This week’s movie:

IN BRUGES

I’ve been told that I need to use more metaphor.

I don’t know why.  Should I take this to mean that my discussions have, in the past, been perhaps too literal?  I don’t think that’s true but, then again, it’s hard for me to be objective.  So, I thought I’d try an experiment.  I will offer three separate discussions of this week’s video recommendation, IN BRUGES.  The first one will be perfectly literal – or as perfectly literal as I can manage.  In the second review, I will give my “normal” observations on the film.  You can then judge how similar the first and second are.  If they are indistinct, then I am being too literal and need to to use more metaphors.  In the third version, I will offer an intentionally metaphorical discussion.  It will be symbolic and make you think and it may have separate meanings depending on how you read into it or, if you read aloud, the inflection of your own voice, or the time of day, or what the meaning of “is” is.

So here goes.

The Literal Version.

This week’s movie, IN BRUGES (wherever that is) played in theaters and is now available on DVD, although not yet on Blu-ray (as of this writing – but probably by now since it won a Golden Globe Award).  It is 107 minutes long.  It stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes – who all give very fine performances …..sorry, I digress.  Um ……………….it’s in color.  It’s about hit men who are hiding out in Bruges (wherever that is) after a job goes down wrong, and what they do while they’re there, and what the gang boss decides to do about them……… Locations include Bruges (wherever that is) and a little bit of somewhere in England.  Props include guns, tour books, um………….clothes, and um ……..a dwarf, and um………. I’m sorry, but everything else seems to be subject to interpretation.  Oh wait – as of this writing, IN BRUGES has made the IMDB Top 250 at #203, between The Conversation and Anatomy of a Murder, and won a best actor Golden Globe award for Colin Farrell.  That’s it.

I

The FranksFilms version.

This movie shouldn’t be funny, but it is.  It’s about hit men who do horrendous things for a living.  In fact, they’re hiding out because one of them, Colin Farrell’s character, has mistakingly killed an innocent bystander and the climate is about to get very hot.  They’re banished by their boss to hide out in Bruges. “Where the f#@k is Bruges?”, he asks.  (Admit it!  You were thinking that too.)  It shouldn’t be funny – but it is.  Very much so.

We shouldn’t like these guys, after all they’re killers – but we do.  So, why DO we like them?  Why is it easy to disassociate them from what they do?  The answer is – because they’re funny, they make us laugh.  How is this possible, you ask.  We do it all the time.  The truth is that we all use humor to relieve stress.  In fact, that is its main purpose.  You can take the most horrendous situation and inject a little humor, and suddenly it’s funny.  We tend not to dwell on the terrible, and instead, focus on the light and humorous.

I think I first encountered this phenomenon in James Bond films.  Bond would be dancing will a beautiful woman when he’d see an assassin reflected in her eyes.  He’d swing her around so that she’d take the bullet – and we’d all gasp.  But when he’d dump her lifeless body on a chair and remark to an onlooker, “She’s dead tired.”  we’d all laugh.  See, he made a joke.

Consider the following scenario.  Two men walk into a theater an make a gruesome discovery – everybody is dead.  Not just dead, but hacked up and blown apart and strewn all over the place.  Blood and guts and pieces cover every surface.  Men, women, and children, and pets – yes pets too – have been killed in terrible ways.  The scene is terrible beyond comprehension.  The carnage – Oh, the carnage!  But, let’s suppose that one of the men accidentally slips on some wayward entrails and falls on his butt.  Dang! he says, I just had these pants dry cleaned.  I would be willing to bet that 999 out of 1000 people would laugh (you would too – admit it).  Don’t think badly of yourself if you laugh – you can’t help it – it’s human nature.

Hence the hit men in this film are funny.

Colin Farrel’s character is especially complex.  He has done something terrible and he feels guilty and ashamed.  On the other hand, he’e a wisecracking wise guy (that’s doubly wise) that can’t help getting into trouble – which is NOT the kind of thing you want when you’re trying to lay low.  He’s impatient and can’t appreciate the abundant beauty the city has to offer.  He does, however, appreciate the abundant ‘beauties’ the city has to offer.  Again, just the kind of thing you don’t do when you’re trying to lay low.

The film is a well crafted balance between serious drama, wisecracking wisecracks, real friendship between the two men ( the young rookie and the seasoned pro), a burgeoning romance, and just a touch of absurdity.  Absurdity, however, cranks into overdrive in the final reel when mob boss, Ralph Fiennes, finally shows up to give his most over-the-top and perhaps his funniest performance.  This film is sure to please as it has all of the prerequisite elements: hitmen, tour books, mobsters, pretty girls, guns, bullets,  drugs, and dwarves – and, of course, there’s Bruges itself – wherever the f#@k that is.

