Colette

First Hit: With the empowerment of women being in the forefront, it was great to watch Colette take charge of her life.

Colette (Keira Knightly) becomes enamored by Willy (Dominic West) who is somewhat of a blowhard male chauvinist who disrespects everyone except anyone who has more money or prestige than him.

He contracts with people to write stories, books, and plays for him and because of his spending and gambling habits, he's always in debt. After their marriage he continues to have affairs with scores of women in Paris, which infuriates Colette but more for the lying than the affairs themselves. Because they are pressed for money, he locks Colette into a room to make her write for him.

She writes books that become the talk of Paris. Everyone loves the books and Willy, the supposed author, becomes the talk of the town. Setting social and artistic trends, Willy and Colette become enamored with their life. But, tension begins to percolate because Colette is the real author of the books and no one knows.

What I really liked about this movie is that Knightly, as Colette, is definitely in her element. Her natural wit and intelligence was never a match for Willy or Georgie Raoul-Duval (Eleanor Tomlinson), Collette’s first lesbian relationship.

Knightly was superb. Her airiness and ease of sharing a strong Colette was sublime. West was excellent as the overbearing chauvinistic husband and ego driven writer. Fiona Shaw was perfect as Colette’s mother supporting Collette’s independence. Denise Gough playing Missy, Colette’s supporter and romantic lover. Tomlinson was wonderful as Colette’s first lesbian lover who was also Willy’s lover. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland wrote a pointed and well-defined screenplay. Westmoreland did a good job of setting up wonderful scenes and sets that exemplified the era of the late 1800’s.

Overall: Using Knightly was inspired casting choice as she brought a lot of life and intelligence to this role.

Still Alice

First Hit:  Powerful acting in a very strong film.

Julianne Moore plays Alice Howland, famous and prestigious linguistic professor at Columbia University, who discovers that she has Familial Alzheimer’s disease which has a 50% chance of being passed on to her children.

Her three children Anna (Kate Bosworth), Tom (Hunter Parrish), and Lydia (Kristen Stewart), all have different relationships with their mother and are accurately testy with each other. Alice’s husband John (Alec-Baldwin) is also at Columbia and is very supportive of his wife’s oncoming illness.

This film is about what happens within this family as Alice’s disease takes ahold of her. The scenes are well done and allow the audience to feel along with both Alice and the others.

Moore is Oscar extraordinary. She delivers on all levels and the ending scene when she utters, says it all. Baldwin is very strong as the loving husband. Bosworth is very good as the know-it-all, professionally focus, and protective of her mother kind of daughter. Parrish was overshadowed by the other actor, but good at times. Stewart delivered. The complex, rebellious and understanding daughter role fit her perfectly. Richard Glatzer wrote this wonderfully compelling script and his own direction with Wash Westmoreland was spot on.

Overall:  This was a very good film and the acting sublime.

The Last of Robin Hood

First Hit:  Interesting and somewhat provocative, yet it didn’t really probe the controversial aspects of Errol’s behavior.

Kevin Kline was a great pick for the Errol Flynn character. He’s got the subtle charm, sly smile, and eye sparkle that would make him a great ladies man which Errol was known to be.

This film begins at the end of Errol’s career. He’s gazing out of the window of a studio’s office and sees Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning) walking to a set. He sends his emissary over to find her and invite her to his office. She is 15 years old but passing for 18 and he’s over 50.

His charm has her going to dinner with him and then to his home where he pushes himself on and in her. Afterward, Beverly ignores Errol but he is persistent, tracks her down, and convinces her that he really cares for her. In the background, Beverly’s mother Florence (Susan Sarandon) is pushing her daughter to be a movie star and seems to allow or ignore risking her daughter’s reputation and safety for fame.

To give an air of proper propriety, Errol devises a plan for Florence and Beverly to go with him everywhere, but it’s when they go to New York that Florence faces the intimate relationship Beverly and Errol are having. The rest of the film is more about what happens to them as a twosome and threesome.  Errol’s has been burning the candle at both ends and this lifestyle brings about his early demise.

The 1950’s was very well represented in both clothing and outdoor scenes in LA and NYC. The automobiles were beautiful and seeing the John Wayne movie marquee was great. What this film was missing was more about Errol’s previous issues which were only talked about and delved into once with a stern talk between Errol and his lawyer.

Kline was really good as Errol and it was a pleasure to watch him be in this character. I think the script let him down. Fanning was incredible, she was able to be the various ages her character was pretending to be allowing her experience to give her the air of being much older than she was. Sarandon was wonderful as the mother choosing blinders when she needed them, yet opportunistic as all get out. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland both wrote and directed this film. It lacked some of deeper more controversial aspects of Errol’s behavior but what it did was bring light to the man who has long since passed.

Overall:  I admired Fanning’s portrayal of Beverley and liked Kline’s version of Flynn.