Change Your Image
kborror
Reviews
Citizen Jane (2009)
Exceptional performances
Citizen Jane is an exceptionally well acted film, including the supporting roles. Nia Peeples, for example, is unaffectedly charming as Jane's warm hearted, loyal girlfriend, and Frank Pesce is effective and frightening as Vergil, the wife-hitting handyman. But the three main characters, Jane Alexander (Ally Sheedy), Jack Morris (Meat Loaf Aday) and Tom O'Donnell (Sean Patrick Flanary) are the most interesting, not only because they are so well portrayed, but also because they are not static, and all three actors are very successful in showing us how their respective characters change during the course of the movie. One undergoes a gradual personal evolution; one dons a mask as a tool but drops it whenever it's not needed; and one finally drops his disguise involuntarily, exposing what lies beneath.
Ally Sheedy's Jane Alexander is girlishly in love with Tom O'Donnell when the story begins. She has given him complete control of her finances, but her implicit trust speaks more to her need to avoid responsibility than to a relationship based upon mutual respect. When Jane, her head slightly lowered but her eyes looking up, says to Tom, "I love you so much!" Ally Sheedy shows us an insecure middle aged woman with the demeanor of a teenage girl. When her aunt is murdered, we see Jane's pain and anger, but this is followed by a period of ineffectual frustration. Her conflicted emotions are apparent when she tells Tom, "I can't go anywhere now!" with a tiny, defensive smile. Her turning point comes when Jack convinces her of Tom's guilt, and throughout the rest of the movie, we see Jane's growing self-reliance and determination to see justice served. Jane's success, as an ordinary citizen, in helping to put a murderer behind bars is inspiring. But the greater story here is what she gains while working toward this accomplishment, and what Ally Sheedy so skillfully portrays: Jane's personal transformation into a capable, confident, positively glowing woman.
Meat Loaf Aday is Jack Morris, the detective whose professional style is summed up by his line, "Me talking' ain't the point." We learn that this doesn't necessarily mean that he rarely speaks, but rather that his whole aim in talking to a suspect is to elicit a response. Even when he wants to make an impression, such as his disarming friendliness in the lemonade scene, he does it in such a way as to redirect Jane and Tom's attention away from him and back to themselves. As the movie begins we know little of Jack's personality, except that he is a calm, unflappable man who speaks in soft, measured tones, but whose cool, intent gaze makes us feel that few details escape him. He could not be described as warm. But later, when Jack is sure that Jane is innocent, and shows up at her door saying "You got some coffee?" we understand that he has been wearing a mask, and has now taken it off, at least for Jane. Meat Loaf's performance is nicely nuanced; his Jack trades one set of subtleties for another, but from this point onward he is obviously sympathetic to Jane and as the story progresses, behaves more genuinely toward her. In a particularly touching scene he presses his lips together and affectionately squeezes Jane's arm in support, before going in to interrogate Tom. Contrast his natural warmth in this scene with the insinuating but chilly smile he shows Tom moments later, or his cold, knowing amusement earlier in the film, after reading aloud from the FBI profile. Meat Loaf expertly paints a portrait of a professional who can completely mask his own emotions in order to present a face of his own choosing to suspects.
Sean Patrick Flanary plays Tom O'Donnell, who murders Jane's aunt in cold blood, planning to live with Jane off the proceeds of the estate, only giving up on this idea after Jack "stirs the pot" and spooks him, but entertaining it again briefly after Jane visits him in jail. Flanary has said in an interview on the Hallmark Channel website that he felt Tom compartmentalized his actions and actually believed what he did was right, for the greater good. Whether this is true or whether Tom O'Donnell was a psychopath fully aware of his own motives is moot; Sean Patrick Flanary's performance is believable either way; believable and also endlessly interesting, because we are constantly looking for clues to his personality. We're given few, however, until the very end of the movie, when Tom drops his mask suddenly, in a chilling and absolutely stunning display of previously hidden brutality.
Citizen Jane is an absorbing movie with uplifting messages about justice, determination and perseverance, and these messages are all the more powerful for the story's basis in fact. It is also enjoyably suspenseful, but since the facts of this true story are known at the outset, the plot line itself cannot provide this type of interest; instead, the excellent acting, scripting, and well-developed characterization make the film riveting.
-Kathy Borror, 16 September 2009
House M.D.: Simple Explanation (2009)
I was mesmerized...
I was mesmerized by this show, could hardly draw a breath while watching it, and didn't cry until it was nearly over. I don't know when I've felt such deep shock over the death of a TV show character. Kutner's tragic suicide shook me nearly as much as it did Gregory House and his team. I thought "Noooo, not Kutner..." Ever since he turned his "6" upside down into a "9" I loved him for his humor and his dimples and the apparent simple joy he took in living. "Why??" we demand to know, right along with House, but no answers are revealed to us, either simple or complex.
Meanwhile there are two more looming deaths: Charlotte (Colleen Camp), suffering from respiratory failure of unknown origin, and her husband Eddie (Meat Loaf Aday, in an excellent performance), a terminal cancer patient who has been admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro just so Charlotte will remain for treatment.
Eddie, an emotionally distant man, realizes too late that he wishes he had been a more loving husband, but Charlotte also feels guilt over her own passive role in their marriage. They both want so badly to make it up to the other that each in turn is willing to commit suicide so that the other may live.
The episode illustrates the devastating effects of suicide on those left behind. Neither House nor his team are functioning at their usual level; House himself is uncharacteristically unreceptive to any new ideas and instead fixates on making sense of Kutner's death. Charlotte could have been saved but was diagnosed too late, and it took Cameron from the ER, who only had to see Eddie once, to question his cancer diagnosis. If she hadn't, the team would have lost Eddie as well.