I realize that all this talk about Bruges will probably make all of you want to vacation there – so, as a public service, I give you these TEN TOP THINGS TO DO IN BRUGES WHILE YOU’RE HIDING FROM THE LAW:

1. Study some of the Gothic architecture.
2. Study some Gothic Goths hanging out in front of aforesaid architecture.
3. Boat tour along the canals.
4. Bet on the boat races along the canals.  if you’re a true criminal, you’d rig the races …..along the canals  …….amid the aforesaid architecture.
5. Tour the historic windmills.
6. Drink the historic ale in the Gothic beer pubs.
7. (From “Great Railtours of Europe”) “….take Hoogstraat to Langestraat and keep going to Kruisport.”  I don’t even know HOW to joke about this.
8. Visit Flanders Fields.
9. Bury a couple bodies in Flanders Fields.
10. Get a feel for some local color.  The aforesaid Gothic architecture is gray; the previously mentioned canal water is …….er, gray; the railroad trains are ….er, gray;  the aforesaid historic beer pubs are gray; the Gothic Goths wear gray; the sky is gray; the dead bodies buried in Flanders Fields are gray (after a while); the lederhosen are gray.  Maybe seeing some red bloodshed wouldn’t be so bad after all.

You don’t have to go to Bruges to watch IN BRUGES.

Enjoy.

…..and finally,

The Metaphor version

The crow caws!

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This week’s movie:

WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY

I cried at the end of Old Yeller.

Of course I was only six, but still …… so what? I also teared up a bit for Grave of the Fireflies, and Love Story, and Ghost, and My Girl, and Bambi, and Pandora’s Box, and The Bridge to Terabithia, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. You know …….the usual tear-jerkers. The point is, I consider myself relatively normal. My black sense of humor non-withstanding, I usually react to films the same way that most people do. So – when I say that I found this week’s movie, about an afterlife populated by people who have committed suicide, rather sweet and endearing, it’s not because I have a warped sensibility (I do, but that’s not why), it’s because the movie really is sweet and endearing.

Now, before you say, “Oh God! Not another one of these oddball freaky FranksFilms-esque movies! Why can’t you review ‘normal’ films like Made of Honor or What Happens in Vegas?” The truth is, I see a lot of movies like those and some of them are pretty good – but there’s nothing new or different or unusual about them. I know exactly what to expect, and I get it – they’re predictable, they’re pure entertainment, audience satisfying, seat filling ticket selling commodities but they won’t raise any new issues or make you think uncomfortable thoughts or make you look at the usual in an unusual way. Whereas, the films that I feature here typically have an unusual hook or do something exceptionally difficult or take chances that have a great payoff. WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY does all these things.

A young man, Zia, commits suicide (guess how) when he becomes disconsolate after his girlfriend dumps him. Now you might think, there’s no excuse for that, suicide solves nothing, nobody is worth killing yourself over …..to which i say, you haven’t seen his girlfriend – she pretty hot. The irony is, his is relegated to an afterlife two or three notches more depressing than the one he left behind. He is assigned a depressing job, lives in a depressing apartment with a roommate he hates. He considers committing suicide again but, who knows, he might end up in a worse place – I mean, where do you go if you’ve committed suicide from the suicide afterlife? I mean really, it boggles the mind.

Zia does make friends. Eugene, a failed Russian rocker, killed himself on stage during a show. They pick up girls together and compare suicide stories. Eugene lives with his family. Yes, his entire family committed suicide – not all at once. They are happy (somewhat) but it’s not easy to be happy here. You can’t smile, there are no stars in the sky, the landscape is bleak, nothing works right, there are no good jobs and no good apartments – what do you want? You’re dead – make the best of it.

All this so far is just a set up for the story. From a chance meeting, Zia is given a piece of information that sets him off on a journey – a quest of sorts – almost impossible, given the circumstances – but as he tells Eugene, “Do you have anything better to do?” He needs Eugene. Eugene has a car – a depressing one – the kind each of us has had at one time or another. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker, Mikal, who is on a quest of her own. She is looking for the PIC (People In Charge) because, she claims, she is there by mistake and would they please send her someplace nicer. They meet up with, and stay for a while at a small commune led by Tom Waits, and find a camp belonging to a suicide cult who, it seems, have been transported there en masse. They’re still up to their old tricks, so maybe we will find out what happens if you kill yourself in the suicide afterlife after all.

