Obvious Child

First Hit:  This film is direct, at times interesting, and at other times touching.

Although the film is about a woman comedian, it doesn’t necessarily make it a comedy. Is it funny at times? Yes.

But what struck me about this film was the directness of the main character Donna Stern (played by Jenny Slate). Directness doesn’t make the character smart or making smart choices, yet the frankness of Stern’s (character) is admirable.

For me this film is really about how we keep people away by not being open in our hearts to see how others might be reaching out. The opening sequence has Donna on stage at a small comedy club sharing her life and her life with her current boyfriend. As comedians will do, her observations of their relationship in public do not make him feel good, and after the show he dumps her. This begins a sequence of events that have her begin trying to discover more about her life.

Enter Max (Jake Lacy), a very different man than she’s used to being around. This film is about changing, seeing oneself and another in a deeper way and trusting the feelings and another person. My favorite two scenes: When she tells her mom she’s pregnant and when she’s on the couch with Max at the end – both very touching.

Slate was really good at portraying a woman needing to shift her view of family and her life. Lacy was strong as a solid guy who cares and wants to care about Donna. Polly Draper as Nancy Stern (mother) was good at showing her heart at the right time. Richard Kind as Donna’s dad Jacob was also good as the creative dad Donna relates to. Gillian Robespierre and Kelly Maine wrote a very strong script. Robespierre did a really good job of directing this story.

Overall:  It was a good film about a woman making a difficult decision and learning to let go of her stranglehold on her own heart.

Third Person

First Hit:  Three intellectually and emotionally charged stories that become one in the end.

Liam Neeson plays Michael a successful Pulitzer Prize writer in Paris trying to write another book.

Flash - we’re in another story where we have Scott (Adrien Brody) making a deal to purchase stolen clothing designs – he’s a thief. Julia (Mila Kunis) is a young woman charged with intentionally harming her child. Although it wasn’t proven in court she cannot see her child.

Each story starts and is grown from here. In Michaels’ case he has a wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) who calls him from their home in the US and is worried about his welfare. There is pain in their voices when they speak. He also has a lover – Anna (Olivia Wilde) who is both loving and heartlessly mean. Scott hates being in Italy, goes to an “American” bar expecting something like home and doesn’t find it.

He meets Monika (Moran Atlas) at the bar and ends up getting mixed up with her trying to get back her daughter from some street thugs. Then there is Julia’s story of trying to see her son who is living with a famous artist Rick (James Franco) and his live-in lover Sam (Loan Chabanol). She is being defended by Theresa (Maria Bello) who really tries to help Julia see her son but Julia keeps getting in her own way.

As each story evolves the screenwriter slowly brings them together as a singularity. The film is long and at times, I wondered when it would end - and I also was staying engaged.

Neeson’s story is the focal point of the entire film as it begins and ends with him. My perception is that his character creates feelings about things for himself, through the creation of characters in the stories he writes about. His performance was strong. Kunis was amazing as a young woman who tries hard to do the right thing but gets in her own way almost all the time. Brody was divine, in the way he worked through the trials of his life. Wilde was very strong as a heartless woman who wanted to really be loved and cared about while learning to trust. Chabanol was very good and her scene with Kunis in the women’s restroom was very good. Franco was OK as the distant creative artist. Atlas was sublime as the Roma woman trying to get her child back. Her movement between hard and openly soft was amazing. Bello as Kunis’ attorney was very good and her franticness were perfect for the part. Basinger was very good as Neeson’s wife who holds his struggles with equanimity. Paul Haggis wrote and directed this film. He likes complex stories which require the audience to work to understand as well as touching on sensitive subjects – he does this in this film as well. Overall, it boarded on overly complex and trite.

Overall:  I was touched by the acting in this film.

The Lunchbox

First Hit:  A truly touching romantic film where the written word is the agent for change.

A lonely Mumbai wife tries to lure her husband into a more intimate and caring relationship by making him fantastic lunches which are picked up at her home and delivered to him by the infamous dabbawala which never makes mistakes.

However, Ila’s (Nimrat Kaur) lunches are being delivered to Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) an aging accounts clerk in a large Mumbai government agency. His wife is gone, he’s alone and he’s about to retire. Ila figures out that her lunches are not being received by her husband and ends up writing a note and putting it in the dabba (the container for the food).

Saajan gets the notes and responds harshly in the second note by saying “too much salt”. Ila begins to create more exotic lunches with the help of her “Auntie”. The note writing becomes more involved with them both sharing more of whom they are with the other.

