Movie Review: The Secrets We Keep (2020)

Genre: Drama Thriller  

Director: Yuval Adler  

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Chris Messina, Amy Seimetz  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: It's the late 1950s, and Romanian Maja (Noomi Rapace) is still haunted by her European wartime experiences, although she is now settled in a quiet town in the United States with her husband Doctor Lewis Reid (Chris Messina). Maja spots refinery worker Thomas Steinman (Joel Kinnaman), a newcomer in town, and is convinced he is actually Karl, a Nazi unit member who abused her in the final days of World War Two. Maja's quest for revenge will upturn her life.

What Works Well: This study of the past haunting the present is brimming with layers of secrets and emotional conflict, both within characters and between them, as the plot boldly seeks surprises and challenging paths. Noomi Rapace delivers a powerhouse performance of quiet rage, determination, and clashing motivations. The other cast members also do well, with Joel Kinnaman jealously guarding the question of guilt, and Amy Seimetz (as Thomas' wife Rachel) growing in prominence as Maja widens her search for the truth.

What Does Not Work As Well: Several plot details are questionable, including a sudden turn to violence by seemingly peaceful characters, gunshots not raising alarm on a quiet street, and the erratic actions of Maja's husband Lewis. The final twist favours shock value over character coherence, leading to an abrupt ending that fails to balance build-up with release.

Conclusion: Small towns can shelter big secrets.



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Movie Review: Air (2023)

Genre: Biographical Sports Drama

Director: Ben Affleck

Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina

Running Time: 112 minutes

Synopsis: It's 1984, and Nike is best known as a running shoe company. Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) is a talent spotter in the fledgling, under-budgeted basketball division. He recognizes the potential of new NBA recruit Michael Jordan, and decides to stake his reputation on signing him to an endorsement deal. Sonny has to convince skeptical Nike boss Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) that competitors Adidas and Converse can be out-maneuvered. He decides to reach out directly to Jordan's mother Deloris (Viola Davis), bypassing obstructive agent Rob Strasser (Chris Messina), but convincing the Jordans to even just meet with Nike will require an unprecedented effort.

What Works Well: The remarkable behind-the-scenes story of Air Jordan is a reminder that Nike was once the scrappy underdog on the basketball court. But one deal can change - and make - fortunes, and Sonny Vaccaro's persistence rewrote the rule book on sports superstar celebrity endorsements. Alex Convery's script is always alert to opportunities for humour drawn from audacity and character quirks, and director Ben Affleck maintains focus on the essential human connections residing at the deal's heart.

What Does Not Work As Well: The washed-out colour palette is unnecessarily sickly, and only so much drama can be squeezed out of a series of meetings with a well-known outcome.

Conclusion: Vision, courage, and grit combine to just do it.



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Movie Review: Call Jane (2022)

Genre: Abortion Drama

Director: Phyllis Nagy

Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Chris Messina, Kate Mara

Running Time: 121 minutes

Synopsis: In Chicago of 1968, Joy (Elizabeth Banks) is a middleclass housewife married to lawyer Will (Chris Messina). They have a teenaged daughter Charlotte, and Joy is pregnant again, but a health scare triggers a stark choice: continuing with the pregnancy will endanger her life. With abortions illegal, she connects with the "Call Jane" collective of women providing secret abortion services. After her procedure, Joy meets the group's organizer Virginia (Sigourney Weaver) and starts to volunteer her time, causing a strain in her relationships with Will and Charlotte.

What Works Well: Inspired by the real-life Jane Collective, director Phyllis Nagy crafts a topical reminder of the US abortion landscape before 1973's Roe vs Wade Supreme Court decision. Mixing societal, feminist, and racial themes, this is a celebration of women's resiliency in the face of man-made laws, male-dominated hospital board decisions, men profiteering at the expense of women, and a patriarchal home environment. Elizabeth Banks as Joy brings the abortion trauma to mainstream living rooms with a minimum of melodrama, and Sigourney Weaver presents a robust counterpoint of activism.

What Does Not Work As Well: Although most of the tone is factual, moments of preachiness do surface. The running time is a good 15 minutes longer than necessary, and sub-plots involving Joy's daughter Charlotte and widowed next-door neighbour Lana (Kate Mara) flounder.

Conclusion: Important, impactful, and impressive.



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Movie Review: I Care A Lot (2020)

A crime drama with a dark sense of humour, I Care A Lot presents a compelling premise but gets trapped in an unsavoury den of crooks.

