Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Appaloosa” (New Line Cinema/Warner Bros.)

Hollywood has been making Westerns for more years than there was a Wild West. Almost all of them take place in the years between the Civil War and the end of the 19th century – and “Appaloosa” continues the tradition.
Set in 1882 in the New Mexico territory, the story revolves around noble lawman Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his soft-spoken deputy Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), who are hired to bring to justice a powerful, ruthless copper mine-owner, Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), whose outlaws have been living off the people of the town of Appaloosa “like coyotes off a dead buffalo carcass.”
As Hitch says philosophically: “Life has a way of making the foreseeable future that which never happens…and the unforeseeable that which your life becomes.”
Adapted by Robert Knott and director/star/producer Ed Harris from Robert Parker’s novel, it’s unusual in its inclusion of a pivotal female character, the charming Allison French (Renee Zellweger), in what is, basically, a rugged, male bonding tale about courage, integrity and camaraderie. Through their banter and silences, actions and re-actions, the depth and breadth of Cole and Hitch’s long-term friendship is revealed.
Having worked together in “A History of Violence,” Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris have mastered the art of subtle communication, amplifying the believability of their relationship which is tested by the distraction presented by the fashionable, piano-playing widow who arrives at the Boston House Hotel and Saloon with a dollar in her pocket and a story to tell.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Appaloosa” is an authentic 8, filled with cinematographer Dean Semler’s familiar Western iconography and production designer Waldemar Kalinwski’s carefully researched historical details, like Hitch’s cumbersome 8-gauge “punt gun”/“market gun,” which is technically a shotgun not a rifle.

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

Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (“The Constant Gardener,” “City of God”) has ambitiously adapted Nobel-Prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s apocalyptic allegory in which the residents of a deliberately unspecified but primarily English-speaking city are afflicted by a mysterious epidemic that allows them to see only a milky-white blur.
First to be infected is a driver (Yusuke Iseya) who goes blind behind the wheel of his car. After that, each person he encounters – his wife (Yoshino Kimura), the ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo), other patients in the doctor’s office – lose their sight. As panic quickly spreads, government troops herd the newly blind and helpless into an abandoned mental institution, where anarchy soon reigns. An amoral, opportunistic bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) takes control of the limited food supply, viciously demanding valuables and sexual favors from his vulnerable victims. But inside the chaotic, quarantined hospital, one woman is surreptitiously watching. The doctor’s wife (Julianne Moore) has feigned her symptoms in order to stay with her frightened husband and, eventually, she is able to lead out a rag-tag group of survivors.
Scripted by Don McKellar (who plays a thief) and directed by Meirelles, who hovers between realism and fantasy, it dilutes Saramago’s searing social fable, which reflects our flawed power systems, cruel prejudices and human fragility. As a result, the plot becomes a pedestrian thriller with a distracting voiceover narration by Danny Glover: “I don’t think we went blind. I think we were always blind.”
While Meirelles crafts memorable imagery, evoking concentration camps and the AIDS epidemic, and Julianne Moore delivers a tenderly sympathetic performance, it seems like another version of “28 Days Later.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Blindness” is a dreary, symbolic 6, its significance undermined as unnamed characters cope with the inexplicable.

Susan Granger’s review of “Flash of Genius” (Universal)

This reality-based David vs. Goliath story shows how a determined college professor took on one of the most powerful corporations in the world: the Ford Motor Company.
Back in the 1960s, Wayne State University engineering teacher Robert Kearns (Greg Kinnear), working with a family friend, Gil Previck (Dermot Mulroney), invented the intermittent windshield wiper, a safety device utilizing three common electrical components – a capacitor, resistor and transistor – combined in unique manner that would eventually be used in cars around the world. Kearns developed his creation, “The Kearns Blinking Eye Motor,” and secured a patent – only to have it ‘stolen’ by Ford.
Furious at the injustice, Dr. Kearns launched a relentless, decades-long campaign to receive credit for his invention and an apology – a persistent crusade for recognition that would eventually cost him his marriage, career and sanity. And as he doggedly went through a series of attorneys, including Gregory Lawson (Alan Alda), that took its toll on his wife (Lauren Graham) and six kids. Eventually, Kearns decided to represent himself, taking the case to trial.
Based on John Seabrook’s 1993 New Yorker profile, screenwriter Philip Railsback and first-time director Marc Abraham, this science/technology tale has a potential dramatic premise that’s never fully developed, although Greg Kinnear’s terrific as the obsessive Kearns. The phrase “flash of genius” refers to a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which states that in order for a creation to quality as an invention, the inventor “must reveal a flash of creative genius, not merely the skill of the calling” that said product. The ambiguity of the word ‘invention,’ however, has been open to controversy.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Flash of Genius” is a gratifying, stubborn 7, exploring the price of an underdog Everyman victory.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, Sept. 26th:

