Movie Review: Some Girls (1988)

Genre: Romantic Comedy  

Director: Michael Hoffman  

Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Connelly, Lila Kedrova  

Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: American college student Michael (Patrick Dempsey) heads to Quebec City at the invitation of his girlfriend Gabby (Jennifer Connelly), who had abruptly abandoned him mid-semester. Gabby lives in a spooky old mansion along with her parents and two sisters Irenka (Sheila Kelley) and Simone. Gabby is flirty but admits to Michael she no longer loves him. He is further disoriented by overtures from the two sisters and a series of surreal encounters with Gabby's Granny (Lila Kedrova), who is suffering from dementia and mistakes Michael for her deceased husband.

What Works Well: This quirky romantic comedy combines cloak-and-dagger aesthetics, sly behaviour, and minor fantasy elements. The European sensibility is emphasized within the French Canadian setting, where the sisters disassociate lust from romance, nudity is common (Gabby's father can only write while naked), generational bonds are strong, femininity remains an ethereal mystery, and the surrounding snowy forests can nurture desires and secrets. Michael is the outsider awakening to how little he understands a different culture.  

What Does Not Work As Well: As the central character, Michael is also unfortunately purely reactionary, reduced to a series of embarrassments, befuddlements, and bamboozlements. Elsewhere, some secondary characters (Gabby's mother, Irenka's sort-of boyfriend) contribute uneven influence.

Key Quote:

Gabby's father (to Michael): How many of my daughters have you slept with?

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Movie Review: Ferrari (2023)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Michael Mann  

Starring: Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey, Sarah Gadon  

Running Time: 130 minutes  

Synopsis: It's 1957, and Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is struggling to maintain control of the company he founded with his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) after the Second World War. Still grieving the recent death of his son, Enzo is facing financial difficulties and an on-track challenge from Maserati, all while juggling Laura with his long-term secret lover Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley). He hires driver Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone) in preparation for the Mille Miglia, a grueling endurance race that may represent Ferrari's last chance to attract investment.

What Works Well: This biography focuses on one year in the life of a legendary sports car tycoon, and Troy Kennedy Martin's script succeeds in revealing some depth to Enzo's character. An otherwise stoic Adam Driver mines the foundation of Ferrari's emotionless reaction to death (he lost two friends on the same weekend in his racing days), and in perhaps the best scene, expounds on his ruthless competitive philosophy. The final quarter is dominated by racing action, and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt excels in conveying the raw speed of a dangerous event through scenic Italian locations.

What Does Not Work As Well:  A large back-end investment in the Mille Miglia is not supported by sufficient introductions, unbalancing narrative foundations. Director Michael Mann collects several previously incidental racing drivers and unleashes them in identical looking machines. Suddenly thrust into the centre of attention, the drivers remain indistinguishable in their driver's seats, while the race format is never explained. Elsewhere, various plot threads are left dangling, neither Ferrari's search for investment nor his complex relationships with Laura and Lina arriving at satisfactory resolutions, despite the lengthy running time.

Conclusion: Demonstrates good speed, but sputters on the way to the finish line.



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Movie Review: Freedom Writers (2007)

Genre: Biographical High School Drama

Director: Richard LaGravenese

Starring: Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Patrick Dempsey

Running Time: 123 minutes

Synopsis: In the wake of the 1990s Los Angeles race riots, first-time teacher Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) joins Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. She is placed in charge of a first-year English class for multi-ethnic at-risk youth, most of them suffering tumultuous home lives and many of them gang members. The kids don't really want to be at school, but Erin persists, despite no support from the school, the cynicism of her father (Scott Glenn), and the strain on her marriage to husband Scott (Patrick Dempsey).

