The Grace Card

Posted on February 24, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for violence and thematic elements
Profanity:	Some language, implied racist term
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, including drinking to deal with stress, drug dealers
Violence/ Scariness:	Death of a child in an accident, shooting of a teenager
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	February 25, 2011
Date Released to DVD:	June 13, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN:	B005335K9A

Anger seduces us because it fools us into feeling powerful.

Anger absorbs so much energy that it helps us avoid the more complicated and painful emotions of loss, guilt, regret, and fear. And that, as “The Grace Card” shows us, is why it is so hard to forgive.
Mac MacDonald (Michael Joiner) is a cop so bitter and angry after the accidental death of his young son that seventeen years later he is consumed with hatred. He subjects his wife, his teenage son, and his co-workers to constant complaints and insults. The escaping drug dealer who killed his son was black, and Mac has allowed racism to poison his heart as well.

His new partner is Sam (Michael Higgenbottom) a part-time pastor who has had to work as a policeman to make ends meet. He has a naturally cheerful and optimistic nature but he is hurt by Mac’s bigotry and hostility. Guided by the wisdom of his grandfather (Louis Gossett Jr.) and his wife (a warm and gracious performance by Dawntoya Thomason), he is able to play the “grace card,” to find forgiveness in himself and, after a tragic twist, to inspire it in Mac.
This is an unpretentious but sincere film with quiet power, and its final scenes are moving and inspirational.

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It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Posted on February 23, 2011 at 3:57 pm

A stressed-out teenager impetuously checks himself into a mental hospital in this semi-autobiographical tale based on It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. It is brought to screen by the talented writer-directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who have demonstrated their understanding of teenagers struggling with difficult situations in the understated “Sugar” and “Half Nelson.” Here, they show a more playful side, with witty and imaginative fantasy sequences that make the unabashed decency and kindness at its heart even more touching.

Keir Gilchrist plays Craig, a 16-year-old student at a Manhattan high school for high-achievers. He is feeling a great deal of pressure to succeed and frightened by thoughts of suicide. He visits the emergency room and when the doctor tells him he can go home, he pleads to be admitted, not understanding that it will mean he must be kept under observation for five days. “I thought you guys could do something quick,” he says. “I have school tomorrow.” Craig also does not realize that the area where the teenagers are treated is being renovated, so he will be staying on the adult ward.

Immediately dubbed “Cool Craig” by a friendly patient named Bobby (Zach Galifanakis of “The Hangover”), Craig discovers a through-the-looking-glass world that challenges the connections and assumptions of his “normal” life. The kind psychiatrist (Viola Davis) immediately recognizes that all Craig needs is some breathing room and reassurance. That gives Craig a chance to look around. He develops confidence when he sees many people far worse off than he is, and when he sees that he can give and accept help. Art and music therapy help him think of what he can express instead of how he will be evaluated. And a pretty fellow patient (Emma Roberts, with her aunt Julia’s lovely smile) is the best medicine of all.

Boden and Fleck, whose previous films had an understated naturalism, make the most of the heightened sensibility of the mental ward setting with sequences that take us inside Craig’s fantasies and memories. In one, we see Craig remembering an incident when he was five, drawing inside a tent in his parents’ living room. The present-day Craig is shown as a five year old, and then in his teen-age persona in the five-year-old’s pajamas. When pushed into being the vocalist in music therapy, Craig swings into a deliriously Bowie-fied version of “Under Pressure.” Boden and Fleck continue to show skill in casting and directing. Gilchrist, Roberts, and Zoe Kravitz as the classmate Craig wishes he could date are all first-rate, and Galifanakis leaves every bit of his stand-up persona behind to give a real performance with subtlety and grace.

It is a relief to see a movie about mental illness that recognizes the real pain but focuses on the real humanity of everyone involved, patients, staff, and Craig’s family. Craig first comes into the emergency room and tells the intake nurse that he wants to kill himself. When she hands him a clipboard and tells him to fill out a form it comes across not as callous but as reassuring. Treating his fear as routine is part of what makes him feel safe there. Boden and Fleck are now among the most reliable and promising film-makers around.

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Due Date

Posted on February 23, 2011 at 8:00 am

Two obnoxious and unlikeable people are stuck together for an excruciating cross-country road trip that is hard on them and harder on the audience. It is such a thoroughly unpleasant journey that it forced me to reconsider my previously firm conviction that I would happily watch Robert Downey, Jr. in anything. I stand corrected.

Downey plays Peter, an architect in Atlanta on business who has to get home to Los Angeles for the birth of his first child. At the airport he has a meet-uncute encounter with man-boy Ethan (Zach Galifianakis, rapidly depleting the goodwill from his fine performance in “It’s Kind of a Funny Story”). A few sharp words and an inadvertent exchange of some personal effects and no one but the characters is surprised when they end up on the same flight and are immediately booted off and put on the no-fly list.

