Aquaman (2018) * * 1/2

Directed by:  James Wan

Starring:  Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Like previous Justice League movies, and we may as well throw some Avengers movies into this mix also, Aquaman is at its best when it is dialed down.   We don't need to see CGI on screen every second.   There are scenes of heart and tenderness in Aquaman, most of which involving Nicole Kidman, who to her credit doesn't simply phone in her performance as the queen of the sea.    Jason Momoa is a capable Aquaman who has fun with the role.    This is one superhero who doesn't mind throwing back a few beers and partying during the lulls in his attempts to stop his villainous half-brother Orm (Wilson) from uniting all of the undersea kingdoms and waging war on the surface.

That is the plot in a nutshell, and Aquaman begins with a moving love story between Queen Atlanna (Kidman) and the ordinary lighthouse keeper who rescues her after she washes ashore.    Their love produces son Arthur, who grows up to be Aquaman and has an uncanny ability to communicate with ocean life.   Momoa brings confidence and charisma to the role, and of course can convincingly kick some butts.    But then the plot takes over and the movie spends an inordinate amount of time in different parts of the world as Aquaman and his new gal pal Mera (Heard) search for the trident which will give Aquaman the power he needs to dethrone Orm and win his battle.  

Aquaman sags in the middle to the point in which it never truly recovers, which overshadows the positives of the film.    The visuals of the undersea world Aquaman inhabits are vibrant and colorful, but soon we feel like we are overtaken by the vast amounts of sea creatures, characters, and water.   Wilson is a conflicted villain, which adds depth to the performance, and this leads to a moving payoff in the end.    But, if anyone can make sense of the final undersea battle between Aquaman and everyone, then your comprehension is much greater than mine.  

The idea of an Aquaman movie was kidded in the Entourage television series, but the look of this endeavor would certainly make James Cameron proud.   Momoa is surely a better actor than Vincent Chase.   This real movie has its moments in which it aspires to something great, but frustratingly plays it safe by throwing all of the CGI it can at the screen.    If the movie had been as strong as its opening fifteen minutes, we would have really had something here.    Instead, we get a near miss which runs at least thirty minutes too long and has so many characters and subplots to juggle, the audience should've been supplied with a handbook.  

Ben Is Back (2018) * * *

Directed by:  Peter Hedges

Starring:  Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, David Zaldivar

I understand through personal experience how scary it is to have a child who is a recovering addict.  It is heartening to see your child moving in the right direction, but it is equally terrifying because of the fear of relapse.   Will my child be strong enough to handle the triggers which will inevitably push him to a decision on whether to stay clean or use again?   What's even scarier is how there is no amount of love or restraint you can exert to control things.    Ben Is Back understands that and for a good portion of the movie, the suspense it draws comes from that very dynamic.   Ben Burns' (Hedges) return home for Christmas causes a gamut of emotions in his family:  Joy, fear, apprehension, mistrust, and finally horror.   Horror because his mother, Holly (Roberts) learns things about her son she wishes she hadn't. 

Ben Is Back begins on Christmas Eve and unwinds over a bizarre 24 hours.   Ben traipses home, seemingly on leave from his rehab, and is locked out of his home (for good reason, as we learn). 
Holly sees Ben when pulling up her driveway with her two younger children.   Her first emotion is sheer joy.   Once that subsides, then the reality of having her addict son in her home comes to fruition.   She says she trusts him, but hides all of the pills and jewelry.   Ben's sister Ivy (Newton) is less convinced of his sobriety.   Holly's husband Neil (Vance), Ben's stepfather, isn't exactly thrilled to see Ben either.    Not because he doesn't love Ben, but because he fears the havoc he caused will return. 

Against their better judgment, Neil and Holly allow Ben to stay for 24 hours and after that, they will return him to the rehab.   Holly's rules include a drug test and not letting him out of her sight, which she finds is akin to trying to keep hold of something in a wind tunnel.   Ben's demons will not make this 24 hours easy.   We learn Ben was not just a user, but a drug dealer as well, and this contributed to the death of one of his friends.    Then, the family returns home from Ivy's recital to find the house broken into and the family dog stolen.    Ben knows this isn't a random act, and he and Holly journey out into the night to find the dog, which leads to further painful consequences.

Ben Is Back soon becomes part thriller and belongs to Hedges and Roberts, whose love for her son is put to the most severe of tests.    In order to retrieve the dog, Ben must deal with people he thought he left behind when he went to rehab.   He has been clean for 77 days, but that is not nearly enough time to confront the past.   He clearly isn't ready, but emptily reassures Holly he is.    Hedges continues to impress in a series of strong performances which started with his Oscar-nominated role in Manchester by the Sea (2016) and up to and including the very good Boy Erased (2018).   He is able to handle the trickiness of being an addict who wants to recover, but finds it may be impossible.   Roberts gives her best performance in years:  Unsure, loving, trying to be strong, and ultimately accepting the truth about her son, Roberts makes a sympathetic emotional center. 

Making the film a quasi-thriller robs the movie of some of its power, but not fatally so.   The ending is inevitable and sad, because such endings with addicts are all too common.   A full, lifelong recovery is more the exception than the rule.   For an addict, wanting to get help isn't the end of the arduous journey, but simply the beginning.    The recent Beautiful Boy also tells the story of an addict and the addiction's toll on his family, but that movie never went out to the emotional edges Ben Is Back at least approaches, if not totally successfully reaches.    But, Ben Is Back is still absorbing as it strives to find the painful truths of addiction's hell on both the addict and his/her loved ones. 

Crazy Heart (2009) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Scott Cooper

Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Paul Herman

One of the things so refreshing about Crazy Heart is how we think we know where it is going and it goes the opposite way.    A more hopeful and happier way for Bad Blake (Bridges), a broken down, chain smoking, whiskey guzzling, has-been country singer who used to be a big name, but now plays small bars and bowling alleys.    Bad travels on the road in his trusty 1978 pickup, and despite his failing health and drunkenness, he manages to appear at and finish his shows, which isn't always easy when you are throwing up in between songs.

Bad is ornery, and sees no reason to change his ways, or more likely it would take simply too much effort to do so.   He resists some potentially lucrative openings for superstar Tommy Sweet (Farrell), who is Bad's protégé, which Tommy has never forgotten.    A lesser movie would have Tommy be an insufferable jerk to his former mentor, but Tommy acts almost deferentially to the man he admires so much.   Tommy loves Bad and remains loyal to him, and Bad loves him too if he would only stop being so stubborn about admitting it.  

