http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/no-expectations/

“Our love is like our music, it’s here and then it’s gone.”   Jagger/Richards

Reservation Road was the second novel from John Burnham Schwartz, author of The Commoner.   It is a tale of psychological suspense made all the more interesting as it is told through the thoughts of three characters (Ethan, a college professor; Grace, his wife; and Dwight, the man whose actions cause the death of Ethan and Grace’s son).   Ethan is a literature professor at a small college in New England, whose life is on course until…  

Returning late from an outing, the family makes an unscheduled stop at a gas station on Reservation Road.   As Grace and daughter Emma go in to use the rest room at the almost-abandoned gas station, Ethan and son Josh wait near the side of the road.   In a matter of mere seconds, a car driven recklessly by Dwight hits and kills 10-year-old Josh.   Life will never be the same for Ethan and Grace Learner…

Life, in fact, becomes “too much to bear” for the Learners.   Grace becomes paralyzed by her grief and Ethan moves on driven strictly by thoughts of revenge against the hit-and-run driver who killed his son.   Dwight, by contrast, is a man who has already ruined his life, his marriage and his legal career due to his recklessness and violence.   He becomes “like many whose lives are fueled largely by regret.”   He’s a dead man walking who eventually does “not seem to care any longer what happened to him.”

Schwartz does a masterful job of building and maintaining suspense through this novel’s 292 pages even though the denouement is obvious…   When the criminal justice system fails to find the man who so tragically killed Josh, we know deep down – as does Dwight – that Ethan will find him.   And what then?

But this is more than just a crime mystery.   It is a quasi-morality play about how people deal with losses – death and separation – in their lives.   We see how some rebound to live again and others never recover.   What is the line from Neil Young?   “On the day that she left he died but it did not show.”   This is a story about Ethan and Grace, who lose part of their life (their reason to exist) late; and of Ethan, who has lost his strength and his will to survive early on.

At the end of Reservation Road, Ethan finds Dwight and gets to serve as his judge, jury and – perhaps – his executioner.   What happens?   You’ll have to read Schwartz’s Reservation Road to find out.

Recommended.

Note:   This book was purchased by the reviewer at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.

A review of Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz, author of The Commoner.

Hmmm ... Joaquin's level of craziness must be directly proportionate to his amount of facial hair.

Now that the furor over Joaquin Phoenix’s recent attempts to outdo the Unabomber in terms of sheer weirdness and facial hair has subsided, we fans are left with a few nagging questions. Should we have seen this breakdown coming? Were there context clues along the way that we missed? One day, will we look back at his stunts — and, most memorably, that awkward Letterman appearance — with the same kind of “hindsight’s-a-megabitch” pained insight we feel for “The Sixth Sense”?

Eh, who knows. It’s hard to make sense of this undeniably talented actor’s antics — best to let them run their course. Maybe they have. In the meantime, many one-time Joaquin fans are bailing on this sinking ship. And they’re not wrong. Maybe he’s an egotistical kook looking to become a Personality, someone on par with Howard Hughes. Maybe, after a relatively short career of not that many movies, he’s just not worth the trouble.

But me? I’m not giving up hope yet. The fact that Joaquin has range and enormous talent as an actor cannot be disputed. Once this phase passes, it will be a blip on the radar, a Chris Gaines fiasco that got too much press for no good reason. And we’ll all laugh heartily.

Until then, though, let’s remind ourselves of the good ole’ days, when Joaquin gave us these 10 fiery, pathetic, wickedly lovable, charming and utterly unforgettable characters:

1. Ray Elwood, “Buffalo Soldiers” – Shelving and reshelving on “Buffalo Soldiers” after 9/11 assured that almost no one could see Joaquin work his magic as Ray Elwood, the cynical, opportunistic “guy who gets things” — be it heroin or a truckload of heavy artillery — on an army base in 1989 Berlin. What a shame, for this is his defining moment as an actor. He makes Ray one hell of a sly, fast-talking antihero for the ages.

2. Commodus, “Gladiator” — Let’s agree to move past this unfortunate name? Done. Great, now let’s talk about Joaquin’s performance, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination in 2001. There aren’t many times we get to see the insecurities beneath a villain’s rampaging, unchecked id. Joaquin gives us a bad guy as squeamish, insecure and fearful as he is dangerous. Brilliant.

3. Johnny Cash, “Walk the Line” — Does Joaquin look like Johnny Cash? Have the same rumbling, churning voice? Maybe not, but he has what really matters: the wounded yet sure-footed presence that made the Man in Black a legend. Joaquin, always one to put his stamp on a role, creates not a copy but a tribute, and that makes this role one of this best.

4. The Abbe du Coulmier, “Quills” — That Joaquin can do damaged, conflicted and dark is obvious. But what we didn’t know is that he could make a forlorn, wimpy priest who sodomizes, well, a corpse a sympathetic character. (Believe it.) It’s the kind of thing you have to see to understand. Joaquin pulls it off somehow, giving us perhaps the most unlikely romantic in movie history. 

Too cool for porn: Joaquin as Max California in "8MM."

5. Max California, “8MM” — Joaquin has a way of stealing movies that don’t belong to him. Witness his funny and inexplicably moving turn as Max California, a smartass porn shop worker who provides Nicholas Cage a way into the underground abyss of snuff films. He’s easily the best thing about this otherwise dour, grim film, and his performance leaves you shaken.

6. Lewis McBride, “Return to Paradise” – It’s been said there are no small parts, just small actors. Joaquin drives that one home, and hard, as Lewis McBride, who wastes away in a Malaysian prison while the two strangers he shared hashish with go home unscathed. Watching him unravel bit by bit is painful, but Joaquin makes Lewis’ tragedy so compelling (re: not melodramatic) that you can’t look away.

7. Merrill Hess, “Signs” — “Signs” runs a close second to “Sixth Sense” as my favorite M. Night Shyamalan film, and Joaquin’s Merrill Hess is a big reason why. Who but J.P. could take a popular high school jock who can’t quit reliving his glory days and make him broken-down, reflective and comically self-aware? This is a classic Joaquin move — give him what could be a flat part, and he’ll do beautiful things with it.

Joaquin as Ethan Learner in "Reservation Road."

8. Ethan Learner, “Reservation Road” — Bachelors rarely pull off the concerned parent routine in movies. (Just ask John Cusack about “Martian Child.”) But Joaquin is nothing in a movie if not nakedly emotional, so his Ethan Learner, whose son is killed in a hit-and-run, is the kind of walking wound you can’t ignore. This is Joaquin at his most wounded, and his performance will haunt you for days.

9. Jimmy Emmett, “To Die For” — People have remarked that all Joaquin really does in this marvelously black comedy is play a dumb high school kid. That’s accurate — to a point. He takes it a little farther than that, making Jimmy, who falls for a blonde TV personality and agrees to off her husband, endearingly clueless and menacing in equal measure. It’s a small part, but it has sticking power.

10. Clay Bidwell, “Clay Pigeons” – To be honest, “Clay Pigeons” belongs to Vince Vaughn, who plays funny-creepy-serial killer a teensy bit too well. But Joaquin registers impressively as the ineffectual but well-meaning Clay, a doofy Everyman who gets swept up into the bizarro web of a murderer (Vaughn) and can’t wriggle his way out. That he doesn’t disappear by the scenery Vaughn chews up is a testament to Joaquin’s talent.

(Note: If ole’ Joaq had it in his head to give people just enough roles to make a top 10 list, then he succeeded. Because truth be told, by the end there I’d gotten to the algae and gunk and crystallized remains left at the bottom of a dry well.)

By all rights, Terry George’s “Reservation Road” should be a 2 a.m. Lifetime Television weeper. All the trappings are there — a freak car accident that turns into an unsolved hit-and-run case; a grieving father who sees closure only in revenge; a driver whose sanity is buckling under the weight of what he’s scrambled to cover up — just waiting to be exploited shamelessly. But here’s the real shocker: That … never … happens. ”Reservation Road” is no crudely simplified fable with a villain and a hero and a gift-wrapped ending; it’s not that kind of movie. No, what happens here is complex, delicate and deliberate. Don’t expect to walk away unshaken. 

