W.

First Hit: This could have been more hard hitting on the worst ever president to have lived in the White House during my lifetime. However, it did have some interesting and shining poignant moments.

With my own personal dislike of our President George W. Bush, I was hoping for something more devastating.

With that aside, W. seemed, at times, a fair representation of some of The President’s frustration of growing up the son of a powerful politico and his gullibility to listen to some of the people he surrounded himself with.

The film intersperses the years leading up to his decision to invade Iraq including snippets of his college hell raising days, his quitting numerous jobs, his less than honest and stellar military service, his meeting of Laura (played by Elizabeth Banks), and other events; most of them being seen as failures by his father.

Oliver Stone, the director, surrounds The President (played by Josh Brolin) with strong actors playing the parts of the cabinet. Richard Dreyfuss plays Dick Cheney, Scott Glenn plays Donald Rumsfeld, Toby Jones, plays Karl Rove, Thandie Newton plays Condoleezza Rice and Jeffrey Wright plays General Colin Powell. There are numerous characters in this film but the interchange between the aforementioned was the most interesting to me. Rove acted as a puppet master, Cheney was the bully, Rumsfeld was off the wall, Rice was silly and meaningless, and Powell as someone reluctant to go against the hard edge bully. Bush comes off as believing he actually knew something but because God wanted him to be President he is simply “The Decider”.

Brolin does an excellent job of capturing many of The President’s mannerisms and ways of speaking. Dreyfus “gets” Cheney and links the public views with the behind the scenes reality of him. Jones captures Rove well and as the non-assuming puppet master and intellectual. Newton plays Rice as a twit which is far different than the public Rice we’re given. Wright plays Powell with less assurance than the public Powell. Stone doesn’t go over the top like he has in other films but I would have like more understanding of how The President got his calling and how he felt he was doing God’s work.

Overall: This was a really good film although not a great film. I enjoyed watching it and it brought together many salient aspects as to why The President acts the way he does. In some ways it left me with the feeling that maybe each President needs to go through a psychological profile before he can serve the country; W. would have failed the profile.

Body of Lies

First Hit: For the most part I enjoyed this film because of the ideas behind it, but I couldn’t understand why or how the relationship between DiCaprio and Crowe developed.

This Ridley Scott directed story is, for the most part, compelling. There is intrigue with the subject of espionage and counter-espionage.

DiCaprio plays Ferris a young rising on-the-ground CIA operative in the Middle-East. He moves from country to country following a trail of terrorists looking for larger and larger high profile scores. We learn early on he is divorced although he wears a wedding ring.

His boss is Hoffman (played by Crowe) who is brash, detached from the process of killing people, and is hooked on technology typifies the perception of Americans by the world; uncaring for honor, the honor of the truth and the honor behind friendship.

At first there was a sense that none of the missions were connected and I sensed I was waiting for something (the plot) to happen. However, I soon figured out the plot was about DiCaprio finding his place in the world, a place to belong, a place where he cared about values other than the ones his boss represented.

Ferris finds this place when he starts working with Hani (played by Mark Strong) who is the “king” of Jordanian intelligence and Aisha (played by Golshifteh Farahani) a nurse who befriends him while treating him for rabies.

One puzzling part of this film was trying to understand the basis for Crowe’s and DiCaprio’s relationship and how it got the level of uncaring dramatized in the film. In other words some character development was missing. Scott did a great job of showing the technology we use to spy on people and kept it from being the focus of the film. The only issue, as already mentioned, we needed more character development.

Overall: I liked and was intrigued with this film and I liked the perspective it gave on how drone technology can and is used.

Flash of Genius

First Hit: What a wonderful story about a man going up against a corporation.

My father had a company which built fiberglass parts for the Shelby 350 and 500 mustang cars. This was in the late 1960’s. Although the parts coming off the molds met specifications, Ford was having a hard time using them because their cars weren’t meeting specs. So Ford decided to not meet their end of the agreement which put my dad’s company in financial trouble. Because they were such a large corporation, my dad’s company lawyer told them not to try to sue Ford because they will lose. It caused a lot of heartache to my family and the families that worked at my dad’s company.

