"When We Were Gone Astray" - Movie Review Essay: The Merry Gentleman (2008)

"When We Were Gone Astray"

by Jen Johans

Hovering on a Chicago rooftop in the darkness looking out, the first time he sees her, she's standing in the light. Arms outstretched like the statue of Jesus she'd just seen — that she tells her co-worker made her want to run into the deity's arms — her pose in the window across the street from where the suicidal hitman is positioned seems to have the same effect on the man. After Frank (Michael Keaton) takes out his target in an office nearby like a sniper, he scans the windows of her building once again. Looking for Kate (Kelly Macdonald), he discovers that she's already gone . . . or at least, that's what he thought.

Standing on the ledge of the building in his second suicide attempt of the day, Frank finds himself distracted from violence yet again by those same arms and that girl. Seeing her under a streetlight this time, she looks up to where he's standing, senses his intent, and screams — causing him to fall backwards onto the rooftop to safety — as the sound pierces through the falling snow into the night sky.

Having fled an abusive husband in a different state in a brave attempt to leave the darkness of her past behind, Kate is the type of person who usually keeps her head down. New to Chicago, she seeks solace in the peaceful little things, like the gentle kiss of winter on her outstretched arms in an evening snow or a Christmas tree she picks up on a whim, to which she can't wait to add decorations and lights.

The only person she encounters who intuits enough about her past not to ask about the remnants of a bruise from her husband's fist still hovering around her eye, after the events of that fateful night where she saved a nondescript man on a ledge, Frank wants nothing more than to meet his guardian angel. Posing as a man visiting friends in her building since there's no way she can place his face from that brief glance in the dark, Frank tries to return the favor in The Merry Gentleman by freeing Kate from her newly purchased Christmas tree that's pinned her to the ground.

"I found a girl under a tree," Frank muses in their first real conversation. Chiding himself that it's dumb, he explains, "you know, you find presents under a tree; I found a girl under a tree." Smiling, getting it — and cutting through the awkwardness like the people pleaser she is, but this time an interested one — Kate tells him with a little laugh, "well, you must've been a very good boy."

Given the way that the man who poses as a gentleman's tailor by day really earns his living, obviously nothing could be further from the truth. But yet, quiet, tender, slow, and protective, something about the way he is with Kate makes it clear that he yearns to be the man reflected in her eyes, especially when she informs him, "so far we've been pretty good for one another," after only seeing him three (okay, really four) times.

Instead of leaving the tree in the dumpster after Christmas, he takes it with them on a long romantic drive at sundown to burn the once majestic tree in a field. While watching this symbolic thing that brought them together die together in a Malick-worthy mercy kill — without even understanding the dark irony about his expertise in the area — Kate tells Frank in earnest, "You just might be the sweetest man I've ever met." And in moments like this, even in spite of everything we've witnessed thus far from the man onscreen, we're inclined to agree.

But like a candle that burns down to the wick, you can only stay in the light for so long before the darkness returns. Bogged down by real world pressures such as a love quadrangle instead of a triangle, in The Merry Gentleman, Kate is pursued not only by the right man on the wrong side of the law but two wrong men — cops — on the right side of the law. Wrong does come in varying degrees, however, in this existential, modern noirish fairy tale. When the first man with a badge in Gentleman — her abusive husband played by Bobby Cannavale — shows up to beg for another chance, the second man with a badge, Dave Murcheson (Tom Bastounes) is there to answer her 911 call.

A would-be romantic suitor that Frank inadvertently brings into her life, Kate meets Dave early into the film when she calls the police about the unidentified man on the ledge and he connects it to the contract killing Frank had carried out just before he almost jumped. Taking her to dinner under the guise of following up on her report, unlike Frank who says only what he means, when that is, he speaks at all, Dave feels the need to fill every second of silence that passes between them. Telling her what she wants to hear, and then belying his words with his actions, it doesn't take long for Kate to realize that she can't believe much of what's coming out of the Chicago police officer's mouth after all.

Layering in spiritual symbolism, The Merry Gentleman knows that while some viewers will respond to the film's undeniably christian iconography with Kate-like adoration, others — like Kate's co-worker who says she isn't a religious person but she is a romantic — will not. And to its immense credit, this dark yet understated love story about good, evil, peace, and trees respects and appeals to both types of film fans.

Sophisticated, subtle, and suitably somber, but with sparks of dry wit, old-fashioned grace, and Kelly Macdonald's incandescent aura suddenly bringing even the most serious of scenes to sparklingly buoyant life, this ensemble drama is far more concerned with people than plot. Adhering to the lyrics of the eponymous Christmas carol, it fixates on those most in need of "comfort and joy" who've "gone astray."

Understanding that behavior is far more interesting than just talking to combat silence, in his bold screenplay for The Merry Gentleman, Ron Lazzeretti takes a cue from his often quiet main character to incorporate dialogue only when he must. Augmented by the chemistry of the couple at the film's core and directed with sensitivity by Michael Keaton in his feature filmmaking debut, Lazzeretti's decision, it seems, was well worth the risk. Although I encountered the film for the first time back when I covered the Phoenix Film Festival in the spring of '09, Keaton's Gentleman has continued to fascinate me on Blu-ray a full decade later.