Of course, part of what makes “Reservation Road” so compelling is the (admittedly) hokey-sounding crisis at its center: Driving home from a late Red Sox game with his son, Dwight (Mark Ruffalo) veers off the highway and rams into a child on the roadside at a gas station, killing the 10-year-old boy while his father Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix) watches, too shocked to remember the car or the driver’s face. Dwight, without quite knowing what he’s doing, drives away, leaving Ethan, his wife Grace (Jennifer Connelly) and their daughter with a dead body and no answers.

All of this happens very early, and there’s a reason for those emotionally punishing first 10 minutes: These events provide a framework for the rest of “Reservation Road,” which grows more unsettling each minute. The pile of coincidences is a stretch — or is it? In a small town, is it so hard to believe that the victim and the criminal might know each other? Have kids in the same school? Maybe George pushes this angle a bit too hard, makes it a bit too unsubtle, but perhaps this is necessary to pull us in. After all, nothing about this film is easy because ”Reservation Road” splits us right down the center, forces us t0 see humanity in the criminal (a divorced dad afraid to lose partial custody of his son), demons in the wronged man (whose grief takes him to an ugly place). To identify with one man is to identify with the other. Phoenix and Ruffalo’s gut-wrenching performances ensure this much.

Oh, and speaking of the performances: Many argue that the faceoff of 2007 was DiCaprio/Damon in “The Departed.” Hardly. What Phoenix and Ruffalo do in “Reservation Road” lays waste to that claim. These two pour themselves into roles that require a frightening amount of emotional energy. Phoenix, who specializes in surly intensity, shows how close resignation can be to blind rage. He takes Ethan’s sadness to a place no one can touch, not even his wife (Connelly, who’s more nakedly emotional than ever). “How do I get you back?” she asks. Damned if Ethan knows, either, and Phoenix makes this internal confusion hard to watch but impossible to ignore. Unglued, too, is Ruffalo’s Dwight, whose decision to leave the scene sticks in his subconscious like a hunting knife in the gut. He can’t shake the guilt. Credit must go to Ruffalo, one of the finest actors out there, for not reducing Dwight to weepy, drunken heap. Ruffalo is too smart, too intuitive an actor to make that mistake. Instead he gives us a man who is slowly unravelling, who knows more with each day that he did much more than kill a child: he killed himself.

And so “Reservation Road” leave us with a whole mess of unanswered questions. Dwight takes a life, reacts badly and suffers dearly for it. But does he suffer enough? Can he ever suffer enough? Does he deserve to die? Would his death give Ethan the kind of closure he wants and needs? Don’t expect an eleventh-hour hug, a Kleenex or a cheat sheet. “Reservation Road” offers no comfort and no answers … which, in an odd way, makes the film something of a miracle. 

