Movie Review: Silent Fall (1994)

Genre: Crime Mystery  

Director: Bruce Beresford  

Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Linda Hamilton, Liv Tyler, J.T. Walsh, John Lithgow  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: Autistic and incommunicative 9 year-old child Tim Warden (Ben Faulkner) witnesses the brutal stabbing double-murder of his wealthy parents. Therapist Dr. Jake Rainer (Richard Dreyfuss) has a checkered history working with autistic children, and is persuaded by Sheriff Mitch Rivers (J.T. Walsh) to try and unlock what Tim witnessed. Tim's older sister Sylvie (Liv Tyler) helps Jake gain the child's confidence, while Jake's wife Karen (Linda Hamilton) and his rival Dr. Rene Harlinger (John Lithgow) also influence his involvement.

What Works Well: The premise of a child witnessing a murder is intriguing (and has been seen before), and director Bruce Beresford adds gloss to the impressive-looking suburban estate settings. Richard Dreyfuss is never less than committed to the role, and Dr. Rainer is provided with just enough background context to keep him interesting. J.T. Walsh and John Lithgow provide good support.

What Does Not Work As Well: After a robust opening, a murder that would have shocked the community is somehow marginalized and the plotting settles down to overly laid-back beats, Dr. Rainer designated by the script as the only person who can get into Tim's head. Every opportunity to show rather than tell is studiously avoided in a mystery that lacks suspects, suspense, and detective work. Not surprisingly, the outcome is easy to guess, notwithstanding late-in-the-day revelations. Linda Hamilton as the nagging wife is unfortunately wasted.

Key Quote:

Jake (to the incommunicative Tim): What are you seeing in there?

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Ad Astra (2019)

A space adventure, Ad Astra mixes a father-son quest with a larger search-for-the-meaning-of-life, but fumbles both the science and the fiction.

In the near future, Earth is subjected to massive unexplained electrical storms. Perpetually calm and collected astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) barely survives a fall back to earth from the international antenna station. He is then recruited for a secret mission to travel to Mars and send a message to his father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones), a legendary but missing astronaut.

A generation earlier Clifford commanded the Lima Project on a mission to the outer reaches of the solar system to seek evidence of intelligent life. But he was believed dead 16 years ago when contact was lost with Lima near Neptune. Now he is presumed alive and responsible for the electrical storms. Roy arrives to Mars and sends the message to his father, but when he is prevented from reading the response, he embarks on an unsanctioned mission on the spaceship Cepheus to Neptune.

Directed and co-written by James Gray, Ad Astra looks beautiful but is heavily laden with soulful narration, psychology and philosophy, and all of it ultimately drifts towards frustrating purposelessness. Despite a suitably subdued Brad Pitt performance, the narrative disintegrates early, with fragments of plot points and characters introduced and abandoned to no effect.

The movie is caught in dissonance of its own making, mixing a human-scaled sense of downbeat realism with ridiculous cliffhanger moments. A rover chase on the surface of the moon may be relatively unique, but represents a lot of what is wrong with the script. Apparently pirates are roaming the moon, but their intentions are never discussed. Later Roy tangles with angry monkeys on an abandoned spacecraft, makes use of a water-filled underground pipe system on Mars, secretly clambers into a rocket at take-off through the engine compartment, uses a hatch as a makeshift shield against space debris to float through space, and perfectly times a nuclear explosion to propel his spacecraft to safety. None of these supposed highlights pass the logic test or meaningfully enhance the story.

The characters do not fare any better. Donald Sutherland is prominent early on as a sort of mission minder, but is unceremoniously dropped. Ruth Negga and Liv Tyler briefly float in and out of Roy's adventure. And Tommy Lee Jones bites into the Marlon Brando role from Apocalypse Now, but never gets to explain quite why  - or how - he was trying to destroy Earth all the way from Neptune.

At the heart of Roy's trip is a search to better understand his father. Ignoring the space setting and all the hardware, Ad Astra becomes a simple story of one man coming to terms with his father's depression and sense of personal failure. Even this narrative bumps against a truncated and unsatisfactory resolution. There may be many reasons to hijack a future space program, but resolving daddy issues should not be one of them.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

The Movies Of Liv Tyler

All movies starring Liv Tyler and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Silent Fall (1994)

That Thing You Do! (1996)

Inventing The Abbotts (1997)

Armageddon (1998)

Reign Over Me (2007)

The Strangers (2008)

Ad Astra (2019)

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

Movie Review: Reign Over Me (2007)

A drama about friendship and loss, Reign Over Me treats a difficult topic with sensitivity but eventually spreads itself too thin.

