The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Posted on May 9, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Kids, here’s a hint: Don’t think you can pass a sophomore English exam on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz age classic and high school reading list perennial by watching this movie.  While this version of the story of a man who changes everything about his life so that he can win back the woman he loves hits the Cliff’s notes highlights, spending more time on the green light on the dock than Gatsby and on the eyeglass billboard than Nick Carraway, co-writer and director Baz Luhrmann misses the forest for the trees.   His trees are fun to look at, though.  

Copyright Village Roadshow 2012

It goes off the rails from the very first moment, when it turns out that narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is telling the story in a snow-covered sanitarium, presumably because the events he is about to disclose are so traumatic they have caused him to have a breakdown.  Or, perhaps this is Luhrmann’s way of eliding Carraway with Fitzgerald himself, though there is no indication that Fitzgerald wrote this book as therapy.

The more significant violation, though, comes from the mangling of the book’s famous opening lines.  Like the book, the movie begins with Carraway telling us that his father warned him not to judge people.  But it leaves out the most important part — the reason why. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me,‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’”  This is crucial for understanding the way Nick looks at Gatsby and his rival, Tom Buchanan.  But Luhrmann inexplicably does not think it is worth including.

Perhaps it is because he is so eager to get to what matters to him, the pageantry.  He is the genre/mash-up “Moulin Rouge” guy whose motto seems to be “more is still not enough, even with glitter on it.  And firecrackers.  And 3D.  And Jay-Z.”

The story takes place in 1922.  Nick is a WWI veteran who has literary tendencies but is working at a low-level job “in bonds” on Wall Street.  He is living in a small cottage in the Hamptons, next door to a vast mansion owned by a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), who gives fabulously decadent parties but is seldom seen.   They are across the bay from the old-money side, where Nick’s cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) lives with her wealthy, upper class, polo-playing brute of a husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton).  He is having an affair with Myrtle (Isla Fisher), the restless wife of the struggling owner of a garage.

It turns out that Daisy and Gatsby knew each other five years earlier, when he was in the military and before she was married to Tom.   But “rich girls don’t marry poor boys.”  Gatsby has changed everything to change himself into the man Daisy could have married.  He lives across from her home so he can look toward her (and the green light on her dock).  He hopes that his parties will lure her to his home.  When he discovers that his neighbor is her relation, he goes to great lengths to assure Nick that he is trustworthy and to persuade Nick to invite him to tea with Daisy, so he can see her again.  He is convinced that they can erase the past and go on together as though five years that included her marriage and child never happened.  Nick admires Gatsby for his ability to hope.  And in Lurhmann’s version, that is a quality that more than makes up for the compromises and selfishness of Gatsby’s single-minded quest.

Of course, thoughtful consideration of issues like those is not the purpose of this film.  It is a confetti gun of a movie, all sensation and senseless mash-up.  The party scenes and period details are gorgeous for the sake of gorgeousness, with no sense of perspective or irony.  Fitzgerald, who had a love-hate relationship with wealth and status, had some ambivalence in his descriptions of the characters luxuries, but in general Lurhmann’s portrayal of the negligent opulence of the old money Buchanans and gauche display of the new money Gatsby is somewhere between awe and envy.  The Jay-Z-produced soundtrack is not as anacronistically intrusive as one might fear, only because the sensory overload barely allows it to register.  But it is thin compared to the book.  Fitzgerald’s carefully chosen songs and the lyrics of the era that he included are far more evocative and illuminating as words on a page than all of the thump thump thumping  of the music we hear.

Luhrmann may be trying to make some point with the marginalization of African-American characters, relegated to playing music, dancing, and looking on at what the white folks are doing from tenements.  But it is distracting and unsettling to see them treated as just another set of props.   But then, the white characters are not much more than props, either, with a director more interested in posing them and moving the camera than in any kind of performance.  Daisy’s friend Jordan (Elizabeth Debicki), impossibly long and thin, is like a Giacometti sculpture towering above mere mortals.  DiCaprio has some affecting moments, but seems too old and too sleekly comfortable for the role.

After at least five unsuccessful attempts to make this novel into a movie, it may be time to declare it unfilmable.  There is no cinematic equivalent to Fitzgerald’s voice.  This is not “The Great Gatsby.”  It’s an often-visually pleasing kaleidoscopic music video with a 3D shower of shirts.

Parents should know that the movie features violence including murder, suicide, a fatal traffic accident, and domestic abuse, also drinking and drunkenness, pills, smoking, sexual situations that are explicit for a PG-13, and brief strong language including racist and anti-Semitic epithets.

Family discussion:  What do the green light and the billboard symbolize?  Why does Nick say that Gatsby is hopeful?

If you like this, try: the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald and compare this to the other versions, including the 1974 Robert Redford film, the Mira Sorvino miniseries, and the updated “G”

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For Tax Day: The Mating Game and Stranger Than Fiction

Posted on April 15, 2013 at 7:00 am

In celebration of tax day, enjoy two romantic comedies about IRS agents.

“The Mating Game” stars Tony Randall and Debbie Reynolds in a rollicking story about a warm-hearted farm family that never pays taxes because they do everything on the barter system.  Paul Douglas is wonderful in what would be his last performance.  If that sounds familiar to PBS fans, it’s because it is based on The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates, which became a a 1991 television series starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

And Will Ferrell plays an IRS agent who discovers he is a character in a book in the fourth-wall-breaking delight, “Stranger Than Fiction.”

 

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Best of Warner Brothers: Romances

Posted on April 1, 2013 at 7:00 am

A+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: Varied
Profanity: Some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking, war
Violence/ Scariness: Some violence
Diversity Issues: Divers characters, some older films reflect the prejudices of their eras
Date Released to DVD: April 1, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN: B00AIQKG2S

This is a must-have for every family’s library — the latest in Warner Bros series of collections is its Romance series, with 20 of the all-time greatest movie love stories: timeless love, unforgettable affairs, and modern romance, filled with passion, heartbreak, triumph, joyous reunions and tragic partings, comedy, drama, and tragedy.  The legendary studio celebrates its 90th birthday this week.  Coming soon: 20 Comedy and 20 Thrillers series

The collection includes:

Jezebel (1938): Bette Davis is a Southern belle in Antebellum Louisiana who puts her pride above her love for Preston (Henry Fonda).  When he will not do her bidding she humiliates him by wearing a bright red dress to a ball (unmarried ladies are supposed to wear only pure white).  When he leaves her, she learns that love is about sacrifice and generosity.

Gone with the Wind (1939): One of the biggest books of its time became one of the biggest movies of all time.  Scarlett O’Hara (Oscar winner Vivian Leigh) is a tempestuous Civil War-era beauty who breaks the hearts of all the men in Georgia, except for her match, handsome heart-breaker Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) — until they leave to join the Confederate Army and she becomes an indomitable survivor in the midst of loss and chaos.

The Philadelphia Story (1940) My all-time favorite movie has Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as battling exes from high society Philadelphia families and Oscar winner James Stewart as the reporter who comes to write the story of her new marriage to the stolid but ambitious George (John Howard).  It doesn’t come any wittier, smarter, or more romantic than this.

Casablanca (1942): One of the screen’s greatest love triangles is the Best Picture Oscar winner about former lovers Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), married to Victor (Paul Henried) who meet in the title city while it is occupied by Nazi forces.  The all-star supporting cast includes Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, and Sidney Greenstreet, and there are too many classic lines to count, plus the unforgettable “As Time Goes By” theme song.  A perfect film in every category.

 Mrs. Miniver (1942): Greer Garson, Teresa Wright, and Walter Pidgeon star in this WWII classic about a brave British family trying to stay strong in the early days of the war.

