The Girl in the Spider's Web

First Hit: Although darkly shot with an overly complicated story, it was moderately entertaining.

Lizbeth Salander has been played by three people; Noomi Rapace, Rooney Mara, and in this film Claire Foy. Each brought their own edgy darkness to the role. I will say that each of them was extremely watchable because of their unique intensity.

The film begins with a young Lizbeth (Beau Gadson) playing chess with her sister Camila (Carlotta von Falkenhayn). Their father is eerily controlling and sexually sadistic, especially towards a more willing Camila. The sisters are close, but their father controls Camila and although Lizbeth tries to save her sister from her father’s clutches, she fails.

After Lizbeth dramatically leaves their home, the film shifts to Lizbeth as an adult. She’s a computer programmer, and is constantly finding someone to help or save, for a price. The first person we see her helping is an abused wife by blackmailing the executive and moving all his money to with wife’s account. It's obvious that her father's behavior has her saving people being abused.

She takes on a job to steal software that can run all the nuclear missiles in the world. This is where the story is clouded. The NSA is after the software, so is the creator. After all of them are the Swedish police and secret service. Lizbeth is being looked for my lots of people.

Then Camilla (now played by Sylvia Hoeks) shows up and she becomes someone that wants the computer code along with vengeance towards Lizbeth for leaving her with her father.

The film dances through a fair number of action scenes with people trying to hurt Lizbeth and obtain the computer program she has. Lizbeth has befriended the son of the program's creator and she takes it upon herself to save the boy after his father is killed. What makes it more complicated, is that the there is a code required to get access to the software on the computer and only boy knows it.

All of this and more pieces are thrown together and some of it was interesting to watch, but the thing that made this film really difficult to watch was just how dim and dark, in color, the scenes were. Even the day scenes are dark in tone and color. I know this was to add to the darkness of the story, but when the whole film is like this, it can almost put someone to sleep.

Foy is strong as Salander and she brought her own unique darkness and strengths to this role. Sverrir Gudnason plays the writer Mikael Blomkvist was OK in a minor role as someone who makes his living writing about Lisbeth. Lakeith Stanfield playing Ed Needham the NSA agent trying to get back the code was one of the stronger actors in this film. Hoeks was strong as Lizbeth’s sister. Steven Knight wrote a confusing script. Fede Alvarez directed this film and unfortunately it was more confusing than interesting.

Overall: This will take its place as the worst of the three “The Girl…” films.

Nobody's Fool

First Hit: Although a few funny bits, it was overdone, too long, and way too predictable.

You’d think with a good cast including Tika Sumpter (as Danica), Tiffany Haddish (as Tanya), and Whoopi Goldberg (as Lola) there would be a funny redeeming story with meaningful exchanges but this fails at both ends.

Here Danica is a advertising executive trying to get promoted. One of her team members Kalli (Amber Riley) is appropriately loyal, however her boss Lauren Meadows (Missi Pyle) is so far-fetched it makes the agency they work for seem fake and foolish. It was either a huge mistake to cast Pyle in this role or to make this role look foolish. The meetings with Meadows teams vying for the opportunity to create the ad program for a new fragrance were stupid.

Danica is a very controlled person who has done everything she can to put her life together, work hard, and create a nice life for herself. Tanya is her sister, who spends a fair amount of her time in jail for drugs or prostitution. As the film begins Danica gets a call from their mom, Lola, telling her that Tanya is getting out of jail and that Danica has to pick her sister up and also provide a home for her. Reason is that the last time Tanya stated with her mom, she ripped out all the copper wire and plumbing to sell for dollars. It cost Lola $35,000 to fix the home.

Danica was also dumped by her fiancé one week before their wedding and for the last year has been emailing, texting and having phone calls with Charlie (Mehcad Brooks) who is an engineer on an oil derrick. She’s never met him, seen him, skyped him (he says bad Wi-Fi connections), but is in love with him. She claims that he’s the perfect man, meets everything on her list and cannot wait to meet him.

