The Family

  First Hit:  There were amusing moments but it was more of a drama than dark comedy and in this realm it was unexceptional.

Frank Blake (AKA Giovanni Manzoni played by Robert De Niro) is hiding out in France with his family; wife Maggie Blake (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle Blake (Dianna Agron) and son Warren Blake (John D’Leo). Blake/Manzoni is hiding out in France because he’s in a witness protection program headed by Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).

His whole family cannot seem to hide out innocuously therefore Stansfeld has been moving them every 60 days. They just can't seem to stop causing trouble and bring attention to themselves wherever they move. Because Manzoni ratted on another Mafia boss thereby sending him to prison, he and his family are the active targets for assassination by the boss’s henchmen.

Where this film is fun and interesting is when either child is leading the scene or when Maggie is working her magic. Maggie gets pissed that a French store owner demeans her behind her back, so she blows up the store. Daughter Belle brutally takes care of French boys who have no manners, while son Warren sizes up everything and everyone and then arranges things to his advantage.

This is where the comedy comes and then goes. Maggie’s attitude toward each scene, showing her softer side or her hard New York City wasp side is fabulous. When the kids come together to save the family, the action part of this film comes together.

De Niro, although the primary male role, didn’t steal this film, his family did. Pfeiffer was fabulous. Her accent, attitude and actions were fully engaging and kept me interested in her scenes. Agron was really great. I enjoyed her strength and softness and felt she did a great job of embodying them. D’Leo was very strong as the young son who has embodied his dad’s wiliness, street smarts and the ability to put two and two together quickly. Jones seemed tired and uninterested in this role. Luc Besson and Michael Caleo wrote a confused script. If it was to be more of a black comedy, they needed more humor, if they were going strictly action, they needed better setups. Luc Besson directed this without a clear focus of the type/genre it was to be.

Overall:  Although the film didn’t really know its focus, many of the scenes were very enjoyable.

Lincoln

First Hit:  Fantastic acting in a wonderful slice of Americana.

I was overwhelmingly amused that we had just finished an election where the Republican Party devastatingly lost its credibility and mojo while this film showed Republicans at their finest.

Make no bones about it; Lincoln’s Co-Republican group were what drove the 13th Amendment into the law of the land while Democrats floundered in a generic stupidity of beliefs. Who learned from this lesson – the Democrats and it was the Democrats that brought our first black President back for a second term.

In Lincoln the focus is on a short few months from when he was elected to a second term until his assassination. Lincoln’s task was to ensure the freedom of blacks in America before the ending of the Civil War.

His premise was that if the war ended prior to passing the 13th Amendment, this law would fall by the wayside and blacks wouldn’t have their deserved freedom. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Lincoln as a thoughtful complex intelligent man whose single-minded focus kept the Republican dream alive.

He cared not so much for what was on the outside, but what was in a person's heart and what was right. Wife Mary (played by Sally Field) was, in this time of her life, grief stricken by the loss of one of their sons and despite her strength and intelligence was prone to fits of despair over loss. 

Day-Lewis is extraordinary and will certainly get an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Lincoln. He embodied the drive to create equality for the blacks in America. Field was strangely complex and powerful in her role as Marry Todd Lincoln. David Strathairn was pointedly strong and loyal as William Seward, Secretary of State. Tommy Lee Jones was amazing and perfect as Thaddeus Stevens the long time proponent of the 13th Amendment. Jackie Earle Haley was great as Alexander Stevens the Southern States representative during negotiations with Lincoln. Tony Kushner wrote a powerful and compelling screenplay while Steven Spielberg delivered a Oscar worthy turn as director.

Overall: If Republicans want to get their mojo back they need to watch and learn from this film – the Democrats obviously learned through history.

Hope Springs

First Hit:  Poignant and well-acted film about how love and real romance begins with communication.

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) have been married for 31 years, sleep in separate rooms, and barely talk to each other.

Arnold complains or is critical about everything and appears to always be worried about spending money – he’s a tax accountant. Kay is a housewife with a part-time job in a clothing store. Kay is unhappy with the whole situation while Arnold seems complacent with the status quo. Kay decides to seek the assistance of Dr. Feld (Steve Carell) who helps couples re-find their magic through communication.

Kay throws down the gauntlet to Arnold by telling him, she’ll be on the plane and he can choose to go or not. Through Dr. Feld’s sessions Arnold and Kay struggle and learn to find their love and caring for each other again.

The story is filled with the truth of what happens to couples when they quit communicating with each other. Each person is stuck in their own comfort zone and struggling to find a way to move forward as their life is reaching their later stages.

The fearless quality of the script to have this couple in dialogue about real issues was fantastic. The acting by both Streep and Jones was outstanding.

Carell showed honest restraint while facilitating the direct discussion with dialogue between the couple with pointed questions.

The only fault I found with the film was that I didn’t believe that Jones and Streep had any real or believable romantic and physical chemistry. But this didn’t take away from the point of the film.

