Arlington Road (1999) * * *

 

Directed by: Mark Pellington    

Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Hope Davis, Joan Cusack, Mason Gamble

Arlington Road was made four years after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing with much of the same paranoia and unease intact from the public response to that terrorist act.  This is a thriller with some plot holes, but it still works on its intended level and it has some degree of courage to go where it must and not necessarily end happily with the hero saving the day.

The protagonist of Arlington Road is George Washington University professor Michael Faraday (Bridges), who lost his FBI agent wife in a botched raid many years ago.   His classes focus on terrorist activity and the theory that recent bombings were not the work of one man as the media purports and the official stories suggest.   Michael believes blaming one person for these attacks is a quick and digestible psychological fix for the American public to make it easier to move on.  "It gives us our security back," he tells his class.  Michael soon meets his new neighbors Oliver and Cheryl Lang (Robbins and Cusack), who are friendly enough, but Michael begins to notice strange things about them and suspects they are not who they seem.   

It turns out Oliver has a hidden past and may or may not be Oliver Lang.  This leads to a dangerous cat and mouse game in which Michael tries to figure out what the Langs are plotting before they can execute their plan to blow up a federal building.  Michael still has friends at the FBI, who think Michael may be paranoid.   If they didn't, then Michael would have no excuse to slink around trying to find evidence of a plot.   Bridges pulls this off earnestly, while Robbins has one of those smiles which suggests he not only may be up to something but can't wait to tell the world about it.   In this case, it may be part of his plan.  

Yes, Arlington Road doesn't always hold up under scrutiny.  Indeed, the Langs' plot leaves a lot up to chance in order to be pulled off, and the ending requires standard car chases and crashes, but up until then, Arlington Road carries a certain degree of suspense and dread which allows it to be successful. 

Inherit the Wind (1960) * * * *

 

Directed by:  Stanley Kramer

Starring:  Spencer Tracy, Frederic March, Harry Morgan, Dick York, Gene Kelly, Donna Anderson, Claude Akins

Inherit the Wind was written in the time of McCarthyism but it just as well be about today's political climate in which science is doubted and religious fervor takes over.   In the world of Inherit the Wind, promoting scientific fact is the same as spitting on the Bible.   Inherit the Wind stars Spencer Tracy and Frederic March (who had two Best Actor Oscars each) as dueling attorneys in the Scopes Monkey Trial, in which a schoolteacher was arrested and put on trial for teaching evolution.   The names here have all been changed, but make no mistake which trial the movie is focusing on.

Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond (Clarence Darrow in real life) and Frederic March as Matthew Brady (William Jennings Bryan in real life) spar and spout their philosophies as friends turned adversaries who find themselves arguing in court over whether the Bible is to be taken literally.   Drummond eventually calls Brady to the stand, a moment Brady can't resist, and traps him with logic and reason.   Brady believes the Bible isn't to be interpreted, but taken at face value, which flies in the face of things we know to be true today that weren't true thousands of years ago.  "How long was a day?  Was it 24 hours?" Drummond asks Brady when reviewing the story of how God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.  It's a valid question, but in Brady's mind and the minds of the townsfolk in which the trial occurs, it's heresy to question the Bible. 

Inherit the Wind remains timely and riveting as it combines historical fact with tense drama in which the lives of the players are affected in mostly negative ways by the sensationalism of the trial with newspaper editor E.K. Hornbeck (Kelly) fanning those flames.   You can make an argument that Inherit the Wind is a precursor which saw ahead to the O.J. Simpson case in which the courtroom met the media and created an unprecedented blitz which started the 24-hour news cycle.  Inherit the Wind stokes passions within its characters and within us and the main event is Tracy vs. March, two acting giants who spellbind us with their showdown, no matter what side you're on. 

Without a Trace (1983) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Stanley Jaffe

Starring:  Kate Nelligan, Judd Hirsch, David Dukes, Stockard Channing, Danny Corkill

Six-year-old Alex Selky (Corkill) walks to school each morning and returns home each afternoon like clockwork.  One day, this is not the case.  Alex sets off for school and disappears.  His mother Susan (Nelligan) and her ex-husband Graham (Dukes) call the neighbors and friends with no luck.  The NYPD is assigned to the case and set up shop at Susan's apartment.   Detective Al Menetti (Hirsch) doggedly follows each lead, no matter how unlikely it may lead to anything, but as the hours turn into days which turn into weeks, Menetti has to explain why the police will no longer camp out at Susan's apartment due to budgetary restraints.  The NYPD has other cases to solve.  Menetti is sympathetic and determined, but he is also a realist who understands Susan's son may never come home. 

