Movie Review: Radio Days (1987)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Woody Allen  

Starring: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Julie Kavner, Wallace Shawn, Danny Aiello  

Running Time: 85 minutes  

Synopsis: Narrator Joe (Woody Allen) recalls childhood memories overlapping with radio's golden era from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Raised in a working class Queens family, Joe's parents (Julie Kavner and Michal Tucker) are loving but always bickering. The household is stuffed with relatives, including Aunt Bea (Dianne Wiest), who is desperately seeking a husband. The radio is the main source of entertainment and news, and Joe recounts vignettes from the swish nightclub-centred lives of radio personalities and celebrities, several featuring cigarette girl Sally (Mia Farrow).

What Works Well: This nostalgia-drenched trip down memory lane accentuates an idealized sense of time and place through the prism of childhood. Director and writer Woody Allen uses the music and radio shows of the era as a soundtrack to a warm but chaotic household filled with (dashed) hopes, (unlikely) dreams, and plenty of banter. A world away but only across town, radio stars and wannabes occupy a glitzy universe of parties, schmoozing, and career-climbing, their elite escapades morphing into perfect escapism for the masses. The ensemble cast (including small roles for Diane Keaton, Robert Joy, Tony Roberts, and Jeff Daniels) shares the kitchen lights and spotlights, Mia Farrow and Dianne Wiest leaving the most animated impressions.

What Does Not Work As Well: Beyond the sense of sentimentality and longing for more innocent days, not much is going on. None of the characters evolve into people worth knowing, and the choppy vignette structure squeezes in plenty of music and short sketches but no continuity and little of substance.

Key Quote:

Narrator: I love old radio stories. And I know a million of 'em.

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Movie Review: Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

Genre: Comedy  

Director: Woody Allen  

Starring: John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri, Jack Warden, Rob Reiner, Mary-Louise Parker  
Running Time: 98 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City of the late 1920s, up-and-coming writer David Shayne (John Cusack) is desperate to have his latest play funded. His producer Julian Marx (Jack Warden) secures backing from mobster Nick Valenti (Joe Viterelli), on condition that Nick's talentless girlfriend Olive (Jennifer Tilly) lands a meaningful role. When rehearsals start, Nick appoints his goon Cheech (Chazz Palminteri) to keep an eye on Olive, who nevertheless encourages the lustful attention of past-his-prime and overeating actor Warner Purcell (Jim Broadbent). Meanwhile, David is falling in love with his leading lady Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest), while Cheech starts to make unsolicited suggestions to improve the play. 

What Works Well: Woody Allen's mixture of behind-the-curtain chaos, mobster violence, and artist insecurities is a blast of fun entertainment. The script maintains razor sharpness and consistently finds quirks and twists within personalities and events, including Cheech masterfully gliding from edge-of-the-screen non-entity to a central character. Allen extracts deliciously loquacious performances from both Dianne Wiest (a fading diva desperate for continued relevance) and Jennifer Tilly (a gangster's moll ruthlessly exposing her deficiencies) as diametric opposites exploiting the stage for self-delusion. The clash between civility and crime nurtures commentary about academia and reality, and the separation of art and artist.

What Does Not Work As Well: In a rare example of a movie that could have benefitted from being longer, both Rob Reiner (as Sheldon Flender, a prolific but never-published playwright) and Mary-Louise Parker (as David Shayne's wife) deserved larger roles.

Key Quote:

Nick (to Julian, about Olive): Let's avoid confusion. She'll get some lines, or I'll nail your knee caps to the floor.

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Movie Review: I Am Sam (2001)

A parenting drama with legal sparring, I Am Sam is sentimental but also well-intentioned and brilliantly acted.

Starbucks employee Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) has an intellectual disability and a mental age of seven. A homeless woman gives birth to his child and immediately walks out on him. Sam manages to raise his daughter Lucy through the infant years with the help of his reclusive neighbour Annie (Dianne Wiest), and a group of friends with disabilities.

Once Lucy (Dakota Fanning) reaches the age of eight, she experiences bullying and becomes aware of her father's condition. She starts to hold back her academic development to avoid embarrassing her dad. Social services move in and declare Sam incapable of parenting his daughter. He turns to high-powered lawyer Rita Williams (Michelle Pfeiffer) to fight the decision. Rita is initially not interested, but eventually accepts the case pro-bono, while Lucy is placed in the foster home of Miranda Carpenter (Laura Dern).

