Movie Review: Just Go With It (2011)

Genre: Comedy  

Director: Dennis Dugan  

Starring: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Nick Swardson, Brooklyn Decker  

Running Time: 117 minutes  

Synopsis: Plastic surgeon Danny (Adam Sandler) has never been married, but always pretends to be stuck in a bad marriage to enjoy commitment-free flings. When he meets and falls in love with school teacher Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), Danny recruits his office manager Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) as his pretend soon-to-be-ex-wife.  A series of deceptions ensue, resulting in Danny, Palmer, Katherine, her two kids, and Danny's cousin Eddie (Nick Swardson) heading to a Hawai'i vacation. The appearance of Katherine's frenemy Devlin (Nicole Kidman) at the vacation resort adds further complications.

What Works Well: This is a surprisingly sharp and often quite funny comedy with a dash of romance. The script (by Allan Loeb and Timothy Dowling) is packed with laugh-ready characters, including Katherine's quirky kids, the easy-to-mock Devlin, and the out-there Eddie. Highlights drop in from all directions, including an assortment of plastic surgery mishaps, a hula dancing face-off, a coconut competition, and a sheep in distress. Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler share an easy chemistry and roll with plenty of improvised dialogue, while director Dennis Dugan provides bright and cheerful surroundings.

What Does Not Work As Well: Of course Danny's entire predicament would have been resolved with an early commitment to the truth, and for a flighty comedy, the running time could have used a trim. Nick Swardson as cousin Eddie occasionally threatens to exceed his good-in-small-doses limits.

Key Quote:

Palmer (upon finding a wedding ring in Danny's bag): What's this?

Danny: A circle?

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Movie Review: Holland (2025)

Genre: Mystery Drama Thriller  

Director: Mimi Cave  

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen, Gael Garcia Bernal  

Running Time: 108 minutes  

Synopsis: In the quaint town of Holland, Michigan, schoolteacher Nancy (Nicole Kidman) is married to optometrist Fred (Matthew Macfadyen). Although her life is superficially near-perfect, Nancy suffers from anxieties and starts to suspect that Fred, who travels a lot on business, is having affairs. Nancy considers initiating an extramarital romance of her own with fellow teacher Dave (Gael Garcia Bernal), and together they start investigating Fred's activities.

What Works Well: Fred's hobby as a builder of intricate model train sets gives director Mimi Cave an opportunity to mix alternative versions of reality, contributing to the satisfying confusion around Nancy's mental state. The primary theme explores the consequences of settling for a plastic sense of security in a dangerous world, and offers tantalizing but unfulfilled glimpses of plot potential. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The good intentions are sunk by muddled execution, a wayward tone, repetitive beats, and a sludgy aesthetic. The inability to extract strong momentum extends to two separate but samey episodes of Nancy infiltrating Fred's space to rifle through his things. When the details of his activities become apparent, plot holes amplified by unexplained context ravage the screen. 

Key Quote:

Fred (to Nancy): It's important to me, Nancy, that you feel safe here.



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Movie Review: Babygirl (2024)

Genre: Erotic Drama  

Director: Halina Reign  
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas, Harris Dickinson  
Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: Romy (Nicole Kidman) is the CEO of a robotics company. She is interested in being sexually submissive but is not satisfied by husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas). Romy spots cocky new intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson) at her company, and he selects her as his mentor. Soon they are engaged in a steamy affair despite the risk of negative consequences for both.

What Works Well: Nicole Kidman throws herself into the role, and her sex scenes with Harris Dickinson embellish eroticism with a welcome level of hesitant awkwardness. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Older woman can own their sexuality without being painfully dumb. Director Halina Reign's clunky script is littered with foundational cracks, starting with Romy's inability to think on her feet or articulate any non-scripted thought. In the real word her skills would barely qualify her for a janitorial job, let alone a CEO position. And in any functioning office, Samuel's preening toy boy would have been thrown out on his ear before the lunch hour of his first day. Elsewhere, much of Romy's quest for kinky sexual fulfilment gets bogged down in meandering repetitive scenes before escaping into an implausible faux triumphal ending. 

Key Quote:

Samuel (to Romy): I think I have power over you. Cos I could make one phone call and you would lose everything. Does that turn you on when I say that?

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Movie Review: To Die For (1995)

Genre: Satirical Crime Dramedy  

Director: Gus Van Sant  

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck  

Running Time: 106 minutes  

Synopsis: The small town of Little Hope, New Hampshire is scandalized by the arrest of local television weather girl Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) for plotting her husband's murder. In flashbacks and witness interviews, Suzanne is revealed as ambitious, vain, and obsessed with being on television. She marries Larry (Matt Dillon) but is always more interested in her career. After securing a job at a local cable station, she starts work on a documentary featuring underachieving high schoolers Jimmy, Russell, and Lydia (Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, and Alison Folland). When Larry attempts to constrain Suzanne's ambitions, she initiates a marriage escape plan through a nefarious seduction of the particularly dim Jimmy.  

