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Love and Other Disasters

Director: Alek Keshishian

In order to try and battle what Breakfast at Tiffany’s heroine Holly Golightly would call “the mean reds” of writing traditional romantic comedy, writer/director Alek Keshishian borrows heavily from not only Tiffany’s but also British romantic comedies of the past for the David Fincher and Luc Besson produced Love and Other Disasters.

For his own version of Golightly, Keshishian casts the charismatically affable, brunette beauty Brittany Murphy as “Jacks” (real name Emily Jackson) in a role that demands his actress channel both Golightly as well as the woman who personified her, the legendary Audrey Hepburn. While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, initially, Murphy’s characterization feels like an academic acting school exercise (at best) and a blithe parody (at worst) but soon enough, she wins us over. Much like the Clueless heroine Cher, played by Murphy’s costar Alicia Silverstone in director Amy Heckerling’s modern version of Jane Austen’s Emma, Murphy’s Jacks is a matchmaker gone wild.

Trying her best to keep everything running swimmingly, the perpetually rushed Jacks treats life as a never-ending party where as the “hostess” she must always ensure the guests are having the most wonderful time. And in doing so she often places the self-created dramas and romantic complications of her friends far above taking stock of things in her own chaotically fast-paced life where there’s barley enough hours in the day.

When she isn’t shagging James (Elliot Cowan), her formerly long-term, currently ex-boyfriend who just can’t seem to rebound from the fact that his love is one-sided, Jacks bonds with-- as Kathy Griffin would call-- her “main gay,” a.k.a. her endlessly supportive roommate Peter Simon (Matthew Rhys). Although aside from Peter, Jacks’ stable of friends are more irritating than winning. This is especially apparent in an extremely annoying and cringe-worthy performance by Catherine Tate as the Sylvia Plath wannabe Talullah who seems to have wandered in after being rejected from the set of either Notting Hill or Love Actually.

However, amidst juggling all of friends’ romantic subplots, Jacks is surprised to find herself enchanted by a new Argentinean colleague, Paolo (Santiago Cabrera). After confidently declaring that she has the best gaydar in the city, Jacks erroneously decides to fix her new acquaintance up with Peter. Of course, all the while the audience realizes she's mistaken Paolo’s intense looks, flirtatious compliments, and attentiveness as merely friendly when in fact Paolo has fallen in love with our flighty heroine.

If it all sounds complicated it is, and the ambitious Lebanese born, Harvard-educated filmmaker Keshishian (most famous for helming Madonna: Truth or Dare) naively tries to squeeze in far too many characters and situations into his film’s brief running time. And while at times the Tiffany’s homage feels overly forced as he unsuccessfully gives Jacks a misguided Golightly-esque catchphrase of calling cherished friends “babies,” it’s an interesting take on the original material.

In fact, it gamely acknowledges that the film version of Tiffany’s took the homosexual male character from the book and repacked him for straight audiences as a heterosexual in traditional romantic comedy fashion. Thereby, Keshishian uses his own lighthearted romp as an unlikely commentary on the decision by having loads of fun with sexual orientation misunderstandings in our contemporary era.

A beautiful and harmless trifle, Love’s carefree blend of sass and soap suds calls to mind the guilty pleasure of watching the superior CW soap Gossip Girl, but much like Gossip, it’s one of those experiences you may plead the fifth on if asked if you're a fan when in snobbish society.

Unfortunately, Keshishian’s attempt is muddled by superfluity as one feels a strong urge to reach for the “fast-forward” button whenever the obnoxious Talullah along with a few other annoying characters appear onscreen. However the chaos does serve an important purpose in augmenting Jacks and inviting viewers to identify with her a bit more than we could with Hepburn’s Golightly.

For instead of Tiffany’s diamonds, in the twenty-first century, multi-tasking is a girl’s best friend and it serves Jacks well in her self-described position as “a superficial assistant at a major fashion magazine,” namely the London branch of Vogue. Although, unlike Anne Hathaway’s discovery that in the fashion world, The Devil Wears Prada, Jacks puts her work—much like her own needs—on the back burner. And instead navigating the Golightly terrain of “rats and super-rats,” she predictably discovers that ultimately she must stop hiding behind luxury products, eccentric “artist” friends, and haute couture to let down her own guard long enough to fall in love.

