The Imitation Game (2014) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Morten Tyldum

Starring:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance

The Imitation Game would have been a solid thriller even if it only dealt with Alan Turing's attempts to crack the Nazi Enigma radio code which was considered to be impregnable.      Its undercurrent of anger and sadness transforms it into a more emotionally charged thriller.     Like The Social Network, its protagonist is an unpleasant fellow with secrets of his own.     Alan Turing (Cumberbatch) at first is socially inept and brusque with his co-workers, who are also hired by the British government to break Enigma.     He is an arrogant believer in his own brilliance, like a British Dr. Sheldon Cooper.     Perhaps Turing is among Dr. Cooper's heroes.    I think I heard Turing mentioned once on The Big Bang Theory.

Turing did indeed break the Enigma code with help from a computer he designed and created.     His work with the British government was classified, so no one really knew how important Turing was to ending World War II when he was convicted of the crime of homosexuality in 1951.     Until fairly recently, homosexuality was an actual punishable crime in Britain.     In Turing's case, he was chemically castrated and practically imprisoned in his home.     It is pitiful that someone who did so much for his country was treated so inhumanely. 

Turing's initial interview with the British government didn't go well.    His off-putting, aloof manner offended most people who came in contact with him, including his team of codebreakers.     Because the code was so elaborate, trying to break the code using just human intuition was a fool's errand.     Turing gradually softens, thanks mostly to a woman named Joan (Knightley), who comes aboard the team after showing true ingenuity in her interview session.     She senses his awkwardness and loneliness, perhaps even sensing his secrets.     Turing's teenage years are shown in flashback when he falls for another male student.     Of course, he was forced to keep that a secret even though at one critical point we see his heart breaking after hearing devastating news.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing is indeed smug, arrogant, and touchingly human during critical scenes.    He walks a tightrope of fear and insecurity underneath his overconfident exterior.     He alienates nearly everyone he meets, except maybe Winston Churchill and Joan.    The human stakes are high, though, because the British are losing the war and need to break the code to have any hopes of defeating Germany.     Knightley is kind, understanding, and sees through Turing's facade.     He awkwardly proposes to her to keep her on the project, but her response to his confession of homosexuality is "Of course you are."  

When the code is finally broken, it is triumphant to be sure, but then The Imitation Game presents a moral quandary involving not openly presenting this newfound information because the Germans will simply change their code.    Even though the Allies will know details of every German military attack or invasion, Turing's crew knows they can't stop them all because it will tip off the enemy.     This leads to cold, logical mathematics and statistics to determine which attacks to thwart and which ones to leave in God's hands.     Breaking the secret code must also remain a secret.

The Imitation Game is skillfully directed by Morten Tyldum.    The film is a thriller and a race against time, but it also takes care in developing its characters.    Turing is an enigma to others and perhaps to himself, but this creates a person who was undone by the very country he helped save from defeat.    It's sad and an outrage.    If we consider that gay marriage is still an issue yet to be decided by the Supreme Court and the Russians put their anti-gay legislation on full display during the Olympics, can we say we have come a long way in being progressive towards homosexuality?   The movie allows us to ponder that very question.











  

Inglourious Basterds (2009) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Quentin Tarantino

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Mike Myers, Til Schweiger, Daniel Bruhl

Truth be told.   Upon watching Inglourious Basterds again recently, it could have been shortened by, say, 15-20 minutes.     Three scenes in particular could've been tightened:  The opening sequence with Col. Hans Landa (Waltz) interrogating a farmer suspected of hiding Jews in his home, the bar scene in which members of Operation Kino rendezvous with unforeseen consequences, and the opening of the "German Night In Paris" portion.   Each scene starts out tense, but overstays its welcome.     With those criticisms out of the way, Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino's most satisfying film.    It is a revenge fantasy in which the Third Reich ends in more spectacular fashion than what is written in the history books.     Hitler may have gotten off easy by committing suicide on April 30, 1945.    Here he is given no such choice to make.

