Life of Crime

First Hit:  Pretty much a waste of time.

This film was lifeless from the beginning. Mos Def playing Ordell Robbie (as Yasiin Bey) has a smile and attitude that belie his role, kidnapper.

Yes it was supposed to be a comedy but it wasn’t funny and his sly grin didn’t make it so. Mickey Dawson (Jennifer Aniston) was the person Ordell and Louis (John Hawkes) were going to kidnap. Why her? Her husband Frank (Tim Robbins) was stealing money from the city of Detroit and putting it in an offshore account. They believed he loved his wife and by kidnapping her they could extract the money from him.

What they didn’t know was that Frank was in the process of divorcing Mickey so he didn’t care that she was kidnapped. Frank was also having an affair with Melanie (Isla Fisher) with whom he wanted to marry just as soon as his divorce was settled. With a few mishaps; like a double cross, some misgivings, and newly found freedom, the audience was expected to be engaged with the characters I found it hard to care about any of them, let alone the story.

Aniston is a good actress, however her entire performance here seemed pained and phoned it. It was like she didn’t want to be there. Def was fun to watch but he seemed miscast or the film forgot it was supposed to funny as well. Hawkes was OK but again, when a film doesn’t work it is hard for actors to perform well. Robbins was OK but seemed to carry a level of aloofness throughout. Fisher was the best part of the film. She was really trying to make something of her character. Daniel Schechter wrote and directed this and it appears he’s got work to do to make a film that works because this one didn’t.

Overall:  This film just never clicked and didn’t work.

Frank

First Hit:  Odd concept, done well enough to keep my interest and my guess is that it won’t be popular.

Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) wants to be a musician more than anything. He writes songs that are painful to listen to. However he does know how to play a keyboard.

Witnessing a keyboard man for a band with an unpronounceable name try to drown himself, he tells the band's manager that he can play keyboard. He gets a call to fill in for the band and after the set, Frank (Michael Fassbender) the band’s leader, asks him to join them.

Frank wears a big round plastic head (helmet like) over his head and he never takes it off. It is a gimmick for the band but it is also Frank's protection from the world. In the band are two Europeans and an older punk woman Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

No one in the band likes Jon because he’s too mainstream in his musical thoughts and ideas. However, he funds recording the group and pushes the groups’ work on YouTube. In doing so they end up at South by Southwest Music festival. In the end Frank has to come to terms with himself as does Jon.

Gleeson is believable as the nerdy guy who wants to be a part of the music scene but doesn’t have real talent to lead a group or write worthy songs. Fassbender: It was difficult to describe acting when it is behind a large full headed helmet mask. However, he was able to reach out through the mask with his voice and inflections which gave the audience a sense of the wounded person inside. Gyllenhaal played tough and although effective she wasn’t very likable as a character. Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan wrote an interesting but difficult screenplay to put to film. Lenny Abrahamson directed the film. He was about as effective as one could be given the parameters of the characters.

Overall:  Interesting for a few hours and forgotten within a day.

The One I Love

First Hit:  Interesting concept but I’m not sure the acting raised the story to a level worth watching.

A young couple, Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss) are having marital problems. The trouble began with a lack of communication,  physical connection and resulting in Ethan having an affair.

Sophie is having difficulty in forgiving her husband and they decide to see a therapist (Ted Danson). After a number of sessions he suggests a weekend trip to a home he uses to assist couples in healing. They arrive and soon discover there are a couple of abnormalities in this retreat home. The story then revolves on how the couple deals with the abnormality and their real dreams of a relationship.

The unfortunate part of this film was in the acting. The actors just didn’t seem strong enough to hold this, possibly interesting, story together.

Duplass is weak as the husband that realizes he’s made a mistake and wants his wife back. His reaction to the abnormity just seemed weak and lifeless – it lacked passion. Moss was better in her role and made the story more interesting. Danson was fine in this limited role. Justin Lader wrote an interesting story and script but it was either Charlie McDowell’s weak direction or the weak acting by the cast that dragged this film down.

Overall:  I loved the idea in the storyline, it just wasn’t executed well.

What If

First Hit: There are really good and engaging moments but it seemed too long overall.

Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is lamenting a breakup from his girlfriend.

It’s been a year and as we meet him, he finally deletes her last VM which he has saved 365 times. This was a good way to give the audience perspective of his sadness. He meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a party.

There is an immediate chemistry through their banter. He walks her home and they decided to meet up again but she tells him she has a boyfriend. Through circumstance they meet up and end up being close friends. They spend a lot of time together (which is where the film gets long) in different circumstances and even their friends Nicole and Allan (Mackenzie Davis and Adam Driver respectively), seeing their connection, try to get them to get together.

What didn’t work for me was the script having Chantry being so hesitant to acknowledge what was really going on to her. Yes her boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall) was a solid guy, but after 5 years together and he didn’t invite her to Dublin to live with him seemed like either a poorly written script or an obvious non-committed relationship.

To have an intelligent character put into this hold position for so long was false.  Her character was too smart to wait so long to make and act on a decision. This in-turn had me not believing the story.

Radcliffe was very good and he projected his restraint towards Chantry with a longing wistfulness that was done very well. Kazan was hampered by the script. I just don’t think she was given the opportunity to make the story better. We all knew the end of the story going into the film. Creating extra delay to get there hurt her ability to perform. Davis and Driver were both amazing and outstanding together. Spall was strong as the solid guy Kazan was waiting for. Elan Mastai wrote the screen play and as I’ve said already there were elongating mistakes in the script that kept the film from moving along to its obvious end. Michael Dowse directed the film and could have driven this film forward in a less meandering way.

Overall: This story had potential but was waylaid by the un-crisp script.

Magic in the Moonlight

First Hit:  Lighthearted philosophical romp through Woody Allen’s belief structure around magic, God and science.

Stanley (Colin Firth) is a magician named Wei Ling Soo. He’s famous and he’s good. He also has a job of invalidating and unmasking people who claim to be spiritualist, people that can speak to the dead and denote a person’s past.

His best friend, and fellow magician, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney) comes to him with a proposition to unmask a young beautiful woman who claims to be clairvoyant. Sophie (Emma Stone) comes from a working class family and because of her abilities has gotten some wealthy people supporting her and her abilities by leading séances.

As the story unfolds, Stanley starts to believe until he sees the fallacy of what is happening to him. The scenery of this film is great. I loved the cars used to represent the 1920’s and the costumes were really wonderful. Stylistically this film is really good, but Allenistic dialogue just seemed to be pressed at times although the last ½ hour was a lot more interesting and engaging.

Firth is excellent as the sarcastic arrogant English magician. However his rudeness actually bothered me from time to time – probably the intended result. McBurney was good as the conniving jealous friend. Stone was sweet as Sophie but she wasn’t quite believable as a psychic. I did think that this pairing didn’t work well because of the age differences between the two. Allen both wrote and directed this film and as expected we get Woody’s version of the world and here it was a little overhanded.

Overall:  Enjoyable and easy to watch, however not sure if the intellectual challenges Allen wanted were really there.