Puzzle

First Hit: I thoroughly enjoyed this poignant film about a woman finding herself through a passion.

There was a moment in this film when Robert (Irrfan Khan), tells his new jigsaw puzzling partner Agnes’ (Kelly Macdonald), that what makes puzzling so satisfying is that it is one of the few things in life that she can control completely. His dialogue is far more eloquent than how I wrote this previous sentence; however, it doesn’t take away from the truth of it.

Agnes is married to Louie (David Denman) who owns an auto repair business. Their youngest son Gabe (Austin Abrams) is sometimes seen as the “prince” of the two boys because he gets good grades in high-school. The older boy Ziggy (Bubba Weiler) works at his dad’s auto repair garage and is both sullen and lost in life.

Louie runs the show at home because Agnes has served her family as she thought her role was. It is generally felt that she didn’t deserve to have her own desires and wishes paid attention to. In fact, she has totally ignored herself. She takes care of the men in her life doing everything for them, their laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking them their meals. She serves in her church the same way.

At a birthday party gives herself, because no one else would have, she gets an iPhone from her family which she resists and also a 1,000, piece puzzle. Feeling down and acknowledging an inner curiosity, she pulls out the puzzle box and works to solve it.

Watching her solve the puzzle, the audience sees a subtle glow of satisfaction at accomplishing something on her own. A spark has been lit and it was perfectly shared with the audience. Curiously pulling out an old puzzle in the basement she finds that at only 100 pieces, she solves it quickly and with less satisfaction.

Calling the person who gave her the puzzle to find out where it was purchased, she's told that it was at a small store an intersection in New York City. Agnes’ facial expression was perfect. She hadn’t been into NYC for years and had been stuck in her little town. The trip to the city was priceless as the cost of the train and taxi to the little puzzle store, both surprised and intimidated her.

Leaving the shop with two new puzzles, she sees a posting for someone looking for a puzzle partner. She writes down the texting phone number. Sending a text, it gets immediately responded to. She goes back into the city to meet Robert who tells her he’s looking for someone to partner with in a puzzling competition. Taken slightly aback she decides to interview for this partnership by doing a puzzle with and for him. Completing the puzzle in record time, he’s impressed.

This is the films’ set-up. The rest of the film is a wonderfully paced story about how through this puzzling partnership, Agnes discovers her herself and her voice not only towards Robert but also her family. One of the most beautiful scenes was when she goes to help sort out Louie’s invoices and books, when her and Ziggy get into a conversation and he admits, he’d like to be a chef and that is the only thing he really enjoys doing.

There are wonderful scenes of Agnes and Robert puzzling, Agnes using her voice to tell her family subtly and not so subtly that this are changing for her and therefore them. She does this with love in her heart and without anger or malice.

Macdonald was sublime. I was captured by her micro expressions of strength, sadness, love, and guilt. I was fully transfixed on her expressions as well as physical movements. Khan was fantastic as the inventor who fell in love with Agnes and that puzzling filled his life with controlled joy. Denman was perfect as Agnes’ husband in that he felt he was man of the house, charged with making all the decisions, yet his vulnerability was exquisite when he asked if she was having an affair. Abrams was very good as the younger, easy going son who felt a bit entitled. Weiler was amazing as the struggling son, looking for a way through life where he might be happy. Polly Mann and Oren Moverman wrote a strong, true to life, script. Marc Turtletaub, with a light touch, deftly guided this film to wring out wonderful performances from everyone.

Overall: This film was a true surprise in how much I enjoyed Agnes’ journey.

Inferno

First Hit:  It started interestingly and then simply fell off the table by an overly complex and poorly developed script, poor acting, and feeble direction.

I’ve not been a fan of any of the Da Vinci Code oriented films. The best was the first and quickly sank with Angles & Demons. It stays on this downward track with Inferno. Here we’ve got Tom Hanks reprising his character Robert Langdon, who knows more than anyone about Dante, his words, and other’s interpretations of Dante’s work.

The film starts confusingly with Langdon hurt in the hospital with a head injury. He’s confused and is being attended by a physician named Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones). We are also introduced to Billionaire Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), who is convinced that the world is on the verge of collapse. It is 11:59 – one minute till the world collapses because of over population and environmental issues caused by the over population. To right this sinking ship, he wants to spread a virus that will wipe out earth’s population.

With these two plot setups; Langdon being attacked, having amnesia, and why he has a projection device showing Dante’s hell in a picture but the picture has been altered, and the other setup is Zobrist wants to destroy the world’s population. Added to this we have people trying to kill Langdon, the WHO (World Health Organization) trying to stop Zobrist, WHO agent Christoph Bouchard (Omar Sy) who appears to be on some other side, Vayentha (Ana Ularu) a motorcycle riding person wanting to kill Langdon, and Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan) a hired security consultant whose interest in anything is questionable.