Streep was perfect as the woman who followed or, maybe better, acquiesced to her husband’s path for their life together as demonstrated by accepting of a water heater for Christmas. Jones was fantastic as a man who has insulated himself from life especially his wife. He’s loyal but he ignores her. Carell is really good here as a therapist and enjoyed the way he portrayed Dr. Feld. Elizabeth Shue had a minor role as Karen, a bartender in a Maine seaside bar, and it made me wish she was doing more films – she was really engaging. Vanessa Taylor wrote an outstanding script. David Frankel did a great job of bringing a pointed script to life and it has got to help when you have two actors like Streep and Jones.

Overall:  This was a thoroughly enjoyable film.

Men in Black III (3D)

First Hit:  Excellent third installment of a 15 year old franchise. This film starts a little slow with conversations between Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) which seemed to be on purpose, or is it Jones getting older?

This is the question I had in mind while I watched the beginning one way dialogue. Although there is some intrigue with Agent O (Emma Thompson) and K, it never really realizes itself and then when O speaks a lengthy squeaky alien language segment, it ruins her presence as an austere and intelligent agent.

I started to think that MB III wasn’t going to be interesting, that it was going to be worse than MB II, but then J jumps into the past and Bingo!!! - the whole film takes on a new and exciting story line.

The venue is a memorable time in my life – 1969. It focuses around our first moon launch, I was in Vietnam when we sent a rocket to, and landed on, the moon. What boosts the excitement for the film is the repartee between a young Agent K (Josh Brolin) and J. There is the back and forth that J doesn't have from old K, and this becomes the running joke.

J has gone back in time to kill Boris The Animal (played by Jemaine Clement). In current time Boris has escaped the high security moon prison and is bent on destroying earth and he is also really angry at K for shooting off his arm back in 1969. Boris also decides to go back in time to help his earlier self and get his arm back. J's mission is to change Earth's future by fixing the past.

What makes this film fulfill the audience's emotional aspect is the ending. J sees why he and K are connected. The item to note is that Brolin was dead on great at channeling the energy and clarity of Jones as a young K.  By the end of the film, everyone was in full gear and it was definitely a joy to watch.

The 3D is excellent as it is used to enhance the film.

Smith is great and the maturity he’s gained as a person over the last 15 years shows up with more subtle and deeper characterization of his role. Jones has a more minor role here but as the well-grounded senior agent he is very good as the film ends. Thompson is OK and I’m not sure why the scriptwriter and director minimized her involvement. Brolin was the star in that he had to channel a young K but with a challenge to give us the reason why the older K acts the way he acts in the future. Clement was strong as the enemy. Lowell Cunningham wrote a wonderfully full script. Barry Sonnenfeld directed this film with clarity and focus to create a really enjoyable adventure.

Overall: Sequels are hard because they can never match the freshness of the original but here you have a really good and worthwhile film.

The Company Men

First Hit: I’ve lived through the drama of losing a job through cutbacks and this film captures an effective slice of life.

Anyone who has lost a job by way of cutbacks in this economy will know how easy it is to become disenchanted and feel helpless about the future.

Although Bobby Walker (played by Ben Affleck) is only 37, even at his young age, he’s worried because “new college MBAs will work 90 hours a week for nothing”. Even though this film focuses on Bobby, but it also highlights the other tragedies of a company doing mass layoffs.

Phil Woodward (played by Chris Cooper) who started with the company as a welder on the floor and grew with the company to become a highly paid executive is now on the open job market, old, with no real education, and his severance won’t cover his expenses for very long. His story is a tragic one of living slightly beyond his means and not always being aware that a company doesn’t owe you a thing except the paycheck you take from it.

Then there is Gene McClary (played by Tommy Lee Jones) who is the best friend of the CEO, James Salinger (played by Craig T. Nelson), is President of the division who is hardest hit. Although he is financially alright, he is painfully affected because the initial layoffs are done behind his back and he thinks that “ethically”, the corporation is not doing what is right.

Bobby tries to keep up the image that he, and his family is fine, by getting the Porsche detailed and by playing golf at the country club. His wife Maggie (played by Rosemarie DeWitt) is supportive and practical and does her best to guide Bobby into making some rational decisions.

Maggie’s brother Jack Dolan (played by Kevin Costner) offers Bobby construction work and although he rudely declines at first, he takes Jack up on the offer and begins an understanding of their two different lives. One thing not directly discussed in this film was how people live too close to the edge of paycheck to paycheck.

All the stuff they collect along the way can lose its meaning quickly when the money stops rolling in.

Affleck is strong and believable in his anger and frustration at losing his high level job at GTX. DeWitt is fabulous and I really enjoyed her practical, centered and loving support of her husband and the situation. Cooper is, as always, intense and very believable as the guy who came up from the shop floor to be a formable executive. Jones is great as the conscious of the company and how he finds his way back into the game. Nelson is perfect as the arrogant CEO who forgot about how to look at the impact of his decisions to gain the most for himself and shareholders of which he is a very large shareholder. Costner is wonderful as the construction oriented brother in-law. John Wells both wrote and directed this film effectively and with care.

Overall: This film is reflective of how losing a job in a large company in rough economic times can be very difficult. Many people are simply one job away from living on the streets.