Wrapping up the work utilizing the rarely beneficial screenwriting favorite "film-within-a-film" approach, much like Jacks, Keshishian called on the support of friends by serving up Gwyneth Paltrow and Orlando Bloom in an unnecessary concluding cameo that jars the whimsical tone and calls far too much attention to itself. Still, with an irresistible turn by Murphy, uniformly excellent work by Rhys, and a nice change of pace for gorgeous Heroes star Santiago Cabrera, one finds that in the end this Love is far from a total disaster.

Iron Man

Director:
Jon Favreau

It’s a good thing he can fly because it’d be hell getting caught behind Tony Stark at the airport security checkpoint. Always a treasure with his recent underrated turns in both Zodiac and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, charismatic character actor Robert Downey Jr. transitions effortlessly from contemplative art films to summer blockbusters, sliding into both the gold titanium alloy suit of Tony Stark and his best role in years in director Jon Favreau’s smash hit Iron Man.

Establishing its testosterone fueled tone with ACDC’s “Back in Black” blaring in the background, Iron Man trades in the Vietnam era setting of the comic for contemporary Afghanistan as we first find Stan Lee’s Howard Hughes inspired comic book character Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) rattling around the treacherous terrain in a militarily escorted Humvee. More preoccupied with his trusty scotch and fielding carnal inquiries by serving up his Maxim model scorecard, brilliant weapons manufacturer Stark is quickly jolted to attention by enemy fire as explosives rip through the scene.

Held captive in a terrorist occupied cave, Stark awakens to find himself hooked up to a car battery. In a strange twist of surgical fate that would best be filed under “news of the weird,” Stark learns his life has been saved by a quick thinking mysterious scientist named Yinsen (Shaun Toub) who implants a circular electromagnet in his chest. When faced with the demand that he must build the terrorists a missile in exchange for his release, Stark refuses, suddenly realizing that the situation in which he’s found himself is exactly the one his company helped create by arming the world with weapons of mass destruction. Building what would later erroneously be dubbed his “iron” suit, Stark works with Yinsen to craft an ingenious design to secure his escape. Finally back in his mountaintop mansion overlooking the sea in the states, Stark stuns his business partner Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges), military “babysitter” Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and tall-drink-of-water assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) by announcing that he will no longer make weapons.

After an ingenious and fast paced nearly James Bond styled opening that introduces us to Stark both in Afghanistan under duress and intercuts the action with his careless, American playboy lifestyle, director Favreau slows down the pace, dedicating more than a solid, unsuccessful hour of the film to Stark’s experiments with his always evolving alloy suit. Soon Stark tests the waters as a superhero when he realizes the bald, cigar smoking Stone with a preference for playing the piano compositions of Salieri (film geek note: see Amadeus for the subtext) seems to be even more weapons obsessed than the current Bush white house. Although Bridges’ Stone is hardly in the same league as the masterful Joker or conniving Catwoman and doesn’t officially make his appearance as a genuine villain until extremely late into the film, Favreau steps up the action as Iron Man steadily builds towards, as one might say, a “rock ‘em, sock ‘em robots” inspired conclusion.

While Marvel Studio’s first official, self-financed cinematic release (IMDb) doesn’t follow the tried and true comic book superhero paradigm that made Burton’s Batman or Raimi’s Spiderman such an instant success in its ability to capture the attentions of audience members from all walks of life with an emphasis on storytelling, Iron Man is definitely an above average genre offering filled with wit, brains and excellent chemistry between the leads (especially Downey Jr. and Paltrow).

Despite the box office records, perhaps the truest test of Iron Man will be in its ability to use the foundation established in the first film and carry it into the future sequels, which can only improve as Stark’s suit has been tested, and a true villain needs to be introduced. However, in the end, it’s not the eye-popping visuals and headache inducing, overwhelming sound effects but Robert Downey Jr. who makes the film more than just a traditional superhero picture and reminds us again just why he’s one of the true superheroes in his field.