Adding to this story Danica is being actively pursued by the owner of a local coffee store. The owner Frank (Omari Hardwick) gives Danica her daily coffee for free and it always comes with a single red rose. But despite his pursuit Danica doesn’t pay him any mind because he doesn’t meet the items on her list.

The hilarity sections ensue when Danica picks up Tanya from prison and takes her back to her apartment. Tanya is so overboard you cannot help but laugh at some of the dialogue. Because Tanya needs a job and needs to attend AA meetings, Danica escorts her to her office to help her get started. On the way they stop by the coffee store and Frank offers Tanya a job because she fixed and served coffee at the prison. Then Tanya and Danica discover that Frank hosts AA meetings in the store after hours because he also has a prison record and wants to make his life right.

Tanya also believes that her sister Danica is being “Catfished” by this unknown entity named “Charlie.” This is because there’s never been any real face to face contact between him and Danica.

With these setups there is bound to be some hilarity and funny scenes, and there are. But the ending is obvious, it takes too long to get there, and the office scenes are unfathomable.

Sumpter is OK as Danica. Her character is too smart to fall in love with a phone voice and the story's handling of the office she worked in was poorly done. Sumpter had to walk a fine line in this film to make it work, and unfortunately, she didn’t get much help from the script or director. Haddish’s role is over the top and for the most part doesn’t work. There are a few hilarious scenes but they rely on a gross pushiness of her character. Goldberg’s role as their mom was minor and mostly useless. She had a few good lines but overall, I’m not clear why the role was needed. Hardwick was excellent and the best part of this film. His consistently honest character, a person working to make his life right, was wonderfully portrayed. Pyle’s role was horrible. I do not believe that anyone acting like this would actually be in a position of leadership in any advertising agency. This was an issue with Pyle, the script, the director or all three. Brooks was OK. I thought his caricature of a suave man on the internet and when he first meets Danica, then turning into an obnoxious self-focused jerk at dinner was to far a stretch of the character. Riley as Danica’s team member was OK. She seemed to be acting the role versus being the role, and that’s not a good thing. Tyler Perry wrote and directed this mess. It is unfortunate he overdid all his characters and made this film seem cartoonish. The film ended up not being un-funny and not dramatic.

Overall: Unclear idea and overdone execution made me wonder how this film got made.

Boy Erased

First Hit: Outstanding cast delivers sublime performances in a powerful story about LGBT conversion programs.

Gay and lesbian conversion programs exist, and the number shown at the end of the film, astounded me. In this day in age, church supported Christian conversion programs believe they can change someone’s sexual preference by indoctrinating people in the “way of the lord.”

Here, we have Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges) heading off to college with the support of his homemaker mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) and his father Marshall (Russell Crowe), a local church pastor and car dealership owner. With Marshall being a Baptist pastor he firmly believes that LGBT people are an abomination of the bible and his beliefs.

During high school Jared has a girlfriend Chole (Madelyn Cline) who would like Jared to be more sexually adventurous, but he is hesitant. This is the only indication that the audience really has that Jared is gay. During college he meets Henry (Joe Alwyn) who lives in the same dorm building as him. They become running buddies until one evening after playing video games, Henry tries to rape and sodomize Jared. It gets interrupted by a neighbor pounding on the shared wall, and Henry breaks down and pleads with Jared to not tell anyone about this event.

When the school calls home and tells Nancy and Marshall about this event at school, Jared, at first, says it’s not true. Marshall calls in his preacher friends and they decide as a group to send Jared to a bible-based conversion program to help Jared get the devil out of him and straighten him out. Going to the program the audience immediately sees how horrible it is.

The rules, the belief that bible loving men with no real training in psychology, can fix the gay problem with moral inventories, confessions, and intimidation is astoundingly ignorant of the truth. As Jared begins his moral inventory, he writes down the name Henry, crosses it out and writes down Xavier (Theodore Pellerin). The film wonderfully shows how Jared and Xavier met and what it meant to Jared.