How the Third Reich meets its demise in Inglourious Basterds involves people such as Landa, Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt), who leads a pack of Jewish-American soldiers that ambush, kill, and scalp Nazis, and a movie theater owner (Laurent), a Jewish girl who escaped from the farm visited by Landa in the opening scene.     She shrewdly manipulates a smitten German war hero (Bruhl) into allowing her theater to show the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film based on his exploits as a sniper.     I won't reveal how all of this fits together because it would spoil some of the surprises Tarantino lays out.   

Tarantino is not afraid to be bold.   Inglourious Basterds is retelling history with more blood and sardonic humor than you may have seen in other World War II based films.      The performances are memorable, especially Pitt's and Waltz' (which won him a Supporting Actor Oscar).    Pitt chews the scenery as a Tennessee good-ol'-boy who is "in the Nazi killing business and business is a-boomin'".    His scenes involve the most humor and most savagery in the entire film.     Waltz toys with people under a guise of geniality and manners.     This hides his brutal nature as "the Jew hunter".    He acts as an executioner who promises to make things comfortable for you before you meet your maker.     Pitt and Waltz steal every scene they are in separately and together.    

We watch with glee as Hitler is driven to frothing anger by the actions of the Basterds, who terrorize Nazis in occupied France.     They leave a souvenir on the foreheads of Nazis they allow to live, which isn't many.     The plots converge on a fateful night at the movie theater where the owner has plans for the mostly German audience unrelated to what the Basterds have in store.     The flammability of old nitrate film prints plays a key part, which is something a movie buff like Tarantino would know plenty about.

Inglourious Basterds is the closest Tarantino has come in his career to being a plot-driven film.    We sense his love of war action epics, film history, and zeal for big moments all in one film.     The final line of dialogue is "Sir, this may be your masterpiece."    Tarantino may not have a masterpiece, but it's close.  

You've Got Mail (1998) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Nora Ephron

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Jean Stapleton, Dabney Coleman, Parker Posey, John Randolph, Steve Zahn

You've Got Mail is a sweet, tender romantic comedy for the Internet age.   It was released in 1998 when the Internet was in its infancy and people still visited chat rooms and had dial-up service through AOL.   It is amusing to see here how quickly the characters are able to log in using dial-up.   

The film is a remake of The Shop Around The Corner (1940), the Jimmy Stewart film in which two co-workers who dislike each other find themselves to be anonymous pen pals who don't realize each other's real identities.    You've Got Mail stretches out the contrivance by making its leads competing business owners who email each other anonymously.    "No names" and "nothing specific" are the ground rules when the two converse.    Of course, if they revealed themselves the movie would be over and we would be denied the pleasure of seeing everything play out.

Tom Hanks plays Joe Fox, a third-generation owner of Fox & Sons Books, one of those bookstore chains that offered discounted books, plenty of chairs, and plenty of coffee to sip while reading.     "We offer deep discount books and legally addicting stimulants," says Joe.    These bookstore chains have mostly gone the way of dial-up internet service oddly enough.      Ryan's Kathleen Kelly is the owner of a small bookstore named, "The Shop Around The Corner", which offers a cozy atmosphere, expensive children's books, and storytime every Saturday afternoon.  

They meet in-person at Kathleen's store, each not knowing that they've already met online.    Joe brings two small children with him, both of whom are not his children, niece, or nephew.    "Annabel is my aunt.    She is my grandfather's daughter.    Matt is my brother.    He is my father's son.    We are an American family."     They meet again at a dinner party, in which Joe reveals himself to be the owner of the soon-to-be-opening Fox Books and a direct threat to Kathleen's business.    They squabble whenever they meet, although online they confide in each other.    

The two agree to meet.    Joe arrives to see Kathleen sitting at a restaurant table awaiting her anonymous friend.     Instead of confessing to Kathleen that he is indeed her online pal, Joe surveys the situation, understanding full well that Kathleen would likely not accept him as she knows him, and pretends he is just in the neighborhood.     This leads Kathleen to believe she was stood up when actually he was there all along.     It is poignant when she tells Joe he has "a cash register where his heart should be," not knowing that he is the same man she has fallen for online.

