Movie/TV Reviews

The Queen

Susan Granger’s review of “The Queen” (Miramax Films)

Fascination with the death of Princess Diana continues in this docudrama, peeking behind the aloof facade of the House of Windsor when the British monarchy was in crisis in August, 1997, following the fatal car crash in Paris.
Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) has just been elected Prime Minister and his wife Cherie (Helen McCrory) is a well-known anti-royalist. Their first visit to Buckingham Palace is filled with quaint formality and archaic ritual.
Yet when the news of Diana’s tragic death is broadcast, Tony Blair voices the only “official” reaction. The Royals are sequestered at Balmoral in Scotland. Watching the news coverage, Queen (Helen Mirren) is troubled, concerned about her grandsons, but Prince Philip (James Cromwell) and the Queen Mother (Sylvia Syms) are oblivious.
Relying on precedent and miscalculating public sentiment, Queen decrees that since Diana is no longer HRH (Her Royal Highness), the Spencers should plan a small, discreet funeral. Only Prince Charles (Alex Jennings) perceives the icy insensitivity – “The two Dianas, the public’s and ours, bear no relation to each other.” – And responds by slyly, discreetly reaching out to Tony Blair as displays of affection for “the People’s Princess” overwhelm Buckingham Palace.
Examining tradition through the spectrum of political ambition and media savvy, Peter Morton’s screenplay is so well-researched and Stephen Frears’ visual direction is so devoid of sentimentalism that amusing gossip and speculation blend seamlessly with serious historical perspective. And it rings true, except, perhaps, when Philip crawls into bed, muttering, “Move over, Cabbage.”
In an Oscar-worthy performance, Helen Mirren skillfully embodies steely, stoic Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the cast cleverly capture the crucial mannerisms of their real-life counterparts. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Queen” is a spellbinding 9, majestic and magnificent.

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The Prestige

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Prestige’ (Touchstone Pictures)

Like “The Illusionist,” “The Prestige” is a turn-of-the-century tale about magicians. Only, this time, there are two instead of one.
In Victorian London, two competitors are determined to make their mark in magic. Charismatic, sophisticated Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) is passionate devotee of the art and his showmanship is unsurpassed, while coldly calculating, deeply secretive Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) has inventive ideas and more technically astute. Originally, they worked together but when a tragic accident claims the life of Angier’s wife, they become bitter rivals. When Borden creates a dazzling illusion, “The Transported Man,” Angier is obsessed with duplicating it – and Borden wreaks vengeance. But then Angier reads about the groundbreaking work of a maverick American electrical genius, Nikola Tesla (David Bowie), and travels to Tesla’s laboratory in Colorado Springs, where he buys an amazing ‘trick’ which transforms his life.
Based on a novel by Christopher Priest, writer/director Christopher Nolan (“Memento,” “Batman Begins”) has created an opulent, multi-layered mystery structured as sumptuous cinematic magic. Hugh Jackman and Chrisian Bale deliver riveting, often unexpected portrayals, while Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David Bowie add to the intrigue. Credit goes to real-life magicians Ricky Jay and Michael Webber, who served as consultants on the classic skills of prestidigitation and misdirection.
The title comes from the three acts necessary for any successful trick: 1) The Pledge, in which the magician shows something ordinary – which really isn’t ordinary at all; 2) The Turn, in which something extraordinary happens; and 3) The Prestige, which turns out to be a total surprise. That’s all the information I can give you – anything more would ruin the surprises for you. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Prestige” is an unconventional, cleverly enigmatic 8. It’s intricate, intriguing entertainment.

