Bel Ami

First Hit:  The idea of the film is good but with Pattinson as the lead it goes nowhere.

This story is supposed to be about a man’s rise to power through his guile and the women he beds. Or is it?

The film begins with watching Georges Duroy (played by Robert Pattinson) taking his last few bits of money off a table going to a bar to spend it on beer while he watches his favorite whore goes off with someone with money.

He runs into his old north African army buddy Charles Forestier (played by Philip Glenister) who buys him some champagne and invites him over for a party while loaning him money for clothes. At the party he meets Charles’ wife Madeleine (played by Uma Thurman) to whom he is immediately attracted. He also meets Clotilde (played by Christina Ricci) a young beautiful woman with a child.

The setup is that he thinks he is a ladies man or player (as they would say today). The problem is that there isn’t anything about his character that is attractive or interesting. Charles gets him a job at Rousset Walters’ (played by Colm Meaney) newspaper.

Here he does nothing, adds no value, and uses stories developed and written by Madeleine. He is a caricature of someone who brings value to the table. He meets Rousseau’s wife Virginie (played by Kristen Scott Thomas) and the script has her attracted to him.

I don’t see how Clotilde, Madeleine or Virginie found Georges attractive except that is what the script said for them to be. He brings nothing to his character except some facial good looks (somewhat pained) but his body is mediocre and his eyes are absolutely vacant.

Pattinson is not much of an actor and his vacant eyes might be great for the role of a vampire but if he’s going to do anything else, he’s got to learn to bring something from his soul out through his eyes and to the audience. Glenister is good as the former army mate and someone who wanted to give Georges a chance. Thurman elevates herself from the rest and takes charge of her role. Ricci was great as the woman who cares regardless of how she is treated. Meaney is good as the tough newspaper editor who is also looking out only for himself. Scott Thomas is interesting as a woman who is rather cold and distant to needy and wanting. Rachel Bennette wrote an interesting screenplay. Directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod had a good script and some great actors except for Pattinson in the lead role.

Overall:  The film had possibilities but with Pattinson in the lead it was dead on arrival.

Bernie

First Hit:  Jack Black is amazing and will be considered for an Oscar next year.

This is based on a true story in a small place called Carthage, TX.

It is about a helpful, kind, community oriented assistant funeral director named Bernie Tiede (played by Black) who comes to town and transforms it in small ways. Everyone, to him, deserves the best. And he does his best work on dead people for their funeral.

When Marjorie Nugent’s (played by Shirley MacLaine) husband dies, Bernie does his best to cheer her up. However, this is a tall task because everyone knows both Marjorie and her now deceased husband were rich mean people – probably she more than he. She is despised by everyone, including her family.

Her grandchildren tried to sue her for money after their grandfathers’ death and she wouldn’t budge. She found her family to be ungrateful and misguided people who only wanted to take from her what she owned. Bernie, through kind persistence, became her friend and over time they began to travel together as well as spend a lot of time together.

The film does serve up the question as to whether they were intimate lovers and one never knows. The truth is not really known and therefore the film is honest in presenting both possible sides. Why Bernie shot Marjorie, I’m not sure Bernie really knows, except that he felt caged by his own giving in his friendship to Marjorie.

Lastly, the cutaways to townsfolk are beyond funny. The quips, comments, and thoughts about Bernie, Marjorie, and them as a couple are simply hilarious. Although at times I felt like I was the only one laughing out loud and hard, there were plenty of times, I was joined by others in the audience.

This is one truly funny dark comedy, the sad part is that it actually happened.

Black is extraordinary and deserves to be considered for an Oscar for this performance. He is amazing, believable, and his obvious talents in singing and comedy are fully apparent. MacLaine is very good and holds the mean disposition very well. Her subtle shift towards being human at times is small and very controlled. And although she does share a smile and some joy as time moves on, the deepening of her controlling nature over Bernie bubbles in full force as time moves on. Matthew McConaughey plays the DA who prosecutes Bernie. His natural homespun Texas charm and sideways quips are on full display here. For all the actors who played townsfolk – a grand hurrah!!! You were great. Skip Hollandsworth and Richard Linklater wrote a sparkling funny script, while Linklater’s direction brought all this together in a very funny and interesting way.

Overall:  There is controversy with this film, which only adds to its irrepressible humor and charm.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

First Hit:  This was a lovely film with fine acting based in a wonderful story.