Other issues stand in the way of Joe and Kathleen's potential happiness.    Both have live-in lovers, who exist only to be dumped.     When The Shop Around The Corner eventually goes under thanks to Fox Books, it seems to be an insurmountable hurdle.     Yet, Joe develops a plan to win Kathleen's love by befriending her and truly becoming the man she already loves on the internet.     Hanks and Ryan can play charming and likable people effortlessly.     Ryan has more smiles than some people have expressions.     I think I have read that in another review of this film, but I couldn't think of a better way to put it.

We don't go into You've Got Mail expecting anything less than its two leads finally coming together at the end after a long time apart.     Sure, it's predictable, but if done well is as comforting and enjoyable as, well, a hot mug of coffee if you like that sort of thing.     You've Got Mail earns its happy ending.   

American Sniper (2015) * *

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller

American Sniper, based on the autobiography of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, has a subject seen in such broad terms that we never really see who's inside.     There are plenty of debates surrounding the film, concerning such matters as whether the film is celebrating a "killer".   To me, the film whiffs on its chance to be a powerful film about a man to whom war is a drug.    The Hurt Locker covered plenty of the same ground with more insight and more tension.     I expected more, but I was held outside.    I realize the film is only interested in covering Chris Kyle's life as a wartime Navy SEAL in great detail while blowing by the home front scenes in which Kyle's PTSD is evident to everyone but himself.      

Kyle signed up for the Navy SEAL's in the late 1990's as a gung-ho patriot who can't wait to kill terrorists.    Before that, Chris grew up in Texas with a father who preached to him about the art of fighting and hunting.     "If somebody starts a fight, you finish it," says the elder Kyle.   The problem is, Chris doesn't seem to be able to accept when a fight is finished.     Chris and his brother Jeff work aimlessly on the Texas rodeo tour when Chris sees footage of a terrorist attack.     He signs up for the Navy SEAL's and we fast forward to Hell Week, when SEAL trainees are put through torture just for the privilege of graduating to basic training.    Becoming a sniper more or less seems to fit into his pathology if the movie is to be believed. 

Chris meets and falls for Taya (Miller) in a bar.    They marry shortly after 9/11 and days before Chris is shipped overseas to Iraq.     By then, he has become an expert marksman with a keen sense of who should be shot and who should be spared.     His first quandary involves whether to shoot a mother and child who are approaching an Army unit with what looks like a grenade.     There are numerous scenes involve Chris aiming at targets from his lofty perch and shooting them.     One or two of these scenes might have sufficed.     More than that is overkill.

There are plenty of battle scenes because this is where Chris, according to the movie, feels most at home.     When his tours end and he goes home, he is lost amidst a wife and children who are strangers to him.     The scenes involving Chris and Taya take on the same feeling and approach.    Taya chastises Chris on his inability to be present for his family.    His mind is on the war, he doesn't put his family first... Yada, Yada, Yada.     Their relationship never becomes absorbing enough and the film doesn't take its time to flesh out these pivotal scenes.

Chris goes through four tours of duty in Iraq.    He has 160 confirmed kills and referred to as "Legend" by practically everyone.   Like Unbroken, the other guys act as if it is their privilege to be in the same scene with him.   It's as if they read his biography years before it was written.

American Sniper sees Chris as basically a person who is a fanatic about shooting people.   When he retires from the military, he spends his time helping other veterans assimilate into society by taking them to shooting ranges.     We see him forever circling the flame or jumping headlong into it.
The film sees Chris Kyle in such basic, broad terms that we finally just grow weary of him.    The part of his postwar life where he learns to slow down and let his family in is blown by so fast we get whiplash.    Yet, Eastwood and company lovingly cover the war scenes down to the closest detail.     One in particular involving a battle in a dust storm is well done.   There is a certain level of craftsmanship that Eastwood has achieved that he rarely falls below.        

