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Reviews
Vera Drake (2004)
Oh, dear God, take me now.....
That was my prayer as I watched this allegedly brilliant film earlier today. Even on DVD, it was so relentlessly dull, I had to keep watching. I could not continue to be such a load of a film.
Imelda got an Oscar nod for this? That wasn't acting; that was the actress reliving the tragic death of her kitten when she was seven years old. If I had to watch that woman blubber for one more minute........
Jim Broadbent, as the judge, was far more generous than I. I'd have had the Khmer Rouge go after her and the rest of her family, just for being tedious.
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
We're old - we remember this time
People who didn't live through the McCarthy era don't have any idea of how terrifying it was for honest Americans who firmly believed in the Constitution. It took the combined onslaught of Edward Murrow and Joseph Welch to bring that madman and his vile little henchmen to an end.
I was prepared to love this movie, simply because George Clooney was in it and because a lot of people were brave enough to make it. I didn't plan on being swept away.
I could write about how inaccurate much of it was historically, but that's of no matter here, because this is art - art reflecting life, which is what the best art does. It held up to us in a most palatable way the absolute corruption that is forever nibbling at the edges of our freedom. Joe McCarthy was not nearly as prominent as George W. Bush or Dick Cheney, but the harm he inflicted - and tried to inflict - was enormous, much like those murderous cretins in the White House today.
That's why this film matters so much. The writing, the acting, the glorious cinematography, all of it is terrific. But, more than all of that, it's a movie that teaches those who aren't familiar with what it was like back then to sit up and pay attention to the basic American truths that will never fail:
that your government lies to you, that you must always be prepared to defend yourself against your government, that you have the power to hold your government to account.
This is more than a brilliant movie - it is an essential movie.
Mrs. Harris (2005)
A work of genius
Without giving away a delightful surprise, the first music you hear when this exercise in cinematic brilliance opens will - if you're already familiar with the Scarsdale Diet Doctor saga - make you gasp, then titter, then sit forward in your seat, determined not to miss one second of this masterpiece.
I didn't expect much, really. Another of Annette Bening's star turns, I thought, still annoyed that she got gypped out of the Oscar last year for "Being Julia." But, I figured, Mrs. Harris was a local - we live in Northern Virginia - and so we went to see it at the Toronto Film Festival.
Here's what: I want to see it again, the day it opens, and then I want to buy the soundtrack CD, and then I want to own a dozen copies of the DVD, simply because this is a movie with such a compelling story, told in the most remarkable narrative, with a cast that defies all description.
If, as one person here commented, HBO is thinking of releasing it on TV, I would say that that would be a HUGE mistake, since it's a BIG BIG BIG movie that needs a BIG BIG BIG screen. Remember Norma Desmond's famous line? Well, don't make these big actors work on the small screen.
The writer/director, Phyllis Nagy, I am told, has never written or directed a movie before. Well, where has this brilliant beauty been? I tell you, I'll just go and see anything this woman works on, because this is genius, this was a breathtaking and riveting experience, and I KNEW HOW IT ENDED! Imagine that. Even though I remembered the whole story quite well, I hung onto each frame, each second, as if the fate of world depended on it. Ms. Nagy is a national treasure, whoever she is, and I wish I knew her, because I would give her a big hug and a kiss and I would tell her to run, not to walk, and start writing another movie, directing another movie, delivering another work of genius to a grateful and joyous public.
Absolutely unbelievable film, "Mrs. Harris." Kudo, Ms. Nagy.