August: Osage County ****
Short Take: A dysfunctional family reunites and ignites.
REEL TAKE: If you think your family has problems, you’ll feel much better, by comparison, after watching August: Osage County. Actor, screenwriter and playwright, Tracy Letts, is no stranger to the ugly underbelly of life (Killer Joe). So when I heard that some of the tragically flawed, darkly comic, and sadistically cruel characters in his Pulitzer prize winning play, August: Osage County, were actually inspired by and loosely based on members of his own gene pool, it explained a lot.
August: Osage County tells the story of family reunion of sorts in the wake of the family patriarch’s disappearance and subsequent passing. At the center of the attention, exactly where she likes to be, is the pill-popping Violet Weston (Meryl Streep), the family matriarch and Cruella Deville of Osage County, Oklahoma. The trailers for this film imply that it’s a hilarious dramedy, when it is in fact a searing drama with a wicked, heartless brand of humor in the darkest shade of the comedic realm.
The family that gathers around Violet includes her sister Faye Ann (Margo Martindale) and brother in-law Charles (Chris Cooper), her daughters – the angry Barbara (Julia Roberts), the tacky & trashy Karen (Juliette Lewis) and the mousey and devoted Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) as well as Barbara’s husband (Ewan McGregor) and daughter (Abigail Breslin), Karen’s sleazy boyfriend (Dermot Mulroney), and a doltish sweet nephew, Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch).
As the vigil turns into a wake, stories are told, secrets unearthed, the gloves come off and the claws come out. It’s every man for herself. You read that correctly. It’s not a typo, for the men are merely bystanders in the Weston family even the pater familia (Sam Shepard) who set everything into motion.
Just when you think you’ve seen Meryl ‘Oscar’ Streep do just about everything, she comes up with another amazing and revelatory character. She’s fantastic as Violet. She’s pharmaceutically soused and histrionically awful, but just as chapters unfurl and evoke glimpses of understanding, if not exactly empathy, she coils up and strikes with fangs again. Did I mention Violet is also suffering from mouth cancer? Ironic, don’t you think?
The entire cast is terrific, although some are terribly under-used. But it’s Julia Roberts who steals the show. As the eldest daughter, she seems to carry the most anger towards her mother. While Streep gets to have the fun of dancing her way to crazy town and parading about under the influence of the periodic chart, Roberts has to play it straight, sane, and funny simultaneously – and do it with great clout so as to be able to match and exceed Streep’s. She earned her Best Supporting Actress nomination and gets a special award for the best usage of the f-word in an American film in long, long time (Take note Wolf of Wall Street).
August: Osage County isn’t for the faint of heart, but will be painfully funny for those with a dented, bruised, hardened or distinctly lacking heart.
Rated R for language including sexual references and drug material.
Review by Michelle Keenan
The Invisible Woman ****
Short Take: Ralph Fiennes’ meticulous, slowly paced biographical drama about Charles Dickens’ mistress Nelly Ternan is a really good film but is too downbeat in tone to be completely successful.
REEL TAKE: The Invisible Woman is a fascinating, sometimes captivating, but ultimately frustrating, movie. As the title implies, the film is not about Dickens (director Ralph Fiennes who was not his first choice for the role) but about his long time, much younger mistress Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones) who was kept hidden from Victorian society. People expecting a Dickens biography or your standard BBC “costume drama” may find themselves disappointed.
That wasn’t the frustrating part for me, in fact, it was exactly what I’d hoped for. What I found frustrating was the way that Fiennes chose to tell the story. Well acted by all, beautifully photographed, and technically directed with a sure hand, Woman failed to engage me on an emotional level concerning the two main characters whenever they were together. Only when it dealt with each one individually or with Dickens’ long, suffering wife Catherine (Joanna Scanlan in a heartbreaking performance) did the film come alive for me.
The primary reason is the music (or lack of it) that Fiennes chose to use (or not use). Virtually all of the scenes between Dickens and Nelly feature no music at all giving their scenes together a somewhat clinical feel. Whenever music was used (primarily during Nelly’s flashback memories) it was chamber music of a modern nature akin to Shostakovich which seemed out of place and succeeded at keeping me distanced from the proceedings.
