I Am Legend

First Hit: This film was very disappointing.

I am a Will Smith fan and he has delivered some very good performances in his career. And although his acting in this film was adequate, good acting cannot save a bad film.

In the performance I sat through there were people who booed when the credits started to roll. Not that I fully agree with the booing I do understand it as this film was very disappointing.

The premise of him believing he is the only man left on earth was poorly set up. I didn’t understand he was a scientist at the beginning because he was wearing a uniform that made him look like he worked for the police. His credentials as a scientist were never explained.

There are two extended sequences where he is attempting to hunt some wild deer in downtown Manhattan but I couldn’t figure out why (to eat or test). When he does run into another person (she saves his life) he does little to understand her story and how she survived to find him.

I did like some of the scenes with Robert (Will Smith) and his dog.

Overall: I wouldn’t waste money to see this in a theater, however it would be a reasonable video rental.

Atonement

First Hit: This is wonderful, thoughtful and elegantly written, acted, and photographed film.

The story is about a young girl named Briony, initially played by Saoirse Ronan, who sees a series of events which hurt her 13 year old feelings and in the misinterpretation of these events she knowingly implicates her sister’s lover Robbie (James McAvoy) in a case of assault and rape (although the charges are never clear).

She does this because her young confused heart is hurt. Her sister Cecilia, played by Keira Knightley, tells Robbie she loves him and will wait for him as he is being carted off to prison. However, he is given a choice of serving his country as a soldier in WWII instead of doing his prison time, which he chooses to do. He and Cecilia stay in contact via letters and it is through these letters you sense the depthness of their love for each other.

As Robbie travels to Dunkirk after losing many in his platoon we witness the devastation of Dunkirk and it gives us a great sense of the suffering the English Army took at this beachhead.

I was entranced with the characters and felt their feelings as I traveled through the film. There are three actresses that play Briony.

Besides Saoirse, there is Romola Garai (As the 18 year old), and Vanessa Redgrave as the 70 year old author who has written a book called “Atonement” which is her way to give Cecilia and Robbie the life they never had together.

The writing in this film is poetic and given the quality of the acting the story comes alive by intermixing some old film footage.

The direction was excellent and Joe Wright effectively uses the technique of letting the audience go through a couple of scenes twice, from two different viewpoints, to better understand how a scene affects each character differently in the expanded scene.

Editing of this film was also superb and created a great flow. The acting all the main characters was excellent. Keira and James were especially believable as their chemistry was sizzling and I continue to look forward to films to which they are attached.

Overall: This was an excellent film and deserves to be considered for awards.

Holly

First Hit: Although a mediocre film, the point it makes about child sex trafficking is brave and commendable.

I don’t know of any films that take on this sordid subject, therefore on this alone it deserve points. The best acting done in this film is by Thuy Nguyen who plays Holly.

Holly has been sold into the Cambodian sex trade by her Vietnamese parents. They did this for survival. Patrick (Ron Livingston) happens across this girl while his motorcycle is getting fixed. He job, besides losing at card games, is to find artifacts for Freddie (Chris Penn) who seems to be a fat cat artifacts dealer Cambodia.

Patrick notices that Holly is a house made but the madame wants her to be a hooker. However, she isn’t like the other boom boom (hookers) girls by her moodiness and that she doesn’t mix with the other older girls. Patrick befriends her by buying her some food.

A German attorney Klaus (Udo Kier), who hangs around the brothel makes a couple of snide comments that Patrick likes his girls young. This pisses Patrick off and makes him more determined to stand his moral ground and save this girl.

Patrick attempts to create an honest friendship with Holly because she, like him, is stubborn and there is a mutual respect for each other. Holly runs away from her madam multiple times and gets caught and sold again. Patrick tries to find her and save her from this life and solicits advice from a woman who runs an organization that tries to save these girls.

This is a story about one man’s attempt to save just one girl.

Besides the Thuy’s acting some of the scenes are dead on their mark for realism. Specifically there is one scene where one young boy drags Patrick off to see baby and is confronted with a man selling his extremely young girls for “yum yum, no boom boom.”

In another scene where Holly is searching through a dump for bottles was very realistic and it happens in many poor sections of Asia.

Overall: This is a commendable film for taking on this extremely difficult subject but the story line could have been better written and the acting, by the adults, could have been stronger.

August Rush

First Hit: There will be no rush to see this film.

This film was poorly constructed from about every aspect except for the music. Maybe it was the screenplay, direction, editing, casting, or overall concept who knows; but in the end, the film is contrived in its attempts to pull at our heart strings and does nothing to help us to believe the unbelievable.

The story is about a young boy named Evan (AKA August) unknowingly given up for adoption by a cellist, Lyla Novacek (Played by Keri Russell), who got pregnant during a one night fling with a rock guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).

The boy (Freddie Highmore) “hears” his parents in the ethers and suspects they hear him. He practices playing universal music by doing Joe Cocker imitations in wheat fields. He runs away from the orphanage and ends up in New York trying to find his parents.

But instead of finding his parents he runs into Robin Williams. Williams (“Wizard”) finds, collects, and uses moderately musically talented kids to busk for him. Without any lessons, and using his best Joe Cocker wheat field experience, the kid picks up one of Wizard’s guitars and plays some incredible music first time out.

This unnatural ability to play naturally makes Wizard want to exploit him further. The kid runs off during in a raid on the building where all the kids are holed up and ends up in Julliard where he writes a full and complete orchestra composition during his first few months in the school.

The school decides to let him lead the orchestra during the premiere of his rhapsody, again with no experience. Unbeknownst to him his mother is part of the feature bill during this concert and his father, tired of not living his dream, comes to New York again to fulfill his dream and reminisce about his long lost love Lyla.

In an amazing set of coincidences they all come together in one place and realize who they are to each other at the finale of August’s composition.

Overall: If you are bored some evening rent the DVD, turn off the video and listen to some of the music, it’s quite good.

Margot At The Wedding

First Hit: Together Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nichole Kidman share real life family stories.

Every time I see Jennifer Jason Leigh (In this film as Pauline) I am reminded about how wonderful and intensely great an actor she is.

Here she is paired with Nicole Kidman (Margot) as her critical, pompous and domineering sister. In their scenes together they chew up the scenery with their dynamic characterizations.

Zane Pais, as Margot’s son Claude holds his own as the son who loves and puts up with his mother’s desperate and chaotic path through life. Although Jack Black (As Malcolm) is a good actor, and has a few fine moments in this film as Pauline’s husband to be; he is overmatch in scenes where Jennifer and Nicole are also present.

This film is shot with little outside lighting which gives it a real independent feel and adds to the sense we are peeking in on the lives of a family still working itself out.

Overall: This is a very good film with some outstanding acting.