Hysteria

First Hit:  Although a bit uneven, this film was surprisingly funny and interesting.

This is a film about the invention of women’s vibrators.

This may seem like an odd subject and make one skeptical of why the film will be seen by people in a movie theater. However, this film ties together the women’s movement, sexual freedom, and the misperception by the male medical community and many women that women couldn’t have pleasure in sex.

Mortimer Granville (played by Hugh Dancy) is a doctor that cannot believe that medical practice, as practiced by most hospitals in his time (late 19 Century), ignores scientific proof of the existence of germs, thinks that bleeding people with leeches is the go-to cure-all, and hooking up with pharmaceutical makers (OK this is still practiced today) is the only way to survive as a doctor.

He’s fired from yet another hospital because he wants to clean a wound versus bleeding the wound. He finds work with Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Price) who has a private practice only treating women’s hysteria. But, what he actually does is masturbate women who find the results to be a release of their frustrations and dis-pleasurable temperaments.

Back in those times, women we’re thought of not being able to have any sexual pleasurable. Dalrymple has two daughters, Emily (Felicity Jones) and Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who are very different in their participation in life. Emily is of the mindset to be of her father’s ilk and thinks women belong in the kitchen and taking care of the house.

Charlotte, on the other hand, knows women can have sexual pleasure, believes in helping the poor, and think women should vote and have something more to bring to the world than a "well-run house". Granville, excels at his new practice of curing women's moments of hysteria, but suffers from hand cramps.

When he fails to “cure” one of Dr. Dalrymple’s clients he gets fired. When his friend Edmund St. John-Smythe (played by Rupert Everett) shows him an electrical fan, he discovers that the vibration helps his cramping hand. He then pulls off the feathers and asks a women to allow him to try it out on her. She totally enjoys it.

Granville and John-Smythe license their machines which become portable and it changes women’s enjoyment of sex from then on.

There is a side story about relationships between Granville and the Dalrymple girls but it is obvious what will happen.

Dancy shows a nativity and smartness to carry off this role with a bit of tongue-in-cheek and intelligence. Price is good as a Dr. who is protective of his practice and belief. Jones is OK as a girl who does what she thinks she is supposed to do. Gyllenhaal steals every scene she is in. Everett is very strong as a renegade aristocrat. Steven and Jonah Lisa Dyer wrote a script that was mixed with tongue-in-cheek-ness and historical innovation. Tanya Wexler directed this film in a way that makes this subject both interesting and funny.

Overall: This film won’t win many awards but it rewarded everyone in the theater by being both enjoyable and informative.

Friends with Kids

First Hit:  At times meaningful and insightful while at other times, crass, long, and uninteresting.

There are moments in the film where tears flowed, other times where I cringed with disgust, and other times I was waiting for the next scene.

Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) is best friends with Jason (Adam Scott). They live in the same building and have known each other since college when they dated briefly. Both in their late 20’s they have relied on each other for everything but mostly for their deep friendship and funny interesting conversations.

They have other college friends (couples) who have married and have children. When they see their friend’s lives, they cringe with sadness. Ben and Missy (played by Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig respectively), are filled with desire for wild sex with each other and they do so in anyplace they can find. But when a baby comes it all changes.

Scenes with them as they begin to ignore and ridicule each other are very sad and directly reflective of what happens to a couple when they substitute living with alcohol. The other couple Leslie and Alex (Maya Rudolph and Chris O’Dowd respectively) have a child, have gotten out of shape, and their house is a chaotic mess.

There forms of communication are yelling, ignoring, and nagging at each other but you have a sense there is something there, a staying power in their relationship. Julie and Jason want to have a child and decide that they will have a child together, not be married and have their vaunted sex and social life outside of their equally split job of raising their child.

At first it is very idyllic and it works. After they get a great start in raising their baby, they each find other romantic partners. The film then becomes less of a comedy and more about digging deeper into what love really is. This movie has great lines and overly crass lines.

A point of context is; at the defining moment of Jason and Julie’s relationship (at the very end of the movie) he wants to prove something and the way the script is written it felt crass and not about love.

