The Only Living Boy in New York

First Hit:  I liked the idea of the story more than the pithy clichés and lines that filled up the screen.

Thomas Webb (Callum Turner) is a mid-twenty-year-old man who is living on the lower east side of New York City. His parents live on the upper east side and are wealthy as his dad Ethen (Pierce Bronson) owns a publishing house.

He meets W. F. Gerald (Jeff Bridges), a rumpled mess of a man, as he walks into his building one day. W. F. tells him he has moved into Apt 2B. He seems very personable in wanting to know more about Thomas. Thomas succumbs to his inquiries and begins to tell W.F. his story.

Thomas is in love with Mimi (Kiersey Clemons) after one magical night they had together under the influence of molly and alcohol. But she only wants to be friends. He’d like to be a writer but when he showed his dad some of his writings, he said they were “serviceable.”

One day he sees his dad having an intimate lunch with an unknown woman named Johanna (Kate Beckinsale). He’s hurt and is afraid to tell his mom Judith (Cynthia Nixon) because she’s so mentally fragile. At a loss of what to do, he follows Johanna and confronts her.

However, he ends up having an affair with her and falls in love with her.

Sound twisted? Yes, because this is used to crack open the real story of the film, which isn’t about his love for Mimi and Johanna but how he came to exist.

Turner was adequate in this role but we never see him suffer, grow, or even write which he says is his passion. He almost played victim throughout the film. Bridges was good as the writer who held the secret and was writing a story about “The Only Living Boy in New York”. Clemons was good at the beginning but I thought her character to be not honest. She shunned Thomas because of his affair with Johanna when she had an affair with Thomas when she was with another person. Beckinsale was interesting as the desired woman. It was only till the end did I think she cared about something. Bronson was OK but his moments were few and far between. Nixon was OK as the fragile mother. Still didn’t think the story warranted such fragile behavior. Allan Loeb wrote a weak script that was poorly conceived to tell this story. Marc Webb had some nice sets to work within. I thought the lower east side apartments that both W.  F. and Thomas lived in were perfect. The other inside sets were equally good as well. However, this plot needed a reworking before being committed to filmed.

Overall:  This was a long and ineffective way to tell the real story of Thomas, 'The Only Living Boy in New York.'

Love & Friendship

First Hit:  Definitely funny and well-acted, however a bit more telling than showing.

This was a clever take on life in the late 1700’s. Women of a certain societal stature were to be taken care of by their wealthy husbands or their families.

Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) has had a few dalliances in her life and is currently engage to Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), while having an intimate affair with a married Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O’Mearain). She’s looking for a way to both secure her future income while also securing the future of her daughter Frederica Vernon (Morfydd Clark).

They are basically homeless and stay at the homes of friends and relations until marriages are arranged and settled. Assisting Lady Susan, by being a sounding board to her manipulative plans, is American Alicia Johnson (Chole Sevigny) who continues to be threatened to be sent back to Connecticut by her husband (Stephen Fry) for colluding with Lady Susan.

At first Lady Susan was attempting to marry Frederica to a Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), who was rich, quite talkative, and very odd in his speaking and thought patterns. However, Frederica cannot stand him. From  here the story takes off.

The strongest aspects of this film were how they kept in the period, how it was shot and by clearly showing how manipulative people can be. However, this film did a lot of telling through the dialogue which got a bit monotonous at times.

Beckinsale was excellent as the intelligent manipulative Lady Susan. Clark was correspondingly strong as the daughter. Sevigny was great as Lady Susan’s confidant. Bennett was the hit of the film by stealing every scene he was in. Whit Stillman did a wonderful job of writing and directing this adaptation of the Jane Austen novella called “Lady Susan”.

Overall:  This film, especially Bennett, was very funny while also keeping a serious tone.

Total Recall

First Hit:  I enjoyed this version more than the 1990 version.

Unlike “The Dark Knight Rises” (see previous review), the opening sequence sets up the story well.

The point of the opening sequence of a film like this is to set us up to get our buy-in, to have us suspend our reality and invite us into a story.

Total Recall does this and that is why I enjoyed it. Douglass Quaid, aka Houser, (played by Colin Farrell) is stuck in a life he doesn’t understand. He goes to work making robot enforcers in Great Britain from Australia by getting on and riding the “Fall”.

The Fall is what people call the vehicle which transports people through the only two habitable places on earth, Great Britain and Australia. Its path is through the middle of the earth and when it reaches the core there is a few minutes of gravity suspension because gravity switches its pull.

