Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard, Robin Williams. Music-driven Drama. Written by Nick Castle and James V. Hart. Directed by Kirsten Sheridan.
FILM SYNOPSIS: A charismatic young Irish guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and a sheltered young cellist (Keri Russell) have a chance encounter one magical night above New York’s Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, orphaned by circumstance. Years later, performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger (Robin Williams) who gives him the name August Rush, the child (Freddie Highmore) uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth.
PREVIEW REVIEW: Ever see An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr? Or Sleepless in Seattle with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks? This new release has much in common with those two classics. Mainly, you have to set aside how life and love reality work. But if you are able to suspend reality, you are a romantic, one who believes that justice and love will triumph. If you are one of those folks, and despite the fact that I’m a film critic and therefore must be a cynic, I am one of you, because I found August Rush to be one of the best films of the year. Interestingly, Keri Russell, who plays the female lead, also starred in Waitress, my other frontrunner for best film of this year. Not only are these two films pro-life themed, but they ultimately celebrate life. Ms. Russell does a lot to make them believable and interesting. A fine actress, she’s equally famous for her curly golden locks. She also possesses soul-revealing eyes, which just so happen to be lovely. (Yeah, I got a little crush.) The elements of technology and artistry come together, as if magically, in this production. Even Robin Williams, who has disappointed with most of his recent film choices, gives the film’s main bad guy dimension as a Fagin-like hustler who uses kids to score a living. And certainly music is a main component of the film’s success. We are reminded by both the male lead and the film’s villain that we are all connected by music. The dialogue also manages to amuse and stimulate thought. When the journeying boy is asked what he’d like to be most, he answers with a profound, “Found.” Most importantly, the one responsible for the casting of Freddie Highmore as August deserves pats on the back, awards, whatever. We are indebted to that person, for young Highmore lights up the screen with a role that could have been limited by blandness, as has happened in many a film concerning Oliver Twist-like protagonists. This kid is a fine actor, able to portray emotion of every kind, and possesses perhaps the most engaging smile I’ve seen in a long time. When this kid smiles, you feel joyous. To top it off, the film contains spiritual themes, including the need for faith, scenes taking place in a church, church folk singing a song about not giving up, and someone saying that music is God’s reminder that we are all connected. The boy, who interprets the sounds of life as music, asks, “Only some of us can hear it?” The response: “Only some of us are listening.” The delivery of those two lines gives them a profundity. The lad is rescued at one point by members of a church. The minister asks a concerned little girl if she’s prayed for August, to which she responds positively. The minister himself is portrayed as a good guy, not poisonously pious or fundamentally hypocritical, but real, a man involved in doing God’s work. And the final shot (no, I’m not giving anything away other than the film has a happy ending), the boy looks up to Heaven as if saying thank you. I get teary just thinking about it. It’s a wonderful film, because like most of the great films, from It’s A Wonderful Life to Casablanca, August Rush makes you feel hopeful and good. I’ve seen so many Oscar contenders this year, but most of them deal with the dark nature of man. This one looks to those things that unite us – the music around us, the hope of love, and the adventure of life. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to see August Rush again.
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Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Susan Sarandon. Comedy/musical. Original songs from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz (Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame). Written by Bill Kelly (Blast from the Past). Directed by Kevin Lima (Tarzan, Eloise At Christmastime).
