slavery, where his outstanding fighting skills bring him to the attention of a purveyor of gladiator battle-to-the-death entertainment.  He travels to the big city of Pompeii to compete in the arena there.  Along the way, he sees a beautiful young woman named Cassia (Emily Browning) and he impresses her by putting her injured horse out of its misery.  Cassia is returning to her parents (Jared Harris and Carrie-Ann Moss) after a visit to Rome, where she attracted the attention of Corvus, now a high-ranking Senator.  But Milo has attracted her attention.  In an example of dialog that could have come out of a middle school slam book, a character says, “I never saw you look at any man the way you looked at that slave.”

Milo is set to fight the enormous and powerful Atticus (“Thor’s” Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who can earn not just his life but his freedom with one more win in the arena.  They end up forming an alliance like that of Kirk Douglas and Woody Strode in the classic “Spartacus.”  Meanwhile Corvus is attempting to extort Cassia’s hand in marriage from her father, who needs the support of Rome for his building project.

And all of this is about to be trumped by a nearby mountain and some seismic movement of the earth.  There are huge sinkholes and then there is an ocean of burning lava and chokingly thick ash.  Every element of the lives of the Pompeiians is turned upside down as all societal restrictions are removed and all anyone wants to do is stay alive.  Well, you’d think that, but unfortunately the storylines that have already more than overstayed their welcome drag on, interfering with what we really want to see — the special effects — and jettisoning any possible remaining legitimacy of the plot.

Harington is very good as Milo and he and the excellent Akinnuoye-Agbaje make the fight scenes exciting and compelling.  Sutherland has a nice sneer (I could not help remembering his bully in “Stand By Me.”)  The special effects, especially in 3D, are impressive.  But the movie is dragged down by its cheesy storyline.

This is not the first movie version of the story of Pompeii and it will not be the last.  Pliny the Younger’s eyewitness description of what happened when the volcano erupted excerpted in the opening moments of the film, is still more vivid and powerful than any version yet put on screen.

You might hear the Shrieks of Women, the Cries of Children, the Noise of Men: Some called aloud for their Parents, some for their Husbands, and knew them only by their Voices; some bewailed their own Share in the Calamity; and others that of their Neighbours; some wished for Death from the Fear of Dying; many lifted up their Hands to Heaven; a Multitude disbelieved all the Gods, and looked upon the Time to be the last eternal Night, that has been prophesied. Some improved the real Dangers by feigned and imaginary Fears; others gave it out, that this House at Misenum was fallen, that was burnt; both falsely, but they met with Believers. A Glimpse of Light appeared, that did not show us the Return of Day, but the Approach of the Fire that threatened us: The Fire indeed, stood at a Distance; then the Darkness revived, and after that, a plentiful Shower of Ashes and Cinders: We rose up now and then and shook them off, otherwise we should have been covered and oppressed with the Weight of them. I could boast, that neither a Sigh, nor a complaining Expression dropped from me in the midst of these Alarms; but I was supported by this Consolation, not very Reasonable indeed, but natural enough, to think that all the World perished with me. 

Parents should know that this film has extensive sword and sandal-era violence including the slaughter of a village, a child seeing his parents get killed, a horse put down, and many gladiator fighting scenes with many characters injured and killed. Also, natural disaster violence destroys an entire city with some disturbing images and there is a brief sexual situation (slaves as prostitutes) and reference to a brothel.

Family discussion: Why didn’t Milo want to say his name? What kind of culture finds gladiator fighting entertaining?

If you like this, try: read up on the real history of Pompeii and watch classics like “Gladiator,” “Ben Hur” and “Spartacus”

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3D Action/Adventure Drama Epic/Historical Inspired by a true story Tragedy

Inside Llewyn Davis

Posted on December 19, 2013 at 6:00 pm

A-
Lowest Recommended Age: Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language including some sexual references
Profanity: Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, drug use and drug overdose
Violence/ Scariness: A few punches, drug overdose
Diversity Issues: None
Date Released to Theaters: December 20, 2013
Date Released to DVD: March 10, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN: B00DVZ414C

Inside-Llewyn-Davis-cat

Oscar Isaac gives the best performance of the year as the title character in the most intimate and profound movie yet from the Coen brothers.  The story is set in the New York folk music world of 1961 and the Coens insisted on filming the songs live rather than pre-recording, and one of the wonders of this film is the way that Isaac makes each song more than a musical performance — each is a part of his characterization that tells us who Davis is and where he is on a week-long journey we will see in near Sisyphian terms.  The breaths and pauses are as much a part of the performance as the notes he plays and sings.  When he is not singing, Davis reacts very little, and one of the great pleasures of this film is seeing Isaac convey immense conflict and sensitivity to us in the audience while those around him see only his superficial expressionlessness.  In one scene, a doctor offhandedly gives him surprising news about someone else.  In that one moment he says almost nothing but conveys a dozen different emotions and questions and losses.  This is the story of a man who expresses himself only through his music.  But he does not have the gifts to make him successful enough to support himself or achieve any sense of security and acceptance.