What Works Well: Inspired by the Pamela Smart story, writer Buck Henry adapts Joyce Maynard's book into a sly mockumentary packed with astute celebrity culture observations. Director Gus Van Sant wades through the toxic combination of ambition, narcissism, and obsession with fame, and adds femme fatale sex-as-a-weapon noir shadings. Suzanne, Jimmy, Lydia, and Larry's sister Janice (Illeana Douglas) expand on their side of the story straight to the camera, stirring manipulation and victimization into a frothy mix. Nicole Kidman achieves a career highlight conveying the complex contradiction of limited smarts and sexual allure colliding with over-confidence and self-delusion.

What Does Not Work As Well: Given the comprehensive character investments, the resolutions are abrupt, including a barely-there investigation and a frigid mop-up. Suzanne's lack of forethought after she wriggles free of marital shackles is inconsistent with the preceding level of connivance.

Key Quote:

Suzanne: You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV. On TV is where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile if nobody's watching? And if people are watching, it makes you a better person.

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Movie Review: A Family Affair (2024)

Genre: Romantic Comedy  

Director: Richard LaGravenese  

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Joey King, Kathy Bates  
Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In Los Angeles, Zara (Joey King) is the assistant to action movie star Chris Cole (Zac Efron), and still lives with her widowed mother Brooke (Nicole Kidman), a published writer. Zara has ambitions to become a producer, and quits her job when she realizes Chris is a terrible boss. A passionate romance ignites between Chris and Brooke, and he hires Zara back as an associate producer. With Brooke starting to fall in love, Zara knows her boss is not kind to women.

What Works Well: Joey King and Kathy Bates (as Brooke's mother-in-law) demonstrate some acting spirit.

What Does Not Work As Well: Shallow and inconsistent characters, a contrived romance, flat writing, languid pacing, sappy music, and very few laughs combine into an instantly forgettable experience. The entire premise revolves around Zara, Chris, and Brooke pairing off into scenes of arguing followed by scenes of reconciling, set on an endless repeat loop. Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron generally embarrass themselves, while director Richard LaGravenese prolongs the agony by somehow pushing the skimpy material towards the two hour mark.

Conclusion: A calamity affair. 



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Movie Review: The Peacemaker (1997)

Genre: Geopolitical Thriller

Director: Mimi Leder

Starring: George Clooney, Nicole Kidman

Running Time: 124 minutes

Synopsis: In Russia, nuclear warheads slated for decommissioning are diverted to the black market by the corrupt General Kodoroff, who covers his tracks by detonating one device in the Ural mountains. In the United States, head of the National Security Council Nuclear Smuggling Group Dr. Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) is placed in charge of the government response, with Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Devoe (George Clooney) her military liaison. They relocate to Europe to track down the missing nukes, uncovering a plot involving a Balkan leader seeking a special kind of revenge.

What Works Well: This fast-paced thriller is a James Bond-type intercontinental chase with more grit and no gadgets. Director Mimi Leder delivers several excellent action scenes with minimal special effects, including the prolonged opening train heist, a bone-jarring car chase in Vienna, a superlative truck-on-a-bridge sequence, and the final breathless foot chase. The antagonist is provided with enough background context to register as a purveyor of anguished doom, while George Clooney and Nicole Kidman add the necessary star power.

What Does Not Work As Well: The logic gaps are often large, including the entire US government response being entrusted to the inexperienced Dr. Kelly. The Americans make every correct just-in-time deduction to perfectly set the stage for the next highlight.

Conclusion: A slick, effective, and anxiety-packed thriller.



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Movie Review: The Human Stain (2003)

A drama about love and lies, The Human Stain initiates numerous narrative pathways and shortchanges them all.

In New England, literature professor Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins) retires from his distinguished college position after being falsely accused of using a racial slur. His wife Iris dies soon afterwards. Embittered, Coleman approaches author Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise) to help write his story. He then starts an affair with Faunia (Nicole Kidman), an angry-at-life janitor. She is living in fear of her psychotic ex-husband Lester (Ed Harris), a psychologically damaged Vietnam War veteran.

Flashbacks to the 1940s reveal Coleman's secret. He comes from a black family, but can pass as white. As a young man (Wentworth Miller) attending college he develops a romance with white classmate Steena Paulsson (Jacinda Barrett), but their relationship is compromised when she meets his mother. Coleman disavows his family and commits to living a lie pretending to be a white Jew. Now in the twilight of his life, the affair with Faunia rejuvenates his spirits.

