Archive for October, 2009

The Oscar possibilities are flying fast and furiously now. I was excited when I heard it was a “lost Tennesse Wililams screenplay” that I was seeing on this night. As a former theatre critic, Tennesse Williams’ plays were always my go-to choices when all other offerings were dreck and dreary. The man had a way with words. And mental illness, and alcoholics. A good time at the theatre usually.

Not so with this adaptation of “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” sadly. In fact, this adaptation is one of the worst productions of anything Tennessee Williams I have ever seen, stage play or film. It is, quite frankly, a mess.

Nearly first-time director (her first film was something she wrote and made 10 years ago) Jodie Markell, who is better known as an actress, and frankly should stay in that profession, was all over the place in her direction. Sometimes she thought it was a play (making the lights dim in the scene completely except around the two actresses speaking. Note to Ms. Markell: Um, we don’t DO that in movies, that’s a stage thing.), sometimes she was quite cinematic.

She had a scene with flapping sheets that cut to a similar scene that was quite beautiful. This movie is actually a very good example of why actresses should stay actresses. They see their own center of the universe (and this film is very actor and actress centric), but they can’t see the whole panorama.

As such, you get little bits of emoting here and there, but the piece holds together like a half-baked cake. The vital bits of backstory are given short shrift, while the madness over losing an earring is played on and on and on and on WAY too long (and sure, maybe some of this is the script, but still). There is no shaping from the director that is so badly needed.

The one most affected by the bad direction is our deeply out of place lead actress, Bryce Dallas Howard, who is pretty and able to handle most of the Williams dialogue, but she is sadly in need of both a good director and an acting coach. After all, doing Tennessee Williams, even a lesser work of his, is rather like stepping into Shakespeare. As an actor, you don’t even try unless you’ve got the chops. Howard has no such chops.

Watching her is rather like watching one of the Gossip Girls attempt Blanche Dubois. It’s painful at best. Her motivation is muddy or non-existent. She wears clothes well, and takes a good close-up, but carrying a movie is MUCH MUCH more than that. Especially a movie like this. Especially a Tennessee Williams piece, where so much is left unsaid in the subtext.

There is an extended party scene, where Howard is pretty much left floating around. She’s the lead, the anchor of the piece, and she wanders aimlessly through the party as though drunk. Motivation, if she has any, is not apparent. (Note to Howard: most of Williams’ characters are drunk, but they remain sharply focused.)

Chris Evans, her male costar, looks like he should be in a modeling ad, or on the CW. He brings his distinctly 2000s acting to this obviously ’50s piece. He fails completely, other than looking really good.

Thankfully, and blissfullly, if you are for some reason suffering through this movie, there are three performances worth watching: Will Patton, as Evans’ drunkard father; Ann-Margaret as Howard’s dowager aunt; and especially Ellen Burstyn as an opium addict who’s had a stroke.

They are the only reasons to watch. Even the Williams screenplay is pretty much a piffle compared to what you’ve come to expect from him.

THE MESSENGER

There aren’t too many movies about war and its aftermath that I would just jump to see, or recommend to others. Nor, in this season where I’m seeing two or three Oscar contenders a week, are there movies that I jump to say: Put this one on the shortlist for Best Picture.

“The Messenger,” however, is both of those things.

If you believe, and indulge me with this for a second, that war and fighting and killing, is the stuff of maleness. And crying and emotion and reaching out to others is the stuff of femaleness, this movie strives to bring both sides together, if you will.

The premise is simply this: decorated war hero (Ben Foster) in his last three months of duty, gets tasked with informing families of their son or daughter’s death. He is assisted in his task by his superior (Woody Harrelson), who’s been doing this awhile, and is inured to it.

Comment is made that “up until Vietnam” they used to send telegrams. Now, they have servicemen in their uniforms deliver the bad news. With a canned prepared speech. They are instructed not to touch the “NOKs” (Next of Kin). Just deliver and leave.

So, in this subtle way, it lets you know that Oh By the Way, there are people dying in this “war” and lots of them. Also subtly showing you that military men don’t really know from emotion.

Ben Foster in a You Can Hand Him the Oscar Right Now type of performance does superb work as the sergeant tasked with this ominous duty. Woody Harrelson is also really great in his role, and Samantha Morton, who is wonderful in everything, really delivers in a supporting role. Steve Buscemi also appears, showing far more emotion than I’ve ever seen in any of the 1000s of movies I’ve seen him in.

It’s also very jarring (to me anyway) when Foster’s character gets called by his name for the first time in the very last scene of the movie. Jarring, yet extremely fitting. That little touch, and there are so many of them throughout, speaks volumes.

It is sad, heartbreaking even, well structured, thoughtful and moving piece of filmmaking about the Iraq war. I highly recommend it to everyone.

1. RODRIGO Y GABRIELA Tamarcun

2. LADYHAWKE My Delirium

3. RODRIGO Y GABRIELA Buster Voodoo

4. TIMBER TIMBRE Lay Down in the Tall Grass

5. ANNA TERNHEIM What Have I Done?

6. HENRY CLAY PEOPLE Working Part Time

7. WILCO (w. Feist) You and I

8. SHE & HIM Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

9. EARLIMART God Loves You the Best

10. ALEXANDRA HOPE Dangerous