Indie Acting Opportunity: Barefoot Is More Charming Than Sensible.

The Good: Acting, Some wonderful lines, Moments of character
The Bad: Utterly preposterous plot
The Basics: The indie romantic drama Barefoot pairs a con man and a sheltered young woman on a cross-country adventure.


There are some people who I cannot understand society’s reaction to. The actress Evan Rachel Wood is one such individual. She was the breakout star on Once And Again (Season one is reviewed here!), but has never really exploded into celebrity that one of her acting talent actually deserves. Whether she likes it or not, Wood has been relegated to the indie movie scene as opposed to mainstream blockbusters. Maybe it’s that she looks for better, more substantive roles, but there is something wrong with a world where Katherine Heigl has a more viable career than Evan Rachel Wood. Coming off the indie success The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman (reviewed here!), Evan Rachel Wood is once again highlighting on the off-beat, indie, almost no one will actually see, movie scene with Barefoot.

Barefoot is a dramedy that is vaguely reminiscent of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (reviewed here!) and pretty much any road trip movie ever. Despite its rather preposterous plot conceit (the wanted man and the mental patient get incredibly far, largely on the incompetence of medical professionals, TSA authorities, and police officers), Barefoot is rich with charm. Despite a somewhat predictable plot progression, there are some decent moments of surprise or the refusal to go in the most obvious possible way – the cover story that the protagonist builds around his mysterious woman for the family event he drags her to quickly comes undone with more than half the movie to go, forcing the story to be about quite a bit more than how the lies come unraveled.

Jay, a young man who has parted ways with his wealthy family, owes mobsters in Los Angeles $37,000 and they expect it by Friday. He decides to go to New Orleans for his brother’s wedding in a last-ditch attempt to get the money he needs. Working at the psychiatric hospital, he encounters the naïve and shellshocked Daisy. Daisy’s mother died, leaving her with no idea how to function in the world to the extent that after Jay rescues her from another patient in the hospital, she follows him outside barefoot. After borrowing clothes from his stripper friends, Daisy accompanies Jay back to his family’s rich estate where she sticks out, but surprisingly improvises well to help Jay deal with his reticent father.

After Jay’s mother makes Daisy over for the wedding, Jay uses the reception as a chance to get the money he needs from his father. When Jay’s father presses Daisy for details on her life and identity, she has an anxiety attack and the truth comes out. Swiping the family camper, Jay and Daisy begin the drive back to Los Angeles from New Orleans. After ditching Daisy in Shreveport, Jay has a change of heart. But going back for her puts the pair (and their vintage camper) on the police radar and the trip through the Mid-South becomes a bonding experience for the two.

The characters in Barefoot are interesting, even when they have moments of obviousness. The relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler is one that is an obvious dichotomy from the moment they first appear. Mr. Wheeler is the brains, the financer, the provider archetype, while Mrs. Wheeler is the family’s heart. The film never tries to go much deeper with them. Similarly, Dr. Bertleman is presented solely as a supporting character to remind viewers of the menace to Jay on his way back to Los Angeles before the police start making regular appearances. Bertleman is played expertly by the ever-reliable supporting player J.K. Simmons, but it’s not a role that affords Simmons the chance to do much in the way of acting.

Even Jay is somewhat minimally presented. There is a past incident which makes his willingness to turn around for Daisy multiple times more sensible than an authorial oversight. And while much of the journey of Barefoot is supposed to be his, Jay is entirely overshadowed by Evan Rachel Wood’s Daisy. Daisy is beyond naïve and the humor surrounding her character is enjoyable, though largely based on one note – she has been sheltered her entire life so everything is new to her.

What keeps Daisy from being monotonous, boring or entirely droll is Evan Rachel Wood. Wood sells Daisy through an entirely consistent performance. She is homogenously wide-eyed and eager without a hint of depth or dark side in a way that only a great actress could truly pull off. There is no hint in Wood’s performance that Daisy has ever heard, much less met, Marilyn Manson (whom Evan Rachel Wood dated back in the day, a reference worth making only in that Wood’s character is so sheltered, earnest and unassuming that it’s hard to imagine how Daisy would react to even seeing a photograph of the singer!). In addition to selling the humor, Wood has to repeat the same line about eating things many, many times, Wood’s performance abilities sell the film’s biggest dramatic beats. There is an absolutely heartbreaking moment when Daisy says cleaning is how one earns love and between her delivery and Scott Speedman’s reaction – which director Andrew Fleming masterfully captures – that a lesser performer would have dropped. Evan Rachel Wood powerfully renders the moment and creates a character well worth watching.

Moody and interesting, Barefoot becomes forgivable for its lack of realism with the performances, charm and sense that the film is actually one where almost anything could happen, which is a rarity in today’s cinema. It’s worth a trip to the art theater to watch.

For other works with Scott Speedman, please check out my reviews of:
The Vow
Underworld

6.5/10

For other film and television reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing.

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Shia LaBeouf Naked, Drugs, Souls And Traveling Lead To The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman.

The Good: Decent acting, Good pacing
The Bad: Meandering plot, Cuts between scenes are frequently awkward.
The Basics: The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman follows an American in Bucharest where he gets mixed up with a woman and her violent estranged husband.


With a lull in weeks between two of the major studio-released blockbusters, I find my attention once more going to independent cinema. This has been a good year for me and indie films, though I have still not managed to see Adult World and none of the indie films I’ve yet watched have managed to top Bert And Arnie’s Guide To Friendship (reviewed here!). My first indie film of the weekend is The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman, which seems to be dumbed down to Charlie Countryman in the United States.

The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman is one of those independent films with an amazing cast that is not given enough exposure to be considered Oscarbait and it’s surprising that the producers aren’t making more of a push for it. Answering the question of what Rupert Grint has been up to since the ending of The Harry Potter Saga (reviewed here!), The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman has a cast led by Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood, supported by Vincent D’Onofrio, Melissa Leo, and Mads Mikkelsen. With such a cast, it is surprising that The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman isn’t being given a push on the off week to get good play. The fact that director Fredrik Bond uses the cast exceptionally well should have gotten it more off-week attention.

