Snap Judgment: A brutal story of PTSD that is ultimately redemptive and optimistic. Colin Firth is a man obsessed with railways who in the beginning of the film meets and falls in love with gentle but courageous Nicole Kidman. Colin Firth is still crippled by his time in the Japanese POW camps that built the Thai-Burma Railway (which is also the subject of the newest Booker Prize winner, The Narrow Road to the Deep North). Colin Firth learns that the Japanese translator who was one of his main torturers is still alive and goes to confront, and maybe kill him.
Honestly, the torture/POW parts of this film were hard to get through, mostly because you know such awful, cruel, unspeakable things really
happened to people (in fact, this movie is based on an autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax). The performances are so raw and expressive that I think it is a damn shame that none of them will get nominated (because this film didn't get released during awards season, the chance of nominations are almost nil). Colin Firth in particular is impressive as a shy, kind, upright man who is still broken but can't find a way to heal. Nicole Kidman does an equally powerful job as his wife, a woman who loves him deeply and tries to be strong for him, but struggles with how to help when love is not enough. Supporting performances by Stellan Skarsgard (Colin Firth's best friend and fellow POW survivor) and Hiroyuki Sanada (the war criminal who tortured Colin Firth and has spent the past decades trying to redeem himself) are also excellent. This film intelligently explores the question of what war does to both the victim and the perpetrator, how it shatters everything it touches and how it isn't a simple, easy thing to move past.
Grade: B+
Final Verdict: A beautifully performed, traumatic but redemptive movie about war, torture, and the cost it demands.
If You Like This, Watch: Letters from Iwo Jima/Flags Of Our Fathers, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, The English Patient
Snap Judgment: An overlooked comedy about the voice over industry. Writer/director/actress/comedic gem Lake Bell plays a young woman who dreams of breaking into the voiceover world, like her legendary father. Her father is utterly dismissive of her dream (partly because he's generally a conceited asshole, partly because he's incredibly sexist). Lake Bell is stuck in the stultifying job of vocal coaching, trying to teach stars like Eva Langoria how to do accents (fun tip: literally putting a cork in your mouth apparently helps you sound more Cockney! not helpful from personal experience: enthusiastically, repeatedly, and drunkenly shouting "'ELLO GOV'NA"). Lake Bell is a dream at accents, which she bolsters by (not very) sneakily recording people with interesting accents - including stalking them through the hotel lobby where her older sister works.
Lake Bell finally gets a break into the industry, and is in the running for the voice over of the Hunger Games/Avatar mash-up, The Amazon Games, which will resurrect the famous phrase "In a world..." Family drama, romantic entanglements, and industry shenanigans ensue.
This is the kind of small film that I really love. It's not too serious and ponderous. It doesn't have a 15 minute close-up of a flower. It's not an allegory or a metaphor. It doesn't let the message hijack the plot. It's just a small-budget story, with a focus on characters, that is funny and sweet and inspiring and emotional and tense (who will get The Amazon Games voiceover?!?!). This is the kind of movie I like to see when I'm getting worn out by blockbuster action movies and super hero films and bigger budget comedies. This is the kind of movie that you don't hear much about when it's in theaters, but it is worth finding it on DVD.
Grade: A-
Final Verdict: When you feel like watching a comedy with a side of tension, drama, or romance, then watch this. Bonus: it will inspire you to try to add the phrase "In a world..." to everyday events.
If you like this, watch: Celeste and Jesse Forever, (500) Days of Summer, Safety Not Guaranteed, Drinking Buddies, Ruby Sparks, Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Snap Judgment: A passionate, fumbling love affair between a Hollywood action blockbuster and a European arthouse flick. It's that couple at a party that clearly can't get enough of each other, but makes most of the other guests feel awkward and inclined to sidle out of the room. How you feel about the first 10 minutes of this movie is a good indication of what you will think of it overall. Scarlett Johansson (Lucy) is coerced/tricked by her new boyfriend into being an unwitting drug mule when he snaps a handcuff briefcase to her wrist. The film intercuts the scene of her entering the hotel to deliver the briefcase with flashes of cheetahs stalking gazelles. When the drug lord's thugs surround her and whisk her upstairs, the cheetahs catch a gazelle and drag its dead body away to devour. OMG, you guys, do you, like, think that Lucy is, like, the gazelle or something? And the thugs are, like, lumbering, muscly cheetahs?
Some will think this cinematic device is clever and deep. They will love this movie. Others will think that this is a film student's eye-rollingly overdone attempt to be clever and deep. Like me, they will ultimately be disappointed by this movie.
Built on the clearly debunked urban legend that humans only use 10% of their brain, the drug Lucy is muling gets into her system and lets her use more and more of her brain capacity. This instantly makes her emotions alien but also gives her awesome super powers (She can move things with her mind! She can knock people out with her mind! She can scroll through data! She can time travel (?!?)! She can change her hair color at will!) and the awkward ability to remember breastfeeding as an infant.