David Schwimmer – a.k.a. Dr. Ross Geller on “Friends” – makes his directorial debut with “Run, Fat Boy, Run,” a British relationship comedy. Commitment-phobic, immature Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) is a big time loser, having left his pregnant fiancée (Thandie Newton) at the altar. Five years later, he wants to win her back, competing in a 26-mile charity marathon with her current suitor (Hank Azaria), an American hedge-fund trader.
With “Leatherheads,” George Clooney tries a throwback to the screwball genre with this sports comedy set in the 1920s, when America’s pro-football league was in its infancy. He plays an aging player who recruits a hotshot star/war hero (John Krasinski), hoping to revitalize the Duluth Bulldogs, a ragtag team of coal miners and farmers, and, inevitably, they become rivals for the affections of an intrepid newspaper reporter (Renee Zellweger).
Adapted from Stewart O’Nan’s 2003 novel, David Gordon Green’s subtle “Snow Angels,” featuring strong performances by Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell, is a poignant tale of love and loss, intertwining the lives of two small town couples and the difficulties they must face and overcome.
In the illogical “88 Minutes,” an FBI forensic psychiatrist (Al Pacino) receives a death threat claiming he has less than 90 minutes to live. Directed by Jon Avnet (“Righteous Kill”), it’s Pacino’s all-time career worst, leaving him ranting and running around trying to find the culprit.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis reunite for “Sex and the City: The Movie,” which, admittedly, is all about labels and love. Carrie’s planning her wedding to Mr. Big (Chris Noth); stressed-out Miranda’s discovering the perils of infidelity; Charlotte’s unexpectedly pregnant; and Samantha realizes that enduring love simply cannot replace the promiscuous sex she craves.

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

Lady Diana Spencer was the direct descendant of glamorous, trend-setting Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, who was famously painted by Gainsborough.  Fittingly, Georgiana’s story begins in 1774 at Althorp, the family estate on which the late Princess of Wales is buried.
As a teenage socialite, Georgiana is betrothed to the much older William Cavendish, the fifth Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes), whom she barely knows. Assured by her manipulative mother (Charlotte Rampling) that the union is most advantageous, Georgiana subsequently has daughters but is unable to produce the son/heir her husband covets. As a result, she becomes trapped in a public ménage a trios, since her world-weary husband takes her opportunistic best friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster (Hayley Atwell), as his mistress at Devonshire House. Georgiana then seeks distraction in drink, drugs, gambling and an illicit affair with Lord Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), the future Prime Minister.
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, Anders Thomas Jensen and director Saul Dibb from Amanda Foreman’s best-selling biography, the film focuses far more on the visuals – the costumes and frippery of the period – than the inherent drama of Georgiana’s compelling dilemma, not unlike Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” (coincidentally, Georgiana was Marie Antoinette’s close friend.), barely grazing over the Duchess’s public support of Grey’s anti-slavery, pro-American, conservative Whig party.
Vivacious Keira Knightley is seductive but, as scripted, she is hardly the eloquent woman of letters described by Foreman as “a potent mix of charisma and vulnerability that made her irresistible to men and women alike.” Instead, she seems like a spoiled simpleton. While Ralph Fiennes is appropriately dour, plump Dominic Cooper is less than dashing as her ardent suitor. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Duchess” is a frivolous 4, diminishing its impact.