Asking questions about what defines good parenting, I Am Sam is comfortable offering a range of answers. The script by Kristine Johnson and director Jessie Nelson ponders whether love is enough, and the role of intellectual capacity in determining the need for state intervention. The narrative evolution is careful to avoid villains in this debate: everyone is kind, including the lawyer arguing Sam is ill equipped to help Lucy's growth into an adult. To maintain balance, Sam is portrayed as loving and good natured but also often overwhelmed and childlike.

As a result, Nelson is drawn towards a saccharine tone. Almost every scene and all the main characters are propelled by a purity of purpose designed to elicit sympathy. Sam and Lucy are immensely likeable, and lawyer Rita starts on the frantic partner track but is always moving towards her destiny of heroically representing the underdog. All the secondary characters including neighbour Annie, Sam's friends, and foster parent Miranda are manicured into ideal versions.

Sean Penn delivers an unforgettable performance, combining elements of Tom Hanks from Forrest Gump with Dustin Hoffman from Rain Man to create an affecting child-man in Sam. He can function as a coffee shop table server and does just enough to get by, the songs of the Beatles and the movie Kramer vs. Kramer significant influences on his behaviour. Susceptible to awkward tantrums when frustrated, he can read at the level of Dr. Seuss's I Am Sam, but struggles when Lucy's school assignments move beyond the rudimentary.

The supporting cast is stellar, particularly bright-eyed Dakota Fanning as Lucy. She enhances every scene without descending into irony or precociousness. 

At 132 minutes I Am Sam does go on, and the final act features some unnecessary back and forth nighttime trips instigated by Lucy. Any actual parent at any intellectual level would have immediately clamped down on such nonsense. But here all actions stem from love and goodness, positive light allowed to overwhelm any hints of darkness.

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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: Let Them All Talk (2020)

A dramedy about friendship, Let Them All Talk is a pleasantly scattered literary sailing.

Alice Hughes (Meryl Streep) is a New York-based prize-winner author. Afraid of flying but invited to receive a prestigious award in London, she decides to cross the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2. Alice invites her nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges) to join the trip, along with her two best friends from college days: Susan (Dianne Wiest) now advocates for prisoners' rights, while Roberta (Candice Bergen) is divorced, has a lowly retail job, and is seeking a rich husband. Alice's new agent Karen (Gemma Chan) also makes the trip, desperate to uncover information about her secretive client's latest manuscript.

During the crossing Tyler and Karen start hanging out, while decades of tension surface between Alice and Roberta, who believes she was the subject of her friend's most celebrated book. Susan tries to play peacemaker, Roberta is on the prowl for a rich man, Alice privately works on her new book, and the whole group is intrigued when they spot world-famous crime novel author Kelvin Kranz (Daniel Algrant) among the passengers.

A streamlined production directed by Steven Soderbergh and (loosely) written by Deborah Eisenberg, Let Them All Talk is an honest title. With plenty of improvisation spicing up awkward connections, this is a series of short and bright conversations between interesting characters as a luxury liner powers across the ocean. The spectacular cast is afforded almost free reign to steer scenes, and they deliver natural interactions with enough discipline to maintain coherence, landing short of profound but well above frivolous.

The number of passengers on this particular sailing is suspiciously low (the background is often empty), but the setup is an otherwise snug trip filled with the threat of revelations. Soderbergh served as his own cinematographer and editor, and keeps the scenes sharp. Conversations end without a moment of fat, building a convincing sense of eavesdropping on mid-life luggage with more to the story than these characters will ever be comfortable sharing. The budding but awkward romance between Tyler and Karen mixes well with Alice's haughtiness and layers of passive-aggressiveness harboured by Roberta, but the side-quest involving crime author Kranz is an only partially successful catalyst.

Through the simple premise the film perhaps over-reaches for some lofty themes. Alice is enamored with an obscure Welsh writer, and expresses her admiration with lyrical discourse about the ties that bind across time and generations. Her exploration of the human condition is worthwhile, but also sets her well apart and underlines the disconnect with her friends.

