Batman v Superman – C+

Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams (PBA), Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane (PBA), Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Gal Gadot.
Screenplay by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer
Directed by Zack Snyder.

Rated PG-13 for prolonged intense sequences of violence and destruction, some sensuality, and language.

Amy Adams naked in a bathtub. With no bubbles.

Well, that got your attention. That's actually in the movie, so I don't feel too bad about using it to hook you into the review. More on it later.

When they started making this movie two years ago, I had misgivings about it.

It was to be directed and written by the same guys who did Man of Steel (Review). They didn't totally mess up with that one, so I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But this news didn't exactly fill me with anticipation.

To be continued...

The Identical – D+

Starring Blake Rayne, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano.
Screenplay by Howard Klausner.
Directed by Dustin Marcellino.

Rated PG for thematic elements and smoking.

I can't begin to tell you how bad this movie is. I was suckered in by the fact that it involves Ashley Judd, Seth Green, and Ray Liotta. The first two must have become involved because of the fact that Liotta financed this thing. Or they were off their meds.

They are all good actors and do well in this. But that is the only redeeming characteristic of this train-wreck of a movie.

The creators pose the question, "What if Elvis's twin brother had not died at birth?" It then creates the least imaginative and most unlikely response possible to that question: Why, he'd have been adopted, grown up to be an Elvis impersonator, and would have become almost as famous as the King himself by touring and singing covers of Elvis's songs! (Honestly. That's the plot.)

This movie is basically a vanity project for the "actor" who plays the main character. This actor is an Elvis impersonator in real life. This movie gives him a chance to live out his fantasy of having Elvis see his act and then receiving his blessing as the world's best Elvis impersonator. (Which he isn't.)

Tomorrowland - B+

Starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Hugh Laurie, Tim McGraw.
Screenplay by Brad Bird, Damon Lindelof, and Jeff Jensen.
Directed by Brad Bird.

Rated PG for sequences of sci-fi violence, action, and peril, and for some language. IMHO, it should be a PG-13. Many scenes could be very scary for younger grade schoolers.

I absolutely love many things about Tomorrowland but the film as a whole falls short of the greatness it could have and should have achieved. I may likely watch it several more times over the years and there are elements that will always touch and inspire. But I know many others will find it disappointing in the extreme (especially the ending) and move on. And I can't really blame them.

It's hard to review this movie without spoiling it because so much of the plot hinges on mystery and big reveals. So you are forewarned.

What's so disappointing about the movie? Here it comes. The biggest spoiler yet: Tomorrowland doesn't really exist. At least not fully. The characters never actually go there. The utopian vistas and gleaming cities that Casey sees when she touches the pin are, as Frank puts it, just a commercial for a place that was never completed. "An invitation to a party that was canceled."

And that's the gamble that Brad Bird takes in this movie. He stakes the film on the hope that you won't get pissed off when the climax of the story turns out to be a speech. A speech telling you that only you have the power to make Tomorrowland happen. Hollywood can't do it for you. So stop being cynical and lazy. If you want to see it, don't go to the movies. Get out and start creating it. The end.

As cinematically dull as this sounds, I'm just enough of a dreamy idealist to buy into it. But many people may howl in disdain and demand their money back.

Man of Steel (B+)

Starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams (PBA), Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane (PBA), Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Harry Lennix, Richard Schiff, and Christopher Meloni.
Screenplay by David S. Goyer
Directed by Zack Snyder.

Rated PG-13 for prolonged intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for some language.

It's impossible for me to write objectively about a Superman movie. Especially one I've anticipated as long as this one. A friend asked me whether I loved it or was disappointed.

Yes.

After 2006's middling, milquetoast Superman Returns, which tried to be a direct sequel to 1980's Superman II but retained far too much of it's campy humor, the Man of Tomorrow was in dire need of a theatrical reboot. This film is that and a ton more. In some ways it totally re-imagines the Superman mythology.

My greatest concern about Man of Steel is that Clark/Superman is almost entirely reactive for the whole film. He never formulates a plan to outsmart the bad guys and then executes it. He simply responds to outside forces as they enter his flight path and takes instructions from others. "Hey Clark, your dead alien dad told me how you can fix that ..."