In New York City, Dr. Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) is a successful dentist, married to Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith), although tensions are developing in their relationship. He anyway resists the sexual advances of new patient Donna (Saffron Burrows), and clumsily tries to get advice from therapist  Dr. Angela Oakhurst (Liv Tyler). Alan then spots his old college roommate Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) roaming the streets on a motorized scooter.

Charlie lost his wife and three daughters in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, is suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and has withdrawn into a shell of a man, spending most of his time playing a video game and repeatedly remodelling his kitchen. Alan makes a big effort to reach out and spend time with his friend, and as a result drifts further away from his own family. Charlie meanwhile refuses to talk about his personal loss, leaving Alan to wonder how much he should push Charlie to seek professional help.

Written and directed by Mike Binder, Reign Over Me delves into the world of grief and dysfunction caused by immense loss. The subject matter is not easy, but an astute script and two excellent central performances from Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle keep the film grounded while avoiding excessive sentimentality. The film boasts a sleek look, with plenty of nighttime filming as Charlie's owl-like existence draws Alan away from his routine world.

A large part of the film's appeal comes from Dr. Johnson's own troubles, at home and at the dental office. Trivial in comparison with what Charlie is going through, Alan is nonetheless heading towards his own sea of unhappiness, albeit in slow motion. He will also experience changes through his renewed relationship with Charlie, and the film is about two men at individual inflection points helping each other, one more knowingly than the other.

Reign Over Me is enriched by provocative secondary characters orbiting Alan's world. Binder surrounds Alan with three women each capable of swinging his pendulum for better or for worse. Donna may be a predator, a victim or an inspiration; Dr. Oakhurst is either too young or perfectly positioned to help; and Janeane can drive Alan away from their nest or support his need for breathing room. Charlie meets and interacts with all three women, altering their role and dynamic relative to Alan.

Despite Sandler proving again that with the right material he can deliver as a convincing and serious actor, Reign Over Me stumbles and almost falls in its final act. Therapy sessions morph into an ill-conceived mini courtroom drama (with Donald Sutherland making a late appearance as the judge), and suddenly Charlie's poorly defined in-laws (Melinda Dillon and Robert Klein) become central to a story that is not their own. The limp finish is unfortunate, but Reign Over Me is an otherwise courageous scooter ride into men's mental grief territory.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: That Thing You Do! (1996)

A musical dramatic comedy about a fictional one-hit wonder band, That Thing You Do! captures the vibe of an era but remains as shallow as its one hit song.

It's 1964 in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) works at his father's appliance store while practicing his drums as a hobby. He agrees to perform on a one-off basis with the band of his friend Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech) when the regular drummer breaks his arm. Jimmy has written a new ballad, but Guy doubles the tempo and turns That Thing You Do! into a peppy pop love song.

Guy sticks with the band, now named The Oneders, and they land a regular show at the local bar. On the strength of the catchy song they develop a following, attracting the attention of a local music producer who helps them cut a record and start touring locally. At an unfortunately bad show in Pittsburgh, Guy connects with promoter Mr. White (Tom Hanks), who signs them to Play-Tone Records. Renamed The Wonders, the band hit the road and seem to be on their way to the big time as the song races up the chart. But Jimmy is frustrated that neither his fellow band members nor White seem interested in writing and recording more material.

Tom Hanks' directorial debut, That Thing You Do! is good natured fun. Much like the band, the film rides its one ridiculously catchy song all the way from garage band territory to the top of the charts. But the story is also remarkably linear in recounting the rapid rise and quicker fall of a ragged band, and at the end of the film little of substance is revealed about any of the main characters.

The movie recreates a more innocent America discovering the sounds of The Beatles and not yet tainted by Vietnam and Watergate, the young boomer bonhomie of the times providing plenty of energy. Hanks constructs a breathtaking highlight when the young band members hear their song played on the radio for the first time, their sense of unbridled joy and exuberance jumping off the screen.