Bradley Cooper's natural exuberance is instead shaped here into a physically imposing man who was born to be a gung-ho soldier.    Cooper is fine here and does what he can, but is ultimately one-note and one-dimensional because the film only chooses to show that side of him.    We know Cooper is capable of so much more.    Miller does the best she can with an underwritten role.     Did Eastwood hedge his bets by concentrating on the battle scenes rather than the other aspects of Kyle?    And what is with Kyle's Iraqi counterpart, who is never fleshed out and seen mostly as a slick ubervillain that Kyle has to one day kill.   American Sniper sees much, but doesn't see through.    It is content on portraying the life of its subject with the depth of a propaganda film.    

87th Annual Academy Award Nominations and Predictions

It's that time of year again.   I went 7 for 8 last year in major categories and 17 out of 23 overall.

I look to do better this year, but it's a tough group.

Best Picture

American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Prediction:  Boyhood.   Won Golden Globe and Critics' Choice awards already.    The groundbreaking film was shot by Richard Linklater over 12 years.    You don't see that everyday in a feature film.     Expect an editing award as well.

Best Director:

Alejandro G. Inarritu for Birdman
Richard Linklater for Boyhood
Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game

Prediction:   Linklater.    His film is groundbreaking.    Directing it took perserverance and patience.   He will be rewarded for that.    This should be the first director/picture win since 2011's The Artist.

Best Actor

Steve Carell in Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper in American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton in Birdman
Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything

Prediction:  Keaton.    Redmayne's performance is certainly more physically challenging and Oscar voters tend to like that.    Keaton, however, has picked up a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice award already.    It's a comeback of sorts for him and a marriage of the right actor with the right role. 

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones in The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore in Still Alice
Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon in Wild

Prediction:  Moore.    Still Alice isn't in wide release yet, but it's a story of a woman fighting early Alzheimer's.    Moore has four previous nominations and a long, storied career in various types of films.    I think it's hers to lose.

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall in The Judge
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood
Edward Norton in Birdman
Mark Ruffalo in Foxcather
JK Simmons in Whiplash

Prediction:   Simmons.    He has racked up numerous awards already.   Simmons is a veteran character actor (you've seen him on Farmers Insurance commercials) who gets a chance to gain recognition.    Good story and he is a clear favorite.

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Laura Dern in Wild
Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game
Emma Stone in Birdman
Meryl Streep in Into The Woods

Prediction:  Arquette.    Arquette has rolled through awards season and is a favorite here.    An acting win will boster Boyhood's hopes for Best Picture.    Streep's nomination is her 19th, adding to her own Oscar record.    She has been nominated twice since winning her third Oscar three years ago.

Best Original Screenplay

Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler

Prediction:   Birdman.    The key word is original.    The Grand Budapest Hotel is also original, but Birdman looks like the play here.

Best Adapted Screenplay

American Sniper
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Prediction:   The Imitation Game.    Graham Moore's script may be the only Oscar win for the film which garnered numerous nominations.   

Overall, I'm figuring four Oscars for Boyhood, which should be enough to be the big winner of the evening.    

Boiler Room (2000) * * *

Directed by:  Ben Younger

Starring:  Giovanni Ribisi, Nicky Katt, Ron Rifkin, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Vin Diesel

Right out of college, I interviewed for a job at a brokerage firm.    I was promised I could become a well-off man within a few years.    I'm sure I'm not the first nor the last person to hear this pitch.    The idea of attempting to pry people away from their money by selling legitimate or possibly dubious stock did not appeal to me.    I passed, but many probably did not.    Watching Boiler Room, I believe I made the right decision.     I was not born to be a high-pressure salesman.     I'll leave that to people who have the stomach for it.    Boiler Room is about a group of people who not only have the stomach for it, but thrive on the thought of becoming millionaires by talking to people on the phone and parting them from their money.  

