I'll See You in My Dreams

First Hit:  Thoughtful and very well acted film about loss and growing older.

Carol (Blythe Danner) is alone, her husband died twenty years earlier.

She has a dog that dies early in the film which adds to the sorrow Carol carries. Her mood has a heaviness to it that is palpable. Her friends Georgina (June Squibb), Sally (Rhea Perlman), and Rona (Mary Kay Place) play bridge regularly. Sally and her play golf at a golf club and her life seems set, unexciting, and, at times, meaningless.

Her pool guy Lloyd (Martin Star) is a lost young man who has no direction, little purpose except to clean the pool he’s cleaning at that time. He’s philosophical with his predicament and shares his belief with Carol. Given his place and her place, it creates a bond of understanding and friendship.

When he sings the song he's written to Carol, the mood is so sweet, beautiful and heartfelt. It adds to his beauty as an understanding person. Carol tries speed dating, which has its own funny moments, but when she finds herself attracted to and giddy about Bill (Sam Elliot), the life in her begins to show. How she expresses it with her visiting daughter Katherine (Malin Akerman) was very touching and real.

Danner is exquisite. She really embodied the dullness and sadness of her life and the rise of hope when Bill arrives into her life. Squibb, Perlman, and Place are perfect as friends having strong personalities that support and care about Carol.  Star is amazing as the guy who sings off key, is lost in life, cleans pools and finds a friend in Carol. Akerman is very good as the daughter that knows her mom well enough to draw her out and support her next steps. Elliot is strong as the self-assured older man who has a hankering for Carol. Marc Basch and Brett Haley wrote a strong and insightful script. Haley did an excellent job of directing this cast as well as making the script feel full of heart.

Overall:  This was an amazing performance by Danner and the entire cast.

Wanderlust

First Hit:  There are some funny moments but overall this film falls flat.

There is little chemistry, or palpable chemistry, between George (played by Paul Rudd) and Linda (played Jennifer Aniston) in this oddly constructed film.

I found the film odd because each situation they were in was overdone. His brother, his wife and their son were characterizations of people – they weren’t real. The old hippy/or commune situation was a little far fetched as well.

The funniest moments is when George is getting ready to have sex with Eva (played by Malin Akerman) and he was practicing his conversation in front of a mirror. What was coming out of his mouth was embarrassingly funny, crude yet very humorous.

The storyline is that George works at a Wall Street financial company while Linda tries different things to find herself and to make money but she strikes out often. They buy a small studio ("No it's a mini loft”) apartment near his favorite coffee house.

Shortly after her latest attempt to sell a film concept to HBO fails and he loses his job, they have to sell the apartment they just bought for a loss. They decide to go visit his brother in Atlanta. On the way they spend a night at a commune that offers a different way of life.

This film is about their decision to try something new and to more fully find each other. Nevertheless despite the good idea, this films writing, direction and acting was sub-par.

Rudd was at his best in front of the mirror attempting to get his courage up to make love with another woman. Aniston didn’t seem to connect to or even belong in the film. It just wasn’t the right vehicle for her. Justin Theroux as Seth the community leader was certainly nothing to write home about and his see through philosophy had little grounding in anything. The only time there was some hint that he was connected to a larger universe was when he played guitar but then again any good guitarist could have play it that way. Joe Lo Truglio as Wayne spent most of his time naked, but was pretty good as this annoying person who was on his own track in the community. Alan Alda as Carvin the person who founded this commune back in 1971 was at times winkingly cute. David Wain and Ken Marino wrote this marginally adequate script but Wain wrecked the good parts with less than crisp direction.

Overall:  This film would barely make entertainment on a late Sunday afternoon on DVD or Netflix.

Couples Retreat

First Hit: There are some out loud laughs but overall this film's gags soon run out of energy and the film loses its way.

Vince Vaughn is always Vince Vaughn regardless of the film he is in. He doesn’t really play another character; he plays Vince Vaughn in a particular situation. 

In this film he suppose to be Dave a successful video game maker who doesn’t like picking tiles or door handles for his wife’s remodeling scheme. He’s a loyal friend and supports his friends in whatever they need to move their life forward. He is selfless in this way.

Dave and his wife Ronnie (played by Malin Akerman) get convinced to support another couple Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) on a trip to a paradise island for fun, leisure and couples therapy.

Jason and Cynthia think this trip will help them resolve their problems. With Dave and Ronnie's influence two other couples join them on this trip thereby getting a discount on their trip. The other couples are Joey (Jon Favreau) and his wife Lucy (Kristin Davis) and Shane (Faizon Love) with his girlfriend Trudy (Kali Hawk).

Each morning they meet up with the island's relationship guru for some bonding and exploratory couples exercise which include yoga, snorkeling and fish feeding. Each couple also meets with a therapist. 

Each scene creates situations which are played for a laugh. However, the scenes don’t make a cohesive film and we know how it’s going to end.

Vaughn is great as Vaughn but as Dave a family man who creates video games? I don’t think so. Davis was probably the best of the actors in creating a character of interest. Love and Hawk were amusing and fun to watch as a couple. It doesn’t surprise me that Vaughn and Favreau wrote this film as they were the center of male focus of this film. They were also the most egotistical and least interesting of the characters.

Overall: At best this is a video on a Sunday evening where nodding off wouldn't matter.

The Watchmen

First Hit: Mesmerizing visuals in sometimes cohesive scenes strung together by popular songs as the vehicle for transitioning between them.

I was mesmerized by the strong visual scenes in this film but the lack of a strong story line reduced its potential power.

The film begins during the opening credits and if you don’t pay attention; the history of why the world is as dark as it is, as depicted in this film, will be lost. From what I could guess there were two plots of somewhat equal value. One plot is about finding out who is killing past super heroes and the other is about the world coming to an end if someone doesn’t do something about it.

In both plots it is the combination of Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson playing their superhero roles that make and the attempt to create bridges between the beautiful scenes while making sense of the story.

The most glaring, obtrusive and enjoyable part of moving from scene to scene was the use of popular songs (songs I liked). However, their use felt too abrupt and most of the time out of context.

Zack Snyder directed this as he did 300; stylized and other worldly. For my taste, neither one is a really great film but they are fun to watch. There are attempts to create substance in the stories he tells, but both films fall short. In this film, the illusion that there is much substance in this graphic novel is hopeful at best. There was a lot of pre-release hype about this film and a pumping up of how important this graphic novel was, but for my taste, the story less than strong and the film exemplifies this. However, the positive side of this work (and 300 as well) is that he has a great visual eye and draws from a wide range of sensory queues. The use of colors, varying angled shots, lush backgrounds, interesting sounds, and intense detailed interiors are his strong suit. The characters in Watchmen that compelled me to pay attention to were Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian, and Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan.

Overall: Visually stimulating film with a weak storyline but well worth the time and money to see.