The final act finds bittersweet twists, as Let Them All Talk happily charts a choppy course, the untidy resolutions mimicking life's unscripted surprises.



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Movie Review: Practical Magic (1998)

A romantic comedy with fantasy elements, Practical Magic wastes a good cast on frivolous content.

The Owens women come from a long line of witches, and one of their ancestors unleashed a curse dooming all her descendants to calamitous love lives. Sure enough, sisters Sally and Gillian Owens (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) tragically lost their parents at a young age and were raised by aunts Frances and Bridget (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest).

Sally tries to counter the curse by leaving witchcraft behind, settling down and starting a family, while Gillian heads off in search of fun and casual relationships. Sally learns the hard way she cannot escape the curse and is soon dealing with heartache, while Gillian falls in with no-good boyfriend Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjic). The sisters soon find themselves in a heap of trouble, and detective Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn) comes snooping.

An adaptation of the book by Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic throws a tepid romance, childish magic tricks and rarely funny humour into a bland mix. Director Griffin Dunne has a magnificent cast at his disposal, Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock supported not only by Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest but also Margo Martindale, a young Evan Rachel Wood and Chloe Webb. 

Some fun is achieved with the concept of harmless modern-day witches with a limited repertoire of tricks (blowing candles on and self-stirring tea cups are about the extent of it) trying to fit into a small town society, and the actresses try their best to salvage a base level of watchability, but they are ultimately stymied by a lame script devoid of wit and sparkle.

The plot meanders aimlessly, waving unconvincingly at themes of sisterhood, unwarranted ostracism, and the trade-off between domesticity and fun. Most of the wispy threads are summarily abandoned in favour of dabbling in crime, attempted screwball comedy, and a late-in-arriving romance badly in need of thawing. A nauseating let's-all-be-happy climax, complete with smoky special effects, can't come - and go - soon enough. 

Despite the preponderance of acting talent, Practical Magic can only conjure up feeble spells and disappears in a puff of irrelevance.



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Movie Review: The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985)

A fantasy, romance and comedy, The Purple Rose Of Cairo is a bittersweet celebration of movies as essential escapism.

The setting is New Jersey during the Great Depression. Cecilia (Mia Farrow) is trying to hold a job as a waitress while stuck with a useless husband in Monk (Danny Aiello). The movies are her one escape from a drudgerous life, and she studiously follows all the Hollywood gossip and watches every movie multiple times.

The latest show at the local theatre is the adventure romance The Purple Rose Of Cairo, featuring exotic foreign settings and swish Manhattan cocktail parties. Cecilia is impressed by charismatic star Gil Shepard (Jeff Daniels) playing the role of adventurer Tom Baxter. During one showing Tom notices Cecilia's dedication and walks off the screen and into the theater, insisting he wants to break free from the confines of his scripted existence and spend time with her instead. The other characters in his movie are left in limbo waiting for Tom to come back.

While Tom and Cecilia enjoy a whirlwind romance, the film's Hollywood producers and the actor Gil panic and descend on New Jersey, with Gil worried the runaway Tom will ruin his burgeoning reputation. Now Gil and Cecilia explore a romance, but Tom remains intent on winning the girl and finding a happy ending.

Writer and director Woody Allen conjures up a funny, romantic and magical story of the loving relationship between movies and their fans. In a compact 82 minutes, The Purple Rose Of Cairo captures all that cinema can represent in providing a bright spark and sometimes the only source of positivity during the worst of times.

Cecilia's marriage is a cycle of abuse and poverty and her menial job is about to crash with her next dropped dish. With the whole country drowning in an economic abyss, hope for a better future is in short supply. The dark movie theatre and films like The Purple Rose Of Cairo take her away from all that, to mysterious Egypt where a group of handsome rich friends meet dishy archeologist Tom Baxter, and they all come back to the bright lights and nightclubs of the big city. 

While all the joviality may as well be on a different planet from Cecilia's corner of New Jersey, the affordable silver screen images offer the perfect break from her misery.

