Ed's Review Dot Com

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday April 3, 2012

• War Horse
• We Bought a Zoo
• The Double Hour
• In the Land of Blood and Honey
• Being Elmo: A Pupeteer’s Journey
• The Immortals (NetFlix)

Miramax Films, Marv Films, Pioneer Pictures,

Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jesper Christensen, Marton Csokas, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Romi Aboulafia, Melinda Korcsog

Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) is a former Mossad intelligence agent. She is now reliving her grandest days when she and 2 other agents accomplished the capture of a Nazi war criminal back in 1965. Her daughter has just written a book praising the events of the capture, but it seems there is more to the story that was told, and now Rachel and her partners Stephan and David (Tom Wilkenson and Ciaran Hinds) have to relive what they did, and some things they are very ashamed of. The suspense builds as we jump back and forth from 1997 to 1965 and put the pieces of this mission back together and find the truth.

I usually enjoy a good World War II movie. This one, however, never grabbed me. It wasn’t hard enough to follow, granted, but I just never got invested in their adventures. I never felt an real suspense, nor did I really care of the outcome. The flipping of the two casts (Mirren, Wilkinson, Hinds) with the younger versions of themselves (Jessica Chastain, Marton, Csokasa, and Sam Worthington) was done about as good as they could, but I still found it annoying and disconcerting. I’m not sure if there was any other way to age the characters 30 years without resorting to hiring two separate casts, but I found this constant swapping of casts off-putting.

Then there’s the ending. When it’s over, you’re really not sure what you have just seen. I just didn’t get into it. Whatever happened, happened, and I’m not going to spend my days theorizing on what it all means. I know there are some who love this film, but for the mainstream, I don’t feel like it gave me enough to recommend it. Boring a lot of the time, and confusing the rest, and the constant flopping of characters makes it even more confusing. Then when the end comes and you don’t really know what happened, and worse, don’t really care very much, it seems like a given to just skip this one!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Incentive Filmed Entertainment, Handsomecharlie Films, Is or Isn’t Entertainment,

Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow, Lauren Ambrose, Anthony Rapp, Scott Cohen, Charlie Tahan, Daisy Tahan, Elizabeth Marvel, Debra Monk, Mary Joy, Maria Dizzia

Emily Greenleaf (Natalie Portman) has a crush on her boss, Jack(Scott Cohen) and she sets out to win him away from his wife Carolyn (Lisa Kudrow). But he comes with some baggage in the part of William, Jack’s son (Charlie Tahan) who has been badly poisoned against Emilia by his mother. As Emilia sets out to try to win him over she finds she herself carries some heavy baggage and help comes to her in a way she could never expect.

This romantic drama, heavy on the drama is a fairly dark story of love and loss, tragedy and forgiveness. Each of the characters is not exactly black and white, but different shades of gray, and it’s a realistic look at the foibles of real human beings. This is not a stunning film, and is not overly engrossing. You might find it a bit slow and boring were it not saved by the acting of Natalie Portman and Charlie Tahan (the young son) who bind together to attempt to save this film. As such, it’s a pretty decent dark independent romantic drama with a lot of redeeming qualities. You can find much worse than this, and it’s kind of a fresh look at real people and real problems. Infidelity is never easy, and when you come into it with such issues in tow, it makes it even harder. The original title of this work is “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits” which is a good stab at a proper title for this story. It is very difficult, but as I stated, help comes from where you would least expect it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog