Ben Affleck Becomes The Accountant And Makes An Engaging Crime Thriller!

The Good: Impressive acting, Good balance between action and intelligent storytelling, Good character study
The Bad: Light on character development for supporting characters, Director telegraphs the villain
The Basics: The Accountant is a well-developed crime thriller that has law enforcement and assassins on the trail of a forensic accountant who works for the world's most dangerous clients.


There are very few movies that get me intrigued enough to watch them based upon the previews, but during one of the recent awards shows, there were previews for The Accountant that actually hooked me. The Accountant is a Ben Affleck crime thriller that plays into the current obsession in popular culture with presenting characters who have conditions like autism.

Following a trail of bodies into a crime scene, The Accountant flashes back to 1989 an a neuroscience laboratory, where Christian Wolff is diagnosed as having a disorder relating to his sensory sensitivity. His parents are resistant to leaving him with the doctor there, but when he freaks out over being unable to finish a puzzle because it is missing a single piece, they capitulate. Wolff grows up to be an accountant, where he helps poor people with getting the most back on their taxes. At the Treasury Department, Ray King brings in Marybeth Medina to extort her do become an agent for the Treasury Department working under him. Wolff is a forensic accountant who has worked for a slew of shady organizations around the world to uncook the books and discover who has stolen millions from those organizations.

Wolff is hired by Living Robotics, Lamar Black's company, when a junior staff member uncovers an irregularity in the books. Wolff arrives at Living Robotics where he is teamed with Dana Cummings, who noticed the money was missing. In a single night, Wolff discovers a leak at Living Robotics of more than sixty million dollars. While Wolff is figuring out who is embezzling at Living Robotics, Brax is assassinating his way through corporate criminals, including the CFO of Living Robotics. Wolff is upset when he is paid off before actually finishing the job at Living Robotics. When assassins come after Christian and Dana, Wolff prepares to liquidate his entire life and disappear, but he goes to save Dana first. In saving Cummings, Wolff finds himself embroiled in the mystery of who stole the $61 million and was returning it to Living Robotics.

Packed with flashbacks, The Accountant tells the story of Christian Wolff by illustrating his rough childhood to show how he came to be a forensic accountant. Wolff's childhood was complicated by a military father and a mother who could not handle the stress of raising Christian after she learned how difficult his disorder would make life. After his mother left, Christian ended up in prison, where he was mentored by Francis Silverberg in how to survive in the black market. Between that and his proficiency in long-range target shooting, Christian Wolff's character is very well-established before much of the film's action begins.

Playing opposite Wolff's narrative is Marybeth Medina's search for Wolff, during which she learns of the checkered aspects of his past, including a killing spree he went on in New York City where he took out key members of a crime family. Medina is hunting for a man believed to be an enemy of the state who essentially aided terrorists, as part of King's desire to end his career in a blaze of glory.

The Accountant affords Ben Affleck a chance to play a very different style of character than he usually does. While Christian Wolff does not give him the chance to go very far outside his wheelhouse, Affleck is able to show off a lot of his ability to perform in a nuanced way in The Accountant. Affleck manages to present the socially-awkward, sensory-challenged Christian Wolff as well-rounded, not stiff. Affleck manages to portray Wolff as socially-awkward, but not stiff. Affleck gives a measured, subtle performance unlike many of his other roles.

The hunt for Wolff by Medina does not give Cynthia Addai-Robinson a lot of a chance to perform. Medina reacts to a lot of exposition that uncovers who Wolff is and what he suffers from. Addai-Robinson is good at emoting for the reaction shots, but Medina's characterization is very quickly established and - because she is being extorted - does not truly grow or develop.

Director Gavin O'Connor weaves together an engaging narrative, though he does so in a way that telegraphs the primary antagonists almost immediately. While J.K. Simmons portrays Ray King as an initial adversary for Wolff, the performances of two others reveals something darker in their characters. Simmons gets through the exposition that reveals his character's backstory in an engaging way, but O'Connor keeps the film's actual antagonists as surprisingly monolithic.

The Accountant features one of the all-time best on-screen assassins as Christian Wolff smartly double taps in all of his close-range kills and his ability to focus in environments that would overload other people's senses make for a plausible killer who is able to perform in the dark, smoke, and loud environments. The Accountant might not have much in the way of deeper themes or compelling reversals, but it is solidly entertaining and general well-made!

For other movies currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
Oasis: Supersonic
My Blind Brother
Cardboard Boxer
The Whole Truth

7/10

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

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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As Much As I Wanted To Champion Transparent . . . Season 1 Is Not All It Should Have Been.

The Good: Amazing performances, Moments of message and plot
The Bad: Predictable plot progression, Incredibly unlikable characters
The Basics: The first season of Transparent lives up to its promise for performance, but loses much of its message amid “premium cable” conceits.


Before I saw the ten-episode debut season of Transparent, I was tremendously excited about it. Jeffrey Tambor is a favorite of mine and watching him accept the Golden Globe Award for his role in Transparent was impressive and damn good television. So, if anything, I was biased going into the first season of Transparent. That excitement faded and it’s a bad sign for the show when the only thing that kept me watching was the recurring guest starring role of Bradley Whitford.

The crux of my issue with Transparent, at least in its first season, is that it is beholden more to the spectacle and formula common to premium cable channels than being truly original or pushing its message. Premium cable channels have a tendency to push the envelope, but it seems like virtually every drama on premium cable insists on presenting a ridiculous Los Angeles view of the world – there is always some combination of hard drug use, infidelity, and wealth that is so high as to alienate most of its audience. The issue with the first season of Transparent is much like the enduring problem with The L-Word (reviewed here!); you lose some of the importance of the message when none of the characters are likable. With The L-Word, it was tough for root for any of the characters when all of them cheated in the course of the series.

In its first season, Transparent has similar issues. The problem is not with protagonist Maura Pfefferman coming out as a transgendered person later in life, it is with the rest of the character traits for the protagonist and all of the supporting character. Maura continually lies to all of her children and encourages them to lie to one another. Maura’s daughter Sarah is not unlikable because she is a lesbian, but rather because she cheats repeatedly on her husband with a married woman who has her own family and children. Her inability to be faithful or have integrity enough to leave her spouse before becoming a homewrecker makes her utterly unlikable. Similarly, Sarah’s younger sister Ali is a drug-addled sex maniac who never comes close to seeming remotely like a self-actualized character. Maura’s son Josh was sexually abused by a babysitter as a child and is now a maladjusted adult with anger issues. And Maura’s ex-wife, Shelly, is a stereotype of an old Jewish lady.

The point here is that the conceits of the family drama are already being turned by having the family’s patriarch come out as a transgendered female. It dilutes the message that transgendered people should be treated equally and with respect when the rest of the characters are so loathsome. While it is reasonable that as Mort transitions into Maura, there would be a number of lies that would be exposed and shed from her life, the rest of the characters being so extremely a-normal and lacking any moral compass is troubling. The whole heavy drug use thing in premium television is overdone and passé by this point and in Transparent it seems utterly droll. Nothing really puts a knife in the argument for equality like characters that are unlikable or who are severely distanced from middle American values (I’m not talking about ridiculous, right-wing Evangelical hatespeech, either; the fact that the story doesn’t include characters who are monogamous, faithful and/or financially strapped in a realistic way). Transparent seems more like a parody of an American family and for anyone who has watched The L-Word and/or Weeds (reviewed here!) will find it to be troublingly formulaic as opposed to audacious. Instead of doing a true pro-transgendered television show, Transparent puts forth a convoluted, familiar-to-cable “cutting-edge” programming conceits show that just swaps out gay, lesbian, young single woman living in New York City or pot dealer for transgendered person.

