Albert Nobbs (2011)

I enjoyed this so much more than I expected to.  Janet McTeer is pretty dang amazing in the role of a woman living as a very manly painter -- with a wife to boot.  Glenn Close rather less amazing in the role of the passive butler Nobbs.

B

Romeo and Juliet (1936)

This is one of those misguided adaptations where Juliet and Romeo are too old (mid-30s and mid-40s respectively) and the whole she-bang is histrionic.

It was rather a chore to get through, which is why it took me about a week to do so.

D-

Higher Ground (2011)

This hit really close-to-home for me.  Corinne gets pregnant young, marries her boyfriend, and her young family becomes active in church life.  They got just SO MUCH right in this film -- the trying so hard to fit in with the other churchy women and just somehow not quite getting it.  Her attempts to be vulnerable and honest were so much like my own efforts to be part of the club and then seeing her being chastised for doing it wrong also was terribly familiar.

I went from being wowed to almost weirded out by how much like my own experience this story was with the "Annika" storyline.  Annika was Corinne's only real friend in the church.  Neither were the Stepfords the other wives seemed to be and their chats could get downright bawdy, even as they both had a strong faith.  When Annika's brain surgery leaves her a near vegetable, Corinne's devastated and very much alone.  I had a church friendship very much like this one -- my beloved friend didn't have a tumor but she did have a break with reality and is no longer the friend I knew.

Anyway.  This was so well-done and affecting.  I’m interested in reading the source memoir. 

A-

The Special Relationship (2010)

Great “docudrama” about the advice/support given and received while Bill Clinton was president of the United States and Tony Blair was England's prime minister.  The brisk 90 minutes or so were packed and interesting.

The end had me muttering "Stupid Bush."  Again.

B+

The City of Your Final Destination (2010)

Felt like more of a mood than a movie, but it did a good job of catching me up in it.

A young college professor gets a “no” from the estate of the dead author about whom he wants to write a biography, so he sets off for the Uruguay residence in an attempt to change their minds.  Instead, the land and the people change more than his mind -- his entire mindset is altered.  But too soon his girlfriend shows up and pops the bubble.

This made me wonder if I ever truly allow myself to experience new places or if I, like the girlfriend, wind up simply pushing aside the magic of a place in favor of my familiar comforts.

B+

The Joneses (2010)

A new-to-the-neighborhood family is actually a group of actors hired as stealth salesmen to become the popular envy of all.  If they've got it, others want it and will spend to get it.

It's an interesting concept with likable leads (Demi Moore and David Duchovny), but it didn't seem to have the guts to really follow through to the end.

B

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

About 20 times better than first stab at adapting the book, making it approximately four billion times better than the book itself.  There were still some portions of it that were beyond uncomfortable, but it culled a decent film from a pile of yucky words.  Rooney Mara was the perfect Lisbeth.

B

My Week with Marilyn (2011)

Yes, Michelle Williams does a great job, but the story itself seems more than a little questionable.  I mean, how can we be sure how much of this actually happened?  The narrator is a star-fucker, pure and simple, and I don't put it past him to create a relationship out of a few smiles tossed his way.

Near the end of the film, Monroe tells him “thanks for being on my side,” but I'd say that he was only on his own side, using her fame to rub a little on himself and carry him through half a century.  Gross.

C+

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

All this movie did was make me want to watch the miniseries starring Alec Guinness because I know it's got to be better than this boring, confusing mess.

D+

Friends with Benefits (2011)

Enjoyable from start to finish.  Smart with two engaging leads -- we're rooting for them from the beginning.  Nothing profound going on here, but a great way to spend the evening.

B+

The Hasty Heart (1949)

An abrasive Scottish soldier in a Burmese Army hospital is dying. Rather than tell HIM that, the doctor decides to tell his new bunkmates to be nice to the dying man, even though he’s an ass.

Well, the Scot's assy heart melts...then freezes over again hard when he finds out that everyone knew he was dying, but then it melts again because otherwise it'd be a bummer. Uh, that’s a spoiler...but only if you’ve never seen a movie before or have no idea how "buddy" stories usually turn out.

C+

A Separation (2011)

A husband and wife make plans to move to America to give their daughter a better life, but his reluctance to leave his going-senile father results in his refusal to go forward with leaving the country.  The wife is on a time limit due to the papers they procured and is trapped unless they divorce...which neither of them wants.  To force the situation, she moves out...he hires help...the help has problems of her own...and things go from bad to worse, but always completely believably.

Because my Iranian father grew up in Tehran before coming to the US for college, I'm always interested in movies that give me a peek to the normal lives of its citizens -- I'm talking The White Balloon and Children of Heaven rather than Not Without My Daughter.  This was different than any Iranian film I'd seen in that it was neither heartwarming nor horrific.  I recognized the people and the desperation even though the situations wouldn't occur here.  The empathy I felt for most of the characters was real and the situation impossible.

The movie certainly earned its best foreign language film Oscar.

B+ 

The Artist (2011)

At first I couldn't keep the thought “this is just a Singin’ in the Rain rip-off!” from running through my mind on a loop.  But it went its own way eventually and was truly original in its silence, without feeling gimmicky.

Plus, there's a darling dog and this gorgeous scene (starting at 1:00 in the clip).

B+

A Better Life (2011)

There were a couple of times that the action onscreen was just devastating. Nothing was so ridiculously horrible that it became unbelievable, there was just that day-to-day inability to ever get ahead -- the kind of life that makes one plunge into despair, I’d imagine.

The big problem was that I was taken out of the moment a couple of times when the teens were on-screen as most of them were incredibly stiff, seemingly non-actors. Here's a tip: recast and try again when someone’s not working out. There are plenty of “gang” type teen actors availabe -- call up The Shield’s casting director if you can't get them to audition on your own.

B

The Iron Lady (2011)

Margaret Thatcher is going senile...haunted by the kind-of-a-dick ghost of her husband. So, apparently, the viewer should feel every bit as disoriented as she does, even during the supposedly-sane flashback sequences.  It was disjointed and annoying.

If the story had been more about the rise and reign of Thatcher rather than the ousting and decline of the old lady, it could’ve been better. Well, actually, with Phyllida Lloyd at the helm, I’m not so sure about that. After all, she and Streep were responsible for inflicting Mamma Mia on us.

D+

Betrayal (1983)

The story of an adulterous affair, told backward.  We see the denouement, the breakup, the middle, the early, and the very beginning.  It was effective because of the way my emotions were reversed: I didn't know/care about these people who were reflecting on the "once was" and was only mildly interested in the next scene...but my involvement grew which each new, earlier revelation.  It was strangely powerful and fascinating.

A-

Here's the beginning of the affair/almost last scene of the film: