Motherless Brooklyn

First Hit: Meandering and unfocused attempt to bring this Jonathan Lethem novel to life on the big screen.

Screenwriter, Director, and Actor Edward Norton failed to make this an engaging crime thriller in the tradition of Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.” Although there were aspects of this film, I thought exquisite, for instance the jazz club scenes and the scenes in Moses Randolph’s office, generally it felt long and tired.

One way it felt tired to me was me having to analyze scenes to see if things were making sense as the film moved along. Often, they didn’t, which is tiring. For instance, a few early scenes in the Minna Detective Agency office were confusing, and I found myself questioning how the agency made any money and had pleasantly nice offices. Everybody in the office seemed flush, not struggling. There were hints that people in the agency drove people around in cars for a fee and that this was a side business, but everyone at the agency always seemed to be in the office and sitting at their desks doing nothing. I kept thinking, how did all four guys in the agency make money? The main character Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), always seemed to have money to buy drinks with lavish tips, pay for taxis, and buy dinner or two for meetings with other people.

These and other logic questions kept popping up in my mind as the film wore on and took me away from engaging more with the story.

Basically, the story is about Lionel’s dedication to his boss and friend Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Because Frank gets shot and killed early in the story, Lionel has to find out who did it. He cannot let go of the puzzle in his head, which is where his being afflicted with Tourette’s Syndrome adds to the plot. He’s always blurting out comments at an inopportune time, but it helps him to drive to answers to open questions.

The trail to find his boss’s killer begins from a hint Frank whispered to Lionel just before his death in the hospital from a gunshot wound that Lionel witnessed.

The hint has to do with a woman, Laura Rose (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who un-be-knowingly was fathered by a powerful city politician Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin). Although he’s never in an elected spot, he’s always been chosen to run the public parks, building commission, and the housing commission. This is where the real power of control over the city lies.

The audience sees his bullying ways in an early scene when he storms into the Mayor's office and demands to have all the commissions he had before the recent election.

Randolph has a genius brother, Paul (Willem Dafoe), whom he keeps on a short leash and on the edge of hope. Paul figures into the story because Lionel interviews him and learns more about his controlling brother Moses.

I can say that I spent 2 ½ hours watching some good scenes with some excellent acting sprinkled in along the way. However, the meandering nature of the movie and overly complicated scenes to achieve a visible result were not well-intentioned.

Norton was at times good as Lionel, but somehow his expression of the syndrome became part of the distraction versus adding to the film and story. It’s a difficult thing to do, and at times it failed. Willis’ small but pivotal part was good while it lasted. Mbatha-Raw was outstanding as Rose. Her ability to be both strong and vulnerable was effectively used. Baldwin was the best of the bunch in this film. Without any doubt he brought the role of powerful non-elected city politician to life. His conversation with Lionel about the importance of building his future dream city was wonderfully done. Dafoe gives a reliable performance as the younger brother of Moses. He's continually seeking approval for his work, and his subsequent disappointment was exquisitely displayed towards the end of the story when he opens an envelope, filled with hope, only to find something else. For me one of the most compelling scenes was between Lionel and Trumpet Man (Michael Kenneth Williams). While in Trumpet Man’s home, he and Lionel talk about their respectively messed up heads and how they each try to soothe their inner beasts. Watching Williams's performance, I was transfixed. Norton both wrote and directed this film. The direction of his own performance needed work. He seemed too engaged with watching himself where trimming his screen time might have helped the film by being more focused. However, he does have directorial talent and was able to evoke several powerful scenes by letting the talent shine.

Overall: I can say that I spent 2 ½ hours watching some good scenes with some excellent acting sprinkled in a long, meandering, and overly complicated moments to achieve an obvious result.

A Wrinkle in Time

First Hit:  I love the concepts in the film but the execution was generally very poor.

I wanted to like this film more than I did.  Almost from the beginning, there was something not quite right about this film. When Mr. Murry (Chris Pine) is teaching his daughter Meg (Storm Reid) about how vibrations can affect sand on a flat plate, there was a clunky sense to their interaction.

There was little sense or buildup as to why her peers were giving her a hard time. We slowly find out that she misses her dad, who disappeared some 4 years earlier. He just disappeared and the kids made fun of her because of this? Didn’t make sense and didn’t stick with me, given Meg’s attitude and personality on the screen.

Her adopted brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) is a genius and pushes the envelope at their mutual school. He calls people out on their stupidity and Meg has to break up the fight.

Regardless, Charles Wallace believes that their father slipped through a wrinkle in time and traveled to another galaxy (I interpreted this as a different dimension). He finally convinces Meg that something like this happened and introduces her to Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) who is a quirky and a renegade spiritual human presence and form of light.

Meg and Charles Wallace are join by a classmate Calvin (Levi Miller), who says he got “a call” to join them. He struggles at home because his father beats him even though he’s a great student. This part of the film is poorly done and doesn’t work well.