A highly verbal actor whose skill and speed in delivering paragraphs of comedic dialogue with athletic precision has delighted audiences since the 1980s, it's both incredibly compelling and initially, a little startling to see Michael Keaton dial back his energy and bravado. In a daring turn that's wonderfully out of his comfort zone, he moves down from a Ron Howard or Harold Ramis ten — not to a Tim Burton five — but a mostly silent one.

Emotionally and physically ill at the start of the film, which was shot in just under a month, Keaton's Frank finds himself slowly coming to life for the girl who saves him twice. But still, given the gravity of things that have been left unsaid, most importantly, where Kate really saw Frank for the first time — arms stretched wide, with falling snow between them instead of her meet cute tree — the film's intelligent enough to know that these two people can't just ride off into the sunset.

An arthouse standby with the ability to infuse even minor roles — like the wife in No Country for Old Men — with goodness and warmth, Kelly Macdonald has long been one of my favorite actresses. I'm especially fond of her major turns in Two Family House (which I loved so much that I actually programmed and hosted a screening of it in Scottsdale), as well as the acclaimed yet under seen The Girl in the Cafe, which shares a cinematographer with Merry's DP Chris Seagar. Thematically similar to Gentleman and propelled by two unpredictable, opposites attract fueled narratives, both House and Girl would play very well alongside The Merry Gentleman.

A woman of humanity and good humor who, thankfully, gets to use her own Scottish accent for the film, since to see Kelly Macdonald is to love her, she's the true heart of Michael Keaton's Chicago set tale. Therefore, it's easy to see why she'd be so instantly magnetic to so many men, both right but wrong and wrong but right alike.

Benefiting from an insightful script by Lazzeretti, who was going to direct the movie until a ruptured appendix found Keaton stepping up to the plate, Gentleman also boasts a strong supporting turn by producer-star Tom Bastounes as Dave. Making sure that we never write the Chicago cop off completely, Bastounes fills his scenes with wit and pathos while playing a role that Keaton, in his comedy heyday, might've easily gravitated to in the past.

Perhaps bored by the kind of men he's already played, it's a courageous move for Michael Keaton to branch out and doubly so to step behind the camera to take on the behind-the-scenes lead role he'd been eyeing for quite awhile. And despite a frivolous lawsuit by the film's investors who foolishly tried (and failed) to blame the director for the indie not making a big profit in its 2009 limited run, this eye-opening, critically acclaimed sleeper is so good that it makes you wish that Keaton would return to direct once again.

And while, with that history, you can totally understand why he might not, in a weirdly fitting way, it actually makes sense for the film to be undiscovered. Like the tormented Frank who, in tracking down Kate, is cautiously, tentatively optimistic about a peaceful future with somebody he can be quiet with (at least for a little while), once you manage to pull The Merry Gentleman out of the darkness, you'll find yourself wanting to share it with others and help bring Keaton's labor of love to light.

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TV on DVD: State of Play (2003)

Get The Original BBC Miniseries

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When a young black youth is gunned down in the busy streets of London, the easiest thing in the world initially is to pass off his untimely demise with the most convenient of stereotypes that it more than likely had something to do with drugs. The same goes on the exact same morning when a beautiful twenty-something environmental researcher falls underneath the tracks amidst the hustle and bustle of commuters traveling by tube as the police simply assume she pulled an Anna Karenina in a gruesome suicide.

However, the plot thickens when we realize that not only had the two seemingly unrelated individuals chatted together briefly that morning on a cellular phone but also when the female victim is identified as Sonia Baker-- an employee working for David Morrissey's rising Labour Party M.P. Stephen Collins.

Shaken by the news--when Collins becomes visually upset during a Parliament press conference, soon London realizes there's much more to the story. And as the journalists of The Herald join the media feeding frenzy, the married father of two-- Collins-- publicly admits to an extramarital affair with the deceased Baker.

Although again, some are quick to just label it a tragic tale of a woman sleeping with the boss, The Herald's talented reporter Cal MacAffrey (John Simm) realizes that it its core, there's something deeper at play than simply a romance gone wrong, based not only on an intuitive hunch but also because he knows Collins personally.

Having served as his campaign manager nearly a decade earlier and helping him get elected to the powerful position he's in-- holding sway in major legislation regarding the environment-- the two estranged friends begin to bond once again in sympathy as Cal and the rest of the staffers start digging for dirt and discovering that it's leading them down some very dangerous and disturbing paths.

With the full support of their cynical, arrogant, yet top-notch editor (the irreplaceable Bill Nighy) behind Cal, his fellow journalist (the lovely Kelly Macdonald), and their new freelance recruit (a hilarious scene-stealing, very young James McAvoy), the group gets to work in Cracker writer Paul Abbott's BAFTA award-winning six-part miniseries that stands as one of the finest achievements in the miniseries format ever produced for the small screen.

This stunning achievement was helmed by The Girl in the Cafe director David Yates (who'd collaborated with Macdonald and Nighy in that lovely HBO Golden Globe winning tale of politics and romance) before he'd go on to work as the newest director in the Harry Potter franchise-- directing both Phoenix and the upcoming Half-Blood Prince. And this time, he ties together politics, love and a great ensemble cast once again working from Paul Abbott's richly detailed, highly complex, and emotionally compelling screenplay.

Simply put, it's sophisticated, televised brain food that hooks you from the start and since it's filled with so many twists, subplots, character surprises, red herrings, dead-ends, new leads, coincidences and conspiracies, it only benefits from the DVD format where you can add English subtitles to understand the somewhat challenging UK accents, rewind scenes filled with multiple character arguments and emotional tugs of war, and-- most importantly-- devour it much faster than having to wait for the next weekly installment.

Despite the admitted grainy image of the gritty, dimly lit, largely hand-held documentary production style as the picture quality isn't as sharp as it should be for a newer release nor is the stereo sound-- the technical flaws are instantly usurped by its overwhelmingly substantive, addictive, top-notch and highly satisfying storyline that sends you down so many paths you begin to realize (much like David Fincher's Zodiac) just how much cops and reporters have in common.

And once again, State of Play is further proof in illustrating the stellar superiority of the BBC in terms of bringing the highest in quality to their network projects at a company where they value the writing so much that the writer's name shares the same bill as the title of the show.

Additionally Morrissey's dashing good looks offered those-- like me-- who'd only seen him in HBO's Stephen Frears drama The Deal as Gordon Brown a chance to shine as a leading man. Likewise, MacAvoy, Macdonald, Nighy and Polly Walker are uniformly excellent. However, the real revelation aside from wishing we could have our very own American version of Paul Abbott writing for our much-needed poor evening television lineups is the empathetic, fierce, and brave turn by John Simm.

A terrific actor who easily manages to walk an emotional fine-line throughout as his ethical dilemmas and involvement in the case are jeopardized when he falls harder for Collins' wife-- he moves seamlessly from scene to scene whether he has to be in lover mode, journalist mode, investigator mode, or betrayed friend mode.

Although the film has been available on DVD for quite some time-- with Universal Pictures' recent truncated feature length version starring Russell Crowe (the pure idea of which reminds me of headlines and tabloids as opposed to the full story contained within the Yates work)-- it's fortunately gaining a second life on DVD.

A highly recommended miniseries that reminds us just how valued our newspapers truly are-- State of Play is one work that I know I'll be studying again soon the second time around to try and fully appreciate all of the intricate twists and turns as they fly by like the speed of the London underground or a printing press before “it's stopped” and reset so that the truth can be revealed as a front page exclusive that continues on in five additional pieces.

Blu-ray Review: No Country for Old Men (2007) - Collector's Edition

I. Introduction

One of the strongest works of 2007 and quite possibly — along with Miller’s Crossing — one of the Coen Brothers undisputed masterpieces of which a frame shouldn’t be changed; the Best Picture Award Winning smash No Country for Old Men (from Paramount Vantage and Miramax Films) arrives on a 3-Disc DVD and 2-Disc Blu-ray Collector’s Edition that boasts a Digital Copy of the film as well.

Already one of the most impressive DVDs I’d owned as far as sharpness of picture and sound quality goes since you could nearly feel every audible “thwack” of Bardem’s air gun when it fired and one that towered in its digital transfer over the same two studios’ collaboration of my other favorite work of 2007 — There Will Be Blood. Blood, which was diminished on the small screen in DVD finally earned the transfer treatment and high-definition approach it deserved when I witnessed it in Blu-ray a few months back and felt like I was back in the theatre.

Similar to the mesmerizing quality of the Coen Brothers’ lackluster political comedy Burn After Reading from Universal and Focus Features that sparkled like a shiny diamond on DVD — I was curious to see if Country’s newest Blu-ray edition was going to be that much of an improvement in the higher resolution format to warrant the price-tag (especially for those who already own it on DVD or in the earlier Blu-ray version).

However, before we get into the extra features and technical aspects, first I’ll present you with a refresher of my original review published back in 2007 during its theatrical run which was not only amazingly linked to in UK’s The Guardian online (a feat of which I’m still humbly in shock) but was also easily my most read review from that entire year.

II. Theatrical Review

“Hold still.”

These words are used by two different characters in the beginning of Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest film just before a gun goes off. The first speaker is sociopath Anton Chigurh — a man for whom the term hit-man may be a gross understatement — who utilizes this request just before he dispatches his second of many victims that follow with a livestock air stun gun to the brain. The second character is cowboy Llewelyn Moss who makes the foolish mistake of greed, vanity and arrogant pride when he takes off with a satchel filled with two million dollars after he tracks an animal while hunting and stumbles upon the brutal remnants of a drug deal gone horribly wrong with most of the participants bathing in blood and west Texas sunlight.

“Hold still” may be in the script but the action that follows it is anything but still and the Brothers Coen may just as well have been talking to audience members who are now fully aware that they’ve unsuspectingly purchased tickets to one of the wildest western noirs in years and will just have to sit back for the ride.

Taking its title from W. B. Yeats’ poem “Sailing to Byzantium,” No Country for Old Men is based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel and although its old men whose values from the past and melancholy remembrance of a time when sheriffs didn’t need to carry a gun is put to the test at the forefront, they're just one of the victimized groups in the movie alongside the younger men, women and animals executed in the bloody two hours.

Quickly into the film, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) packs up his pretty young wife (Kelly Macdonald) and sends her off to her mother’s place when he leaves their trailer park to go on the run from not only the law and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), along with the hired man who comes looking (Woody Harrelson) but most notably killer Anton (Javier Bardem) who walks softly but carries a big weapon.

Blood, it seems to the Coen Brothers, is no longer quite as simple as the name of their oft-praised debut film implies and the writer/directors follow in the grand tradition of western and film noir allegory to paint a bitter and dark portrait of the evil lurking in the hearts of men. As one character states, “This country’s hard on people,” and that seems to be the recurring theme throughout.

Set in 1980, we meet men who’ve served in Vietnam like Brolin, who sees his plan for the dangerous and dumb long-shot that it is and goes for it anyway, wanting to try anything to rise from his station in life as a cowboy in a land without any real need for them (except in country songs) and residence in a trailer park with a wife who works at Wal-Mart.

Relying on his natural persona, Tommy Lee Jones settles instinctively into his role and even without his folk wisdom filled voice over and Texas vernacular that opens the film, he’s a man who believably exudes the law and seems like the ideal choice. Jones’s lawman asks questions first and prefers to shoot later, letting younger officer Wendell go through the door of a trailer first with his gun drawn, and later making the impulsive decision to drink milk left by perpetrator Anton left on the coffee table instead of locking down the crime scene or dusting for prints in a theatrical Dragnet style.

But most of the talk surrounding the film is in regards to Javier Bardem’s chilling Anton who is a mostly silent villain with a cruel quirk of sometimes using a coin toss to coolly decide the fate of those standing in his path. And to this end, it’s fascinating that the one who refuses to play along with what Anton surely feels is a logical game is a woman who calls him on the fact that it’s not logical at all and just a scapegoat since he’ll do his will anyway.

Bardem, given a purposely horrid haircut discovered by the brothers in an 1890’s photo of a brothel patron (IMDb), is referred to as a ghost in the film and some of his scenes are setup painstakingly similar to the finale of Blood Simple. Although, after making films for more than two decades in a world that’s getting increasingly unpredictable, we’re never sure just what the Coens will have happen until a surprising finale left some critics angered by its anti-climactic out-of-the-blue quality that would surely have earned the screenplay an "F" in most college writing courses.

I was prepared not for the exact details of the ending but the fact that it stunned others and while admittedly I was a bit dismayed at first, later I realized that it still seems to fit with the man vs. man mentality of the piece and the unpredictability of life itself that's a recurring Coen theme. Life is a coin toss after all and the fact that there's no overt payoff corresponds to the rules of the darkly existential, old testament style game being played.

Ultimately it's quite an enviable literary achievement that's worthy of McCarthy instead of the same three act structure that's been forced down our throats again and again and boasts the same nihlistic sense of dark fate from which Anton was born in the first place on McCarthy's page.

To quote one of the more memorable titles in Elmore Leonard’s crime novel oeuvre, No Country for Old Men is “Freaky Deaky” indeed — alternatively pulsating between moody contemplation and tense action perfectly depicted by one of our most gifted cinematographers, the incomparable Roger Deakins. Nominated for the ’07 Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, not only is this vicious masterpiece sure to be one of the most discussed films when looking back at the very best of the Coen films but it’s also one of the best movies of 2007.

III. The Blu-ray

While there is a slightly noticeable difference in depth perception between the DVD and Blu-ray in a back and forth comparison, honestly the dark-tinged work of cinematographic genius Roger Deakins isn’t overly enhanced by the full 1080 pixel experience, at least in the night scenes or ones set when there is little light.

Although you can hear every whisper of the wind in the Texas desert and Brolin’s introduction to audiences as he soldiers out into the desert, armed and ready makes you feel as though you’re in West Texas as well, you’ll definitely need to adjust your color settings and possibly move to “vivid” (which still is even a bit muddied) in some of the film’s most intense chase scenes.

This is especially necessary during the film’s nail-biters as we take in the titular men’s version of cat and mouse as Brolin hides under the truck before he eventually must jump into a stream with a dog only seconds behind him before it turns to daylight (fortunately) and later when Bardem unscrews the light-bulb in the hotel hallway and the two men have a showdown that goes on for blocks in one of the film’s greatest sequences.

Additionally, it would have been beneficial for the manufacturers to insert more chapter stops so you could jump directly to some of the film’s most iconic scenes either as a fan or a film geek and while a few of the familiar features had appeared on the film’s initial release on DVD, it’s a treat to take in all of the extras.

Described as a movie about “a good guy, a bad guy, and a guy in between” by Joel Coen, a cross between a “comedy,” “horror” and “chase” movie by the good-humored and baffled Tommy Lee Jones, a “very emotional, very primitive” work by Josh Brolin, and a “very powerful” tale about violence and the many paths that can be taken by Javier Bardem—perhaps the most astute observation in the making-of-featurette comes from sweet, Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald who rightly calls it “a Coen Brothers movie; they’re their own genre.”

It continues to fascinate as the mini-documentary breaks down everything from the challenges of developing Anton Chigurh who was only referenced as being a person “without a sense of humor” in Cormac McCarthy’s book in both the Coen Brothers and Javier Bardem’s assessment that the audience doesn’t need to know everything or have everything explained about the man Brolin’s character calls “the ultimate badass.”

Additionally, discussing the potentially lethal dangers of some of the film’s most violent scenes including the opening handcuffed strangulation as well as an insight into the way all of the elements including costume designed subtly helped to the story by making Anton’s boots look like a weapon — the “making-of” extra segues nicely into a short piece entitled “Working With the Coens.”

Intriguingly revealing that Bardem’s first confession upon his arrival in the United States from his native Spain was a desire to work with the Coen Brothers—the rest of the cast and crew members (several of whom have collaborated with them for countless pictures) further explain their reputation as a two-headed director who never argue, know exactly what the want, and can finish each other’s sentences.

Also including a piece about Jones’ character—the two standout extras that truly make this a collectible edition include Josh Brolin’s hilarious short “Unauthorized Documentary,” wherein he, Bardem, Woody Harrelson, the producers and others take on roles as though they had been chronicling a horrific Apocalypse Now/Hearts of Darkness experience as they reveal the “dark side” of the Coens, rambling on strangely to great effect but the ultimate film buff achievement of the Blu-ray is serving up an in-depth "Press Timeline."

Including podcasts, interviews, Q&A’s and major coverage from the film that would go onto win several Academy Awards—the intellectual celebration of the modern classic continues on the back of the Blu-ray box (inside the outer protective cardboard holder) as mini-paragraphs and extended quotes from some of the nation’s top critics fill the desert landscape design of the front and back wraparound cover.

Blu-ray Review: In the Electric Mist (2008)

Venturing Out of the Bayou
And Onto DVD & Blu-ray
3/3/09

Explore the Entire Dave Robicheaux Series

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Maybe it just works better in Europe.

Acclaimed, award-winning French director Bertrand Tavernier's adaptation of the sixth Dave Robicheaux mystery-- In the Electric Mist-- penned by screenwriting team Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski from the novel by James Lee Burke somehow managed to lure the director back to making an all English language feature and also dubiously scored a Berlin International Film Festival Golden Berlin Bear nomination for his effort. And if somehow you're able to make it all the way through the film, something tells me you'll be scratching your head as well...

Initially slated for a theatrical run due to its incredibly talented cast headed up by Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones, Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen, Oscar nominee Ned Beaty, and critically lauded stars Peter Sarsgaard, John Goodman, and Kelly Macdonald that even boasts a cameo from American indie auteur John Sayles somehow fizzles rather than sizzles in its hum-drum mystery which takes place in the Louisiana bayou.

It is set in a society still ravaged by Hurricaine Katrina and indeed the event is referenced numerous times subtextually and involves a heartrending visit by our no-nonsense, recovering alcoholic detective Dave Robicheaux (Jones) while trying to string together clues in solving the gruesome cases of two dead young women. And in doing so, the film tries to move beyond the limits of its police procedural crime and punishment genre by venturing unsuccessfully into the realm of psychological thriller as Robicheaux and other characters commune with the ghosts of dead in a few downright odd hallucinatory scenes that don't quite gel with the film's uneven tone.

Throughout Mist, I was never sure if it was aspiring to be the type of modern day neo-noir given a Cajun makeover that worked so well in Robert Altman's underrated The Gingerbread Man and even some of the superior round-about mysteries of John Sayles (Lone Star, Silver City) or if the film is a trippier gothic piece. Sadly, it never manages to engage us on either level or on a simply casual one in spite of its the talented ensemble that's bogged down by uninspired dialogue (example: "Elrod's a shitbird, but I love him."). The script excels when it appears as though it's taken directly in voice over narration form from the novel as Robicheaux describes an A.A. friend who always called at night until one night someone had to call for him.

Further muddled by lackluster, poorly lit cinematography that manages to suck the ethereal beauty right out of the southland (making it a crisp yet waste in a Blu-ray transfer) and even filming the characters appearing as movie stars on a location shoot (Saarsgard and Macdonald) in an unflattering light-- everything about the film feels forced and inauthentic right down to its straightforward conclusion.

Granted, it has its moments thanks to 3:10 to Yuma's composer Marco Beltrami as well as a spirited turn by John Goodman bringing some of his Coen Brothers flavor to a role as New Orleans gangster "Baby Feet" Balboni that makes him sorely missed whenever he's offscreen. Yet, more often than not, other actors such as Steenburgen (as Jones' wife) are given little to do but simply go through the motions in underwritten roles and unfortunately as a whole, it's weaker than your average made-for-television mystery of the week. Again, this is especially unbearable given the extraordinary talent involved, excellent location, atmospheric jazz by five-time Grammy Award winning musician Buddy Guy that's all wasted in the finished product.

Again, while it may be better in translation overseas or for those who aren't acquainted with what a real Cajun set film should look and sound like nor the exceptional work offered by the cast and other high quality offerings from the distributors Image Entertainment-- ultimately it's not enough to recommend this one and instead I'd suggest going with the book by bestselling author James Lee Burke in its place.

Choke (2008)

Director: Clark Gregg

Obviously, even without reading Choke, having seen and appreciated David Fincher’s cinematic adaptation of Fight Club, I was familiar with the twisted mind of Generation X’s own version of the Burroughs and Ginsberg era beat generation led by author Chuck Palahniuk (and “co-chaired” by authors like Bret Easton Ellis). Yet, within the first five minutes of the feature filmmaking debut of actor turned writer/director Clark Gregg (The New Adventures of Old Christine), I felt my eyes wandering over towards the exit sign. Still, I wasn’t sure why this was the case but the fact that the screening was held at ten in the morning may have had something to do with it as—when one is barely functional and suddenly confronted with the exploits of a sex addict-- it comes as rather a rude awakening so early in the morning.

And soon, I recalled the tagline of this year’s exploitative shocker Funny Games which promised, “You Must Admit, You Brought This On Yourself.” So, having never wanted to be known as a quitter I stayed put, halfway out of morbid curiosity and halfway out of loyalty to my gender as the only female critic in the theatre, and I’ll be damned if after the initial shock wore off, I was surprised to discover that Gregg’s film is much, much better than the tawdry Red Band trailers would have you believe.