FILM SYNOPSIS: The film follows Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) as she is banished by the evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her magical, musical, animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn’t operate on a “happily ever after” basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid, she begins to wonder if a storybook view of romance can survive in the real world. PREVIEW REVIEW: There’s nothing really wrong with this production other than sometimes it struggles to be charming. Everyone does his or her job with a robust effort to bring family-friendly storytelling to the holiday season. Somehow, though, the Disney magic is missing. I’ll see The Little Mermaid again. And Beauty and the Beast. Maybe even The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But I have no desire to re-see this one. Mermaid had me with the witty and memorable Under the Sea, as did Hunchback with the spiritually enlightening God Help the Outcasts and the whimsical Be Our Guest in Beauty and the Beast. With the exception of the theme-revealing, mood-setting number True Love’s Kiss, the music here is like cotton candy: bright and fluffy, but with no lasting substance. My personal disenchantment shouldn’t be misconstrued as a denouncement of the picture, and despite my picayune letdown, I grant that it is one where both kids and their older companions can find engaging themes or laugh-out-loud antics. And if you consider yourself a Disney trivia buff, you’ll find yourself amid a treasure trove, as the film is loaded with Where’s Waldo-isms (pardon, Hidden Mickey-iconics), including a glass slipper and poisoned apples and recognizable names that pop up with amusing frequency. Disney’s past glories are constantly being saluted with cameos and tips-of-the-hat, such as the appearances of Jodi Benson, the voice of The Little Mermaid, appearing as Robert’s assistant, Sam, Paige O’Hara – Belle of Beauty and the Beast – portraying an actress on a soap opera, and clever moments such as the scene where Giselle encounters a very short, very angry business man, whom she mistakenly calls Grumpy. It just made me long for the days of Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmations (the original) and Beauty and the Beast. In fact, I may borrow my nieces and nephews just so I can watch those Disney treasures again!
FILM SYNOPSIS: The film follows Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) as she is banished by the evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her magical, musical, animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn’t operate on a “happily ever after” basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid, she begins to wonder if a storybook view of romance can survive in the real world. PREVIEW REVIEW: There’s nothing really wrong with this production other than sometimes it struggles to be charming. Everyone does his or her job with a robust effort to bring family-friendly storytelling to the holiday season. Somehow, though, the Disney magic is missing. I’ll see The Little Mermaid again. And Beauty and the Beast. Maybe even The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But I have no desire to re-see this one. Mermaid had me with the witty and memorable Under the Sea, as did Hunchback with the spiritually enlightening God Help the Outcasts and the whimsical Be Our Guest in Beauty and the Beast. With the exception of the theme-revealing, mood-setting number True Love’s Kiss, the music here is like cotton candy: bright and fluffy, but with no lasting substance. My personal disenchantment shouldn’t be misconstrued as a denouncement of the picture, and despite my picayune letdown, I grant that it is one where both kids and their older companions can find engaging themes or laugh-out-loud antics. And if you consider yourself a Disney trivia buff, you’ll find yourself amid a treasure trove, as the film is loaded with Where’s Waldo-isms (pardon, Hidden Mickey-iconics), including a glass slipper and poisoned apples and recognizable names that pop up with amusing frequency. Disney’s past glories are constantly being saluted with cameos and tips-of-the-hat, such as the appearances of Jodi Benson, the voice of The Little Mermaid, appearing as Robert’s assistant, Sam, Paige O’Hara – Belle of Beauty and the Beast – portraying an actress on a soap opera, and clever moments such as the scene where Giselle encounters a very short, very angry business man, whom she mistakenly calls Grumpy. It just made me long for the days of Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmations (the original) and Beauty and the Beast. In fact, I may borrow my nieces and nephews just so I can watch those Disney treasures again!
Distributor:
Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, Angelina Jolie. Written by Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary. Directed by Robert Zemeckis.