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) runs a seemingly respectable guardianship business. But she is actually a cutthroat con artist, obsessed with getting rich by bilking fortunes from vulnerable elderly people. With her business partner and lover Fran (Eiza Gonzalez), Marla conspires with corrupt doctor Karen Amos (Alicia Witt) to target her next victim, the wealthy Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest). Marla obtains a court order, commits Jennifer to a care home, and takes control of all her possessions.

In Jennifer's safe deposit box, Marla finds a bag full of diamonds with no receipts. She starts to suspect the old woman is not as defenceless as she seems. Sure enough, Jennifer is the mother of Russian mob boss Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage). He dispatches lawyer Dean Ericson (Chris Messina) to buy-off Marla, but she senses the opportunity of a lifetime and digs in her heels, leading to an epic showdown with Roman.

Within a milieu of slick visuals and the occasional flash of acidic humour, I Care A Lot intentionally creates a dynamic with no sympathetic characters to cheer for. Writer and director J Blakeson introduces Marla as a purely despicable predator, then Roman as a cut-throat gangster, and allows them to crash into each other, two bad people engaged in warfare. From a pure morality standpoint, the best outcome is for both of them to get comprehensively trounced.

It's a risky edge to balance on. Marla's pure tenacity to never give an inch, especially to a low-life male, should be admirable, but her heartlessness reduces her to a contemptible villain. Rosamund Pike deserves plaudits for fully investing in a steely woman who, somewhere along the pathway to riches, detoured to an astounding level of narcissism. To an extent, she is let down by Blakeson's script, especially in the second half. Once Roman's goons start to demonstrate laughable ineptness, the film loses the oblique advantage earned during the sparkling build-up.

Marla turns into an action heroine to escape death and save Fran, as the narrative spirals from a battle of wits to routine action nonsense, the sense of cerebral sly ruthlessness all but lost. Very briefly, Dianne Wiest as the underestimated victim Jennifer Peterson threatens to emerge as the one person worth caring for. But the brief opportunity passes, I Care A Lot relatively unique in presenting a collection of scoundrels who may be smart, but are definitely not worth caring about.



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Movie Review: Cake (2014)

A psychological drama, Cake features a strong Jennifer Aniston performance but is too slow to shift gears away from the doldrums of grief.

Claire (Aniston) is suffering from enormous physical pain and scars as well as emotional stress further to a devastating car accident. She is also dealing with the suicide of Nina (Anna Kendrick), a member of her support group, with Nina's ghost making frequent appearances to communicate.

Claire has kicked her husband Jason (Chris Messina) out of the house, and because she refuses to sit upright in any car, she leans heavily on housekeeper Silvana (Adriana Barraza) for transportation. Claire manages the chronic pain through large amounts of painkillers provided by her doctor Annette (Felicity Huffman). Through the haze of depression and discomfort she connects with Nina's angry husband Roy (Sam Worthington), and they start an awkward relationship.

Directed by Daniel Barnz, Cake zooms in on one individual character in a state of crisis. The film offers an intriguing enough premise, exploring in depth the iron grip brought forth by excruciating pain, discomfort, physical scarring, and calamitous emotional loss. The film deserves credit for portraying Claire as more than a victim deserving of sympathy. She is also now enraged, frustrated, insensitive and resorting to pressure and lies to get what she wants.

But beyond the prevalent motif, Cake stalls. Barnz and writer Patrick Tobin appear content to allow Claire to spin endlessly within the locked box she finds herself in, and for too long the film revisits the same misery-propelled themes, from the macabre appeal of Nina's exit to Claire's self-justified attitude of insolence and the ease with which she uses others to try and fill the vacuum inside.

By the time the film finally creaks forward and attempts to evolve the narrative past the thick dollops of grief, it's too late, and the metaphors related to baking cakes for others and the last minute introduction of a brief houseguest are clumsy and underdeveloped ideas.

Jennifer Aniston again proves that she can excel in drama, and offers a deglamorized role filled with a curtain of darkness behind her eyes, as Claire silently rages against a life-altering catastrophe. Adriana Barraza emerges as the most interesting secondary character, the housekeeper taking the brunt of Claire's interrupted life and search for others to lean on.

Cake is not without merits, but is no better than half-baked.

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Movie Review: Live By Night (2016)

A crime drama, Live By Night carries plenty of style but also too much plot. The story of an Irish gangster carving his way through a life of crime is scattered and fails to build effective momentum.