Without a Trace does not tell its story in a heavy-handed or melodramatic manner.  It doesn't turn its characters into superheroes, but it sees them as human and sometimes flawed.   Kate Nelligan's performance as Susan is all the more powerful because she tries to hold herself together in the wake of a devastating development.   She is not one to exhibit histrionics, but instead tries to be civil, understanding of others' points of view, and restrained under the circumstances.   Her ex-husband is more demonstrative with his emotions, which range from anger over his son's disappearance to guilt over his divorce from Susan.   Without a Trace treats its subjects with complexity and insight, seeing all sides of the issue.  

Because Without a Trace doesn't play every scene for an emotional payoff, the ending is that much more powerful and the emotions it stirs are earned.  Hirsch tries his best to be as honest and forthright as possible when dealing with the Selky family, but this requires telling them things they don't want to hear.  A subtle message to "move on" is delivered not just by Menetti but by Susan's friends and even her ex-husband.  Susan maintains her hope and resolve under the most trying of circumstances.  Without a Trace invites overdramatization and overacting, but the movie wonderfully exercises restraint while maintaining its passion.  

Breakdown (1997) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jonathan Mostow

Starring:  Kurt Russell, Kathleen Quinlan, J.T. Walsh, M.C. Gainey, Jack Noseworthy, Rex Finn

Breakdown is a nightmarish thriller in which two normal people are swept up into a scheme bigger than anything they could imagine.   Jeff (Russell) and Amy (Quinlan) are driving cross country and stop in a seemingly innocuous New Mexico gas station in the middle of nowhere to fill up.   After leaving the gas station, Jeff's car breaks down a few miles up the road.  A helpful trucker named Red (Walsh) stops to assist and agrees to take Amy back to the station for help.  Jeff is able to restart the car, but when he travels back to the gas station to retrieve Amy, she isn't there.   Later, when Jeff calls the police and tracks down Red's truck, Red pretends he had never seen Jeff before and denies taking Amy anyplace.  A plot is underway, but we don't know how Jeff and Amy fit into it, though apparently it is one Red and his cohorts have executed numerous times before.

Many random things have to take place in order for Red's plans to succeed.   First of all, someone has to stop at the station in the middle of the desert.  The plotters may have to wait a long time for someone to drop in, but nonetheless Jeff and Amy show up and the plot is underway.   I won't divulge exactly what Red is up to, but again it leaves a lot up to the hopes that Jeff and Amy are fairly well off to make the scheme worthwhile.   Jeff is forced to comply with Red's terms or the kidnapped Amy will die.  Walsh projects the necessary menace, but unlike when he plays the heavy in other films, he doesn't feign any attempts at civility.  Kurt Russell is the everyman caught in an deadly situation, and true to Russell's style, he is convincing and sympathetic.  

Even if Breakdown doesn't necessarily stand up to scrutiny, we forgive it its trespasses because it is suspenseful and thrilling.  These are villains we want to see get their comeuppance.   I recall Roger Ebert's review of the film in which he disagreed with the fact that an incapacitated villain has a truck dropped on him for good measure.   If you take into account what the bad guy's actions throughout the film, it's hard to sympathize with him upon his demise.  

The Time Machine (2002) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Simon Wells

Starring:  Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Giullory, Mark Addy, Orlando Jones

Very few movies about time travel are dull.  Then there's The Time Machine, starring Guy Pearce as a time machine inventor who travels to the past to prevent his beloved fiancee's untimely death.  After that fails, he ultimately 800,000 years into the future to take part in war between the Elois and the Morlocks.  It's as if The Time Machine were spliced together out of two completely different movies and it's more difficult to determine which one is more depressing. 

Alexander Hartegen (Pearce) is a hard-working late 19th-century scientist with a lovely girlfriend named Emma (Guillory) who is murdered during a holdup moments after Alexander proposes to her.  A grieving Alexander manufactures a time machine four years later and whisks himself back to the moments before Emma is killed so he could prevent her death.  He manages to spare her from dying by gunshot, but soon after she is run over by a runaway horse and dies again.   Alexander is of course distraught and says "he can't find the answers here" and soon plunges the time machine forward at first to 22nd century New York City and then 8,000 centuries into the future.   

When he's in the future, it feels like a prehistoric age with nothing but forests around and the two races of beings at war.   The Morlocks more or less feed on Elois and Alexander helps Mara (Mumba), the Eloi with which he falls in love, and her tribe fight off the Morlocks.   Jeremy Irons shows up for a few minutes as the Uber Morlock, whose face is plastered with too much makeup and rambles on about time travel.  The one advantage Irons has over the other actors is that he only has one or two scenes while the rest of the poor actors have to be onscreen much more.  

