Movie/TV Reviews

Awake

Susan Granger’s review of “Awake” (M.G.M.)

Everyone has a different definition of a ‘scary’ movie. Mine doesn’t involve monsters or ghostly apparitions. Instead, it’s reality-based terror, which is why I found this admittedly mediocre psychological thriller so gripping.
In “Awake,” a patient’s failed anesthesia leaves him fully conscious but physically paralyzed during surgery. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists and American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, of the 21 million patients who receive general anesthesia, an estimated 20,000 – 40,000 wake up during surgery. Half of them can hear what’s happening and nearly 30% experience pain but they’re unable to communicate because they’ve been temporarily paralyzed.
Like his father, Clayton Beresford Jr. (Hayden Christensen) is a Wall Street whiz. Problem is: he has a defective heart. Perhaps that’s why he still lives at home with his widowed mother, Lilith (Lena Olin), a domineering socialite. Secretly engaged to her assistant, Samantha (Jessica Alba), Clay has been reluctant to break the news to his mother – until, one night, Sam forces the issue and they elope.
Clay’s best man is Jack Harper (Terrence Howard), a cardiac specialist he befriended while on the waiting list for a transplant and, just after the wedding, a donor heart becomes available. Although his mother has lined up a pre-eminent cardiovascular surgeon (Arliss Howard), Clay insists on having Jack do the surgery.
Bad idea since Jack has several malpractice lawsuits pending. As the graphically detailed surgery commences, Clay realizes he’s still aware – but paralyzed – and that things aren’t really what they seem. Secrecy, deception and betrayal abound.
While writer/director Joby Harold suffers credibility problems, he nevertheless builds ominous suspense, so on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Awake” is a horrifying 6 – and quite unsuitable for the squeamish or those about to undergo anesthesia for surgery.

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I Am Legend

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “I Am Legend” (Warner Bros.)

There are very few actors who can carry a picture alone. Tom Hanks did in “Cast Away” – with only a volleyball to talk to – and now Will Smith finds himself in post-apocalyptic Manhattan with only his German shepherd for company.
By 2012, a virus caused by a supposed ‘cure’ for cancer has killed most of humanity and turned those who have survived into vampire-like mutants. Lt. Col. Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a military scientist who is inexplicably immune to the plague. During the day, he attempts to hunt deer with a high-powered rifle and scavenges for supplies in the urban wasteland. But, at night, when rabid, howling predators roam the streets, he barricades himself in his Washington Square townhouse, where he conducts lab experiments in hopes of eradicating the outbreak with an antidote.
Eventually, lonely Neville finds two more uncontaminated humans, a Brazilian woman (Alice Braga) and a young boy (Charlie Tahan) who are heading for Vermont to join a ‘survivor’ colony.
Richard Matheson’s sci-fi 1954 novel, which spawned “The Last Man on Earth” (1964) with Vincent Price and “The Omega Man” (1971) with Charleton Heston, has been updated by Akiva Goldsman, who revised Mark Protsevich’s screenplay that was written for Arnold Schwarzenegger before he decided to run for California’s Governorship.
Director Francis Lawrence (“Constantine”) paints a haunting cinematic picture of grim isolation and stark desolation, while the repugnant CGI zombies seem to have crossed the pond from Danny Boyle’s “28 Days.”
Will Smith rises to the occasion superbly, working best with his canine companion, but the abrupt, unconvincing, religious-themed conclusion seems just too serendipitous. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “I Am Legend” is a solitary, suspenseful 7, the scary stuff of which nightmares are made.

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Charlie Wilson’s War

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Universal)

