Operation Finale

My Dad once joked that I would read any book that had a swastika on the cover!  This is because I have such a huge interest in World War II (not because I am a Nazi!).  I guess this is true about movies as well because once I saw the swastika on the movie poster for Operation Finale I wanted to see it!  Fifteen years after the end of World War II, the Mossad gets information that Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), the notorious architect of Hitler's Final Solution, has been living in Argentina under an assumed name.  The Israelis decide to send a team led by Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), an agent tormented by the death of his sister during the Holocaust, to capture him and bring him to Israel to stand trial but they are violating the sovereignty of Argentina so they must use stealth.  They go to great lengths to capture Eichmann in secret but his glasses are accidentally left behind which alerts the Argentinian government.  It then becomes a race against time to get Eichmann out of the country.  The story gets really bogged down in the first act and I found it difficult to keep the characters straight and follow what was going on.  However, the final act is filled with tension and is incredibly compelling.  Both Kingsley and Isaac give outstanding performances, especially when the two interact with each other in an intense psychological show-down.  I also really enjoyed the dramatic score.  Alexandre Desplat is becoming my favorite film composer.  In short, this movie is a fairly standard biopic but I would recommend it for the two central performances.

Searching

I was very intrigued by the premise of the movie Searching (the entire narrative is told on computer screens and smartphones) so I decided to see a Thursday preview last night.  I was pretty much on the edge of my seat the whole time and I have to admit that the resolution took me completely by surprise.  David Kim (John Cho) has what he considers to be a close relationship with his daughter Margot (Michelle La) but she has been struggling since the death of her mother (Sara Sohn) two years earlier.  When Margot doesn't come home one night he files a missing persons report and Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) is assigned to the case.  After a series of dead ends, David starts searching through Margot's social media accounts and finds some unsettling information about his daughter.  He begins to realize that he didn't really know her at all.  I found the story to be compelling and Cho gives an incredible performance as David becomes more and more frantic.  I was deeply invested in the outcome and there were a few plot twists that had me on an emotional roller coaster.  The use of technology throughout the movie is extremely clever and, although it felt forced a couple of times, it gives the story an immediacy and a tension that a traditional narrative might have lost.  It was fascinating, yet again, to see how different an online persona can be from the person we really are!  I highly recommend this thriller!

South Pacific

I think "Some Enchanted Evening" is one of the most romantic songs, ever.  Hearing it under any circumstance is enough to make me swoon but hearing it yesterday while watching the movie South Pacific on the big screen was simply amazing!  It is such a treat to see all of the old favorites I remember watching at my Grandma Anderson's house on the big screen!  Set on an island in the Pacific during World War II, South Pacific tells the epic love story between Nellie Forbush (Mitzi Gaynor), a navy nurse, and Emile de Becque (Rossano Brazzi), a wealthy French plantation owner with a past that threatens their romance.  When de Breque volunteers for a dangerous mission, Nellie realizes the only important thing is their love.  There is also a secondary story between Lieutenant Joe Cable (John Kerr) and a beautiful Polynesian girl (France Nuyen) as well as a group of Seabees, led by Luther Billis (Ray Walston), who provide lots of comic relief.  With so many wonderful Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, including "There Is Nothing Like a Dame," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair," "I'm In Love with a Wonderful Guy," "Happy Talk," and "Honey Bun," this movie has a fun and lighthearted tone but it deals with serious issues and the message of acceptance is an important one.  This movie is so beautiful (although there are some weird color filters in some of the musical numbers).  I especially loved the scenes on Bali Ha'i because it really is a paradise.  Gaynor is delightful as Nellie Forbush and Brazzi is handsome and charming as de Becque.  Even though most of the singing voices are dubbed I really enjoyed all of the performances, especially "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Younger than Springtime."  I love these old fashioned musicals so much and I'm glad that TCM shows them on the big screen.

Amy Grant at the Sandy Amphitheater

It may surprise some of you to learn that for a time in my early twenties I was really, really into Christian rock.  One of my roommates when I was a counselor at a summer camp in college played Christian music all of the time and I gradually came to love it, especially Amy Grant!  I think I listened to her album The Collection non-stop for almost a year and I particularly loved the song "Everywhere I Go" because it made me feel like God was always with me no matter what I was doing or what I believed.  I still feel the same way about that song to this day.  When Amy Grant gained more mainstream popularity, everyone in my family became fans and we have seen her in concert together several times, including a concert at Abravanel Hall that was amazing!  My Mom, my sister Marilyn, and I were able to see her again at the Sandy Amphitheater last night and we enjoyed it so much!  Luckily she played "Everywhere I Go" early on in the show and it was such a wonderful experience to hear it live!  She played for almost 90 minutes straight and included a really nice selection of her hits: "Find A Way," "Big Yellow Taxi," "Saved By Love," "Takes A Little Time," "That's What Love Is For," "Baby Baby," "Lucky One," "Every Heartbeat," "Our Time Is Now," "House of Love," and "Better Than a Hallelujah."  In the middle of her set she played acoustic versions of "El-Shaddai" and "Thy Word" which were absolutely lovely.  She closed the concert with covers of "Turn! Turn! Turn!" by the Byrds and "Put a Little Love In Your Heart" which got the audience up and dancing.  For the encore she sang a touching version of "I Will Remember You."  She was so down to earth and told lots of anecdotes between every song.  She was really excited for the full moon and told the audience to let her know when it came up from behind the mountains.  She was ecstatic when the crowd pointed it out to her and told us that we should all take a moment to appreciate it!  I love her!  Marilyn and I sang just about every word (we also sang her songs at the top of our lungs on the drive home) and my Mom had a huge smile on her face through the whole show.  It was a perfect summer night and a wonderful concert!

Papillon

I haven't seen the 1973 movie Papillon starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman but I went to see the remake last night.  This movie tells the incredible true story of Henri "Papillon" Charierre (Charlie Hunnam), a safecracker in Paris during the 1930s who is framed for murder and sentenced to a penal colony in French Guiana.  He immediately decides to try to escape, despite the threat of solitary confinement, and forms an alliance with Louis Dega (Rami Malek), a wealthy convicted forger.  Dega, who is mild-mannered and weak, offers to finance his escape in return for protection and Papillon must go to great lengths to keep him safe.  Conditions are brutal and, after several failed attempts to gain their freedom, they are finally transferred to Devil's Island from which escape seems impossible.  What elevates this movie from the standard tale of survival is the unlikely bond of friendship between the two men.  Papillon is often punished for fighting while defending Dega from attacks, suffers intense deprivation while in solitary confinement because of him, and is captured again because he will not leave him behind.  After all of that, Dega provides Papillon with the will to survive after he arrives on Devil's Island a broken man.  I found the relationship between the two men to be very compelling and both Hunnam and Malek give great performances.  The action is intense and harrowing and, while some of the scenes are difficult to watch, I don't think the violence is especially gratuitous and the cinematography is surprisingly beautiful in its brutality.  Since I've not seen the original, I can't speak to how this one compares but I think it is pretty good and I recommend it.