petersimcox Reviews

Mystic River (2003)

This film does not move fast, but it moves with assuredness

[17 October 2003]

No spoilers here, but I do offer a disclaimer: I have found that if you have read the book on which a movie is based, it can color the way you see the film. I read and thoroughly enjoyed Mystic River. The movie is a faithful and intelligent adaptation of the book and therein lies a problem. In order to incorporate the main elements of the narrative, the film is a bit long, and to be honest there are a couple of scenes that are overlong. Clint Eastwood wrote the score - I guess if you are Clint Eastwood, you can do about anything you like - but the music doesn't add anything. While I am dealing with the negatives, I must also add that a very few times the film teeters on the brink of melodrama. Beyond that I have nothing but good things to say. Eastwood's direction is steady, intelligent and sensitive. Most of the settings - indoor and out - are evocative, accurate and even mystical. Kevin Bacon as police detective Sean Devine is terrific. Of the three main characters, his is most centered, most normal, and that's how he plays it. Sean Penn will probably be nominated for Best Actor. The most memorable scene in the film - sadly one being widely shown in the trailers - is Penn's, and he delivers hugely. Tim Robbins' character is maybe the most demanding. His accent is consistent and believable, and he is one of those actors that can act with posture. Lawrence Fishburene, surely one of America's best male actors, is marvelously effective as Bacon's partner. This film isn't a ten, but it is a "must see."

Secondhand Lions (2003)

Wonderful feel-good film, bring hankie

[16 October 2003]

Warning: Contains a few details about the film. Robert Duvall and

Michael Caine are two of my all-time favorites, and even when they

have appeared in less-than-perfect films, their performances

never seem to be the problem. I expected to enjoy Secondhand

Lions, and sometimes expectations lead to disappointments.

However this movie met my best hopes and more, and I left the

theater euphoric. Talk about a "feel good" movie, this is it. As

everyone pretty much knows, this is about a young boy, well played

by Joel Hayley Osment, who must go and live with two uncles,

Caine and Duvall, lovably wacky men approaching old age with

misgivings. Their challenge is to evolve as surrogate parents and

role models for the adolescent who is suddenly thrown into the

middle of their eccentric lives. Duvall is a legendary hero (or is it

merely legend?) involving Arabs, harems, gold, much swashbuckling, and so forth. Caine is his lifelong co-adventurer

and chronicler. The only fault I found with the film, and it is minor,

is that the flashback scenes can't quite match the present day for

conflict and humor. They say that every good movie has to have

one memorable scene. This one has a number of them. (Bring a

hankie if you tear up at pure sentiment.) I would recommend this

film if a friendship depended on it.

The Fourth Angel (2001)

Bright, thoughtful Irons film

[7/10 · 16 October 2003]

I have appreciated Jeremy Irons since Brideshead Revisited. An actor of much skill and emotional range, he can admittedly be faulted for the occasional bizarre choice of rolls, for example the pedophile in the Lolita remake and the mad bomber in Die Hard 3, performances that surely have him waking up nights in a cold sweat. In The Fourth Angel, he takes on a semi-action role, which is not his usual casting, and yes, he pulls it off, because his character is basically a brainy journalist who stumbles into the world of shoot-em-up terrorists. If he is to survive, he must figure out how the clip goes into the AK-47 and how to work the safety, and learn it even as the killers are coming down the hall for him.

There's no secret about the plot. His wife and daughter are slaughtered by terrorists and he discovers that governments are not going to lend a hand. The way he expresses both his grief and his outrage represent his art at its peak. This film is nicely written and paced, and reminded me of Defense of the Realm. The Fourth Angel has an important role for a young male actor, who does very nicely, and features a brief but pleasing appearance by Charlotte Rampling, who has made the transition from femme fatale to middle aged woman with great grace. (She will look better to some now than she did then.)

Mercy (2000)

What a bore

[16 October 2003]

I watched this turkey because Ellen Barkin is in it. Thanks, Ellen.

