The One I Love

Posted on September 4, 2014 at 6:00 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language, some sexuality and drug use
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	Scuffle, some creepy themes
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	September 5, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00MB7KXPM

“The One I Love” is pretty good as a movie and sublime as an exercise, especially an acting exercise. Just describing details about the story will require a huge spoiler alert, which I will insert below before giving away some of what happens in the film (omitting the ending, of course). But first, we can mention the acting challenge presented by the film. Two actors are on screen for almost the entire running time and are required to display small but distinctly different characteristics to help us and the characters keep everything straight. That is a pleasure to watch on a whole other level aside from the storyline. Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men”) and Mark Duplass (“The Mindy Project”) play Ethan and Sophie, a married couple seeing a therapist (Ted Danson) for counseling. Ethan remembers with great warmth when they first met, and impulsively went for a swim in a stranger’s pool. The sense of fun and freedom they had is something he misses. Sophie is having trouble trusting Ethan again because he had an affair and he is embarrassed and defensive. “I felt like our happiness used to be so easy and there used to be so much of it,” she says sadly. The therapist recommends a weekend getaway to a beautiful, remote cabin, assuring them that every couple he has sent there has returned “renewed.”

They arrive at the cottage, which is lovely, and discover that it has a guest house. SPOILER ALERT: As each of them enters the guest house separately, they encounter what they at first think is each other, but then realize is some other version of the person they married, a little brighter, sweeter, more considerate, more agreeable. Sophie’s new Ethan apologizes sincerely and contritely for his transgression and paints a portrait of her to show his devotion. Ethan’s smiling, slightly Stepford wife-ish new Sophie makes him bacon for breakfast, which the old Sophie didn’t like. At first, each thinks that the other is somehow making progress, becoming more cooperative, more committed to intimacy and rebuilding the relationship. But then it becomes clear that only one of them can enter the guest house at a time, and that the spouse they experience inside is someone new, different, and possibly some sort of projection, not a real person at all.

Ethan and Sophie respond very differently. He takes it on as an opportunity for rational detective work. “Of course you thought the fun was the investigation,” Sophie says, reminding him of the magic show where she enjoyed the show but he insisted on deconstructing all the tricks.

The original Sophie and Ethan at first decide to leave. It is just too creepy. But then they decide to return, making a pact about how each of them will handle the guest house doppelgangers. Is that the therapy? Giving them a shared experience so bizarre that it jolts them into working together to puzzle it out may be part of rebuilding their relationship, after all. “It’s like an exercise in trust,” Ethan says.

Screenwriter Justin Lader plays out the possibilities very cleverly, and it would be unfair to spoil it further. If the ending is not all one might hope, more of a trick than a conclusion, the performances and the ideas are provocative, fun, and something of a therapeutic trust exercise of their own.

Parents should know that this film includes very strong language, sexual references and situations, drinking, and drug use.

Family discussion: What is your explanation for how this retreat came together? If you had a chance to enter the guest house, would you? What would you find there?

If you like this, try: “Safety Not Guaranteed”

The Identical

Posted on September 4, 2014 at 5:51 pm

C-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for thematic material and smoking
Profanity:	Mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Some scuffles
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	September 5, 2014

“The Identical” is an incompetent mishmash of mawkish sentimentality larded with a few pleasant musical numbers and some random asides about Israel. I’m not making this up.

It is inspired by an intriguing fact. Elvis Presley was a twin. His brother was stillborn. Screenwriter Howard Klausner (“The Grace Card”) changes the names and imagines what would have happened if the twin had lived but been raised in a different family. The focus of this story is on Ryan Wade (Elvis impersonator Blake Rayne), the boy who was given up, adopted by a kindhearted Baptist preacher and his wife, played by Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd. We don’t know much about the child who stayed with his biological parents except that he grew up to be a rock and roll superstar known as “The Dream.” Ryan is a good kid who loves music. After a stint in the army, he tells his father that he won’t be following him into the clergy. He works as a mechanic until he wins a Dream impersonation competition and gets hired to perform at state fairs and other venues. We get glimpses of The Dream (also played by Rayne), performing, riding in a limo through a cornfield, flying in a private plane, looking haunted, but we never find out anything about what his life was like, or what music means to him.

The dramatic possibilities in this story surely have to be in the nature/nurture saga that explains the enduring popularity of real-life stories of identical twins separated at birth as well as fictional tales from “The Man in the Iron Mask” to “Big Business.” And there is some potential for pointed satire along the lines of “Walk Hard” or a thoughtful exploration of the racial and cultural divides that melded into the early years of rock and roll. But “The Identical” bypasses all of this for a story that is both lightweight and dreary and a hero who is too good to be true, played by performer who is much more comfortable with the musical numbers than he is with the dialog. I do give him credit for holding his own despite a series of some of the most appalling wigs ever put on screen.