The impetus for Bad's changes are Jean (Gyllenhaal), a Santa Fe reporter who interviews him for a local paper and soon becomes his lover, and Jean's son Buddy, who Bad adores.    We see Bad's better nature when he is around them both, but the whiskey isn't far from Bad and in one crucial sequence, this causes a potentially tragic situation.    Bad isn't his birth name, but he uses it because it is his personality.   He has five failed marriages and a grown son he hasn't seen since the boy was four.    It is little wonder his son won't talk to him.    Bad has in some way or another alienated those who love him his whole life.   Will the trend continue with Jean and Buddy, or will he find a way to find his better self after all these years?

Jeff Bridges won his long overdue Oscar for Best Actor for this role, and it's one in which he inhabits inside and out as easily as he has his many other memorable characters.    Bridges never seems to reach for effect.    He allows us in and we don't have to work too hard to feel like someone who has known him his whole life.    That is the mark of a great actor:  we don't catch him acting.   Gyllenhaal (also Oscar-nominated for this film) doesn't give us the standard movie girlfriend who stands by and watches her man self-destruct.    She seems to really like Bad, but has reservations about him.   After all, how couldn't she?    Jean will walk a mile with Bad, but we find out, not much farther, and for good reason.  

In a critical scene, Bad is told to stop drinking, smoking, and lose weight.   He doesn't do any of it, and we think we are going to just watch a man sink into despair until his ill health finally gets the better of him.    But, that is not the case.    We see a man who realizes he can actually change his ways, and with that, he learns to write songs again and reclaim his fame.    When we see
Bad and Jean reunite at the film's end (although not how you would expect), we know they are in better places than when the film opened.    Crazy Heart is directed with surefire skill by Scott Cooper, whose follow-up films ranged from pretty good (Black Mass) to not-so-good (Out of the Furnace).   With Crazy Heart, he clearly loves these people and for a while allows us to witness them grow.  

Elf (2003) * *

Directed by:  Jon Favreau

Starring:  Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Zooey Deschanel

I laughed at times during Elf, but not enough.   The movie is a well-intended, but slipshod mixture of slapstick, gross-out humor, and even some Christmas spirit.    I first saw it when it was first released in 2003 and didn't find it much to my liking.   To see if I was just being a Scrooge or if the movie just didn't work for me like it does for others who watch it every Christmas, I gave it another shot with an open mind and an open heart.    Will Ferrell, as the "elf" who finally after thirty years realizes he is human and not a true Santa elf, attacks the role with zeal and a wide-eyed smile.   He is naive, innocent, and only wants the love of his biological father Walter (Caan), whom he travels to New York to find, and there isn't a lot where that came from.

Walter runs a publishing company and is facing unemployment due to a string of flops.    This is not the best time for Buddy (Ferrell) to wander into his office one day and tell him he's his biological son who has been living for thirty years at the North Pole.   You can forgive Walter for not wanting to embrace this idea, especially since he has just a few days to pitch his boss on his next big bestseller. 
So, Buddy is left to wander New York City and work at Gimbel's when he is mistaken for a staff member.    He already is wearing the elf costume, so why not pass the time?   Especially when the pretty, but spiritless Jovie (Deschanel) catches Buddy's eye.

A paternity test informs Walter that he is Buddy's father, and reluctantly moves him into his New York apartment with his wife (Steenburgen) and young son who is thrilled at having a much older brother, much to Walter's much more muted pleasure.    Caan is funny here because he plays Walter as a man who is one step away from blowing his stack, but never does.    It is a mastery of the slow, slow burn.   There is little suspense as to when and if Walter will finally embrace the son he never met, but you don't exactly watch Elf for the plot.   You watch for the laughs.

Some moments are amusing, while others don't go over as well.    Ferrell is a likable presence, while the supporting cast has some scenes to treasure also, but Elf overall doesn't deliver consistently.    You watch for long stretches awaiting the next laugh which may or may not come.   Your tastes may vary as to whether I'm correct or not.    I've admired Ferrell in other films.   He is a unique talent who can surprise you with his depth.    If I wrote this review in 2003, I would've given Elf one star. 
Fifteen years later, I give it two.   Who knows?   Maybe in another fifteen years, it will have warmed me enough to give it three stars.   



 

Vice (2018) * *

Directed by:  Adam McKay

Starring:  Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry, Jesse Plemons, Alison Pill, Lily Rabe, Eddie Marsan

Why make a movie about Dick Cheney, one of the most despised, yet influential people in American political history, if you're not going to infuse him with insight or personality?    Richard Dreyfuss proved in the underrated W (2008) that you can provide the cagey puppet master with some semblance of life and still keep his manipulation skills on display for all to see.    There are times in Vice in which Christian Bale (who is made up to look uncannily like the former Vice-President) can barely rouse himself to the level of audible speech.    He spends a lot of time pondering and not much else.    Director McKay promises in an amusing prologue that they tried their best to create a portrait of the very private Cheney, but this is where the much-maligned artistic license could've come in handy.

Vice plays like (and I'm sure I've used this comparison previously) a magician still unwilling to show you how he pulled off his latest magic tricks, even though you paid him to do so.   It keeps its subject so guarded that we can't get involved.    Then, McKay launches cutesy cinematic tricks at us in an almost Cheney-like attempt to distract us from the fact that its Cheney is a dud.    There are plenty of elements here to turn Vice into a fascinating political satire, but they don't come together cohesively.  The most intriguing aspects of Cheney's life occur when he was George W. Bush's vice-president, in which he redefined how much power such a position could wield.    Cheney essentially ran the government, and influenced Bush to start an unjust war in Iraq because focus groups preferred us to be at war with a nation than Al-Qaeda.

The same ground was covered, albeit from the media's side, in Shock and Awe from earlier this year, and that movie was able to work up a sense of outrage in the viewer.   Vice never achieves such liftoff, even with the political powder keg which was the Iraq War.    We first meet Cheney being pulled over for drunk driving in his home state of Wyoming when he was in his early 20's.   He was kicked out of Yale for partying too much and failing grades, and after having to be bailed out after a bar fight, his fiancee Lynne (Adams) lays down the law.  Either he grows up and becomes respectable, or she's gone.   He grows up, to be sure, while the respectability eludes him to this day.