We never really find out why all the suicides end up here. Perhaps they’re given this opportunity to work things out in a way they weren’t able to in life. Maybe they’re forced to find happiness in a placed devoid of it. Maybe, if they find it, it’ll no longer be so damn depressing. Funny things is, although the landscape is stark and the circumstances are depressing – the movie isn’t. The movie is funny, and sweet, and happy and whimsical. In a bleak existence, miracles can (and must) still happen. Performing one seems to be a rite of passage – and one can still find friendship and purpose and even love.

The clever story and dialog contain lots of satire and social commentary. In the novel, “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, One of the characters (a demon from hell) drives an antique car and points out a fundamental, if unwritten, law of nature that – “…any cassette left in a car for more than a fortnight turns into ‘Best of Queen’” In WRISTCUTTERS: ….., Eugene’s car points out another well know rule – any object that falls under the front seat, disappears from the known universe and is never seen again.

And finally, as the title implies, this is a love story – simple true and unpretentious, without gimmick (well …….except that it takes place in the suicide afterlife) – characters find love the way real people do (well …….that is, except that it takes place in the suicide afterlife). It is a universal story (except ……well, you know…..).

I know that suicide is a serious subject and that we shouldn’t make light of it – but the film never makes light of the suicides. It just proposes the concept that your life is unfinished and maybe there are still things you need to do. Besides, war is a serious subject and we still have films like Mash and Catch-22. Also, killing is very very serious, and yet Live Free or Die Hard is still a fun time at the movies, as is The Matrix and the Indiana Jones films and the James Bond films. So I don’t want to hear another word about it.

In the film What Dreams May Come, Robin Williams kids are killed in a car accident. He and his wife are beyond grief, but at least they have each other. A short time later, he is also killed in a car accident and goes to heaven (the real heaven). The mother, on the other hand can no longer cope with the grief and being alone and so – kills herself. She doesn’t go to heaven – not even a suicide’s version of it. Instead, she is sent to hell (yes! hell). It hardly seems fair. WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY, although it has a lot of suicides, is far less depressing – it’s much fair-er.

“Oh, Frank – I don’t know. This sounds really strange and bizarre. I don’t know if I would like this.” Yes – that’s the point. Films that are different are also original – and you might like a type of movie you haven’t seen before. But you won’t know until you try it. Of course, if you don’t like to try anything new, you could watch Sleepless in Seattle over and over and over and over …..

Over the years and thousands of movies, I’ve made some observations about romantic comedies. For instance: The plot to 80% of all romantic comedies: Boy and girl meet, they like one another, they fall in love, things are going great but one of them has a dark secret that the other can never find out, the other finds out, they break up, the one with the secret tries and tries to get the other one back, they get the other one back in the end, love conquers all. The plot to nearly all of the other 20% of romantic comedies. Boy and girl meet, they hate one another, they constantly fight and argue, during one particularly harsh shouting match – one reaches out and kisses the other, they realize that they actually love each other, love conquers all. I think that this genre needs new material to revive it – so I’m proposing 10 different and unique romantic plot lines for possible future films. I’m throwing them out there – feel free to use them as you wish.