Even supremely talented actors like Liotta and Judd can’t make much of this movie’s dialog, which is stilted and pedestrian. Among the missed opportunities here is the chance to see what Liotta could do delivering a stem-winding sermon to his Baptist congregation. He does deliver some nice thoughts about kindness and tolerance. But all we get from his appearances in church is a watered down commentary on the importance of supporting Israel (with candles burning on a menorah behind him!) during the 6-Day War of 1967. While the film is being marketed as faith-based, there is very little content relating to the role of faith in the lives of any of the Christian or Jewish characters. It is awkwardly written and uncertain in tone, failing as commentary and as story.

Parents should know that this film includes drinking, smoking, difficult family issues, sad deaths, and family conflicts.

Family discussion: Should Reece have told Ryan the truth? Why do audiences like tribute groups that imitate star performers?

If you like this, try: “August Rush” and “The Buddy Holly Story”

When the Game Stands Tall

Posted on August 21, 2014 at 5:59 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for thematic material, a scene of violence, and brief smoking
Profanity:	Mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Shooting, very sad death, serious illness, parental abuse, tense confrontations
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	August 22, 2014

This dreary assemblage of every possible sports cliché has one thing in common with the game it portrays. Every time it seems to be going somewhere, it stops.

More frustratingly, it wastes the opportunity to tell a good story by trying to squeeze in too many great ones. There are too many crises, too many story arcs, too few resolutions, too few reasons for us to invest in the outcome. When a movie is based on (or even “inspired by”) something that really happened, the first step has to be deciding what the theme is and streamlining all of the real-life details that are not central to that theme. Or, as a coach might say, “Don’t lose focus.”

The real-life high school football team that inspired this story is Concord, California’s De La Salle Spartans, from a small, all-boys Catholic school. They hold the all-time winning streak record for any sport in any category and at any level. We meet the team just as the streak is about to end. The last game of the season is the 151st win in a row. But then Coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel) has a heart attack. A player is killed in a drive-by shooting. Another one becomes an orphan, responsible for his younger brother. The other teams do not want to play the Spartans anymore, so they take on the number one team in the state (in a game that is the subject of a book. The winning streak that went from 1992-2004 came to an end.

That’s an interesting place for a sports movie to begin, a refreshing change from the over-familiar sports movie storyline of a scrappy group of underdogs who have to learn to work together. And the film is sincere and good-hearted, though not much we haven’t learned from reading Kipling’s If, especially the part about understanding that winning and losing are both imposters. But the dramatic force of the narrative keeps being mowed down by so many over-familiar sports movie lines that the film’s greatest appeal may be as a drinking game. How many times do we have to hear about how the teammates are family, especially when we hear it more than we see it? (Though I did enjoy seeing the team come on the field holding hands like a kindergarten field trip.)

There is a lot to explore here about what we learn from winning and how much more we learn from losing. Ladouceur’s techniques include “commitment cards” with training goals, practice goals, and game goals, each one written by a player and shared with a teammate to help them understand they are responsible for each other’s performance as well as their own. It is good to hear a coach say that end zone antics are inappropriate and that the purpose of the training is not to produce great high school football players but responsible men.

A number of issues are set up or glancingly referred to without any real connection or follow-through, including some of the coach’s lessons about what matters more than winning. The coach’s son says that when he needed a dad he got a coach and when he needed a coach all he got was a “lame dad.” The coach’s wife (a criminally under-used Laura Dern) says he does not share himself with her or their children. Ladouceur acknowledges that he has been “a bad husband and a worse dad.” But all we see as a response is Ladouceur burning some burgers when he tries to grill.

We do not get enough of the history between the two players who struggle over whether they will stay together through college for it to be meaningful. A brutish father (Clancy Brown) pushes his quarterback son to break the state record in scoring, but the resolution is not set up in a way that makes it a triumph for anyone. Intrusive product placement from a sporting goods store is a distraction as well. As though to keep us on track, equally intrusive sports announcers keep reminding us what the stakes are. Even more intrusive is a musical score that is ploddingly obvious, with hip-hop in a black player’s home and syrupy pop over the white characters. Meanwhile, over on the sidelines (literally), Michael Chiklis as the assistant coach turns in the film’s most intriguing performance.

“It’s no longer about who the bigger, stronger, faster players are,” the coach who has the bigger, stronger, faster players says about playing against the Spartans. (You can tell what’s coming next, right?) “It’s about who plays with more heart.” The heart in this film is mostly over the end credits, where we see the truly inspirational Ladouceur and wish we had just seen a documentary about him instead.

Parents should know that this film includes the tragic murder of a teenager, serious illness of a parent, death of a parent, parental abuse of a teenager, scenes of wounded warriors in rehab, smoking, and brief crude sexual references

Family discussion: What goals will you put on your commitment card? Why didn’t the coach want his players to pay attention to the streak? What was his most important lesson?