Of course Hollywood needs Cecilia as much as she needs the entertainment, and once Tom steps off the screen and into her world, Allen embarks on a teasing run to outline the symbiotic relationship. Despite the mutual dependence, bridging the divide between fans in search of fantasy and characters in search of reality is no straightforward matter.

Allen cleverly introduces the complication of actor Gil protecting his reputation from his own creation. An unlikely love triangle takes shape, but when one lover is a fictional character and another is a professional actor pursuing stardom, the heartache risk is substantial.

But in the meantime the humour is persistent, most of it drawn from the stranded characters up on the screen, flummoxed by one of their own walking into the real world and with nothing to do except await his return. Meanwhile Tom Baxter knows only what his character knows, and his naive view of the world includes expecting a fade-out after kissing Cecilia.

And in the central role of Cecilia, Mia Farrow is elegantly soulful, carrying the weight of a depressed nation on her slender shoulders. Farrow sells the film's wild premise with ease, mixing incredulous fun with starstruck fandom while Cecilia's struggle in a grim and inescapable real world casts a long shadow.

Jeff Daniels is engaging in a dual role as an actor and his character. The supporting cast includes Van Johnson as one of the frustrated on-screen co-stars, and Dianne Wiest as a local tart who gets to teach the clueless Tom about brothels.

The Purple Rose Of Cairo is a mischievous love letter to a flicker of light connecting reality with fantasy, sustaining dreams through the darkness.

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Movie Review: Sisters (2015)

A raunchy comedy, Sisters benefits from sharp timing and chemistry of the two leads, but is otherwise one long endless scene of adults behaving badly.

Maura and Kate Ellis (Amy Poehler and Tina Fey) are sisters still trying to sort out their lives. Maura is divorced and has always placed everybody else's happiness ahead of hers. Kate is irresponsible, cannot hold a job and is a single mom to teenager Haley (Madison Davenport). They are both shocked and disappointed when their parents (James Brolin and Dianne Wiest) announce plans to sell the family home in Orlando.

While cleaning out their childhood rooms Maura and Kate decide to have one final bash in the big house and invite all their friends, but pointedly exclude Brinda (Maya Rudolph), Kate's frenemy since high school. The party is well attended but muted, until the alcohol and drugs start flowing and it turns into a raucous event. Kate is desperate to hook up with hunky handyman James (Ike Barinholtz), but the night will only get wilder and there are many scores to settle.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a funny and fearless couple, share undeniable rapport and are unafraid to let loose and laugh at themselves. However, Sisters is unfortunately beneath them. The Paula Pell script works its way in fits and starts to the big party scene, and that is where it stays. There is some fun to be had with adults partying as if they were 20 years younger, but once the rowdy and juvenile antics take over the film quickly runs out of steam.

The funnier moments are the side quests burrowing deep into irreverence, such as Maura and Korean aesthetician Hae Won (Greta Lee) descending into an ill considered but hilarious pronunciation duel, or bad girl Kate drooling over tree trunk armed drug dealer Pazuzu (John Cena).

Every 15 minutes or so director Jason Moore briefly pauses the raunchiness for a brief interlude featuring more tender interaction, either between the sisters or exploring the dysfunctionality dominating the mother-daughter bond between Haley and Kate. The attempts to tackle themes of growing up and settling down appear slapped together and never convince, with James Brolin and Dianne Wiest reduced to caricatures in the parent roles.

The Sisters are ready and willing to deliver laughs, but need a more ambitious venue than one long night of irresponsibility.

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Movie Review: The Mule (2018)

A drama and character study, The Mule is a simple yet elegant story of an elderly man looking for renewed purpose.

In Illinois, Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood) ran a successful horticulture business, but was a neglectful husband to his now former wife Mary (Dianne Wiest) and an inattentive father to his bitter daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood). Now in his eighties, Earl did not keep up with online commerce and goes bankrupt. Granddaughter Ginny (Taissa Farmiga) maintains a good relationship, and one of her friends connects Earl with a drug cartel in need of reliable transport across state borders.

Earl starts making long drives to deliver bagfuls of narcotics, and establishes a reputation as a dependable and trustworthy mule, attracting the admiration of Mexican cartel boss Laton (Andy Garcia). Earl uses his substantial earnings to help good causes in his community, and to mend fences with his family. But Drug Enforcement Agency agents Bates (Bradley Cooper) and Trevino (Michael Peña) start to close in, with their boss (Laurence Fishburne) desperate for a big bust.

