Finally made it back to fill you in on those seven movies I mentioned Wednesday. But first, a tad bit of set-up: We had planned a movie weekend get-away and rented seven flicks for the occasion. Some picked by my wife, some by me and some were joint agreement. In all honesty, everything we saw had at least some good qualities, none of the films truly sucked. But only one stood out as a really good show, and it was just awful. More on that one at the end.
The Constant Gardener
This one had a strong storyline that promised a great deal of intrique, but delivered a rather boring, overly drawn out plot. Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes do a good job. And I enjoy how the story unfolds through a combination of current time and flashbacks, especially how the viewer is given certain glimpses to support one point of view, then learns more as the main character comes to understand things differently. That helps engage the viewer in the film somewhat, but overall the plot advances very slowly.
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Obviously, this one is a documentary. It included some interesting first-person accounts of how Wal-Mart moving into a community forces local, family-owned businesses out, and has some particularly funny faux commercials, but I really didn't find too much new information that isn't already available about the retail giant and how it conducts commerce.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
This film surprised and disappointed. Rather than taking the typical horror route, director Scott Derrickson opted to combine elements of courtroom drama into the mix. The result is a very engaging story of a priest on trial for conducting an exorcism that ends badly which includes all of the best elements of the courtroom drama genre, but loses much of its horror sensibility. Demon possession is some pretty scary stuff, and this is supposed to be based on actual events from Italy, but the interplay between the lawyers and the legalities of the case take much of the scariness out of the flashbacks.
Bewitched
This was a fun trip down memory lane; tributes to the 1964-72 television show abound. The modern story in the movie is a has-been actor (Will Ferrell) is tapped to play Darrin in a re-make of the show and the producers unknowingly cast a real witch (Nicole Kidman) to play Samantha. While the movie is fun and doesn't overtax your brain very much, the plot is very simple, and some of the gags just aren't funny. Inexplicably, the real-life witch playing Samantha on the re-make has a lot of kooky relatives with the same names and personalities as the character did on the TV show. But then, toward the end of the film, Steve Carell shows up as Uncle Arthur and plays the role as if he really is actor Paul Lynde playing the character of Uncle Arthur as if he was a real person. And doing it rather badly.
Madagascar
This computer-animated movie didn't live up to expectations at all. The trailer for Over the Hedge looked funnier than the movie itself. Much of the humor seemed forced and just not all that funny. And while it is typical in an animated movie like this one to have the characters emulate personalities of the voice-actors giving them life, my wife pointed out how distracting it was everytime the giraffe, Melman, spoke to be visualizing Ross Gellar from Friends simply because the character was voiced by David Schwimmer.
Sky High
I did expect quite a bit from this movie; while not based on any specific comic book, let's face it, it's still a comic book movie. And it was a fun movie. But it also took some liberties that didn't make much sense to me. Why does everyone (OK, almost everyone, but I won't say more and ruin anything for anyone) with a super power have only one super power? Who made up that rule?
And finally, we come to the last one ...
Crash
Officer Ryan: [talking on the phone] I wanna speak to your supervisor...
Shaniqua: I am my supervisor!
Officer Ryan: All right well, what's your name?
Shaniqua: Shaniqua Johnson.
Officer Ryan: Shaniqua. Big fucking surprise that is!
Shaniqua: Oh!
[Shaniqua hangs up]
In the credit where credit is due department, this was my wife's pick. I don't remember even hearing of it before. The tag line for the film was: "You think you know who you are. You have no idea." Between the quotes above and that tag line, you can probably guess that the movie deals with prejudice and discrimination and bigotry and the uglier side of life. Racism is a big part of it, but there is also sexism, elitism, ageism, anything that can separate two people and make them feel different from each other.
The characters are not one-dimensional either. They all have their faults, but most also have some redeeming qualities. Take Officer Ryan, played by Matt Dillon. Obviously he's a racist bigot. You get that much from the quote above. But the phone call that quote comes from is Ryan trying to cut through the bureaucracy and get his ailing father some medical treatment. Ryan, a character who commits a truly heinous act against another person in the film, is taking care of his father with genuine compassion and patience. Ryan even performs one of the most self-sacrificing acts depicted in the movie, making him the most despicable and the most heroic figure in the drama.
This was by far the best film we rented in terms of acting, portraying life, prompting one to think. But for those very same reasons, it is not a very happy movie which makes a person look at himself a little more critically than most of us usually care to look. I recommend it very highly.
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