MORNING GLORY

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Rachael McAdams tries to turn a major network’s cellar-dwelling television program into a success in the comedy MORNING GLORY.

McAdams is Becky Fuller, a twenty-eight year old jobless Californian who’s seeking employment after falling victim to budget cuts at a local television station. She sends her resume all over the country, and finally lands a call from a network station based in New York. She lands the job of executive producer of the station’s morning show, Daybreak, and hopes to bring the show’s ratings up from the basement to the top.

She succeeds in coercing former nighttime anchor Mike Pomeroy, played by Harrison Ford, to host the show alongside mainstay Colleen Peck. Despite the all-star team, Mike and Colleen don’t exactly see high to eye.

Becky Fuller is the kind of executive producer anyone would like to have working for them, both in and out of the television industry. She’s devoted to her craft, her crew and she’s so naïve and optimistic that pie-in-the-sky dreams don’t seem like pie-in-the-sky dreams.

She’s also a character who deserves a more honed screenplay. MORNING GLORY is as pleasant as pleasant can be, creating a realistic, yet engaging atmosphere for Becky to navigate. It features a uniformly good cast, with Ford as the old curmudgeon anchor, Keaton the bright-eyed, but jaded co-host and Patrick Wilson as Becky’s charming love interest Adam.

All of the pieces are in place for a top-notch comedy, and there are some wonderful moments laced into MORNING GLORY, but writer Aline Brosh McKenna, and director Roger Michell, aren’t confident enough in the characters they’ve developed. MORNING GLORY goes to great ends to establish who Becky and Mike are, that the film’s glossed-over ending feels false and unsatisfying. Not only does Becky deserve a better outcome, but so does McAdams, who carries the film with a light, but big-hearted performance that is truly memorable.

MORNING GLORY has crafted all the right characters, but doesn't have the confidence to have them stay true to their nature.

Grade: C+

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Harry and his friends find life outside of Hogwart’s a lot more difficult in the seventh and final chapter of the Harry Potter series, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART ONE.

Harry, Ron and Hermione are no longer attending Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and now will be forced to put their schooling into practice. Lord Voldemort, the murderer of Harry’s parents, is dead set on sending Harry and his two friends to the grave, and has assembled the Ministry of Magic to plot the threes doom. Harry, Ron and Hermoine catch wind of the plan and flee to the outskirts where they can hide in isolationism and plot their next move.
Harry, Hermione and Ron have grown up right in front of our own eyes, and so has the HARRY POTTER series. What started as a children’s adventure has turned into a survival test, and the subject matter isn’t for the faint of heart.

In many ways, I’ve come to enjoy the series more as it’s progressed. As a non-Potter reader, I’ve felt out of the loop, and haven’t felt that the series as a whole has filled in the necessary gaps. Yet as the HARRY POTTER series has evolved, the themes and story have grown broader and seemingly more important.

I’ve also become more fond of the characters, of which I’ve spent roughly 15 hours of my life with. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1 is by far the darkest and most adult film of the series, and it benefits from both aspects. Life, death, love and honor are all at stake for our three favorite Hogwart graduates, and you can sense this in nearly every scene. There are times in DEATHLY HALLOWS where I still feel like an outsider looking in, but these are now the exception rather than the rule. Knowing that Harry, Ron and Hermione’s lives weigh in the balance, as does their friendship, and maybe more, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1 has culminated the Potter series into a film with real human emotion and pathos.

This film, along with THE GOBLET OF FIRE, are the best of the Potter lot.

Grade: B

HEREAFTER

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Director Clint Eastwood delves into the afterlife with his latest drama, HEREAFTER. HEREAFTER features three separate storylines, each focused on the effects of death and what lies ahead.

Marie LeLay is the host of a hot-button French television show, who while on assignment, experiences a traumatic, near-death experience in the midst of a typhoon. Marcus and Jason are adolescent British twins, attempting to keep their family together in spite of their drug-addicted mother, each struck by a sudden tragedy. And lastly, there’s George, played by Matt Damon, an American psychic who’s left the profession for a blue collar job, with the hopes of obtaining a normal life.

Each of these characters grapples with their fate and the great beyond.

Always prevalent, but never expressly so, nearly all Clint Eastwood directed films have a certain synchronicity to them. Never so much so than HEREAFTER. Although Marie, Jason and George each share a commonality, we sense that there are greater forces at work.

The events that unfold in writer Peter Morgan’s script could have played out as melodrama or schmaltz, but under Eastwood’s careful touch, HEREAFTER serves as a thoughtful meditation on three lost souls. Marie, Jason and George all experience the pain and hardship of loss, be it through death, personal relationships or their profession, but underneath their anguish lies a sense that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Morgan’s screenplay is well-orchestrated, Eastwood’s touch on-the-mark, and the performances by the three leads are convincing and emotionally rewarding. Cecile de France as Marie, Frankie and George McLaren as Marcus and Jason and Damon as the aforementioned George, all convey their levels of despair appropriately, and each in different ways. Through their performances we explore grief and redemption in humanistic and reflective ways.

Eastwood again serves as his own composer, adding a layer of soulfulness with his simplistic, yet haunting score.

HEREAFTER is a moving and contemplative exploration of what lies ahead when our souls move on.

Grade: B+

DUE DATE

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis find themselves headed to Los Angeles via the roadway, instead of the airway in the buddy comedy, DUE DATE.