1. A single woman lives on a houseboat on Puget sound. Every time she falls asleep, she dreams of a romance with a single man from the East Coast, who dreams of her when he’s asleep. Time zones notwithstanding, they carry on a hot and heavy courtship every night. It’s called “Sleeping in Seattle”.
2. A man with multiple personalities discovers that two of his selves have fallen in love and plan to get married – but a forth personality wants to put an end to this by stealing himself away from himself.
3. A man with ten wives has an affair with a woman with ten husbands. Much of the movie involves trying to figure out exactly how many adulteries were committed.
4. Everybody loves robots, but the truth is that most robots don’t get along with other robots. Two robots buck tradition by moving in together into a small 1 bedroom above a flower shop. The flower shop lady can’t understand why suddenly she always hears clanging metal. Perhaps she needs to get those pipes fixed – yeah, the pipes, that’s it.
5. Two comatose patients suddenly become aware of each other when their telemetry monitor wires accidentally get crossed. He admires the occasional dips in her EEG’s alpha waves. She is turned on by the cute way his EKG spikes between the Q’s and the R’s every time he “sees’ her. The hospital staff get confused when her EKG suddenly develops a second fainter faster heartbeat.
6. Co-joined male Siamese twins fall helplessly in love with co-joined female Siamese twins. The courtship runs into a roadblock because they can’t seem to get any ‘alone time’. After coming up with what they consider to be the ideal solution, an 18 hour operation by a team of surgeons separates the two sets of twins – then they reattached the male/female couples together. In a surprise twist, the couples, upon waking, are aghast when they find that they have been mistakingly attached to the wrong mate.
7. A beer-guzzling hockey-loving man and an opera-going martini woman truly despise one another. Unfortunately, because they have spent most of their lives watching romantic comedies, they realized that they must eventually fall in love. In a bold move, they decide to get married to bypass the whole ‘falling in love’ progression and move straight to boredom.
8. The His and Hers towels have been getting rather ‘cozy’ lately. Hers likes His casual, somewhat disheveled unfolded look, and His likes the feel of the fabric softener Hers has been washed in. It’s hard to ignore the other since they’re always hung side by side. One day, Hers leaves for a few minutes and comes back totally drenched. His is consumed with jealousy, and would like to storm off, but is fated to always hang next to Hers. The outcome is a bit predictable, I’ll admit, but with such likable attractive characters, this is one hell of a thrill ride.
9. An anthropomorphic animated tale, the kind that Disney is so good at. Mandy’s biological clock is ticking. She’s a praying mantis who is down on love, but throughout the story, her heart softens a bit by the advances of Jerry, a charismatic wise-cracking male mantis. Finally, she can resist no longer and allows herself to fall madly in love with him. In the climatic ending, Mandy and Jerry share one long intense passionate kiss ……,before she bites Jerry’s head off. Love conquers all.
10. Bill declares to the world, “I love chocolate cake!” His friends tease him, “Well, if you love it so much, why don’t you marry it!” – And so he does. On their 50th anniversary, he tells her, “You’re as fresh as the day you were baked.” It’s all the sugar, she tells him.

WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY – you’ll love this story.
Enjoy.

official wristcutter’s site

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This week’s movie:

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

When I think about it, I realize that it could have all gone terribly wrong!

I never doubt the power of a film to reestablish faith in my fellow human beings ……especially those human beings in the film. Film people are so fascinating. When they’re well written, they lead fascinating lives, they experience perfect fascinating romances, they have exciting and fascinating adventures, and – and this is very important – always say just the right things – fascinating. They have problems – they resolve problems. They have conflicts – they resolve conflicts. They sometimes die, but you can always restart the DVD …….and there they are again! The Kinks’ song says, “I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show.” Maybe they were onto something.

BUT ………when a film is NOT well written or directed or produced, it could easily all go terribly wrong.

I live in small town USA. It’s not really that small. It’s not small enough for everybody to know everybody else – but it IS small enough for a lot of people to know a lot of other people, plus there are little sub-communities of families and neighbors who are very close-knit. But I can only imagine an entire town, even a small one, pulling together the way people do in this week’s film, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL.

Now here’s where this review can all go terribly wrong. If I tell you the premise of this movie, and I don’t do it carefully, you will never ever want to see this film – or worse, you can’t wait to see it, having a certain expectation of it, and be totally disappointed. I’ll probably get this wrong, and I may have to do this more than once, but here goes. Lars, an emotionally disturbed introvert, buys a life-like sex doll so he won’t be so alone …….and his family and small town friends are shocked …………and ……….dang! This is all going terribly wrong. Let me try this again.

Lars …….(so far, so good) ….has issues. He doesn’t say much, he doesn’t go out, and he doesn’t like to be touched. He has many many emotional issues. He now lives in the garage behind the house where his brother and his brother’s wife live. He is incapable of having a normal relation with anybody, even though the young woman at work is clearly interested in him. One day, a co-worker shows him a site for realistic love dolls – and so, he orders one – Bianca. He invents a back-story for her (I don’t know, maybe they each come with one). Since he can’t connect with real people, he decides to get himself a fake one.

When he shows up at his brothers for dinner and introduces Bianca, he insists that she be treated like a real girl, and so she gets her own place setting. He speaks to her and speaks for her. She’s been in an accident and is confined to a wheelchair. Also, she’s very religious and it wouldn’t be right for her to sleep under the same roof as him, and would it be OK for her to room in the big house with his brother’s family? Concerned for his mental well-being, they take him to see a psychologist who tells them that Lars is just working through some issues, and maybe the best thing would be if everyone just accommodate Lars and go along with it. Reluctantly, they agree and soon the whole town is going along with it.

