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First Hit:  At times interesting and other times aimless.

Directly, indirectly and poorly connected stories about desire, life and love.

The film begins with Michael (played by Jude Law) married to Rose (Rachel Weisz) wanting to hook up with a prostitute named Mirka (played by Lucia Siposova) while on a business trip. All the while Rose is having an affair with a photographer who is cheating on his Brazilian girlfriend.

The hurt girlfriend heading back to Brazil, runs into an older recovering alcoholic man (Anthony Hopkins) and their spontaneous meeting and possible interlude is interrupted by her meeting a convicted sex offender (played by Ben Foster) who is trying to find the right path, yet she puts temptation in front of him. 

There is also a Russian mobster who’s driver becomes smitten with the prostitutes sister while his wife wants out of their marriage and longs to have a relationship with her boss a Muslim dentist, who is conflicted about his feelings because she is married.

Does this film sound confusing and a mixed up? It is but is tied together enough to follow the disparate plots. What didn’t work is a cohesive story on which an audience member could become interested in.

There were moments of possibilities, but the way it is shot there is a distance between the director, the story, the camera and the audience.

Law seems only slightly engaged in his role because there isn’t enough meat for him to fully expand the role. Weisz is in the same predicament and her talents were wasted. Hopkins made the most of his role as did Foster whom I thought provided a powerful edginess and an unpredictable component to this film. Peter Morgan wrote a partially disjointed screenplay. Fernando Meirelles didn’t create a compelling film but more of a light comment on relationships.

Overall:  Promising cast was let down by the script and direction.

Ruby Sparks

First Hit:  Yes a little schmaltzy, but it worked well and I enjoyed it.

I like the idea of a quirky writer, lost in life and in himself trying to find a way to write.

Paul Dano plays writer Calvin Weir-Fields who wrote a bestseller when he was 19 years old but has done little in the last 10 years. His psychologist Dr. Rosenthal (played by Elliot Gould) gives him a reading assignment.

Calvin begins to write about a woman in his dreams – he names her “Ruby Sparks”. Calvin is highly motivated and writes hundreds of pages about Ruby. One morning after falling asleep at his computer, he walks downstairs and there she is cooking breakfast and acting as if they’ve been together for months.

Outside of his Dr., his brother is the only other person he speaks with, so with Ruby trying to make a meal, he calls his brother, Harry (played by Chris Messina), asking his advice. Harry comes over meets Ruby, and thinks she’s an actress Calvin has hired to show he has friends and can have a girlfriend. But Calvin pleads with his brother to believe that Ruby came to life out of his mind and writing.

To prove it, Calvin rescripts Ruby in his book and, low and behold, she complies by behaving as the book calls for. As Ruby (played by Zoe Kazan) becomes restless and wants to do things outside of their relationship, Calvin rewrites the script to suit himself.

How does this turn out? Watch the film because whether it is fantasy or reality the point is clear about letting go.

Dano is very effective as a writer and as a troubled man searching to find himself. It was good to see Gould again and he’s good as the psychologist. Messina is good as the unbelieving and supportive brother. Kazan is outstanding as Ruby, both the writer’s fantasy and as a real person. Kazan wrote a wonderful and innovative screenplay. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris co-directed this with a great wit and mix of characters.

Overall: This was an enjoyable film and the entire audience seemed to like it.

Your Sister's Sister

First Hit:  Not a great film and some situations were well acted and thoughtful.

The film begins with some speeches at a party in a living room about someone who’s been deceased for a year. The persons brother Jack (played by Mark Duplass), still hurting from the loss of his brother, gives a talk about some of the earlier and darker sides of his deceased brother.

The gathered group doesn’t want to hear it, including Iris (played by Emily Blunt) who was the girlfriend of the dead brother. She pulls Jack aside and suggests he get himself together by staying at her family’s cabin on an island in the Puget Sound. He gets on his bike and rides to a ferry, takes the ferry to an island and finds the remote island cabin. Arriving he runs into Iris’s gay sister Hannah (played by Rosemarie DeWitt).

Hannah is at the cabin because she just ended a 7-year relationship and is trying to find herself. They sit down, have a bunch of drinks and end up having sex. Iris arrives the next day to visit Jack unexpectedly and finds her sister there as well.

The untold stories begin to evolve here and the audience is along for the ride. What I liked was the process of how the sisters resolve their issue - it wasn't with a simple “I’m sorry”. There are long walks, moments of ignoring the other person in the room, and alone time. Jack has his own searching to do but his search comes to fruition when he trashes his bike.

