Hollywood Reviews and Movie Trivia

"The Night Listener", directed by Patrick Stettner, is a psychological mystery with twists and turns and scores a B...

Actor Robin Williams, who became a house hold name in the TV series "Mork & Mindy" (78') was known for years only as a comedian/actor. Recent years has seen a crossover in his choice of roles. He still maintains that comedic edge as in his recent hit "RV", which had comedy laced with very serious undertones. "The Night Listener" is a straight forward mystery with the pacing of a Hitchcock story, the cinematic darkness of a Brian De Palma film, with twists and turns that keep you guessing, and an ending that makes one pause to think about the age old question: Is it real or is it that we want it to be real...

Based on the international best selling novel by Armistead Maupin, Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams) is a well-known writer and the host of a popular late night radio show called "Noone at Midnight". Noone has serious issues. He's in the middle of breaking up with his longtime male lover, feels his radio show has gone stale, and his next literary work is over due at the publisher. His only friend is his publishing company representative Ashe (Joe Morton).

One night during his radio show, Noone gets a call-in from young listener Pete (Rory Culkin). Pete is very ill and his real sense of joy is talking to Noone. Pete's adopted mother Donna (Toni Collette) is elated that Noone has taken such an interest in Pete. Noone develops a telephone friendship off-air with them, particularly Pete who admits to avidly reading Noon's literary works. After long telephone conversations with Pete and Donna, Noone has troubling questions about Pete's identity. To complicate Noone's life even more, a biographical manuscript arrives at Noone's publisher. It's written by Donna and chronicles Pete's brave battle with his potentially terminal disease. Ashe loves it with plans to open negotiations to publish it while Noone slowly begins to doubt the very existence of Pete and Donna. With his own life in turmoil, Noone casually and cautiously begins checking out Pete and Donna, including a trip to the faraway town where they supposedly live. The more Noone inquires, the more obscure the facts become surrounding Pete and Donna.

Toni Collette continues to show a wide range as an actress including 2005's sleeper hit "In Her Shoes" and her upcoming release "Little Miss Sunshine". Robin Williams virtually carries the movie with the multiple emotional layers of his character, makes one certainly think twice about a radio show listener who calls into a radio talk show, professing their admiration as a fan, with a heart wrenching story...

Grade: B

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"Lady in the Water", director M. Night Shyamalan's latest, is a fairy tale that restores faith in man's humanity and scores a B...

M. Night Shyamalan has written and directed seven films to date. Although he came to prominent fame with "The Sixth Sense" (starring Bruce Willis 1999), he wrote and directed "Praying with Anger" (92') and "Wide Awake" (98'). "Unbreakable" (2000) with Willis & Samuel L. Jackson, "Signs" (02') with Mel Gibson, and "The village" (04') with Byrce Dallas Howard round out his mainstream hits. A side note is that he also wrote "Stuart Little" (99').

A common comparison is made of Shyamalan's films to "The Sixth Sense". If one closely examines each film, they are quite different but still maintain his unique directorial style. "The Sixth Sense" is almost mystical in its story while "Unbreakable" dealt with two personality flaws: one losing confidence in his stability while the other, a psychotic. "Signs" tackled the age old theme of humans dealing with extraterrestrials. The Village" main theme of culture isolation versus the outside world dealt with a lot of social issues. With his latest, the theme is the staple of story telling, specifically fairly tales which are prevalent in all the cultures of the world. "Lady in the Water" is a story Shyamalan told to his children and the start of the movie tells us the story, steeped in ancient folklore. It's quite a story with the scares, the aura, and as in most fables, the humanity of humans wins out...

Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is the superintendent at a Philadelphia apartment building. Late nights, he hears and has suspicions that, the swimming pool in the complex is being used after hours. He stakes it out and is thoroughly surprised when a pale, otherworldly, watery being called Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) emerges from the swimming pool. Cleveland determines by her reactions that she needs protection. But from what? Cleveland slowly learns from Story that she's a "Narf," a nymph who has come on land to find someone of deep significance. Cleveland also learns she's afraid to leave Cleveland's apartment because of strange creatures lurking in the wooded area just beyond the complex.