Now, here’s where the film could have all gone terribly wrong.

In a lesser movie, lewd raunchy sexual jokes would have been made about the various purposes to which ‘real dolls’ are traditionally used. The brother would have stopped in at Bianca’s room for a nightly quickie because he, in flash of self-awareness, discovers that he is doll-curious. There would have been a scene where Lars is lifting Bianca from the wheelchair and is caught off-balanced. He fumbles and somehow she ends upside down with her legs in the air and her dress falls down, leaving Lars with a face full of anatomical correctness – just as a pair of old ladies happen to walk by to be conveniently shocked. Or worse, they would animate Bianca whenever Lars was alone with her so that she could give him advice ……and only by making love to her can he truly be cured (I’ve actually seen this movie). Or worse than that – she’s magic, or possessed and causes evil things to happen in town and actually kills to satisfy her doll blood lust. As the death toll mounts, Lars must find a way to save the day – and himself ……and cure himself in the process (come to think of it, I’ve seen this movie too). And, if that isn’t enough to get a laugh, someone, somewhere in the movie, somehow would manage to end up eating poop (sadly …….I’ve seen this one too).

But none of these things actually happen in this film.

Let me make this perfectly clear – nobody in this film ever has sex with the doll. If you were hoping for that, then this movie is not for you. Moreover, you’ll never see it naked. The movie isn’t about that. This movie IS about two things. The first is how everybody in town quickly adapts to the situation and accepts Lars’ new girlfriend into their community. I suppose they think it’s interesting or fun (it’s fun to play with dolls), or maybe they just get into the spirit of the thing. Soon, Bianca is the most popular girl in town. The girls take her for ladies’ night out, they do each others hair, girl talk – that sort of thing. Soon, she’s everywhere – working here – volunteering there – going to parties – sometimes she brings Lars.

The other arc of the story has to do with Lars. With Bianca, Lars suddenly begins to interact with other people. He gets invited out, sometimes to parties, sometimes just out – and he goes! He also starts working out his issues, with the help of his sessions with Dagmar, his doctor (psychologist), and with Bianca. During their many walks out in the woods, he starts to open up. In many ways, this entire film is about Lars’ journey of self-recovery.

Lars is not an easy character to get right. The entire success or failure of this film hinges on being able to portray his character without overacting or appearing ignorant or pathetic. Lars is none of these things. He’s smart – smart enough to know he has problems and needs help. He smart enough to know that people realize that Bianca is not real but in his way, asks them to go along for his sake, and he’s smart enough to know when he doesn’t need Bianca any more. The film has a great cast – everybody is perfect for their roles (Patricia Clarkson, who plays the doctor, is one of my favorite actresses, and she doesn’t disappoint here), but it would have all fallen flat if it wasn’t for Ryan Gosling who plays Lars. I haven’t seen every one of his movies, but I’ve seen some, and he’s been outstanding in every one. In particular, his virtuoso performance in Half Nelson earned him a well deserved Oscar nomination.

In other words, it doesn’t all go terribly wrong. Not like some other movies I could mention. Like……

1. Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace. How it all went terribly wrong. The original Star Wars invented a new formula and was fresh and different and exciting. The newer series tried to use the same formula, and so now it just seams old and stale and boring. How to fix it. New formula – plus lose Jar Jar.
2. City of Angels. How it all went terribly wrong. This was supposed to be an English language remake of the very excellent Wings of Desire (one of my favorites) but they either didn’t watch the original movie, or didn’t understand the original movie, or didn’t even know there was an original movie, or ….they just purposely wanted to make an awful movie. How to fix it. Watch the original movie, dammit! Call director Wim Wenders on the phone and have him explain it to you.
3. The Number 23. How it all went terribly wrong. This is supposed to be a thriller – it would help if it was thrilling. How to fix it. Add some scary bits, suspense, action, intrigue. When all else fails, get someone to eat poop.
4. Snakes on a Plane. How it all went terribly wrong. Catchy title, but premise is just too outlandish. Even Samuel L Jackson’s ‘m…..f…… snakes’ line cannot redeem it. How to fix it. Go the other way. Make it more outlandish. Make it bizarre! No – make it freakishly bizarre! Have the snakes hijack the plane and fly it off to Snake Island where they prepare to sacrifice the humans to the great snake god, King Snong, a 100 ft. tall anaconda that develops a liking to the young girl, and ………well, you know the rest.
5. Lady in the Water. How it all went terribly wrong. M. Night Shyamalan’s last film could have – should have been great. Instead, it was just OK. The plot was too complicated for this kind of film, it doesn’t have a pervading motif, it tries to be more than one kind of movie. How to fix it. Rewrite rewrite rewrite!
6. The Hulk. How it all went terribly wrong. Ang Lee’s Hulk – not the excellent TV show Hulk. The best thing about the Hulk in the TV show (and in the comics) is not the Hulk part – It’s the Bruce Banner human part, and how he deals with the fact that he’s the Hulk and doesn’t want to be. The Hulk is not all that interesting. He smashes things, and says “Hulk smash!” and then smashes the crap out of lots of other things, then lumbers or jumps off. There’s only so much smashing you can take before you want to smash something yourself. How to fix it. Make Hulk smart! Then – he could muse about things, for example – he could ponder the significance of the army tank, comment on its phallic representation, espouse on man’s technological superiority in the creation of such a construct while, at the same time, regretting the use to which it is put – a seemingly paradoxical superposition of constructive and destructive influences – oh, the folly of humanity ………..all this just before he smashes it to tiny bits.
7. In the Cut. The Meg Ryan sex movie. How it all went terribly wrong. This is not how you want to see Meg Ryan. Meg is sweet and funny. You want to see her in a romantic comedy with Tom Hanks, all cute and smiley. You don’t want to see her nude on a bed with her hands busy between her legs. It’s too shocking. It’s like seeing your own grandmother naked. It’s like seeing Minnie Mouse naked. How to fix it. Replace Meg Ryan with someone you’re comfortable seeing naked, someone you would expect to see naked. Maybe Jenna Jameson or Paris Hilton – you may not want to see that either, but you wouldn’t be surprised to.
8. Battlefield Earth. How it all went terribly wrong. An unlikely series of events occurred that led to the realization of this picture. First of all, somebody put film in the camera. Then the scripts were delivered on time. Then the actors showed up. They were able to reserve a studio. Yes, a whole series of events occurred in just the right sequence to allow this movie to be made. How to fix it. Go back to step one and prevent the film from entering the camera, thus breaking this ill-fated sequence.
9. P.S. I Love You. How it all went terribly wrong. This film was miserably miscast. Some people should not should not should not play romantic comedies. How to fix it. Modern romantic comedies have upped the ante a bit. Perhaps a realistic, anatomically correct sex doll would help.
10. Mr. Woodcock. How it all went terribly wrong. In a comedy, it’s essential that you have at least one likable character in the cast instead of monochrome, one-dimensional archetypes (I have never used the word ‘archetypes’ ever in my entire life). The amazing thing is that the film-makers watch the dailies and say, “Yes!! That’s a keeper!” …..and meant it! How to fix it. This would work better as a drama or as a very dark comedy – plus, somebody has to die!!!!!! ….maybe everybody – yes, everybody!!!! MWAAH HA HA HA HA HA HA.

If you think I’m getting a bit carried away by a movie whose story is based on a life-like sex doll, then I’m not the only one. FIlm critic, Roger Ebert writes,

Only after the movie is over do you realize what a balancing act it was, what risks it took, what rewards it contains.

You can read his entire review here. Joe Morganstern of the Wall Street Joural writes,

It’s nothing less than a miracle that the director, Craig Gillespie, and the writer, Nancy Oliver, have been able to make such an endearing, intelligent and tender comedy from a premise that, in other hands, might sustain a five-minute sketch on TV.

And Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of ‘Spirituality and Practice’ write

One of the best films of the year about the love, kindness, and hospitality of a Christian community for a lost and lonely soul.

On the tomatometer, it’s praised by 81% of the critics, but by 91% of regular viewers (like you and me). Common Sense Media rates LARS a PAUSE:15+, meaning that it’s age appropriate, on average, for age 15 and above, but know your kid – if your kid is highly sensitive, then maybe that age should be pushed higher, if your kid is pretty savvy, then maybe that age could be pushed much lower.

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
It could have all gone terribly wrong – but it didn’t.

Enjoy

watch the trailer

This week’s movie:

BLACK BOOK

World War Two was not my fault! Honest!

They tell me my ancestors came from Germany – maybe three generations before me. That’s way before WW2, isn’t it? That’s even before WW1 (which, by the way, was also not my fault). But I still have the German name and when I give it, in certain circles, some people still say, “That’s German, isn’t it? The Nazis started WW2 you know.” To which I have to remind them – my name may be German but I am not. Besides, I wasn’t in Germany during the war, and I was pretty young – too young to fight. To which they’d ask, “Really? How old were you?”, and I’d say, “Approximately ……….oh – about minus ten.”