Now Voyager (1942): Bette Davis plays Charlotte, the ugly ducking of a wealthy Boston family ruled by a domineering mother (Gladys Cooper).  She has a breakdown, and with the patient kindness of therapist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), she begins to bloom.  On a cruise, she meets married architect Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) and they fall deeply in love.  But he cannot leave his unstable wife.  Charlotte finds a deeply fulfilling a way to be of service to him, memorably telling him, “Don’t ask for the moon.  We have the stars.”

 

Annie Get Your Gun (1950): One of Irving Berlin’s most rollicking scores includes standards like “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,” in this fictionalized story of sharpshooter Annie Oakley and her life as a performer.  In real life, her co-star and husband Frank Butler (Howard Keel) was completely supportive of her, but in Berlin’s version they are both very competitive.  “The Girl That I Marry” and “I’m an Indian” reflect the stereotypes of their era, but it is still a lot of fun.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): Tennessee Williams’ classic is about about a fragile, disturbed woman (another Oscar-winner for Vivian Leigh) who disrupts the life of her gentle sister (Oscar-winner Kim Hunter) and her passionate, dominating husband (Marlon Brando).  Karl Malden also won an Oscar for his role as a kind-hearted would-be suitor.  This is the “director’s cut” version, restoring some scenes that were cut by the censors.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955): The ultimate classic of teenage angst features a galvanizing performance from James Dean, who is still the teenage icon, partly because he died a few months after this film was released, and so remains frozen in time, but partly because his performance in this film had – and has – ­such resonance for teenagers and for everyone else who feels unsure and angry, and unsure of why they feel angry. The title says it all: Jim is a rebel without the ability to put into words what he is rebelling against.  It co-stars Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, and Dennis Hopper.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958): Elizabeth Taylor spends most of this movie wearing nothing but a slip trying to seduce Paul Newman as her husband as a party for her domineering father-in-law (Burl Ives) storms around his birthday party.  Taylor gives one of her best performances as Maggie, a determined survivor in a house filled with liars and cheaters.

Splendor in the Grass (1961): Warren Beatty became a star in this story of a doomed teenage romance in an era of repression and anguish written by William Inge, co-starring Natalie Wood.

Doctor Zhivago (1965): Omar Sharif plays the sensitive, idealistic title character in a love story in the midst of the Russian revolution.  Zhivago marries the daughter of the people who took him in after his parents died, but he loves Lara (Julie Christie).  The haunting theme music is by Maurice Jarre.

A Touch of Class (1973): A couple who planned to have an uncomplicated affair find themselves unexpectedly falling in love in this very 70’s bittersweet comedy starring George Segal and Glenda Jackson, featuring the new frankness permitted by the ratings system that allowed for more explicit material.

A Star Is Born (1976): This third version of the classic story of the young performer on the rise who marries a fading star has Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristoferson, with an Oscar-winning song, “Evergreen,” by Streisand and Paul Williams.

The Goodbye Girl (1977): Richard Dreyfuss won an Oscar as an aspiring actor working in a doomed production of “Richard III” who sublets an apartment only to find that it is already occupied.  Marsha Mason (then married to screenwriter Neil Simon) has the title role as a single mother who is vulnerable because she has been dumped by so many men.  

The Bodyguard (1992): Whitney Houston plays a pop star who has been threatened and Kevin Costner is her bodyguard.  They fall in love and Whitney sings the Dolly Parton song, “I Will Always Love You,” one of the biggest hits of the 90’s.

You’ve Got Mail (1998): Nora Ephron cleverly updated “The Shop Around the Corner,” about battling co-workers who don’t realize they are falling in love through an anonymous correspondence, to the era of email, and adds another timely note: Tom Hanks plays the chief executive of a chain of super-sized bookstores and Meg Ryan plays the owner of a neighborhood bookstore.  (In the next remake, the superstore will be closed down by Amazon.)  A witty script and the natural chemistry of the three-time co-stars makes this an ideal romantic comedy. 

Two Weeks Notice (2002): Hugh Grant is a feckless zillionaire and Sandra Bullock is the idealistic lawyer who goes to work for him.  Guess what happens?