The title song is inspired by I Want To Hold Your Hand-era Beatles, and the film benefits from an everything-is-possible attitude, where with the help of the right promoter and radio play new stars can indeed be born.

While the rise of The Wonders is spectacular, their fall from grace is abrupt, and the film begins to feel rushed when the fun stops. A clunky romance is tacked on to conjure up a sappy ending, but by then the magic is well and truly gone.

Tom Everett Scott is lively as the cocky drummer Guy Patterson, not taking anything too seriously as he rides the wave as far away as possible from his father's cold appliance story. Hanks exudes detached and steely eyed professionalism as Mr. White, engineering the band's rise and prioritizing the commercial power of their one hit.

Johnathon Schaech as the serious Mattingly is short changed, Hanks' script confining the band leader to one dour mode, while his smarts and drive deserved more exposition. Other cast members include Liv Tyler as Jimmy's girlfriend Faye and Charlize Theron as Guy's high maintenance and soon to be ex-girlfriend Tina. The band members are rounded out by Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry and Giovanni Ribisi.

That Thing You Do! offers light-hearted toe-tapping enjoyment, like a summer hit that's everywhere at once before blowing away when it's time to get serious.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Inventing The Abbotts (1997)

A coming of age drama, Inventing The Abbotts has good intentions and decent characters, but also gets bogged down in a narrow narrative scope that veers towards the tiresome.

The small Midwest town of Haley, Illinois, in the 1950s. Teenaged brothers Jacey (Billy Crudup) and Doug Holt (Joaquin Phoenix) are brought up by single mom Helen (Kathy Baker), their father having died a long time ago. Jacey is intense, driven and determined to move ahead in life. Doug is much more mellow and awkward. Haley is dominated by the rich Abbott family, presided over by patriarch Lloyd (Will Patton).

The three Abbott daughters are objects of fascination and desire. Alice (Joana Going) is about to get married. The wild Eleanor (Jennifer Connelly) does all she can to irritate her father, including carrying on an affair with Jacey. The more timid Pamela (Liv Tyler) has eyes for Doug, but he is also infatuated with Eleanor. As Jacey and Doug transition from high school to college, Jacey runs afoul of Lloyd's anger, Eleanor disappears from town, Doug has an on-again, off-again relationship with Pamela, and the complicated history involving Lloyd, Helen and the boys' dead father emerges.

A slice-of-life drama and romance, Inventing The Abbotts aims for a poignant vibe, nurtured by a love and anger in a small town milieu. Director Pat O'Connor occasionally succeeds in touching the tender chords of young hearts evolving into adults. But as the film progresses into its second half, the story (originally a Sue Miller novel) narrows down to Jacey's soulless obsession with all things Abbott, while Doug and Pamela discover new ways to hurt each other. Instead of seizing opportunities to become adults, the boys' behaviour more often than not appears to regress, confining the film into a limited emotional box.

In its better moments, the film does offer tastes of flavourful topics. There are intertwined themes of classicism, with the Holts inherently seeing themselves as subsidiary to the rich Abbotts, but the Abbott girls also struggling against their own family's reputation. The shadows cast by fathers, present or missing, also provide rich grounds for exploration, with Lloyd Abbott and Helen's deceased husband sharing a history that will be painfully and gradually revealed. The relationship between the two brothers Jacey and Doug is fraught with minefields, and the film takes no shortcuts towards brotherly reconciliation.

The performances are consistent with the material, and the limited character growth means that the acting need only be satisfactory rather than stellar. Joaquin Phoenix occupies the emotional centre of the film, and provides Doug with the awkwardness of small town youth beginning to grapple with adult problems. Billy Crudup infuses Jacey with bitter fervor as a young man who believes that the world owes him, but Crudup is most hampered by a script that forgets to allow Jacey to grow up.

Among the girls, Jennifer Connelly succeeds in making Eleanor an object of boyhood fantasy but then disappears from the film for a long period. Liv Tyler is honest as the down-to-earth Pamela, living in her sister's shadow. As the parents Kathy Baker and Will Patton are adequate in support, but again their characters remain at a steady state. Michael Keaton provides uncredited narration as the grown-up Doug.

Inventing The Abbotts is sometimes pleasingly wistful, and just as often, painfully wasteful.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Armageddon (1998)

A spectacular science fiction disaster adventure, Armageddon is a thrilling battle between hardened men and a killer asteroid. The film quickly jettisons common sense for outright escapism, a trade-off that succeeds thanks to a breakneck pace and a committed cast.

