Book Club

First Hit: Although the age ranges they portrayed didn’t work, as a comedy it was out-loud funny.

The actual age ranges between these women (Fonda 81 & Steenburgen 65) was too wide ranging for me to believe that they were nearly lifelong friends. This part of the story needed cleaning up. However, once I got past this, I found the story funny, poignant, and enjoyable.

At the time I went to see this film, 11:00 AM, there was a small crowd of older women. I think I was the only man in the audience. And initially, they were laughing at just about everything. I was only mildly amused.

Yet something happened as the film went on, I found myself enjoying the pointed jabs at age, men, sex, and technology. What made it work was the actors themselves. They all have been around long enough for the audience to know them a little. The parts they played were perfect to how we know them.

The vehicle the story uses for these women to get together once a month is a Monthly Book club. They’ve been meeting monthly for over forty years and in doing so, they have learned to love and accept each other as they are.

Diane (Diane Keaton) was grounded in her flighty Annie Hall sort of way. Watching her slow build to telling her grown protective children that she was still capable of being happy, learning, and having fun experiences with a man was pointedly clear.

Vivian (Jane Fonda) played the rich I don’ need anyone loner was perfect. Jane has generally shown her skittishness towards being vulnerable and in this role, she has to become vulnerable with the man who shows up to her again after forty years.

Sharon (Candice Bergen) was the professional woman, who had her cat and her Federal Judgeship to keep her happy. After her divorce her husband Tom (Ed Begley Jr.) found love in someone one third his age. She said she couldn’t care less and was happy presiding over her courtroom until....

And Carol (Mary Steenburgen) was the only married woman in the group. Her husband Bruce (Craig T. Nelson) and her still liked sex. However, after his retirement party six months earlier, he was disinterested in her sexually and seemed lost.

Early in the film, the group meets and it’s Vivian’s turn to select a book. She chooses Fifty Shades of Grey. This gets all the women thinking about their sex life and eventually their love life.

Diane is afraid of flying and meets a very rich pilot Mitchell (Andy Garcia). Vivian runs into her old beau Arthur (Don Johnson) who is still in love with her. Sharon decides to try internet dating and meets up with George (Richard Dreyfus) an accountant and someone who really likes her. And Carol finds devious ways to try to get Bruce interested in sex again.

As you might imagine, older women finding that they are interested in love and intimacy is relevant to all people at any age.

Keaton was quirkily funny in both her actions (paddling a floating swan in a pool) and words. She can really shine when the role calls for it, and it does here. Fonda, I must admit, is someone I’ve adored for her intelligent skittishness towards men. Here she shows that she still has that power over me at 81. Bergen was the character I had the most reservations about. I never liked her TV role of Murphy Brown much, but here she shines. I loved her projections of herself on her contented cat. Steenburgen had the most difficult role because she was still in a relationship. However, the scene with the cop stopping her and Bruce after she spiked his beer with Viagra was funny. Nelson was very good as the reluctant husband finding his way after retirement. Garcia was excellent as the pilot who wanted to whisk Diane away. Johnson was very good as the very romantic younger man who still held a lot of love for Vivian. Dreyfus was funny and appropriately stuffy as the accountant that had found his match. Them getting out of the back seat of Sharon’s car was funny. Bill Holderman and Erin Simms wrote a script that worked for these actors. Holderman’s direction was strong enough to get me laughing out loud.

Overall: I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Gold

First Hit:  Hard to engage with a film when you don’t like the main character.

There is very little about Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) that is likeable. He’s smarmy in the way he looks, how he acts, and his intentions. Granted the film lets the audience believe he might have changed in the ending scene, however, there’s enough to believe differently.

Supposedly this is based on a true story, however after reading about the real story; “loosely” is probably the best possible description. However, that isn’t the point of this review, therefore I will not spend time on the differences between the real story and this story.

In this film, Wells is drinking and smoking so much of the time I could almost smell the smoke and alcohol laden odor coming through the screen. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; however, for the main character to be so unappealing made it hard to get into the film. I’m not sure why McConaughey had to gain so much weight and have such thin hair on top of his head, but these things didn’t help his unshaven, scraggly tooth looking character. It was almost as if he wanted to make himself as unappealing as possible.

The way he treated his longtime girlfriend Kay (Bryce Dallas Howard) was horrendous. She loved him and supported him through his destruction of his Dad (Craig T. Nelson) and grandfather’s company Washoe Mining. It gets so bad they work out of a bar.

Kenny gets the idea from a dream to hook up with Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez) and find gold in Indonesia. Unbeknown to Wells, Acosta has salted the drilling core findings and because Wells believes they’ve found gold, he revives Washoe Mining and sell millions of shares as they go public.

This film also involves the family of the Monarch in Indonesia. When the monarchy and other investors discover that this has been a hoax, everything falls apart.