Confused, you got it, and that is how the film unfurled itself. What really muddied up this story is that the writer and/or director wanted Langdon to have a tangential and unrequited love interest with WHO’s Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudsen).

Some of the visual scenes were well shot which helped me to stay somewhat engaged with this lackluster movie. I also loved the, from the air, shots of Venice and Istanbul.

With a bad screenplay and poor direction Hanks was as bad as I’ve ever seen him. There just isn’t enough to be interested in or care about with his character. The device of having him slowly get his memory back during the first half of the film was a waste of Hanks’ talent. Jones character was better than Hanks, but I didn’t buy the shift in her role late in the film. It didn’t surprise me and it just didn’t work. Foster was OK as the guy predicting the end of the world. Khan’s role was sufferable and difficult to watch let alone buy. Knudsen was good in her role until it got to the emotional connection with Langdon, that part denigrated the character. Sy’s role didn’t seem defined and was unclear; it didn’t work for me. Ularu was in a poorly constructed and acted role. David Koepp wrote a horribly convoluted screenplay. Ron Howard knows how to direct so I don’t know what went wrong with the film outside of him just doing his best with the presented screenplay.

Overall:  If there is another film in this series I will not go see it.

The Lunchbox

First Hit:  A truly touching romantic film where the written word is the agent for change.

A lonely Mumbai wife tries to lure her husband into a more intimate and caring relationship by making him fantastic lunches which are picked up at her home and delivered to him by the infamous dabbawala which never makes mistakes.

However, Ila’s (Nimrat Kaur) lunches are being delivered to Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) an aging accounts clerk in a large Mumbai government agency. His wife is gone, he’s alone and he’s about to retire. Ila figures out that her lunches are not being received by her husband and ends up writing a note and putting it in the dabba (the container for the food).

Saajan gets the notes and responds harshly in the second note by saying “too much salt”. Ila begins to create more exotic lunches with the help of her “Auntie”. The note writing becomes more involved with them both sharing more of whom they are with the other.

Through this extended exchange, Ila becomes stronger by making a decision she needs to leave her husband who is having an affair. And Saajan becomes softer and less jaded to life by befriending Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) a younger, happy, and annoying man who is charged with taking over the retiring Saajan. This film evolves the characters in a very subtle way and the hook is that you root for everyone while not making this story over melancholy or artificially sweetened.

Kaur is divine. Her stoic look interspersed with her sweet beauty is perfect of the newer Indian woman who is willing to stretch her wings. Khan is sublime as the aging lonely repressed man at the twilight of his working career. As he slowly unfolds his own softness the audience is drawn into this complex person. Siddiqui is perfect as the happy enterprising man selected to take Saajan’s place at work. His annoying enthusiasm is a perfect foil to Saajan’s deeper brooding presence. Ritesh Batra wrote and directed this exquisite film. He accurately captures India, their transportation system(s), and the feel and the culture of a major Indian city. The story is subtle, yet wonderfully obvious and universal.

Overall:  I truly loved and enjoyed this film.

Life of Pi 3D

First Hit:  Extraordinary visualization of the story and a little long winded.

This film is worth seeing in 3D because it is, at times, visually arresting.

It is hard making something this beautiful when most of the film is on the blue water, with a blue sky, and a single white boat. But Ang Lee makes it work extremely well. What didn’t work, like the book, was the long winded set up.

A writer comes to visit Pi Patel (Adult character played by Irrfan Khan), to hear his amazing story. Their dialog and the early set up of Pi’s life takes up more of the screen time than necessary. In a book it is sometimes necessary to create long narratives to ensure the readers get the picture.

With film, it is an easier task to make the picture clear in the audience (a picture is worth a thousand words) and this film is proof. Finally when we do get into the heart of the story with Pi Patel (played by Suraj Sharma) it with amazement that we watch how he navigates and negotiates life of living on a small 26-foot lifeboat with initially, an orangutan, zebra, hyena and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

Nature takes its course with the animals so it comes down to just the tiger and Pi creating a tentative working relationship. Again, just like the beginning, it seems as though we spend more time on the water than necessary. There could have been 10 minutes taken out and it would have made no difference to the story. Then we have, like in the book, the questionable ending.

Outside of these issues, this film was very joyous to watch.

Khan was perfect as the older Pi Patel in that he brought the kind of earnestness and life view that could only have been gained from such an adventure. Sharma was wonderful as the boy who had to become a man by living through 200+ days on the sea with a Bengal tiger. He did this through his ability to learn, grow and be creative in his determination. David Magee wrote a screenplay that was right in line with the Yann Martel’s novel. Ang Lee did an amazing job with the visual part of the film, some snipping of its length would have enhanced it.

Overall:  This was an amazingly beautiful film to watch and is worth the 3D price.