Remembering that a neighbor in the complex has a wealth of knowledge relating to fables and ancient stories, Cleveland seeks help from the Korean neighbor Young-Soon Choi (Cindy Cheung) and her mother, Mrs. Choi (June Kyoko Lu), a cantankerous old lady. Mrs. Choi knows about Narfs from stories she heard as a child. Mrs. Choi, tells her daughter, who translates the stories in English to Cleveland, of the vicious wolf-like "Scrunts" that hide in the grass, and terrifying monkey-like beings known as "Tartutics" that lurk in trees. Cleveland, who has been pretty much a recluse about his own personal, tormented past life, understands that he is the catalyst for something significant, and takes on the challenge to help Story get back home.

M. Night Shyamalan's films always have the underlying thread of courage, and sensibility. The ultimate goal, I think, for "Lady in the Water" is to have fun. Shyamalan never forgets to have fun with his films. The driving force is Paul Giamatti. His versatility as an actor shows with every role. His Cleveland character has a haunted brooding edge, wears geeky glasses, stutters, is shy, a bit mysterious with his hidden past, and is forever observant of what's going on around him. At look at Giamatti's work in the upcoming movie "The Illusionist" as a Viennese police detective in the Hercule Perot tradition, gives an indication of how wide a range he has as an actor. Come Oscar® time, the "buzz" for Paul Giamatti should be even stronger this year than last year...

Grade: B

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Many people will claim not to understand humanity, but Tom Ripley (John Malkovich) really doesn’t. He watches, speaks to, manipulates and kills people, but for the life of him, he can’t connect with them. When asked about his conscience, Ripley responds "When I was young, my lack of conscience concerned me. Now it doesn’t."

Not to say Ripley lacks any and all feeling towards other people; he can grow
fond of them much in the way an average person enjoys a trusty pet. In Ripley's Game, he feels this way about his beautiful Italian wife and a local picture-framer suffering from leukemia. Jonathan (Dougray Scott), the picture framer, first gets set in Ripley’s sights when Ripley overhears him badmouthing him to a room full of party guests. Seriously unamused by any affront to his taste, Ripley doesn’t hesitate to suggest Jonathan as a hitman to Reeves(Winstone), an criminal associate with mob ties. Jonathan abhors the thought of harming another human being, but with limited time and money, he wants something to leave behind for his wife and son. At first, Ripley doesn’t make his involvement known, but shows up very unexpectedly to loan assistance during a complicated hit on a train ("Hold my watch, because if it breaks, I’ll kill everyone on this f'ing train," Ripley remarks while preparing a garrote).

Ripley watches bemusedly as this mild-mannered man becomes a reluctant yet cold-blooded mob hitman. His involvement with the scheme is purely for entertainment purposes, as he already has a gorgeous Italian estate and millions in cash lying around the house. But the prospect of manipulating Jonathan through a web of sordid murder happens to be as much of a psychology project as a game, with all the players functioning as ants in Ripley’s quest to extract some meaning from the men around him. Despite Ripley’s seeming complete lack of empathy, he begins to take on feelings towards Jonathan that would qualify as endearment for a normal person, and for him are a gigantic step forward.

John Malkovich slips into the difficult role like a glove, with a predatory expression and unwaveringly calm, almost apathetic voice. No doubt about it, Malkovich inhabits Ripley’s skin in a way that would be nearly impossible for another actor to match, much less surpass. There are five other films featuring Ripley, each with a different actor, but this one leaves little reason to see the others. After Malkovich’s cool, sophisticated, and brilliant embodiment, picturing Matt Damon or Dennis Hopper as Ripley seems nearly laughable.

Despite his clearly evil actions, Ripley gains our sympathy. At one point, I slowly realized I actually was starting to admire him. It then occurred to me that we don’t like Ripley in spite of his faults, but because of them. In the world we inhabit, Ripley’s lack of conscience and willingness to use his gifts for evil at his leisure are extremely valuable assets, ones that ensure he will never lose, nor even come very close. That his actions make perfect sense to him in turn come to mean that they make perfect sense for us, even as we occasionally turn away at their horror.

