Fair Game

First Hit: A very strong political drama based on the true experiences of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame.

I don’t think there could have been two better actors selected for the parts of Joseph Wilson (played by Sean Penn) and Valerie Plame (played by Naomi Watts). Both are very accomplished actors and have strong political views which they get to act out in this film.

The well-known premise is that Plame, an 18 year veteran in covert activities with the CIA was publicly outed by the Bush White House staff to save their own skin from fabricating evidence to raid Iraq with their shock and awe bombing.

Joseph had written a report that discounted the belief that 500 tons of yellowcake material had been mined in Niger and sent to Iraq for the development of weapons of mass destruction. Because Plame and Wilson knew the truth they destroyed them publicly.

Eventually they were exonerated and the truth was heard. Penn, as Wilson, was his glorious self, standing in front of audiences tearing apart the governments’ ideas of the truth.

The director (Doug Liman) and his team did a remarkable job of interlacing real clips of Bush’s administration making their case to the public and the international community along with their filmed scenes.

Penn was fabulous and while watching him lambast the Bush Administration I couldn’t help but see the distance and nearness of this character and Jeff Spicoli. He embodies the idea and the truth of the person he is playing. Watts was spectacular. I loved the way she carried her strength not only when she was interviewing a possible ally, speaking to an enemy or working with her counterparts. David Andrews plays Scooter Libby with the manipulative tenacity I would have expected. Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth did a great job with Joseph Wilson’s book “The Politics of Truth” and Valerie Plame’s book “Fair Game”. Liman did a great job of directing this film with full story clarity.

Overall: A very strong film which also can be a bit scary when one realizes how some government officials can bend their truth in a way that can cost thousands of lives – look what happen in Iraq.

Leaving (Patir)

First Hit: A great performance by Kristin Scott Thomas in a good story.

The last film I saw with Kristin Scott Thomas was “I’ve Loved You So Long” which was an extraordinary performance of a woman slowly learning how to live life again after she killed her son out of mercy.

Here she plays Suzanne a stay at home mom of two young teenage kids and wife of a successful doctor. She makes the meals, takes the kids to their activities and has everything she needs. In her quest to get back into her career of being a physical therapist, her husband contracts to have their carriage house redecorated so that she can have a place to practice.

To clean the area out, her husband Samuel (played by Yvan Attal) hires Ivan (played by Sergi Lopez) a former prisoner who longs to find some money and stability in his life so that he can spend time with his young daughter.

Suzanne begins to help Ivan clean out the space and one day in her haste to give him his paycheck, he becomes injured by her car. Hurt and unable to meet up with his daughter, Suzanne makes up for her mistake and drives him to the town where his daughter is living. One night they have dinner and they begin to tell their personal stories to each other.

In the film, this is where they gain an attraction towards each other. However, I didn’t see the chemistry between them which had me hesitating a bit about the story. Yet, as actors they played their part exquisitely and made the relationship very believable.

The affair they start quickly becomes obsessive and they think of nothing else than to be with each other.  Samuel “forbids” Suzanne from seeing Ivan again but the obsession is complete and there is nothing they won’t do to be together.

Scott Thomas was amazing. She is beautiful, but beauty only goes so far and it is her ability to feel and portray her intense desire to rid herself of a life which was affectionately unfulfilling was amazing. There are numerous close ups that give you a peak into an amazing performance. Lopez, was very good as the the humble man who connected with Suzanne. The far better looking Attal was appropriately arrogant as Suzanne’s possessive and unrelenting husband. Catherine Corsini and Gaelle Mace wrote this screen play and Corsini directed this with a sharp woman’s eye and point of view.

Overall: A good film with some great performances.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Lofslottet som sprangdes)

First Hit: A good ending to a trilogy which I fully enjoyed.

The film begins with providing some scenes from the previous film which has Lisbeth (played by Noomi Rapace) being shot, buried, digging herself out, taking an ax to her father Alexander Zalachenko (played by Georgi Staykov), and being flown to the hospital. Both she and her father are in the hospital with the wounds they inflicted on each other.

Because her father was a spy from Russia the government had given him and a small band of others enough tools to execute covert actions in Sweden generally through force. Afraid that Lisbeth and her Alexander would expose this secret group, one of the older men of the group goes to the hospital to kill them both. He succeeds in killing only the father.