The Good Night

Director:
Jake Paltrow

We all flirt but there are often lines that seem to change with each relationship as to what constitutes cheating. Is going out for coffee with an opposite gender friend cheating? How about dinner with an ex? What about those e-mail correspondences that are getting more flirtatious? Do you find it’s easier to chat with an attractive coworker than your mate in the morning? While these questions can lead to more revelations about yourself and your relationship since they all include boundaries that may be easily crossed, how does it fit into the mix if you dream cheat? That is, if in your dreams you have an affair with a perfect stranger that actually feels more like love while embarking on a fantasy relationship you look more forward to than the perfunctory “good night” and “I love you” said to your partner.

For Gary (Martin Freeman), this is the situation he finds himself in fairly quickly into writer/director Jake Paltrow’s feature film debut. In a beginning that feels ike a British version of VH1 Behind the Music, we learn a bit of the background of former Britpop musician Gary who, now in his thirties, resides in New York with his nagging, frumpy, dark-haired girlfriend of seven years Dora (played by Jake’s sister Gwyenth Paltrow). When we first meet him, Gary is busily eking out an unsatisfying career scoring commercial jingles for an advertising agency with his former band-mate turned boss Paul (Simon Pegg). Although he’s approaching an early midlife crisis, unlike his womanizing, lecherous married friend Paul who is currently having an affair with a woman he describes (as only Pegg can) as “sort of tall and hot, in a kind of short, ugly way,” Gary saves his fantasies for himself and finds them indulged in a bizarre way one evening when he dreams of a gorgeous, beguiling stranger (Penelope Cruz) who, speaking to him only in subtitles, tells him that if he pays close attention and shuts his eyes he “can feel a heartbeat” in her lips.

Intoxicated by this imagined encounter, Gary’s ego is given a boost as he decides to explore the field of dream interpretation and lucid dreaming, visiting a new age bookstore before he meets up with a dream coach in the form of a group run by Mel (Danny DeVito). Gary, who decides to avoid the small clique of fellow dreamers all hoping to control their dreams as if they were listening to their favorite song without an ending before the Kendo practice interrupts them, hires Mel for private consultation. Soon their sessions enable him to continue his affair with Cruz that soon takes over his own waking life as he begins darkening and soundproofing his bedroom for better dreaming conditions before Dora is only too happy to have an excuse to leave for an Italian two week business trip. Quickly startled into thinking that fate is the reason for his dreams when he sees Cruz’s likeness adorning fashion ads on city buses, Paul takes it upon himself to arrange an introduction but will the reality be as good as his dream or was Gary just trying to find a way to avoid his own relationship that may be way past the expiration date?

A fascinating premise that would have done better to be played more for laughs than the downbeat drama as penned by Paltrow that concludes into a dark cheat of an ending that feels a bit rushed and disappointing, the film also suffers from as Hollywood Reporter writer Kirk Honeycut noted, Paltrow’s decision to make “ever character thoroughly unlikable” or as he corrects, “actually pathetic would be a better adjective.” With such a brooding tone to the film with self-involved and cringe-worthy characters that may have been more successful on the page, there is little to recommend the work despite the originality of Paltrow’s idea and his unquestionable gift for direction as the film offers plenty of gorgeous scenes that, on their own, show his promise but compounded with the rest result in an uneven mess. This being said, it's nonetheless suitable for the same audiences who found themselves entranced by the similarly themed fellow Penelope Cruz vehicle, Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky (based on the superior Abre los Ojos also starring Cruz).

View from the Top

Director: Bruno Barrreto

Had it been made in the 1960’s, Brazilian director Bruno Barreto’s View from the Top would have made the perfect vehicle for either Doris Day or Sandra Dee. This mindlessly frothy bit of fluff centers on Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow as Donna Jensen, a young woman from the southwest who, after getting dumped in a birthday card from boyfriend Marc Blucas decides she needs to make a drastic change in her life. Inspired by a book written by Sally Weston (Candice Bergen) that urges women to fulfill their dreams, Donna, who has never traveled in her life let alone set foot on an airplane applies for a position as a flight attendant on a thankless, seedy commuter flight with vinyl, suggestive uniforms that could double as stripper apparel. Content to start somewhere, she learns the ropes quickly and soon, along with her friends Sherry (a hilarious Kelly Preston) and Christine (Christina Applegate) applies for work at Sally Weston’s employer Royalty Airways.