Directed by Eastwood and written by Nick Schenk, The Mule is inspired by a true story. The film is a warts-and-all exploration of a life full of joy and regret, and a remarkable second wind carrying Earl into an ocean of criminal activity. An old man at peace with himself and long past caring about niceties and political correctness, Earl makes for an ideal and nearly undetectable criminal.

Eastwood never judges his protagonist, instead allowing Earl to arrive at his own conclusions. With the curtain about to fall on his life, this is a man who learns almost too late that career success at the expense of a family life in tatters may not have been the best trade off. The same oblivious attitude that led Earl down the wrong path the first time around remains in evidence as he never seems to question the devastating social ills his mule activities are helping unleash.

But at least this time Earl uses his windfall Robin Hood style to rebuild community and recreational centres and help his family members, gradually earning his way back into the life of Mary and Iris. He will again confront a work-versus-family decision point, this time with the threat of a brutal death for defying vicious criminals. But having been around the block once before, Earl is better equipped to recognize the landmarks.   

The film is not without weaknesses. Plot holes abound in the intelligence battle between the cartel and the DEA, and The Mule is another film where the criminals are highly resourceful except when it suits the script. Overall the investigative elements featuring the high profile trio of Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña and Laurence Fishburne are underwritten for the available talent. A couple of key characters, including a Filipino informer and a chief cartel lieutenant, are given prominence then ignored.

Eastwood's directing is an example of eloquent efficiency, the character conflicts created with sharp and short strokes, allowing plenty of time for road trip interludes showcasing Earl's comfort with ruling his domain behind the wheel of his pickup on the open highway. When the time comes for serious conversations, Schenk conjures up memorable exchanges between Earl and Bates at a diner, and then between Earl and Mary, reflecting on second chances.

The Mule is about seizing life's next opportunity at any age, as discovered by the old man absentee. 

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Movie Review: Hannah And Her Sisters (1986)

A social comedy, Hannah And Her Sisters delves into middle class and middle age emotional crises, and represents one of Woody Allen's finest cinematic moments.

In New York City, Elliott (Michael Caine) is an investment banker married to Hannah (Mia Farrow), a once aspiring actress who has settled into a life of domestic bliss. Although he loves his wife, Elliott is also secretly lusting after Hannah's more free-spirited sister Lee (Barbara Hershey), who is currently in a relationship as the muse of conceited and reclusive artist Frederick (Max von Sydow).

Hannah's other sister Holly (Dianne Wiest) is a former drug addict, always asking Hannah for money and still dreaming in vain about making it as an actress. Hannah's ex-husband Mickey (Allen) is a television producer going through his latest health scare related to hearing loss. Elliott contrives an "accidental" on-the-street meeting with Lee and finally gathers up the courage to express his love, but he is torn between the thrill of an affair and the stability offered by Hannah. Meanwhile the relationship between the three sisters ebbs and flows with the passing seasons.

Directed and written by Allen, Hannah And Her Sisters features a collection of New Yorkers struggling with typical Allen issues over two years book-ended by the anarchic warmth of Thanksgiving family gatherings. Elliott is imagining the greener grass on Lee's side of the sistery fence, Lee herself is feeling stifled by the egotistical and older Frederick, Holly is pursuing a career that does not exist and hypochondriac Mickey is dealing with his latest health scare and concluding that a change in religion is in order.

Meanwhile Hannah's parents do not offer much in the way of guidance -- or maybe they do. Norma and Evan (Maureen O'Sullivan and Lloyd Nolan) are living out their years with plenty of fire and ice, bickering as much as they are reminiscing, their lives having consisted of conflict, tumult, betrayal and an abundance of love.

Only Hannah herself appears to want to chart a steady course, and pays the emotional price for it. She happily gave up an acting career in exchange for relative domestic bliss. Stable, steady, the rock for her family and her sisters, Hannah is accused of being too perfect, her advice too pragmatic. Both admired and resented for the resilience, organization and warmth she provides, Hannah is an example that is too obvious to emulate.