The film takes place in 1883, 13 years after Dickens died, and goes back and forth between the present and the past. We first meet Nelly as an 18 year old gushing over the great man after appearing in an amateur production with him and fellow writer Wilkie Collins (Tom Hollander). It is there that we meet Catherine Dickens, who seems bored with it all, and his many children. Dickens is attentive and complimentary to Nelly, she is overwhelmed, and one thing leads to another. She is not discouraged by her mother (Kristen Scott Thomas) who is looking out for her family.
We then see Dickens not only as the great public figure that he was, but also as the unintentionally cruel Victorian husband who ignores his wife (but not his family) and takes a mistress because he can, even though he never publicly acknowledges her. Wilkie Collins has his own mistress and rails against Victorian society but is careful not to break its rules.
It is at this point that the film becomes incredibly downbeat as Nelly realizes that only men have the freedom to be themselves. Years later she confides to a friend “even if we (women) are with someone, we are always alone”.
The Invisible Woman has some pungent late 20th century observations to make about women in Victorian society although I couldn’t help but feel that Dickens, who was no mean social critic himself, would have used his literary skills to make me care more about these characters, even if one is Dickens himself. An observation that I wish director Fiennes had taken to heart.
Rated R for some sexual situations.
Review by Chip Kaufmann
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit ***1/2
Short Take: Reboot of the Tom Clancy franchise works rather well thanks to Chris Pine’s sincerity and Kenneth Branagh’s stylish direction (not to mention his quality villain).
REEL TAKE: I must admit up front that I have never read a single Tom Clancy book but I have seen every one of the previous movies and thoroughly enjoyed them. This new one is no exception and I have no problems with it being a reboot of the character. Chris Pine is Jack Ryan #4 after Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and, most recently, Ben Affleck. Chris ranks #2 in my book after Ford and ahead of Affleck and then Baldwin (sorry Alec).
The reboot involves Jack Ryan as a younger character. He’s studying economics when 9/11 occurs and subsequently he volunteers for active duty in Afghanistan. He is seriously wounded in a helicopter incident (saving his two men in the chopper) and is mustered out to undergo painful rehabilitation. There he meets a young doctor (Keira Knightly) who eventually becomes his love interest. Once out of the hospital, he’s approached by Kevin Costner to join the CIA.
Since Ryan’s background is in economics, he is put to work studying global finances. It isn’t long before he uncovers a Russian plot to subvert the American economy and, because of his background, he is pegged by Costner to go to Russia to try and stop it. He must do this without telling Knightly of his covert activities leaving her angry, puzzled, and determined to follow him. As is to be expected, this complicates matters somewhat.
The mastermind behind the Russian plot is a disillusioned Soviet veteran who also served in Afghanistan and is now looking for payback against the U.S. for the loss of his country and of his son. On closer examination Ryan discovers that in addition to collapsing the U.S financial market, he is planning a massive terrorist attack on Wall Street as well. “I will make America bleed” he swears.
Kenneth Branagh who plays the mastermind is also the film’s director and he brings his usual flair for dramatic camerawork with him. However, this time around it suits the material and Branagh never overdoes it the way so many movies do these days. He also manages to keep the actor Kenneth Branagh under control and his performance is very effective. There are the expected close-ups but they are not glamour shots and they are used sparingly.
Being derived from Tom Clancy and with Jack Ryan as the central character, we already know how this ends so that’s not why we go see a movie like this. We go to see it because we want to see an American good guy succeed and because we want to believe that our intelligence agencies still have our best interests at heart despite all the negative publicity of late.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and intense action and brief strong language.
Review by Chip Kaufmann
The Legend of Hercules **
Short Take: Retelling of the Hercules legend is not as bad as it could have been, but it’s still not very good.
REEL TAKE: I really wanted to give this movie one star, but The Legend of Hercules is clearly two star material. One star is for director Renny Harlin who still knows how to stage action sequences (even CGI ones) and who, once upon a time, made some crackerjack films (Cutthroat Island, The Long Kiss Goodnight) with his then wife Geena Davis. The second star is for three positive attributes which I’ll mention at the end of the review because most of the things concerning Hercules don’t fall into the positive category.
Let’s start with the story which is so convoluted that Cliff Notes (or whatever their contemporary equivalent is) would not be out of place. An unhappy queen of a cruel king is loved by Zeus and gives birth to a demi-god who will eventually revenge her ill treatment. That’s just the overall outline. Throw in sibling rivalry, jealousy, gladiatorial games, kidnappings, ferocious battles, and thwarted love and you wind up with a headache minus the concussion.