This is a serial murder movie, Barkin is a cop. The victims are

women who belong to an S&M group. Barkin has conflicted sexual

feelings. Get it? In it's best moments, it reminds you a little of

Dressed To Kill but without the style, without the writing and

without Michael Caine. Ellen Barkin ambles through the film

wearing a one-size-fits all expression that could come from a

severe sleep disorder, a few reefers or from make-up that set up

too hard, I couldn't tell. This film purports to tell the story from a

female perspective, and so if you are terribly interested in this

aspect of movie story-telling, you may find something here that I

didn't. I will confess by bias against preachy feminism in film. (I

hated The Piano, and I thought the Julianne Moore character

ruined the second Jurassic Park movie.) And as for Julian Sands,

he's going to wind up typecast like Anthony Perkins. The

transvestite dancing scene is as funny as the "She Works Hard for

the Money" scene in The Birdcage. Too bad it wasn't played for

laughs.

The Wild Bunch (1969)

My all-time favorite movie

[2 October 2003]

I read somewhere that a good movie has three good scenes. The Wild Bunch has probably 10, including one where the band rides out of an Indian camp to the strains of a melancholy Mexican folk song. This scene is so deeply evocative that it is likely to stay with you for a good long time. Basically The Wild Bunch is about a band of train robbers whose future dims as technology closes in on them. Holden is the big surprise as Pike. This is an actor who can be gritty (Picnic) or sardonic (Bridge over the River Kwai) or romantically amusing (Sabrina), but in this movie he has a dark depth, passion and a deadly determination to live his life out on his own terms. He is a hard case, through with a sense of honor and friendship. You could easily call him an antihero, but in fact he is more like one of the doomed gods in Valhalla. The last of the movie added to director Peckinpah's reputation as a violence addict, but the violence is analagous to the burning of Valhalla in Goetterdammerung. Call it violence if you will, but it is the violence of a collision of worlds. Holden is awesome, but so are Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oats, the great western actor Ben Johnson,. Edmund O'Brien and the Latino actor who plays General Mapachi. Add to this a wonderful music track, realistic dialog, splendid camera work and you have a great movie. It is Number One on my all time favorites list and I have to watch it once a year.

Welcome to Hard Times (1967)

Faithful adaptation of a great book

[1 October 2003]

'This sparse and grim epic of the plains is loaded with character and with allegory as well. The bad man who comes down from the hills and destroys the town is analagous to Moby Dick, more about dark fate than satanic evil. The excellence of the film comes from its relative faithfulness to the book, a masterpiece by E. L. Doctorow, the storyteller who gave us Waterworks and Ragtime. I give the movie four stars out of the five, and the book all five. Henry Fonda is the big name star, but this is really an ensemble movie. Catch the late Aldo Ray acting up a storm. (If you have seen the movie, read the book. It adds some dimensions including graphic violence that wasn't put into film when this one was made.) I saw this film on TV late one night many years ago, and it stuck with me like a haunting.

Northfork (2003)

I detested this movie.

[18 September 2003]

Most of the top critics liked, nay, loved this film, and James Woods is in it, two usually reliable recommendations, so maybe the problem is with me. Maybe I am a philistine with hopelessly conventional tastes. But me tell you why I hated Northfork: It made no sense. And then the actors whispered their lines, making it even less comprehensible. My idea of a film that departs from the norm while keeping the audience on board is The Shipping News, which aims a little higher but retains a few traditional features - like plot, for instance. Plot is the skeleton of a film and Northfork has a jello skeleton. I can't say much about the acting. Nick Nolte whispers so softly I couldn't hear his lines. James Woods, who customarily radiates intensity a la Gary Sinise, was simply wasted in this dark low-keyed bland neutralized black-suited sleepwalking role. Do you remember the Woody Allen parody of Bergman films? Remember the scene where the character is playing tennis with Death? I hope Woody sees Northfork. He might be able to do it justice. Maybe this movie will suit you, if you are as burned out on conventional films as your average workaday film critic. But for me, in future the Polish Brohers' imprimatur on a movie poster will deter me like a quarantine sign on a shabby door or a mugger in a dark hallway.