These are all of course first world problems of privileged New Yorkers, but there is no denying the affinity Allen has for all his characters. The dialogue is sharp, funny and rings relatively true. Allen laughs at the situations surrounding the characters, not at the people themselves. And the multiple story arcs do spring some lifelike and unexpected surprises, some apparent dead ends proving to be pathways and other promising opportunities only leading to cul-de-sacs.

The film is perfectly paced, the multiple stories balanced, Allen mastering the juggling act and never staying in one place for too long.

The cast is deep with talent and absolutely stellar, Allen's prominence attracting a star in every role, and they equitably share the screen time. Farrow, Hershey and Wiest have rarely been better, benefiting from Allen's genius in creating well-rounded female roles. Caine acts with sorrow-filled eyes, nailing the middle-aged man willing to risk stability at home to chase one more fling.

The cast also includes Daniel Stern, Carrie Fisher (as Holly's frenemy), Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julie Kavner, J.T. Walsh, John Turturro, and Richard Jenkins, as well as Tony Roberts and Sam Waterston in uncredited roles.

Hannah And Her Sisters is sly social commentary in a perfect package, clever enough to tease out human foibles and warm enough to understand their essential nature.

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Movie Review: Cops And Robbersons (1994)

A feeble comedy, Cops And Robbersons contains no laughs and plenty of stupidity.

Norman and Helen Robberson (Chevy Chase and Dianne Wiest) are a typical married couple raising their three kids in suburbia. Norman is a television police show geek, but his family is drifting apart. Veteran cop Jake Stone (Jack Palance) and his younger partner Tony Moore (David Barry Gray) need to set up a stakeout to keep close tabs on master forger and killer Osborn (Robert Davi), who happens to live next door to the Robbersons.

Jake and Tony invade Norman's house and set up an observation post in an upstairs bedroom. The family struggles to adjust to the unwelcome visitors, but gradually Jake starts to earn the respect of the Robbersons in a way that Norman never could. With Osborn plotting a big new deal, Norman interferes with the stakeout, frustrating Jake, while Norman's daughter Cindy (Fay Masterson) sets her eyes on the dishy young Tony.

Directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Lindsay Maher, Cops and Robbersons is 93 minutes of abject tedium. Only fans of Chevy Chase enthralled by his stupid family guy schtick will find any pleasure in an underdeveloped and tired story that never gains any traction. The characters are barely defined, the evil crimes of Osborn are mostly unexplained, and both the police work and the attempted comedy are half hearted and generally comatose.

The film is largely housebound, the energy level static, the production values reeking of an underfunded television show.

With almost nothing to work with, Ritchie leans heavily on Jack Palance, and he hisses his way through the film in a caricature of his late career City Slickers-propelled resurgence. The problem is that Palance, here at age 75, is far too old to be a convincing cop and genuinely seems to be struggling to get his lines out. The only tension in the film is whether Palance the actor will make it through his scenes intact.

Cops And Robbersons has neither chuckles nor action: just stars and a director who should know better, wallowing in the muck.

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Movie Review: Dan In Real Life (2007)

A mild romantic comedy, Dan In Real Life has a cute premise but weak follow-through.

In New Jersey, Dan Burns (Steve Carell) writes a newspaper relationship advice column. A widower, he is overprotective and struggling to raise three daughters on his own as they go through puberty and puppy love issues. In a despondent mood, Dan drives with his daughters to Rhode Island for a long weekend family reunion at the beach front home of his parents (John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest). Also in attendance are Dan's siblings and their families, including his brother Mitch (Dane Cook), a hunky bachelor and fitness trainer.

Dan meets the attractive Marie (Juliette Binoche) at the local bookstore, and they immediately sense an attraction. They chat over coffee and she snaps him out of his moodiness. They part on a promise to meet again although she does tell him that she is just starting a new relationship. Back at the beach house, Dan is shocked to re-encounter Marie, who has arrived at the family reunion as Mitch's new girlfriend. They keep their bookstore encounter a secret. As the weekend progresses Mitch and Marie fawn all over each other as the rest of the family falls in love with the vivacious, worldly and clever Marie, while Dan is pushed to extremes of jealousy and childish behaviour.

