Movie Review: The Kate Logan Affair (2010)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Noël Mitrani  

Starring: Alexis Bledel, Laurent Lucas  

Running Time: 86 minutes  

Synopsis: In a small Canadian town, married French insurance businessman Benoît Gando (Laurent Lucas) is attending a conference. He is briefly and wrongfully detained by young and inexperienced police officer Kate Logan (Alexis Bledel). Her apology extends to drinks, then passionate sex, before a mishap with her service revolver upturns Benoît's trip.

What Works Well: The scenic quaint setting provides an attractive milieu for a far-from-home affair. Given the narrative context, the awkward performances by Laurent Lucas and Alexis Bledel are surprisingly suitable, setting up one effective jolt of violence.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot lacks momentum and meanders along an uninspiring path, while the production never threatens to rise above television movie-of-the-week standards. Benoît takes every wrong decision at every opportunity, while Kate's distressed mental state deserved better depth. The RCMP's investigative efforts into potential wrong-doing are unencumbered by analyzing evidence and talking to witnesses.

Conclusion: Arrested but released due to insufficient engagement.



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Movie Review: Crypto (2019)

A banking conspiracy thriller, Crypto throws too many rows into one spreadsheet. The execution is decent, but the plot is overloaded with attempted buzziness.

In Manhattan, Omnicorp Bank anti-money laundering analyst Marty Duran (Beau Knapp) does his job too well and runs afoul of the bigwigs. His sympathetic boss Robin Whiting (Jill Hennessy) reassigns him to the small branch in Elba, upstate New York, which happens to be Marty's home town. His father Marty Sr. (Kurt Russell) is a stubborn potato farmer threatened with foreclosure, and his brother Caleb (Luke Hemsworth) is an Iraq War veteran struggling to adjust. Neither is happy to see Marty again.

Marty reconnects with his high school buddy Earl (Jeremie Harris), who is engrossed in cryptocurrency trading. At work, Marty uncovers irregularities in the bank's transactions with the art gallery run by maneater Penelope (Malaya Rivera Drew) and her accountant/sex partner Ted Patterson (Vincent Kartheiser). Marty starts a friendship with gallery employee Katie (Alexis Bedel), but as he digs deeper into the books and Earl delves into unusual crypto transactions, the threads of a dangerous conspiracy emerge.

A melange of hot-button issues compete for attention in the Crypto screenplay by Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio. Muddled by a rainstorm of acronyms, the evil conspiracy is never quite defined but includes illicit cryptocurrency trading, the dark web, market manipulation, cross-border money laundering, the Russian mafia, corrupt bank officials, shell companies, stone-faced assassins mopping up witnesses, and of the course the old standby, micro chips containing top secrets.

But director John Stalberg Jr. also has to contend with a whole other storyline, involving a bedraggled potato farm and Marty having to mend fences with his father and brother. Kurt Russell's craggy presence provides Crypto with some of its best moments, while Luke Hemsworth deftly avoids any scenes which don't require him to be on the verge of breaking something or someone.

Despite the overflowing agenda, room can still be found for a tepid relationship to evolve between Marty and Katie. He is quite functional but on the spectrum, as evidenced by wearing his work suit and office shoes on their scenic hike.

Stalberg maintains narrative zip and finds enough return-of-the-prodigal-son notes to achieve reasonable momentum, blissfully ignoring the ever expanding plot holes. But when the rescue cavalry arrives in a final flourish corresponding with the bad guys suddenly discovering their incompetent side, all the MNEs, AMLs, ATMs, ICOs, TRACs and BSAs finally dissolve into a hearty alphabet soup.



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Movie Review: The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants (2005)

A coming-of-age teen drama centred around four close friends, The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants tackles serious issues with a tender touch. Excellent performances from the young cast enhance the film's quality.

Friends since birth, four 17 year old teen girls are preparing for their first summer apart. While out shopping together, they find a pair of jeans that remarkably fits them all perfectly. They vow to share the jeans throughout the summer, mailing it to each other along with updates about their summer adventures.

