Drama

Fair Game

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Fair Game
  • IMDB: link

Although Fair Game has the dubious honor of sharing a title with a truly awful Cindy Crawford/William Baldwin flick, thankfully that’s all the two movies have in common. Based on the true story of Valerie Plame, Fair Game focuses on the consequences of one man standing up for what he believes in, a talented woman who loses her job and reputation by no fault of her own, a government hell-bent on destroying the lives of two respectable citizens simply to change the news cycle, and how easily one piece of information can change everything.

Naomi Watts stars as CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame. After her husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) takes an information gathering assignment to discover if Iraq is buying yellow cake uranium from Niger, he’s horrified to learn the truth of his findings have been perverted to help justify the United States going to war with Iraq.

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Delivered with Conviction

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Conviction
  • IMDB: link

Conviction is based on a true story about a man (Sam Rockwell) wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. His sister (Hilary Swank), beginning her quest without even a high school diploma, spends the next several years of her life raising her two sons and struggling through college and law school to become the lawyer her brother needs. What may sound like a bad TV-movie of the week turns out to be so much more.

Screenwiter Pamela Gray and dirctor Tony Goldwyn deserve a fair amount of credit for finding a way to share this story without over-simplifying events or falling into an all too easy trap of caricature and cliché.

The film’s central core is the relationship between a brother and sister who love, rely, protect and never give up on each other. It’s the strong performances of Swank and Rockwell (as well as Bailee Madison and Tobias Campbell as their younger selves) that grounds the film as a compelling drama rather than just a feel good story about one woman’s fight against insurmountable odds.

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Hereafter

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Hereafter
  • IMDB: link

“How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn’t you say?”
-James T. Kirk

When I first heard the concept behind Clint Eastwood‘s latest film, Hereafter, I was confused. I wondered why Eastwood was taking on a project that seemed more suited to M. Night Shyamalan. Although ghosts play a role, the film is far from a ghost story. Instead, what Eastwood and screenwriter Peter Morgan deliver is a drama focused on how death touches, and changes, the lives of three disparate individuals.

The film is structured as three separate tales which will inevitably weave together in the final act. A French newswoman (Cécile De France) deals with the consequences after a near-death experience. A young child attempts to move on after death of his twin brother (both parts are played by Frankie McLaren and George McLaren) and the separation from his mother (Lyndsey Marshal). A psychic (Matt Damon) who has renounced his gift with communicating with the dead is pressured by others to use his abilities.

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Never Let Me Go

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Never Let Me Go
  • IMDB: link

Most of us never know what our purpose is or why we’re here. The same can’t be said of the characters of Never Let Me Go, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name. As children they understand more about their roles in the world than most who live a full century.

The story is told through the perspective of Kathy H. (Carey Mulligan) thinking back over her childhood at Hailsham boarding school and her two best friends Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley). Hailsham isn’t your average school. And these aren’t your average youngsters. Here the guardians (not teachers or headmistresses) encourage the children’s creative expression, enforce strict discipline, and prepare the students for a life already chosen for them.

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Hamfisted Horsey Movie Lacks Heart (and Brains)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Secretariat
  • IMDB: link

Disney gets a lot of grief for these feel-good sports movies that tend to up the schmaltz and oversimplify the story. Say what you want about them, they usually have a hellova lot of heart and are (at least a little) smarter than their critics give them credit for.

I’ll freely admit to liking my fair share of Disney’s past attempts at recreating period sports films (Miracle, Invincible, Cool Runnings, The Rookie). It is with regret then that I inform you that Secretariat, a film about a horse with a heart more than double the size of a normal horse, lacks anything resembling heart.

For the better part of its near two-hour running time it also lacks style, brains, and cinematic craftsmanship. Although the film gives credit to Elizabeth Ham (Margo Martindale) for naming the horse it never specifically states what the name is suppossed to mean. If the film is any indication the definition of Secretariat is the absence or antithesis of subtlety. This movie would make a punch in the face feel somehow understated.

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