Movie Review: Running On Empty (1988)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Sidney Lumet  

Starring: Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch, River Phoenix, Martha Plimpton  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: Married middle-aged couple Annie and Arthur Pope (Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch) are life-long fugitives, wanted by the FBI for bombing a weapons lab in a Vietnam War era act of protest. They live in plain sight with their two boys Danny (River Phoenix) and Harry, but are experts at uprooting and assuming new identities whenever authorities close in. After yet another move to another town, Danny's piano talent is noticed by his new school music teacher Mr. Phillips, and he experiences first love with Mr. Phillips' daughter Lorna (Martha Plimpton). When it's almost time to move again, Danny is torn between his parents' past and his future opportunities.

What Works Well: This expertly crafted family drama explores the tensions of loyalty underpinned by parent-child dynamics. Writer Naomi Foner invests in three complex characters, equipping Annie, Arthur, and Danny with well-rounded motivations and compelling internal dilemmas as they grapple with the past's shadow on the future. Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch, and especially River Phoenix deliver textured performances free of melodrama, creating space for quietly colliding expectations as a teenager moves into adulthood and discovers the natural need to forge his identity. Director Sidney Lumet wisely allows the material to soar on its own strength, but still delivers several scenes tingling with organic emotions.

What Does Not Work As Well: For the premise to work, law enforcement agencies need to be rather inept at cornering the Pope family. The entire manhunt counterview is therefore buried deep in the background.

Key Quote:

Lorna (to Michael): Why do you have to carry the burden of someone else's life?



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Independence Day (1996)

An alien invasion science fiction extravaganza, Independence Day packs a globe-full of carnage into the story of yucky invaders intent on destroying Earth, and the human efforts to repel them.

With July 4th approaching, a menacing armada of mammoth alien spaceships arrives over Earth, disrupts all satellite communications and takes up station above major cities. US President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), a former air force pilot, is unsure of the aliens' motives and whether or not to order an evacuation. His advisors include the stoic General William Grey (Robert Loggia), excitable Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki (James Rebhorn) and Communications Director Constance Spano (Margaret Colin).

Constance's former husband is David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an intellectually gifted MIT graduate whose lack of ambition has landed him a job as a satellite technician at a television station. David decodes the aliens' inter-fleet communication signal, revealing their countdown towards a massive hostile attack. David and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) rush to the White House to try and warn the President. In Los Angeles, Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) is a cocky air force pilot, debating whether to propose to long-term girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox), an exotic dancer. He interrupts his vacation and reports back to base upon witnessing the alien spaceship above LA.

The aliens do indeed attack as predicted by David, causing massive loss of life and the destruction of entire cities. The President is hustled off on Air Force One, but the First Lady (Mary McDonnell) isn't so lucky. Hiller joins an air force counterattack, but the advanced technology of the invaders proves too strong. President Whitmore faces a monumental challenge to save the human species, and the path to unlocking an effective military counter strategy passes through the government's secretive Area 51 facility in the Nevada desert.

Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a throwback to 1950s style humans vs. aliens sci-fi thrillers. With the advantage of glitzy special effects and charming actors radiating heroism, the film rides a cool groove of action and devastation, set against end-of-the-world excitement. The film takes its time in the first 30 minutes to establish an interesting set of characters, and once the aliens reveal their intent, Emmerich kicks off more than two hours of merriment and mayhem around a simple question: how will humans fight back when faced with nothing less than a surprise war of annihilation with superior extraterrestrials.

For all the sound, fury and glib one-liners, not all of Independence Day is as slick as it would like to be. The scenes of massive spaceships hovering over cities are impressive, but never quite satisfying with the enemy craft rarely fully defined. In general the computer-generated scenes of destruction are hit-and-miss, with the scale sometimes appearing suspect. To maintain family-friendliness there is a notable absence of corpses in scenes where survivors stumble through the wreckage of cities reduced to rubble. The technological key to defeating the aliens, once found, is barely explained, with star charisma expected to be more important than even an iota of scientific discourse.

The romance elements are standard fare for the genre without getting too much in the way, while the independence day hokum about the rebirth of humanity on America's birthday is adequate for easily excitable patriotic young minds, but is best not dwelled upon.

But star charisma is what Independence Day is all about, and the combination of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum does not disappoint. Smith oozes star power, gets the best lines and the snappiest attitude, and emerges as a hero as both an ace pilot and a man sticking by his exotic dancer girlfriend. Goldblum plays perfectly off his persona as the geeky-but-potentially-cool science guy cultivated around The Fly and Jurassic Park. Bill Pullman is adequate but lands in more bland territory compared to his two co-stars.

The secondary cast adds plenty of texture and is better than the regulation stock characters. Robert Loggia adds stature as the General standing by the side of the President, James Rebhorn is his counterweight as a Secretary of Defence playing politics at the wrong time, and Judd Hirsch get an expanded presence as David's slightly overwhelmed but still thoughtful father. Randy Quaid achieves one his better supporting roles as an alcoholic crop duster with a colourful history related to the aliens, and eventually finds his inner Slim Pickens.

Flashy and furiously fun, Independence Day has much to celebrate.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Ordinary People (1980)

A drama portraying a family tearing itself at the seams, Ordinary People slowly burrows its way through a post-tragedy crisis that is more than ordinary people can handle. The film shines thanks to a patient script that gives up its secrets at a deliciously slow pace, and a collection of terrific performances.

Conrad Jarrett (Timothy Hutton) is a withdrawn teenager from an upper middle-class family in suburban Chicago, active in choir and swimming but dealing with a failed suicide attempt and suffering through a dysfunctional relationship with his cold-hearted, emotionless mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore).

