Park City's Flick Chick by Jill Adler
December 2005 - Movie Reviews in a Nutshell
Closer
Film Rating: R
Based
on a 1997 British play by former stand-up comic Patrick Marber,
Closer tells the tale of four really f^$ked up people with biting
humor and total disrespect for relationships. Dan (Jude Law),
an obituary writer, rescues a New York stripper, Alice (Natalie
Portman), after a London crosswalk smackdown. Flash forward to
Dan, about to publish his book about his live-in love Alice, getting
his mug shot by portrait photog Anna (Julia Roberts). The bastard
hits on her but she shuts him down out of decency. Flash forward
and Dan’s Internet sex chats send Larry (Clive Owen) off
to meet and later marry Anna. After that, everyone tosses their
morals and the movie becomes a free-for-all of adultery, hurt,
betrayal and obsession. Mike Nichols (HBO’s Angels in America)
does a stand-up job of piquing our interest by showing us only
the starts and ends of relationships (no boring, happy middles);
and the acting is first-rate (despite a script that reads more
like a play than a movie). But, I’m sorry, but there’s
no way real people can be that glib 24-7, or that pathetic. On
the bright side, you’ll have hours of fun with your friends
dissecting Closer and its take on the human condition.
Sideways
Film Rating: R
I
can see the pitch to the studio execs: it’s a road-trip
buddy movie about wine-tasting where grapes and wine are metaphors
for relationships! Sold. Miles (Paul Giamatti), a wannabe novelist
whose closet expertise in wine hides his borderline alcoholism,
drags his college buddy Jack (Thomas Haden Church), on a joyride
through wine country the week before Jack’s wedding. Once
again, Giamatti plays the classic depressed loser but this time
you feel for the guy. He plays his pain with touching sweetness.
Jack is an ass but a likeable one and Miles’ love interest
(played by Virginia Madsen) introduces a tenderness to this tale
that would have been sorely missed. This quirky, often hysterically
funny, Indie should be getting some Oscar nods. If nothing else,
you’ll love the crash course in wine appreciation you get
along the way. Keep your eyes peeled for more flicks by Alexander
Payne (Election, About Schmidt); he’s onto something.
Finding Neverland
Film Rating: PG
Get
out your hankies, Ladies. Who can resist a good tale of Peter
Pan, er about Peter Pan, er about the inspiration for Peter Pan?
This isn’t exactly a true story but a re-creation of the
facts surrounding a time in the life of J. M. Barrie, played coyly
by Jonny Depp. (Yummy). Barrie can’t seem to get it right
both in his plays and his marriage. Then one day he meets a widow
(Kate Winslet) and her four boys. As he grows more attached to
this family, he finds the spirit and passion he lost and, in the
process, helps Peter, the youngest, to discover an imagination
(eat your heart out Haley Joel Osment, Freddie Highmore steals
every scene). Oh yeah, and he writes a classic play about the
never-ending quest for youth and innocence. Guys might be a bit
bored with this one but chicks will dig it.
Kinsey
Film Rating: R
It’s
the 1940s and people believe that oral sex leads to infertility.
They also believe that women don’t cheat, all men are heterosexual
and there’s only one way to “do it.” Alfred
Kinsey (Liam Neeson) proved them wrong, Thank God. Based on the
true story of the Indiana University biology professor whose 1949
book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, revolutionized
how America thinks about sex, Kinsey is riveting and exceptionally
acted, with kudos to Laura Linney as Kinsey’s wife and eternal
supporter. Perhaps intentionally, the film creates a detached,
analytical portrait of a man who broke sex and love down to a
science. However, the flick’s debut couldn’t happen
at a better time. No funding for high schools unless they only
teach abstinence in sex ed? What the hell is that about? Neo-Puritanism
is alive and well all around us and Kinsey’s reports, whether
100 percent accurate, ought to be revisited.
