The Lovely Bones (Several locations)
Director: Peter Jackson
With: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Rose McIver, Carolyn Dando, Nikki SooHoo, Michael Imperioli
It may be better not to have read the novel by Alice Sebold. Books create powerful personal images, that film seldom lives up to. I did not read the book, and I was most impressed with this movie.
Susie (Ronan) lives with her father (Wahlberg), mother (Weisz) and kid sister (McIver) in 1973 suburbia. She is a lively and sweet girl who is victimized by a murdering pedophile. This is no spoiler, as I think we all know this.
The murder unhinges the family. Mom melts down emotionally, dad becomes obsessed with the case, including developing a close relationship with the homicide cop (Imperioli). Sis tries to live her life, but begins to have suspicions about the creepy neighbor (Tucci).
Meanwhile, Susie is in some anteroom to heaven, unable to make the final journey because she is still too attached to her family. Susie’s after-death environment is the stuff of a pre-adolescent girl: pink, fluffy, adorable, and occasionally dark and scary. She is guided by Holly (SooHoo) who seems to know what needs to be done and tries to steer Susie in that dorection.
Back in the living world, the film becomes a kind of amateur detective thriller, as suspicions begin to narrow to the creepy neighbor. Susie’s sister decides to take action, and places herself in danger.
Jackson, maybe the most imaginative director on the planet, has experience creating worlds that don’t exist in ours, and his afterlife scenes are gorgeous. He gets good work out of everyone, and Ronan shines as Susie, all angelic, blue-eyed and loveable. The ironic ending was not quite emotionally satisfying for me, but that is just me. Not for kids, alas, but a must-see.
A-
The Book of Eli (Several locations)
Director: The Hughes Brothers
With: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Beals, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Tom Waits
Yet another post-apocalypse tale full of violent cannibalistic thugs, nomads, and deranged tyrants. Not quite as boring as The Road, which it must inevitably be compared with, but goofier.
Example: a small bottle of shampoo is considered a precious artifact of the time before, but one character (Kunis) always looks like she just came from a day of shopping and salons on Rodeo Drive.
Eli (Washington) is a pilgrim carrying a bible, whose mission from above is to “go west.” (No, God is not Horace Greeley.) Along the way, he encounters various savages and brutes, and dispatches them all like a school of piranhas on a kitten.
When he encounters Carnegie (Oldman, in full scenery-chewing splendor), he finds a deranged power-tripper who is looking for, guess what? Yes, a bible. Carnegie’s explanation for why is just one of the stupid plot ideas in this movie.
So, by the end, Eli fulfills his mission, leaving an astonishing body count in his wake. And, we get a final revelation about Eli that is meant to knock us out, but just left a sour taste in my mouth. The Hughes boys had been misleading the audience all along for a cheap shock at the end.
Yuk.
Look, this is more fun than The Road, so it may do better, and Denzel Washington is really beloved, so I won’t tell you to save your money, but just know that you may not be smiling when this is over.
C-
Mystery Team (Now at the Hollywood Theater)
Director: Dan Eckman
With: Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson, Dominic Dierkes, Aubrey Plaza
The thing about sketch comedy is that it is best in short takes. Extending a sketch to movie length usually results in a fatal straining of the material, and so it is here. Okay, this is a no-budget effort by a striving group, Derrick Comedy, but it really doesn’t work.
Three friends have been “detectives” since they were children, and they have never given up their love of solving mysteries, nor have they grown up. High-school seniors, they have the emotional and social development of 10-year-olds. This running gag, the heart of the movie, wears out its welcome early.
Presented with a double murder, the three are hired to find the killers. Hilarity is alleged to ensue. There are some funny gags in the film, and Aubrey Plaza (seen on TV’s Parks and Recreation) is wonderful. If you like sketch comedy, I suppose there are worse ways (like seeing Nine) to spend your money.
C-
Crazy Heart (Fox Theater)
Director: Scott Cooper
With: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jack Nation, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell, Paul Herman
This is Cooper’s first feature, as writer and director, and it’s a very good effort not lacking a couple of quibbles.
About 40 years ago, Kris Kristofferson wrote a song entitled He’s a Pilgrim. This is the chorus:
He’s a poet, he’s a picker, he’s a prophet, he’s a pusher
He’s a pilgrim and a preacher and a problem when he’s stoned
He’s a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction
Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home
This is the story of so many singer-songwriters, from country music and folk music, that it is part of folklore. Bad Blake (Bridges) is a fading country star playing small-change dates in bars and bowling alleys. He’s a lush and a jerk. He leaves the stage in the middle of a gig to puke.
He is also the mentor of a phenomenally successful singer, Tommy Sweet (Farrell), whom he resents, but who always tries to reach out and help Blake.
He meets Jane (Gyllenhaal), a small-town journalist, on the road, and they real close real quick. Blake bonds with her 4-year-old son. In the meanwhile, Sweet offers Blake a slot opening for him in a big venue.
Despite everyone doing what they can, Blake is his own worst enemy, and screws up professionally and personally. He wrecks his truck falling asleep on the road, and one of his lapses becomes the dramatic pivot point of the film.
So, here are my quibbles. I can’t see Jane falling for this wreck. He’s much older, and a mess. Maybe a one-night stand, not a relationship. And, Blake’s major screw-up affects her in the worst way. I don’t want to give this away, but I found it crass. And, his rehab seems too easy.
These are the good things: Bridges is magnificent. There is hardly a false note in his performance, and those stem more from the writing than his work. He sings and plays pretty well, as does Farrell. In fact, all the acting is very good. Gyllenhaal and Duvall, as Blake’s old friend, stand out.
And T Bone Burnett handled the music and it is brilliant. The songs sound authentic, at least as good as anything out there in the “real” world of country music. No, better, since Burnett has his soul rooted in Americana, rather than in the cynical commercialism of modern country.
The ads for this movie are already pitching for acting awards. I hope T Bone isn’t embarrassed by them.
B+