When the pressure to state that Jared hates his father in front of the others gets to be too much, Jared gets up and leaves the room. He knows about the mistreatment of the others in the program. Stating he’s going to leave the program, the team running the program try to stop him. I loved how Cameron (Britton Sear), one of the other boys trying to be converted, stands up for Jared and helps him escape.

The scenes when Nancy decides and states she can no longer support Jared’s conversion program with Jared and Marshall were brilliantly presented.

Hedges was extraordinary in this role. His ability to create depth of character and keep the audience wondering what he’s thinking was amazing. Kidman was perfect. She was a follower until, it came down to the survival and happiness of her child. You believed her when she states her total support for Jared. Crowe was excellent as the preacher father who realizes in the end, it’s him that must change. Joel Edgerton (playing Victor Sykes) the chief therapist at the conversion center was excellent. He effectively gives the audience a taste of misguided beliefs. Flea does a great job playing Brandon, a converted and sober co-therapist. Alwyn was dynamite as the gay college student that couldn't stop himself. Pellerin is excellent as the sensitive man who holds Jared’s hand all night. Sear was amazing as the young high school football player who is severely punished in-front of the other attendees. Jesse LaTourette as one of the girls in the program was stunning in a mostly non-verbal role. Joel Edgerton did a wonderful job with both script and direction. Granted he has amazing actors at his mercy but it takes a great story and direction to make it work this well.

Overall: I left the theater saddened to know that so many of the conversion centers still exist because it is a reminder of religious ignorance.

A Private War

First Hit: First Hit: Rosamund Pike (as Marie Colvin) gives a deeply complex performance of a war correspondent who brought personal stories of war victims to the forefront.

War isn’t just about the leaders of countries with idealistic differences and the soldiers of those leaders; it is about the victims of this conflict. Colvin was a committed pioneer in going into conflicts and documenting, in newspaper articles, the stories of the families, wives, mothers and children of wars around the world.

The film begins with her covering the conflict in Homs, Syria, and then segues to some of the previous wars she covered in her career. Sri Lanka is where she lost sight in her left eye. This causes her to begin to wear a black patch that became part of her persona. Then the film takes us on tour with Colvin as she goes to various war zones in the world to see how she covered these wars and how she uncovered her powerful stories.

What we learn is that she was fearless in action although she felt fear. She was incredibly rebellious against authority whether it be the publication she wrote for, or with the leaders she interviewed. Watch her poignant questions to Libya’s Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi, commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi. An outstanding scene.

Early on in her investigations she had difficulty finding a photographer that would work well with her. Then she happened on Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan) who became a wonderful companion and friend to Colvin.

As for Colvin’s personal life, we see early on her defensive, reactive nature towards her former husband and people really close to her. She allowed few to get close and preferred to be harsh and flippant to the people who cared about her. She drank heavily (“started drinking at age 15”), and suffered from PTSD. For a short time, she took up residence in a hospital to help her deal and process the horrible events she lived through.

What we don’t get a deep dive on is Marie’s background. I kept wondering why she was so rebellious and reckless with her own life. Not only did she put herself in positions where she could be killed, she smoked incessantly and drank excessively.

However, through all this self-destruction she was able to relate to mothers (although she didn’t have children herself), and families with deep compassion which came out in her writing.

Pike was fantastic. When, in the credits, we hear the real Colvin’s voice, we notice that Pike got her voice perfectly. Dornan was excellent as Colvin’s photographer. It’s nice to see him in a non-villain role. Tom Hollander (playing Sean Ryan) as Colvin’s foreign correspondent boss was excellent. It must have been difficult to manage someone who had such a strong will while looking out for his reporter's health and welfare. Stanley Tucci as Tony Shaw, Colvin’s late in life lover was strong as the guy who accepted Colvin as she was. Corey Johnson (as Norm Coburn) a photographer that was always first one in and last one out of a conflict was fantastic. Nikki Amuka-Bird as Colvin's closest friend Rita Williams was wonderful. She was frankly supportive of Colvin. Marie Brenner wrote a strong script allowing Matthew Heineman to deliver this complex story in an engaging and powerful way.