Soon, Cheney finds himself as an intern to Donald Rumsfeld (Carell), a senator who will one day be George W. Bush's defense secretary and a key player in the administration.    Rumsfeld is cheerfully vulgar and a complete contrast to the stiff Cheney.   Carell's performance is the best thing in the movie.    He at least plays Rumsfeld with some juice.    Cheney soon becomes Gerald Ford's Chief of Staff and later Secretary of Defense to George H.W. Bush.   Then, Bush's oldest son comes calling looking for a running mate in the 2000 election and the wheels turn in Cheney's mind.    Knowing that Bush is inexperienced and a dolt, Cheney orchestrates legal maneuvering which gives the Vice-Presidents unprecedented security clearance and power, whose ramifications are still felt today.

Bale surely looks like Cheney, but the makeup is no substitute for a performance.    I don't know whether to blame Bale or McKay for what feels more like an impersonation than a character study.
Amy Adams covered similar ground in The Master (2012), in which she was the aggressive voice behind the scenes pushing for her man to conquer the world.    Rockwell approaches Bush with the appropriate levels of naivete and ruthlessness.    In the final scenes, in which Cheney breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience, he defends his bending of the law to his will.   At that point, I felt nothing.   No hatred or discomfort or understanding.   That is when I knew Vice just didn't do the job it intended.   McKay gives us numerous satirical points of view and other efforts, such as false ending with rolling credits and a fourth-wall breaking narrator who seems unrelated to the events, but who is exactly inside Cheney?   And why should we care?   Vice never offers a definitive answer to those questions.   It sees much, but doesn't see through.

Second Act (2018) * *

Directed by:  Peter Segal

Starring:  Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgins, Milo Ventimigilia, Leah Remini, Treat Williams, Annaleigh Ashford, Alan Aisenberg

Yes, there are plot holes large enough to drive a Mack truck through in Second Act, but it also has some sweetness and warmth to it.   Not enough to recommend it, but still there is some.   Jennifer Lopez plays a likable protagonist throughout, and is so perfectly dressed and dolled up in every scene she even appears to take a shower with makeup on.    Lopez plays Maya, an assistant manager at a local supermarket looking for a big promotion.   Despite her obvious knowledge of the store and its customers, she is passed over for an insufferable jerk who specializes in MBA speak and excels in "team building exercises".   Why?  Because she doesn't have a college degree.   But, she sure does dress like a Fortune 500 CEO would.  

So, thanks to a manufactured resume and social media pages, Maya is soon interviewing with the CEO of Franklin & Clarke, one of the supermarket's biggest suppliers.   The job is as a consultant, and Franklin & Clarke treats their consultants quite well.   They hire her without even vetting her and furnish her with charge accounts at Bergdorf's and a fancy apartment.    Not bad for a consulting job.  And why bother giving Maya money to shop?   She already has the wardrobe.   But, Maya's resume, which lists her educational background as Harvard and Wharton as well as five years at Estee Lauder is so loaded that it's amazing the company doesn't red flag it right away.    Her Facebook page's profile pic has her standing in front of Mt. Kilimanjaro and is obviously photoshopped.   Considering how much money the company blows on Maya and their inability to suspect they are being swindled, it is baffling how the company remains in business.    When Maya and the CEO's daughter Zoe (Hudgins) are split up into teams to come up with a new facial product, one of the bigger concerns is the profit margin.  They will need a huge one to keep paying Maya.

Maya's deceit doesn't just cover her professional life.   She gave up her baby for adoption when she was 17, which she hides from her supportive, loving boyfriend Trey (Ventimiglia) who wants to start a family.   They had better get a move on since Maya is north of forty years old.   But, soon they break up due to Maya's reluctance to start a family, so he is out of the way for the bulk of the movie.  At least we were spared Trey's nagging when he sees Maya isn't as home as much as she used to be because she is out trying to invent a face cream over the course of three months.    I guess FDA testing is not part of the plan, and I further suppose Franklin & Clarke has plenty of insurance to handle the inevitable lawsuits.

Because the adoption is mentioned so early, we know Maya will soon meet her daughter and she does, in a way that lends itself to more questions than answers.   Questions which I won't go into now.   Maya is soon asked to join the CEO, the unfortunately named Anderson Clarke (Williams), for a weekend rowing competition, and since Maya's resume listed her as a Harvard coxswain, why not have her captain the rowing crew?   The race ends up in a not so funny fashion, yet Clarke is amused anyway.   He is the nicest, least ruthless, and most naive CEO in corporate history.

I didn't hate Second Act as much as I wondered how it didn't simply premiere on Netflix.   It is lightweight stuff, and you have to travel back in time about a decade to witness the last time Lopez starred in a leading movie role.   She is still beautiful and the camera does nothing but put her beauty on display through carefully choreographed slow-motion shots which look like they belong in a music video.   The movie is about as deep as one as well.   This is such a Jennifer Lopez vehicle (she produced as well) that the other characters appear grateful to be in the same scene as her.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) * * * *

Directed by:  Frank Capra

Starring:  Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers

The story is simplicity itself.   Our hero, the affable, principled hometown hero George Bailey (Stewart) finds himself standing on a bridge contemplating suicide after a series of misadventures involving his family-owned savings and loan association's money which has disappeared.    This makes the association ripe for a hostile takeover at the hands of the greedy, cheerless Mr. Potter (Barrymore), who has made it his life's mission to get his hands on Bailey's business and be the only money man left in Bedford Falls.   George wishes he was never born, and a novice angel named Clarence (Travers) grants him his wish.  

The final half of the film shows Clarence forlornly taking George on a tour of a Bedford Falls which never heard of George Bailey because he was never born.    Those who benefitted from George's existence are either dead or fallen on hard times, and the town itself has turned into a cesspool of corruption and red light districts (or what passed for those in 1946 movie depictions).   George's adoring wife Mary (Reed) is now a lonely old maid because her husband was not around to fall in love with.    These scenes function like a nightmare, one in which George confronts his friends and family members who have no clue who he is.    His mother thinks he's a crazy man when he says, "It's me, George, your son," and of course, he isn't to her in this sad alternate universe.

It's a Wonderful Life sets up George's relationships with a measured pace, so the impact is more deeply felt when George loses them.    George is not only rich financially, but importantly is rich in love.    He has so many people who love him, yet he still finds himself standing on the edge of the bridge thinking about ending it all.    He has lost sight of what matters most, and it leads him to the darkness.   It's a Wonderful Life contains cheerful sequences meshed brilliantly with those with darker undertones.    The Bailey casting is everything, and Jimmy Stewart is so much the everyman that we are willing to follow him on this perilous journey into his own private hell.