Ever wonder why we’re fighting in Afghanistan – and how we got involved there in the first place?
Investigative “60 Minutes” reporter George Crile came up with a surprising answer in his astute 2004 best-seller which Aaron Sorkin (“The American President,” TV’s “West Wing”) shrewdly adapts for the screen.
Apparently, it’s all because of Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a swingin’ Democratic Congressman from East Texas. Seen naked in a hot tub, boozing and snorting with strippers in Las Vegas, Charlie is a male chauvinist, admittedly hiring his office staff based on their measurements and pulchritude. He’s also vulnerable, particularly when approached by a beautiful constituent like wealthy Houston socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), an outspoken anti-Communist who wants to arm the Afghan militia to fight the Russians who have invaded their country.
To that end, she arranges for Charlie to meet with Pakistan’s President Zia ul-Haq (Om Puri) in Islamabad and visit an Afghan refugee camp. At Charlie’s side is maverick CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who cleverly brokers a covert deal for Israel to sell Russian-made weapons to the Afghan ‘freedom fighters’ – and the Soviet-made Stinger missiles convince Soviet troops to retreat in 1989. But by arming the ‘mujahedin,’ Charlie Wilson inadvertently set the stage for Al Qaeda and Islamic Fundamentalism.
To propel this truth-is-stranger-than-fiction, geopolitical deal-making caper, Mike Nichols’ fast-paced direction takes an ironic, satirical, often shallow tone, as does Tom Hanks’ cynical “Good Time Charlie” characterization. Scene-stealing Philip Seymour Hoffman is terrific but Julia Roberts just coasts through, often eclipsed by Amy Adams (“Enchanted”) as Wilson’s long-suffering personal assistant.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Charlie Wilson’s War” is a lively, enlightening 8 – and the real Charlie Wilson is retired and living in Lufkin, Texas.

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The Kite Runner

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Kite Runner” (Paramount Classics/Vantage)

Marc Forster’s timely adapatation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-seller about the doomed friendship of two Afghan boys is not only faithful to the book but enhances the narrative with resonant visuals.
The sprawling, generation-spanning epic begins in 1978 in Kabul, Afghanistan, where timid, 12 year-old Amir (Zekiria Ebrahimi), who lives with his aristocratic widower father (Homayoun Ershadi), loves playing with his best friend, Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada), the spunky son of their servant. Since Amir is literate, he often reads aloud to Hassan under a pomegranate tree, but – most of all – they excel at kite-flying competition. But one fateful day, Amir cowardly betrays Hassan, who is then sexually brutalized by older bullies. After that, Amir’s shame drives a wedge between them – and their country is torn asunder by the Soviet invasion.
Years later, married and living in San Francisco, now-grown Amir (Khalid Abdalla) receives a phone call from an old family friend, informing him that Hassan is dead, leaving a young son orphaned. Guilt-ridden, Amir embarks on a dangerous journey to his ravaged homeland to find and rescue the boy (Ali Dinesh) and bring him to California. Traveling in disguise in treacherous Taliban territory, Amir must cover his shaven face with a false beard and witness a sharia, the public ritual stoning of an adulterous couple.
The non-professional children, discovered in local Kabul schools by casting director Kate Dowd, are extraordinary, and the Middle Eastern actors acquit themselves impressively. Using subtitles, screenwriter David Benioff has, by necessity, condensed the complexity while retaining the ethnic/culture-clash drama, and Roberto Schaefer’s lyrical cinematography deftly uses China doubling for Afghanistan. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Kite Runner” soars to an exceptional, enthralling 10 – with its universal themes of honor and redemption.

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Sweeney Todd

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Sweeney Todd” (Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks)

This “Sweeney Todd” is not a film of the stage musical – unlike “Chicago,” “Dreamgirls” and “Hairspray.” It’s director Tim Burton’s unique interpretation of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” – a cynical, chill-inducing, blood-splattering cinematic operetta.
Subtitled “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” it’s the tragic, gore-filled, Gothic tale of Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), a banished barber who returns to London with a young sailor (Jamie Campbell Bower) after escaping from prison in Australia. Calling himself Sweeney Todd, he’s vowed vengeance on Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who’d banished him and stolen his wife and baby daughter. He’s aided by resourceful Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who accommodates his blood-thirsty rampage by stuffing his victims’ flesh into her meat pies. Woe to anyone who sits in his barber chair, including a flamboyant rival, Adolfo Pirelli (Borat’s Sacha Baron Cohen).
Based on an obscure British melodrama – which may or may not have been inspired by true events – “Sweeney Todd” was filmed once before, in 1982, with Broadway legends Angela Lansbury and George Hearn; Patti LuPone then did it on “Encores.”
Tim Burton’s grimly dark, uncompromisingly macabre vision has the stunning, surrealistic visual style of “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “Edward Scissorhands” and “Ed Wood,” while screenwriter John Logan focuses on diabolical Sweeney, lovelorn Mrs. Lovett and the plight of the street urchin Toby (Edward Sanders), who serves as the moral compass of the story,.
While neither Johnny Depp nor Helena Bonham-Carter is a trained vocalist, they sing with the voice of their characters – and it’s surprisingly good. The rest of the cast is pitch-perfect. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Sweeney Todd” is a compelling, sinister 10 – a repellent masterpiece!
Forget about your preconceptions – and relish one of the 10 Best Movies of 2007.