Additionally it’s augmented by David Gordon Green’s longtime cinematographer Tim Orr’s inventive photography and a wonderful impressionistic soundtrack of indie, alternative and offbeat rock tracks that get us further inside of Palahniuk’s universe in a digital only soundtrack release scheduled by ATO Records.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize for its remarkable ensemble cast and nominated for Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize for Gregg, Choke chronicles Sam Rockwell’s Victor Mancini, a sex addicted con artist who by day works as a historical re-enactor at a tourist trap as “the backbone of Colonial America,” along with his best friend and fellow addict Denny (Brad William Henke) and their far-too-serious boss, played amusingly by Gregg himself. Describing his profession as something like being marooned on Gilligan’s Island meets Groundhog Day in hell, Gregg manages to insert some much needed humor and creativity into what otherwise could have been a far too excruciatingly uncomfortable film.

“Thy Purse Shall Suffer.”

When Mancini isn’t satisfying his depraved lascivious urges with whatever willing participant he can find along “the circuit,” total strangers or the fellow addict in Sexaholics Anonymous whom he’s sponsoring, he spends his evenings looking for love and a way to pay the bills by deliberately choking on entrees to be saved by wealthy strangers who lavish checks on him, high on their newfound heroism.

“You Can’t Fool People Into Loving You.”

Although admittedly he’s a rather loathsome main character with whom anyone would want to follow for the length of even Gregg’s brief, fast-paced film, Rockwell adds surprising depth and empathy to his characterization and reminds us yet again why he’s one of the most criminally underrated actors of his generation in a performance that would be Oscar worthy if it wasn’t so taboo. Yet, Victor’s goal for monetary compensation isn’t solely for his own gain but rather selfless as he struggles to pay the lofty bills for his dementia ridden, elderly mother, Ida (Anjelica Huston), who often mistakes him for her lawyer Fred in his routine visits to her private care facility.

“Fred.”

And when one night, his mother mumbles something about the true identity of Victor’s unknown father, Victor becomes dead-set on discovering the long lost secret, while trying to restore his mother back to health along with her beautiful, unorthodox, new physician, Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald). However, when his feelings for Paige grow from simple initial lust to something deeper, Victor realizes that his previous outlet of finding fleeting satisfaction with random citizens is jeopardized. Additionally, he begins to recall the origins of both his addiction and first attempt to “choke” his way out of a bad situation as the film makes great use of humanistic flashbacks to illustrate Victor’s troubled and tragic childhood with the mentally unstable Ida.

And indeed, once you get past the overwhelming shock of the film’s opening which finds us introduced to Victor’s group, seemingly led by Joel Grey as our main character explains that these people are “the reason emergency rooms have special tools,” we realize that instead of something merely titillating or celebratory as some of the ads seemed to indicate (view the Green Band trailer), Choke illustrates the truly depressing, socially unappealing, depraved, and tragic nature of the affliction.

Incidentally, I think the tone and completed product will be quite a surprise to those just strolling in—whether like me with great caution or like some of my male colleagues who seemed eager to see something sexually stimulating. I was especially awestruck by a prominent critic (who shall remain nameless) who chose thematically obvious surface comparisons to sex-obsessed Woody Allen and juvenile humor of Judd Apatow for his summation of why he disliked Choke. For the record, there was nothing remotely Allen or Apatow-like about it and I doubt those two filmmakers even entered Gregg’s mind during the entire filmmaking process since the entirety of the film seems wholly fitting to the same nihilistic, chaotic, questioning world Fincher acquainted us with in his take on Palahniuk’s Fight Club. And while we do indeed see everything (so much that after awhile, we’re numb to the bizarre acts being performed), it’s all handled in an unapologetic, graphic way devoid of any real human connection to illustrate just how unappealing it would be to have such an addiction in the fist place which is precisely the right approach.

It takes a true natural talent like Gregg’s and especially Rockwell’s to make us care about characters and situations that would normally make us run in real life and it shows the level of trust the rest of the cast (including Macdonald and Huston) must have had in newcomer Gregg in the first place. And although it’s a tad pretentious, a bit too over-the-top in the last act, and I’m entirely sure I buy the slightly protracted and convenient conclusion wholeheartedly, I must admit to being utterly surprised by how much there was to admire about Choke, even though at first I must confess, I feared that the film was going to make me—instead of Victor—choke in disgust.

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Strictly Sinatra

Director: Peter Capaldi

Scottish crooner Toni Cocozza’s vagabond shoes are longing to stray… in the direction of fame and fortune that is in writer/director Peter Capaldi’s light, entertaining yet easily forgettable comedy/drama. Ian Hart gives a terrific performance as Cocozza, who polishes his routines of Sinatra standards down to a science, presenting the perfect air of Rat Pack glory with his vintage permed hair and suits with a high sheen that help propel his confidence during small town performances in his Glasgow neighborhood.

After the wife of a notorious gangster (Iain Cuthbertson) becomes entranced by the old-fashioned twenty-something singer, he’s lured into their company of casinos and shady dealings led by the gangster’s right hand man Chisolm (Brian Cox). It’s at the local casino where he first meets cute with attractive, quirky Irene (Kelly Macdonald) who works as a cigarette girl despite not fitting the curvy mold of most showgirls. When he finds himself struggling to get a position on a television talent competition, the mobsters intervene but predictably as Toni learns, one doesn’t ever want to be indebted to members of the mob.

