The Debt

First Hit: This is a film about how important it is to live the truth.

The film flashes between 1966 and 1997 with ease. Not many films do this without some jarring of the senses and story logic but the direction by Jon Madden on the screenplay by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman was superb.

Rachel Singer (played by both Jessica Chastain and Helen Mirren), Stephen Gold (played by Marton Csokas and Tom Wilkinson) and David Peretz (played by Sam Worthington and Ciaran Hinds) are sent to find Doktor Bernhardt (played by Jesper Christensen) who was a Nazi surgeon that experimented on people in WWII.

The Jewish Israeli government sent these three to East Berlin to capture him and bring him back to Israel to try him for war crimes. In 1997’s time, Rachel and Stephen’s daughter Sarah (played by Romi Aboulafia) has just published a book on this attempt to critical acclaim, but something is brewing.

As the story goes back and forth between the two times zones, we slowly begin to figure out the real story and why there is such deep sadness and fear in the main characters.

The strength of this film is the strength it gains through interlocking segues between time, the story line, and the truth.

Chastain showed strength and mettle in her wonderful portrayal of young Singer. Mirren was extraordinary as the older Singer. Csokas was overtly powerful as young Gold while Wilkinson carried this strength pointedly as older Gold. Worthington was immensely focused and sublime as the single minded Peretz and Ciaran had minimal presence as the older Peretz. Christensen commanded screen presence as the powerful and brutish Nazi surgeon. Aboulafia was very good as Sarah. Vaughn and Goldman wrote an outstanding script. Madden wove this immensely powerful story with an adroit hand and understanding of how to create a logical and comprehensive story spanning 30 years.

Overall: A powerful film which was well made.

Sarah's Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah)

First Hit: Powerful film that shines light on the French roundup of Jews in 1942.

I was unaware that the French government rounded up Jews and sent them to concentration camps, like Nazi Germany, prior to the invasion of France by Germany.

This is a sad and powerful story of a young girl who locks her very young brother in a closet to save him from being taken away by the soldiers. The family gets taken away and separated, Men from Women and young children from their mothers.

This leaves Sarah with a group of other young girls in the camp. She escapes with the assistance of a soldier and after being nursed to health by a French family, they make their way back to Paris to unlock the closet Sarah locked her brother in. It has been many months and of course the boy is dead. Sarah is affected by the rest of her life over the killing of her brother.

The vehicle for following this story is the research by Julia Jarmond (played by Kristen Scott Thomas) who discovers that her husband’s family owned the home where Sarah lived and locked her brother up. In fact, her and her husband are redecorating the place to move in as their new home.

As the story unfolds Julia becomes distraught at the coincidence of her being pregnant, her husband not wanting the child, and the history of her home. This sad story was extremely well told. Not once did I slip into non-belief.

I was extremely impressed with the choice of actors, especially Melusine Mayance and Charlotte Poutrel as young and adult Sarah respectively. Their shared mannerisms, look, and feel (both physically and energetically) were phenomenal.

Scott Thomas gives a tone and picture perfect performance as the intensely curious reporter that drives depth into her story through empathy. Mayance was fantastic as young Sarah and her scream when she opens the closet will haunt me for weeks. Poutrel was sublime as adult Sarah and had me wanting to reach out and comfort her. All the other actors were great in their roles. Serge Joncour and Gilles Paquet-Brenner wrote a superlative screenplay. And Paquet-Brenner’s direction was top-notch.

Overall: A deeply moving film which hangs on in one’s soul for some time afterward.

One Day

First Hit: Disappointing overall as the chemistry wasn’t there between the leads and I couldn’t care about Dexter.

This film spans 20 years of time and neither character showed much aging.

Briefly, Emma (played by Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (played by Jim Sturgess) are college mates. The audience sees that Emma likes Dexter but is cautiously afraid of him because she doesn’t feel worthy of his good looks and charm. He is supposedly attracted to her but shouldn't be because she isn't hot enough (that's the feeling I got).

They spend the night together but without sex and the audience is to believe that there is something magical growing between them. They go their separate ways and they keep in touch phone calls and occasional dates. The passage of time is noted by the anniversary of their meeting (July 15th) continues to pop-up on the screen.

Dexter uses his charm and looks to snag a job as a TV host who is supposed to be hip. He spends all his time drinking, snorting coke, and screwing women he doesn’t care about. It isn’t that people cannot redeem themselves, but there must be something that touches the audience where redemption springs up from within the audience want him to redeem himself.

There really isn't anything. Only when he is with his daughter at the end of the film did I even begin to like the guy (and maybe that was the point – but it was too little too late). Meanwhile Emma, wanting to be a writer (poems and a novel) works in a Mexican restaurant in England (where they are both located). Ian (played by Rafe Spall) also works at the restaurant and thinks himself as a comedian. So together they are too lost souls not doing what they believe in but working together in this Mexican restaurant.

Because he is stable, and they are having this pitiful life together, he and Emma decide to move in together. This made no sense as Emma's character just wasn't that dumb to do this and yet the story has her doing this. But she’s supposed to have chemistry with Dexter (her life’s love) and there is none here as well.

