Shrink

First Hit: Although a bit tedious, it is a watchable film with some good acting and interplay.

Kevin Spacey plays Henry Carter a psychologist who has a hit book out about how to be happy. But he is anything but happy.

From the moment the film opens we know something is really wrong with Carter. He’s stoned all the time. He is seen sleeping everywhere but on his bed. He sleeps on the floor, on a pool deck chair, on the couch and most anywhere but on his bed. He pays passing attention to his dog and barely a bit more to his patients.

He occasionally says something of wisdom to his patients but mostly spends his time thinking about his next hit on a joint. There is a great intervention scene where his family, patients and friends try to get him into a abuse program and he just blows them off.

His father who is also a psychologist decides to send Carter a young girl for pro-bono therapy. Jemma is a young girl who is missing school to go see films and is missing her mother. Carter finds out her mother committed suicide which is what his wife did. At this moment Carter and Jemma begin to heal.

Spacey is perfect as the arrogant, intelligent, and personally lost “psychologist for the stars”. His patients represent Hollywood people with Hollywood type problems which are amusing to watch. Keke Palmer plays the girl and drew me in to watch her. She has a strong presence. Saffron Burrows plays a centered Kate Amberson the wife of a country/rock star who is fully narcissistic.

Overall: This is an OK film, not great, but I found myself interested in how it would turn out.

The Bank Job

First Hit: This was an entertaining film that was efficiently paced and based on the 1971 London bank robbery.

There is very little background development or information about the characters of this event which is fine because the action, plots and subplots propelled the film.

However, I did want to know more about the previous history between Terry, the head thief, (played by Jason Statham) and Martine Love (played by Saffron Burrows).

My reasoning is that there is a continuing story line involving the jealousy between Terry’s wife and Martine and it kept cropping up and wasn’t fleshed out. Otherwise, each of the characters has some background built into their story line and it’s enough to accept this at face value and roll with the action of the robbery story.

The story involves compromising pictures of a member of the royal family, crooked members of Scotland Yard, members of the high government who like kinky sex, the local police, a charismatic black radical leader, a sex club owner, a Madame, and a high level government secret service team.

All these characters have something at stake in the safety deposit boxes that are robbed. It begins when Martine is being pressured by high government officials to find someone to rob a bank and collect pictures of a royal family member’s sex romp. If she finds someone to do this robbery the drug charges against her will be dropped.

The deal also includes the robbers getting to keep the ill gotten gains. The robbery and story line gets more complicated when some of the stolen items mean as much to the people that were stolen from, as the royal family’s compromising pictures mean to the government.

With multiple plots revolving around the robbers and the people who were robbed the action is quick, engaging and the outcome was satisfying.

Overall: This isn’t a great film; however it is interesting, fast and well paced with strong enough acting resulting in a very entertaining film.