The Movies And More

Journey Into Fear (1943). D: Norman Foster. Joseph Cotton, Delores Del Rio, Everett Sloane, Ruth Warrick, Orson Welles. Watch for this one on TCM. Cotton is at his dithering best in this tale of a WW II arms salesman pursued by Nazis for some obscure reason. Del Rio attempts a French accent, Welles plays a bemused Turkish secret police official, Warrick (Cotten's wife) acts unconcerned about it all, and Sloane -- as an eccentric businessman of indeterminate nationality -- heads a posse of character actors who join the fun with great relish. Although Welles didn't direct Journey, Wellesian touches abound and the suspense builds to an exciting finale. And only 69 minutes long!

Seven Pounds (2008). D: Gabriele Muccino. Will Smith, Rosario Dawson. Weak, slow, and dull, notable mainly for one of the most excruciatingly bad opening scenes in the history of cinema. Essentially, Seven Pounds is macabre take on the old story of a dying rich man spreading the wealth among deserving strangers. It's also yet another unconvincing case of an appealing but limited actor (Will Smith, in this case) giving a so-called "performance of a lifetime" by looking sensitive and misty-eyed for two hours. Rosario Dawson is good as a heart-transplant candidate.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). D: David Fincher. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Jared Harris, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond. Based on a Fitzgerald short story about a man who becomes younger as he ages, Benjamin Button is well done and engaging. Pitt shows unexpectedly range, and ever-capable Blanchett is ravishing. But in the end, the movie is essentially themeless. Fitzgerald's trifle of a short story guesses at what life might be like if we really did know then what we know now (we're better off as things are, it turns out), but the movie ignores all that. Moreover, there's no context from which to play off the central conceit: Except for an interlude set during WW II, Benjamin misses out on Vietnam, the counterculture, the Civil Rights movement (he lives in a remarkably tolerant New Orleans), the Fifties, and the Depression. Nonetheless, the story of two intersecting lives that "meet in the middle" never fails to hold interest and is surprisingly convincing. A date movie if there ever was one.

Frost/Nixon (2008). D: Ron Howard. Frank Langella, Michael Sheen. Another 3-star Ron Howard movie, this based on the Peter Morgan play purporting to show the back story to David Frost's 1977 televised interviews of former President Richard Nixon. Frost hoped that the interviews would enhance his prestige; the disgraced Nixon wanted to vindicate himself. It's a good movie -- swiftly paced and effectively acted by both stars. The interview sequences come off especially well. But in an odd way, the film unintentionally vindicates Nixon: Frost comes across as an unprepared dilettante, a lightweight who takes a pounding from his intellectual superior until a lucky punch sends the heavyweight crashing to the deck. In the meantime, Langella's Nixon studiously prepares for the interviews, taking the whole enterprise seriously while regarding it -- as he tells Frost -- as a duel. Is the best way to prepare for a final exam to party all week, then cram at the last minute? Frost/Nixon suggests that this will work every time...

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If it were up to me, I'd strike a blow for secular humanism and have no invocation at all...

Paul Krugman writes that the GOP has no one but itself to blame...

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On the other hand, David Frost successfully elicited riveting moments like the following. Watch the palpable increase of Nixon's discomfort and embarrassment when confronted with his own words:

More Frost-Nixon interview clips here.