Mikael Blomkvist (played by Michael Nyqvist) who has been Lisbeth’s friend through all three films is doing what he can to assist her for her upcoming trial. They try to prove her as insane because of her past actions and because she was sent to a mental hospital when she was young, but Mikael, working through his sister and lawyer Annika (played by Annika Giannini), are able to obtain evidence that Lisbeth has been set up from the beginning. She gains her freedom.

This film lacks the kind of action thriller scenes that the others had, however it ties the whole series together nicely.

Rapace is fantastic. I love how powerful she is on the screen each time the camera is on her. She holds character very well and when you see her give a slight smile you know the depth of her pain and joy. Nyqvist is wonderful as the magazine reporter who cares deeply about Lisbeth as both friend and one time lover. Giannini is good as Lisbeth’s lawyer and with being pregnant, smart, and focused she gains Lisbeth’s confidence. Lena Endre reprises her role as Blomkvist’s business partner and part time lover. She is effective. Ulf Ryberg accurately wrote the script from Steig Larsson’s book of the same title. Daniel Alfredson’s direction was very good and he did a great job of keeping all three films with the same look and feel making them easy to move from one to the other.

Overall: This was a wonderful end piece to this trilogy of films. It didn’t rely on action but intellectual suspense.

Conviction

First Hit: A good film even though one knows from the beginning how it ends.

Sam Rockwell plays Kenny Waters as a thinking and yet unthinking man who grew up with few boundaries.

Hilary Swank plays Betty Anne Waters as always looking up to her brother and caring for him as their mother couldn’t and wouldn’t. As children we see them always fighting for and protecting the other.

Their mother was non-existent and spent her time working and sleeping around with other men. The only father figure they had was their grandfather. Living in a small town created circumstances that whenever there was trouble Kenny was one person the police looked at as being the possible culprit because often he was.

When a woman is found stabbed and bludgeoned to death, they picked up Kenny, try and convicted him. He claims innocence and Betty of course uses all means to save her brother.

The film takes place over an 12 – 16 year span and during this time Betty goes to school, works full time, gets a degree, attends law school and passes the bar. She does this so that she can get Kenny out of jail.

Assisting Betty is Abra Rice (played by Minnie Driver). Abra works with Betty, assists her with her studies, prods her during downfalls, and ultimately joins the crusade to free Kenny.

It’s a wonderful story about brotherly and a sisterly love and the connection between two people. One downside is that their aging wasn't represented very well it was uneven.

Rockwell is an extremely intelligent actor and this part allowed him to be boundless which at times didn’t work for me. At times when he acted out it may have been in the script but I felt that Rockwell was too smart a person to have acted the way he did. Swank, as is customary, gave an all-out performance in a admirable but not noteworthy role. Driver was very good as the open forgiving friend showing that friendship can survive ups and downs. Pamela Grey wrote a good script which effectively lays out this story. Tony Goldwyn did a good job of directing the actors and guiding the story.

Overall: This is definitely a good film to watch on the couch with family.

Stone

First Hit: The characters seem so tightly wound around the axle at the beginning that my anticipation of what would happen was not met.

The opening scene has a young married man controlling his wife by hanging their baby outside a two story window and saying if you leave me I’ll drop him.

Then we move to this man Jack (played by Robert De Niro) as a nearly retired prison parole officer who interviews and speaks with prisoners determining whether they should get parole or not.

Enter Stone (played by Edward Norton) who wants out, doesn’t give a shit, and obsessed with his own story being the truth. Stone uses his hardness and mental strength to control people. Stone is married to Lucetta (played by Milla Jovovich) who wants her husband out of prison, but also sleeps with other men and controls things around her with her sexy beauty.

This film is uneven and I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense. At times it is about the seductive qualities of a beautiful woman, at other times it tries to use the power of being deeply touched spiritually, at other times it is about whom is the most articulate.

As you would have expected from the beginning, Jack gets controlled by a beautiful woman and Stone’s relentless drive.

De Niro is not overly engaging in this film and his actions with Lucetta weren’t well planned by the writer and director. It seemed clunky. Norton pulls some accent/dialog usage which has him being incongruent with the intelligence in his eyes; it like he was too smart for the role. Jovovich is beautiful and she is fully engaging when she is on the screen. She plays an excellent seductress and carries the intelligence in her eyes saying she knew what she was doing the whole time and that no one controls her. Angus MacLachlan wrote this and there are moments of interesting dialogue between Norton and De Niro. John Curran directed this and I’m not sure he was clear about what he wanted from each one of the characters or they (the actors) ran the show.

Overall: A mediocre film not worthy of the actors in it.