Overall: I wanted more background about Colvin, yet I was blown away by the depth of the story of her in war zones.

What They Had

First Hit: Touching, poignant, funny, and unless you’ve been near the subject it might be difficult to understand this story.

This film is about he hard choices some families must make about putting parents into assisted care.

We begin with Ruth (Blythe Danner) getting up, putting on a robe and walking out the front door. The ground is covered with snow, there’s no one on the streets and she heads down a empty snowy street to get to somewhere in her past. Her husband Bert (Robert Forster) wakes up some time later, notices his wife is not in bed, gives a slight here we go again look that quickly turns to caring concern, and he bolts out the door looking for Ruth.

He calls his son Nick (Michael Shannon) who lives nearby, who in turn, contacts his sister Bridget (Hilary Swank). Nick goes out searching for his Mom, while Bridget flies back to her home town to see if she can help. Ruth has increasing stages of dementia and it is getting more difficult for Bert, who has a bad heart, to manage and care for his wife, but he’s stubborn. Nick, being close by, wants to get his mom into a care facility and his father into assisted living. Bert is vehemently resisting this sort of move. Compounding this is that Bridget has power of attorney and rarely there to see what Nick, Bert, and Ruth go through.

A subplot to the main story is that Bridget is in an unhappy marriage and has huge communication issues with their daughter Emma (Taissa Farmiga). Emma has been doing poorly in college, wants to quit and her parents are pushing her to continue.

Bridget and Emma fly back together so the audience knows this sub-plot will get attention as well.

The scenes between Bridget (aka Bitty) and Nick are dynamically interesting and full of great dialogue. Their interaction when they agree and disagree is right on target. I especially liked how Nick finally tells Bridget that she’s out of touch with their parents and how exhausted he is being an upscale bar owner and the “go to” person when there is an issue with Ruth—and there’s always an issue.

Bridget tries to be a mediator, trying to find a middle path but ends up alienating both Nick and Bert. When she has a huge argument with her dad about assisted care, she finally tells him that he’s never listened to her or asked what it is she’d like in life, including her marriage. This was an excellent scene because she was doing the same thing to Emma, not asking what Emma wanted and ignoring her.

Bitty’s clumsy attempt at a flirtation with an old high-school friend was excellent. I loved how he charged her an enormous amount for changing the locks. Bitty’s surprise look was perfect.

This film has a lot to say about how families navigate through the emotions and practicalities of a loved one with dementia.

Swank was excellent and teamed with Shannon had great scenes of brotherly and sisterly love and frustration. When Swank climbs into bed with Emma, a wonderful softening takes place. Shannon was excellent as the brother who was showing up and doing his best. That his father had no respect that he was a bar owner (“…you tend bar don’t you, you’re a bartender…”) and ran his own business was perfect. I especially loved when Bert finally came to see the bar and ordered a martini. Danner was amazing as Ruth. She really captured the look and sense of someone who had forgotten who her husband was and then would remember everything. She segued from one state of presence to another with sublime clarity of the role and the disease. Forster was excellent as the stubborn husband and dad that knows best about everything. When he gets up and realizes that Ruth has left the house, there is a quick moment of, shit not again look, that segues into I care and have got to find her. This quick set of expressions was perfect. Farmiga was very strong as Emma, the troubled daughter that wasn’t being heard by her parents and she’d had enough of living their expectations for her. Elizabeth Chomko wrote and directed this wonderful glimpse into a family struggling with how to deal with a loved one’s battle with dementia.

Overall: This film is not everyone’s cup of tea, however, it is an excellent film about a real issue many families face.