When it comes to retiring and what to do next, the options can be very limited based on finances.

Here we have a group of British elderly people who, for mostly financial reasons, find this ad for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” in Jaipur, India. A recently widowed Evelyn (played by Judi Dench) had always left everything thing up to her husband and when she finds out that selling the flat they live in will only pay off the bills he accumulated, she sees this as a way to do something on her own and to not be controlled any longer.

Graham (played by Tom Wilkinson) is a judge who decides he has to make something right that has been bothering him since his young days in India. Douglas and Jean (played by Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton respectively) are married and with their meager savings given to their daughter who is involved in a internet startup, they have little or nothing to live on. She is perpetually angry and judgmental of everyone, while Douglas is loyal, inquisitive, interested in life and wants to make the best of everything.

Muriel (played by Maggie Smith) is a physically rundown house manager, who has nothing to do, is bitter, racist, and needs a hip operation. Norman (played by Ronald Pickup), who is a very aged "player" looking for the next woman he can score on.

And lastly Madge (played by Celia Imrie) who can’t stand watching her grandkids as her life’s work, wants passion of the heart and loves men. They make the arduous trip to Jaipur together slowly becoming traveling companions along the way. When they arrive, the Hotel (for the “elderly and beautiful”) is run down and looks nothing like it does in the brochures.

Most want to go home but as they begin to settle in, most find things of interest to explore:  Graham, a past relationship; Douglas, exploring the many sights of India; and Evelyn, a job as a coach for a telemarketing firm. Meanwhile Muriel, is bitter about how she ended up here but slowly discovers she has something to offer. Jean holds on to what isn’t (that she has money, is in England, and is happy) and makes appears to make Douglas’ life difficult. Norman tries to hit on Madge but is rebuffed as being not enough, but actually finds the "top of the mountain." 

Madge, tries to hit on men and but is slowly understanding that time may have passed her by. The Hotel is run by Sonny (played by Dev Patel) who has high hopes. But as a dreamer he’s great and as a businessman he is not very adept. His controlling mother wants the building sold and Sonny to come live with her in Delhi.

However, Sonny has a gorgeous girlfriend named Sunaina (played by Tena Desae) who is disliked (although unmet) by Sonny’s mother and Sunaina believes in Sonny.

As Sonny says’ throughout the film: Everything will be perfect in the end, if it is not yet perfect, it is not yet the end. And as you will guess by now, at the end of the film, it is all perfect.

Dench is wonderful as a woman believing that she can and will take charge of her life, her scenes with the telemarketers were beautifully spot on. Wilkinson was sublime as the judge who wanted to right a long past wrong. Nighy steals every scene he is in. He is a joy to watch. Wilton was downright perfect as a woman who is bitter for all that isn’t in her life. Smith was transformative in this role as she slowly learns her next step. Pickup is gangly charming but actually gets real and finds love. Imrie is fun and interesting to watch as she works herself up to be a woman wanted by men. Patel exudes Indian charm and optimism and brings a smile each time he’s on screen. Desae is beautiful and in her beauty demands you watch her in the scenes she is in. Ol Parker wrote a charming script with strong characters for each. John Madden put this great ensemble together and orchestrated them to make a very fun, poignant (for older people) watchable film.

Overall:  Although many can enjoy this film, the older audience will get far more out of it – it helps to have experience with the challenges of age.

The Hunter

First Hit:  An interesting and sad commentary on how we misuse the natural resources on the planet.

Martin David (played by Willem Dafoe) meets up with two suspicious characters in a high-end airport looking bar.

The deal they cut is that he is to kill and retrieve something. He wants to work alone, but the obvious and increased camera cuts to one of the two men, give the audience the thought; we’re not through with this guy yet.

Arriving at his location in Tasmania we learn that he is hunting, what is believed to be, the last Tasmanian Tiger known to exist. When he gets to the home where he will be staying he finds a little girl and boy named Sass and Bike (played by Morgana Davies and Finn Woodlock respectively) taking care of their drugged and depressed mother Lucy (played by Francis O’Connor).

We learn that Lucy is this way because her husband has disappeared on a project she wasn’t fully aware of – however, the audience knows. While Lucy is struggling, Jack Mindy (played by Sam Neill) is sort of taking care of the kids and Lucy but there is something sinister or not “all in” about his character.