FILM SYNOPSIS: Robert Zemeckis offers a 14-year-old-boy’s alluring vision of the legendary saga of the mighty warrior Beowulf, who battles the demon Grendel and incurs the hellish wrath of the beast’s ruthlessly seductive mother. PREVIEW REVIEW: To look at, this rendition is awesome, if you’ll allow me the use that now corrupted word. Much of this awesomeness is due to the 3D trickery (do not see this film without the 3D effect). As with The Polar Express, a process known as “performance capture” has been used to excite our senses. It’s not live action, it’s not animation, it’s a hybrid visual technique done because, well, because they can. Like a camera in a cell phone or an ipod capable of recording every song known to ASCAP – there’s really no legitimate reason for performance capture, but they can do it. It’s like, cool. The look is the cinema’s equivalent to the comic book. The film has been sexed up, what with a seemingly nude Angelina Jolie prancing around as a fetching demon, complete with stiletto heels. And the special effects-driven dragon will entertain those who live for CG magic. But will this updated fable satisfy those who actually read the tome while in high school? Well, literary appreciators are not the intended audience. The story is condensed and refocused, but it does deal with the sins of pride and giving in to temptation. Somewhat. The legendary poem has as much to do with man’s destiny and his foibles as with his conquests. But here man’s nature takes a backseat to the action and special effects. What will no doubt draw repeat business is the hypnotic visual conception. It is a production where backgrounds become potent characters, the look of the film doing as much to propel the story as the dialogue or performances. Actually, more.
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Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, Emily Blunt. Comedy/romance. Written by Pierce Gardner, Peter Hedges. Directed by Peter Hedges.
FILM SYNOPSIS: An advice columnist/widower takes his three daughters to Rhode Island for a family reunion. There, at a bookstore, he meets and falls for a lady. She also likes him, but there’s a problem. When he gets back to the family, she shows up – with his brother. Soon, Dan realizes he isn’t taking his own advice. PREVIEW REVIEW: Remember when comedies were charming, funny and clean? Wow, you must be old! Well, this is one of those kickbacks to the good old days. Dan In Real Life is sublimely charming, lightheartedly funny and explicitly clean. I don’t want to overbuild this thing, but I left the theater feeling good. When’s the last time moviegoers got to do that? Too often this year, I’ve left a screening feeling depressed, guilty, horrified or grungy. The comedies of this year, for the most part, have relied on the I-can’t-believe-I-just-saw-that factor. You know, gross-out humor. I suspect a generation has come to believe that’s where all humor stems from. Satire and wit, for many moviegoers, are unexplored regions. Not that this is the next His Girl Friday (a comedy classic), but it’s a sweet, relaxing, entertaining movie. There’s depth, not a cavern of depth, but just enough profundity to give the humor dimension. There’s grownup romance, just enough to give us singles hope. And despite the teen angst of the lead’s two girls, they emerge as fully dimensional, real people. I got a kick out of the 13-year-old daughter – she’s so dramatic. Full of passion, she thinks she’s discovered the greatest love since Romeo pursued Juliet. This, as you can imagine, unnerves her father. Her Romeo has hitchhiked all the way to the family reunion in order to see his Juliet. But the lead will have none of that. The boy is soon on his way home. As the anguished daughter runs after the car with all the unbridled drama only a adolescent experiencing first love can muster, she hysterically cries out to her dad, “You murderer of love!” I nearly fell out of my chair. There are several positive messages in the film and father and daughters grow closer by film’s end. Dan’s parents and siblings are both supportive and loving, and there’s an underlining morality to the film. When the brother brings his new love home to meet the folks, for instance, the parents make sure they have separate rooms, indicating there will be no hanky panky going on under this roof. It’s a thoughtful message in an era when sex between unweds is the norm in movies. As good as the writing and the supporting cast are, the film belongs to Mr. Carell. The star of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Evan Almighty is developing into a strong screen presence. He proved in Bruce Almighty
Distributor:
Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster. Thriller. Written by Steve Niles and Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson. Directed by David Slade.