In the first season of Transparent, Mort Pfefferman decides after living most of his life publicly as a man, he is ready to come out as a transgendered person. When she walks in on her daughter Sarah making out with her ex-girlfriend, Maura is outed to her family. Maura’s children slowly learn of her transitioning and slowly come to accept her. But as Maura publicly transitions, she finds people’s reactions off-putting. Maura causes conflict among her children by giving the family house away to Sarah, continually giving Ali money and lying to them all.

Through flashbacks, Maura’s tormented life is revealed and things like giving the house away comes to make much more sense. Incidents like Maura’s children losing the aged and uncommunicative Ed (their mother’s new husband) and Josh’s very young girlfriend getting an abortion without him are woven against the story of Mort sneaking away from them to spend time out of town as Maura (usually with her trans friend, Marcy).

There are some troubling aspects to the first season of Transparent. Chief among the troubling aspects of Transparent is the backstory for Josh Pfefferman. Josh had a sexual relationship with a babysitter as a fairly young minor. In the course of Josh falling apart in the first season, he gets the answer to an important question, “Did his parents know what was going on at the time?” The answer, though, has no real effect on the character, which is a terrible message to be sending to parents who abet childhood sexual abuse (i.e. it won’t matter, your kid will thank you for it as an adult?! WTF?!).

In the first season of Transparent, the essential characters are:

Maura Pfefferman – The female persona of Mort Pfefferman, who is finally ready to come out to her adult children. She supports Ali financially and seems to empathize most with Sarah. She moves out of the family’s old home, encounters people who knew her as a man, and gets advice on transitioning from someone else who lives in the same complex. She slowly finds support and happiness as she redefines herself,

Sarah Pfefferman – The oldest daughter of Maura and Shelly, she is deeply unhappy with her husband. Reconnecting with her ex-girlfriend from college, she abandons her husband, breaks up her girlfriend’s family, and moves into the Pfefferman family house. She is the first to learn about Maura and is exceptionally supportive of her, even getting to her children to know her new grandmother,

Josh Pfefferman – The most successful of the Pferrerman children, he is working for a record company, though he is sleeping with his talent. When his young girlfriend gets pregnant, aborts the fetus, and dumps him as a manager, his life takes an abrupt turn. He reunites with the woman who was his babysitter, who had sex with him when he was in his mid-teens, before seeking guidance from the new rabbi in the area,

Ali Pfefferman – The youngest daughter of Maura and Shelly, she has never found her niche. She is going to go back to school yet again, after working to get in shape (ostensibly to have a threesome with her trainer and his roommate). Maura gives her money, asking her to not tell her siblings,

Tammy Cashman – A realtor who is living with her wife and their children when Sarah re-enters her life and decides her orientation truly is lesbian. She abandons the family she has had for years for Sarah,

and Shelly – Maura’s ex-wife, a parody of an old Jewish woman.

Transparent is notable for trying, but where it truly succeeds is with the performances of Jeffrey Tambor and Bradley Whitford. Tambor is magnificent throughout, but the best scenes in the season all have Tambor and Whitford together and Maura and Marcy figuring out their new identities as they explore their gender identities away from the prying eyes of their families. Tambor is subtle and plays Maura with the perfect mixture of tormented and triumphant to be watchable and relatable.

But Tambor and Whitford’s infrequent appearances are not enough to justify watching the first season. For someone psyched about Transparent, that was an unpleasant surprise.

For other works with Melora Hardin, please check out my reviews of:
17 Again
27 Dresses
Thank You For Smoking

5/10

For other television season reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Juliet Finds Out In Psych Season Seven!

The Good: Good character development, Decent continuity, Good performances, Very funny
The Bad: Cases continue to have a repetitive/predictable quality to them, Unfortunately obvious product placement
The Basics: Just as Psych was in danger of getting completely stale, it shakes up the formula with Shawn telling Juliet the truth about his abilities.


I’ve been waiting for almost a year to see the seventh season of Psych and the joke, having now watched all fifteen episodes of the season, is that I am psyched to be able to review it. After the extended wait to see the season, I was thrilled that the season was actually one of the funniest seasons of Psych yet. Perhaps as cool as the fact that the show was abruptly funny again in a way that it had not been for the prior ones (at least, not in any memorable ways), is the fact that the show has managed to successfully reinvent itself. The penultimate season of Psych shakes up the familiar formula of the series with genuine character development and continues the series moving forward with a climax that shifts the direction of the series to set up the final season.

Halfway through the season, Juliet learns the truth about Shawn Spencer and that changes the tone of the latter half of the season. In its seventh season, Psych is largely about relationships. Carlton Lassiter has a real shot at love when Marlow is released from prison and they find themselves at the mercy of a vindictive parole officer until Lassiter decides to commit to her. Gus has yet another relationship that seems doomed to failure when it turns out Rachael has a seven year-old son and she needs to take him to Europe for months. But the big relationship changes come with Shawn and Juliet. The two move in together and when Shawn tells Juliet the truth, she pushes Shawn away.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, Psych follows Shawn Spencer, a super-observant young man who fakes being a psychic in order to assist the Santa Barbara Police Department on hard-to-solve murder cases. In the seventh season, Shawn and his partner Gus go rogue in order to find who shot Henry. They get embroiled in a case that finds a charity sending weapons to war-torn areas worldwide. With Henry wounded and in need of convalescence, Shawn considers moving in with him, which appears to push Juliet away as she gets involved with a case that involves an internet dating service that is the common link in a string of murders. Shawn and Gus help a pair of college students in their attempt to prove Bigfoot is living in a nearby woods and Juliet’s new stepfather turns out to not be the milquetoast accountant he appears and Henry gets embroiled in a Mexican mob case that nearly leaves him and the rest of the team dead. After a parody of Clue (or And Then There Were None), Gus’s relationship with Rachael is put on the rocks when he takes her to the Cirque where they witness a murder.

At Lassiter’s wedding, Shawn tells Juliet the truth about his investigative technique. In the wake of her learning the truth, she pushes Shawn away and Psych does an experimental episode (a la Sliding Doors) wherein Shawn solves a case split into two different universes (one where he reacts to telling Juliet the truth and another that denies that event occurred). When Juliet kicks Shawn out of the house, Shawn becomes convinced that Juliet’s new roommate is a killer. With the two estranged, Shawn begins to take bigger and bigger risks, like running for Mayor in order to delay a mayoral candidate from succeeding the murdered Mayor of Santa Barbara. Gus accidentally fouls up a crime scene when his terrible boss dies and Shawn only makes it worse when he tries to help. The guys become DJs to try to solve a murder of a DJ and Henry finds a dead body that seems to implicate a plastic surgeon friend of his. The season climaxes in an episode that finds the Santa Barbara Police Department investigated and Juliet has to choose between exposing Shawn or protecting the SBPD!