The Lake House (2006): Sandra Bullock re-teams with her “Speed” co-star Keanu Reeves in this fantasy romance about a doctor and an architect who occupy the same beautiful glass lake house — two years apart.  Somehow, they are able to communicate with each other by leaving letters in the mailbox.  They begin to fall in love, but can they ever meet in the same moment?

Nights in Rodanthe (2008): Richard Gere and Diane Lane, who co-starred in “Unfaithful” and “The Cotton Club,” play a lonely pair who unexpectedly find love in this Nicholas Sparks story.  

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Classic DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Movie Mom’s Top Picks for Families Romance

The Sapphires

Posted on March 28, 2013 at 6:00 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: High School
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sexuality, a scene of war violence, some language, thematic elements, and smoking
Profanity: Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness: War violence
Diversity Issues: A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters: March 22, 2013
Date Released to DVD: August 15, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN: B00D2UMHQ0

A very conventional story of a 60’s Australian girl group gains extra power from its context and setting in this fact-based story set to the beat of Motown soul.  Co-written by the son of one of the real-life singers and directed by Wayne Blair, who starred in the play based on their story, “The Sapphires” is clearly a labor of love for all involved and a touching tribute to four women for whom success as performers was just the beginning.

Before it begins, we learn two stark, devastating facts.  Until 1967, the native Australians dubbed “Aborigines” by the British settlers were not classified as humans by the Australian government.  They were considered “flora or fauna.”  And the government had the authority to remove light-skinned native children from their families as part of the program depicted in “Rabbit-Proof Fence” to make them part of the white community.

We meet the future singers as children, three sisters and their cousin, performing at a family celebration in 1958.  The light-skinned cousin is taken to become part of what is now known as the “Stolen Generation,” with no contact with her family.

A decade later, as young women, the sisters still sing together.  Gail, the feisty oldest (Deborah Mailman of “Rabbit-Proof Fence”), the ambitious Julie (pop singer Jessica Mauboy), and the flirty Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell) enter a local competition singing American country and western.  Braving the bigotry of the audience, they sing a Merle Haggard song.

The accompanist/master of ceremonies is Dave (“Bridesmaids'” Chris O’Dowd) is a broken-down mess who seems to have burned every possible bridge that once linked him to music, a job, his home in Ireland, or any semblance of self-respect.  But he still knows the real deal when he hears it.  As amateurish as they are, Dave sees what the sisters can become.  They ask him to come with them to try out for a chance to perform for American GIs in Viet Nam for $30 a week.  Soon they have reconnected with their cousin Kay (Shari Sebbens), switched from country to Motown, and passed the audition under their new name, inspired by a ring — The Sapphires. O’Dowd’s shambling charm plays well against Mailman’s protective ferocity and the wartime background and struggles against bigotry add some heft what might otherwise seem like a lightweight jukebox musical.

A girl group with four members under high-stress touring conditions far from home means many opportunities for romance, adventure, and power struggles, plus the inevitable rehearsal montages. “Can you make it sound blacker?” Dave asks.  He switches lead singers, guides them on stage presence, and suggests some different songs.  Both country and soul music are about loss, he tells them, but in country music the singer has given up.  “With soul, they’re still struggling.”  Dave’s passion for the music and his belief in the girls are scary but exhilarating.  So is being away from home for the first time.

The girls learn that performing is about more than great songs and tight harmonies as they are touched by the valor of the American soldiers.  It is not just that the GIs expect a show; they deserve one.  So, The Sapphires add spangles, go-go boots, rump-shaking and a lot of attitude.

That gives them the freedom to open themselves up to new experiences and new ways of looking at themselves.  And it means that we get to enjoy quite a show as well.  When the storyline starts to feel too close to the familiar “VH1 Behind the Music” soapy sagas of backstage tensions and heartache, those fabulous classic soul songs of the 60’s ring out, thoughtfully matched to what is happening off-stage.  “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “What a Man,” “I’ll Take You There,” “Hold On!  I’m Coming,” and many more add tremendous energy and spirit.  They are every bit as entertaining as they were nearly half a century ago.  Equally entrancing is a touching moment when they sing a native song called “Ngarra Burra Ferra.”