Boiler Room centers on a young man named Seth who runs an illegal casino out of his apartment.    He makes money and runs the operation well.    However, his father, a federal judge, finds out about the operation and Seth closes up shop.    He decides to take his sales skills to a Long Island brokerage firm named JT Marlin.    The firm's recruiter, a millionaire named Jimmy (Affleck), gathers a group of prospects into a conference room and delivers his pitch.    "I'm a millionaire.   I'm liquid.    It's not a question of when you will be millionaire working here, but how many times over," he tells his audience.     There has to be a catch, of course.    Otherwise, everybody would be a stockbroker.   The catch is, a prospect doesn't make much money to start out and has to sell worthless stock to suckers who desperately want a piece of the American Dream.     Then, they begin trading for themselves.   By then, they are trained to be bullying phone salesmen who bulldoze people into buying stock that will ultimately cost them whatever little money they have.

The Wolf of Wall Street covers similar ground, but in a more highly energized way.    Boiler Room focuses on the lingo and the inner workings of such an operation.    Knowing full well that the FBI or some other regulatory agency will come sniffing around, the firm's founders have a backup plan to move the operations elsewhere.     Seth realizes that success in this world is fleeting.    His father (Rifkin) disapproves of his get-rich-quick philosophy.    Seth is forever trying to please his rigid dad.    Their eventual reconciliation is moving and is at the heart of the film.    "When I ran the casino, I at least provided a service that someone asked for," he says in voiceover narration.     He is correct.    A person enters a casino fully knowing the odds are not in his favor, but he freely gambles anyway.    A person purchasing stock has to trust a broker he has never met and buys strictly based on whether he believes the broker.    It is a risky proposition.

Boiler Room contains intense, smart performances.    Ribisi plays a young man who thinks he knows all the angles, but finds out he doesn't know a few.    Vin Diesel plays Chris, Seth's senior broker who shows him the ropes.    I've always enjoyed Diesel's streetwise intelligence.    It is on display here.    I was less interested in Seth's romance with the firm's secretary Abby (Long), who is hiding a secret or two from her boyfriend.    The romance seems forced in at a right angle. 

It has been said that Wall Street (1987) was meant as a cautionary tale.     Tell that to the guys in this movie, who in their down time watch Wall Street and quote Gordon Gekko's dialogue word for word.     They have adopted Gekko as their patron saint.     So much so they can quote Wall Street line for line. 

Tammy (2015) *

Directed by:  Ben Falcone

Starring:  Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Mark Duplass, Gary Cole, Ben Falcone, Kathy Bates, Sandra Oh, Dan Aykroyd

I watched Melissa McCarthy in the recent St. Vincent.    Her character was a lonely, sad divorcee who works long hours at the hospital while trying to raise a son.    It was a supporting role, but a sweet one.    I saw a side of her I hadn't seen before.     Then, I put Tammy in the Blu-Ray player and I was treated to the same, tired McCarthy role.    Tammy, like her characters in The Heat, Bridesmaids, and Identity Thief, is a foul-mouthed, obnoxious, hostile loudmouth with a soft underbelly and a heart of gold.     She acts aggressively to hide her inner sadness.

Tammy was tailor-made to appeal to the lowest common denominator.    Nothing about it is surprising or unpredictable.    It is a waste of talent for all involved.     There are fine actors here who will be fine again.    This is director Ben Falcone's first feature (he is McCarthy's husband) and he will undoubtedly do better with better material.     Given a chance to direct his spouse in a high-profile comedy, how could he turn it down? 

Tammy begins with McCarthy running into a deer, causing her to be late to work at a fast food joint again, and then getting fired by her boss (Falcone).   After an expletive-filled rant in which she soils the food on the way out, she comes home to find her husband making a romantic dinner for his lover (Collette) and leaves to go to her mother (Janney), who lives only four houses down.     Tammy needs to hit the road to cool her head.   Her grandmother (grandmother, really?) played by Susan Sarandon goes along for the ride, hoping to see Niagra Falls for the first time in her life.

The series of events that happen next are one large slog.    The scenes move like they are stuck in quicksand.    There is a scene in which Tammy, desperate for money, holds up a fast-food joint like the one she was fired from.     The scene drags on and on, without any laughs or wit.    Ditto for most of the other activities in the movie.     There is even a love interest for Tammy who seems too nice to be shackled to someone like her.    Gary Cole appears as a booty call for Sarandon, who, if she is indeed old enough to be Tammy's grandmother, would be in her mid-80s.    There comes a stage in every actor's life in which he/she is assigned to play someone's father or mother, but has Sarandon moved on to playing a grandparent?    She is only in her late 60s for goodness sake.    