What Works Well: Director and writer Richard LaGravenese elevates familiar material into an effective, hard hitting, and uplifting human drama. Based on actual events, the transformation of a classroom from a divided hostility zone to a place of refuge is handled with pragmatic sensitivity. The highlights include a revelatory what-unites-us class session, a journey of awakening through Holocaust education, and individual students emerging from the collective by finding their voice in journal entries. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The pivot from a class full of anger to a room full of appreciation is sharpish, and the subsequent narrative progression is linear. Some of Erin's self-belief proclamations are cringey, and not always intentionally so.

Conclusion: The lesson is not new, but the delivery is polished.



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Movie Review: Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)

A romantic comedy, Bridget Jones's Baby carries all the blotches of an unnecessary second sequel trying to squeeze money out of a series well past its best-by date.

In London, Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) celebrates her 43rd birthday on her own, still despondent that she cannot find her one true love. To cheer her up, work colleague Miranda (Sarah Solemani) drags Bridget to a music festival, where she has a one-night stand with online dating tycoon Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey). Meanwhile, Bridget twice bumps into the elusive love of her life Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), including at the funeral of her other ex-lover Daniel Cleaver. 

Mark's marriage is in trouble, and soon he and Bridget share a passionate night. A few weeks later she finds herself pregnant but does not know who the father is. Meanwhile Bridget's television studio workplace is also in chaos, as a new generation of young managers take over and introduce radical changes.

Renée Zellweger returns to the screen after a six year hiatus, but both the actress (47 years old) and the character (43 years old) are too old for the frivolous material. In the 2001 original, Bridget was in her early thirties and easily excused for stumbling her way through adult responsibilities. In Bridget Jones's Baby, what was once fresh and cute is stale and near insufferable, Bridget in middle age still operating with the physical coordination of a child, the emotional wisdom of an adolescent, and the professional incompetence of a newbie.

The screenplay by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, and Emma Thompson is too lazy to find new ideas and leans heavily on overly-familiar character mannerisms. Director Sharon Maguire stretches the flimsy who-is-the-father premise to two tired hours, both Colin Firth (stiff, bored, and boring) and Patrick Dempsey (flat, lost, and disengaged) sleepwalking their way through juvenile buck roles.

Thompson the writer cannot help the material, but at least Thompson the actress is a bright presence as Bridget's seen-it-all doctor. Otherwise, the best moments occur in the television studio where Jones works, with Sarah Solemani as on-air presenter Miranda adding a much-needed spike of sass. Her contributions are welcome, but far from sufficient to relieve the tedium as Bridget Jones's Baby labours to ineptitude.

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Movie Review: Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

A romantic comedy, Sweet Home Alabama celebrates cultural differences but never overcomes a distinctly unlikeable protagonist.

In New York City, Melanie Carmichael (Reese Witherspoon) is carving a name for herself as a fashion designer, and after a successful show is designated the next big industry talent. Her love life is also thriving and she accepts a marriage proposal from Andrew Hennings (Patrick Dempsey), a most eligible bachelor, successful businessman, and the son of New York's Mayor Kate Hennings (Candice Bergen). Andrew ignores his mother's politically driven concerns about Melanie's southern roots.

In the meantime Melanie rushes back to her humble small Alabama hometown to look after unfinished business. She is technically still married to Jake Perry (Josh Lucas), her soulmate since childhood before she abandoned him and ran off to the big city seven years ago. Now Jake still refuses to sign the divorce papers, forcing Melanie to prolong her stay. She reconnects with her parents Earl and Pearl (Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place) and confronts her questionable past actions. But her life becomes even more complicated when first the media then Andrew chase her to Alabama.

Despite a valiant effort by Reese Witherspoon, Sweet Home Alabama crashes against a fairly despicable central character. Melanie abandons her husband, adopts a fake identity to cover up her actual hometown, accepts a marriage proposal while still married, and once back among her childhood friends, proceeds to degrade them. And when Jake does sign the divorce papers, she still fumbles the transaction and humiliates others.

Director Andy Tennant and writer C. Jay Cox are either hoping no one notices, or else believe Melanie's actions are somehow justified and she can undergo a miraculous transformation to a good person worth caring about. It's a nice try, but Andrew and Jake as the two men in her life should both aim higher, and Melanie most deserves to be on her own, at least for a while.

