Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren are both nominated for acting Oscars playing Russian writer Tolstoy and his wife just before his death, but much credit must go to James McAvoy (ATONEMENT) through whose eyes the story unfolds. He is a young innocent who becomes Tolstoy's last secretary, but he also becomes a pawn in the political maneuverings over Tolstoy's estate and writings. THE LAST STATION chronicles the tension between the married couple--he wants the "people" to have his written work and money made from it---she wants the profits to stay in the family. It seemed to me an odd disagreement, with such persuasion coming from politicos outside the family, but having McAvoy trying to remain (somewhat unsuccessfully) neutral gives the film some heart. Mirren is fun to watch--she gives each scene her all, and Plummer has the more subtle role--but still very effective. This is not a great epic type film, but more personal, and fans of the actors (which also include Paul Giamatti) will find the film very satisfying.
VALENTINE'S DAY started off making me wince, as Ashton Kuscher wakes to present his girlfriend a wedding ring on this special "romantic" day, and as the nearly 2 dozen other characters are introduced I thought to myself, OH NO this is going to be treacly. Because there are so many characters, you never have a chance to invest much empathy in anyone in particular, and soon the plotting just moves you onto the next relationship and the next and so on. It is good that the writers of this mishmash at least present some cynical and unsuccessful trysts so as not to poison us with sweetness. By the end we are mildly entertained because some secrets have been revealed, some relationships have failed and several twists have given us a laugh or a sigh of relief. The large and mostly talented cast including Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Alba, Jamie Foxx, Kathy Bates, et al, win us over in spite of our resistance to such schmaltz.
Watched a second time on DVD, last summers big hit THE HANGOVER remains a clever, wickedly funny adult comedy about three men who wake up after a Las Vegas bachelor party and can't remember a thing about the night before, and must become detectives to find the answer to several riddles: Where is the groom???? Why does the dentist have a tooth missing???? How did a tiger get into their bathroom??? What is a baby doing in the closet????
Why is a stripper wearing the dentist's antique wedding ring???? Well, the answers to these and other questions provide plenty of laughs.
SIFF Cinema features a yearly week of fantastic Film Noir on the big screen, and as usual these films are mostly rarely seen and not yet available on DVD. First up was PITFALL (1948) with suburbanite Dick Powell casually falling into an affair with struggling model Lizabeth Scott, which ends up threatening his marriage to the stalwart Jane Wyatt and his boring life, because two other men-- one deranged and the other incarcerated, also want Ms Scott. The second film on the program (all double-billed!) was LARCENY (1948) with John Payne and Dan Duryea as con men intent on cheating a war widow out of money directed to building a home for wayward boys. The best thing about the film is the young and very voluptuous Shelley Winters who plays the bombshell "girlfriend" to both con men--she throws out the one line zingers with zesty gusto and a playful sexuality that is rarely seen these days.
The next day I watched CRY DANGER (1951), again with Dick Powell, as a man just released from prison for a robbery he didn't commit, so he tries to find out who indeed has the missing money (100g's--a grand amount in those days...) and he's helped (!?!) by the wife (Rhonda Fleming) of his best friend still serving time. Best of the four was THE MOB (1951) with a hard boiled Broderick Crawford as an undercover cop on the trail of the boss of some waterfront racketeers. All four films were written by scripter William Bowers, who has a way with the double-entendre and witty comebacks, and all feature the typical film noir style--crisp black and white photography, shadowy locations and foreboding, hard edged down on luck characters, and themes of lust, larceny and murder. Hopefully with these films being restored so well, they will soon be available on DVD and/or appear soon on TCM.
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