Wild

First Hit:  The story is compelling and I’m not sure it was reflected in its full glory here. Reese Witherspoon plays Cheryl Strayed, a woman who was lost in her life and found herself again by hiking the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT).

The opening scene is great as it shows Cheryl tossing a boot over a cliff after the other one gets clumsily shoved off the cliff edge while she is pulling off a toenail. It shows her naivety in this hiking endeavor along with her quick tempered anger and easily accessed frustration.

This scene fully represents who she is at that moment. It is a great scene. It is unfortunate that not all the following scenes measure up as well. This isn’t to say there aren’t good to great scenes in the film, there are and they just don’t stand up to this opening scene.

Having hiked a lot when I was younger as part of our family backpacking vacations into the high sierras, I enjoyed the scenes of the mountains, meadows, and trails. We learn why she is on the trail through flashbacks which are like thought bubbles, brought up by music, conversation, or situations.

These flashbacks are OK, however they didn’t give me enough context as to why she became a drug addict, slept with everyone in sight, and tried to destroy her life. There was more to the story and it wasn’t here.

Witherspoon was very strong as Cheryl however I think the way the story was told and directed was the weak point of this film. Laura Dern was really engaging and full as Cheryl’s mom. Gabby Hoffman as Cheryl’s friend Aimee was very good. I liked her repulsion of Cheryl’s lifestyle when they were having dinner at the diner. Thomas Sadoski as Cheryl’s ex-husband Paul was also very strong as the man who loved Cheryl through thick and thin. Nick Hornby wrote the script which was very reflective of Cheryl’s book. Jean-Marc Vallee directed this film and this is where I think that this film falters a bit. There is a lot to digest from this book/script and it's a good attempt – not great.

Overall:  I did enjoy the film but I wasn’t satisfied that it told the story deeply enough.

The Homesman

First Hit:  A well-acted slow evolving film that seems to end in mid-sentence.

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy is anything but plain, although the makeup personnel did their best. I think she is and was interestingly beautiful in this film.

Here she is a single smart capable and headstrong woman who is making her way as a farmer in the desolation of “the territories” (later known as Nebraska). She propositions men for marriage by announcing her assets (money in the bank, two strong mules and land) but they decline saying she’s as “plain as a pail” and “bossy”.

The harsh winters have caused three women to “go crazy”. However, to me it was the men who pushed these women towards their craziness by being thoughtless. Anyway, Cuddy decides to take them back to Iowa where they can be with their families.

To help her on this journey she employs George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) who is just surviving by cheating and stealing. How they meet is a hoot and sets up their relationship perfectly. Together they set out to take Anabella Sours (Grace Gummer), Theoline Belknap (Miranda Otto), and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter) to Iowa so that they can be reunited with their families.

The trip is about the relationship between Cuddy and Briggs and how they survive the long trip through the cold, desolation and their ability to become friends while minding their precious cargo. What was fittingly odd, was the ending – would Briggs have closure or would he just do what was next.

Swank is amazing and could get an Oscar nod. Jones is amazingly strong and he also wrote and directed this film. Gummer, Otto and Richter were good in their limited but strategically important roles. Kieran Fitzgerald co-wrote the longish film with Jones who also directed this film with some great prairie visuals and some very interesting one on one scenes.

Overall:  I didn’t love this film, but watching great actors act was worth the time.

Foxcatcher

First Hit:  Well-acted with a long slow buildup to a disconnected ending by a disconnected person.

John E. du Pont (Steve Carell) lives deeply in the shadow of his mother Jean (Vanessa Redgrave), his family, and the family name.

Having never had to work at doing anything for survival he longs to be connected to something, something that gives him a sense of being a man. He thinks himself a patriot and significant contributor to society. The reality is different – it is the name that is famous.

The question I kept asking myself throughout the film was, was he simply a grossly odd individual, or did he have full mental capacity? When you watch some scenes he comes across as either one or the other -  but you don’t really know. I think that is part of the point of the film, not knowing.

What does stand out is that he is completely shielded by money – his family money – nothing he actually earned. He gloms onto the wrestling Schultz brothers who both won Olympic Gold medals in the 1984 games. He does this because he sees an opportunity to finance this sport and these guys to additional greatness as well as his own notoriety. He wants to be seen.

Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) and younger brother Mark (Tatum Channing) are close brothers and great wrestlers. Mark is plodding, not socially adept, but learns wrestling well from his brother and therefore only moderately succeeds. Dave is a brilliant wrestling strategist and coach. Although Mark cannot convince Dave to join duPont’s Foxcatcher team, he decides to live and practice at the Foxcatcher wrestling facility, at du Pont’s home, in Pennsylvania.

du Pont thinks he has become a coach, motivator and mentor of young Mark but in reality he knows nothing about the sport and just supplies the money. The convincingly twisted relationship he builds with Mark is meant to break the bond between the brothers. Mark’s wrestling goes south because of du Pont’s influence (drugs and arrogance) and when the writing was on the wall for the Foxcatcher team, du Pont convinces Dave to come coach the team.

One of the most telling scenes, is when Jean comes to the wrestling facility and John decides to pretend to be the coach. It is a moment where he really begins to see his failings as a human being. The shots of du Pont’s land and the wrestling are effective.

Carell is an oddly disturbing du Pont. I know nothing of the real person so I can only wonder, could the du Pont Carell created by Carell do the deeds as shown? Yes, Carell made the brooding, icy stares and halting rambling speeches convincing. Ruffalo was really good as the smart, very engaged coach and brother to Mark. Channing was good to great. I found it hard for me to believe he survived on his limited social skills, but as a wrestler I thought he was great. Redgrave was perfect as the mother who told her son, “wrestling is a low sport…”. E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman wrote the script that had some interesting lines and others that were funny but maybe not meant to be funny. Bennett Miller directed this film. Some of the shots of the wrestling and land around Foxcatcher were fantastic, however the story plodded.

Overall:  Despite its failings as a film and it being too long in telling the story, I was intrigued to learn more about this event where a rich man kills a wrestling coach.

The Theory of Everything

First Hit: Extremely well-acted and a very engaging story.

Stephen Hawking (played here by Eddie Redmayne) is a brilliant man. His way of viewing our world is ever changing because he continues to open his mind to concepts while having the tenacity to prove things mathematically. Sharing with us, his thoughts through a body that has basically shut down is a story of perseverance and unending support and love from his wife Jane (Felicity Jones).

The film follows the story of Hawking meeting Jane, his learning that he has a motor neuron disease which will slowly disable his physical movement, how Jane’s support allowed him to continue, flourish in the science community, and finally through the end of Jane and Stephen’s marriage and their continued support each other past their divorce.

This film is beautifully shot as the scenes in the house show both havoc and love - amazing.

Redmayne gives an Oscar nomination worthy performance – enough said. Jones is fantastic. I thought she was equally the heart and soul of this film. David Thewlis as Dennis Sciama was great and embodied the man who helped Steven grow and explore his inner universe. Anthony McCarten wrote an excellent screen play from Jane Hawking’s own book “Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen”. James Marsh did a fantastic job of giving us a view into this great man’s life. He did an even better job of giving us a view of how Jane was the base that empowered Stephen.

Overall: This was a wonderful film to watch.

Rosewater

First Hit: I'm sure that the real story was more compelling than the film exhibited.

There was something lackluster about watching this film. I wasn’t expecting anything explosive or mind boggling, I was hoping to be touched by this film; I wasn’t.

The subject matter is interesting, however it isn’t new ground. There are many historical films about someone incorrectly imprisoned and how they survived. Unfortunately, this ends up being just one of many. Could it have been more? Yes because we have Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal) who was Iranian born, his dad and sister were revolutionaries on their own, he works for Newsweek and is imprisoned in Iran for being a CIA and MI6 spy.

Given all this, I never really got a sense as to the main focus of this film: 1) Was it about how Bahari deals with the pressure? 2) Was it about how Javadi (Kim Bodnia) interrogated him? 3) Was it about how Iran wanted to show the world it is a victim of western governments? 4) Was it about how high level international pressure can bring to bear his release? 5) Was it about Bahari’s family, who have been Iranian government antagonists for generations?  

I had high hopes for the film early on when Bahari is abducted from his Iranian family home and his abductors say: “We are here for you now.” They take him directly to prison. This is the point of my review, I had trouble understanding the main focus of the film and therefore I left the theater thinking; interesting but empty.

Bernal was good but the lack of clear direction reduced the effectiveness of script and unknown point of the film. Javadi was also good and only good for the reasons stated above. Jon Stewart wrote and directed this first time effort for him. The lack of direct focus on a particular subject within the context of the story might be a first time filmmaker’s mistake, I don’t know. Yet, this is what it seemed like. Stewart did an OK job, but if he’s going to do more, he has some work to do.

Overall: A good first time effort for Stewart, but the film lacked a single driving focus.