Opening with a man hung upside down being cut from his rope to fall into the water below, Charlie Countryman goes with his father to take his mother off life support. After she dies, with Charlie seeing her soul leave her body, he is visited by his mother, who tells him to visit Bucharest when he begs her to give him a specific task to do in his life now that she is dead. En route to Bucharest, Charlie’s seatmate, a Romanian named Victor, strikes up a conversation with Charlie before he dies and after he is dead, he asks Charlie to deliver a hat to his daughter. Freaked out, Charlie tries to recover the hat when it falls off the body and is tazered for his efforts. At the terminal, Charlie meets Gabi, Victor’s daughter and delivers the hat and the message Victor asked him, post-mortem to deliver. Before leaving the terminal, he literally gives Gabi the shirt off his back.

Riding in a cab through Bucharest, Charlie sees Gabi in her car and helps her (basically hijacking her car!) to hunt down an ambulance she was following. The hash-smoking ambulance drivers crash, moments after Gabi and Charlie catch up to it, leaving Victor’s body on the pavement. With Gabi riding with the body after it is recovered, Charlie takes her car and discovers a gun in it. Charlie takes the car and Gabi’s cello to the opera house where she works and there he meets Nigel, her menacing husband whose name was on the gun. Arriving at the Marco Polo youth hostel, Charlie meets Karl (an aspiring porn star) and Luc, who slip him some ecstasy. He is then confronted by Nigel who warns him that friendship with Gabi could be dangerous for him, though he pursues the friendship anyway. As grief, loss, and desire mix with drug hallucinations and fish-out-of-water complications, Charlie’s world blurs and he comes undone.

First and foremost, what sets The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman apart from other films this Oscar Pandering Season is the quality of the acting. Fredrik Bond does not keep the principle actors within their safe zones. Evan Rachel Wood’s Gabi speaks with a heavy accent and she pulls it off in every one of her scenes. Wood’s ability to emote confusion helps sell the cultural differences between Gabi and Charlie better than some of the lines on their own do. Shia LaBeouf, who is unlikely to be considered a great actor by anyone, pulls of a surprisingly deep performance. When LaBeouf’s Charlie meets Wood’s Gabi, the sympathy LaBeouf is able to emote through only his eyes and body language is exceptional. The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman is unlike anything else LaBeouf has done and the performance continues throughout the film to be one that is impressive (and not just for him). LaBeouf actually has some decent charm as Charlie and that carries well on-screen to play as chemistry between him and Wood that sells their relationship.

The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman is not the Oscarbait that Black Swan (reviewed here!) was a few years ago, but there are a number of similarities between that film and this one. In fact, The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman is much like Black Swan meets Lost In Translation (reviewed here!). While The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman has decent performances and characters engaging enough to make the film move along at a generally good pace, the film is aimless in its plotting and the supporting characters remain largely undeveloped.

As well, The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman uses its soundtrack in an annoying way. The film includes several scenes with melodramatic crescendos that make little moments seem much, much bigger than they actually are. Beyond that, there is choppy editing that makes the film less well-assembled than most indie movies.

Still, The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman is a fairly solid film that is shot with a beautiful sense of style. Was Shia LaBeouf’s use of acid necessary to pull off the ecstasy scene? Probably not. Was he convincing? Sure. But given how Fredrik Bond keeps the film moving almost constantly, the brief moment’s performance is easy to overlook amid the frenetic cuts and scenes that lead the viewer back, inevitably, to the beginning. Amid mobsters, sexual tension, and drug hallucinations, The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman becomes a decent, moody, contemplative alternative to this season’s predictable blockbusters.

For other works with Melissa Leo, please check out my reviews of:
Oblivion
Olympus Has Fallen
Flight
Red State
Welcome To The Rileys
The L Word - Season Two
Hide And Seek
Homicide: Life On The Street

6.5/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Freakish Childhood Makes One Want To Be Running With Scissors Far And Away!

The Good: My gosh, it finally ends!, Moments of acting
The Bad: Much of the acting, The characters, Lack of plot, Plodding pace, Tone, Message, DVD extras
The Basics: In an overrated and terrible movie, Augusten Burroughs relates his traumatic childhood spent in the company of a crazy adopted family.


Augusten Burroughs is a boy growing up in the 1970s with a poet mother who desperately dreams of stardom and a father who is an alcoholic. Augusten's mother, Deirdre, soon divorces Norman at the recommendation of her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. Finch encourages Deirdre's selfish behavior and Deirdre soon abandons Augusten to Dr. Finch and his family while she goes off to explore poetry and lesbianism.

Augusten, then, finds himself trapped within the hell that is Dr. Finch's household. Surrounded by children who poop behind the Christmas tree (which has been up for years), a mother-figure who eats dog food, a disco-dancing girl and a religious zealot, Augusten soon falls in with a schizophrenic older man who might just kill them all. Augusten works to survive by writing in a journal, becoming truant from school, and limiting his exposure to the craziness of his new family.

Augusten Burroughs, sadly, is not a fictional construct. The lone bonus feature I could bare to sit through (there were three featurettes and a bunch of previews on the DVD release of this film) introduced the author Augusten Burroughs who sits in denial telling the viewer how he survived and overcame his crappy childhood, which Running With Scissors is a memoir of. I write "sits in denial" because almost thirty years after the events that shaped his life from his childhood, he is still working through it by creating a movie. Regardless of what Burroughs declares in his on-screen endorsement of the film, this is not a celebration of a universal struggle that is immortalized on film.

Running With Scissors fails utterly because it is so insular, specific, and disturbing as to rob it of any real entertainment value. Some years ago, I wrote one of my first reviews on the book Lilliane: Resurrection Of The Daughter (reviewed here!) where I postulated that what made the book so pointless and difficult to read was that it captured reality too well. In the case of Running With Scissors, Burroughs and screenwriter-director Ryan Murphy create something that may accurately recreate the reality of Augusten's youth but is so outside the normal, interesting or entertaining as to be painful to watch.

As this film plodded on - the pacing is disastrously slow - scene after scene was agonizing to watch. After a slow start wherein Norman and Deirdre break up, partially at the behest of the quack Dr. Finch who insists he must observe the couple for five hours a day in order to save their marriage, Augusten and the viewer become condemned to a series of slow deliveries that agonizingly draw out a pointless experience that results in nothing so satisfying as a laugh.

Whatever niche Running With Scissors is trying to fit into, it fails. It's not funny, though moments of the film have the elements to be horrifying in a way humor can be when one steps away from the joke and thinks about what has actually happened or been said. It's not comedic, it's not so much dramatic as it is dull. That is to say that great character drama has a tension to it that absent from Running With Scissors. It does not take long before the viewer simply does not care about Augusten or his fate.