Through this extended exchange, Ila becomes stronger by making a decision she needs to leave her husband who is having an affair. And Saajan becomes softer and less jaded to life by befriending Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) a younger, happy, and annoying man who is charged with taking over the retiring Saajan. This film evolves the characters in a very subtle way and the hook is that you root for everyone while not making this story over melancholy or artificially sweetened.

Kaur is divine. Her stoic look interspersed with her sweet beauty is perfect of the newer Indian woman who is willing to stretch her wings. Khan is sublime as the aging lonely repressed man at the twilight of his working career. As he slowly unfolds his own softness the audience is drawn into this complex person. Siddiqui is perfect as the happy enterprising man selected to take Saajan’s place at work. His annoying enthusiasm is a perfect foil to Saajan’s deeper brooding presence. Ritesh Batra wrote and directed this exquisite film. He accurately captures India, their transportation system(s), and the feel and the culture of a major Indian city. The story is subtle, yet wonderfully obvious and universal.

Overall:  I truly loved and enjoyed this film.

Winter's Tale

First Hit:  A wonderful and heartwarming flight of fantasy film that may hold some truth.

This film moves between three periods of time, current time, the early 1900’s and the mid-late 1800’s.

Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) washed up ashore in New York because his newly deported parents wanted him to live in America. So while they were leaving on a boat back to their home country, they put their son into a model boat in New York harbor (the mid-late 1800’s).

Lake is partially brought up by Humpstone John (Graham Green) and then tutored in theft by Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe) who is also an agent for the devil; in this case it’s The Judge (Will Smith). While in the midst of robbing a large home he runs into Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay), a sick with consumption woman who will be dying soon.

The chemistry between them in this first meeting is palpable and comes through the screen and into your lap. This love transforms him to want to stop being a thief and to open his heart to love for the first time. He thinks he’s there to save her from dying and makes a promise to her young sister Willa (Mckalya Twiggs) that he will kiss her sister and bring her back to life if she dies.

Because Lake was supposed to be the heir apparent to Pearly and Lake crosses him, Soames is out to kill Lake. Peter is fighting to keep himself safe and connected to Beverly and at one point meets her father Issac Penn (William Hurt) who accepts the thief Lake.

The film then moves to current time which has Lake not knowing who he is and trying to understand why he keeps drawing pictures of a girl with red hair on the sidewalk in Central Park. He keeps thinking that his existence is about Beverly, but soon learns that she got him to the current time and it is now about a young girl, Abby (Ripley Sobo), who is sick with cancer. Cutting across these time and generational divides with Lake is his beautiful angel white horse.

This film is about light, love and miracles.

Farrell is excellent. He does scruffy and heart-filled so very well. Findlay is very strong as the consumptive woman and love interest. Crowe is superb as the evil agent of the devil. Smith is an interesting choice as the Judge. Twiggs is sublime and incredibly endearing as the young sister. Hurt is great as the father of these two girls. Sobo is fantastic as the young girl in current time. I enjoyed seeing Green and appreciated his part. Jennifer Connelly as Abby's mother was perfect casting. Akiva Goldsman wrote a wonderful screenplay and knew what he wanted in directing this cast to tell this story.

Overall:  I thoroughly enjoyed watching this romantic film.

At Middleton

First Hit:  This was very enjoyable to watch the dance of this relationship develop.

The essence of this story is about two adults George Hartman (Andy Garcia) and Edith Martin (Vera Farmiga) bringing their two respective kids to a college in Middleton for a campus tour but find something greater.

Edith’s daughter Audrey (Taissa Farmiga) wants to come to Middleton because she wants to work with Professor Dr. Roland Emerson (Tom Skerritt) while George’s son Conrad (Spencer Lofranco) thinks this middle American country college is totally lame.

The film gives a view of their respective parental relationships by going from car to car as they drive to the college. The personality of each of the parents becomes solidified the moment these two cars park in the parking lot and there is a disagreement. There is a spark between these parents and it is visible.

As the film unfolds the kids have their experience of the college, each other and wondering about their parents, while the film focuses on the budding relationship of the parents. The sequence when they get roped into demonstrating a married couple in front of the drama class was very powerful. The twist about what their children choose is like icing on the cake.

Garcia was very good as the uptight cardio surgeon wanting his son to experience, possibly what he hasn’t. Vera Farmiga is strong as the sarcastic, vulnerable, and engaging woman who wants to have more in life. Her younger sister (by 21 years) Taissa was very engaging and screen stealing when she was on camera. Lofranco was OK as Garcia’s son, and his performance grew as the film moved along. Skerritt was really good in his short role as the admired professor. Glenn German and Adam Rodgers wrote a snappy (parking lot exchange) and heart-warming script. Rodgers directed the film with a caring touch by setting up some wonderful scenes, including the bike theft.

Overall:  This was a pleasure to watch – heartwarming.