FILM SYNOPSIS: For 30 days every winter, the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska is plunged into a state of complete darkness. It's a bitter time when most of the inhabitants head south. This winter, a mysterious group of strangers appear: bloodthirsty vampires, ready to take advantage of the uninterrupted darkness to feed on the remaining town residents. Barrow's Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his wife Stella (Melissa George), and an ever-shrinking group of survivors must do anything they can to last until daylight. PREVIEW REVIEW: A cross between vampire and an evolved zombie, these creatures are a nasty bunch, but dumber than a bagful of hammers. For example, there’s the snow; if you’ve ever lived around snow, you understand that footprints are easily detected in the snow. Yet, the blood-drinkers can’t seem to follow their prey despite the fact that there’s a foot of snow wherever you walk! Inconsistencies bug me. Stupid writing bugs me. A filmmaker’s contempt for his audience bugs me. Graphic torture and brutality in place of eeriness in horror movies bugs me. This film bugs me. When Bela Lugosi’s Dracula was made in 1931, it was scary to filmgoers because they hadn’t seen such imagery. It’s no longer as frightening, though still atmospheric and eerie, a testament to the fact that we’ve become somewhat desensitized to things that spook us in the movies and, like junkies, we need more gruesomeness to satisfy our spine-tingler factor. The 1930s horror movies were in actuality morality plays, good vs. evil tales. In them evil was eventually defeated by good. What’s more, the makers of these movies were prevented from showing contempt for God. Oh, how Hollywood’s ghouls changed. In Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula, his monster was an omnipresent creature who contemptuously burned a crucifix with a stare, rather than turning away from the significance of the cross – something the vampire had done ever since Bela Lugosi first put on a set of fangs. This new spin changed the entire theme of the Dracula legend. No longer was God the conqueror of the devil; now man alone was in control of his fate. Before you remind me that the Count was only a work of fiction, I want to point out that it’s not the movies that disturb me so much as the messages contained in those movies. Coppola’s Dracula is humanism in its most monstrous form. It denies the supremacy of God and perhaps His existence all together. So does this recent vampire flick. Over the decades horror masters have continued to find a spin for their scary creations. The 1950s were mostly goofy with prehistoric lizards breathing fire and trampling over Tokyo; the ‘60s gave us Britain’s candy apple blood fests from Hammer Films; and the ‘70s showed promise with Jaws, Night of the Living Dead and… All the President’s Men. (Hey, if that guy wasn’t a vampire, I’ll eat wolfbane.) But audiences were beginning to find graphic depictions of the destruction of the human body to be more acceptable and somehow more satisfying. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, horror films became little more than gruesome showcases for studio special effects departments. Good vs. evil themes were replaced with personifications of evil. Malevolent and apparently indestructible ghouls such as Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddie Kruger, Halloween’s Michael Myers and Friday the 13th’s Jason returned sequel after sequel to kill as many randied teenagers as possible in 96 minutes. But now the murderers have taken on a decidedly more torturous zeal. Certainly, there have been exceptions to that rule. With 1999’s Sixth Sense, director M. Night Shyamalan returned to suspenseful Hitchcockian elements in order to unnerve the audience. Psychological tension was used in that film rather than pelting viewers with sadistic brutality. The strength of Shyamalan’s chiller lay in what is suggested rather than seen. Besides being an arm-grabbing suspenseful thriller, Shyamalan’s other great fright flick Signs, contained a subtext about a man losing, then regaining his faith. That film also had an intriguing take concerning coincidence in our daily lives. It asked questions such as, “Are the details of life governed merely by happenstance, or are they a part of a great plan? Do things happen by chance or do they purposely serve to develop our nature?” Signs was the thinking man’s horror film. Thinking man’s films are limited in any genre. And that term could in no way be applied to 30 Days of Night. It’s spooky and action-filled, but it’s also gruesome, dumb and dreary. Gory and full of blood and f-words, it also shows disdain for God. In one scene, the head demon says there is no God. And that is the one and only mention of the Creator in the entire film. No one even wears a cross. You’d think somebody would be praying, considering their entire town’s populace is being eaten alive by children of the night. It’s as if the filmmaker goes out of his way to exorcise God from our consciousness. And that is the scariest element for me concerning today’s horror genre. It’s horrifying what many filmmakers want to believe in and what they don’t. Like all living things, the spirit of man needs to be nourished. I couldn’t say it any better than the following quote from the film I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing. You might keep it in mind when attending any new release, let alone horror films. “Your head is like a gas tank. You have to be really careful about what you put in it, because it might just affect the whole system.”
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