In Boston of the 1920s, war veteran turned independent gangster Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) falls in love with Emma Gould (Sienna Miller). She's the floozy of gang lord Albert White (Robert Glenister), who is embroiled in a turf war with rival mobster Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone). Coughlin is of Irish descent, and the son of respected police captain Thomas (Brendan Gleeson). Joe is eventually betrayed and almost killed by White, but survives. After a stint in prison Joe joins Maso's gang and with his loyal sidekick Dion (Chris Messina) relocates to Ybor City, an immigrant dominated, crime infested neighbourhood of Tampa, Florida.

Joe establishes an alliance with the local Cuban gang and builds an impressive crime empire capitalizing on the illegal rum trade. He also falls in love and eventually marries Graciela (Zoe Soldana), the sister of a Cuban crime lord. Joe maintains an uneasy understanding with Ybor's Sheriff Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper), but their relationship sours when Irving's dim witted brother-in-law R.D. Pruitt (Matthew Maher), a member of the Ku Klux Klan, tries to muscle in on Joe's profits. Meanwhile, Joe tries to expand into the casino business, but there are more unexpected troubles in the form of Irving's daughter Loretta (Elle Fanning).

An adaptation of the Dennis Lehane book written for the screen and directed by Affleck, Live By Night has a lot going on and nothing going on. The drama motors on from Boston to Tampa, featuring a dizzying number of gangsters hissing at each other, but the film never grabs hold of a compelling narrative arc. This is the story of Joe Coughlin and he is the one constant, but Affleck plays the central character as a laid back soft spoken type, his obvious narration droning on as he disappears into the set. It's a problem when the assorted villains who enter and exit every other scene are much more colourful than the presumed protagonist.

The film is a demonstration of more is less. A dedicated focus on fewer story lines may have improved control of the material. Instead the overflow of plot and characters eventually overtakes the film, and plenty of seemingly important conversations and incidents start to happen off-screen. Joe's father appears magically at the right time and in the right place to intervene in a murder-in-progress. Joe seems to take over Ybor City in a remarkable hurry, and wins Graciela's heart even quicker. After a long build up, the resolution of the KKK problem is rushed. Major chunks of Loretta's story are summarily dealt with in a few words. Late in the film two adversaries become allies with barely an explanation. And even critical battlefield tactics are botched, Affleck choosing to talk about rather than demonstrate Coughlin's ability to influence goons in battle.

Affleck does have an eye for creating beautiful settings, and the film is awash in vivid colours and plenty of artistry. The camerawork is fluid, capturing bustling neighbourhoods and idyllic landscapes. And some of the climactic showdowns with the head baddies are well constructed.

A large cast supports Affleck's docile take on Coughlin. By far the most memorable is Elle Fanning as the enigmatic Loretta. In just a few scenes she demonstrates what intense charisma can accomplish, and the film would have hugely benefited from investing more in her story.

Live By Night may suggest an adventurous lifestyle, but this is a fragmented, surprisingly dull and ultimately unsatisfying experience.

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Movie Review: Ruby Sparks (2012)

A comic drama with plenty to say about the essence of romantic relationships, Ruby Sparks delves into the interface between idealized obsession and love, and goes looking for the ingredients required for successful couplehood.

Los Angeles-based writer Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) is rich, alone, and suffering severe writer's block. At 19 Calvin was proclaimed a genius and was sitting on top of the best seller charts with his debut book. Now 10 years later, he may already be a has-been. His father recently died and his girlfriend walked out on him, and other than his dog Scottie, he mainly interacts with his brother Harry (Chris Messina) and psychiatrist Dr. Rosenthal (Elliott Gould).

Calvin starts to have vivid dream of an idealized girlfriend, and Rosenthal encourages him to write what he sees. Calvin gets a burst of creativity and creates the persona of Ruby Sparks on paper. He is then shocked when Ruby (Zoe Kazan) appears as his real, in-the-flesh perfect live-in girlfriend, representing everything he had written. Better still, Calvin can fully define Ruby's personality and behaviour by adding sentences to his manuscript. After an initial ideal period of romance, he introduces her to Harry, his mother Gertrude (Annette Bening) and her artist boyfriend Mort (Antonio Banderas). But Calvin has a dour, self-obsessed personality, and Ruby starts to withdraw from him.