Then there’s the script. I’ve always found it interesting that the more screenwriters there are (4 in this case), the worse the script usually turns out to be. You would think that it would just be the opposite, but then again if you’ve ever been on a committee or know the old saying “too many cooks spoil the broth” then I guess it should come as no surprise. Overwritten in some places and woefully underwritten in others, the end result is a mishmash that is totally forgettable.
Finally there are the performances. When the movie started I was willing to give Kellan Lutz the benefit of the doubt. After the Twilight saga he acquitted himself nicely in a small little Indonesian movie called Java Heat that made my personal Top Ten list last year. This movie, however, makes the Twilight series look like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In his defense, Lutz is actually better than most of the rest of the cast so that should tell you something.
I could go on and on but I would just be repeating myself. I’ll close out the review with the three things that I found worthwhile. 1) It is economical (you get 4 movies 300, Gladiator, and both Clash of the Titans rolled into one). 2) It ends after 90 minutes unlike some recent higher profile movies I could name. 3) It isn’t Inside Llewyn Davis. Somewhere in muscleman heaven Steve Reeves, the original Hercules, is smiling.
Rated PG-13 for intense combat action and violence and for some sensuality.
Review by Chip Kaufmann
Lone Survivor ***1/2
Short Take: The film adaptation of Marcus Luttrell’s memoir about a team of Navy Seals on a mission in Afghanistan that goes horribly wrong.
REEL TAKE: Lest anyone not realize the title is a dead give away, Lone Survivor tells the story of a Navy Seal mission in Afghanistan in 2005 that goes terribly, horribly wrong. Writer, actor, director Peter Berg (TV’s Friday Night Lights) adapted and directed the film, based on Marcus Luttrell’s best selling memoir by the same name. Such an adaptation is a daunting task, as one has to balance paying tribute to these fallen soldiers while creating an entertaining and meaningful movie.
Berg succeeds in delivering a film that serves as a touching memorial and has mainstream cinematic appeal. Unfortunately, the film has a few too many internal battles to be considered a great war film, but has enough going for it that I’m not sure it actually really matters.
Mark Wahlberg stars as the titular survivor, Marcus Luttrell. It is clear from the start of the movie he and his fellow SEALS are a tight band of brothers; they know how to work together. One of the things that really worked in Berg’s adaptation was showing the power in the process of this team of soldiers.
It seems like business as usual (if special ops is your business) when Lutrell and his team: Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch) and Matt Axelson (Ben Foster) receive orders to capture a Taliban leader in a remote village. As the team scales the mountains surrounding the village and surveys the situation below, everything is going according to plan until a herd of goats and three herders stumble upon them.
The SEALS quickly capture the goat herders – an old man, a young man and a boy. Faced with the moral dilemma (and war crimes if they make the wrong decision), our four heroes argue over what’s to be done. This is where everything falls apart. The results of which impact not just them but the rest of their unit en route to the village.
The camaraderie between Wahlberg, Kitsch, Hirsch and Foster comes across organically and is a strong asset for the film. Wahlberg is at ease in the role and [I hope] does Luttrell justice. If Wahlberg comes across as the captain of the team, Kitsch is the heart of the team. It was refreshing to see Foster and Hirsch as likeable characters for a change.
After an introduction implying we’d see more of them, it would have been nice to see a bit more development with Eric Bana and Alexander Ludwig, the commanding officer and new kid on the block respectively, back at the base. It’s understandable, but makes them collateral damage.
The film packs a visceral punch – a bone crunching, blood-letting – but a more nuanced director may have known when and how to draw the line between effective and numbing. But then again, that too may have been the point. The film does pay a nice tip of the hat to the Afghan people who helped Luttrell. That moral goodness and act of humanity did more than just save a man’s life.
Berg bookends Lone Survivor first, with footage from SEAL training videos, and then with video of the real Luttrell, Murph, Dietz and Axelson. It’s patriotic, heavy handed sentiment, and exactly what Berg intended. You may feel bludgeoned but I dare you not to be moved.
Rated R for strong bloody war violence and pervasive language.
Review by Michelle Keenan