Surviving off-the-wall training from Mike Myers who, as Leonard Maltin noted seemed as though he was playing a character from an entirely different film, the bright, optimistic Donna is disappointed to learn that instead of receiving an assignment on an international flight, she’s been stationed at their commuter hub in Cleveland. Although, as we learned from Tina Fey’s 30 Rock, the “Cleve” has some high points and in View they come in the form of adorable Mark Ruffalo, a law student who Donna inspires while dating. Eric Wald who completed View from the Top in his UCLA MFA screenwriting program owes much to the escapist works of Day and Dee from the past. However, instead of putting an edgy or satirical spin on the genre such as was done in Down With Love, Wald sets his film in modern times and although it’s refreshing to see such a hopeful and innocent work, View from the Top suffered the after-effects of 9/11 when Miramax, concerned that audiences wouldn’t want a carefree airline comedy pushed the release from its intended ’01 although back to ’03 when the re-cut version debuted to horrendous reviews. While the film would no doubt have benefited from a hipper style of humor such as found in the similar Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion and you’re sure to forget it by the time you hit eject, View from the Top is harmless, feel-good fun.

Running With Scissors

Director: Ryan Murphy

The first line of Tolstoy’s classic Anna Karenina begins with the oft-quoted line, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Although set in nineteenth century Russia, Tolstoy’s sharp proclamation still remains true today and he may as well have been addressing the family depicted in Running With Scissors for, if you look up the word dysfunction in the dictionary, there should be a photo of Augusten Burroughs. Based on Burroughs's critically acclaimed memoir that was way too shocking and bizarre than any life had a right to be, Ryan Murphy’s ambitious adaptation begins successfully, relishing in its eccentric glory as a quintessential portrait of narcissistic dysfunction and mental illness in the 1970’s but unfortunately the film’s excesses wear out their welcome, making the piece a cautionary tale of the dangers of creativity run amok. Golden Globe nominee Annette Bening (denied Oscar attention in this year’s overly crowded race) portrays Augusten’s mother Deirdre Burroughs, a self-involved, mentally unstable neurotic poet with delusions of grandeur and dreams of fame and fortune. When she sees an unconventional therapist (Brian Cox), Bening impulsively decides to divorce husband Alec Baldwin and leave her teenage son (Joseph Cross) to be raised in her therapist’s household, which is already busting at the seams with patients, family and other oddballs including long-suffering wife Jill Clayburgh, prim daughter Gwyneth Paltrow, rebellious Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood) and a thirty-something psychotic (a nearly unrecognizable Joseph Fiennes) who begins a sexual relationship with the young teenage boy. The stars all try hard and Evan Rachel Wood is especially mesmerizing in her small role as Natalie—given the risk and dedication this young actress has utilized since her breakthrough portrayal in Thirteen, Wood shows the same amount of promise and intelligence as Jodie Foster did in her prime. While the inventive usage of music (see selections below) are a high point as well as some moments of amazing wit and poignancy, the film itself, which begins in the same vein as thematically similar works like American Beauty and Little Miss Sunshine become an unbearably messy, freewheeling version of Girl Interrupted times ten. Although, it's worth a look for fans of the actors or devotees of Burroughs, newbies are best left sticking to the book or renting more successful attempts at eccentricity done right such as Flirting With Disaster or Igby Goes Down since both of which were made with a clearer purpose and appropriately understated level of humor as opposed to just depicting craziness for its own sake.

Soundtrack Selections from iTunes

“Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John

“Stardust” by Nat King Cole

“Teach Your Children” by Crosby, Stills & Nash

“Quizas, Quizas, Quizas (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps)”
by Nat King Cole

“Blinded By The Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band

“The Things We Do For Love” by 10cc