An independent production co-directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and written by Kazan (Elia's granddaughter), Ruby Sparks is a clever story of attachment and the fundamental search for happiness. Disguised as a comedy, featuring plenty of laughs and a superficial resemblance to Stranger Than Fiction, Ruby Sparks is much more interested in mastering a stunning head fake as it steers in darker directions. Calvin's story is about the distinction between loving yourself and loving another, and once Kazan shines the spotlight on her real intentions, the film delivers a devastating, soul searching blow to any facile definitions of the perfect mate.

With its brave mix of humour and unsettling intensity, Ruby Sparks received a limited release and barely found an audience. On the surface this is a comedy about an ideal perky girlfriend coming to life, an adolescent wish-fulfillment fantasy. But Kazan sprinkles the early scenes with hints of trouble ahead, the comedy laced with poison waiting to percolate. Calvin's abject loneliness is not conducive to functioning as a couple. A victim of too much too soon, he pushes away the label of genius but also hears it too often. In his visits to Dr. Rosenthal, he has to hold onto a toy bear. And his insistence on using an old fashioned typewriter is funny, but also smacks of illusions of grandeur.

Trouble starts when Ruby starts to drift away from Calvin, and he takes back to the typewriter to describe what he needs from her. In a stark demonstration of be careful what you wish for and the futile search for solutions through others to fundamental problems that reside within, Calvin cannot get it right. Whether he describes Ruby as fully attached to him or possessing an independent spirit, she can't deliver the fulfillment he craves. With the relationship on the rocks, a devastating encounter with Calvin's former girlfriend is a proverbial blow to his head.

The scene where Calvin is finally forced to confront his failings is emotionally devastating and almost agonizing to watch. The man with full control over another but no control over his narcissism has absolutely nothing to offer except the ability to deliver impassioned pain.

Paul Dano's screen persona of slightly worrisome intensity is perfectly suited to Calvin, and Dano creates a complex character, superficially nothing more than a little bit different, but churning through plenty of agony beneath the surface. Kazan has an equally difficult task and does not shy away from it. Ruby transitions from a perfect creation to a functioning woman influenced by Calvin's behaviour, and Kazan guides Ruby as she repeatedly chooses fundamental human free will anchored by the starting points set on Calvin's typewriter.

A courageously original take on the dynamics of romance, Ruby does create a blistering spark.

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The Movies Of Chris Messina

All movies starring Chris Messina and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Rounders (1998)

The Siege (1998)

You've Got Mail (1998)

Made Of Honour (2008)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Away We Go (2009)

Julie And Julia (2009)

Greenberg (2010)

Ruby Sparks (2012)

Argo (2012)

Cake (2014)

Live By Night (2016)

The Secrets We Keep (2020)

I Care A Lot (2020)

Call Jane (2022)

Air (2023)

Juror #2 (2024)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Away We Go (2009)

A movie with its heart in the right place, Away We Go is operating with material so thin it ultimately floats away in the sweet breeze, barely noticeable among all the other happy bugs and crisp leaves.

Verona (Maya Rudolph) and Burt (John Krasinski) are a couple in their early thirties, still relatively unsettled and not established in any city or clear careers. They discover that Maya is pregnant, and six months into the pregnancy, Burt's quirky parents, the only family nearby, announce that they are leaving town to resettle in Belgium. With nothing tying Verona and Burt down, they decide to visit various friends and family members across the US, in the hope of finding a place to call home.

They visit Verona's flaky old boss (Allison Janney) in Phoenix; Verona's unmarried sister (Carmen Ejogo) in Tucson; Burt's highly irritating college friend (Maggie Gyllenhaal), now a married and condescendingly perfect mother, in Madison; other college friends (Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey) with many adopted kids in Montreal; and Burt's married but just-dumped brother (Paul Schneider) in Miami. None of these locales or people resonate with Verona and Burt, but the visits bring them closer to each other and eventually Verona reveals a sad piece of family history, through which they discover where they belong.

A road trip movie with not much of a road and an undefined destination, the only thing Away We Go has going for it is a relatively convincing strong central relationship between Burt and a very pregnant Verona, with Maya Randolph and John Krasinski appearing pleasingly effortless in portraying a deep and sturdy love.

Otherwise, the script by David Eggers and Vandela Vida provides little for director Sam Mendes to work with. The humour is either fake or forced, the secondary characters are conventional visitors from other movies, and the attempts at pathos with the whole seemingly hastily appended story of Verona's parents smacks of desperation.

Away We Go departs quickly, its light weight leaving barely any impression.

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