There is an awkward second climax to the seventh season of Psych. After the season finale of the seventh season, Psych did a musical episode and it is an awkward addition to the season for several reasons. First and foremost, “Psych The Musical” seems to occur before Shawn came out to Juliet and before the end of the season (as climactic events in that episode change the balance of power at the SBPD). While the episode is hilarious, it is an irksome discontinuity in the seventh season.

Far less plot-centered than the prior seasons, Psych Season Seven contains a ridiculously high number of funny lines (most often delivered by Kurt Fuller’s Woody the coroner), but it also contains genuine character development. The characters in Psych actually evolve in the seventh season. To better understand the seventh season of Psych, it helps to know who the characters are:

Shawn Spencer – The fake psychic continues to solve cases with incredibly few initial clues. He becomes protective of his father after Henry is shot and he is even willing to move back in with him . . . until his mother moves in and Shawn walks in on the two in bed together! He decides in a critical moment to be honest with Juliet. When she takes the news poorly, he fights for her at every opportunity, even when it embarrasses her,

Burton Guster – Shawn’s right hand man, he tries to develop a relationship with Rachael, even when he finds out she has a son. He tries to develop the relationship, despite the fact that he is very uncomfortable with Max and Shawn is super-uncomfortable with what he sees as Gus’s legitimate chance at happiness and a good relationship. When that relationship falls apart, he takes care of Shawn as Shawn struggles with his estrangement from Juliet,

Carlton Lassiter – Loosening up significantly, he helps Shawn track down the man who shot Henry. He becomes enthralled with Marlow and happily marries her in order to take the power away from a vindictive parole officer he briefly dated in the past He remains vigilant and gun happy even after his marriage,

Juliet O’Hara – She acts largely as a sidekick though she is much more in tune with Shawn’s sense of humor. But when she sees some of the clues Shawn collects during the case that precedes Lassiter’s wedding, she questions Shawn point blank and learns the truth. Devastated at being lied to for more than six years, she pushes Shawn away. But as she sees the consequences of Shawn stumbling and realizes what it could mean if the truth ever got out, she faces a much bigger decision than what to do with her relationship with Shawn,

Henry Spencer – Having been shot at the prior season’s climax, he finds himself bedridden at the outset of the season. After casting off the annoying woman who plagues him in the hospital, he reconnects with his ex-wife and forges a new friendship with Juliet’s stepfather, despite the fact that friendship gets him shot at. He tries to protect an old friend even when evidence piles up against her and he gives Shawn the emotional kick he needs to tell Juliet the truth,

and Karen Vick – After giving Shawn the off the books encouragement to go after the men who were involved in shooting Henry, she sits out most of the season, save for exposition purposes. She does a ton of shots at Marlow’s bachelorette party and ends the season in her most precarious position yet.

On the acting front, James Roday and Maggie Lawson give the most intense performances of the season. Roday directs the critical episode of the season, but when Shawn and Juliet have their falling out, it gives Roday the chance to play with much more dramatic range. He is intense and plays the wounded man exceptionally well. With an equally wonderful level of skill, Maggie Lawson plays Juliet as hurt, angry, and confused. Lawson plays Juliet with a realism that makes her compelling to watch for the entire second half of the season.

Ultimately, the seventh season of Psych completely reinvigorates the sagging series. Moving beyond the episodic nature of the show’s usual formula, Psych becomes more serialized and intense, making it one of the best seasons of the entire series.

For prior seasons of Psych, check out my reviews of:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6

8/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Clever Only After Hours Of Boredom: Branded Fails!

The Good: Concept, Effects are cool at some points
The Bad: Pacing, Unremarkable acting, Lack of genuine character development, Convoluted plot
The Basics: Branded has moments of conceptual cleverness, but it is much more than the language/cultural divide that robs it of being at all enjoyable!


I have not watched a lot of Russian films. When I sat down to watch the newer film Branded, I had no idea that it was Russian. I was actually excited by the basic concept of Branded, as well, though it takes so long for the very basic concept to actually become evident and then realized. Branded is an overall disappointment and it actually had some similarities in narrative structure to the equally problematic Russian science fiction film Nightwatch (reviewed here!); the film has moments of cleverness, but is ultimately problematically executed and conceptually flawed.

Branded suffers most by the fact that it is billed as a science fiction film, but by the time it gets around to being at all fantastical, the viewer does not care at all. The characters in Branded are utterly bland, the acting is mediocre when it rises above being horrible. In fact, the only thing Branded has going for it when it rises above being boring, insultingly expository and deliberately obtuse is its concept. Trying to get around the either the language barrier (Branded is not dubbed, occasionally subtitled, and is set almost entirely in Russia) or the cultural differences between the U.S. and Russia, Branded includes infrequent voiceovers to explain what the characters are doing or feeling. Branded uses the medium poorly as it fails to clearly show much of what it tells. And what the film does show is a poor execution of the ideas of co-writers/directors Jamie Bradshaw and Aleksandr Dulerayn.

Misha is a young Russian during the era of the Soviet Union. He grows up, barely getting by despite having some wonderful ideas about advertising. He helps a local business owner incredibly increase his vodka shop’s business and realizes he has a real talent for advertising. Striking out on his own as an advertiser, he finds himself allied with the odd, manipulative Bob, who is the uncle of Abby. Bob may actually be an intelligence agent working to destabilize the U.S.S.R. and with the fall of the Soviet Union, Misha has more opportunities to create invasive advertising in Russia as it moves to a capitalist economy. Misha and Abby begin working together and Abby’s reality show results in a reality television star they create ending up in a coma.

As Misha begins to put his life back together, he encounters a mystical force that allows him to see the reality lurking behind life’s illusions. When that happens, he begins to see parasitic organisms attaching to people all over and massive versions of those creatures atop buildings all over Moscow. Misha soon realizes that the entities that no one else can see are the living embodiments of advertising. Misha begins a one-man war to eliminate the brand-based entities by pitting companies and industries against one another in an attempt to free mankind.

Unfortunately for the viewer, the last sentence of that plot description is executed without its purpose being made evident. Instead, Misha begins a series of baffling character moves that have the net result of keeping the humans enslaved by increasingly powerful brands. After most of the film being bogged down by silly exposition, the movie loses that technique in favor for the character working on his own to no clear purpose. The problem with that is that the film becomes a revolutionary story of one man working to save the world . . . without the man ever stepping into the limelight, declaring a noble purpose or having the charisma to pull off the negotiations needed to create brands that are able to wipe out the other brands. Moreover, while the brands are going to all out war with one another, they are still preying upon people constantly.

One of the big missing components in Branded is a direction connection between Misha and the government. Instead, he sets everything into motion, much like the mysterious Marketing Guru played by Max Von Sydow who is integral to creating the brand-based lifeforms. That disconnect is devastating to telling an interesting story. Instead of that aspect of Misha’s struggle, Branded is bogged down with a convoluted relationship between Abby and Misha and the child Abby introduces Misha to after years of the two of them being apart. The love story aspect of Branded is passionless and boring.