The reason is simple; Augusten is not a compelling character. All due respect to the real Augusten Burroughs (if this is a strict memoir, wow, t.f.b.), Augusten Burroughs from Running With Scissors is dull, uninspired and uninspiring. He is a youth who never takes control of his own destiny. Instead, he takes all the sh*t that is flung at him and he accepts it as the way it is. It's ironic because my mentor and I were debating social mobility this past weekend and after seeing Running With Scissors, I'm almost forced to concede the point that people trap themselves far too often within their own hells. In this context, Augusten is never so motivated by all of the factors that torment him to actually make the changes he would like, that he needs. The result, unsurprisingly, is that (author in reality) Augusten Burroughs is still processing his crappy childhood twenty years later. Condemning the viewer to share his crappy childhood is not entertaining and it is not revealing of the human condition.

Similarly, Deirdre is wholly unsympathetic and unempathetic. She is played by Annette Bening with little differentiation between Deirdre and her more compelling character from American Beauty (reviewed here!). Bening is a quieter form of crazy in Running With Scissors, but much of the performance feels the same or similar.

At this point, I believe it is relevant to compare Running With Scissors with a film that has a similar sensibility to it, but was vastly better. If Running With Scissors is at the bottom of the scale of the dysfunctional family drama, the foil movie is The Royal Tenenbaums (reviewed here!). The Royal Tenenbaums tells the story of the three children of Royal Tenenbaum as their adult lives collapse and his estranged wife looks to remarry. Much of the movie, like Running With Scissors happens in the confines of one house and neighborhood but what The Royal Tenenbaums does well is create characters that are empathetic. They are motivated by their pasts and their quirks embody their reactions to their stimuli. The assemblage of Running With Scissors is portrayed as crazy and esoteric for the sake of weird and shocking. So, for example, Gwyneth Paltrow plays Hope Finch in Running With Scissors, a religious zealot whose origins and motivations are never explained. She is crazy for the sake of crazy. Ironically, Paltrow also appears in The Royal Tenenbaums and even with years since I last saw it, I can easily recall that her character in that film was depressed and dysfunctional because her adopted father treated her different from his biological children, her plays had fizzled commercially and her marriage to a listless psychoanalyst had encouraged her to renew her addictions. There is nothing so deep from any of the principles of Running With Scissors.

As I watched this film last night, I was considering that this is Gay Pride Month and films like Running With Scissors were among the assemblage of flicks that just didn't help the cause. Deirdre, the character not whatever real poet exists outside the film, is a weak-willed doped up mother whose irresponsibility, drug use and ability to be influenced by Dr. Finch lead her to a witless exploration of lesbianism that is almost as canned as Augusten's own homosexuality. Augusten, getting a leap on his sexuality by having sex with his older brother-figure, Neil Bookman, a schizophrenic also adopted by Dr. Finch, is an entirely uninspiring role model for homosexuals of any age.

Granted, gays and lesbians - like ANY population - come in a wide array of heights, weights, skin colors, hair colors, and states of health (physical and mental). I recall going to a LGB community meeting when in high school and being mildly surprised to see a blind person there. Yes, it opened my eyes - pun intended - to the whole idea that the LGB community truly was like any other when I saw a blind lesbian. As a matter of gay pride, Running With Scissors is just abysmal and it opens the community up to a plethora of the worst, most stereotypical, arguments that most of us would like to see buried.

So, for example, throughout the movie, there is a strong incestuous relationship between Augusten and his mother, Deirdre. He brushes her hair, fawns over her as she practices poetry reading and emulates her. The film goes so far as to suggest that Augusten knows his mother so intimately as to effectively and realistically role play her when playing doctor with Natalie. As well, the film opens itself up to the tired comparisons of gays as pedophiles when Neil has sexual contact with Augusten when Augusten is fifteen (or less).

As well, all of the gay or lesbian characters in Running With Scissors are either crazy (Neil is schizophrenic), weak-willed (Deirdre's neighbor and lesbian practice toy Fern), opportunistic (Dorothy), idiotic (Augusten's lack of escape initiative can only be traced to innate stupidity) and/or drug addicted (Deirdre is both mentally ill and drug-addicted). As far as seeing characters from the community, Running With Scissors is terrible and frightening to any young people. As well, it showcases only the worst about these people. None of them have anything remotely redeemable about them. The other characters might be crazy, but most are defined by the idea that they are crazy by what they eat (dog food and a long-dead cat, in case you're curious). The most seriously ill characters in this film also happen to be the ones who are gay.

Finally, the problem is exacerbated by the lack of on-screen chemistry between Joseph Cross (Augusten) and Joseph Fiennes (Neil). Cross has more on-screen chemistry with costar Evan Rachel Wood who is relegated to a sisterly role as Natalie. But even more damning than the connection between Wood and Cross is the character interactions between the two. When Augusten becomes most desperate, he calls on Natalie to help him. Somewhere, there's a young hick saying "He's only gay because he's crazy." Sigh.

My point in all this is that Augusten Burroughs and Ryan Murphy create or recreate a story of a boy's witless adventures in growing up where he is pushed around by family members into a situation where he is simply stuck. It's made worse by the negative messages and themes which are so backwards and terrible that if they were happening to any other minorities other than gays and lesbians and the mentally ill, the film would have never been made (make a movie with a black mother eating dog food or a Japanese girl cooking her dead cat for joy and see how quickly the Anti-Defamation groups leap up!). I would say the writers and director ought to feel ashamed, but if I learned anything from Running With Scissors it was that Augusten Burroughs has already been in situations that were shaming enough; it is regrettable that he chose to share his insular and damaged experiences rather than seeking to truly survive them. Running With Scissors simply immortalizes them and it is not worth your time or attention.

For other works with Evan Rachel Wood, check out my takes on:
The Ides Of March
True Blood - Season Three
True Blood - Season Two
Across The Universe
Once And Again - Season Two
Once And Again - Season One
Practical Magic

2/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Across The Universe: One Long, Decent Series Of Music Videos

The Good: Great direction, Nice performances, Moments (what there are) of character, Concept, Moments of plot
The Bad: Not much plot or character
The Basics: With a strong sense of surrealism, Julie Taymor directs a series of connected music videos to create a story of love and growth in the Vietnam Era in Across The Universe.