But he isn’t just a one-note sociopath. Observe how he goes to great trouble to obtain an antique piano for his wife, and takes joy in holding her as she plays. Notice how he, without a second thought, rushes to rescue Jonathan, the man who may be the closest thing to a friend Ripley has ever had. When Jonathan saves Ripley’s life, all a befuddled Ripley can say in response is ‘Why did you do that?’ Later, when Ripley watches his wife play piano for Rome’s elite, he thinks about everything that has happened, and a smile creeps across his face. For once, even if just for a split second, Ripley understands what humanity is all about. What he will do with the revelation, we can only guess.

4.5 out of 5

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OldBoy is a movie best explained as a Korean telling of a Greek tragedy. Director Chan-wook Park is a masterful storyteller, leading us on an adventure not easily forgotten. Oh Dae-su spends a night on the town with a friend and wakes up locked in a room with no windows. The next 15 years find the television as his only companion. Daily meals sent through a slot in the door sustain his health. He watches on television the news of his wife's murder and the presumption of his involvement in the crime since he cannot be located. To occupy his mind, he plots his escape through a hole dug in the wall and consumes all available television programming between fits of exercise. When he finally escapes, he wants to discover who did this to him and why. It's at the point of escape where Min-sik Choi, the actor playing Oh Dae-su, turns out a marvelously manic performance that carries the rest of the movie. The why part of the question gradually reveals itself to be one of the more disturbing movie plot lines I've ever seen. While the movie is most definitely violent and somewhat graphic in nature, most of the really unnerving stuff takes place off screen in your mind, employing the forgotten art of suggesting violence rather than graphically depicting it. There's no happy ending to the story, although everyone gets what they want as the story draws to a conclusion.

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During one sequence of Steven Spielberg's Munich, an Israeli assassination squad storms a building where three Palestinian terrorists live. The first is killed with no problem. The second man's wife must be pulled out of the way before being shot. By the time they get to the third, they must riddle both the terrorist and his wife with machine gun fire.

The unavoidable death of civilians during a war fought over political and religious ideologies becomes one of Munich's more poignant themes. The Israeli assassins who we follow throughout the film are ordered to avoid civilian causalities, an all but impossible task. Before long they don't even try very hard to do so.

With Munich Spielberg has produced arguably his greatest work, filled with sadness and bitter frustration towards not just the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but towards all wars of ideology, where defeat for all is inevitable. What to do when attacked? Is killing wrong if it is in retaliation? When does it all end? Spielberg pointedly refuses to take sides, asking all of the hard questions but harshly reflecting the lack of any answers.

Munich follows Israeli assassins who are sent to avenge the deaths of eleven athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics. The leader of the group is Avner, an intelligence agent and excellent chef who serves as the film's moral compass. The rest of his team includes four other men, with skills at documents, bomb making, and other talents useful for assassination. They relentlessly seek out his eleven assigned targets, killing them without mercy but questioning the long-term effectiveness of all the bloodshed. Bullets and bombs go off in all directions, their gruesome effects on the human body front and center. Spielberg, arguably the greatest action director living today, shows the assassinations as both exciting and terrifying at once.

The men debate the morality of what they are doing; every time they kill a man, someone else eagerly takes his place. Yet, does that mean they shouldn't strike back at the people who attacked them? One of the film's best scenes occurs when the group accidentally winds up having to share a safe house with a group of Palestinian terrorists. The leaders of each group stay up late, debating their points of view. The Palestinian leader, passionately argues that Israel has killed thousands of his people, and that no matter what happens, they will fight to the end. He believes this as much, if not more, than what Avner believes. At this point Avner seems to grasp the futile, endless nature of the conflict, where both sides will tear each other apart until there is no humanity left.