The credit sequence updates us on what happened after The Sapphires came home, with an extraordinary record of achievement, photos of the beautiful women who inspired the film, and a concluding line of piercing sweetness.  It would be great to have a sequel, but they deserve a documentary.

Parents should know that this movie includes strong language, sexual references, smoking, drinking, and wartime violence.

Family discussion: How do the racial conflicts portrayed in this film compare to those of the same era in the United States?  What makes them different?  Are you surprised by what the Sapphires did after their tour?

If you like this, try: “Rabbit-Proof Fence” and “Dreamgirls”

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Based on a play Based on a true story Biography Drama DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Family Issues Music Musical Romance War

The Host

Posted on March 28, 2013 at 6:00 pm

C-
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sensuality and violence
Profanity: Some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking
Violence/ Scariness: Extended sci-fi peril and violence, characters injured and killed, attempted suicide, character shot with gun, some disturbing images
Diversity Issues: A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters: March 29, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN: B0090SI4OC

The author of the Twilight series was showing signs of running out of ideas around the middle of the second volume, and this latest story shows more evidence of the pressure of producing a new series than anything approaching inspiration. Howlers that can slide by in print are impossible to ignore in a thuddingly dumb story of an alien takeover and the girl who is able to hold onto her own consciousness as the “host” of glowing millipede from outer space.

Problem #1: If you’re going to make a movie about aliens taking over human bodies, the indicator of possession should not be glowing blue eyes that eliminate a critical element of the actors’ ability to communicate.

Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is one of the few remaining humans who have not been overtaken by alien invaders who have inhabited almost every person on earth and eliminated suffering, illness,  and conflict — also passion, independence, innovation, and any notion of the individual.  Everything is smooth and civil and orderly.  It is like the whole planet moves to Muzak.  But they have excellent healthcare.

Melanie is captured by the aliens, led by Seeker, who heal her injuries and implant one of their aliens inside her.  But instead of taking over her consciousness, the invader, known as Wanderer, exists side by side, leading to a series of back-and-forth conversations intended to be touching but are more often mundane.  She’s like a bad ventriloquist with two invisible dummies.  It is clunky and dull when she talks to herself but not much better when the characters talk to one another.  “What’s it like in there?” a character asks Melanie/Wanda.  “It’s crowded.”  “Kiss me like you want to get slapped.”

Ronan is a superb actress, but even she cannot make real the idea of these two equally drippy characters as distinctive individuals, especially after she hides out with a secret rebel group led by Jeb (William Hurt), and in “Twilight” love triangle  fashion becomes involved with two different cute guys, one who loves Melanie and one who loves the Wanderer, now known as Wanda.  “If you could hold me — me — in your hand, you’d be disgusted,” Wanda explains to the guy who wants to kiss her.  When he finally does see what the alien looks like and tries to gaze tenderly at a glowing bug is just silly.

And then things really go nuts as the Seeker (Diane Kruger) goes after the human rebels, insisting, “I am not weak.  I am in control.”  Kruger is more believable as an alien than she usually is as a human, at least until a ridiculous twist near the end.  Melanie had two voices in her head.  I only had one, but it was clearly telling me that this movie is a mess.

This rebel group seems weirdly retro, with almost no women, and a social structure that resembles the 18th century.

Parents should know that this film includes extended sci-fi style peril and violence with some disturbing images, a car crash, aliens, possession, characters injured, some teen kissing and sensual embraces.

Family discussion: Why could Melanie and Wanda exist together?  How do Ian and Jared see her differently?  Why are the aliens able to achieve societal benefits humans have failed to? How does she earn the trust of the humans?  What do you think will happen next?

If you like this, try: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “I Am Number Four” and the book by Stephenie Meyer

 

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