Susan Granger’s review of “Lakeview Terrace” (Sony/Screen Gems)

Obviously inspired by a notorious real-life case in which an African-American Los Angeles police officer was accused of harassing his bi-racial neighbors, this is an extension of Neil LaBute’s penchant for male cruelty and intractable dominance, as previously evidenced in his re-make of “The Wicker Man” and “In the Company of Men.”
A 28-year veteran of the LAPD, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) is a widower father and stern disciplinarian of his teenage daughter (Regine Nahy) and younger son (Jaishon Fisher). They live on a cul de sac in Lakeview Terrace, a privileged enclave that he patrols at night in his big, black SUV as an off-duty officer. But because he’s a bigoted bully at heart, when mixed-marriage newlyweds, Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington), move in next-door, he’s enraged. So he devises ways to intimidate and psychologically torture the couple: focusing high-intensity outdoor strobe lights into their bedroom, blasting music at night, slashing the tires on Chris’ white Prius. And to whom can they complain? The police department seems solidly behind the deranged Turner. But then his heavy-handed, villainous tactics start to backfire on his job in South Central, just as seasonal wildfires are threatening their exclusive slice of suburbia.
Written by David Loughery and Howard Korder, directed by LaBute and produced by Will Smith and James Lassiter, it starts off with a promising jolt of menace but soon deteriorates into predictable, formulaic mayhem that’s rooted in prejudice. What rescues it from being totally repellent are convincing performances from both Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington, while Patrick Wilson seems buried in blandness. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Lakeview Terrace” is a foul 4, representing yet another strike against the floundering Southern California real estate market.

Susan Granger’s review of “Ghost Town” (DreamWorks/Paramount)

The success of this sophisticated, supernatural frivolity is all about the breezy comedic appeal of sardonic, misanthropic Ricky Gervais, whose refusal to suffer fools has turned “The Office” into one of TV’s top programs.
British-born dentist Bertram Pincus (Gervais), now settled in Manhattan, is a nasty fellow, the kind of neighbor who deliberately closes the elevator door just as you’re running towards it and steals the taxi you’ve just flagged down. By his own admission, he doesn’t hate crowds, “just the individuals within them.”
During a routine colonoscopy, Pincus ‘dies’ for seven minutes in a “biochemical anomaly,” according to his ditsy doctor (Kristen Wiig). When he awakens, he discovers to his chagrin that not only can he ‘see’ dead people but that many of these lost souls want to communicate their mournful ‘unfinished businesses’ with him – and do.
Foremost among these meddlesome folk is Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), a philandering husband who wants Pincus to ‘save’ his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni), an Egyptologist at the Metropolitan Museum, from marrying a humorless human-rights lawyer (Billy Campbell). Reluctantly, Pincus agrees to befriend Gwen and, not surprisingly, he falls in love with her himself.
Think of it as “The Sixth Sense,” tinged with a humorous ghost gimmick that traces its antecedents back to “Topper” and “Blithe Spirit.” It’s not easy turning a grumpy, pudgy, wise-cracking ‘loser’ like Gervais into a romantic leading man but director David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay with John Kamps, does an admirable job. And Tea Leoni exudes charm – as do the many supporting actors, including SNL’s Kristen Wiig, Asif Mandvi and Dana Ivey.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Ghost Town” is a wryly engaging 8. It’s a funny crowd-pleaser that turns sentimental in all the right places.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, Sept. 19th

One of the most intriguing documentaries of recent years, “The Rape of Europa,” based on Lynn H. Nicholas’s book and narrated by Joan Allen, relates the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich and World War II, beginning and ending with the tale of artist Gustav Klimt’s famed Gold Portrait, stolen from Viennese Jews in 1938 and now the most expensive painting ever sold.
John Leguizamo and Cynthia Nixon star in “The Babysitters,” as a typical small town honor student (Katherine Waterston) embarks on a dangerous affair that unravels into a world of sex, money and greed. Getting into college becomes the least of her problems.
For those who are into high-octane cars, trippy Japanese anime and awesome visuals, “Speed Racer” has it all. Speed (Emile Hirsch) and his family (John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Paulie Litt) are obsessed with the World Racing League, an acrobatic, full-contact sport, described as ‘Car-Fu,’ automotive martial arts.
If you enjoy MGM musicals, you’ll relish two, new meticulously restored and remastered classics: “Gigi 50th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition,” starring Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier, and “An American in Paris Two-Disc Special Edition,” starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron and Cyd Charisse. The many bonus features include shorts, cartoons, interviews and documentaries.
Barely worth mentioning, “The Love Guru” is Mike Myers’ atrocious and inanely tedious spoof of self-help spiritualism.
PICK OF THE WEEKS: Stephen Walker’s life-affirming “Young at Heart” chronicles the adventures and achievements of a chorus of ebullient New England senior citizens who cover songs by everyone from The Clash to Coldplay. And the frothy “Made of Honor,” starring cleverly roguish Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, is an exuberant, audience-pleasing romantic fairytale of laughter and love.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Women” (Picturehouse)