The Holocaust notwithstanding, Germans sometimes get a bad rap for the war. I know plenty of Germans and some of them – a few of them – one or two ……..er, three …….. half a dozen at least – are pretty decent people. Now, I’ll admit that these are not war-era Germans – these are ‘far removed from the war’-era Germans. Still …….. I imagine that, even during WW2, there were good Nazis as well as bad, evil Nazis. I know people who will hate me for saying this stuff, but it’s true. In fact, it’s true for virtually every ethnic group you can imagine.

Having said all that, it’s still pretty hard not to villainize Nazis in WW2 related movies. It’s pretty cut and dry in films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Blues Brothers, just to name a few. Now, movies where you don’t have a clear cut bad guy tend to make you think. Quite often this is good. But films where you do have a definite villain to oppose tend to be more pure entertainment – such as the movies mentioned above – and such as this week’s movie BLACK BOOK.

BLACK BOOK is not a great film, in the same sense that a Stephen King novel is not great literature. Oh course that doesn’t stop it from spending 5 months on the best-seller list and it doesn’t stop it from being one hell of a thrill ride.

The story is not very original. I’m sure everybody’s had this happen to them. Rachel is a young Dutch woman who has the misfortune of living in Nazi occupied Netherlands during WW2 and who also has the misfortune of living in Nazi occupied Netherlands while, at the same time, being a Jew. She and her family are sheltered by a non-Jewish couple (no, her name is NOT Anne Frank!). When an opportunity comes along to escape, they take it – transport is arranged by boat – but they are double-crossed (cue the strings – Da Da Daaaaaaaaah!) which, I’ll just say this, is also not my fault. Rachel joins up with the underground and goes undercover to find out who is responsible. By chance, she encounters a German commander and becomes his mistress (cue the strings again – Da Da Daaaaaaaaaah!). It is a position that allows her great freedom of movement and access to information – and who’s going to question her? It sounds straightforward but it’s not. There are countless twists and turns before the end. What’s really happening? Who was really behind the double-cross? Who will get out alive? Can love conquer all? Where’s Waldo?

Rachel is played by the incomparable Carice van Houten. You’ve probably never hear of her but I suspect that will change now. She has had a number of smaller roles up to now, but here she has a chance to show off all her talents. I say this in the ‘male’ sense. She is very very talented. Müntze, the German officer, is played by Sebastian Koch who was terrific in The Lives of Others, one of my favorite films from last year. Will Rachel find what she’s looking for? Will she take out her revenge on Müntze or will he turn out to be a rather decent egg?

This film has a wide appeal because it’s possible to enjoy it on more than one level. If you are a normal movie-watcher, you will enjoy the suspense and the drama and the political intrigue and the mystery. You will appreciate the quick witted dialog, and the cat and mouse word play.. You will also enjoy the sudden and unexpected plot twists (Uh-oh! What’s she going to do now?????). If you enjoy movies more on a simpler level, well there is shootin’ and a fightin’ and a lovin’ and the nakedness – yes, the nakedness. But, if instead, you have higher standards in films, and demand things like character development, subtlety, and realism – I guess BLACK BOOK will just have to become a guilty pleasure. If you don’t enjoy this film, that’s not my fault either – I just make recommendations.

I know it sounds like I’m being defensive, but I get blamed for a lot of things that I didn’t have anything to do with. So …..let me get this straight once and for all time. Here are the things that are not my fault,and to be fair, I will also list things that were my fault – just so that I’m not being too one-sided.

