Easy Virtue (2008) released 2009

The trailer for this was fun, and then, when I read writer/director Stephan Elliott's essay on choosing to adapt the Noel Coward play, I knew I wanted to see it. There have been some negative reviews but Jack & I found it delicious. Not a word was wasted, not an entendre undoubled. The photography was as luscious as Jessica Biel's (at 15 she was one of Peter Fonda's granddaughters in the excellent Ulee's Gold (1997), and we also liked The Illusionist (2006) a lot) Larita, the brassy American who turned an uptight 1920s British family upside down. Kristin Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and others) was wonderfully frosty as the matriarch, and Colin Firth (I liked Then She Found Me (2007), When Did You Last See Your Father (2007), both Bridget Joneses (2001 & 2004), Love Actually (2003), Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), The English Patient (1996), and, of course, The BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice in 1995) was delightfully sardonic as her weary spouse. The English locations were eye-popping and Biel's wardrobe was fabulous, dahling--Charlotte Walter (A Mighty Heart (2007), Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)) just may get an Oscar nomination for the costumes. The bouncy soundtrack was performed by the Easy Virtue Orchestra (assembled for the movie), and, if you stay for the credits, your bonus is audio: the musicians' names are announced. They played tunes by Noel Coward, Cole Porter, as well as others from the period. But pay attention. The soundtrack also includes 1920s-style versions of Rose Royce's "Car Wash" from 1976, Tom Jones' "Sex Bomb" from 1999, and Billy Ocean's "When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Get Going" from 1985 (Biel sang the latter and Coward's "Mad About the Boy" and Ben Barnes, who played her naïf husband, warbled a few of the old chestnuts as well).

Goodbye Solo (2008) released 2009

Director Ramin Bahrani, the winner of the 2007 Someone To Watch Independent Spirit Award, is a 34 year old Iranian American who was born and raised in Winston-Salem NC. His first two features, Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, take place in New York City, but he shot this one in his hometown. Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane, from Ivory Coast, in his feature film debut) is a charming, talkative, 30-ish Senegalese taxi driver with dreams and a 100 watt smile. Solo forges an unlikely and difficult friendship with William (Red West), a taciturn white guy in his 70s. I had not heard of Robert "Red" West before delving into this research, but it turns out he was a friend of Elvis Presley from high school until Presley's death, served as a stuntman in some of Presley's movies, was Elvis' bodyguard for a time, and married Presley's secretary July 1, 1961 (they're still together). West wrote songs recorded by Presley and others ("Separate Ways") and has a long acting resumé as well. Both men were completely believable in their parts and made us care about them. I think when you look up dramedy in the dictionary, it will refer to this movie--unless it's a coma, since there's a lot of fun at the beginning and then it gets more serious as it moves along at a steady clip. Like in Chop Shop, there's a bright child, though this is Solo's movie and the child has a supporting role. Roger Ebert loved this and I agree with him. See it! Perhaps wait until after you have done so to watch this Charlie Rose clip (fast forward to 36:14 to see Bahrani, Savane, and West's segment). The sound mix was better than Chop Shop's, but my aging ears didn't get every word of the dialogue. I still loved it. Daniel, go with your mother! You won't be sorry!

Yes Man (2008)

For my second movie on the long plane ride I wanted something silly and I chose Yes Man (Amy heard me giggling and watched it as her third movie on the plane). I must have seen the trailer a dozen times last year and my favorite part was Jim Carrey's bungee jumping off the bridge to The Who's screaming intro of "Won't Get Fooled Again." Gotta tell ya--that track was apparently not cleared for the final cut and the scene had way less impact without it. However, as noted above, overall it was just fine to pass the time. Carrey (I liked The Truman Show (1998) and Man on the Moon (1999-he played Andy Kaufman) a lot, and loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)) trotted out some of the rubber-faced shtick that he began in In Living Color (Fox TV 1990-94) and continued with digital assistance in The Mask (1994), but didn't cause me too much wincing as a leading man. The ever adorable Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous (2000), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), and Andy's crazy girlfriend Kat in 4 episodes of the 3rd season of Showtime's Weeds) got to sing a little. I noticed in the credits (which you probably won't read because there's some bonus footage, so don't eject your DVD right away) that Jarrad Paul, one of the three writers, played a member of Deschanel's character's running group. What I didn't remember until looking it up tonight is that Paul, in addition to a recurring role on USA channel's Monk, played the hapless writer Adam Rafkin in the brilliant-but-cancelled Fox series Action from 1999 (do rent the DVD, where Jay Mohr's character Peter Dragon says of Rafkin, "We hired the wrong Jew!"). P.S. Noise cancelling headphones for airplanes! Yes!