All in all, it's a good, exciting movie and an interesting new take on Big Blue. But it seems more a like a prologue to a real Superman movie than the genuine article.



 

Flight (A–)

Starring Denzel Washington, Bruce Greenwood, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, and Melissa Leo.
Screenplay by John Gatins.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Rated R for frequent explicit language, heavy reckless alcohol use, detailed drug abuse, and a scene of nudity.

Buy it

This is the first live-action film Zemeckis has directed since "Cast Away" in 2000. Like that film, it has a huge, edge-of-your-seat plane crash scene then becomes a two-hour character study. The trailer makes you think it's either an action-packed rage-against-the-system flick or a courtroom drama. It's neither, although it has elements of those. It's really more like "Lost Weekend" or "Clean and Sober."

The airplane is a metaphor for its pilot, William "Whip" Whitaker (Denzel Washington), a functional alcoholic who is privately crashing during a time when he is publicly flying high as a national hero. Whip coolly and inventively landed the defective airliner, saving most of the 102 souls aboard. But it's discovered that he was legally drunk when the accident occured. Can he come out of his nose-dive before he loses the one soul aboard his personal flight?

Washington's tremendous skill and intense humanity keep you invested in Whip but it's not easy. Whip - as addicts often do - gets increasingly repugnant as the story progresses and the movie dares you to keep caring about him no matter how bad he gets. Kelly Reilly (Dr. Watson's wife in the current Sherlock Holmes movies) also does a terrific, natural job here as a fellow addict/love interest who wants to get sober.

The film poses many questions about God's role in tragedy and accidents, his help in self-control, the efficacy of prayer, and predestination. Christian symbols appear throughout the film. Some of the questions are taken very seriously, some not.

It also keeps you in a very tense, emotional Catch-22 between definitely wanting Whip to be absolved for this particular crash, for which he was not responsible and in which he acted heroically, and definitely wanting to see him be held accountable for his long history of flying drunk.

Some conservative viewers may admire the film's message but may not be able to sit through its very graphic and realistic content.

Final Grade: A–

Wow. Just ... wow.

In the film October Baby, the main character develops a sudden illness that may have congenital origins, discovers she is adopted, and goes searching for her birth mother - only to find she was the survivor of a failed abortion attempt.

Shari Rigby, the actress cast in the role of the birth mother had - unbeknownst to anyone but her husband and closest friends - deeply personal connections to the film's story.

An incredibly touching encounter. Thanks, God.

Trailer - The Answer Man

Actually want to see this. Coming July 24. Yeah, huge PBA warning.

CD - No Line on the Horizon (B-)

Artist: U2
Buy it

I am a loyal follower of U2. To say they're my favorite band is like saying oxygen is my favorite element. They've challenged me many times and I've enjoyed the ride for 26 years now.

But this is definitely one of those albums that will take repeated listening. My gut reaction is a B- but that can change over the next week or so. [It did.] Like 1984's Unforgettable Fire, at first it sounds like a Brian Eno album featuring U2. It has soundscapes and ambience rather than melodies in many spots. But it doesn't have as much scale. Definitely not many radio singles on this one, which is okay. It's not a "Let's rock and roll!" album like How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

To me it sounds like a transparent attempt to do something "different" in response to all the potshots the snobs took at their last two efforts, which returned to their stadium-sized anthemic roots. The hooks are definitely missing here. But so is the fun. When it's not somber, it's dry. When it's not mellow, it's thin. Some attempts at fun seem more like parody, with obnoxious choruses sung off-beat (and sometimes off-key). It has its redeeming qualities and a few strong tracks (most notably "Magnificent" - a straight-up U2 song - and "Breathe") but it's just not something I'm going to pop in the car stereo very often.

I hated Achtung Baby when it came out. Took me years to come around to most of it. Hopefully No Line will the same. Or it could be like Pop, which I play once per decade. Time will tell.

