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!