Directed by Peter Hedges, Dan In Real Life has a single idea to work with, and doesn't do much with it. The film hinges on Dan and Marie first deeply connecting with each other after a single encounter, and then keeping their sudden attachment a secret from the sprawling family. This is all established within the first 30 minutes, and for the next hour Hedges (who also co-wrote the script) wanders around the beach house looking for opportunities for Dan to act childish.

This not only gets tiresome quickly, but also undermines the film's premise. Dan's pouty behaviour is only rarely funny and generally makes him exceptionally unattractive, and a smart woman like Marie should have recognized his emotionally immaturity and cast him adrift instead of stringing him along. But then Marie's purported intelligence is already undermined by her attachment to the hunky but relatively dull Mitch, further eroding the movie's rationality.

The film attempts to win cheap sentimental points late on by throwing in sappy moments related to Dan's deceased wife and his relationship with his girls, but by then the infatuation triangle between Dan, Marie and Mitch has unravelled beyond salvation.

A talented cast is merely adequate. Carell does show an aptitude for the more subdued side of the comedy spectrum, but too often sleepwalks through the film with a single passive aggressive stance of simmering jealousy. Binoche is perky but borderline annoying. The rest of the family members are almost interchangeable and lack definition. Emily Blunt shows up in a couple of scenes as a bubbly childhood friend of Dan's, and a potential pawn in the spite battles. Amy Ryan has a minor role as Dan's sister-in-law.

Dan In Real Life arrives at the vacation house with good intentions to have a fun time, but is caught at the beach all wet and without a towel.

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Movie Review: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

A dark fantasy drama with a mean streak of humour, Edward Scissorhands is a fiercely original treatment of the comfortably familiar fitting-in theme.

The film is set in a suburban subdivision located at the base of a mountain, with a Gothic mansion on top looming over the quaint houses. On a snowy night, an old lady tucks her granddaughter in and recounts a story that happened years ago, triggering a film-long flashback. Avon lady Peg (Dianne Wiest), a subdivision resident, is having a bad day, and with nothing to lose decides to head up to the mansion to try and make a sale. Inside she finds the place empty except for a frightened young man called Edward (Johnny Depp), with large scissors for hands. Edward was created by The Inventor (Vincent Price), who died before he could complete Edward and provide him with proper hands. Peg feels sorry for Edward and takes him home. Peg's husband Bill (Alan Arkin) and son Kevin are initially stunned but accept Edward as a new member of the family.

Edward is scared and his massive scissor hands cause plenty of accidents, but with Peg's help he slowly starts to adapt to suburban life. The gossipy neighbours, including the over-sexed Joyce (Kathy Baker), are fascinated, and Edward becomes a local celebrity when he demonstrates artistic talent for sculptural hedges, trimming the fur of pet dogs, and providing the women with stylish hair cuts. When Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder) returns from a camping trip, she is initially horrified to find Edward in her room, but gradually Kim and Edward develop feelings for each other, which is bad news for Kim's aggressive boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall).

Directed and co-produced by Tim Burton and written by Caroline Thompson, Edward Scissorhands is a dark masterpiece. With brisk pacing Burton unleashes his irresistible fantasy on a comically idealized suburban world stuck in an undefined hybrid of the 1950s and 1970s, with every house sporting a bright monochrome paint job. The mansion on the hill, of course, stands in stark contrast, the brooding outsider bathed in black, dark blues and darker greys.

Peg and her neighbours go about their business of pursuing the American dream, the women left at home during the day to gossip and cause mischief while the men drive to work in the morning and come back in the evening with army-like discipline. Edward is dropped into this immaculately manicured world, and his dream is just to be part of the human family. Not too tall and definitely not superficially handsome, Edward is pasty but enigmatic. Remarkably, he is generally accepted as is, and only the complications caused by affairs of the heart cause him grief.

The central themes of belonging, finding a home, and stumbling upon love run through the film. Once Kim makes her appearance the candle of romance flickers to life, but the darkness also seeps in, with Edward causing unintended grief by wanting to love and be loved. The film suggests that the ability to care and love is fundamentally human, and a non-human invention such as Edward can live alongside humans but will struggle to share in the true fulfillment brought upon by mutual passion.