Final score: B minus

That Old Pair of Jeans

THAT OLD PAIR OF JEANS
By Fatboy Slim

All you used to do was put me down
But I found a way to pick myself up off the ground
And all you used to do was criticize me
But now I found the good and I emphasize it, see

You would always get so sensitive
And try to turn your transgressions into my guiltiness
But now I'm certain of the way I live
And what I'm responsible for in this twisted game

And it's such a shame
That you try to make pain
Another word for my name
Whether giving or receiving
It's one and the same
Just one more link
In your long-ass chain
But it's time to break
This drain on my strength and will
Time to jump off this negative cycle we've built
Gave my heart
But my self-respect you won't steal
Now it's time to let you go if you can't hear or feel me

So I asked my mama for her two cents
And then I asked my little sister and I asked my friend
Then I asked my papa once and I asked him again
Came to the consensus from all them opinions
That life is too short to be unhappy
And since I know what I'm worth there'll be no settling for dirt
Not when what I deserve is gold
If I want diamonds then I can't settle for coal and

Maybe I was just too strong to let go
Maybe I was just too weak to let it show
Maybe I was just too stubborn to say "No"
But whatever the case I can't take it no more

Sometimes I think maybe we'll patch it all up
Like a favorite pair of jeans that you won't give up on
And I hope maybe one of these arguments we'll make up
And start again like when we started this up
Back when everything was fresh
And every moment a blessing
I'd laugh at all of your jokes
You'd listen to my suggestions
One mind, one soul,
One common destination
Now we can't help but fight over the direction

You've gotta, you've gotta give me a little, little more line
(Repeat)

Batman: The Dark Knight (A-)

Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman.
Screenplay by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan from a Story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.

Rated PG-13 for strong violence, intense situations, and disturbing images.
NOT FOR CHILDREN, EVEN THOUGH IT'S MARKETED TO THEM.

You've heard it all. Dark. Brooding. Expansive. Heath Ledger rocks the house. Gary Oldman rules as a good guy for once. Aaron Eckhart is surprisingly competent.

This is an impressive movie. It will have a lasting effect on you, trust me. It's extremely ambitious in both its visual and thematic conception. It hits the target on the former. It has qualified successes in the latter.

But, again, you've heard all the raves. Why am I giving it an A minus?

Three things, and they all involve Batman himself. All are character issues and two figure significantly in the plot.

First of all, Batman seems to exist in the story mainly as a contrived counterpoint to The Joker. He's not developed much and he's not really that important to the movie if you step back and break it down. Eckhart's Harvey Dent is.

**SPOILERS** (For the twenty-three of you who haven't seen it.)

Second, he faces a false dilemma in this movie that drove me nuts as I watched him grapple with it. Essentially, The Joker announces that he will start killing people until Batman reveals himself. Batman/Bruce Wayne agonizes over this. "It's all my fault! People are dying because of me! He won't stop until I turn myself in!" He then shuts down the Batcave and destroys all his Batstuff.

Huh? Dude, the Joker was killing people BEFORE he made this little ultimatum. He will go on killing AFTER you turn yourself in. What's to agonize about? He's the bad guy, not you. Go catch him. Problem solved.

I hated that stupid gimmick and rolled my eyes as it played out. I didn't believe a minute of it. The only possible explanation I can come up with was that he was looking for an excuse to "retire" and The Joker gave him one. He'd calmly ride off into the sunset with Rachel Dawes as the Joker took over the city? Right. That ended up being a moot point, anyway. (And, btw, he sure didn't grieve very much over THAT development).

**END SPOILERS**

Thirdly (and I'm with Robert Downey, Jr. on this one), the epilogue makes no sense. Why does it have to end that way? Can't we just explain that The Joker drove Dent crazy?

Letterman

CBS is panicking over the state of The Late Show with David Letterman. They should. It has the lowest ratings it's ever had. And its quality is at its nadir as well.

I only see it once or twice a week, usually by accident. If we watch the news on our local CBS affiliate and wander out of the room for ablutions or chores after the weather, often Letterman begins while we're occupied. I'll stop and watch parts of his show as I pass through the living room. It's far from must-see viewing, though.

Dave's always kind of rubbed me the wrong way, I guess because he seems like someone I would not spend two minutes with in a social setting. He seems mean, self-involved, obnoxious - and even disinterested. Whenever he says something like "Of course, we're saddened to hear of it," he always has to add, "Yep, just sick to death I'm telling ya," to make you question his sincerity. Maybe that's a put-on but if it is he's doing a great acting job.