If you like this, try: “Friday Night Lights” (the movie and the television series) and “Remember the Titans,” as well as the books about the Spartans: When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football’s Longest Winning Streak and One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First Ever National Championship High School Football Game

A Will for the Woods

Posted on August 15, 2014 at 7:59 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Not rated
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Very sad death, themes of death and dying
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	August 15, 2014

“Without this,” Clark Wang says, “dying from lymphoma feels so empty and meaningless and pointless.” Dr. Wang was diagnosed in 2003, and we meet him as he is running out of options for treatment. His doctor tells him it is a matter of months. His choice for making his death meaningful is to seek out a “green” burial. He persuades a local cemetery to preserve a tract of forest instead of cutting it down to extend the lawn area. He finds someone who can make a coffin coffin for him out of reclaimed wood. We see him try it on for size, joking that “I’m going to be here for a while.” He approves. “It’s the exact style that I want to go out in.” And, in a moment of both celebration and defiance, he dances on its cover.

“A Will for the Woods” is a documentary about the small but urgent movement for eco-burial. But its focus on Dr. Wang, a psychiatrist and musician, makes it a profound statement about death and therefore about life. While some people in the film speak in euphemisms and indirection, and even Wang himself uses terms like “burial is a very likely outcome,” the way that he and his partner Jane confront what is happening to maintain a sense of dignity, honesty, and control is both moving and inspiring. It is not surprising that this film has won audience awards at four film festivals so far.

“It’s comforting to know I’ll be in such a beautiful place,” Wang says. He speaks of learning to “befriend death,” to make sure that his last act is not an act of pollution. Jane tells him what she will do after he dies, how she will wash his body and spend time with it, caring for him in a way he can no longer care for himself.

This is a touching film and a very important one. It is about dying with dignity, but it is also about living with grace. Just as Dr. Wang approached his own death with purpose and honor, the filmmakers have done the same in telling his story and making it ours as well.

Let’s Be Cops

Posted on August 14, 2014 at 8:00 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language including sexual references, some graphic nudity, violence and drug use
Profanity:	Very strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, marijuana, meth
Violence/ Scariness:	Law enforcement peril and violence, guns, many characters injured and killed
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters, some racial, sexist, and homophobic humor
Date Released to Theaters:	August 15, 2014

Oh, let’s not.

As generic as its name and way too long, any significant connection “Let’s Be Cops” has with its audience comes from the increasing sense of regret that this talented cast wasted its time — and ours.

The title is the elevator pitch. Two hapless losers dress up as cops, like the respect and sense of power they get, and decide to wear the uniforms some more so that they can order people around and get past the velvet rope at a nightclub. And impress a girl.

Highly likeable “New Girl” co-stars Damon Wayans, Jr. and Jack Johnson play Justin and Ryan, 30-year old Perdue alums and roommates who are reminded by a reunion party that they have not accomplished very much. Justin has a low-level job at a video game company and is too shy to get the attention of the boss for the new game he has developed, which is about a policeman. That’s why he has a couple of authentic uniforms on hand. Ryan is a sometime actor who — wait for it — is living off the residuals he got for a herpes medicine commercial. Oh, my sides!

The un-dynamic duo misunderstand the invitation to the reunion party and arrive in costume to find everyone else in business attire with masks. Why? No reason except an improbable basis for the even more improbable premise. They leave, embarrassed, but when people on the street believe they are real cops, they think it is a lot of fun. Justin is ready to walk away, but Ryan gets into character, watching YouTube videos to learn police lingo and skills. Pretty soon, Justin is impressing a pretty waitress (“Vampire Diaries'” Nina Dobrev) and Ryan is messing with some guys who crunched his car. It is obvious that these are very scary gangsters, but of course Ryan has no clue and Justin is having way too much fun engaging them in a law enforcement version of Simon Says to pay attention.

The rest of it plays out exactly the way you’d imagine, with the only bright spot Key & Peele’s Keegan-Michael Key hilarious appearance as a tattooed low-level driver for the bad guys, sort of the fake cops’ Huggy Bear. His too brief-appearance only reminds us of the comedic chaos this film is missing. The funny parts aren’t funny enough (Really? Wrestling a naked fat guy? Wasting Rob Riggle as a straight man? Being high on meth? Flirting with a drugged-out floozy?). The action parts aren’t exciting enough. The big surprise twist is neither big nor a surprise. Gene Siskel used to say that the movie should be better than watching the same actors talk over lunch. This one doesn’t come close.

Parents should know that this film has strong and crude language, sexual references and situations, male and female nudity, violence and peril with characters injured and killed, alcohol and drug use (marijuana and meth).

Family discussion: How did Justin and Ryan differ in their thinking about pretending to be policemen? How did their experiences change their ideas about what they were capable of?

If you like this, try: “The Other Guys” and “The Heat”

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