The Light Between Oceans

First Hit:  Strong acting by Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender had me feeling the intended pain and joy of their characters.

Doing the right thing to find inner peace in his life, Tom Sherbourne (Fassbender) has come to this small Australian town to serve as a solitary lighthouse keeper. The lighthouse is on Janus Rock, a remote island several miles from shore. He’s traumatized from his experience in WWI having seen and caused many deaths. He’s looking to repair his soul.

One of the men who helps to hire the lighthouse keeper has a daughter named Isabel Graysmark (Vikander). She is full of energy, life and is intrigued by the quiet somewhat brooding polite Sherbourne. On one of his trips onto shore, he has a picnic with her and their connection is sealed.

The chemistry on the screen is palpable and watching them together is curiously engaging. They marry and live in solitude on the island. They attempt to have children but Isabel miscarries and the pain of these scenes are a strong set up to what happens when they find a dingy washing up on the island with a small baby girl and a dead man inside. Tom wants to find the mother, but Isabel wants to keep the baby and bonds with it immediately.

Filling the hole inside her from her miscarriages drives her to convince Sherbourne to not take steps to find the birth mother. Some years later the birth mother is discovered and she lives in the same town.

Hannah Roenfeldt (Rachel Weisz) is mourning the loss of her husband and baby and Tom fights himself and Isabel to set the record straight.

There are some wonderfully staged scenes in this film including; when Isabel shaves off Tom’s moustache. The happiness of their first dance after the wedding. Tom’s speech about the Lighthouse where Hannah is present and he is lost at what to say and how to say it. The scene when Hannah and Isabel meet up in the fabric store and Lucy-Grace (Florence Clery) runs to Isabel’s arms. And finally when the adult Lucy-Grace (Caren Pistorius) visits Tom. This film was meant to pull on the audience’s heart strings and it does this really well.

Fassbender was amazing as the restrained and constrained man filled with a tough emotional past and learning how love could release him. His controlled words and actions, as provided for in the script, were powerfully shown and shared with the audience. Vikander shows why she won an Academy Award last year. She made Isabel frightfully real in so many ways, displaying the ability to move from one emotion to another in a way that was integrated. She was outstanding. Weisz was powerfully controlled in her role as the mother who lost her child, found her child and having to re-establish her role as mother when the child, rightfully, believed someone else was her mother. Wonderful performance. Derek Cianfrance wrote and directed this film. His ability to create the agonizingly beautiful and powerful scenes in this film, show his ability to get what he wanted.

Overall:  This film is heart touchingly aimed to bring a tear or two, and it does.

Mechanic: Resurrection

First Hit:  Entertaining enough to make it fun to watch.

I recall the first “The Mechanic” film I saw in 1972, which starred Charles Bronson as Arthur Bishop. I liked the concept of an, almost heatless, assassin for hire. Bronson didn’t talk much and let his body, action and eyes do his speaking for him. He was rough but very thoughtful in his preparation to carry out his mission.

In 2011 “The Mechanic” was remade with Jason Statham playing the role of Arthur Bishop. The plot of these two films were closely aligned and Statham did a really good job of recreating this role that Bronson played so effectively. He also brought a glint of heart to the role.

In this reprise of the same character, Bishop has attempted to hide away and live a quiet life in Rio de Janeiro. However, he gets a visit from an agent of Crain (Sam Hazeldine) who wants Bishop to do 3 more assassinations. Bishop refuses and heads to another small shack in Thailand.

Here Mei (Michelle Yeoh) helps him get settled. When a tourist name Gina (Jessica Alba) gets in trouble Bishop saves her but it is all a plot by Crain to get Bishop do to the assassinations. Leveraged, Bishop ingeniously does his work but also goes after Crain.

The setups of the assassinations are interesting and engaging. The overall plot is a bit weak, but the way the actors play their roles keeps the whole film entertaining and the audience engaged.

Statham is a great choice for this character as he leads with intelligence before brawn. You also get to see that Bishop cares. Alba is OK and helped the plot along. Yeoh was good as the person Bishop once helped and will do anything to help him. Hazeldine was sinister enough. Tommy Lee Jones has a minor, yet key role as one of Bishop’s targets but becomes an ally. Philip Shelby and Tony Mosher wrote an engaging script and didn’t push plot devices too far. Dennis Gansel did a good job of keeping the film moving and made this film an extension of the Statham’s Mechanic film.

Overall:  This movie was action packed and engaging.