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P.S. I Love You

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “P.S. I Love You” (Warner Bros.)

While Hilary Swank has won two Oscars – for “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby” – she’s unable to exude femininity. Graceless in “The Affair of the Necklace,” she’s almost as awkward, cavorting in her underwear, in this disappointing melodrama.
Although Holly’s (Hilary Swank) marriage to Gerry Kennedy (Gerard Butler), an impetuous Irishman, is fraught with problems, she’s stricken with grief when he dies of a brain tumor. Her mother (Kathy Bates), two best friends (Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon) and a blundering bartender (Harry Connick Jr.), try – in vain – to comfort her.
Then on her 30th birthday, a celebratory cake, tape recording and letters start arriving from her dead husband who has taken great pains instructing her how to rebuild her life. He’s even arranged for a bittersweet trip to his native Ireland so she can meet his parents, along with a hunky boyhood chum (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
Screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (“The Fisher King,” “Freedom Writers”) collaborated with Steven Rogers to adapt Cecelia Ahern’s novel and he also directs. Therein lays the problem. All too often, when a screenwriter directs his own project, he loses focus and that’s what happens here. As a couple, the Kennedys seem destined for divorce anyway, so why should we care about them or those gimmicky letters, all of which predictably conclude with “P.S. I love you”?
It wants to be “Ghost,” but she’s no Demi Moore and he’s no Patrick Swayze. The only cast members eliciting empathy are Lisa Kudrow (“Friends”), adorable as a blatant husband-hunter, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Grey’s Anatomy”), whose smile could melt any woman’s heart. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “P.S. I Love You” is a sappy, floundering 4. Drop it in the dead letter office.

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National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” (Walt Disney)

This sequel to the immensely popular “National Treasure” finds Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) and his father Patrick (Jon Voight) on another archeological quest to unearth hidden history when a missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth implicates Ben’s great-great grandfather, Thomas Gates, in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Determined to prove his ancestor’s innocence, Ben embarks on a treasure hunt that leads him to Paris (inspecting a second Statue of Liberty near the Eiffel Tower), London (infiltrating the Queen’s Study in Buckingham Palace) and back to Washington, D.C. (exploring the Oval Office for clues), where he kidnaps the President (Bruce Greenwood) during a White House dinner at Mt. Vernon to plead for a peek at the appropriately named Book of Secrets. That’s when he discovers that somewhere in the Black Hills of South Dakota, near Mount Rushmore, is the entrance to the fabled Cibola, a pre-Columbian City of Gold.
Joining Ben and his dad are his estranged girlfriend, archivist Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), and his scholarly mother, Emily (Helen Mirren), an expert in archaic languages who broke up with his dad 32 years ago, plus their techno-nerd sidekick, Riley (Justin Bartha). Their adversary is Confederate sympathizer Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), who has problems with his own family legacy. Plus, there’s a suspiciously well-informed FBI man (Harvey Keitel) on their trail.
Written by Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, directed by Jon Turtletaub and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, it continues the whodunit/where-is-it/what-does-it mean formula. It’s a picturesque, minor-league Indiana Jones romp, filled with arcane information – and adding spunky Helen Mirren to re-kindle an old flame is a humorous touch. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” is a fun-filled 7, chock-full-of-historical trivia.

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The Bucket List

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Bucket List” (Warner Bros.)

