THE FIGHTER

Before a boxer sets foot in any ring, he most likely has a plan of attack in place. If he is serious about what he does, he has studied his opponent; he knows his strategies, his weaknesses. A great boxer is in control of the game even when it seems like he might not be; he can see the match straight through to the knockout. THE FIGHTER is just like that boxer and once the bell rings, signifying the fight has begun, it comes at you fast and hits you hard. You won’t even see it coming. It’s that good.

Everyone is a fighter in THE FIGHTER but there are two that fit the bill in a more technical sense of the word. Mark Wahlberg, a producer on the film, plays Micky Ward, the real life Lowell, Massachusets native and now retired junior welterweight boxing champion. Ward was on hiatus from professional boxing in the early ‘90’s and the film picks up as he is preparing for his comeback in 1993, with his brother, Dickie Ecklund (Christian Bale), also a former boxer, coaching in his corner. Ecklund’s serious crack problem does not allow for him to be in anyone’s corner but his own really and Micky must learn to fight his way out from brother Dickie’s shadow in order to become his own man.

Wahlberg gives a strong performance, giving THE FIGHTER a solid center to move around but part of Micky’s character is to allow the more dominant forces in his life control his surroundings. This allows for the supporting players to truly stand out. Bale is a twisted and tortured mess, a refreshing return to form. Meanwhile, Melissa Leo is pure, trash gold as Micky & Dickie’s manager mom. Even Amy Adams turns a quiet role as Micky’s love interest into something smoldering. Her fights with Mama Leo are almost as gruesome as the one’s in the ring.

As incredible as THE FIGHTER is, it would be nothing without the man in its corner, director, David O. Russell. Russell has crafted a taut picture that plays like its working the ring from every angle possible and placing the viewer in the middle of this barrage of punches that rarely lets up. Don’t worry; you get out alive. You aren’t the same though.

JULIE & JULIA

Written and Directed by Nora Ephron
Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina


Julie Powell: The truth is, no one knows about me. I feel like I’m just sending things out into this endless void.

In 2002, struggling New York writer, Julie Powell started a blog, called “The Julie/Julia Project”. In 2004, I started a blog and if you’re reading this right now, then you are likely reading my blog. And I, like Julie, often wonder if there is anyone out there reading these words that I spend so much time toiling over or, on more fortunate occasions, delighting in. She, like me, sometimes lacks the faith and the strength to believe that there is an audience, that there will be a bigger one and that all of this work will lead to the right person at the right time taking note of it and subsequently plucking her (or me) from her life (or mine) and dropping her in the middle of the one’s she’s only dreamt of. The major difference is that Julie has a secret weapon – Julia Child. I apparently need to get me one of those.


JULIE & JULIA is based on not just one but two true stories. Writer/Director, Nora Ephron, who hasn’t directed anything since 2005’s BEWITCHED and hasn’t directed a hit since 1993’s SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, returns with a structure that is not so dissimilar to her Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan romantic comedy classic. Ephron must balance her story between two times and places as Julie Powell (Amy Adams) blogs and cooks her way through Julia Child’s cookbook and Julia Child (Meryl Streep) learns to become well, herself. Both ladies are lost before taking on their new challenges; both have strong, supportive men in their lives who make them better people (Chris Messina for Julie and Stanley Tucci for Julia); and, fortunately for Ephron, both ladies are effortlessly talented and consistently compelling to watch.


Ephron plays things too safe for JULIE & JULIA to have a profound impact on the viewer. The obstacles the two women face seem more contrived than plausible and therefore, their triumphs never take on the significance necessary to inspire the viewer. This is particularly disappointing considering this is a movie about following inspiration and daring to dream. Still, the talented cast manage laughs whenever they can and Streep’s performance is so boisterous that it elevates the whole thing from, in restaurant review terms, a 2-star to a 3, but given what they had to work with, it could have easily been a 5 under the command of a more skilled chef.

SUNSHINE CLEANING

Written by Megan Holley
Directed by Christine Jeffs
Starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, Clifton Collins Jr. and Alan Arkin


Rose Lorkowski: Do you think all I can do is clean up other people’s shit?

When some lonely soul walks into a sporting goods store and blows his brains out all over the ceiling with a 20-gage shotgun from behind the counter, someone has got to come in and clean up that mess. Not only would it deter potential shoppers to find leftover bits of brain mass mixed in with the fishing poles but, more importantly, the violence that ripped through the fabric of everyday life needs to be cleaned from memory in order to return to our blissful existences. Enter Rose and Norah Lorkowski (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt), two sisters who reasonably could be a few steps away from the same fate as the man with the shotgun if they got to seriously thinking about their lives. Despite their troubles, the two have paired up to clean up the messes no one else wants to touch. What they lack in style, they make up with smiles as the two try to find life by facing death head on in SUNSHINE CLEANING.


The people who brought you LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE have brought you back to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They also tried to bring back that signature quirk you enjoyed so much last time, even going so far as to cast Alan Arkin in the role of a loud, unconventional grandfather. While they may not have succeeded in recreating that same kind of wide satisfaction, they have crafted a sensitive film that will definitely speak to the millions struggling in America today to forge their own path and bring some semblance of meaning to their lives. When we meet Rose, she is cleaning people’s houses just so she can afford her dilapidated little house. Her sister Norah can’t even be bothered to get out of bed to show up for her pointless waitress job. These are not girls with hope but they find very quickly that hope can come back into your life faster than you would expect and even when after you’ve given up on it.


