Eternity

Last night I had another double feature, this time with my nephew, and we began with Eternity which we both enjoyed.  After Larry (Miles Teller) and Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), a couple who has been married for 65 years, die one after the other, they find themselves in an afterlife where they have one week in a so-called "junction" to decide where, and with whom, they want to spend eternity. They each have the help of an afterlife coordinator, Anna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) for Larry and Ryan (John Early) for Joan, and a variety of options to choose from.  However, complications ensue when Luke (Callum Turner), Joan's first husband who died in the Korean War shortly after their marriage, appears and reveals that he has been waiting for her in the junction for the past 67 years.  Joan is now faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and the man she was denied a life with.  Her decision isn't made any easier when both men, rather amusingly, turn it into a competition for her love.  Even though this features a really clever and intriguing premise, I think it goes on much too long and I found it really annoying that the rules painstakingly established within the afterlife are broken, not once but twice, to advance the plot.  However, I liked all of the performances, especially those of Early and Randolph because they are hilarious, and the world-building, particularly the exhibition hall and advertisements promoting the options for places in which to spend eternity (my favorite was the Weimar Republic without the Nazis) and the archives of memories which look like museum exhibits.  I didn't love this but it is a lot of fun and I recommend it to fans of romantic comedies.

Sentimental Value

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was Sentimental Value.  I have been looking forward to this ever since it won the Grand Prix at Cannes earlier this year and I was definitely not disappointed.  Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) is a stage and television actress in Norway who, along with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), is dismayed when her estranged father, celebrated director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard), reappears in her life after the death of her mother.  He is hoping to make a comeback with an autobiographical movie about his mother featuring a script written specifically for Nora.  She is angry with her father for abandoning her and turns down the role thinking that he is only using her to get financing.  When Hollywood actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) becomes enamored with him after seeing a retrospective of his work at the Deauville Film Festival, he offers her the role instead and they begin rehearsals in the house, which has been in his family for generations, where key moments in the script actually happened.  Rachel eventually realizes that she cannot do justice to the role because she has no connection to the character.  Nora finally reads the script and recognizes that the character is actually based on her and that her father wrote it as a way to reconcile with her.  This features incredibly powerful performances from Skarsgard and Reinsve and I was especially impressed by the scene in which Gustav first offers Nora the role because there is so much raw emotion simmering under the surface during their seemingly polite conversation (it is absolutely riveting).  Fanning is also great and I loved the juxtaposition between how Rachel delivers a line from the script in English and how Nora delivers the same line in Norwegian because it is immediately apparent that the role was written for the latter.  The house in which Gustav, Nora, and Agnes grew up is used as a character to represent all of the memories that keep them in a dysfunctional relationship and it is remodeled throughout the narrative to depict the possibility of a fresh start.  This is a brilliant exploration of the power of art to heal and I highly recommend it.

Rental Family

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the Broadway watching movies with all of the other retired people!  My double feature started with Rental Family and I really loved it.  Phillip Vandarploeug (Brendan Fraser) is a lonely American actor living in Tokyo, Japan.  He struggles to find work (his biggest success has been playing a superhero in a toothpaste commercial) and to find a connection (he spends his evenings wistfully watching people in the apartments opposite his through the window).  His agent sends him on a job playing a "sad American" and he is disconcerted to realize that he has been hired to play a mourner at a funeral by a company that provides people to serve as family members, friends, colleagues, or other significant people for personal, social, or emotional reasons.  Shinji (Takehiro Hira), the owner of the company, offers him more work and, because he needs the money, he reluctantly agrees and plays a groom for a young woman who wants to appease her traditional parents and a friend to an antisocial young man who wants someone to play video games with him.  However, when he plays a reporter interviewing a retired actor (Akira Emoto) suffering from dementia and the estranged father of a young girl (Shannon Mahina Gorman) whose mother (Shino Shinozaki) wants to get her into a good school, he forms an emotional bond with both of them which eventually becomes problematic.  This has a beautiful message about the importance of feeling seen and there were several times when I had tears in my eyes.  I also loved the subplots involving the owner Shinji and another employee of the company (Mari Yamamoto) because they reveal the loneliness that has become endemic in society today.  Fraser gives a lovely and sensitive performance that never feels manipulative (in my opinion it is better than his performance in The Whale) and I loved his interactions with Emoto (particularly when Phillip stages a "jailbreak" because it is hilarious).  This is a gentle and touching movie that will make you laugh and cry and I highly recommend it.

Pride and Prejudice at CPT

Last night I went with both of my sisters to see Pride and Prejudice on the second stage at CPT and we absolutely loved it! The novel by Jane Austen is one of my all-time favorites and I love this particular adaptation by Melissa Leilani Larson so I was already looking forward to it and this production exceeded my expectations! When Mr. Bingley (Austinn Le), a single man in possession of a fortune, lets Netherfield Hall, Mrs. Bennett (Marinda Maxfield) immediately sets her sights on him as a possible husband for one of her five daughters. Bingley falls in love with the beautiful Jane (Kassandra Torres) but her sister Elizabeth (Elizabeth Moulton) takes an immediate dislike to his friend Mr. Darcy (Garrett Stephenson) because he is so aloof and disdainful. Elizabeth must overcome her prejudice and Mr. Darcy must overcome his pride for them to realize that they belong together. One of the things I love most about the novel is that the characters are so well delineated and everyone in the cast is incredibly well-suited to their role. I especially enjoyed how uptight Rylan Benson is as Mary (her facial expressions are hilarious), how overwrought Maxfield is as Mrs. Bennett, how smitten Le is as Bingley, and how imperious Hazel Rowe is as Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Moulton and Stephenson have tremendous chemistry (which is interesting because Stephenson is usually in the THS cast), especially in the proposal scene when they are sparring back and forth because it is very emotionally charged and during their kiss at the end because it is definitely swoon-worthy. However, Tyler Roberts steals the show as Mr. Collins and I don't think I stopped laughing during the scene when he dances with Elizabeth at the Netherfield Ball. This adaptation is so good because, while it doesn't include everything from the novel, it captures its essence without sacrificing key moments and the use of letters between characters to advance the narrative is particularly effective. I love how the letters are staged in this show because the sender pantomimes what is happening as the recipient reads it aloud (this is especially well done with the letter Mr. Darcy sends Elizabeth after the proposal). The Regency costumes are beautiful (I loved all of the embellished fabrics and trims used in the gowns) and the way the characters add layers to differentiate their looks for different events is very clever. Finally, the set is incredible with lots of elaborate details. It includes a fireplace flanked by book shelves with a spiral staircase leading to a balcony on one side and marble pillars with large windows in between and a nook with a piano forte on the other. Large screens behind the set and on either side of the thrust stage show images that change to denote the various locations (I especially loved the ones used for Pemberley) and period furniture pieces are reconfigured for different scenes. I had so much fun seeing this with my sisters (who are also big fans of Jane Austen) and I would highly recommend it but, unfortunately, the entire run is sold out (with good reason). 

Note: You can still see CPT's production of A Christmas Story on the main stage through December 16 (go here for tickets).

Sisu: Road to Revenge

Last night I went to see Sisu: Road to Revenge and I had a great time (at one point someone in the audience cheered out loud).  I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the first movie (it is incredibly violent but also wildly entertaining and strangely satisfying) and this one amps up the carnage!  After World War II, Finland is forced to cede territory to the Soviet Union as part of the peace agreement and this displaces many, including the legendary ex-commando Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila). He crosses the border in order to find his former house and dismantles it board by board so he can transport it and rebuild it in Finland.  However, Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang), the Red Army soldier responsible for killing his wife and children during the war, is ordered by the KGB to find him and finish the job.  Absolute mayhem ensues but, this time, Korpi has a worthy opponent.  He must fight soldiers on tanks, motorcycles, planes, and a moving train (this occurs after he has been brutally tortured) before an epic confrontation with Draganov involving hand-to-hand combat (and several available items such as a fork, a shovel, and a ballistic missile).  The action is even more exciting and unrelenting (I especially loved a scene where he uses dynamite to catapult a tank that he has commandeered over a Soviet checkpoint) but also even more implausible (his truck is forced over a cliff into the water and he is able to use the boards from his house to build a makeshift raft).  As with the first movie, the violence is interspersed with some incredibly moving moments and Tommila gives another brilliant performance in which his physicality communicates the narrative (this time there is no dialogue with an amusing callback to the earlier movie).  If you are a fan of Sisu, buckle up because this is an even wilder ride and I highly recommend it (if you can handle the gore).