As time goes by and both Dexter and Emma find their path back to each other, no matter the dialogue, scripting or scenes, there’s nothing really there between them to make me believe that is a “love of my life” relationship.

For comparison, look at Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in “The Adjustment Bureau” for an example of on-screen chemistry.

Hathaway would have done much better with someone with whom she could create chemistry with along with a director who knew how to get something interesting from his actors. I think her acting here is solid enough, but everything around her is sub-standard. Sturgess has the look of a “player” but there was emptiness about him which made his character two dimensional and not worth caring about. Spall played either did a horrible job at his clueless character or the script was equally clueless. Either way, each time he was on the screen I cringed, he resembled no one I’ve ever run into. Ken Scott (as Dexter’s father) and Patricia Clarkson as the mother were solid in their roles. David Nicholls wrote the screenplay from his book which could have been good. While the direction by Lone Scherfig never captured real characters fully and let the story flail away at drama and romance.

Overall: This film is forgettable and had little to offer in the realm of romance.

The Whistleblower

First Hit:  This was a dark powerful film which pulls few punches.

This film is based on a true story of Kathryn Bolkovac (played by Rachel Weisz) who was a Nebraska police woman looking for a way to make more money so that she could move to be closer to her children who lived in Florida with her ex-husband.

To do this she takes a job with a company that's contracted with the UN to monitor the governmental transition of Bosnia from the racially and religious wars that raked the country in the mid 1990’s. Bolkovac soon discovers that the forces which were there to keep the peace and provide some law and order were uniformly trafficking in young girls for prostitution from other eastern bloc countries.

Not only were the UN forces using and raping these young women, they were also making money from them through the trafficking. Bolkovac in pain because she lost her own daughter in a custody battle, decides this is where she will make her stand. She goes all out to help these girls.

The scenes of the bars, where the girls are held and auctioned off, were ghastly and the treatment by their keepers was horrible and disgraceful to humanity. That the UN, a powerful body which is relied upon by other countries did no due diligence on the contractors they hired was shameful. It makes me wonder today about the contractors being hired by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This film is powerful and not an easy one to sit through. It’s story, direction and strong characters create a compelling and difficult story to digest.

Weisz is powerful and up to the requirements of the role. The intensity of her character as portrayed through both her bodily and energetic language on the screen is amazing. Vanessa Redgrave as Madeleine Rees, a diplomatic official of the US was strong. And all the girls including Roxana Condurache as Raya, Paula Schramm as Luba deserve honor for creating a horrific and realistic set of scenes which drove the point home. In fact 4 people sitting in front of me left the theater during some of their scenes. Larysa Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan wrote this powerful script from film consultant Kathryn Bolkovac. While Kondracki also directed this cast in a difficult but outstanding story.

Overall: This film is difficult to watch at times, but the message is powerful.

The Help

First Hit:  A superb film depicting racism in Mississippi.

In the 1950’s in Jackson Mississippi most homes had a black maid.

These maids, “The Help”, worked full time in homes raising white folk’s children, making their food and cleaning their homes for ~$185.00 a month. This practice had been passed down through generations and generations.

The maids could not use the toilets of the homes they worked in and often had to go out into bad weather just to relieve themselves.

This film traces the story of a number of these maids, mainly Aibileen (played by Viola Davis), Minny (played by Octavia Spencer), and Constantine (played by Cicely Tyson) as they gain the strength and willingness to speak to Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (played by Emma Stone) about what it is like to be a maid in a white person’s house (and world).

Skeeter was raised by Constantine and wants to be a writer and as she watches her friends and the way they treat their maids, she knows there is a powerful story lying in wait. It is risky for these maids to speak to Skeeter, but they do because the racial tensions throughout the United States are rising as we move through the early 1960s.

What struck me about this film was the audacity of people to treat their help in the way that they did. Yes, I could say they knew no better and had always known this way of life, but in my heart I don’t believe this to be true. I think they all knew what they were doing was simply wrong.

This film embodies one of the last overt gasps of racism in the south and the feeling of superiority of one person over another. Mind you, I cannot say racism is gone in the United States, but it has come a long way in the last 50 years.

Davis, is outstanding and extraordinary as a maid who cares deeply about the children she cares for, while in deep pain about her son who was killed through the neglect of other whites. Spencer, is both funny and powerful as a maid who gets fired but then gives her previous boss their just deserts. Bryce Dallas Howard (playing Hilly Holbrook) embodies the sinister ways of white southern women and how they wanted to control and be above their maids. Stone is marvelous as the young woman who left Jackson for an education, came back and saw the injustices and found a way to give voice to The Help. Jessica Chastain (playing Celia Foote) was fully engaging as the outsider who wants to fit in but never really sees her maid as less than herself. Tate Taylor wrote a stunning script. All southern nuances were alive in the writing. Then Taylor turned right around and directed this amazing script in a profoundly wonderful way.

Overall:  This is a powerful film which provides a clear picture of how we needed (and need) to change.