Munich's insistence on seeing all involved as human has not surprisingly infuriated both groups. They miss Spielberg's point; by humanizing both sides of the conflict, the truly horrific nature of the war becomes clear. No side is entirely at fault or without it, but in the name of striking back for previous actions, the bloodshed continues, and it is always the innocent people who will suffer the most.

The film's final shot is breath taking in its suggestion that what has just been shown to us is not a local problem, but a world wide one. After 9/11, the entire planet has become a battleground in this conflict, with no likely end during our lifetimes. Munich masterfully walks the line between pulse-pounding spy-thriller and serious issue drama, proving that Spielberg can still be one of the best auteurs out there while earning a well-deserved place as one of the most important films ever made. Long after 2005's Best Picture winner is forgotten, Munich will still be fresh in our consciousness'.

5 out of 5

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Diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) receives news that his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) has been killed in Kenya. Justin's British reserve goes so deep that he hardly blinks, and apologizes to the man who had to bear the news. Despite the calm formality, his eyes flicker with pain.

The Constant Gardener is a decidedly British film, a political thriller that displays low-key intelligence and yet crackles with intrigue. There are no shootouts or heroics, nor are there dramatic clues left behind at every location. Instead we are given a complicated, intersecting web of seedy diplomats, greedy corporations, battered third-world war zones, and merciless contract killers. Beneath all this, a touching human story punctuates every frame.

Before her death, Tessa was a leftist activist who traveled throughout Africa. Treading through Kenya alone would be dangerous for anyone, much less a pregnant British woman, but she does so with naïve zeal, desperate to help anyone she can. Although Justin found these qualities attractive in the first place, they are getting tiresome. Tessa rarely comes home, and spends a startling amount of time with an African doctor, a sore point that generates no shortage of rumor. At the time of her suspicious death, Tessa was a key component of an investigation into the habits of a parsimonious pharmaceutical company, and Justin finds himself quickly sucked into his wife's work. Obsessively diving into the Africa his wife knew, Justin begins to acquire the same qualities that made Tessa a great person, and got her killed.

The Constant Gardener pays great respect to the intelligence of the audience, all but unheard of for a left-leaning political thriller. Tessa's death comes right away, but almost immediately the film cuts to flashbacks, correctly assuming that attentive audience members don't need it spelled out. The British nature of the story works very well; characters rarely say exactly what runs through their minds, but use subtle wording and veiled threats to convey the plot. Instead of long-winded monologues of The Contender or Good Night, and Good Luck, we simply watch events play out, free to make up our own minds.

Yet, most interesting is the story of Justin and Tessa's marriage. Justin had a deep but almost bemused love for his wife, who never seemed to forget about her humanitarian work for a minute. At the time of her death, the marriage appeared to be crumbling, Justin nearing the end of his rope with her secrecy and absences.
Through the course of his investigation, he discovers things about Tessa that he never knew, peeling back the layers until he sees what sort of person she really was at the core. Her generosity was infectious, and changes him profoundly. Many of us wish for a few more minutes with someone that we lost; Justin's longing for Tessa builds in his eyes until looking at him is like peering into the sun.

The Constant Gardener works splendidly on every level it exists. Simultaneously suspenseful, touching, and thought provoking, the film can justly take a seat with the other great issue pieces of 2005, though it will not be remembered solely for its views on drug companies. Any film maker who wants to touch on politics should take a note; lectures are boring, great stories are not.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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When an attorney (Ben Affleck) and an insurance man (Samuel L Jackson) have a minor traffic accident during morning rush hour, the circumstances following the accident change both men's lives forever. Not nearly as predictable as many thrillers can be, this movie provides an excellent illustration of just how ridiculous taking revenge on someone can become. Numerous turns of events make each man's day turn from bad to worse, until both men are left with severe moral issues to sort out. The movie moves at a pace that leaves the viewer anticipating the next scene and does require some amount of attention in order to keep track of who has put the hurt on whom, if you happen to keep score. Alternate endings and deleted scenes fill in some interesting gaps, but don't necessarily justify the purchase of this title.

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