The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet) (2007)

Yes, they have movies in Europe but I didn't go to any. So sue me. However, on my 8 hour flight from Rome to New York Monday each seat had a screen with dozens of free video choices. The movie list was long, including Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, Defiance, and other first-class (in coach) ones, kids' movies, and easy, fluffy choices (more on that later). I remembered typing La graine et le mulet in the 2008 list of award winners/nominations. It was a foreign film nominee (France) for the Independent Spirit Awards; won 4 César Awards (France's Oscars); for Best Director (Abdel Kechiche AKA Abdellatif Kechiche), Best Film (Kechiche (director), Claude Berri (producer)), Best Writing - Original (Kechiche), Most Promising Actress (Hafsia Herzi), as well as 13 other awards in France and elsewhere. The movie takes some time to get going, but relax -- if you're going to watch it, you'll be at it 2-1/2 hours (I took longer because I took breaks and occasionally looked at Amy's screen next to me, where she watched Milk and Frost/Nixon. Some scenes do not push the plot forward but draw the viewer into the world of the Tunisian immigrants who live in the French port town of Séte. All I knew of the plot was that it was about a divorced man, and Slimane (Habib Boufares, no other credits on imdb) didn't appear for several minutes, so I had to guess who the protagonist was -- not the tour operator (Majid, one of Slimane's sons, played by Sami Zitouni) in the seemingly random opening sequence which turned out to be pivotal to the third act. Boufares' performance reminds me of Richard Jenkins (The Visitor): quiet and tormented, slow to smile. Slimane has 3 more adult children, as well as a close avuncular relationship with the lovely daughter, Rym (Herzi, in her film debut, with 3 more movies released since this came out and 6 in the future), of his girlfriend Latifa (Hatika Karaoui). This was really good and I recommend it! A note on the translated title: as usual, it's inaccurate and inappropriate. There's no secret of the grain, which is couscous, other than the ex-wife's great recipe that is enjoyed by the whole extended family, including Rym, who barely slows her constant chatter to tuck into hers with great gusto. In Britain, the movie was called Couscous, which would have been somewhat better. But the original title says it all, because her couscous is made with mullet, a kind of fish (in French, mulet).

The Brothers Bloom (2008)

Last Friday I was torn. It seemed like I was going to have to choose one last movie before leaving for Europe a week later (tomorrow). We had tickets to an 8:00 concert Friday, Jack was busy all day Saturday (including his surprise party, which surprised him), I was busy all day Sunday, and we would be rushing around tying up loose ends this week. 

I had to pick between Bloom and Night at the Museum to squeeze in before the concert. As you can see, I picked the latter, and, as you have read, I regretted that decision. I promised myself that if I got a lot of packing done last night I would reward myself with the Brothers today. I did and I did, knowing full well that I might feel cheated again. 

Hooray! I liked it! Eccentric and off kilter, this con men caper stars Adrien Brody (if you haven't seen Liberty Heights (1999) get it NOW, and I've enjoyed him in everything he has done, including Summer of Sam (1999), King Kong (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), Cadillac Records, and his Oscar-winning role as The Pianist (2002)) as Bloom, what his character calls "the vulnerable anti-hero" (or words to that effect). Maybe I missed something but I never quite got why one of the Brothers Bloom was named Bloom and one was named Stephen (Mark Ruffalo, who first came to most people's attention with You Can Count on Me (2000), but was also good as a bumbling con man in Safe Men (1998), wonderful as an unfaithful husband in We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), funny in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), good in Zodiac (2007) and Blindness). 

The two women in the cast were perfect for their roles--they should be because the director envisioned them as he was writing it. Rachel Weisz (luminescent in her husband Darren Aronofsky's love movie to her The Fountain (2006), lovely in her Oscar-winning performance in The Constant Gardener (2005), scary in the excellent The Shape of Things (2003)) adopted the body language of the awkward, sheltered heiress Penelope by turning her shoulders and knees inward and marching around in tights with flats. About the wardrobe: brilliant! Well, actually, it was mostly black, white, and tan with the occasional flash of red, but it was great. All four of them looked terrific. 

Rinko Kikuchi (Oscar nominated as the deaf Japanese schoolgirl in Babel (2006) and a number of roles in Japan, with some new stuff coming out soon) had the most outrageous outfits and she carried them off well in her nearly wordless performance as Bang Bang. Loved the hats, loved the dolls. Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid in all the Harry Potters, Nuns on the Run (1990), and don't forget Mona Lisa (1986)) and Maximillian Schell (99 acting credits, but I'll always think of him as The Man in the Glass Booth (1975)) do character roles, the former with an Inspector Clouseau accent. 

Writer/director Rian Johnson's first movie, Brick (2005) won a Sundance Special Jury prize and a handful of other awards. It was not comedic like this but still very good. He's only 25! The imdb trivia page has some fascinating tidbits about the relationship of this movie to James Joyce's Ulysses. Because the last paragraph contains a spoiler, I won't print it here. Also, the locations were terrific. It was shot in Serbia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, and Romania (including Penelope's mansion that was supposed to be in New Jersey). Great fun. Now I must bid you arrivederci.