While this was supposed to be a re-make, it seems like cinematic sacrilege to compare Diane English’s disappointing contemporary drivel with director George Cukor’s hilarious “The Women” (1939), adapted by Anita Loos from Clare Boothe’s play and starring Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and Norma Shearer.
Beginning with a Manhattan montage of women’s shoes, evocative of “Sex and the City,” this update revolves around privileged Connecticut socialite, Mary Haines (Meg Ryan), whose Wall Street whiz husband of 13 years is cheating on her with a sexy strumpet, Crystal (Eva Mendes), the ‘spritzer girl’ behind the perfume counter at Saks Fifth Avenue: “There’s a word for a woman like that – and it’s rarely used outside of a kennel.” (But that’s a clever line borrowed from the original when the word ‘bitch’ was forbidden.)
Mary’s best friend, magazine editor Sylvie (Annette Bening), is the first to discover his infidelity from a gossipy Saks manicurist. Backstabbing Sylvie tells pregnant Edie (Debra Messing), who blurts to lesbian Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith). Eventually Mary finds out and consults her worldly-wise mother (Candice Bergen).
Diane English (“Murphy Brown”) maintains the clever conceit of all-female cast, including background ‘extras,’ but she’s way out of her element here – even with cameos from Bette Midler and Carrie Fisher – and watching Meg Ryan chow down on a stick of butter dipped in cocoa powder and milk during a pivotal revelatory scene is disgusting. Plus there’s something creepily bizarre when these obviously Botox’d actresses quip about plastic surgery. Even the feminist context of empowerment seems muddled, asserting that – in order to maintain individuality – a woman must juggle career, marriage and family, a daunting task for anyone. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Women” is a thudding 3. Female friendship deserves better.

Susan Granger’s review of “Righteous Kill” (Overture Films)

What propels is crime thriller is the anticipation of seeing two of our finest actors – Robert De Niro and Al Pacino – paired as co-stars for the first time. If you remember, they appeared in separate storylines in “The Godfather, Part II” and were on-screen together in only two scenes in “Heat.”
Here, they’re veteran NYPD detectives, partners for 30 years and growing increasingly cynical about the injustices of the so-called judicial system – which is why they plant evidence to frame a child killer for a crime he didn’t commit. That then becomes connected with a string of 14 vigilante murders targeting those who slipped through the judicial system, including a pedophile priest. And many of the ‘revenge’ crimes revolve around Club 404 in Harlem, run by Spider (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), a drug kingpin /rapper who sells product to a corporate lawyer who turns ‘stoolie’ with disastrous results.
When scowling Turk (De Niro) isn’t coaching young girls in PAL baseball, he’s having a torrid affair with a rough-sex-loving Detective Karen Corelli (Carla Gugino), while Rooster (Pacino) chews gum in his shadow, muttering, “You’re my partner; you’re my role model.” They’re trailed around by a younger pair of detectives (John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg). Hovering in the background is the chief (Brian Dennehy).
Written by Russell Gewirtz, directed by Jon Avnet and photographed by Dennis Lenoir, this cliché-filled churner adds up to little more than a slow-paced episode of “Law & Order” with the real culprit ‘twist’ telegraphed so far in advance that there’s little suspense. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Righteous Kill” is a forgettable 5. Reportedly, the state of Connecticut contributed a 40% production subsidy (including the stars’ salaries) because much of it was shot in Bridgeport.