It’s time to rejoice – the darkly comic “The Bucket List” is a gift for moviegoers.
Crusty, cranky corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and knowledgeable garage mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) become unlikely friends as they share a hospital room. Terminally ill with cancer yet feeling fine, they both realize they have ‘unfinished business.’
In an exercise in forward thinking, they make a list of everything they want to do before they “kick the bucket” and embark on the most unlikely road trip you can imagine: skydiving, race car driving and laughing ’till they cry. While they relish their high-flying adventures – exploring Egypt’s pyramids, a safari in Tanzania, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China – they also learn more about themselves and what really matters on this often-confusing journey of life.
Charming Jack Nicholson’s sly, twisted nature has an irresistible appeal. As an actor, he is totally liberated, creating one of the most memorable characters this year, while Morgan Freeman is extraordinary, completely believable, delivering a quietly composed and curiously touching performance. Together, they get away with outrageous gallows humor and black comedy that would sink more timid thespians. Their tandem performances are near to perfection.
Evoking memories of “The Odd Couple” and “Grumpy Old Men,” screenwriter Justin Zackham’s dialogue is deft, intelligent and laced with an outrageous sense of humor, while veteran director Rob Reiner understands the frailty and absurdity of the human condition. While there are editing and continuity glitches, particularly the CGI superimposing the actors’ faces during the stunt work, they barely detract from the characters’ emotional wallop.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Bucket List” is a 9 – a heartfelt, wickedly funny, one-of-a-kind holiday treat.

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The Savages

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)

For those of us who have dealt or are dealing with angry, aging parents and grandparents, this dysfunctional family serio-comedy hits home.
39 year-old wannabe playwright Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) lives in Manhattan’s East Village with her cat and a married lover/neighbor for company. Her intellectual older brother, Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is a professor of drama at a college in Buffalo, but his relationship with his Polish girlfriend is deteriorating because he cannot commit. Both obviously bear the emotional scars of an abusive childhood.
So when they’re summoned to a retirement community in Sun City, Arizona, to help their elderly, estranged father, Lenny (Philip Bosco), who has developed not only dementia but also Parkinson’s disease, they’re hardly equipped to care for the man who never cared for them. Frustrated at having their lives disrupted and squabbling as they’re desperately searching for a ‘good’ nursing home, they have to settle for one that will take irascible, rapidly deteriorating Lenny on short notice. Moaning, “We’re horrible, horrible, horrible people,” Wendy is more concerned about her father’s well-being and comfort, while pragmatic Jon realizes the senior residence is simply a place where people go to die.
While writer/director Tamara Jenkins (“Slums of Beverly Hills”) taps into the ‘guilt’ factor, she doesn’t offer easy answers to this depressing situation – because there aren’t any. What she does deliver are sad, yet funny, subtly fascinating and eccentric, three-dimensional characters, embodied by actors who deliver Oscar-caliber performances.
Laura Linney provides her own engaging brand of incandescence; Philip Seymour Hoffman is raw and riveting; and Philip Bosco’s work is rich and complex, speaking volumes without using words. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Savages” is an astute, empathetic 8. It’s a heartfelt, touching coming-of-middle-age drama.

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax)

When Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of Elle France magazine, suffered a stroke at age 43, he was left almost entirely paralyzed, yet he dictated a best-selling memoir, communicating with his caregivers by blinking his left eyelid.
While coming to terms with his own father’s death, painter-turned-filmmaker Julian Schnabel (“Before Night Falls,” “Basquiat”) became intrigued by Ronald Harwood’s screenplay about Bauby’s suffering – and he’s brought it to the screen in a most unusual way, casting a French actor (Mathieu Amalric), instead of Johnny Depp who was first signed, and persuading the Normandy hospital where Bauby had been confined to allow the production to film there.
Except for kaleidoscopic flashbacks, it’s narrated entirely from Bauby’s “locked in” perspective with Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (“Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan”) utilizing a special lens with a shock absorber that makes his vision seem a bit out of focus.
As his story begins, there’s inevitable confusion and self-pity as Bauby realizes his condition, yet he’s soon cooperating with his tireless attendants (Marie-Josee Croze, Olatz Lopez Garmendia, Anne Consigny) who devise the painstaking pattern whereby he blinks at letters of the alphabet in order to form words, then sentences. Bauby’s wife Celine (Emmanuelle Seigner), whom he’d abandoned with their children for another woman, devotedly visits, while his mistress balks; there’s also a poignant scene with his elderly father (Max von Sydow).
The title derives from Bauby’s nightmarish description of himself confined in a deep-sea diving bell; only his fertile imagination and intriguing, often amusing memories allow him to soar like a butterfly.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a stylistically engrossing, compassionate 9. In French with English subtitles, it’s a testament to the indomitable human spirit.

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