But, is there a subtext to the film which Frank Capra and Stewart, both of whom saw combat action in World War II, saw as a personal reason to make it?    It isn't something which occurred to me previously, but both faced death in the inferno of World War II and came out alive.    It's a Wonderful Life is their message to the world:   No matter how bad you think life is, it is worse not being here for it at all.   Both men faced that possibility every day during the war, and approached their lives with perhaps more gratitude than before.   It's a Wonderful Life is their message, as well as being a classic which holds up over seventy years after its release.    And why not?   Its appeal and moral are universal.   When George runs gleefully down the streets of Bedford Falls after he has regained his love of life, Stewart is perhaps the only actor who could do so without making it corny.    It is just right.   And It's a Wonderful Life earns its happy ending.  

The Polar Express (2004) * * *

Directed by:  Robert Zemeckis

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Nona Gaye, Michael Jeter, Eddie Deezen, Peter Scolari, Daryl Sabara

The "Hero Boy" of The Polar Express is at the age where he may or may not believe in Santa Claus anymore.   Even his younger sister questions how Santa can travel at two times the speed of light to deliver all of the presents to all of the world's children before sunrise on Christmas.    The boy would like to believe, but there are just too many nagging doubts.    Because of those doubts, the magic of Christmas is gone for this otherwise normal boy.    Then, a large, loud train rumbles down the snowy street in the middle of the night and stops at his house.    The conductor (Hanks) greets the boy, who has wandered outside from his cozy bed, and hints strongly that he should board the train.   Where is the train going?   To the North Pole, of course.    The boy's interest is piqued, and he joins other children on the train who are likely wondering where the feeling Christmas used to give them went.

Robert Zemeckis' The Polar Express is his first film to use "performance capture" animation, in which the actors were shot normally in front of the camera and then had their performances animated, giving them a lifelike effect while still being animated.    Zemeckis used this animation in his next two films, and we were beginning to wonder when the acclaimed director would return to live action again.    He did in 2012's Flight.    The Polar Express creates a unique atmosphere for a Christmas adventure.    It has things to say about Christmas, but those things aren't universal for everyone.    Is the holiday one of giving or receiving?   Of celebration or sadness?   Of having an actual Santa or one which symbolically lives on in your heart?    The Polar Express doesn't provide the answers, and it doesn't need to.  

I wasn't entirely enthralled with the film.   The train encounters some misadventures which seem more at home in Back to the Future than a yuletide tale.   But, once the train reaches the North Pole, the film sees the North Pole as a city which gives Santa a rock star sendoff when he prepares to depart with the heaping mound of gifts on his sleigh and his reindeer eager to fly off.    Santa is a kind soul, but not necessarily a jolly one.   He has a job to do, and he does it on schedule and efficiently.    As you must when you have to deliver gifts to millions of households.  

The Polar Express is colorful and vibrant, while still holding something back.    It isn't a tearjerker, but instead creates an almost haunting vibe.   The Hero Boy and Hero Girl of the story aren't given names, but many of you may know my take on such a screenplay choice.    Give them names!   For example, John and Sara only take up four letters, while Hero Boy and Hero Girl take up seven and eight letters each, plus a space in between the words.    Why do they want me to work so hard?   But, despite those silly objections, The Polar Express is satisfactory overall, but still sticks with you.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Curtis Hanson

Starring:  Rebecca DeMornay, Annabella Sciorra, Matt McCoy, Ernie Hudson, Julianne Moore

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle isn't the type of movie you watch for abject realism.   Questions like, "How did the villain manage to ingratiate herself so fast to the heroine, who in turn allows the villain to move in as a live-in nanny and unleash her vengeful plot on the unwitting family?" aren't expected to be asked.    But, I will ask anyway.    Claire Bartel (Sciorra) and her husband Mike (McCoy) are a typical American family with a young daughter and an infant.   They are slow studies, however.    They vaguely notice that since the arrival of Peyton Flanders (DeMornay) into their lives, people have been dying or meeting ignominious exits from their lives, such as the slow Solomon (Hudson), who assists Claire with her greenhouse.    But, they dismiss it as mere coincidence, even though Peyton may as well be wearing an "I'm the villain, dummy" t-shirt.

Why is Claire the object of Peyton's vengeance?   Because Peyton's husband, a gynecologist who sexually assaults his patients, including Claire (who blows the whistle on him), soon kills himself, leaving Peyton without a husband and more importantly without his income which keeps her in the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed.    Peyton isn't much alarmed at her husband's proclivity for assaulting women, just that the gravy train has stopped rolling.   This is a movie in which Peyton can assume a new identity and slither her way into Claire's life with some small talk at a local park.   Mike doesn't object.   In fact, he is relieved his wife is taking the child-rearing stuff off of her plate, when in reality Claire should be looking for more greenhouse help.    Claire's priorities aren't exactly in the right order, but what do I know?

Peyton manipulates things to get Solomon (who suspects something is amiss with Peyton right away) out of the picture and also Marlene (Moore), a chain-smoking family friend who was Mike's former girlfriend and a high-powered realtor who has a high-rise office overlooking Seattle.   Business is good for her, but even if she didn't meet her sad fate, the smoking would've decimated her lungs within five years anyhow.    This is one of Julianne Moore's first film roles, and she made quite an impression, although does she need a cigarette in her mouth every second she is onscreen?

DeMornay, who played Tom Cruise's prostitute girlfriend in Risky Business, is a villain we want to see get her comeuppance, and it happens in one of the more clunky endings I've seen in a movie like this.   Hudson, the fourth Ghostbuster, makes a loyal, sympathetic family friend who remains a watchful protector of the family that fired him...from a safe distance.    But, despite the absurdities of the plot, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle gets the job done for what it is.   Hanson, who would go on to make the superb L.A. Confidential (1997), understands the rules of this type of suspense film and keeps things moving.    If you watch it on TV one night, it isn't the worst use of ninety-plus minutes of your life.    Just don't ask any questions, or you will drive yourself mad.