Lena (Alexis Bledel) is the thoughtful introvert of the group, and a budding artist. In Greece to spend the summer with her grandparents she meets dishy fisher Kostas (Michael Rady), but finds it difficult to open up to his overtures. Long-held family feuds also get in the way.

Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) wants to be a documentary filmmaker but is downbeat about having to stay behind in dull Maryland working at the local discount department store. Her sarcastic outlook on life is challenged when she meets the cheerful and precocious 12 year old Bailey (Jenna Boyd).

Carmen (America Ferrera) is half Puerto Rican and being raised by her divorced mom Christina (Rachel Ticotin). She is excited to visit her dad Al (Bradley Whitford) in Charleston. But Carmen is shocked to find him living with the very WASPy Lydia (Nancy Travis) and her two teen kids. Al and Lydia are about to get married and he makes no time for Carmen.

Bridget (Blake Lively) lost her mother to suicide. Vivacious, driven and a budding soccer superstar, Bridget heads to a soccer summer camp in Mexico, where she immediately sets out to seduce dishy coach Eric (Mike Vogel).

An adaptation of the Ann Brashares novel with a screenplay by Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler, The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants streamlines the book into a cohesive screen package. With an emphasis on personal growth and confronting real world difficulties, director Ken Kwapis displays a deft touch to juggle four stories and still maintain focus on the central friendship theme.

With four mini chapters to get through, Kwapis never lingers in one place for too long, and the film creates a sense of welcome energy. The main narrative challenge of nurturing the core bond between the women as they are off on their own separate adventures is achieved through the letters accompanying the mailed pants and unexpected turns during the summer forcing some early reunions.

With the traveling pants a useful plot device to instigate the boost of transitional courage needed in adulthood, the four friends step out of their cocoons and out of their comfort zones. Growing up involves confronting emotional pain, the spectre of death, unexpected disappointments, burgeoning sexuality and forbidden zones established by others, then deciding how to fit into the cycle of turmoil called life. Most of all, The Sisterhood is about the budding women better understanding why they behave the way they do, and their individual and collective power to change.

Not surprisingly given the target audience, some of the events are painted in broad brushes. Carmen's father Al is portrayed as a first class doofus, and the romance between Lena and Kostas has gooey moments. Young Bailey's emotional intellect is just too perfectly sophisticated, and Bridget's relentless pursuit of Eric borders on stalking.

But the four friends are brought to life by bright performances from the talented cast, and they help to smooth over the rough spots. Beldel, Tamblyn, Ferrera and Lively are all provided individual opportunities to shine and collective scenes of friendship, but they are first and foremost convincing as grounded teenagers with distinct personalities awakening to the imperfect world of adults and their evolving position within it.

The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants contains sprinklings of magic dust discovered by close friends, but available to all.

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The Movies Of Alexis Bledel

All movies starring Alexis Bledel and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Sin City (2005)

The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants (2005)

The Kate Logan Affair (2010)

Violet And Daisy (2011)

Parts Per Billion (2014)

Jenny's Wedding (2015)

Crypto (2019)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Parts Per Billion (2014)

An end-of-the-world drama and romance, Parts Per Billion features three loosely connected storylines but adds up to less than the sum of its parts.

A war in the Middle East results in biological weapons being launched. Winds spread the lethal airborne germs, triggering massive death on a global scale. In Michigan, three couples await the arrival of the end, with flashbacks filling in their backstories.

Anna (Teresa Palmer) is intently following the news and the looming disaster increases the intensity of her jealous attachment to fiancé and musician Erik (Penn Badgley). He is calmer and less interested in world events. Lawyer Mia (Rosario Dawson) has a successful career, while her husband Len (Josh Hartnett) is underemployed but supportive. Their relationship is under stress because she did not discourage the advances of an office colleague. They take refuge in their sealed basement as the germs arrive.