I’m not known for being a big fan of concept films, films that hinge on special effects, musicals or art films for the sake of being art films. I tend to enjoy things that make sense, have a balance between plot, character, and acting and are enhanced by special effects. So, when something stands out to me as a film that is one generally out of balance, and I find myself truly enjoying it, it says quite a lot. Across The Universe is one such film.

Jude, a British working stiff, journeys to the United States in the mid-1960s in search of his father. Instead, he finds the college-prankster Max and Max’s sister, Lucy. Lucy, a young idealist who has a boyfriend who is shipped over to Vietnam, hits it off with Jude. When Max drops out of college, he and Jude head to New York City and become part of the art and music scene. Lucy, whose high school sweetheart is killed, follows soon after graduating from high school and the trio finds themselves falling in with musicians Sadie and Jojo and the longing Prudence. Together they explore art, love, and an anti-war sentiment as the Vietnam War and the world spiral out of control.

All this is done, of course, to the music of the Beatles. Or rather, all of the action occurs with the characters expressing themselves with Beatles’ songs. Yes, it’s a musical of sorts, but with its creative direction, meandering story and infrequency of dialogue and actual character development, the resulting film feels like a string of music videos loosely sewn together. In that way, it’s very difficult to evaluate Across The Universe. Like many music video collections, there is a hit or miss quality to the film’s parts that makes it difficult to look back at the whole experience and evaluate it as a single body.

But I liked it and I actually liked it that way. I saw a preview for Across The Universe months ago when watching a DVD for a vastly inferior film. The preview was filled with surreal images, cut together with a wonderful speed and sense of pacing. In fact, my only problems with the preview were that it showed virtually the entire film (as far as plot goes) and it invoked trepidation within me as to the film that was being advertised. I didn’t necessarily believe that the film that was represented by the trailer could be as surreal, well-cut, or visually interesting and clever as what was shown in the preview. Had I made the association before between Julie Taymor, who directed Across The Universe and her prior film, Frida, I think I would have lost the nervous feeling that this film could not be pulled off like the trailer.

And therein lies the strength and weakness of Across The Universe; it is almost exactly like a movie trailer. It’s longer, to be sure, but the sense of movement, style and content is very similar to what one gets from an average movie trailer. It is not an exaggeration to say that the film truly does feel like a series of music videos strung together over a loose story of one man’s interest in a young woman and a young woman’s awakening into a violent, changing (and music-filled) world.

What makes Across The Universe work, more than simply the sheer visual spectacle of it (the choreographers sure earned their paychecks for this one!), is the character elements that are presented. The story of Lucy is an intriguing and fairly timeless coming-of-age story, despite how important the setting of the 1960s is to the film. Lucy is your archetypal suburban, white girl who suddenly gets a vision of the larger world and the injustices that reign right outside her door. With the loss of her boyfriend and the drafting of her brother, she is taken on an emotional journey from naivet?through loss to empowerment. She comes to believe in her own strength and the power of her own voice and as she begins to join the peace movement, she fights the powers that be to change the world while retaining her youthful idealism.

She accomplishes the latter part, in part, through her romance with Jude, which soon grows into the focal point of Across The Universe. Set opposite the slightly more mature and professionally entangled Jojo and Sadie, Lucy and Jude fall in with the Walrus (Dr. Robert), Mr. Kite and increasingly radical students at Columbia University who are fighting against the war more and more extremely.

But it is arguably Lucy’s brother Max who has one of the best parts in the film. Dropping out of college removes Max’s immunity from the draft and he soon finds himself mired in the jungles of Vietnam. Easily one of the most compelling sequences in the film is Max’s induction into the Army set to “I Want You.“ His story is the most brutal in many ways and while it does lead to one of the few serious questions about direction (umm . . . Ms. Taymor, why is his arm missing in the VA hospital and then back by the end of the number, are we truly supposed to believe that the power of music restores warfare’s lost limbs?), he remains one of the most interesting characters.

The other interesting character that I found myself instantly drawn to is also the most poorly used: Prudence. Opening her erratic part in the film with a longing rendition of “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” where she harbors a clear desire for another cheerleader, Prudence loves, but never seems to get to truly express it. Instead, she is neglected, pops in and out of the film with no genuine pattern and her eventual satisfaction (if it even lasts) is a one-line footnote between much bigger scenes involving other characters.

The Jojo and Sadie storyline worked best when the two were singing. Indeed, one of the true proofs of how well-told the story is without the need for extensive dialogue comes in one of the clearest scenes where the two break-up while singing on stage. It is a powerful bit of acting and it works without either character breaking out of their song or stage presence.

While Across The Universe may be light on character and plot, it is not light on acting and great performances. With a mostly young cast (looking the principle characters up on the IMDB, most of them are cited with this as their first major project), it is astonishing how good the acting and the musical performances are. Amid cameos from Bono, Joe Cocker, and Eddie Izzard, Dana Fuchs, T.V. Carpio, Martin Luther McCoy, and Joe Anderson give memorable performances using mostly song as opposed to dialogue.

Jim Sturgess plays Jude and he is effective in making the transition between working class guy to love interest to strung-out artist. He has a wonderful sense of body language and his subtle changes in posture throughout the movie help easily and expressively define his character’s emotional state.

The film is headlined by Rachel Evan Woods as Lucy and it’s about time she got a lead role! I first got a load of Evan Rachel Woods’ pipes in the second season finale to Once And Again (Season 1 reviewed here!) and it has only improved since then. Her voice carries much of the film and she has a wide-eyed, wholesome quality that brings Lucy instant credibility. Her transformation into an educated antiwar activist is the essential character growth of the film and it works through her performance. She loses the shine in her eyes and replaces it with a fierce determination. Wood has that ability and she uses that.

Now on DVD, Across The Universe is presented such that it almost makes it worth seeing despite not being on the big screen any longer! The DVD features an extensive and interesting commentary track with Julie Taymor and her music producer Elliot Goldenthal. As well, there are deleted scenes and extensive featurettes featuring behind-the-scenes information. Still, it helps to see this film on the biggest screen possible!

Director Julie Taymor makes another winner with Across The Universe, though it is not for everyone. This film requires a less linear and literal sense to enjoy it. It is artistic, but it manages to tell a story and do that well. The visual effects and sense of surrealism make it seem like a trip through some of the best music videos featuring lyrics by the Beatles ever. It’s a great way to spend an evening and it’s a strong recommend to see it while it’s on the big screen; anyone looking for something truly imaginative and visually impressive will be glad they did!