It is within these sections of the film where I thought and felt the congruency of the remote scenery and emotional processing each person goes through to resolve what life brings.

Overall, Duplass is good but not great. There are interesting moments when we get a glimpse of an interesting character. Blunt is very good in her role and I enjoy when she is on the screen. She has an ability to hide and expose who she and her character are simultaneously. DeWitt is charming and her interaction with Blunt in the bed scenes are revealing, sweet and joyous to watch. Lynn Shelton wrote and directed this film which is very much a woman’s film with a woman’s point of view.

Overall: I fully enjoyed how the threesome under the direction of Shelton took their time to resolve the issue at hand.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

First Hit:  I liked this film although there were pieces missing.

The world is coming to an end by an asteroid that is going to hit the earth in 21 days. As Dodge (played by Steve Carell) and his wife listen to the news parked in their car, he is solemn, quite, within himself.

His wife, without saying a word, opens the car door and runs away from him. This set up lets us know that he’s not been close with his wife and they probably didn’t communicate at all. He goes home, tries to get his housekeeper to quit because of the end of the world status, but she doesn’t want to.

This is the running joke in the film. He meets up with his young neighbor Penny (played by Keira Knightley) who is crying on his fire escape because her boyfriend is leaving and she has missed the last plane available to fly home to see her family in England.

They become friends. Riots start erupting in their city so they leave in her car. He promises that he knows someone with a plane and will guide her there if she will take him to his long lost high-school love. She wants to see her family before the world’s demise and he thinks he can find love again.

Dodge is a very dour character. He has little life in him and in some cases his part feels forced. However, Penny’s character is full of emotion, juxtapositions and oddities like being able to sleep through anything.

The film doesn’t tie together all the pieces very well but it was Penny’s part that kept me engaged with the story.

Carell came across as required in his character – meaning I couldn’t feel him being the character he was playing. He was close at times, but not enough. Knightley was far more moving and interesting in her role. Martin Sheen in a small part, as Dodge’s father, was excellent. Lorene Scafaria wrote and directed this film. I’m not sure whether it was poor direction or poor acting on Carell’s part that made the film seem like it wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

Overall:  I thoroughly enjoyed moments in this film but at other times it seem overly controlled.

Moonrise Kingdom

First Hit:  Quirky, fun, and interesting while blending stylistic filming to deliver a poignant message of hope and love.

The cast is stellar with the big names in supporting roles. You have Edward Norton (as Scout Master Ward), Bruce Willis (as Captain Sharp), Bill Murray (as Walt Bishop), Frances McDormand (as Laura Bishop), Harvey Keitel (as Commander Pierce), Tilda Swinton (as Social Services), Jason Schwartzman (as Cousin Ben), and Bob Balaban (as the Narrator).

The film is about Suzy Bishop (played by Kara Hayward) who is a troubled young girl and Sam (played by Jared Gilman) a young orphan boy who is determined to live his life his way making him an outcast.

The Narrator begins the film by talking straight to the camera setting up the story of the mythical island of New Penzance its history and that a historic storm will soon envelop it. We are slowly introduced to the characters that are living and working on the island through stylistic mid 1960s scene edits and tones which are almost comic, but blazingly consistent, thoughtful and enjoyable throughout.

This film follows Sam and Suzy as they find each other, realize they can connect with each other, and their choice to journey together. Yes they are only 12 years old, but the point is some people feel really at a loss and lost in their life and people around them, but when they connect with someone else, there is a strong and compelling reason to stay together, to live.

Hayward is bold and evoking as Suzy a girl who struggles with feelings and the expression of them. Gilman as Sam is equally strong as the young boy who is going to live his path regardless of what grownups do. Together they were fabulous. Norton was sublime as the Khaki Scout Master who is charged with training Sam. I loved his acknowledgement of the wonderful camp Sam and Suzy set up. Willis was very low key in his self-effacing character who is just plodding along. Murray was very good as Suzy’s concerned dis-attached father. McDormand was excellent as the dis-jointed lonely mother of Suzy. Swinton was funny, bold and poignantly mean as Social Services. Schwartzman was really funny and good as Cousin Ben. Keitel was good as the head of Khaki Scout Masters and Ward’s boss. Balaban was the perfect choice as Narrator because he brought an informational serious undertone that bordered on dark comedy. Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola wrote a stunning script while Anderson’s clear vision brought it all together.

Overall: This was an excellent film to watch because it tells a wonderful story.