Lucky Break

Director: Peter Cattaneo

Lucky Break has one of those quintessentially creative and delightfully offbeat plot set-ups that have become the staple of excellent British comedies. One of the more popular British directors of the 90’s, Full Monty’s Peter Cattaneo tackles this musical tale about a jail break and a conflicted escapee who falls in love with an attractive prison employee. Match Point and Millions star James Nesbitt makes a charismatic and humorous leading man in his role as Jimmy Hands, who we meet roughly halfway through his sentence for an armed robbery gone awry.

The incompetent but well-meaning Hands is reunited with his bitter former partner in crime, Rudy (Lennie James) who is still predictably sore at having been abandoned by Hands during the mishap. Once inside the lower security prison, Hands realizes he has a lucky break when he uncovers and exploits the hobby of good-natured prison governor Graham Mortimer (Christopher Plummer) who has a passion for musicals.

Hands concocts the plan of staging the warden’s own musical composition in the old chapel next to the prison’s outermost wall and thus begins this funny, clever and compelling tale that finds our leading man having to overcome obstacles including persuading inmates to take part by bribing them with phone cards and being forced to include a fearsome con recently transferred while squaring off with a sadistic guard and becoming attracted to anger management counselor Annabel Sweep (Rushmore's Olivia Williams).

While most critics dismissed this film as a lesser trifle when compared with Full Monty, for my money, it’s even more entertaining and makes for a highly watchable and likable British comedy musical, that's even more fun on repeat viewings.

The Lake House

Director: Alejandro Agresti

Working from a script by the Pultizer Prize winning playwright of Proof, David Auburn, Argentine director Alejandro Agresti was charged with the task of not only helming the remake of the foreign fantastical romance Il Mare but also overseeing the first cinematic reunion of Speed stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. With references and allusions to Hitchcock’s Notorious and Jane Austen’s Persuasion, the film centers around the magical story of two people living in two different years (2006 and 2004) who manage to cross the time barriers by interacting via a mailbox on the lake house property in which they’ve both resided. Sandra Bullock plays Kate, a hardworking doctor in ’06 who, as the film begins, leaves a note to the new tenant of the property with a polite request to forward her mail. Architect Alex (Keanu Reeves) gets her welcome note as he moves in eighteen months earlier and thus begins one of the most creatively yet somehow emotionally icy romances to grace the screen last year. Although admittedly a bit of a disappointment, the film receives ample support from a clever screenplay, a wonderful soundtrack (see two selections below), and excellent international supporting players like Christopher Plummer, Willeke van Ammelrooy (Antonia’s Line) and Shohreh Aghdashloo (The House of Sand and Fog). While viewers definitely stay engaged to the film, we’re always held at a bit of a distance due to the gloomy cinematography and somewhat sleepy performances by its usually excellent two leads with otherwise superb natural chemistry. Expected to be a major smash, The Lake House was the first film simultaneously released on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-Ray, although a bit of a warning for die-hard romantics—while the wholly earned happy ending will put a smile on your face, a film that begins with a death on Valentine’s Day makes it sort of an unsuccessful offering for “date night.” Note to fans of Speed: paying homage to Reeves’s character in their earlier film together, the onscreen dog in the film was named Jack by Sandra Bullock.

Soundtrack Selections from iTunes

"Time Has Told Me" by Nick Drake

"This Never Happened Before" by Paul McCartney