The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke was something of a major movie star in the 1980s. His films include ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (1980), ‘Body Heat’ (1981), ‘Rumble Fish’ (1983), and the notorious ‘Nine and a Half Weeks’ (1986). Although he continued to make occasional movies during the 1990s, his roles kind of drifted away as he concentrated on a boxing career, much to the detriment of his rugged good looks. Later, bad plastic surgery was to take a more devastating effect. Anyway, be that as it may, Mickey Rourke has made a fantastic comeback in his new movie ‘The Wrestler’. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the movie is made very much in the style of the Sylvester Stallone ‘Rocky’ series. ‘The Wrestler’ tells the story of an aging, headlining, professional wrestler who knows no other life style. An unexpected heart attack forces him to re-evaluate his career and triumphs. Mickey Rourke is so much in tune with his character that he doesn’t even seem to be acting. He is phenomenal in the role. He is also given very good support from Marisa Tomei, who appears as a tired and jaded pole dancer.
Slumdog Millionaire
Irish director Danny Boyle makes a terrific new movie set in various Indian locations. A television contestant on the Indian version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ wins a staggering grand prize of 20 million rupees, and he is immediately arrested, tortured, and interrogated by the police for cheating. How he knows the answers to all the questions is revealed in a series of illuminating ‘flashbacks’, which follow his story from adolescence to adulthood. The movie is performed very well by a series of Indian actors and actresses at each stage of the contestant’s life. Danny Boyle directs with an amazing amount of originality. Somehow, though, the inventiveness of the film can occasionally mask its basic sentimentality and predictability. All-the-same, it is a thoroughly entertaining, fascinating, and absorbing movie.
Revolutionary Road
Based on a novel by Richard Yates, and produced and directed by Sam Mendes, both Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet give outstanding performances in this rather serious movie. Set somewhere in suburban America in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the movie depicts a marriage ‘on-the-rocks’. Leonardo DiCaprio is bored senseless by his inane job, and his wife, Kate Winslet, who is a failed actress, longs for better things. Basically, they don’t know how to communicate their discontent to one another, with tragic consequences. The movie has a powerful script, and it is put together extremely well. However, I am warning you that it is pretty ‘heavy’ going!
Einstein and Eddington
Directed by Phillip Martin, this movie comes from HBO Films through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The movie first appeared on British Television, but, it now finds itself released here on DVD. Never-the-less, it is a fascinating film, which has at its heart the authenticating of a scientific theory. At the end of the First World War there was much animosity between the English and German scientific communities. An English astronomer, named Arthur Eddington, sets out to prove that Albert Einstein’s Theory of Gravity is correct, by photographing a total eclipse of the sun. He attempts to prove that light is bent by gravitational forces. Richard Tennant plays the determined English Quaker astronomer, trying to reconcile scientific facts with his religious beliefs, while, Andy Serkis’ interpretation of a young philandering Albert Einstein may come as a surprise. But, it was probably accurate at the time, before fame and success overtook him. Phillip Martin directs soberly. The movie isn’t trying to be artistic. It’s simply trying to make its points in the most accessible manner possible. Keeping this in mind, the movie succeeds rather well in explaining Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity in a very simplistic and easily understood manner. The film is an excellent lesson for scientific ‘Dummies’.
The Savages
Writer and director Tamara Jenkins creates a depressing, yet, extremely powerful new movie. It is concerned with a subject few of us really want to confront, or talk about. Old age, and the possibilities of dementia, is something we all might have to face in one form or another one day. When their father starts to show early signs of Parkinson’s disease, and dementia, a brother and sister have to commence the task of trying to cope with, and live with, an inflicted elderly. So, the gruesome chore of finding a nursing home, within their budget and middle-class aspirations, has to begin. Tamara Jenkins’ movie never slips into schmaltziness or romanticism. Rather, it presents the cold hard facts of the situation in a very confrontational manner. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are terrific as the brother and sister ridden with guilt, for the decline of their father occurs in the middle of their uneventful careers, and it comes as an inconvenience for both of them.
Passengers
The survivors of an airplane crash meet under the guidance of a therapist, played by Anne Hathaway, to thrash out some emotional issues brought on by their experience. All of the survivors remember a bright flash just prior to the crash, but, this is not how the airline company officially wants it. Soon, the survivors and the therapist find themselves under surveillance by the airline company. Something much more mysterious happened on that flight. The movie is terrific, but, I am not going to tell you anything more about it.