Burton makes use of plenty of clever point-of-view shots, particularly from Edward's perspective, to highlight the experience of the newcomer with an incomplete skill set. Whether it's Peg being excessively nice with her make-up kit or Edward trying to capture any vegetable to eat at dinner, Burton frequently invites the viewer to live in Edward's shoes, dramatically enhancing the film's impact even in the smallest moments daily life.

Johnny Depp launched his career with his portrayal of Edward. It's an unforgettable performance centred on almost silent pathos. Depp's understated expressions convey sadness, fear, panic, bewilderment, anger and sometimes happiness, and later on he captures what it means to find wistful infatuation and a potential first romance. Wiest represents middle America's capacity to display a big and welcoming heart, while Ryder does well in a quick transition from callous to caring. Kathy Baker plays neighbour Joyce for broad laughs, as intended.

Edward Scissorhands delivers on all its multi-genre promises, mixing drama, humour, fantasy and romance with an emotionally satisfying cutting edge.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Passengers (2008)

A story of survivors of an airplane crash struggling to make sense of the tragedy, Passengers suffers through a clumsy opening but steadies itself for a better than expected resolution.

A plane crashes onto a beach, and there are just a handful of survivors. Psychotherapist Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway) is assigned by her boss Perry (Andre Braugher) to help the survivors deal with the trauma in group sessions, and individually if needed. Hunky survivor Eric (Patrick Wilson) insists that Claire meet him alone; she agrees, especially once he appears to exhibit some post-traumatic extrasensory abilities. Eric advises Claire to reach out and repair the relationship with her estranged sister. Meanwhile, he suffers bouts of agitation upon hearing a dog barking.

The stories recounted by the survivors seem to contradict the official explanation of the crash provided by airline executive Arkin (David Morse). Claire begins to suspect that there may be a cover-up underway, and senses that she is being watched by one or more creepy individuals. Meanwhile, Caire's dotty next-door neighbour Toni (Dianne Wiest) appears to take a greater interest in Claire's affairs. Gradually Claire and Eric fall in love and they start a relationship. Meanwhile, attendance at the group sessions diminishes, as the increasingly upset survivors appear to give up on the therapy, increasing Claire's frustration.

Directed by Colombia's Rodrigo García and filmed mostly in and around Vancouver, not much more can be said about Passengers without revealing its true intentions. Sufficient to say that while the opening half is a slow-baking romance unfolding against the background of some amateur survivor therapy mixed in with hints of corporate chicanery, it's all a careful set-up for where the film goes in its second half, which is much better.

The first 45 minutes are a study of the fragmented search for the truth and change that follow a tragedy. The film unfolds slowly and rather awkwardly, and the more Claire interacts with the survivors the more she realizes that there may be more to the story of the crash than first meets the eye. The recollections of the various passengers don't mesh with each other, much less with the official version. The number of survivors seeking Claire's help keeps on dwindling, and there are mysterious men and women who always seem to be hovering whenever Claire meets with the survivors. Then she finds herself affected by the tragedy in unforeseen ways. Her behaviour changes, first in reaching out to her sister and then in crossing all professional boundaries to get romantically involved with Eric.

Once it becomes apparent where the film is heading, it picks up the pace and becomes much more enjoyable. Garcia finds better success once he starts steering Claire's perspective towards not just what she is being told but also what is possible, and the film stitches itself to provide a satisfying conclusion. Anne Hathaway does a fine job mixing eagerness to please with sweet naiveté and building anxiety as Claire realizes that her assignment may not be as simple as she thought.

Passengers is worth the journey. Despite a rather ponderous take-off and plenty of turbulence along the way, the landing is quite uplifting.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Dianne Wiest

All movies starring Dianne Wiest and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Footloose (1984)

The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985)

Hannah And Her Sisters (1986)

Radio Days (1987)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Parenthood (1989)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Cops And Robbersons (1994)

Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

Practical Magic (1998)

I Am Sam (2001)

Dan In Real Life (2007)

Passengers (2008)

Rabbit Hole (2010)

Sisters (2015)

The Mule (2018)

I Care A Lot (2020)

Let Them All Talk (2020)

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.
The Index of Movie Stars is here.