The Wrestler

Ann and I saw The Wrestler last night. Well, actually, Ann saw more of it than I did as I had my eyes closed during the wrestling scenes . . . I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to blood and violence. It's a gritty, intense movie that balances the family atmosphere and comradery among professional wrestlers and the no-holds barred stunts and gimmicks they come up with to rev up the crowd as they fight each other in seedy VFW Halls and low-rent venues. The director also brings out the contrast between Randy "The Ram's" life as a tough, hard-partying womanizer who lights up before a crowd and his endearing, vulnerable qualities as a lonely man with a pretty empty life. Mickey Rourke is amazing in this role as a former star who has pushed his body about as far as it can go, but has nothing else in his life to turn to when he reluctantly decides to "retire."

We saw a little more of Marisa Tomei than we ever wanted to in her role as an aging stripper, but she gives a brave and moving performance. In her role as The Ram's estranged daughter, Evan Rachel Wood, is excellent. The scenes between Wood and Rourke are touching and, untimately, heart-breaking. This is a tough one to watch at times (althoughyou can always just close your eyes like I did!), but worth seeing for the incredible performances and its honest look at the world of professional wrestling.

Frost/Nixon

The CBs saw Frost/Nixon on Broadway a couple of years ago. There was a lot of buzz about the play, and even though the performances by Frank Langella as Nixon (he won the Tony) and Michael Sheen as Frost were fantastic, the CBs looked at each other at the end of the show and had the exact same reaction : what's the big deal? We wondered if the interviewing of Nixon by Frost was really worthy of a Broadway show and all this hoopla?

Last weekend the CBs saw the movie. The same two actors give performances every bit as wonderful as they did on Broadway. The movie is artfully directed by Ron Howard and well written by Peter Morgan who also wrote the play. But I came away from the film asking the same question: is this moment in history really worth a movie? The performances may make seeing the movie worthwhile but the event which the film centers around doesn't seem to warrant either a Broadway show or a film.

Leslie's two cents: I disagree a bit and enjoyed this movie a little more than Ann did. I found it a pretty engrossing character study and an interesting look at the interplay between media and politics. I thought it unwound like a Greek tragedy where the hero is just too full of himself (and in this case craves media attention and cold, hard cash) and is doomed to fall. The documentary-style approach Howard uses definitely made this more entertaining to watch for me than the play.

Catching Up On Movies

It's been about a week since Ann and I saw Revolutionary Road, and it's a movie that lingers. It's hard to watch because it is so brutally honest in its depiction of a married couple whose reality doesn't come close to their expectation that they will lead an exciting and special life. As they become mired in the life of suburbia in the 60's, they start to become the type of people that they despise. Although they have a brief, wonderful moment of deluding themselves that they will break out of these roles as they plan a move to Paris, the tension becomes palpable as you wait for it all to fall apart. The performances by Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di'Caprio are brilliant, and Michael Shannon's Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the role of a mentally unstable visitor who speaks the unspeakable truth as he sees it is well-deserved. This is one worth seeing.

My husband and I caught Defiance last week as well starring Liev Schreiber (a CB favorite) and Daniel Craig in the true story of the Jewish Bielshi brothers who escaped the Nazi slaughter of their town and escaped into the Belarussian woods. Their plan was to hide and save themselves, but soon find that they are responsible for the many Jewish refugees who keep joining them. The numbers multiply as more refugees join the group, and the brothers become reluctant leaders as they set up three self-sustaining villages over a three year period in the wilderness. This is a Holocaust story that I was unfamiliar with, and it makes for great cinema. As the brothers increasingly turn to violence as a means of redemption and of protecting the refugee community they have created, the movie also creates a sense of moral ambiguity as you admire the brothers' heroism at the same time you are watching them slaughter Germans. The performances are strong, and the story is compelling. Another one I recommend.

I saw Frost/Nixon yesterday--Ann is going to see it today with her husband, so we'll wait to report on that one . . .It's exhausting being self-proclaimed members of the Academy!

Gran Torino

The CB's went to see Gran Torino with very low expectations. We were not expecting much, and we were totally surprised by how much we liked this movie. Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, an old geezer who is mad at the world and full of anger at the way his Detroit neighborhood has changed. He calls these newcomers to his city every racial slur imaginable- sometimes under his breath and sometimes right to their face. His character gradually changes after a young Hmong neighbor tries to steal his beloved Gran Torino, and they begin to get to know each other. Eastwood manages to give the audience a couple of 'wink-wink' moments when he channels Dirty Harry, but he has come a long way since those 'shoot 'em up', revenge-filled movie days. This is a thoughtful look at the way America is changing, and Eastwood does a wonderful job of directing and acting in this film. All the other roles are perfectly cast--one standout is the young actor (Christopher Carley) who plays a baby-faced Irish priest struggling to keep a promise he made to Walt's wife on her deathbed that he would convince Walt to take confession. The CB's recommend you see this one.

The Reader

The CB's caught The Reader yesterday afternoon in their quest to see all the Oscar-buzz movies that have recently been released. Although we give it an average grade, it's worth seeing for Kate Winslet's nuanced performance that begins with her character, Hannah, as a mysterious thirty+ year old with a very healthy libido who initiates a 15 year old boy to the pleasures of sex. At the same time, she witholds any real intimacy and clearly has a past she does not share with her young lover (an excellent performance by newcomer David Kross). It's hard to tell which she enjoys more--making love to Michael or listening to him read to her. The movie shifts back and forth in time between the summer of their initial affair, a period eight years later when Michael is in law school and discovers the secrets Hannah has kept from him, and scenes depicting an adult Michael (Ralph Fiennes) who still struggles with the effects of his past relationship with Hannah. At each point in the arc of her character, Winslet captures both the toughness of her character and her complete vulnerability.

Ultimately, though, the movie leaves too many questions unanswered to be satisfying. Fiennes' role as the adult Michael is underdeveloped and pales in comparison to the richness of the younger Michael's role. When Fiennes assumes the role of Michael, we missed the younger Michael, and we were left wondering why he was still so damaged as an adult because of this relationship. The shifts in time were were sometimes confusing as well, and caused me to misinterpret a whole section of the film (luckily, Ann set me straight!). Although the mystery surrounding Hannah drew us in, the movie left us wanting more insight into what her full story was and who she was before she met Michael. We also felt that the focus on their sexual relationship and the emphasis on the theme of literacy overshadowed any real exploration of the question of personal retribution for actions taken (or not taken) during the autrocities of the Nazi regime. This movie has flaws, but, again, it is worth seeing if only for the performances of Kate Winslet and the young David Kross.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire tells a fairy tale story of an impoverished orphan who, through pluck and determination, fights for a fortune and the woman of his dreams. But this fairy tale is set in the bleak streets of modern India, and the obstacles the young hero, Jamal, must overcome are dark and, quite often, horrific. The movie is an adrenaline rush of color, movement, music, suspense, tension and unforgettable scenes depicting the shocking conditions that Jamal and his brother must negotiate just to stay alive. In a completely unique way, the film's scenes snap from pure romance to sexual abuse, from sibling loyalty to betrayal, from comic situations to shocking violence, from touches of magic realism and fantasy to depictions of the brutal reality of poverty. Ann and I agree that, although it's difficult to watch at times, Slumdog Millionaire is definitely a must see.