For other musicals, please check out my reviews of:
The Phantom Of The Opera
Chicago
The Lion King

7/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Coldness Of Politics, The Ides Of March.

The Good: Decent story, Most of the acting, Most of the character work
The Bad: Details with the characters, Clooney's acting, Some of Clooney's directoral choices.
The Basics: The Ides Of March has most of the makings of a great film, but never pops to get out of the "good movie" rut.


It is a rare thing that I have the chance to talk with someone right after a movie is over about the film, but tonight, when someone at the screening for The Ides Of March politely asked me to move seats so she could sit beside her husband, I tried to discourage her by telling her I was a reviewer and that I'd be writing with my left hand, which might be inconvenient to her. This did not have the desired effect. And, after the film was over, she asked me what I thought of the movie and after she left, the guy on my other side struck up a conversation with me on it. I was surprised because I actually had some real concrete thoughts on the film immediately and when he asked questions about how the movie could have been reordered to make it more interesting, I had thoughts on his ideas, pretty quickly. But what struck me was right off the bat, his question to me was, "what are you going to rate it?" and he didn't seem at all phased when I came back pretty much right away with "seven out of ten."

The Ides Of March is a seven out of ten film; it could have been great, but it doesn't quite get there. And it won't be reworked, because it comes out tomorrow. But the film was one I was excited to see, because when I saw Crazy Stupid Love. (reviewed here!), I was more than a little wowed by Ryan Gosling. The idea of a political thriller with him, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti was enough to get me to go out on a cold night. And when Evan Rachel Wood made her first appearance, I thought, "Yea! This is going to be wonderful!" But the movie never quite popped and the unfortunate truth is that most of the problems come from George Clooney. Clooney takes an uncharacteristic amount of blame because he is surprisingly uncharismatic as an actor, focused on poorly when he is directing himself and he co-wrote the script which had some moments where smart characters do uncharacteristically stupid things for people in that business.

Mike Morris is the governor of Pennsylvania and he is in a tight Democratic primary for president against Arkansas senator Pullman. Neck and neck going into Ohio, it appears that Morris has a slight advantage and might well be the Democratic nominee in a contest where it appears the Republicans cannot mount a victory. Working for his campaign are Stephen and Paul, with Paul working as chief campaign strategist. While Paul solicits an endorsement from the influential senator from North Carolina that will put the Morris campaign mathematically over the top, Stephen works to keep things at headquarters running smoothly. Following the debate between Morris and Pullman, though, Stephen is given an enigmatic phone call from Pullman's Campaign strategist, Tom and against his judgment, Stephen takes the meeting.

Tom shares with Stephen internal tracking numbers that show Pullman winning the Ohio primary because of that state's open primary ballot, where Independents and Republicans can vote in the Democratic primary. Tom asks Stephen to jump ship and join Pullman's campaign to help take the heat off the Right helping Pullman with the state. As Stephen wrestles with both the decision and whether or not to disclose to Paul and Morris himself, Stephen gets involved with a senior interns, Molly. And as he and Molly become closer, a late-night phone call to her phone clues Stephen in to the idea that all is not right with the campaign.

The Ides Of March does some things very right. First, it is stylish in the way it is shot, in terms of color schemes. Clooney films the movie to look perpetually cold and there is a strikingly sterile mood to the piece that accents the ugly dogfight between the two Democrat candidates.

As well, the characters are universally interesting. Morris is a likable enough guy with a real sense of vision. Stephen describes him idealistically as a man who will actually change people's lives and when he says it to the jaded reporter, Ida, it is almost enough to make us believe it. Stephen seems caught in a real bind and watching him wrestle with that decision is interesting at the very least. But watching Tom explain his game is even better. There is a magnetic quality to politics when it is played and The Ides Of March captures quite well the sense of gamesmanship that professional politicians are engaged in.

And most of the acting is decent. Evan Rachel Wood steals virtually every scene as Molly. She becomes the new Meryl Streep as Molly and had the film been made forty years ago, it would have have been her. But the movie is now and Wood rocks the part with more than just Hollywood good looks. She has matured into a woman with substance, quiet and precise delivery and a real presence. She holds her own with Gosling and dominates on a screen where Giamatti and Hoffman are playing some of their best game.

But the wonderful performances highlight just how frigid Clooney is and the movie gets too many things wrong to allow the viewer to become fully immersed. First, Clooney seems to be shooting himself in the foot twice as fast and with unusually heavy gauges of shotguns. Pardon the splitting metaphors, but the two notes I have for Clooney's acting in my notes are "stiff" and "restrained." And I have a theory. . . .

. . . welcome to Oscar Pandering Season! Here's the theory: George Clooney is a nice guy, but with The Ides Of March he is making a serious bid in the 2011 Oscar Pandering Season. My theory is, Clooney's a swell enough guy to think there's enough to go around and this year, what he's after is the Best Director nod. Sure, he'd like The Ides Of March to get Best Picture (it won't happen), because with him as an actor, director, producer and writer for it, his already golden name becomes platinum for five year's worth of contracts. But I don't think Clooney is greedy, I think he wants his Best Director award, so he is setting Gosling up for Best Actor and maybe Wood up for a Supporting Actress. And they deserve it. But I think Clooney purposely is taking himself off the field for the Best Actor.

And that kills The Ides Of March. Here's why the above paragraph isn't just Monday Morning Quarterbacking: Clooney kills too much of The Ides Of March by setting Gosling up for Best Actor without performing to his own strengths. Clooney is so cold as Morris that virtually every viewer will watch the movie and ask, "Is this the best he can do?" and "How did this guy get to the place where he could credibly run for President?!" It's true. Clooney has any number of Presidential qualities, but in addition to being articulate and strong, he has always had charisma. Except in this movie. Morris is dull and when he pitches a plan to educate all of the children in the U.S., he sounds like he is writing a menu. When he gives speeches, he sounds like he is reading poorly off a teleprompter. It is only in the film's final speech that he actually becomes vibrant enough to be believable.

And Clooney directs as if his intent is to let everyone but him shine. In one of the film's more important, but subtle, scenes, Morris and his wife are talking in the car about the campaign. Clooney focuses more on her than on himself; for most of the scene only his lower jaw is in frame. Thus, the viewer is not privy to his reaction shots or even most of the emotion in his face and eyes and he conveys important ideas to the one character his character is supposed to be intimate with. So, he pretty much guts his own part in the movie and the only saving grace is that the other actors pick it up wonderfully.