Welcome to Marwen (2018) * * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Zemeckis

Starring:  Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Janelle Monae, Diane Kruger, Elza Gonzalez, Leslie Zemeckis, Neil Jackson, Merritt Weaver, Gwendoline Christie

Mark Hogancamp is a harmless, friendly neighborhood illustrator whose life is forever altered when he is beaten nearly to death by five white supremacists outside a local bar one night.   The reason for the savage beating?   He utters his affinity for wearing women's shoes.    Three years after the beating, Mark has no memory of his life before the beating, but we gain some understanding through a scrapbook.    He may have once been married, but his wife is long gone, and now he attempts to heal himself through art.   Or more appropriately, lifelike action figures which bear striking resemblances to real people in his life.    Welcome to Marwen is based on a true story, and Hogancamp was the subject of a 2010 documentary titled Marwencol, and we are treated to a mostly engaging, although a bit overlong, story of a man healed by his art. 

Welcome to Marwen is two movies in one.   The first is Mark's sad daily real life, and the second is the action figure adventure in which Mark is a World War II captain battling Nazis with the help of a group of strong women in the fictional village of Marwen, Belgium.    The action figures move in nearly lifelike fashion thanks to the animation Zemeckis employed in The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol.    The strong heroic Mark of Marwen is in direct contrast to the frightened real-life Mark, who still lacks the nerve to attend the sentencing hearing of the thugs who beat him up and needs written reminders not to take too many pills at once.

Steve Carell plays Mark and provides Welcome to Marwen with a likable, sympathetic subject.   He admires the women, ranging from a co-worker to the owner of the local hobby store who clearly has a crush on him.   But, once Nicol (Mann), who spells the name without the e at the end, moves in across the street, Mark is smitten and makes her the object of his affection in his fantasies as well.  Nicol seems to like Mark well enough, and is understanding of his situation, but soon there is a heartbreaking segment in which Mark proposes to Nicol and doesn't get the answer he expects.  Mark is frozen in the kneeling position, with the engagement ring out, and can't move as Nicol explains her feelings. 

We know how things will turn out, mostly because it is already told to us in the trailers.    The late, great Roger Ebert pointed out Zemeckis' preference to practically show us the entire movie in the trailers, most notably in Cast Away in which the trailers reveal that Hanks actually escapes from the island.    Zemeckis defended the practice, likening it to a McDonald's menu.   You know what's on it before you walk in, yet you go in and buy anyway.    Does the revelation sap the ending of Welcome to Marwen of some its power?   Yes, but it is still moving, although truth be told there are maybe one or two fantasy sequences too many for my liking, which delays the inevitable breakthrough which allows Mark to face his tormentors. 

Objections aside, Welcome to Marwen is a whimsical fantasy which meshes nicely with Mark's true life difficulties.    I read a little about the real Mark Hogancamp and discovered a darker side to all of this, including his alcoholism before the beating, but that provides unnecessary distraction to Zemeckis' message.   Art finds a way to heal Mark, or at least keep him going.    As someone who knows exactly how that feels, I applaud Zemeckis for using Hogancamp as his medium for delivering that very message. 

The Favourite (2018) * *

Directed by:  Yorgos Lanthimos

Starring:  Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn

The trailers for The Favourite promise a scheming, ill-mannered romp.    The promise is left unfulfilled.    I don't know where The Favourite went wrong, or if it even had a chance to go right.   It was off from the start, taking its leisurely time to get going, as if the outcome were ever in doubt.   We know the lowly Abigail (Stone) will scheme her way into the inner circle of the sickly, pathetic Queen Anne (Colman) while usurping Lady Sarah (Weisz), the Queen's trusted advisor and lover.   Abigail was born of means, but after her father lost the family fortune to gambling debts, Abigail was sold into prostitution.    She wants to fight her way back to respectability, even if she has to seduce Queen Anne and banish her cousin Sarah to do it. 

Queen Anne spends the bulk of her day being pushed around in a wheelchair and being treated for various maladies.    She has gout, mental illness, a sensitive stomach, and keeps seventeen rabbits as pets, each representing her seventeen unsuccessful attempts at childbirth.    Lady Sarah forcefully pushes her agenda, especially the strategy on dealing with never-ending war against the French, onto Queen Anne, who hopelessly goes along even though the financial strain may ultimately lead to unrest on the home front.

The setup takes too long and once the pieces are in place, the execution isn't worthy of the lengthy buildup.    Queen Anne is a sad case, but is easily manipulated and finds favor with anyone willing to rub her legs which are ravaged with a bizarre skin disease.    Both Sarah and Abigail fight over the Queen's time, affection, and attention, including rubbing the legs.    Sarah wants to rid the palace of Abigail, but Queen Anne will have none of it.    The Favourite becomes a tiresome game of Sarah and Abigail one-upping each other.    All of it without much sizzle.    I expected more, especially with actors like Stone and Weisz, both Oscar winners.   Olivia Colman was unfamiliar to me prior to The Favourite, but she lends some sympathy to the role.    She only wants to be loved, because the crown lies heavily on her head and heart.   The performances aren't at fault here.

The Favourite captures the early 1700's successfully.   The palace is more like an above-average library, with Queen Anne's bed in the center of it.    The kitchen is dilapidated.   Maids who screw up on the job are flogged.    It is not a comforting world, but Abigail and Sarah know they would rather at least be inside and not outside.   The camera, which continues to love Stone, moves relentlessly, and in some cases seems to swoop down on the action.    The score is simple and effective.    I can't fault the production values of The Favourite, but I can fault having everyone dress up in period costumes and delivering a dud.    The movie takes too long to tell a simple story.   Its characters are mean enough, to be sure, but just not compelling enough.  

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) * * *

Directed by:  Mark Waters

Starring:  Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Emma Stone, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert

The saddest part of the happy ending of A Christmas Carol is that Scrooge had wasted a lot of years being a prick and might be too old to truly enjoy his newly acquired happiness.    At least Connor Mead (McConaughey), the proudly single, lecherous ladies' man in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is young enough to reap the benefits of his newfound identity once the aforementioned ghosts make him see the error of his ways.    I didn't give away a spoiler.   The movie proudly borrows from A Christmas Carol and makes Connor its Scrooge, only he isn't against Christmas, just the idea of monogamy and marriage.   

Yes, Connor is a shallow womanizer who hits on the mother of the bride the night before his younger brother's wedding (which he basically decries as humbug), but he isn't so far gone that he's irredeemable.   He has a pleasant, superficial personality which masks emotional scars from his teenage years.   The girl he had a crush on danced and made out with another guy at a school dance, so his Uncle Wayne (Douglas), teaches him the ways of being a lounge lizard/lothario so Connor would never have to be brokenhearted anymore.    Connor learned the lessons all too well, and when true love stares him in the face in the form of Jenny (Garner), the girl he's loved all his life, he shuns her for fear of being hurt.  

Uncle Wayne, by the way, is the Jacob Marley of the movie.   He appears to Connor as a ghost warning Connor of the pending spirits' visits and pleading with him to see the error of his ways.    Connor thought Uncle Wayne was the coolest, but Wayne lets him in on a little secret:   Years of womanizing led to a lonely life and an even lonelier afterlife.   "No one will miss you," he tells Connor, who like Wayne once thought he could live forever as a guy who can bounce from woman to woman without feeling anything. 

Yes, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a tearjerker romantic comedy with no qualms about being exactly what it is.    It moves ahead confidently.   Sure, it's silly, but wasn't Scrooge also?    But, I'll be damned if the vision of Connor's funeral didn't choke me up.    It all worked, and doesn't apologize for it.    McConaughey can lay on the oily charm with the best of them, as can Douglas, who of course nails it.    Garner is a smart, sympathetic love interest who isn't quite ready to believe every word that comes out of Connor's mouth due to their history.    She puts up a bit of a fight, but at least unlike Belle from A Christmas Carol, she hasn't disappeared from Connor's life so a happy ending is still possible.    This is one of Emma Stone's first movies, and as the ghost of girlfriends past, she is simply winning with a smile and laugh that lights up the screen.     

The Mule (2018) * * *

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Dianne Wiest, Michael Pena, Alison Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga, Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia, Ignacio Serricchio

After the disastrous The 15:17 to Paris from earlier this year, Clint Eastwood returns to his superior filmmaking form in The Mule, which casts Eastwood himself as the titular octogenarian drug mule.    Even if The Mule doesn't reach the emotional heft of Eastwood films like Sully, Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, and the underrated True Crime, it still works amusingly and touchingly. 

Eastwood circles around to a theme similar to Sully (2016):  Even all the technology in the world is no substitute for experience.    Eastwood's Earl Stone is a careful driver who has never had a ticket or been stopped by police.    This and his financial desperation after the closing of his daylily farm makes him an ideal candidate to run kilos of cocaine from Texas to Illinois on a monthly basis for a Mexican drug cartel.    Earl never thought his life would take such a bizarre turn.    The Mule opens in 2005, with Earl attending a flower convention where he is the life of the party.    The convention occurs the same day as his daughter's wedding, and Earl chooses the convention over the wedding, leading to his daughter not speaking to him for over twelve years.    Earl comes to an oft-expressed realization that he put work above family, something which his long-suffering (now ex) wife Mary (Wiest) concluded a long time ago.  

Earl at first doesn't realize he is transporting drugs, probably because he doesn't want to know, but these deliveries net him more money than he's ever seen, and allows him to pay for his loyal granddaughter's school tuition and repairs to the local VFW.    Things are going well.   Earl is delivering the goods and the cartel boss Laton (Garcia) is happy, even though Earl tends to make stops to visit old friends and eat more often than he should.    Laton is quite reasonable and understanding as drug cartel bosses go, which leads to unforeseen plot turns which endanger Earl's life.    Laton is soon replaced by a tougher boss, who demands deliveries on time and sticking to the assigned routes...or else.

The shipments are tracked by DEA agent Colin Bates (Cooper), who wants to deliver a big bust so he can be promoted.    But Earl unwittingly manages to elude Bates as Bates tracks a black pickup track prowling the highways between Texas and Illinois.     Bates uses plenty of money and resources to track Earl, much to the consternation of his boss (Fishburne) who wants to see high-profile arrests at the end of all of this spending.    There are some contrivances which allow Earl and Colin to talk frankly about family in a Waffle House, with neither knowing who the other is, but these scenes work anyway.  

Eastwood still commands the screen as only he can, even though he is showing his age and his tall, lean frame is hunched over.    He gives Earl the right of amounts of crustiness, knowhow, experience, and even an ability to still learn and grow.    His scenes of reconciliation with his family (we know the movie can't end with Earl still being estranged from them) provide the emotional gravitas the film requires, even if such a detour may cost him his life.    I also enjoyed his interactions with his "handler" Julio (Serricchio), who is clearly miserable having to babysit Earl on his runs.  

The Mule is "inspired by a true story".   Maybe the story went this way, or maybe it didn't, but Eastwood surely found something in it to inspire him to return to the screen for the first time in six years.   Eastwood will turn 89 in May, and I can't help but wonder how many more times we will see him onscreen or behind the camera.    He is a durable movie star who is also a master director, with very few clunkers in his nearly fifty-year directing career and sixty-plus year acting career.    The Mule represents a story which touched him personally and he needed to tell it as only he can.   

Rope (1948) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Alfred Hitchcock

Starring:  Jimmy Stewart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Cedric Hardwicke

Rope is not among the first movies which comes to mind when Alfred Hitchcock is mentioned, but it is a supreme example of his love of suspense.    The mechanics for a suspenseful evening are simple:   Two men, Brandon and Phillip (Dall and Granger) strangle an "inferior" friend and hide his body in a trunk which will soon serve as a centerpiece at a party in the very apartment where the murder was committed.    The two murderers could've disposed of the body earlier perhaps, but part of the fun for them is getting away with murder while the body is right under everyone's nose.    Well, part of the fun for Brandon anyway.    Phillip is guilt-stricken, while Brandon walks around with a smirk like the cat who ate the canary.    They partially hope they will be caught, but only by Rupert (Stewart), their former prep school professor who lectured often about the supposed superiority of the intellectual class.   What a thrill it would be for them to see how they've twisted Rupert's words to mean something darker or more evil than intended.

Hitchcock experimented with longer cuts and different camera takes than in his previous or later films.    The camera is consistently moving in one sustained cut, which at times is noticeable, but not fatally so.    At one point, Hitchcock has to keep the camera behind a seat in order to rewind and continue the seemingly unbroken shot.    Film making tricks aside, Rope sinks or swims on its story, based on a play which was inspired by the infamous Leopold-Loeb case.    In reality, the murderers were homosexual lovers.   In Rope, their relationship is hinted at, but not exposed due to anti-decency laws in effect for motion pictures at the time.  

The famed director was not happy with his finished product and kept it out of theaters for decades, finally seeing re-release in 1984, four years following his death.    Rope succeeds due to the plot's sheer audacity.    We know the party guests are placing their drinks down on the trunk which hides the victim's body, but they don't, and there is a macabre suspense at work.    The guests inquire about the missing guest, and Brandon delights in posing theories as to why he isn't at the party.    Rupert, however, grows suspicious when the two men keep contriving ways to keep him away from the trunk.   But, even in his wildest dreams, he couldn't imagine his two prized students murdering someone, because that's human nature.    We can easily suspect a stranger of murder, but not a friend or relative.   The party guests also don't assume the worst, because no one wants to believe their friend/son/fiancé is no longer with us thanks to foul play.

Rope enjoys dangling the possibility of discovery in front of us, only to pull it back again.    The murderers are sufficiently malevolent, but Stewart, who despite playing a man with bad ideas which can easily be misconstrued or malleable, is who we hope would be the person who discovers the body.   Stewart may not be the ideal candidate to play a professor who espouses theories on intellectual superiority, but since he's Jimmy Stewart, we let it slide.   The final fifteen minutes are a verbal cat-and-mouse game, in which Rupert feigns leaving his cigarette case in the apartment just to confirm if his suspicions are correct.    He toys with Brandon's ego and Phillip's guilt, causing Phillip to scream, "It's cat and mouse, only who is the cat and who is the mouse?"    Rupert's discovery not only leads to something dreadful, but also the guilty understanding that his philosophies are not ones which should be thrown around lightly, because homicidal men may take them too far.    In that sense, Rope remains relevant even today, seventy years after it was made. 





 

Shutter Island (2010) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Martin Scorsese

Starring:  Leonardo Dicaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Jackie Earle Haley, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Ted Levine

We first encounter U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Dicaprio) meeting his new partner Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) as they take the ferry to remote Shutter Island, which houses the Alcatraz of mental institutions.  This is my description, not the movie's.  When you witness the cold, dark halls, the dank basement imprisoning the most violent offenders, and the craggy rocks acting as a natural barrier to the foreboding waves of the sea crashing into them; the allusions to Alcatraz are inherent.   It seems nearly impossible for someone to escape the island, but Teddy and Chuck are investigating an institutionalized child murderer who has gone missing.   

Teddy may not have been the best choice to send to Shutter Island.    He is a man haunted by his past and his visions of the Dachau concentration camp which he helped liberate near the end of World War II.    Hallucinations of a young woman and her child follow him, and Teddy believes by finding the escaped child murderer he will somehow free himself of his past.    A simple investigation delves into darker, seedier aspects of the island itself.    Is the hospital conducting secret experiments on its patients?    Is the island part of a greater, more sinister plot?    Teddy and Chuck want to find out, but one wonders how far they are willing to risk their sanity to accomplish their goal. 

Martin Scorsese may not seem to be the ideal director to examine the horror show that is Shutter Island, but he is the ideal director to delve into what tortures Teddy.   We know there is more to the story, but we can't pinpoint it, except that what is tormenting Teddy's psyche has little to do with experiments or evil doctors.   Teddy just barely clings to his sanity as he runs into dead ends following by illuminating clues, but we inquire how much sanity he had to begin with.    Have the pressures of the job combined with the horrors he has witnessed finally cracked him? 

Dicaprio is a sympathetic center for Shutter Island.  We feel the walls of the place closing in on him even if we aren't exactly sure why.  There is the terrifying feeling he may soon be engulfed by the institution, with the ferry to freedom not too far off in the distance.   The investigation itself soon devolves into a morass of twists, turns, false starts, and false finishes.  One clue leads nowhere, while another may lead somewhere Teddy may be reluctant to go, but he must venture there if he is to discover the truth.   Chuck (Ruffalo) seems immune to the craziness of the island.    He views Teddy's struggle as a distant outsider, and maybe because his professional duties dictate that he must.

The man who holds the key is Dr. Cawley (Kingsley), whose benevolent personality may conceal sinister intentions, or hold the key to the truth of Shutter Island.  Even in the face of an investigation and caring for the most violent of the criminally insane, he remains unflappable.  How could this be?   Isn't he the least bit concerned that a U.S. Marshal is investigating a disappearance from his inescapable institution?   It appears no, and there are reasons why this is.  The clues and red herrings are soon tidied up, but not happily.  This is not a movie meant for a happy ending, but instead for a plausible explanation which may shock some viewers on first viewing, but upon second viewing makes sense of all of the names, faces, and visions flying around.    Is Shutter Island among the best of Scorsese's films?    No, but it is well-crafted and has the courage to stay on its path, no matter how sad it is.   

Instant Family (2018) * *

Directed by:  Sean Anders

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner, Margo Martindale, Joan Cusack, Gustavo Quiroz, Jr., Julianna Gamiz, Octavia Spencer, Tig Notaro

Before the end credits began rolling on Instant Family, a website promoting foster parenting was flashed onscreen.    If what happens in Instant Family is any indication of what truly happens when becoming a foster parent, then count me out.    The biggest of the many issues surrounding Instant Family is that it doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be.    When it wants cheap laughs, Juan (Quiroz) is brought on to have a ball violently hit him in the face or a nail gun drop and impale a nail into his foot.    When it wants to be all serious, the oldest foster child Lizzie (Moner) is trotted out to start an argument or behave like a brat.    I do not doubt the confusing gamut of emotions a foster child bounced around the system must have, but Lizzie is too much.    She isn't confused.   She's bi-polar.

Instant Family never masters its tone.   It goes from slapstick to sentimentality so quickly in the same scene at times we encounter possible whiplash.    We wonder why Pete (Wahlberg) and Ellie (Byrne), who are a nice childless couple, would want to sign themselves up for this.   I'm not supposed to feel this way, but their lives were better off without all of the drama these kids bring into their lives.    If the movie is to be believed, foster parenting is a prerequisite for sainthood.    I have no doubt foster parenting is challenging, but it must be rewarding on some level.    Instant Family tries to make the argument that there are rewards, but it never convinces me or itself that there are any.

Pete and Ellie flip houses for a living, and business is good.   But because they are childless, they feel empty.   They live in a nice house with just each other, and decide to solve their empty nest dilemma by adopting a trio of siblings.    Pete and Ellie go through a foster parent training course, and are told of the system's positives and negatives by Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro, who garner the movie's biggest laughs with their byplay and their expertise.    I can't fault the performances in Instant Family, just the fact that they are at the service of a movie which doesn't move the needle emotionally even when it is trying desperately to do so.

Pete and Ellie encounter the most trouble with the rebellious Lizzie, who wants to fill her own emotional void by reconnecting with her ex-con, drug addicted biological mother against the wishes of Pete, Ellie and her younger siblings.    Juan's scared, overly deferential behavior is never dealt with.   Why is he so frightened?   Or accident-prone?   The movie doesn't explore that.   Instead, it focuses on Lizzie, who is unpredictable, angry, and not just troubled, but Troubled.   She doesn't garner much empathy, and that is fatal to the movie.    There is a key moment in which Lizzie runs away after hearing some bad news about her mother, and by this point, and I know I'm probably a churl for feeling this way, I was hoping Pete and Ellie would use this as a get out of jail free card.    Joan Cusack shows up at a wacky neighbor who seems desperate for any human contact.    I enjoy Joan Cusack's work, but why have her show up in only the final ten minutes of the movie?    More could've been done with her.

Instant Family wants to spread an honest message and it can't be faulted for trying, but this isn't the stuff of comedy.    It should've delved into the issues it raises instead of sidestepping them or glossing over them on the way to a forced happy ending.     Maybe director Anders, who based this story on his own real-life experiences, hedged his bets by throwing in slapstick when things got too uncomfortable.    It's a pity Instant Family, like Pete and Ellie themselves, just wants to be loved.

Lean on Me (1989) * * *

Directed by:  John G. Avildsen

Starring:  Morgan Freeman, Beverly Todd, Robert Guillaume, Alan North, Lynne Thigpen, Robin Bartlett, Jermaine Hopkins

I preface this review by stating I wasn't a fan of the Joe Clark presented in this film.   Some of the other people in the movie feel the same way:   He is a tone-deaf, egotistical bully who demands respect without giving it and doesn't change much during the course of the movie.    Despite that, I loved watching Morgan Freeman jump into the role with passion and energy.    It is based on a true story, but something tells me the only similarity between the real Joe Clark, who did indeed turn around a struggling New Jersey high school, and this one is the name.   

The Joe Clark of this movie is tough to deal with, but at least the movie understands that and doesn't pretend he isn't.    One character calls him a bully and a despicable man, while another says he is thoughtless and cruel.  All of those descriptions are accurate, but Freeman makes him compellingly watchable.  We also are treated to a masterful scene in which Clark's superintendent boss (and likely his only friend on Earth) lays down the law with him as he makes enemies of the mayor, school board, and parents.  ("Contrary to popular opinion, I'm the head n***** in charge")   

When we first encounter Eastside High School, it is a cesspool of drugs, violence, terror, and despair.   The cafeteria is caged in with fences, and no learning of any consequence takes place.   Superintendent Dr. Napier (Guillaume) is faced with the real possibility of having the state take over the school if the students are unable to pass its year-end proficiency test scores.  My thoughts?  Let the state inherit this headache. But, then there wouldn't be a movie, so Napier calls on his old friend Joe Clark to become principal and whip the school into shape.  Clark has a history of defying authority and personal troubles, but Napier feels he is left with no alternative.   Clark is his Hail Mary pass. 

Clark behaves like a dictator towards the staff.   ("This is not a damned democracy and my word is law,"), but he does expel over 300 students who caused nothing but trouble in school and slowly but surely makes the place look more a high school and less like hell.    Clark suspends a loyal teacher who picks up a piece of trash off the ground during one of Clark's speeches.    He fires a music teacher who stands up to his tyranny.    The biggest mistake Lean on Me makes is trying to force us to sympathize with Clark.    He isn't one we can really root for, but he's still fascinating.    John G. Avildsen, who of course directed Rocky, applies the same theme here.   He treats the preparations for the state tests in almost the same manner as Rocky training for the title fight, and I can't say I was bored.    This has to be the goofiest, most ambivalent three-star review I've ever written.  

The Firm (1993) * * *

Directed by:  Sydney Pollack

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Wilford Brimley, David Strathairn, Holly Hunter, Gary Busey, Terry Kinney, Hal Holbrook, Steven Hill

The film version of The Firm replaces John Grisham's novel's cynicism with idealism and a moral center in Mitch McDeere (Cruise), a Harvard law graduate from a poor background who is the ideal recruit for the Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert, and Locke.    Why is he ideal?    Because after being pitched with a new home, a big starting salary, flashy car, and some downhome folksiness, Mitch accepts the job even though he could have his pick of firms in New York.   He is hungry for the life he never had growing up.    Major mistake.   Mitch soon realizes his firm isn't what it seems, and he is caught in a web involving the firm and the FBI which will take some ingenuity to free himself from.  

The Firm is a legal thriller that hums along.    Despite the moving parts, it mostly makes sense, but even Mitch's plan to outwit the firm and the FBI leaves an awful lot to chance.    No matter.   We want Mitch to succeed in his plans and for the firm to go down in flames.    The firm, as we learn, is a money laundering operation for the mob and kills associates who want to leave or spill the beans.    With the exception of Mitch's mentor Avery Tolar (Hackman), the firm consists of amoral lawyers who protect their interests by any means necessary.   Hackman effectively plays a conflicted man who was once a fresh young idealist like Mitch, until the firm got a hold of him and sucked out nearly all of his humanity.    But because Avery is played by Gene Hackman, we know he has a soft spot in his heart for Mitch and especially for Mitch's schoolteacher wife Abby (Tripplehorn), who suspects something is amiss in the firm long before Mitch does.

The FBI, led by Agent Wayne Terrance (Harris), doesn't provide a comfortable alternative to working at Bendini, Lambert, and Locke.    They want Mitch to copy files, betray client secrets, and subject himself to life in the witness protection program sans a license to practice law.    Mitch, we learn, has some secrets of his own including a brother in jail serving time for manslaughter he didn't tell the firm about during his job interview.    Through his brother, Mitch hooks up with a chatty private eye (Busey), who notes, "the lawyers at your firm sure do seem accident prone,"   But the private eye meets a messy fate, and his secretary/lover Tammy (Hunter) aids Mitch in his plan.

How precisely Mitch worms his way out of his predicament I will leave for you to witness, but don't blink or you may miss something.    The actors clearly are enjoying themselves, anchored by a sympathetic Cruise.    Director Pollack keeps the pace taut even for a nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie, with the stakes clearly spelled out.    It would be difficult not to note the simple, yet effective Dave Grusin piano-based score, which underlines the thriller aspects nicely while suggesting that this is all fun to watch unfold.