The three kids meet up in Meg’s backyard and Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) take them through a wrinkle in time and end up on a new planet (new dimension).

The place is made of light as are the three Mrs. However, when they fly on Mrs. Whatsit’s back and encounter The It (the dark forces), the light bearers say that the kids might not find Mr. Murry.

The concepts of light and dark are great to express in written form and in film, but here the direction and substance of this story fails to make this journey compelling.

Pine was good as the scientist first guy, setting aside his family for the sake of science. Gugu Mbatha-Raw was good as Mrs. Murry, there was a sweet genuineness to her. Reid was very strong as Meg. Her passion and intelligence came through. McCabe was excellent as young Charles Wallace. He did a great job of being a smart kid and one that was taken over by the dark side (The It). Witherspoon was funny as Mrs. Whatsit. She brought humor but her character was also inconsistent. How can you be new as a light being and run out of energy so quickly. Kaling was OK as a seer, but I just didn’t buy the role. Winfrey was Winfrey. The extra-large size physical presence might have been more about inflating that it was Oprah than the role. It made little sense and adding the stiff gown she was fit into made her performance stiff. Miller was OK, but I struggled as to why he was part of the journey, the case wasn’t well made. Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell wrote a mediocre script when it could have been great. Ava DuVernay’s direction was poor. But some of this is based on the poorly created script. However, I think she could have made better choices about the story’s direction and how it was constructed.

Overall:  This film falls flat when it comes to telling a strong story, but it does have a strong point to make if the audience sees through the uneven film.

Beauty and the Beast (3-D)

First Hit:  Although sweet enough, this film is why I generally don’t like musicals.

Those that have read me for years know I’m particular about and generally not a fan of musicals. The songs have got to work, not take me out of the flow and feeling of the film, and make sense. Songs that are difficult to understand or take too much thought, or fail to help the film’s flow, are not worth singing or having in the film. This movie fails to meet my tolerance levels from the get go and therefore it was hard for me to sit through it.

In the prologue, prior to being introduced to the oddity of Beauty (aka Belle - Emma Watson) and the townsfolk, the film sets up the reason why we have the Beast (Dan Stevens). He’s full of himself and because he doesn’t care about anyone else, a spell is put on him by the Enchantress (“Agatha” - Hattie Moran) that damns him and others around him to a life of non-humanness unless he is loved by another. The Enchantress gives him until the last petal of a rose, encased in a glass cover, falls to find someone to love him. When the last petal falls, he dies and the others are doomed to a life as inanimate objects.

After the brief prologue, we segue back into the local town we have Belle prancing and walking through town with the townsfolk singing out how odd she is because she reads books. Because we’ve no other background, except knowing that her dad Maurice (Kevin Kline) is a tinkerer, lives with his daughter and her mother is long gone; were just suppose to believe she's odd. It was hard for me to believe this. The film story just wants us to believe this "oddity" story.

Belle is being wooed by Gaston (Luke Evans) who is all brawn (self-labeled) and no brains. Belle sees through Gaston and spurns him at every pass. Gaston’s man Friday LeFou (Gosh Gad), is one of the best parts of this film with fanfare, flair, and a jousting way, he quips through this role only to backtrack on them later.

One of the difficulties of listening to the songs was that Watson’s singing was overly processed and, at times, sounded like it was through a vocoder and unnatural. I’m not sure if this was done for effect or because Watson doesn’t have the kind of singing voice that worked for the character. This use of processing singing voices cropped up in multiple places throughout this film.

Although many of the characters were cute, Lumiere (Ewan McGregor), Maestro Cadenza (Stanley Tucci), Cogsworth (Ian McKellen), Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson), Madame de Gerderobe (Audra McDonald), Chip (Nathan Mack) and Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), I only found an occasional enjoyment watching their interaction with each other and with Beauty or the Beast.

For the most part, within fifteen seconds after a song started I wanted it to end as these songs were taking me out of story.

Watson was good and believable as Belle, although I really didn’t like what was done to her voice when singing. Her slight English accent and obvious intelligence was helpful in making this film seem enchanting. Kline was even keeled, believable and strong as Belle’s father. His character felt grounded. Stevens was OK as the Beast although the CG Beast was what the audience mostly experienced. Only in the beginning and end did we have Stevens as the Prince. Evans was good as the swashbuckling Gaston. Gad was the best part of this film. He was funny and was obviously committed to his role. The remaining of the actors were basically CG objects for most of the film which makes reviewing their work difficult. Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos were responsible for the screenplay. Given it is an established story, their modifications were OK. Bill Condon had a clear vision of what he wanted and for the most part it was executed well, however it just isn’t my cup of tea.

Overall:  My wife loved the film, and I was occasionally amused and mostly bored because the songs took away from the actual story.