He has some funny gags, a few good regular routines (but some that he runs into the ground for years), and is actually a better interviewer than Jay Leno but his humor has gotten weaker and odder over the years. One especially appalling development has been the recurring skits portraying announcer Allan Kalter as an evil deviant. I'm no prude (by any means) but they are just too twisted and cheaply vulgar and I have no idea how they get past CBS's censors. I could probably deal with them if they were actually funny. But they're not.

What really befuddles me is how Letterman fills the spaces between those moments with things that don't even rise to the level of inane. He'll spend ten minutes out of an hour repeating a word or gesture accompanied by a drum or organ effect. If he tugs at his tie and clears his throat in an extremely exaggerated manner during the opening intro, he'll do that a dozen times over the course of a show as Paul Shaffer laughs his head off. I just don't get it.

That said, I'd probably still take him over Leno for talk or Conan for humor. But not by much.

DVD - The Bucket List (B)

Starring Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, and Beverly Todd.
Written by Justin Zackham.
Directed by Rob Reiner.

PG-13 for language and sexual humor

Buy it

Plot description from the cover:

In THE BUCKET LIST cancer doesn't discriminate in its choice of victims. It's equally eager in its attacks on kindly sage of a mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and mean-spirited millionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson). When the unlikely pair shares a room at a hospital they learn that they both have less than a year to live as a result of the deadly disease. Inspired by the words of a college professor Carter begins to make a "bucket list" of things he wants to accomplish before he dies. With Edward's limitless funds at their disposal the men embark on an adventure that takes them from Egypt to France to Hong Kong crossing items off their list as death grows closer.

There are enough problems with this picture, both in conception and execution, to prevent me from ever giving it an unconditional recommendation. Many real-life cancer patients find its portrayal of the condition either laughable or offensive. But I think it has just enough redeeming qualities - and messages - to it to make it worthwhile. However, if you find sappy, sentimental moments totally irredeemable, then you should just avoid it altogether.

Final score: B

Trailer:

DVD - Thank You for Smoking (B-)

Starring Aaron Eckhart, William H. Macy, Maria Bello, Katie Holmes (PBA), Sam Elliott, and J. K. Simmons.
Directed by Jason Reitman.

Rated R for pervasive language and for sexual situations

Buy it

Synopsis from the back of the box:

Aaron Eckhart stars as Nick Naylor, a sexy charismatic spin-doctor for Big Tobacco who'll fight to protect America's right to smoke -- even if it kills him -- while still remaining a role model for his 12-year old son. When he incurs the wrath of a senator (William H. Macy) bent on snuffing out cigarettes Nick's powers of "filtering the truth" will be put to the test.

I think the problem many people have with this film is that - unlike most moralizing Hollywood movies - it doesn't take a stand for or against smoking. While I think smoking is disgusting and practically crazy and I've lost count of the people I've known who died from it, I actually found this approach refreshing. It's essentially a cynical, amoral, libertarian satire on the American nanny state, corporate shills, and posturing politicians. In essence it boils down to this message: "Everyone's got a selfish reason for doing what they do and all information is skewed to the interests of the person providing it. Make up your own mind based on that. If you can."

Since I'm neither amoral nor very libertarian I was not thrilled with the main character (His motto: "If you argue correctly, then you're never wrong.") or the way he indoctrinated his son into believing "doing what you do best" is one's highest calling - even if it's for a horrible cause. But his blunt honesty appealed to my cynical side and was often quite amusing.

Based on the novel by Christopher Buckley.

Final score: B minus

Trailer:

Cyd Charisse 1922-2008

Cyd Charisse, technically speaking the greatest female dancer in movie history but perhaps the most underappreciated by posterity, has passed at age 86.