The Human Stain appears to have no idea what topic to pursue. The disjointed Nicholas Meyer script, adapting a Philip Roth novel, is burdened with enough big ideas and juicy subplots to occupy several movies, and unsurprisingly, director Robert Benton never grabs hold of the material. The production quality is high and each individual social issue holds promise, but the whole is considerably less than the sum of the parts.

The competing themes are wedged into a 105 minute jumble. A career ended by political correctness running amok, a wife dying of a broken heart, a winter-spring romance that also spans the class divide, a secret life hiding true racial identity and resulting in a fractured family, an author dealing with writer's block, a lost romance of youth, and a violent ex-husband who wants to turn a drama into a thriller: every scene steers in a different direction and the movie spins in place.

Benton is not helped by the miscasting of both central characters. Hopkins and Kidman share no chemistry, and misery loving company is the only justification for their characters' romance. Neither Hopkins as an inherently black man nor Kidman as a scrappy white trash woman convince, but of the two, Hopkins seems particularly lost. While Benton is working overtime to make racial origins a centrepiece, Hopkins appears clueless, his focus purely on the unexpected joy of finding a new love. 

Fundamentally lacking discipline, The Human Stain is overloaded and underdeveloped.



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Movie Review: My Life (1993)

A family melodrama, My Life is a well-intentioned and warm-hearted exploration of priorities at death's gateway.

In a prologue set in Detroit, young Bob Ivanovich rushes back from school eagerly anticipating a circus in his backyard to celebrate his birthday. He is disappointed his parents did not actually arrange the event. The disappointment compounds Bob's embarrassment that his father is a just a scrap metal dealer, and he withdraws into himself.

Thirty years later, Bob (Michael Keaton) has shunned his family, changed his surname to Jones, and relocated to Los Angeles. He is now a successful public relations executive and happily married to Gail (Nicole Kidman), who is pregnant with their first child. He is stunned to receive a terminal cancer diagnosis, and learns he just has months to live.

Bob starts to record video messages containing lessons in life to his unborn son, and reluctantly seeks treatment with Mr. Ho (Haing S. Ngor), a traditional Chinese healer. Gail also insists they travel back to Detroit to attend the wedding of Bob's brother Paul (Bradley Whitford), a trip offering Bob an opportunity to reconnect with his parents.

Undoubtedly sentimental and expertly manipulating a path towards a torrent of tears, My Life looks back at buried regrets and ahead to the final end. Writer and director Bruce Joel Robin frames the story through the lens of a video camera as Bob prepares for a future that does not include him, but then broadens the narrative towards linking physical disease with emotional pain.

It's easy to surrender to the film's charm, despite hokey excesses. Mr. Ho's treatment consists of holding his hands above Bob's body and sensing the ailments within. As visions of bright lights spark through Bob's head, it's not terminal cancer Mr. Ho is looking for, but rather the poison of resentment Bob harbours towards his family. Embarrassment metastasized into rejection, Bob's version of the American Dream not finding room to appreciate the sacrifices of immigrant parents.

The rest is easy to predict, from Bob overcoming his life-long fear of rollercoasters to finding the tortuous path to reconciliation, as the shadow of a looming death ironically removes the shroud of acrimony. The videotaped vignettes offer interludes of humour and poignancy as a dad communicates with a son he may never meet.

Through it all Michael Keaton plays the appropriate notes from denying his emotions to welcoming a greater love, as the make-up department works overtime to usher death into the room. Nicole Kidman has an easy role as the good wife prodding her husband towards forgiveness, and Haing S. Ngor trots out all the trite eastern mysticism cliches. 

Undoubtedly fluffy, My Life welcomes death with few sharp edges, but plenty of moisture.



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Movie Review: Being The Ricardos (2021)

A biographical drama, Being The Ricardos is a behind-the-scenes look at a television celebrity couple at their peak.

In 1952, the I Love Lucy sit-com is the top-rated television show. Over one week, the show's husband-and-wife star team of Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) navigate a series of challenges as the cast and crew prepare for Friday's taping of the latest episode in front of a live audience.

The newspapers are full of stories about Desi's infidelities. A radio show suggests Lucy is a communist. The couple reveal Lucy is pregnant, shocking executive producer Jess Oppenheimer (Tony Hale), the network, and the sponsors. Meanwhile, co-stars Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda) and William "Bill" Frawley (J.K. Simmons) add to the problems. Vivian resents being portrayed as frumpy, and Bill's caustic attitude causes aggravation. 

As the week progresses, Desi insists the pregnancy will be weaved into future episodes instead of being hidden, while Lucy assesses the state of her marriage and works with writers Madelyn (Alia Shawkat) and Bob (Jake Lacy) to perfect the latest episode as the taping deadline approaches.

Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, Being The Ricardos is handsomely mounted and well-acted, but also clumsily bites off more than it can chew. Enough material to occupy several movies is crammed into the events of a single week, with a predictable and vaguely unsatisfying outcome of quantity over quality and superficial treatment of all issues.

In addition to the dramas about the communist accusations, infidelity, Lucy's pregnancy, and bickering co-stars, Sorkin crowds-in a barely-baked conversation about the feminism generational divide, an unconvincing side-trip to Desi's bruised ego as defined by others, flashbacks to the couple's courtship and early days of marriage, black and white recreations of completed episode scenes, and look-backs by older versions of the characters unnecessarily commenting on events. Unsurprisingly the running time extends to a wholly unwarranted 131 minutes, the narrative pointing in multiple directions but barely progressing on any. 

On the domestic front, the one emergent unifying theme is Lucy's personal ambition to find a home of contentment, the show's stage set the closest thing to her sanctuary and the one place she can spend time with Desi before he escapes to palling around with his buddies. The film also offers revealing glimpses into the joint creative process required to pull together 22 minutes of quality comedy every week, Lucy's dedicated attention to detail and her exacting standards never wavering despite all the turmoil.

Sorkin favours a smoky beige-yellow palette to recreate a bygone era, and stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem comfortably step into the early 1950s milieu. But they are forced to frequently shift emotional gears to keep up with competing contexts, often in the same scene. Despite enticing moments, Being The Ricardos is a bottleneck of ideas.

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Movie Review: Australia (2008)

A grand adventure and romance with a World War Two backdrop, Australia features plenty of spirit, incident, and visual beauty, almost justifying its mammoth length.

In 1939, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from England to remote northern Australia to admonish her philandering husband. He is operating the fledgling Faraway Downs cattle ranch and locked in a land battle with evil cattle baron King Carney (Bryan Brown), who is seeking to monopolize beef supplies to the army as World War Two rumbles to life.

Upon arrival Sarah meets Drover (Hugh Jackman), an independent cattle driver, then discovers her husband murdered. She fires foreman Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), who is secretly working for Carney to undermine Faraway Downs. Also on the ranch is young mixed-race child Nullah (Brandon Walters), who is in danger of being forcibly scooped up by the government and placed in a religious school. Sarah bonds with Nullah, who has a strong spiritual relationship with his Aboriginal grandfather King George (David Gulpilil).

Sarah teams up with Drover to drive her cattle on a treacherous journey to Darwin, where she hopes to break Carney's monopoly. But Fletcher is determined to stop them, while punishing Japanese air raids bring the war to the country's doorstep.

An epic running for 2 hours and 45 minutes, Australia attempts to capture the identity of a nation. Directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann, the film is infused with an independent, can-do attitude, a strong bond between people and nature, and no shortage of visual beauty within the vastness of a sparsely populated continent. Also prominent is a sneaky sense of humour, essential to survive the physical and emotional hardships of forging a nation with pure toil.

Luhrmann unapologetically embraces sentimental, romantic, overblown, and old-fashioned grandeur. He also freely borrows nation-defining themes from epics like Gone With The Wind (1939), Red River (1948), and especially Once Upon A Time In The West (1968). Notably, a woman is most influential in taming the land, Lady Ashley discovering her motherly instincts, refusing to yield to the will of a corrupt competitor, standing up to ill-conceived government policy (doubtless drafted by men), and never giving up on Nullah when all seems lost. She points the direction to a more virtuous future, and inspires good men like Drover to hustle the country along.

The mixed identity of Nullah represents Australia's dual European and Aboriginal heritage. Both the child and his grandfather King George possess a mystical association with nature, contributing to several highlight scenes including a mammoth cliff-hanging (literally) stampede. Once Sarah connects with Nullah (through an overused reference to Over The Rainbow) and witnesses boorish officers causing him misery, she intrinsically understands the future has to celebrate, not conceal and suppress, the coming together of two cultures.

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman create a likeable couple with no shortage of chemistry, both displaying necessary doses of frontier stubbornness and feistiness. Bryan Brown and David Wenham occupy the opposite corner with suitable malevolence. Young Brandon Walters is instantly amiable as a child caught between two civilizations.

The centrepiece epic cattle drive is both exhilarating and exhausting to watch, and finds a celebratory climax. Remarkably, a whole additional hour is to come, the relationship between Sarah and Drover facing a serious crisis and the country now firmly in the shadow of Japanese air force hostilities. It may not be short nor subtle, but Australia unabashedly celebrates ambition and audacity.



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Movie Review: Secret In Their Eyes (2015)

An investigative crime drama and romance, Secret In Their Eyes boasts a spectacular cast but is needlessly complicated and coldly uninvolving.

