Jack Goes Boating

Deb 7 Me 4

This is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s movie. He produced, directed and stars in this slice ‘o life movie. This is a total character driven movie. Not a lot going on in my opinion. It’s beautifully shot, which is sort of like saying your date has a good personality. In reality, it really has a lot going for it. Everything is there and in place, good acting, great looking environments, credible dialogs and of course it’s good looking. But for me it wasn’t engaging. I wanna be engaged. The actors pass in and out of what might be a great script, but I never really cared what they said or did. And they said and did a lot of things, albeit at a very slow pace.

Most of Redford’s movies were smaller independent kinds of projects, a lot of them turned into big movies, probably because he is good looking. For this kind of small movie, Hoffman is probably the new king of the screen. He’s impressed me in most of his choices since Capote. But in this movie there were a bunch of scenes, maybe too many, where there is a set up, a close up, where the actor can really exercise some subtleties, Sean Penn moments. But Hoffman didn’t come through in most of them. Maybe it was his choice, a further development of the character, but they let me down.

At the end of the movie, perusing the credits for names I know, I felt like I was in some sort of vacuum, just emotionless. Watching this movie wasn’t the best use of my time. But it was pretty good use of Deb’s time. She gets more into the personalities and motivations. She wonders about things and gets involved. I just take what I’m given and hope they give me everything I need to understand why they made the movie. It didn’t have a lot of personality.

Lovely, Still

Deb 5 Me 7

This didn’t look very good in the previews, but I’d rather take a chance on it than go see a big hit. The trailer made it look slow and sappy. It stars Martin Landau, and I’ve never been much of fan. He always seemed too caricaturish for my taste. Also stars Ellen Burstyn; she’s fine. So you get the picture this is about old people. Landau in particular looks to be very old. And even though she’s only four years younger, there were scenes where you could have believed Ellen to be his daughter. The fear of old people in movies is that there’s going to be some smart ass director who wants to show us old people naked. This was directed by someone I’ve never heard of and he did a good job. There’s a couple young supporting actors, the girl I recognized. The guy; not familiar.

Sure enough, it started out slow. Some of the supporting characters seemed to be out of The Office TV show and it was in jeopardy of fizzling out all together. It was getting sappy. But the female lead was peculiarly aggressive and we were getting hints of a mystery behind the boredom. Eventually you acclimate to the pace and settle in on following the story. You start to notice the scenes are looking more like a Kubrick movie and the pace picks up. Not that it gets much passed a crawl mind you, but once you’re settled into the mellow tempo, any variation in activity stands out.

I liked the movie. It’s no big deal flick that you’re going to tell all your friends to go see, but for sitting in a dark room for an hour and a half, it’s a pretty good way to be entertained.

Mao’s Last Dancer

Deb 8 Me 8

We both had some trepidation about this one. Deb because she thought it would be like Dancing Across Borders and me ‘cause I thought it sounded like Le Concert. It turns out to be its own movie and it’s pretty darn good.

The dancing in Dancer is ballet dancing. Something I know very little about and therefore have little appreciation for. That’s over. I’m blown away by what these cats can do with their bodies, and not in a clean and jerk motion, but smooth like flying. And the movie explores what it takes to get to that point, I really dug it.

Another thing I know little about and therefore have little appreciation for is China, where the movie has its origins. I know they make crappy products, own our debt and have no parallels to our view of civil rights, but the movie is sort of a sales pitch overtone that says things are a lot better now than under Mao’s influence. Still, no place I want to visit.

But the movie was terrific. It’s based on a real life guy, I have no idea how accurate it is, but it’s interesting as hell. The things this cat goes through in life, some of his own volition, some totally beyond his control, it makes for a good story.

It’s a very good looking movie. There were a few shots that were a bit digital looking, but they were very minor. Great music too. But I really was sold on the beauty of ballet.

When we left the theater I was happy about the movie, in subsequent conversations I found I had misunderstood one of the scenes and it changed the whole end of the film (in my misguided eyes). When I found out what really happened, I liked the movie even better. So if you run across a stumbling block, you’re not alone. But either way you see the movie, see the movie.