My Mother's Wedding (2023)

Amy and I enjoyed this sweet drama with a few laughs about three adult daughters at the wedding of their mother. Kristin Scott Thomas makes her directorial debut and stars as the mother of Emily Beecham, Scarlett Johansson, and Sienna Miller.

Thomas co-wrote the script with her husband John Mickelthwait and the original score, which I can't find online, is by Rolfe Kent. Yves Bélanger provides pretty pictures of gorgeous English locations. And I found Scar-jo's English accent pretty believable.

Thomas was last blogged for acting in The Party, Johansson for Fly Me to the Moon, Miller for Burnt, Kent for Stan & Ollie, and Bélanger for Brooklyn. Beecham, with dozens of other credits, and Mickelthwait, a first-time screenwriter, are not known to me.

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences want a divorce, averaging 41 and 50%, respectively. We rented it on December 28.

Brooklyn (2015)

Jack, Sally, Mike, and I loved this story of a girl who leaves 1950s Ireland to start a new life in New York, boasting fine acting, beautiful images, wonderful period details, great art direction and costumes, and lovely music. The porcelain skinned Saoirse (pronounced SEER-sha) Ronan (last blogged in The Grand Budapest Hotel) stars as Eilis (pronounced AY-lish) and she's quite the talent, using her native Irish accent for the first time in 21 roles in 21 years of life. A day or two ago she won the New York Film Critics Best Actress award for this one. The reliable Jim Broadbent (most recently in Le Week-End) and Julie Walters (two Oscar nominations--Best Actress for Educating Rita (1983) and Supporting for Billy Elliot (2000)--also wonderful in Calendar Girls (2003), Wah-Wah (2005), Driving Lessons (2006), voice of the witch in Brave, and Cynthia the hotel owner in Masterpiece Theatre/Indian Summers, among others; she also played Molly Weasley in a bunch of Harry Potters) are soothing as adults who help Eilis adjust to her new life. I did not recognize Emory Cohen, who is sweet as the Italian boy who's sweet on Eilis, but I've seen him in Afterschool, The Place Beyond the Pines, and he played Leo, the sullen son of Debra Messing in 15 episodes of Smash. Back home in Ireland, two notable cast members are Fiona Glascott (I know her for her work with Walters, playing the frustrated wife of a preacher, in Indian Summers and as Matt LeBlanc's ex-wife in Episodes) as Eilis' sister Rose and Domhnall (pronounced DOE-nal--he says "the M is just there to confuse Americans") Gleeson (last in Ex Machina) as an Irish suitor.

Director John Crowley (I've seen two of his four previous works, Intermission (2003) and Is Anybody There? and liked them both) does a nice job from a script by Nick Hornby (most recently adapted the memoir for Wild), who adapted the novel Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (pronounced column toe-BEEN) (my Irish cousins would laugh at my pronunciation obsession--a few years ago I google-chatted with Dara and he said their dog is named Siomha. I had to ask how to say it. Shee-va. Go figure--another M, and more, just to confuse Americans). Anyway, the aforementioned beautiful images, many on location in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland as well as Montreal, are courtesy of cinematographer Yves Bélanger, who shot Wild. Want to know? It's Eve bay-law-zhay, but say the "law" with an N sound stuck in your nose.

Michael Brook's (scored The Perks of Being a Wallflower) pretty tracks can be previewed here and are supplemented by plenty of songs but no published list is readily available.

We're on the same page with Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, averaging 98% and 93% respectively. See it now.

Wild (2014)

Amy and I liked a lot this movie adapted from Cheryl Strayed's memoir about hiking 1100 miles alone in the Western U.S. mountains in 1995. Reese Witherspoon's angry, determined portrayal of Strayed has earned her, among others, a Screen Actors Guild nomination, with more to come. Witherspoon (last blogged in Mud) optioned Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail just before its 2012 publication and is also a producer here, making me wonder why the imdb trivia says she "beat out" other actresses for the leading role. With many flashbacks and interactions with other hikers along the way, this is far from a one-woman show, and features Laura Dern (besides her Oscar-nominated performance in Rambling Rose (1992), I also liked her in Mask (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Jurassic Park (1993), Citizen Ruth (1993), Dr. T and the Women (2000), Novocaine (2001), We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), Happy Endings (2005), Year of the Dog (2007), Recount (2008), small parts in Everything Must Go and The Master, and her star turn as the whack job in the HBO series Enlightened) as Strayed's beloved mother, Thomas Sadoski (known to me just as Don Keefer on The Newsroom), and many more.

Director Jean-Marc Vallée has already brought Oscars to two actors for Dallas Buyers Club, so let's see what happens here in February. Nick Hornby, who adapted a memoir into the screenplay for An Education, does the same honors here for Strayed's best-selling book. Strayed, who chose her last name  (one syllable) and legally changed it at age 27 right before the journey, has a cameo, dropping off Witherspoon in the beginning (we missed it), and Strayed's own daughter plays Strayed as a child throughout the movie.

I couldn't help but think of Tracks, another young woman's odyssey released earlier this year. There, as here, photos during the credits prove that the wardrobe department took care to match outfits with the real hikers. In this one, you won't miss the strong endorsement of equipment vendor REI. The book (and the gear) can be purchased on their website.

The glorious cinematography is by Yves Bélanger (Dallas Buyers Club). No composer is listed and the extensive list of songs can be found here.

Jack had another commitment so couldn't join us the other night, but I'm sure he will like it just as much as we did. Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 93% to audiences' 81, and last weekend, before the holiday, it was sixth at the box office. Be sure to see it on a big screen if you possibly can.