This being a romantic comedy, the outcome is predetermined from the opening scene of Melanie and Jake as children witnessing lightning striking twice on the same spot of beach. To consume 109 minutes and actually arrive at the required ending, Tennant does manage to salute southern culture with a combination of affection and satire, although the frequently expressed local views on the Civil War fall somewhere between insensitive and crass.

Whenever a boost is needed on the soundtrack, Lynyrd Skynyrd's title song is cranked up at whatever event the characters happen to be attending. The movie rolls into a distasteful mess, but at least one song rocks.



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Movie Review: Made Of Honour (2008)

A romantic comedy, Made Of Honour adopts the guy's point of view and provides amiable laughs in a story of friendship evolving into love.

Serial womanizer Tom (Patrick Dempsey) met art history student Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) in college, and she refused to sleep with him. They became best friends instead. Ten years later Tom is rich thanks to his coffee cup collar invention and Hannah is working at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. She heads off on a 6 week business trip to Scotland and he realizes how much he misses her. 

Ready to profess his love upon her return, he is shocked to find her engaged to Colin McMurray (Kevin McKidd), a wealthy Scottish aristocrat from a distinguished whiskey-making family. Hannah wants Tom to be her maid of honour at the upcoming wedding, and he is torn between providing support and trying to win her heart.

A companion piece to 1997's atrocious My Best Friend's Wedding, Made Of Honour flips that script and improves upon it. While the rom-com predictabilities and moments of cringiness are evident, here the fundamentals of the friendship between Tom and Hannah are sturdy. Director Paul Weiland takes the time to build genuine warmth between the two lead characters as Tom spends his one quality day a week with Hannah, as a break from bedding a series of other women he will never care for.

Also working in the plot's favour is Tom's character. Yes he is initially a commitment-phobe and serial gigolo, but after one misadventure he quickly moves away from any mean intentions towards Hannah's wedding arrangements. Instead he deploys kindness as a sneaky tactic, providing the film with a worthy protagonist and the necessary pretext for the predetermined ending. Patrick Dempsey is comfortable eliciting sympathy as the leading man, and Michelle Monaghan gives Hannah a welcome grounding.

Weiland surrounds the lovers-to-be with a colourful group of supporting characters to provide the laughs and distractions. Hannah's other bridesmaids are a mishmash of accidents waiting to happen. Tom's father (Sydney Pollack) marries and divorces gold diggers on a quarterly basis, while his basketball buddy group (including Chris Messina) struggle to find appropriate advice for their suddenly love-struck friend. A Napoleon Dynamite-type gym hanger-on is a good example of the film's sometimes warped sense of humour.

The final act unfolds in rural Scotland and provides a change of scenery from more typical genre locations. Made Of Honour attempts some creativity, and earns if not an honourable mention then at least a passing grade.



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Movie Review: Outbreak (1995)

A micro-biology scientific thriller that implodes into the worst excesses of mindless action, Outbreak is half of a good movie. A deep cast maintains interest, but the acting talent cannot overcome a script that sells out to cheap thrills.

A deadly virus called Motaba breaks out in darkest Africa, causing death within hours. Infectious disease scientist Colonel Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) of the US military and his team, including Major Schuler (Kevin Spacey) and Major Salt (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) are assigned to investigate. Motaba takes a ride inside a monkey with immunity to the virus, and crosses into the United States. Thanks to an unscrupulous pet smuggler (Patrick Dempsey), a lot of people are soon infected and start to die horrible deaths, with a concentration of cases in the town of Cedar Creek, California.

Daniels is eager to help find an antidote, but his boss General Ford (Morgan Freeman), along with another military commander General McClintock (Donald Sutherland), are not so keen: they have known about Motaba since the late 1960s, and in fact the military has secretly converted it to a biological weapon and developed a cure. Not willing to reveal these secrets, Ford and McClintock delay releasing the antidote, causing more misery in the now quarantined Cedar Creek. Daniels disobeys orders and teams up with his ex-wife Robby (Rene Russo) of the Centre for Disease Control to try to help the community, setting himself up on a collision course with his military commanders.