Classically trained and touring internationally as a ballerina in her teens, Cyd entered the movies during World War II and proceeded to conquer every style from tango to tap. Her elegant brunette beauty (in an era dominated by Marilyn Monroe look-alikes) and her reserved onscreen persona kept her from becoming a household name like dancer comediennes Ginger Rogers and Rita Hayworth. But dance legends Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire recognized her amazing skills and demanded Cyd play the female lead in their pictures after her breakthrough work in Kelly's 1952 masterpiece Singin' In the Rain. She made five films with Kelly and Astaire altogether, including Brigadoon, The Band Wagon, It's Always Fair Weather, and Silk Stockings. Unfortunately, big Hollywood musicals fell out of style soon after she made it to the top.

Words fail when you're talking about Cyd's dancing (or her legendary legs, insured for a million dollars by MGM), so I'll let the legend speak for herself:

"Flaming Flamenco" (with Ricardo Montalban) from Fiesta, 1947.



"Broadway Melody" Parts 1 and 2 (with Gene Kelly) from Singin' In the Rain, 1952.




"Frankie and Johnny" (with John Brascia and Liliane Montevecchi) from Meet Me In Las Vegas, 1956.



"The Girl Hunt Ballet" (with Fred Astaire) from The Band Wagon, 1957.



"Dancing Doll" from Party Girl, 1958.



I pray Cyd's dancing in heaven today.
.

Book - The Missing Ring (B)

Author: Keith Dunnavant

This book's subtitle is "How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize." The Tide were the defending back-to-back national champions in 1966. They were ranked first in both polls as the season began. They finished the season undefeated and untied - yet managed to finish third behind Notre Dame and Michigan State, who had played each other to a 10-10 tie in midseason. This book was intended to explore why that took place.

Dunnavant posits two reasons. The first is the most common argument: Notre Dame has been the most popular team in the country since the Jazz Age and routinely places higher in the polls than schools with superior records because they are the darlings of predominantly northern and eastern sportswriters. Irish head coach Ara Parseghian decided to play to preserve the tie against MSU - to sit on the ball with two minutes left to play - rather than fight for the win. His detractors claim this is because he knew they would treated well by the pollsters in spite of the decision. He was right.

The second argument is that the season occured during the height of the civil rights movement and there was a media bias against the still-segregated Crimson Tide team and against the entire state of Alabama, the bastion of Bull Connor and George Wallace. He believes the team fell from first place simply because of politics even before Parseghian's Machiavellian move.

Virtually no one who wears Crimson will argue with the first point. Many who were not alive at the time might not have considered the second but it makes sense given the climate of 1966. All that could have been covered in a book half this size.

But the 'The Missing Ring' also seeks to illustrate why the Alabama team deserved the title, not just why the other two schools didn't. It is filled with wonderful details about the players and coaches who comprised one of the best teams in college football history and the system Paul Bryant used to create it. Each chapter has a theme and spotlights players and games from the 1966 season that exemplify it. Dunnavant does a great job of setting the atmosphere of the times both on campus and in the state of Alabama and paints colorful portraits of many young men who have become mere names in the record books but are still alive to share anecdotes and attitudes.

My only misgivings about this book are Dunnavant's tendency to repeat himself, often verbatim (I lost count of how many times he used the phrase "Bryant used this tactic to great effect in molding a team into champions" - often on facing pages), his often clumsy attempts at foreshadowing, and his unabashed boosterism. I'm aware he's an alum but if he is going to build an effective case that Alabama was robbed of a threepeat he must try to at least feign objectivity. Dunnavant shows no such restraint when he arrives at the conclusion of the book. As he recounts Ara Parseghian's admittedly gutless decision to sit on the ball and trust his team's fortune to the pollsters' sycophantic relationship with Notre Dame, Dunnavant bursts into outright apoplexy, calling Parseghian everything but an Armenian. He sounds more like a blogger than a journalist.

There were plenty of people to quote if he wanted to include the labels gutless, cynical, cowardly, and shameful. Instead, he uses them himself. I kept wanting to reach through the book and grab Keith by the collar: "Don't do it! Hold off! Show some class. Let the facts speak for themselves. It'll just look like sour grapes if you go this route." But alas, the deed was done. It's like he had driven the ball the length of the field and into the edzone and then ruined it all with a penalty in the final seconds that negated the winning touchdown.

This was the only blemish on an otherwise fascinating book on Crimson Tide football history. I still recommend it, however, for the excellent player profiles.

