The Other Boleyn Girl

First Hit: Although speculative in its view of history, there was some very fine acting.

The film wants to give the audience a different and possibly interesting view of these true life sisters, their family and King Henry.

Scarlett Johansson plays Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman plays Anne Boleyn, and Eric Bana plays Henry Tudor, the King.

This film is about a time where families dared to use and degrade their daughters to upgrade their social status and cash flow. Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, played wonderfully by Kristin Scott Thomas, attempts to protect and protest the fate of her daughters by her scheming brother and weak-willed husband. But unfortunately, in those days, what the man said seemed to be what ruled the roost.

The girls’ father offered up Anne to the King when he stopped by for a hunting party visit. Anne, the ever aggressive and petulant one, rode with the King during the hunt and ruined her chances of becoming the King’s girlfriend and love interest by out riding him.

However, the King also admired the younger sister Mary. The King’s interest in Mary brought the Boleyn family to his court and there the shenanigans begin.

The King sleeps with Mary, Mary bears a child, Anne returns to the court from being exiled to France, courts the King at the expense of her sister, has the King’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon annulled thereby separating England from the Roman Catholic Church, Anne turns out to be a pain in the ass to the King, Anne loses her baby, King exiles the whole family, and finally beheads Anne and her brother. The King eventually dies and his daughter Elizabeth, whose mother is Mary, ends up ruling the whole show.

Overall: The opportunity to watch two of today’s finest young women actors’ work together in a film is one that should not be missed. Both are good, however Natalie Portman really stands out.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile)

First Hit: A very powerful and strong foreign film about the depth of being a friend.

Cristian Mungiu wrote and directed this outstanding, 1980’s set, Romanian film about a young woman assisting her roommate and friend with an illegal abortion.

Otilia (played by Anamaria Marinca) is one of those people who will do what she can for everyone. The film is constructed in such a way that the opening sequences give you a clear picture of her resourcefulness and desire to be of assistance.

Her dorm roommate is Gabita (played by Laura Vasiliu) who is pregnant and has set up an abortion with “Bebe” (played by Vlad Ivanov) who attempts to come off as someone helpful but really is only out to get what he can from these two women.

That Gabita is generally weak and illusive in her responses to everyone creates ongoing problems for her friend when she owns up to being farther along in her pregnancy than she initially told Bebe. Bebe refuses to do the abortion unless he gets his desires met from both the girls.

Gabita’s situation causes Otilia to think about her own relationship with her boyfriend and begins to question him on his commitment to her and by asking him what would he do if she were to get pregnant.

The way this film is shot, its direction and character development is outstanding. This truly is a powerful thoughtful film

Overall:  I was engaged and moved by this film of friendship despite using the difficult subject of abortion as its vehicle.

Cassandra's Dream

First Hit: Moderately interesting film about two lower middle class brothers living in London attempting to make big changes in their lives with disastrous results.

Colin Farrell plays Terry the younger brother to Ian played by Ewan McGregor. The brothers are close and buy a boat together as a way to relive the great times they had sailing together as young boys.

They name the boat Cassandra’s Dream. When they are sailing on the boat they feel really free from their lives of drudgery. Terry is an automobile mechanic working on high-end cars while Ian works in his father’s restaurant. Ian is always scheming on ways to make it big and the latest plan is to get in on the hotel business in California.

Terry is a gambler and during one of his winning streaks makes enough to pay off the boat and also loan Ian some money to impress his new actress girlfriend who thinks Ian is already in hotels in California.

However, Terry loses all his winnings and a whole lot more and is now in trouble with the loan sharks. Ian, desperate to help his brother and keep the façade up with his new girlfriend, steals money from their father’s restaurant. Ian fesses up to his father with promises to pay him back and both brothers see their dreams going up in smoke.

Uncle Howard, played by Tom Wilkinson, is a rich surgeon and comes for a visit. Terry and Ian decide to ask Uncle Howard for some money to help them with their separate desperate situations. However, Uncle Howard has his own situation and tells the boys that he’ll help them out if they help him out.

What Howard asks them to do is way out of their league, but they decide to do it anyway. After the performing the act, Terry is possessed by his conscious that what he has done is wrong and only by telling the police will things be right.

Ian doesn’t feel the same way and so the brothers must work out this problem, and they do on Cassandra’s Dream.

Overall: I felt the pacing of this film was hesitant at times but some of the acting, especially by Colin Farrell, was very good and kept me engaged in this film.

There Will Be Blood

First Hit: Although the cinematography and sets were wonderfully created, I kept waiting for the actors and plot to hit full stride. It felt overly wound up and not given a chance to unwind and breathe.

The opening scenes of this film are powerful and designed to give the audience (I winced more than once) a real sense of the drive, depth, and determination of Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis.

Daniel’s determination and drive lead him to become an independent oil driller in the Signal Hill section of Southern California. He is competing against the likes of Standard Oil and Union Oil. He and his boy H.W. Plainview (played by Dillon Freasier) are told of an oil of ocean sitting above the ground east of the Central Coast of California.

He makes a deal to view the land and if there is oil on it will attempt to buy the land from its owners. Besides finding the land brimming with oil, he encounters a willful young man who believes he is a prophet of God who wants his fair share of the money for his fledgling church. 

He strikes black gold immediately but his son gets hurt in the process. He coldly ships his son away because his son cannot hear any longer and Daniel has little tolerance for anything weak. In fact he gives quite a speech about how he hate and tries to find the hate and weakness in everyone. What I found missing is an understanding as to why Daniel has this intense desire to hate people.

Overall: The cinematography was excellent and the film kept the edge of suspense active but simply going through one pent up moment to the next the film forgets to breathe and when the final scene came it left me cold and disappointed.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

First Hit: I liked this autobiographical story but didn’t think it was a great film.

Julian Schnabel films this autobiographical story of Elle magazine editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a stroke at age 43 and was paralyzed from head to toe.

Jean-Dominique is left with two good eyes and can hear. But because one eye cannot naturally be lubricated, they close it up by sewing it, something you witness from inside the eye. Therefore Bauby is left with one good eye which he uses to pan his viewing area and by blinking. By using one blink for yes and two for no, he begins to communicate with people via yes and no questions.

To expand his communicative abilities, he gets a secretary or aid who repeats the alphabet arranged by letter most used and when she reaches the letter he wants he blinks one time. She repeats the letter, he blinks again and she writes it down.

As they learn to communicate this way she learns how to fill predict the words so they don’t have to do all the letters.

I thought Anne Consigny as the secretary/aid was outstanding. The book, in which this film is based, was created through this painstaking process.

Other ways Schnabel helps you understand Bauby’s predicament is by shooting much of the film from the subjective point of view therefore many of the actors are acting directly into the camera. Additionally, Schnabel shares some of Bauby's thoughts, daydreams (hence the title of the film) and sparsely placed flash backs showing the audience the kind of life he had prior to the stroke.

Overall: I liked this film and I liked a lot of the acting but I didn’t walk out of the theater thinking this was a great film.