Knowing
I am not a big fan of Nicolas Cage. As an actor I find him limited. In most of his movies he shows just about as much expression as an animated puppet. However, this movie, ‘Knowing’, by Alex Proyas, the director of ‘I, Robot’ (2004), is so good that I can put up with Nicolas just to enjoy this fantastic Science-Fiction Action film. In 1959, at the dedication ceremony of a new elementary school, the students bury a time capsule. When it is opened 50 years later, what emerges, apart from the paraphernalia which interested the students at the time, is an envelope that contains a piece of paper inscribed with a sequence of numbers. Nicolas plays a Professor of Astrophysics, and when his daughter brings home the envelope, he becomes intrigued by the peculiar document. He unravels an incredible secret contained within the supposedly meaningless numbers. To tell you anything more about the film would entirely ruin it. Just buy the DVD, and be just as fascinated as I was!
Last Chance Harvey
Written and directed by Joel Hopkins, this is a simple but endearing movie. Dustin Hoffman plays a divorced American jingles composer, who travels to London to attend his daughter’s wedding, where he feels very much out of place. As fate would have it, he meets the plain and acerbic spinster Emma Thompson, who has her own problems. Emma has a very boring job as a statistician. She goes on occasional bad blind dates, is a member of a writing workshop group, and receives endless mobile telephone calls from her insecure mother. As you watch Dustin and Emma get to know one another, and as they snatch at a last chance for romance in mid-life, you had better keep a big box of Kleenex tissues on hand. You are going to need them!
Duplicity
One of Bette Midler’s most famous quips from the movie ‘Beaches’ was: “…. and now for a song about two of my favorite topics: Industrial Espionage, and, Tits”! Well, there are not very many ‘Tits’ in this charming comedy, ‘Duplicity’, but, there is plenty of ‘Industrial Espionage’. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play two super-spies, who leave the CIA and the MIG, to enter the corporate sector as security experts. There, they plan to find and target the perfect company that they can shake down for millions. The plot is way too complex and convoluted to go into here, but, the real appeal of the movie rests in the rapport between Julia and Clive. Their bickering and bantering has a nice sexual spontaneity to it, and it makes this comedy extremely entertaining. As the cover of the DVD says: “The movie is witty, smart, sexy and stylish”. For once, the publicists have got it right!
The Chatterley Affair
In 1960, the Old Bailey courthouse in London was to play host to the ‘Trial of the Century’. It was a case that endeavored to stop the publication by Penguin Books of D. H. Lawrence’s notorious novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. As the prosecuting attorney claimed: “Is it a book that you would wish your wife or your servants to read”? For the movie, director James Hawes makes full use of the transcripts of the trial, which are available on public record, but, he also takes the liberty to delve into the minds of the jurors. Of the jurors, Hawes presents a man and a woman who are attracted to each other. They decide to explore all the sexual experiences described. The outcome of the trial is well known, but, Hawes succeeds in presenting an involving movie investigating the moral restrictions of mid-20th century Britain. Whether by serendipity, or just simple coincidence, Ken Russell’s 1993 television version of ‘Lady Chatterley’ is now also available on DVD. Produced as a four hour, four episodes special for the BBC, Russell’s version is typically ‘over-the-top’. Still, the sexual fantasy sequences look a bit bland some 16 years later. Russell’s special is a thorough adaptation of the book, and saves you the time and energy of plowing your way through it!
The Spirit
Personally, I wasn’t all that enthralled by this latest cinema adaptation of a Frank Miller comic-book. I guess it all comes down to individual taste. From the same producers who brought us Frank Miller’s ‘Sin City’ (2005) and ‘300’ (2006), their latest movie is another attempt to treat live action footage with computer filter effects. This movie is reduced to an animated comic-book in basic shades of black, white and red. However, the main problem with ‘The Spirit’ is its treatment of the comic-book style plot. The story concerns your usual Super-Hero fighting for truth and justice in a mythical American city, yet, the director, who is Frank Miller himself, cannot seem to decide if the movie is to be a drama or a comedy. Much of it doesn’t ‘play’. I have never heard of actor Gabriel Macht, who tries to bring ‘The Spirit’ to life, and Samuel L. Jackson is out of control as the evil villain Octopus. Eva Mendes has never looked lovelier in stylish black and white designer gowns.
Notorious
This is a very boring musical bio-pic about the ‘rapper’ Notorious B.I.G. It would probably help if I knew just who Notorious B.I.G. was, but, all these ‘rappers’ sound the same to me. I am on the other side of a generation gap!
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