While the first half of Outbreak is a tightly wound examination of the battle between micro-organisms and man, with a cautionary look at how a lethal new disease can easily spread and devastate lives and communities, the back end of the story fragments into a ludicrous chase movie. Daniels and Salt set off on their own to attempt and save the town by finding the disease host, while McClintock spits venom and tracks them down to protect the military's dirty secrets. With stock helicopter chases and mid-air games of chicken replacing the smart science, Outbreak suffers from a most ignominious descent into banality.

The cast deserve better. Although none of them stand out, all are uniformly good, and even the relatively minor roles are interesting in the hands of the likes of Spacey, Gooding Jr., and Dempsey. Rene Russo makes the forced sub-plot of a lost marriage between Daniels and Robby more palatable. Meanwhile, the old pros Hoffman, Freeman and Sutherland cut through the unfolding drama with practised ease. Hoffman's Colonel Daniels is the caring soul at the centre of the movie, a character suitable for Hoffman's persona although if anything, Daniels is almost annoyingly too pure in his dedication to the alleviation of human suffering.

Freeman's General Ford is always going to be the hinge that will need to turn to change the course of the military's focus, and Freeman nails the veteran soldier disciplined to a fault but with a heart deep within his military uniform. Sutherland gets the easiest assignment: McClintock is mean as mean can be, and makes no apologies for his tunnel vision. Wolfgang Petersen directs with competence rather than passion, eager to give each star sufficient screen time and sacrificing any attempts at artistry in the process.

Outbreak appeals to the brain early and the brainless brawn late, a jarring transition that splits the film in half and wounds its heart.

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Movie Review: Valentine's Day (2010)

A collection of intermingled short stories so lightweight they are blown away by the February winds into instantly forgettable lands, despite the massive ensemble cast.

With too many loosely connected stories, too many characters, and hardly enough time dedicated to anything or anyone, Valentine's Day degenerates into a brisk but irrelevant game of "spot the star". Although almost every role is played by a recognizable face, director Garry Marshall fails miserably to inject soul into any of them.

The events take place during the course of a single Valentine's Day in Los Angeles, as lovers and wannabe lovers navigate their way through the day of supposed romance. The most developed relationships revolve around florist Ashton Kutcher proposing to girlfriend Jessica Alba, who first says yes then says no, while Kutcher's best friend and school teacher Jennifer Garner thinks she's in love with doctor Patrick Dempsey, who hasn't told her that he's actually married. One of Garner's students, a young boy, is using hard-earned dollars to send flowers to his mystery Valentine using Kutcher's florist services, but everything goes wrong with the delivery.

Receptionist Anne Hathaway is dating mailroom clerk Topher Grace while she also moonlights as a phone-sex operator. Hathaway works for sports agent Queen Latifa, who represents football quarterback Eric Dane, who is contemplating retirement with the help of his publicist Jessica Biel, who is maybe interested in television sports reporter Jaime Foxx, who is annoyed that his producer Kathy Bates has sent him to the street to capture inane on-camera opinions about Valentine's Day.

Meanwhile Julia Roberts is a soldier on a short leave, traveling on a plane heading for a rendezvous with a person only revealed in the final scene. During her long flight she befriends Bradley Cooper, also on his way to meet a lover that we will only meet late.

Unbelievably, there are more characters and more stories nipping in and out of the movie, including teenage lovers, long-married grandparents, and Taylor Swift, who appears from nowhere, for no good reason, and does nothing. It's impossible to keep up, or to care.

It's also difficult to fathom what the purpose of the exercise is, other than for every star to work for a couple of days in-between other projects, and cash a juicy cheque at the expense of bewildered moviegoers.

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