The elderly Andy and Esther (Frank Langella and Gena Rowlands) are at the hospital for medical tests when the airborne contamination strikes. Oxygen masks help them survive. He is struggling with feelings of guilt, as he was paid large sums of money to help develop the biological weapons now destroying humanity. The three couples share some associations: Erik is the grandson of Andy and Esther, Mia successfully defended and acquitted Andy in a legal case, and Len's sister Sarah (Alexis Bledel) is a nurse looking after Esther at the hospital.

Sharing some of the same contaminant properties as 2011's Contagion, Parts Per Billion focuses more on people and less on events. Writer and director Brian Horiuchi is interested in the lives and loves of relatively ordinary people, and leaves the broader response to the crisis, if any, off screen. The six central characters are relatable, but far from profoundly interesting. They are also passive victims and observers rather than protagonists.

From the vantage point of the three couples, people are dying en masse, television reports reveal powerless elected officials fleeing, and opportunities for salvation or rescue are not even mentioned. A sealed basement and stocks of supplies offer hope for Mia and Len, but only if they can tolerate each other in confined surroundings. Oxygen masks extend life for Andy and Esther as long as they can find more canisters at the hospital. Anna and Erik just embrace the end with understandable anxiety but overall ambivalent acceptance.

With the title referring to the measure of contamination but also the miniscule relevance of every individual in a global context, it may be fully Horiuchi's intent to highlight the banal nature of life and predictable appreciation of love as the end comes into focus. But the movie suffers mightily from the absence of momentum. Other than small revelations about the couples, not much of anything actually happens over 98 minutes spread thin across three sub-stories. The repetitive shallow expressions of love, anger, frustration and regret struggle to leave an impression.

Parts Per Billion rides in on an evil wind, but exits in a whimper.

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Movie Review: Violet And Daisy (2011)

An action thriller with dramatic elements, Violet And Daisy borrows heavily from Tarantino in a story about two teenaged girl assassins on a mission that goes sideways.

In New York City, cool and carefree teenagers Violet (Alexis Bledel) and Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) work as a duo to assassinate targets selected by their handler Russ (Danny Trejo). After successfully completing a complex mission, Violet and Daisy reluctantly accept another quick and seemingly simple assignment because they need money to buy new dresses.

Their new target is known as just The Guy (James Gandolfini), and his crime is stealing money from gangsters. Violet and Daisy literally fall asleep on the job in The Guy's apartment, triggering a series of events in which they get to know the Guy much more than they intended, with Daisy in particular becoming sympathetic to his difficult relationship with his daughter. Meanwhile, the girls tangle with another hit squad, repeatedly run out of bullets, and learn some truths about each other.

Written, directed and co-produced by Geoffrey S. Fletcher, Violet And Daisy starts strong with direct echoes of Pulp Fiction and The Killers, but then stalls. The opening sequence features Violet and Daisy dressed as nuns, delivering pizza, engaged in banter and then blowing away an army of goons. The scene is magnificently Tarantinoesque, but also sets up expectations that Fletcher cannot deliver on.

Most of the rest of the film takes place in The Guy's non-descript apartment. The script falls short and does not sustain the drama-in-a-room premise. It's painfully clear that Fletcher runs out of ideas about halfway through, and fuzzy interventions by another assassin and a dream sequence start to meander towards incoherent territory.

Punchy interludes do liven up proceedings, including another shootout followed by an internal bleeding dance that corrals nasty and hilarious into the same loop.

If there is an underlying theme it appears to relate to father-daughter issues, with The Guy giving up hope as his daughter gives up on him and Violet dealing with absentee daddy and suppressed memory syndromes. But the film is too far into cartoonish violence combined with bubblegum irreverence to be taken seriously, no matter what the topic.

The three central performances are accomplished and deserved better material. Gandolfini delivers a controlled turn as a man close to the point of not caring, while Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan dive without hesitation into the make-believe world of giddy trigger-happy teenaged killers salivating about the latest fashion trend between hits. When assassins are motivated by designer dresses, the end must be near.

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