*****

Saint Judy-sp

This is a great story. We meet Judy Wood (Michelle Monaghan), a young idealistic attorney who wants to specialize in immigration law. She is overwhelmed being assigned numerous cases by her new boss (Alfred Molina) but she still makes an all-out effort with each of her cases. At the same time, she is a single mom, recently divorced, trying to participate as much as possible in the raising of her young son (Gabriel Bateman). We see her getting fired for not bringing in the big bucks for her law firm. We follow her as she opens a storefront law office as the only attorney with a young intern as her assistant. The story then focuses on one young Afghan woman client, Asefa Ashwari (Leem Lubany) who is seeking asylum in the United States. She had rebelled against the poor treatment of young girls and women in her country by defiantly setting up a school for girls who were not allowed to have an education. She was arrested and received the most horrendous treatment imaginable in jail. She was able to escape to the United States where her plea for asylum is now being considered. If she is denied this request, she will be returned to her native country where she almost certainly will be murdered by her family for her defiant actions.

The realistic courtroom scenes, some of which are held in a small trailer in the prison where she is being detained are absolutely chilling and riveting. The logic of the U.S. law is very clear but heartbreaking.

Tremendous credit must be given to the screenwriter, Dmitry Portnoy, and director and producer, Sean Hanish, who worked hand in hand to get this film made. In fact, it was just about an impossible task to get the financial support for the film until President Trump was elected and this country became aware of the real meaning of the immigration crisis.

But the most amazing thing about this story is that it isn’t a story at all. Judy Wood is actually a real-life person whom the movie so realistically portrays. In fact, we met her at a preview screening along with the director and screenwriter.

This movie has drama, tension, emotion, surprise, great acting that may bring a tear to your eye, and perhaps inspire a young man or woman to decide to become a lawyer. The highest compliment that we can give to it, is to say that it reminded us a little bit of the classic film “To Kill a Mockingbird.” (2019)

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome in the comment section below.

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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)