As far as sisters go, Adams and Blunt are a pretty believable pair. You can tell they care about each other but you know that they also infuriate each other too. Adams’ mousy and unobtrusive demeanor gives Rose, a former prom queen whose popularity has been waning ever since, the delicate balance of hope and resigned defeat necessary to make her sympathetic and likable. You just know that when she exits the shower to repeat the affirmations written on a post-it stuck to her foggy mirror that she only half believes what she’s saying, if that. Blunt on the other hand is not looking for anyone’s acceptance, not even her own. She makes good on her own name and delivers Norah with a direct frankness that reveals more than she realizes. For Norah, hope is not something she tries to force into her life; no, hope for Norah, just finds her and sneaks its own way into her consciousness.


SUNSHINE CLEANING definitely brings the sunshine in but it does so in such a downtrodden fashion that it makes it all the more meaningful to catch a glimpse and easy to ignore the clouds in the sky. It is a healing experience that never feels as though it is forcing its cleansing on the audience or itself. Instead, the sisters just feel compelled to clean because their lives have been dirty for far too long. What they find beneath the grime is an unexpected and infectious grin.

DOUBT

Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley
Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams


Father Flynn: What do you mean you’re not sure?

There is no doubt in my mind that John Patrick Shanley is a brilliant writer. His Pulitzer Prize winning play, DOUBT, also went on to win the Tony for Best Play and has now spawned a big screen adaptation starring three of Hollywood’s most gifted stars. Getting the man who created the characters and who buried such profound dilemmas deep within his words to bring his own play to life on screen must have seemed like a scenario only the angels could have arranged for in heaven. Sadly, the results are more purgatorial than heavenly. Shanley’s unique understanding of the material is evident in every impeccable performance given but his lack of experience as a filmmaker (his only previous experience directing was in 1990 with JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO) ultimately leaves the film feeling flatter than one would hope, especially when the material calls for a hellishly passionate fire.
Still, given the gravity of the subject matter and the manner in which the cast delivers it, I doubt anyone will care.


The reality is that Shanley’s inexperience only stops a good film from being great. The genius of the script itself is not only engaging but challenging and provocative. Just as the day begins with mass for so many, especially more so in 1964, so should a film that questions the very foundation of religious belief – faith. As the young alter boys prepare to assist with the serving of mass, one may wonder why any boys are still allowed to become alter boys. The image itself is now almost intrinsically linked to pedophilia and abuse. Still, boys continue to volunteer because they have faith and they are looking for a way to express it. Once the parishioners have taken their seats, they hear a sermon that casts doubt over the decency of the decisions they make on a daily basis. It is ironic really, considering they go this very same place to alleviate these doubts. It is this constant duality and questioning that makes DOUBT so meaningful and faith so fragile.


At the St. Nicholas Church School in New York City’s Bronx neighborhood, the young students don’t have room for doubt in their lives. Doubt doesn’t fit in a world ruled by structure and regulation. This is especially true when breaking the rules means having to face the most frightening nun I have ever seen, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep). One ordinarily might think that people who choose to serve God, or for whom God has chosen a life of servitude, must have a heartfelt devotion to their creator, matched only by their appreciation for the beautiful He created. Streep’s Aloysius though seems to solely be on guard for the devil and it is her certainty that drives her to fish it out in Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Having nothing to go on but the loosely drawn conclusions of a fellow nun (Amy Adams), her accusation that Father Flynn may have acted inappropriately with a young alter boy is all she needs to create doubt.


We are apparently all too quick to assume the worse but Shanley’s script is far too knowing to wholly confirm or deny the truth. This is the trouble with doubt; unless confirmed, it will never be anything more than a plaguing suspicion. And while you need no proof to believe in God, you need just as little to believe in the devil. This is the genius of DOUBT; Shanley’s parable, for all its intense and transformative drama, can be broken down to a simple flip of a coin, where heads is faith and tails is doubt.

DVD Review: MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY

Written by David Magee and Simon Beaufoy
Directed by Bharat Nalluri
Starring Frances McDormand, Amy Adams and Lee Pace

MISS PETTIRGREW LIVES FOR A DAY and it is one heck of a day. She has just lost another job, can’t get a bite at the local soup kitchen and has to face the world in a hideously plain brown frock and a frazzled mess of a hairdo. These, although it certainly wouldn’t seem it, are the least of her concerns. For Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is about to meet Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams). While all Miss Pettigrew’s troubles are desperately difficult, Delysia is a tropical storm on the verge of being upgraded to a hurricane and it is Miss Pettigrew’s job to keep her out of trouble.


Novice filmmaker, Bharat Nalluri’s throwback to the classical Hollywood farce is slow to start, which ultimately limits the audience that can’t get past the messy beginning. What lies afterward though is a pleasantly uplifting lesson in life and love that you’ll miss entirely if you dismiss this charmer too hastily. What lies past the film on its home video release is a fairly complete packaging. Both the full and widescreen versions are available on flip sides of the disc (which I didn’t know they still did as everyone should be in the widescreen camp by now). The features range from an enthusiastic making of to an interesting look at the classic novel’s extremely long journey to the screen (it was originally published in 1938). The director feature commentary is insightful but very quiet, as though we were watching the film in a library. Still, Nalluri knows what he’s talking about, even though he’s whispering it instead of yelling it.


While the entire premise is a tad bit too whimsical for its own good, given the realities of the looming war and the destitution that waits outside their posh townhouse doors, MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY is acted out by two fabulously talented actresses that raise this mediocre effort to heights it would never had reached had they not been cast.

FILM & DVD