Various slapstick catastrophes occur filmed with a surprising lack of energy and interest by director Todd Philips (“The Hangover,” “Old School”), who seems as uncomfortable and distracted. Perhaps that is why he failed to consult with Downey on exactly what his character is supposed to be doing in this film. I don’t mean getting from Atlanta to LA or even having alternate meltdowns and blow-ups. I mean — is he the everyman we are supposed to identify with, a counter-balancing order to Ethan’s chaos? Is he the guy who seems together on the surface but turns out to be even more of a needy mess than the big delusional baby with the beard and the mincing walk? Is there any way not to wince, given Downey’s real-life history, when his character has to get all trippy? The ghost of “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” haunts this joyless mess.

Related Tags:

Comedy

I Am Number Four

Posted on February 17, 2011 at 6:55 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and for brief language
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Intense and sometimes grisly fantasy and battle violence, monsters
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	February 18, 2011

A young, handsome kid has extraordinary special powers vastly beyond the abilities of mere mortals. He is being chased by big, scary, ruthless, and relentless creatures with enormous weapons who have killed numbers One, Two, and Three. He is Number Four.

That’s John Smith (Alex Pettyfer of “Alex Ryder”). But it’s also kind of James Frey, best remembered for being touted and then flayed by Oprah after it was revealed that his memoirs were not exactly true. Frey has now created a best-seller factory, working with grad students in writing programs to produce mega best-sellers. This book is attributed to “Pittacus Lore” but in fact it is the product of Frey and a former graduate student named Jobie Hughes. That may explain the paranoid overlay of the plot and the portrayal of the main character as an unappreciated genius being hunted by powerful evil forces trying to destroy him.

Frey may not have special powers but he has a very good sense of what makes a marketable, if synthetic, story. There’s some Harry Potter, some Percy Jackson, some Buffy, a bit of “Twilight” and even some Superman and Spider-Man, but none of the genuine feeling of any of those books. The idea of a teenager with hidden source of extraordinary ability unseen and unappreciated by the grown-ups is undeniably a compelling one. Teenagers going through their own unsettling and powerful transformations can related to John’s discovering what he is capable of as he fights off the forces of evil. And so, in spite of the pre-fab foundation, there are moments when it is easy to get caught up in the story.

The action scenes are well staged and director D.J. Caruso (“Disturbia”) knows how to create paranoid tension and has a good feel for the way teenagers talk to each other. But Pettyfer does not have the acting ability or screen presence to carry off the a lead role, suffering by comparison to the far more able Timothy Olyphant (as his guardian), Callan McAuliffe (“Flipped”) as a brainy classmate, and Dianna Agron (less chilly than she is as Quinn in “Glee”). It’s likely to please the fans of the book but is too empty at its core to make many new ones.

Unknown

Posted on February 17, 2011 at 6:35 pm

What would you do if everything you thought you knew about your life and your identity suddenly seemed to be untrue? If even your wife kept insisting that another man was you?

Liam Neeson plays Martin Harris, or a man who thinks he is Martin Harris, a scientist on his way to a conference in Berlin. We see him with his wife, Liz (“Mad Men’s” January Jones) as the plane is landing and they seem the picture of tender domesticity. But he is in an accident shortly afterward, when his cab goes off a bridge into the water on his way to retrieve a briefcase left behind at the airport. He wakes up after a four-day coma. “Memories get lost or fractured,” the doctor cautions him. “Most of them return.”

Even though the doctor insists that he needs time to recover, he races back to the hotel only to find that Liz does not recognize him and Martin Harris (played by Aiden Quinn) is already there.

The Spout movie site calls this plot “the right man,” a variation on the popular “wrong man” storyline. Instead of the character’s being mistaken for someone else, these films show us a man who for some reason cannot be seen as who he really is. As the man I will continue to call Martin begins to doubt himself, we also question what we have seen. Why does Liz insist that she is married to Martin #2? How can Martin #2 seem to inhabit the Martin Harris world so completely and seamlessly? He even has the identical photo in his wallet, Liz on his lap at a romantic restaurant. But the man with her is Martin #2.

And why are ruthless killers chasing our Martin? “It’s like a war between being told who you are and knowing who you are,” he says.

He tracks down the cab driver (Diane Kruger as Gina, an illegal immigrant from Bosnia) and goes to an ex-Stasi interrogator-turned detective (Bruno Ganz, the highlight of the film as JÃ¼rgen) to help him find some answers, even as he is just beginning to formulate the questions.

There are some good chases through Berlin and even twistier plot developments. JÃ¼rgen’s “proud” Stasi background and Gina’s experience with Bosnian thugs turn out to be very helpful and Frank Langella shows up in the last act for one last set of complications. For some reason I can’t figure out, thrillers always have detours into nightclubs with pulsing music (really, what is the deal with these — some sort of physical manifestation of the internal chaos?). This one is thankfully brief and insignificant. Don’t think about it too hard. The plot will unravel in your head on the drive home. But while you’re watching, Neeson, Ganz, and Langella will keep you connected to the story and hoping that Martin remembers who he is.

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Related Tags:

Action/Adventure Thriller