Southside with You

First Hit:  This was a very sweet story about how Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson’s first date might have gone.

Based on publicly available facts, Richard Tanne developed a wonderful script and directed this film creating a space for two amazing actors Tika Sumpter (Michelle) and Parker Sawyers (Barack) to reflect our current first family’s initial date.

I liked the feel of this very uplifting story and how it transferred to film. It showed the intelligence of both our President and First Lady. Their personal charm, goals, aspirations, and willingness to cautiously open up to each other about their upbringing and future ambitions were nicely presented.

The film follows the couple from when he first picks Michelle up in a car that has part of the floorboard missing; then they trek to a museum, take a walk in a park, go to a community meeting where Barack speaks, see a Spike Lee film, and have ice cream together.

Throughout these events, their dialogue is wonderfully scripted and brings out information that gives the audience a peek at the how and why they are together.

Sumpter is very strong at showing an intelligent strong Michelle while being cautious about starting a relationship with someone who works in her firm. Sawyers was very good as showing us the articulate well-spoken President we’ve come to know. Tanne did a wonderful job of creating a script and directing his two actors.

Overall:  I found this story and film to very sweet and enjoyable.

Hell or High Water

First Hit:  Very well acted Texas Ranger crime story that evokes the old west while resolving a modern day problem.

Brothers Tanner and Toby Howard (Ben Foster and Chris Pine respectively) are two bank robbers who clearly have a plan. During the robberies they take only loose cash, only what is in the teller drawers, and only from the small Mid-Texas Midland Bank branches.

As the story evolves the audience learns how Tanner has been a trouble maker his whole life while Toby has been walking the straight and narrow path. So why are they doing this? We eventually find out and that is what makes this story work. Because the amount of money they are taking are small, the FBI isn’t interested in finding the robbers, so the Rangers get the assignment.

Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) is a near retirement Ranger who is a little long in the tooth while being old time smart and is very loyal to his job. His partner, Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham), is a younger man who is also Indian. The running jokes in the film is that Marcus cannot help himself about making racist and pointed jokes about Alberto’s heritage. However, the audience also sees the love and respect Marcus has for Alberto. In the pursuit of the robbers the audience learns about each of the characters and the story of the ranch Tanner and Toby are trying to save.

The script does a great job of defining the characters and letting the story unfold.

Pine is wonderful as the thoughtful smart brother who finds a way to help his family. Foster is perfect as the on-edge bad-boy brother who wants to help and support his brother. Bridges embodies the old west in the new world with this role. He’s amazing. Birmingham is fantastic as Bridges’ partner. A shout-out to Margret Bowman who plays a waitress in a restaurant. Her 2 minutes on the screen were brilliant. Taylor Sheridan wrote a very strong script. David Mackenzie did an excellent job of directing the actors through this story. The small Texas town feel was very well done.

Overall:  This was a very entertaining film.

War Dogs

First Hit:  I enjoyed this film because it showed the absurdity of how the US Government created a system allowing two young men in their 20's to bid for and win large contracts to provide arms to and for our government.

Based on a true story, I was both flabbergasted and amazed at the ingenuity of Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz (Jonah Hill and Miles Teller respectively) to find ways to bid for and win US Government arms contracts.

David is a massage therapist in Miami and his fiancé Iz (Ana de Armas) becomes pregnant. Efraim, his old junior high-school friend, comes back into town with a proposition to help him in his new business, arms dealer.

Together they start landing contracts, but the one that puts them on the map is one where they end up having to drive cases of Beretta handguns from Jordan to Baghdad. The complications to their story included, David lying to Iz about his whereabouts and what he was doing as well as Efraim’s deep seeded greed and how it plays out in their deals as well as his personal relationships.

Bradley Cooper as Henry Girard a US Citizen arms supplier (middle man) who is also on a watch list because of some previous nefarious dealings. Many of the scenes were made good because of the acting of both Teller and Hill.

Teller was strong as the somewhat gullible friend, who in the end, was not so gullible. Hill was a blast. His laugh and intensity was perfect for the kind of guy that uses people to benefit himself. Armas was very good as David’s fiancé and mother of their daughter. Cooper was well cast in that he brought the right kind of intensity and friendliness when it suited him. Stephen Chin, Todd Phillips, and  Jason Smilovic wrote a fun and intense script based on a Rolling Stone article. Phillips also seemed to have a strong hand in the direction as the various countries and scenes were well constructed.

Overall:  Although not a blockbuster, it was a fun film and enjoyable to watch.