Tammy is a road movie, a buddy movie, and a Getting To Know You movie all wrapped into one.    There is nothing original about it.    This would be fine if the movie were at least funny.    It isn't, so we are stuck watching a very bad retread.    

Taken 3 (2015) * *

Directed by:  Olivier Megaton

Starring:  Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott, Famke Janssen, Sam Spruell, Don Harvey

Unlike the first two Takens, no one is actually taken in this third installment of the series.    Someone is murdered and Neeson's Bryan Mills finds himself as the prime suspect.    Neeson goes on the lam to prove his innocence, which includes assaulting police officers, shooting bad guys, blowing up cars and buildings, causing traffic collisions galore, and of course hacking into the LAPD computers.    An unintentional laugh occurs when a character tells Mills, "Hacking into the computer is illegal and we could arrest you for that."   Mills continues his streak of being responsible for numerous deaths and mayhem, yet walking away with nary a single police citation.    How about at least one for resisting arrest?    Just one? 

This is Neeson's third go-round as Mills, a former operative (CIA? FBI? In three movies, we never do find out) whose daughter was kidnapped in Taken and who himself is kidnapped (along with his ex-wife) in Taken 2.     Now, he is accused of murder after he finds his ex-wife dead in his apartment.    He assaults the two police officers attempting to arrest him and flees.     LAPD detective Franck Dotzler (Whitaker) is on his trail and in awe of the skills Mills warned his daughter's kidnappers about in the first film.     "He knows how to disappear," he tells his subordinates as they track Mills.

Disappear he does, except when he is causing a 26-car collision on the freeway, or blowing up an elevator shaft after seemingly crashing his car into it.    How exactly did he escape that?    Such trivial matters aren't explained in a film like this.    Mills is like a cyborg.    He seemingly goes days without sleep or much wear and tear.     He survives a tumbling car crash down a mountainside with nary a scratch on him.     Bruce Willis' character in Unbreakable would envy him.     The T-1000 terminator in Terminator 2 doesn't hold a candle to Mills.

Neeson is 62 and never once shows his age.    He runs away from trouble with stamina that would shame a marathon runner.     He is coming very close to Sylvester Stallone territory with his age-defying stunts.     The body count is a little less in Taken 3, but that's only because there are a few less Russian baddies and assorted villains to contend with.    Oh yes, there is a Russian mob crew that is after some money owed to them by Mills' ex-wife's rich husband.     Is there a connection?    Nah.   Although the presence of Dougray Scott as the rich hubby should set off its own spoiler alert as to...oh, never mind.

Taken 3 isn't as unintentionally funny as Taken 2 and not as skilled as Taken.    It is a formula chase picture punctuated by choppy edits which cloud exactly what we're seeing.    Neeson brings skill and his considerable screen presence to the role like a classical pianist would bring to Chopsticks.     It is well done, but a wasteful use of talent and resources.    Neeson has spent much of the past six years in action films or roles that don't stretch his talents.     There has to be another Oskar Schindler or Rob Roy in him somewhere.   

Wicker Park (2004) * * *

Directed by:  Paul McGuigan

Starring:  Josh Hartnett, Rose Byrne, Diane Kruger, Matthew Lillard, Jessica Pare

I first saw Wicker Park ten years ago and I found it to be a hidden gem, ignored at the box office, but containing romance, passion, and mystery.    Ten years later, upon second viewing, it is still an unabashedly romantic, passionate film, but I felt the plot mechanics churning more this time around.    Wicker Park is about a man obsessed with tracking down his ex-flame who vanished mysteriously from his life two years earlier.    She was the love of his life, but after seemingly moving on and becoming engaged to another woman, he thinks he spots her in a downtown Chicago restaurant and that is that.   He puts his life on hold tracking her down, narrowly missing her in at least a half dozen places.  

Two years earlier, Matthew (Hartnett) first sees Lisa (Kruger) on the street and falls in love at first sight.   He follows her around like a quasi-stalker, but this intrigues her rather than creeps her out.    They go out on a date and then fall in love.    After a time of bliss, he asks her to move to New York with him.     After a cryptic answer, Lisa leaves suddenly for a European tour (she is a dancer) and he heartbreakingly moves on with his life, assuming her answer is no. 

Flash forward to present day.   Matthew tracks Lisa to various places, all the while enlisting the aid of his friend Luke (Lillard), who himself is trying to establish a relationship with a cold, distant actress named Alex (Byrne).    Alex clearly has other things on her mind.   While treading lightly as I discuss plot points, Alex plays a bigger role in the events of the past and present than initially expected.

The true nature of the film's events are told in flashbacks, flash forwards, and even flash-sideways, to quote a line from Funny Farm (1988).   We see exactly what happened and why.   We sense the unscrupulous passion behind it.    There are layers of deception within all of the main characters, except maybe wide-eyed, lovelorn Luke, who doesn't realize he is just a cog in a larger plot machine.   

The near-misses between Matt and Lisa soon become almost laughable.   He bends down to pick something up moments before she exits a building and is stopped by a random woman asking directions.   They miss each other by that much.   She calls him while he's in the shower and he doesn't hear the phone.   Etc. Etc.   There are many contrivances designed to keep the two apart, although a phone call or a face-to-face visit could've solved the whole misunderstanding.    It is also helpful that not one of the characters owns a cell phone.     Otherwise the movie would've been over a lot more quickly.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the absurdities of Wicker Park anyway, because we are swept up in the romantic notion of Lovers Kept Apart.    Hartnett's Matt is put through the emotional wringer, but he has a conviction which carries the film along.     He knows Lisa is out there somewhere and he will find her.    I also felt a little sorry for Alex, who despite it all will not find true love.    Not in this story anyway.  

National Treasure (2004) * * *

Directed by:  Jon Turteltaub

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha, Harvey Keitel

National Treasure doesn't hold up to much, if any, scrutiny.    It is the type of thriller that you enjoy while knowing full well it is silly, preposterous, and leaves you with more questions than answers.     Whatever the opposite of realistic is, National Treasure is that, but it's a lot of fun too.   It is one of those movies where, sooner or later, each major character will find himself holding a torch.

I won't give away too many Big Reveals, mostly because there are so many in National Treasure.    Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Gates, a historian who has been on the trail of elusive treasure which is the stuff of legends and fables.     His crew includes Riley (Bartha), a snarky computer whiz and natural-born sidekick, and Ian (Bean), who we know will betray Ben and Riley because he is played by Sean Bean (who rarely plays a hero).   This occurs during a critical dig in the Arctic tundra where the crew unburies a long missing warship with minimal digging.   If only finding Noah's Ark were this easy.

Ben and Riley do survive and discover that the next clue to the missing treasure is, get this, on a hidden map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.    They, with the unwitting aid of a sexy national archivist named Abigail Chase (Kruger), are able to steal the document and smuggle it out of Washington, DC with the FBI and Ian's crew on their tails.   They stay ahead, but not far ahead.   Ben enlists the help of his father Patrick (Voight), who knows a thing or two about obsession with treasure.

The quest takes everyone from Washington to Philly to New York (and for some even Boston).    The Declaration of Independence goes with it, passing from person to person.    The Declaration is such an old document that it's a wonder it doesn't just disintegrate.    It doesn't in this movie.    There are so many other logistical questions that pop up, although not necessarily while you're watching.    One question that comes to mind is:  How were the folks who hid all of this treasure able to move it around without being noticed?    The task of building the room which houses all of the treasure pieces took maybe slightly less effort than building the pyramids.  But I digress.

National Treasure is a silly adventure, but thankfully the actors seem to take it seriously.    Cage is an intelligent enough actor that we believe him every time he solves a riddle or a puzzle which leads to another clue.   His next job should be deciphering cell phone bills.    I enjoyed National Treasure because it is implausible, goofy fun.    It plays like it has a smile on its face.    I know logical questions will break the mood, but if the guys who hid the treasure never wanted anyone to find it, then why leave clues at all, no matter how difficult they may be to follow?   

