A Dangerous Method

First Hit:  I liked the concept but this was a very uneven film.

Sabrina Spielrein (played by Keira Knightley) was a disturbed patient of Carl Jung (played by Michael Fassbender) and ended up being a psychologist and lover of Jung.

She was one of the first to be treated by Jung using the talking method (psychoanalysis). Unfortunately, Knightley’s rendition of Spielrein seemed totally out of place, overly acted, and poorly executed. From the jutting chin, distorted hand positions and the occasional half hearted attempt at a Russian accent, her part was mostly unwatchable.

For this I fault both director David Cronenberg and Knightley. The interaction between Freud (played by Viggo Mortensen) and Jung was somewhat better and as one who studied a lot of psychology and did work in this field I would have like a deeper engagement of each of their theories and the differences between them.

However this film floated along like a rudderless boat. In the end I didn’t care about any of the characters nor did I think I learned much.

Knightley was mostly horrible. This is the worst role I’ve ever seen her in and wonder why she was directed this way. Fassbender was very controlled and reserved as I suppose the character was required to be, yet it took away from the depth of who he was playing. Mortensen was better at Freud than the others were in their characters. There was an arrogant solidness of his thought process that was palatable and interesting. However I would have like to have known more. Christopher Hampton and John Kerr wrote a lifeless script. Cronenberg did not do his best work here and it showed.

Overall: For such a rich subject, to have this fall this flat was really very sad.

We Bought a Zoo

First Hit: Despite its obvious intentions to elicit emotions, it effectively works on all cylinders.

It is hard to think that Matt Damon can be in a bad film.

I wondered about the title of this movie and the previews that I saw had me thinking - maybe. But as he said on The Daily Show “It’s a Cameron Crowe film.” Yup, it is true and it is good.

The overall acting by everyone is top notch. Crowe got what he needed from everyone.

This film is about a Benjamin Mee (Damon) who loses his wife and is left with two kids; Dylan (played by Colin Ford) a 14 year old boy and Rosie (played by Maggie Elizabeth Jones) a 6 year old girl. They miss their mom just as Benjamin misses his wife every single day.

Benjamin gets advice and support from his very close brother Duncan (played by Thomas Haden Church) who is an accountant and has his own life struggles. Feeling stuck in their lives, Benjamin leaves the city and moves his family outside into the country by buying a rundown and soon to be closed down zoo.

Rosie is happy, Dylan is angry, Duncan is confused, and Benjamin is doing his best to find a way to let go of the memories of Katherine is wife (played by Stephanie Szostak). Running the zoo is the former zoo keeper apprentice Kelly Foster (played by Scarlett Johansson). All the zoo workers are unique in their own way and this film lets them all have their moments.

The story’s goal is to get the zoo open by July 7th and they only have a few months. This journey is one of forgiveness, letting go, letting love, hard work and the results of “giving yourself 20 seconds of insane courage”.

Damon is amazing. He brings courage, confidence, thoughtfulness, anger, sadness and laughter to his character. Ford is wonderful as the frustrated teen who is very lost. Jones is unbelievably wonderful as the wondrous daughter. Church is perfect as the supportive but ever skeptical funny protective brother. Johansson is sublime as the zoo keeper who has confidence and is looking for someone to match this. Elle Fanning as Lily was super as the open fearless girl who has a crush. The entire cast is simply wonderful and that is because of the well written story by Aline Brosh McKenna and Cameron Crowe and the perfect direction by Crowe.

Overall: This is a very good and heart-warming PG film.

War Horse

First Hit:  Graphic pictures good and bad but this film was too manicured to suspend belief.

If you are old enough to recall “Duel” (1971 and his first feature) you saw Steven Spielberg not worrying so much about how manicured the scenes were, but his real concerned was about creating tension and drama and making sure the audience could feel what was going on.

War Horse is so far away from this ability that it hurts. Every picture in this film is pretty. Even “No Man’s Land” is a great visual. One scene where the horse gallops quickly through the trenches was overly done with effects and it was obvious.

On the plus side, I thought some of these pictures and scenes were elegant. But when I’m sitting in the theater thinking about the scene or picture and wondering how long it took to shoot a particular scene, I’m not engaged with the story or enjoying the picture.

It is like when entrepreneurs become too successful, they lose their edge at creating products. Or a fighter who becomes great because he’s hungry and once he wins and sits at the table and over feeds himself he can't fight any longer.

Here it is the edge of driving towards creating drama and suspense and caring less about the perfect picture. The most nonsensical scene was when the horse escapes from his German guard and traps himself in an area blocked on three sides with berms. A tank (for no reason at all) turns right, follows the horse into this enclosed area and we are given the thought by Spielberg, that this tank is going to shoot the horse.

Nowhere would this be a real or realistic event. The made up pretty picture scene I disliked most was the ending scene where there was the overly yellow-orange sky with the silhouettes of the family smacked in the middle of this overly colored sky.