Australia is called the colony and everyone there is poor. It is ruled by Great Britain and Chancellor Cohaagen (played by Bryan Cranston) and they suppress everything for control. There, of course, is an underground group fighting the rule and Matthias (played by Bill Nighy) is their leader. Quaid’s wife Lori (played by Kate Beckinsale) is a cop and works a lot of nights investigating and killing the rebels.

We learn quickly, she’s one of the best and toughest investigators. Douglas, in his frustration with his life, goes to “Total Recall” which promises dreams that make you feel good. His visit takes us into a new story of what is reality and what is truth.

Although an unbelievable story, it works because the actors, script and direction allows us to believe it.

Farrell is very good and strong in both the physical challenges of the role but by also giving us a true sense of being lost and wanting to find the truth. Cranston is great as the Chancellor. Beckinsale is so strong in her physical role and was fun to watch. Jessica Biel (as Melina) was very good and shows strength in this physical role. Nighy is good in a limited but pivotal role. Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback wrote this effective screenplay while Len Wiseman gave this film believability, fun and action.

Overall: Enjoyable version of this story and worth the price of admission.

Underworld: Awakening (3D)

First Hit:  This dark film had very few interesting or believable moments.

The other action woman based film I saw this weekend was this one.

Kate Beckinsale plays Selene a hybrid vampire and lichen. She is not fully trusted in the vampire group who hide underground. The lichens are also underground because the humans declared war on both sets of non-humans.

Yes, this is a lot to suspend belief on, and if the filmmakers, writers and directors did a better job of setting it up it might have worked better. They didn’t and therefore I sat there watching a darkly shot film with unbelievable action performed by someone who didn’t own the movements as her own. In other words, she wasn't authentic.

Yes, Beckinsale is good looking, her eyes are sharp and wonderfully contrast against the background, but I didn’t buy the premise that she was her character.

Eve (played by India Eisley) is Selene’s daughter. She’s unaware that she had this daughter. Yes, hard to believe but the setup is that while Selene and her former lover Michael (a lichen) were housed in chambers Dr. Jacob Lane (played by Stephen Rea) crossed them and created Eve. She was developed to provide new antibodies for lichens so that they don’t succumb to silver.

In essence this film is about a mother protecting her daughter.

Beckinsale, although very attractive, just didn’t emote the strength to be the heroine of this film. Rea was fine as the lichen Dr. Lane. Eisley was probably the best of the lot in her role as sometimes innocent and other times big time powerful monster. Len Wiseman and John Hlavin wrote a very week script while the dark direction was unfortunately led by both Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein.

Overall:  Pretty much a waste of 88 minutes and of course it is open-ended for a follow-up film.

Contraband

First Hit: Although a bit unrealistic, this was an entertaining film.

Mark Wahlberg and Giovanni Ribisi carry this film as Chris Farraday and Tim Briggs respectively.

They are on the opposite sides of society; Briggs a proud punkish nowhere drug dealer while Farraday has cleaned up his act and has gone straight installing home security systems. Briggs gets Farraday’s brother in-law to become a mule for a drug shipment which he has to dump off the back of a ship as it is entering port.

Now owing a lot of money for the drugs and payment, Farraday, decides to assist his dimwitted brother-in-law’s loss by running a shipment of counterfeit money from Panama. However this plan goes wrong in multiple ways and it is up to Farraday to fix it. The danger of course is that if Farraday doesn’t fix the problem his best friend and former business partner will kill his wife and family.

What you say? Yes, Farraday doesn’t know that his supposed best friend is really heading up the operation that set up his brother-in-law and now he’s getting setup himself. However Farraday is the smartest guy in the film and he figures out a way to it all right for himself and his family.

What makes this film entertaining is the interaction between Farraday and his real friends and his shipmates. He’s an everyman with just enough more smarts than the people around him. And when he says to his wife Kate (played by Kate Beckinsale) “trust me, I’ll take care of this” you know he’ll make it right and he does.

Wahlberg is perfect as the everyday hero and guy doing the right thing. Ribisi is fantastic as the slightly twisted thug who can be as vile as any thug could hope to be. Beckinsale is good as the trusting wife. Ben Foster as Sebastian was very good as Wahlberg’s betraying best friend. Aaron Guzikowski wrote a reasonable script from the Icelandic film Reyljavik-Rotterdam. Baltasar Kormakur directed this action film in a fully unexplainable and entertaining way.

Overall: Not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it is fun to watch.