Even so, the movie is not flawless. Marisa Tomei's reporter character Ida, ostensibly in the movie to illustrate Stephen's arc from idealist to jaded may add realistic depth and complexity to the movie, but it beats the thematic horse to death. But the biggest problems in character come from Stephen. Stephen is supposed to be an expert gamer in the political machinations that surround him. And yet, he makes three mistakes that I caught instantly. Without ruining anything substantive to the film, here are some political mistakes made that "experts" in the field do not usually make:
1. They do not sit and have drinks with underage campaign interns (Molly in 20 and she is drinking in Kentucky at a bar with Stephen, where the drinking age is 21),
2. They do not pull money from the campaign to pay hush money from (always have your own cash on hand to pay off people!),
and 3. When dealing with unstable people whom you have just fired, always make sure they actually go in to their appointments; don't leave them in a waiting room.

Sadly, my biggest gripe with the film is that the movie isn't quite smart enough to make issues with these, instead focusing on a much more manageable faux pas with Stephen taking Tom's meeting. Those of us spoiled by The West Wing (reviewed here!) will be underwhelmed with the conflict in The Ides Of March and miss snappy dialogue and characters that pop and candidates we actually care about. The Ides Of March is cold, primary politics cold and while it does a lot right, it mostly just leaves the viewer feeling frigid.

For other political movies, please check out my reviews of:
Fahrenheit 9/11
Charlie Wilson's War
You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush


7/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Another Reason Stockard Channing Was Happy To Be A Regular On The West Wing!

The Good: Moments of humor, More character than I anticipated
The Bad: Predictable, Doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. No great acting.
The Basics: A film lamed by inconsistencies in simply what it is.


Any time I sit down to write a review and my two first choices for review title are "Nothing to Write Home About" and "Not As Bad As I Anticipated," then I know I'm in a bind. Practical Magic fell into that category. It's the ultimate average film. Nothing extraordinary is put on the screen, nothing terribly below average creeps in. It's an average film. This was another review that my recommendation came down to the question. Sometimes, I think we reviewers forget what the question at the bottom is. "Would you recommend this to a friend?" Well, I know one of my friends who would be offended by the way witches are portrayed in this film and the rest, well, I don't think they'd much like it.

So, let's begin there, shall we? Practical Magic is the story of two sisters who are witches who have tried to escape their backgrounds. Gillian decided to do this by basically driving west and disappearing for years to be, well, basically a slut in California. Okay, I used "basically" way too much in that last sentence. Sorry. I'll do better in the next one. The main focus of the story seems to be Sally who stayed in the same town as the aunts who raised her and her sister. She marries a man who is perfect for her, has two wonderful children and then he's killed. Bummer. At this point, Gillian decides to return to the sister (and aunts) she abandoned for emotional support. Unfortunately, she brings a creepy guy with her who the sisters end up killing. Twice.

Oh well.

First of all, I'm sick of contrived plots. I honestly am. In this case, the first time Jimmy dies, Sally does the smart thing I'm always waiting to see in films; she says "Let's go to the police." At which point, Gillian says what the reckless person in films always says, "No, we can't." And, of course, previously-law abiding Sally agrees. Of course. At least Detective Frank Bumstead in Dark City (reviewed here!) addresses this when John Murdock flees. Here it's just aggravating to watch. I mean, it's physically difficult for anyone over twenty to watch this scene and say anything other than, "Oh come on!" Usually, we don't say that. Here, it's impossible to not sit up and say exactly that.

So, naturally, the sisters decide to reanimate the corpse, because, if you're not going to the police, you might as well raise the dead to clear your name. Of course, this backfires and Jimmy ends up dead again. Unfortunately, it leads to two other extensions of the plot which make this twenty minute concept into a 103 minute movie. The first is a police officer comes and ends up investigating Jimmy's disappearance. It's funny because, the moment he steps into the film the reaction I had was, "Well, isn't that convenient." This leads to Sally's next attempt at love, this time sans help of meddling aunts. The other scene is the Gillian exorcism as she ends up somewhat possessed by Jimmy. This, in turn, leads to the culminating scene in which Nicole Kidman is seen sweeping. Yup, she uses a broom and does some manual labor. That might be one of the few reasons to watch the film.

The true disappointment is seeing talented actors go to waste. I'm not talking Sandra Bullock (see my other reviews of films she's done for her nickname in my pantheon) or Nicole Kidman (who I've yet to see do anything in acting that convinced me of anything, though I must say her sheet scene in Batman Forever (reviewed here!) was almost enough to recommend that film). I'm talking Stockard Channing who does an excellent job on The West Wing relegated to the unmemorable aunt role. I'm talking Evan Rachel Wood who continues to surprise me weekly on Once And Again (season two reviewed here!) playing one of Sally's daughters; recognizable, but sadly a non-entity. Perhaps the most outstanding acting to be done in the entire work is by Mark Feurstein. He plays a doting, happy father and husband quite well. I was genuinely sad to see him leave the film so early.

So as I write this, I find myself liking the film less, or at least sounding like I do. Perhaps it's Sandra Bullock's impossibly neat and straight hair or Nicole Kidman's annoying midriff displayed throughout the film. The truth is, I laughed a couple of times. And more than that, I was surprised by the way Sally's character was actually developed. She was empathetic. She had very real desires and thoughts. Too bad she ended up in this particular film.

The film suffers from not being too comedic and not being dramatic, yet trying to span both. It fails. The film suffers from a critic who has seen this before and suggests that you have, too. Ultimately, an unmemorable film with nothing superlative; not even its faults.

For other films featuring Sandra Bullock, please check out:
The Proposal
The Blind Side
Crash
Miss Congeniality
28 Days
Forces Of Nature

4/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2001 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Partnerships In Transition: Once And Again Season Two

The Good: Excellent acting, nice character development, good balance, Good writing
The Bad: Awkward soap-opera moments, Dramas outside the family
The Basics: While Rick and Lily evolve their relationship, they run into many problems with their children, ex-spouses, and occupations in this realistic drama.


The original concept for Once And Again was a good one; two divorced parents meet, fall in love, and navigate the struggles of blending their families. In the first season of the television drama, Once And Again (first season DVD set is reviewed here!) fell out of balance, in the mid-season shifting abruptly from the new partnership of Lily Manning and Rick Sammler to the end of the partnership between Lily and her husband Jake. Rick falls out of play for much of the latter-half of the first season.