Miss Sloane

First Hit:  A very engaging and intense look at winner take all lobbying through a no-holds barred lobbyist.

I didn’t have any idea what kind of life or upbringing Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) had, but to witness her "win at any cost" actions made me wonder. As one of her bosses asked; “were you born this way?”

Notwithstanding, I bought Sloane’s character because all her actions supported it. Early on there’s a statement where she says something like; one must be fully prepared so that when your opponent plays their trump card, you play your trump card, trumping theirs.

One of the beginning sequences she’s asked by George Dupont (Sam Waterston), her high-powered boss at the large lobbyist firm she works in, to support the NRA in creating a program to get women to want to become gun owners to protect their family. They want this because the lobby wants the Brady gun law bill to be defeated in the Senate. Sloane balks, and when pressed by her boss to take the assignment, she quits and joins a small boutique firm run by Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong) to lobby for the Brady bill and against her old firm. When she leaves this firm she takes most of her staff except her primary aid Jane Malloy (Alison Pill), who says she's thinking of getting out of the lobby business.

The film flashes ahead where she is being held for illegal lobbying practices in a hearing chaired by Congressman Ron M. Sperling (John Lithgow). In these flash ahead scenes, we get a sense of the pressure a congressional hearing might bring against someone.

Likewise, we see how hard she works to find out material that she can use to make her point, win the votes. In befriending Esme Manucharian (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), one of the people on her team, she sees Esme’s intelligence and commitment to this cause but also exposes her secret to the public.

Does she care? That is one of the film’s points. There are many different levels of caring and it doesn’t always look like what most people expect it to be. To this end, when she sacrifices herself to win her cause and not involve others, some of these questions are answered.

Chastain is this film. Her characters intensity, focus, and work effort to deliver on made promises is absolutely amazing. A tour de force performance. Mbatha-Raw is fantastic. The unfolding vulnerability she shows as her past is revealed is totally believable. Pill is perfect as Sloane’s work partner. Strong is really good as the head of a boutique lobbying firm. His support and questioning of Sloane’s tactics was spot-on. Lithgow as the Congressman who gets compromised was very good. His pushiness and superior attitude falling away to shock at being found out, was sublime. Waterston was very good as the head of a lobbying firm that just wants his business to grow. Jonathan Perera wrote a very interesting script. It was a fascinating look at the lobbying industry. John Madden clearly guided Chastain to take charge of the character and this movie. This was an excellent idea.

Overall:  I was transfixed by Chastain’s character, which required complete commitment to her goals.

Free State of Jones

First Hit:  Ambitious telling of a few southern men who really wanted to be free of the South’s prejudicial way of life.

The film begins with Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) carrying a wounded soldier into a field hospital. Showing intelligence and compassion, he strips off the soldier’s uniform and replaces it with an officer’s and announces that he’s got a captain that needs assistance.

Because he’s an officer the wounded soldier gets help. In this simple scene we are shown the compassionate leadership qualities in Knight. When his son Daniel (Jacob Lofland), by his wife Serena (Keri Russell), gets killed, he loads him up on a mule and deserts the Confederate Army, a corporal offense, and returns the body to his home.

Serena, distraught, packs up their youngest child and leaves the area. Because he’s now a wanted deserter, Knight has to hide out in the swamp with escaped slaves. One day, while protecting a poor farmer's wife and daughters from Lt. Barbour's (Bill Tangradi) pillaging their corn, hogs, and supplies, he's discovered by the Confederate Army raiders which now want to chase him down and prosecute him.

Of course the rich landowners were not pillaged and were also protected from losing any of their property. Knight ends creating a small society of other deserters and former slaves whose goal is to live free with equality among all men. Moses (Mahershala Ali) is one of the slaves who becomes a strong leader in the movement to rid the South of their prejudicial ways.

Newton falls in love with Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who is another slave who fled their owner and they have a child together. This story becomes very complex because this growing group of freedom fighters, fight the Confederate Army and the Klu Klux Klan to earn freedom from oppressive citizen attitudes and a government learning how to enforce the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

To re-enforce the difficulty of these changes, Rachel and Newt’s son is shown in court as an adult because he’s partially black and wasn’t allowed to marry a white woman.

McConaughey was well suited to this role. His down home nature and natural leadership qualities are well represented here. Russell is strong as the first wife who leaves and comes back to be very supportive of the movement. Trangradi is very good and brings the right attitude to his character. Ali is powerful as the former slave who embraces his freedom in all ways. Mbatha-Raw is sublime as the movement’s supporter and eventual wife of Newt. Gary Ross wrote and directed this ambitious effort. Although I think he bit more off than could be chewed in this film, his representation of the changes the South went through was excellent.

Overall:  This film sheds light on a man whose tombstone accurately states: “He lived for others.”