Jeremy Irvine plays Albert Joey’s (War Horse) owner. Unfortunately this guy was pretty much a bust and I’m not sure why he was cast as Albert. He felt goofy, unreal and with little grit that would be part of of his working stock life. Peter Mullan, as Albert’s father Ted, was much better than Irvine and one could feel his hidden anguish. Emily Watson, as Albert’s mother Rose, was the best actor in the film. She made each scene she was in worth watching. David Thewlis as Lyons the landowner was overdone. Lee Hall and Richard Curtis wrote the screenplay which was better than the actual film. Spielberg was not at his best hungry self. This film felt bloated and setup from the beginning to elicit specific emotions and it was way too obvious.

Overall:  Watch this at home on a big screen if you must see horses suffer and conquer.

I Melt with You

First Hit: An attempt to show how men struggle to see and share themselves clearly.

There are men who like the camaraderie of men. There are men who long for the camaraderie of the guys they hung out with while in college and felt that those days and those guys were the best of times.

This film attempts to share one story about 4 of these guys. Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe) and Tim (Christian McKay) who sent time together and back then we discover they made a pact (or covenant) that if in 25 years things aren’t going well for them, they will die together.

Richard is a writer of one popular book and is now a school teacher. He's run out of ideas and his students don't care much any longer. Ron is an investment banker who is now being investigated by the SEC for ill begotten money.

Jonathan is a medical doctor who has taken to the art of selling drug prescriptions under the table for money and is recently divorced. And Tim is gay and his former partner has just died of aids. They arrive at a beautiful house just south of Carmel on the Big Sur cliffs. They are there for for their annual meeting and seven days of total inebriation. It is all the booze and drugs they can consume while awake with occasional outings (like fishing).

Most of the film is shot inside the house where they get into long drug fueled discussions about very little and, on occasion, an intimate one on one discussion about what is going on in their life to one of the other friends. Distraught Tim has a night of wild sex with a man and woman who came to the house to party, he hates himself, pulls out the pact they made in college and hangs himself in the bathroom.

The rest of the film tells the story about what the others do, or not do, based on the pact they wrote together. The drug crazed binges were very realistic and in some cases the actors didn’t have to dig too deep to find their characters.

However, I did like watching how men will slowly tell their real story behind the veneer one, and that there is a sort of weird honor in living up to pact they made.

Jane was very good as the most vocal and energetic force of the 4 men. Piven was also very good as the guy who long ago turned a corner to illegal work to make his family happy and he aches within from the moment he made that decision. Lowe was interesting to watch because I wondered if he found his role easy or difficult to play based on his past public relationship with drugs. Yes it could be a partial story of his past, and he was convincing. McKay was excellent at being the most troubled one of the group. He was the introspective one of the group who wore his heart on his sleeve. When he shaved off his beard, the audience knew the story was going to change. Glenn Porter wrote the screenplay and at times it was excessive, but other times quite poignant. Mark Pellington directed this cast with a loose hand which allowed the actors some freedom.

Overall: I wouldn’t suggest paying to see this in a theater, but it might be worth a watch if you’re up to watching men indulge obsessively.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

First Hit:  Being skeptical of a remake so soon after the original was assuaged by excellent execution.

Guy Richie might take a lot of lessons from David Fincher. Fincher took the challenge of creating a remake of a less than moderately successful film which had a huge book following within a couple years of the original, and make it really work.

I had anxiety that Noomi Rapace’s version of Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish version would forever taint my being able to enjoy seeing anyone else in this role, but Rooney Mara did an outstanding job. Not necessarily better, slightly different and very effective.

The story was essentially the same, I got through the language issue (Daniel Craig made no attempt to be from Sweden) early on and within 15 minutes I did not notice it.

The scenery was exquisitely shot and provided the audience wonderful framing for the cold hearted story which is told. Craig as Mikael Blomkvist was clearly a strong force in the film and was a different take than the original.

In this version Blomkvist was a stronger more powerful energy. Even though this film was 2 hours and 38 minutes long there was not one wasted frame. Every moment was clearly scripted and directed.

Rooney Mara was outstanding as Lisbeth and her intensity, physicality and intelligence showed through this film like a beacon of light. Craig was superb as Blomkvist. His intensity and intelligence matched Mara’s and therefore they fit well together. Christopher Plummer was perfect as Henrick Vanger. Stellan Skarsgard was sublime as Martin Vanger, the man who hated women and loved control through power over people. Robin Wright as Erika Berger, Blomkvist’s part time lover, friend and business associate was very good in a subtle, yet critical, part. Steven Zaillian did an excellent job of creating the script from Stieg Larsson’s novel. Fincher fired on all cylinders and made this film his. The moment the initial credits rolled, with an old, but updated, Led Zeppelin song in the background, the audience knew they were in for something interesting.

Overall:  This was a very good and successfully developed remake – Kudos to all.