The Coens like to put their central characters under a lot of stress, and in this film Davis must deal with disappointment and anger all around him and his own sense of frustration in not being able to honor the songs that are his whole world by making them as important to others as they are to him.  Ultimately, it becomes a larger story about the way all of us struggle to find meaning and a place for ourselves.  And all of that is to the heavenly music impeccably curated by T. Bone Burnett and performed by a cast that includes Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, and Broadway’s Stark Sands.  The Coens also like to create physical environments that reflect the internal pressure (the peeling wallpaper in “Barton Fink” was almost another character).  Here, the re-creation of early 60’s Greenwich Village is relatively low-key and naturalistic, but there are still cramped corridors with impossibly acute vectors to amplify Davis’ external manifestation of the grungy world that seems to have no exit.

The film’s title, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” is the also the name of a record album made by the early 1960’s folk singer played by Isaac.  We first see him singing in a Greenwich Village club, performing “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me,” a song that “was never new and never gets old.”

The folk singers of the early 60‘s thought of themselves as truly authentic in a world where suburban materialism and conformity were idealized.  A movement that presaged and in some ways helped to spark the counterculture and protest of the late 60’s was, of course, inherently inauthentic itself.  Folk music is beautiful wherever it is sung, even in the kind of homogenized, commercial versions looked down on by Davis (and gently mocked in “A Mighty Wind”).  But what makes it authentic is that it is music sung by folk in their community, not by professional musicians in a New York club.  The essence of the struggle any artist — or any person — faces between integrity and selling out is explicit here.  Davis criticizes his friend and sometime lover as “careerist” for trying to get ahead in the music business.  But he himself makes a trip to an influential producer to see if he can get better bookings.  And as authentic as Davis may think he is, he is contemptuous the performances by a soldier and a woman from the country, both of whom arguably have a better claim to “authenticity” than he does.

Like all Coen brothers anti-heroes, Davis is a man under pressure.  He has nowhere to live, and sleeps on couches he scrounges from friends.  He seems to have no sense of gratitude.  He shows some sense of responsibility.  He spends the night at the home of a benign Columbia professor who loves his music, stopping to play a cut from the album he made with his former partner (Isaac sings with Marcus Mumford).  Then, when he is leaving, the professor’s marmelade cat slips out the apartment door just as it swings shut and locks behind him.  Davis scoops up the cat and takes him on the subway, calling the professor’s office to let him know the cat is safe.  He then drops the cat off at another apartment he often uses as a place to stay, the home of singing duo Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Isaac’s “Drive” wife, Carey Mulligan), where he finds out that Jean is (1) pregnant and (2) furious because it might be his.  He again responds responsibly, if not graciously.  And when Jim (of course not knowing anything about his relationship to Jean) arranges for Davis to get a quick gig as a session musician for a silly but irresistible little novelty ditty called “Please Mr. Kennedy,” he gives it his best.

We follow Davis over the course of a week, one frustrating encounter after another, with Jean, with the head of the tiny record label that produced his last record, a doctor who performs abortions, his silent father in a nursing home, his suburban sister, on a long ride to Chicago with a jazz musician (Coen brothers regular John Goodman) and his near-silent driver (Garrett Hedlund), a nerve-wracking audition with an important producer (F. Murray Abraham).  In each of them, Davis is subdued. He has feelings, but he expresses them in his music.  There is something in these ancient songs about death, betrayal, and injustice that touches his heart. Singing them is his deepest connection to himself.  “Just exist?” he asks his sister, when she suggests he give up folk music.  But even when he wants to give up, he can’t.

Davis knows that things seem hopeless for him.  He tries to slide his box of remaindered LPs under a table only to find an almost-identical box of another singer’s records there already.  He looks out of the car window at a highway exit that he and we know could lead to an important chance at connection and meaning.  We see around Davis what he cannot.  We see him make a decision as he leaves the recording studio that suits his purposes at the moment but that we know he will be bitter about forever. A young, tousled-hair singer goes on at the club and we know he will transform the world in a way Davis can not.  But in a very real and very satisfying way, the Coens and Isaac have reclaimed him for us with their own story that was never new, and never gets old.

Parents should know that this film includes strong language, a fistfight, references to sex, adultery, abortion, and suicide, drinking, smoking, and drug use and overdose.

Family discussion:  Why was it so hard for Llewyn to succeed?  What do we learn about him from the decision not to go to Akron?  From his heckling of another performer?

If you like this, try:  “Don’t Look Back” and “A Mighty Wind” — and the Showtime concert featuring the music from the film, “Another Day, Another Time”

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Drama DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Inspired by a true story Musical
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