Ex-FBI Agent Ray Kasten (Chiwetel Ejiofor) returns to Los Angeles and reconnects with former colleagues Claire Sloan (Nicole Kidman), now the District Attorney, and Agent Jess Cobb (Julia Roberts). Ray is seeking Claire's permission to pursue a man called Marzin (Joe Cole), a suspect in an unsolved murder with a personal connection to Ray and Jess. Flashbacks reveal events from 13 years prior. In the shadow of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Ray and Jess are tasked with monitoring a mosque-based cell, where their colleague Agent Siefert (Michael Kelly) is running an informant. Ray is also attracted to Claire, a lawyer newly appointed to the Los Angeles office. 

The surveillance operation is disrupted when Jess's daughter Crystal is murdered and suspicion falls on Marzin, a member of the mosque community revealed to be Siefert's snitch. District Attorney Morales (Alfred Molina) prioritizes counter-terrorism ahead of solving the murder, leaving Ray frustrated and Jess disillusioned. Now more than a decade later Ray is back for another attempt at capturing Marzin, and he also rekindles his relationship with Claire.

Secret In Their Eyes has too much going on, and also not enough. Billy Ray directs his own script, and while the ambition to cast a personal quest against seminal events is apparent, this is a muddled story always emphasizing the wrong thing. With a backdrop of history's worst terrorist atrocity and then the murder of an FBI agent's daughter, the stuttering romance between Ray and Claire repeatedly gets in the way. She is a cool, cold and calculating lawyer, he is a scrappy field agent, the chemistry never materializes, but Ray keeps on trying.

Meanwhile Julia Roberts finds herself deglamourized and shoved to a background role. Little is revealed about Jess and less is known about her murdered daughter, leaving an emotional void around the central mystery obsessing Ray for 13 years. Marzin as a generic and ill-defined bad guy adds to the impressive blankness.

The constant time jumps make matters worse. Only minor hairstyle changes help differentiate the scenes in the present from those in the past, and with Ray pursuing Marzin in both timeframes, it is often confusing to keep track. And even the action scenes are a let down. On multiple occasions Ray gets close to Marzin, triggering routine confrontations with the same outcome, investigative work undone by operational ineptitude.

Ejiofor, Kidman and Roberts are never less than watchable, but Secret In Their Eyes is a tractionless waste of talent.



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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 Invasion (2007)

A science fiction thriller, The Invasion features a good if familiar build-up but falls victim to tired hide-and-seek trivialities.

Debris from a space shuttle disaster carries a fungus-like organism to Earth. When infected victims fall asleep, they are transformed to emotionless beings devoid of any passion but still eager to hunt down and spread the infection to others. Tucker Kaufman (Jeremy Northam) is a Director at the Center for Disease Control and among the first to be infected. He uses his position of authority to quickly spread the disease.

In Washington DC, psychiatrist Dr. Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) is Tucker's ex-wife with primary custody of their young son Oliver. She is friends with Dr. Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) but reluctant to evolve the relationship. Her patient Wendy Lenk (Veronica Cartwright) starts to describe her husband's weirdly emotionless behaviour, and gradually Carol notices increasing numbers of impassive people. Along with Ben and his colleague Dr. Stephen Galeano (Jeffrey Wright), Carol has to keep Oliver safe and figure out how to stop the infections while fending off hordes of pursuers.

Another iteration of the Invasion Of The Body Snatchers story, this version introduces peace-on-earth as an added bonus of a uniformly conformist society. But the David Kajganich script carries little conviction to push towards any valid intellectual debate. Instead a limp denouement undermines any pretense of cerebral intentions, and what remains is a largely forgettable chase thriller.

Which is unfortunate for Nicole Kidman. Her performance as a resilient doctor and mother coping with the unfolding horror is much better than the material. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel is rarely able to surround her with worthwhile plot elements, and the film's prolonged climax has all the freshness of a leftover 1980s Steven Seagal guns cars and helicopter flick. As Kidman does her best to wring drama out of the must-stay-awake imperative, the horror elements remain half-hearted and meld into warmed-over chase action.

In contrast the first 40 minutes are better as tension builds in measured doses and Carol is introduced as a well-rounded smart and caring character worth knowing. Veronica Cartwright provides welcome linkage back to the 1978 version, but Daniel Craig, Jeffrey Wright and Jeremy Northam barely register in underwritten roles. The Invasion is a story told once too often, now truncated in both title and depth.

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Movie Review: Nine (2009)

A musical drama, Nine explores middle age creative block in a story about a film director and the women in his life.

Rome, 1965. Famed Italian director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is supposed to start shooting his next movie, but has no script and no ideas. Haunted by the failure of his two most recent films, he escapes to an Anzio hotel to try and find inspiration. He lies to his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard) and is joined by his mistress Carla (Penélope Cruz). Costume designer Liliane (Judi Dench) tries to help, while Guido has visions of his mother (Sophia Loren) and memories of his childhood, when he was entranced by prostitute Saraghina (Fergie).

After reporter Stephanie (Kate Hudson) tries to seduce Guido, the last opportunity for a creative boost may be his regular leading lady Claudia Jenssen (Nicole Kidman). But with Luisa's patience with her philandering husband finally running out, salvaging Guido's latest project will prove difficult.

An adaptation of the play by Arthur Kopit which in turn was inspired by Fellini's 8½ (1963), Nine enjoys a stellar cast but is hampered by uninspired music and a consistently dour tone. The songs by Maury Yeston feature lyrics where clunky competes with obvious, and while Rob Marshall directs with panache, the script co-written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella gives him limited material to work with.

The film is entirely bogged down by Guido's doldrums and never generates narrative momentum. The tone is set early, the film structured as one-woman-at-a-time singing about her influence over the deeply flawed and egotistical director. Mistress, wife, confidant, mother, prostitute-from-childhood, muse: nothing helps him gain traction on his latest project, but he never misses an opportunity to light another cigarette.

The cast members bring a mix of interesting accents to the singing, for example Day-Lewis singing in an Italian clip, raising curious questions as to why anyone would sing in a language other than their mother tongue when entirely alone.

But despite several structural weaknesses, Nine benefits from a sparkling cast in good form. Guido is probably one of Day-Lewis' easier characters to embody, but he brings his reliable depth and dedication to the role. The many women rotating in his orbit are brought to life by energetic performances from Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, and Judi Dench, although none of them receive substantial screen time.

In an awkward role obviously bolted on to the movie adaptation, Kate Hudson appears unsure what her character is supposed to be doing, but delivers Cinema Italiano with plenty of verve. The better musical numbers also include Cruz's seductive A Call From The Vatican and Cotillard's angry Take It All.

Nine carries a haughty self-rating, but is more of a middling effort.

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Movie Review: Bombshell (2019)

A drama based on the true story of women fighting back against a lecherous media boss, Bombshell features excellent performances but a fragmented narrative.

In 2015 Fox News television star anchor Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) becomes a household name for all the wrong reasons when she tangles with Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump. Meanwhile afternoon show host Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) is collecting evidence and planning to sue Fox News CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) for sexual harassment after he demotes her to a less favourable viewing spot for refusing his advances.

Young, attractive and ambitious Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) leaves Carlson's team to join the higher profile Bill O'Reilly show, and soon catches Ailes' eye. He subjects her to humiliating harassment with a promise of career advancement. Carlson is finally fired and launches her lawsuit, throwing the network into turmoil. Her legal team is desperate for other women to step forward and share their harassment stories, with Megyn's refusal to publicly support Ailes causing shockwaves.

Roger Ailes' dismissal was an early milestone just in advance of the #metoo era, and Bombshell goes inside the inner sanctum of Fox News to recreate events leading up to his downfall. Writer Charles Randolph and director Jay Roach focus on the courage of three women, real-life anchors Kelly and Carlson, with Kayla representing an amalgamation of other employees.

The film is polished, inspiring and disjointed. The three women barely share any screen time together, their struggles representing loosely connected but quite separate chapters. Their stories ultimately converge to help shine a light on the truth, but this power in numbers remains primarily off-screen.

While Carlson's lawsuit was the trigger event leading to Ailes downfall, her story gets the least amount of screen time, and Kidman is often reduced to a secondary presence. In contrast Charlize Theron is most prominent and coldly efficient as Kelly. Her early clash with Donald Trump and subsequent media storm was an early sign of the candidate's unorthodox and unfiltered approach, but is ultimately tangential to Bombshell's central theme. Theron shines late in the film, as the implications of revealing (or not) Kelly's truth start to weigh on her shoulders.

Kayla depicts every enthusiastic young woman caught in shark-infested waters without a sturdy raft. With Margot Robbie in sensational form, she emerges as the heart and soul of the film, the next generation of women paying the price for debauchers maintaining their hold on power for far too long.

Roach paints a vivid picture of rampant sexism at Fox News, where women were routinely objectified and pressured into wearing leg-revealing outfits. Rumours of "leg cameras", transparent anchor tables as a tactic to attract gawking viewers, and private elevators to Ailes' office swirled through the hallways.

The downfall of men who sexually exploited women was an overdue workplace revolution, and Bombshell is a genuine if not cinematically spectacular salute to the brave women who helped make it happen.

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Movie Review: The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017)

A surreal drama with psychological suspense and hints of horror and tragedy, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is a quietly sinister exploration of guilt and perverted justice.

Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a renowned heart surgeon, married to ophthalmologist Anna (Nicole Kidman). They have two kids, 14 year old Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and the younger Bob (Sunny Suljic). Steven also spends time with 16 year old Martin (Barry Keoghan), a slightly awkward adolescent. Martin's father had previously died on Steven's operating table, and the surgeon carries an unspoken sense of responsibility towards the boy and his mother (Alicia Silverstone).