Final score: B

Film - The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (B-)

Starring William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, Peter Dinklage, Eddie Izzard, Liam Neeson.
Written by Stephen McFeely.
Directed by Andrew Adamson.

PG for epic battle action and violence

Having enjoyed the first Narnia film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I had eagerly awaited Prince Caspian. Being a huge fan of author C. S. Lewis, I had the same trepidation I'd had with the first installment over the filmmakers' faithfulness to the original material.

Well, the book had maybe one fight in it and one battle. This movie has about a hundred fights and a half dozen battles. I don't think a single solitary scene went by in which someone didn't either draw a weapon or hit someone or both. It has little or no blood in it but the body count is as great or greater than that in Braveheart. Even the swashbuckling mouse, Reepicheep, cracks jokes then kills his opponents by cutting their throats. The kids in the audience are busy chuckling during the slashing bit, though, so I suppose it's all good. A decapitation replete with rolling head in another scene, however, offers no such distractions.

I've got no trouble with all this on the face of it. It's a sword and sorcery war movie, essentially. Soldiers die in these things. But this movie is marketed primarily to children and Disney and the MPAA are blatantly gaming the ratings system by not assigning this a PG-13 - blood or no blood.

DVD - 27 Dresses (C+)

Starring Katherine Heigl (PBA), James Marsden, Malin Akerman, Edward Burns, Judy Greer, Melora Hardin (PBA).
Written by Aline Brosh McKenna.
Directed by Anne Fletcher.

PG-13 for language and sexuality

Buy it

Plot description from the cover:

From the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada, 27 DRESSES centers on Jane (Emmy winner Katherine Heigl), an idealistic, romantic and completely selfless woman -- a perennial bridesmaid whose own happy ending is nowhere in sight. But when younger sister Tess captures the heart of Jane's boss - with whom she is secretly in love - Jane begins to reexamine her "always-a-bridesmaid..." lifestyle. Jane has always been good at taking care of others, but not so much in looking after herself. Her entire life has been about making people happy - and she has a closet full of 27 bridesmaid dresses to prove it. One memorable evening, Jane manages to shuttle between wedding receptions in Manhattan and Brooklyn, a feat witnessed by Kevin (James Marsden), a newspaper reporter who realizes that a story about this wedding junkie is his ticket off the newspaper's bridal beat. Jane finds Kevin's cynicism counter to everything she holds dear - namely weddings, and the two lock horns. Further complicating Jane's once perfectly-ordered life is the arrival of younger sister Tess (Malin Akerman). Tess immediately captures the heart of Jane's boss, George (Edward Burns). Tess enlists her always-accommodating sister to plan yet another wedding - Tess and George's - but Jane's feelings for him lead to shocking revelations - and maybe the beginning of a new life.

This is a by-the-numbers rom-com confection sprinkled with nothing but charming, good-looking, talented actors. No new ground is broken. In fact, (except for an openly vindictive moment for Heigl's character) the existing ground is paved over with a thick layer of sugary glaze and cordoned off with "Do Not Touch" signs.

But that's okay. There's no pretension of aspiration to high art or even to a cursory correlation with reality here. Just lightweight disposable entertainment. And it does that well. I'm just not sure that's worth an hour and forty-five minutes of my life.

Final score: C plus

Trailer:

DVD - The Savages (B+)

Starring Laura Linney (PBA), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco
Written and Directed by Tamara Jenkins

R for language, mature themes, and sexuality

Buy it

Billed as a dark comedy, 'The Savages' is certainly not standard movie fare but I think it's a film that we're richer for having around. Many have tackled end-of-life issues before but very few have done it like this. It is an unsentimental, unapologetic, slice-of-life depiction of two middle aged siblings, Linney (in an Oscar-nominated turn) and Hoffman, managing the rapid mental deterioration and death of their estranged, abusive father and the process - physiological and logistical - that entails.

It averts its gaze from none of the practical and emotional issues met by everyone whose family members live so long. From scatological problems to the appalling reality of nursing homes to the pressures of guilt, it covers the bases. It does punctuate it with moments of humor and sprinkles knowingly wry observations of sibling dynamics throughout. But there are no saccharine reconciliations or dramatic changes of heart in the last act to pull the punches. Things just happen and the people react as we all do - with integrity and responsibility in some areas and utter cowardice and flakiness in others. And with many things left unsaid.