A large, Texas-sized asteroid is discovered on a planet-annihilating collision course with Earth. With the impact predicted to occur within 18 days, advance fragments of rock start pounding the planet, destroying portions of New York City. Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is tasked with developing a strategy to save Earth, and settles on a plan to land a group of expert drillers on the asteroid as it passes near the moon, drill an 800 foot hole, and detonate a nuclear device deep within the rock's core.

Truman turns to veteran oil rig driller Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) to lead the team. Stamper agrees, as long as he can use his regular crew of ruffians, including AJ (Ben Affleck), Rockhound (Steve Buscemi), Chick (Will Patton), Bear (Michael Clarke Duncan)  and Oscar (Owen Wilson). AJ is deeply in love with Stamper's daughter Grace (Liv Tyler), a relationship that Harry is not thrilled about. The men undergo intensive astronaut training and are then launched in two advanced space shuttles for a rendezvous with the killer asteroid, with limited time to fulfill their dangerous mission and save civilization.

One of the noisiest and craziest science fiction films is also among the best all-action spectacles from the 1990s. Armageddon is a dizzying experience, with everything dialled to over-the-top, from the end-of-the-world premise to the ridiculous oil-riggers-in-space concept. Director Michael Bay crams in explosions, wildfires, wanton destruction and narrow escapes into every corner of the movie's 151 minutes, deploying frantic editing to portray the carnage and even contriving to transform a routine refuelling stop at the International Earth Station into fiery fiasco.

Once the action switches to the asteroid, the screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and J. J. Abrams unleashes crash landings, canyon jumps, equipment failures, tragic team losses and groundquakes to add to episodes of space dementia and the ever-reliable secret military "Plan B" that threatens to jeopardize Stamper and his crew. There is not a moment that is not pressed into the service of endless thrills and death-defying escapades.

And yet, somehow, Bay pulls it all together, away from camp and towards rampant entertainment. As the tension mounts and the asteroid hurtles towards Earth, a good streak of self-deprecating wit keeps the action grounded, and the character of the fiercely self-confident Harry Stamper is among Bruce Willlis' best screen creations, providing a phenomenal focus for the sprawling film, and a centre of gravity for the mission.

His crew is efficiently coloured in with enough definition to create interest, with AJ as the surrogate son who wants to be a son-in-law, Rockhound a genius redneck, and Chick as the failed father regretting the life that passed him by. The likes of Aerosmith, Journey and Bon Jovi contribute to the thumping soundtrack.

By the time Armageddon reaches its climax, with self-sacrifice to the fore and individual acts of ultimate valour required to save the planet, Bay is able to strip his epic down to the human level of a father, a daughter, and the necessity to break one small promise in order to fulfill a greater mission. Armageddon flies on the ludicrous edge of control, but it always hurtles in the right direction.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Strangers (2008)

For a horror movie to work, adhering to certain principles can be helpful. The murder and mayhem can be quick and sudden, to create the "who, when and where next" slasher-type tension; or it can be excruciatingly drawn out, in which case the audience expects some delving into the reasons why the killers are taking their sweet time to get the job done.

Halfway through The Strangers, it becomes apparent that the movie is trying to get away with extending the prelude to murder for the entire length of the movie, with no intellectual pay-off. The three masked killers remain faceless, voiceless, and lacking in motive, in which case the only reason to prolong the killing is to toy with the moviegoers.

The film is simply not good enough for that. Essentially a series of cliched "what's that sound in this spooky isolated house" scenes, The Strangers bumps along offering very little that is new, as Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman attempt to fend off three masked intruders who seem capable of finishing their murderous handiwork at any instant, but are waiting for about 90 minutes to pass so that the union guys can get paid.

Liv Tyler goes through the movie wondering if she really gave up a modeling career for nonsense like this. Scott Speedman appears to be wondering when he can cash his cheque and move on to the next movie in his non-career. Bryan Bertino, directing from his script, first connects the dense dots and then paints by numbers to ensure that no old idea is left unrecycled.

The final proof of innovative bankruptcy arrives with yet another horror movie dead body coming suddenly and inexplicably alive in the last scene before fade-out. Guys, this was old in the 1980's.







All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.