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Running With Scissors

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Running With Scissors” (TriStar Pictures)

Augusten Burroughs’ best-selling memoir of his unconventional family and traumatic struggle through adolescence must have been more credible than this film adaptation which is so bizarre that it’s almost surreal.
Narcissistic, neurotic poet Deirdre (Annette Bening) is continuously frustrated that the world doesn’t recognize her genius, so she takes out her rage on her alcoholic husband Norman (Alec Baldwin). In an effort to restore harmony, the couple enters therapy with unconventional, pill-pushing Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), who demands daily five-hour sessions and often retreats to a private sanctuary known as The Masturbatorium. Fed up, stoic Norman splits, leaving Deidre with their teenage son Augusten, who is summarily abandoned on the Finch family’s doorstep. Living in a rundown, rambling, bright-pink Victorian house (inspired by the drawings of Edward Gorey), the zany, idiosyncratic Finches are an eccentric crew.
There’s Dr. Finch’s damaged wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh), who nibbles dog kibble while watching old movies on a TV in a filthy parlor with a decorated Christmas tree, and her two daughters – prim, Bible-obsessed Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow), who digs up her dead cat to make into stew, and rebellious, sexually precocious Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood) – plus a gay adopted son Neil (Joseph Fiennes) who is undoubtedly insane.
Adapted and directed by Ryan Murphy (“Nip/Tuck”), it’s episodic and shallow, emphasizing the anecdotal absurdity which is astutely augmented by production designer Richard Sherman. Exuding vulnerability, tenaciously talented Annette Bening is oddly convincing, although her monstrous, pity-partying mother character isn’t, while Brian Cox manages to make the unorthodox doctor’s droll dialogue vaguely amusing. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Running With Scissors” is a dysfunctional 5 with Joseph Cross and the real-life Augusten Burroughs sharing a poignant final moment together.

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The Grudge 2

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Grudge 2” (Columbia Pictures)

Every Halloween has a scary movie and, this time, Amber Tamblyn (“Joan of Arcadia”) falls victim to that same vengeful Japanese “rage” curse that affected Sarah Michelle Gellar in the 2004 horror hit.
As the story begins, Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is confined to a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo and her younger, estranged sister Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) is sent by their mother (Joanna Cassidy) in Chicago to bring her home. Shortly after Aubrey arrives, she’s warned by a journalist (Edison Chen) that her sister is under an evil curse.
Meanwhile, nerdy Allison (Arielle Kebbel) is desperately trying to please the saucy ‘mean girls’ (Teresa Palmer, Misako Uno) who dominate her international high school’s “in” crowd – and agrees to go into the mysterious, boarded-up, burned-down house where Karen met her fate. Back in the United States, young Jake (Matthew Knight) is unhappy that his widower father (Christopher Cousins) is engaged to Trish (Jennifer Beals). And what’s up with Jake’s elusive neighbor?
Eventually, everyone winds up victimized by the eerie spirits emanating from the dark, malevolent haunted house that’s terrorized by creepy, obsessive Kayako (Takako Fuji), clad in a white kimono, and little Toshio (Ohga Tanaka), who was also brutally murdered. And the torment will continue: “There can be no end to what has begun.”
Director Takashi Shimizu knows this material all too well. This is his seventh “Grudge” movie: four in Japan, two here. I’m told the Japanese versions are far more coherent and suspenseful than Stephen Susco’s disjointed, senseless screenplay. Nevertheless, “Grudge 3” is already in the works. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Grudge 2” is a tiresome, repetitive, ominously boring 1. Stay away.

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Infamous

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Infamous” (Warner Independent Pictures)

Timing is everything. Last year, “Capote” won accolades – and a Best Actor Oscar for Philip Seymour Hoffman. Now, “Infamous,” also about Truman Capote’s writing “In Cold Blood,” isn’t attracting the same kind of attention – yet it’s actually a better movie.
Dispensing the droll wit of diminutive Truman Capote, British actor Toby Jones is a whiny, sophisticated elf – and he’s surrounded by a bevy of 1960’s Manhattan cafŽ society ladies – Sigourney Weaver as Babe Paley, Hope Davis as Slim Keith, Juliet Stevenson as Diana Vreeland and Isabella Rossellini as Marella Agnelli – with best friend/confidante Nelle Harper Lee (who wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird”) played with sublime subtlety by Sandra Bullock. Scuttling among his “swans,” as he called them, Capote shrewdly traded confidences like currency – only to betray them all later in “Answered Prayers.”
The primary difference between the two versions is that writer/director Douglas McGrath (“Emma”) adapted his effervescent script from a gossipy George Plimpton oral history collage, filled with insightful interviews, while “Capote” screenwriter relied on Janet Malcolm’s serious, factual “The Journalist and the Murderer.” McGrath also imagines the shamelessly manipulative munchkin cultivating a homosexual relationship with incarcerated convicted killer Perry Smith, played by Daniel Craig, who will soon be seen as the new James Bond in “Casino Royale.”
Jeff Daniels is Alvin Dewey, the Holcomb, Kansas, prosecutor; (director) Peter Bogdonovich is ebullient Random House publisher Bennett Cerf; and Gwyneth Paltrow opens the movie as a Manhattan nightclub chanteuse. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Infamous” is an amusing, illustrious 8. Coupled with “Capote,” it offers a unique opportunity to see the same “In Cold Blood” background story as interpreted by two disparate filmmakers.as a double-feature, it could be “Infamous Capote.”

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Borat

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Borat” (20th Century-Fox)

Seeing this outrageous, politically incorrect fish-out-of-water comedy made me wonder exactly what must be shown on-screen to warrant a NC-17 rating these days – because there’s something in this crude, R-rated cesspool to offend everyone: male nudity, vulgar language, nasty scatological references, excrement, etc.
“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” revolves around Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen), a TV journalist from a rural Khazak village traveling to the United States on a fact-finding mission. While New York City is his original destination, when he becomes besotted with TV’s “Baywatch” babe Pamela Anderson, he drives an ice cream truck to Hollywood to make her his bride. With his mangled English and racist/sexist prejudices, Borat informs feminists that the female brain is the size of a squirrel’s, takes hip-hop lessons from urban kids, parties with frat boys, invites a prostitute to dine with Southern conservatives, finds “Mr. Jesus” at a Pentecostal rally, wrestles nude with his grossly obese producer (Ken Davitian), and sings his own version of the “Star Spangled Banner” at a rodeo, after expressing his support of America’s “war of terror” and enthusing, “May George Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq!”
British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, creator and star of HBO’s “Da Ali G Show,” along with “Seinfeld” producer Larry Charles and editor Craig Alpert, propel this shocking mockumentary from the initial ritual Running of the Jew, an Anti-Semitic caricature, through various improvised vignettes that stretch on far too long, even though the impromptu reactions of the unsuspecting participants are hilarious. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Borat” is a sexually explicit, slyly slanderous 7, taking satiric aim at the simplistic absurdity of superstition and bigotry – in all forms.

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Catch a Fire

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Catch a Fire” (Focus Features)

Examining whether the end justifies the means, this latest anti-apartheid drama, based on real people and events that took place a quarter-century ago, explores the thin line between a political terrorist and a freedom-fighter.
Patrick Charmusso (Derek Luke) is an apolitical Secunda oil refinery foreman who has a beautiful wife, aptly named Precious (Bonnie Henna), two daughters and a mother to support. When he’s confronted by Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), a vicious colonel in the Police Security Branch, about an act of sabotage committed by terrorists, he cannot provide a truthful alibi without disclosing that he’s having an extra-marital affair. As a result, he’s unjustly accused of espionage and subjected to brutal, state-sanctioned torture; the life that he once enjoyed is over.
Having survived that excruciating experience, he emerges radicalized, ready to join a resistance cell training in Mozambique that’s part of the African National Congress. The next time he’s arrested for sabotage, he’s guilty-as-charged, serving 10 years of a 24-year prison sentence, alongside Nelson Mandela, until his release under a 1991 amnesty.
Written by Shawn Slovo, daughter of South African activist Joe Slovo, and directed by Philip Noyce (“Rabbit-Proof Fence,” “The Quiet American”), it favors cross-cutting speed over specificity, while drawing obvious parallels to contemporary insurgents. As Charmusso and his cohorts yell “Kill the Boer soldier!” it’s hard not to think that somewhere in the Middle East, militants are yelling, “Kill the American soldier!”
On the other hand, Derek Luke (“Friday Night Lights,” “Antwone Fisher”) and Tim Robbins deliver chilling, psychologically-convincing performances that transcend their material. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Catch a Fire” is a conscience-themed 6, revealing a wrong man trapped in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Babel