The producers of Once And Again apparently realized this and the second season of the show returns with the partnership of Lily and Rick front and center, evolving naturally through the second season. In fact, the show's best moments focus on Rick and Lily, though Rick's daughter Jessie gets some awesome developments and scenes. Conversely, the season's disappointing aspects come in the form of the larger than life issues that the show suddenly takes on. Allow me to explain.

The second season of Once And Again begins a few months after season one's finale, with Rick and Lily reconnecting following a summer mostly-apart. They take hesitant steps to move as a couple into the lives of their various children and those efforts are balanced with them taking time to be together. As Rick and Lily get closer, Eli becomes more rebellious and he starts a band, Grace finds herself hanging out with social misfits and outcasts, Jessie develops an eating disorder (cleverly alluded to in the first season), and Zoe goes through the usual struggles of a preteen. Lily finds new strength in her new job, though she must deal with sexual harassment and her sister Judy who revamps the bookstore she previously owned.

On the other end, Rick and Miles Drintell begin work on a mammoth development known as Atlantor. Atlantor makes Rick a public figure and the scope of the development puts him under attack by Karen, his ex-wife, who represents many community organizations that object to the Atlantor project.

Unfortunately, as much of the plot becomes consumed with Rick duking it out with Karen and Grace over the Atlantor project, the show gets away from the meat of the concept. Not the Lily/Rick relationship, which becomes deeply intertwined with the Atlantor issues, but rather the concept of a family drama that focuses on the realism of attempting to blend two families. The show takes on an overly dramatic quality at times with Rick and Karen ending up in court a few times, adding something of a fantastic quality to the show.

In stark contrast, the Jessie storyline, wherein her anorexia is exposed and treated, is brilliant for its realism. Once Jessie gets into counseling, the show has numerous scenes that are unlike anything else on television. Jessie talks, the therapist listens, we see a young woman working through problems. Nothing huge or earth-moving, but certainly leaps and bounds for the character.

And this is, ultimately, a show about characters, individuals who do things and grow in different directions. Here is how the second season finds them:

Lily Manning - Reconciled to divorcing Jake and getting on her life with Rick, Lily juggles her love for Rick, her children and her job. Her story is one of standing by her new man through troubles while she confronts difficulties of her own at work,

Rick Sammler - Unwittingly finds himself in the crosshairs of public debate when his project with Miles Drintell becomes a huge development that outrages local advocacy groups. He must deal with reaching out for his potential success and taking it, while dealing with his rebellious son, his adversarial ex-wife and his anorexic daughter. All this while maintaining and growing a relationship with Lily,

Jake Manning - Devoted to the restaurant, he works to be a better father to Grace and Zoe while moving on with his life. That is, until a Giant Plot Moment, which will shatter his life forever,

Karen Sammler - Now befriended to Judy, Karen must wrestle with issues of letting go of both Eli and Jessie. She develops the strength to make decisions completely independent of Rick, with results that radically change the family,

Eli - Suddenly starts a band, falls in with a troubled girl named Carla and rebels against everything as his academic and sports life suffers,

Grace - Befriends a social misfit named Carla, learns to drive, and starts to date a social outcast named Spence. As she spends time with Carla and Eli, she finds herself troubled to realize that her feelings are a lot more confused than she originally suspected,

Jessie - In denial about her parents' never reconciling, she develops an eating disorder. Her story is one of finding herself and growing up,

Zoe - Provides comic relief,

and Judy - No longer with Sam Blue, she befriends Karen and puts her struggle to find love into her bookstore, with brilliant results.

This is, at its best, a family drama with character at its center. The advantage of Once And Again is that its characters are brought to life by an immensely talented cast. One of the ironies of the casting for Once And Again is that it is an adult show that gave rise to Shane West, a teenage heartthrob. Those who moon over West are far too young to "get" this show. Shane West is, however, remarkably talented as Eli and he plays off Billy Campbell brilliantly.

The real winners in the second season of Once And Again are the women. Susanna Thompson evolves her character of Karen from a somewhat monolithic antagonist to Rick in season one into a fully developed, complex, emotive character. Thompson's brilliance is that she manages to make the transformation through her body language, her expressions a softening of her tone, a movement of her eyes. She is brilliant and it is clear the actress is contributing a lot to the character's intricacies.

Julia Whelan, who plays Grace Manning is similarly brilliant. Clearly classically trained, Whelan is a rising star whose talent will take her very far. She plays the average and disaffected young woman perfectly, portraying Grace with something more than what is in the lines and words she delivers. Whelan is brilliant at exploding the potential of Grace with her soulful eyes and passionate deliveries.

The hands-down best performances in the second season of Once And Again are delivered by young actress Evan Rachel Wood. She is brilliant in her character struggles as she - in the course of the season - transforms Jessie from a girl into a young woman. Wood is charismatic, never pushing Jessie from angsty realism into melodrama. She is a pro and her scenes, especially the counseling scenes which have the potential to be gruesomely awkward, radiate with intrigue and nuance that is far beyond anything any other young actor or actress is doing on screen today. She is, frankly, awesome and her performances are worth the price of the boxed set DVD alone!

As for the DVD set, it's nice (a lot thinner than the originally-released Season 1 boxed set). Unfortunately, fans of the series are likely to remain disappointed with the way Buena Vista fails to support this title. One episode has commentary. That's it. No deleted scenes, no behind-the-scenes, nothing. One episode with commentary. Is the commentary good? Yes. Could fans of the show hope for more? Yes.

On the plus side, there is still one more season that could be packed with extras. This is a show that deserves them. A wonderful show for anyone who has been divorced, struggles with relationship issues or anyone who wants to watch talented people act like individuals going through (mostly) realistic struggles in life, love, parenting and/or growing up.

For other dramas focused on families, please check out my reviews of:
Veronica Mars
Freaks And Geeks
Parenthood Season One

10/10

For other television program reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Family Drama At Its Best: Once And Again Season One Succeeds!

The Good: Amazing character work, Great acting, Nice plots
The Bad: Imbalance in the use of cast and characters, No DVD bonus features!
The Basics: Once And Again tells the story of two families that are coming together when their single parents fall in love, and all of the repercussions of that!