Later in life we learned that we would have won a lawsuit against them.

The story of Robert Kerns (played by Greg Kinnear) is a story like the one I experienced, except he went after and sued Ford. He went after them because they stole his design and made money off of it. This is a great David and Goliath story.

Greg Kinnear is wonderful as a father trying to teach his children that there are things worth fighting for. And despite the odds and the personal cost (not only money, but family and friends), in the end it is a worthy fight. The whole film is concise and clear to its aim. Alan Alda is excellent playing a lawyer who initially wants to help Kerns but in the end is really out to help himself.

Overall:  This is really a good film and well worth seeing as Kinner embodies this character and really brings him to life.

The Duchess

First Hit: Lusciously shot, well acted, this film powerfully points at how women were treated as less than equals of men in the past and also the strength and power of being a mother.

Keira Knightley plays Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire, elegantly and powerfully. Ralph Fiennes plays the Duke of Devonshire as disengaged from his feelings, powerfully respected because of his position, and driven to reproduce an heir as is required in an aristocracy.

The opening shot has the Duke negotiating with Georgiana’s mother to marry the beautiful beguiling 17 year old girl. Upon hearing of the arrangement Georgiana is excited and happy as it is quite an honor. But the wedding night proves how detached The Duke is. He simply wants an heir. Ralph gives small hints of his caring about his wife, but his actions are in line with his duty, produce a male heir.

In an early scene there is a telling statement about the difference between the sexes; The Duke wonders, out loud, about why woman wear such complicated clothing.

The Duchess responds with it is the only way they can express themselves. Women are limited in their societal roles. She continues by saying, men have lots of ways to express themselves but women are limited to what they wear and how they wear it.

This film, once again, shows that Keira Knightly is a wonderful young actress. She holds the screen and the story while showing a wide range of youth, strength, and sorrow through this performance. Ralph Fiennes is great as a deeply controlled, bound by duty, man who would like to break out just a little but knows he cannot. The direction by Saul Dibb kept the film close to the true story of this powerful popular woman who reminded me of Princess Diana.

Overall: I am not always a big fan of costume dramas, but this one is interesting and extremely well acted.

Eagle Eye

First Hit: I was engaged early on but as the film went on it became less plausible and interesting.

Shia LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw who appears to be an intelligent loner who has a slacker career working as a copy associate at a copy store.

He cannot make his boarding room payments but one day, after the funeral of his twin brother, he finds $750,000 dollars in his bank account and as he walks disillusion into his boarding house room it is filled with boxes of weapons and explosive devices and materials.

While opening some of the containers he receives a telephone call from a woman who says the FBI will be there in 30 seconds he must leave immediately. He is confused and doesn't know why or how he got this call. But within 30 seconds the FBI break into his room and arrest him. While questioning him, he is allowed to make a phone call and as he dials, the woman’s voice comes on the phone again and says lie down on the floor in 14 seconds.

A few moments later a crane sweeps through the room and creates a way for him to escape. A sign across the street flashes “Jerry jump”. This time he follows the instructions from the phone woman’s voice and jumps.

This opening sequence is followed by another sequence with Rachel Holloman (played by Michelle Monaghan) who receives a phone call that if she is to see her son alive again she must walk to the end of a block and get into a car. These two end up together and are linked but they don’t know why.

The mystery in the film is who the mystery voice on the phone is; what does she want, why is she doing this, and how does she see, control, and know everything about them? The set up is great but the film lags and gets more convoluted the farther along it goes. This is unfortunate as some of the other characters played by Billy Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson are never fleshed out to give the film some depth.

Overall: This film starts with a great beginning but settles into a somewhat predictable blandness and is in the end unsatisfying.