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Babel” (Paramount Vantage)

Like last year’s Oscar-winner, “Crash,” “Babel” intertwines several apparently distinct stories. The title evokes the Biblical Tower of Babel, as the theme centers on the difficulty of communication and trust, both global and personal, in North Africa, Southern California and Japan.
There’s an American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett) traveling on a tour bus through the barren desert in Morocco – when the wife is accidentally shot in the neck by an impetuous young goat herder trying out a new rifle. With his wife bleeding and helpless, the husband tries to summon medical help from the U.S. Embassy while seeking compassion in a dusty, remote village where the suspicious locals speak another language and are steeped in an ancient culture.
In San Diego, a kindly Mexican nanny (Adriana Barraza), an illegal immigrant whose employers are out-of-town, makes a catastrophic decision to take the two American children in her charge across the border for her son’s wedding in a car driven by her hot-headed, irresponsible nephew (Gael Garcia Bernal).
And in Tokyo, an affection-starved, deaf-mute teenager (Rinko Kikuchi) acts out her frustration and isolation.
Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzelez Inarritu, who collaborated on “Amores Perros” and “21 Grams,” its narrative structure involves disparate families struck by random fate and the perils of being unable to communicate. Emotional suspense is evoked by presenting the parallel plotlines out of chronological order. Artistic accolades go to editors Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise, photographer Rodrigo Prieto, production designer Brigitte Broch and musician Gustavo Santaolalla.
The acting ensemble is superb – particularly Adriana Barraza and Brad Pitt, who deserve Oscar nominations. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Babel” is a compelling, tension-filled 10. A cinematic masterpiece, it’s one of the best pictures of 2006.

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Flicka

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Flicka” (20th Century-Fox)

Unlike “Lassie,” which reverted to the time frame of the original story, “Flicka” revises and updates the familiar coming-of-age drama to the contemporary American West.
Rebellious 15 year-old Katy McLaughlin (Alison Lohman) is almost flunking out of boarding school until – on summer vacation at her family’s quarter horse ranch in Wyoming – she discovers a wild mustang that she names Flicka. While her parents (Tim McGraw and Maria Bello) voice predictable objections, she’s immediately drawn to the black horse and pleads to be allowed to raise him. Facing the challenges posed by a stubborn father, a mountain lion attack, a bout of pneumonia and posing as a boy in order to win a race at the local rodeo help Katy reach a new level of discipline and maturity.
Adapted by Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner from Mary O’Hara’s 1941 children’s classic “My Friend Flicka” and directed by Michael Mayer (A Home at the End of the World”), it’s formulaic but beautifully photographed by J. Michael Muro (“Open Range”).
While Ms. Lohman is an undeniably talented actress, at age 25, she’s simply too old to be credible as a high school girl. Despite his film debut in “Friday Night Lights,” country music singer TimMcGraw has not learned to relax in front of a camera and Maria Bello (“History of Violence”) appears to be channeling a cheery Martha Stewart on-the-range.
For curious film buffs, the vintage 1943 version starred the late Roddy McDowall. Mary O’Hara wrote two sequels, “Thunderhead, Son of Flicka” and “Green Grass of Wyoming,” which were also subsequently filmed. And there was a 1955-56 TV series. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, it’s a family-friendly 4, appealing particularly to pre-teen girls.