This film is even paced and the highlight to me was Bike and Martin’s interaction about the Tasmanian Tiger and his Bike’s father. There is a subplot about loggers needing work and ecologists / environmentalists wanting to save the forests.

Seeing the beautiful landscape of Tasmania and how logging both helps and hurts the economic roots of this small specific area added to the hunting of, and possibly killing of, the last Tasmanian Tiger was sad.

Dafoe displayed a wonderful combination of intense, kind, focused and perplexity in this role. Davies was enchanting and perfect as the smart unafraid little girl. Woodlock was amazing as the boy who didn’t speak but was smart beyond compare. O’Connor was good as the children’s mother who’d lost her best friend and husband. Neill was strong as creating just enough creepiness to make one always suspect his motives. Wain Fimeri’s adaption of Julie Leigh’s novel was not remarkable but solid. Daniel Nettheim directed this cast with a clear vision.

Overall: I thought it was an interesting film but not everybody’s cup of tea.

The Deep Blue Sea

First Hit:  Rachel Weisz gives an amazing performance in a good and sometimes overdone film.

This film slips time (where a film moves between future, film’s present and past) easily and effortlessly and this is true at the end as well.

However, at times the time slips are perfect and other times, I was annoyed because either I was caught up in the current segment and wanted more completion, or because I was still in the emotion of a previous segment, while we were leaving the current segment for yet another segment.

Regardless, it is Weisz (as Hester Collyer) that we watch. When the camera isn’t on her we want it to be. This is the power a good actor/actress can have when they are on top of their game. Hester is married to an older robust man who is socially prominent as a English Judge.

Sir William Collyer (played by Simon Russell Beale) loves his wife but is inadequate in many ways when you see them together. His upbringing as displayed on a visit Sir William and Hester make to his mother’s home, is tells the whole story. Mean, rude, and unkind, Sir William’s mother is overt in her dislike of Hester.

Hester meets a younger gentleman named Freddie Page (played by Tom Hiddleston) who, full of the bravery he displayed as a English pilot ace in World War II, finds himself a bit lost when he’s home. He hits on Hester at a highbrow club; she bites, and they have a torrid love affair which, for her, is based not only on physical lust, but an awakening of her whole female being – an exposing of her inner passions to feel.

For Freddie, he is carefree. He loves the sex, he loves Hester, but only at a level that leaves Hester sad – his level of caring isn’t enough for her. On the other side, Sir William won’t give her a divorce, and hopes she will come back to him as he loves her more than he can demonstrate. Hester doesn’t feel that feeling with him and at one point says; once you’ve tasted this deep unbridled love, you cannot go back or accept anything less.

Because William doesn’t let her go, she is nearly destitute but holds on to hope that Freddie will come home to roost, to live with and only want to be with her. We follow Hester through her dark depressed emotions and feelings as she navigates her conundrum; she can’t go back to Sir William and Freddie doesn’t meet their relationship at the same level – what’s a woman to do.

This film is darkly shot and it matches the correspondingly dark subject. Unfortunately for me, we there is an overtly and overly loud violin solo (towards the beginning of the film) which was distracting.

Additionally there were scenes which I was the only one in the theater who thought they thought were funny. One such scene was where Hester and Freddie were looking at a cubist drawing of Picasso’s. He made a remark that she said was childish.

He resented this and they got into a huge row in a very quiet museum. As their voices escalated he finally got mad and stormed off. She calls out after him, “where are you going” and he responds with “to the impressionists.”

I thought that was hilarious and laughed out loud. I was the only one. Then later on when the couple was discussing the argument and she asked him why he went to the impressionists, his answer was very funny.

Weisz is superb beyond belief. She probably won’t get recognized for this independent and limitedly distributed work by some awards show next year, but her acting here is brilliant. Beale is wonderful as a restrained man who loves deeply and will probably never find a way to express it because of how he was raised and his position with the government. Hiddleston is very good as the guy who is stuck a bit in the past, is still and will probably always be a boy at heart. Barbara Jefford is killer (in more ways than one) in her brief appearance as Sir William’s mother. Ann Mitchell is great as Mrs. Elton who runs the boarding house Hester and Freddie live in. Terence Davies wrote the screenplay and directed this well. I thought the dialog was amazing and very English while some of the time slipping was overused and distracting.

Overall: A dark powerful film about a woman who isn’t going to have what she wants and it is worth seeing.