Although it’s a bit uninvolving and doesn’t engage audiences fully with its inauthentic plight and uneven balance of drama, comedy and intrigue, the musical selections are first rate and the likable cast augments this admittedly weak offering from actor turned Oscar nominated live action short filmmaker Peter Capaldi.

The Girl in the Café

Director:
David Yates

These days, meeting people is hard. We seldom look at one another in elevators as I should know having been stuck in one last Fall and we begin silently questioning one another’s agenda when we’re chatted up in public, and as we age and become busier with our own relationships and families, people begin to drift further and further apart from the friends we always held so dear. As hard as it is to meet people, it’s even harder to meet someone you spark with—someone who just gets you or with whom you click with instantaneously or at the very least, someone with whom you’re never quite sure what to expect and can’t wait to hear what they’ll say or do next. After a decade on the dating scene with enough horror stories and humorous anecdotes to fuel a week’s worth of material, I continually try not to be too cynical since I’m always trying to hope for the best in others and in my romantic belief that while there are no perfect partners and it’s damn near impossible to imagine a single person fitting all of one’s needs for an entire lifetime since you’ll both change and evolve, we can’t do without that thought that “this time, it will be different.”

It’s precisely this optimism that inspires two introverted, awkward and overly polite characters to fall into something close to love in director David Yates’s HBO film The Girl in the Cafe penned by Four Weddings and a Funeral scripter Richard Curtis. Quickly into the film we meet Bill Nighy’s Lawrence, a fifty-seven year old workaholic whose only luxury apart from his lofty position working alongside the Prime Minister and others in Britain’s government is deciding how many packets of sugar to stir into his tea on the very worst of days. In a crowded café where every table is occupied, he asks the young, beautiful yet approachable Gina (Kelly McDonald) if he can sit down at her table. Cautiously seated diagonally from one another, they fluster for the right words as they politely bond over shared opinions on striped pajamas and other meaningless bits of everyday life until they feel comfortable enough to sit directly across from each other. Like many of us less bold and equally shy individuals would do, one senses that although they’d long to chat even further, neither knows how to do so and when Lawrence realizes he’s going to be late back to the office, he begins to walk away before taking a chance to ask Gina to lunch. Nervous and rambling, Gina reveals that she has nothing to do with her time (which let’s face it, would’ve ended most “dates” right there here in the states) and they plan to meet up in a few weeks.

A few more earnest and polite dates follow until Lawrence, after phoning her a few times in one day (which again would’ve probably caused most of us Yanks to back away) takes an even bigger risk in asking her to accompany him to the G8 Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Much to the gentlemanly Lawrence’s surprise and although he’s never actually made any attempt to actually kiss or touch her by their third date (which would never happen here as well), Gina accepts the offer to travel but after they realize that they’re going to be forced to share a room, the two polite and confused souls try to over accommodate one another by debating over who gets the bed or couch while they vow to stay away from the intimate quarters as much as possible. Intriguingly, nothing is made of the age difference between the two as they are visibly May and December with at least twenty to thirty years between them and while, normally one would doubt their true motives with assumptions towards “sugar daddy” or “mid-life crisis,” it just seems like in Girl in the Café that the two feel genuinely pulled to one another.

Moving away from just a true romance, the film becomes more political with each successive minute after they land in Reykjavik and Lawrence, who we assume had gotten into government with an Atticus Finch or Capraesque wish to change the world and help mankind is becoming more and more disenchanted and disheartened by the proceedings that are making his quest to help fight global poverty overshadowed by matters of economics and defense. Couple this with Gina’s newfound passion for speaking out and reading all of the research that the defeated Lawrence brings home which recounts the 30,000 children dying unnecessarily each day from extreme poverty and the two begin to see their budding and sincere relationship tested by political actions and decisions in a land that feels as isolated and introverted as the characters themselves.

Winner of the Best Made-For-TV award as well as accolades for the screenwriting and McDonald’s performance, Curtis wrote his astute, intelligent and quietly powerful films especially for the two stars who were also nominated for Golden Globes. Although I’d always been a fan of the gifted McDonald, especially since her performance in both Gosford Park and Two Family House, I was also pleasantly surprised by Bill Nighy, who in stark contrast to his wild lothario rock star in Love Actually (also written by Curtis) proves to be a fascinating and sensitive actor that’s delightful to watch. Available on DVD, The Girl in the Café may also be found playing sporadically on its home network of HBO.

Movie Review: No Country for Old Men (2007)

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Directors:
Joel & Ethan Coen

“Hold still.”

These words are used by two different characters in the beginning of Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest film just before a gun goes off. The first speaker is sociopath Anton Chigurh — a man for whom the term hit-man may be a gross understatement — who utilizes this request just before he dispatches his second of many victims that follow with a livestock air stun gun to the brain. 

The second character is cowboy Llewelyn Moss who makes the foolish mistake of greed, vanity and arrogant pride when he takes off with a satchel filled with two million dollars after he tracks an animal while hunting and stumbles upon the brutal remnants of a drug deal gone horribly wrong with most of the participants bathing in blood and west Texas sunlight. 

“Hold still” may be in the script but the action that follows it is anything but still and the brothers Coen may just as well have been talking to audience members who are now fully aware that they’ve unsuspectingly purchased tickets to one of the wildest western noirs in years and will just have to sit back for the ride.