Unbroken (2014) * *

Directed by:  Angelina Jolie

Starring: Jack O'Connell, Takamasa Ishihara, Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson, Jai Courtney

Louis Zamperini lived a full life until dying in the summer of 2014 at aged 97.    His life was documented in a best-selling book by Laura Hillebrand and now made into a well-acted film.    The trouble is, the film concentrates on mostly the World War II portion of his life, which includes being stranded 45 days at sea following a plane crash and then a torturous stay in a Japanese POW camp.    Images of better films like Life of Pi and Bridge on the River Kwai flowed through my mind when I should've been focusing on this man's story.   I've seen this before in other films, even if the film was close to the facts, which I have no reason to believe otherwise.   Zamperini's experiences in the camp could be mirrored by thousands of other men, yet Unbroken is made about him, so what was so special about him?    Others had it worse than him also and some, of course, died. 

Unbroken is a film that tells me that the character is special without really delving into why.    It scratches the surface, but strangely the epilogue explaining Zamperini's post-World War II path to forgiveness of the Japanese and eventually carrying the Olympic torch during the 1998 Nagano games sounds like a more compelling story.    The POW stuff may seem easier for moviegoers to swallow, but the real story began just as the movie was ending.     I'm reminded of the line in Barton Fink in which the movie producer tells Fink, "The wrestling with the soul crap is for the critics."   Oddly, Unbroken's script was co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen, who made Barton Fink.    They should've tried the wrestling with the soul crap.   

Zamperini is played by Jack O'Connell, who is athletic and good-looking, if not entirely charismatic.    Then again, Unbroken doesn't really give him much to do, even when going through the hell of being adrift at sea and then in various Japanese prisons.     One character says, "I'm glad it's you that's here with us," when they are floating in their rafts.    Why is that?     As a bombardier during the air battles in the Pacific, he shows real nerve like the others in his crew.    One problem in the film is how other characters damn near genuflect in Zamperini's presence.    They apparently read the novel.   

As the film opens, Zamperini is a teen who cuts school and gets into trouble, but by accident becomes a track star on his high school team.    He is chased away from looking up girl's skirts from under the bleachers and amazes others at his speed.     I couldn't help but think of Bear Bryant discovering Forrest Gump.     His older brother Peter, sounding like a walking, breathing motivational poster like the ones hanging up in offices, tells him, "If you can take it, you can make it."     This becomes his rallying cry.    Soon enough, Zamperini is running the 5000 meter race in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.     The film never fully explains exactly how he finished.    He definitely didn't win, but the play-by-play radio narration explains how his final lap time of 56 seconds set some sort of Olympic record.     This reminds me of a baseball team losing a game 15-3 and bragging about how they managed to eke out the 3 runs.    I had to look up in Wikipedia to find out that he finished 8th in the event.

Then comes World War II.    He and his friend survive 45 days at sea, which is not a record anyone wants to set; eating fish, sharks, and getting sick biting into a seagull.    They are captured by the Japanese, who at first send him to the jungles of the Pacific and then to Tokyo, where the camp is led by a fey corporal (Ishihara), who looks stern and wears a lot of mascara.     The corporal pays special attention to Zamperini, berating him and beating him for looking at him during his introduction to the troops.    Later, the corporal says, "When I first looked at you, I wanted you to be my friend."    It is not made entirely clear whether the corporal is attracted to Zamperini sexually, but there are vibes.    The torment he puts Zamperini through is his version of a cold shower.    A word of advice to the corporal:  Beating a guy up, asking every prisoner to punch him in the face, and then forcing him to keep a heavy piece of wood lifted over his head are not ways to win friends and influence people. 

Unbroken is professionally made, with plenty of atmosphere thrown in by director Jolie and cinematographer Roger Deakins.    It looks great and moves along well, but at the service of a story that we've frankly seen before, just not with Louis Zamperini.