Never Say Never Again (1983) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Irvin Kershner

Starring:  Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria-Brandauer, Barbara Carrera, Rowan Atkinson, Max von Sydow, Bernie Casey

Sean Connery returned to the James Bond role for the first time in twelve years in Never Say Never Again, one of the superior Bond films which is technically not considered a "Bond" film because it wasn't produced by the Broccoli family, but it has Sean Connery as James Bond in his own inimitable style so that's enough for me.   Never Say Never Again gives us a more human Bond and more human villains.  This Bond has a way with words and women, but there's something grounded about him as well.   Roger Moore had the most fun with double entendres and puns, Timothy Dalton gave us a leaner, no-nonsense Bond, Pierce Brosnan was suave personified, and Daniel Craig brought world weariness to the role, but Connery was something extra special.  

In Never Say Never Again, Bond is brought out of retirement to thwart SPECTRE's latest plot to steal nuclear missiles and extort ransom money from the United Nations.   Does it really matter?  SPECTRE rarely ever succeeds at anything when it comes to James Bond, although if memory serves, they did manage to kill Bond's wife on his honeymoon in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  Bond is sent to a resort to dry out and get fit for his latest missions, but SPECTRE learns of this and tries to off him there.  This is the first and only time I've ever seen a henchman subdued in part by a vial of urine.  

Once Bond is on the case, he travels to the Bahamas and then France to find out what he can about billionaire Maximillian Largo (Brandauer), who was hired by SPECTRE to steal the warheads and who has a sultry blonde girlfriend named Domino (Basinger), who is unaware of Largo's actions and even more unaware that Largo had her brother killed after he performed a task for SPECTRE.  Also lurking is Fatima Blush (Carrera), an assassin who must first bed Bond before plotting to kill him, which Fatima does very, very willingly. 

Never Say Never Again contains the standard amount of Bond action and romance, but it never strays into the ridiculous while remaining fun.  It is good to see Sean Connery tackle the role once more, something at the time we never expected to see again. 

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Chris Columbus

Starring:  Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Fierstein, Mara Wilson, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, Robert Prosky

As Robin Williams' one-of-a-kind talent has grown on me over the years, so has Mrs. Doubtfire, which serves as a showcase for the late actor's ability to perform impressions and create humor out of the clear blue.   Many years ago, I would've said Robin Williams was great when he wasn't playing Robin Williams.  Now, I see Williams as maybe not the funniest comedian I've ever seen, but surely the most inimitable and unique.  Is he my cup of tea?  Not always, but I appreciate his groundbreaking style.

In Mrs. Doubtfire, Williams plays Daniel Hillard, a voiceover actor whose wife Miranda (Field) can no longer abide being Mrs. Hillard after he throws one too many birthday bashes for the kids in which the police have to be called because of violation of noise ordinances.   Miranda and Daniel divorce, and Daniel has visitation on Saturdays only, which seems awfully harsh since he's obviously a loving father.  Daniel then learns Miranda is looking for an afternoon nanny to babysit the three children, and voila, Daniel's gay brother Jack (Fierstein), an experienced makeup artist, helps create Mrs. Doubtfire, which allows Daniel to see his children every day while of course pretending to be a British nanny.

Would the Mrs. Doubtfire costume fool Daniel's family?  Not likely, but we go along with the plot, and soon Daniel (while disguised as Mrs. Doubtfire) has to sit by and stew, while Miranda is romanced by a new beau (Brosnan-who plays a guy named Stu) and trying to keep up his facade.  I'm reminded of Tootsie, a better movie about a man forced to dress in drag, in which Dustin Hoffman tells his overwrought agent, "I didn't think I'd have to spend the rest of my life as a woman,"  Daniel knows just how he feels, especially when he has to fool his court-appointed social worker or anyone else in his life. 

Soon enough, Daniel, for plot-related reasons, is forced to dine at a posh restaurant for a birthday dinner with his family (as Mrs. Doubtfire) and with his boss (Prosky), who wants to hire Daniel for his afternoon children's show.   We are treated to the sight of Daniel running to the bathroom to take off his Mrs. Doubtfire outfit and then sit at a table across the restaurant with his boss.  Is this funny?  Not really.  Even with all of the rushing about, the scene moves slowly.   Mrs. Doubtfire is a sincere comedy which serves mostly as a Williams vehicle while the rest of the actors just try to edge their way in from the fringes.