Taking its title from W. B. Yeats’ poem “Sailing to Byzantium,” No Country for Old Men is based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel and although its old men whose values of past and melancholy remembrance of a time when sheriffs didn’t need to carry a gun is put to the test at the forefront, they’re just one of the victimized groups in the movie alongside the younger men, women and animals executed in the bloody two hours. 

Quickly into the film, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) packs up his pretty young wife (Kelly Macdonald) and sends her off to her mother’s place when he leaves their trailer park to go on the run from not only the law and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), along with the hired man who comes looking (Woody Harrelson) but most notably killer Anton (Javier Bardem) who walks softly but carries a big weapon. 

Blood, it seems to the Coen brothers, is no longer quite as simple as the name of their oft-praised debut film implies and the writer/directors follow in the grand tradition of western and Film Noir allegory to paint a bitter and dark portrait of the evil lurking in the hearts of men. As one character states, “This country’s hard on people,” and that seems to be the recurring theme throughout.

Set in 1980, we meet men who’ve served in Vietnam like Brolin, who sees his plan for the dangerous and dumb long-shot that it is and goes for it anyway, wanting to try anything to rise from his station in life as a cowboy in a land without any real need for them (except in country songs) and a residence in a trailer park with a wife who works at Wal-Mart. 

Relying on his natural persona, Tommy Lee Jones settles instinctively into his role and even without his folk wisdom filled voice over and Texas vernacular that opens the film, he’s a man who believably exudes the law and seems like the ideal choice. 

Jones’s lawman asks questions first and prefers to shoot later, letting younger officer Wendell go through the door of a trailer first with his gun drawn, and later making the impulsive decision to drink milk left by perpetrator Anton left on the coffee table instead of locking down the crime scene or dusting for prints in a theatrical Dragnet style. 

But most of the talk surrounding the film is in regards to Javier Bardem’s chilling Anton who is a mostly silent villain with a cruel quirk of sometimes using a coin toss to coolly decide the fate of those standing in his path. And to this end, it’s fascinating that the one who refuses to play along with what Anton surely feels is a logical game is a woman who calls him on the fact that it’s not logical at all and just a scapegoat since he’ll do his will anyway. 

Bardem, given a purposely horrid haircut discovered by the brothers in an 1890’s photo of a brothel patron, is referred to as a ghost in the film and some of his scenes are setup painstakingly similar to the finale of Blood Simple. 

Although, after making films for more than two decades in a world that’s getting increasingly unpredictable, we’re never sure just what the Coens will have happen until a surprising finale left some critics angered by its anti-climactic out-of-the-blue quality that would surely have earned the screenplay an "F" in most college writing courses. 

I was prepared not for the exact details of the ending but the fact that it stunned others and while admittedly I was a bit dismayed at first, later I realized that it still seems to fit with the man vs. man mentality of the piece and the unpredictability of life itself that's a recurring Coen theme. 

Life is a coin toss after all and the fact that there's no overt payoff corresponds to the rules of the darkly existential, old testament style game being played. 

Ultimately it's quite an enviable literary achievement that's worthy of McCarthy instead of the same three act structure that's been forced down our throats again and again and boasts the same nihilistic sense of dark fate from which Anton was born in the first place on McCarthy's page.

To quote one of the more memorable titles in Elmore Leonard’s crime novel oeuvre, No Country for Old Men is “freaky deaky” indeed — alternatively pulsating between moody contemplation and tense action perfectly depicted by one of our most gifted cinematographers, the incomparable Roger Deakins. 

Nominated for the ’07 Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, not only is this vicious masterpiece sure to be one of the most discussed films when looking back at the very best of the Coen films but it’s also one of the best movies of 2007.

Two Family House

Director: Raymond De Felitta

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, director Raymond De Felitta found inspiration within his own family tree for this sweetly earnest romantic drama about a dreamer and an outsider who fall in love in 1950’s Staten Island. Michael Rispoli is excellent as Buddy Visalo, an aspiring businessman who, after being denied his big break to become a singing sensation when he was discovered in World War II, eagerly tries and fails at several ventures within his Italian community. As the movie gets going, Buddy buys a large rundown two family house with the intention of turning the lower level into a bar, much to the dismay of his wife (Katherine Narducci) who is resistant to change and secretly hopes Buddy will fail. However, when the two move in, they soon discover that they have squatters in the form of unhappily married Irish immigrants-- an aging alcoholic and his beautiful, much younger wife Mary (Kelly Macdonald)-- who have taken residence of the upstairs with no intention of leaving as Mary is nine months pregnant. Once the husband abandons Mary after her baby is born half African-American, Buddy falls prey to both the prejudices of his community and familial pressures, forcing the mother and her newborn out of his home, only to have his conscience get the better of him as he realizes an attraction to what he sees as a fellow outsider and risk-taker in Mary. A beautifully, touching, sensitive and tender film, Two Family House is filled with the overwhelmingly positive messages of acceptance and standing up for what is right even when the majority is against you and it’s a true gem of a romantic indie. The warm performances of both Rispoli and the wonderful up-and-comer from the UK, Kelly Macdonald help add to director De Felitta’s intention of making viewers feel like temporary residents of the film’s community and he heightens his story with an enjoyable soundtrack of 50’s era crooning classics.