Ed Stoppard plays Misha and he is overshadowed in the few scenes he shares with Jeffrey Tambor (who plays Bob). LeeLee Sobieski is unimpressive as Abby and she and Stoppard have less than zero in the way of onscreen chemistry. The film lacks real emotional impact both from the characters and emoted by their actors. Tambor’s initially energetic presentation in Branded fades quickly (Bob is written out remarkably fast) and Max Von Sydow is tragically underused as the primary human antagonist in the film.

Ultimately, Branded is a heavy, oppressive drama that only evolves into something akin to science fiction in its last quarter. The concept is less science fiction and more a visualization of capitalist economics and the allegory falls apart completely as the brands go to war, strengthened by Misha’s efforts to sway the public to meat, away from meat, toward a Japanese vegetarian food chain, etc. Despite hearing the concept and being intrigued by its potential, Branded falls tragically shy of what it could have been.

For other works with Max von Sydow, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Shutter Island
Minority Report
What Dreams May Come
Awakenings
Dune

1.5/10

For other film 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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Ending Charmless, The Hangover Part III Resolves The Franchise On A Downbeat.

The Good: The acting is fine, The action elements work.
The Bad: Not at all funny, Characters get substantially dumber than in previous versions, Does not feel fresh or original in any way.
The Basics: With The Hangover Part III, the franchise comes to an unremarkable, unfunny, action-adventure end.


My instinct when The Hangover Part III was released was to suggest that Jeffrey Tambor was having a very good month. After all, with Netflix releasing the long-awaited fourth season of Arrested Development (reviewed here!) and the cinematic release of The Hangover Part III, Jeffrey Tambor’s star is once more in a prominent position. But, fans burned through the new Arrested Development in hours and Tambor is in, at best, two minutes of The Hangover Part III. In fact, it is the abrupt death of his character, Alan’s father, that sets off the road trip that is the centerpiece of the Hangover franchise adventures.

The Hangover Part III promises viewers it is the end to the story of Phil, Stu, Alan, and (to a much lesser extent) Doug (and a much more significant extent Mr. Chow) that was begun in The Hangover (reviewed here!) and continued in a clunky way with The Hangover Part 2 (reviewed here!). While The Hangover Part III goes to great lengths to try to convince the viewer that The Hangover was the first part in an intended trilogy instead of a runaway summer comedy hit that was then exploited for two mediocre sequels, the relationship between the third film and its predecessors is much more flimsy than fans might want to admit.

First and foremost, in order to make the various conceits of The Hangover Part III work, much of the characterization established in The Hangover had to be thrown out. That is to say that The Hangover was essentially the story of three guys who are roofied, lose a night of their life and spend the subsequent day(s) desperately trying to assemble the clues to piece together what the hell happened to them so they can take responsibility for their actions and recover their lost friend. It’s basically two smart guys and an idiot thrown into a bad situation and acting as detectives in order to find a missing friend . . . with hilarious results. In The Hangover Part III, Phil (especially) and Stu lose most of their innate intelligence in order for their characters to abide by the conceits which allow them to be exploited by the villainous Mr. Chow. In fact, the moment Marshall, who was alluded to in a throwaway line in The Hangover presents the story of gold that was split up and stolen from him, the film heads in painfully obvious directions. If your audience is smarter than the characters and sees the villain’s plan immediately, it undermines the interest one is able to keep in the movie. Sadly, that is exactly what happens with The Hangover Part III.

Opening in Thailand, Mr. Chow makes a daring escape from prison. After killing a giraffe he just bought and causing a nightmare for his father, Alan is reunited with his “wolfpack” for his father’s funeral. Following the funeral, Doug convinces Stu and Phil to help him get Alan to a mental health facility in Arizona. Unfortunately, en route, they are hijacked by Black Doug’s employer, Marshall. Marshall is hunting for Chow, who stole some $21million dollars in gold from him years prior. Marshall keeps Doug as collateral and he tasks Stu, Phil and Alan with finding Mr. Chow. As it happens, Chow recently texted Alan and the trio finds him easily enough.

With Doug’s life in the balance, Chow tells the trio that he needs them to break into his old house to get the gold he stole from Marshall and the three do so . . . until the most obvious double-cross in the world. Set up by Chow, Phil, Alan, and Stu witness Marshall’s brutality and know that he is serious about killing their friend Doug. Tracking Phil’s phone back to Las Vegas, Alan hits on a pawn shop owner and Stu calls in a favor from Jade to track Chow to Caesars. There, the men confront Chow and chase him around Las Vegas with the goal of capturing him and delivering him to Marshall.

There is a noticeable change of tone in The Hangover Part III, certainly as it relates to The Hangover (the truth is The Hangover Part 2 was so forgettable that I cannot make comparisons now, years after its initial release); The Hangover Part III is largely not funny and for most of the film, it does not even try. Instead, this is a remarkably straightforward action movie with the occasional flat-falling joke thrown in. Given how the movie meanders back to Las Vegas and devotes time and attention to the characters getting excited about “Black Doug,” Jade, and the now not-baby “Carlos,” The Hangover Part III stands poorly on its own and instead strives to remind the viewer of the superior film they enjoyed years before. At its best, The Hangover Part III is a series of loosely held together allusions to The Hangover without (until the mid-credits scene) the usual everybody is drugged and wakes up to discover horrible things have happened conceit. Instead, The Hangover Part III is a remarkably straightforward hostage negotiation action adventure movie in many ways. It just happens that the main antagonist is a bit ridiculous.

What is not ridiculous is Marshall, played with usual greatness by John Goodman. Goodman manages to steal the few scenes he is in and add a real sense of menace (albeit somewhat predictable in the reversals he both initiates and is subject to) to The Hangover Part III. Goodman’s Marshall provides the film’s ticking clock and it is far more compelling than simply “man might be late for his own wedding.”

The rest of the acting is fine. Melissa McCarthy’s somewhat understated role as Cassie plays off the more familiar role of Alan well. McCarthy and Zach Galifianakis have decent on-screen chemistry. The others – Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Ken Jeong – reprise their roles well, but give the viewer nothing we have not already seen before. And given that The Hangover Part III is supposed to be Alan’s big emotional journey, Galifianakis is a bit underwhelming, but it is hard to blame him for it. After all, it is not Galifianakis’s fault that he does not repeatedly deliver lines about Alan being in mourning for his father. Instead, after the set-up and a casual reference to it in two subsequent scenes, the death of the most important person in Alan’s life has no resonating effect on the character. So, Galifianakis plays the role of Alan as he always has and he manages not to infuse the character with so much growth that we feel like we are watching It’s Kind Of A Funny Story (reviewed here!) again.

Ultimately, The Hangover Part III is an homage to itself and it succeeds in concluding the franchise in a very different, if humorless, way: may it rest in peace.

For other works featuring Melissa McCarthy, please check out my reviews of:
The Heat
Identity Thief
This Is 40
Bridesmaids
Gilmore Girls
White Oleander
Charlie's Angels
Go

4/10

Check out how this movie stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It’s Back! But Season Four Of Arrested Development Is Hardly Great.

The Good: Wonderful character development/progression, Great in-jokes
The Bad: Very different tone (to start out with).
The Basics: With fifteen episodes, Netflix returns Arrested Development with the entire original cast but short on the charm that made the first three seasons a classic.


When it was announced that Arrested Development (reviewed here!) was being given a fourth season, I was working at a blogging job for a small computer company. In the days that followed the announcement, Netflix revealed that its subscriber base had abruptly increased. I recall writing about how it was incredible that the loyal fan base of Arrested Development would show support for the preproduction by subscribing years ahead of the programs actual release. Today, I find myself wondering what will happen tomorrow. With Season Four of Arrested Development dropping in a single fifteen episode block on Netflix (an event my wife and I enjoyed partaking of beginning at 3 A.M. this morning), I wonder how long that fan base will stick with Netflix. It seemed to me like a tactical miscalculation to release the entire season all at once instead of drawing the season out in order to actually keep those subscribers.

My musings on the relationship between Netflix and Arrested Development is a valid one, but it is also a delaying tactic. The delay comes from not wanting to (inevitably) lose the readers who stop reading after they see the line, “it’s enjoyable, but it lacks the spark that Arrested Development had originally.” Because Season Four has to figure out where all the characters have been since the previous season’s finale, it spends a great deal of time re-establishing characters and filling in the plot and character developments from the past few years and telling new viewers what the loyal fans already know (“Stan Sitwell suffered from alopecia . . .”).

That is not to say that season four is without charm. Mary Lynn Rajskub joins George Sr.’s storyline as a silent character named Heart Fire, who is subtitled hilariously and there is quite a bit of humor pertaining to the housing market collapse in the late 2000’s. The appearance of the cast of Comedy Central’s Workaholics (season 1 reviewed here!) as airport personnel, the watermarks on the screen for all footage from the prior three seasons (“Showstealer Pro Trial Version“), and in-jokes to the original series (like Lindsay wearing the blouse from the first episode) are all cute, but there is nothing in this season as distinctive as “There’s always money in the banana stand” or “No touching!” In other words, it has moments where it is good, but the new version of the show is hardly as distinctive or fresh as it originally was (though “Three does sound bigger” came close). The refreshing aspect of Season Four of Arrested Development is that, after a clunky start, it does get better so that by the longer episode “Red Hairing” the show is actually funny and fun again.

Flashing back to the final episode of Season Three, the fourth season of Arrested Development is built around how none of the members of the Bluth family showed up for Lucille’s hearing in maritime court. The episodes then work up to all of the characters converging on the Quatro De Mayo harbor celebration!

After indebting himself to Lucille Austero and missing his mother’s hearing in maritime court, Michael Bluth finishes the Sudden Valley housing development and when it goes bust, he moves in with George Michael in his son’s college dorm room before fleeing to Pheonix. George Sr. flees to the Mexican border after buying property there to try to sell to the U.S. government to use to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. After Lindsay goes to India on a spiritual retreat, she and Tobias buy a mini-mansion in 2006 and end up at a Methadone Clinic (Tobias thinks it’s “Method One Clinic”) where Lindsay meets Mark Bark, the son of Johnny Bark, the guy she once spent time with in a tree. Tobias ends up as methadone addict and actor while Michael goes to work for Imagine Entertainment. G.O.B. pops up, having started an unsuccessful Christian magic act before George Sr. asks Michael to give him a job. The episodes build up to the hearing and then deals with the aftermath, building up to the Quatro de Cinco and the aftermath of the collapse of Herbert Love’s campaign.

Opening with “Flight Of The Phoenix,” Michael Bluth finds himself in debt to Lucille Austero to the tune of $700,000. After debasing himself with her, he flees to the old model home he and G.O.B. uses a roofie on him. Six months prior that forgetful Quatro de Mayo, Michael was attending the University Of Phoenix while living in George Michael’s college dorm room at UC Irvine. George Michael, his new roommate and Maeby (posing as George Michael’s boyfriend) vote Michael out of the room and he flees to Phoenix, as he has long threatened to do.

“Borderline Personalities” picks up the story of George Sr. and his twin brother, Oscar where the pair is working on fleecing executives in a sweat lodge on the border of California and Mexico. The complicated scheme – whereby Oscar and George swap positions between a sweat lodge and an “inspirational classroom” type situation to get money out of the CEOs – is how George Sr. is avoiding of government questioning after stealing Stan Sitwell’s border wall contract out from under him!

A particularly humorless episode, “Indian Takers” tells the story of how Lindsay ended up in Shuturmurg, India on a mystical journey that ends up in a shopping trip. Returning to the U.S., she trades positive testimony at Lucille’s hearing for a house with Tobias and a fling with Mark Bark. She finds herself on an ostrich farm, missing Lucille’s hearing.

“The B. Team” returns to Michael’s story as he gets a producing credit in Beverly Hills as he goes to work for Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. Loaded with in-jokes and the return of Kitty Sanchez, this episode follows Michael’s quest to get his father to sign his life rights to the project in order to make it happen. Along the way, he assembles a creative team with Warden Gentles, Carl Weathers, and Andy Richter in a pretty righteous lampooning of the Hollywood “creative process.” And he starts dating a mysterious woman who turns out to be the most obvious person possible given the set-up . . .

In “A New Start,” opens with Tobias getting entrapped on a local To Catch A Predator television show and is flashed back to how he went to India! After fracturing his skull in three places, Tobias ends up in City Of Hopelessness Hospital in India! Returning to the United States, Tobias recommits to being an actor and ends up working with Debrie where he tries to make money having his picture taken as the Thing while Debrie goes as the Invisible Woman and the two get repeatedly arrested and fined.

George Sr.’s story is picked up in “Double Crossers.” George Sr. works to aid Republican Herbert Love. After effectively bribing the politician, George discovers that Oscar’s land is not actually on the border. Oscar, posing as George convinces Lucille to send G.O.B. to work on the border. When that does not work out, G.O.B. comes to work for Michael trying to sell the units in Sudden Valley.

Gob’s story comes out in “Collony Collapse.” Before the Queen Mary sailed, George Michael attacks Gob when he finds out his uncle is dating Ann Veal. After deflowering Ann, Gob tries to break up with her (the funniest line of the season comes in this episode when Gob sees a print of Jesus), but ends up engaged to her. When he gets out of the engagement, he falls in with a youth entourage and he almost gets them all killed.

“Red Hairing” catches up with Lindsay in the desert working on the ostrich farm with Marky Bark and their ostrich. After Lindsay finds a check for a facelift from Lucille to Maeby, she goes with Marky to commit an act of nonviolent protest against Herbert Love. The disaster reunites Lindsay and Maeby. It also puts Lindsay in the position to be Herbert Love’s mistress.

Tobias returns to the forefront in “Smashed.” After a stint in prison, is registered as a sex offender (unjustly), and goes to work at Lucille 2’s Austerity rehab clinic. There, he is reunited with DeBrie and begins staging a Fantastic 4 musical. In order to advance that project, Tobias has to meet with Ron Howard and that leads to a catastrophe in the making.

At long last, Lucille gets an episode of her own in “Queen B.” Flashing back to fleeing the S.E.C., Lucille tries to use Buster for her alibi. When he does not come through, she is sentenced to three to five years at a very light security prison. There she joins a Chinese gang that is willing to finance the wall on the Mexican border and gets transferred to Austerity.

“A New Attitude” refocuses on Gob. Committed now to destroying Tony Wonder, he tries to get Michael and his son Steve Holt to help him ruin Tony Wonder. After signing his rights away for the movie, he has George Michael come with him to the Gothic Castle where he actually has a conversation with Tony Wonder and comes up with a new revenge scheme.

Maeby’s years are accounted for in “Senoritas.” After trying to get her parent’s attention, she flunks out of high school, briefly works for Imagine Entertainment, gets fired and goes through high school for five years. After a brief scare where she is worried she will be exposed by an undercover cop at high school, she pimps out her mother and helps George Michael start his own internet company.

“It Gets Better” fleshes out George-Michael’s five years. Right before his software company launches, he was in a band, becomes an exchange student and creates a software that is not what other people think it is.

At long last, the final Bluth gets his episode when Buster is the focus of “Off The Hook.” Flashing back to Buster getting cut off from Lucille, he goes a bit crazy and simulates having her around, but after a night of juice, he gets a juice hangover and misses Lucille’s hearing. After trying to make a go of his relationship with Lucille 2, he re-enlists in the Army as a drone pilot and after an injury is given a new (oversized) hand to replace his hook. He is given an anti-bullying badge and falls in with Herbert Love’s wife, Ophelia. On Cinco De Cuatro (sic), Lucille Austero reveals the truth of her manipulations of Buster to him.

The season finale is “Blockheads” and it opens with George-Michael and resolves the relationship he has with Rebel and has all of the main characters colliding at Herbert Love’s campaign event . . . with all of the self-serving characters focusing on their own stuff.

Like the series that preceded it, Arrested Development includes a wealth of guest stars. In addition to familiar recurring guest stars like Henry Winkler, Ed Begley Jr. and Judy Greer, the fourth season of Arrested Development has cameos by Alan Tudyk, Ben Stiller (he shows up for a shot in a print ad, several background shots and two decent exchanges in a later episode!), Mae Whitman, and Scott Baio. Isla Fisher has a decent recurring role as Rebel and Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Heart Fire steals the scenes she is in. John Slattery’s Doctor Norman also becomes a memorable supporting character. Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig open the new season exceptionally well as younger versions of George and Lucille.

The main cast is incredible. Given that all of the main performers return and they are great in returning to their familiar characters. Portia de Rossi looks unfortunately gaunt at the outset of the season and Mae Whitman fails to look as plain as Ann Veal originally did. But they perform their characters flawlessly and in a familiar way. Jessica Walter is given the best chance to show serious range when the show finally focuses on her. When Lucille has to illustrate complex human emotions, she sells it at least as much as she has previously sold her character’s loathsome indifference to everyone and everything. Will Arnett and David Cross get to perform opposite one another and their time together on The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret (season 1 is reviewed here!) clearly paid off as they are given more scenes together this season and they play off one another incredibly well. For most of this season, the performers look like they are having fun and they play their characters well.

The biggest danger of watching Arrested Development Season 4 as a fan is that one will spend the episodes gleefully pointing out connections between these episodes and the prior ones. By the time I recognized the waitress from a first season episode where Lucille did not understand her question, my wife began glaring at me (you can’t talk over the new episodes of Arrested Development!).

Arrested Development is a welcome show to get new episodes and the fourth season might start a little rockier than fans might want, but it builds up to the logical concluding point and it peaks in the middle well, making it well worth watching and getting Netflix for . . . even if for only this month. In fact, it is executed so well that it feels far more fresh than it actually is (the main plotline between Michael and George Michael was actually done in the first season), though it progresses the characters fans knew and loved. Season Four is more than enough to hold fans over until the movie is released and fans successfully get a fifth season.

For other continuations of once-cancelled shows, please visit my reviews of:
Family Guy - Volume Three
Serenity
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Movie And Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Razor Decision On A Film To Watch That Telegraphs Everything: Under The Tuscan Sun

The Good: Decent characters and acting
The Bad: Telegraphs whole story, Loses direction and purpose in the middle
The Basics: Under The Tuscan Sun winds and drags, but the actors give it a good shot and that's still worth something, even if it doesn't make it into the permanent collection.


For several months now, my mother has been bugging me to watch the movie Under The Tuscan Sun, though she and I share little in the way of cinematic tastes. This could be a side effect of me generally having taste and her enjoying movies for entertainment value alone. I do love my mother, though, so when mom wanted to sit down and make holiday cards together and throw a movie on, I was given the opportunity to watch Under The Tuscan Sun.

Under The Tuscan Sun finds protagonist Frances suddenly alone and divorced after learning her husband was cheating on her. She loses most everything in the divorce and sets off with her three boxes of possessions that she decides to keep for a vacation to Tuscany. There, amid the beauty of the land and the laid-back eccentric pressures of Katherine, she suddenly decides to live spontaneously and buys a Tuscan villa from a Contessa. Soon, she's dabbling in love, helping her best friend/sister Patti out and renovating the place the way she wants it.

The fundamental problem with this movie is that it tells the viewer almost everything before it happens. So, for example, Frances' sudden interest in the villa telegraphs her stumbling upon the villa, where she is told there has to be a sign for her to take it, when a sign promptly appears on cue. Nothing is particularly drawn out in terms of keeping the viewer guessing. So, when Frances commits to a relationship, given how everything else in the movie falls along predictable lines, its outcome is thoroughly predictable. Ultimately, the movie sets up Frances' wish which she articulates and at the end, one of the character points out how she has received all she wished for. There are no real surprises here and as a result, the movie has long sections where it is not terribly engaging.

This is especially true in the middle, right after Patti arrives in Tuscany. When that happens, the movie flounders, though the relationship between Patti and Frances is interesting. It is in this section that we have such pointless, dragging scenes as Marcello rescuing Katherine from the fountain where she is aimlessly, drunkenly wandering. I suppose that's a good metaphor for the movie. Frances' relationship with Martini continues to near-miss, but the story takes an abrupt turn and follows Frances' quest to help young Pawel find love as opposed to her actually dealing with her own story.

The dialogue is decent and the acting is generally good. The characters are interesting at best, entertaining at worst. Frances, who bears much of the weight of the movie, works well. She begins the story as a woman broken by loss and she grows up and out from there, which is what a compelling character arc ought to do. She is accompanied by characters that are generally "types" though and that's somewhat problematic. Of course, we only see Patti and Katherine really in their relations with Frances, but their interactions too conveniently serve the purpose of advancing Frances' character arc.

What keeps the movie watchable, other than the excellent cinematography, is the acting. Sandra Oh gives a wonderful supporting performance as Patti. She brings humor and subtlety to a movie that is often lacking in both. Raoul Bova is fantastic as the kindly Marcello, bringing such on-screen charisma and presence to the role that one finds oneself rooting for Marcello - who is married - to have a relationship with Frances. Bova plays the part simply and with a projected air of goodness that makes the character work wonderfully.

Diane Lane carries the movie as Frances and it is her enthusiasm for the part that keeps the narrative flowing through some of the parts that otherwise drag. She has excellent ability to modulate her moods from lost to gaining traction and she does it with a sense of realism that feels very organic. Lane's ability to play curious carries her through several scenes where her character is simply following others or looking around corners. She is up to the task of leading this movie and she mixes humor well through some of her facial expressions.

Ultimately, this was a close call for me. I'm recommending it as fare to enjoy when you are doing other things, not as a real "sit down and watch" movie. It's not a keeper in my book, though it was worth one viewing. And, at the very least, the scenery is nice.

For other works with Sandra Oh, check out my reviews of:
Hard Candy
The Princess Diaries
The Red Violin

5/10

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

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Paul Is A Surprisingly Fun Movie . . . After A Time

The Good: Very funny, Good character development, Decent plot progression, Amazing special effects, Good DVD bonus features
The Bad: Rocky beginning
The Basics: Unfathomably underwhelming in its box office performance, Paul is a winning science fiction comedy worth checking out!


At this point, there are very few movies I have missed in theaters that I have been excited about seeing now on DVD. Fortunately, one of them came along last night in the form of a science fiction comedy. The movie is Paul and it has left me utterly baffled. First, I am surprised that it did not do better in the theaters. Paul is exceptionally funny, well-developed and all-around interesting after a somewhat rocky start (the first five minutes are wonderful, but then the movie drags for about twenty minutes before getting and staying good).

The other big surprise for me was that the DVD came with both an “R”-rated and “Unrated” version of the movie. My wife and I, not at all easily offended, watched the “Unrated” version of the film and we could not determine what was not worthy of just an “R” rating in it. I’ve seen movies with worse language, more nudity and more violence/gore than Paul had, so whatever aspect the MPAA wouldn’t let pass without going past “R” is not immediately evident. This just reaffirms the idea that the MPAA is a ridiculous organization.

Graeme Willy and his best friend Clive Gollings are visiting the San Diego Comic Con from the UK. After days of geeking out and meeting their favorite science fiction writer, Adam Shadowchild, the pair prepares to tour the great U.F.O. hotspots in the American Midwest. After encountering two homophobes in a weird diner, Graeme and Clive flee – extensively damaging the homophobe’s truck in the process – in their RV. That night, they believe they are being pursued by the two men when a car accelerates past them in the desert before careening out of control. Rushing to the aid of the driver, they discover the driver is an alien, Paul, and he needs their help to get back home.

Seeking refuge at a trailer park, run by Evangelical Christians, Graeme finds himself smitten with Ruth Buggs, the one-eyed daughter of the trailer park owner. When Paul cures her of her backward notions on denying evolution, Ruth is compelled to join the men in their quest to get Paul back to where his friends will pick him up. The alien, men, and Ruth are hunted by a Man In Black, Zoil, two Federal agents, the two homophobes and Ruth’s distraught father who believes she has been abducted, in a cross-country adventure that is exceptionally funny.

Paul gets an admittedly rough start. The movie very sensibly takes its time to establish Graeme and Clive well in advance of Paul’s first appearance. This makes sense, it is entirely necessary (far too many films just right into the action without establishing the characters enough), but Simon Pegg, Nick Frost (as both writers and actors) and director Greg Mottola just do not land it. The movie trundles along until Ruth encounters Paul and it is an unfortunate, meandering start fraught with pacing issues and gags that do not hold up after the first viewing.

That said, there is so much to recommend about Paul. Far from being dull at all, once Paul takes off, it truly is engaging in every frame. To wit, the movie establishes moments well and even though they might be predictable in their structure, Paul makes it work. So, for example, in a key scene at a farmhouse, we see someone trying to light a stove before Paul distracts them. When a shootout ensues, the seasoned moviegoer knows that the house is going to explode at some point because the gas from the stove is still on. Yet, even with that foreshadowing, the execution of it is incredible and fun.

The characters in Paul are fun and they actually develop over the course of the film. Graeme easily embraces Paul and his mission, while Clive is resistant to getting involved. While there is a wonderful moment wherein Clive explains to Paul why he is jealous of the alien, the movie neglects to address the fundamental flaw in Clive’s character. Clive is an uber-geek who is meeting a real, live extraterrestrial, yet he is sullen and bored. Sure, he faints when he first sees Paul (which is the source of a running joke about Clive’s urine-soaked pants), but he never seems excited about just what it means for him to be sitting beside an alien life form.

Paul himself is a likable character. The alien is entirely computer-generated and voiced by Seth Rogen. He is a wisecracking alien who is remarkably tied to humanity. He has been on earth for decades and still feels bad about how he arrived there, leading him to an act of penance as the film goes on. The high-minded sensibility Paul articulates in combatting Ruth is enjoyable to watch and is refreshing to hear in a movie these days. Paul’s sensibility easily outshines how Graeme is essentially falling in love with the first woman he sees.

The other superlative aspect of Paul is the acting. Simon Pegg gives his usual funny performance and to the best of my recollection, this is the first time I have seen Nick Frost in a film. The support cast of Jane Lynch, Jeffrey Tambor, David Koechner, Bill Hader, and John Carrol Lynch is extraordinary. This is also one of Kristen Wiig’s best performances. She is funny as Ruth and her performance is not reminiscent of any of the many, many other character she has played in recent films.

But by far the best performance in Paul comes from Jason Bateman. Bateman plays Agent Zoil and he even holds himself different from his usual body language in other movies. It is odd seeing Bateman play a complete badass, but he pulls it off expertly in Paul.

On DVD, Paul comes with a blooper reel and the ability to watch the film as an unrated version with six additional minutes of movie. I recommend the unrated version. There are other featurettes on the making of Paul, but some of them are just repetitive. That should not be enough to steer one away from Paul, though. This is an exceptionally funny, well-executed science fiction comedy that is well worth seeing!

For other science fiction comedies, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Men In Black
Planet 51

7/10

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

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Invention Of Lying Is A Surprisingly Smart, Somewhat Erratic, Comedy.

The Good: Starts very funny, Decent acting, Moments of character, Good DVD bonus features
The Bad: Very predictable plot arc, Dramatic change in tone midway through the film.
The Basics: The Invention Of Lying starts as a clever concept comedy, but quickly becomes a very serious, substantive film that leaves little to surprise the audience.


A few months ago, my wife and I had a free hotel stay we were enjoying when we caught the middle and end of The Invention Of Lying. My wife loves comedies and it was nice to see her laugh so much, so we kept watching it. As the movie went on, though, she began to frown and by the end, she was saying what has become a mantra around our house, “I hate it when a movie starts out funny and then gets so serious!” It is probably for that reason that it took until last night for us to get back to The Invention Of Lying. Even so, we started it eagerly, recalling that when we began the movie, it was quite funny.

And that is how The Invention Of Lying goes. It starts out exceptionally funny, has a deliriously satirical twist in the middle and then fails to sustain itself. Instead, the movie collapses into a very serious statement on the nature of reality and the larger consequences that come from living a dishonest existence. The premise of the movie is simple and is deeply related to the setting. The setting is Earth in contemporary times, but on this Earth, everyone always tells the truth. It is a world where absolute honesty exists and the idea of deceit is unfathomable to the people there.