Downey’s Peter is scheduled to fly to LA, returning home to his pregnant wife Sarah, who’s scheduled for a C-section in a matter of days. Galifianakis’s Ethan is headed to Hollywood, in hopes of becoming an actor. Ethan’s father has recently passed away, and Ethan is now inspired to live out his dream.

After Peter and Ethan accidentally switch bags, and Ethan spiritedly uses the words terrorist and bomb aboard their flight, Peter and Ethan find themselves on the no-fly list. Ethan rents a car and plans on driving to Hollywood, but Peter, minus his seized wallet, license and credit cards, has no way to get there, until Ethan offers him a ride.

DUE DATE, as most critics have aptly dubbed it, is a modern day version of PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES. The set-up, mismatched pair and even events along the road, make DUE DATE an unmistakable homage to the Martin-Candy holiday classic.

Where DUE DATE errs, and PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES succeeded was in its humanity, or in DUE DATE’S case, lack thereof. Both Downey and Galifianakis are playing magnified extensions of their typical on-screen personas, with Peter as the extremely arrogant, self-absorbed elitist, and Galifianakis as the clueless, obnoxious fool. There are a substantial amount of laughs, due in large part to the tandem’s talents, but many laughs are lost due to the unlikable nature of Peter and Ethan.

Writer-director Todd Phillips, of OLD SCHOOL and THE HANGOVER fame, knows comedy and many of the film’s memorable moments capitalize on the absurdity of the situation and the two men involved. When the outlandish moments stop, we’re left with a snob and an idiot, and Phillips and a collection of co-writers create half-hearted back-stories in an effort to drum up empathy for our leads. It doesn’t work.

DUE DATE had all the makings of a laugh-out-loud romp, but it’s often hard to laugh at two men you’d leave stranded on the side of the highway.

Grade: C

LET ME IN

Photos courtesy of Hammer Film Productions

A dangerous young girl befriends her neighbor, an outcast boy in the horror film LET ME IN.

The film is the American remake of the well-received Swedish horror film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Oskar and Eli are now Owen and Abbey, two kids who meet on the playground outside their apartment complex. Abbey warns Owen that they shouldn’t become friends, but the two’s exclusion from other children leads to a bond and friendship between the two.

Owen is bullied at school by his classmates which leads to his torment, but Abbey has a unique problem, she’s a vampire. Abbey’s father does her dirty work for her, sneaking out at night to provide Abbey with the necessary life blood.
This vampire remake retains many of the chills as the original, but instead of an overtly cautionary tale about teen angst, anger and cruelty, it is more of a straightforward thriller with a rich subtext.

The revamped script, written by Mark Reeves, who also directs, stays true to the Swedish film, with very few differences. The one change, and a welcomed one, is the torment felt by Abbey’s father played by character actor Richard Jenkins.

Jenkins has made a name for himself playing honorable dads, and in LET ME IN, this portrayal is even more challenging. In spite of Abbey’s father’s actions, there’s a certain nobility, and dare I say obligation, in dad’s gruesome work. It’s a credit to Jenkins that we emphasize with him.

Like the original, LET ME IN benefits from two terrific child performances. Chloe Moretz, of KICK ASS fame, plays Abbey straight, as a repressed, but loving girl. The fact that Abbey is a vampire burdens her, but Moretz doesn’t play it to superficial effect, treating it more like a form of supernatural abuse that plagues her.

Equally impressive is Kodi Smit-McPhee as Owen. Smit-McPhee follows up his performance in THE ROAD with another angst-ridden role. Smit-McPhee physically embodies the schoolyard victim, but also conveys his outward trepidation and inward anger terrifically.

As mentioned before LET ME IN is more of a horror-thriller than the original, and although there are some frightening moments, the horror is also where the film’s biggest misstep occurs. An over reliance by Reeves utilizing CGI drains some of the drama out of this fearful tale.

Although not quite up to the standards of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, LET ME IN is still a cut above films in its genre.

Grade: B-

BURIED

Photos courtesy of Antena 3 Films

Ryan Reynolds finds himself six feet under in the Middle East in the claustrophobic thriller BURIED.

As the title eludes Reynolds’ Paul, a contractor working in Iraq, is trapped under ground in a casket after being ambushed by a group of Iraqis. Paul is left with a lighter, a cell phone and a couple of glow sticks, but little hope of returning above ground.

BURIED takes experimental cinema to the next level. Several films have taken enclosed or secluded confines to dramatic effect from 12 ANGRY MEN to PHONE BOOTH to OPEN WATER, but none more challenging than turning a roughly eight by four by two foot box into the entire setting for a suspense thriller.

Amazingly enough BURIED works, even if there are a few liberties taken to pull off the proceedings. Reynolds is the lone actor in the film, with voice talent provided by a handful of actors, and he delivers a genuine performance full of frustration, despair and anger. Reynolds typically plays confident, often cocky, individuals. As Paul it was refreshing to see the young actor have everything stripped from him, and essentially work from scratch. Without the benefit of acting off another, Reynolds is forced to react to a dire situation, possible outcomes, government bureaucracy and a few voices.

BURIED director Rodrigo Cortes takes advantage of Chris Sparling’s script that provides a generous number of situations despite the confined setting. These situations, at times contrived, but often necessary, give BURIED enough substance to substantiate a full-length runtime.

BURIED digs deep enough into Paul’s predicament thanks to a creative script, skillful direction and a solid lead performance.

Grade: B-