Steven invites Martin to his house for dinner and to meet Anna, Kim and Bob, and the evening goes well, both Kim and Bob entranced by their new visitor. Martin reciprocates, but Steven's evening with Marin and his mother (Alicia Silverstone) does not go as well. Soon after the visits, young Bob starts to experience inexplicable health problems, and life for the Murphy family takes an unexpectedly dark turn.

Inspired by Greek tragedies but transposed to a modern context, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is written and directed with contorted glee by Yorgos Lanthimos. The film unfolds at a carefully calibrated pace, Lanthimos investing the entire first hour in character and background introductions before starting to turn the dial towards malevolent settings.

And even once the trajectory is locked towards Steven and his family confronting unimaginable outcomes, Lanthimos refuses to surrender to any genre cliches. Other than eerie music, the mood remains cold, the camera placement and dialogue exchanges precise and oddly clipped. Here bad things and horrible decisions are devoid of shock and turbulence. The awful ailments confronting the Murphys arrive quietly and sit down with the family, dramatically shaking every vestige of normalcy through mere presence.

With emotionally draining quiet pleas for forbearance creeping to the narrative forefront, the seemingly supernatural trauma serves to create an unsettling mood throughout the film's second half. Although Lanthimos has trouble nailing the ending, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer lingers in its portrayal of guilt and karma as overpowering metaphysical realities.

Nicole Kidman and a bearded Colin Farrell buy into Lanthimos' surreptitious tendencies with icy performances, two polite professionals lacking the time to express passion and only alive to the spectre creeping into their family once it takes root. The film hinges on finding a human representation of self-righteous calamity, and Barry Keoghan obliges with a suitably creepy and ominously awkward performance.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer may fend off other physical afflictions, but at an unimaginable emotional cost.

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Movie Review: Moulin Rouge! (2001)

A musical comedy drama and romance, Moulin Rouge! adopts a manic ostentatious style and anachronistic music to recreate the avant-garde flair of the famous nightclub.

It's Paris in 1900. Starving writer Christian (Ewan McGregor) falls in with a group of Bohemians including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) and helps them write a musical. They try to pitch the show called Spectacular, Spectacular to Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), the owner of the Moulin Rouge, the hottest nightclub in town. In the process Christian meets and falls madly in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman), a courtesan and the Moulin's star performer, who is suffering a serious illness.

But wealthy investor The Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh) also sets his eyes on Satine, and will only invest in expanding the club and financing the show if she becomes his own. As preparations for the show progress, an illicit love affair ensues between Satine and Christian behind the Duke's back, but it all comes to a head on opening night.

A deliberate investment in flair over content, Moulin Rouge! is more about the experience than the story. Director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann pushes the cinematic form as close as possible to an overwhelming sensory experience to recreate what it must have been like in Paris' most celebrated social venue. After a slow start the film hits its stride and enjoys strong second and third acts, although every audacious scene dances on the line between triumph and disaster, with a few slipping over to the wrong side.

Nothing in Moulin Rouge! looks real, even by the standard of cinematic musicals. Frenzied editing, teeming crowds, disorienting close-ups, restless camerawork and outlandish set designs are both the foundations and unapologetic essence of the movie. Luhrmann drives for a surreal aesthetic on claustrophobic sets over-stuffed with extras, and an overall mischievously playful vibe inspired by troubled dreams.

The theme is as simple as love conquers all, the love triangle between Christian, Satine and the Duke the most basic of plot devices to hang all the jangling accessories on. Subliminal echoes of classic tragic romances such as Camille and La Boheme reverberate within all the theatrics. While the narrative is traditionally familiar, the music riffs on modern material from Madonna to Nirvana passing through Queen and Bowie and whatever else can be stuffed in between, lyrics from various sources often combined to convey a thought.

Kidman is in fine form and fully buys into what Luhrmann is selling, often to exaggerated extremes. She is ably supported by Jim Broadbent as impresario Harold Zidler, joining the ranks of Joel Grey and Gig Young in creating disturbingly memorable movie masters of twisted ceremony. In contrast Ewan McGregor never quite settles down into the role of Christian, and in the performance scenes remains a hesitant presence.

Madly fluctuating between magically joyous and utterly insane, Moulin Rouge! may not bring the house down but earns a standing ovation.

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Movie Review: Before I Go To Sleep (2014)

A woman-in-danger psychological drama with thriller elements, Before I Go To Sleep starts with intrigue but quickly slips into nonsensical territory.