Grade: A-

• 79 Taken (Pierre Morel, 2008). Pfff. ‘t Begint allemaal prima, als internationale thriller die plompweg het stuk braakland tussen Nikita (het script is dan ook van Luc Besson) en The Bourne Identity opeist, maar het verzandt al snel in een aaneenrijging van onwaarschijnlijke wendingen, lullige dialogen en hopeloos karikaturaal acteerwerk. Liam Neeson, nochtans een fijn acteur, zet de blik op ‘intens’, maar het mag niet baten. Taken is een mager beestje. (**)
• 80 Het Nieuwe Rijksmusem (Oeke Hoogendijk, 2008). Deze documentaire film is daarentegen bijna twee uur pure eye candy. Hoogendijk volgde het gebeuren rond het Rijksmusem in Amsterdam, dat in 2003 werd gesloten voor grootschalige bouwwerken die in 2008 een wereldvermaard spektakel zouden opleveren. Zo vlotjes zou het echter niet lopen: de lokale fietsersbond (!) gooit meermaals roet in het eten, de stedelijke diensten doen er alles aan om het project te bemoeilijken en centrale spelers haken een na een af. Het dieptepunt is een aanbesteding waarbij de enige kandidaat speelt met budgetten die ronduit geschift zijn. Vooral stilistisch erg sterk, met lange en trage shots van de bouwwerf, de herstellingswerken en allerhande meetings en interviews met architecten en conservatoren die steeds dieper wegzakken in hun ellende. Mooie muziek ook, van o.m. Wim Mertens en John Zorn (die speciaal voor deze documentaire muziek componeerde, die uiteindelijk terecht kwam op het 21e deel van zijn Filmworks-reeks). Het ziet er intussen naar uit dat de werken aan het museum zullen aanslepen tot 2013. (****1/2)
• 81 The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982). Nog eentje die ik, net als Jaws, eigenlijk op veel te jonge leeftijd wist mee te pikken. Ik zag nooit het origineel (een sci-fi classic van Howard Hawks), maar ik kan me moeilijk voorstellen dat die beter is. Intussen aardig verouderd, maar nog steeds spanned as fuck, deze extreem bloederige horrorversie van Tien Kleine Negertjes op Antarctica. Een guilty pleasure om U tegen te zeggen. (****)
• 82 Marty (Delbert Mann, 1955). Opnieuw een onweerstaanbare film, maar dan van een andere orde. Een lichtvoetige romantische komedie met Ernest Borgnine als vrijgezel/tamme goedzak, die het steeds opnieuw moet ontgelden bij vrienden en familie en, net als hij het niet verwacht, de vrouw van z’n leven tegenkomt. Old school Hollywood cinema met stijl. (****)
• 83 Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932). Na bijna acht decennia nog steeds een baanbrekend filmpje, maar in m’n geheugen was ie beter. Excentriek en intrigerend (en destijds vast behoorlijk erover), maar ook onsamenhangend en slecht geacteerd. Het hele zootje haalt het niet van Lon Chaney in The Unknown. (***1/2)
• 84 Reservation Road (Terry George, 2007). Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly en Mira Sorvino in één film, en toch niet overtuigend. George brouwt een tv-film-met-budget rond een alledaags, maar pijnlijk thema (verkeersongeval – vluchtmisdrijf – schuldgevoel – wraak), maar de film bezwijkt onder z’n gewicht en mist dramatische spanning. (**1/2)

NP: The Dream Syndicate – Live At Raji’s

Indiana Jones e il Regno del Teschio di Cristallo (Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull), di Steven Spielberg. Con Harrison Ford, Ray WInstone, Karen Allen, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBoeuf. (guarda il trailer)

Torna l’archeologo più famoso del mondo. 1957: in piena Guerra Fredda, il professor Jones, affiancato dal giovane ribelle Mutt, combatte i russi nella ricerca del prezioso Teschio di Akator.

Reservation Road, di Terry George. Con Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Connelly. (guarda il trailer)

In un caldo pomeriggio di settembre, sulla Reservation Road, le vite di due famiglie verranno sconvolte per sempre da una tragica fatalità, un incidente in cui perde la vita un bambino. Due padri, i cui diversi destini sono uniti dal dolore e dalla rabbia, si trascineranno inesorabilmente verso la resa dei conti.

Sangue Pazzo, di Marco Tullio Giordana. Con Luca Zingaretti, Monica Bellucci, Alessio Boni, Luigi Diberti, Mattia Sbragia. (guarda il trailer)

Le vite pericolose di Osvaldo Valenti e Luisa Ferida, coppia sul grande schermo e nella vita reale durante il Ventennio fascista. Spesso interpreti di personaggi ribelli e negativi, i due, dopo aver aderito alla Repubblica di Salò, vennero giustiziati dai partigiani a fronte di pesanti accuse.

BUON CINEMA A TUTTI!

Escono anche: Rise – La Setta delle Tenebre, Il Nostro Messia.

]]> http://samuelthambusamy.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/forgiveness-what-does-it-take/ Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:49:23 +0000 wisdomtree http://samuelthambusamy.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/forgiveness-what-does-it-take/ http://wisdomtree.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/reservation-road-2007-forgivenesswhat-does-it-take/ Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:16:44 +0000 wisdomtree http://wisdomtree.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/reservation-road-2007-forgivenesswhat-does-it-take/ http://filmrapidshare.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/reservation-road-dvdrip-2007/ Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:10:23 +0000 sentinel74 http://filmrapidshare.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/reservation-road-dvdrip-2007/

E’ un pomeriggio di un caldo Settembre ed il professore Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix), sua moglie Grace (Jennifer Connelly), e la loro figlia Emma (Elle Fanning) stanno assistendo, orgogliosi, al saggio musicale di loro figlio Josh (Sean Curley). Sulla strada di casa si fermano alla stazione di servizio sulla Reservation Road. In un istante, una terribile fatalità cambierà per sempre la loro vita… E’ un pomeriggio di un caldo settembre e l’avvocato Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) ed il figlio undicenne Lucas (Eddie Alderson) stanno assistendo ad una partita di baseball. La loro squadra del cuore sta vincendo la coppa dei campioni. Terminata la partita Dwight si mette in viaggio per riportare il figlio Lucas dalla sua ex moglie Ruth Wheldon (la vincitrice dell’oscar Mira Sorvino). In un istante, una terribile fatalità cambierà per sempre la loro vita… L’incidente accade così velocemente che Lucas non si accorge di nulla, Ethan – l’unico testimone – comprende subito la tragedia che sta accadendo mentre Dwight fugge via terrorizzato… Josh giace sul ciglio della Reservation Road senza vita… Arriva la polizia ed iniziano le indagini. Ossessionati dalla tragedia entrambi i padri reagiscono in maniera inaspettata come anche Grace ed Emma. Arriverà il momento della resa dei conti… ed i due padri compiranno la scelta più dura della loro vita…

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XTU7URPM

Pass: rapidscene.altervista.org

Kate Winslet is a good actor. Period. Her two upcoming movies are reeking with Best Actress buzz from left to right. Below are the trailers of The Reader and Reservation Road.

Click to watch the Reservation Road trailer at Zuguide.com

In case you hadn’t heard, Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator, Signs, Walk the Line, We Own the Night) has decided to retire from acting and focus his talents on music. Apparently, after finishing filming on his latest picture, Two Lovers, a romantic drama with Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, and Isabella Rossellini, Commodus decided that he’s grown weary of pretending to be other people and would rather pretend to be a rock star. No word yet on upcoming tour dates, but Two Lovers is set to be released February 13, 2009, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

As a way of bidding a premature farewell to the most famous actor to ever rock an upper lip birthmark scar, I thought I’d offer up the trailer for Reservation Road, Phoenix’s second to last film. In Reservation Road, Phoenix plays a father whose son in struck and killed by Mark Ruffalo in a hit and run accident. Rushing to get his own son home to ex-wife Mira Sorvino, Ruffalo changes the lives of Phoenix, his wife, Jennifer Connelly, and his daughter, Elle Fanning, forever. But, while Connelly eventually tries to move on from the tragedy, Phoenix becomes obsessed with tracking down his son’s killer. And, in one of the most uncomfortable situations of all-time (not to mention the most obvious case of conflict of interest in human history), Phoenix ends up hiring Ruffalo as his lawyer to make sure the police are actively pursuing the case.

Highlights of the Reservation Road trailer include: 1) Ruffalo debating whether or not to turn himself in to the police, then deciding to cover up his crime. 2) Ruffalo walking into his office and seeing Phoenix sitting on the couch.  3) Phoenix asking Ruffalo what he would want to have happen if someone killed his son. And, 4) Phoenix getting a gun and deciding to take matters into his own hands. My favorite part of the Reservation Road trailer is the beginning, which shows Phoenix and Ruffalo spending quality time with their respective families before everything goes to hell. Reservation Road opened October 19, 2007. Check out the Reservation Road trailer at Zuguide.com.

Ho visto Reservation Road in occasione della seconda Festa del Cinema di Roma. È stato presentato in uno degli ultimi giorni, quando le sale ormai erano mezze vuote e già si pensava a quale potesse essere il vincitore della Festa. Mira Sorvino, con la sua presenza, rianimava il glamour capitolino, puntando l’occhio dei media sul film in concorso. È difficile ripercorrere scena per scena un film visto diversi mesi fa, ma volendo ripensare alle sensazioni lasciate dall’opera, si può certamente dire che Reservation Road è una storia capace di raccontare perfettamente il dolore e la tragedia delle famiglie distrutte dalla perdita di un proprio caro.

