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 Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

First Hit:  A long and mostly uninteresting run-up to Part 2.

This movie is a set-up, and like most set-up movies it is trying to lay enough interesting groundwork to make the audience want to come see Part 2. God help us if there is a Part 3 because I’m not sure I could sit through another sloggy long set-up film.

In this movie, we catch up with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) as she discovers that her home District 12 has been destroyed. Most everyone has been killed. She is staying with District 13 and their President, Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), wants Katniss to become the symbol for her goal to overthrow the Capitol which is still being led by President Snow (Donald Sutherland).

What is holding Katniss back is Peeta, her love, (played by Josh Hutcherson) who is being held by President Snow. She's afraid that Peeta will be killed. Most of the film is about getting Katniss to become a convincing propagandist. In other words, it is an action film without action. Katniss does this fairly well although, I couldn’t help but wonder why she had to have a role that made her act reluctant - and that it appeared that she did this reluctantly.

We have many of the previous actors back from the earlier films: Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) as a young man who cares deeply for Katniss. Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) a previous and crazy Hunger Games winner. It is also, and probably, the next to last unseen film footage of Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee.

Lawrence is OK as Katniss; an uninspired person trying to become inspired. Something about the brooding look made me wonder if she really like doing this particular film. Moore was OK but I kept wondering if she will turn out to be as bad as President Snow when she becomes empowered ("hail the new boss, same as the old boss"). Sutherland is OK. I didn’t think he was a good choice for the other films and I hold with this thought. Maybe just not regal and scary enough. Hutcherson is in a minor role here but is set up for a larger role in Part 2.   Hemsworth was worthy in his role as probably the best on the screen here. Harrelson is also one of the better actors in this film. Hoffman is OK, but I cannot look at him without thinking of his recent demise. Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket steals scenes with her persona. Peter Craig and Danny Strong wrote this lead-in script which at best was mediocre. Francis Lawrence directed this film and we hope the lead in works to something better to come.

Overall:  It was entertaining enough, but certainly it lacked some real grit and content.

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.