In suburban England, Christine (Nicole Kidman) suffers from a form of anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new memories). Every morning she wakes up believing she is 20 and single. Her husband Ben (Colin Firth), a school teacher, patiently explains she is 40 years old, they are married, and that years ago she suffered a brain trauma due to a severe accident and is now unable to hold on to new memories. Once she sleeps and wakes up the next morning, the cycle repeats.

In flashback, it is revealed that Christine is also secretly seeing neuropsychologist Dr. Nasch (Mark Strong) on a daily basis. He is trying to help improve her condition, and asks her to record her daily memories on a digital camera but to keep it hidden from Ben. Christine does start to have flashes of memories involving a hotel room assault, a man with a scar on his face, and her former best friend Claire (Ann-Marie Duff). When she questions Ben, she learns he is keeping secrets from her.

Covering the same memory lapse condition featured in such movies as Memento (2000) and 50 First Dates (2004), Before I Go To Sleep uses Christine's inability to form new memories as a slow velocity drip (and juvenile narrative device) to introduce one new revelation every seven minutes. It is evident early on that Ben actively hides plenty of history from Christine, and the film plods its way towards uncovering all the secrets in the most heavy-handed way possible.

Along the way, Christine of course does not know who to trust, with Ben, Dr. Nasch and Claire all exhibiting various degrees of suspicious behaviour, by intention or omission.

But the main problem with the script by writer/director Rowan Joffé, adapting a book by S. J. Watson, is that every revelation further undermines the entire premise of the mystery. Christine's perilous situation, once revealed, can only be enabled by baffling incompetence at a grand societal scale, from everyone in her seemingly well-off middle class life. The plot holes are bigger than the plot, the television movie-of-the-week production values do not help, nor does the clumsy flashback to just two weeks prior to the opening scenes.

Nicole Kidman tries on an English accent with mixed results, while Colin Firth never gets a handle on Ben, who fluctuates wildly between caregiver, exhausted husband, and conniving schemer.

The final chapter unravels entirely, what started as a tense psychological drama disintegrating into a mundane freakout climax followed by gag-inducing attempts at sentimentality. Before I Go To Sleep is a memory well worth forgetting.

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Movie Review: The Upside (2017)

An amiable buddy comedy with a few dramatic moments, The Upside explores an unlikely friendship between a depressed tycoon and a scrappy ex-convict.

In New York City, wealthy businessman and successful author Phillip Lacasse (Bryan Cranston) is now a dour quadriplegic, looking to hire a new full-time live-in caregiver while still grieving the loss of his wife. Dell Scott (Kevin Hart) is on parole, unable to make support payments to his ex-wife Latrice (Aja Naomi King) and desperate to collect signatures to prove to his parole officer that he is looking for work. Phil is intrigued by Dell's genuineness and hires him, shocking his prim business manager Yvonne Pendleton (Nicole Kidman).

Dell uses his street smarts to adapt to his new job, although Yvonne remains cold and tracks his every misstep to justify a termination. Dell and Phil begin to establish a friendship, with Phil encouraging Dell to think of new business opportunities and Dell helping his new boss enjoy life to the fullest extent possible. But when Dell pushes Phil to advance a burgeoning romance past the letter writing stage, the outcome is unexpected.

A Hollywood remake of the 2011 French hit The Intouchables, The Upside languished in limbo for about 18 months after the Weinstein Company's demise. Directed by Neil Burger with a script by Jon Hartmere, the film is a middle-of-the-road, feel-good story inspired by real events. Containing neither sharp edges nor blatant missteps, this is decent entertainment delivered in a polished package with good performances.

Phil and Dell come from different worlds and have plenty to learn from each other. They both dare to try something completely different, providing the story with robust impetus. Through the respect and warmth that evolves between the two men The Upside tackles themes of responsibility, accountability, grief and second chances. The film is strengthened by Dell's robust back story, where his strained relationship with Latrice is creating a deep chasm with his young son, and his criminal past still casts a long shadow on the present.

For all the good intentions on display, Hartmere and Burger cannot escape plenty of contrived set-ups to generate the requisite choppy moments. In his first visit to Phil's lavish apartment Dell acts on old instincts and helps himself to an item that becomes the MacGuffin for plenty of conflicts. And the meltdowns that both men have at crucial moments are more dictated by script requirements than any credible circumstances.

Most of the film's energy and laughs arrive courtesy of Kevin Hart, who easily fulfills comedy duties but also stretches towards admirable moments of drama, anger, frustration and poignancy. Confined to only moving from the neck upwards, Bryan Cranston conveys the resentment of a man angry at still being alive, initially most preoccupied with ensuring those around him understand his do-not-resuscitate instructions. Nicole Kidman is note-perfect as the tense and calculating Yvonne, a woman with an icy exterior bottling up all sorts of emotions.

The Upside delivers its simple message of hope for a better future no matter what how dire present circumstances are. It's largely conventional, but also innocuous.

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