The scenes of the jungle and drilling operation were well done. The boardroom scenes were, at times, powerful, and the use of the bar as Washoe’s office was very telling of the whole film and Wells’ personality. The one thing the film did do very well was show just how fleeting wealth can be.

McConaughey was OK as Wells. He had great handle on the maniac part of a gold prospector, but everything else felt very overdone and took away from the film instead of adding to it. Howard was strong as Wells longtime girlfriend. She was appropriately supportive and loving. The scene in the hotel after the company went public on the stock trading floor, was very well done. Ramirez was great as the geologist and Wells gold prospecting partner. His engagement and support, with a slight questionable edge was wonderful. Patrick Massett and John Zinman wrote a wonderful script. I loved some of the lines, however it was McConaughey and director Stephen Gaghan's misguidance for the main character that hurt this film. I liked the sequence of the scenes and many of the sets were very well done, but being put off by the main character who is in virtually every scene can and did hurt this film.

Overall:  I liked the story of greed, gold and how it played out, but without someone or something to care or think about, it felt lifeless.

Get Hard

First Hit:  Funnier than expected and not a great film.

This somewhat topical film about Wall Street mismanagement of funds is only interesting because James (Will Ferrell) is a newly appointed partner in his fiance's felonious father's firm (say that 3 times fast). He is also unknowingly going to be the fall guy for the theft.

Looking at 20+ years in the penitentiary, he hires Darnell (Kevin Hart), an executive car wash owner, to teach him how to survive in prison. Although Darnell’s never been to prison, he makes James believe him because what James will pay him. To do this, Darnell turns James’ home into a prison with barbed wire, security gates and all sorts of spotlights.

The interaction between the fast-talking Darnell and the slow to get the picture James is, at times, very very good. At other times not quite as good. Yet; I’ll say that with Hart as a foil, Ferrell is better than usual.

Hart is a fast-talking creative genius. Watching him act you know he’s adding and deleting dialogue as required to make the scenes work. Ferrell is better with Hart as a foil instead of being the sole performer in a film. Craig T. Nelson as the felonious father-in-law is believable. Alison Brie as his fiancé Alissa is OK but her part felt forced. Jay Martel and Ian Roberts wrote a pretty good script in that it allowed for the actors to create characters. Etan Cohen did a good job of directing by letting the actors push their characters, although the first part of the film felt more constricted than the latter half.

Overall:  One of the better Will Ferrell films I’ve seen in a long time.

The Company Men

First Hit: I’ve lived through the drama of losing a job through cutbacks and this film captures an effective slice of life.

Anyone who has lost a job by way of cutbacks in this economy will know how easy it is to become disenchanted and feel helpless about the future.

Although Bobby Walker (played by Ben Affleck) is only 37, even at his young age, he’s worried because “new college MBAs will work 90 hours a week for nothing”. Even though this film focuses on Bobby, but it also highlights the other tragedies of a company doing mass layoffs.

Phil Woodward (played by Chris Cooper) who started with the company as a welder on the floor and grew with the company to become a highly paid executive is now on the open job market, old, with no real education, and his severance won’t cover his expenses for very long. His story is a tragic one of living slightly beyond his means and not always being aware that a company doesn’t owe you a thing except the paycheck you take from it.

Then there is Gene McClary (played by Tommy Lee Jones) who is the best friend of the CEO, James Salinger (played by Craig T. Nelson), is President of the division who is hardest hit. Although he is financially alright, he is painfully affected because the initial layoffs are done behind his back and he thinks that “ethically”, the corporation is not doing what is right.

Bobby tries to keep up the image that he, and his family is fine, by getting the Porsche detailed and by playing golf at the country club. His wife Maggie (played by Rosemarie DeWitt) is supportive and practical and does her best to guide Bobby into making some rational decisions.

Maggie’s brother Jack Dolan (played by Kevin Costner) offers Bobby construction work and although he rudely declines at first, he takes Jack up on the offer and begins an understanding of their two different lives. One thing not directly discussed in this film was how people live too close to the edge of paycheck to paycheck.

All the stuff they collect along the way can lose its meaning quickly when the money stops rolling in.

Affleck is strong and believable in his anger and frustration at losing his high level job at GTX. DeWitt is fabulous and I really enjoyed her practical, centered and loving support of her husband and the situation. Cooper is, as always, intense and very believable as the guy who came up from the shop floor to be a formable executive. Jones is great as the conscious of the company and how he finds his way back into the game. Nelson is perfect as the arrogant CEO who forgot about how to look at the impact of his decisions to gain the most for himself and shareholders of which he is a very large shareholder. Costner is wonderful as the construction oriented brother in-law. John Wells both wrote and directed this film effectively and with care.

Overall: This film is reflective of how losing a job in a large company in rough economic times can be very difficult. Many people are simply one job away from living on the streets.