1. Not my fault: The Great Flood. No, I really have no way of making it rain and flood the Earth, and I wouldn’t if I could, no matter what some people may think. My fault: Flooding in my basement. I should have gotten it fixed a long time ago, but didn’t.
2. Not my fault: Extinction of the dinosaurs. As much as I would like to take credit for the event that paved the way for us mammals (at least those of us that are mammals), it had nothing at all to do with me. My fault: Extinction of ants and cutworms on my front lawn. That chemical stuff I put on my lawn kills everything. My apologies if you are an ant or cutworm aficionado.
3. Not my fault: Destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. I’ve never even been there. I’m betting it was someone who took out a book, and tried to read it and said, “It’s all Greek to me!” My fault: That funny smell in the refrigerator. I was supposed to toss that egg salad way in the back – but it was way in the back and I completely forgot about it.
4. Not my fault: The presidency of George W Bush. I didn’t want to make a political statement or anything – but I often get blamed for this for some reason. But, get this, I didn’t even vote for him – so back off. My fault: Proliferation of dandelion weeds in my entire neighborhood. I’m the only one who doesn’t de-weed his lawn, and my weeds propagate all the way to the end of the street. The way I figure it, weeds are green – so little on my lawn is – and they’re hardy, and require no watering, or care. Sounds to me like Darwin’s choice.
5. Not my fault: The Rise of the Machines. In the Terminator films (and the Matrix films for that matter), machines take over the world. Fans who are really into this are looking for a scapegoat. “Frank, don’t you make robots?” My fault: That thing that’s hanging from the ceiling in my upstairs hall. It was starting to come off so I thought if I pull it down, I could fix it and put it back up securely. But it would only come down halfway – I can’t pull it off nor can I get it back up. So now, it just sits there, half hanging down.
6. Not my fault: Global Warming. This is a huge issue. It involves vast amounts of greenhouse gases, most industrialized nations, power plants, industrial smoke stacks, and two or three SUV’s. I don’t think I can take the rap for all that. My fault: Global Warming. I drive a car, I waste electricity, I consume more than I should, and I don’t make enough of a fuss to stop myself and everybody else from doing the same.
7. Not my fault: The Titanic. When they interviewed the survivors afterwards, many of then claim that they saw me on board, drilling holes in the hull, and opening the floodgates (floodgates were later considered to be a bad idea for a ship). This is just preposterous! I mean, who brings a drill on an ocean cruise? My fault: I reproduced the movie still (above) without the expressed written permission of Sony Pictures Classics or their representatives.
8. Not my fault: The Bomb. When I tell people I majored in Physics, they often respond, “You people invented the Bomb! We could all die at any time because you guys built the Bomb!” I usually just apologize but really, it wasn’t me. My fault: Da Bomb! Yo, yo, check it out, suckka! Like, this sh**’s da bomb!
9. Not my fault: Those low-waist tight jeans that make your midriff bulge out and hang over the belt. Who the hell thought that would be a good look? My fault: My midriff that bulges out and hangs over my belt – even though I’m not wearing a pair of those jeans.
10. Not my fault: AIDS. People think it was me, but I know for a fact, that a female Macaque monkey, named Clara, was behind it all. All scientists know this but, curiously, nobody’s talking. My fault: World hunger. Yep, that was me. Sorry – my bad.

In Dutch, English, German, and Hebrew with subtitles. Common Sense Media gives BLACK BOOK a PAUSE:17+ rating saying, “Intense mature WWII drama taps into base human instinct.”

So what’s the deal with the ‘black book’? Sorry, I’m giving nothing away. You’ll just have to tune in to find out. Take out BLACK BOOK from your local library or any other video or DVD source this week.

Enjoy.

watch the trailer

]]> http://www.franksfilms.com/black-book/feed 0 http://www.franksfilms.com/twin-falls-idaho http://www.franksfilms.com/twin-falls-idaho#comments Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:29:00 +0000 FranksFilms http://www.franksfilms.com/?p=7 Welcome to my new film blog. Most of you were probably directed here from my email recommendations. Those of you who wandered here my other means – welcome to FranksFilms. Frank’s video recommendation of the week.

This is NOT a movie review site. I won’t tell you if a movie is good or bad. If I think a movie is bad – I just won’t recommend it. These are movies that I liked and I’ll tell you why I liked them. There are no guarantees that anyone else in the entire planet will like the film. That’s up to you to discover on your own.

If you’re not already on my email list, and would like to be, just post a comment to that effect, or email me direct at fheirtzler@verizon.net . I’ll notify you approximately once a week when the new movie has been posted.

This week’s movie:
TWIN FALLS IDAHO

It’s a love triangle!

Real life brothers (and filmmakers) , Mark and Michael Polish, play real life brothers who suddenly fall in with a young prostitute, Penny. I know your imagination is probably taking you in a bizzare direction right now, but it’s not that sort of film. I won’t tell you any more about the plot. You could look up the whole plot synopsis if you want to, although I would recommend going in knowing as little as possible. (It’s R rating is for language – not for “adult situations”).

I really like the atmosphere of this movie. I’m not sure how to explain this. The sibling bonding, I think, is dealt with in a very realistic way. The brothers are withdrawn at first, and so you only get to know them gradually.

The few people that I know who have seen this film, have all loved it.

Maybe you will too?