But by juxtaposing Kutner's death with Charlotte's attempt and Eddie's planned attempt at suicide, the episode asks a great deal of us. Does suicide ever make sense? We are forced to accept that Kutner's does not. Charlotte "selflessly" tries to kill herself so Eddie can have her heart, but Eddie needs redemption more than a heart; if Charlotte had been successful, she would have been condemning him. Eddie himself wants so badly to make amends that, even after learning he can be cured, still wants to die in order to give Charlotte a chance to live. We ache for him but want to tell him this is not the answer. The writers provide a solution in the form of a liver arriving by medivac, but this only begs the question, what if there hadn't been one available? I have a feeling this episode will long remain in the thoughts of everyone who saw it. I felt not only sorrow for Kutner, but also sympathy for House and his team, and most especially for Eddie and Charlotte. A heartbreaking moment during Kutner's funeral occurred with a fade to Eddie and Charlotte's hospital room just as Pete Yorn sang the line "I'll settle for less" and then again when he sang "cause I'm gonna lose you" just as Eddie tenderly kisses Charlotte's hand goodbye, making her smile and making me cry.
This episode was so very well done, and the cast's performances were all either as good as always, or exceptional. Thirteen hasn't been a favorite of mine, but Olivia Wilde was so real upon finding Kutner's body, and in her scene at Foreman's door, and again at the funeral, that I'm looking at her in a new light.
The interaction between House and Eddie was fascinating and also surprising. We've come to expect patients to react to House's insensitivity in predictable ways, such as shocked silence, feigned indifference, or defensive anger, all of which stem from the perception of House as a threat on some level. But Meat Loaf portrayed Eddie as completely unintimidated by House. Eddie is not distracted by any defensive feelings and only wants to get to the bottom of things. Emotionally remote by habit or nature, he chuckles at the suggestion that his "emotional state" had affected his health. The last scene between House and Eddie is in fact almost a role reversal; House shows uncertainty while his patient is unwavering, with a quiet but steely resolve. House has genuine concern written all over his face, but Eddie's eyes are flinty.
At the end of the episode, most loose ends are tied up. Peter Jacobson's Taub, who has been in a cold, cynical state of denial, is finally able to cry. Thirteen and Foreman appear to have reached an understanding, at least for now. But I want to know what happens to Eddie. As Charlotte was dying, he gave her all he could, and what she most needed: simple affection. Will that one generous moment be enough to redeem Eddie in his own eyes? Eddie is not a warm and fuzzy person, but Meat Loaf makes us believe he has a forgiving heart, and gives us the hope that he can change. I wish we could find out how he fares.
And Gregory House, in the very last scene, is still looking with confused puzzlement at a photo of Kutner. Wilson had accused House of caring only about the puzzle, not about Kutner. But when Wilson had said "I was wrong about you," House had replied (too quickly?) "No you weren't." I want to know if House will be able to reach an understanding of his own feelings, and whether he will be changed by the experience. But I don't expect to have my question answered. The elusive nature of House's personality, arising from the conflict between what he says he believes and what we wish to believe about him, is a major driving force of the show. He makes us laugh, so we like him and want to find shreds of humanity in him. This can be difficult, but Hugh Laurie's exceptional talent makes us keep searching.
Kathy Borror, 10 April 2009
Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise (2007)
Heartbreaking, heartwarming, and lots of fun to watch
"Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise" chronicles the launch of Meat Loaf's 2007 world tour and follows the artist and his band for an exciting, hectic and often grueling three weeks, while providing insight into his creative process, his working relationships, and his very personality.
As the film begins, we hear "Welcome To The Show," from Bullfighter Ballet by Wings of Fire Orchestra, and we see concert footage of Meat, singing, sweating, and giving everything he's got, just as he has been doing for nearly 40 years. The sequence is evocative of a bull charging into a ring, and we learn as the film unfolds just how apt a comparison this is. Concertgoers know how much heart and soul Meat puts into his show; they know his passion and his legendary ability to make an emotional connection with an audience; but they might not know just how driven he is to make each performance top the last one, nor the physical and emotional toll this takes. With his trademark red scarf and his need to relentlessly push himself up to and beyond his own limits, Meat Loaf is both the bull and his own matador.
It's a very candid film, and in turn depicts the honesty and hands-on approach with which Meat Loaf faces problems, such as the one of reviewers fixated on the age difference between Meat and Aspen. Both in real life and in making the documentary, he tackles the situation head-on. Evading nothing, he resolutely quotes the negative lines from reviews, and in so doing reveals their trivial (and even ridiculous) nature. He not only deals with the "problem", but does so in a very creative way. Taking the song "Paradise" out of the present and sending it back to the 70's was an inspired idea, and it worked! - the reviewers came around.
In interviews, Meat Loaf himself has described this film as "real," possibly referring to the open willingness with which he shows us a little of his own personality. We see him reacting to people and situations with unrestrained spirit: sometimes with annoyance or dejection, more often with determination and humor, but always with feeling. The very personality trait that informs Meat Loaf's singing and acting, his uncanny emotional intelligence, makes for a volatile disposition. Meat is not a person who internalizes his feelings beneath a cool exterior. But the film emphasizes the devoted and tight-knit nature of the friendships and working relationships between Meat Loaf and his band, vocal coach, and others, and this comes across as not only "real," but very heartwarming.
Fans know that Meat Loaf is a private man, and will be thrilled to get such an up-close and personal glimpse of him, but others will enjoy the film also, either for the informative account of a rock band putting together a tour and dealing with problems along the way, or simply for the very humorous and candid portrait of an iconic artist with a captivatingly artistic temperament.