Westfeldt, didn’t do it for me as the female character. There seemed to be something missing from her being fully the character and maybe it was because she wrote the script and also attempted to direct herself. As script writer I thought much of the swearing was more than needed - it didn’t make the movie more hip. However, some of the dinner scenes had great dialogue. As a director, there were times the film was very lost - looking for a path and other times it was on target. Again, the dinner scenes with all the couples in attendance were the best things she shot. Scott was much better in his role and seemed fully engaged in his part. His shallowness was perfect as well as the depth-ness he expressed as he realized what was important to him. He carried these feelings with equal clarity. Hamm was best as the sarcastic drunk while Wiig was very good as the woman who found herself in a hopeless relationship and was deciding to drown herself in wine. Rudolph was intense and occasionally wise and really displayed the kind of irritation one can get when their overwhelmed with parenthood. O’Dowd was good as the husband who was taking things in stride and also giving up on having a life he once knew.

Overall: An OK film, something to watch on video when you want some entertainment.

The Deep Blue Sea

First Hit:  Rachel Weisz gives an amazing performance in a good and sometimes overdone film.

This film slips time (where a film moves between future, film’s present and past) easily and effortlessly and this is true at the end as well.

However, at times the time slips are perfect and other times, I was annoyed because either I was caught up in the current segment and wanted more completion, or because I was still in the emotion of a previous segment, while we were leaving the current segment for yet another segment.

Regardless, it is Weisz (as Hester Collyer) that we watch. When the camera isn’t on her we want it to be. This is the power a good actor/actress can have when they are on top of their game. Hester is married to an older robust man who is socially prominent as a English Judge.

Sir William Collyer (played by Simon Russell Beale) loves his wife but is inadequate in many ways when you see them together. His upbringing as displayed on a visit Sir William and Hester make to his mother’s home, is tells the whole story. Mean, rude, and unkind, Sir William’s mother is overt in her dislike of Hester.

Hester meets a younger gentleman named Freddie Page (played by Tom Hiddleston) who, full of the bravery he displayed as a English pilot ace in World War II, finds himself a bit lost when he’s home. He hits on Hester at a highbrow club; she bites, and they have a torrid love affair which, for her, is based not only on physical lust, but an awakening of her whole female being – an exposing of her inner passions to feel.

For Freddie, he is carefree. He loves the sex, he loves Hester, but only at a level that leaves Hester sad – his level of caring isn’t enough for her. On the other side, Sir William won’t give her a divorce, and hopes she will come back to him as he loves her more than he can demonstrate. Hester doesn’t feel that feeling with him and at one point says; once you’ve tasted this deep unbridled love, you cannot go back or accept anything less.

Because William doesn’t let her go, she is nearly destitute but holds on to hope that Freddie will come home to roost, to live with and only want to be with her. We follow Hester through her dark depressed emotions and feelings as she navigates her conundrum; she can’t go back to Sir William and Freddie doesn’t meet their relationship at the same level – what’s a woman to do.

This film is darkly shot and it matches the correspondingly dark subject. Unfortunately for me, we there is an overtly and overly loud violin solo (towards the beginning of the film) which was distracting.

Additionally there were scenes which I was the only one in the theater who thought they thought were funny. One such scene was where Hester and Freddie were looking at a cubist drawing of Picasso’s. He made a remark that she said was childish.

He resented this and they got into a huge row in a very quiet museum. As their voices escalated he finally got mad and stormed off. She calls out after him, “where are you going” and he responds with “to the impressionists.”

I thought that was hilarious and laughed out loud. I was the only one. Then later on when the couple was discussing the argument and she asked him why he went to the impressionists, his answer was very funny.

Weisz is superb beyond belief. She probably won’t get recognized for this independent and limitedly distributed work by some awards show next year, but her acting here is brilliant. Beale is wonderful as a restrained man who loves deeply and will probably never find a way to express it because of how he was raised and his position with the government. Hiddleston is very good as the guy who is stuck a bit in the past, is still and will probably always be a boy at heart. Barbara Jefford is killer (in more ways than one) in her brief appearance as Sir William’s mother. Ann Mitchell is great as Mrs. Elton who runs the boarding house Hester and Freddie live in. Terence Davies wrote the screenplay and directed this well. I thought the dialog was amazing and very English while some of the time slipping was overused and distracting.