Il racconto è tratto dal libro omonimo di John Burnham Schwartz, che firma anche la sceneggiatura. È la storia di due uomini che, sulla Reservation Road, si scontreranno modificando inesorabilmente la vita dell’altro. Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix) lotta per la perdita del figlio. Quando sua moglie piange per scaricarsi del dolore della scomparsa, lui non può far altro che covare la sua vendetta. Non sa chi ha ucciso il bambino, ma l’unica cosa importante, l’unica via di salvezza è scoprirlo e liberarsi dal peso della tragedia. Dall’altro lato c’è invece Dwight (Mark Ruffalo). Proprio a causa sua il figlio di Ethan è morto e lui cerca disperatamente di eliminare ogni prova che possa incolparlo, ma lentamente viene ingoiato dal senso di colpa.

In Reservation Road si può osservare la drammatizzazione del dolore. Il dolore compare nei volti dei protagonisti in tutte le sue sfaccettature possibili. La rivalsa degli individui è solo un’illusione ed una banale ricompensa perché tutti hanno perso qualcosa per sempre. Ethan un figlio e Dwight la speranza di una vita normale. La Reservation Road si rivela essere non una semplice strada, ma il crocevia che rende differenti le nostre vite ed il film parla proprio di questo. Del dolore e di quale strada prendere per accettarlo ed proseguire per la propria strada.

Response to footage of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, the new film from cult director David Fincher (Zodiac), has been rather lukewarm so far but I must say this trailer looks amazing, just like the first one. Naturally, this new trailer gives us more insight into the movie’s plot and it seems fascinating, while reminding me a bit of last year’s Youth Without Youth, the overlooked comeback of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola (The Rainmaker).

Written by Eric Roth (Lucky You) and Robin Swicord (The Jane Austen Book Club), based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby), The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button tells the story of a man who’s born with the body of an old man and who grows younger as he ages. It stars Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading), Cate Blanchett (Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull), Tilda Swinton (Burn After Reading), Elle Fanning (Reservation Road, also Charlotte’s Web actress Dakota’s younger sister), Elias Koteas (Shooter), Jason Flemyng (Mirrors) and Julia Ormond (Kit Kittredge: An American Girl) among others.

In any case, this promises another brilliant performance for Pitt. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button will premiere around Christmas in the US and Australia and in most other countries in January & February 2009. But to me the real question is, what’s with all the Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett pairings recently? First they were supposed to co-star in The Fountain, then they were together in Babel and now this…WTF?

               Reservation Road              !!! ZERO STARS !!!

NETFLIX SYNOPSIS:  The lives of Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix) and his wife, Grace (Jennifer Connelly), are thrown into chaos after their 10-year-old son is killed in a hit-and-run accident. When the case stalls, Ethan makes it his mission to hunt down and punish the person responsible. Violence, revenge and justice collide head on when Ethan finally finds the man who killed his son. Mark Ruffalo co-stars.

REVIEW: SPOILERZ!! SPOILERZ!!! SPOILERZ!! GO AWAY IF YOU DON’T LIKES SPOILERZ!!!

I hates this movie because (as a parent) I hate movies that toy with my emotions with children under threat or dead children whose deaths lead me to feel righteous anger. OK. Back off a minute. Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly, and Mark Ruffalo have wonderful performances in this film, and it’s halfway well written. But come on.The guy responsible for the hit and run death of Joaquin and Jennifer’s son is the lawyer they hire to help track down the perpetrator, Oh teh ironies. And of course he has his own divorced father drama going on. Come on, this film is just pulling at too many emotional strings at once. Yes, I’m glad Joaquin didn’t kill Mark at the end. I wish he had killed the writers.

0 stars — I’m sure someone loved this movie. I guess some folks crave emotional manipulation.
Rich

While promoting his new World War 2 movie Miracle At St. Anna, director Spike Lee has confirmed that things are moving forward for his planned sequel to Inside Man, his most successful movie to date. According to Lee, screenwriter Terry George (Reservation Road) is currently in talks with Universal Pictures to pen the script, which will feature the original film’s characters.

Personally, I have trouble figuring out how an Inside Man sequel would work. Another heist by the same crew, being investigated by the same cop? I guess we’ll find out when the movie is released come 2010.

Source

British director Jon Amiel (The Core) is currently in pre-production of Creation, a Charles Darwin biopic written by John Collee (Happy Feet). Darwin, who is of course best remembered as the man behind the concept of evolution, will be played by Paul Bettany (The Da Vinci Code) while Jennifer Connelly (Reservation Road) will portray his wife/cousin Emma. Interestingly, Bettany and Connelly also shtump in real life, however they’re thankfully not related.

Like all biopics, this is one movie that can go both ways, as those films can just as easily be fascinating or well-made but dull. There is however considerable talent involved here, and a subject whose controversy is undeniable, but if all else fails we’ll at least have the stunning Jennifer Connelly to look at for 90 minutes or so.

Creation (which was previously titled Origin) is expected to be released next year. In the meantime, you can next see Paul Bettany in the promising The Secret Life Of Bees starting October (trailer here) and wife Jennifer Connelly in the sci-fi remake The Day The Earth Stood Still this December.

Source

År: 2007
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Skådisar: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly

Handling: Två föräldrars öden korsar varandra genom en hemsk olycka där en ung pojke blir överkörd av en smitare. Pojken dör och hans pappa blir helt uppslukad av att finna föraren och hämnas sonens död.

Kommentar: Trodde fadern skulle starta rena rama utredningen och försöka till varje pris hitta mördaren typ på ett mer actionfyllt sätt men filmens handling överraskade mig, den var riktigt bra. Att sätta sig in i hur det skulle kännas själv, fy fasen! Att se hur fadern till sonen som dog förändras och samtidigt känna med mördaren varför hans samvete inte tagit honom till polisen direkt. Väldigt välspelad film som rekommenderas.

Betyg:

Pick of the Week

Wings of Desire – Wim Wender’s masterpiece, a film of incredible beauty and grace which explores affecting questions of mortality and love and accompanies all with great performances and shockingly beautiful cinematography. An unqualified masterpiece.

Also out
Heroes Season 2 – Huge dip in Series 2 for an already not-that-good show. In all fairness, if people had dialled down the hype originally, they would have seen that this season is only slightly worse than the first. Key reason: Hayden Panettierre is flipping terrible.
27 Dresses – Very passable romantic comedy with Katherine Heigl and James Marsden. A good rental.
Let’s Get Lost – Incisive and interesting portrait of troubled James Dean-of-jazz Chet Baker. Sad and thrilling in equal measure as an incredible talent is swallowed up by heroin and hardship.
Funny Games – Patronising, look-at-me cleverness from a director capable of so much more when he gets down from his soapbox.
Paris, Texas – Another brilliant Wender journey movie, this time fitting in both Harry Dean Stanton and Dean Stockwell along with a classic Ry Cooder slide-score. Another classic.
Mister Lonely – Not seen but apparently a slightly unbalanced but interesting work from Harmony Korine.
Jam – Psychologically disturbed comedy from Chris Morris and friends. Like Brass Eye but without the structure or any sense of normality. Alternatively great and awful.
Cannibal Holocaust – Notorious but ultimately pretty terrible video-nasty.
The Hottie and the Nottie – Widely considered the only contender with Meet the Spartans for worst film of last couple of years.
Reservation Road – Despite the presence of Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo, a really dull and predictable semi-thriller.

Reservation Road, the movie, was a flop in the US box office. But it’s not that bad. Jennifer Connely was good here, and Mark Ruffalo whose character envelops the human nature of guilt when you do something bad.

The story revolves around a hit and run accident one night. A child was hit and died instantly. The suspect did not own up to what happen, and the parents of the victim will do everything to find the driver of the car. It was a small world because the lawyer hired to help in the investigation is the same person the father is looking for.

The lawyer/suspect is trapped, and has no recourse but to tell the truth–to save his family, and to find redemption from himself.

Reservation Road is widely available in DVD.