Mark is a writer for the leading movie studio of the day. He is terribly unsuccessful and living in the shadows of Brad Kessler. Mark goes on a date with Anna, who is very much out of his league and who seems amused with him despite not being attracted to him. The next day begins with his arrival at work where his boss, Anthony, finally gets up the will to fire Mark and, dejected, Mark returns to his apartment to a landlord who wants to evict him. He goes to the bank, needing eight hundred dollars, but knowing he only has three hundred in his account. When the teller asks him how much he wants to withdraw, he commits the world’s first lie by saying “eight hundred.” The computers come back up and the teller gives him the eight hundred, despite the computer saying he has three hundred because she assumes there has been a computer error, whatwith the world’s lack of deceit.

From there, Mark realizes the power he has and he begins to lie to make changes to the lives of people around him, from a suicidal tenant living in his apartment to a random man on the street to the police. But after making himself rich and writing the first fiction screenplay, he visits his mother, who is dying in the nursing home and, in comforting her, he inadvertently creates god. This gives Mark an extraordinary amount of power, though he cannot win Anna’s heart. As Anna moves to marry Brad, Mark tries to repair the damage his lies have made to the entire world.

The Invention Of Lying is erratic, but starts very funny. The jokes may all be very similar – people saying simple, complete truths that are outrageously funny – but they work and they establish a world that is funny and occasionally brutal to watch. But with the invention of the man who watches over all things, Mark becomes a huge public figure and his lie changes the tenor of the movie. For sure, the idea that god is just a lie is a brilliant bit of satire and Ricky Gervais as Mark delivers that expertly, but the fallout from that lie makes the movie into a very serious thing.

Beyond that, The Invention Of Lying becomes painfully formulaic in its last half. While the beginning had so much potential, the latter half becomes the predictable romantic comedy in terms of plot structure as Mark realizes how important Anna is to him. The process of watching Anna fall for Mark is far less organic. The attraction there becomes he exact formula that has existed since Jane Eyre (reviewed here!) was first written.

Because so much of The Invention Of Lying hinges on the concept as opposed to the characters, the character development in the film is remarkably low. That is not to say that the characters are not interesting to watch (they are), but they lack a lot in the way of distinction as they service the “must be honest” concept more than create viable individuals on screen.

By contrast, The Invention Of Lying features amazing acting and a cast that is to die for. Jennifer Garner may have been brought in for the sex appeal and star power, but in The Invention Of Lying, she proves just how funny she can be. Jonah Hill, Jeffrey Tambor, Fionnula Flanagan, Tina Fey and Martin Star all have memorable supporting performances. In fact, part of the real surprise in The Invention Of Lying is that Rob Lowe’s role is one of his less memorable ones.

It is Ricky Gervais, however who rules The Invention Of Lying and he is amazing as Mark. His comic timing has never been better and his deliveries are spot on. He makes even the dreadful second half at least seem like it is the same movie.

On DVD, The Invention Of Lying comes loaded with bonus features, most of which take the form of deleted scenes and featurettes. The featurettes are very funny and focus a lot on the actors playing with their innate sense of comic timing, which is very entertaining.

In the end, though, The Invention Of Lying is a much harder sell than those who love comedy are likely to want. It is worth watching, but very hard to want to add to one’s permanent collection.

For other works with Jonah Hill please visit my reviews of:
Moneyball
Megamind
How To Train Your Dragon
Cyrus
Forgetting Sarah Marshall

6.5/10

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

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Desert For The Heart, Desert Hearts Dries Up!

The Good: Umm . . . Amusing at times, Interesting initial characterizations
The Bad: THEMES!!!!, Characters go nowhere, Editing/Direction, Pacing
The Basics: A huge disappointment, Desert Hearts runs with unrealistic characters who manipulate each other and pressure them to meet their own need.


Desert Hearts was described to me as a film I would probably enjoy. It is supposedly a classic lesbian film wherein a university professor arrives in Nevada to get a divorce and falls in love with a rogue, funloving casino employee. It sounds good on paper, but it never lives up to its potential.

What Desert Hearts actually is is a plodding movie that feels like an 80s rebellion movie at the pace of a 1930s silent film. Hey, it's set in the 50s, so I suppose it averages out.

Vivian Bell, is in fact a university professor who is divorcing her husband for no apparent reason. The subtext, however, is clearly that she does not love him and she is looking for someone entirely different. Enter the reckless-driving, unabashedly out of the closet casino worker, Cay Rivvers. What follows is an often convoluted set of circumstances between Vivian, her benefactor at the ranch she's staying at - Frances - who is also the de facto mother of Cay, and Cay. Conflicts arise at various times between the three which lead to Vivian and Cay opening up to one another.

What works? Usually I don't have to struggle so much to come up with good things to say about the film. In this case, after the first ten minutes, I was struggling to keep watching. There were moments of amusement, especially between Cay and her friend Silver. However, outside the set-up, the original characterizations, there is little of interest. That is, the film begins with the appearance that it shall be an intriguing film. It falls flat.

First off, the direction was just plain annoying. The transition from each scene is done using a side swipe and it's distracting. It also slows the pace by giving a very repetitive feel to the different scenes. Moreover, occasionally, there will be a random snippet thrown in between two scenes that does nothing, for example after panning over the ranch, there might be a swipe that takes us to a completely different place - unconnected - and just shows us something more. I recall off-hand the second time the casino was shown an extensive series of views wherein I sat up and said aloud, "We know it's a casino, we've been here already! Get on with it!" It's frustrating to be treated like an idiot by the director.

None of the characters lived up to my expectations. I'm not complaining that they didn't end up where they did (because they ended up where I figured they would), but rather the set up for who they were provided much more interesting than they ended up. Vivian is the perfect example. Almost instantly, there is a subtext to suggest that her divorce is because she has had an epiphany about her sexuality. However, she then resists expressing any attraction to Cay when her advances are obvious. So, my thought was that this could be a wonderful film that says, "Lesbians aren't desperate." That is, too often in lesbian cinema, there are two women who end up together regardless of how viable a true romance is between them simply because they are both lesbians. I thought Desert Hearts might be a film to finally say something to that effect, like, "Just because we're the only two lesbians in this desert doesn't mean we have to fall for each other."

Alas, it didn't go that route. In fact, the single most disturbing aspect of the movie is that it works on the theme, "If you just keep pushing, someone will do what you want them to." Cay basically forces herself upon Vivian, who resists until Cay - in the film's least subtle and most silly scene - makes it absolutely clear that she won't take "no" for an answer. Vivian closes the film with doing the same thing to Cay, pressuring her to get on a train with her.

This film has nothing erotic, nothing interesting and nothing positive. I try to support the genre, but this film was, in the final analysis, just plain bad.

For other films with strong or interesting lesbian, gay or bisexual characters, please check out my reviews of:
Bound
But I'm A Cheerleader!
Strawberry And Chocolate

2/10

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

© 2011, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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