Every now and again, a television show comes along that is just plain fabulous and it deserves the acclaim it receives. They are few and far between and at the end of the 1990s, the only one that actually achieved its acclaim and deserved it was arguably NYPD Blue. My favorite, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, never received the praise it deserved and so until Once And Again came along, there was not a show that was both purely great and recognized by the critics that lasted long enough to find its audience (Sports Night, for example dying a horrible death right around the same time Once And Again was on). Once And Again deserved the praise it received and it never deserved the lack of audience it suffered.

Once And Again tells the story of the Sammlers and the Mannings, two families that are marred by divorce and have resulted in two children a piece being raised by two parents separately. Rick Sammler is father to Jessie and Eli, ex-husband to Karen. Lily is in the process of divorcing her cheating husband Jake and takes pride in being the mother of Grace and Zoe. In the pilot episode, Rick and Lily meet and fall in love.

Their love, it seems, is continually complicated by the various factors in their lives. Rick's son Eli has a learning disability and his ex-wife Karen is almost as demanding with Rick as she is with Eli. Jessie faces self-confidence issues and the youthful fantasy of having the whole family she was born into together. But the bulk of the complications come on Lily's side. Lily and Jake are not yet divorced and as the season goes on, Lily has to face that and she does, with an indiscretion with Jake. Their one night fling sickens Lily and taints her relationship with Rick. As the two slowly work back to one another, the divorce with Jake gets ugly over the restaurant Jake and Lily are part owners in. To complicate things more, family crisis after family crisis arises to strain their relationship.

But through it all, there is this love.

At the end of the day, this is a drama about love, how people love and how it works in complicated, modern-day family situations. The coming together of two different families is something that has not been explored well in the film media and Once And Again is pretty much the best exploration of it out there. Why? Such blended families, those where there are children from prior marriages in both adults' life, are complicated and therefore need more than simply ninety minutes to tell the story with all of the variables well. Therefore, to do a story about a blended family, one needs a television series, not just a film.

Once And Again is an adult television show. The adults are dealing with adult problems like love, children, divorce, infidelity, and death. There's nothing childish about the series, though some of the episodes do focus on the problems and perils encountered by the children in their schools and life outside. The episodes are written with a keen insight for the way people interact and live their lives. The dialog in Once And Again is tight and realistic. The people speak more as real people we might know or as people in the situations they find themselves in than individuals in a drama series. And Once And Again is serialized, requiring an adult commitment to the show week after week to build the characters up and progress them forward.

That is not to say that the series is not entertaining. The realism only makes it more entertaining. It fills a void in television that existed before the series came on and has existed since it was canceled. The characters are interesting and they find themselves in difficult situations and how they get themselves out of them are worthy of attention. Part of this is entertainment is created by what I call the "honesty rooms." The characters speak directly to the viewer at different points, articulating their deepest, most honest thoughts. Some of them are desperately painful, like admissions of deep wounds, some are hilarious, such as when Grace notes that "boys are so dumb. It's amazing they survive."

The only real problem with the first season of Once And Again is the imbalance in the show toward Lily's character. As the season goes on, she dominates in a way that almost buries the Rick character. Still, all of the characters are intriguing. The main stories involve:

Lily, who opens the series with an inner strength that causes her to separate from her cheating husband, Jake. Lily falls in love and experiences a rebirth, which empowers her to take charge of her own life, live without fear and strike out against Jake and pursue a new profession all while exploring a relationship with Rick.

Rick Sammler is a somewhat depressed divorcee who comes alive when he meets Lily. He is plagued by his ex-wife Karen and as his personal life gets better and better, he falls into a destructive work relationship with a crazy advertising mogul named Miles Drentell to the detriment of his partnership with fellow architect David, who is perpetually single.

Karen Sammler is a perpetual worrier who wants what's best for Jessie and Eli, but finds her position in their lives threatened by Lily. As a result, she opens up to love again, first to a kind, but dull man, then to a much younger man who challenges her in every way.

Jake Manning is the owner of Phil's, the restaurant founded by Lily's father and now managed by Jake. Stressed by his extramarital affairs and complications with the restaurant, Jake works hard to be a decent father, but usually comes across as a jerk.

Eli Sammler, a basically good young man who comes to sexual maturity in the first season and is forced to prioritize his life when his learning disability makes him choose between doing what he wants and being knocked off the basketball team where he thrives.

Grace Manning, a young woman mired deeply in fear of everything that surrounds her. In the first season, she faces the dissolving of her family and in the process opens up to the consequences of truth and her first love. She's perhaps the most realistic and intriguing character in the series and her process of coming out of her isolation is compelling and wonderful to watch.

While Jessie, Zoe and Lily's sister Judy all have character arcs and growth throughout the season, they are primarily supporting players in the first season of Once And Again. They tend to live in the orbits of the primary characters listed above. At least in the first season.

The acting in Once And Again is magnificent. While Sela Ward won awards for playing Lily, Billy Campbell, who plays Rick is just as good. Both have subtle, emotive performances that traverse the whole range of human emotion. As the series progresses, we see them loving, whimsical, angry, hurt, and impassioned. Add to that, Ward and Campbell have wonderful screen chemistry that makes their relationship believable.

But the real acting winners come in the supporting performances of Susanna Thompson and Julia Whelan. Thompson plays Karen with so much longing and hurt that it is sometimes difficult to watch her. Yet, she is compelling and strong as an actress consistently delivering empathetic performances that are worthy of awards. As her character must face the loss of the potential with her ex-husband, Thompson continues to deepen her performance with subtlety and nuance.

Julia Whelan plays Grace and the actress has a presence to her that is impressive for such a young person. She dominates her scenes as a character that begins as a scared brat and quickly deepens into an individual that has layers of fear that are being pulled back to reveal a confused, vulnerable, intelligent and loving young woman. Whelan is an expert at using her face and body language to portray the changes in confidence Grace undergoes in the first season.

Over three DVDs, the 22 stories of the first year of the Sammlers and Mannings is told wonderfully with realism and compassion and a clear understanding of how humans work. The only real disappointment in the DVD collection is that there are no extras. And this is certainly a show that deserves as much commentary as it has critical acclaim and loyal fans.

While not a perfect show, this is possibly the strongest first season of any television show I've ever seen (right up there with Sports Night), making it a great value in DVD form.

For other family dramas, please check out my reviews of:
Parenthood - Season 1
Gilmore Girls
Six Feet Under

9.5/10

For other television or film reviews, please check out my index pages on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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