Ed's Review Dot Com

Gran Via Productions, Greyshack Films, Water’s End Productions,

Patricia Clarkson, Zachary Booth, Jayma Mays, Joseph Cross, Rutina Wesley, Fran Kranz, Devon Graye, Alexia Rasmussen, Julie Carmen, Judith Light, Chris Mulkey

Celia Green (Patricia Clarkson) has a dream to spend the last weekend of the summer at a cabin on the water with her grown sons and their friends. They set out to have the perfect weekend, which is what she’s looking for, but family dramas, problems, and issues make things worse and worse as the weekend goes on driving them further apart from each other. As she’s looking to sell the home after this summer since they hardly use it anymore, the troubles make her doubt her role in the family anymore.

This is another indie Sundance film about a dysfunctional family on a weekend outing. This one isn’t really dramatic, and it really, really isn’t comedy, so what is it? I’m not sure. There have been some great stories like this in the past, but this one sputtered out of the gate, and never got going, and sank into the sea by 1/3 way through the film. I couldn’t really like any of the characters, and could never get into the story. There’s no point to what’s going on, and I’m afraid I’ve seen too many screwed up family movies that just don’t go anywhere. If there’s humor, or a decent point to all of it, but by the middle of this weekend, I was just hoping it would be over and I could move on. This is not Patricia Clarkson’s fault, except maybe that she accepted the role, but rather the fault of a weak pointless script. I would not watch this if were on TV, and it’s even boring for a Lifetime Channel drama. I really didn’t like it, and I don’t recommend this one. Truly a waste.

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Scott Rudin Productions, Michael De Luca Productions, Trigger Street,

Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, Michael Chernus, Corey Johnson, Max Martini, Chris Mulkey, David Warshofsky, Yul Vazquez, Catherine Keener

This film, based on real events covers the 2009 hijacking of the Meaersk Alabama container cargo ship by Somali pirates. The Alabama was carrying relief food and water and goods to the people of Somali. They were sailing in risky waters and followed the proper protocol for attempted piracy, but still ended up in a serious situation. This is the minute by minute account of the actions of the Captain (Tom Philipps), the crew, and the pirates as the events unfold in major action and suspense.

There has been a little controversy over the accuracy of the events told in the story. I’m sure there are a lot of liberties taken to make this into a Hollywood blockbuster. If I were one of the sailors aboard the ship, I might take a little offense at the changes from actual events. But as a dramatic telling of the story, this is an excellent movie. Certainly the artistry of Tom Hanks adds a lot to it. He plays the Captain in a remarkable way. The major story is about the Captain and the leader of the Pirate band, and how both are riding a wave of events that are completely out of their control. Neither can really do anything but play out the drama. In the words of Captain Philipps, “We all have bosses.” This is the true meaning of the story. But in getting there we’re placed in a marvelous adventure filled with suspense. This is a roller-coaster ride of emotions from start to finish and one of the finest films of 2013. This is one you should NOT miss.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog