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Vicky Cristina Barcelona – rm – This is a recent Woody Allen movie. He is not on screen and doesn’t even narrate it but you can hear his voice in it throughout. Those of us who have appreciated his films throughout the years will enjoy seeing where his sexual fantasies have taken him. It isn’t much further than his earlier films except his characters are closer to acting them out but some of them still struggle with their guilt ridden neurosis. The setting is Barcelona which is great bonus. If you enjoy Woody’s films you won’t be disappointed. 2008

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Whatever Works – rm – People who like Woody Allen usually like Larry David. Allen chooses David to speak his words and act out his state of mind which basically is “what really matters, we are all going to die “. Thus we see a divorced, could have been a Nobel Prize winning physics professor, after a botched suicide attempt decides to live on his own in Manhattan. Along comes a pretty young girl from Mississippi who ends up living with the good professor. Allen’s current views on love, sex, relationships, death and everything else are seemingly demonstrated through the characters who inhabit this film. Everyone seems to be in an incongruous situation which makes for good comedy at the same time as we get insight into the struggle of the characters and of Woody Allen sitting at his typewriter or ultimately directing his actors. As expected the directing, production and acting by Larry David, Ed Begley Jr. Patricia Clarkson, and Evan Rachel Wood are on target and move this film into the higher level of a must see rating ( unless of course you don’t like Woody Allen ) 2009

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Slumdog Millionaire – sp – The movie is set in Mumbai, India and depicts the tremendous poverty among vast numbers of people. It focuses on the lives of two brothers and captures their own relationship while also demonstrating the impact on them and other children who grow up in these dire circumstances. It also contains a beautiful and ongoing love story around and through all the action in the film. The screenplay by Simon Beaufoy weaves an outstanding story. It is ironic that Mumbai has been in the news as the site of new terrorism. Danny Boyle was interviewed at our screening and deserves the accolades he is getting for making this film. (Addendum – Won Oscar for Best Picture) 2008

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Sliding Doors – nf – Did you ever consider what would have happened if you didn’t do one thing, which led to something else, which put your life on a particular path? That is the premise of this movie as it follows two different but parallel universes of the Gweneth Paltrow’s character. We see two paths that her life could follow if she had made a train or just missed it. It is a romantic tale with ups and downs, which is engaging but somewhat fluffy. It is set in England so the autos drive on the “wrong” side of the street, which fits in with the viewer’s task of orienting oneself with the two possible lives of the main character. 1998

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Revolutionary Road – sp – Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite since Titanic but this time they play an almost middle aged couple who have moved to the suburbs and struggle with their identity and the meaning of life. The relationship is not pretty but the acting and directing is outstanding. Unfortunately despite a skillful script by Justin Haythe who was the guest at our film course, we did not care that much about the characters.(2008)

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Match Point – nf – We missed this Woody Allan movie and heard some people recommend it so we decided to see it on Netflix. It is set in London or thereabouts and seems to be a parody of a suspenseful drama. There is the conflicted, for the most part unlikeable main character who is a former tennis pro, who connects with the likeable pretty girl next door type except she and her family are very wealthy. There is the other women, sexy moody and ultimately very demanding, played very well by Scarlett Johansson. The script as expected is well written with special moments and prolonged periods of tension. As with all Woody Allan movies, the casting and production is top notch as was his direction. After two hours and four minutes we finally understand the meaning of his match point. We initially concluded this movie was clever but not great. Over the next few days we found ourselves both thinking about the movie and discussing the fine points which in our opinion elevates our final rating. 2005

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It Happened One Night – nf – This is a 1934 black and white movie, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert relatively early in their careers, which won 5 major Academy Awards that year. It clearly reflects the 1930s, as illustrated by the cars, buses, style of dress, as well as in how the romantic theme is played out. We found it delightful and interesting but definitely not a “must see” Movie buffs might want to view it to be reminded how far movies have progressed in the last 75 years.

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Dear Frankie – nf – This is one of those British films that takes about five minutes for us to get used to the accents and understand what they are saying. Although, it turns out that Frankie one of the main characters in the movie, a charming 9 or 10-year-old boy doesn’t say any words as he is deaf. We learn that this was the result of his father beating him as a small child. Mother and child along with grandmother have kept on the move in Scotland so father will never find them. Mother played by Emily Mortimer has a touching, loving, very close relationship with Frankie and has created a story for him that his father is away at sea. She secretly writes letters to him and intercepts her son’s outgoing mail so she really is also hearing his “voice” about his feeling and observations of life. Frankie although very bright in school is chided by his schoolmates. When the boat on which the father is supposed to be sailing is noted to be coming into port, the mother, who is quite lonely herself decides that she needs to present a man as Frankie’s father for him to briefly meet. She arranges for a stranger, sensitively played by Gerald Butler, to be the father for one day before he goes off to sea again. Needless to say, intertwined with lovely scenes of “father and son” and sometimes mother, especially at the stark but beautiful Scottish seaside, there are some complications. First time director Shona Auerbach has cast her characters very well and captured the emotional relationships between them. The story is somewhat drawn out and simplistic but the acting was excellent. (2004)

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The Last Station – sp – Leo Tolstoy died in 1910. This is the story of his last year based on a novel by Jay Parini with a screenplay written and directed by Michael Hoffman. Helen Mirren is as good as she ever has been ( and that is saying a great deal ) in her role as Sofya Tolstoy . Leo Tolstoy himself is played magnificently by Christopher Plummer who looks amazingly like the real Tolstoy seen in the film clips shown with the credits at the end of the film. It is the story of this great revered writer who at this late stage of his life has many devoted followers and is leading a movement of peace, love and putting aside the material things in life. The relationship of Leo and Sofya after 47 years of marriage is being examined or perhaps tested as Tolstoy accepts the idea put forth by his devotee Vladimir Chertkov played by mustache twirling Paul Giamitti, that the rights to his work belong to the Russian people and not his family as Sofya vociferously contends. James McAvoy is Valentin Bulgakov, Tolstoy’s young sensitive and naive secretary who is closely observing the struggles of his employer/hero as he himself has just discovered a meaningful relationship with a young woman. Producer Bonnie Arnold related to our preview audience how the movie idea was originally that of Anthony Quinn who hoped to star in it but all the pieces did not come together for him. It was filmed mostly in the East German countryside where Russia in the early 1900s could be recreated including the Tolstoy estate and authentic railroad and station scenes. The Russian backers of the film, which were part of the international consortium, that raised 17 million dollars to make it, required that the music background be composed and recorded in Russia. Sergey Yevtushenko subsequently did just that and his beautiful piano music added greatly to the mood of the film. The relationship between Leo and Sofya as played by two great actors is nuanced in so many ways and is the highlight of the movie all be it perhaps a tad overly dramatic. This may have been why we were always aware we were watching a film and didn’t get completely drawn into it as we both felt should have been the case. Perhaps also if we had read the book or were better students of this part of Russian history we might have also better appreciated their conflict, which was the essence of the story. (2009)

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An Education – sp – How often does it happen that a promising high school student goes astray and blows the opportunity for a great college education? It could be drugs, alcohol, falling in love or whatever. In this movie set in London in the early 1960s, it is an attractive extremely bright 16-year-old girl (Carey Mulligan) with no apparent drug use but occasional cigarette smoking, who hopes to get into Oxford, study English, speak French and explore the classics. Through a chance meeting with a somewhat older man (Peter Sarsgaard), she becomes enamored with him, his apparent wealth and appreciation of music and all the fine things. Her parents don’t have a clue what is going on and her father (Alfred Molina) concludes this guy is a fine fellow. He would not even object if she decides to skip college and go off into the sunset with this wonderful man. This film adroitly directed by Danish director Lone Scherfig focuses closely on Carey Mulligan, this delightful young women who is in every scene and we clearly see her evolution. The photography of this period piece is well done particularly of the English countryside, the automobiles and the clothes. Things are not always what they seem to be and the movie has a storyline that you may not anticipate. The script is actually based on a true-life situation originally written recently by women now in her 60s. There is also a questionable anti-Semitic theme, which can lead to some interesting post movie discussions. Susan and Michael differed on the final value of this film as Michael also felt that it had some unresolved and unaddressed moral issues. We ultimately went with Susan’s rating as we both thought the movie was worth seeing. (2009)