Conrad's brother Buck, a more outgoing, vivacious personality, died in a boating accident, and Conrad could not do enough to save him. Conrad blames himself for Buck's death; Beth does not help matters by also blaming Conrad for Buck's death. Conrad's dad Calvin (Donald Sutherland) is caught trying to nurture his suicidal son back to mental health and dealing with his wife's emotional paralysis.

Conrad's fortunes start to improve thanks to therapy sessions with Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), who connects Conrad with the causes of his distressed emotions and encourages him to express himself. A burgeoning relationship with fellow choir singer Jeannine (Elizabeth McGovern) also helps Conrad to come out of his shell. With her son confronting the past more positively, Beth has nowhere to hide and is forced to face her own attitudes towards her family.

Ordinary People gains its impact from an emotional mystery structure, the equivalent of arriving at an accident scene and finding the survivors walking around in shock. What happened and why it happened is slowly revealed over the course of the compelling film.

Robert Redford displays remarkable maturity for a debut directorial effort, sprinkling clever little touches and interesting angles throughout the film without drawing unnecessary attention to himself. He provides the canvass for his four stars to shine, which they do thanks to an understated script by Alvin Sargent and Nancy Dowd.

Timothy Hutton makes a stunning start to his screen career as Conrad Jarrett, hollow eyes not trying to hide internal anguish as he struggles through the minefield of emotions within and surrounding him. Unfortunately for Hutton, this was a case of an acting career starting at the very top, complete with an Academy Award, and heading rather rapidly downhill, as he never found the suitable roles to build a lasting movie legacy.

In a brilliant stroke of casting, TV comedienne Mary Tyler Moore reveals herself to be a frighteningly effective dramatic actress as Beth, a woman who has wrapped her heart in several sheets of ice as she goes through the motions of being a mother and wife while internally seething about the unfairness of the loss that has befallen her. And Moore's flawless performance leaves no room for doubt that with Beth, the unfairness is all about her personal loss, and not the trauma that has befallen her family.

Sutherland and Hirsch have more straightforward yet still interesting, nuanced, and complex roles, Sutherland as the dad trying to save the functionality of his family, and Hirsch as the empathetic Dr. Berger, helping Conrad to navigate the dungeons of his mind.

There is a fifth, less prominent but still impressive role in Ordinary People, Elizabeth McGovern making her debut as Jeannine, and shining as a catalyst for positive change while avoiding most of the attractive girlfriend cliches.

Ordinary People won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but has the misfortune of being perceived as the undeserving winner from the year that Raging Bull was robbed. In truth, Ordinary People is an extraordinary film, and 1980 was a relatively rare year in which two films deserved the label of best film.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: A Beautiful Mind (2001)

A celebration of both the mind and the heart, A Beautiful Mind is based on the true story of Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash. It is a towering achievement that affirms the amazing power of shining intellect when supported by brilliant love.

Nash (Russell Crowe) arrives at Princeton University just after the end of the Second World War as a graduate student in mathematics, already recognized for his prodigious talent and social ineptness. He ignores his classes and all traditional learning methods to focus on finding a new breakthrough theory that would catapult him to prominence. His best friend is his room-mate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany), a free spirit more interested in beer and pizza than learning.

Nash appears to be on the road to nowhere at Princeton until he finally develops the theory of governing dynamics, a significant enhancement to mathematical economics. He indeed emerges as the best in his class, and gets his pick of distinguished careers.

Nash gets established as a senior mathematics professor working out of a military-associated lab at MIT. Alicia (Jennifer Connelly), one of his students, takes all the initiative to break through Nash's social incompetence, and they eventually get married.

As part of his work Nash is occasionally called to the Pentagon to help break codes related to national security. He meets William Parcher (Ed Harris), a tough, no-nonsense government agent, who becomes a dominant presence. Nash is soon consumed by complex code-breaking work assigned by Parcher, and is drawn into what appears to be a dangerous international conspiracy, with Russian agents after him. He shuts out Alicia and his behaviour goes from eccentric to dangerously erratic.

However, Nash is suffering an illness and will need radical medical intervention under the supervision of psychiatrist Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer). Over many years of struggle with the disease, Alicia's love, selfless dedication, and bravery are central to Nash's survival, and his road to any potential rehabilitation will be long and unsteady.

A Beautiful Mind is majestically constructed by director Ron Howard and his stellar cast. Howard manages to penetrate into Nash's mind, taking the audience on a wonderful journey that reveals the thin line between genius and madness.

Russell Crowe gives one of the all-time greatest acting performances in the history of the movies. He embodies Nash from the young adult at Princeton to the distinguished but wounded scholar receiving the Nobel Prize, and despite plenty of temptations, never succumbs to over-the-top histrionics that could so easily accompany a role centred on mental illness.  

Jennifer Connelly delivers the role of her career as Alicia. The second half of the movie belongs to her, as she transitions from an almost incidental part of Nash's life to become the only person that can rescue him. Connelly needs to convince us - and Nash - that her love is at least as important as his intellect, and she succeeds magnificently. Thanks to Connelly, A Beautiful Mind becomes a stunning example of the true meaning of marriage.

A supporting cast deep in talent provides a rich texture to the film. Ed Harris gives the tough-as-nails Parcher a real menace, a counterpoint to Paul Bettany's always available sympathetic ear. Christopher Plummer and Judd Hirsch ensure that even relatively minor roles are memorably delivered.

A Beautiful Mind is a rare achievement, an emotional tour de force that finds its impact by remaining under-stated, controlled, and in touch with the true inner humanity of its characters.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.