Overall: A dark powerful film about a woman who isn’t going to have what she wants and it is worth seeing.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

First Hit:  This was a very delightful film to watch.

Sheikh Mohammed (played by Amr Waked) believes that by introducing Salmon fishing in Yemen, his countrymen will learn patience while creating a new food resource, (with the fish and using the water to make the desert green) and an appreciation for life itself.

Harriet (played by Emily Blunt) works for a British investment company that manages much of the Sheikh’s money. There is a skirmish in the Middle East and the British and 10 Downing Street want to deflect the negative press by creating a feel good story.

They pick this idea of introducing Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The guy charged with this from the fisheries department is Dr. Alfred Jones (played by Ewan McGregor). He scoffs at this idea and turns them down.

But the Prime Minister guided by his press secretary Patricia Maxwell (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) orders Alfred to take the project on. At home Dr. Jones’ married life is very sterile and the defining moment is a scene where he and his wife make love. Harriet is involved in the project because she is the lead for the Sheikh.

One of the themes in this film is “faith”. The Sheikh poses the discussion of faith at various moments and he does this effectively. The humor between the uptight Dr. Jones and the open Harriet was perfect.

Although this film is formulaic, it executes in its own unique way.

Waked was beautiful in his execution of the Sheikh’s role. The “1,000 apologies” statement when he has an argument with a fellow countryman was perfect as was his fishing in his robes. Blunt is amazing in her performance. She can be vulnerable, strong, and beautiful all in the same moment. Here she does this perfectly and her voice – simply intoxicating. McGregor was sublime as an uptight intellectual who prefers talking with fish versus humans. As he unfolds his life in-front of the Sheikh and Harriet, he unfolds his life in front of himself. McGregor was extremely effective doing this. Scott Thomas was funny and in full bloom in this characterization of an overzealous PR person for a head of government. Simon Beaufoy and Paul Torday wrote a fun and poignant script. Lasse Hallstrom directed this film with a wonderfully perceptive hand while paying attention to the subtle details that make films good.

Overall: This is a joyous and enjoyable film – worth watching.

This Means War

First Hit: Parts of this were enjoyable but mostly it was a highly improbable mindless piece of fluff.

At the beginning of the film I questioned that the disparate parts would come together and give us a film worth watching.

Reese Witherspoon plays Lauren a woman who has an old boyfriend whom she caught cheating on her. There are two awkward scenes where she runs into her old boyfriend; both of these scenes were not required for the film.

Lauren is head of some consumer protection agency and her character loves her job. She has a friend Trish (Chelsea Handler) who is happily married and really wanting Lauren to find a lover so she posts her name and picture on a dating website.

Two CIA operatives FDR Foster and Tuck (played by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy respectively) live an incorrect and improbable wealthy lifestyle for being government agents.

Their opening scene has them doing some amazing fighting and gun slinging. Tuck responds to Lauren’s website post but then she leaves the date and runs into FDR who tries (unknowingly that she just spent time with his partner Tuck) to pick her up. Tuck and FDR find out they both want to date the same girl so now we, the audience, have the film’s premise.

The boys want to stay best friends and working partners but they both want the same girl. The film attempts to test their friendship, technology, Lauren’s resolve and love. The part that works is some of the comedy.

I enjoyed Lauren’s face as Tuck took out the entire paintball war. I thought that FDR was effectively embarrassed as his grandmother shared his youthful problem with wetting his pants.

Witherspoon is her usual lighthearted character but this film isn’t going to further her career. Pine is a good pretty boy and he did show some depth. Hardy seemed the most comfortable in his role and when he gut punched the karate instructor it was perfect. Handler was one of the more interesting characters as she kept pushing the film along. Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg wrote this somewhat mindless script. McG (Joseph McGinty Nichol) directed this and maybe if he owned his full name he might make a fully integrated film.

Overall:  Although enjoyable this film is forgettable within a half hour after walking out of the theater.