Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
August 31, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Went Looking For…
Believe it or not, I sometimes do have a predetermined playlist while browsing for movie titles. Generally, there is a week between my adding them to the playlist and actually watching them. The movies under “Went Looking For…” are typically the movies that I had slotted as “Ended up with…” the previous week.
The Other Man
Antonio Banderas plays Raphael (pronounced "Rafe’") the titular "‘other man" in this movie that is primarily about infidelity. At the beginning, it looks like Laura Linney is about to confess her affair to her husband, played by Liam Neeson. She doesn’t and it is up to him to piece together her other life. An email is the first clue, leading up to a password protected folder with the lovers’ escapades. He then proceeds to track the other man down. This is perhaps the most interesting portion of the movie – the hunt, the stalking, and the acquaintance. The narration becomes rather dull from this point on. There is a hidden element in the narration – so the viewers don’t get the full picture. Neeson’s character doesn’t know what to do with this discovery of his wife’s affair. He befriends Banderas while still trying to figure that out. Banderas himself has no clue that his new friend is actually his lover’s husband. There is an overdose of unknowns and I might add that the director didn’t know what to do with the plot line, either. With three good actors I was hoping for better chemistry between the leads. The movie is set in Europe with perhaps the hope that this in itself would provide atmosphere and intensity. Good job by the casting director. Not so much by the main director, Richard Eyre, who does not do a good follow up to his previous work in Notes on a Scandal.
Patton
"All my life I wanted to lead a bunch of men in a desperate battle."
A friend of mine spent a weekend looking up World War II trivia after watching Patton. George S. Patton Jr. was a decorated war hero whose personality helped dictate the course of World War II. George C. Scott lives the role, bringing to screen the extravagance of a soldier, a leader who knows little of life outside the battlefield.
"The secret of Patton is the past."
The larger-than-life character of Patton is best exemplified by scenes in the German camp where the tacticians are constantly trying to put themselves in Patton’s shoes.
"The difference between you and me is that I am trained to do this job. You love this job."
The presence of Karl Malden (as General Omar N. Bradley) doesn’t hurt at all. He plays the role of a general more in touch with the times and yet looks up to Patton, owing to a mentor-student relationship cultivated over a long career. Gen. Bradley acts as the voice of reason for Gen. Patton. I was looking out for the "Sekulovich" reference. This is Malden’s famous trademark, the mention of his birth name (Mladen Sekulovich) in most of his movies. It happens about an hour and ten minutes into the movie.
At times it feels like the biggest challenges for Patton are not so much the Germans but the war’s allies and the protocols that have to be adhered to. General Patton is constantly reprimanded for his actions on and off the field. It is fascinating to watch the course of events where he puts his own troops at risk to score one over the allied British General. The speech he gives at the women’s club is laced with humor and yet finds its way into controversy.
"Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory."
This movie is a great tribute to an extraordinary leader of men.
The Thin Blue Line
The Thin Blue Line (referring to the police) is a documentary covering the murder of a police officer. A hitchhiker is arrested based on different testimonies. The director goes about doing his own investigation through interviews of the people involved. I really liked the structured narration where Errol Morris, the director, goes about peeling layer after layer in a systematic fashion. As with good documentaries, the editing is top notch. In these cases, the usual approach is to get into the psyche of the accused and the officers involved in the case. With The Thin Blue Line, this extends to the witnesses and the support staff. One witness reveals her fascination for old detective movies and her eagerness to participate in the investigation. She is later found to be nothing more than an opportunistic person. In fact her daughter was due for an armed robbery hearing in the same court a week later. Randall Adams gets sentenced to death (later converted to life sentence) based on a jury that endured one false witness after another. He is later visited by a court order psychiatrist. “If you didn’t do the crime, of course you don’t show remorse” – that is the flaw in the evaluation of the court ordered shrink, nicknamed Dr. Death. Their premise for evaluation already identified the man as guilty and so, their results were obviously skewed.
The truth comes out in the final ten minutes of the documentary. It was instrumental in reversing the verdict on Adams.
One has to mention the background score by Philip Glass. I wasn’t expecting music to begin with but to have a compelling score that intensifies the drama really helps the narration.
Ended up with…
Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably end up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my “Ended up with…” list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.
The Dead Pool
Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry are back on my radar. Looking forward to watching a taut San Francisco based thriller with Harry putting bureaucrats and criminals in their proper places. This movie also features one James Carrey.
Raajneeti
Rajneeti has been the most successful movie in Bollywood this year. It takes the essentials of the Hindu epic, Mahabharatha and sets in the political milieu of Madhya Pradhesh. Its biggest pulling power was the multi star cast ranging from new sensation Ranbir Kapoor to proven performers like Nana Patekar.
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
It is with great pleasure that I choose Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Did You Hear about the Morgans. I am going to have fun watching it and find out if it is so bad that it is good or if it is so bad that it is indeed bad.