My only real nit to pick is a slight sense of self-indulgence in the characters' professions. Everyone but the father is in the theater (or wants to be). It leads to a bit of inside humor that took me out of the movie a few times. (If you know who Bertolt Brecht is, it could open up another level of Hoffman's character to you. He briefly summarizes Brecht's epic philosophy at one point.) But it's not a huge liability.

Linney and Hoffman are, of course, impeccable but I believe Philip Bosco, who plays the largely silent role of the father, deserves praise as well. He speaks volumes with exhausted eyes and resigned yet pained stillness.

Final score: B plus

Trailer:

Film - Blue Like Jazz movie news

Jazzed About the Big Screen - CT.com

Essayist Donald Miller's best-selling book Blue Like Jazz has been adapted into a screenplay, with The Second Chance director Steve Taylor at the helm - and both men are pretty excited about it. - More >

I love Donald Miller's witty, disarmingly honest writing and Steve Taylor's satirical, iconoclastic music and film direction. This should be a terrific team-up. And a Christian movie I can be excited to tell my friends about.

DVD - Lars and the Real Girl (A-)

Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, and Patricia Clarkson.
Written by Nancy Oliver.
Directed by Craig Gillespie.

PG-13 for some sex-related content and some language

Buy it

This is my other favorite film of 2007. Knowing that, when I tell you this film's premise you will think I've officially gone off the deep end.

Lars is about a man who buys a "love doll" online and actually believes that she's a real woman. Got your attention? Good. Because even though that's the one-sentence description of the movie, it doesn't even begin to cover all that this movie is really about.

Lars (Oscar nominee Gosling doing a terrific job) is a nice guy and is extremely shy. He also has severe emotional problems. He finds it physically painful to be touched by others and ignores both their repeated hints that he find a girl and the subtle advances of a gangly coworker (Garner). Although he works at his anonymous computer job each day and faithfully attends church, no one is aware of just how serious his condition has become in the past few months. His pregnant sister-in-law, Karin (Mortimer, who actually drives the film), has suspicions, however, and since Lars lives in the converted garage behind their house, keeps unsuccessfully inviting him to have dinner with her and his brother, Gus (Schneider). In desperation, she finally tackles him in the driveway one night and insists he eat the salmon she's made. Later, Gus shrugs his brother's quirks off as "fine."

A shipping crate arrives one day while Lars is at work and Karin casually calls Lars at work notify him. Lars speeds home to open it and that evening announces that he has a lady friend he's met online and that he'd like to bring her to dinner that night. Ecstatic that he's not only reaching out to them but has found romance, Karin and Gus spruce the house up and anxiously await the arrival of Lars' friend. Their hopes are dashed, however, when they meet Bianca - a life-sized, fully-articulated, silicone pleasure doll. Lars explains that Bianca can't walk because she is paraplegic and can't speak English because she's a Brazilian missionary. Since Lars and Bianca are devout Christians and they don't want to give the impression of impropriety, he asks Gus and Karin if Bianca can stay in their house while she's in America.

Terrified that Lars is psychotic, Karin and Gus devise a ruse to get Lars help. They suggest a routine examination for Bianca by their small town's lone physician - who is also a psychologist. After interacting with Lars while she "diagnoses" Bianca, the doctor (Oscar nominee Clarkson in a pitch-perfect performance) suggests to the couple that Lars has not had a complete break. He is delusional, however, and there must be some reason why his mind created the delusion to protect him. She recommends strongly that they humor him until she can find out why. Although Gus has to be strong-armed at first, they eventually play along and soon the entire community follows suit in an effort to help Lars get better.

What follows is a thoughtful, charming, moving, and frequently understated Capraesque comedy that seldom goes for the cheap laugh. It gently reminds us not only of the lengths any of us may go to when we're hurting enough but also of what a family, a church, and a community can do for someone else in pain. There are a few scenes that stretch credulity even for a tale this fanciful but, generally speaking, if you're willing to buy into the premise, it can take you to a pretty nice place.

Final score: A minus

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